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The advent of a new millennium has spawned a bevy of crystal-ball
gazers. For evidence, look closely at the number of titles
that have hit the bookstalls recently. We picked up one such
effort on our radar, which was unusual in it’s own right.
Management 21 C is an ambitious effort to bring together the
biggest names in the management, who collectively seek answers
to the future of leadership, business processes and organizational
structures. The project mastermind: Subir Chowdhury. Subir
who?
Precisely what we asked too. But before we raise the veil
off this is unknown Indian, a bit more about the book. A few
weeks after it was published in October last year, Management
21C climb to the top of the business bestseller charts in
Europe, displacing Bill Gates’ Business@Speed Of Thought.
What’s more, www.amazon.co.uk has already featured it
in its Best of 1999 list. Now to think that this project was
almost still-born in the first place. Three years ago, the
US-based Chowdhury says he was bitten by the management bug.
A graduate from the Indian Institute of Technology and a post
–graduate in Industrial Management from Michigan University,
the32-year-old Chowdhury says he had no moorings in management
to speak of-other than a passion for Peter Drucker’s
writings and a couple or years experience with Apple Computers
and General Motors each. " For the next few months, I
spent close to 18 hours a day reading every piece of influential
management literature that I could lay my hands on, "
reveals Chowdhury in an interview with Businessworld.
It was during this that Chowdhury hit upon the idea to assemble
some of the best minds to predict what the future of management
would be. "I wanted to create s powerful network of minds
who would delve into the complex issues facing corporations
and individuals," says Chowdhury. Based on his research,
he worked out a 25-page White Paper, which sketched out the
key management challenges facing the 21st century. He then
got in touch with management thinkers like C.K. Prahalad,
Warren Bennis and Rosabeth Moss Kanter. "Their first
question understandably was: who are you?" says Chowdhury.
It took several days of persuasion to convince these management
gurus that Chowdhury says he had a tough time dealing with
Hamid Boucikhia, a professor of strategic management at Essec,
Paris. For days, Chowdhury exchanged mail explaining his project
to a seemingly unconvinced Hamid. "Today, when Hamid
talks about personal power to his class, he keeps referring
to my project," says Chowdhury.
During a recent visit to hometown Calcutta, Chowdhury was
invited to speak to a professional body. "When I walked
in, my hosts couldn’t believe that I was so young,"
says Chowdhury. "Everyone in India seems to be preoccupied
with a person’s age. It’s not the same in the US.
The greatest thing about America is the brainpower seldom
has little to do with how old you are."
Clearly, if there’s one lesson to be drawn from Chowdhury’s
project, leadership in the 21st century will be centered on
intellectual honesty and above all, an all-consuming passion.
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Extract
Innovation requires courage as well as imagination.
Leaders must create cultures in which experiments, questions,
and challenges to the prevailing model are not just
for the courageous. There is ample evidence that innovation
requires multiple experiments. One study of industrial
innovation showed that it took 300 raw ideas, reflected
in 300 formal proposals, winnowed down eventually to
nine development projects, to produce commercial successes.
Pfizer tests over 100 leads per year in order to find
one promising for new drug development.
Because Innovation is hard to predict, may occur anywhere,
and requires multiple experiments, world-class companies
expect innovation all the time, everywhere. They generate
activity at three levels of the pyramid:
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At the peak, a few big
bets about the future, and thus the biggest investments
in product, technology or market innovation. |
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In the middle, a portfolio
of promising but not-yet-proven experiments, early-stage
new ventures, prototype, or other stand-alone projects. |
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At the base, a large
number of operationally-embedded incremental innovations,
continuous improvements, and early stage new ideas
that boost immediate revenues, take out costs, increase
speed, or create a client success-but even more,
suggest a promising new direction for the future.
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The pyramid is not static. Influence flows in many
directions: top-down, bottom-up, or horizontally across
the company.
From Rosabeth Moss
Kanter’s
Essay on Kaleidoscope Thinking
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