Book Review: Leaders on Leadership: Insights from Corporate India

Leadership remains elusive to most people. Many want to be able to lead better, be it while leading teams, organizations or groups that interest them. Despite enormous body of literature both from the academic and consulting worlds, the questions of leadership, good leadership, what makes a leader, remain unanswered for each one differently. Leadership as it is practiced by various individuals provides answers that people look for, relating their personalities and their ways with that of the leaders practice of leadership. The book Leaders on Leadership fits in rather well into this gap. It is a an excellent narrative from the leaders … includes elements of their personality, values, beliefs … the points of transformation for them and also how they practice leadership providing useful insights into the leaders world.

In the context of the operative social values in India, namely: (a) preference for hierarchy; (b) embeddedness; (c) personalized rather than contractual relationship; (d) harmony rather than confrontation; and (e) duty and obligation rather than hedonism (Sinha, 2000: 27), understanding and appreciating the practice of leadership in India that has worked well for these nine leaders enumerated in the book is of huge relevance for all who need to develop their own practice of leadership such that it is useful for their organizations, for themselves and for the society at large.

The book stands out in the honesty with which each leader has contributed to the chapter, seems to come straight from the heart. The book doesn’t come across as a know-it-all coming from the top kind of book, but more of, sharing a personal experience of leading and leadership. Each of the nine leaders takes the readers though a personal journey. They elaborate on the leadership that worked for them and for their organizations, their world view on what works and what doesn’t, what it takes to really make the difference. It is a great learning, reading through the chapters, the context and experiential examples.

The book begins with the fist chapter on the lessons from the Infosys journey. Narayan Murthy outlines his view on who is a leader? What is leadership? And what it took to put this in practice at Infosys in terms of philosophy and action. He begins with a quote from George Bernard Shaw, ‘Most people see things as they are and wonder why: I dream of things that never were and say, why not?’ that beautifully summarizes his view on leadership about taking up the challenge because it’s aspirational, honourable and the right thing to do. He then takes the reader through each of the tasks of the leaders beginning with articulation of a powerful vision, demonstrating commitment to values, building trust, demonstrating courage, open and fair, inclusive environment, good governance, organizational philosophy and relating all of these with initiatives and actions that were in place at Infosys while implementing these completely and whole heartedly. His concluding lines on leadership say it all, ‘leadership is not about oneself, its about raising the aspirations and creating confidence joy, hope, enthusiasm and energy of others.’

The second chapter leaps on to a narrative from a family business enterprise by M. V. Subbiah; the family is the recipient of the distinguished family business award from IMD Lussane. For him ‘family and tradition’ have been the two most important underpinnings of what he did. He takes the reader through the family traditions of togetherness, breakfasts and holidays, and the bonding that creates the atmosphere of trust and mutual respect. With a brief background on the history and genesis of the group, he shares the learning in doing that was practice within the group. Each new entrant joined in as an apprentice with an agent. He remembers as a young intern on his first day as the peon to the agent he was sent out to get paan for him. The experience was the starting point of teachings on humility, dignity of labour and discipline that form the core principles at the Muryguppa’s. The managing of turnarounds that he handled and the experiences within each of those ranging from Carborundum Universal, Tube Investment of India to EID parry are great learning’s for all. He summarizes his groups’ business philosophy from a verse from Arthshastra, ‘… the fundamental principle of economic activity is that no man you transact with will lose, then you shall not’.

Adi Godrej has titled his chapter ‘The importance of being you’ and begins with narrating how his childhood initiations to independence have been among the most influential ones in his life. He mentions his education, experiences and experiments with change at MIT that he carried back with him geared up for a change at Godrej. A fascinating journey of turning a ₹ 100 million business group to a congloromate with a turnover in excess of US$ 3.8 billion today. His ‘notes to myself’ take the readers through his philosophy of success—beginning with taking responsibility, reflecting upon your failures, staying balanced on a shifting ground, hardwiring discipline, big dreams and collective ownership of ideas. He concludes by saying ‘our most defining role as leaders will be to demand better and push for more’.

The fourth chapter of the book takes you through the journey of transformation for Kumar Mangalam Birla. The chapter begins with how responses to situations and events have the potential to be the turning points that change the course of individuals, nations and civilizations. He exemplifies with events that influenced individual events around nations that changed History. Gandhiji’s moment of being thrown out of a whites-only train in South Africa changed his focus forever; Jamshedji Tata being refused entry into a club because he was an Indian and the making of Taj; Akio Morita’s observation on where people spend money and his communication strategy for Sony; the fall of the Berlin Wall, the balance of payment crisis in 1991 and the economic reforms to name a few.

