by Jairam Menon
Corporate Communications Department, Larsen & Toubro Limited
Vignettes from the remarkable life of our co-founder Mr. Henning Holck-Larsen, whose birth centenary falls on 4 July 2007.
Henning and Karen Holck-Larsen on their wedding day
A young chemical engineer travels east from Denmark and makes India his adopted homeland. He sets up a company that is committed to serving the needs of this country, its industry and its people. Seven decades on, the company that bears his name is so strongly identified with Indian sentiment and aspiration that its theme-line read: We make the things that make India proud. This, briefly, is the remarkable story of the life and achievements of Henning Holck-Larsen.
If L&T is today a unique organization, it is probably because the company is the lengthened shadow of a unique individual. Holck-Larsen was a Dane who was “more Indian than most Indiansâ€, an engineer whose first love was poetry, an industrialist who was a patron and personal friend of contemporary Indian artists, a visionary with an intensely practical turn of mind. He was also perhaps the only foreign industrialist to have spent more than 60 years of his life in India. Beginning in the tumultuous years before World War II, he has played a distinctive role in shaping the industrial history of independent India. Unlike international corporations which set up affiliates and transplanted themselves into India, L&T is intrinsically indigenous, a native of Indian soil and endeavour.
Investing in People
When asked what he would define as the single most important ingredient of his success as an industrialist in a complex developing country, Mr Holck-Larsen replied: “If you want to belong to a country which is becoming a nation, you have to keep the economy growing by creating jobs. And you can only do that by investing in tomorrow, and tomorrow is made by people.” When India became independent, L&T had nothing to change or replace. It was a company that was already primed for the new destiny of the nation.
Mr Holck-Larsen steered the company as it identified and addressed the challenges unique to a newborn nation, taking on engineering assignments of increasing sophistication in industries of crucial significance to the Indian economy. L&T’s strong customer orientation and the technological sophistication it acquired can be traced to the values instilled by Mr Holck-Larsen. Many of the policies he initiated decades ago are now our industrial buzzwords, viz. recruitment and promotion by merit, democratic management and provision of excellent working conditions, development of indigenous know-how and capability, export promotion and a high rate of re-investment of surplus to sustain a rapid rate of growth.
The ‘climate of excellence’ that L&T employees enthuse about is the result of the precepts and practices of the Company’s founders. Under the professional management structure put in place by Mr Holck-Larsen, L&T engineers enjoy an unparalleled degree of freedom and the opportunity to seek out challenges. The results are evident – L&T engineers have scripted some of the most spectacular success stories in Indian industry.
Significantly, one of Mr Holck-Larsen last official duties as Chairmen Emeritus of Larsen & Toubro was to give his assent to a plan to establish an Employees’ Trust that would own a part of L&T on behalf of L&T employees and act for their welfare. The Trust now holds a significant portion of L&T’s equity, and makes it truly a people’s company.
Fulfilling the National Agenda
L&T’s current Chairman & Managing Director Mr A.M. Naik described the nationalistic sentiments of the Company’s co-founder by saying that although he was Danish by birth, Holck-Larsen was “more Indian than most Indiansâ€. The Company’s role in the Indian economy reflects that sentiment. L&T has all along been a private-sector ‘partner’ to national endeavours in space research, the nuclear power programme and defence. Earlier, it was closely associated with the Green and White Revolutions.
L&T invested in R&D laboratories that led to the development of a new range of low-tension switchgear that, for the first time, focussed on the Indian customer. As the promotional campaign said, it was switchgear that was not just made in India, but made for India.
The noted industrialist, Mr Arun Bharat Ram once said, “There are many stories of creation of wealth, but Mr Holck-Larsen created his for India”. Today, few companies in India have a project and product profile that is as integrally linked with the core sector of the Indian economy as L&T.
Awards & Recognition
On Republic Day 2002, Mr Holck-Larsen featured in the nation’s Honours List. In recognition of his outstanding contribution to Indian industry, the government of India honoured him with the Padma Bhushan.
Mr Holck-Larsen’s accomplishments have been recognised by premier national and international organisations. In 1976, he was awarded the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award for International Understanding. Accepting the award, he said: “I share this unique honour bestowed on me today with all those persons with whom I have had the privilege of working in India as well as with the company’s collaborators and customers in all five continents.â€
Holck-Larsen with his Magsaysay Award, by the side of a bust of Ramon Magsaysay
Queen Margarethe II of Denmark conferred a knighthood upon Mr Holck-Larsen. In 1968, L&T’s 30th anniversary year, the National Association of Danish Enterprise awarded a symbol of growth to L&T and to Mr Holck-Larsen. In 1980, on receiving the Sir Jehangir Ghandy Medal for Industrial Peace, Mr Holck-Larsen articulated a tenet of L&T’s philosophy: He said: “No deal and no business should be concluded except between a happy seller and a happy buyer, and the happy buyer’s happiness should be a continuing one, with faith in a good after-sales service.â€
The Bombay Chamber of Commerce & Industry felicitated Mr Holck-Larsen in September 1999 on his signal contribution to Indian industry, particularly for his keeping in mind the ideal of serving India’s national interests. In May 2000, The Confederation of Indian Industry, an apex body of Indian companies, honoured him for his ‘vision and spirit of entrepreneurship’. In November 2000, the ChemTech Foundation felicitated him as a stalwart of India’s chemical industry. Given the range and depth of his interests, it was inevitable that Mr Holck-Larsen would find recognition even in fields not usually associated with industry. In August 2000, the National Gallery of Modern Art honoured him as a ‘celebrated figure whose contribution has enriched the field of Indian contemporary art’.
In conclusion, it is appropriate to recall his words on receiving the Padma Bhushan: “India, my adopted homeland has a special place in my heart. With the Padma Bhushan, I am happy to realize that I have a place in her heart tooâ€.
Holck-Larsen receiving the Padma Bhushan award from President K. R. Narayanan on March 23, 2002
July 9th, 2007 at 5:54 pm
The above article was written by an accomplished writer, no doubt. The words run light and pleasant, like reflections on a gurgling stream. But the greatness of the subject – Mr Larsen and the beauty of this article are marred by a couple of typos – (i) ‘woring’ in para above Larsen’s second picture and (ii) ‘Presedent’ in caption below the last pic. Apparently Mr Menon’s secretary and/or the proofreader weren’t ‘woring’ as they should. The article is otherwise excellent.
July 9th, 2007 at 6:10 pm
Dear Gobon,
We are glad you liked the article, and thank you for pointing out the typos. We have corrected them.
Babu
July 20th, 2007 at 2:59 am
Some 32 years back, I left L & T after a 12 year employment. Those 12 years were also the most rewarding years of my life.Three decades later and 10,000 miles away (in the USA) I have never forgotten the vision, personality and character of Mr. Holck-Larsen. He was as you rightly say one of the greatest Indians, of our time.
Harinder Gujral