Tactical management Lesson

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The tales of different forms of Lord Vishnu, be it Krishna or Rama have many interesting lessons that one can draw in today's world. From marketing, leadership tips to entrepreneurship, Indian mythology can help solve a modern-day executive's many 'dharamsankats'.

Here is a look at six such parallels that can be drawn from Lord Vishnu's life. These lessons and parallels have been drawn by Devdutt Pattanaik, Chief Belief Officer, Future Group. This article was published in Economic Times Website on 22^nd March 2013.

Krishna on not being wrong in breaking rules, if dharma is upheld

Narada had the power to travel through space and time. One day, he decided to pay a visit to Ayodhya, the city of the rule-following Ram and to Vrindavan, the village of the rule-breaking Krishna. At Ayodhya, he told the story of Krishna; the residents did not appreciate the rakish, mischievous cowherd at all.

At Vrindavan, he told the story of Ram; the residents did not appreciate the upright and rather serious king at all. Narada then went to Hanuman, the mighty monkey, and asked him who he preferred: Ram or Krishna? And Hanuman said, "What is the difference? Both are Vishnu to me; Lakshmi follows him, whether he is Ram or Krishna."

So what is the difference between Ram and Krishna? Both belong to two different contexts: Ram lives in Treta yuga and Krishna in Dvapara yuga. One context demands Vishnu to be the upright rule-following Ram and the other context demands Vishnu to be the lovable rule-breaking Krishna. Both are same, but different. Both are upholding social order, dharma; one by keeping the rules and the other by breaking them!

In corporations, we seek people who comply and frown upon people who do not. But people love breaking rules. But being Ram or Krishna is not about whether rules are upheld or broken; it is about the reason why rules are upheld or broken. Few pay attention to that.

Rukmini's love for Krishna: Lesson for marketeers

The sage Narad once put Krishna on one pan of the weighing scale, and asked the wives of Krishna to place something heavier (more valuable) on the other side. Satyabhama put gold ornaments; they were not heavy enough. Rukmini put a tulsi leaf; it was heavier than Krishna.

The tulsi leaf was a code for Rukmini's love for Krishna. Thus the thought (love for Krishna) granted the thing (tulsi leaf) an intangible value. It transformed the commodity (tulsi leaf) into a brand (symbol of love for Krishna) and increased its value increased exponentially. But the value is known only to those who are familiar with the codes. To make people familiar with these codes is marketing.

Marketeers embed thought into things. This thought is bhog(food) that consumers seek to satisfy bhookh (hunger). Marketing is about increasing existing hunger or igniting new forms of hunger.

What is the hunger of the Indian consumer? It is difficult to answer the question as India is extremely diverse. We need to identify the consumer to identify the hunger and to do that we need to understand the product you are selling. There is no generic 'Indian' customer for all products

Destruction of raas-lila: Lessons on innovation

When the gopikas got too comfortable with the raas-lila, Krishna destroyed it by announcing it was time for him to move out of Madhuvan and go to Mathura. The milkmaids wept but it was time for Krishna to move on. With this violence, the gopikas were forced to introspect. Realize it was time to grow up, learn to be dependable rather than dependent, find the Krishna within them to help others.

There are two principles that govern nature and the same two principles govern organisations: violence and seduction. Lethargy is the time for the yajaman to be violent and seductive. This will unleash energies that will destroy lethargy and create momentum in a sluggish organisation.

Nobody is going to change the world for you; you have to change if you wish to grow. Unfortunately change is scary; we would rather be secure, stable and stagnant. Unless there is fear (bhaya), there is no hunger (bhook); unless there is sacrifice (bali), there is no food (bhog); and every sacrifice will come a consequence (karma) that you have to be willing to bear.

Solving the 'dharamsankat' in family businesses

In the Bhagavat Puran, Krishna spends his childhood in Vrindavan and then when it is time to go to Mathura, he breaks all bonds with the milkmaids and cowherds of Vrindavan. He bids Radha and Yashoda farewell and never comes back. It marks the end of childhood and the beginning of adulthood.

Inherited a company from your father recently? The board is full of people who are either your father's friends or cronies for whom the board meetings are a time to chat and have chai. Most of these board members have watched you grow up so you don't want to be rude and kick them out. Yet they have to go for the company to evolve. How do you solve the dharamsankat?

