Veterans Unpacked: Leaders have to move on, but must not stop acquiring knowledge, says FC Kohli

FC Kohli

Note to readers: How ​do corporate leaders surf life after hanging up their boots? What do they do next? What are the lessons they learned in their eventful journeys? What advice do they have for the current crop of leaders? Veterans Unpacked is a new series of interviews aimed to offer readers lessons from retired bosses on life outside the corner office.

FC Kohli is widely recognised as the brilliant technocrat parachuted in from the Tata Electric Companies as a General Manager to run a tech
startup that grew to become TCS — the jewel in the crown of the Tata conglomerate. Kohli was also actively involved in the decision to
bring IBM to India as part of Tata-IBM, a JV for hardware manufacturing and support in India in 1991.

As the first CEO of TCS, which pioneered India’s 'Technology Revolution' and helped the country to build the $100 billion+ IT Industry, Kohli, 97, is referred to as the "Father of the Software Industry". In an interview with Moneycontrol, he said that when it comes to the C-Suite, he never looks back. He advises that corporate leaders must study the future, which is more geared towards the needs of society then it was in his time. Edited excerpts:

What have you been up to since hanging up your boots?

Even after I retired I was quite active, until I turned 94.  After that my needs started to change and became very different in that if there was a conference I shared what I thought about technology. The main thing is that technology is never static, it is always moving forward. I worked on an adult literacy program in or two languages to teach adults who have never been educated and that was taken as a program in other countries such as Africa and it was reported that it did help build literacy. That's perhaps the biggest contribution to my own country and government in helping increase literacy. It allows people to read starting small and basically for those who have never ever read and no options and designed especially for them.

What keeps you busy now?

Sleeping. I’m not joking: my need for sleep has gone up a lot. I am 97-years old. I still read a lot of technical journals. Was traveling until the lock-down started. I also spend a lot of time in my garden at Alibaugh and make sure the lawn is kept well.

Looking back, can you tell us about three interesting events or anything that has stayed with you since?

The IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers is a professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering with its corporate office in New York City) and they honoured me with a fellowship. I was the only non-American in the world at the time to get it which meant a lot to me. The other was a member and fellow of the South East Asia Computer Society and again there I was the only non-Singaporean to get it.

What you miss most about the C-Suite?

I don’t miss it at all. My work is complete and my job is done.

If you had to relive your corporate career again, what would you do differently?

It's very difficult to say because I don’t think I won’t have another corporate life and at 97 you see the world differently and things are improving. Let us be very clear I have done whatever I thought I could do. I’m not going back in time. But as time goes on, people who are leaders also have to move on.  But acquiring knowledge is something you can do all the time.

What are the changes in the corporate world that you see now that are vastly different from your time?

Changes occur constantly and are not specific to one period but the way that technology is moving and the way people are gaining knowledge is vastly different from my time. The educational institution is very different from what I got and it means that it is easier today to gain knowledge and then build your career. It's not a starting point with an ending point. This country has to update education and teaching methods—one has to learn how to change.

Which business leader in the current crop impresses you?

No single leader has impressed me in the earlier years and while I met a lot of CEOs here and abroad as well one does get suggestions and
ideas that are part of an exchange.  I had a very high opinion of JRD Tata who was also very close to me.

How did you plan for life after retirement?
I retired in 1999 at the age of 75, and for another 15 years I kept doing things that are not part of any such curriculum but to get me to
learn from people. Until the lockdown, I was going into office for two hours in the morning and two in the evening.

Is there anything you would tell your younger self?

Not really but I would say in general for anyone is that the whole world is open to you and that you have to keep learning and read whatever is the most appropriate to your industry and contribute to society and be a part of it.

What is your advice for the next cadre of corporate leaders?

My advice is that you must study the future, which is more geared towards the needs of society then it was in my time. That is the difference and so no question that all the corporates want the best out of their people and want them to do what the times require but what is also required for corporates is to look into their people’s education levels and maybe they have to provide for people to educate themselves.

Pavan Lall is a senior journalist based in Mumbai.