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R.D. Aga Leadership Series
Creating future Leaders
“HOW LEADERS THINK “ 9th Oct – 14th Oct, 2000
The Rohinton D. Aga is (an erstwhile chairman of the SYMBIOSIS INSTITUTE OF FOREIGN TRADE [SIFT] and late CMD of Thermax Ltd.) memory was revived in the millenium year by a series of talks organised by SIFT on the subject of “HOW LEADERS THINK”. 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 (under the chairmanship of Mr. Sharad. S. Marathe) 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) practising 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, supported his talks by studies of C K Prahlad and leaders like Bill Gates to highlight the need of VISION in the thinking process of a leader. Mr. Samir Kumar of Planetasia 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 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 organisation. 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, hardwork 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 labour 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 Globalisation 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.
On the last day 14th Oct’2000 Mr. P. P. Chhabria took a different tack and instead of talking about leadership decided to relate his life’s tale and how he thought as he went along. He talked of his days hawking electricware 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.
The last talk was by Mr. Abhay Firodia 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 2 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 (former
chief - CBI). The valedictory address was given by Dr. Bs Ks Chopra, the
Director of the Institute.
