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Defining time: Mr Samuel Chandar, Vice-President, HR, Henkel India Ltd, addressing students and faculty of the Jeppiar Engineering College, at a BL Club event. Behind him is Dr N. Thangavel, Prinicipal, PG, of the college.

Our Bureau

Chennai, Oct. 28 You are the most precious resource, and you have to direct yourself in the current corporate environment where continental shifts are taking place in short periods of time, calling for innovative approaches, rapid assimilation of data, and an ability to stand above the fog and envision the future, said Mr Samuel Chandar, Vice President-HR and Commercial, Henkel Spic India Ltd.

He was addressing students of management at the Jeppiaar Engineering College at Sholinganallur near here, organised as part of the BL Club activities.

Drawing on the example of the Titanic ship to explain the importance of business models, Mr Chandar began by saying that managers would always be dependent on metaphors and analogies to drive a point home just as they will need to tune their mind to developing business models to tap into markets.

Companies steering the corporate ship today are battling huge drifts that are altering previously stable positions, he said. The ‘magnetic north’ keeps shifting as value systems change and even “the captain is drunk” as constant market changes make reliability of source data difficult.

The key to successfully manoeuvring through these circumstances is to be sensitive to transience, he said in the talk titled ‘t to T – Transience to Transformation’. He likened transience to “catching the shadow of a bird in flight”, denoting a need for speedy action in order to stay in competition. Transformation is an “experience” that will come through learning, he said.

“Transient Leadership is about sharpening your visionary skills, being open to information, enjoying the abstractness in business, and having an ability to draw energy from your inner core to bring resources to bear upon a given situation,” Mr Chandar said.

The process of a management degree is “learning how to learn”, he said, and defined MBA as Maneuverability – to use information suitably, Babelity – to work through confusion, Ambiguity – a ‘snakepit’ mechanism pushing you to deliver to stay ahead.

Apart from competencies like initiative, drive, analytics, and creativity, students must develop ‘soul’ competency to bring passion and honesty to business. “In the long run, good business will survive only because of good values, and not just finance,” he said. Also present at the event were Dr N. Thangavel, Principal, PG, and Dr. Sushil Lal Das, Principal, UG, Jeppiar Engineering College.

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