Veterans Unpacked | Don’t worry about mistakes, accept, own and learn from them: S Ramadorai

Note to readers: How ​do corporate leaders surf life after hanging up their boots? What do they do next? What are the lessons they learned in their eventful journeys? What advice do they have for the current crop of leaders? Veterans Unpacked is a new series of interviews aimed to offer readers lessons from retired bosses on life outside the corner office.

As former CEO and Vice Chairman of the $100 billion Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), S. Ramadorai was top shot-caller in creation of the jewel in the crown of the Tata Group. He spearheaded its efforts from 1996 when TCS’s revenues were at $ 155 million and onward.

Ramadorai was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2006, the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire), by her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for his contribution to the Indo-British economic relations in 2009, and spends time supporting the environment, educational efforts and social initiatives.

1. What have you been up to since hanging up your boots?

Ramadorai: A lot. I am involved with initiatives in Healthcare (Public Health and Hospitals), Education, Vocational Education, Climate Change, Arts and Culture. I'm also nurturing and mentoring a number of start ups. I see great potential in their ideas and their ability to scale up. I am also a voracious reader and have been using this time to expand my understanding on a number of diverse areas.

In addition to my tech and science reading, I have been reading books on Mahatma and others that includes Pawan Varma's Adi Shankaracharya and Bob Woodward's Fear. When the time allows it, I also tune into several webinars including speaking on a diverse range of topics and continue to hone my interest in music across different genres. Of course I won't start singing as I'm told by my wife who's a professional at it that if I do –– then she will stop.

2. What keeps you busy now?

Ramadorai: I have been able to devote more time to photography as I am very fond of it especially when I visit wildlife reserves. I've been fortunate enough to see some fascinating sights. When in Ranthambore, I saw a tiger, tigress and their three cubs. Similarly when I was in Kenya I saw the migration of animals from the Masai Mara which is unbelievable. I've also seen lions mate which is extremely rare.

I enjoy travel and hiking and also spend time giving back to the community through foundations and a super speciality hospital that we set up exclusively for children in Haji Ali. Other things that keep me busy include cricket as I'm on the advisory board of the Rajasthan Royals and the levels of sporting excitement there is great. As Chairman of the Axis Bank Foundation I meet with grass-roots locals across the country along with the Directors.

3. Looking back, can you tell us about three interesting events or anything that has stayed with you since?

Ramadorai:  When TCS achieved billion dollar revenue in 2003, that was one of most exciting moments and a major milestone for me and its employees. We had a big birthday bash of sorts and it gave us the momentum to jump every year by doubling revenue. The second was the TCS IPO. It was the largest IPO and listed on both stock exchanges similarly and was a moment of great pride.

The third thing was my retirement bash. I had a surprise party thrown for me by my colleagues and the folks who came were my school-mates, classmates from MIT and Professor from IISc and IIT Mumbai which I didn't know about. Also, at the event my wife and Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia performed and that was very memorable. At a value-level, the three principles that have stayed with me are Tata Trusteeship, Concern for the Community and the importance of participating in community initiatives and there's a difference between the second and the third.

4. What do you miss most about the C-Suite?

Ramadorai: What I miss are the quarterly meetings with the folks from the Press. I do miss the regular meetings every week on an appointed day and time with senior leadership and team. Third, I miss the meetings with customers to whom we catered to and last but not the least what I missed most was random journeys with employees irrespective of hierarchy – in my car and the chats that would accompany them.

5. If you had to relive your corporate career again, what would you do differently?

Ramadorai: There were two ideas. One was to be an IAS officer and the other was to be a general doctor. A frog dissection changed my mind on being a doctor and my father was already a part of the Indian Audit and Accounts Service, so I proceeded with engineering.

6. What are the changes in the corporate world that you see now that are vastly different from your time?

Ramadorai: I think, over time, I have come to realize a few important things and those are that economic growth and ecological well being go hand in hand. Social good is an essential part of doing business. We must nurture more start ups and invest in technology-based companies a lot more aggressively. and also step up interdisciplinary R&D investments a lot more as a percentage of revenues.

7. Which business leader in the current crop impresses you?

Ramadorai: There are several and will therefore not name any single person as each one has their own set of strengths and also have areas for improvement. People who are not shy of learning make good leaders. Empathy is also important as is the ability to course-correct when drifting which is easier said than done.

8. How did you plan for life after retirement?

Ramadorai: I was very clear about how I was going to plan retirement. I began thinking about this process two years before my actual retirement date. I was sure that I was going to transition from working in the Corporate world to working on Social initiatives. I wanted to devote my time to mentoring young minds and start-ups in new areas of engineering ,technology and for myself make the time to relearn newer aspects of technology and science . I was also clear that I would reduce my travel and only do so when necessary. Spending quality time with family and friends was going to be my priority. My golf certainly improved after retirement.

9. Is there anything you would tell your younger self?

Ramadorai: There are a couple of things I’d certainly like to tell my younger self which are listen carefully, view holistically, have a curious mind, act fearlessly, follow your passion and respect everyone. Other than that I should have visited more game reserves and climbed more mountains when younger, with the family.

10. What is your advice for the next cadre of corporate leaders?

My advice would be have other interests during college and don’t drop anything because of time. I don't buy that they have no time. Follow your passion three years in advance. Otherwise, look beyond the quarter, create a sustainable organization. What you leave behind is more important and so is sustainability – from all angles.  Don’t worry about mistakes, accept, own and learn from them.And as a technology leader my advice is never go for holidays with IT folks or all you will hear them talking about is TCS, Oracle,SAP and other tech jargon.