anna hazare patriarch of the indian anti-corruption...

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Vol. II, Issue III, Mumbai, March 2016, Pages:76, Price: Rs 100

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Anna Hazare Patriarch of theIndian Anti-Corruption Movement

GR Khairnar Making of theDemolition Man

COLUMNThe Chanakya Way

INTERVIEWThe Plucky Entrepreneur

Mohit Dubey, Co-founder and CEO, CarWale

Everyday Heroism — Stories of Leadership in Action

EditorialIt’s a proud moment for the TLR Team to bring to a select audience a full-fledged narrative on making live the stories we captured in print. These are a remarkable collection of individuals, by no means even a representative sample, who have through courage, audacity and hopefulness thrown fresh light on the idea of leadership for everyday application.

Hamlet has struggled, in the Shakespearean play, with the idea of decisive choice. “Whether it is nobler in the mind to bear the strings and arrows of outrageous fortune OR to take up arms against a sea of troubles and end them?”

It has been/put very generally decided in favour of ‘arms against a sea of troubles’. There is romance in the dilemma and much poetry surrounds that sentiment in subsequent literature. The world has learnt pragmatic lessons in the meanwhile. The world moved on through war, starvation, inequality and exploitation; has created nuclear capacity for large-scale destruction. Technology has brought in incredible ways to harm and hurt. The Hamlet dilemma no longer exists. The US spent $1.3 trillion before they could, serendipitously, get to Osama Bin Laden. $1.3 trillion at that time was the GDP of India.

Sixth century BC was a remarkable time on earth. You had Buddha, Mahavira, Confucius, Lau Tsu, Hiraclitus as contemporaries. The lessons then taught have not been superseded. These sages chose another response to the Hamlet dilemma. They chose suffering, personal reflection, social and moral good, courage. Buddha for one did suggest that “it is noble in the mind to bear the slings and arrows” and then went on to explore the meaning of suffering and found none, except as a human construct having no lasting legitimacy.

On that time line you hit the renaissance and subsequently, rampant, rapacious industrialisation. The uncompromising belligerence of colonialism and exploitation funded by Darwinism and the survival of the fittest. Nietzsche gave it a voice and the energy that culminated in the two world wars. It took a good fifty years to build up what was so comprehensively destroyed.

Once again we are at crossroads with the word terrorism itself becoming global. Fissiparous tendencies gaining ground in so many nations in the world. Amongst the overarching narrative of mixed feelings of despair and hope, the Ideatum is an attempt to share the light gleaned from individuals who have put their shoulders to task and committed to doing good where they are; in their own manner. This is the new synthesis that we must navigate the temporary but viscous antitheses.

Amongst the staggering statistics of despair around poverty, child and maternal mortality, starvation, deathly global disparity, I find reasons for hope. Our solutions have to be constructed around “sarve bhavantu sukhi naha…”. Let the whole world experience happiness and peace. The Ideatum — TLR Live is an attempt to celebrate that.

R Rajeshwar UpadhyayaEditor-in-Chief

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Con

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s FeatureEmotional Intelligence

Part I

Anna HazareTransformation of Ralegan Siddhi

Progressive Leadership Pooja Warier

The Benefactor of Social Entrepreneurship- TLR Team

24


Head - Operations Sharad Mathur

Sr Sub-EditorKameshwar Upadhyaya

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Progressive Leadership

GR KhairnarMaking of the Original

Demolition Man- Sharad Mathur48

Progressive Leadership

ServeAn answer to the horrors of Contemporary School Education

- Dr Br Brendan MacCarthaigh 71

Sub-EditorsAarushi IngleshwarAbiramiChristina BirdPranita KulkarniRajShekhar

Design & GraphicsChetan Dubey

Editor-in-Chief R Rajeshwar Upadhyaya

Head - Advisory CouncilDr Sujaya Banerjee


Vol.II Issue II, March 2016

InterviewInterview

The Plucky EntrepreneurMohit Dubey

Co-founder and CEO, CarWale .com

Part II

Anna HazarePatriarch of the Indian Anti-

corruption- Sharad Mathur13

59

6

The First Thing We Must Do to

Deserve Better Leaders - R Rajeshwar Upadhyaya

Column

20

Leading in the Time of Adversity:Passing the baton of leadership

- Dr Sujaya Banerjee

Bringing Trust and Credibility in An

Intercultural Work Environment

- Jill Sheldekar35

Wisdom Tradition

The Chanakya Way- Dr Radhakrishnan Pillai 41

A Counter to the Grand Narrative of

Indian Corporate Sector

- Sanjay Ranade55

29

Performance Appraisal Gone Wild7 Reasons Why the Performance Review System is Broken Beyond Repair

- Joseph A Hopper65


Sharad Mathur

Anna Hazare Transformation of Ralegan Siddhi


Emotional Intelligence

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Having driven for almost four hours, I reached the ground zero of veteran Gandhian Anna Hazare’s sphere of influence – Ralegan Siddhi. It was around lunch time and I stopped at a dhaaba (roadside restaurant) in the village which had an all women management. Behind this dhaaba, I could see the village high school campus which housed a full-fledged computer lab and boasted of CCTV cameras in its classrooms. At a distance there was a branch of Bank of Maharashtra, an ATM booth and a post office. The village was covered in greenery and at every 20m or so I could see a water harvesting structure. And yet, all the roads in the village were squeaky clean, well paved in tar and I could not find any potholes. There were no cows squatting on the roads either. Instead, I saw some sedans and SUVs parked outside some houses.

This did not match the mental image of an Indian village that Bollywood movies, news reports, and documentary films had painted in my head. So, just to be sure, I asked my hostess if this was indeed Ralegan Siddhi. Serving missal-paav (a snack popular in Maharashtra) she nodded and pointed at the portrait of Anna Hazare hanging on the wall and said “He did it.” Later during the day when I met Anna Hazare in the Yadav Baba temple, I tried to find out how.

Making of the Man

Born in a small village Bhingar, Anna Hazare was named Baburao by his parents. He, along with his six younger siblings, had a very humble upbringing. When he was nine years old, his family moved to their ancestral village Ralegan Siddhi where he would bring about a transformation and assume the title of Anna (translates to elder brother). But before that he went through many tumultuous experiences, which made him wiser than his years.

Since there was no primary school in Ralegan Siddhi then, he was taken to Mumbai by his maternal uncle. “I went to Mumbai for higher studies after class five. My family was not very well to do. But I had my mother’s sanskaars (roughly translates to morals),“ remembers Hazare. However, not an affluent man himself, his uncle could support his education only till class seven. After that young Hazare, had to sell flowers near the Dadar railway station to survive

When he was nine years old, his family moved to their ancestral village Ralegan Siddhi where he would bring about a transformation and assume the title of Anna (translates to elder brother).


Exterior of Anna Hazare’s organisation based out of Ralegan Siddhi


and support his family. With tremendous self-confidence and inner strength, he grew his flower business and in some years he had two flower shops.

Another example of his self-confident ways also comes from his days in Mumbai where he noticed a gang of goons forcing poor tenants out of rented rooms on behest of landlords. He decided to help the poor tenants and formed an action group consisting of local youngsters. He recalls, “We went to them peacefully and asked them to stop harassing the poor people who are but only looking to put food on their plates. But it did not work. That’s when we told them that we will not hesitate in responding to them in their own language of force.” For a young man with no political connections it was a brave move. But it worked and the poor tenants were left alone.

Then came the fateful year of 1962, the year of Indo-China war, and an 18-year-old Hazare was drafted during the emergency military recruitment drives, despite not meeting the physical requirements.

Making of the Mahatma

During his stint in the military, Baburao was posted in Sikkim, Jammu-Kashmir, Rajasthan, Assam, Mizoram, some of them conflict zones. He survived a sneak attack by Naga rebels while all others in the vehicle succumbed. Having seen poverty, struggle, and now death, Hazare often found himself contemplating about the meaning of life. Not finding conclusive answers, even the thought of suicide crossed his mind. I believe he did not commit suicide because the thought of it had not come from dejection, but from one of the answers he considered, and this nihilist answer did not appeal to him because at the root of this contemplation was the pursuit of personally relevant and meaning objectives for his life. And soon, he found a meaningful objective for his life in Swami Vivekananda’s ideas collated in his book “Call to the Youth for Nation Building”. Hazare remembers, “At the New Delhi railway station, I got my hands on this book by Swami Vivekananda and it changed my life. I realised that the purpose of my life was to serve others.”

This resolve to serve was strengthened during the 1965 Indo-Pak war which proved to be a turning point in Hazare’s life. He pointed towards an injury

Having seen poverty, struggle, and now death, Hazare often found himself contemplating about the meaning of life. Not finding conclusive answers, even the thought of suicide crossed his mind.


Image Source: The Guardian


mark above his right eye and told me, “In 1965, in Khemkaran sector, there was an air-attack in which all my unit members gave the supreme sacrifice but I survived only with a minor injury. I was gifted a new life. It was my punarjanma (reincarnation). So, I decided to dedicate it to the service of society and the country. What better way was there for it than serving to reduce the suffering of its poor?” Naturally so; he already saw serving the poor as a worthy objective in his life. He was not alien to the fact that his emotional unrest was rooted in him not being able to defeat the poverty he witnessed while growing up. Life threatening incidences and the inspiring words of Vivekananda only made it much clearer to him.

He resolved not to get married because he believed that while taking care of the family, he would have little time for his new-found purpose in life. He is in his late seventies now and has not set foot in his ancestral house in the last 40 years. He lives in the Yadav Baba temple and his worldly possessions include bedding, a plate, and few cotton clothes. He embodies tyaaga.

Ralegan Siddhi: A Place in Dire Straits

Pre-1975 Ralegan Siddhi was a village suffering from the tribulations of modernity without actually experiencing any of its fruits. Indiscriminate use of natural resources, soil depletion, water run-off and recurring draught were resulting in low agricultural produce. Digging of wells was of no recourse as there was no water even at the depths of 400m. With every failed crop, the grip of poverty over the village tightened. Almost all the villagers were farmers and 70% of them lived below the poverty line. A village of farmers failed to meet even one-third of its food requirements. When people themselves did not have enough to eat, rearing the livestock was a distant proposition. Moneylenders were growing strong and poor farmers stuck in perpetually increasing debt, were losing their land.

The landless farmers had to resort to breaking quarry stones outside the village or migrate to the cities to work as daily wage labourers. Earning from both these sources was just not enough for the families which on an average had 7-8 members. That is when some villagers discovered illicit liquor trade as a lucrative career option. Soon there were 40 odd illicit liquor dens in Ralegan Siddhi. With these liquor dens came the problem of alcoholism, which brought about vandalism, street brawls, theft, and violence against women. Even in this gloomy scenario, untouchability was still being practiced in the village. Dalits (translates to downtrodden) were not allowed to draw water from the village well, were asked to sit separately at village meetings, and were the last ones to be served food.

There was a primary school in the village, which village children did not attend regularly. Cleanliness was absent from almost all parts of the village and diseases related to unsanitary conditions were prevalent. Infant mortality rate was very high and people had to take loan for hospital expenses. Daughters still needed to be wedded and it added to the mountain of loan whose weight farmers were carrying. Government schemes were not reaching the poor and corruption was prevalent.

“When I was in the military, during holidays, I used to come back to village to see my village in dire straits. I used to spend most of the time at the devi’s (goddess’) temple outside the village. In those short trips I could not do much. Moreover, with no other source of income other than my military service, I

He resolved not to get married because he believed that while taking care of the family, he would have little time for his new-found purpose in life. He is in his late seventies now, has not set foot in his ancestral house in the last 40 years.

The Leadership Review | March 2016 |9Back to the content page

did not want to become a burden on my family. So, I served from 1965 to 1975, till the time I became eligible for voluntary retirement with government pension,” says Hazare.

Return of the Prodigal Son

After retiring from the military, he returned to his village with his provident fund and gratuity money, a sum of Rs. 22,000. He did not go to his house. He went to the debilitated Yadav Baba temple and spent all his money on the renovation of the temple. “They saw me spending my own money on the temple and they were shocked. They were more shocked when I did not ask them for their money.” To a largely Hindu population of the village, this was an evidence of Hazare’s concern for the community and the sincerity of his dedication to contribute to the village. This moved the villagers, more so the elderly and religious.

The villagers started coming to the temple, which no longer looked like a haunted site. With villagers coming in, discussions around the village problems also started happening and the Yadav Baba temple became the community center for the village. Since the villagers were poor could not help with money for the development of this new found community center but they wanted to help. Recognising, understanding, and appreciating how the villagers felt, Hazare introduced the idea of shramdaan (donating of one’s labour or efforts) which would transform the village in coming years. More importantly, it was the beginning of a relationship that was characterised by trust and compassion. “They saw what I wore. What I ate. Where I lived. What I did. That’s how trust was inspired. Once they started trusting me, they were open to listening to me,” says Anna.

The Wheel of Transformation

Nashabandi (Alcohol Ban)

After he had established trust with the villagers, he first sought to address the problem of alcoholism and illicit liquor in the village. Without this, no reforms could be sustained. However, Anna knew people engaged in illicit liquor trade because there was virtually no alternative available to them for earning their daily bread. Hazare knew it was not going to be an easy task. “People in their elements are selfish. One can talk to them about the samaaj (society), the country, and how we need to change them together but it is of no use. They are more interested in what is in it for them. They do not need the sermons of enlightenment. They need to know how to put food on their plate,” says Hazare. Demonstrating his understanding of this perspective and remaining respectful of the community’s feelings, Hazare urged them to give up the liquor trade with a promise of alternate livelihood. Tarun Mandal, originally constituting 25 dedicated young men, highly passionate about the work Hazare was doing, was instrumental in convincing the villagers. The agreement to stop the illicit liquor trade was made in the temple premises, thus giving it a religious sanctity. In next three months, most illicit liquor dens were closed. Those who opposed this were ‘convinced’ to toe the line by the community.

The villagers started coming to the temple, which no longer looked like a haunted site. With villagers coming in, discussions around the village problems also started happening and the Yadav Baba temple became the community center for the village.

The Leadership Review | March 2016 | 10 Back to the content page

Making Water Available

Fulfilling his promise, Hazare helped the villagers get seasonal jobs in government’s rural development programmes and many of them were also inspired to join the army. However, to make this predominantly agrarian village prosperous, he knew it was vital to solve the problem of paucity of water. The first step towards it was construction of nalla bunds (open drains bunds), through shramdaan, which would stop the soil runoff and aid in water percolation. At the same time, a state government sponsored project was started in the village which included nalla bunding, contour bunding and land shaping for soil conservation. Like any government project, it was marred by corruption and lack of accountability. Resisting his impulse to complain or protest against the officials involved, he devised a unique solution to this problem in which emotions were running high. Villagers were desperate and situation could have escalated and impacted the project negatively. He mobilised the villagers to do shramdaan for the project to increase its efficiency and while at it, monitor the project to ensure that all the technical specifications were adhered to while constructing tanks and bunds. And the same arrangement worked with the renovation of the percolation tank which was done with the zilla parishad (district council) officials. Now, the villagers were not the passive beneficiaries but were active participants in government projects. All the able- bodied villagers contributed one day of shramdaan every fortnight to plant trees and other community work. The frequency increased when the labour for government projects was required.

