?Vaghul had the passion. He also had the complete backing from the entire ICICI set-up. Everyone knew that an independent rating agency not only improved risk assessment, it also enhanced the quality of papers which institutions hold. Since we could not forge an international collaboration at that time, we built a homemade ratings agency.? These are the words of HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh, etched towards the beginning of Doing What is Right: The CRISIL Story. Twenty-five years since its inception, India’s first credit ratings agency, CRISIL, today stands as a R8-billion global analytical company with research centres in Argentina, China, Poland, the US and UK. But back in early 1987, it was just an idea, or rather a dream. It was established by bankers Narayanan Vaghul (then with ICICI) and Pradip Shah (then with HDFC) ?as a response to an industry need for building institutions that would be critical to developing a bond market in India?. In just over 130 pages, Doing What is Right: The CRISIL Story by Hemanth Gorur and Sumit Chowdhury chronicles the last two and a half decades of CRISIL, juxtaposing it with the sea change in the Indian economy and market post-liberalisation. CRISIL, in fact, established its reputation during the throes of the first major wave of economic reforms during the early and mid-1990s. Late 1980s was a time when global ratings agencies were plain reluctant to enter India, so it comes as a vindication of CRISIL?s performance over the years that in 2005, S&P acquired the majority stake in CRISIL. But in spite of that acquisition, CRISIL has maintained its individual standing and brand, if one may call it that, in the market.
Even in revenue terms, CRISIL has quite a bit to write home about. Closing 2011 with over R8 billion in revenues, it grew at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 32% over the last decade, with over R2 billion in profits after tax growing at a CAGR of 33% over a similar time frame.
Through this book, the company takes pride in its reputation of being fiercely independent and non-aligned?be it the laurels showered on it by industry leaders or highlighting, and even gloating on, incidents with major business houses and even the government being at loggerheads with CRISIL. It?s a breezy read, which without getting into the complexities that are otherwise associated with the nature of CRISIL?s work, gives the reader a fair sense of the company?s genesis and its journey. Written in a simple narrative style, the book also seeks to project that it possesses literary merit. Well, it does to an extent but the effort to keep it short and sweet at times seems overbearing. Perhaps going a little more into the CRISIL story wouldn?t have harmed. There?s a lingering feeling after reading the book that it ended about 50 pages too short. And by that one doesn?t mean that the reader holds an appetite for the complex, but in a more detailed account. It is a decent read still, and your business literature shelf would do good with a copy. But the hurried narrative, one may stress again, doesn?t do justice to what this book seeks to tell?the CRISIL story.
