Venugopal started his business with a tiny capital, but over time his business grew in leaps and bounds.After thirty years, his group of companies came to be referred to as Venugopal group by the financial media at the national level.
Venugopal had a 'weakness.' He chose to be honest and transparent in his business dealings. He refused to bribe government officials for getting permissions and clearances relating to his business. He never bought or sold anything without proper invoicing. He made no attempt to evade taxes using loopholes in the tax laws.
Because of following this policy, Venugopal had to forego several promising business opportunities. But his approach of choosing business opportunities with high potential for business growth and high profits and starting with a small investment and achieving high growth by sticking to quality standards in the products and services offered by him made him succeed in his ventures.
After growing to a certain level, he was in a position to command services from government agencies for getting the approvals and licenses needed for his business, without greasing the palm of any government official.
Venugopal planned to set up a chemical industry with foreign collaboration. The European firm which agreed to provide the technology for his venture had a reputation at international level.
Since the investment required for this project was quite high, Venugopal needed a partner to partly finance the venture. Gokul Varma. a big industrialist agreed to partner with him in this venture.
They needed to get approval from the government for the foreign collaboration. The minister who was empowered to grant the approval demanded a huge sum as bribe for granting the approval.
Venugopal, in keeping with is policy, refused to give the bribe demanded by the minister.
Gokul Varma told Venugopal that he would pay the bribe. "You won't have to compromise your principles. I will pay the bribe from my own resources. I will recover this amount from my share of the profit after we start operating" he told Venugopal.
Venugopal didn't agree. "Whether the bribe is given by you or me, it is given for getting our project approved. How can I agree to this?" he said.
Because of Venugopal's uncompromising stand, the project had to be abandoned even at the initial stage.
After a few months, Gokul Varma implemented that project in another state in collaboration with the same foreign company. How he would have got the government approval for the project was no secret in the business circles.
This development was a big disappointment for Venugopal. It was a dream project for him. If he had succeeded in implementing it, his reputation would have gone up very high at the national level.
Venugopal was in his eightieth year. It was fifty years since he had started his first business venture. In the twenty years after his aborted business venture, he had been growing, crossing new milestones. But the pain of his failed venture was still lingering in his mind. Sometimes he would wonder whether his adamancy in sticking to his principles was a mistake.
Venugopal received a phone call from the Industries Secretary. The Secretary informed Venugopal that ten industrialists of India had been chosen to interact with the American President during his visit to India next month and that Venugopal was one among them.
Venugopal found it exciting that though there were many industrialists in the country who were taller than him in stature, he was among the chosen few.
The secretary also told him who the other nine industrialists were. Gokul Varma's name was not in the list.
Venugopal came to know later that Gokul Varma was under the lens of some investigating agencies for some irregularities committed by him.
ThirukkuRaL
Section 1
The Path of Virtue
Chapter 4
Stressing the Power of Virtue
siRappu Inum selvamum Inum aRaththinUngu
Akkam evanO uyirkku.
Meaning:
It yields distinction, yields prosperity; what gain greater than virtue can a living man obtain?
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