The ground water levels had increased but farmers could not afford to build wells in their fields. The solution to that was formation of cooperative societies in which a group of farmers with adjoining fields would dig a community well.

The Leadership Review | March 2016 |11

Shramdaan at Ralegan Siddhi


Since, Ralegan-Siddhi is a draught prone area, draught occurred every two to three years, often consecutively. A big step towards ensuring sufficient water for irrigation, even during draught, was to lift water from the Kukadi canal which passed three km away from the village. It was not the first attempt at setting up a lift irrigation system on the Kukadi canal. Hundred such attempts had failed earlier. However, a hopeful and resilient Anna Hazare went about it anyway with a positive outlook. A cooperative society from the village Krishna Pani Purvatha Society took a loan from Bank of Maharashtra and villagers did shramdaan as with every development project. This worked because Hazare recognized the need for objectivity as emotions or personal bias can wreck havoc in collective efforts. The committee of directors for the cooperative changed every three years and accounts were presented in the Annual General Meeting. Water and electricity charges were fixed as per the government norms. All payments were to be made to the bank directly. To avoid water wastage, farmers needed to state demand of water in advance and if they failed to do that, they had to pay double the rate.

Now since water was available even in the summers, farmers were able to get two crops every year and the income from one crop rose to Rs. 35,000-40,000 per acre from Rs. 10,000 per acre in the absence of lift canal. “In a village where people did not have food on their own plates, 200-250 trucks full of onion and fresh vegetables started going out to the market,” Hazare proudly tells me.

Social Reforms

Anna Hazare’s model of transformation, has essentially been driven with the philosophy of ‘one for all and all for one’. Setting up of grain banks which were the insurance against crop failure and draught ensured that no one in the village ever slept hungry or had to borrow money to buy food grains. He mobilised the villagers to contribute in cash and kind for building Sant Nilobaray Vidyalaya (high school) which focuses on character building, physical fitness, and religious morals along with academics. The school got recognition from the Zilla Parishad after a struggle which included Hazare going on a fast until death. Education has helped improve the standard of living in the village as many young men have joined armed forces and other government functions.

Community toilets were built and villagers took it upon themselves to keep the village clean. The village health center began to function well with the support and involvement of the villagers. With better hygiene and medical facilities available, maternal mortality cases became extinct and infant mortality rate came down to 27.42 per 1000 live births, much lower than the national average.

Hazare inspired the villagers to do shramdaan and build houses for dalits near the temple; they no longer lived in the outskirts. They were now the members of Tarun Mandal and gram panchayat. They participated in community marriages. They were the part of the team that would cook and serve the food in the village temple during community gatherings.

Ralegan Siddhi was transformed.

Community toilets were built and villagers took it upon themselves to keep the village clean. The village health center began to function well with the support and involvement of the villagers. With better hygiene and medical facilities available, maternal mortality cases became extinct and infant mortality rate came down.



Anna HazareThe Patriach of the

Indian Anti-corruption Movement

Sharad MathurEmotional Intelligence


During his transformation of Ralegan Siddhi, Anna Hazare utilised his moral authority (a la Gandhi) to a large extent. He called for a boycott of alcohol and smoking in the village and villagers complied. “It was Holi, the festival that represents the triumph of good over evil, and I asked my fellow villagers to avoid these things that have evil influence on our village. I asked them to burn the cigarettes, the beedis (Indian cigarettes), zarda and gutka (two forms of chewable tobacco). The villagers bought every last piece available in the village and burnt them in the grand Holi pyre,” says Hazare emphatically. Since that day, for the last 16 years, tobacco products have not been sold in Ralegan Siddhi. This moral authority, arising from his Indian ascetic appeal, would help him lead much bigger movements in time to come.

The Anti Corruption Movement of Maharashtra

In 1991, Anna Hazare launched Bhrashtachar Virodhi Jan Andolan (BVJA, People’s Movement against Corruption) to take on the corruption in government machinery. Telling me why he chose to fight the war on corruption, he says, “Looking at the government development work in Ralegan Siddhi, I could see a lot of perforation of resources happening. I had to oppose it.” He got action initiated against 40 forest officials for their collusion with timber merchants. The scope of this fight against organised corruption increased when he was given the responsibility of leading the government’s Adarsh Gaon Yojna (ideal village scheme). He travelled across Maharashtra and selected 300 villages under this scheme and during this he saw that organised corruption in the government machinery was hampering development work in the rural areas. “Wherever I saw corruption, I opposed it. I toured all over Maharashtra 18 times. I went to 33 districts and 252 blocks within the state. Soon it assumed shape of a movement,” Hazare tells me.

Being the one who expresses his opinions openly, he did not fear demanding action against two ministers in the state government who had amassed assets disproportionate to their income. He sat on a hunger strike in Alandi and the government was forced to set up an inquiry, post which two ministers and 400 officers were sacked. In 2003, he undertook a fast until death to raise the issue of corruption by four ministers in Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) government. To end his fast, the government was forced to set-up a one-man commission headed by retired justice PB Sawant to probe his charges. Three of these ministers – Sureshdada Jain, Nawab Malik, and Padmasinh Patil – were indicted in the commission’s report and had to resign.

He also faced retribution while fighting corruption. In 1997, he accused the then social welfare minister Baban Gholap for receiving kickbacks for siphoning off government corporations’ funds into a bankrupt private bank. In response, the minister filed a defamation suit against Hazare. The latter was indicted by the court and was asked to give an undertaking that he will not make such allegations anymore. Known for his courage of conviction, Hazare could not accept it. However, he asserted his position by politely refusing to do so and chose to go to jail for three months instead. He defended his rights and values without being offensive to the honourable court. Subsequently, due to public pressure, the Shiv Sena-BJP government was forced to release Anna Hazare. Later in 1999, Hazare’s stand was vindicated when Gholap was convicted of corruption and sentenced to a

“Looking at the government development work in Ralegan Siddhi, I could see a lot of perforation of resources happening. I had to oppose it.”


three years imprisonment by an anti-corruption court.

When I asked him how he not only bore the tremendous stress but also positively managed it into a driving force, he told me “In the last 30 years, I am tolerating insults. Six corrupt cabinet ministers in Maharashtra government were sent packing, 400 corrupt officers were sacked. Did it happen through my words? Did I ask them to leave and they left? They slandered me. They sued me. They threw me in jail. But I was prepared to bear it all. Once you are prepared to bear it all, there is nothing they can do. Keep working truthfully because truth alone triumphs.”

The RTI Movement

“When you hold the government by the nose, its mouth opens. Six cabinet ministers were sent home. Four hundred officers were dismissed. Then I thought to myself, has corruption been eliminated only by the exit of these corrupt politicians and government servants. I realised only this was not enough. We needed to change the system. My first step towards this was the Right to Information (RTI) movement,” remembers Hazare.

He pressed the Maharashtra government to legislate an act for right to information (RTI). His first campaign was organized at the Azad Maidan, Mumbai, in 1997. He went from one village to another in Maharashtra to awaken the people. He told them that on January 26, 1950, India had become a republic and the people had become the masters of this nation. The national treasure is theirs. They have only sent the MLAs and MPs to plan the use of

“When you hold the government by the nose, its mouth opens. Six cabinet ministers were sent home. Four hundred officers were dismissed.”


Anna Hazare’s take on leadership:“Is there a dearth of leaders? For every legislative assembly seat there are at least 25 candidates contesting the elections. In general elections this number is even higher!

Does this show that we have enough leaders? No. This is not leadership.

For leadership – may it be about leading a village, or a locality, or the nation – four factors are very important.

• Shhudh aachar (Purity of action)

• Shhudh vichaar (Purity of thought)

• Nishkalank jeevan (A life without blemish) – If there is blemish of wrongdoings on one’s character, one can’t sleep peacefully. Even if the world does not know, the person knows himself.

• Tyaga – It has been Indian tradition for thousands of years, that for society and nation’s betterment, someone has to do the tyaaga. You get the crops, ears of maize filled with grains, only when one seed grain dissolves itself in the ground.

Power to bear insult – Do not answer insults with words. Answer with your deeds. If we respond to it in words, it results in acrimony. If we respond in action, there is nothing the other party can do.”


their money. It is their right to know how and where their money is being spent.

With the increasing public awareness, government had to consider Hazare’s demand and promised to legislate the RTI Act. However, it was not really doing much to fulfil this promise and allowed many sessions of legislative assembly to pass by without presenting the bill. This only fuelled Hazare’s determination. Finally, with a do or die zeal, Hazare went on fast-unto-death in Mumbai’s Azaad Maidan on August 9, 2002. With a spark in his eye, Hazare recalls the consequences of this, “I staged a dharna (protest). On the 12th day, the president of India signed the Maharashtra RTI act. Although there was no need for sending it to Delhi, then Maharashtra government did it anyway to delay the passing of the act. I met the then home minister of India, Lal Krishna Advani, and asked him to expedite the process.” Cheeky as he was, he told Advani, “If it does not happen, I might have to come to Delhi for a dharna.” Advani promptly sent it to the president for his signature. Maharashtra thus became the first state in India to grant a right to information (RTI) to its citizens.

From working to uplift his own village, to fighting the corruption, and now to winning the right to information for all 110 million citizens of his state Maharashtra, Hazare successfully adapted his emotions, thoughts and behaviours to unfamiliar, unpredictable, and dynamic circumstances and ideas.

India Against Corruption

Explaining the beginning of his involvement with the India Against Corruption movement, Hazare told me, “I was running my anti-corruption and RTI movement in Maharashtra. But I was not alone. Other people were also doing the same in different parts of the country, albeit without as much success. Some of them came to meet me and wanted get my support. Then in Delhi an anti-corruption movement was launched under the name India Against Corruption.”

The main aim of this movement was to alleviate corruption from government machinery in India through the passing of a strong Jan Lokpal bill (people’s ombudsman bill). Hazare demanded that in the drafting of Lokpal and Lokayukta (two forms of ombudsman) bills there should be an involvement of people. The movement gained momentum in April 2011, when Hazare held a fast-unto-death at Jantar Mantar in Delhi after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh rejected the demand. This attracted a lot of support for the movement from all quarters. His moral authority was influencing people across the nation. Spontaneous protests in his support erupted in different Indian cities and many eminent people from public sphere openly supported his demand. Bowing down, as most governments do in face of public protests, the central government constituted a joint committee which had five senior ministers of the government and five civil society representatives. The current president of India, Pranab Mukherjee who was then the finance minister, was appointed chairman of this committee.

However, the seeds of conflict in this drafting committee were clearly visible in its first meeting on April 16, 2012. While the government agreed to audio record the proceedings of this committee, it refused Hazare’s demand of telecasting them live to ensure utmost transparency. The differences only escalated and the government representatives wanted to submit two drafts to the cabinet if consensus was not reached. Anna saw through this ploy for side-tracking the concerns of the members of civil society and did not agree to it. With the government’s non-cooperative stance, Hazare planned a fast with his team of activists on August 16, 2011. The government did not want him to do that and imposed section 144 (which prohibited a public gathering of more than five people to crush Hazare’s movement) and got Hazare arrested along with 1200 of his supporters. Even though he was sent to the

Cheeky as he was, he told Advani, “If it does not happen, I might have to come to Delhi for a dharna.” Advani promptly sent it to the president for his signature. Maharashtra thus became the first state in India to grant a right to information (RTI) to its citizens.


Tihar jail as he refused to sign the bail bond, he did not end his fast.

This act of defiance on part of Hazare fuelled protests across the country. Parliament was unable to function due to uproar by the opposition on this issue. Hazare called his struggle the ‘second freedom struggle’ and thousands of people all over the country answered his jail bharo (fill the jails) call. There was just not enough room in the police lock-up to fit in so many protestors. Once again, the government was on its knees and had to release Hazare from the jail and allow him his protest at a different location (Ramlila Ground in Delhi instead of the Jai Prakash Narayan National Park). On August 19, he addressed the people and declared that he will not leave the ground till the Jan Lokpal Bill was passed.

On August 27, 2011, a debate on the Jan Lokpal Bill was held in the parliament. Both the houses of parliament agreed in principle to the idea of Jan Lokpal Bill and Hazare broke his fast. After this, however, the movement got only weaker. One of Hazare’s most trusted lieutenants in this movement, Arvind Kejriwal, saw it was futile to continue discussions with the political establishment. He saw no other alternative but to jump right into the electoral politics to change it. An ascetic at heart, who is always self-directed and free from emotional dependency, Hazare’s decision-making was completed autonomously. He disagreed. “I very clearly told Arvind (Kejriwal) that I do not wish to be part of any political party. My path was that of service and struggle, as shown by Mahatma Gandhi. I asked him if he is floating a political party, how he would set the criteria for checking if the members who get inducted in his party will be of good character. He could not come up with a satisfactory answer. I had asked him five questions, but I did not receive any

Anna Hazare in conversation with Arvind Kejriwal during a rally

The Leadership Review | March 2016 | 17Back to the content page

answers. I warned him that dishonourable people he should be fighting might end up in his own party. Look at his party today, did it not happen?”

With the departure of Arvind Kejriwal, and with him many other stalwarts of the movement, India Against Corruption grew weaker. The government discarded the previously proposed Lokpal Bill and prepared a new version of. Although, Hazare led another protest in December against it, the movement had already fizzled out. “If they had implemented the draft we had prepared, 80% of the country’s corruption would be eliminated. Even if they implement government’s draft signed by then president, 50% of our corruption could be eliminated. But nobody would let that bill pass. The current central government had promised in their election campaigns that they would pass the bill. It has not happened yet,” says a disappointed Hazare.

However, Hazare was disappointed but not defeated. He remains hopeful and resilient, despite the setback. He has since then continued to give voice to the voiceless and has pushed for democratic reforms; the latest amongst them is a call for electoral reform which shall remove the use of election symbols during the elections. “If that happens, then the loyalties of candidates will remain more with the people they represent and less with their political party,” says Hazare brimming with hope.


Column R Rajeshwar Upadhaya

The First Thing We Must Do to Deserve Better Leaders


A 2012 survey conducted by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) showed that about 78% of executives in Indian organisations sleep less than six hours a day due to work

pressure and resultant high stress levels. It also highlights a worrying trend where 21% of corporate executives suffer from depression, which is apparently more prevalent than high blood pressure and diabetes. Despite stories of tragic losses of highly capable leaders like Ranjan Das of SAP India making the front page of most newspapers, India INC. is not really waking up to the challenge at hand. According to Towers Watson’s Asia-Pacific Staying@Work survey conducted in 2013, only 38% of Indian organisations see improvement in the emotional well being of their employees as a top priority of their health productivity programs. And the number should be much skewed given the fact that most Indian organisations do not even have formal health and productivity programs.

If we take a step back and examine the term ‘work stress’, it sounds paradoxical. Work is supposed to be an integral part of our life that links us to the path of self discovery and provides financial security for us and our families. It is not supposed to be alien to our instinct of collaborating with other individuals to achieve a shared objective. This is how homo-sapiens have heavily outscored other animals in the game of evolution. Yual Noah Hrari said in his rather interesting TED talk, “...we control the world because we can cooperate flexibly in large numbers,” and he added “...as long as everybody believes in the same fiction, everybody obeys and follows the same rules, the same norms, the same values.” The key part being ‘everybody believes’. However, people in our organisations are often left perplexed by organisational values because they do not really see them getting valued around them. Many of them do not really see where the organisation is going and how their work influences it. Worse still, many individuals do not know what exactly they are expected to do. 40% of the employees in the Tower Watson’s Staying@Work survey find ‘unclear or conflicting job expectations’ as the top stressor at work!

