The Leadership Review

I N A U G U R A L

TLR

I S S U E

The Leadership Review

Volume 1, Issue 1, June 2010

The Leadership Review

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Editorial

TLR

Editorial

Leadership.

What is it?

We might as well ask the other questions too – Where, When, How and most of all, Why?

These are vast questions.

The very attempt to define, to assign parameters, shows the

ever mutating quality of Leadership.

R. Rajeshwar Upadhyaya Editor-in-Chief

Leadership is thus not a question to be answered but a paradigm to be explored.

This Review is dedicated to celebrating Leadership in any form that it manifests, from anywhere in the world, at any time that humans have needed it.

The Leadership Review is an attempt to communicate the myriad flavors and infinite variations of the Leadership theme. Or perhaps that should be ‘Meme’‐ for leadership has

become an independent psycho‐cultural unit of social memory and transmission. It s

ubiquitous popularity underscores its desperate need in a world increasingly fragmented and complex, yet forced into a technological and civilization unity that simply has no precedent in

all history. Leadership becomes a vital imperative, and we cannot afford to neglect any form

of it.

The Review, therefore chooses creative relevance over strict thematic unity or design considerations in what content is included each issue. There is only one rule. It must have

relevance to one or more of the many aspects of Leadership.

This could be news items. They could be startling facts or events. Reviews of books and films and ancient texts will again follow this self‐imposed empowering limitation of leadership

relevance.

The Leadership Review will attempt to creatively engage in this most fascinating of topics.

It will stretch or challenge assumptions, but not for their own sake, however

interesting that may be. We have a soft spot for bottom of the pyramid stories, people who

pull off creative accomplishments with little resources but lots of intelligence, pluck and self belief. Unusual incidents or actions by prominent people which could teach profitable

Leadership lessons are included.

At present the Review is targeted at South Asia. The future is open. To enhance the human knowledge of the manager and the professional, no matter their field; to be aware of

large global or local wisdom traditions; to encourage the rise of independent, original and

authentic leadership from the area instead of settling for derivative models, these are some of our goals. The Review is a beginning, a work in progress, an organically evolving being.

Welcome and join in the quest of Leadership.

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Contents

TLR Vol. 1 Issue. 1, June 2010

Editor-in-Chief R. Rajeshwar Upadhyaya

Editor-at-Large

Leadership from Sports 3

A Tribute to the Thinker 6

Woods as the [semi]tragic Hero

C. K Prahalad

When a man achieves superhuman excellence he also tempts destiny –and he fails spectacularly.

What characterized his thinking was clarity.

Rohit Pillai

Emerging Economy 8

The TLR Team

Ajay Kumar

South Africa

Failed

Priyanka Priyadarshi

Monish Maitra

610, Cosmos, Sector 11, CBD Belapur,

Navi Mumbai 400 614, India.

Phone: +91‐22‐2757 8760

Fax: +91‐22‐2757 8861

E‐mail: contact@parexcellence.org

Web: www.parexcellence.org

Industry Focus 18

Sachin Tendulkar

Retail Industry

Class transcends Age.

Bottom of the Pyramid 21

Progressive Leadership 22

The Solar Powered Priest of Patna

How Arafat dismantled Black September Love and family as a tool of Leadership – it cures terrorists! No, really.

Par Excellence Leadership Solutions Pvt. Ltd.

How the world’s most reliable car‐ maker goofed up ‐ and lied about it.

Indian of the Quarter 16

The Fall from Grace of TOYOTA

Its economy had been in an upward phase of the business cycle since September 1999 to last quarter of 2007‐ the longest period of economic expansion in the country's recorded history.

Sharad Mathur

Ideas That Worked/ 13

From a long ago … and 24

The Good Enough 25

another time

Approach

Yaksha Parshna

Book Review 28

Ponder This! 30

Changing Tracks: Reinventing the Spirit of Indian Railways

An on‐going series of thought‐ provoking quotations from the best of human thought...

Note: The Leadership Review (TLR) is for private circulation only.

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Leadership from Sports

Tiger Woods and the Fatal Flaw of Greatness

Woods as the [semi]tragic Hero

R. Rajeshwar Upadhyaya

In the November of 2009, Tiger Woods had just become the first billionaire sportsman in history. He was acknowledged as perhaps the greatest golfer of all time.

Tiger was the face of excellence transcending race and class; ability, talent and determination had taken him to

the pinnacle. He was golden. A beautiful wife, two adorable little children, sponsors paying out as much as

100 million a year and universal respect as a good if boring flaw seemed to be a habit of cursing and guy. His only tossing his clubs when he flubbed his shots, but people forgave it as a by‐product of his shots, but people forgave

it as a by‐product of his determination to excel. {Not all.

Some sportswriters had begun muttering about the bad

example he was setting but these were minor dissonances in anthems of praise.} Golf Digest announced that their December 2009 issue would feature Tiger and President Obama with the lead article to be “10 tips Obama can take from Tiger.” Never has a sportsperson reached such an

apex of eminence.

The problem with reaching the top is that there is only down from then on. On November 27 2009, Tiger smashed his car into a fire hydrant outside his home in the early hours, while apparently fleeing from his angry wife. He did not know it but he had just crashed into rock bottom. And he did not know this either: he was playing out a very ancient pattern known to the classical world of Greece and Rome ‐ the Fall of the Hero. When a man achieves superhuman excellence he also attracts the jealousy of the gods –and he fails spectacularly. But, and this is where classical cultures were perceptive, he fails for the very reasons he succeeds!

He fails because of his success, for inherent in the qualities that cause a man to soar and triumph, are also the flaws that will destroy him. That is called Hamartia.

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Leadership from Sports In Woods’ case his wife had just discovered he was cheating on her. Soon a shocked world discovered that

the supposedly doting family man preferred infidelity and sexual promiscuity to an appalling degree. Not everybody

may see how his success and such behavior were linked.

We shall try to make the connection.

Tiger Woods was successful by creating his own

sense of reality. He projected an air of invulnerability that demoralized opponents. It brought him back to win from

the brink of failure on many occasions. His superhuman

competence gave him absolute self belief. Regrettably, it also fed a sense of entitlement and arrogance. He was the

great, the supreme Tiger Woods. Lesser men had to play by social rules and public expectations. He could do what

he wanted. In his 13 and a half minute televised apology

Tiger expressly admits this.

In other words, I thought I could live my personal life as I win on the golf course. It is because he never thought of himself as normal, as ordinary that he became such a force. This alas is Hubris, overwhelming pride at one’s success, which activates Hamartia, also defined as the mistaken event –texting on a phone accessible to his wife‐ the error of judgment that follows the flaw of personality. He never really thought he would get caught, just as he never really thinks he can be beaten.

Hubris leads the Hero to break moral laws, try futilely to transcend social limitations, to ignore scruples with dire results. Epic literature understood that the Hero may begin with self‐esteem but may fatally over‐reach his stature in thinking exclusively of one’s greatness.

“I stopped living by the core values that I was taught to believe in. I knew my actions were wrong, but I convinced myself that normal rules didn't apply. I never thought about who I was hurting. Instead, I thought only

about myself. I ran straight through the boundaries that a married couple should live by. I thought I could get away

with whatever I wanted to. I felt that I had worked hard my entire life and deserved to enjoy all the temptations around me. I felt I was entitled. Thanks to money and

fame, I didn't have to go far to find them.”

Normal rules didn’t apply. Never thought of who I was hurting. Only thought of myself. Ran straight through the boundaries. Get away with whatever I wanted to. And so on…

“The tragic hero's hamartia is an accident of his excellence: his purposes and energy make him susceptible to a kind of waywardness that arises from his character" said Henry M Alley in his critique of The Picture of Dorian Grey.

Tiger did so and now his projected world of perfection has crumbled. Still he is admirable. Nobody famous and caught out has been so excruciatingly honest that they were jerks.

The point is that some such thing was inevitable.

Only psychologically ripe people escape such a turn in their life Tiger’s life has been limited to getting good at golf and then making money off it. All other aspects of the psyche seemed irrelevant. “That which we don’t bring to consciousness is experienced as Fate,” warned Carl Gustav Jung. It is the consequent indulgence and perceived hypocrisy that is being punished severely, not least in sponsors fleeing. Woods has not done anything criminal. Society yet found his behavior inexcusable at an ethical level. But hamartia still holds Woods, he still wants to be loved as in the past, {his charity foundations have helped millions, he carefully and irrelevantly pointed out} and continue to rake it in. For all his contrition, there is considerable anger, especially at the press who have derailed his gravy train.

