Arun Nanda and the art of beating slowdown blues

On most fine weekends you’d see him playing a round of golf in the afternoon. In a firmly weaved brown hat, bright t-shirt and a pair of shorts, he looks nearly as prim as the Scottish on the course wearing their kilts. Inspired and humbled by the fairways of the home of golf St Andrews Golf Course – from where he has just returned – Nanda’s big lesson came from the strong winds he had to tame while playing, much like the headwinds businesses face back home.

“These are tough times for business more on account of uncertainties in the environment, both nationally and in the Eurozone,” Nanda says. After conversations with many in India Inc his advice is to remain vigilant despite a slowdown.

“Firstly have a war chest of liquidity so that if difficult times do come you have sufficient cash to ride it. Secondly, keep your eye on the ball and be quick to do mid-course corrections.”

Nanda is a straight talker and he minces no words about how the political system has put growth revival in the rough. He rubbishes the notion that there is a ‘policy paralysis’. He argues, “we are in a big political mess and lack of decision making and execution (and not policy paralysis as some people called it) is what is really slowing our growth.”

As elections near, political views are sharpening and the coalition model has of late come under severe criticism. Nanda belongs to that camp. “I feel these problems will not be solved as long as we have coalition politics, which inherently slows down decision making so we have to think of amending our constitution to have a new form of government.”

We return to sharing notes about Scottish links in general and St Andrews in particular, where I had visited in 2009. “The courses were very beautiful and challenging, I am not used to playing with such strong winds and it took me the first two days to get used to it and the next two days were fun.” The deep bunkers are hard to get out of even as the beauty of other courses around the region such as Kingsbarns and the encounters of Carnoustie take you head on.
“The experienced caddies were of great help with what correction to do for the gusty winds.”

In a way that’s who Nanda is to the Mahindra Group – an experienced caddie who has seen several cycles, ups and downs. For him, knowledge has matured into wisdom. Living his post-retirement life, the 64 year non-executive chairman of several group companies is the trusted advisor for many including Anand Mahindra. Even as Nanda tries to focus on the non-profit ambitions, his workaholic reputation tells you how hard he finds to pluck himself out of day-to-day happenings at some of the firms.

One such company is Mahindra Holidays of which he is the chairman and built it from its very nascent stage. “In five years, we should move from 42 resorts at present to about 75 resorts with significant presence overseas. But more than the numbers, the rise in quality of experience that we provide to our members is more important to me.”

Back to the pavilion – the headquarters of the Mahindra Group – he keeps a safe distance from being a shadow to the offices he has left behind. Here he also gets the time and patience to devote energies to his second innings – an effort to give back to the society, and bring dignity and purpose in the lives of senior citizens. “My Trusts have acquired land to build a home for our underprivileged senior citizens in Panvel and we are currently working on the approvals and the construction should start soon. In the meantime, I have opened community centres where senior citizens come for a few hours every evening.”
 
Shaili Chopra is an award winning business journalist and founder of www.golfingindian.com