If we take a step back and examine the term ‘work stress’, it sounds paradoxical. Work is supposed to be an integral part of our life that links us to the path of self discovery and provides financial security for us and our families.


While there are a whole range of reasons why it happens, I would argue that the most significant one is the fact that individuals who eventually find their place in these organisations do not have personally relevant and meaningful objectives they have set for themselves. Most of what they do is prescribed to them by their bosses, board of directors, investors, and in worst case scenarios by the consultants. In best of the organisations, top management communicates the vision of the organisation, which was carefully crafted in a closed boardroom meeting whose minutes are locked away in a safe. Not enough effort is made to help individuals find meaning in their work or by the individuals to find meaning in their work. Performance Management System (PMS) however, ensures they do their bidding, albeit mechanically. And mechanically they drag themselves to work, hoping to pass the set standards they had virtually no say in setting.

It all starts in the schools. Individuals go to schools dressed up in standard uniforms. They memorise concepts that a standard syllabus dictates. They reproduce what they memorise in a standardised test. They continue to do so in universities. Any and every variation to this script is punished. Our education system rewards individuals on meeting standards which they had no part in setting. Quest for ‘personally relevant’ and ‘meaningful’ objectives is further crushed under the mountain of parental expectations, which more often than not, are for their off-spring to meet the set standards in the most splendid fashion. We take up perfectly normal human beings and put them in the mould of set standards and turn them into their standardised versions. However, after getting done with the painstaking standardisation process in schools and universities they still remain unemployable in the real world! According to an assessment by Wheebox and People’s Strong in collaboration with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), 66% of approximately five million fresh graduates in India lack necessary skills required for any role in the industry.

The Leadership Review |March 2016 | 22

According to an assessment by Wheebox and People’s Strong in collaboration with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), 66% of approximately five million fresh graduates in India lack necessary skills required for any role in the industry.


When the employable 34% finally come out to join the workforce in the real world, hierarchy takes over from where education had left. Whatever little inclination for finding ‘personally relevant’ and ‘meaningful’ objectives that still exists, gets crushed under heavy boots of feudal ethos that remain stronger than ever in our country. It is not uncommon for even the senior bureaucrats to be publicly rebuked by the ministers if they do not toe the exact line that is being dictated to them. Those who still persist, like Ashok Khemka did, get transferred 45 times in a service spanning 23 years. The slightest deviance from the set party line gets even the senior-most ministers a show cause notice. In the corporate world too, it is not difficult to find examples of individuals with independent bent of mind to be denied promotions and eventually fired after being labelled ‘bad culture fit’.

In many organisations, including some MNCs in India, employees still follow the unsaid rule of leaving for the day only after their boss leaves. On Monday mornings in corporate offices with beautiful glass facades, it is not difficult to find young subordinates lurking around the meeting room hoping to catch boss’s eye because they need some input; the suggestion of knocking and asking for a minute scares the living daylights out of them. Disagreement is a bad word and dissent is a career-ender here.

While productivity at work has been the buzzword for many decades now, meaningfulness of work is yet to find its place in our vocabulary. One of my consultant friends was once asked by someone from the senior management team of an old-world organisation for a mechanism to get their employees to exhibit ownership and he replied, “No such mechanism exists. It is not possible to drive ownership in your employees because they are employees, not the owners.” And it makes tremendous sense. Till the time, individuals will not see personal meaning and fulfilment in the work they do, they just cannot be expected to own their work.

Most individuals who grow in this ecosystem end up managing tasks but find it difficult to lead other individuals. Manager and manage, both words have their roots in an Italian word maneggiare, which literally means controlling the horses. That is what we get at the top of our institutions, individuals trying to rally other individuals with methods best fit to control, not lead. And the result is for all to see. While 30% of Indian population lives below the poverty line, a sizeable chunk dangerously hangs marginally above the poverty line. To my mind, this so happens because someone somewhere at the top of the food chain said, “it is easier to change the definition of poverty line than to eradicate poverty.” No wonder, according to 83% of those in India regard dishonest leadership as a serious issue.

So, for us to deserve better leaders we must to allow and encourage individuals to explore personally relevant and meaningful objectives for themselves. It will take a lot of doing but beginning to think about it is a good place to start.

Most individuals who grow in this ecosystem end up managing tasks but find it difficult to lead other individuals. Manager and manage, both words have their roots in an Italian word maneggiare, which literally means controlling the horses.


In June 1963, addressing the Irish Parliament, John F Kennedy said “The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by skeptics or cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. We need men who can dream of things that never were.” He was relishing his Irish heritage and emphasising the need for individuals who thrive amidst gigantic challenges enterprisingly with a remarkable combination of hope, confidence and imagination. Over the course of human history, time and again, individuals have risen up to greatness by answering that need. Prophets, philosophers, explorers, and inventors of the past are joined by social entrepreneurs today to take forward this tradition of solving complex human problems with creativity.

With a plethora of problems of its own, India today is a hotbed of social entrepreneurs who are leading the charge of bringing about an equitable and inclusive growth.

• Through their social enterprise ‘Greenway Grameen’ Ankit Mathur and Neha Juneja are bringing fuel efficient, smoke-reducing and affordable home energy appliances to rural consumers who could not afford modern appliances and have to bear with dangerous and uncomfortable smoke emitted by traditional fuel sources like dry

The Benefactor of Social Entrepreneurship

Progressive Leadership TLR Team


wood and cow-dung.

• Siddharth of ‘Earth Yantra Energy (EYE)’ is passionately working for green energy to provide Solar Rooftop Photovoltaic Power Plants to industrial and commercial consumers on rent as an alternative to the traditional sources of electricity characterised by high pollution and tariff.

• Will Muir and Rujuta Teredesai, through their social enterprise ‘Equal Community Foundation’, work with teenagers in the ages 14-17 years from low income communities to empower young men to end violence against women in India.

Other than their zeal to make a positive change in the world around them, there is another factor that binds these young social entrepreneurs. They are all investees of UnLtd (pronounced Unlimited) India – a launch pad co-founded by Pooja Warier – for early stage social entrepreneurs.

The UnLtd India Impact

One of the immediate results of UnLtd India’s work has been putting a spotlight on the power of supporting individuals at the beginning of their entrepreneurial journeys. Since 2007, they have supported more than 180 entrepreneurs who have gone onto impact 800,000 lives and create 4,000 jobs. Their work has proven that the combination of small amounts of funding, support focused on personal and organisational development, and an unwavering belief in the potential of budding entrepreneurs is extremely powerful. It can transform individuals into incredible leaders and their ideas into ventures that improve lives.

Describing UnLtd India’s impact, Pooja tells us, “The result that I am most proud of is the sheer increase in the number of role models in India. All our entrepreneurs show so much courage by following their passion and dedicating a significant portion of their lives to a cause. By supporting these entrepreneurs and recognising their work, we have been able to encourage so many more individuals to take that first step towards realising their own entrepreneurial potential.”

A simple example of this is one of UnLtd India’s investees Ashok Rathod. He comes from a migrant community in India and has seen the positive effect of sports in his own life. Through his venture OSCAR, he uses football as a means to incentivise children in his community to continue with school. He also uses football to inculcate various life skills in the children and make them aware of their rights and responsibilities. UnLtd India started supporting Ashok in 2009. Within a year, as a testimony to his inspirational leadership, five other young people from his community applied to become investees of UnLtd India. Today, Ashok is one of FIFA’s community partners. He trains other organisations in India and abroad to run similar programs and continues to inspire other young people in his community to dream bigger and bolder.

The UnLtd India Model

Pooja and her colleagues are on a mission to find, fund, and support individuals with the ideas, passion and entrepreneurial skills to address pressing problems in India. This is made operational in three steps – Scouting, Selection, and Support. Over the years, the process has evolved and has

Other than their zeal to make a positive change in the world around them, there is another factor that binds these young social entrepreneurs. They are all investees of UnLtd (pronounced Unlimited) India – a launch pad co-founded by Pooja Warier – for early stage social entrepreneurs.


developed more rigour to enhance the experience of all it touches.

Scouting begins with a very clear target on the type of profiles that need to be increased in each scouting cycle and what would be the approach. It involves reaching out to communities, institutions, and individuals to engage bright, young social entrepreneurs through one-on-one discussions, open sessions, and workshops. The idea is to increase the quality of applications by engaging in more ways than just sending out emails. Once the applications are received, the selection process commences. The selection process takes place twice a year for Level 1 and Level 2 applicants. For applicants to UnLtd India’s Growth Challenge program it is organised once a year. Before the applicants meet the actual interview panel, they go through a mock interview conducted by UnLtd India representatives and external experts. Through these interactions, aspiring entrepreneurs get developmental feedback on their product, pricing, and model.

After the final interviews, successful applicants are selected for one of the three levels of support – Level 1, Level 2, and Growth Challenge – depending on how far they have reached with their enterprise already. At all these levels, investees receive varied degrees of coaching and training, high-value connections, and seed funding. The Level 1 and Level 2 investees go through workshops and crash courses on financial planning, fundraising, legal structures, governance, marketing and HR management. Moreover, each investee is assigned an associate from UnLtd India who meets the investee every month, coaches him or her, sets milestones, and helps reflect on decisions to be made. Every six weeks, investees come together with their peers to share their experiences and challenges. This, along with the Leadership Retreat helps create forums for peer learning. By the end of the year, investees are expected to have met at least 50 % of their milestones. For Growth Challenge investees, since the stakes are higher, the associates conduct due diligence on site.

UnLtd India Journey

It all started in 2006 when Pooja was volunteering with UnLtd in the UK.


Each investee is assigned an associate from UnLtd India who meets the investee every month, coaches him or her, sets milestones, and helps reflect on decisions to be made.

During this stint, Pooja was completely blown away by the energy, passion, and resourcefulness of the social entrepreneurs they supported. It was her first glimpse into the world of entrepreneurship and she was amazed by the way awardees were able to leverage UnLtd UK’s support to grow themselves and their ventures exponentially. This experience with UnLtd in UK led to the founding of UnLtd India. Pooja recalls, “After four months at UnLtd, I was sold on the model and personally was very clear that I wanted to work with and for entrepreneurs. At the same time, I also met my co-founder Richard Alderson and Michael Norton, a Founding Trustee at UnLtd, both of whom had very strong ties with India. Together, we started dreaming about creating an UnLtd in India.”

Co-incidentally, Pooja had designed an exposure trip for the UK awardees to India in 2006. During the trip, they met several social entrepreneurs and asked just one question — “Is there a need for something like UnLtd in India? The answer was a resounding yes! Immediately after, Pooja moved back to India to understand the landscape while Richard stayed back in the UK to raise funds. Recalling those early days, Pooja reminisces, “The most pivotal point was when I met our first potential investees – Shweta Chari of Toy Bank, Nikita Ketkar of Masoom and Pooja Taparia of Arpan. I spent hours listening to them and offering support wherever I could. Witnessing their every day struggles to get their idea off the ground provided the fuel that Richard and I needed to finally launch UnLtd India in Dec 2007.”

Over the years, Pooja has faced multiple challenges including people’s aversion to investing in individuals at an early stage, legal structures that often act as impediments, affordability of great talent, and sustainability of UnLtd India as an incubator. She told us, “Pretty soon, it was clear that a lot of people believed that it was too risky to invest time or money in start-ups, especially in the social sector. Also, they believed that it would be impossible for us to find individuals who would quit their jobs and abandon stable lives to start a venture in the social sector. After endless meetings with cynics and naysayers, I felt myself going into meetings ready to defend and fight. As you can imagine, this just made the meetings even more difficult. When I shared this with my mentor, she gently said ‘They are all on your side. They might not see it today but it is just because you haven’t found a way of getting them


UnLtd India Offers Three Levels of Support

Level 1 is designed for budding social entrepreneurs who have done a pilot or are working on a great new initiative, usually part-time or along with their regular day job. As a part of the Level 1 support, investees get up to Rs 1.2 lakh of seed funding and an average of 160 hours of hands-on support over a year.

Level 2 is designed to support high-potential social enterprises that are at an early-stage of functioning, to attain sustainability and create greater impact. As part of the Level 2 support, investees get up to Rs 3 lakh of seed funding and an average of 220 hours of hands-on support over a year.

Growth Challenge (earlier called Level 3) is designed to help proven social enterprises scale up. As a part of the Growth Challenge support social entrepreneurs get a customised support package along with access to funds for working capital and talent requirements. Growth Challenge is a joint initiative between UnLtd India, the Social Entrepreneurs Trust (SET), the Edmond de Rothschild Foundations, and the Marshall Foundation.

on your side’. This made a profound difference in the way I approached every conversation after that, and to date; it has remained one of my key mantras in any conversation – be it pitching to a funder, coaching a headstrong entrepreneur, recruiting a team member or negotiating a partnership.”

Not that her challenges have now ceased to exist. However, being raised by a single mother in North India, Pooja has inherited the determination to keep going against all odds. With a strong organisational culture that reflects her own personal value system and promotes openness, valuing of individuals, trust and egalitarian practices, she rallies her colleagues together to rise against all the challenges and continues to succeed.

Way Forward

Pooja is looking at expanding the UnLtd model by training or working with local partners like universities in states that have a less-developed ecosystem for social entrepreneurship. Moreover, she is also exploring different avenues of generating revenue (till now UnLtd India has depended primarily on philanthropy).However, she acknowledges the fact that these new revenue sources will need to be aligned with UnLtd India’s mission and build on its strengths and experience.

In the long run, Pooja’s vision is to create an ecosystem that nurtures out hundreds of entrepreneurs from different parts of the country every year, who use their ideas, passion and skills to address challenges in their own communities. Through her work, she also hopes to influence the notion of entrepreneurship as a means to job creation as well as social inclusion.

Explaining her idea of scaling, she adds “Our current model of scale is to work with exceptional individuals in different states to replicate our model i.e. launch independent UnLtds in different states. All of these entities are going to be tightly-knit into a unified UnLtd India Network with a single mission of supporting early stage social entrepreneurs. We have taken the first step towards this goal – the Network was launched in 2013 and already has two members – UnLtd Tamil Nadu and UnLtd Hyderabad.”

The dream of any leader worth his salt is to create more leaders who in turn create even more leaders to carry on the tradition of leadership. Pooja has been doing it and doing it in style.


Column Dr Sujaya Banerjee

Leading in the Times of Adversity

Passing The Baton of Leadership The Leadership Review | March 2016 | 29Back to the content page

Leader as Hero was the most celebrated style of leadership in the 1980s right through till early 2001. The ‘Leader as Hero’ philosophy presumed that the leader would free the organisation of past bureaucratic mindsets

and take it by the scruff of its neck to propel it into modernisation and competitiveness.

Jack Welch at General Electric, John Brown of British Petroleum were movers and shakers who moved old organisations weighed down by old committees, systems and processes to become the lighthouse for enabling a new standard of performance. The spotlight was also caught on similarly powerful entrepreneurs like Richard Branson, Bill Gates and the irrepressible Steve Jobs who made defining contributions, transforming lives across the world!

