Nama Indonesia disebut beberapa kali dalam wawancara sambil jalan kaki Walk the Talk oleh New Delhi TV dengan raja besi baja Lakshmi N. Mittal. Karena itu, transkripsi wawancara itu saya forward disini.
Waktu mudanya India masih serba tertutup, karena itu Lakshmi Mittal pergi ke Indonesia, dan pada umur 26 tahun is membuka pabrik baja PT Ispatindo di Sepanjang, dekat Surabaya, dengan bahan baku besi tua yang dipasok pedagang Madura dan pig iron (15%) yang didatangkan dari India. Usaha ini ditambah satu lagi di Trinidad berkembang terus, terus, sampai dia membeli pabrik besi/baja di Pittsburg dan di Inggris yang semula terbengkalai akibat dunia dipenuhi pasokan baja kwalitas baik dari Jepang dan Korea. Sekarang Lakshmi Mittal menjadi produsen baja nomor satu didunia, dan menjadi orang terkaya di Inggris, tempat dia bermukim dan menjadi warganegara. Selamat mambaca wawancara yang menarik ini. Salam, RM -------------------------------------- LAKSHMI N MITTAL: INDUSTRIALIST �Change in three areas would help India�s image: bureaucracy, transparency, corporate governance� Lakshmi N Mittal has been ranked as one of the world�s richest people, with his vast steel empire producing more than 70 million tonnes of steel. Recently in the news for the extravagant wedding of his daughter in Paris, and before that his son�s wedding at Kolkata�s Victoria Memorial, Mittal tells SHEKHAR GUPTA, Editor-in-Chief of The Indian Express, on NDTV 24 X 7�s Walk the Talk�his first-ever TV interview�that although he was once frustrated by Indian bureaucracy, India is changing fast � This place Rajasthan is your birthplace in a way. When I come here, it reminds me of my childhood. I stayed in Rajasthan till I was five years of age. It�s a lovely place and there�s beauty and culture. � So how do we describe you? The pride of Rajasthan, the pride of the Marwari clan, the poster boy of the global Indian community? Basically you�ve to describe me as an Indian. I am Indian and it gives me great pride always to say that I am Indian. I love India, I always have a lot of affection for my country. Even if I am in different countries of the world and whenever I discuss India it always brightens my face, and people could see that I am Indian, who loves to talk about India. � But was it always like that? When India did not have such good press, there must have been doubts when you started out... Of course. For example, when I went to Trinidad first time after my career in Indonesia and when I acquired the steel company in Trinidad, the headlines were �an unknown Indian� has come to Trinidad and acquired what was the largest steel company in that part of the world. Even when I went to Indonesia... � At a very young age. At the age of 26. It was a big challenge for me. � In 1976. It was not just the height of the Emergency here, it was also the height of the licence quota raj and 97 per cent tax. And that was perhaps one of the reasons why I felt that Indonesia was the future for me. We had licence raj, we had high taxation. I did not feel there was great potential... � Real enterprise wasn�t possible... Yes, you can say that. It was difficult to grow and we used to export our steel to Indonesia, and then I went there, supported by my father. I saw a lot of opportunities and decided to set up a greenfield project. � So in a way you escaped the system at its most tyrannical point. I didn�t escape the system; I learnt a lot from the system. That business could not be developed in such a restricted environment. You need freedom, you need flexibility, you need an environment where you can grow and do something different. � To that extent those were India�s lost decades. Yes, since then we have changed a lot. We have changed a lot. There has been a lot of freedom, as you can see. A lot of flexibility. And we are moving towards a new country. � Yes, also businessmen are no longer seen as crooks all the time. Earlier when somebody said wo to Birla, Tata hai, it was almost a pejorative thing to say. Given the circumstances, businessmen had to follow a certain way of doing business. But as you opened the business, as the country opened itself to having new business... � You had to cheat and lie less... You can go anywhere you want today. You can do any business you want and that flexibility is very important. Now the rules have become much less, India has opened itself, Indian businessmen have also changed. We�re seeing an Indian generation of businessman who are looking at the world as a home. It is no more just Calcutta, or Bombay or Delhi, it�s the world. Now we�re looking for all global businesses and those are the challenges which make the change. � So what did Indonesia teach you as your first foreign experience? When I went to Indonesia, first of all it was a big surprise for people�an Indian coming in and setting up a steel company in Indonesia. When you go there, suddenly you find that there are no restrictions but the challenges are different. Competition is very strong, so I learnt in Indonesia that cost is very important, competitiveness is very important. � And maybe scale. And the scale because when we started it was a small company of 65,000 tonnes in Indonesia, which could be as large as Pusan Steel at the time, which was the so-called private- sector company. � I�m surprised you don�t count TISCO as private sector. TISCO was always considered as a public company...never considered as part of a private company. When I landed in Indonesia, 65,000 tonnes was not enough, it was the smallest size one could have. We continued to expand and today this company produces more than 700,000 tonnes. Of course, it is very small compared to the whole group, which produces 70 million tonnes. � Which if I�m