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Leadership from Sports He is a very determined person and maybe he can From a cynical view it would seem that this change. If he does, perhaps we will see a vulnerable apology and entering treatment for ‘sex addiction’, which

Woods on the courses of the world, which will be good is not medically recognized as an actual disease, is an news only for his opponents. One shouldn’t bet on it. attempt to repair the damage and ensure that the 100 Nobody can be psychologically inconsistent and the million a year endorsement stream continues to flow. It is advice of his friend Donald Trump – write off the

what he does, who he is, and it is understandable, but marriage as a mistake, win more tournaments and both his reputation and his privacy are gone for a long become an unabashed playboy ‐ is both surprisingly time‐ which Woods does not seem to grasp fully as yet. astute and a gentle confirmation of that truth. Even a In one matter however Woods is different from billion dollars is not armor enough for blundering; the classical hero. He may get a second chance. nothing saves you from yourself in the end.

Noted economist Nancy Birdsall, president of the Center for Global Development, has proposed a new definition of the middle class for developing countries in a forthcoming World Bank publication, Equity in a Globalizing World. Birdsall defines the middle class in the developing world as people with an income above $10 per day. This excludes the top 5% of that country. Assuming an exchange rate of Rs. 42 to a Dollar means a monthly income of Rs. 12,600. This automatically places the person in the top 5% of India. Thus by this definition ‐

India has no middle class.

When BPL – Below Poverty Line, is calculated at earning less than Rs.12 a day, this makes horrifying sense!

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A Tribute to the Thinker

C. K. Prahalad August 8, 1941 – April 16, 2010

R. Rajeshwar Upadhyaya

It is a very rare person who makes more than one

path‐breaking conceptual contribution to their chosen

field of expertise. The Management Thinker C.K. Prahalad was great enough to introduce three vital value adding

concepts to his field. The first was that of Core Competence. The second was the wealth and value to be

found at the Bottom of the Pyramid or BOP as it came to known. The third was the concept of ‘Co‐ be familiarly creation’, the once radical notion that consumer inputs

could determine both the direction and creation of a product. Death claimed him prematurely on April 16 2010,

in the form of a lung disease. He was 68, which is scarcely for people in his field. This was a genuine middle age tragedy.

What characterized his thinking was clarity. He had the ability to spot what was seemingly obvious and hence usually overlooked. The story goes that in his first job with Union Carbide, he made the radical suggestion that handling gloves should be doled out according to need – working with dangerous materials, rather than the cultural hierarchical principle of ‘seniority’. His boss was so impressed he began mentoring the young man. On such ‘obvious’ insights are laid the foundations of BOP. His justly famous observation that India confuses ‘world class’ with ‘luxury’ and thus misses the bus on innovation still resonates. To him world class meant high quality standards applicable for both rich and poor, and the purpose of innovation was to provide quality at affordable prices. This was a cutting of the Gordian Knot indeed; the ‘affordability’ excuse for lax quality was simply rendered irrelevant. His last crusade for common sense was a proposal that all cell phone manufacturers provide standardized cell chargers. I don’t really see that one succeeding, for obvious reasons, but it is a great idea.

Mr. Prahalad was not a prophet without honor, neither in his home country of India nor in his adopted one of the USA. India had conferred upon him the Padma

Bhushan, its third highest award, while Time and Business Week had named him the World’s Most Influential business thinker. He did not live long enough to leverage

or enjoy this spot on the pinnacle; the loss is surely ours.

Officially he was the Distinguished University Professor of

Corporate Strategy and International Business at the University of Michigan Business School; his influence was

global, never merely academic. But for the sake of to avoid uncritical admiration, let it also be fairness, and said that when he headed his own business, Praja or ‘the

common man’ whose wisdom he so valued, it went belly

up!

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A Tribute to the Thinker warning that Indian companies in the future would choose to expand and invest abroad, driven out by corruption.

This would be compounded by the fact that the same reasons were causing Indian knowledge and talent to leave. India listened respectfully and continues to carry on as before. Yet the ideas he championed, prices cut to the bone with high value for money, applying frugality and value to all businesses instead of select verticals, “creating opportunities for the poor by offering them choices and encouraging self‐esteem”, these are likely to continue strengthening themselves.

But it was his idea of the BOP that continues to excite, along with Co‐creation which is actually a logical extension of BOP. That the poor could also be consumers,

and that The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid could

be a profitable reality‐ these were radical thoughts that placed emerging markets as the future of profitable

business. The Amul model of processing 6.5 million liters

of milk every day, involving over 2.2 million farmers basically living in villages, not even mofussil locations –

These were unique breakthroughs in thinking about scale.

Amul demonstrated the three factors needed for

businesses in the Co‐creation model; decentralized

organizational structure; centralized processing and global marketing. The ultra small sachet trend for

everything from tea to shampoo and gutka is also credited to Mr. Prahalad’s idea that the poor are not charity cases

but demanding customers who would pay for perceived may not be able to purchase the mega size value. They pack but they could and did pick up affordable sachets,

leading to a mini retail revolution.

America's super rich are getting poorer. For only the fifth time since 1982, the collective net worth of The Forbes 400, our annual tally of the nation's richest people, has declined, falling $300 billion in the past 12 months from $1.57 trillion to $1.27 trillion.

Prahalad never explicitly said it but he wanted Mr. Indians to lose their diffidence. He wryly commented once

on the Tata Nano that it was because of all the excitement in the world press that India recognized it as a significant achievement and Ratan Tata became a hero. The Indian inability to recognize “the creation of something fundamentally new as a best practice” pained him. His

other legitimate grouse was the all pervasive nature of corruption in Indian society. He went to the extent of

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Emerging Economy: South Arica

South Africa

Emerging Economy

The TLR Team

M. Stanley called Africa as Henry

a “dark continent” in his 1878

account Through the Dark

Continent

for it was the unexplored and mysterious hinterland which remained unknown to Europeans until the 19th

century. The civil wars, conventional wars, coups,

terrorism, genocides, child soldiers, famines, epidemics,

Africa meanwhile stayed the world's poorest inhabited continent. Though parts of the continent have now made significant gains over the last few years; of the 175 countries reviewed in the United Nations' Human Development Report 2003, 25 African nations ranked lowest amongst the nations of the world. However with GDP growth of 5.7% in 2008, Africa for the fifth consecutive year saw the GDP growth exceeding 5.5% mark. The rate of return on FDI is higher in Africa than anywhere else in the developing world and probably that is why Africa’s trade with China has multiplied ten folds since 2001, reaching over USD 100 billion in 2008. The growth in Africa however remains much skewed, and some economies show much more promise than the others. The largest economy of Africa, South Africa shows much promise and had been classified in “Advanced Emerging Economy” category in annual country classification review of FTSE Global Equity Index Series.

low life expectancy, malnutrition, extreme poverty and

other human tragedies of African nations, ironically had given a new perspective to the term “dark continent”.

Countries which were not so visible on the global platform began to make their presence felt, thanks to

their social and business activity in the process of rapid growth and industrialization. Leading the brigade were

the BRIC countries – Brazil, China, India and Russia.

World was forced to get up and take notice of the BRIC nations, when the acronym was first coined and prominently used by Goldman Sachs in 2001 to argue they are developing rapidly, by 2050 the that, since combined economies of the BRICs could eclipse the combined economies of the current richest countries of

the world. This argument was strengthened by the fact that these four countries possessed more than 25% of

world’s land area and 40% of the world’s population.

Between 2002 and 2007, annual GDP growth averaged3.7% in Brazil, 6.9% in Russia, 7.9% in India, and 10.4% in China.

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Emerging Economy: South Arica South Africa

contracted in year 2009 to 1.8%. Inflation also jumped up to 9.0% in 2007 and 10.8% in 2010 as compared with 5.4% in 2005. Economic activity was adversely affected by severe energy shortages, slowing domestic consumption and the worsening world recession.

However, the prudent macroeconomic policies of the last decade have provided room for more expansionary

monetary and fiscal responses to the slow‐down and for continued increases in public investment in infrastructure and social services. If the rebalancing between consumption and investment started in 2007 is continued, the growth rate is likely to rise. South African finance minister Pravin Gordhan expects the economy to grow 2.3% in 2010, 3.2% in 2011 and to 3.6% in 2012.

South Africa was colonized first by the Dutch and

later the British. The white minority rule gained

independence from Britain in the year 1934 and in 1958 the Grand Apartheid policy was introduced. The African

National Congress, formed in 1912 started its struggle

against Apartheid. Finally it came into power in 1994 when the first multiracial, multiparty elections were held.

In post‐apartheid South Africa, unemployment has

been extremely high. While many blacks have risen to middle or upper classes, the overall unemployment rate of

blacks worsened between 1994 and 2003. Despite that

South Africa is the economic powerhouse of Africa, leading the continent in industrial output and mineral

production and generating a large proportion of Africa's electricity.

The country has abundant natural resources, well‐

developed financial, legal, communications, energy and transport sectors, a stock exchange ranked among the top 20 in the world, and a modern infrastructure

supporting efficient distribution of goods throughout the southern African region.

