A perfect storybook example of American
dream, Rajat Gupta crafted his illustrious journey in global
corporate world by sheer endeavor and meritocracy, and he was the
first Indian to be the CEO of McKinsey and Company at a time
when heading a global MNC by any Indian was literally unheard of.
With his meteoric success stories Rajat Gupta became an epitome of
corporate hero who despite being orphaned at 18 earned degrees from
elite institutes such as IIT and Harvard and joined McKinsey in early
70's. Since then he never looked back. Mr Gupta also became the board
members of global corporate giants like McKinsey, Goldman Sachs,
Proctor and Gamble, and AMR. But one fine day his understanding of
ethics on corporate governance got blurred and he divulged insider
information of Goldman Sachs board meeting to his friend and business
partner Raj Rajaratnam, founder of Galleon Group. And the rest is an
open book of trials and tribulations that he yearned from pumping out
his affinity for greed.
Sometimes, I wonder why these demi-gods
of society fall prey to mundane traps? Few more million bucks, more
greed, and what not? Is that a gold standard of life that drives us
crazy to do the unthinkable? Mr Gupta may be a brilliant Wall Street
executive who has garnered both puffs and prestige for his
meritocracy, but as a lesser mortal, he is no different than an
ordinary criminal who springs into unlawful action by the trigger of
a small bait. Why I am becoming a little harsher here is that today I
just listened into the wiretap
of FBI and the evidence against him for passing inside
information is unmistakeably overwhelming. As a trusted board member
of Goldman and Sachs he has breached the fundamental code of ethics.
What it evokes now as how he could able to rise and rise for over
three decades without any hurdle and the secret here is his dirty
networking skills that propelled his tempo of corporate journey. For
all his magical networking skills and relations with high and mighty
in the corporate world and beyond he reached the acme, but the nadir
was not far behind.
When FBI tapped the suspicious
conversations between him and Rajaratnam, his facade broke into
pieces like a piece of glass. Although Gupta was not directly
involved in the trading in which Rajaratnam heaped one million
profit; nevertheless, the modus operandi was more than suspicious. As
a responsible corporate citizen he established a bad precedent, which
is unforgivable. But here is a contrast, when Gupta was convicted for
his crime on last Friday (June 15, 2012), another Indian-American
Preet Bharara, the US Attorney in Manhattan, was the man who probed
into this insider trading crime and stood unperturbed by the stellar
image of Gupta. And the pointed difference is a matter of honesty and
integrity, not the mundane achievements.
