It is said that one can accurately place a face and
personality to a voice.Well,well this I could certainly do when I connected
telephonically to Harjappun Singh Gulati.A genteel, extremely courteous and
sophisticated voice returned my greeting and my conversation with the Icon was
underway! The first thing that struck me about Harjappun was his clarity of
thought and uncanny ability to draw word portraits, as he took me through his
chequered professional and personal journey.He certainly is gifted with a
veritable talent of lucid communication skills. It is my belief that this is a
quality which is catalyzing his sustainable success and has certainly put him
ahead of his peers.
Harjappun’s story begins with his absolutely benign
requirement to top up his graduation with an MBA.However, Destiny was adding an
unpredictable twist to the tale! His joint family vetoed that he first do his
bit from the lower most rung of the ladder. This, for the Gulati family, was an
attachment to the family run Petrol Pump, under the auspices of Harjappun’s
beloved Grandfather. Typical of his finesse oriented temperament and well
brought up ways; he concurred unreservedly and devoted his fledging days to
putting a single minded effort into turning a seemingly predictable enterprise
into an innovative and forward looking platform. A sad turn of events in the
passing away of his Grandfather brought Harjappun to the helm of affairs. As
fate would have it, 21 year old Harjappun had to keep aside his dreams of a
Management sojourn and found himself managing singlehandedly this Petrol Pump
from its running methodology to sales to accounting…it was as if he was not
learning Management in a Class bound Environment but in fact living its
chapters in the Real World. These are lessons of life which he freely admits
are always going to remain part of his conformation and made him wise beyond
his years. Interestingly his extramural occupation in those days was also
taking active part in his family’s hardcore business, that of Engineering
anxillaries under the auspices of Power Lux. Harjappun spells out the sublime
Mantra that to observe is to learn and Experience IS the best teacher.He hardly presented his
opinion in those days at family meetings, rather he enriched his already
analytical mind by imbibing what the elders thought and did and how they
tackled recurrent problems in their professional space.
Around that time,Harjappun face a dilemma which he solved in
his characteristically calm and serene manner.He took stock that though his
Bhopal based upbringing and work exposure had numerous advantages, he lacked
two things in his profile.The first, was structured tutelage in the aspects of
theory of Management skills and second a taste of a World outside his sheltered
plethora. He decided at that point that the ambitious,relevant and very
applicable program of Family Run Business Management by the Prestigious SP Jain
School of Management was tailormade for him. Today Harjappun, who is
tremendously proud of his Almamater, freely admits that this decision and the
tenure he spent in Mumbai for his MBA are the Game changers of his life. He was
delighted to discover innate aspects of his personality which were till now
latent. He honed his already razor sharp skills and he came back to his
homestead truly “World Ready”.His family was now very happy to present him, his
rightful seat in the family fold.He was sought after for his wise and mature
counseling and was lauded for his astute assessment……the “Son” had come Home!
Harjappun is today instrumental in all the diversification
efforts of the Gulati family.Whether it is the innovative generation of the
Canopy for extremely valuable Engineering machinery,whether it is expanding
their business interests to overseas shores like Indonesia or whether it is
roping in big names like Tata in their client list…..Harjappun has achieved it
all.Like a true team leader, he is very enthusiastic in his adventure and hunger
for newer pastures and in the days to come Power Lux would certainly scale new
heights of success…..he has roped in the veritable talent of his younger
brother and other family members and the story is moving towards a truly Happy
ending…..or is it Happy beginning???
Take home messages from the man whose name is so beautiful
that on one side it means….”Pray to Hari(the Supreme God”) and on the other
side it means “Pray all the time”!!!!Well, he says treat people kindly….human
resources are the most precious part of any enterprise.Second, never lose an
opportunity to learn and third, always be grounded and modest.Yes….the Man with
the Magic Canopy certainly has it all in place.God bless him.
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Dr. Jyoti D.
Vora ,
