CEOSPEAK ...................................The challenge is to learn continuously

The challenge is to learn continuously

To be better leaders we must learn lessons from our everyday life and must always plan for lean periods to sail through when the wider market and economy is in a crisis, Ramesh Chandak, MD and CEO of RPG Group-owned engineering and infrastructure company KEC International, tells HT in an interview. Edited excerpts:

What are the key traits of a good leader?

A leader is one who is able to articulate a vision, believing in that vision and communicating that to the people across the company, so that the rest of the people believe in it. Secondly, his ability to take the right decision at the right time, when the opportunities come, is key, which depends on the knowledge you have gained. Thirdly, a person has only 24 hours in a day, so his ability to delegate and trust the person by empowering him is also important.

Prioritisation is a general problem and for a CEO that prioritisation is very important. Sometimes, despite doing all the right things, the work doesn’t happen. A leader must have the ability to manage frustration, otherwise the whole organisation will get frustrated with you.

It also is very difficult to listen as we all are trained to talk. That is also key.

Can leadership be learnt?

Yes. Everything can be learnt. There may be a rare case of 0.001% where a person is a genius from the time of birth. The challenge that we have is many of us are not continuous learners. Taking lessons from the everyday activities and spending time to evaluate what you have learnt is important.

Let’s compare two people — a person who has passes an examination with merit and another who has just passed. The meritorious student may or may not perform better than the other. So it all depends on who is continuously educating himself. The day you stop your curiosity and education, from that day at least your mental growth stops. Even if you learn from a bad leader, you will learn what things to avoid. Leadership will also come out of that.

How do you groom future leaders?

We groom future leaders by mentoring the people. Whoever has joined the company today, doesn’t have the same knowledge. Giving responsibilities to the person, and continuous monitoring …if you do these things, then leadership can be groomed in an individual. There are so many examples of people becoming leaders, where earlier we thought they can’t reach that position.

We have very good processes at not just KEC but within the RPG group itself. Once every year, the senior people including the chairman sit down and identify the people who can replace the top brass, and then we send them to good courses at top universities such as Stanford, London Business School, Harward etc irrespective of the cost.

How independent is leadership in a promoter-driven company like yours?

RPG is professional and not really promoter-driven as such. They see things from a shareholder point of view, what guidance is required, what is the vision; but as far as day-to-day management is concerned, there is no discussion or interference from the chairman. So, it’s like a private equity that they hold in so many companies.

In the last few years, we have seen a series of financial crises. How challenging has it been in driving the company during this period?

Generally when we plan for the future, we don’t plan for the lean periods. Any leader who has the ability to plan for the lean period, his/her company wouldn’t see financial trouble. If you try to find infrastructure companies that are not in trouble today, there are only 4-5. You need to have a strong financial discipline.

That’s another quality of a leader. Dream is one part, vision is one part of growth. You have to have your head on the shoulder so that you don’t go beyond your means. Most companies in India that have failed because of cash flow problems and not profit and loss accounts. They were not able to pay off their liabilities in time.

Should leaders always be held responsible for mistakes of others in the team?

The buck has to stop somewhere. Everything goes up and down in the company. A MD is responsible for that. If any MD is saying that this mistake is done by my assistant, then, naturally that is not the right approach. You can’t say the mistake is committed by someone else. If you have done the monitoring and mentoring, then the responsibility should also come to you. So its not a blame game, but it’s the responsibility of the MD, since the board has put the company in your command. For instance, if there is a war and a major on the frontline doesn’t perform, the blame has to go to the general.

What’s your one line leadership mantra?

Use common sense.

HT 141030