Doing what is right: The Crisil Story
What started off as India's first credit rating agency, twenty-five years later has turned into a Rs 8 billion global analytical company providing ratings, research and risk and policy advisory services.
February 04, 2013 / 15:00 IST
What started off as India's first credit rating agency, twenty-five years later has turned into a Rs 8 billion global analytical company providing ratings, research and risk and policy advisory services.
'Doing what is right: The CRISIL Story', launched last week in Mumbai talks about how CRISIL, which came born post-liberalisation era, deliberately embarked on a difficult road with its motto doing what is right no matter how difficult things get.The book traces the company's growth through the personalities of its three remarkable leaders, Pradip Shah, R Ravimohan and Roopa Kudva. Shah set out the rules of the confidence business by charging clients for being rated and not for the rating outcome.An excerpt from the book: "The client's top management were livid and understandably so. An 'A+' rating was anathema to the industrial business group which always thought of itself as a "AAA' company. The telephone lines started buzzing as officials from both the rater and client into a huddle, each planting their stake in the ground and reluctant to budge, even an inch. The client was sure that the impending duty cuts were unlikely to occur in India despite global pressure. Sure enough, a communiqué from the ministry of finance confirmed that it had decided not to reduce duty as previously rumoured.The other bone of contention was the client's reluctance to part with confidential information on its divisional accounts and which of its units were loss-making. CRISIL apprised the company of the implications of such reluctance and cautioned them that the markets could misread this, associating higher risk perception with the company. The maturity of the client then came to the fore as it consented to sharing the information sought, resulting in CRISIL completing its due diligence and upping the rating to a 'AA-'. About the Author :Sumit Chowdhury is the Founder Director of My Life Chronicles. An alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, he has worked with corporates like Infosys, Honeywell and SAIL. He gave up his corporate life to give shape to his passion - story telling.Hemanth Gorur is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta. He is an author, biographer and published columnist. Hemanth’s corporate career has spanned multinational giants such as IBM, PwC, and Siemens. He is presently Director and Chief Writer at My Life Chronicles. Discover the latest Business News, Sensex, and Nifty updates. Obtain Personal Finance insights, tax queries, and expert opinions on Moneycontrol or download the Moneycontrol App to stay updated!
