Kumar Mangalam Birla: Only lost temper 18 times in 29 years

Kumar Mangalam Birla is the chairman of the $65-billion Aditya Birla Group. Photo Courtesy: Mid-day file pic

In a rare and extensive conversation with Nikhil Kamath on the "People by WTF" podcast, Kumar Mangalam Birla has spoken and given rare insights into his journey, philosophy, and vision. The chairman of the $65-billion Aditya Birla Group spoke with remarkable candor about everything from his management style to personal life.

Here are some key insights from the conversation:

Leadership and management
- Only lost temper 18 times in 29 years (keeps exact count as management principle)
- Manages 180,000 people across the group currently
- Has 4,000 employees who've stayed over 20 years
- "Getting angry in a corporate context means getting out of control"
- On delegation: "Trust is very important. Something in your DNA must allow you to trust people"
- Three-point leader evaluation: ability to handle complexity, learning agility, capacity to lead diverse teams
- For external hires: "It's a gut feel. Look at track record, speak to them, do sound referencing"
- "If you have ambition, the only way to build bandwidth is getting people with more experience on board"

Business and strategy
- Only enters businesses where they can be #1 or #2 in foreseeable future
- Contrarian view: "Larger businesses need more creativity because all low-hanging fruit are done with"
- "Most creative thing you can do is build or run a business"
- When business grows larger "that's when management turns from being a science into an art"
- On consistency: "The power of consistency, the soft power of consistency - something we don't always value"
- Need to constantly tweak business model based on world changes
- Success comes from "smart hard work" - emphasises both aspects

Insights on startup and new business ventures of Aditya Birla Group
- On startup capital: Rs 1 crore "just not enough to start any business in today's context"
- Trust metric: 1,000 customers exchanged old gold in first month of jewelry business
- On PE/VC: "A very credible way of building assets or building businesses" but requires different skill set
- Paint business strategy: Leveraging existing cement dealer network + rising nuclear families + real estate growth

Personal journey and early years
- Completed CA just 6 months after graduation while working
- Had "real-time MBA" sitting through father's meetings from age 18
- Took over at age 28 when father passed away at 52
- Started on textile factory shop floor to understand financial controls
- First feeling when father passed: relief from knowing that he won't suffer anymore, then emptiness, then sense of responsibility
- "A lot of perspective comes just from a chat like this on the dining table"

Lifestyle and personal habits
- Sleeps 5-6 hours (1-1:30 am to 7:30 am)
- Works on Saturdays till 5 PM
- Practices 10m pistol shooting (currently paused due to shoulder injury)

Family values and heritage
- Grandfather's frugality: Kept only 5 kurtas, 3 suits even in later years
- Three generations' styles: Great-grandfather (pre-independence), Grandfather (scarcity era), Father (liberalization era)
- On simplicity: Grandfather needed convincing even to get new suits made
- Great-grandfather's advice: "Take your own decisions" starting from class 5-6

Industry insights
- Diamond market: Values dropped 20 per cent in last year
- Lab-grown diamonds: Growing market eating into precious jewelry retail
- Jewellery retail: Trust in brand name crucial - demonstrated by gold exchange program
- Paint industry: Shifting from unorganized to organized, riding real estate growth
- Nuclear family trend driving home ownership and related businesses

Advice to entrepreneurs
- "Do what you love doing, keep the passion going, get together a great A- team"
- "The power of consistency is something that we don't always value. That's, in my experience, very important"
- On building teams: "It's a team that achieves - you can be a good leader, but without a good team, there's not much you can do"
- Learning focus: "Learning agility is very important - there's so much change in the world today"
- On capital requirements: Rs 1 crore "just not enough to start any business in today's context"
- On business complexity: "As you grow larger and scale up, you need to be more creative because all the low-hanging fruit are done with"
- On starting up: "Sometimes you have to kind of strike a balance between conforming and not conforming"
- Insight on growth: "If you want to grow, the only way to grow is to have energized teams"

Social perspective
- On corporate responsibility: "Giving back is not philanthropy, it's something you ought to be doing"
- Education equality: Shared story of scholarship helping girl who wouldn't have been educated as family chose brother's education
- On business ethics: Believes corporates will be among most important stakeholders globally after government
- Family philanthropy philosophy: Shouldn't document or publicise charitable work