Lee Iacocca, former president of Ford Motors and one of the icons of American business, had once famously remarked: “The most successful businessman is the man who holds on to the old as long as it is good, and grabs the new as soon as it is better.” B.K. Garodia, chairman of Barak Valley Cements, is an example Iacocca may well have used to illustrate his observation.

Garodia started his career manufacturing wire fences, graduated to supplying veneer plywood, diversified into cement and is into developing power and biomass fuel today. His story begins in the industrial district of Tinsukia in northern Assam.

“I did my schooling in Tinsukia’s Hindi English High School and graduated in commerce from Guwahati Commerce College,” says he. His father was a manufacturer of cane baskets and it was assumed that the son would continue the tradition. But Garodia Jr had other plans. While studying for his graduation, he had worked as an accounts assistant in a company that manufactured wire fences. “I had an opportunity to observe the various processes in all the departments of the factory,” he says. “I decided that the fencing business had great potential where I was based.”

After his graduation in 1979, Garodia headed back home to set up his business in wire fencing. His father was more than supportive and chipped in with Rs 12,000 as a start-up fund along with some land. His business turned out to be so successful that, in three years, he was one of the leading manufacturers of fences in the northeastern region. In 1983, he also began constructing steel bridges for the Arunachal Pradesh government.

In 1987, Garodia identified the increasing demand for veneer in the country as an area with potential. By 1993, he had started six plywood factories in various centres in the northeast. He would have gladly remained in that industry for some more time, had it not been for a Supreme Court order in 1996. “The Supreme Court passed an order prohibiting all plywood industries from carrying out lumbering operations owing to environmental concerns,” Garodia says.

According to him, this was a very difficult period. Because of the court’s order, all factories (including his own) had to pay the workers wages for nearly a year without any production.

But, Garodia had been proactive. He had already begun looking at the cement industry. Says he, “I had sensed that wood-based industries were going to face some problems. So I had begun to investigate the cement market.”

In 2000, Garodia set up the first cement factory in Silchar. The research paid off and the company is planning to tap the capital market with an initial public offering (IPO) soon. In 2005, Garodia started Prithvi Energy, a company involved in the generation of power. This company is now slated to set up a 300MW plant in Nagpur and Maharashtra. Says Garodia, “After the plywood industry went bust, I learnt never to put all my eggs in one basket. Hence this diversification.”

Garodia has a facet beyond that of a successful businessman. All his life, he has been a good corporate citizen and a philanthropist. “I have always had the urge to do something for the backward classes and my first area of focus has been education,” says he. His company has started a Vivekananda School for the children of its workers. The company has also started a biomass fuel plant using betel-nut leaves and other organic waste. The power generated thus is shared with the local grid and is used for captive consumption.

The northeast has little by way of opportunity areas for its youth. There is a tendency to migrate to other parts of the country to get jobs. In order to at least provide information about the possibilities, Garodia has started a ‘Return to the Valley’ quiz programme. This is now one of the most popular events amongst schoolchildren in the region.

In between all these, Garodia finds time to play badminton and take short vacations in forest areas. It has been a long journey for the accounts assistant who has built a Rs 250 crore conglomerate. Today, he employs several professionals to run the company, but there is still a huge difference. “They have done their MBA in two years, while I have taken more than 20 years to learn the same principles and apply them to my businesses,” he says.

No one doubts who is the wiser.

Based on a conversation with Aparna Harish in Calcutta