getting my figures right is almost three times the steel production in India. Almost two and a half times. � The PM went to the New York Stock Exchange and said �I�ve not come to lecture, I�ve come to learn from you and I want investment�. When was the last time an Indian PM dared do something like that? You are right. One of my friends was invited to this lunch and he was very impressed with our PM and he said that he spoke impromptu and he really impressed the American investors. If this kind of visits are done at the highest level, it definitely offers great opportunity for India...People want to see the mood of the Government. � I think also that people want inspiration from people like you, that if you make a big investment in India, that would itself be a trigger because I�m sure many investors now say Lakshmi is not investing in India, there must be a problem. No, no, they�re not right...If you are into financial business their needs are different. If I�m in the manufacturing business my needs are different. But I tell everyone and I like to say to people that India offers an opportunity for all the investors to come in. Not only this we have entrepreneurs here. India has great entrepreneurs. Now they also see opportunities for growing their businesses and all this is a very positive sign. � So the initial diffidence that you had about the system is now gone. Now it�s about opportunity. The system has not yet 100 per cent improved. I would still like that. � So what are the five things you would like the Government of India to do? I know that you are on many committees to invite investment... Five would be too many to ask for! If we can ask even one, two, three, it should be enough. For example, bureaucracy, transparency, corporate governance should be improved. These are the three areas which I think would change the image of the country. It would bring more businesses...Even in the Western world these issues are becoming more important. � Does India make a foreign investor or an investor feel sufficiently wanted? You go to South Africa, you go to Romania, you go to Trinidad, you go to America, you go to China...hopefully you will come to India to invest. Where do you feel most wanted as an investor? I can speak about my business. Wherever there is a privatisation opportunity. For example, when I went to China, you can feel that they want you. � Would you say the Chinese make you feel most wanted? They really bend over backwards? I would not put in only China as one country but even the Central and East European countries, where you go, they want you. For example, in South Africa they very much like what we have done and people see the progress we have made and so you get more and more involved with the government, with the business there. � Have you ever faced, I don�t want to say racial, but an ethnic slur? Somebody saying something like �A guy from India, how can he do business?�, early in your career or now? Or from the British press? Early on in my career definitely I faced a situation when there were...questions. Coming from India, for example, when I went to Canada, the Union asked me a question��How do you pay 35 dollars an hour to your employees, to our members when in your country the wages are 35 cents?�. � What did you say? �How would an Indian come and run business in western countries?�. These were the questions at the initial stage, but as we have been successfully working and successfully operating in all these countries, today these questions are not there. Today they want us to be there. It is our performance. It is our contribution to the community, to the society... � And the British media? They love you, don�t they? The British media, they�ve always been very curious about me and they love to talk about me and I like to be a low-profile person. � In fact there was a quote from your father in The Economist that said the day you become high-profile, you start to fall. It�s a curve and if you reach on the peak of it, it is said you should change the way you are doing your business, or the way you are operating and we have always realised this�as we have reached the height of some of our actions or activities, we�ve changed ourselves... � But you know this logic is not exactly a Western pearl of wisdom. Because in the Western world, if you are successful, you have a high profile. From where did it come, and are you changing it a bit now? First of all I do not agree that I�m a high-profile person. � Well, the profile is changing, the very fact that you agreed to do this interview. I believe your first-ever TV interview, isn�t it? It is. � Thanks for saying yes to me even though I�m not Simi Grewal! I hope Simi�s not listening! � I hope she is! I think now some of the old things are not there, not applicable. Now you have many more information systems, now you have much more technology, now we exactly know what�s happening. � So now you can�t even hide socially. People will find you, isn�t it? The British media found you on the whole question of your donation to the Labour Party and that famous letter to Adrian Nastase. I have always said it is coincidental...these two things have no relation. I still continue to support the Labour Party. The media for some reason got carried away. � In fact, the British media has been very curious. I read in the British media, in fact quite a bit when you had your son�s wedding at Victoria Memorial, Calcutta. They saw in it some kind of political statement�that this is where the mementos of the Raj are stored or displayed and this is where Lakshmi Mittal holds his son�s wedding, gets Shah Rukh Khan to dance there. Was it a statement, the empire strikes back? I didn�t intend it to be. I come from Calcutta, I