In CULT , as the name suggests, Leadership
and Business Strategy is ruthlessly
defined. Written by Arindam Chaudhuri supported by A Sandeep, it is “a view on vision, you won’t find anywhere”.
The Financial Times, London calls
Arindam Chaudhuri “the maverick
management guru” and The Hindustan Times
calls him “the intellectual litterateur of the decade”. Honestly speaking, I
did not take much notice of him, except for his annual speeches on budget , until I read this book. I
should say it is a must read, whether you ultimately agree with his ideas or
not. Written in very powerful language, the book is an eye opener.
What should be the quality of a
vision statement ? “ Vision has to be extremely number driven ( profit, sales,
m-cap, employee productivity, or any other factor you may wish to include ) and
time oriented ( in how much time what’s the visionary target to be achieved)” .
Do you really need a mission
statement ? “ In privately held companies, accordingly to Arindam not needed.
In large organization the mission statement is inarguably one of the most important
public relationship exercises undertaken by any organization to be accepted as
ethical, society friendly, value based and for the benefit of the stakeholders.”
The second chapter of the book is
in all praise for authoritarian leadership. Sample this “ This is because while
leadership styles which are more democratic and are wonderful to be read and
applied, the fact of the matter is that such styles can be successful only when
the people you are leading are most mature, responsible and ambitious. But
finding such mature people to work with is near impossible!”
In technology driven world today
according to Arimdam, the leaders have realized that given a choice, most
employees will be underproductive. So more and more technologies in the form IT
and other methods are used to force them to deliver.
About Apple Andrew Keen wrote “
There is not an ounce of democracy in Apple. That’s what makes it a paragon of
such traditional corporate values as top-down leadership, sharply hierarchical organization and
centralized control. And today it is one of the most valuable IT company of the
world.
The Virgin’s method of using CEO as a brand has been
praised to the hilt. But Vijay Mallya has been ignored, as the argument may not
fit here with Kingfisher debacle. `
Summarizing the first three
chapter he writes “ have an audacious vision at every level, whiplash employees
into submission so they work, ensure that the world recognizes your face as
being the face of the corporation and finally have a to-hell-with-everyone-else
attitude hanging around”.
He does not like the split of
roles between the CEO and the Chairman. As per McKinsey nearly 80% of the
S&P 500 companies combine both the roles into one. It appears also in a
Christian & Timbers study it was shown that the stockholders’ return was 5%
lower in European Companies who implemented the spilit.
Successful entrepreneurs are
moderate risk takers not gamblers. As
American Management Association quoted in the book “ Great Leaders are informed
risk takers. They act decisively, not recklessly, to maximize “lucky” breaks.
He quotes Dr Sheila Dikshit, the
Chief Minister of Delhi in the book. “ For me a leader is a person who people
believe is capable of taking risks. The greatest requirement for a leader, however,
is communication. If you are unable to communicate, you cannot lead or manage”
Hold regular meetings and punish
the guilty accordingly. If you thought that giving the employee a stick in the
public was unethical, think again. That is not what successful leaders like
Jobs have thought.
Putting the right team in place
is not adequate, one has to engage with the team regularly, effectively and
with total clarity, they cannot be left in the autopilot mode, howsoever
talented they are. “ if you want to a real transformation sweeping through your
organization, make internal meeting mandatory, and extremely regular. “
Merger and Acquisitions he calls
as Murder and Acquisition. One IBAC research shows 90% of the M&As will
fail to live upto expectations. Most of the CEOs now prefer organic growth and
extensive partnership compared to M&A.
As per the writer the four major
differentiators for any organization in terms of capturing market share are (a)
Service (b) Style (c) technological superiority, perceived or real and (d)
quality. “ Why would you want to know
through a sticker everyday that there is ‘INTEL INSIDE’ your laptop? That is a
shrewd technology positioning by Intel”
The book deals with many other
topics like the power of MBA, Multi-tasking, Loyalty, Globalization, R&D,
SBU, etc. etc. An interesting reading !
