Narendra
Modi's brilliantly run campaign offers many lessons for business leaders
The congratulatory email written by
a Ukrainian lady carries, apart from the usual kudos-for-the-good work message
that Modi regularly receives, a cautionary message regarding the forthcoming
Lok Sabha polls. As the chopper is about to take off after an election rally,
Narendra Modi passes on the printout to Saurabh Patel, a Gujarat minister, and
then to Andy Marino, author of Narendra Modi: A Political Biography, who is
accompanying them. The lady, recently married to an Indian, points out that
Ukraine had squandered a chance to change the system back in 2005 at the time
of the Orange Revolution. Her next lines, quoted from Marino's book, must have
struck some kind of chord with Modi: "If you have a chance to change the
system in India, don't fail us, because there is nobody else who can do
it."
Modi's rise from a pracharak in 1971 to PM in 2014 is not just the story of a man who had in abundant measure qualities like grit, focus and ambition but also proof that the man with the "56-inch chest" possesses the leadership skills needed to draw out a grand vision and then organise, strategise and mobilise to win. If India was a corporation, Modi was ready to be its Executive Chairman. And his win can easily be a management case study for turnarounds and transformations.
Power of Focus
Gurus like Daniel Goleman say focus is a hidden driver of excellence and Modi is focus personified. He nurtured ambitions of being the PM ever since the BJP debacle of 2004, that is, after Vajpayee's defeat. "He patiently waited for his moment and worked towards it. Again, BJP's rout in 2009 renewed his resolve," says Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, author of Modi's biography, Narendra Modi: The Man.
Modi's preparations were on much before he was declared the PM candidate in September, and as any turnaround specialist will tell you, speedy planning and implementation are the greatest driving forces in business. Modi's game was on before Congress could say Rahul.
Modi's rise from a pracharak in 1971 to PM in 2014 is not just the story of a man who had in abundant measure qualities like grit, focus and ambition but also proof that the man with the "56-inch chest" possesses the leadership skills needed to draw out a grand vision and then organise, strategise and mobilise to win. If India was a corporation, Modi was ready to be its Executive Chairman. And his win can easily be a management case study for turnarounds and transformations.
Power of Focus
Gurus like Daniel Goleman say focus is a hidden driver of excellence and Modi is focus personified. He nurtured ambitions of being the PM ever since the BJP debacle of 2004, that is, after Vajpayee's defeat. "He patiently waited for his moment and worked towards it. Again, BJP's rout in 2009 renewed his resolve," says Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, author of Modi's biography, Narendra Modi: The Man.
Modi's preparations were on much before he was declared the PM candidate in September, and as any turnaround specialist will tell you, speedy planning and implementation are the greatest driving forces in business. Modi's game was on before Congress could say Rahul.
Setting up Team Modi and firing them
up was what gave the Modi campaign its edge. Apart from setting up a crack IT
team, a team of white-shoe consultants, academics and i-bankers as volunteer
strategists and topping it with innovations like holograms, Modi was ready for
the big moment.
Team Modi was driven by data and details, about every galli and ganj in India, all connected seamlessly through IT. By the time Congress and regional parties, still caught in their formulaic election narrative, shifted their election gear, Modi Mobile was running full steam. "Right from the start of the campaign, BJP was executing across many dimensions and all this was by design," says Jayant Sinha, BJP MP from Hazaribagh and former CEO of Omidyar Network, India.
Team Modi was driven by data and details, about every galli and ganj in India, all connected seamlessly through IT. By the time Congress and regional parties, still caught in their formulaic election narrative, shifted their election gear, Modi Mobile was running full steam. "Right from the start of the campaign, BJP was executing across many dimensions and all this was by design," says Jayant Sinha, BJP MP from Hazaribagh and former CEO of Omidyar Network, India.
Like in any turnaround situation, it
was important to focus on setting the right agenda that would ensure buy-in
from all stakeholders. In 1992, Bill Clinton won the Presidential campaign
using the slogan, "It's the economy, stupid", and in 2014, Modi
followed a similar theme reading the ground reality perfectly. "CEOs
without an agenda are useless, but at the same time, CEOs with a lot of things
on their agenda, are also useless. You must have a single agenda, the right
one. Narendra Modi's agenda was economic development and caught the imagination
of the country," says Vijay Govindarajan, Professor at Tuck School of
Business, Dartmouth. Marketing gurus like Al Reis and Jack Trout always place a
premium on positioning.
