The Hindu Business Line : A leader should be able to create new leaders

BRAHMOS Aerospace CEO and Managing Director, A. Sivathanu Pillai, has written, Technology Leadership, published by Tata McGraw-Hill (www.tatamcgrawhill.com). Predictably, the book discusses missiles right through.

Yet, you'd find interesting inputs on topics such as strategy for technology development, where the author explains the different levels using flowcharts. For instance, Level-5 (L5) is where required technologies and systems are available off-the-shelf.

Substitution is L4, where the required technologies are not available. "If this is also not possible, we need to initiate the development by locating the skills and harnessing the talent in the country", leading to L3. Consortium approach and technology empowerment are further levels.

Developing countries are often tempted to import readily available low technology systems to meet immediate requirements, rues Pillai.

"This drains the scarce resources and creates hurdles for the indigenous development of high technology systems. Top management must stand up to these pressures and take deliberate decisions to invest in high technology development," he states.

CE or Concurrent Engineering is the backbone of R&D, according to the author. CE shortens product introduction cycle, improves quality, reduces design iterations, shortens production time, and raises quality, he explains.

In the chapter Combating Failures, Pillai discusses cases as ranging from the the Prithvi to the Indica. Yet another case compares the development of the Kolkata and Delhi metro rail. The former took more than 20 years to complete and cost four times the original estimates.

"Considering these parameters of failure, the Delhi Metro Rail Project came with a novel idea of project management." It adopted the unique officer oriented structures, which were slim but effective, notes the book. "Unnecessary layers such as clerks and peons were eliminated from the organisation," and fast track decision-making was adopted and the people led from the front.

A time clock was maintained for every employee, and the role of the finance department was redefined — "they were made accountable for execution of the project".

In the chapter, New Generation Leadership, is a chart that summarises the first four generations of leadership — from proprietorship in the 18th century to steep hierarchy till the mid-20th century, and then the matrix form of organisation from 1980 to 2000. The fourth generation was horizontal, computer interfacing, with IT/knowledge as the source of wealth rather than land, labour and capital earlier.

Pillai calls the present style the fifth generation, where management works in a networked environment, with people reaching out to one another to work on a whole set of challenges in teams and clusters of teams in a distributed environment across functional and organisational boundaries.

Peer-to-peer relationship plays a crucial role, and "various functions are capable of networking in parallel through virtual task processed teams".

There is also the sixth generation leadership where organisation belonging to different nationalities join together to form an umbrella entity, as in the case of BrahMos — a partnership between India and Russia, "harnessing the capabilities and specialists between the two countries with a sole aim to design, develop, produce and market a most advanced supersonic cruise missile in a highly competitive environment".

Pillai visualises the emergence of the seventh generation beyond 2030. Organisations would then be circular and enlightened, and the source of wealth would be advanced technology.

Guiding principles would be knowledge, consciousness, righteousness, and dedication to service; and leadership qualities would include self-esteem, path finding and enabling.

"The projects undertaken will be technologically complex, multidisciplinary and will require resolution of issues in a short span of time," predicts the author. Most important, such leaders will be able to create new leaders!

Good read.

ManageMentor@TheHindu.co.in

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