Indore’s Man of Steel
Some quarters ‘allege’ that the growth of Steel Tubes is not due to the skills of Dr Baheti but because of his close contacts with the powers that be, especially the Chief Minister Arjun Singh. After a very long and thoughtful pause, Dr Baheti said, ”For us, there is no power base at the state or national level. Everybody has been kind and cooperative to us, in their own official way. Mind you, ours is the biggest unit in the state, barring MRTP and public Sector Undertakings. So you can say that there is a ‘son of the soil’ feeling for Steel Tube. If this is regarded as otherwise, well…”
Today, the STI group has combined turnover exceeding Rs. 75 crore The plant nourished by Dr Baheti today provides direct employment to over 1000 people and indirectly to over 10,000.
Dr. Baheti’s leadership, foresight and managerial skills are well acknowledged, but his piece de resistance is his man management. To him, ”The treatment and respect of values of others is not just an artificial management gimmic but a genuine feeling from within. The human being has to be treated as a colleague and not as subordinate in order for him or her not to feel like a commodity.” Three days out of six, Baheti and Garg go to Dewas in their staff bus along with other employees. At lunch, all have their meals together in the mess in a unique atmosphere of camaraderie and ease. Even the meals are a proper Indan thali lunch, unlike the usual executive grab of a cup-of-coffee and a slice to munch. Owing to the cordial relations between the staff and management, despite the large employee roll, nothing like a ‘trade union’ exists in STI. A senior assistant summed it all rather aptly, ”Dr Baheti is like a messiah to all of us.”
Another project, though personal in nature was launched in 1984, in which for once Dr. Baheti was not at the helm. ”Our new house owes all to Kailash. Right from conception to construction phase, he was the one who was actively involved. I just came here one fine day and started living in it!” he quips.
The large mansion with its slanting mock-tiled roof is such a sight on the busy national highway that one can’t possibly ignore it. Inside, the large expanses of white marble and the serene green of the creepers and Bonsai all around gives it the quality of a retreat. Indeed, it is the name of the house that Kailash Garg has proposed which is most striking and a revelation of their relationship ‘Sadbhava’.
When you ask him how he combines his business interests with that of his family, his answer is as expected. ”Whenever I am in Indore, I make it a point to spend my evenings exclusively with the family so that we do not drift away from each other. All this does call for an inherent time management, not the one written down in black and white, but the one planned out in the mind in advance.”
Dr Baheti is the father of three daughters, Rachana (20), Namrata (15) and Darpan (13) who are as much the loved ones of Kailash and Pushpa Garg as they are of their real parents. The eldest, Rachna is doing her graduation in management in England. Earlier, she was also awarded the best student’s award of the Daly College, Indore.
With only three daughters between Ramesh and Kailash, the ‘Sadbhava’ household is evidently without an heir. ”Well, as far as the girls are concerned, I am very clear that they can join their husbands’ businesses, if they wish, and not mine. And for STI, it has been our endeavour to institutionalise the organization rather than make it a personal affair. So whoever shall take charge in future will do so on their merit and not on lineage.”
Dr. Baheti himself is a workaholic whose chief way of relaxation is reading. ”Apart from daily diet of 7 newspapers, I love to read books on post war world politics and on management and nothing else.” And he says quite categorically that he has no plans to retire. The man of steel concludes, ”Never. Not only till my last day, but till my last moment, I shall make it a point not to stop working. After all, it is not all the sermons and preaching’s but the work that matters.’