Clearly, you are in the phase: time to grow up, move from Vrindavan to Mathura. It is time to break old relationships and forge new ones. Eventually everyone has to go. You are in the sunrise of your career; they are in the sunset. Treat them well even as you bid them goodbye. Let them see that your new ways are very different from theirs: not better or worse, just different

Krishna& Radha's love: Importance of letting go

In the 12th century, a great revolution took place in India. A poet called Jayadeva wrote a song called Gita Govinda in Sanskrit, expressing ideas and sentiments that were until then whispered in folk songs. He referred to a lady called Radha, whose love for Krishna was deep and passionate. Together they danced and made music in joyous abandon in the gardens of Madhuvan on the banks of the Yamuna under the autumn moon.

Eventually, however, we are informed by the scriptures that Krishna leaves Madhuvan in pursuit of his destiny. Radha stays back, like a flower that was once loved by the bee. While the magical love of Radha and Krishna, especially as expressed in the Gita Govinda, fired the imagination of people, Radha's images were restricted to temples of the Gangetic plains.

Often in small companies emerge great talent. These talented individuals yearn to move on but feel guilt about leaving the company that gave them the early opportunity to prove their mettle. It is in these moments that the bosses of such talented individuals have to think of Radha and understand the importance of letting go.

Krishna has to leave Madhuvan to fulfill his destiny in the cities of Mathura, Dwaraka, Indraprastha and Hastinapur, but Radha has to stay behind in the village of cowherds and milkmaids. The separation is full of affection, not bitterness. One has to keep the larger picture in mind, and the talent of the talented one.

Vishnu on reading situations in all perspectives

The sage Narada wanted to marry a young princess. But she said she wanted to marry only Hari. Hari is the name of Vishnu , who is God and the guardian of earth. Narada went to Vishnu and began singing his praises. So Vishnu offered him a boon.

"Give me the face of Hari," said Narada. Vishnu granted that wish. Narada went to the princess but instead of garlanding him, she turned around in disgust. There behind her stood Vishnu. The overjoyed princess garlanded Vishnu. Narada wondered what was wrong. Then he saw his face reflected on a mirror.

It was that of a monkey! He accused Vishnu of cheating him. Vishnu smiled and replied, "I gave you the face of Hari, which literally means monkey, though it happens to be my name."

Narad can be read the situation in two ways: a strategic narrative or a sincere narrative. In a strategic narrative, Narad can see Vishnu behaving like a lawyer, playing with words to make him feel like a fool. In a sincere narrative, Narada can see Vishnu behave like God, using a play of words toenlighten him not to trick a young girl simply because he can.

Fear Management

Once there was a king who received a gift of two magnificent falcons from Arabia . They were peregrine falcons, the most beautiful birds he had ever seen. He gave the precious birds to his head falconer to be trained.

Months passed and one day the head falconer informed the king that though one of the falcons was flying majestically, soaring high in the sky, the other bird had not moved from its branch since the day it had arrived.

The king summoned healers and sorcerers from all the land to tend to the falcon, but no one could make the bird fly. He presented the task to the member of his court, but the next day, the king saw through the palace window that the bird had still not moved from its perch. Having tried everything else, the king thought to himself, "May be I need someone more familiar with the countryside to understand the nature of this problem." So he cried out to his court, "Go and get a farmer."

In the morning, the king was thrilled to see the falcon soaring high above the palace gardens. He said to his court, "Bring me the doer of this miracle."

The court quickly located the farmer, who came and stood before the king. The king asked him, "How did you make the falcon fly?"

With his head bowed, the farmer said to the king, " It was very easy, your highness. I simply cut the branch where the bird was sitting."

Moral : We are all made to fly -- to realize our incredible potential as human beings. But instead of doing that, we sit on our branches, clinging to the things that are familiar to us. The possibilities are endless, but for most of us, they remain undiscovered. We conform to the familiar, the comfortable, the mundane. So for the most part, our lives are mediocre instead of exciting, thrilling and fulfilling.

So let us learn to destroy the branch of fear we cling to and free ourselves to the glory of flight.