Around the turn of the century this ‘Leader as Hero’ theory was severely criticised by academicians and management thought Leaders. The dotcom bust and the ensuring downturn revealed the derailing flaws, failure and disgraceful conduct of several individual leaders.

This was the Enron and World.Com time where even successful heroic leaders like Jack Welch were severely criticised post tenure for benefits, perks and flying privileges. The dotcom bust saw significant reforms on governance especially with the passing of the Sarbanes Oxley Bill in the US.

As thinking moved forward from the ‘Leader as Hero’ model, the concept of ‘Leadership Teams’ replaced it. While not a new idea, the model emanated from the theory that a variety of management styles work into one cohesive group. The balanced team became the ideal and the most successful Leaders were considered conductors of an orchestra.

One of the other factors influencing the ‘Band of Brothers’ concept was that the demography of talent had changed and a new generation had started moving into leadership roles. This demographic had shaped their attitudes in the 1960s were far less hierarchical, less schooled in the military and more collaborative by inclination than the generation before them. We now face another transition with our current disastrous financial and economic crisis that shakes our confidence in the Leadership Team model. Organisations that were until recently seen as champions have emerged as shallow, self-serving monsters. The leadership teams it appears were busy attending to their bonus and corporate jets instead of paying attention to impending risks. Banks, regulators, boards, all got it horribly wrong and we are all paying the price!

The Band of Brothers and their self-serving greed spiraled into a systemic catastrophe and only then became clear how cavalier with rules, how thoroughly oriented towards winning at all costs they had been only because they had each others’ support.

Winston Churchill had once said “Never in the field of commercial business has so much been damaged for so many, by so few.” The ripples of recession and business crisis were experienced the world over discrediting the Band of Boys model. As we look forward, the leadership challenge within organisations

As thinking moved forward from the ‘Leader as Hero’ model, the concept of ‘Leadership Teams’ replaced it. While not a new idea, the model emanated from the theory that a variety of management styles work into one cohesive group.

The Leadership Review | March 2016 |30 Back to the content page

The ripples of recession and business crisis were experienced the world over discrediting the Band of Boys model. As we look forward, the leadership challenge within organisations is to find structures and processes that challenge thinking while retaining productive dissent.


is to find structures and processes that challenge thinking while retaining productive dissent.

Tremendous forces are influencing the world of work. Recessionary business environments coupled with increased globalisation, increased customer demand, disruptions through new business models, unknown customer profiles and competition from the most unexpected parts of the world and increased expectation and scarcity of talent. Organisations need to work with agility and have the ability to adapt and manage change on the fly – as the situation demands.

In this volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous terrain, the solutions and decisions of the past don’t apply to the present or the future. This unpredictable terrain is posing a significant challenge to the kind of leadership and the leadership model that can enable the organisation to deliver performance. The ‘Leader as Hero’ or ‘Leadership Team Mode’ are clearly inadequate as we need to populate the leadership with diverse personalities that can work together to make changes and lead organisations to avoid problems that have made previous structures redundant.

Organisations need new direction, less consensus, more emphasis on diversity, dissent and multiplicity of perspectives on a problem. In the current volatile business environment, there may be a tendency within some organisations to lapse back into heroic leadership but team oriented inclusive leadership from across levels is more likely to serve organisations better as it has the power to integrate ground level insights from foot soldiers more often cordoned off and lost across structures and levels.

Need for Adaptive Leadership

Changes in societies, markets, customers and technology are forcing organisations to clarify values, develop new strategies and learn new ways of operating – mobilising people to do adaptive work which forms the core of adaptive leadership.


Adaptive work is required when our deepest values and beliefs — those that made us successful in the past are challenged. Mobilising businesses to adapt behaviours to survive in the new business environment is critical.


Adaptive work is required when our deepest values and beliefs — those that made us successful in the past are challenged. Mobilising businesses to adapt behaviours to survive in the new business environment is critical. Yet providing this kind of leadership and not just authoritative and directional solutions is extremely difficult.

The tendency to offer solutions or direction is natural because most leaders have reached positions of authority by virtue of their technical/ functional expertise and taking responsibility of problem solving. Traditional problem solving is not adequate in the current business environment as it can at best restore past standards of performance – but not necessarily provide generative solutions to reach new standards of performance which are so necessary in the new business environment. The locus of responsibilities when a company faces adaptive challenges must shift to its people. Solutions to adaptive challenges do ‘not’ reside in the executive suite alone – it is available in the ‘collective intelligence of employees across levels’.The C-Suite has a very different role to play in the VUCA world – leaders need to ask tough questions rather than pretending they have solutions and all the answers. Instead of orienting people to current roles, leaders need to re-orient teams to develop new relationships and draw out issues instead of quelling conflict, challeng the way we do business and help teams distinguish immutable values from historical practices.

Adaptive leadership styles will invariably count on leadership and proactivity to be demonstrated at all levels. That is in fact, the only way an organisation will survive as it battles new disruptions and challenges, many of which the C-suite have not witnessed in during their professional tenures. Seeking right answers at the top and remaining aligned in chorus will not work. Organisations need jazz musicians who can complement each other’s strengths and navigate new notes through their improvisation strengths. Much like the leader of a jazz band, adaptive leadership requires leaders to pass the baton of leadership to whoever picks the rhythm best, joins in the music with humility and appreciates the fact that performances in the current environment will be live with no pre-set time for extensive rehearsals. With each one taking the lead, leveraging calculated strengths, individual prowess and unleashing their collective brilliance across levels! Adaptive leadership to manage change with agility requires a series of practices that can make interventions more effective.

Step 1- Get on the Balcony – To observe what is going on and where the strengths and solutions may lie across the organisation, watch for patterns and get information from the ground level to test your hypothesis.

Step 2: Determine the Ripeness of the issue: How resilient are people to tackle the issue? Is the urgency localised in a sub-group and not yet widespread across the larger organisation? Is there a tendency to treat the situation as a problem rather than an adaptive challenge?

Step 3: Who am I in this picture? How are you experienced by various groups in the change process? Consistency has high value in management but is a



significant constraint in leading adaptive change.

Step 4: Think Hard about your Framing: Thoughtful framing of communication is the key! Some people need data before emotions whereas others connect your language and espoused values and purpose. Language and vocabulary is key in driving adaptive behaviours.

Step 5: Hold Steady: When you have made an intervention, think of it as having a life of its own. Don’t overinvest in it, and think of it as only ‘yours’. Holding steady is a poised and listening response.

Step 6: Analyse the Factions that begin to Emerge: As people in your own close-knit group begin to discuss the intervention, pay attention to the faction groups – do faction mapping to help the adapting process and even refine the intervention.

Step 7: Keep the work at the centre of People’s attention: Avoiding adaptive work is a common human response to the prospect of loss. Avoidance is not shameful, it’s human.

Resistance will have less to do with merits of the idea and more to do with fear of loss. Dealing with the fears of a loss requires a strategy that takes these losses seriously and treats them with respect. What is important is to keep the work of adaptive change at centre stage.

Leadership Behaviors in Times of Adversity

Alice Eagly and Linda Carli in their seminal article, “Women and the Labyrinth of Leadership” describe communal behaviors of kindness, compassion and empathy expected from women leaders and behaviours of power, control and assertiveness described as agentic behavior in/from Male Leaders.Interestingly, the current times are a test of both agentic and communal behaviours from each leader, whether male or female, and the ability to


“Interestingly, the current times are a test of both agentic and communal behaviours from each leader, whether male or female, and the ability to situationally be more emphatic, compassionate, decisive and assertive when needed.”


situationally be more emphatic, compassionate, decisive and assertive when needed. This is no time to play gender roles but is in fact a good time to explore the power of the diversity of talent – gender, demographic and varieties of experiences and exposures across levels — because solutions will be agnostic in this fast changing, unpredictable terrain. In terms of behaviours, VUCA is an acronym of desired behaviors and strengths across levels.

V: is for Vision to formulate new strategy that is generative and not an incremental change in the past. The ability to charter new territories, find new solutions and build a generative and purposeful organisation.

U is for understanding, empathy to understand pain points, challenges, to support teams as they bravely charter new terrains and battle new challenges including failure.

C is for Change with agility and has the humility to discard old practices and legacy beliefs that are redundant. Building change as a competence and enabling power to be shared is going to be important and winning leadership behaviour.

A is for Appreciation is rooted in positive psychology that enables people to reach new heights by believing in and giving opportunity to new thoughts and new talent.President Obama interestingly epitomises some of the desired behaviours that adaptive leaders demonstrate, which is so needed in our times to grow leaders at all levels. Obama is no experienced international diplomat, he is not even an experienced legislator. He certainly does not know very much about economics and has no defence background. He is ostensibly less qualified than his predecessors and yet he has a gift of clarity. He knows how to simplify the essence of a problem, strike a new individual course, to communicate powerfully and inspirationally. He seems to be complimenting this with a talented, diverse and inclusive team.

This sort of leadership can catalyse change, mobilise commitment and can complement structural and process changes. As we rebuild our economy, heroic leadership or top C-Suites will not do. Leadership that shares power, includes diversity and provides psychological safety for dissent is the soil that will grow leaders at all levels!

References1. Leadership Lessons and the Economic Crisis2. Becoming an Adaptive Leader3. Future Trends in Leadership Development

Dr Sujaya Banerjee is the Chief Talent Officer at Essar and the Founder of the Learning and OD Roundtable (www.lnodroundtable.com) and the Women Leadership Forum of Asia (www.wlfa.in).


Column Jill Sheldekar

Building Trust and Credibility in an Intercultural Work

Environment The Leadership Review | March 2016 | 35Back to the content page

“So how quickly can you get them working like us?” When this question was asked, I was standing in front of a group of twelve senior business leaders from five national cultures – India, China, Italy, the United

States and Brazil. After a long awkward silence, I was thankful to realise I was not the only person in the room who was visibly insulted. Unfortunately, this approach is not uncommon. Managers and team members often look at cultural differences as obstacles to productivity and performance. Conflicting values and expectations for communication and behaviour become barriers that must be removed. It is believed the best solution to challenges faced by culturally diverse teams is to create one uniform style of behaviour that everyone must adhere to. What is even more interesting is that, it is not always the dominant group that expects others to adapt to their working style preferences. I often observe members of global teams trying to imitate the behaviour of what they perceive to be the more correct style while minimising any differences that result from their unique or distinctive approaches.

While it is true that individuals working within diverse teams must at times modify their style in order to be effective, one must also be aware of the negative impact of putting too much importance on one style or approach. Each cultural orientation has its own unique value to contribute. Creating a homogeneous group removes the opportunities for leveraging the inherent strengths that are present when people from different cultures come together to achieve a common goal.

The trick is in achieving that delicate balance between making slight modifications to one’s working style during the initial stages of team formation and maintaining one’s own unique style in order to maximise the value that can be derived from diverse perspectives. In order to understand how global teams can benefit from cultural diversity, one can use dimension frameworks that examine the source of these complex differences.

Cultural Dimensions

There are many approaches and frameworks one can use to explore cultural systems. For the purpose of conducting a more in depth analysis of how

Creating a homogeneous group removes the opportunities for leveraging the inherent strengths that are present when people from different cultures come together to achieve a common goal.


multicultural teams can leverage conflicting values for better performance, I will use the life work of professor and inter-culturalist, Fons Trompenaars. Along with his colleague Charles Hampden-Turner, he developed a model for analysing national cultural differences based on seven dimensions. For this example, we will look at one of those dimensions.

Internal verses External Control

This dimension focuses on the way in which people view and interact with their environment or nature. In the animated film Kung Fu Panda, we see these two world views expressed through a conversation between Master Oogway and Master Shifu. Master Oogway says, “My old friend, the panda will never fulfil his destiny, nor you yours, until you let go of the illusion of control. Look at this tree. I cannot make it blossom when it suits me, nor make it bear fruit before it’s time.” For which Master Shifu insists, “But there are things we can control, like when the fruit falls and where to plant the seed. That is no illusion!” This pop-culture reference shows the conflict between these two attitudes towards nature.

Internal Control and the Proactive Approach

Individuals who have an internally controlled or mechanistic view of nature, like Master Shifu, believe that one can and should dominate the environment around them. Masters of their own universe, they often view themselves as the source of determining correct action. It is their right to create value by utilising the environment as they see fit. Furthermore, they are fully responsible for the consequences or results of those actions.

One can find evidence for the source of this world view in the Bible. In Genesis 1:29 it says, “God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground’.” In later parts of the New Testament, there are countless references made to this scripture which further binds the relationship between humans and nature. Mankind is deemed by God to be a superior being with higher cognitive abilities. Nature, both the animals and the land, are at his disposal to be utilised for his benefit. Furthermore, the Bible’s emphasis on free will and independent action communicate the value put on individuals as responsible for their own circumstances. In modern times, we see this attitude expressed in common expressions like, ‘the early bird catches the worm’. There is a German proverb, ‘Wenn der Reiter nichts taugt, ist das Pferd schuld’, which means ‘If the rider is no good, it’s the horse’s fault’. This German proverb is used sarcastically to criticise when someone wants to shift the blame to exterior factors and circumstances rather than taking responsibility.

Take this into a business context: A team with an attitude that expresses internal control will put importance on highly detailed planning. Their approach to project work will be systematic, compartmentalised, and mechanistic (equal to the sum of its parts). Actions will be linear and organised in a sequence. Tasks will be broken down into parts and assigned to individuals who will be expected to take complete responsibility. The entire objective of project scoping and planning is to reduce uncertainty and create rigid systems for ensuring the desired outcome is achieved. Compare and contrast this to the

In Genesis 1:29 it says, “God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.’”


Hinduism emphasise an interesting blend of fate and free will. The role of karma and right or wrong action made in past lives, impacts one’s current reality. However, one’s future or fate can be changed by right action in the present, setting into a motion a series of events that can lead to a different outcome.

external world view.

External Control and the Responsive Approach

Individuals who have an externally controlled view of nature, like Master Oogway, believe that they are a single force in nature, operating within a complex system of forces. An individual can exert power or control in certain situations but may also be at the mercy of other stronger forces of nature. This world view communicates a kind responsiveness to the environment, as opposed to a dominant approach. Results and outcomes are not the sole responsibility of an individual but the combination of a variety of factors and circumstances.

The Vedic Texts in Hinduism emphasise an interesting blend of fate and free will. The role of karma and right or wrong action made in past lives, impacts one’s current reality. However, one’s future or fate can be changed by right action in the present, setting into a motion a series of events that can lead to a different outcome. Furthermore, individuals are still responsible for the outcomes of their actions, question is, are these actions from past or present lives? Current circumstances, like the family one is born into or whether or not a strong monsoon brought about a good crop that year, is the result of one’s fate.

Author Bhayahari Dasa, provides a great example of a conversation recorded in the Matsya Purana. In it, Satyavrata Muni, a great king, inquires, “O Lord, which is superior: fate or one’s own exertion and effort? I have doubts on this; kindly resolve them.” In reply, Lord Matsya (an incarnation of Vishnu) explains that three elements—fate, effort, and time—conjointly affect the course of one’s life. He gives the example of a farmer, whose crop depends on three factors: planting, rain, and time. Planting represents effort, and rain represents fate. If the farmer plants but there’s no rain, he’ll have no crop. However if it rains but he hasn’t planted, he’ll have no crop. Both fate and effort are required, as is time.

