The Making Of Marico

Harsh Mariwala’s memoir ‘Harsh Realities’ is in my hands. It is a story of ‘The Making of Marico.’ Harsh Mariwala has done outstanding and inspiring work of building Marico as a successful and value led organization which makes it interesting for a reader.

In the Advance Praise section there are who’s who in the industry and academia praising Mariwala. What caught my attention was Piyush Pandey’s words ‘A journey of grit and determination. Of living and learning by personal experience and from those of your predecessors. Look for new destinations but don’t forget where you came from.’

The book begins by tracing the roots. Kutchi families did not have surnames. ‘The census of 1911 led to British Government giving surnames. Traders were anointed with the name Merchant. Since Harsh Mariwala’s family were traders in pepper, which in Gujarati is ‘mari’ the family got the surname ‘Mariwala.’

The book captures the first years of work and the feeling of suffocation under the elders who were ultra conservative in their business. Harsh was not allowed to enroll for MBA. But that was not a big loss, and he views it as a blessing because he understood ground level reality. ‘I learnt quickly that if I had to influence the change process I had to, in a way, live with two opposing realities of tradition and present day trends, until time would cause these realities to converge.’

Harsh Mariwala formed Marico in 1990 and soon the Indian Government announced economic reforms, liberalization as it is often called, and in that they also announced reducing Government controls and ending license raj.

Harsh Mariwala made Marico a subsidiary of the original family owned company, he built brands and hired well qualified professionals to make his team which will appear as a nothing-extraordinary today, but in late 1980s it was a path breaking move for family owned businesses.

After recruiting the best talent, he got down to define values with which the business will be run and shaped the culture of the company. He introduced value workshops which were unheard of in those times. Marico decided to set up a factory at Kanjikode which was a radical decision given the extreme militancy of labour in Kerala in those days. (Incidentally, Kerala Government also declared its industrial policy in 1990 but could not attract much investment, such was the ‘reputation’ of Kerala, which has not changed much since then.) The Marico team innovated HR practices (about which I have written on my blogs elsewhere) and made it a kind of ideal factory where the interests of employer and employees were respectfully managed. It was a path breaking initiative and unfortunately not much has been written about it.

Marico was given a scare by Hindustan Unilever and by Mr. Dadiseth in his arrogant way which is so well described in the book. They wanted to buy out Marico but found a tough adversary in Marico who finally bought out HLL’s brand ‘Nihar.’ Karsanbhai (Nirma owner who had given HLL a run for their money) shared his experience which helped Marico. It had all the drama of David versus Goliath plot.

Then there was the inevitable separation of Mariwala family which created huge problems for Harsh Mariwala, which he somehow surmounted but not without extremely anxiety filled days.

‘Harsh Realities’ (pun intended by the author) is a story of not just trials and tribulations but also of triumph. Management Guru Ram Charan figures as a co-author and I wonder why because he has only annotated the chapters. I would rather read a chapter written by him with his elaborate views.

Harsh Realities is a memoir of Harsh Mariwala. Memoirs build personal brands and also leave a legacy. Memoirists walk a tight rope balancing between honest disclosures and building personal brands. When disclosures are made with a refrain, the memoirist runs the risk of being accused of building personal brand.

‘Harsh Realities’ is positioned as ‘The Making of Marico’ so it may be argued that it is not a memoir. Indeed, the plastic inside flip of the book says it is a ‘business book.’ Nobody will buy that argument. That is a clever way out for not adequately sharing reflections on the past. The Making of Marico and making of Harsh Mariwala are inseparable. They are intertwined and inextricable. Don’t they say that an organization is the lengthened shadow of its leader?

Yet we must admit that it is a good book, but one which could have been much better, in that it is a lost opportunity.

Vivek S Patwardhan

“What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.” All matter copyrighted.