Not only is South Africa itself an important emerging economy, it is also the gateway to other African

markets. The country plays a significant role in supplying energy, relief aid, transport, communications and

investment on the continent. Its well‐developed road and rail links provide the platform and infrastructure for ground transportation deep into Africa.

Source: World Development Indicators database, September 2009 & Global Economic Research – Trading Economics

Economy

Over the years these policies have built up a rock‐

solid macroeconomic structure. Taxes have been cut, tariffs dropped, the fiscal deficit reined in, inflation curbed

and exchange controls relaxed.

Its economy had been in an upward phase of the

business cycle since September 1999 to last quarter of 2007‐ the longest period of economic expansion in the

country's recorded history7. However, after several years of robust economic growth of around 5%, growth dropped to 3.1 per cent in 2008. The GDP growth rate further

The Leadership Review

Source: World Development Indicators database, September 2009 Major Industrial Sectors Mining and Minerals: South Africa has abundance in mineral resources ‐ producing and owning a significant proportion of the world's minerals. The country is a leading producer of precious metals such as gold and platinum, as well as of base metals and coal.

9

Emerging Economy: South Arica Information and Communication technology (ICT) and Electronics: As an increasingly important contributor to South Africa's gross domestic product (GDP), the country's ICT sector is both sophisticated and developing.

South Africa's IT industry is characterized by technology leadership, particularly in the field of electronic banking services. South African companies are world leaders in pre‐payment, revenue management and fraud prevention systems.

It is the world's fifth‐largest producer of diamonds producing 9.10% of the worldwide production of diamonds.

In 2007, mining contributed $19.2 billion or 7.7% of the Gross Domestic Product. When the total sales and export sales are expressed in US dollars, the annual

increases were 10.5% (from $28.7 billion to $ 31.7 billion), and 10.6% (from $20.7 billion to $22.9 billion) respectively.

The major foreign revenue earners in 2007 were platinum‐ (40.8%), followed by gold (22.2%) and coal group metals (15.1%). The mining industry, excluding exploration,

research and development structures and head offices staff, employed 2.9% of South Africa’s economically active

population, or 5.1% of all workers in the non‐agricultural

formal sectors of the economy.

Testing and piloting systems and applications are growing businesses in South Africa, with the diversity of the local market, first world know‐how in business and a developing country environment making it an ideal test lab for new innovations. Gartner, the international research group, rates South Africa as one of its top 30 software development outsourcing destinations, with 2007 research putting it on par with Israel in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, and next to Australia and India globally. South Africa has also established itself as a quality, low‐cost call centre destination.

As a major mining country, South Africa's strengths include a high level of technical and production

expertise as well as comprehensive research and development activities. The country has world‐scale

primary processing facilities covering carbon steel,

stainless steel and aluminum, in addition to gold and platinum. It is also a world leader of new technologies,

such as a ground‐breaking process that converts low‐ grade superfine iron ore into high‐quality iron units. There

are lucrative opportunities for downstream processing value locally to iron, carbon steel, stainless and adding steel, aluminum, platinum group metals and gold.

The domestic telecommunications infrastructure provides modern and efficient service to urban areas, including cellular and internet services. In 1997, Telkom, the South African telecommunications Parastatal, was partly privatized and entered into a strategic equity partnership with a consortium of two companies, including SBC, a U.S. telecommunications company.

In exchange for exclusivity to provide certain services for 5 years, Telkom assumed an obligation to facilitate network modernization and expansion into un‐ served areas. A Second Network Operator was to be licensed to compete with Telkom across its spectrum of services in 2002, although this license was only officially handed over in late 2005 and company got function in 2006 and has recently begun operating under the name, Neotel. New legislations, such as the Telecommunications Amendment Act of 2001, have opened up communications in South Africa, prompting international telecoms operators such as Virgin Mobile to launch their products in the country.

Two of the world's biggest mining companies

originated in South Africa. BHP Billiton, the world's largest mining company, came after a merger between South

African company Billiton and Australian firm BHP. Anglo

American Plc, which has its primary listing in London and its secondary listing in Johannesburg, owns many major subsidiaries, such as Anglo Platinum, Anglo Coal, Impala

Platinum and Kumba Iron Ore. Diamond miner De Beers, also a South African company, is owned by Anglo American and a consortium led by the Botswana government. Indian steel giant Tata Steel is constructing a

R650‐million high‐carbon ferrochrome plant at Richards

Bay on the KwaZulu‐Natal coast.

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Emerging Economy: South Arica One of the first Indian IT services and consulting companies to enter South Africa, TCS South Africa Pty Ltd. was formed in 2007 as a subsidiary of TCS Limited, enabling TCS to serve its South African and Sub‐Saharan customers better.

Four cellular companies provide service to over 20 million subscribers, with South Africa considered to have the 4th most advanced mobile telecommunications network worldwide.

The four cellular providers are

Vodacom, MTN, Cell C and Virgin Mobile.

Manufacturing: South Africa has developed an diversified manufacturing base that has established, shown its resilience and potential to compete in the global economy. Manufacturing in South Africa is dominated by industries like Agri‐processing, Automotive, Chemicals, and Textile etc. This sector contributed 16.2% of the annual making it the second largest contributor to GDP in 2008, the nation's economy.

In 2008 Manufacturing in South Africa remains

constrained by low productivity and capacity constraints (near‐record capacity utilization of 85.3% as of September

2008). Manufacturing output increased only by 1.2% in

2008, down from 4.5% in 2007. This somewhat disappointing outcome reflects electricity shortages and

declining domestic demand.

Tata Motors entered South Africa with a range of passenger cars, utility vehicles, pick‐ups, trucks and buses for the South African market way back in 200428. TATA Steel got in the South African market in year 2006 with the construction of a US$103‐million ferrochrome steel plant at Richards Bay in KwaZulu‐Natal. VSNL announced construction of its US$200 Million “TGN‐Intra Asia Cable System” in South Africa in the year 2007.

Tata is not the only major Indian player waking up to the potential of the South African market. Lakshmi Mittal's LNM Group took over former state‐owned steel maker Iscor in 2004, renaming the company Mittal Steel SA. Leading Indian utility vehicle (UV) player Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) which entered South Africa in 2004 is likely to buy out its local partner in Mahindra South Africa (Mahindra SA), which is currently a 92% subsidiary. In all, some 35 Indian corporations have established their presence in the country, and more are likely to join the race soon.

India Inc. in South Africa

In recent years, several Indian companies have forayed into South Africa. Tata Steel, Tata Motors and TCS

have made considerable investments in the country.

Similarly, Mahindra & Mahindra, Cipla, Ranbaxy, Ashok Leyland, Apollo Tyres are some of the other Indian

business houses to have established a presence in South Africa. In addition, banks like the SBI and ICICI are busy

establishing their branches in the country, partly with a

view to tap into the million ‐ strong People of Indian Origin (PIOs) there.

Future Outlook for South African Economy The recent slow‐down is amplifying South Africa’s development challenges. Infrastructure has suffered from 20 years of under‐investment and lack of competition. In addition, unemployment, lack of skills and poverty remain dire problems. The Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA) launched in 2006 aims at halving unemployment and poverty by 2014. Despite substantial funding, the results of AsgiSA have been limited by the weak capacity of the various ministries and agencies and a lack of co‐ordination among them.

Tata Group in particular is poised to pump billions

of rands into a range of South African industries, spurred Ratan Tata's admission to having "lost my

by Chairman heart to South Africa". Tata Africa Holdings, the group's

dedicated enterprise in Johannesburg, acts as the headquarters for all Tata operations in Africa. "Success in

South Africa is a benchmark for the African continent," said Tata Africa Holdings MD Raman Dhawan. "If a product sells here, it will sell in the rest of Africa."

Growth till now has been insufficient to meet population needs, and the controversial GEAR (Growth, Employment and Redistribution) policies have to a considerable extent removed the state from the direct provision of economic resources to the poor in terms of redistribution, and

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Emerging Economy: South Arica

have instead placed this critical role in the purview of “the market.” It remains to be seen how well this substitutes for direct state interventions. The failure to address

poverty, crime, the AIDS crisis, and public discontent over access to basic human needs reveals that South Africa’s

highly vaunted democracy is fragile in “substantive” terms (Friedman 1999).

The report also highlighted a number of strengths characterizing South African society, including having one of the most progressive constitutions in the world, the largest and strongest economy in the continent, and a political environment conducive to political debate. Other strengths included first world economic and physical infrastructure, a strong public financial management system, strong technological capability, good corporate governance, a robust legal system, and a strong framework for protecting human rights.