One can find countless examples of this world view in expressed in modern times. While channel surfing recently, I stopped on a Bollywood movie in which Farhan Akhtar says to his friend, “Insaan ka kartavya hota hai koshish karna. Kamyabi, nakamyabi sab uske hath main hain.” Which means it is your duty to try, whether you succeed or not is in the hands of God. Or take for example the simple expression ‘Insha Allah’ or ‘God Willing’ which is often spoken at the end of business discussions or agreements when working in the Middle East. Take this into a business context: A team with an attitude that expresses external control will emphasise connections between actors and complex forces within a project. Actions will be more cyclic and may overlap without a clear start and end. Tasks are more likely to be shared amongst a group where individuals feel comfortable sharing responsibility and depending on each other to achieve results. Scoping and planning are important stages in the project, but it is understood that requirements may change and one must be ready to adapt to any given situation. There is a willingness to make the most of any given situation regardless of whether it was in the original plan.

A quick look at these contrasting world views puts into perspective how one can utilise differences to create agile and innovative global teams:



After investigating this one cultural dimension, it is clear that conflicting value systems create different attitudes and approaches to work. Take any global project as an example. Regardless of the nature of the work or industry or desired outcome, there will be a need for both a proactive and a responsive approach. With customers and clients that span the globe, and a dynamic shift in power from traditionally developed nations to developing nations, multinationals must not only embrace cultural differences represented by diverse talent, but they must also find ways to tap into those inherent strengths.

As a member or manager of a global team, the first step is raising your level of awareness and appreciation for diverse styles of working. Use this knowledge and awareness to carefully construct trust and credibility amongst all team members. Continue by validating differences and being very purposeful during the forming and storming stages of team creation. Organise individuals according to the way they will thrive, delegate work keeping in mind the strengths and stressors and maintain an environment of transparency throughout the entire process. This atmosphere will become a breeding ground for exceptional results and innovative products and services. Not only is it good for business, but also for valuing and preserving the cultural integrity of diverse peoples across the globe.

Internal Control External ControlAttitude - I am in control of my environment and

whatever happens is the result of my own efforts

- I am one force or “actor” amongst many others in my environment and whatever happens is the result of the combination of those forces

Inherent Strengths

- Aptitude for planning, forecasting , risk mitigation and contingency planning

- Attitude of creating opportunity from or out of a situation

- Proactive in taking initiative

- Ability to respond unexpected changes in the situation or enviroment, while minimising the negative impact

- Tendency to look for opportunities that appear outside the original scope or plan

Expectations from others

- Must take responsibility for the positive or negative consequences of one’s actions

- Must communicate an attitude of control over outcomes

- Priority given to planning and emphasis on adhering to plans regardless of changes in the situation or environment

- Must understand that there are certain forces outside of one’s individual control or sphere of influence

- Must communicate an attitude of flexibility dependent on actual realities that may or may not be possible to predict

- Must be readily willing to adapt when plans and situations change

Common Stressors

- Working in situations with high levels of uncertainty

- Tardiness- Being expected to multitask or jump

from project to project - Sharing ownership of specific tasks with

others- Interruptions

- Low tolerance from others regarding change

- Prioritising plans and schedules over the needs of people

- Focusing only on results without taking into account the effort being made

- Forcing others to take responsibility for what is outside their sphere of influence

Jill Sheldekar is the Director of Ethnosynth Consulting, Pune.


King as a Leader

Raja is the most common word given for a king in ancient Indian literature like Mahabharata and Manu Smriti. However Kautilya (Chanakya) in the Arthashastra along with the term Raja uses Swami to denote a king or a leader.

The Swami is the leader of the masses and his attitude is to make sure the subjects are happy and prosperous, Prajasukhe Sukham Rajnah, Prajanam cha hitehitam, In the happiness of the subjects lies the benefit of the king, and in what is beneficial to the subjects is his own benefit.

The king, as a leader, aims to bring complete welfare to his people. Throughout the “Arthashastra”, Kautilya is striving to make the king an ideal king, giving him the shape of a Raja-Rishi, a philosopher king and also one who aims to be a Vijigishu, a world conqueror.

The concept of Vijigishu is seen in various other works and there is nothing wrong if one aims for it. There is a prayer of a Vijigishu as given in the Krishna Yajurveda,

“Verily with the kingdom he wins the kingdom, he becomes the richest of his equals. They should be offered for one who desires a village; the Rashtrabhrits

The Chanakya Way

Wisdom Tradition Dr Radhakrishnan Pillai


are the kingdom, (his fellows are the kingdom); he becomes possessed of a village. He offers on the dicing place; verily on the dicing place he wins his fellows for him; being won they wait upon him. They should be offered on the mouth of the chariot for him who desires force; the Rashtrabhrits are the force; verily by force he wins force for him; he becomes possessed of the force,” (Krishna Yaj.,III,4.8)

Many other works also refer to using the concept of Vijigishu. Controlling of the senses, which is motivated by training by the sastras, should be acquired by a Vijigishu. Such people overcome the force of anger and get their desired objects.

A prominent motive behind the matrimonial relations of the various valours and Vijigishu kings was to increase a circle of alliances, which could supply them a strong backing against the enemies. A Vijigishu should decide a strategy with discretion/discrimination and with minute attention to detail, otherwise it may result in a clash with the rear enemy.

Thus, the king as the leader, according to Kautilya, aims at various aspects right from being a philosopher king (RajaRishi) and aiming to be a world conqueror (Vijigishu), keeping the welfare of the people (Prajasukhe) in mind. Qualities of a King

The various qualities of a king are reflected throughout the Arthashastra. But, specifically while mentioning about the Circle of Kings (Rajamandala), in the section regarding the excellences of the constituent elements (Prakritis) of the state, Kautilya details the qualities of each of the elements viz. Swami (king), Amatya (minister), Janapada (country), Durg (fortified city), Kosha (treasury), Danda (Army) and Mitra (Ally).

We will look into these qualities that have been mentioned here in particular in the case of Swami (leader).

There are 56 qualities that have been prescribed by Kautilya.

The qualities of a king entail being born in high family, endowed with good fortune, intelligence and spirit, given to seeing elders, pious, truthful in speech, not breaking promises, grateful, liberal, of great energy, not dilatory with weak neighboring princes, resolute, not having a mean-minded council of ministers, desirous of training – these are the qualities of one easily approachable. Desire to learn, listening, retention, thorough understanding, reflecting, rejecting (false views) and intentness on truth — these are the qualities of an intellectual king. Bravery, resentment, quickness and dexterity are qualities of an energetic king. The personal qualities of a king include being eloquent, bold, endowed with memory, intellect and strength, exalted, easy to manage, trained in arts, free from vices, able to lead the army, able to requite obligations and injury in the prescribed manner, possessed of a sense of shame, able to take suitable action in calamities and in normal conditions, seeing long and far, attaching prominence to undertakings at the proper place and time and with appropriate human endeavour, able to discriminate between peace and fighting, giving and withholding, and observance of conditions and striking at the enemy’s weak points, well guarded, not laughing in an undignified manner, with a glance which is straight and without frown, devoid of passion, anger, greed, stiffness, fickleness, troublesome-ness and slanderous-ness, sweet in speech, speaking with a smile and with dignity,

The king as the leader, according to Kautilya, aims at various aspects right from being a philosopher king (RajaRishi) and aiming to be a world conqueror (Vijigishu), keeping the welfare of the people (Prajasukhe) in mind.


with conduct conforming to the advice of elders. Apart from these, various other qualities and practices have to be developed by the king are written throughout the Arthashastra. For example the right way of thinking (Aanvikshiki), self study (Svadhyaya), being just by giving the right amount of punishment, association with elders (Vriddhasanyogah) and being disciplined and punctual.

Given to seeing elders (Vriddhadarshi),

This is without doubt among the most important practice Kautilya has suggested for a king to succeed in any sphere of life. All undertakings should be preceded by consultation; the leader should sit and seek counsel from those who are mature in intellect. There are many advantages of taking advice from elders and experienced people.

First, one need not reinvent the wheel of learning by making mistakes. The Vriddhas, will guide us through the journey and we can avoid any possible pitfalls. There are two types of Vriddhas, Ayu Vriddha (elders by age) and Gyan Vriddha (elders by wisdom). Both have to be equally respected.

There are instances where, the teachers have been younger in age to the students, for example Gyaneshwar, and Adi Shankaracharya, however the students learnt from these wise young teachers. When such wise people come to the king for matters concerning their requirements, the king is supposed to treat them with extreme humility and respect. He should look into the affairs of the persons learned in the Vedas and of ascetics after going to the fire sanctuary (and) in company of his chaplain and preceptor, after getting up from his seat and saluting them. Also a continuous association with elders gives the king continuous training. He should have constant association with elders in learning for the sake of improving his training,

All undertakings should be preceded by consultation; the leader should sit and seek counsel from those who are mature in intellect. There are many advantages of taking advice from elders and experienced people.


since training has its root in that.

Being Duty Centric (Dharmic)

Dharma is the foundations of making of a Rajarishi and principle centered leader.

Dharma is the very essence of a being. The Mahabharata says, Dharma is for the stability of society, the maintenance of social order and the general well-being and progress of humankind. Whatever conduces to the fulfillment of these objects is Dharma, that is definite. In the Arthashastra the word Dharma appears more than hundred and fifty times. A dharmic king is able to take decisions in the most difficult situations with equanimity and poise, keeping his mind steady in difficult and conflicting situations.

(Dhirga-dura-dharshi)- The Ability to See Long and Far

This is the quality of a king that makes him a visionary leader. Vision is the ability to see a situation before hand and foreseeing the things yet to come in the future. This is the ability to think and create a future where long term objectives are achieved.

History is full of stories where leaders created institutions which have survived the test of time. Dr Homi Bhabha, known as the father of Indian nuclear program, created legendary institutions like Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Trombay Atomic Energy Establishment (now named after him, as Bhabha Atomic Research Center, BARC). The quality in him to be a Dhirga Dura Dharshi, has helped India, a third world nation, to feature among the three most powerful nations of the world.Some more examples of visionary leaders are given in the book ‘Corporate Chanakya’ by this author. Looking into the various aspects of leadership ideas we find that these principles are not just ancient, but eternal. They can be applied by us in every field and in every generation. Steven Covey calls this as principal centered leadership.

Daily Routine of the King

The king, according to Kautilya, is supposed to live a very active and austere life. He is an ascetic in the true sense. Therefore, the ideal is of a Rajarishi. This life of a sage-like king has been dealt in detail throughout the Arthashastra and the training has been given to him accordingly.

Not only does Kautilya give the concept of a king, but also defines the daily routine of a king in detail. The brilliance of any teacher comes from the fact that they would look at all dimensions of their knowledge, from concept to application. Theory being made into practice is the best form of knowledge implementation.

Kautilya also makes sure that while detailing the daily routine of a king, he does not fall to laziness and a continuous active life is outlined. When the king is active, the servants become active following his example.

Not only does Kautilya give the concept of a king, but also defines the daily routine of a king in detail. The brilliance of any teacher comes from the fact that they would look at all dimensions of their knowledge, from concept to application. Theory being made into practice is the best form of knowledge implementation.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhabha_Atomic_Research_Centre



The king has to set an example. It is always a top-down approach. One has to walk the talk, lead by example. When he is lethargic, they, in turn will become lethargic. An active leader can make an inactive person active. While active followers can become lethargic if the king demonstrates lethargy. And they consume his works, leading to corrupt practices among the subjects and the government officials. Moreover, he is over-reached by enemies, giving an opportunity to the opponents who wait for a chance to take over the kingdom.

Therefore, he (the king) should himself be (energetically) active.

One has to walk the talk, lead by example. When he is lethargic, they, in turn will become lethargic


Dr Radhakrishnan Pillai is the author of “Corporate Chanakya”, “Chanakya’s 7 secrets of leadership” and “Chanakya in You”.

He is a leadership coach, teacher and trainer.


Read stories of their leadership in our upcoming issues

Kiran Bedi, Social Activist, and First Woman IPS Officer

Maj Gen GD Bakshi, National Security Expert

Abdul Sattar Edhi, Pakistani philanthropist and social activist


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Govind R Khairnar remains the most popular officer of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) even after over a decade of his retirement. Some give him credit for the electoral loss of Sharad

Pawar led Congress government in 1995, some disapprove of the demolition drives he carried, and most see him as a valiant fighter who had taken on some of the most powerful and dangerous men in the line of his duty. A lean man with simple bearings, Khairnar talked to me about people and events that influenced him and the struggles he faced while doing his duty. In this conversation, I could identify four leadership skills that helped him learn and excel amidst adversity – adaptive capacity (a mix of contextual understanding and sheer doggedness), a distinct and compelling voice, engaging others in shared meaning, and integrity.

Adaptive Capability

Khairnar was sent on deputation to Bombay Municipal Corporation (BMC) as a ward officer from his state government job even though many warned him against accepting this position. He was told that BMC was a dirty place and likes of him would not last for long there. But Khairnar had a truckload of confidence and to back it up, he possessed an adaptive capacity. In the

GR KhairnarMaking of the Original Demolition Man

Progressive Leadership Sharad Mathur


early days at the BMC he tried to learn about how things are done there. He would frequently meet his colleagues, seniors, the engineers and the corporators to explore their approaches and priorities. He would go down to the sites where municipal construction work was going on and examine the quality of material used and honesty of efforts being put. Soon, he realised that BMC was a den of corruption and incompetence, as advertised. Khairnar leans in and tells me, “I soon realised the extent of the rot when my deputy commissioner, my boss, called me and asked me to stop the action I was taking against some roadside vendors who had encroached good part of a busy road in Fort. After a few days, BG Deshmukh, the municipal commissioner who had asked me to clear the road saw the vendors still there and was very upset with me. Deputy Commissioner did not say a word and the municipal commissioner ordered me to clear the road, again.” By then Khairnar had grasped the context absolutely well and had a clear understanding of the motivations of the players involved. He decided to go about the demolition again and when the deputy commissioner asked him to stop the drive again (he later came to know that it was done in cahoots with a local corporator), he did not budge. He asked the deputy commissioner to get a written order from municipal commissioner Deshmukh himself, who he knew was out of the country. Khairnar had outmanuvered the deputy commissioner!

While this earned him a strong benefactor in BG Deshmukh, it also earned him a foe in the deputy commissioner. Soon, he was shunted to a new ward which contained the slums of Kurla and was virtually a war zone. Cases of encroachments and illegal constructions were growing with impunity. Khairnar began his stint there by studying the context which allowed illegal structures to be erected overnight and protected them from demolition. From the inquiries he made, he figured that there existed an organised land mafia who would build illegal chawls and shanties on encroached public spaces and sell individual units to poor people. The mechanics of it were pretty interesting. Before they started, they would pay up the local corporator and municipal corporation’s employees – from junior engineers to the deputy commissioner of the ward – for their ‘cooperation’. So, the

“I soon realised the extent of the rot when my deputy commissioner, my boss, called me and asked me to stop the action I was taking against some roadside vendors who had encroached good part of a busy road in Fort.”

