R Gopalakrishnan prepares to hang up his boots at Bombay House

In his early days at Tata Sons, R Gopalakrishnan (52 then) had problems fitting in. In 1998, the then vice-chairman of Hindustan Lever (HLL), the Indian arm of foods multinational Unilever, had moved to Tata Sons as executive director (HLL became Hindustan Unilever or HUL in 2007).

The Tata Sons office at Bombay House was just a 15-minute walk from the headquarters of HLL near Churchgate but, inside, they were probably a world apart. As a Lever honcho, with few hangups, Gopalakrishnan took his time to understand the culture at Tatas — an Indian employer where the founding father was revered.