R.D.
Aga Leadership Series
"HOW LEADERS THINK"
Late Mr. Rohinton D. Aga, (erstwhile chairman of the Symbiosis Institute of
Foreign Trade and past CMD of Thermax Ltd.) was duly remembered in the millennium year
under the Leadership
Series. The subject for this year's talk “HOW LEADERS THINK” remained highly
relevant in light of the fast changing Global Scenario. In this much researched upon
subject leaders from
different areas (Technology, Finance, Consultancy, Advertising, Project Engineering,
Consumer products, ICE, computers, infrastructure and four wheelers) addressed the
students of SIFT
spelling out the various nuances of the thinking process of a leader.
The ball was set rolling on 9thOct, 2000 by Mrs. Anu Aga and Mr. Prakash Kulkarni of
Thermax who brought out the value systems of Mr. Aga (demised 16.2.1996) as a leader and
as a person and how Thermax therefore gave prime importance to consumer needs, preserving
the environment and sharing of profits. Mrs. Anu Aga very touchingly related how after a
heart attack and a stroke (resulting in paralysis of one side) Rohinton sat up a whole
night (as a part of physiotherapy) practicising tying a shoe lace and by sheer
determination did it overnight – something which Doctors anticipated 30 days to do.
Mr. C. Jayaram, Director Kotak Mahindra shared his views on different styles of
leadership. He supported his talks by studies of the Management Guru C K Prahlad of the
LBS and Bill Gates to
highlight the need of VISION in the thinking process of a leader.
Mr. Samir Kumar of Planetasia.com made a scintillating start by putting the subject in the
backdrop of the current ICE age and highlighted the importance of technology in the life
of a leader. The understanding of technology and the impending innovations are a must for
a leader today, he said.
Mr. Rajan Divekar - Director of AF Ferguson highlighted the trait of sacrifices by a
leader and the need for empathy with the masses and the ability in a leader to merge the
changing aspirations of followers to that of the organization. During the talk it also
came out as to how USA the most successful (materially) nation of the world has an
emoluments differential of 475 times between a CEO and a shop floor worker as against
about 20 times in the egalitarian society of South Korea.
Mr. Harish Maru from Krupp Industries Ltd. made a very strong case for vision, hard work
and sustained follow up for success in life as a leader.
Mr. Piyush Pandey, creative Director O&M (supported his talk by 24 commercials on
video) and highlighted the need for creativity in a leader. He drew lessons from Field
Marshall Slim’s biography to link it with lessons for advertising and the need for
passion, intellect, and material tools to achieve the aim. He cautioned advertising
CEO’s against the conflict between the
creative man and the supporting staff of a successful Advertising agency.
Mr. Sudhir Awasthi (MD - Godrej Foods) drew upon actions of various leader, (Gandhi,
Buddha, Mandela, Jack Welch) to highlight the ability of leaders to elicit that just last
ounce of energy of a follower to achieve a goal. Referring to labor relations he
outlined how a good CEO could easily make the union and the union leader follow his
bidding in toto.
Mr. Jerry Rao, (Chairman - Mphasis) and erstwhile chief of the City Bank Operations in
South Asia, highlighted the aspect of situational leadership and drew upon the examples of
Churchill,
Lyndon Johnson and Clement Attlee (of the Indian Independence story) to support the affect
of situations on leadership. He effectively brought out the need for creative destruction
by a leader and supported it by various examples not the least of them being Jack
Welch’s closing down the GE’s TV business in front of the Japanese business
onslaught. He mentioned how (interestingly) while being the CEO (leader) of this company
he was also a follower (member) of a committee
headed by one of his deputies. This should now be accepted as a fact of life he quipped.
Mr. Krishna Angara (an old Poona lad and now Senior Executive VP of Shaw Wallace and
company) gave various down to earth examples of leadership activities for a young man to
be a success in life.
Mr. Zarir Batliwala, the legal and HR chief of Compaq computers pitched his talk in the
back drop of the new Economy (which was constituted by Technology, Deregulation and
Globalization of Business) and brought out the need for HR personnel to be proactive and
supportive in their role to meet the imperatives of the new economy. He highlighted how
the normal job contract and office based work will gradually loose its meaning and people
will increasingly like to accept jobs on an assignment basis and possibly work from
domestic workstations.
Mr. P. P. Chhabria - Finolex Industries, took a very different track and related his
life’s tale and spoke on how he he went along making tough decisions in life. He
talked of his days hawking
electric ware after leaving a job of Rs. 30/- per month in 1945. With no education at all
he kept grabbing every available opportunity to take one step ahead. Setting up a small
shop and three years later to start a small scale factory on Karve road which got washed
away in the 1961 Floods, but not before he had shifted his factory to Pimpri. He has by
now a turnover of Rs. 3000 Crores, an Engineering College in Ratnagiri and his Software
training centre at Hinjewadi on the outskirts of Pune.
Mr. Abhay Firodia - Kinetic Engineering, who in his usual forceful style drew upon the
traits of Gandhi in terms of vision, strategy, projects and tactics in achieving the
results. Gandhi had the vision to free India. His strategy was to marshall the masses into
a non violent movement. The project he conceived was the Quit India movement, the salt
agitation, the Dandi march.
Numerous tactics down the line allowed him to attempt aspects like communal harmony and
his pet subject – the upliftment of the Harijans.
During the talk it also emerged as to how you can group leaders in two major categories.
Firstly those at the apex as employees of companies (Chiefs of administration, defence,
TNC’s etc) who
are selected at a young age and rise as employees as long as they perform tasks or conduct
themselves to the satisfaction of their bosses on top, and for whom human beings is just
one resource amongst others such as finance, raw materials, logistics, communications and
hence these were more Managers of resources rather than human leaders. The other category
is the
person who brings into play his personal abilities of motivation and leading through
personal ability and charisma over his followers as happens in case of political leaders,
labour union
leaders or NGO’s. These leaders have to continue to maintain their hold over people
without which they could get dropped. It is this latter leaders who really display the
micro or ground
level ability of leaders to rise above others and should really deserve to be called
leaders if one were to consider motivation as a human phenomenon. Martin Luther King,
Ralph Nader,
Mahatma Gandhi may well better fit into the latter category,
All in all it was a fine week for the SIFTian’s and the guests who took the effort to
attend the talks. The valedictory talk was presided over by Mr. Mohan Katre. The
valedictory address was
given by Dr. Bs Ks Chopra, Director Symbiosis Institute of Foreign Trade.
TOP
