A FERMENTOR OF GOOD RESULTS: Mazumdar-Shaw is leading Biocon's growth in pharmaceuticals and contract research

CONTROLLED CHAOS REIGNS IN and around the office of Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, the cool-headed chairman and managing director of Biocon, a group of biotechnology companies in Bangalore, India. Her sharp but harried assistant, Monica Robinson, runs traffic and keeps her boss on track. Everyone is vying for the chairman's attention. Mazumdar-Shaw has just returned from a trip overseas and is due to leave again in a few days. John Shaw, the Scot whom Mazumdar-Shaw married in 1998 and who now acts as Biocon's director of international business, dashes in and out to consult with her on pressing matters. She finds 40 minutes for an interview with a reporter. She also attends to her mother and agroup of relatives eager to visit the famed corporation. Another caller is a clerk from a Bangalore travel agency who needs a signature for a client. Mazumdar-Shaw serves as the Irish Consul in Bangalore, and she issues the visas. There ...