Crucibles of Leadership

In 1942, GR Khairnar was born in a small village called Peepal Gao in Nashik district. He came from a traditional peasant family and was brought up in an environment that laid a lot of emphasis on personal integrity – something that would become the mainstay of his leadership persona in the future. However, at the same time, the same environment would also enforce the idea of fatalism. Khairnar was a hard working student but he was told that God’s grace is the reason for his good grades. Convinced with this, he gradually started ignoring his studies and felt that his grades were covered since he used to light a lamp everyday in the village temple of Khandoba, a local deity. Soon, something was to happen that would take him out of the trap of fatalism.

It so happened that while lighting the lamp, some oil spilled on his shirt and despite his best efforts he could not remove the stain. With the stain on his shirt he faced disciplinary action (read: beating) in the school. Despite his regular pleas to the Gods, there was no intervention. Soon, with falling grades he was about to flunk school. That is when his principal talked to him and explained that his success depended on his own actions more than anything else, and gave him another year to pull his act together. Knowing how hard his father and brothers were working so that he could study, he decided to take the situation under control. “This episode gave me a scientific temper,” remembers Khairnar. He could change the system because he would question the status quo and not accept it. Throughout his career, people, including his adversaries, were forced to take notice of his distinct and compelling voice.


deputy engineer would not take any action till the encroachment was done and construction commenced. He would then, in cahoots with the deputy commissioner, issue a ‘stop the work’ notice. After which, the encroacher would approach the court and through paid witnesses establish that a chawl of say 50 rooms stand at the location. Partly for the incompetence of BMC’s lawyers and partly because of judges’ reluctance to displace 50 families, the court would restrain BMC against demolishing this structure which in reality does not even exist. And soon, the construction is completed and encroacher would make this money.

Khairnar doggedly went after this nexus. He first set his own house in order. He did realise not all the BMC workers and engineers who engaged in corrupt practices were inherently corrupt individuals. Since everyone in the system from top to bottom was doing it, most had no other option but to engage in corrupt practices. “I met my engineers and told them that I was ready to overlook all their corrupt deeds of the past if they reform. I protected those who reformed and took strict action against those who did not,” Khairnar recalls with a smile. And he did protect his officers and did not tolerate any abuse of his men at the hands of local corporators and goons. He would lead from the front and would accompany his men with a big cane in his hand. His equation with the municipal commissioner, or the perception of it shielded his men from the reprisal from senior BMC officers and local politicians. “Shiv Sena old guard and former mayor Waman Rao Mahadik had complained against me in the past to BG Deshmukh only to be rebuked. So, when I was transferred to the Kurla ward, he had told local corporators that I was not to be troubled as he thought I was BG Deshmukh’s man.”

Once he cleansed his team, he focused on creating a strategy for his anti-encroachment drive. He got his team to stop issuing any notices to the encroachers, which prevented the encroachers from going to the courts.

Slums in the Kurla Ward, Mumbai.

Image source: theguardian.com

“I met my engineers and told them that I was ready to overlook all their corrupt deeds of the past if they reform. I protected those who reformed and took strict action against those who did not.”


Khairnar excitedly gives the rationale for doing so, “Since, the chawl did not exist we did not have to give a notice. It was more prudent to demolish the scaffolding then to ask the encroacher to stop the construction in a notice.” With the support of Municipal Commisioner BG Deshmukh, he arranged for police protection and went about demolishing the new encroachments. Soon the frequency of new encroachments in the ward drastically went down.

A Distinct and Compelling Voice

In 1984, Chandrakant Patil, the stepson of then Chief Minister of Maharashtra, operated Step-In hotel from the ground floor of a multi-storey building in the Mahim ward. When you’re a chief minister’s son, not many government officers would object if you encroach. So, he expanded his hotel by encroaching on the surrounding land. But Khairnar was no ordinary officer. On receiving complaints, he inspected the location and ordered action against the hotel. Khairnar amusingly recalls what happened next, “An enraged Chandrakant met me with the builder and threatened me citing the chief minister’s connection. But I did not budge.”

This set panic in chief minister’s camp and the urban development minister promptly wrote a letter to the municipal commissioner instructing him to regularise the hotel’s encroachment. A copy was also sent to Khairnar. However Khairnar filed the letter with his comment that read ‘no action needed on this letter’. “Ministers’ requests are not binding on the municipality,” chuckles Khairnar. On May 2, he sent a notice to Chandrakant Patil asking him to remove his encroachment or it shall be demolished on May 4. Chandrakant Patil again tried to persuade him but to no avail. “I told him to remove his encroachment to prevent this public spectacle. I asked him to think of his father’s reputation. But he did not agree,” he says.

However, getting the police protection while he demolished a hotel owned by the chief minister’s family was tricky. Even the policemen were scared for their jobs. That is when he met the police commissioner Julio Ribeiro through YC Pawar, a senior police officer he had come to know. “I asked Rebeiro

Crucibles of Leadership

After his high school, Khairnar went to Nashik’s regional commerce college and stayed in the Maratha hostel to save on the cost of living. In the hostel each room was shared by four to five students. To reduce the food cost, students would pool in resources and buy the month’s grocery together. The responsibility to buy the groceries was borne by one of the students every month in rotation. The month it was Khairnar’s turn, he realised that the regular grocer was overcharging them and felt that going to a new grocer would save them significant amount of money. He talked to his fellow students and showed them the need to change their grocer. Since it was in their interest, they supported him, though not explicitly. However, the administrator of the hostel did not like it one bit. He tried to pressurise Khairnar to buy groceries from their regular grocer but Khairnar did not budge. Apparently, the administrator would receive supplies from the regular grocer as bribe and was very upset with this change. He levied a fine of Rs.5 on Khairnar but the latter refused to pay it. Seeing this, the vengeful administrator expelled Khairnar and barred him from the canteen till he agreed to pay the fine. The upright Khairnar did not budge. In a desperate attempt to break his spirit, he asked two well built boys from the hostel to physically throw out Khairnar from the canteen. With a sheer survival spirit, he took a burning wooden log from the chulha (Indian cooking fireplace) and chased the boys away. The hostel administrator did not try to prosecute Khairnar thereafter. This aversion to servile compliance, ability to grasp context, and sheer doggedness made Khairnar ‘the demolition man’ we all came to know.


whether the police would do its duty to help me do my duty,” recalls Khairnar. An honest police officer himself, Ribeiro told him that it was police’s job is to protect the demolition party and it does not concern them which building was being demolished. “Rebeiro ordered his men not to enquire about the details of the demolition drive including where the demolition drive will take place,” reminisces Khairnar with a twinkle in his eye. Throughout his career, it was his distinct and compelling voice rooted in courage of conviction, which rallied influential individuals like BG Deshmukh, Julio Ribeiro, YC Pawar, SS Tinaikar etc. around him.

On May 9, under complete police protection, he went to demolish the encroachment of hotel Step-In. The hotel staff tried to buy time so that they could use their political and bureaucratic connections to stop the demolition. However, Khairnar did not allow that. Soon, calls from senior officers and cabinet secretaries started pouring in but Khairnar remained inaccessible. “They even got to the well-meaning municipal commissioner, Mr Kanga, to pass on the message to me to contact him. However, I pushed my team to complete the demolition in 20 minutes without a bother. I contacted the municipal commissioner only after the demolition was completed to give him my report,” Khairnar remembers with a chuckle.

Engage Others in Shared Meaning

In January 1988, Khairnar was appointed deputy commissioner of BMC by the then municipal commissioner SS Tinaikar. It was a well deserved promotion after Khairnar had transformed SV Road into a 90-feet-road from a 30-feet-road thanks to encroachment by shops and street vendors. While he received a lot of public support, including the encroaching shopkeepers, in this case, it was least expected in the next project he was assigned.

A slum with around 1800 hutments had sprung up very close to Powai’s Vihar Lake, the source of water supply for the city of Mumbai. Residents of the slum would use the lake like it was a village pond. They would wash their

“I asked Rebeiro whether the police would do its duty to help me do my duty,” recalls Khairnar. An honest police officer himself, Ribeiro told him that it was police’s job is to protect the demolition party and it does not concern them which building was being demolished.

SV Road, Mumbai.

The Leadership Review |March 2016 | 52 Back to the content page

clothes in it, bathed themselves and their cattle, and render the water unsafe for drinking. BMC had to act fast before an epidemic started. But doing that was tricky as moving 1800 families to a piece of land available nearby for rehabilitation was not an easy task. Moreover, according to official estimates, it could accommodate only 1100 of the 1800 families that resided in the slum. Since most of the other officers could not succeed, Tinaikar asked Khairnar to take it up.

“I went to the slum, saw the living conditions of the people, and talked to their representatives. I realised that these were very poor people without much political patronage,” informs Khairnar. When he explained to the residents of the slum about the health risk polluting of Vihar Lake posed to Mumbai, they understood. He also told them about the facilities like regularised electricity connection and hand pumps for water supply they would get in the new place. However, it was impossible for 1800 families to voluntarily vacate the land in a short duration mainly because of inertia. So, he decided to provide a stimulus and landed at the slum with a demolition party. “Within the next three days all 1800 families went to the ground designated for their rehabilitation. They removed their belongings voluntarily and even helped us in the demolition. Once they moved, I helped them avail electric supply and got the hand pumps dug,” he says. As for the official estimate that the plot could only accommodate 1100 families, well it was wrong. All 1800 families rehabilitated voluntarily and they continued to invite Khairnar in their midst for festivals and celebrations.

Contrary to his image, he often engaged others in a shared meaning. He could not have achieved the kind of success he did without it. During the Mumbai riots, one of his Muslim team members told him about his son’s secondary exams and his inability to take him to the examination center in Dadar, a Hindu dominated locality. Khairnar took the boy to his house and drove him to the examination center himself, everyday. It was such concern for his people and

The picturesque Vihar Lake free from encroachments.

Within the next three days all 1800 families went to the ground designated for their rehabilitation. They removed their belongings voluntarily and even helped us in the demolition. Once they moved, I helped them avail electric supply and got the hand pumps dug.

The Leadership Review | March 2016 |53Back to the content page

their admiration for him, which allowed him to function despite an army of adversaries he had earned during his career.

Integrity

The BMC was the place which was considered a portal to riches, should you not mind getting drenched in corruption. The law and regulations would not work on the rich and they did almost always bribe their way through. “When I would go to inspect the mills, I would find dozens of suits and saris left in my car as gifts. And they would be shocked to see me angrily return them,” says Khairnar smiling. His integrity wasn’t only greed-proof but even fear could not compromise it. He was attacked a number of times in his career and had suffered bruises, broken bones, and even a bullet through the leg. He refused favours from underworld dons like Varadrajan, Amar Naik, and Dawood Ibrahim, often publicly. “If an encroachment was abetted by a goon, I felt really good demolishing it,” says Khairnar with laughter. He took on Dawood Ibrahim’s illegal constructions and soon enough he found himself pitted against political heavyweight Sharad Pawar. He still continued with his approach of single minded focus on dispatching his duty with integrity. He was suspended, suffered ignominy, and yet never compromised on his integrity.

In the context where a good government officer was the one who would only ask for a reasonable bribe and not an exorbitant one, Khairnar was an antithesis. “When I was a deputy commissioner, my sister still worked as a domestic help. I never tried to use my influence to help any of my family members. I believed that if I help reform the system for everyone, my near and dear ones will benefit too,” says Khairnar with a sense of satisfaction.

“When I was a deputy commissioner, my sister still worked as a domestic help. I never tried to use my influence to help any of my family members. I believed that if I help reform the system for everyone, my near and dear ones will benefit too,” says Khairnar with a sense of satisfaction.


BMC Headquarters, Mumbai.


W e have human resource ‘management’ in India and not ‘development’. Management in India is translated into manipulation to one’s own end. That end could be ideological,

commercial or whatever one wants. In this setup, instruction is from the top to the bottom and information moves from the bottom to the top. This is exactly how the political class, regardless of whether the individual is in power or not, keeps accumulating wealth exponentially year on year. Politics is a commercial activity in India and it is done pretty efficiently if the goal of all politics is commercial and economic growth of the individual. The Indian businessmen and now the corporates have grown out of politics. It is a legacy of the feudal and caste structures that persisted for centuries. They resemble to some extent the same structures. The caste order, for instance, is also an economic order apart from being a social and political order. It is a division of labour; at first depending on the qualities and the orientation of an individual and later simply on the individual’s birth. With colonisation, came industries, factories, modern banking and currency. Modern processes of commerce and industry gradually made the caste order difficult to sustain as an economic and commercial order. As people got involved in the modern commercial world, their caste orientations began to erode. However,

A Counter to the Grand Narrative of Indian Corporate Sector

Column Sanjay Ranade


for a majority of people who remained on the margins of the modern economic and commercial world the moneylender was more real than the bank; the caste order continued to sustain rather than the modern business or industrial order. The caste order continued to make economic and commercial sense. Thus, even when the factories of Mumbai attracted huge numbers of migrants from all over Maharashtra, the caste order within the workers continued. The labour unions tried to work against this and create a modern idea of labour. It seemed to work but gradually the older value systems crept in and among the union leaders emerged the new Brahmins and Kshatriyas, the new upper caste. The business and industrialist class egged this process on because the modern and largely Marxist idea of labour was new and scary to them. It brought everybody from the owner to the last worker on equal footing and this was a scenario that they had never been trained for. Even the cooperative movement in some parts of India succumbed to the same pressures.

It was in this environment that management emerged in India as a very important device, a process to ensure that while the commerce continued the social, political and economic order did not break down. Management as manipulation of all resources that would lead to capital formation to suit’s one’s own purpose emerged in India out of this churning of and for power.

Indian corporates are thus in reality simply managing resources and thereby monopolising capital. The danger is that since we liberalised, globalised and privatised, they have learnt to manage both public resource as well as the state, the latter willingly participating since politics and politicians have always been a part of business in India. Thus, the Indian corporates are not really corporates at all.

The Indian corporate is a social and political structure resembling the Indian joint family where the culture and behaviour is intensely communal and feudal and where, regardless of the nature of the commerce or industry, the human being is almost always managed and never developed. Loyalty is the single most important factor that influences the individual’s growth. This loyalty is not about efficiency at work. It is about loyalty to select persons within the organisation. Growth in this set up stays purely at the individual level. Growth does not mean access to better and more resources or capital formation so the individual can grow out of the organisation. Growth is managed such that the individual never leaves the organisation and any

The Indian corporate is a social and political structure resembling the Indian joint family where the culture and behaviour is intensely communal and feudal and where, regardless of the nature of the commerce or industry, the human being is almost always managed and never developed.


and all growth is completely dependent on the benevolence or largesse of the organisation.

This scenario is now going to be altered. Over the past two decades our education system has produced millions of formally educated men and women with no vocational skills. The Indian private sector feels scuttled now because suddenly labour is getting to be expensive and of a constantly deteriorating quality. This may seem like a paradox but then India is familiar with this. We always have the numbers and never the quality. Thus, we have a dangerous situation. On one hand, government data shows, we are able to provide education to just about 30 % of our population that desires education. This leads to pressures on the formal education sector funded through public money. This pressure is reflected in the very poor quality of education and therefore seriously bad quality of human resource. We have private enterprise that wants people but is neither willing to pay to provide skill at their end or put money into the education sector. Even when they put money into the education sector it is not to develop the human resource but just to manipulate and exploit the masses that have the money.

