IILM Graduation Ceremony 2011
MR. HARSH PATI SINGHANIA CONGRATULATES THE GRADUANDS AT IILM CONVOCATION 2011
I am delighted to be with you today at the IILM Institute for Higher Education's Annual Convocation for the 2009-11 batch of students of the Two Year Post-Graduate Programme in Management. I feel all the more honoured and privileged when I find that several eminent persons have graced earlier Convocations and I feel humbled to be amongst such august company.
Mrs. Malvika Rai, your Chairperson, and Mr. Anil Rai, Co-chairman have by their able leadership, guidance and untiring efforts established IILM as a leading management institution in the country. Its progress and growth with several campuses is a testimony of how corporate sector can play a useful role in helping society access higher education, which is an imperative for India if it has to be among the top global economies in near future.
Today is an important day as all of you students would be entering a new phase of your life and my congratulations and best wishes for each one of you in what ever you choose to do – whether you go for further studies, take up a job or become an entrepreneur yourself.
Future of Indian Economy
As you enter the exciting world of business and management, there is a bright future ahead. Opportunities available are unprecedented, perhaps much more than ever before. There is at the same time enormous challenge; the challenge of rapid change.
You would have recently read in newspapers and articles about the current economic slowdown. You would also have seen Reserve Bank of India (RBI) stressing on the need to give precedence to inflation control over economic growth. RBI believes it may be necessary for us to trade off short term growth for inflation control through hikes in interest rates. Also, low inflation is essential for long term macro-economic stability.
While there is some merit in this, I do not believe this is the best solution. We need to continue to nurture growth through new investments to de-bottleneck the supply side constraints, particularly, in agriculture, rather than curtail demand. If the slow-down deepens it will take much longer to revive growth and the growth momentum.
It is difficult to pin-point how long the slowdown will persist though there is a general feeling that we may have to live with this for the next year or so at least. Though this is worrisome, if I were you I would not be disheartened by it: I firmly believe that the medium to long term growth story of India remains intact.
Some of you might have read a recent report by the Standard Chartered Bank about the Indian economy in the super-cycle of growth. It says India is likely to emerge as one of the winners in the third global super-cycle the world is now experiencing. The firt cycle ran from 1870 to 1913 (eve of the first World War) and the second one from 1945 (end of the Second World War) to 1973 when it was halted by oil crisis). India will become an $ 30 trillion economy by 2030 and will offer huge opportunities in consumer spending, urbanisation and financial markets.
There is another interesting analysis by CLSA with a provocative and interesting title, “Buy Chaos, Sell Order” which came out last year. I was fascinated both by the title and its reasoning. It was about the race between China and India in attracting foreign investments. The report was about equity investing but many of the points it made are true of the economy as well. It says that India’s problems come from tackling the most difficult issues first: China has postponed these problems.
India’s economy is more market-driven while China is not. India’s institutions (despite corruption etc) are also strong vis-à-vis China and these along with India’s demographic advantage (its young population) will make India move ahead of China in the growth race in the long term (say from middle of this decade).
So okay, India has the potential, but what should we do to realise this? While everybody talks about the usual things -- i.e. to attract more capital, open our markets, deepen our reform process, invest in infrastructure and human capital -- I believe there is one crucial ingredient that is missing: this is leadership. We have to have inspirational and effective leaders who will lead the people of our country to achieve our potential.
Leadership versus Management
You are all management students and we talk about management systems to achieve effectiveness. However, I would like to place before you a distinction between management and leadership.
Leading management expert, Harvard Professor John Kotter has observed (quote) “Leadership is different from Management, but not for the reasons most people think. Leadership is not mystical and mysterious. It has nothing to do with ‘charisma’ or other exotic personality traits. It is not the province of a chosen few. Nor is Leadership necessarily better than Management or replacement for it.”
Let me explain this a bit further. Management is about coping with complexity and large complex organizational systems. We can even look at a country in this manner. However, leadership is about coping with change. There are some important distinctions between the two. To deal with complexities, in management, we undertake planning and budgeting, that is, setting targets. In contrast, a leader sets a direction, gives a vision. To achieve a plan in management, we set up organizational structures and staff it with people. In leadership, to achieve the vision we have to ‘align’ people to do it. And finally, in management, we have to monitor the plan by controlling and problem-solving. In the case of leadership, you need motivation and inspiration to keep going on that path despite setbacks and constraints.
Both have to be done. However, I believe we are better off at the management part, no doubt backed by talented people like you; but on the leadership side I think we are weak. Leadership is about trust and belief in yourselves. It is about confidence and having the courage to make mistakes. It is about taking on new challenges that come from change like issues of environment and sustainability. In the past, our country got independence due to the vision and leadership provided by people like Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Nehru, and business organisations like ours, the JK Organisation, which has now been around for more than hundred years, and benefitted and grew from the leadership and vision provided by its founding fathers. I think we need to carry forward the legacy of the visionary leaders, businessmen and entrepreneurs that our country has produced.
My dear students, as you leave today to start a new phase of your life full of hope, aspirations and excitement, I want you to think about whether you want to be leaders or managers.
- Do you have the ability to 'dream' more than what others think would be 'practical'?.
- Can you take 'risks' more than what others think as 'safe'?
- Are you willing to 'achieve' more than what others think is 'possible'?
- Will you spare some time to give back to society some part of what you get from them?
If you have this, then you can be a part of building of a new vibrant and prosperous India and perhaps one day look back with pride and say to your children, yes, I was a part of building this great country.
Thank you.