At the same time many factors augur positively for

South Africa and the achievements of both its and society in the decade since the end of government minority rule cannot be diminished. The African Peer

Review Mechanism (APRM) report on South Africa highlighted the country's strengths and weaknesses and had identified 18 best practices worth emulating in other

countries.

With all the given enablers and stallers, the largest economy of Africa moves on with whole of the world watching in anticipation.

The only street in the world to house two Nobel Peace prize winners is in Soweto,

Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu both South Africa.

have houses in Vilakazi Street.

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Ideas that Worked / Failed

The Fall from Grace of

TOYOTA How the world’s most reliable car‐ maker goofed up ‐ and lied about it

The runaway phenomenon did not stop. They At about the beginning of 2008 Toyota had a

problem, a very serious one, for the past three years. began to recall cars, an enormous embarrassment for a company that prided itself, that made its USP, on Actually they had two serious problems; the second was that they would not acknowledge the existence of the reliability. An increasingly worried Toyota then decided it

first. The company which had an international reputation must be a flaw in the actual pedal that was used in for making the safest and most reliable cars in the world acceleration. This was manufactured by an American

watched in disbelief as some of their cars began to literally company, which enabled the Japan headquarters to run away with their drivers. Acceleration would suddenly sidestep blame once again. Or so they thought. The

go out of control and the cars would refuse to stop, no manufacturer of the pedals, CTS got enraged and issued a hard the brakes were jammed on, or gears huffy statement that, “The products we supply to Toyota, matter how shifted to neutral and even reverse. Survivors like a Mrs including the pedals covered by the recent recall, have

Rhonda Smith, who on October 12, 2006 experienced the been manufactured to Toyota’s design specifications.” In runaway car, were fobbed off by Toyota inspectors who other words, Don’t try to saddle us with your blunder. The told her they could not replicate the incident and therefore Washington Post angrily joined in the fray pointedly

commenting that, Toyota has been treating the United it was her fault. This was implied never explicit. Any story of a runaway car was always batted back to the States the way an imperial power treats a colony: It wants

complainant as being driver error. It was Toyota. Who American consumers to buy its products but not to have any would disagree? say in how they're made. Toyota USA is a sales and Then a police officer, an expert driver of the marketing company, but manufacturing and safety decisions

California Highway patrol, specializing in high speed chases ‐‐ even the decision to have a recall of cars in the United for over a decade, got trapped in one of these runaways States ‐‐ are made in Japan.

Finally Wired magazine identified the smoking gun. and both he and his family died in August of 2009. The claim of driver incompetence could no longer be sustained Modern cars are actually computers, not mechanical and the truth was out. Toyota cars were acting weirdly, devices any more, and it was surely a software glitch which

‘going postal’ as it were. At this point they could still have was making these catastrophic surges happen. This seems acknowledged that there was a genuine problem and tried to be the correct insight though Toyota is still, bizarrely, to fix things. Instead they tried to trade on their reputation clinging to mats and pedals as the primary reason. and said that it was a problem with the floor mats that Professor David Gilbert of Southern Illinois University caused jamming of the accelerator. As to how exactly that conducted a few experiments and found out that he could

could happen, Toyota was pleasantly vague about it. A trick the onboard computer into acting normally even if cheap and efficient replacement solution had been the accelerator was stuck and the car out of control. In offered. Why was the customer not delighted as always? other words the car could not register there was a problem have The Leadership Review

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Ideas that Worked / Failed problem. The experimental conditions could easily occur in normal driving conditions. Toyota first threateningly announced, through their lawyers, that replicating such conditions amounted to ‘sabotage’. Then in an act of incredible chutzpah they took the moral high ground and said that Gilbert had done it for the money and that finding the cause of the problem so fast ‘was too good to be true.” Perhaps he was serious about finding it and that is why he succeeded?

The president of Toyota Motor Sales Jim Lentz was hauled up before Congress and he made the mandatory apologies, shared some personal pain, grudgingly acknowledged mistakes and tried to shift all the blame to Tokyo. It was a cringe‐worthy performance and even the cynical politicians were infuriated enough to call it a ‘sham’ "It strains credulity . . . can't you just apologize? . . . Just plain unacceptable . . . there's no good outcome . . . it's hard to imagine." Mr. Lentz did not know when the problem began, when the first recalls began, what the exact numbers of complaints about this were, he was no longer sure, as he was just a couple of weeks back, that the pedal was to blame, but he was very, very sorry for all the people who got hurt, if that could be done without admitting liability. The apology of Tiger Woods in contrast came across as an act of maturity and taking responsibility.

Meanwhile rental companies were taking Toyotas out of the fleet, Toyota owners were being warned by safety commissioners not to drive their cars, GM was offering discounts and no interest financing to Toyota owners who wanted to replace their cars and Lentz was reduced to woefully admitting that, “We lost sight of our customers.

We outgrew our engineering resources. We’re suffering from that today.” You think?

The one man probably watching in slack jawed astonishment was Alan Mulally CEO of Ford. His entire success had come from unabashedly aping Toyota’s now rapidly evaporating commitment to quality and reliability.

While working in Boeing he even went to Japan to learn from Toyota how to speed up manufacture of jet engines.

“They have the finest production system in the world,” he announced as late as 2006 and his turnaround of Ford was predicated on the Toyota model of quality, fuel efficiency and the global car – i.e. one model for all customers no matter where on earth they buy it. Under Mulally, Ford did not have to stand with hat in hand for government subsidies and in 2009 they reported a profit of 2.7 billion, their first in four years. It is even more impressive when you consider they had a loss of 14 billion in 2008.

This is runaway irony.

Bangladesh has 85 million people; there are only about 32,000 automobiles in the entire country.

That means there’s only one car in Bangladesh for every 2,600 persons!

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Indian of the Quarter

Sachin Tendulkar Indian of the Quarter

Once expectations settled at reasonable levels, accepting that sometimes he will just be Clark Kent, Tendulkar is suddenly Superman again.

Cricket, like all sport in the age of television, is a

young man’s game. As with poetry, mathematics and theoretical physics, cricketers tend to fade after 32 or so.

This is conventional wisdom; as always, conventional wisdom may be right about the average but completely wrong about the great. At the age almost 37 Sachin

Tendulkar became the first man in 39 years of limited over one day cricket matches to hit a double hundred.

Not against rubbish opposition like – well you know who;

it was South Africa, a country that has always excelled at

he of the giant hundreds and two triple hundreds. But the smart money would have been wrong. Sehwag is insanely good as a Test batsman; he is only middling as a one day hitter. Sachin is simply the greatest one day batsman ever, and given the changing reality of the game quite possibly the best there ever will be.

The figures brook no rebuttal. He has 46 ODI hundreds, 47 test match hundreds and over 30 000 International runs for God’s sake. He has 25 more hundreds than his nearest competitor Ricky Ponting, who may one day match him in test matches but will never close the gap in ODIs. Tendulkar is one of the sporting greats of the world, great in a manner that only Roger Federer can conceivably match amongst his contemporaries. {There is also the puzzling fact that Jacques Kallis, with 51 International hundreds, and over 500 International wickets is not acknowledged as at least an honorable peer. Cricket venerates the batsman}.

Tendulkar has made 10 centuries in the last twelve months, five of them in his last eight innings! Purple patches do not get any better. For an India starved of any genuine accomplishment on the world stage, Tendulkar is both balm and hope.

ODI. Twice people have come very close; both times they

strangely topped out at 194. It is apt that one of the legends of the game be the first to open this particular door. It is the equivalent of Roger Bannister and the four

minute mile – an insurmountable obstacle till somebody shows it can be done. Inevitably this feat will be equaled,

perhaps surpassed, but the first man to do it gets the laurels.

The deed will always remain a triumph of skill and

determination. You have only 50 overs of 6 balls each to perform it in. That is 200 runs in 300 balls and swiftly the

sheer magnitude of the task becomes apparent. Even

when matches used to be of 60 overs length nobody could do it. To pull this off after having played for 20

years in the meat grinder that is the modern game, when you are practically a senior citizen, words are laughably

inadequate to describe the scope of the achievement. To

accomplish it when nobody seriously thought you were in the running any longer, that is the vindication. For the smart money would have been on Virender Sehwag,

The Leadership Review

This from a man who saw a dip in form rewarded with boos in his own home town and “Endulkar?” headlines just 3 years back. “Tendulkar is using his reputation to eke out a career in international cricket,” huffed one of the Chappell brothers. We should all be so inadequate as we approach retirement. For cricket is an inherently peculiar game, mimicking capricious turns of aa

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Indian of the Quarter fate, that could clobber lesser men. All it takes is one good, or even merely lucky, ball and you are out, no matter how superlatively you have been playing. You

soar high and then come crashing down like Icarus.