Top 10 Brand Building ideas: by Kiruba Shankar of Kiruba.com

In Rotary conference I happen to listen to Mr.Kiruba Shankar of www.kiruba.com. He talked on Top 10 Brand Building ideas. His presentaiton (power point) had just 10 slides - crystal clear slides:

1. Pick a Niche: ... and own the space : In the first place, you need to know what you are passionate about and make it your niche. In many an occasion, we are good in ourself, but do not tell the world. After specializing in our field (niche), we need to talk a lot and let the world know where you are. For instance, www.karascupcakes.com : This company doesnot talk about food, and not about cake - but about cupcakes - only about cup cakes. This website has been rated to be one of the finest websites.
2. Write Consitently: You need to communicate what is in your mind - in lucid language. To build a succesful brand, you need to be a producer and not a consumer.
3. Podcasting : Videos are ultra important.
4. Repurpose: Customize for different medium : for instance Dominos pizza (Jub Foods) has got 3 million facebook followers. They can advertise to these 3 million fans (30 lakh fans) at no extra cost.
5. Be Opinionated : That is what attract people to you. People want your opinion - your views. Hence be original and have your opinion on various subjects.
6. Encourage Copying: That is how your idea spreads. The more you share your thoughts, the more you become succesful. This is knownd as creative common sense. The more you share, the more you benefit. No doubt about it.
7. Piggy Bank on a bigger company. You need to ride on image of a bigger company to build your brand.
8. Own a website : with a good domine name.
9. Custome Email id: like kiruba@kiruba.com. Don't use gmail and yahoo. You lose your identity.
10. Ego Search: - google yourself. If you cannot find yourself, how can others find you.

How to Hire like Warren Buffet:

Warren Buffett has said that when he is looking at his leaders for companies, he evaluates three categories of characteristics:

-- Intelligence
-- Energy
-- Integrity

His fundamental belief is that if a person has 2 of these, the lack of the third can kill a business. Do the fast math on the negative side of the equation:
-- Low integrity, high energy and high intelligence and you have a smart, fast-moving thief
-- Low energy, high intelligence and integrity and you have a shop keeper, not an engine of growth
-- Low intelligence, high energy and integrity and you have strong functionary, but not a great problem solver or visionary

As you look at potential hires, how are you assessing these three categories of characteristics? Behavioral questions are good and standardized tests can be insightful. I like both and use both in my selection processes. In addition, I like exercises and assignments in interviews to provide a clearer picture. Here are some ideas to consider adding to your selection process:

How to find out intelligence -- Tests, puzzles and games are good ways to learn about a person's practical intelligence.
Problem Solving -- Give a candidate five flashlights, one working and four not working. Ask the candidate to take what is available and make as many working flashlights in a 90 second period of time as the candidate can. The point of the exercise is not necessarily how many flashlights that they can get working. It is to see how they solve the problem with a limited amount of instructions and a short time frame.
Strategy -- I know a Sr. VP who won't hire anyone who can't beat him at least one out of three in "Connect Four." Simple game of strategy, easy test. If the job requires thinking ahead as well as responding to change and adjusting approach, this works.
Ingenuity -- A summer intern wanted a job, working full time for my company upon graduation. When we were in London on client assignment, I handed him $100 and a list of specialty items to pick up. They were diverse enough that they could not be picked up in the neighborhood. I told him he had to get the items and be back in 2 hours if he wanted the job. (Side note; He'd never been to London, ridden a subway or exchanged money before). He did well.
You can create your own approaches. My point is that testing and talking only tells you so much. Stretch your approach to get to the real answers.

How to find energy --
Physical -- What physical regimens does the person have? Athletic, eating, meditating? Many jobs require energy and it is great to know the capacity and endurance of your candidates.
Mental -- Ask a candidate to prepare and give you a 10 minute presentation on a relevant topic. Examples include a case study of a past success, a service to sell or a resolution to a common business problem. After they have given it, ask them to take 2 minutes to prepare and re-give the presentation, but in only 5 minutes. After they have given it the second time, have them prepare for 1 minute and then give the presentation in 1 minute.

How to find integrity --
Liars, thieves and the morally deficient are often hard to identify through the interview process. Typically, extensive reference review and digital research can give you a picture. If the person is mission critical and officer level, a full dossier prepared by an investigative service can be of great benefit. No, I'm not kidding.
When you are hiring key people, the cost of mistakes can be terminal to your business. Dig hard to get the answers you need to feel confident that your best candidates have the necessary energy, intelligence and integrity to succeed.

Click here to read the Original Article on CBS News

That's TATA:

Following article speaks for itself. Read on to get inspired.
Click the article to enlarge.

Why CEOs should also think like CMOs: Steve Jobs etc story

By Jack Trout President, Trout & Partners, global marketing expert and author

 

Much has been written about chief marketing officers and how they are toiling to come up with unique ways to make themselves useful and productive in their respective organizations. Much less has been written about the fact that the average CMO's tenure is quite short. In fact, the last time-span I saw put that tenure at less than two years. But nothing has been written as to why this can be both a difficult and, in some cases, an almost impossible job? All right, here's the answer in three letters: The CEO. Let me explain why this is the case.

