With India all geared up for another election , the debate has begun. Who is it going to be this time BJP, Congress or the new jokers on the block, ‘The Third Front’? And with the congress manifesto out and Dr Singh being their prime ministerial candidate, the battle is on, face to face with Shri Advani. However, I want to interject at this point and propose a new idea, that of a fourth front?
I would call it the ‘Business Front’. The members would here look at running the country pretty much like a huge enterprise. Only the complexity and the magnitude is ten folds more.
In India, politics is either termed as a “dirty business” or as politicians themselves call it “social service” and “God’s work”. But what politicians have to do is manage the resources of the country, maximize utility and production and make profits from it. And is this not exactly what is done in any business organization?
Politics is about using the nation’s resources so as to enable the citizens to lead a better life. If we start thinking about the governance of a nation as a business venture rather than addressing it with high sounding words like patriotism and God’s work, we would be better off in terms of the work done. After all politics is like any other job, where you go to office and use your talent and knowledge to get the work done.
When political governance becomes a business venture, the finance minister will function as the CFO, home minister as the COO, cabinet ministers as board of directors and the PM the CEO. For this post the best candidate would be Jack Welch, the legendary CEO of GE.
Born in 1935, Welch did his Bachelor’s Degree in chemical engineering and completed his Masters and PhD from UIUC. He joined GE as a Junior Engineer in 1960 and resigned from his post a year later, due to the prevalent strict bureaucracy and lack of appreciation of good work in the company. He was however persuaded to stay back and promised a free hand. In 1972, he went on to become the VP and by 1977 he was the Senior VP. He was elevated to the post of Vice Chairman in 1979 and emerged GE’s youngest CEO at the age of 46, in 1981. He served in the post till 2001.
During his tenure, GE’s revenue grew from $28 billion to $130 billion. Its market value shot up to $410 billion from $14 billion making it the largest and the most valuable company in the world. May I add here that in comparison, India’s GDP (nominal) is $1.1 trillion, roughly three times more than the market value of GE.
Back to Welch. How did he achieve this? What made him the manager of the century?
Welch was result oriented and did whatever it required to achieve them, he was faced with much criticism but he silenced his critics by showing results. He had to take tough decisions like shutting factories to mass firings, but he achieved his goal. He was a man with a plan and a plan to achieve it.
The first thing he did was dismantling the old strict bureaucratic management style under the previous CEO and encouraged the managers to produce more. He shut down factories, reduced payrolls and cut lackluster old-line units, his ideology was to be on the top of a particular industry or altogether leave it. He received much contempt from his employees and critics, but won them over with the results.
He was brutal. Every year he fired the bottom 10% of his managers, but at the same time rewarded the top 20% of managers with extended stock options and bonuses. He extended the stock option to nearly half the company and erased bureaucracy.
Ultimately, he was a visionary. He sustained short term self inflicted difficulties for long term benefits. His workers and managers responded to his call, because they started seeing result even though they had to sustain difficulties. He was brave and had the capacity to take decisions, the kind that others couldn’t. This is exactly the kind of leader we need in India right now. If you show confidence in people, reward hard and smart work and be result oriented, people respond to you and are ready to make sacrifices for the country. They are willing to work longer hours, get paid less and sustain short term loss in return of some hope; hope of a better India . An India that is on top of the world. And to do this we don’t need a patriot or some sacrificing neta, we need a brave visionary who loves his job and is ready to take risks, who considers it a bonus if he is elected again in 5 years, who is unbiased and fair. Therefore youngsters like us who dream of being a CEO of a company should start dreaming about being a CM or a PM and help the country grow. For that we need to work our way through the system, like Jack Welch did – Junior Engineer-Manager-VP-SVP-Vice Chairman-CEO.
Jai Hindh!
I would call it the ‘Business Front’. The members would here look at running the country pretty much like a huge enterprise. Only the complexity and the magnitude is ten folds more.
In India, politics is either termed as a “dirty business” or as politicians themselves call it “social service” and “God’s work”. But what politicians have to do is manage the resources of the country, maximize utility and production and make profits from it. And is this not exactly what is done in any business organization?
