Like most of the World
and business organisations India is undergoing significant transformation and offers
some very interesting insights into Leading and managing change.
Lot has been written about Anna Hazare
and anti corruption movement. Images plastered all over news papers, television
and websites; of youngsters (most of them aged between 16-25 years) riding
bikes with pillion riders standing behind them, sometimes as much as four
people on one bike, in violation of traffic and safety rules continue to
disturb me both as a person and as professional. Unfortunately this is a
common scene in all political, religious and social rallies as well as day to
day traffic on roads.
Sounds trivial? Why is this important?
Here is context data:
Across India, every ten days over 4000
people die in road accidents, majority of them are on two wheeler and are
under 35 years of age. This is more than all people lost in Kargil War. India loses more people in six months in road accidents than has lost to wars and
terrorism since Independence.
Ask any communication and branding
expert and they will verify the blunder. Not to forget, tendency to break rules
and laws is root cause of corruption (bribery). So how can people leading anti
corruption movement and demanding accountability in public service themselves
be tolerant of such behaviors? It’s like a corporate leader supporting
processes and people responsible for malfunction of most promising products.
As a person looking to invest in India,
will be genuinely concerned. When I see Urban/ Semi Urban, educated, with means
(owners of bikes, vehicles etc) who are most likely to be part of work force
being hired behaving so irresponsibly.
I am reminded of a story told by
Pramod Bhasin (ex CEO & Chairman, Genpact / Leader - GE Capital India). He
was at Chinese airport on a rainy day. A group of maintenance workers were walking
in a line towards Aircraft; there was puddle of water and first one jumped to
cross over. Entire crew followed him without breaking line. If this was in
India, we would have someone jumping over it, another few deciding to take a
detour from right, some from left and so on. Bottom line, in general Indians
don’t demonstrate discipline, more so self discipline.
Businesses need predictability,
consistency and respect for law & rules to thrive.
Similarly, at launch of Clean India
campaign, after Prime Minister and crowd departed, venue was littered with
pamphlets distributed by organizers (Govt of India). If your goal is to clean than you can’t be adding to waste generation. To manage waste we have to start by
managing and curbing waste generating behavior and leaders must lead by
example, for campaign to succeed, root causes have to be dealt with. It’s not
only about littering but total waste of national resources (read organisational
resources in context of businesses). Allocating huge resources, fancy ad
campaigns etc will have no impact unless underlying attitudes and processes change. For example, using technology and connecting with people, similar
to Prime Minister’s address to school children on 5th September,
would have been a much more effective approach.
Last year, I was reading results of a
study by an international agency. According to this study approximately 175 mm
Indian families (of 4 people) earn less than $1350 p.a. translating into
700 mm people or roughly 10% of humanity having less than 1 $ per day to live.
In this back drop providing for skill development, education and employment
(schemes like MGNREGA) is understandably any government’s priority. With
current controversy in media over increased allocation of fund for material the
MGNREGA is once again in focus. One is reminded of Cliché – definition of
insanity is doing the same thing over and over
again and expecting different results. (Albert Einstein)
These programs continue
to repeat mistakes of past 67 years since independence. Every year instead of
reducing people’s dependence on such programs and reservations in
jobs/admissions we have agitations and lobbying to include more people.
Make in India, Clean
India, Making FDI norms easy, MGNREGA, Reservations etc are means to end, but
we continue treating them as goal itself. Effective business organizations
start with customer to set their goals and work backwards to change/create
processes to meet their goals. Similarly, India has to start focusing on
improving life of its 1250 mm people and integrate various initiatives to make
them successful.
Here are some examples
of creating people (customer) centric solutions, instead trying to force fit,
subsidies and fund people in systems which do not serve their purpose.
Select youngsters in age
group of 12-15 years from these families. Create a three year program
comprising of two blocks of 6 hours each. It’s possible to provide education
equivalent to six academic years (roughly 180 to 200 days) in 6 hours X 1080
days. Use second block to provide technical and vocational training for three
years providing them employment on completion of three years. During this
time pay these youngsters $ 3 per day from MGNREGA and provide meals from Mid
Day meal scheme. This will create far more valuable assets and set these
families truly free. With collaboration
and involvement of industry this can create pipeline of employable young talent
for industries, services, Armed forces, Para-military forces, healthcare
services, police etc.
Provide government and
community land (village panchayat, temples etc) on lease (instead of
transferring ownership) to build cold storage, large retail stores etc.
Include solar power generation firms by providing roof tops to set up plants
and ask them to fund construction in lieu of rent/cost of land. Unlike
conventional power generation, solar power can be generated through clusters of
small units catering to local communities resulting in lower costs and T&D
losses. Similarly funds can be used from MGNREGA, health and education budgets
to construct schools, healthcare facilities in collaboration with solar energy
firms. This is all possible by creating enabling regulatory framework.
Organised retail is need
of hour. We continue to debate corporate versus local shop owners, domestic
companies versus foreign companies etc. Why not promote cooperative model,
exiting small shop owners can form cooperatives and nationwide network of such
local cooperatives can provide benefits to consumers and opportunities
businesses. We have extremely successful example in dairy sector - Amul to
learn from. Once again funds from schemes like MGNREGA should be used to
promote such enterprises at village level.
It’s simple, to be efficient; dispose
what is not required, figure out what is important and hold on tight to what
you want most!
I am reminded of a presentation in
circulation few years back about difference in developed and developing/under
developed nations. Difference between Developed and under developed nations is
attitude of people, framed over the years by education and culture.
It’s time to stop rhetoric like India
is Great (Mera Bharat Mahan) and change to let’s make India Better.
Warm Regards,
Pankaj
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