Anil Manibhai Naik is the group executive chairman of engineering to infotech major Larsen & Toubro Limited and an industry veteran who is respected by one and all across the board. He has received many awards including a Padma Bhushan and Business Leader of the year award. His latest accomplishment being the Padma Vibhushan award, India’s 2nd highest civilian award, just a few days ago on 26th January 2019.
A.M. Naik’s reign at the helm has been so legendary that this son of a village school teacher in Gujrat started out as a junior engineer in 1965 and rose through the ranks to helm what is today one of India’s premier listed entity. As per a CNBC-TV 18 interview given by him recently, when A.M. Naik took over as CEO & MD, the revenue of the company was Rs 7,666 crore and now it is Rs 1,02,000 crore. The market capitalisation was Rs 4,400 crore and today the group’s market capitalisation is nothing short of a staggering Rs 2,48,000 crore. Under Mr Naik’s leadership, the engineering bellwether forayed into the information technology and defence sectors among others. His achievement is the defence sector includes the making of India’s indigenous nuclear submarine, Arihant, among many other successful ventures. He even successfully fended off take-over bids mounted by the Ambanis and the Birlas against L&T in the early 2000s.
Most recently he has been in the news as he is considering the acquisition of the stake in mid-cap IT company Mindtree after VG Siddhartha, founder of CCD and largest shareholder in Mindtree is planning to offload his 21% shareholding. In a testimony to his hard work, Naik took home 2.7 million $ last year after encashing his unused leave accumulated over decades. In August of 2016, he announced that he would give away 75% of his income to charitable causes over his lifetime.
One thing is for sure – Corporate India can do with all the A.M. Naiks we can get !!
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