Modi knew his target audience and
what they wanted; India, like other emerging economies, has four key rising
constituencies - the rural population, youth, middle class and diaspora. These
are aspirational groups who don't go for the 'poor you' approach. "In this
election, Modi unbound aspirations," says Janmejaya Sinha, Chairman Asia
Pacific, Boston Consulting Group.
”When I heard Narendra Modi's 'acche
din aane wale hain' line, it immediately reminded me of Coke's 'Open Happiness'
campaign. Both are very aspirational. He did a good job in understanding who
his customers were and targeting them accordingly," adds Vijay Mahajan of
University of Texas, Austin.
Walk the Talk
The young nation was willing to look beyond region, religion, cast and creed, and Modi's message of development and growth found purchase with masses. "The Modi effect has a wider call, which is nation-building. It is a great way to galvanise the organization.
The young nation was willing to look beyond region, religion, cast and creed, and Modi's message of development and growth found purchase with masses. "The Modi effect has a wider call, which is nation-building. It is a great way to galvanise the organization.
Modi definitely set the tone for a
powerful country," says Rajiv Memani, CEO, EY.
One of the first principles of leadership is walking the talk. After being named as the PM candidate, Modi drove himself ruthlessly, covering 3 lakh kilometers crisscrossing the country, addressing 437 rallies. "His knowledge of India is phenomenal and he is a storehouse of information. Besides, he has a voluminous memory and the capability of pushing himself to the brink. He's awake well past midnight and wakes up at 5 am, which is the outer limit," says Mukhopadhyay.
For the period of the campaign, Modi performed to the T what in Peter Drucker's definition is a CEO's job: to be an effective link between 'the organisation' (BJP, RSS) and 'outside' (electorate, partners). In his book, Leading Change, Harvard Business School's John Kotter says you need to create a sense of urgency to start a change process. Modi and his media machine created that urgency by drumming up dissatisfaction in masses already fed up with chronic corruption, high inflation and policy paralysis. "Corporate world leaders straightaway launch into the ideas for a better tomorrow without preparing the ground for the need for change, and Modi did that very well," says Vineet Nayar, founder, Sampark Foundation & former CEO, HCL Technologies.
One of the first principles of leadership is walking the talk. After being named as the PM candidate, Modi drove himself ruthlessly, covering 3 lakh kilometers crisscrossing the country, addressing 437 rallies. "His knowledge of India is phenomenal and he is a storehouse of information. Besides, he has a voluminous memory and the capability of pushing himself to the brink. He's awake well past midnight and wakes up at 5 am, which is the outer limit," says Mukhopadhyay.
For the period of the campaign, Modi performed to the T what in Peter Drucker's definition is a CEO's job: to be an effective link between 'the organisation' (BJP, RSS) and 'outside' (electorate, partners). In his book, Leading Change, Harvard Business School's John Kotter says you need to create a sense of urgency to start a change process. Modi and his media machine created that urgency by drumming up dissatisfaction in masses already fed up with chronic corruption, high inflation and policy paralysis. "Corporate world leaders straightaway launch into the ideas for a better tomorrow without preparing the ground for the need for change, and Modi did that very well," says Vineet Nayar, founder, Sampark Foundation & former CEO, HCL Technologies.
Interestingly, he started the
campaign with 'Mission 272'. But as Manoj Ladwa, London-based M&A lawyer
and Modi's mainstream campaign manager who has been his aide for the last 15
years, observes— "What made the difference was when he added the '+'
symbol to it. It was his brainchild and proved a masterstroke for galvanizing
the whole party to reach for something beyond the requisite numbers."
Ladwa claims that potential for Modi is never a compliment. "We must go
beyond potential."
Another masterstroke was clubbing
all the work that he has done in Gujarat, whether it be roads, infrastructure
or education, into one 'Gujarat Model', that turned out to be a brilliant
branding strategy.