The emphasis is on the learning that is driven deeply at such times by the force of the circumstances. His personal turning points being the passing away of his father that became the biggest turning point for him, an emotionally difficult time and a time of shouldering a large responsibility. Unleashing of India’s liberalization, major shifts in the group’s strategy, rapid increase in the group’s diversity and the great global economic disruption of 2008 are the four other turning points that have shaped his perspective and practice of leadership. He describes each one and the responses framed the future for the group. He concludes by saying ‘I believe leadership is all about plugging into the minds and hearts of people’.

Deepak Parekh, in chapter five, focuses on the role of the leader in the changing global environment, the influences of virtual costless information, technological advances, choice of global spaces and levelling of the playing field. He mentions, ‘leadership is all about moving ahead with two basic instruments: the compass and the clock. One which confirms the direction you are moving in and the other which tells you how fast you will get there’. He discusses this in the context of the HDFC and explains the process and the choices they made and how it has worked for them. He puts together the Qualities of Leadership as: Values & principles, ability to build long term relationships, focus on service management, and Intuition. He emphasizes the need of the new alchemists for India—the traits of the new alchemists being dedication, doggedness and difference. His belief is that, ‘in the Indian context the new leader will be one with impeccable traditions of integrity in thought and deed, a strong sense of history, an understanding of change, an ability to read the subtext of times and an agent of change’.

Raghav Bahl, discusses his chapter in the context of entrepreneurship and leadership, the self made entrepreneur takes us through the making of Network 18, how a passion, a hobby, became life’s calling and how the media business unfolded for him. Entrepreneurship’s satisfaction according to him is in the joy of creating wealth and that of achievement. His leadership philosophy is highlighted in his approach to situations. He emphasizes that leadership is not a popularity contest, a leader needs to be a contrararian, he should be able to go against the flow as the need be. Openness and transparency are the leadership tenets he believes in completely. Another important leadership lesson that he shares is on people. ‘Achievement and excellence cannot be forced. Forced compliance is bad for a leaders standing, it harms the enterprise as well. People blossom when they do things of their own volition’.

Tarun Das takes us through a fascinating story, that of and the evolution of the Confederation of Indian Industry under him for over four decades. Starting small, the associations that eventually took shape of CII in 1991 became known for leadership and as a change agent for new initiatives. Besides an excellent narrative of the formation, working, vision and implementation for work at CII within the political and social makeup of the country he also highlights the value of introspection, honesty of analysis and facing the facts. For him leadership is integrity, it is listening to people, trust and space to staff, ability to take risk, willingness to fail and learn from it and that it’s a marathon not a mere race, accepting its success as a gift and not getting arrogant or complacent are the components of leadership he emphasizes.

Chanda Kochar, who’s widely recognized for her role in shaping the retail banking sector in India and for the leadership of the ICICI group takes us through her personal experience of practicing leadership in contemporary India. Her introduction to the chapter explains her leadership philosophy, beginning by ‘Leadership is not about theory, it’s about practice. Its not only vision but also execution, about adaptability and flexibility, dynamism combined with prudence and most importantly about learning and seizing every opportunity to learn and grow. In addition to the leadership lessons she shares through her journey from a management trainee to a CEO at ICICI she pays an important tribute to the role of younger employees in their organizations and how it’s critical to look for and develop young leaders within organizations.

Dr Mashelkar discusses the challenges and practice of leadership in science, as the head of the National Chemical Laboratory and the CSIR, transforming both to a level of world class organizations during his tenures with them. His response to how he looks back at his leadership says is all about his philosophy of leadership, transformational like him. ‘If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader’. His chapter focuses on thought leadership and he highlights three areas, one that Indian ideas must be patented, two innovation and three powerful thoughts. ‘Thought and action are both important in leadership. The power of thoughts can transform nations and if pursued with passion and patience’.

The book has a combination of a narrative, bibliography and case studies. It is simply put together as leadership practiced by these great leaders across industries and organization types. The book is free of technical parlance and is a very good read for all those interested in leadership in India. Two different genres of leaders have been covered, one, born with the heritage and inheritance of a business like the Birlas and Godrej and the leaders who have risen in the new era across media, institutions and science. The stories not only help the reader appreciate the scale of growth of the companies and the industry but also how each individual, despite different passions and approaches to leadership, has evolved as a successful leader. There is a huge learning from each chapter, but put together the learning is exponential.