Amarnath was the success story of 1982‐83, Mohinder out‐batting the great Gavaskar in Pakistan, West Indies and helping India to win its only World Cup. In the very

next series he consecutively made 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, and 0 before being mercifully dropped and spared further

agony. Tendulkar is so accomplished that he has never faced anything like that.

What he is doing of late is operating at a level of skill that everybody knew he had within him and never really displayed – at least not to their satisfaction. Once

expectations settled at reasonable levels, accepting that sometimes he will just be Clark Kent, Tendulkar is

suddenly Superman again. From a sheer ability point of view, it is as if Robert De Niro abruptly went back to doing Taxi Driver and Raging Bull levels of work after years of dreck like Meet the Parents and Analyze This. never dipped so badly, but to his fans and to Tendulkar the experts nothing but the very best was acceptable

from him. Anything less was deemed a failure. It should have crushed a normal person. But Tendulkar has always

been extraordinary. Not to go off the rails when you are a

superstar in your teens, when you become the country’s

energy flowed again. To that inspiring group we can now add the name of Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. Yes, there are lamentable holes in Tendulkar’s career. He does not have a triple Test hundred unlike Sehwag who has two and almost got a third recently. Brian Lara also got two and each time he went past 375, once taking it to 400 in a test match. Lara also made 501 in a first class match. There is no World Cup triumph. These lacunae may still be rectified. Given the streak Tendulkar has been in recently ‐ they rapidly become possibilities, instead of wishful desire. The impossible has merely become the difficult, and all of us can aspire – to greatness, to endurance but most of all, to continuing excellence.

richest sportsman, when you have to wear disguises to

just walk around in your own home town and above all when you need to travel incessantly and play almost every other day – only somebody with remarkable force

of character could do that. Tiger Woods today is a dire example of how things could have gone with Tendulkar.

Tendulkar is an inspiration to all those who rest on their accomplishments but push the decide not envelope yet one more time. He is no longer doing it for

the money or the fame; both are old hat by now. There is something splendid in a person who finds out what he is

best at and then staunchly pursues it, continuing to

develop that skill even when the inevitable slump occurs

India has 17% of the world’s population. They won 0.31% of Olympic medals!

at some point in life. Faith, for want of a better word, is

required to persevere. Yet writers, poets, painters and martial artists have long been famous for a second creative flowering in their old age; they just kept doing what they were good at until the streams of creative

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Industry Focus

Retail Industry

Retail comes from the French word retaillier which refers to

"cutting off, clip and divide" in terms of tailoring (1365). It was first recorded as a noun with the meaning of a "sale in small

quantities" in 1433 (French). Its literal meaning for retail was to "cut off, shred, paring". In both Dutch and German also refer to

sale of small quantities or items.

The TLR Team International Retail At Glance

Retail has played a major role world over in

increasing productivity across a wide range of Consumer goods and services. The impact can be best seen in

countries like U.S.A., U.K., Mexico, Thailand and more recently China. Economies of countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka and Dubai are also heavily the retail sector. Retail is the second‐largest assisted by industry in the United States both in number of

establishments and number of employees. It is also one of the largest worldwide. The retail industry employs

more than 22 million Americans and generates more than in retail sale annually. Retailing is a U.S. $7 $3 trillion trillion sector.

Wal‐Mart is the world’s largest retailer. Already

the world’s largest employer with over 1million associates, Wal‐Mart displaced oil giant Exxon Mobil as

the world’s largest company when it posted $219 billion in sales for fiscal 2001. Wal‐Mart has become the most successful retail brand in the world due its ability to leverage size, market clout, and efficiency to create market dominance. Wal‐Mart heads Fortune magazine

list of top 500 companies in the world. Forbes Annual List of Billionaires has the largest number (45/497) from the

retail business.

Top Retailers Worldwide:

#1 Wal‐Mart Stores U.S.A 316 Bn

#2 Carrefour Group France 95 Bn

#3 The Home Depot, Inc. U.S.A 73 Bn #4 TESCO

U.K

62 Bn

#5 Kroger

U.S.A

56 Bn

One of the world’s largest industry exceeding US $ 9 trillion

•

47 Global Fortune 500 companies & 25 Asia's Top 200 Companies are retailers

•

Dominated by developed countries.

•

US, EU & Japan constitutes 80% of world retail sales

•

Biggest player in India, Pantaloon’s total group sales

•

Is about equal to 2 Wal‐Mart supercenters annual revenues

Global Retail Scenario •

Retail is World’s largest private industry. This has above US $ 8 trillion sales worldwide annually

•

Total retail contribution in World GDP is 27% and Organized retail in US accounts for 22% of GDP

•

Share of organized retail in developing markets ranges between 20% to 55%

•

In developed markets, dominant player (Wal‐Mart in US, Tesco in UK) has a significantly higher share; enjoying up to 8‐13% market share

•

Departmental stores growth is declining while ‘All‐ under‐one‐roof’ & ‘neighborhood’ convenience is gaining strength

•

Retail is a major driver for real estate and urban development

Retail in India: Retailing is still in its infancy in India. In the name of retailing, the unorganized retailing has dominated the Indian landscape so far. According to an estimate the unorganized retail sector has 97% presence whereas the organized accounts for merely 3%.

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Industry Focus with the Indian consumers confident about their earnings and are spending a large portion of their high disposable incomes.

Industry has already predicted a trillion dollar market in retail sector in India by 2010. However, the retail industry in India is undergoing a major shake‐up as the country is

witnessing a retail revolution. The old traditional formats are slowly changing into more complex and bigger

formats. Malls and mega malls are coming up in almost all the places be it – metros or the smaller cities, across the

length and breadth of the country.

Projections by analysts suggest that India has the potential to be labeled the fastest‐growing economy and outpace the developed economies by 2050. Analysts predict India to sustain an average GDP growth rate of 5 per cent till the mid of this century, with India projected to outpace the other developed economy markets by 2050.

The Young India : Against the backdrop of an ageing world, India possesses the advantage of having a largely young population. 35 percent of India’s population is under 14 years of age and more than 60 per cent of the population is estimated to constitute the working age group (15‐60) till 2050. Two‐thirds of Indian population is under 35, with the median age of 23 years, asopposed to the world median age of 33. India is home to 20per cent of the global population under 25 years of age. The Large proportion of the working‐age population translates. To a lucrative consumer base vis‐à‐vis other economies of the world, placing India on the radar as one of the most promising retail destinations of the world.

Potential Untapped Martket: India ranks first, ahead of Russia, in terms of emerging market potential and is deemed a “Priority 1” market for international retail.

Organized retail penetration is on the rise and offers an attractive proposition for entry of new players as well as scope for expansion for existing players.

•

Indian retail showed a growth rate of 49.73 per

cent with a turnover of US$ 25.44 billion in 2007‐

2008 as against US$ 16.99 billion in 2006‐2007.

•

Organised retail segment is expected to grow

from five per cent to about 14 to 18 per cent by 2015.

Growth across Segments

• The food and beverages segment accounts for the largest share over 74 per cent of the total

retail pie.

•

Challenges of Retailing in India: There are many retail chains that have been forced out of business in 2009 by their own debt structure and the global credit crunch.

There are also many retail stores that will close storefronts in 2009 because a recessed economy demands a recessed retail industry. That's just the way the economy ebbs and flows. There are some well‐known retail companies that declared bankruptcy in 2009 because their concept was indistinct and their merchandise is redundant. It's not enough to just show up any more. Retailers need a compelling offer in order to justify their existence.

Retailing as an industry in India has still a long way to go. The retailers in India have to learn both the art and science of retailing by closely following how retailers in other parts of the world are organizing, managing, and coping up with new challenges in an ever‐changing marketplace.

Traditional retail dominates food, grocery and

allied products sector, with grocery and staples largely sourced from the “Kiranas” and push‐cart

vendors.

•

Apparel and consumer durables verticals are the fastest growing verticals.

The growth of Retail Industry in India has been facilitated by various factors like existing Indian middle classes with an increased purchasing power, rise of business sectors like the IT and engineering upcoming firms, change in the taste and attitude of the Indians and

globalization and heavy influx of FDI. The fast and furious pace of growth of the Indian economy is the driving force for Indian consumerism;

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Industry Focus Road Ahead: Indian retailers need to be wary of blindly aping their practices. Due to MRP and rental constraints, low cost FMCG products are not a sustainable proposition for them. More scope lies in commodities like fruits and vegetables and in privately labeled products due to the absence of the MRP constraint. Also, insufficient depth in product categories makes it difficult for Indian retailers to have enough variety for filling up the numerous shelves of a hypermarket. Counterfeiting is also a major problem in India and Indian retailers can cash in on this by making genuineness as a value proposition rather than cost. Consumer experience is another area where organized retailers can differentiate themselves. The verdict for Indian retailers is: Keep adapting the format, keep working on private labels and work on improving back‐end inefficiencies.

