When Yogesh Chandra Deveshwar passed away in 2019, he was India’s longest-serving CEO of any organisation in India. Apart from a three-year hiatus between 1991 and 1994, when he was the chairman and MD of Air India, Yogesh spent his entire professional career at ITC. He signed up as a management trainee in 1968, back when it was called the Indian Tobacco Company, reflecting the company’s identity as a cigarette maker.
A Company Marred by Crisis
When Yogesh took over the reins of ITC in 1996, the company was in the middle of an unprecedented crisis. In March 1995, the UK-based global tobacco manufacturer British American Tobacco (BAT), which held a 29% stake in ITC at the time, sent shockwaves in the usually staid corporate world in India by publicly denouncing the leadership of Krishan Lal Chugh, the then chairman of ITC. BAT alleged that not only was ITC’s diversification away from cigarettes a threat to its core alliance, but it was also largely unsuccessful, resulting in significant losses for ITC.
Krishan refuted allegations, retorting that BAT wanted to increase its stake in ITC and use its cash-rich position for BAT’s benefit. What followed was a bitter corporate battle. ITC was pugnaciously defended by Yogesh, who invoked the narrative of a multinational company attempting a hostile takeover to wrest control from an indigenously owned company, a narrative that traces its origins back to the Swadeshi movement and the freedom struggle. During the corporate feud, he used to refer to ITC as “India’s Trademarks Corporation”.
The episode has been repeatedly cited as an instance in Yogesh’s long and eventful career when he fought tooth and nail, even when the odds were stacked against him and in ITC’s favour.
Lesson: Make the most of any situation, even in the worst imaginable circumstances.
From Shop Floor to Corner Office
Yogesh steered ITC through multiple crises, including one that occurred a day before he was set to take over as CEO. The government slapped a retrospective excise duty demand on ITC worth ₹803 crore. Soon, a section of the former management was put behind bars for allegedly violating the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act. He immediately formed an ad hoc management team to handle ITC’s management affairs and, concurrently, a legal team to address the allegations against ITC.
Putting out these fires as a leader, in tandem with his larger legacy of successfully diversifying ITC from a steadfast cigarette-maker into wide-ranging sectors such as FMCG, paper and packaging, and hotels, was achieved by Yogesh despite lacking any formal management training. He would later recount in interviews that the opportunities he got at ITC early in his career helped him grow, and his journey began on the shop floor, in proximity to the machines. This experience helped Yogesh feel closer to the company’s grassroots, which helped him when he got his break in management.
Lesson: A specialised degree is not always a prerequisite for achievement.
The “India-First” Strategy
An ITC veteran who worked closely with him for a long time said that Yogeshwar’s biggest strength was his ability to inspire people within ITC to believe they were working for an organisation that put India first and created value not only for shareholders but, more importantly, for the country. The “India-first” clarion call was central to his strategy. One of his strongest beliefs was that bellwether organisations like ITC and L&T served as the perfect model for running India’s state-owned companies.
His belief was also reflected in his actions. Yogesh’s successor, Sanjiv Puri, would later claim that it was due to his predecessor’s concerted efforts that ITC became the only company in the world to be carbon-positive, water-positive, and solid-waste-positive for over a decade. He was also responsible for a farmer empowerment drive, in which the company interacted directly with farmers via the internet to procure agricultural and aquaculture products, a centrepiece of the world’s largest rural digital infrastructure.
Lesson: Companies are committed not only to serving their shareholders and customers but also to their country, society, and the environment.
Distributed Leadership
The ITC veteran quoted above also said that what set Yogesh apart was his belief that leadership is required at different levels of the organisation, which he later called distributed leadership. Yogesh created a strategy where people with potential were given the opportunity to lead business units independently. The fact that ITC churns out a host of leaders is largely Yogesh’s legacy, as he believed in growing business as well as developing talent.
This leadership philosophy also helped with his diversification mission, as new businesses were incubated within older businesses, making it the responsibility of the older businesses to ensure the newer ones succeeded. He would guide the new businesses but would not interfere. The policy of accountability for independent business units was why various units logged stellar performances.
Lesson: Leadership should not be concentrated at the top, but should instead be decentralised
