WHEN HENRY FORD made cheap, reliable cars, people said, ‘Nah, what’s wrong with a horse?’ That was a huge bet he made, and it worked,” Elon Musk, the owner of Tesla, SpaceX, and X, recently said. Ford took a significant risk at the start of the 20th century, and it paid off. Uday Kotak (pictured), who coincidentally had a car financing joint venture with the US carmaker’s financial arm in his initial years, too took risks and successfully challenged established industry leaders to achieve significant success.
In its nearly four-decade journey, the Kotak Group has amassed total assets of ₹6.2 lakh crore, market capitalisation of over ₹3.5 lakh crore and employee strength of nearly 100,000. Kotak’s family was into cotton trading, but he started his journey with a bill-discounting business.…
