Leadership lessons from Tata Group's latest ordeal

So it happened finally on the 24th October, 2016.

What was simmering below the surface, popping up occasionally through news reports and the rare interviews, rare enough to be brushed under the carpet, exploded into full public view. 

Barely four years into the job, Cyrus Mistry lost his job as the top gun at the huge Tata industrial and services empire in India.

For the group, it is a rare thing to happen. In fact, in its nearly 150 years of existence, the group has seen only six individuals heading it. That puts it in a league that even the hallowed General Electric can't compete with - GE has had 12 CEOs over 124 years (of course, GE is a single legal entity running multiple businesses, and the Tata Sons holding company is controlling multiple legal entities (separate companies), but that's just a legal difference. For practical purposes, group Chairman is the boss and his word is final). Also, since Mr Mistry belongs to the family that holds the largest chunk of shareholding in Tata Sons (the holding company of the entire group), something must have gone terribly wrong for the Board to resort to such a desperate measure. I try to analyse it from a leadership - management perspective, and hopefully we all have some lessons to learn here.

1. Times change, Systems usually do not. Well, times had changed in 1991 when the prime minister of India Mr P V Narsimha Rao had thrust an unprepared India into the fires of economic liberalisation. Most corporate groups, accustomed to greasing their way to prosperity, simply fell by the wayside in the raging and unfamiliar storm of global competition. A young Ratan Tata, newly minted Chairman of the Tata Group, set upon radically restructuring the group to stay relevant. He succeeded big time. We have covered that story at length in this Bodhi for our site BodhiBooster.com here. It was the sheer force of Ratan Tata's vision and personality that he carried the group through the most difficult time imaginable. However, Mr Cyrus Mistry was not allowed the same freedom this time round. He was simply removed, as major transformations were afoot. Cyrus was facing the heat of a global slowdown just when the Tata Group had truly globalised itself (65% revenues coming from 100 countries). Was the system not able to cope up with rapid change this time? Obviously not. Was Mr Mistry not able to take the system into confidence? It seems not. For a visionary leader in an important position of power, the quality of communication can mean the difference between pulling it through, and losing it.

The technology storm is arriving!

We all are accustomed to a regular use of technology instruments. We like it when with the minimum of effort, we are able to extract the maximum amount of output. Try asking the professionals active through the 1980s and 90s about the effort it would take just to make phone calls and receive fax messages! One had to put aside work, and focus and destroy one's energy on contacting people and getting others to prepare documents (and then the copies!). Things very pretty slow. Compared to today, work-efficiencies were not even 10%. Then came the storm called the internet. In just a decade, this storm simplified certain basic complications related to getting work done to such an extent that professionals and entrepreneurs could now focus their energies on more constructive and positive aspects of new work. The quality of life and work rose significantly. Then the arrival of social media made us feel that life without it would not even have been one. We modern humans totally accustomed to smartphones now believe that technology is now at its peak. But, the real storm is yet to arrive. Over the next 10 to 20 years, five major changes will become a part of our lives, which few have even imagined or thought about, today.

Times are changing!

Change 1. Money becoming invisible. The generations to come will wonder about their ancestors who carried physical money (notes, coins) in their wallets. This is now nearing its end. The coming days belong to virtual money. You will be making payments through just one card to anyone - including the vegetable vendor! If all businesses have the type of machines (that take such electronic payments), it would be quite possible. Work already has commenced. India has evolved its own payment system frameworks, and its own payment card too has arrived (the RuPay card). It is obvious that the government will slowly evolve rules and regulations to minimise and eliminate the physical transaction of currency. The benefits are many - instant accounting, a check on black money, procedural ease, ease of transferring subsidies (first to the bank account and then to the cards), etc. Hence, all these things, in an invisible form, will reside inside the card!

Kaun Banega Addicted

Watching Amitabh Bachchan's "Kaun Banega Croreparti" on television is a fantastic exercise in not just rewiring and acid-testing your grey cells, but understanding the cultural nuances of India as well! It's an addictive & well-lubricated series, and hence immensely enjoyable to be part of such an exercise.

How easy it seems!

Well, KBC is a general knowledge based quiz programme, intended to bring out the best in its participants, all of whom chase the seemingly not-too-far a target of Rs 5 crores. In just 12 seemingly simple steps, you can reach the pot of gold! But no one seems to reach there quite often. Come to think of it - in an informal sitting, if I make you an offer that in just 12 questions you can win Rs 5 crores, and you can use 4 helplines too in the process, you'll think I'm a lunatic (as you will be almost totally sure of winning). But then, on the sets of KBC, not many people actually reach there. Amazing, isn't it?

Amitabh's style has the following distinctly positive elements -

• Ultimate grace - you will never find Big B losing his calm and composure even under provocation. He remains cool, dignified, solid and friendly towards the participants, and the audience.
• Helpful hints - perhaps as a part of the programme designers' strategy, Amitabh gives several hints before 'locking' any answer. A smart contestant on the hotseat can easily pick the clues.
• Puts life even in repetition - the whole format is repetitive. After all, what's there in it? You get 10 people to do "fastest-fingers-first", then you get one of them onto the hot seat, then you throw 13 questions at him/her, then you award the money, and back to step 1. Even then, the whole process looks (feels) totally new everytime Amitabh reboots it. Credit goes to his personal charm, charisma and quality of communication.
• Sartorial treat - most of the times, the dress designers earn a 10/10 for Big B's fantastic suits and ties. Even the most boring (rare!) of episodes seem to scrape through due to this!

The programme has revelations for you, if you take some pain to delve deeper -

• A gold-medalist teacher who is on the hotseat, and unable to answer a question because he does not know the meaning of "vacuum" is a big red flag for Indian teaching system
• A computer engineer (B Tech, 24 yrs of age) who does not know what the "S" in the "SIM" card stands for, is another big red flag for the engineering education in India
• Many of the apparently easy questions are not easy at all! You realise that once your confident answer (delivered in front of your wife and kids) goes haywire. Ha ha!
• Even a very slow programme (the KBC is quite slow - just 10 to 20 questions per episode of 1 hour) can be made addictive for millions of viewers, for years on end

These are revelations! And KBC has such nuggets in abundance.

The more things change, the more they remain the same -

• The show's lead sponsors keep changing. But that does not at all affect the continuity of the show and the brand image "KBC". Logically, at times I think, it should.. as so much is at stake through the active involvement of the lead sponsor. But the KBC brand remains intact, irrespective of all this.
• Even the anchor changes, and the brand remains intact! Shah Rukh Khan led the show in its third version, and came out a winner. And today when Big B is back, KBC is as vibrant as ever. This is quite amazing. And it indicates that the underlying trust of millions of viewers is much stronger than anything else.
• KBC appeals to the most intellectual of viewers, as well as to those with no particular interest in the pursuit of knowledge. That's a significant achievement, especially in the Indian context. Perhaps that's why Bollywood was roped in to lead the show.
• I guess one of the unstated clinchers in the KBC drama (I use this word positively here) is the cultural exploration of the contestant's background, by Big B. The way questions are asked (and answers given) about the personal, social and cultural background of the hotseat'ed' is very revealing. And at times, it seems to overshadow the quiz itself! But no one minds.
• KBC holds lots of practical lessons for students of management - in marketing / advertising / branding, in operations / processes, and in strategy.

So on the whole, a wholesome treat to eyes, ears and the mind. KBC remains that lottery that can change your entire life, at least for some time!

Rock on, KBC!

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