Businesses must watch what their leaders say
PremiumThe language allegedly used by BharatPe’s co-founder Ashneer Grover against a Kotak bank employee should make us reflect on India’s startup culture and its reputation management
The argument that fintech unicorn BharatPe’s co-founder Ashneer Grover had with Kotak Mahindra Bank made many of us squirm. This was not just for an engagement alleged to involve abusive words and verbal threats, with its whiff of scandal, but also for how quickly it could go legal, as if courts lacked work, and what it signalled of India’s startup culture, which, like its brash cousins elsewhere, may have missed a lesson or two on why business leaders must watch what they say, or, at times, even be construed as having said. After Grover sent the bank a legal notice for failing to provide him and his wife Madhuri ₹250 crore each by way of financing to participate in the initial share offer of beauty firm Nykaa, Kotak pledged legal action against him over what it called “foul language" used with its employees over the phone and “threats to their lives". An issuer of one such, in a voice said or suspected to be Grover’s, was heard last week in an audio clip on social media hurling expletives and threatening to get the recipient bumped off in an encounter. In a tweet later deleted, Grover averred that it was faked by a scamster for extortion. Yet, that whiff lingers.
Given Nykaa’s price ‘pop’ once it was listed last year, Grover’s disappointment with Kotak is not in doubt. Whether the bank acted by the rule-book or not is for its enforcers to determine. The voice clip’s authenticity and its implications would be a matter of law. But, willy-nilly, doubts have arisen over the decency employed by a well-known entrepreneur in India’s online payments space who also appears as a judge-investor on the TV show Shark Tank India. With wide recognition comes high responsibility. As the court of public opinion matters and the personal actions of leaders are commonly taken to reflect upon the businesses they lead, all companies should insist on strict adherence to a code of behavioural norms aligned with civil expectations. Our startup sector may have acquired a heroic aura for its entrepreneurial zest and wealth creation, but it has also displayed a record of brash talk that could come to hurt it by putting people off. Observers of the adrenaline rushes and internal dynamics of quick success stories have hinted at swollen heads among prime movers who get accorded demigod status within their circles of awe-inspiration. All enterprises, however, must depend on an external world of customers (and often funders), and reputational risk plays a big role in achieving desirable outcomes. For this reason alone, governance mechanisms must tighten up. Our startups, especially, must track how their leaders behave and hold them to every relevant code of conduct. Financial returns cannot be an end in itself.
Perhaps memos need to be sent out stating the obvious. Even if acting as an individual, regardless of position and net worth, nobody can assume any exorbitant privilege, be it a service sought or commercial ultimatum issued. When business is plentiful, the thrill of gains being made should not lead to a brush-aside of issues that could smudge brand images. Eventually, corporate valuations are a function of factors beyond their ability to make money. And people at the helm of affairs may find every stakeholder has an interest in placing checks and balances on their behaviour. With our startup culture in its infancy, with investment rushing into this sector from around the world, there’s far more at stake here than the jarring sound of an unruly rant. Decorum must prevail.
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