love the place and when my son�s wedding took place, I needed the right venue and that was the best venue available in Calcutta. � But how did you respond to this suggestion in your adopted country? Because a lot of the former colonies have this view of England. No, it�s true, I laugh on these issues. For example when I went to Ireland, one of the companies which we acquired, I saw it and I pointed to England. So these things...you have to laugh it away. � And the two weddings have done more by way of not just building profile for you but also building the Mittal brand. The name Mittal is now known much more than Ispat. That might be the reason you�ve changed the name of your conglomerate. No, the Mittal name is important for the branding of our company. Now we are in so many different countries, so many different products, we need one single brand and all the consultants, advisers think that Mittal Steel is the right name. The Mittal name is the best brand which we could work on and this could be a brand which could be remembered for the next 100 years. � But does this new social profile, partly through the weddings of your children, has that helped build the Mittal name? For somebody who�s been low-profile, so low profile that the first full-length TV interview happens at the age of 54, for him to have his son�s wedding at the Victoria Memorial, the daughter�s wedding with Kylie Minogue performing...Is that just Daddy letting children have some fun or is it also part of brand building? No, these are absolutely private affairs, but being the largest steel producer or a large steel producer, you cannot hide the events in the families. So there was a general interest and the media took an interest in it. � You got more media for this than perhaps for corporate conquests. No, they are the sensational news. But for me more important is my corporate news and even when we announced this merger, there was wide media coverage...and I received a lot of positive responses on the road show...Everybody loved this kind of a company which emerged as the largest in the world, large in Europe, largest in South Africa. I always believed in consolidation of the steel industry and I think in the last couple of years we have seen this and it is good for the industry, brings sustainability, which has always been a question mark for the industry. � Let me come back to the point that I raised earlier. What do we see you doing in India? I know you�re doing a little bit of charity, I know you bought a house in Delhi. I�m building a house, I haven�t bought a house. I�m building a house because I needed an address in India too if you want to do something. � Exactly. So why does Lakshmi Mittal need an address in New Delhi, which he hasn�t bothered about all these years? I really want to do some business in India. We are waiting for opportunities. � In steel or beyond steel? I�m a person who focuses on the big business. I�m a very focused person so I would really look at the... � And you are not happy that India exports so much iron ore? I would really like that iron ore to be converted into steel, and demands will also be growing if our economy is growing at 8 per cent. In the following years the steel demand should grow at the rate of 12 per cent and some forecasts are we will need 70-80 million tonnes. � Because if we actually start building infrastructure, we�ll need a lot more steel. Look at China. Per capita consumption is pretty low here and it�s going to grow. � In 30 years of doing business around the world, did you ever feel tempted to change your passport�visa, immigration problems...? No. The whole family, my wife, my children they all love to be Indian and we�ve never even discussed this issue. � And your passport was never a liability? No, for me it has never been a liability. In the beginning people were questioning whether Indians would succeed or not, the passport wasn�t a liability. � I believe the Japanese weren�t buying our steel for some time. In the beginning of my career, in Indonesia, when I started producing steel, they would not buy. But as we improved our... � Because they wouldn�t trust Indians with... Quality. � Finished quality. Quality. Quality was the issue at that time but we could really demonstrate to them we could supply what they need. Today Japanese companies are one of our large customers in the States�Toyota, Honda, Nissan. Why Japanese, all the international big companies�GM, Ford, all the companies... � Also what is this fascination with Bollywood�stars performing at family functions? You have investment in B4U... As I have said before, the investment in B4U is purely investment. It has nothing to do with my fascination towards Bollywood. � Small change for you. That�s not important. All the stars coming, they are performing for entertainment. � It�s not something that binds you to India in some way?...Do you watch a lot of Indian television or Indian movies? No, I really don�t watch a lot of Indian movies. I do watch a lot of Indian TV channels for my news and for what�s going on in the country, not for entertainment channels but definitely news channels. I keep track of what�s going on. � But you believe in living it up. If you work hard at earning the money, you should also spend it in style. It�s a personal choice. If you can do it, you should do it. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> $4.98 domain names from Yahoo!. Register anything. http://us.click.yahoo.com/Q7_YsB/neXJAA/yQLSAA/BRUplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> *************************************************************************** Berdikusi dg Santun & Elegan, dg Semangat Persahabatan. 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