Politics is about using the nation’s resources so as to enable the citizens to lead a better life. If we start thinking about the governance of a nation as a business venture rather than addressing it with high sounding words like patriotism and God’s work, we would be better off in terms of the work done. After all politics is like any other job, where you go to office and use your talent and knowledge to get the work done.
When political governance becomes a business venture, the finance minister will function as the CFO, home minister as the COO, cabinet ministers as board of directors and the PM the CEO. For this post the best candidate would be Jack Welch, the legendary CEO of GE.
Born in 1935, Welch did his Bachelor’s Degree in chemical engineering and completed his Masters and PhD from UIUC. He joined GE as a Junior Engineer in 1960 and resigned from his post a year later, due to the prevalent strict bureaucracy and lack of appreciation of good work in the company. He was however persuaded to stay back and promised a free hand. In 1972, he went on to become the VP and by 1977 he was the Senior VP. He was elevated to the post of Vice Chairman in 1979 and emerged GE’s youngest CEO at the age of 46, in 1981. He served in the post till 2001.
During his tenure, GE’s revenue grew from $28 billion to $130 billion. Its market value shot up to $410 billion from $14 billion making it the largest and the most valuable company in the world. May I add here that in comparison, India’s GDP (nominal) is $1.1 trillion, roughly three times more than the market value of GE.
Back to Welch. How did he achieve this? What made him the manager of the century?
Welch was result oriented and did whatever it required to achieve them, he was faced with much criticism but he silenced his critics by showing results. He had to take tough decisions like shutting factories to mass firings, but he achieved his goal. He was a man with a plan and a plan to achieve it.
The first thing he did was dismantling the old strict bureaucratic management style under the previous CEO and encouraged the managers to produce more. He shut down factories, reduced payrolls and cut lackluster old-line units, his ideology was to be on the top of a particular industry or altogether leave it. He received much contempt from his employees and critics, but won them over with the results.
He was brutal. Every year he fired the bottom 10% of his managers, but at the same time rewarded the top 20% of managers with extended stock options and bonuses. He extended the stock option to nearly half the company and erased bureaucracy.
Ultimately, he was a visionary. He sustained short term self inflicted difficulties for long term benefits. His workers and managers responded to his call, because they started seeing result even though they had to sustain difficulties. He was brave and had the capacity to take decisions, the kind that others couldn’t. This is exactly the kind of leader we need in India right now. If you show confidence in people, reward hard and smart work and be result oriented, people respond to you and are ready to make sacrifices for the country. They are willing to work longer hours, get paid less and sustain short term loss in return of some hope; hope of a better India . An India that is on top of the world. And to do this we don’t need a patriot or some sacrificing neta, we need a brave visionary who loves his job and is ready to take risks, who considers it a bonus if he is elected again in 5 years, who is unbiased and fair. Therefore youngsters like us who dream of being a CEO of a company should start dreaming about being a CM or a PM and help the country grow. For that we need to work our way through the system, like Jack Welch did – Junior Engineer-Manager-VP-SVP-Vice Chairman-CEO.
Jai Hindh!
Posts
4 comments:
Very well written and apt for the situation on hand. I totally agree and wholeheartedly subscribe to the ideology of governing a country on the same lines of a large organization. But at the same time we must also remember that India is a democracy and people of all cadre have a say in the governance. In contrast an organization does not extend the same courtesies to it's employees. Nevertheless I still support the idea of youngsters making an entry into political arena and changing it for the better.
@ Teja,
I know they arent exactly the same. I just wanted to say governance can be like any other job which must be a career of choice for people.
Chait, very sadly there's one serious flaw... where Welch served in the CEO post for 14 years, a PM can serve only 5 years... his visionary decisions will not have time to be effective.....so, although your blog makes an amazing read, it shall forever remain fiction... unless something can be done about it!
@ well dude, Welch had won over his people within that 5 years. Moreover people arent stupid, if they see where you are going, they will definitely support you. I agree that its a long shot, but my point is that a leader should be very brave and strong in the mind. Also youngsters should consider politics as a profession. thanks for your comment
Post a Comment