Bharti Axa General Insurance currently has a 3.6% market share among private companies and 1.7% overall.
Under Amarnath's stewardship, the company has grown from Rs 32 crore (gross written premium) in 2009 to Rs 550 crore in 2011.
Flexibility quotient is crucial
When I went to do my PhD in economics from Rutgers University in 1993 and took up teaching as an adjunct faculty of economics, entering the corporate world was far-fetched; more so, the idea of becoming a CEO. The only things I thought about then were research, teaching and publishing papers. That was between 1993 and 1998.
In 1998, the noise about Indian growth was getting louder. Everybody talked about how the country was the future hub of growth for almost every kind of business. And then came an opportunity to join GE Capital in India.
Professional and personal reasons drove me back to the country and I joined GE at 27 years. That was the beginning of a couple of years of learning. I worked across GE's financing business, including M&A, retail insurance, consumer finance, as well as collections operations at Genpact (erstwhile Gecis), spanning 10 countries. I worked towards setting up GE Money India's insurance distribution operations in 2002, which gave me the platform to create a strategic vision for the organisation as well as execute it.
For all that I did, I got the GE Capital India president's award for Outstanding Leadership & Demonstrating GE Values. That gave a huge boost to my confidence and I thought there was something good in store for me in the corporate world.
I took up another challenge and at 38, joined as the CEO and MD of Bharti Axa General Insurance in 2009. Through these years, some of the things I learnt as an academician and then as a corporate executive kept repeating themselves.
First, a good leader should be flexible and receptive to new ideas. Second, a CEO with strong physique and a domineering voice is respected and gets work done unlike in Thailand, where tall and dominating personalities are intimidating.
You have to change accordingly, and become a part of the environment that you are in, to be successful.
"I see little reason to delay giving when so much good can be achieved through supporting worthwhile causes today."
“People used to ask me how I got my jollies, and I guess I’m happy when
what I’m doing is helping people and unhappy when what I’m doing isn’t
helping people.”
Feeny's idea is "Giving while Living" has inspired many others including Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.
"Giving while dead, you don't feel anything"
What makes Feeney's story unusual is not just the fact that he decided to donate his entire wealth, which itself is extraordinary but how despite his billions made frugality the hallmark of his life. He never owned a house. He lives in his foundation owned Apartment in San Francisco. No luxury timepieces for his. He wears a casio rubber watch. He dresses shabbily and carries his papers in a shopping or plastic bag. If his glasses break, he takes them over to be fixed.
Feeney could afford to live like an emperor, yet he owns no property,
flies economy class, dresses off-the-peg and wears a $15 plastic watch.
Feeney's friend Niall O'Dowd, who has know Feeney for more than 25 years, didn't know Feeney was rich until he was featured in Forbes magazine as one of the richest men in the world. Dowd wrote in his blog that Feeney acted poor. His insights were incredible.
He lavishes hundreds of millions of dollars on universities
and
hospitals but won’t allow even a small plaque identifying him as a
donor. “We just didn’t want to be blowing our horn,” he explains in a
rare interview at his daughter’s Upper East Side apartment.
He funded reconciliation in Northern Ireland and South Africa. He
helped cure disease in Vietnam. He’s fought for better education and
health care in the United States. He’s given more than $350 million to
Cornell, his alma mater. And he’s been a mentor to countless
philanthropists in recent years who want to learn how to be more
effective charitable givers.
As of July 2013, 113 individual billionaires and couples have singed
what is now known as "The Giving Pledge", a promise to give half their
fortunes to charity. The first 40 donors alone pledged a combine $120
billion in donations. Over the next 20-30 years, that amount could grow
by an additional $100-$200 billion!
Feeney, an Irish-American with dual citizenship, was born in New Jersey during the Great Depression and came from a modest background of blue collar Irish-American parents in Elizabeth, New Jersey, USA.
Feeney first showed a propensity for business at the age of 10, when he sold Christmas cards door-to-door.
He served as a U.S. Air Force radio operator during the Korean War, and began his career selling duty-free liquor to US Naval personnel at Mediterranean ports in the 1950s.
He graduated from the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration. In 2010 he received the Cornell Icon of Industry Award.
In 2012, in an historic event, all the universities of Ireland, North
and South, jointly conferred an Honorary Doctorate of Laws on Feeney. During the year, he also received the Republic of Ireland’s Presidential Distinguished Service Award for Irish Abroad,and the UCSF Medal for outstanding personal contributions to the University of California, San Francisco’s health science mission.
Feeney has four daughters and one son. Two of the daughters are Diane V.
Feeney and Leslie D. Feeney Baily. He married twice. His first wife,
Danielle, from France, retained 100 million USD and a number of mansions
and apartments after their 1990 separation and subsequent divorce.. His second wife is named Helga.
