For Rajat Gupta, Returning Is a Hard Road<br />Since his release from prison, Mr. Gupta has been providing consulting services, mostly in India, for Purnendu C. Chatterjee,<br />a wealthy entrepreneur who knows Mr. Gupta from their early days at McKinsey when there were few South Asians at the firm.<br />“There was a greater investment of respect and trust in the man, so they were the ones who felt a sense of deep betrayal.” By<br />contrast, he noted, “the people who welcomed him with open arms in India had benefited more from him than he from them.”<br />Now, Mr. Gupta cannot get his former firm, McKinsey, which he led for nine years, to even acknowledge him.<br />A few months ago, Herbert Henzler, a former colleague of Mr. Gupta’s at McKinsey, pushed to have Mr. Gupta<br />invited to the triennial meeting in Boston in June of the firm’s retired and former senior partners.<br />Counselage’s Mr. Seth, who was invited to the party, said<br />that when he told Mr. Gupta that he had dented India’s brand, Mr. Gupta didn’t argue with that assessment.<br />“I don’t know of any other Indian — underscore any — who has done more for India than he has,”<br />Mr. Singh said recently, in explaining the affection Indians hold toward Mr. Gupta.<br />Mr. Gupta, the former global head of consulting giant McKinsey & Company, became<br />a pariah among many of the corporate chieftains who once craved his counsel.
