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INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT AHMEDABAD , €f€M?c/ \

CONVOCATION ADDRESS

By
r,x’
I L,

V Kurlen
Chairman
National Dairy Development Board

April 4, 1988
 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT CONVOCATION ADDRESS
r

Chairman and Members of the Board of Governors, Director and

Members of the Faculty of the Institute, distinguished guests and
Members of the Graduating Class.

You have done me a great honour in inviting me to speak on this

solemn oooassion. I however feel somewhat out of place, in this
distinguished assemblage of management experts, -learned in the
most advanced theories of how to achieve results. In the four
decades of working, I have unfortunately not had the opportunity
to undergo any management training at any institution, leave
alone one so eminent as IEMA. I have been busy merely managing,
as best as i could, the business of my employers, some 1.2
million farmers, most of whom do not earn as much as the lowest
paid employee of this or any other Institute. Collectively,
though, their business is worth Rs éfifl crore a year now, while 4%
years ago, their original co-operative was hard put to envisage a
business of a lakh of rupees a year. ’

Most of Iyou‘doubtless expect me to advise you on how to manage

your careers and how to seek opportunities. I find myself
singularly ill~equipped to talk to you on this subject. The
great success stories you have before you of your predecessors
from the Institute and veterans of professional management in
India and abroad are probably studded with examples of quick
career changes; correctly timed lateral mevements, rapid
promotions and advancements and stewardships of corporate giants
-located in the great metropolitan centres of the world. I have
had but one paid job in my career, never received a promotion,
have lived in a small town called Anand, which even now does not
have an automatic telephone exchange, and my employers, my Board
_ members, wear not the Seville Row suits but simple dhotis and
'_smoke beedies, not cigars. They do not understand dynamio
programming and oost-effeotiveness of various media in promotion
campaigns. What they do understand is that their travails in the
farms can have meaning and dignity only if they get a fair share
out of the system and they will get a fair share only when it is
realised. that if not given, they will Lghe their share. To
enable them to obtain their share, therefore, ‘they should
organise themselves into Unions, even as the Labour Unions have.
They can best do so around an economic activity, like the
procurement, processing and marketing of their gagricultural
produce. To do so effectively, they should engage professional
managers in their service. This will bring about a combination
of the biggest asset of India, the farmer power, over 76% of
India’s population, with professional management, to give this
power direction and thrust. v
 F100d and the Anand Pattern? It is
What then is Operation
e. It is the orga nisa tion
basically a dairy development programm culate their
givi ng them a plat form to arti
of 8 million farmers, The basis
Indian sun.
needs, to demand a better place under the by
of milk
of Operation Flood is giving power to the producer
resources with the talent and
combining their energies and
More than 75% of the milk
commitment of professional management. labourers-
ers and landless
producers are small and marginal farm n Flood
have dubb ed Oper atio
It is therefore appropriate that some only in
for it is a revoluti on "v not
the ”White Revolution",
ency of farm ers who, serV ed
productiOn, but in creating a constitu their own
ager s, can exer t pressures in
by professional -man demo crat ic
participating effectively in our
interest thereby
dair y farm ers
process. It is no accident that-the incomes of
. We
have increased. They are organised and they have a voice
in the- fact that beca use thei r
Can also take some pride
and because they are
organisations are managed professionally,
cons umer have been moderate.
efficient, price increases to the
G

without opposition. It has

This revolution has not taken olace by all
by many bure aucr ats,
been opposed by some politicians, adva nced
It has' been oppo sed by
middlemen merchants and tradersl It has
s and by mult ifina tional food companies.
dairying countrie by call ing
who have made their life easy
been opposed by a few al and
conoerned with metaphys ical , soci
themselves Scientists
to be a
economic questions. Lacking the courage or conviction
as a spectator.
participant they have chosen to watch the game
having chosen a cause, had to struggle
But my Colleagues and I, who want ed fame
rests
for it‘ Yet this coalition of vested inte feel
emerge, who
by criticising, who don’t want the poor to
e of. democratic
threatened when the poor gain'aooess to the stag the
They have failed because of
decisionemaking, has failed.
nised. And they have failed
very fact that the farmers have orga in all.
places,
because the salvation of India is that in high
even among social scientists, there are people of good
spheres,
of good will and of abil ity. Such people have\ not
intentions, decision-
the poor to the arena of demo cratic
only welcomed process.
and encourag ed this
making, but have actively supported

u,
The Government of India, beginning with Pandit Jawaharlal Nehr
of coop erat ive
has encouraged what we call the Anand Pattern
Lal Bahadur Shastri who was
development. It was Shri
lopm ent Boar d so
instrumental in creating the National Dairy Deve
every part of the
that the Anand Pattern could be extended to and
was Smt. Indira Gand hi whos e encouragement
country. It to
and, very recently ,
support was vital to Operation Flood
structure for vegetable and fruit
creating an alternatiye
rji Desai and
And it was Shri Mora
marketing on the Anand Pattern. replicate
as the way to
Shri HM Patel who saw the Anand Pattern It
eeds and edible oil.
the success of Operation Flood with oils y, who now want s
, Shri Amarsinh Chau dhar
is our own Chief Minister generation and
to be tried out on power
the Anand Pattern
tions.
distribution by decentralising its func
 Whether with milk, with vegetable and fruit, with oil, or with
power, organisation of farmers into cooperative enterprises
the is
first step towards releasing our rural popul
ataion from the
bonds of poverty. By their command over procurement, processing
and marketing , the farmers ensure that their share
the of
consumer’s rupee increases, providing them with a remunerative
and reliable return on their investment. Increased and stable
income creates the conditions for further investment in
production and productivity, an effort supported by the
cooperatives which provide the services and inputs the farmers
require. When the cooperatives.achieve an influentia
l share of
the market s- this forces the trade to conform,
to cempete with
fair prices to the farmer and to the consumer.
Most important,
the cooperative enterprise, linking farmers locally, regionally
and natiOnally, empowers the rural poor and can give them a
strong voice in our democratic process.

