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Why do we admire companies, brands, products, institutions, individuals and even so called failures?

“You always admire what you don’t really understand.” That was said by the French philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal. “Admiration is a very short-lived passion that immediately decays upon growing familiar with its object, unless it be still fed with fresh discoveries, and kept alive by a perpetual succession of miracles rising into view.” That was poet and politician Joseph Addison. Please keep these two homilies in mind when you next discuss an admired brand, product, organisation, individual or even disparage the same.

We all know we admire Dhirubhai Ambani despite tall tales of how he had managed the ‘environment and the system’. We all know we admire Maruti as a brand that has been around us even as India emerged from a deep slumber of isolation and obscurity and transformed into a rampaging elephant, or a tiger if you wish. We all know that we admire Nelson Mandela for the brilliant manner in which he led the process of transforming South Africa from a nation riven by racism and hatred into a modern democracy. We all seem to know what and who we admire.

But do we really know why we admire those we chose to admire? For instance, why and how is it that Dhirubhai Ambani has become one of the most admired icons of contemporary India Inc.? Do we even understand how Dhirubhai created the behemoth called Reliance and how it went on to become so big?

Or, take the example of the Tata Group. Do we admire J. R. D Tata for the innovative and brilliant entrepreneurial ideas that he generated or do we admire him because of his insistence on sticking to moral values and ethics at a time when India was descending into the worst form of crony socialism?

Go global and you will find the dilemma even more acute. Do we admire Henry Ford for creating the modern assembly line in manufacturing plants or do we chastise his legacy for his allegedly pro-Nazi leanings? Do we admire Bill Gates for the ‘windows’ that he gave to the world or do we hate him for his allegedly monopolistic tactics? Do we admire Sam Walton for helping American consumers buy as cheap as possible or do we chastise his legacy of paying as less as possible to American workers?

The problem with compiling a list of most admired companies is the element of subjectivity involved in the whole process. As Pascal pointed out about four centuries ago, we often admire those that we don’t understand. So we admire Dhirubhai Ambani probably because we really don’t understand how he operated and ended up creating such a gargantuan corporate empire. We admire V. Kurien, the man behind Amul, not just because he created the most successful cooperative in the world; but also because he worked the corridors of power in mystifying ways. There are many who admire and yet are sceptical about the success of Kurien because he was apparently ‘dictatorial’ and intolerant of critics. Similarly, talk of the most successful politicians and statesmen across the world and you will find the same mixture of intense admiration coupled with a tinge of scepticism.

Then again look at how Addison has talked about how admiration can be a phenomenon that can even transform into mistrust and dislike after a while. That’s because parameters on which we decide whom to admire keep changing with time. Look at it this way: in the era of intense socialism when Amitabh Bachhan was the angry young man who fought against greedy ‘businessmen’, Dhirubhai Ambani could possibly not have been as admired as he is today. Henry Ford is no longer as admired today as he was about 50 years ago because our attitudes towards labour, work and management have changed.


But some things remain constant across time and attitudes. No matter what parameter we decide, J. R. D Tata will always remain one of the most important ‘brands’ and institutions of India. And no matter what happens, Reliance Industries will be admired (as feared by rivals), at least for some time to come. Meanwhile, we hope you ‘admire’ this loving compilation of India’s most admired companies!

Meanwhile, about India...

The 4Ps B&M ranking of India’s most admired companies is based on the S&P CNX 500 list, which includes only those listed companies that have a minimum record of three years with a positive net worth (you will read more about our methodology on page 48 and the detailed explanatory tables on pages 50-51). But, going forward, you will find a few companies in our special ‘sector-wise admired companies’ package that do not belong to the original list of admired companies that were listed in Dalal Street. We have taken the editorial liberty of including some companies in the package that our core team believed had performed outstandingly & most inventively in the respective sector in the year 2007.

DLF, for example, does not find a place among our original ranking of most admired companies (the S&P CNX 500 takes into account listed companies as on March 30, 2007; DLF was listed on 5th July). But the year 2007 has been a watershed for DLF and so it finds a presence in our subsequent editorial package. Or take the IT sector, the most inventive strategy in 2007 has been adopted by MNC behemoth Hewlett-Packard, which again is not listed in India. So HP features prominently in our editorial pick for the IT sector. And in any case, the times... they are changing and who is admired can possibly even change as quickly as monsoon clouds race away across the horizon. Have a good read...

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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