In the week gone by, I spent three full days sitting on a jury that went through a final list of Indian companies that vied with one another for the title of ‘Best Managed Companies 2025’. For someone who is not used to be sitting all through the day in a board room, this was a pain. The point of pleasure was, however, the fact that three other jurors of eminent repute were breaking their backs as well.
Other jury members of more eminence than I included Kalpana Morparia, eminent banker and former chair of JP Morgan, Upendra Kumar Sinha, former chair of the Securities and Exchange Board of India, and N Ganapathy Subramaniam, chair of Tata Communications, who gave the best of their seasoned minds to decide which were the best-managed companies for the year.
What, then, is a best-managed company? Aren’t all companies ‘best-managed’—isn’t that the goal? And are there companies that are differently managed as they journey their way into the hallowed status of being a best-managed company?
As I journeyed my way through companies of every size and kind, over simple cocktail samosas for tea and exotic purple-rice meals for lunch, I came to a conclusion. All companies that make their way through the due diligence process of such a title-search are good companies for sure. While some are better-managed, others are best-managed. The difference between one and the other is oftentimes subtle. There are small give-aways that separate one from the other. Let me essay that a bit using non-corporate and boring jury-jargon.
The good companies in corporate India are the ones that are run by the rulebook of good corporate governance. The norms are clear. Good companies need to have systems and processes that help them govern themselves without external influence. The internal audit process needs to be strong, as must be the compliance norms responsible companies are meant to adhere to. Add to it the norms that govern justice of the social, economic and even political kind.
A good company must take care of all its stakeholders. Employees and their well-being in times good and bad, a good work-life balance, and practices that shine for the employee in question. A good health insurance cover for the employee that takes on eventualities of any kind, for instance.
What is a better-managed company then? One that goes out on a limb and extends its corporate practices beyond the call of duty. A company that extends medical care for the parents of its employees as well, bringing in the larger ecosystem of the immediate family into the ambit of care. A company that believes in giving more than any other. A company that cares for its internal employees, its outsourced help, its shareholders, and most importantly its consumers.
It’s also a company that believes in very high standards of customer service. One that believes customer service is a basic requirement and, therefore, extends itself to offer customer satisfaction of the highest norms. Never mind if you have to stretch a bit more than the call of duty, and importantly, what the law of the land wants you to do. Better-managed companies are, therefore, ones that run faster than their peers in the quest to attain a cult status with their employees and customers alike.
The best-managed company—as I discovered sitting in on the jury—is one that goes beyond it all. I have been on this jury for the last four seasons, since its inception in 2021. I have gone through some 70 companies till date, and the search for the best-managed holds an excitement in itself. These are companies that do all the basics right. They do the higher-end stuff well. And then they stretch themselves a wee bit more.
The examples are many. If I am to take the health insurance cover bit, the best-managed company says that employees must be fully covered. Their spouses and parents must be covered as well. These companies go further. Why must the parents of the employee alone be covered? Why not the parents of the spouse of the employee as well? And they do. Touché.
The best-managed company title belongs to a select few—a few of those who do the real, and not the anecdotal. These companies do things in scale. What they do touches lives in large numbers, and not in the anecdotal manner that some companies do. These companies do things not for the positive PR they receive. They do it to touch real lives at the grassroots level. Their action is sincere, involved and inclusive. They believe their customers. No one is left out.
These are companies that go much beyond the call of the law, the laws of audit, laws of the land and the law of profit even. The best-managed company thinks beyond the company and its immediate corporate profit mandate. And it is not only about the corporate social responsibility mandate— it’s beyond CSR. It is even about ISR, or individual social responsibility.
It is about that one company that does not believe only in chequebook philanthropy. Philanthropy where you write out a cheque for a few crores of rupees is so easy. It’s about the company that writes out a cheque and equally mandates its employees to devote time for a project that helps people live better lives. When your employee devotes three days of his or her time to a socially beneficial project at the grassroots, he/she invests personal sweat along with company money in the activity. Time is that much more precious than money. The feel for what is done is that much more real, and so much beyond chequebook philanthropy, for sure.
A company that encourages this is a best-managed company, for sure. In sum, all companies are good. Some are better and a few are the best. This, then, is a journey of excellence. Those who traverse this journey do well as they improve year on year. To a fruitful and productive year ahead, then. God bless the best-managed.
Harish Bijoor | Brand guru & founder of Harish Bijoor Consults Inc
(Views are personal)
(harishbijoor@hotmail.com)
