The Hindu Business Line : <I>First hundred days </I>

When Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected President in the thick of the Depression, the US was dangerously teetering on the brink of a precipice with things looking hopeless and beyond redemption on all fronts — economic, financial and social.

He launched a series of spectacular initiatives, going by the name of the New Deal, in the first hundred days, and thereby not only saved the nation from collapse but achieved a dramatic turnaround.

He went on to become the only US President in history to be elected for four consecutive terms.

Ever since then, a mystique has come to be attached to the `first hundred days' of the taking over charge by the head of any organisation.

The belief, in psychological terms, is that it is a kind of `headstart period' when the new chief can get away with moves and measures which, subsequently, or in ordinary times, might have evoked controversy and opposition. This is the period when those working with him are prepared to give him the benefit of doubt even when he makes a mistake.

Of course, he should not allow himself to be carried away lest he is seen to be insufferably egotistic, recklessly fouling up human relations and causing irreparable damage to the organisation. He will thereby end up having everyone gang up against him, giving short shrift to his tenure.

On the positive plane, if he is able to stamp his personality on the organisation in the first hundred days as a dynamic, aggressive and understanding leader, he can be assured for the duration of his stewardship of a ready acceptance and successful implementation of the policies and strategies he seeks to pursue.

The momentum he has imparted in the early days will mark him out as a go-getter and invest his directions with unquestionable weight and authority.

The hallmark of great leaders is not so much their penchant for day-to-day operations but the reputation they build up as achievers which wins for them immediate respect, not unmixed with awe.

Waves of anxiety

Whether the new chief is a prominent personality whose strengths and weaknesses, and style of leadership, are common knowledge, or an unknown entity, he had better bear in mind that by the very fact of his occupying the chair he would be creating waves of uncertainty and anxiety throughout the organisation.

They are apt to be all the more unnerving if he takes over at a time when the organisation is doing badly, or there have been frequent changes at the top in the recent past.

(Studies undertaken in the US establish that about 50 per cent of largest firms will have a new head in the course of the next four years and that another 25,000 newly acquired companies will also come under new leaders.

Most newcomers, in order to show who is boss, resort to firings and organisational reshuffles, and scratch plans and schemes approved by their predecessors.

The inevitable exodus of a large proportion of executives at all levels that follows pulls down the performance and market share of even companies that were previously doing well.)

Therefore, the new boss should handle the first hundred days with great finesse, while still seizing and retaining the initiative and carving out for himself sufficient space for manoeuvre.

While he is giving a thrust in the direction he has set for himself, he should also take pains to disseminate with clarity and crispness his vision and goals, and express his willingness to incorporate any suggestions for improvement received from the employees.

This will immediately put them at ease, and remove any impression of arbitrariness and any scope for misunderstanding.

B. S. RAGHAVAN