First, let's start with the internal structural problems with this job. First and foremost, a CMO is in the middle of a lot of people with their own agendas as how to succeed in their organizations. A good CMO will always make enemies if they try to point out the problems with any ill-conceived brand manager's marketing plan. Being brutally honest can be an enormous problem in a land of egos, especially high level egos. I was once asked by a marketing executive to help kill a bad top management executive's idea about his brand. I did this in the form of a detailed analysis. Unfortunately, he sent my somewhat embarrassing counter recommendation to this executive. Needless to say, his phone went dead.

Next, there is always the danger of a competing function in the business. Quite often that function is the chief financial officer. Many of these types are very suspicious of the marketing money being spent. It goes back to that old saw once uttered by a retail chief executive, "I know half of my advertising budget is wasted. My problem is that I don't know which half." The Chief Financial Officer's solution is often to kill both halves thus increasing earnings. In my experience, the CFO is more highly placed than the CMO. Justifying marketing expenditures is never an easy task.

Now let's deal with the external problems. Let's say a CMO has developed the right positioning strategy. Now it's time to implement and communicate that strategy with his or her advertising agency. Quite often that strategy can disappear in a cloud of so-called creativity. In my experience, if you challenge their work you'll get into a big argument which sometimes lands on the CEO's desk. Suddenly, a CEO with little marketing and advertising experience is in the middle of the battle. This is never good for the strategy and the CMO's job. Even as an outsider I get into these arguments that can become very uncomfortable for all involved.

All that is why CMOs have such a limited lifespan. So what to do? The answer is to realize that the CEO holds the key. He is the ultimate keeper of the brand. That person has to be educated and involved in the strategic process. A CMO has to make this happen if he or she wants to see the right strategy born, properly financed and kept alive. I'm not saying this is easy because the CEO will have no one to fire if things don't go well. After all, he can't fire himself. But, once he or she is aboard, you won't have to fight the financial or product people about their agendas. Once you have the CEO's blessing, their arguments rarely show up.

So what does a CEO training look like? First off, you have to be a little sneaky about it as a CEO doesn't want to be "trained" by his employees. I'd start with book suggestions. These are books that you have read and feel would be helpful in your cause. Next, be aware of interesting articles that appear that seem to be analogous to your situation. Send them along with a note about why a given article is analogous. Then there is the visiting experts strategy. Set up an internal strategic conference where you can bring in outsiders to talk about strategy and war stories. In this setting you can educate the CEO, the CFO and all top management people.

Are there examples of CEOs acting like CMOs? Absolutely. Consider the late Steve Jobs. He operated exactly like that and even called the advertising shots. On the other side of the globe, India's recent "CEO of the year" is a gentleman named Rajiv Bajaj. He is very involved with marketing strategy and is building India's most successful motorcycle company. Southwest Airline's late CEO, Herb Kelleher, functioned the same way and built America's most successful airline. The same can be said for John Schnatter of Papa John's Pizza. Most of these are people with whom I worked and I saw up close why a CEO that takes the lead on marketing strategy is so effective.

Let me leave you with some advice from Peter Drucker, the father of business consulting. He once wrote that the purpose of business is to generate new customers. That said, only two functions do this, marketing and innovation. All other functions are expenses. That simple statement clearly makes the case for the CEO to work very closely with the CMO on setting the strategy and making sure it stays set.

Respond Vs React : The Big Difference

At a restaurant, a cockroach suddenly flew from somewhere and sat on a lady. She started screaming out of fear. With a panic stricken face and trembling voice, she started jumping, with both her hands desperately trying to get rid of the cockroach. Her reaction was contagious, as everyone in her group also got panicky. The lady finally managed to push the cockroach away but ...it landed on another lady in the group. 

Now, it was the turn of the other lady in the group to continue the drama. 

The waiter rushed forward to their rescue. In the relay of throwing, the cockroach next fell upon the waiter.  The waiter stood firm, composed himself and observed the behavior of the cockroach on his shirt. When he was confident enough, he grabbed it with his fingers and threw it out of the restaurant. 

Sipping my coffee and watching the amusement, the antenna of my mind picked up a few thoughts and started wondering,

• ·        Was the cockroach responsible for their histrionic behavior? 
• ·        If so, then why was the waiter not disturbed? 
• ·        He handled it near to perfection, without any chaos. 