Indian retail differs from the US retail industry in concepts like MRP, wider price points and a low cost distribution system. Organized retail is fast gaining space in the mind of the Indian consumer, but leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to operational efficiencies. Indian retailers must not look at blindly copying the US model but must focus on shoring up efficiencies, both at the front and the back end and building leverages on private labels and branded products.

The future for organized retail in India is a bright one. The demographics, the sense of optimism and the deep‐ rooted entrepreneurial culture are ready ingredients for success. The retail industry needs to get organized and drive its own destiny. The government needs to be lobbied with, to help create a conducive environment so that the latent entrepreneurial spirit can get unleashed and ultimately value can be delivered to consumers who will push their shopping carts and participate actively in this great retail boom. While there are obstacles, there are clear opportunities in modern retailing in India. In such a scenario, preparedness of Indian retailers in terms of having appropriate formats, scalable processes, appropriate technology and relevant organization capability would be crucial to success. The Indian market is extremely price‐quality sensitive; it makes sense to enter the gigantic market in a phased manner; hence for the multinational players it is imperative to have the right local partners – dealers, distributors and retailers. The Indian retail sector is ready to take on challenges from global retail players such as Wal‐mart and Carrefour because unlike them, they have a better understanding of the Indian consumer’s psyche. Ultimately, a successful retailer is one who understands his customer. The Indian customer is looking for an emotional connection, a sense of belonging. Hence, to be successful any retail outlet has to be localized.

To become a truly flourishing industry, retailing needs to cross the following hurdles: • • • • • •

Automatic approval is not allowed for foreign investment in retail.

Regulations restricting real estate purchases, and cumbersome local laws.

Taxation, which favors small retail businesses.

Absence of developed supply chain and integrated IT management.

Lack of trained work force.

Low skill level for retailing management.

•

Intrinsic complexity of retailing – rapid price

changes, constant threat of product obsolescence and low margins.

Despite the presence of the basic ingredients growth of the retail industry in India, it still required for faces substantial hurdles that will retard and inhibit its

growth in the future. One of the key impediments is the lack of FDI status. This has largely limited capital

investments in supply chain infrastructure, which is a key for development and growth of food retailing and has

also constrained access to world‐class retail practices.

Multiplicity and complexity of taxes, lack of proper

infrastructure and relatively high cost of real estate are the other impediments to the growth of retailing. While the industry and the government are trying to remove many of these hurdles, some of the roadblocks will remain and will continue to affect the smooth growth of this industry.

Opportunity: According to industry experts, the next

phase of growth is expected to come from rural markets, with rural India accounting for almost half of the

domestic retail market, valued over US$ 300 billion. Rural India is set to witness an economic boom, with per capita

income having grown by 50 per cent over the last 10 years, mainly on account of rising commodity prices and

improved productivity. According to retail and consumer products division, E&Y India, basic infrastructure, generation of employment guarantee schemes, better information services and access to funding are also bringing prosperity to rural households. The rural market, product design will need to go beyond ideas like smaller

sizes (such as single use sachets) to create genuinely new products, according to Ramesh Srinivas, national industry

director (consumer markets), KPMG India. According to

the Investment commission of India, the overall retail market is expected to grow from US$ 262 billion to about US$ 1065 billion by 2016, with organized retail at US$ 165 billion (approximately 15.5 per cent of total retail sales).

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Bottom of the Pyramid

The Solar Powered Priest of Patna

extremely expensive in the context of the place.

Fortunately for Father Mathew interest in his initiatives is building rapidly. Institutions all over the country are seeking to reduce costs while going green. This is most true of hostels, hospitals and hotels. The orders are on an upward march. A small, but welcome, spin off to the initiative of SAAP is that it provides a few local jobs too.

Concerned about the rapidly vanishing green cover of his state Bihar, a Christian priest has decided to fight the good fight with solar power. Trees disappear in India for many reasons, but one of the most prominent, and most overlooked, is the fact that poor people need wood for fuel. The 52 year old Father Mathew of St Mary’s Church, Phulwarisharif, Patna, is seeking to plug at least this reason for continuing to chop down trees with his solar initiative.

His workshop assembles an eclectic range of solar powered appliances; his inspiration is the man regarded as the father of solar energy concentrate community cookers, the German scientist Wolfgang Scheffler.

It is not often that religious figures seek such practical solutions to major social problems; they are usually content to exert their considerable moral authority to exhort change. In this case, since the behavior that was sought to be changed was directly connected to survival, people need to cook after all, ‘sacrifice’ was not really a feasible option. In giving the most vulnerable users of firewood a reasonably cheap option, Father Mathew is performing yeoman service.

The Solar Alternatives and Associated Programmes or SAAP was set up in 1996 on extremely modest scale.

They had just one welder! The church provided much needed seed money as well as a plot to begin this initiative. Today SAAp turns out solar steam turbines, solar cookers, water heaters and sterilization units for hospitals – which are basically furnaces to dispose of dangerous hospital waste. He is even planning a solar crematorium, something that will be most welcome as both wood pyres and the electric ones are hugely wasteful of fuel. Plus the

average cost of a wood pyre is 5000 rupees which is asssssas

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Progressive Leadership

How Arafat dismantled Black September

Love and family as a tool of Leadership – it cures terrorists!

No, really

Rohit Pillai

stimulus to clear thinking. The film Munich shows the fallout of the Olympic venture} Arafat could not risk disbanding Black September either: they were motivated, determined and perhaps too dangerous to provoke. One of the assassins actually lapped up the blood of the slain Prime Minister from the floor, just to demonstrate implacable resolve. More strangely they were perfectly willing to die without any assurances of paradise. Arafat and one of his closest advisors formulated an ingenious plan to… melt away, I suppose, would be the appropriate phrase, this potentially catastrophic group. It is one of the strangest uses of creative thinking.

By 1975, Yasser Arafat, had a big problem with his plausible deniability. The Palestinian cause and the Liberation organization{PLO} had become a Palestine world acknowledged issue, the U.N. had given them

special observer status, but the people who had got them this recognition and credibility were now a

dangerous liability. This was Black September, the

terrorist strike wing of the cause, and they had created an image of determination and ruthlessness that was what vital for the PLO to be taken seriously. The killing

of Jordan’s Prime Minister Wasfi al‐Tal in Cairo in 1971 was retaliation for the brutal expulsion of Palestinians

from Jordan in the September of the previous year and gave them their name. The taking hostage of the Israeli

Olympic team in 1972 at Munich made sure their cause

became top priority for the world.

The moral and ethical implications of starting up such a group before shutting them down remain, but that is another story.

Yet the very success of Black September was now ruining Arafat. He could not duck the accusations

of terrorism and be taken seriously as a negotiator for peace. {Israel was seeking revenge and that is always a

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Progressive Leadership To be certain that they had actually pulled off this impossible stunt, turning suicidal killers into family men, the PLO would try to send them on missions, non‐

violent ones, with legitimate passports to genuine PLO organizations in Geneva or Paris. Not one of the men agreed; even the remote chance of arrest was not worth risking. They had wives and children now, and that was that for the once fearsome Black September.

It is doubtful if anybody in the PLO has read the philosopher Roger Bacon, but in his essay Of Marriage and the Single Life, a good three hundred years before Black September, he had this insightful preview of the process.

The solution devised by Abu Iyad, one of Arafat’s closest people was weirdly brilliant. Since they

couldn’t kill off these young men why not get them

married? It sounds bizarre, but they basically opened up

“He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune, for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief.” [Emphasis mine.]

It also seems to confirm a hypothesis of mine that most violent crusaders, in any age or clime, are usually young men who couldn’t get laid.

a matrimonial agency. They travelled all over the world,

in every country where Palestinians had taken refuge, identifying the most beautiful young girls, and making them a patriotic offer they couldn’t refuse. “Chairman a vital mission that he wants to personally Arafat has communicate to you in Beirut, something which will

benefit our people” Who could refuse? One hundred of these girls turned up in Beirut and were introduced at ‘events’ to the young men of Black September, also

coincidentally numbering about a hundred. Nature, it was devoutly hoped, would do the rest.

A few points of interest. Perhaps this peculiar solution worked because it was an internal enterprise within the organization. Trying to arrange dates for terrorists may not be the way forward in all cases. In Ireland however the authorities found that sending convicted IRA home on weekend parole gave them a keen appreciation of all they were losing out on – children with absent fathers, ageing parents. Once the superhuman self‐confidence and belief in personal invulnerability of youth start fading, family and ordinary life hold more appeal than glorious causes. The parole prisoners never lapsed back into violence, so the germ of the idea is sound.

Just to nudge things along so that matters went

beyond flings, they threw some cash into the mix. Even today it sounds like a very good deal indeed. Anybody who got married would get a cash down payment of

3000 dollars – 1975 dollars!‐ along with an apartment in Beirut that would have a gas stove, a fridge and a television. Anybody who had a baby in the first year

after marriage would get an extra 5000 dollars bonus.

