group) and their board of directors
has come under criticism, Marico’s
case stands apart. Mariwala has found
the right balance of dealing with
the board, the CEO and his team.
These days he prefers to talk
less about Marico and more about
macroeconomics and building
institutions. We throw a query
regarding the strategy for a Marico
product, for instance, and Mariwala
steers the conversation towards
other critical issues—“How does one
transition from an active role and
hand over the reins to professionals?”
On that, Mariwala does some
straight talking. “I look at Infosys...
if they [the founders] had some
alignment with the board of directors
and decided on the values that hadto be incorporated, things may
have been different. If there is an
unclear alignment [between the
founders and the board]—or even
if there are no problems—it is best
to sit down and decide on issues,
rather than go public,” he says.
“I have shed some responsibilities
but not abdicated them. Saugata
is more accountable but I am also
accountable. Each one of us has
different ways of seeing how the
company is faring,” he says. “My
mind is always on, but my hands are
off.” This is clear from the fact that
Mariwala usually has a brief chat
with Gupta every day, but there is no
obsession to track daily sales charts.
Mariwala shows us a register,
which explicitly outlines his role as64 | FORBES INDIA DECEMBER 29, 2017Each month, Mariwala
(extreme left) meets a set of
new entrepreneurs, where
they discuss challenges and
assess outcomesMariwala has found the right
balance of dealing with the
MEXY XAVIER board, the CEO and his team
Richest
10 0 INDIANSTheGupta, who joined the company in
2004 and has been firmly holding
the reins of the day–to-day business
in a competitive environment.
Personally, though, the shift was
not easy for Mariwala. “Suddenly
I went from [working] full time to
about 30 percent; I had to do new
things and reinvent myself,” he tells
Forbes India. “I took about six to
12 months to prepare to step back...
Saugata had to be mentored and we
had to tell the board. I always believed
the interests of the organisation
came before the individual, so I
was ready to go,” says Mariwala.
The process of handing over the
baton was methodical. Mariwala
codified both his and Gupta’s roles in
the new scheme of things. “Saugata
and I wrote down what we thought
our roles should be and then we
compared notes before presenting
it to the board,” recalls Mariwala.
At a time when friction between
founder-promoters of many
companies (read Infosys and the Tata