IT and the art of leadership

Speaking at two separate conferences involving the Chief Ministers of

Tamilnadu and Maharashtra respectively, I was amused, though not really

surprised by the common messages that today’s politicians and bureaucrats are

willing to give to the business community–the days of cronyism and red tape

are over, the state is willing to listen and is open for business. While the

cynics may talk about "many a slip between the cup and the lip" and

the harsher realities that still prevail behind the silver tongues of today’s

state leaders, there is no doubt that today’s Chief Ministers, from

Jayalalitha to Digvijay and Krishna to Shinde, are all willing to do their

utmost to make their states the preferred destination for IT Outsourcing in the

months to come.

Ganesh Natarajan

And after all, isn’t that what leadership is all about? Speaking at the

conference in Mumbai that was titled "Maharashtra–taking the lead",

the Boston Consulting Group chairman, the very erudite and philosophical Arun

Maira, spoke of the need for leaders to manage the "tension of our

times" between the need among many, whether citizens of states or employees

in organizations, to have a feeling of certainty and control, while preserving

the right to know and participate.

The software industry has successfully managed these contradictions in the

last year and more, as the successful firms managed to steer their organizations

and their people from the heady heights of the dotcom era through the turbulence

of the great IT crash through the quicksand of shrinking budgets and delayed

project starts that make up the IT spending landscape even today. We have all

moved from the need to manage attrition to managing despondency and now setting

realistic expectations for all stakeholders of our enterprises and the industry

has emerged wiser at the end of it.

Arindam Chaudhuri, the very passionate and vocal Dean of the Indian Institute

of Planning and Management recounted some lessons in leadership from the Indian

epics that may serve as great lessons to any CEO, business head or project

manager, trying to manage the varying needs of a demanding workforce. Drawing

parallels from the situational leadership style of Lord Krishna from the

Mahabharata, he brought out the interesting difference between Krishna’s

telling style of leadership with Arjuna, selling with Yudhishtira, participative

with Duryodhana and delegating with Bhima. In a very similar manner, there are

only a few champions in any team who can be allowed to do the job effectively.

And while leaders throwing themselves into the battle and fighting alongside

the troops can take a few intellectuals along, it still needs extreme sagacity

on the part of leaders to take teams of willful and intelligent professional

along in the quest of a common goal–success in the global marketplace.

A look at a few of the successful states will also show how they have made it

happen. For every Chandrababu Naidu—Ramalinga Raju partnership that is a role

model of State—Private Enterprise partnership, there are other states like

Karnataka which have done well by attracting outstanding individuals like Vivek

Kulkarni and Naidu to run key roles in the establishment and create an enabling

environment for the industry to flourish or Tamilnadu which has provided the

investment base for the highly sophisticated intelligentsia to develop companies

all along the East Coast Road. And being proud Indians, we all need to give

ourselves and our political leaders credit for making so much happen with so

little real investment. Contrast this with China, where the Government is

willing to put its money where its mouth is, and one is able to take some

justifiable pride in our own achievements.

Finally, no piece on leadership can be complete without a mention of the most

persuasive leader of them all–Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Even today, when one

looks at leaders of the Western world, who are consumed in the tussle between

their own egos and a sense of self righteousness that pushes them into real and

verbal battles, one cannot but remember the man who was not bestowed by any

titular or elected authority but instead took the first steps towards what he

deeply cared about, in ways that others then wished to follow. The IT industry

needs more such statesmen, who can dare to dream the impossible dream, build a

compelling vision and then show their organizations the path to make this vision

a reality.

Ganesh Natarajan



The author is the global CEO of Zensar Technologies