It sounded enormously stupid and amazingly it worked

on each and every one of the former killers. All of them settled down and most of them made babies and got on

with their lives. One should never underestimate the power of a good bribe.

It is also worth noting that Arafat realized the dangers of success and shut it down. Extreme measures had got them international recognition, legitimacy and influence. Continuing on that path would only lead to revulsion and rejection from the world and he dealt with it firmly. The solution was completely odd; that they considered it instead of some more macho alternative is very much to their credit.

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From a long ago … and another time

Questions of the Yaksha –

YAKSHA – What person rich in enjoyment of pleasures, intelligent, respected and liked, still does not live, though breathing?

YUDHISTHIRA – He who is not charitable to gods, guests, servants, ancestors and himself is not alive.

YAKSHA‐ What is heavier than the earth? What is higher than the heavens? What is fleeter than the wind? What is more numerous than grass?

A famous dialogue from the Mahabharata

YUDHISTHIRA – The Mother is heavier, i.e. more valuable, than the earth. The Father is higher than heaven. The mind is swifter than the wind. Thoughts outnumber grass.

YAKSHA – Who is the friend of the householder? Who is the friend of the exile? Who is the friend of the ill? And who befriends the one about to die?

{This Q and A comes from an episode in the epic when an earth spirit called a Yaksha refuses to let the exiled

king Yudhisthira drink from a pool until he answers his questions. It is a very long exposition of the values that

ancient India thought important. We offer a much version, for readers’ patience has not condensed usually kept pace with the continuing relevance of the

epic!}

YUDHISTHIRA – The wife is the friend of the householder or grihasta. The travelling companion is the friend in exile. The physician is the friend of the ill, and one’s good deeds are the friend of the dying.

YAKSHA – What protects virtue? What protects fame?

What upholds heaven? And what ensures happiness?

YUDHISTHIRA – A generous spirit protects virtue. Giving charitably protects fame. Truth upholds heaven and good behavior ensures happiness.

YAKSHA – What exalts a soul? On what is the soul established?

YUDHISTHIRA – Self–Awareness exalts a soul. The soul

YAKSHA – Who is the friend that men has been given by the gods?

is established on truth and pure knowledge.

YAKSHA ‐ By what does one become learned? By what does he attain what is great? How can one acquire intelligence?

YUDHISTHIRA – By studying books of wisdom one becomes learned. By unremitting toil – tapasya – one

YUDHISTHIRA‐ The wife indeed is a man’s best friend.

YAKSHA – What is most praiseworthy? What is most the valuable possession? What is best to gain? What kind of happiness is best?

YUDHISTHIRA – The most praiseworthy is Skill. The most valuable possession is knowledge. Health is best to gain. Contentment – santosha‐ is the highest happiness.

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From a long ago … and another time YAKSHA – What is the greatest of duties? What is that, if restrained, does not lead to regret? Who would never

break an allegiance?

YUDHISTHIRA – The greatest of duties is to refrain from

injuring another – ahinsa. The mind if restrained, never

leads to regret. The good never break an allegiance.

YAKSHA – What, if renounced, makes one agreeable?

What if renounced, leads to no regret? What, if renounced, makes one wealthy? What, if renounced makes one happy?

YUDHISTHIRA‐ Pride, if renounced, makes one agreeable. Wrath, if renounced, leads to no regret.

Desire, if renounced, makes one wealthy. And to

renounce avarice makes one happy.

YAKSHA‐ What is true restraint? What constitutes forgiveness? What is shame?

YUDHISTHIRA – Restraining the mind alone is true restraint. Enduring enmity and malice silently is true

forgiveness. To withdraw from all unworthy acts is shame.

YAKSHA – What is knowledge? Tranquility? What

constitutes benevolence ‐ daya? What has been called simplicity?

YUDHISTHIRA – True knowledge is Enlightenment.

Tranquility is always of the heart. To wish happiness to all is benevolence. Simplicity is equanimity of heart.

YUDHISTHIRA – Self satisfied ignorance is pride. Setting up ones personal values as a universal standard is hypocrisy. The grace of the gods is the fruits of our actions and wickedness is to slander others.

YAKSHA ‐ What does one gain in speaking agreeably?

What does he gain who acts with judgment? What does he gain who has many friends? What is gained by being devoted to virtue?

YUDHISTHIRA – He who speaks agreeably is beloved by all. To act with judgment is to gain what one seeks. To have many friends is to live happily. And to be virtuous ensures heaven.

YAKSHA ‐ Who is truly happy? What is the Path?

YUDHISTHIRA – Though cooking scanty vegetables a man who is debt free and does not have to leave his home is truly happy. That alone is the Path along which the great have trod.

YAKSHA – What is the eternal wonder? And what is the ever relevant news?

YUDHISTHIRA‐ Each day countless beings go to the abode of Yama, lord of death, yet each man secretly believes and acts as if he were immortal. That is the eternal wonder.

YAKSHA – What is the invincible enemy? What is the

incurable disease?

Who is the virtuous man and what is true vice?

YUDHISTHIRA – Anger is the invincible enemy. Greed is

the incurable disease. To desire the benefit of all living creatures is the mark of the virtuous man while to be

unmerciful is true vice.

What is ignorance? What is pride? What YAKSHA –

constitutes idleness? And what is grief?

YUDHISTHIRA ‐ Not knowing one’s sva‐dharma or life purpose} is ignorance. Pride consists {entelechy in thinking one controls all aspects of one’s life. Not to

be following sva‐dharma is idleness. Ignorance indeed is grief ‐ Dukkha.

YAKSHA – What is the source of desire? What is envy?

YUDHISTHIRA – The source of desire is possessions.

Envy is grief of heart.

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This world, full of ignorance is like a pan. The sun is fire, days and nights are the fuel. The months and seasons are the stirring ladle. Time – Kaala- is the cook; with such aids does he cook all creatures in the pan. That is the ever relevant news.

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The ‘Good Enough’ approach

The ‘Good Enough’ approach

The TLR Team

It is not as if the Netbook is not revolutionary in technical terms. It uses open source Linux, or used to, so that Microsoft wouldn’t need to be factored in, a flash memory instead of a drive, processors that require minimal power, and LCD panels that are smart enough to shut down when not required. Still the reason for which the Netbook was embraced was none of these. It was because the product was exactly what people want. This is was ‘trickle up’, reverse economics as it were, the bottom of the pyramid suddenly supplying value to the top. Net books are poised to become over 20 per cent of the market in 2010 and that figure is likely to grow.

What do the Tata Nano – world’s cheapest car, the MP3 music file, the Predator Drone – unmanned military strike plane, and the Netbook ‐ the laptop lite, have in common?

They are all part of an emerging, unintended consensus in satisfying users – sometimes you don’t need to be the best, it is okay to be Good Enough. In fact many times it is better. This is a direct contradiction of the pursuit of excellence and quality thinking that has been the dominant paradigm. The idea was always to cram features and cutting edge into a product and wait for appreciative users to lap them up in huge numbers.

However, as each of these four illustrative examples show, you may not need to do the very best you possibly can to get them to buy and buy. You only need to be Good Enough.

Netbook proved that people were basically overloading their computer with a lot of features that they might use, but usually never got round to. Email, surfing, streaming videos, that is what people need. Only industry professionals need heavy hardware. Add to the factor that cloud computing means most of your computer tasks have been taken over by the browser, and your normal desktop turned out to be the equivalent of keeping a cannon in reserve to swat a mosquito. You don’t even need Photoshop anymore for example unless you are a professional. Something like FotoFlexer will do the low tech job most of need to edit our pictures and more importantly it is free online. The Netbook understood that for most people a computer is of no use when it not online. In other words it is Good Enough. Not being able to play DVDS is a small trade‐off.

The Net Book is the prime example of this apparent contradiction. It was primarily designed to be a very cheap, sturdy and long on power alternative for developing countries where all these factors are vital. The developed countries already had their desktops and laptops were soon rendering even them redundant. To the complete surprise of the industry, as well as the person who designed them – Mary Lou Jepsen for MIT visionary Nicholas Negroponte’s initiative, One Laptop per child ‐ the net book became a howling hit. Europe embraced it faster than the Americas. Everybody, it seemed wanted a small computer they could tote around to check the mail and news and their Facebook profiles on.

The Tata Nano is another example of Good

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The ‘Good Enough’ approach also to launch near pinpoint accurate strikes. It is more than Good Enough. The Predator has logged in over 250 000 flight hours over Iraq, Afghanistan, the Balkans and our dear neighbor Pakistan.

