Farewell my dear friend Siddhartha
I was finally able to reread this eulogy written by Ashok Soota in memory of V.G. Siddharta.This paragraph struck me as so poignant, “When I asked Siddhartha why he had turned his back on a strategic sale, he said that many of the founders were young and had a career path ahead of them. The more senior founders may never get another job. This was the empathy behind his decision."
Poignant because the founders Siddharta spoke for then, turned their backs on him when mounting debts made him sell his stake in Mindtree to L&T. Those founders especially the man who gave himself the title of “Gardener”, didn't really care in return. Sure, Siddhart’s CCD did get sole rights to spply coffee rights to all Mindtree’s offices but surely that did not justify the stupidity that Bagchi and his marketing team displayed in the run up to the L&T buyout of Siddharta's stake. Rember how Bagchi went positively Bollywood and dialed up the drama then?
Employees were also emotionally manipulated to tweet in solidarity against L&T And Karthik Srinivasan of Ogilvy was not wrong here when he said, "I'm assuming the internal teams (HR) is perhaps asking employees to tweet”. Unfortunately, some young employees got too carried away and their vitriol for L&T on social media did nothing to help Mindtree’s case. And despite all the founder’s shenanigans, L&T took over MIndtree, the founders were all kicked out and today everyone who begrudged Siddharta's decision to sell seems to be leaving too. Maybe there is justice beyond the grave.
Ashok Soota's article is important because it was published when no one wanted to even acknowledge an association with Siddharta - that a man as respected as Ashok Soota called out his friendship and admiration for Siddharta is a great example of what it means to be loyal. N.S. Parthasarathy another one of the founders also remembered Siddharta.
Contrast this with the “Gardener” Bagchi’s, KK Natarajan and Rustow Ravanan’s tweets from that day of Siddharta's death, it was BAU for these men - one of whom would write glowing essays on Siddharta and his work ethic earlier. These guys who understood PR etc, could not bring themselves to condole the death of a man who stood by them in tough times.
