What People Might Do on Valentine's Day

 A bit early, but the day is not far away! So, imagine what the following would do, and where they would be on Valentine's Day.

Donald Trump- He would love to take over Greenland, Poland, any land where he can spread some love!

Putin- He believes in communism, and so loves all equally. Ukraine ho ya Afghanistan. Will try and prove it too.

Sherlock Holmes- he would go out in search of True Love- more difficult than all his other assignments put together. 

Hercule Poirot- he would just be his charming, old-world self. 

SRK- short for Shah Rukh Khan. He would love to sign autographs for his million admirers.

Salman- his search is unending, because he occasionally beats them up.. lovingly, of course.

Road Romeos- would be locked up in a safe place! With no Juliets in sight.

Leadership Types With a Twist

 Actually, it's different types of leaders. They get glorified unnecessarily, sometimes. But instead of a positive typology, let's look at some negatives or negative types among leaders, for a change. The following are the major ones-

1. Spineless 

2. Heartless

3. Witless

4. Bureaucratic

5. Consultant-driven

I shall elaborate. The first has no spine. He/ She will not back up subordinates, blame someone for all wrongs, and take credit for things he/she did not do/initiate

The second may be good at getting things done, at a great human cost. He/she does not recognise that humans are working for them (though it could be robots soon). No thoughts for feelings, or other unnecessary things that hamper work.  Sometimes, ethics also go out of the window.

The third are entertaining at best, and completely useless for the tasks on hand. 

The fourth act as if the organisation is a government office with file pushers- not doers. Nothing ever gets done, and subordinates get exhausted with procedure.

These guys come up with a new flavour-of-the month fad every month, usually suggested by BCG or McKinsey or a home-grown consultant. Everyone tries to do Design Thinking, or IoT, or Benchmarking for 4 weeks approximately, until a new word catches his/her attention.. and then, you know the rest. 

Research Shows- 6

 My research shows that-

the level of innovation in Indian academic institutions -particularly the management institutions- is low.

We imitate, rather than innovate. We still buy Harvard cases after 60 years, and send faculty to get trained on how to teach cases!!

We are still not doing enough original work, relative to the number of faculty we have in top-ranking institutions. Related to this, doctoral programs are not supported adequately.

Leaders in some of these institutions are not even aware of the lag, or have wrong priorities.

Not all the fault lies with the leaders, as faculty have a lot of autonomy.

Innocence Lost in Lanka and Elsewhere

There was a time when governments fought wars over territory, or colonials conquered the armamentally backward for commercial gain, all through history. Dictators occasionally chipped in with murder and mayhem, but at most of these times, common people got along well, and there was an age of innocence among them. It seems that those innocent times are now history. It is no longer an army participating in an officially declared war with some rules (Dharma Yuddh?), but anyone who has a grouse getting up and killing anyone who may or may not have had anything to do with the creation of that grouse.

Where all this will lead, is anybody's guess. This could be the time for good governance to kick in, and show that it can bring humanity back from the precipice where it finds itself. More than all the nukes in the stockpiles of the nuclear powers, this is the trend that is likely to eliminate humanity. Not sure how much of it remains, after the regular spate of killings by individuals and organisations that see no other alternatives to killing other humans.

Hopefully, there is still some hope..

Intelligent Comedy by Women

Happened to watch a nice comedy show on TLC the name of which I forget. The name is immaterial. I was impressed by the female artists (this was a show for them)- comediennes. Why do we have male-dominated comedy shows, mostly? Stand-up is where equal opportunity should come in fairly easily. Why doesn't it?

On another note, I attended an Economic Times event-again the name of which I forget (proving that I deserve to be a prof.). It was a leadership contest for B-school students. There was only one female judge among a dozen- they were mostly CEOs or Business Leaders of some kind.

These shows/public events do send a message, even if symbolic. The first is a good attempt to showcase talent for comedy.The second is a reminder that corporates remain unequal for genders at the highest level. IIMs, incidentally, also have had few women directors. Just one currently and one long ago at IIM Lucknow that I know of. I am sure that's not due to lack of talent.

Here's hoping that more women show up when opportunities are made available at least- like driving in Saudi.

Contests for World Leaders

No prizes for guessing who's going to win the best Kurta contest. Let's look at some others.

Best hairstyle without a wig. The winner is Kim Il ..whatever. the North Korean guy.

Best one with a wig. Donald Trump.

The only one cuter than Shahid Kapoor and Hrithik Roshan combined. Justin Trudeau- Canada.

The only one with a heart- Dil-ma Rousseff, if she has not been impeached. Brazil.

Six packs. Putin.

Nitwits. Nawaz Sharif may have few competitors.

Shepherd of largest flock of sheep. The New Zealander.

The militantly named one- Bar(r)ack Obama.

The one with an endearing Hindi word in his name- Abe, Japan.

B School Leadership- The Case of the Three Bosses

Leadership of Educational Institutions- Actual Case Studies

These are brief case studies of different leaders that I worked with at different B schools. Not all are great, but they illustrate different ways of working. A given individual must work with his own traits and personality, and try to achieve the organisation’s objectives. If there is a mis-match between a leader’s objectives and that of the organization, it may not lead to success, in my view.

Case Study 1

Very intelligent, articulate and with a credible track record of having taught in a top Indian Business School for several  years. He was an exacting person to work with, and gave faculty a lot of freedom. Spent a lot on learning resources – in those days, these were mostly Harvard Business School cases- online databases were not yet available in India.  He also believed in paying faculty well, and this thought was supported by the management, a well-known industrial group in India.

He was an introvert, and therefore his support staff sometimes had no clue to his thinking process. He shared his conclusions or decisions with the team, but not the intermediate thinking that brought him to these conclusions.

He was good to work with, even though a little reserved at times. But there was one definitive interest of his which brought everybody together. That was cricket. There used to be a cricket ground on the premises of the institution, and we all were able to play matches with our participants (managers who came there for short term training) quite frequently. Sundays were usually reserved for this, and since we all lived on campus, this was easy to do.

Sports or extra-curricular activities can and do help in team-building and boosting morale.

Case Study 2

Again, this person had a credible background, but this time in training managers rather than teaching students. His was a good example of how networking can be used to build institutions. He came from one of India’s premier management development institutions located in Hyderabad. But he ended up leading two institutions in India offering the MBA program as their flagship. Both had an enhanced reputation after he had been there a few years.

He had two major talents. He was able to recruit large number of faculty in a short period, despite occasional criticism that some were below par. The other competing institutions had to battle faculty shortages because they had set the bar too high. The large numbers also helped ramp up the training business which he was able to get due to his previous associations. Both the institutions he led benefited from this talent of his.

Case Study 3

This might be a case study of what not to do, in my view. This was a person leading a major Indian B school. Though he had a credible background as a faculty member and teacher, he had very few leadership skills. His involvement in the institute was very limited and superficial, and he was not an inspiration to do either research, or training or consulting, as he had no track record in these activities. It becomes difficult to inspire your followers if you have not been in the trenches, to use a military analogy. But he had one major achievement to his credit. He pioneered the use of distance learning courses through the use of  technology (with a partner) at his institute while he was heading it. This was later copied by many other institutions, and made management education more accessible to new segments- working executives in particular.

There is an easy way to antagonise faculty, and that is to play politics or favourites. You may have some favourites, but they should not get favoured treatment. Institutional interest must come first.