Four Wheels—And A Life

The first story I did on joining Outlook in December 2007 was an interview with Jagdish Khattar, who was retiring that month as the managing director of Maruti Suzuki, India’s largest car-maker. It was clear by then that Khattar was planning something new, though he was guarded about details (I distinctly remember he was interested in office rentals in Noida). With a half-smile, I reminded him of a chat we had had a year before, when he had emphatically talked about imminent retired life. “Nothing has changed,” he deadpanned. “I spoke one truth and one red herring—that I’d retire.”

In fact, anyone who knows him even a bit will testify that Khattar’s hardly the retiring type. The Uttar Pradesh cadre IAS officer writes as much in this biography, rich with anecdotes and detail. He did not want to suffer the fate of his seniors—mellow quickly and age even faster. But there was another, more pre­s­s­ing reason why Khattar turned entrepreneur at 65 (he runs the multi-brand automotive servicing hub Carnation).

Khattar felt shortchanged after leading Maruti Suzuki through turbulent times after he joined in 2000. Suzuki head Osamu Suzuki was not a “generous paymaster”, writes Khattar—he was even denied an annual increment in 2003 because the company was underperforming. Suzuki also didn’t believe in stock options for senior managers. Khattar wasn’t happy about that.

The deciding factor was a letter from his son Kunal, then based in the US: “You have created wealth only for Suz­uki. You don’t need money for yourself, but you must create wealth for your children. You have responsibilities tow­a­rds them. Just start a venture. The day you get funding, I will join you.” Though Khattar has devoted a chapter to Carnation, there are no details of the battles he is waging against car companies opposed to his multi-platform servicing hub, robbing the book of much-needed topicality. He obviously feels it isn’t prudent to air views on a live issue.

There are no such qualms when it comes to Maruti Suzuki, where he was first a nominee of the government and then of Suzuki itself. “I did not think I owed my position to either (government or Suzuki). To tell you the truth, I was also a little crafty and did not hesitate to play one against the other if it benefited Maruti,” he writes.

All told, this is a useful and entertaining biography. I only wish Khattar had made it more topical by devoting space to Maruti’s labour troubles last year and its troubling link to the Japanese management.