In the education sector today we have two classes of reservation. One who are historically, socially, politically, educationally backward. This has happened because of caste and communal politics. These people are not necessarily without ability. They just do not have the exposure and the resources. However, they are yet to comprehend what is implied when the state provides something ‘free’. What is free or subsidised in India is decidedly of questionable quality. It also means that the subsidy is meant not to empower but to enslave and bind the receivers of such subsidy to the political class.

There is another class of reservationists too. These are variously called ‘management’ or ‘capitation’ seats. These are decidedly for those who have failed to demonstrate an ability to compete but have the resources to pay their way through. The private education sector in India is tapping into this latter ‘reserved’ class of people with money.

Be it our public or private sector education system, both are producing low quality human resource. The corporate and private enterprise sees no value in either research or developing human resource. It is significant that neither the state nor the corporate in India is asking for quality and both are asking for singular loyalty to select persons. Both pay lip service to quality but when it comes to paying up for it the pockets are sealed.

All that is left then is human resource management because growth requires resources and development is a huge responsibility. Neither the Indian people and definitely not the Indian state nor the so-called Indian corporate are very keen on growth or development. While the Indian people can be excused since half the population is still illiterate and below or close to the poverty line. There cannot be any redemption for the Indian state or the corporate.

There is another class of reservationists too. These are variously called ‘management’ or ‘capitation’ seats. These are decidedly for those who have failed to demonstrate an ability to compete but have the resources to pay their way through. The private education sector in India is tapping into this latter ‘reserved’ class of people with money.

The Leadership Review |March 2016 |57

Sanjay Ranade (PhD) is Associate Professor at Department of Communication and Journalism, University of Mumbai.


Interview

Sharad Mathur in conversation with Mohit DubeyCo-founder and CEO, CarWale.com


The Plucky Entrepreneur


Mohit Dubey, Co-Founder and CEO, CarWale.com, often says that he finds himself lucky to have led CarWale to the great heights it is at today. In conversation with him, however, Sharad Mathur finds him more plucky than lucky in his endeavour.

In the last decade, we have seen a sea change in the way India buys cars. How has CarWale impacted it?

CarWale started business in 2006, when it was the first online site related to the used car price guide. Today we serve around 20 million visits per month, which is a combination of around 9 million unique visitors on CarWale and BikeWale put together. Our call centre speaks to at least 1,30,000 people every month. We have been doing that for the last five years. When we talk to these people we track how many are willing to purchase the car through CarWale, how many have delayed the same, and how many have purchased a car of the brand that we worked with. From this, we have assessed that at approximately 25-33% of Indians who buy cars go through us!

That is an impressive feat. How has the interface with CarWale optimised customer advantage?

Not only that, we have helped the customers to save 5-10% of their total new car transaction value by educating them on all the things they need to know about it. To give you an example, each new car transaction is not just one transaction, but five transactions; it often also involves car finance, insurance, car registration and trade of used car on it. Knowing these nuances increases the buyers’ negotiation power. Similarly, with the used car, the customer can actually go and negotiate better with the dealerships because CarWale gives them a benchmark to start off from.

So, given the total car transaction value in India is about $40 billion and at least 25% of Indian car buyers come to CarWale, we influence a transaction of $10 billion. Through CarWale, we help people save around $100-200 million every year; meaning in the last five years, we would have helped people save around 300-400 million dollars.

Let us go back to the beginning of your entrepreneurial journey. We hear you gave up on a lucrative career in the United States to be a social entrepreneur. Why did you do that?

It was the Y2K and amidst the fears of an impending apocalypse, I had plans to go to the United States for work. Before leaving, my wife Priya wanted me to first visit Bhopal, my hometown. During this trip to Bhopal, I met a boy in one of the villages near Bhopal and convinced him to be an entrepreneur. I told him to set up a kiosk, charge some fee, and help the villagers get birth certificates, death certificates, and other government documents. But after two months when I went back to the village, I came to know that the boy had died of some disease. This happened because it was monsoon and the roads were cut off. His family could not take him to the hospital located in the district headquarters. This affected me a lot and I realised that I was needed more in Bhopal and not in the US!

I had resolved to help the villagers by connecting them to the district hospitals. That is when I decided to do Telemedicine, a start-up dedicated to do just that.

How did you go about putting together a team for Telemedicine?

When we talk to these people we track how many are willing to purchase the car through CarWale, how many have delayed the same, and how many have purchased a car of the brand that we worked with.

The Leadership Review |March 2016 | 60 Back to the content page

When I quit my job, I called like-minded friends to start Telemedicine with me. They joined me, not because they thought I was going to found a million-dollar company. I did not have any money and we did not look like we were set to make a lot of money. But one thing worked for us – we had a very worthy purpose. When there is a meaningful purpose, people join you because they believe in that purpose and want to do something meaningful with their lives.

My colleague, Gaurav Verma, who also happened to be my junior in school, was one of the first ones to join me. My CTO, Arun Sahlam – an IIT Madras alumnus – quit his job that made him Rs. 9 lakh per annum to start Telemedicine with me. All I could offer him was a rented accommodation and unlimited food; this did not cost me more than Rs. 3000 per month. My batch-mate from business school, Tufail Khan, came to see what we were doing because he felt what we were doing in Madhya Pradesh, could be replicated in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar as well. He went on to stay and work with us for three years in Bhopal.

All three of them laid the foundations of CarWale with me.

Why did it fizzle out?

That is because our idea to connect villages to district hospitals using technology was much ahead of its times then. Today it is happening all over the world and some people are trying to do it in India as well. However, at that time, getting the government on board was next to impossible. I met the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh around 20-30 times in three years. We tried to explain our idea but they could not accept it for one nemesis of a question – “When the doctor will consult a patient from a remote location and the patient dies, who will be held responsible for this?” We could not say, hold us responsible and that was the end of Telemedicine.

So, from Telemedicine to CarWale how did the transition happen?

I believe in setting a goal that the people believe in, keep inspiring them that the goal is achievable, and every now and then reassuring them that they are doing a good job.


After we met a dead end with Telemedicine, I came to Mumbai to figure out what to do next. While in Mumbai, in a serendipitous manner, I just happened to hear a used car dealer talking to somebody on the phone to get his website done. He was willing to give Rs 15,000/- for it. I quickly capitalised on the chance and offered to do the website for Rs. 7000. This was my first break in Mumbai. It was while working with this dealership that I realised most people who buy cars at car dealerships do not go out feeling happy with the interaction. They did not know about the hidden costs, had to hop from one dealership to another for comparisons, and had a very limited negotiation power. That is when I first conceived the idea of CarWale.

Once you had the idea, how did you go about implementing it?

I met my former boss to discuss this idea and take his opinions and views on it. I still remember, he told me “Mohit everything is good about you, but you lack focus. You want to do everything! I am willing to support you if you do just one thing.” And so, I decided to be only into the automotive business and continue being there for my lifetime. Once I had made up my mind, I went back to Bhopal and told my team that we are a different company now; we are CarWale.

My team did not like this one bit. They thought that I am letting go of all that we had built together in those four long years of hard work. I persisted. We said no to all the other business we were getting. We returned all the money, apologised, and told the clients that we have changed the orientation of our company. We told them that we do not want to engage in software projects anymore. My team, by then, had understood that our focus is going to be only automotive.

How did your experience in Bhopal help you with CarWale?

I had met the Chief Minister, the Health Minister, the Health Secretary, and other officials multiple times, only to garner negative responses from them. However I never let the fear of rejection dampen my spirit. Keeping this attitude up and any form of disappointment out of our way, we continued to be persistent. When you persist for long in any game and with determination, you tend to get lucky. That is how we succeeded.

Since I had no money, I thought I would just ask for it. I literally started knocking on the doors of large mansions in Bhopal who had big cars parked in their driveways. My pitch was simple “We are bunch of good guys from your city who are trying to build a good company. Won’t you feel proud having helped us when we succeed and return your money with interest?” Strangely enough, it worked and many of them did fund us. For them thirty-forty thousand was not really a big amount but it was a big push for us in those initial days.

For most entrepreneurs, their entrepreneurial dream dies in the need of VC funding? How did you go about it?

Our product was good; this ensured that we got funding at various stages to fuel our growth.

To give you an example, one of our first investors was Mr. Pravin Gandhi, was also one of the earliest users who benefitted from CarWale. When I met first him, he was about to sell his car, a Hyundai Sonata. A used car dealership had valued his car around Rs. 3 lakh. I requested him to check the expected rates on CarWale and there his car’s value was estimated to be Rs 5.5 lakh. He called the dealership again and ended up selling his car for almost 40% more than the initial amount the dealership had offered him. This was a working proof for him and he happily

I met my former boss to discuss this idea and take his opinions and views on it. I still remember, he told me “Mohit everything is good about you, but you lack focus. You want to do everything! I am willing to support you if you do just one thing.”


invested in CarWale.

Every successful organisation is built in a mould of values that are ingrained in its DNA. What are some of these at CarWale?

There are few things that are inbuilt in the DNA of CarWale. First is agility. Every time we figure out that something is not working; we change it. We went on with Telemedicine to software and then from software to dealership and then from dealership to an online dealership portal and so on and so forth.

Secondly, we believe in taking care for our employees. We always treat everyone superlatively well, irrespective of their performance, the tenure of their job, or the seniority of their position. I always tell the managers to treat their team-member the way they’d treat them as if they were not able to pay them their salaries. This attitude has helped us retain our employees till date.

The third is communication. Every day we spend time for five minutes and come together and discuss on what would be the focus for the today, what did we did yesterday, and what was our learning from the problems we faced. Every team does it with their managers, who in turn have the same discussion with their reporting authorities. This ensures a regular flow of information; the frontline executives know about the strategic direction of the organisation and the top management remains in touch with the ground realities.

Moreover, we have also been doing well in keeping our focus and taking smart risks. In any organisation, there are only a limited number of stars. In order to help get the best out of them, we have to focus on limited things; we maintain our discipline and do not go chasing every opportunity that exists. Also, while doing something new, we do not throw one cannon ball; instead, we throw ten small bullets. This keeps us from a lot of heartburn and saves us the opportunity cost. BikeWale is one such bullet that has come good for us.

What is your vision for CarWale?

India’s car penetration is pretty low right now reflected in the statistics of only 1.8 cars for every hundred people in India. It is very less if we compare it with other countries like the United States, which has 70-80 cars for every 100 people or Australia where they have 100 cars for every 100 people. If you look at the largest auto-site in the US, it garners a billion dollars in revenue. Two top auto sites in China garner $500 million each in revenue.

By 2017, India is expected to have 10 to 15 cars for every 100 people. That is when we will be the third largest auto market in the world and CarWale, the auto-site that helps Indian people buy cars, should be one of the top 5 auto-sites in the world.

What is your approach to realise this vision?

I think we can do it with a two-pronged approach. On one hand we use the technology and automate all our processes internally and externally. On the other hand, while moving forward, we keep looking three years ahead. While we have a short-term focus with the discipline of daily, weekly, and monthly meetings, we are going to focus on the long term as well. We are already beginning to ask questions like “How differently will people buy cars after five years?” and align ourselves with the emerging imperatives.


Column Joseph A Hopper

“Performance Appraisal” Gone Wild

7 Reasons Why the Performance Review System is Broken Beyond Repair The Leadership Review | March 2016 | 65Back to the content page

“Our performance appraisal system forms the cornerstone of how we motivate, incentivise and develop human capital in our organisation.” An uncertain silence followed the triumphant close of the HR Director’s presentation. No

wanted to jeopardise their next increment. After all, the entire leadership team averaged one major promotion/grade change every two years.

Yet, the company was close to filing bankruptcy. Their parent organisation had given them three chances to improve profitability and cash flows. But competition was fierce and the situation was only growing worse.

In performance appraisal land, however, the situation appeared considerably brighter. Expectations had been deftly managed from the beginning of the review cycle and all goals stood comfortably within reach. Everyone knew how the game was played:

Rule #1: Pad your targets

Rule #2: Never take on any goal that seems remotely challenging or unachievable

Rule #3: Always keep something hidden in your back pocket “just in case”

Rule #4: Do anything and everything necessary to meet your targets

Rule #5: Make as much noise as possible upon successful achievement of your targets

It was the CEO who finally pointed out the elephant in the room: “How can our overall performance be so poor when each of you is doing so great in your individual performance rating? I cannot continue defending these excesses. We will all have to take 30% salary cuts this year to survive.”

What Went Wrong?

Situations like this are all too common. Managers mean well and the fallout is rarely due to lack of effort. In fact, performance appraisals tend to take up enormous amounts of time, energy and attention across all levels of organisations.

At the same time, managers and employees agree that their own annual performance review system is bankrupt. According to researchers, 95% of managers are dissatisfied with their companies’ performance management process and almost 90% of HR professionals do not believe that performance reviews provide accurate information. But too often, they blame the outcome on HR and/or the leadership team, never suspecting that these issues are endemic across the vast majority of all modern organisations.

Let’s examine seven key reasons why performance appraisal systems are broken beyond repair.

1) Performance Appraisals Create a False Sense of Accountability

Our focus on individual performance measurement stems from the belief that the sum of the contribution of each individual adds up to the overall performance of the larger organisation. So, it is only fair that each employee should be accountable for her part. But how true is this, really? Take the task of billing a single customer. It seems simple and straightforward, and the responsibility of a single individual. But consider the complex web of dependencies leading up to it:

Impossible unless the salesperson was able to convince a customer in the first place

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Impossible unless the product/service design was fundamentally appealingImpossible unless the delivery team built up a reliable prior track recordImpossible unless the procurement team lined up the necessary raw materials at the

right time, without creating excess inventoryImpossible unless HR recruited and trained the right peopleImpossible unless the treasury function sourced adequate fundsImpossible unless the bills of earlier customers were collected successfully

No man is an island! Any meaningful accomplishment in business requires close coordination and synchronised efforts of an entire team. Spectacular individual performance is worthless without adequate support across the entire value chain.

Like it or not, there is no practical way to separate the contribution of one individual from the performance of the whole. Yet, the importance of isolating and measuring ‘individual’ performance persists as one of the most sacred business myths of our day.

2) Achievable Goals Create a Hard Ceiling (Cap) on Performance

Achievement is a function of the goal attempted. Consider the dilemma of a sales person who has already achieved their quota. Suddenly, they are faced with an opportunity to land a large deal which might potentially double their sales contribution to the organisation. What would you do if faced with such a windfall opportunity?

Remember that performance evaluation is a multi-period game. If you massively exceed your quota for this year, your target for future years will surely be hiked up. So it would be foolish for you to go out of your way to develop this opportunity.

You will not pass on the opportunity to a colleague either. If someone else lands the deal, it might, in comparison, diminish your achievement for the year. Hence, you will string the customer along, hoping to delay their decision till the next year, if at all possible. Never underestimate the power of strong incentives to undermine the very performance which we seek to improve! An interesting corollary is the case of a sales person who is unable to meet their quota for the current year. Should they work to complete any remaining small sales now (especially when they are insufficient to meet individual targets) or push them to the next year, so they can start a fresh cycle with some deals already in their bag?

