Tuesday 19 December 2017

HARJAPPUN SINGH GULATI:THE ICON WITH A MAGIC CANOPY


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 ,