Enough. The average person in India don’t really want a powerful monster car able to accelerate from 0 to 60 in seconds. For one thing there are no free roads to do it on and for another you would hit somebody before you ever got to 60. Yet a small cheap car beats walking, or waiting for and then actually riding in public transportation. The Nano is Good Enough, both for the financial and road reality. Tata Motors has chutzpah and they took the Nano to a university in the USA to see what the students thought of it. They complained about the lack of cup holders and points to plug in electronic devices but otherwise they thought it made a very sensible option for university life. Does anybody think Tata cannot put those in? And will students hesitate to buy a fully functional car that complies with environmental and safety norms and is cheaper than the music system in luxury cars?

This phenomenon of Good Enough might at first glance seem like the Indian reality of ‘Chalega’ – or ‘It will do’. The concept of Good Enough is not to settle into a comfortable mediocrity or overlook incompetence with the belief that it doesn’t matter. Good Enough implies that there is a certain point beyond which you do not need to push quality for the larger mass of users; specialists can be serviced by quality niche products. For most people something that functions simply and reasonably well, does not break down often, and is cheap is Good Enough.

The MP3 story is even more instructive. Initially the music industry was not worried because the format produced sound quality that was, and in most cases, remains, awful. But smaller audio file size meant that music could get, first into the computer and then onto the Net. Sharing music, purchasing it and the sheer volume of what you could tote around proved to be more important than sound quality. The MP3 was Good Enough. In fact young people seem to have become so accustomed to its audio quirks that they actually prefer its sound and tone to the more conventional hi definition recordings. At least Jonathan Berger, Professor of Music at Stanford, says so after studying his students for six years. They have adapted to evolution!

The US military would probably be the last place that would embrace Good Enough. However the Predator Drone unmanned striker plane has confounded them in providing most value for money. Piloted aircraft are superior in ever possible respect; Predators are slower, fly lower and carry less weaponry but Predators, a propeller craft for crying out loud, have proved to be the most valuable! For one thing you can keep a Predator flying over a hot spot 20 hours a day, something not possible with manned flights. If shot down, well it is much cheaper than any other plane, a replacement can be sent up and nobody dies. A Predator enables the military to have constant visual of the target area, called ‘situational awareness’ and

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Book Review

Changing Tracks: Reinventing the Spirit of Indian Railways

This book is a workmanlike account of how the

Indian Railways went from near bankruptcy in 2001 to mega surplus in 20008, and made Lalu Prasad Yadav into a

business guru, at least in the media. It is an interesting and revealing account, not least for demonstrating an inclusive

Indian way to getting things done and achieving desirable instead of mowing employees down to cut objectives, costs. V. Nilakant {who is on the faculty at the Department

of Management, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand} has, along with S. Ramnarayan {on the

faculty of Indian School of Business, Hyderabad} turned

engaging book about the critical years out a surprisingly 2004 to 2008 when Indian Railways finally woke up and

realized some of its potential. The authors themselves were surprised to realize there was a real valuable story in

this process, not just fruitful research material.

In transforming itself the Railways shattered many prevalent and erroneous beliefs. The three most seemingly

impregnable were:

1. Large organizations are almost impossible to change

for their meticulous research and sheer tolerance for drudgery; readers do not always realize how much labor goes into discovering the telling example.

The book is a testament to the Indian virtues of compromise and ‘jugaad’, which seem to be at the core of successful emotional intelligence too. The Minister Yadav was very fortunate in having a perfect buffer in his Officer on Special Duty, Sudhir Kumar, a man possessed of great patience and understanding, as well as tenacity to get his agenda fulfilled. Passengers were not to be troubled with fare increases and productivity was to be increased.

Nobody was to be coerced and safety could not be compromised. These were the basic rules, and all change had to acknowledge them. Sudhir Kumar proved adept at listening to people and validating them and very soon the people he was listening to had become his champions for change in their departments. Yadav proved to have a deft touch in EQ also, contrary to his public image of abrasiveness. He went so far as to restrict political interference with officials of the Railways!!

What comes across in all the incidents reported is how much talent, competence and ability lies unutilized in our services. Given the slightest favorable environment this talent could bring about significant changes. Also nobody was, forgive the pun, railroaded into changes.

Until consensus was obtained, Yadav and Kumar held their peace, but they did not stop seeking internal champions and they never gave up on their vision to make the Railways a profitable organization. “Unless a cow is fully

2. Government organizations should act like private corporations to succeed

3. Financial incentives are necessary to motivate people

The Indian railways experience up‐ended these hitherto self evident nostrums and proved them to be prejudices at best. The book is replete with illuminating details as to how this came about. The authors are to be commended

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Book Review milked it will fall ill” was Yadav’s pithy categorization of being humiliated. Simple things like providing laptops, cell the process to fully utilize all capacity, resources and phones, a car and domestic help to managers went a long way to energize them and soften the call of the private abilities of the Railways. A favorite technique was creeping

incrementalism. If somebody opposed free upgrades on sector. Bonuses and rewards were handed out liberally. passenger trains then they were not forced to make the By focusing on results, changes were seen to changes. Kumar went to the extent of suggesting merely a completion. This required patience, skilful handling of

week’s trial on just one route to see if it caused the system people, willingness to back away, being prompt to to collapse. When it did not, and when the person apologize when stepping on toes, and generally trusting concerned retired, the free upgrades were implemented that your people will do a great job when they are not no fuss. Nobody lost face, nobody was fired all over with fearful or humiliated. and things took a little longer but they got done.

The results are well known; the Railways Once the people in the Railways realized that they had the turnaround is one of contemporary India’s great success Minister’s backing for serious change they began to stories. manifest chutzpah levels of creativity. To arbitrarily The book is of great value for anybody trying to

increase freight loads, to even recommend it would have understand how to effect change in India. Perhaps even in been a career killer, but one bright soul realized that he other environments, offering a creative alternative instead

had carte blanche, under existing provisions, to conduct of the slash costs, fire people and outsource everything

experiments.

So long as his documentation and approach that is so popular. Anybody connected with procedures were rigorous he could basically attempt to management, administrations or organizations will find

solve the maximum load limit conundrum. When the data value in this book. It is also a catalyst for creative thinking, proved irrefutable, nobody could really object and Indian improving performance and innovative approaches to

Railways began carrying more freight than they had ever seemingly intractable situations.

done. It was ironic, because a flourishing corrupt revenue V. Nilakant and S. Ramnarayan have turned out a stream in overloading carriages had already proved the readable, useful and pertinent book for our changing point that loads could be increased with no safety fears!! times. They have not ignored the many problems that still

it in terms that were But somebody needed to champion dog the Railways, most importantly the stunning lack of acceptable and comprehensible within the logic of the passenger conveniences. However, given the situation in

system.

2001 when the Railways were becoming an irrelevant and The four key principles that the authors deduced much disliked dinosaur, and what they have achieved till from this fascinating period 2004 ‐ 2008 were now, let us too focus on the positives and give three

To change requires you leverage the strengths of hopeful cheers for the future. the organization instead of focusing on its weaknesses. In

one sense the entire book is about this one principle. The are so obvious and numerous nothing would weaknesses Changing Tracks ever get done if they were allowed centre stage.

Reinventing the Spirit of Change mindsets. In every area, costs revenues, Indian Railways business models and so on there were investments entrenched biases which substituted for clear thinking.

The Indian Railways managed to make its call centre into a revenue earner, something unique and unprecedented,

one of those just‐cant‐be‐done things that somehow India

manages to do.

Publishers: Collins Business An imprint of Harper Collins Price: Rs 399

Momentum for change was sustained by fostering positive emotions. Nobody had to fear for their jobs or

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Ponder This!

An on-going series of thought provoking quotations from the best of human thought...

“Forget about likes and dislikes. They are of no consequence. Just do what must be done.

This may not be happiness, but it is greatness.”

“A man’s ability, or lack of ability, resembles the behavior of a rat.

Everything depends on where he locates himself – like a granary or a lavatory.”

Li Si Contemporary of Chanakya and Aristotle and advisor to the First Emperor of China

George Bernard Shaw

“I have learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

The poet Maya Angelou

“The worst affliction of our age; what is it, then?

I shall tell you. It is quite simply, stupidity, which seeps, like a corrosive poison through every level of society, and lays its blighting hand on every aspect of social, professional, political and cultural life.”

The grand old man of Canadian letters Robertson Davies from his talk, Can a Doctor be a Humanist?

Per ardua ad astra ‐ Latin saying

“The way to the stars, [i.e. great and enduring success], is hard”

“Just because I like applause and people to rave about me, doesn’t make it right.

I’m sick of not having the courage to be an absolute nobody.”

From Franny Glass

By J.D. Salinger, who died in 2010

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Worth a Thousand Words

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The Leadership Review - Issue 1, Vol. 1, June 2010 For private circulation only.

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