What I learned seeing my first mentor face tough times in his life and career

Photo credit: Jeremy Yap.

In 1988, I joined Tata Steel as a management trainee from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta. Our cadre of management trainees was referred to as the “Mody Administrative Services” (adoringly by the Rusi Mody acolytes and pejoratively by his critics).

Rusi Mody was the chairman and managing director of Tata Steel and one of the most powerful satraps in the Tata empire at the time. To help acculturate and assimilate the management trainees, each of us was assigned a mentor for a year. The mentor was either a senior- or mid-level executive who was on the fast track. Some things like similar education and interests were considered when making a match.

I was therefore surprised when I was told that Niroop Mahanty, who was part of Mody’s innermost circle, would be my mentor. Niroop was a graduate of St. Stephen’s College. Like most smart children from the state of Bihar, he too studied in one of Delhi’s elite schools. His wife Rupa was also with Tata Steel and, as I discovered subsequently, several years my senior at IIM Calcutta. They were the talk of the town for their exceedingly good looks and flamboyant lifestyle.

Mentorship for me

I was skeptical of such mentoring programs and more so because I thought my mentors and I had very different chemistries. I was a boringly intelligent and an incorrigible left-brainer while both Niroop and Rupa came across as seductively enchanting and unabashedly high-society.

I was restrained during the initial interactions, but Niroop was at his charming best trying to make me comfortable. They had an adorable daughter, Kudy, who I began to like for her playful innocence. The ice was broken, but my guard wasn’t completely down.

Turning point

Every year on March 3, the company celebrated founder’s day in Jamshedpur with great pomp. The pageantry was similar to the Republic Day celebrations in New Delhi. On the evening of March 2, 1989, we had just returned to Kolkata from a visit to the Tata headquarters in Mumbai and were lazily lying in bed at the company guest house.

On the morning of March 3, we were woken up by the guest house staff and told that a massive fire had broken out in one of the stands. We soon got to know that it was the stand where the families of senior executives were seated, and there were at least 100 individuals with serious burns. We were informed that more than 50 of them were likely to be fatal. I just hoped that Niroop and his family were safe.

But it was not to be. Kudy was in the stand where the fire had broken out and had sustained severe burn injuries. Within the next four days, she passed away in the ICU. The death of an only child is the deepest sorrow that can strike a couple. I saw how Niroop and Rupa dealt with this from close quarters. They rarely displayed their emotions in public but were inconsolable in private.

Company shakeup

Just as they were picking up the pieces of their life without Kudy, there was a massive shakeup in the Tata group. Tata Steel had a new managing director and all those close to Mody were either sidelined or had to leave. Niroop and Rupa chose to stay and make it work.

They were marginalized in the new dispensation, and the company took a new direction. In the rush of life and the realignment of priorities and friendships, we drifted apart slowly. Niroop worked doggedly at rebuilding trust with JJ Irani, the new managing director, and eventually succeeded. Rupa chose to quit and built a successful management consulting practice.

During these years, Niroop continued to keep an eye on how I was progressing in my career, though we never ever spoke. He never nursed a grudge that I had drifted away when he was in a tough spot. When he was back in favor, he still remembered me. When the global market for steel after liberalization became brutally competitive, the company decided to hire McKinsey to help with restructuring the company and dealing with the crisis.

One fine morning I got a call from Niroop, and he asked me warmly if I would like to be part of a three-member in-house team that would work with McKinsey to drive this strategic initiative. I didn’t know what to say! However, working with McKinsey was a mixed experience. After a while, I had some serious differences on the approach and the path we were hurtling down. At Tata Steel, for right or wrong reasons, McKinsey had the ear of top management, and I found it difficult to express concerns without being seen as obstructionist.

It bothered me a great deal. It was the biggest crisis in my career. Niroop talked to me very maturely and with a lot of empathy and love. It soothed me to an extent, but never completely.

Evolving relationship

What I learned from the experience