The Hindu Business Line : Great leaders develop creative, left-hand ideas

Everyday senior executives face new challenges in managing their businesses efficiently. Managing a company’s current business involves finding ways to add value to products and services, reducing variability and risk in sales. Expanding geographically, acquiring competitors, and similar strategies are variations of this theme at a higher level. Strategies that deal with optimising the business come naturally to the executive and are called “right-hand” ideas.

The other challenge for any organisation is planting the seeds for new opportunities. To avoid stagnation, managers need to identify emerging trends and lead customers. These trends are not born out of customer surveys and are usually catalysed by radical new technology that has not yet gained widespread acceptance. We call these customer-leading strategies “left-hand” ideas, as they are diametrically opposite to the safe, “right-hand” operational objectives of meeting existing customer demands through standard technologies.

A great leader is one who balances the right-hand, left-hand combination or is ambidextrous. He creates a strong business model that ensures the success of the new idea and is able to migrate the left-hand idea into the right-hand operational space to generate profits. At the same time, he needs to be an eternal optimist, a dispenser of hope, a realist and a pragmatist.

Ways in which young managers can develop leadership skills?

As mentioned earlier, right-hand ideas come naturally to young managers. A good right-hand manager is a dispenser of caution, listening to and acting upon what his customers are saying. He generally meets these incremental requirements.

What managers need to do is develop their creative or the left-side approach by experimenting with ideas and taking risks. They should learn from their mistakes. Managers tend to pinpoint the weaknesses of their team. Instead, they should work on the strengths and use the available resources to the fullest extent possible.

Who is your leadership ideal in the corporate world - India or global?

I’m impressed with the way corporate giants such as Intel or Microsoft reinvent themselves time and again. For example, Microsoft has masterfully morphed its Windows operating system product for PCs into an OS for handheld devices, set-top boxes, and even cars. Google is also an innovative company that gives its customers more than what they ask for. — Bhaskar Panigrahi, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Cambridge Technology Enterprises (CTE).

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