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The anchor of the Best Business Book of 1999 is in town on
a holiday. Sumit Das Gupta meets the 33-nothing management
guru who’s in a tireless race for higher goals
In polo-neck suede shirt and faded jeans, chatting on about
management and mishti doi, poetry and patriotism, dreams and
dollars, Subir Chowdhury could well pass off as an aspiring
man of letters. Instead, the man from Michigan has just anchored
Management 21C, voted the Best Business Book of 1999 by Amazon.com,
edging out a certain Mr. Bill Gates and his Business@speedofthought.
Chowdhury is the youngest executive vice-president of American
Supplier Institute (ASI), one of the top management consulting
firms in the world; the only Asian to win the Young Leadership
Excellence Award from the Automotive Hall of Fame; he has
been chosen as one of the 21 new voices of the 21st century
by Quality Focus, the highest circulated ‘quality’
publication in the world; he is the youngest-ever chairman
of the automotive division of American Society for Quality
(ASQ).
Incidentally, he pockets $10,000 a day as management consultant,
and is now keen on collaborating with Calcutta.
All this, and he’s just turned 33. " I am in a
hurry, because I feel there is so much to learn, so much to
do, and so little time," explains Chowdhury, back in
Culcutta for a month after a gap of three years.
Chowdhury’s journey from classroom to quality-management
hall of fame began at Chittagong, Bangledesh. Though his parents
set up base-and a pharmaceutical business-Subir studied on
at Chittagong Government High School.
It was during on of his vacations in Calcutta that the 13-year
old was fascinated by Tarun theatre, but failed to convince
his parents to introduce him to the artiste.
Two years later, "after extensive research on the man
and the actor", Subir wrote to Kumar, stating that for
an "eminent person", the letter "doesn’t
mean anything but…"
The veteran actor’s handwritten reply followed immediately,
urging the young boy "never to feel that you are nobody".
"I still treasure that letter because it convinced me
that perseverance and patience pay off in the end," says
Subir.
This conviction backed up by dogged determination and supreme
inter-personal communication skills, that have paved Chowdhury’s
path to progress.
Following an aborted stint at Chittagong Medical College
(to keep his father’s wish). Chowdhury was IIT (Kharagpur;)
–bound, where he graduated with aerospace engineering
in 1989.
"Academics alone was never an issue for me. It was a
well-rounded humanist approach that mattered. So, I brought
out Panchajanya, the literary magazine that is still being
published," states Subir, with satisfaction.
Though it did cost him some academic points, the magazine
(named by the late Sagarmoy Ghosh, and backed by the likes
of Sunil Gangopadhyay) won Chowdhury the IIT Literary Order
of Merit for 1989 (bagged by Raj The Blue Bedspread Kamal
Jha the previous year ) and honed his "leadership skills".
After a two-year stint with Apple computers in Dhaka, Chowdhury
decided to widen his horizons. In 1991, he was off to the
Central Michigan University for Masters in Industrial Management.
In 1993, his thesis, sponsored by Dow Chemicals, won him the
Outstanding Thesis Award.
By this time, Chowdhury had decided to plunge into the "automotive
quality movement". First stop, General Motors, as quality
management consultant.
But Subir soon realized that with this brief, he "could
change GM, but not the world". He at once attached himself
to ASQ "to try and make a difference".
Chowdhury’s efforts paid off when he was chosen to edit
QS9000, the first-ever ASQ conference, in Detroit, attended
by 21 countries. This won him awards, applause, and acquaintances.
What followed was a roller coaster ride through the magic
world of modern management.
QS9000 Pioneers, the first book on how much he co-authored
with Ken Zimmer, was endorsed by heavyweights like Dr. Taguchi,
the septuagenarian management master from Japan, and US quality
management pioneer Philip Crosby. It clinched the prestigious
Henry Ford Award and led to the Young Leadership Excellence
Award in October 1996.
For this, Subir’s parents were flown in from Calcutta.
When they were initially refused a visa, Subir went on the
warpath, ultimately forcing then US secretary of state Warren
Christopher to intervene. "I would have declined the
award, and given up my green card, if my parents had not been
allowed to attend the function," he recounts.
By this time, Subir forged a friendship with Taguchi who,
urged him to quit GM. Chowdhury joined ASI in order to "work
globally". He also co-authored Robust Engineering, which
rose to No.1 among technical titles in USA late last year,
with Taguchi.
With the end of the millennium in sight, it was time for
Subir to move on. "My vision was shifting from quality
management to pure management. I thought, won’t it be
fantastic to tell Ratan Tata in India and Bill Gates in the
USA what the future of management will be?"
The idea of Management 21C was born. " I remember walking
up one morning and telling my wife Malini that a day would
soon come when the names of the greatest management gurus
would be displayed below mine. At first, she tired to tell
me to slow down, but once she realized that I was serious,
she supported me all the way," reveals Subir.
Drawing up a 20-hour schedule (10 at ASI, and 10 at the study
table for the book), Chowdhury went about bringing "the
management masters under one umbrella".
"Who the hell are you?" was the first question
from most. But by the end of the day, they had accepted his
"role as leader", often redoing their essays, urged
on by Subir to "expound new theories", "explore
new concepts". That is precisely what Chowdhury himself
was doing with theories like "Return on Talent"
Published by Financial Times, and launched in October 1999,
Management 21C is turning out to be a phenomenon. "If
you read only one management book this year, make it Management
21 C", says John A. Quelch, dean, London Business School.
Its stupendous success sees Subir besieged by invites from
London, Harvard and every big B-school around, and requests
from many management gurus to co-author books with them.
Chowdhury (who turns to both Rabindranath Tagore and Peter
Drucker for inspiration), is enjoying a happy homecoming.
But it’s not just been "family, friends, food and
fun" for him this time. He’s busy with the groundwork
for his upcoming projects; a book combining the works of P.C.
Mahalanobis and Taguchi, the M-T Systems, due by the end of
this year; a collaboration with the Indian Statistical Indistitute;
a CD with a friend in Calcutta which will be a "comprehensive
quality tool", and attempts to have M21C published in
India.
According to Chowdhury, Talent Management System, based on
inspiring the youth, must be given top priority in India.
"Search the dream, act the dream, make the dream real,"
is his motto for the millennium. "I will continue to
try and shake things up, to make a significant contribution
to humanity. And I never give up," says Subir, a look
of steel in his bespectacled eyes.
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