• ·        It is not the cockroach, but the inability of the ladies to handle the disturbance caused by the cockroach that disturbed the ladies. 
• ·        I realized that, it is not the shouting of my father or my boss or my wife that disturbs me, but it’s my inability to handle the disturbances caused by their shouting that disturbs me. 
• ·        It’s not the traffic jams on the road that disturbs me, but my inability to handle the disturbance caused by the traffic jam that disturbs me. 
• ·        More than the problem, it’s my reaction to the problem that creates chaos in my life. 

Lessons learnt from the story: 
I understood,

I should not react in life. 
I should always respond. 
The women reacted,

whereas the waiter responded. 

Reactions are always instinctive

whereas

responses are always well thought of,

just and right to save a situation from going out of hand,

to avoid cracks in relationship,

to avoid taking decisions in anger, anxiety, stress or hurry.

East India Company : Management Lessons

The East India Company (1600-1872) was the world's first multinational firm. It was formed in Britain and did business mainly in India. The history of the firm carries interesting lessons about how globalisation was born in the 1700s, and Indian business changed since then. In order to see how, it is necessary to start with a brief description of the Company itself. The Company's shareholders were merchants and bankers of the City of London.


They wanted to trade in the Indian Ocean, which was already a vast and well-developed trading world in 1600, in order to get hold of Indonesian spices that sold at high prices in Europe. Soon they realised that inside Asia, one Asian good exchanged for another did much better than any European good. They then started procuring Indian cotton cloth as payment for the spices. Indian cloth producers did not want European goods either, but were happy to accept silver. Silver mined from the Americas and obtained from Spanish ports started pouring into Asia. Eventually, the whole trade was redirected towards the Atlantic world. In the 1700s, the two leading Asian exports, Indian cloth and Chinese tea, were purchased by the Company for sale to the burgeoning British and American middle-class.

By the end of the 1700s, the Company had undergone a curious change; it had begun to rule a part of India in the name of the Mughal Emperor. This was the beginning of the British Empire in South Asia.

 Why did a group of foreigners succeed so dramatically as traders in the Indian Ocean?

And why did a group of traders decide to capture power in a distant land?

In the 1600s the Company was an upstart in India, smaller in scale than almost any of the large Indian family firms operating from the Indian coastal trading towns like Surat, Masulipatnam, and Hooghly, and desperately trying to defend its operations against attacks by European rivals, the Dutch and the Portuguese. An empire was a prospect beyond dreams. Yet, collectively, the Europeans did possess three strengths that the greatest Indian firms did not have.

First, the Europeans had knowledge of long-distance navigation.

They understood charts, maps, ocean currents, instruments, routes, and the technique of making sturdier and larger ships carrying guns on board much better than did the Indian seafaring merchants. The Europeans, thus, had developed a truly global understanding of the oceans long before the other ocean-bound cultures. Indians were good navigators, but they did not venture beyond the Indian Ocean.

Second, the Company could procure lots of Spanish silver. In turn, their capacity to do so had owed to the presence of well-developed financial markets in Europe of this time. In India, banking was less developed, money changed fewer hands, and interest rates were higher.

The biggest advantage the Company possessed stemmed from its identity as a joint stock firm. In Asia, the biggest firms financed investments with their own money, family savings, or at the most, money borrowed from members of the same caste or community. The idea of the joint stock was unknown. That idea allowed the East India Company to pool in huge amounts of money, and make use of the economies of scale available in overseas trade. It could build an elaborate infrastructure consisting of forts, factories, harbours, and ships. Joint stock also made them better risk-takers. The Indian traders spread risks by dealing in a variety of goods in auction-type exchanges. They were what the Dutch historian Jacob van Leur had called 'peddlers' of the oceans. The Company, thanks to its capacity to absorb risks, dealt in a few goods, which it bought on large scale. Being specialised, it needed to contract with a specific set of suppliers year after year and to pay out vast sums of money as advances.

Contractual sale of goods was not unknown in India before, but contractual sale on such a scale by a single firm had no precedent. The need to protect its ports and harbours from numerous enemies made the Company keen to own ports. The three leading examples, Madras, Bombay, and Calcutta, represented quite a different business culture in coastal India.

