Management Lessons From The Mahatma

CREATE a vision, define values, walk the talk, encourage collaborative effort... Pearls of wisdom from a management guru? Perhaps, yes. But also some homegrown truths by Mahatma Gandhi.

At a recent leadership workshop in the US, managers were made to realise that M.K. Gandhi, while leading India through its most tumultuous time, also held a beacon to some management strategies that may be critical in today's corporate world.

Says Mr Shabbir Merchant, Vice-President, Consulting Services, Grow Talent India Co Ltd, one of the participants at the workshop, "Simple corporate strategies like vision (freedom for India) and core values (honesty and non-violence) are well-illustrated in his life."

The Mahatma travelled across the country to make India's independence a shared vision. And the learning for CEOs? When they conceive a transformation plan for their organisation, they need to think of a vision for the future and define values that will help achieve the vision. And they need to build a shared vision like the Mahatma.

Too often the vision is made only in the boardroom and known to only the CEO's 11, with no effort made to communicate this to the masses who will really be the engine for change. Investing time and effort in creating a shared vision and defining values is the starting point of any change effort, according to Mr Merchant.

`Walk the talk'Ð'-- one of Gandhi's pet philosophies made him the greatest leaders ever. And the lesson for CEOs? Don't talk about cost cutting and cost optimisation to the rank and file, and then fly business class or stay in 5-star hotels. "Living the values is the key for CEOs marching on the change management path," Mr Merchant says.

Gandhi said only persistence and courage can make change happen. Does this sound familiar? CEOs who have taken a leaf out of this philosophy have realised that it requires courage to set realistic expectations with the board, or investors, or employees.

Some decisions that will benefit the organisation in the long term will need sacrificing gains in the short term.

The Dandi March incident illustrates the Mahatma's expertise in getting people to collaborate in critical projects.

CEOs have to appreciate that when they drive a change agenda, they will have teams and team members with different viewpoints, says Mr Merchant

Business gurus in India are talking about a new role model: Mahatma Gandhi.

The Father of the Nation is now being held up as the master strategist, an exemplary leader, and someone whose ideas and tactics corporate India can emulate.

From Boston Consulting Group's CEO Arun Maira to management guru C K Prahalad and economist Professor Arindam Chaudhuri, key business thinkers are preaching how corporate India needs to revisit Gandhi's ideas and apply the lessons learnt from him to their leadership styles.

Three months ago at the Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas held in New Delhi, Prahalad unveiled his interpretation of Gandhi as a 'strategist.'

Gandhi's ideas are of particular relevance to India at this juncture, as it struggles to find ways to inch closer to the 8-10 percent gross domestic product growth rate necessary to become an economic superpower, he says.

Gandhi reinvented the rules of the game to deal with a situation where all the available existing methods had failed.

"He broke tradition. He understood that you cannot fight the British with force. So he decided to change the game in a fundamentally different way. He unleashed the power of ordinary people, inspired women and men in the country to fight under a unifying goal. Resource constraint did not bother him. He aimed at a common agenda: Poorna Swaraj. That was the motivation," says Prahalad.

Drawing lessons from this, he suggests that India needs to fundamentally change the way it can grow.

"Freedom or Poorna Swaraj was necessary. We did not know how to get it. Same way, today, I do not know how to grow at 10 percent or more, or how to create 10-15 million new jobs every year. But that is not an option for us. We have to invent a new way and that is what Gandhi taught us: clarity of goals. Let us have the courage to invent the means. Let us change the paradigm on how we can run," says Prahalad.

For Arindam Chaudhuri, Gandhi and Lord Krishna have both been big sources of inspiration.

In his book, Count your chickens before they hatch, Chaudhuri has written extensively about Gandhi's style of leadership and how it can be applied to corporate India.

"Mahatma Gandhi's example to me is a perfect case of adopting styles to suit the culture. The country today stands divided on whether what he did was good or bad... I just know one thing: there was never a leader before him nor one after him who could unite us all and bring us out in the streets to demand for what was rightfully ours. To me, he is the greatest leader our land has ever seen. It is 'Theory 'I' management' at its practical best: productively and intelligently utilizing whatever the resource you are endowed with," says Chaudhuri.

[Theory 'I' management has been propounded by Arindam Chaudhuri and refers to India-centric management. Like the popular management theories, Theory X and Theory Y, Theory 'I' is an attempt to define the Indian worker and develop a theory on management style for him, keeping in mind the Indian conditions.]

Gandhi's leadership style is being termed as 'follower-centric' and one that took into account existing conditions before determining the strategy.

"Gandhi advocated having leadership styles that were dependent on the circumstances. When Gandhi was in South Africa, he launched his protests in a suit and a tie. But when he came back to India, he thought of khadi and launched non-violent protests on a greater scale," says Chaudhuri.

The rediscovery of Gandhi by corporate India is not surprising, says Dr Gita Piramal, managing editor, The Smart Manager.

"Ideas travel very fast. Gandhi is a fascinating figure. On the one hand, he had totally ambivalent feelings about industrial manufacturing. But, on the other, he was a wonderful strategist, showman and leader. He had an amazing public relations network and a very good relationship with the press then," says Piramal.

"For instance, look at the Dandi march. If Gandhi had gone there quietly, it would just not have made an impact.