Cement, Energy & Environment Jan-Mar 2002

' PEARLS OF WISDOM . . WHAT ABOUT THE WORKERS? Portland Bill Over the last decade there has been a strong Anglo Saxon speaking (mainly North America plus UK) move to embrace new management ideas regarding downsizing, organisational 're-engineering' and further rounds of r a tionlisation . The old style management hierarchy has largely been dismantled in favour of short- term performance orientated, highly devolved project based structures, resulting in a greatly reduced number of middle management levels. This has found its way down into the factory with the introduction of the shift, 'teams' concept. This article explores consequences in terms of the Anglo Saxons and the continuing loss of cement industry knowledge. Courtesy: IntemationaJ Cement Review, ]an 2002, Pp.46-47 URL: www.CemNet.uk E-mail: info@cemnet.co.uk LEADERSHIP CHALLENGES FOR SUSTAINED GROWTH Dr. R A Mashelkar History is better known through the exploits of its leaders. Over the centuries leaders have created superpowers through their vision an.d willpower. The article points out that the need of the hour is the likes of Ambani, Narayanamurthy, and Premji, who can lead the country. Modern India has produced world-class leaders with spectacular leadership traits. "Leadership I have seen many common attributes in the leaders. They have been persistent, there is always the distinctiveness 74 in these people, there is a childlike curiosity in most of them, there is a persuasiveness, there is a risk taking ability, there is a sharp focus, there is a high emotional content in whatever they do, they are learning leaders, they are listening leaders and of course always I have found some humility in the great leaders". Today is not an extension of Yesterday. They always S<:lY today is the first day in the rest of my life, it is always the fresh begilming. The other ability is of course hard work. There is no substitute to hard work. I remember meeting Darbari Sheth in Bangalore three or four months before he passed away and he was talking about hard work. He said "Mashelkar, I have worked 24 hours a day. 365 days a year, year after year till today". Basically I believe for them work is life, work is the greatest high that they can basically get. I also believe that great leaders are in love with what they do. My concern is about the issue of the mindset - Indian mind has said vasudeva kutumbakam- right?Or Gyaneshwer said hey vishwaji majekaren. We are ahead in terms of our thil1king. But what is the Indian mindset? We have serious problem there. In Japan they say 1+1Japanese equal to 11 Japanese. Here 1+1 Indian adds to zero is what people say. That is unfortunate. We say sa vidyaya vimukte. We understand that it is education which actually empowers. But just abut 90 kilometers from Gurgaon there is a village where 15 percent girls go to schooL Indian mind has said something as profound as a sa vidya vimukte but Indian mindset is agail1 drawing us back into the 19th century. And therefore this open-rnindedness is something that I believe is the crux of the matter.