Kumar Mangalam Birla: a chartered accountant at the head of a group

A family name and a professional degree

Kumar Mangalam Birla was born on 14 June 1967 in Kolkata, the elder child of Aditya Vikram Birla and Rajashree Birla. Forbes notes that the Birla family's roots in business go back to cotton trading in Rajasthan in 1857.

He studied commerce at the University of Mumbai. Then he chose the long road: he qualified as a chartered accountant with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. Forbes highlights both facts in its profile of him: he is a chartered accountant, and he graduated from London Business School, where he earned an MBA in 1992.

For an heir to a large group, a CA qualification was not strictly necessary. It gave him something a family name cannot: the ability to read every balance sheet in the group himself.

“The spirit of nation building and trusteeship has guided my family across generations. And so, to receive this national honour is indeed humbling.”

— Kumar Mangalam Birla, via The Hindu

Chairman at 28

In 1995 his father, Aditya Vikram Birla, died. Kumar Mangalam Birla, then 28, inherited the leadership of the group.

He did more than hold it together. In the thirty years since, according to the group, its turnover has risen about thirty-three times, to around 67 billion dollars, with operations in 41 countries and about 227,500 employees. He has been the architect of more than sixty acquisitions in India and abroad. The group today leads in sectors from cement and chemicals to metals, textiles, fashion and financial services.

Not every bet paid off. In 2018 his Idea Cellular merged with Vodafone India to form Vodafone Idea, and Forbes records that in 2021 he stepped down as chairman of the debt-laden telecom company. Forbes quotes him describing the group's approach: a last-man-standing philosophy built on discipline.

Rules for corporate India

His training as a CA showed outside the group too. As chairman of the SEBI committee on corporate governance, he framed the first governance code for listed companies in India. The group also notes that he was the first industry nominee on the board of SEBI and served as a director on the Central Board of the Reserve Bank of India.

He has spent much time on education. He is chancellor of BITS Pilani, has chaired the boards of IIT Delhi and, from 2016, IIM Ahmedabad, and serves on the governing board of London Business School.

In March 2023 President Droupadi Murmu conferred the Padma Bhushan on him. In a statement he said he accepted the honour on behalf of his colleagues across the group's companies.

Other honours followed. In 2021 he was the first Indian industrialist to receive the TiE Global Entrepreneurship Award for Business Transformation, and the group notes that he is the only Indian industrialist named Economic Times Business Leader of the Year three times. He describes himself as a firm believer in trusteeship, the idea that wealth is held in trust for society, and the group's welfare work reaches more than eleven million people a year.

The skills and habits that made the difference

The first was earning his own qualifications. A CA and an MBA gave him the financial judgment to evaluate dozens of acquisitions and the confidence to lead people far older than himself.

The second was discipline about money. Acquisitions only work if the numbers behind them are sound, and he has described his group's way as being very disciplined through difficult times.

The third was building rules, not just companies. His corporate governance code for SEBI applies to every listed company in India, not only his own. Good accountants know that trust in the whole system matters as much as any one firm's results.