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Guest Column: Remembering Darbari Seth, a colossus at Tatas
A marketing genius who pioneered packaged tea and played different roles for the Tata industry, Seth conquered many business domains
Darbari Seth was a short man. Unlike Napoleon, he was a conqueror of business domains. Alongside Russi Modi [Steel] and Sumant Moolgaonkar [Automobiles], Darbari Seth was a pre-eminent business leader at Tatas. They were all chairpersons of their respective Tata companies, but while Modi and Moolgaonkar controlled related large domains, Seth straddled companies in diverse domains.
Seth was the technocrat who built Tata Chemicals and converted sea water to make a large community freshwater independent; he was the marketing genius who pioneered packaged tea and unique market access in a bulk tea business as chairperson of Tata Tea after Tatas bought out Finlay; he was the financial expert who retrieved and recovered ACC for Tatas from the hostile near takeover by Mahindra Swarup of Paharpur. While doing all this and more, he conceived and created TERI in the heart of Delhi.
Darbari Seth was enthusiastic, relentless and tireless. He sought solutions and played to win, he had no time for mediocrity or excuses. He rewarded measured risk takers.
Darbari Seth was the person I probably owe the most to in my career. He taught me to be a learner. He asked and asked the most basic questions from every possible angle until he had the fullest grasp of the matter he was exploring, often until his hapless quarry reached the point where he knew no more.
He had the ability to find the most direct route to the heart of those he wished to nurture. An episode explains: just as it was announced that I was being appointed director way earlier than any precedent or expectation, DSS invited me for a one to one over late evening tea and casually asked what would be the reaction of my parents and family. I answered that my mother would probably offer a prayer at her home far away from Bombay. Later that night I got a message that Seth wanted me to go to his home before work the next morning. When I got there I found him in a kurta with a gutka (sikh prayer book). He read out an ardaas for my success, and gave me a valuable sikh religious artefact that he had carried since partition! Until that time, I had no idea that he was familiar with Sikhism, much less that his ancestral roots were from the north-west frontier. My heart swells up even now as I think of that moment. After that he asked me to jump off a cliff. Motivation 101.
Seth was fearless, to a fault. When the highly respected Homi Sethna retired as chair of the Atomic Energy Commission, Seth was asked to relinquish chairpersonship of Tomco, a substantial Tata company and pass it on to Homi Sethna. Soon after, Sethna sold Tomco to Hind Lever. Seth was incensed. He knew well that the sale would have been discussed and approved by the Tomco board, including JRD Tata. Even so he wrote a scathing missive to Homi Sethna for selling the company. Many thought that intemperate outburst would distance him from the group and JRD Tata. Not so, JRD knew his Titans, flaws and warts included! Seth thrived in that environment of mutual trust. Those who crossed him did so at their own peril. On the flip side he was uniquely empathetic and watched out for emerging leaders and for those whose judgement he respected.
He created enduring businesses, but did so sensitive to the larger needs of society, and responding to national imperatives.
Seth had a bias, God was an engineer! I did not sport an engineering degree, so it took trials by fire to earn his respect. While we were building the Tata fertiliser plant in Uttar Pradesh I suggested we approach the railways for a rail link. Seth was beyond angry, building a huge plant with minimal storage and evacuating over 1,000 mt/day to a dispersed market with a large fleet of trucks was his core belief. I was banished from the inner circle. Many weeks later, he called me in to privately explain, which I did, strongly suggesting that dependence on a single mode of evacuation was fraught with risk. He listened carefully, evaluated the facts presented, and then moved rapidly, leveraging his formidable clout to get the rail line and siding approved in quick order.
His last years at Tata were not so happy. Satrapies and independent fiefdoms were not in favour with the young Ratan Tata coming in at the helm of the group, and Seth saw a retirement date imposed for Tata company chairperson. That date was of course extended, and re-extended by RNT.
It is gratifying to see Seth’s legacy belatedly being acknowledged by the Tata group on its website in his birth centenary year. Rest in peace, Darbari Seth, a true “karmayogi” who left the world a better place.
(The writer is the former chairperson of Cargill South Asia.)
singhhardy@gmail.com