Whereas Surat and Masulipatnam had belonged to states that lived mainly on land taxes, the Company towns were oceanbound, and had no ties with land. Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras were no ordinary ports. They were ports where seafaring merchants, rather than landlords and warlords, made laws. The Company towns, therefore, were attractive to Indian merchants as well. In the 1700s when the Mughal Empire started breaking up and warfare broke out in the interior, hundreds of wealthy Indian merchants and bankers fled to the Company towns. They were a huge source of support for the Company's political adventures. We need not overdraw these strengths.

The Company's own business privileges, which were a monopoly granted by the British Crown, were constantly under attack fromprivate traders and even its own employees. The relation between Indian firms and the Indian rulers was based on informal understanding, but the Europeans did not enjoy such trust and goodwill. They had to take out license to trade, and pay massive bribes to the Indian kings and their henchmen. They also had to keep an army of paid agents to procure goods. These contracts had no Indian precedents, and therefore, they were not protected by any Indian law.

Contracts were broken often, and the Company could do little when they were broken. In order to avoid such situations, the Company recruited its chief agents carefully. They were often individuals who held power over the textile artisans. At the same time, they were more knowledgeable about India than were the Company's own officers. The Company officers disliked this dependence and hated the agents.

Lastly, unlike a modern firm, the Company did not have a unitary command-and control structure. Its overseas enterprise was a peculiar combination of modern joint stock principle in raising money and pre-modern partnership in management.

The two partners were the sedentary City merchants and peripatetic sailors and soldiers. These two classes were not friendly at home. But the sailors and soldiers joined the venture on the promise that they could trade a little on the side.

Still, it was the latter that had to deal with hostile kings and untrustworthy agents in India, which made them more aggressive and opportunistic than the shareholders back home. The sailors and soldiers were the people who made the moves that led to the empire in India, often against the instructions of the shareholders.

The Company's success, in conclusion, had much in common with the ingredients that many modern multinational make use of - capacity to absorb risks, capacity to think on a world scale, access to deep financial markets, and access to information.

Its weaknesses too were surprisingly modern in character - miscalculation of political risks and unreliable local partners. But the Company was also quite unique. For one thing, it was a firm with a split personality, torn between merchants and soldiers. For another, it reached its peak during an unusual moment in Indian history that saw the collapse of a great medieval empire. That moment gave the sailors and soldiers the chance to take hold of the reins of the Company, giving birth to another empire.

.................................................................................................................................................................
Source : The Economic Times. Author: Mr.Tirthankar Roy,Professor of Economic History, London School of Economics and author of The East India Company...The World's Most Powerful Corporation.

Lessons from Rahul Dravid: For Management Executives

3 Learnings for 3 Levels
R Suresh x Managing Director, Stanton Chase India

For Entry-Level Executives:

Rahul Dravid is more technique than talent. He is a disciplinarian who came first to any practice session and left last, and didn't miss coaching. Dravid idolised Sunil Gavaskar, another master technician. Dravid in his earliest days imbibed from his coach and his idol that patience, staying at the wicket and a work-horse like approach was the sure-shot way to sustain initial success.

The lessons for entry-level corporate executives are clear: it takes a lot of learning and honing the 'fundamentals' of the domain, for an expert to emerge. Dravid also stands for fitness and multi-skilling. They make you more valuable to your employer. A junior manager should think, Dravid kept wickets for India; he needn't have developed that skill.

For Middle-management:

Early successes spurred Dravid to greater dedication. He went to master newer abilities, the square cut of a turning ball, the glance off the pads of an inswinging delivery and the pull shot along the ground. His success made him more grounded. He adapted to ODIs. But still maintained an unassuming profile. He never minded playing second-fiddle in any long partnership.

The takeaways to corporate managers in the middle to senior levels are plenty. Build on pilot success, each milestone only spells a higher bar for the next, no celebration, in fact no declaration of successes even. And above all partnerships, peer-group respect and selflessness. Dravid put his team first always, but he still ended up as the second-highest run-getter of all times.

For Leadership Executives:

Dravid failed as a captain. The lowest point was the India's ignominious early exit from the 2007 World Cup. He was sacked as a captain, but he still wrote a letter to BCCI saying he didn't want to continue. He was removed as a captain by his IPL team owner Vijay Mallya.

Dravid continued to perform as a player. He showed grit and determination not to let his team, its owners and the reputation down. He wasn't made to be an all-guns-blazing leader his successor Dhoni turned out be.

The lesson for corporate leaders?
No matter how well prepared and competent you are, circumstances may give you a rough time. It is the ability to rebound and flourish again that determines the ultimate winner.

Click here for original article in Economic times.