My Dream. Your Dream. Our Dream.

Demonstrating leadership by, thinking what you believe, saying what you think, and doing what you say.

In 1985 two leaders from Bendix Corporation a leading American company, came visiting to our manufacturing facilities.They sensed that we wanted to achieve something outstanding in our field but could simply not describe it. Allan suggested we should aim to be a 'World Class Company'.

At that time no one even spoke of something so audacious. The concept sounded fantastic and next day we brothers met and discussed the concept. We adopted the vision to be 'A World Class Organisation'.

In the following week at a meeting of all our staff we made the announcement. Guess what? Our team just looked at us blankly. We were appalled, how could they not be excited about this fantastic vision? They were aghast that we should dream of something so audacious when we faced great struggles daily on countless matters big and small.

Thank God a brave man asked, "Sir, what exactly do you mean by World Class?" 

We brothers looked at each other and now we looked more confused than our staff. We had adopted a concept given to us by someone else, shot into action completely clueless of what our vision actually meant.

Returning to our office, we spent 3 months in discussions,  trying to figure out what that one statement really meant to us and to our people in which there were no doubts.

We finally concluded that as a business organisation we needed to find, retain and service customers profitably while providing value to them.

We adopted the philosophy; 

1. Look after the customers who are the purpose of our existence, by always providing them superior quality products and services, 

2. Look after the employees who actually make it possible to achieve things

3. Look after the shareholders and investors by providing superior returns on their investments

4. Look after the communities in which you exist and function in.

Now we called another meeting with our team. They listened and this time there was some more interaction. Even surprises and shock.

We mistook shock to be caused by the daring vision. In fact as subsequent private discussions with them showed that they thought we were mad.

Insane not because of the challenge before us but by our sheer audacity of proposing something so great while we were actually doing so badly on so many of the things that we wanted to change.

Hardly anyone believed us. It is then we learnt that the greatest resistance to change was 'Management Credibility'. They had learnt from our organisation and others where they had worked that managements say things without meaning them, rarely keep promises, and will only exploit you.

How could we convince them that we believed that the the interest of the employees and employers were one and the same and based on taking care of the interests of all stakeholders with sincerity?

Nothing seemed to work and now we risked looking like fools. 
Thank God, we had the counsel of several people and the most remarkable was our friend Nana Shahane.

Nana highlighted an important term used both for God, and father in Indian culture is 'Anna -Datta', meaning the one who provides us. Now rarely used but in earlier times even the employer was called Annadatta.

We learnt that you cannot expect people to give your their best if they feel uninvolved, disrespected, unloved and denied their fair share. We learnt that we had to shift from the accepted norm of highly exploitive capitalistic model to that of being a family. Not just any ordinary family but a well trained, disciplined, highly motivated continuously improving family working as a team to achieve our vision.

It took a couple of years to start winning trust, but once our people, our extended family members came to believe that we were sincere, our dreams became theirs. From leaders we became facilitators to successfully achieving a great dream. We doubled output with the passing of each year, seemingly impossible and incredulous growth.

The elders in the family also had the difficult and important task of maintaining discipline and fairness amongst family members. You have to be fair but firm, tough but tender and hard but humane.

You may ask if it is so simple then why so many people and organisations simply cannot implement this approach. Good things come from people with good and noble beliefs. Sincerity can be faked only for a while, because people easily come to see through insincerity rather quickly.

What goes around comes around. Many organisations and their leaders have grown physically, emotionally and spiritually distant from their own people. It is then not a family but a gathering of individuals only concerned about exploitation and increasing their individual wealth and power at all costs.

By engaging sincerely and respectfully with team/family members, nothing is impossible.

India at 67

The further we travel the more we long to return to our origin. We have to step out to look in. After many years of travelling, visiting numerous countries and people, I want to return home. Not the physical home, but where my heart lies, to discover my country and people, and in doing so learn who am I.

A land and its people are best understood by its history, culture and art. The journey is meaningful only when made using the native language. Therein lies the problem for most of us Indians including me, even if they be moneyed, are in a position of power or influence. 

Our history has been rewritten and handed down to us by the former colonialists and perpetuated by an education system that is designed to glorify their achievements while heaping ridicule and shame on Indians. Yet we accept it all unquestioningly.

Our identity and culture has been grievously harmed by the systematic destruction of many of the components of our society, that made India great for millennia and attracted invaders in the first place. Our art and heritage has been stolen by the invaders and now adorn living rooms and museums across the world as trophies. 

Worst of all is our own mother tongue and our languages which are so rich are now shunned by us. We are incapable of or feel embarrassed to speak in Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil etc, lest we be considered country bumpkins. The mistaken notion that Indian languages and literature are inferior to the English language and European literature is implanted and stubbornly ingrained in our minds. Further this opinion is constantly reinforced by leaders, teachers and the media of our own country.

We are now effectively disconnected from ourselves and somewhat confused because we do not know who we are. We want to be like the Europeans who ruled us or the Americans to copy them blindly to adopt a culture, thinking working and lifestyles, which are often inappropriate for us.

I ask you, are we really free? I believe we are not free, unless we discover ourselves as real Indians

We are a continent sized nation, that has been adrift for a very long time. Populated by an amazing range of people with rich culture, who are not only intelligent but possess great talent.  A great future awaits us as Individuals and as a nation, we just need to find ourselves. In a sense to be reborn. To become truly rich in every sense if we choose to.

To rekindle our lost spirit, be materially and spiritually rich once again, it is essential that we respect, appreciate and acquire all that is beautiful, great and useful from other cultures and lands.

English no doubt has now become the internationally accepted language for science and commerce. No doubt, we must not only learn English and be proficient in its use, but must we forsake our own languages and hence lose the vital link with our culture and heritage?

Let us not hold grudges or condemn anyone. Past history cannot be changed, however a magnificent history can be created in the future, by being the best that we Indians have the potential to be.

I have already begun my journey and made some progress. I hope you have discovered or have begun discovering the authentic person and Indian in you. My friend, it is then that you can claim to be independent. Until then please forgive me for not congratulating you this Independence day.

It is a always better to be an imperfect version of yourself then to try and be a perfect copy of someone else.