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Industry captains recount nuances of leadership

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI DEC. 5. It may be a truism that leadership means inspiring, motivating, empowering and trusting people, or that it involves both vision and emotion but a sprinkling of leaders of manufacturing industry in India, while emphasising these basics, came out with their own special nuances today.

For Venu Srinivasan of the TVS Motor Company, with its globally recognised leadership in quality, the most difficult part of "leadership in changing times" — the theme of the seminar organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry-Southern Region (CII-SR) — is for the CEO to start changing himself first as an exemplar.

"When you try to change yourself, you will know how difficult a process it is, and thus how much more it will take to change others," he said.

The objectives of setting new goals and vision for the organisation would require sharing of information, transparency and fact-based problem solving, understanding how other people are "wired differently in their brain" and thus required to be argued with and convinced.

Often, such exchange of views resulted in a solution that was a synthesis of differing views and more relevant to the problem concerned.

The classic Japanese processes of implementing a new vision, which might take upward of seven years, could be compressed with the help of published texts and theses in view of the competitive pressures and fast changes in the environment.

The leader would have to create his own paradigm and not just bank on any model like the Toyota production system. Use of consultants more as `mentors' than as people commissioned to deliver solutions directly, humility, awareness of the `dangers of playing god' and `faith in a greater being that will lend spiritual sustenance' are among other tools that Mr. Venu Srinivasan listed for enabling the leader to preserve the core values of the organisation amidst the ebbs and tides of the market place.

"It is like playing football — the goal posts are clear, with non-competing, non-hierarchical structures playing their own part with individual excellence and at the same time as a team," he observed.

V. Sumantran (Executive Director, Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company) said leadership involved tapping the loyalty to the company and pride in belonging to it, prevailing among employees, as a valuable resource in implementing a renewed vision for the organisation as demanded by the changing environment.

"The spirit of the horse that is manifested in the last mile in the race" was successfully used by his company to overcome its first serious crisis and fashion and make a success of a pioneering indigenous car, Mr. Sumantran said.

Sulajia Firodia Motwani (JMD, Kinetic Engineering), representing a younger generation of managers from promoter families, felt that a fundamental requirement of a leader was "sense of purpose within you, much deeper than mission or even vision".

The corporate chief's task was like `leading an orchestra,' she said, highlighting how Kinetic boldly adopted a new strategy and product mix to break out of the limitations imposed by its joint venture partnership and became one of the first Indian companies to buy out its foreign partner.

Exposure to the business culture in the U.S. had personally helped her in playing a positive role at Kinetic at a time when India was entering the era of competition for the first time, she added.

David Friedman (MD, Ford India) said MNCs entering India in view of its many well-known positives, had to contend with negatives such as resistance to economic progress, modernisation and competition, excessive regulation, governance issues and corruption.

MNCs like Ford responded with product modifications to suit Indian conditions, refusal to connive at corruption, observance of global standards on labour and environment and attention to quality without expectation of a premium price by cutting costs.

For Hocine Sidi Said (MD, Pfizer India), leadership in the drug industry meant especially leadership at the level of the `district manager'. Pfizer expected from this cadre capacity to take decisions ("you are allowed to make mistakes, but not the same mistake twice"), willingness to fire employees lacking in integrity (as distinct from lack of performance), respect for diversity, capacity to choose the right team and courageous and candid feedback, according to Mr. Said.

Summing up the presentations, Arun Maira, Chairman, Boston Consulting Group, said good leadership in these times should be able to create "fast-learning organisations".

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