Yogesh Chander Deveshwar or Yogi Deveshwar to his friends will have enduring remembrance as the man who became the face of institutional ownership in corporate India, otherwise dotted by family ownership where leadership is often decided by birth. And at the height of the battle Deveshwar along with a few of his senior colleagues in ITC found themselves in custody fending off charges of Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA). Deveshwar’s management style, in the words of his colleaguesDeveshwar later described the takeover battle saying, “Those days were not as bad as they seemed—they were worse". Deveshwar by the numbersIn his later years, Deveshwar had often talked about his legacy, which he hoped would be the model of institutional leadership and corporate governance at ITC, that he felt could be extended to India’s public sector undertakings (PSU) often plagued by bureaucratic inefficiency and apathy. Successive governments of opposing political ideologies have stood by him, extending him the same freedom and leaving ITC to its own devices.

Source: Mint May 11, 2019 07:18 UTC