BW Communities

Giving Due Respect

BW Online Bureau Nov 08, 2014

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><root available-locales="en_US," default-locale="en_US"><static-content language-id="en_US"><![CDATA[Respect got a new meaning, as the who's who of Corporate India gathered to attend Businessworld's Most Respected Company awards on 8 February at the Oberoi in New Delhi. The awards were given away by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee in a ceremony witnessed by some of the most prominent names in Indian business. Spread across many categories, the awards covered sectors ranging from information technology to infrastructure to banking to telecom. The awardees were short-listed from a competitive pool of peers. The awards were based on a survey among 700 individuals (mostly senior management) across different industries, who rated peers on parameters such as innovativeness, depth and quality of top management, financial performance and returns, ethics and transparency, people practices, global competitiveness, etc. The differentiating factor of the awards was the idea of focusing on how a company is perceived amongst its peers, apart from a measure of its financial success and strength. Highlighting the relevance of such awards, Mukherjee said, "There may be different ways of measuring respect, but the central point is that we have to recognise the importance of issues like ethics, governance, transparency, accountability and the role of plenty of other indicators like sales, profits, etc."  Addressing the august audience, ABP group managing director and CEO D.D. Purkayastha introduced the awards. "Businessworld's MRC is the only award in the country that measures respect that a company and its leaders have earned. And respect is something that is built over the long term. While respect is earned over years, it can also be lost in a short space of time because of a single mis-step." Praising the dynamism and extraordinary personality of the finance minister was Rajkumar Dhoot, member of Parliament, who said: "Our country has gone through a lot of ups and downs in the recent past… it is because of honourable Pranab Mukherjee that we have not only passed the phase, but have done extremely well in the global context." Rashesh Shah, chairman and CEO of Edelweiss — the title sponsor for the evening, said: "In our industry, we understand how respect and trust is the fundamental driver for any financial company much greater than its asset base or market-cap. At Edelweiss, we try to imbibe this aspect in our culture." In his address, Businessworld editor Prosenjit Datta said: "Respect is not something that can be earned by super normal revenues or profits alone. To gain respect, a company not only has to perform well in financial term, but also develop a way of working that makes its peers look upon it with respect." With this, the awards were announced and given away by the finance minister. The first category of awards for aviation went to Kingfisher Airlines, followed by automobiles (four-wheelers), which was bagged by Tata Motors. In the two-wheeler category, Bajaj Auto took the lead, while auto components award went to MRF. State Bank of India received the award for the banking sector, while the cement category went to UltraTech Cement, and consumer durables was won by Nokia. In the hospitality segment, ITC's hotel division emerged victorious, and in engineering, Siemens out-did competition. Britannia won in the FMCG category, while L&T bagged the infrastructure award. Infosys retained its top slot as the most preferred IT, ITES and BPO company. The most respected company title in the metals segment was awarded to Tata Steel, while that of oil and gas was given to ONGC. GSK won in the pharmaceuticals category, and in the power category NTPC received the award. In the real-estate segment, the award went to industry giant DLF, while the retail sector saw Shoppers Stop take away the award. Vodafone Essar emerged as the winner in the telecom sector. These were followed by announcement of the awards in the overall category, which went to Infosys. Present on the occasion was K. Dinesh, co-founder and member of the board of Infosys. "This is a great honour for us. For us, true success is gaining respect. We want to be the most respected company rather than the biggest company, with this award," he said. First runner up in the overall category, L&T's K. Venkataramanan, member of the board & president (operations), said: "L&T has always stood for respect, integrity and values, and, therefore, Businessworld honouring that alongside the performance is a great feeling." Tata Consultancy Services was honoured as the second runner up in the overall category. Representing the company was Ajoyendra Mukherjee, VP Human Resources, who said: "This (award) goes out to all the 186,000 employees at TCS." The award ceremony was followed by the unveiling of Businessworld's Most Respected Company special issue by Pranab Mukherjee, ABP Group's Editor-in-Chief Aveek Sarkar and Prosenjit Datta. In his closing remarks, Pavan Varshnei, president (English magazines) of ABP Group said: "I hope this initiative will encourage more organisations to strive for excellence in their business and achieve greater heights globally." The presenting sponsor for the event was Edelweiss and the principal associate was Videocon Group. Bloomberg UTV was the television partner for the event. (This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 14-02-2011)