K. Giriprakash, the author of this great
novel, which is no less than an epic sis the Chief of Bureau of The Hindu
Business Line. He has been tracing Kingfisher for long fifteen years and has
come out with his chronicle over Mallyas.
The book ‘The Vijay Mallya Story’ is an extraordinarily
comprehensive and a vivacious chronicle of the life of one of most prominent
and celebrated businessmen, The Vijay Mallya. The book has veiled the life span
of this prominent personality along with that it showcases his amazing career spans
three decades and is spread across multiple industries.The book covers childhood
of Vijya Mallya’s childhood, his relationship with his father and his innate
deal making capabilities. It tracks his spectacular rise with Kingfisher and
how the airline led to his downfall.
K. Giriprakash has closely observed the career of Vijay Mallya over the last
two decades, which has provided him with a unique advantage to draw an
extraordinary portrayal of a this great personality who has fascinated every
other man in the country.
Vijay Mallya, an industrialist, owner of
I-League Team: East Bengal and Mohun Bagan A.C. and owner of IPL Team: Royal
Challengers Banglore, a member of
India’s parliament. He has many successful
ventures in his hat. The book narrated by K. Giriprakash accounts an
interesting and captivating phase of life of this King of Good Times. The
author has well researched about his subject, which is no less than a business
tycoon. The author has also described in detail the consequences which led
Mallya’s company to failure as he bought bought Air Deccan with his eyes
closed. His team never went through the books of the loss making Air Deccan
before Mallya agreed to buy it for a total consideration of Rs 1000 crore in
2007. At least that is what the book, called "The Vijay Mallya
story" suggests.
The book further states that Kingfisher was
a gift to son Siddharth Mallya on his eighteenth birthday on May 7, 2005. And
no one - not even the lenders, who were dubious, not other airline veterans nor
close associates - would persuade against Mallya senior from taking the thrust.The
book also has some hilarious illustrations, some of which expose appalling woolgathering
and negligence to details. There is also the incorporation of the reasons which
show why Vijay Mallya was never going to succeed in the airline business. In
this book Giriprakash tries to sketch the man called Mallya. Mallya's most daring
and also the most blunder-some venture has been Kingfisher Airlines, which
stopped flying in 2012, with huge debts to banks, months of outstanding salary
to employees and scarce hope of the airline ever bracing. Now, even the there
was a time when Kingfisher Airlines reminded the toast of wealthy Indians who
found never-before quality of service and class with the airline. Now, it only
reminds one of unpaid employees, some of the largest Indian banks clueless
about how to recover their moolah and an airline which has become redundant.
Was Mallya the only one who did blunder and
took Kingfisher Airlines down? Or was the aviation business, with its huge
overheads, thin margins and heavy Government taxation anyway a recipe for
disaster? Did his buying action dilapidated Deccan Aviation prove to be the
last nail in the Kingfisher coffin? Giriprakash has narrated many illustrations
of how the airline was actually started on a whim, why and how it began to
falter along the way, even as its service levels remained high and why it
finally had to shut down.
Before reading this book have a look at memorable
snippets from the book:
**
Air hostesses delayed meals, not all passengers on a flight got to eat!
By 2010, apart from other problems,
caterers were unwilling to supply meals on some flights because of non-payment
by Kingfisher. "They supplied fewer food packets, which meant that
not all passengers got meals, especially during late evening flights. On such
occasions, the passengers had demanded that the pilot gives them an explanation
in person. The air hostesses were trying their best to manage the situation. On
some occasions, they would deliberately delay serving the meals so that not all
passengers got them".
**
Mallya did not check Air Deccan's books before buying!
"Gopinath told a reporter later that
what impressed him about Mallya was how badly he wanted the airline and how
swiftly he had moved to bag the deal. When some reporter asked him whether that
meant the deal had been made without any due diligence or checking the balance
sheet, Captain Gopinath replied that it was true that during the negotiations,
neither Mallya nor his officials ever asked to examine the books. They took
Captain Gopinath's assurances at face value because they were eager to go
through with the deal".
**
Not just Mallya, even SBI did no due diligence before lending!
"In order to meet huge expenses which
the airline incurred for paying high salaries and building swanky offices,
Mallya had started borrowing from several banks (including the government owned
State Bank of India), some of which extended the loan without adequate
collateral. It looked as if some of the banks had extended loan to the airline
based on Mallya's popularity and charisma rather than the real worth of the
airline. When the airline started defaulting on repayment, some of the banks
had very little as collateral to fall back upon".
To conclude, Giriprakash points out the
obvious reasons about Mallya had everyone rooting for him when he began
Kingfisher, ultimately squandered away this immense goodwill. The author says:
1) Mallya should have had a professional
CEO running the airline instead of taking all decisions himself (CEO was first
appointed only in late 2010)
2) What further alienated him from his
friends in the corporate sector as well as political circles was a display of
wealth when hundreds of Kingfisher employees had not been paid salaries for
months Both these criticisms seem justified.
Get this book and unravel the life story of
this prominent personality who, after gathering much goodwill, has squandered
away all due to his negligence and blunders he made in his career span that led
to his venture’s downfall. Avaliable at lelobooks, leading online bookstore in
India and also avail attractive discounts. Buy books online and get them at your
doorstep.
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