He kept his message simple - about
the Gujarat model and development and this reflects even on his website, which
comes off as a good corporate website with an authentic brand promise. "What's
interesting here is that you have the option of translating the content on the
website into a number of languages - Marathi, Tamil, Assamese, but not Bengali.
I think it sends out a very clear signal about who he is trying to target and
reach out to. Similarly, in foreign languages, it gives you the option of Chinese, Russian, Japanese and
Spanish," says Jagdish N Sheth of Columbia University.
nternationlisation is something that
Modi had started in 2003 with Vibrant Gujarat and it paid off. For an Indian
state CM to be talked of in global boardrooms was previously unheard of. In a
recent interview with ET, McKinsey CEO Dominic Barton said, "There is a
sense that Modi is a decisive guy and knows what he is doing."
Modi is also a master of putting the right person in the right job. He entrusted the key task of reviving BJP's fortunes in Uttar Pradesh to his right hand man, Amit Shah, who quickly got into the thick of things, energising the cadre, engaging with workers at the taluka and district level, while sending 450 video raths to take Modi's message to the hinterland.
Marketing guru Philip Kotler says
his four Ps work quite well when you replace product with person and this was
evident in Modi's campaign. "He was a product, a karyakarta— he conveyed
to the nation that here's a bachelor who can dedicate his life to the nation
and deliver at the same time," says marketing consultant Harish Bijoor.
Since it's also very important for a CEO to articulate his vision, not just
internally but to external stakeholders as well, this is where symbols become
important.
"Take the short-sleeved kurta
he wears," says Sheth. "The saying goes that 'he rolled up his
sleeves and got to work' but here he is sending out a message that my sleeves
are always rolled up - I am always ready to work."
Communicate Communicate Communicate
The controversial Modi had to battle powerful odds that could have taken down not only the campaign but also his career: the Godhara episode, fear of Muslim voter alienation for BJP, near revolt of senior party leaders who didn't like his rise, question marks over the Gujarat development model, apprehension over his ability to handle New Delhi politics and a coalition government. And that required a messaging machinery that had to deliver credible promises.
Team Modi brought in the heavyweights for high caliber blitz that amplified the 'wave' across the nation. Senior BJP functionaries, Piyush Goyal and Ajay Singh, worked in tandem with heavyhitters like Piyush Pandey and Prasoon Joshi for TV, print and radio campaigns, and a host of smaller agencies to cover major media vehicles, including social media.
The controversial Modi had to battle powerful odds that could have taken down not only the campaign but also his career: the Godhara episode, fear of Muslim voter alienation for BJP, near revolt of senior party leaders who didn't like his rise, question marks over the Gujarat development model, apprehension over his ability to handle New Delhi politics and a coalition government. And that required a messaging machinery that had to deliver credible promises.
Team Modi brought in the heavyweights for high caliber blitz that amplified the 'wave' across the nation. Senior BJP functionaries, Piyush Goyal and Ajay Singh, worked in tandem with heavyhitters like Piyush Pandey and Prasoon Joshi for TV, print and radio campaigns, and a host of smaller agencies to cover major media vehicles, including social media.
n this campaign, Modi set benchmarks
in smart messaging. "In a turnaround, it's important first to win people's
hearts, then minds. The hands and legs follow and results emerge. Modi has
managed to win the first two, let's see if he can deliver the other two,"
says R Gopalakrishnan, Director, Tata Sons. New technologies, like social
media, were used to the hilt. Twitter numbers tell a story—since January 1,
2014, there have been 58 million election-related tweets on the site; out of
that, a whopping 11.85 million can be directly attributed to Modi's account.
As Modi sets about fixing what Wharton's Jitendra Singh, in an article calls the troika of deficits—governance, integrity, and fiscal—there's lot to be done. "There is no guarantee that Narendra Modi and his team will succeed. However, the analysis of how he has got to this point and how he seems to be leading the country of now 1.2 billion hopes, is a story that can't just be ignored," says Nayar.
As Modi sets about fixing what Wharton's Jitendra Singh, in an article calls the troika of deficits—governance, integrity, and fiscal—there's lot to be done. "There is no guarantee that Narendra Modi and his team will succeed. However, the analysis of how he has got to this point and how he seems to be leading the country of now 1.2 billion hopes, is a story that can't just be ignored," says Nayar.
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