Ode to a visionary
04 July 1999
On July 4, 1999 the curtain came down on someone who was, unarguably, one of the most revered personalities of the Indian pharmaceutical industry. On this day India lost Parvinder Singh, chairman of Ranbaxy Laboratories and one of Indian industry's foremost visionaries.
The rich tributes that have flowed from almost all corners of Indian industry, including his business rivals, speaks volumes of the Dr Singh's standing in the pharma fraternity. Much has been said and written about the vision and the zeal with which he went about building Ranbaxy, and he leaves behind a truly international company as a befitting testimony to his deeds.
Dr Singh was, perhaps, amongst the first few in this country who encouraged basic research in the pharma industry at a time when the industry norm was to reverse engineer molecules of established brands and rake in the moolah. He was a firm believer in the tenet that knowledge and intellectual property are to be respected, and continuously spurred his R&D team on to discover basic molecules. This shall always be remembered by the pharma industry through Parvosin, a basic molecule his team discovered and so named after him
Dr. Singh completed his doctorate in pharmacy from the University of Michigan. He joined Ranbaxy in 1967 at a time when the company was a very small player in the Indian pharma industry. From the beginning he had great ambitions to take the company to greater heights.
He rose through the ranks in the company before he took over as managing director in 1982. In the 17 years that followed, the company's turnover rose from a meagre Rs. 36 crore to Rs. 1,400 crore. The market capitalisation of the company rose from a miniscule Rs. 3.5 crore to a stupendous Rs. 7,300 crore. This itself speaks volumes of Dr. Singh's unending zeal towards building shareholder value and enhancing returns to investors.
Dr. Singh was also greatly respected for his commitment to corporate ethics and corporate governance. Despite being a family owned company, Ranbaxy's day to day operations were clearly run by the professional management - most of which was hand picked by Dr. Singh himself. This professional team went on to create an Indian MNC where today nearly a sixth of the Ranbaxy family are of non-Indian origin.