3) Our Target Setting Process is a Recipe for Lack of Ownership

Combine: 1 pound of intense shareholder pressure

Two baskets of ambitious employeesSprinkle with future uncertaintyAdd a pinch of discretion in measuring outcomesMix in a bowl of vague strategic prioritiesFinish with heavy rounds of negotiation and second guessing Voilà, guaranteed lack of ownership on targets & goals!

4) KPIs Incite a Wide Range of Destructive Behaviors

More of a good thing is always better, right? Yet, the key performance indicators (KPIs)

Remember that performance evaluation is a multi-period game. If you massively exceed your quota for this year, your target for future years will surely be hiked up. So it would be foolish for you to go out of your way to develop this opportunity.

The Leadership Review |March 2016 |67Back to the content page

Further, these measurements tend to create a sense of us-vs-them in the organisation. We lose track of the main reason for cooperating with other departments -- overall performance/profitability of the organisation - as we blindly chase our individual or departmen tal numbers.

that we choose often backfire into harmful effects for the organisation. Take for example the core KPIs of certain common roles:These measurements tend to create a sense of us-vs-them in the organisation. We lose track of the main reason for cooperating with other departments - overall performance/profitability of the organisation -- as we blindly chase our individual or departmental numbers. Our attention shifts towards non-value-adding activities such as maximising divisional “profits” through better transfer pricing and looking good by making other departments look bad. Micromanagement by numbers is one of the surest and fastest ways to undermine team spirit and poison the well of cooperation.

We are all aware that measurements drive behavior. Don’t turn a blind eye to the unintended havoc caused by seeking to artificially measure local performance!

5) Static Goals Fail to Respond to a Rapidly Changing Environment

Individual targets are like concrete; practically impossible to modify once set.

But during the year, the external environment never stops changing. When the rupee depreciates drastically, do plans for export sales get ramped up? Does the engineering department work harder to develop local vendors to reduce reliance on the now expensive imported items?

Although both these strategies suddenly represent big opportunities, it is unlikely that they will ever be attempted (much less realised) due to the frozen-in-time nature of the underlying incentive structure.

6) Punishing Failure Leads to Chronic Risk Avoidance

Would you take on a risky stretch goal if you knew that your performance would be evaluated based on the success of it? Enough said.

7) KPAs/KPIs Ignore Critical Unplanned Contributions

Predetermined goals can never take into account impromptu initiatives which arise based on the need of the hour. For example:

An unknown colleague who convinced the star salesperson not to quit The manager who consistently grooms fresh talent (including a future CEO) by on-boarding unproven youngsters at the risk of short-term delivery

hiccups? Someone being promoted, who ensures a smooth transition for their successor Those “connectors” in the organisation who spread important information and

build a sense of community, but contribute less directly to specific tasks A whistleblower who prevents a financial scam before it can become a headlineNone of these unplanned contributions will ever be adequately captured or rewarded in the context of a formal performance appraisal system. Yet, acts such as these are what make organisations truly great.

Realisation is Dawning

Industry prognosticators have long predicted the demise of performance management as we know it. Quality guru W. Edwards Deming was known to claim that “it nourishes short-term performance, annihilates long-term planning, builds fear, demolishes teamwork, nourishes rivalry and politics.” Justin Roff-Marsh, a thought leader in sales process design, has hailed the “end of commissions, bonuses and other artificial management stimulants” for years. UCLA’s Sam Culbert called performance reviews “bogus” and urged companies to abolish them at the earliest.



The industry is beginning to realise the dangers of prevailing performance appraisal techniques. According to Rajul Garg, an Indian entrepreneur and angel investor, “as GlobalLogic (the company I co-founded) grew above 1,000 employees, we instituted an annual performance review process. It was a complete disaster. Until this time, we were all buddies and liked to hang out. But starting from the day after our first annual performance review, almost everyone was unhappy. The top performers felt they were so outstanding that they should have got better raises. The next 20% couldn’t really believe that they are not top performers. The next 50% – the thick middle, were extremely unhappy since they felt they were not being given any importance. But in reality, they were strong performers and crucial to the success of the company. The bottom 10% hung on for dear jobs till we put them in Performance Improvement Plans and took years to let them go. This became an annual nightmare year after year. It bred mediocrity, fiefdom, haves vs. have nots, difficulties in budget allocations and rate increases. I can keep going.”

According to Pierre Nanterme, the CEO of Accenture, “People want to know on an ongoing basis … am I moving in the right direction? Do you think I’m progressing? Nobody’s going to wait for an annual cycle to get that feedback.”

Academia is also waking up to the damage caused by traditional appraisal systems. Hayagreeva Rao, Professor of OB & HR at Stanford Graduate School of Business, likes to joke that “If the performance review was a drug, it would not be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration because it is so ineffective and has so many vile side effects!”

Alignment is Not Difficult

It is remarkably straightforward to achieve near-perfect alignment to overall team performance.

The first critical success factor is a genuine desire to create win-win outcomes with employees. Employee profit-sharing plans have been around for centuries and ESOPs are by no means new. But too often, such plans are doomed to failure due to stinginess in sharing the spoils of success; the lack of an “abundance mindset.”

The second critical success factor is delinking of the goal-setting process from the definition of achievement. Teams need “Big Hairy Audacious Goals” which get discussed and revised on a regular basis with their managers, without feeling threatened or penalised if they fall a bit short. Here, continuous improvement (vs. the past) is the goal rather than performance against some arbitrary target. Google ensures this crucial distinction through their process of OKRs.

The third critical success factor is to put the right company strategy and infrastructure in place to ensure success. The underlying objective is to ensure that the team (and therefore employees) tastes success. If your corporate planning is targeting 3% growth, no ESOP pool on the planet is likely to improve employee welfare/lifestyle significantly. Like crack cocaine, team success is super-addictive and tends to compound on itself. In the words of Sun Tzu: “Opportunities multiply as they are seized”.

Rays of Hope

Six percent of Fortune 500 companies have already begun to replace at least one aspect of the traditional annual performance review, and this number is growing. Accenture, for example, recently abolished performance ranking across all 336,000+ employees (110,000 of which are based in India).

In an internal survey, Deloitte discovered that more than 50% of executives did not believe that their employee review systems drove employee performance or engagement. According to Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall of Deloitte as quoted in Harvard Business Review “Our consulting


In addition to the recently announced changes at Accenture and Deloitte, other stalwarts such as Microsoft, Adobe, Gap and Medtronic have already moved away from aging performance review practices and adopted more employee friendly, transparent and mature strategies to motivate their employees.


and advisory firm employs more than 65,000 people, and when we tallied the number of hours managers were spending on reviews — completing the forms, holding the meetings — we realised they consumed close to two million hours a year. The firm ultimately wants reviews that don’t focus excessively on the past, but rather ‘fuel performance in the future’.”

In addition to the recently announced changes at Accenture and Deloitte, other stalwarts such as Microsoft, Adobe, Gap and Medtronic have already moved away from aging performance review practices and adopted more employee friendly, transparent and mature strategies to motivate their employees.

Call to Action

Measurement is the primary means of communication within most organisations. Current systems and processes encourage us to find ways to feel good about ourselves without making significant progress forward as organisations.

Will you perpetrate the myth that individual performance can (and should) be measured through balanced scorecards? Will you dare to tackle the issue of organisational and individual performance head on? Or in the words of Sumantra Ghoshal, will you and your organisation remain “satisfied with your underperformance?”

Joseph A Hopper is Principal Consultant at the Theory of Constraints Institute and Executive Director at Sunstone Business School. Prior to this, he headed Corporate Development at NIIT Ltd. where he oversaw the strategy, budgeting & review processes for 13 independent business units.


My job was to welcome the kids into school each day, so I stood inside the narrow gate and sprinkled Namastes, Assalaam Aleikums, Sat Sri Akals and Good mornings pretty

indiscriminately as they passed, usually smiling in acknowledgment. Years later, I learned that they had appreciated this little ritual a lot. However, I gradually began to observe that during certain seasons there were far fewer smiles, and glazed expressions. I’m not a very observant man, so I didn’t think it through for quite a while. And then one day ping, the penny dropped. It was exams time.

Bit by bit I observed that the glazed looks were related to fear and tension. Now, I happen to believe that school should be a happy place to go to, and it bothered me to see that these exam days were straight

SERVE An Answer to the Horrors of Contemporary School Education in India

Ideas That Matter Dr Brendan MacCarthaigh


torture for many. Periodic exams are part of the system, but so often, and so frightening – that I began to resent them. So I thought, why doesn’t somebody do something about this? And then I wondered, why doesn’t the government do something about this? Which led me to think, why don’t teachers do something about this? After a while, with self-reproach I reflected, why don’t I do something about this? I reminded myself that I was a professional, that the duty to rectify things wrong with the system was directly my business. And thus, my thoughts began to run along reform lines.

The next challenge: what to do? You can’t do away with all exams; the entire education process would simply grind to a halt. One day I had to rush out after school to do a short but important job, and I asked one of our teachers if she would loan me 15 minutes of hers it would take. She said she would ask her husband, and phoned him. In the course of the short dialogue that followed, she commented to him, “Mere izzat ka swall hai!” And the penny that had pinged earlier now went clang! Izzat!

Think-think. I slowly recognised that every nation in the world has its own knee-jerk response, an inbuilt attitude to all interpersonal engagements. We all know of the British ‘stiff upper lip’, so beautifully exemplified in the TV serial Downton Abbey. Quite different is the loud, even brash, American style. Germans notoriously ‘follow the dots’ – what’s done, that’s what they do. Russians – stolid, predictable. Chinese are famously inscrutable, Japanese distinctively deferential, and so on. Cartoonists make great mileage out of this fact. So, what is the Indian thing? By then, I was sure it was this — the izzat factor. My dictionary says izzat is a combination of status and prestige. There is no clear English word for it, but speakers of English often use only the second word, prestige. ’It is a matter of my prestige that my daughter/ son get admission to your esteemed institution’, is a common sentence in letters of application to a school.

Now, Gandhiji tried to break down this attitude, which underpins our caste system, by doing things that others considered way below their izzat; like cleaning toilets and so on. The idea was good, but it was psychologically unwise. Leopards keep their spots. We Indians are Indians, and as such, will always respond as per the promptings of our izzat. So I set myself to think of an educational system that recognised this inalienable characteristic of ours and at the same time protected youngsters from the destructive negativity

I slowly recognised that every nation in the world has its own knee-jerk response, an inbuilt attitude to all interpersonal engagements. We all know of the British ‘stiff upper lip’, so beautifully exemplified in the TV serial Downton Abbey.


of many teachers.

First, we follow Macaulays’s system, which allots marks to successful memory work in exams. That’s ok for an English kid, an American kid, even a German kid. They don’t have such an irrepressible izzat attitude to deal with. Yes, they are hurt of course, but I have seen English youngsters and American youngsters fail in exams which was a disappointment soon shrugged off. Not us. I asked a 13-year-old Indian boy one day, what would happen if he flunked his forthcoming promotion exam into Class IX. His reply can be summed up thus: “My mother will wail. My father will beat me. My khandaan (roughly, caste) will point heavily at me and declare, ‘You have let us all down! My teachers will say, ’This! After all I did for you! My Principal will announce, ‘You let down the school’! And the neighbours will tell their kids not to play with me anymore, because I’m a failure.” The sad, sad reality is that every girl and boy in India writing exams carries this awareness on her/his back every time they have to sit for an exam. Is it any wonder that on those days they didn’t see me at the school gate, didn’t acknowledge, and didn’t smile?

Second, the teacher also functions within the izzat reality, and regards it as a personal offence if the youngster does not toe the commanded line throughout the school day. In practice, this means that when the results come out, some youngsters receive below commendable marks. The results are pinned on a board for all to see. The world can see that some are failures. This doesn’t just hurt, it wounds. It wounds sometimes so deeply that the student will resort to just any means to change it. Our exam system is notorious for dishonest practices. But for some inexplicable reason we go along with it. Girls will try prostituting themselves to correctors. Everybody will try things like fudging the marks, begging and bribing for more creditable results, running away, and the ultimate: suicide. In India we have the highest student suicide rate in the whole world, and graph continues to rise.

The end of the working week is hard on everyone, and it is not uncommon for a teacher to work off her/his frustrations, whether arising out of domestic or professional reasons hardly matters, on some recalcitrant youngster who is made to stand up and be verbally flogged for whatever misdemeanour is cited. I know a senior girl who had her first of several epileptic attacks that very evening after being reprimanded. The teacher goes home, relieved, but not the child. And other children happily tell

Leopards keep their spots. We Indians are Indians, and as such, will always respond as per the promptings of our izzat. So I set myself to think of an educational system that recognised this inalienable characteristic of ours and at the same time protected youngsters from the destructive negativity of many teachers.


their parents, who gleefully convey it back to the parents of the already bleeding victim.

All this is our Indian reality. And so, the challenge was to design a system where this would be very unlikely to happen. I created one and called it ’Where the child is without fear’, due apologies to Rabindranath. It was when this was all fermenting inside me that the NGO I work for, SERVE, was founded. (SERVE is an acronym for Students’ Empowerment, Rights and Vision through Education.) This is not the place to spell out the finer points of this different pedagogical system, but it is quite like the famous Cooperative Learning system, only less complicated and with no expense factors involved past a few rupees per teacher. The principle is that the class is in teams, each team has a mascot (animal, bird or flower). Each one within the team has a letter-name, A B C D E F G H, and given any lesson they all teach one another. The teacher becomes operative only when the teams are quite stuck. At the end of the allotted time, the teacher calls out, ‘All the Ds come to the chalkboard’, and a quiz follows, during which correct answers are scored on the chalkboard, and applauded by everyone.

Around that time, two of my past pupils reminded me that when I had been their teacher, I had promised them that their children would not have to undergo the sort of system they were enduring. But now they were adults, and nothing had changed for the children. One of them said, “Can’t we do something?” The other, “Let’s start some sort of group.” One was a Hindu, one was a Muslim, and I am a Christian. So, the three of us decided that we would start a group called SERVE. Whether you believe in such things I wouldn’t know, but for all three of us, this was an inspired moment, when the Spirit, touched us together. And thus, made it clear that religion would not be a factor in our endeavours. We have retained that characteristic to this day.

Now, almost twenty years later, we look back at the huge success of our SERVE system in Delhi during the early years of this millennium. The publication of lots of related literature, both books and pamphlets, the making of a few documentaries, the public denunciation of what is going on in schools (and colleges) in the context of education, articles in magazines of all sorts, many lectures, and working within classrooms towards enlightening senior children especially in the matter of what their life could mean at its best, the organising of numerous courses in things related to growth and education like value education, handling stress, parents dealing with a youngster facing board exams, how to study, and especially, making the whole business of getting kids through those wretched exams with less or even no tension. Some of our efforts drew a blank; others gave the kids – and us – joy.

As I type these last sentences, I am happy to report that I visited a very prestigious school this morning because I had heard that they adopted the SERVE system a long while back and we hadn’t even known. They want me to come back and show them how to move on with this system because it promises to alleviate, if not totally eliminate, all suffering from the Indian classroom. A consummation devoutly to be wished, no?

Around that time, two of my past pupils reminded me that when I had been their teacher, I had promised them that their children would not have to undergo the sort of system they were enduring.


anna hazare patriarch of the indian anti-corruption...

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