Corporate chatter: Brian Lara at Essar scion's post-wedding bash; a young boss tried to hard sell his global ops to POTUS

SUITS & SAYINGS | ET’s weekly roundup of the wackiest whispers and murmurs in corporate corridors & policy parlours.

Guests of Honour
Prashant Ruia and his uncle Ravi recently hosted a grand after-wedding bash at their Malabar Hill mansion in honour of Essar scion Rewant and his bride Karishma Choraria. Other than the usual friends and fellows from business, as well as the glamour and political fraternity who had flown in from around the world, there was a special guest who came all the way from the Caribbean island of Trinidad. Brian ‘Princey’ Lara was quite the toast that evening, in his cream suit and black shirt that stood out amid all the designer bandhgalas. The southpaw surely has a lot of pizzazz — on and off the field. Equally interesting was the sight of one of our favourite bankers, who had backed Lakshmi Mittal in the fight over Essar Steel. Guess all’s fair in love and war.

Viral Fever

During the recent CEO interaction with Donald Trump, everyone in the room was quite astounded by the temerity of this young unicorn boss, who stood up to hard sell his sprawling global operations to POTUS. Several sneered as he rattled off his accomplishments and the sprawling footprint of his hospitality venture, especially since everyone is aware that it has shrunk by half. Last heard, the China operations, into which $600 million has been invested, is about to shut in the coming days, ostensibly due to the Covid-19 outbreak.


What Happens in Dubai…
We have, in this column, written about how tight the McKinsey alumni network is. This weekend, 90 ex-colleagues are meeting up in Dubai, most of them hired before 2000. The youngest of the lot are in their furious forties and almost all occupants of various corner offices around the world. Regarded as one of the world’s top CEO labs, most of the attendees have been hanging around at the Burj Khalifa for the past few days. It pays to be at the centre of the world.

Still There
As the succession at one of India’s top firms takes centrestage, a little bird tells us the scanner is on the exact role the patriarch’s cousin plays there, even after ‘officially’ retiring some time ago. He’s holding on to his office and remains the CEO’s confidant. The board, we are told, is asking about his exact job description and wondering why shareholders should bear his expenses as he travels with the incumbent chief for key meetings.

Max Club
Maker Max City — with its plush offices and F&B options and now even a gym — has been among the most sought after office addresses in uptown Mumbai for many global firms that are seeking a work-life balance for their staff. The next stage of development includes a super luxury mall, a hotel and a drive-in theatre. Everyone knows the developer has the blessings of the high and mighty. We now hear a high-end corporate club is also being built at the venue, with an Olympic-size indoor pool, sauna and other facilities that the suits frequent when they travel to London or New York. From Indus to A Club to Gurgaon’s Quorum — urban lifestyle clubs are up for some serious competition.

Art of Noise
The founder of this pharma company decided to spend a night out with family and friends this weekend, opting for a Chinese meal at a popular restaurant frequented by South Mumbai denizens. But things didn’t go too well as the next table was so loud while entertaining foreign guests that the rest of the patrons were laid low by noise pollution. We love a garrulous dinner party but people should equally be sensitive to others around.

Bharti Matrimony
The bahu of a leading Delhi-based business family known for its stiff upper lip, and a well-known aesthete in her own right, was in a bind when she visited Bikaner House recently to see the ongoing Bharti Kher show. A fan for many years, she had never managed to collect any of her works. As always, she came away gobsmacked. Her favourite was an installation called 'Sing to Them That Will Listen'—a brass urn filled with grains of rice on which are inscribed matrimonial ads the artiste found in newspapers. We hope she will succeed in her pursuit one day and acquire one of Kher’s stunning works for her ever expanding personal collection.

Dialling 5G in Spain
Some of India’s bigshots from the telecom and tech world, along with leading consumer activists, will be bound for Spain later this month to brainstorm on ways to stop data leaks and boost consumer privacy once ordinary home appliances plug into the internet in a 5G world. The data privacy conclave, to be hosted by a leading UK-based consumer body, will explore ways to incorporate data security standards into smart home appliances at the design stage itself, to boost consumer privacy, once these devices go online in a big way in key telecom markets such as India.

Turbulent Times
We wonder what’s been happening to this renewable energy company that, in the not-so distant past, was the toast of town, with marquee investors and an overseas listing. Since then, a lot of water has flowed (and a lot of wind has blown). In an unprecedented move, its founder was sacked but his father retained. Now, we hear the company recently shrunk its workforce to almost half, with dozens of sackings. There is a new professional team that has been trying to put the company back on track. We hope all this massive restructuring isn’t too destabilising. That would be a shame.