On 3^rd October, 2009, Department of Management Studies, IIT Delhi played host to the ‘CEO conclave’, an event where industry stalwarts shared their seasoned insights with DMSites on a myriad of issues surrounding challenging areas such as leadership in uncertain times, managing change in a corporate and identifying practical ways to achieve these objectives. With many delegates being DMS alumni, this event meant returning to their alma mater to refresh old memories to a warm reunion which saw hoary wisdom mixing with delightful anecdotes of the days gone by.

The event began under the auspices of Dr. Deepak Dogra, President, DMS alumni association, who welcomed the delegates and participants. This was followed by a formal felicitation and introductory address by Mr. Ashok Kamal, Former President, IIT Kanpur, Alumni Association. The esteemed panelists were: Mr. Aditya Narayan, Chairman, ICI India Limited, Mr. Dinesh Gupta, President, Bry-Air Asia, Mr. YPS Suri, Head, Outo Kumpu India, Mr. Arup Roy Chaudhary, CEO, NBCC and Mr. Arbind Kumar, CEO, NPCC.

Mr. Aditya Narayan, began the proceedings by describing how change is the most crucial event a corporate can face. He said that change can either be planned or unplanned. He talked about various previous ideas expressed in works such as Jill Collins’, How the mighty fall or Gerstner’s, Who says elephants can’t dance, and how the thoughts of those works was to be adopted today. He also quoted studies which correlated leadership to success, for instance, a study found that the number of Wall Street Journal articles that talked about a company’s leadership was directly related to the company’s financial success. In fact, giving the example of his own company, he talked about how leadership was successful in adapting the company to the unique circumstances of India.

Further, he gave a very interesting analogy, to describe change. He described it as taking the company from a specific place A to another specific place B. In such an instance, he described leadership being akin to a force, more as a vector, having a direction and magnitude. What made the task difficult, was identifying A and B. The environment too made the task additionally complex.

Mr. Narayan further said that it was the responsibility of the leadership to identify and align forces working for the change, which was again a challenging task but could help make a difficult change, easier. The carful nuance required however lay in ensuring that the leadership exerted a force which should neither be too much, which could kill the enterprise or too little, which could have no impact at all.

Re-emphasizing the role of a leader in making a planned change easier, Mr. Narayan laid stress on the character of the leader. The personality of the leader is thus important since the strength of character generates important values like trust and respect. Similarly a leader must be resilient enough to show grit in demanding circumstances while being ruthless when circumstances demand the same. Judgment of the leader was important in determining traits of the vector of leadership, making sense of the surroundings and managing timing, whether a decision should be implemented or should it be withheld. Most importantly however, it was about how compelling the vision of the leader was in pushing the change and making it happen and how precisely the leader is able to define that change and inspire his team to go for it. Similarly he stressed on how the human side of the organization has to be the key driver for motivational strategies, which may involve identifying a common organizational “enemy” and even using motivational propaganda to boost morale.

In the final part of his talk, Mr. Narayan talked about unplanned change and that there was no A to B or a vector to drive change. Rather when unplanned change arrived it was more a question of how to cope and survive across the alligator pit, once pushed into it. The basic recommendation he made for such circumstances was to return back to the basics and rely on core strengths and survival instincts.

Mr. Dinesh Gupta talked about the success of Bry-Air in managing change and how change was not always a bad thing even when it turned the direction of the flow against you. Citing the example of China, he said how a more globally competitive China has put pressure on India to pull up its socks as well.

Mr. YPS Suri stressed on how Outo kumpu, a Finnish corporate a company which had ethics as its core value had to undertake great changes in adapting itself to the Indian business climate, and how the leadership figured prominently in initiating and sustaining that change.

Mr. Arup Roy Chaudhry gave a unique dimension to the discussion by talking about how PSUs cope with change management. He said that the need for change and the course of action to be adopted began with identifying the change, which provided the motivation for the requisite organizational metamorphosis. This then helped in aligning the employee goals with that of the organization. This becomes very crucial in a PSU where the incentives which can be offered to employees are restricted.

Further describing the political aspects of an organization he stresses the need for leaders to behave correctly, convince the correct people within the organization and beyond this convince themselves about the initiative to be taken. He talked about the dynamics of the organization which are not limited to merely managing the internal actors but also the external environment which lay at the boundary and beyond the organization.

Talking about management styles he talked of how Indian businesses could develop a paradigm similar to those of Japanese or American firms since Indian firms also had a distinct value propositions based on the concept of the firm being a large family. In such a scenario the leader has to take up the mantle of a Father and behave accordingly in thought, letter and spirit, which is needed in conveying the role to employees. Such a scenario has the distinct advantage of ensuring no long term enmities despite squabbles and ensuring greater oneness of purpose for the team.

The house was then thrown open for questions to the elite panel. On an ethical question about bribes, the panel opined that resisting bribery and refusing to pay the same was great chance to display strength of character, and even when, for instance, a bribe did have to be paid, the person to whom the bribe is being paid should be made to feel that he’s doing wrong and that one is paying only under great duress. Continuing along the same lines the panel said that the kind of challenges one is exposed to while working in India, readies one quite literally to manage anywhere else in the world.

Responding to a question on the kind of character traits that identify great leaders, the panel stressed on some less obvious but crucial traits like wit, ability to remain cool, ability to act with all possible speed and not freezing in times of crisis. Saying that it required a great degree of fortitude to embrace change, the panel surmised that status quo is death while change is life for an organization as well as a person.

While talking about qualities required for a leadership position, qualities stressed upon ranged from street smartness to thinking out of the box, however the bottom line was how to identify one’s Unique Selling Proposition and driving that as a tool to enable change.

The final discussion focused on the unplanned change that many Indian companies are facing as part of the drive towards globalization which is bringing bigger players into the fray. In such a scenario where there is no commodity and almost everything is getting branded, the way out for smaller players is to be nimbler and look to create blue oceans based on their Unique Value Proposition by en-cashing what they do right and also take stock of which way the wind is blowing. Additionally building personal relations especially with supply chain actors is crucial while facing a big company with deep pockets. However traders are much more vulnerable in such scenarios compared to manufacturers.

The evening full of enlightening insights, ended on lighter note with the dignitaries mingling with the students and sharing in an informal tone the challenges as well as the fun of running a business. The evening ended on a renewed promise to meet and share insights.