In the corporate world, there are times when you have senior managers who develop into Tigers over a period of time. Brusque, sharp and cruel when they can these are noticeable and formidable stripes and roars.
It is always debatable. Does effective leadership result in creating a culture of meritocracy? Or does meritocracy create effective leaders within the organisation? Air India’s troubles seem to be both – a lack of the right leadership and a lack of a culture of meritocracy. One wonders whether one should throw out the baby with the bath water!
If there is one problem that is probably common to the whole world, it is that the number of listeners is dwindling - not on TV, and podcasts, but in personal interactions.
It was a very wet day when I went for my first job interview. I went all the way from the distant suburb of Chembur to Worli in Mumbai. Because of the heavy rains, I arrived dripping from head to foot.
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On Sunday 17 January 2021, we lost another icon (after FC Kohli) in the management consulting world in India – the passing away of Sharu Rangnekar, a titan for 40 years in the field.
A great thinker; author of books and producer of management videos; speaker at seminars and a guardian of ethics in the profession, who never hesitated to call a spade a spade! In our volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguity (VUCA) world now, one rarely comes across such people; people with qualities of head and heart, whose integrity can seldom or never be questioned!
I had first known him as the managing director of Searle India, who were my clients in the late-1970s. I had myself come from the pharma industry after 14 years and had started a consulting company. It was a pleasure working for this company where this unusual man set up a new culture of informality, to the extent that his immediate reports (people reporting him) were expected to have private meetings with him at regul