This is important because decision making of a Government is

often not based on the merits of the case, but as a response to
the pressures exerted on them. In our democratic form of
Government, our & decision makers weave their path between
conflicting pressures, opposing a few, surrendering to many, and
compromising with all. In our last forty years of free existence
most of these pressures have come from our industrialists, Our
organised labour and from those who reside in
cities. Hardly any
pressure has been applied by our farmers who reside in our
villages. That is why we have fly—overs in our cities but no
approach roads to many of our villages. We have fountains with
coloured lights in cities, but no safe drinking water.in many of
our villages. Fancy five star hospitals in cities, but no health
system to put two drops of a disinfectant in a new born
child’s
eye in a Village to prevent the child from going
blind. That is
why we have Colleges and Universities in cities but
no black—
boards in many village schools. Our urban elite have shamelessly
usurped the scarce resources of our land leaving very little
to
the 75% of our people who live in our villages.
Our ‘organised.
labour who work in our factories and offices have helped
themselves ‘to more and more for working less and- less. They
have assured' pay scales which are revised every three years,
Dearness Allowance related to cost of living index, Heuse Rent
Allowance, Bonus. Gratuity, Provident Fund, Leave Travel
Concession, Overtime, Privilege Leave, Sick Leave, Maternity
Leave, paid holidays and what not. As against this, those who
work in on? farms get no assured income, are exposed to the
vagaries of the monsoon and have no assured jobs. -Our
constitution assures equality of treatment to
all Indians and yet
how is it that laws are passed to pay retrenchment
cempensation
to those who lose their jobs but no jobs are assur
ed to those who
have none. Is it not time we converted the Labour Minister
and
his department who continue to Specialise in givin
g more to those
who already have so much into an Employment Ministry which will
ensure that those who have no jobs will get one.
Is it not time
we stopped emptying our treasury for paying more and more to
Government employees who keep proliferating. Shoul
d our factories
 continue to provide us bad quality prod
ucts at high costs because
we have to surrender more and more to the unreasonable
and suffer the increasing indisoipline demands
of organised labour. At
what ipoint of time do we call a halt
to this looting of‘lndia by
a powerful minority and begin to look
into the legitimate demands
of 75% of our population who live in
our villages?

it is perhaps tempting to try to achieve

the changes we want to
bring about by gestg goggs, revolution and violenCe. It is
unfortunately true that those in authority often tend
reasonable to ignore
requests for redress, but surrender to a display
force. But the gains achieved by violence is of
often illusory and
are always accompanied by losses whic
h are more permanent. It is
always better to organise the weak and the poor into
institutional structures that are viable' and strong and to
combine their collective power with
professional management, and
to ensure that such structures will endur
e. For this, we need
professional managers not professional politicians; we need
servants of the farmehs, not farmer leaders.
g.

All this is not to say that a bureaucr

acy is not needed. Nor is
it to say that systems of Government can
easily avoid an urban
orientation. The nature of Government and bureaucracie
that s is such
their apex and focus is almost bound
to be the big citi es.
Probably that can’t be helped -- but it does mean
that, when it
comes to rural development, the Government structure
confine
can best
itself to identifying national and State
goals and
priorities and that the bureaucratic structure can best confine
itself to guiding, monitoring and, if necessary, correcting the
implementation of the policies and goals established by the
Government. It is only when the bureaucr
atic structure tries also
to do the implementing itself that inev
itable difficulties arise;
.a bureaucratic structure is not suited
to the practical tasks of
getting things done in our villages,
or to_working-with farmers.

For effective rural transformation that India

so badly needs we
need to deploy productive manpower to
tackle rural production and
agro busi ness. It is here that the graduates of this inst
can play a decisive role and in the barg itute
ain'obtain for themselves
the satisfaction of having left this
country's little better than
they found it;
'

Your education has been made possible

with an enormous commitment
of scarce national resources. You must not forget that while the
country spends over a lakh of rupees-to train a- profiessional
manager at an IIM, with the same amount of money.
children 5% or more
could complete their entire primary
perhaps be somewhat more productive farm education and
ers and artisans.
 the use of national resources to train
I am not grudging
e numbers“ Our enterprises
managers; indeed; we need them in larg d slow down
oppo rtun itie s woul
and creation of incomeflgenerating un them“
onal mana gers to.r
even more if we did not have professi e ther e
though, the fact that sinc
I do wish to impress upon you, e Will be
in the use of the resource s,” ther
is a trade-off
questidns about thei r effectiv e use.

"What happens to the

For example, one could very well ask:
at such an enormous cost to the
managers who are trained
would not necessar ily brin g
country?" The answer, I am afraid,
associated with the trai ning of
unalloyed credit to those
‘
professional managers in lndia.

ning of managers nursed

'The reservations about professional trai ent
by people including myself arise largely from the 'employm
I can spea k with out fear of
records of professional managers. this
orti on of the alum ni of
contradiction that a very large prop or serving
othe rsgl ike it are eith er out of India,
Institute and in selling of
or are enga ged
Indian affiliates of multi-nationals rred to the
I have myself often refe
consumer products. ”
sham poo sale smen
‘management institutes as training schools for
of levi ty in this
I _trust that I will be forgiven an element it
I trust equa lly that the disc omfi ture underlying
statement;
I
will be taken seriously enough.

you have espoused the

I notice that for your silver.jubilee, the
theme of exce llence. Thanks to the work done once again in
the United States, the phrase
Mecca of professional management,
But have we stopped to
excellence has gained much currency,
I submit to you that it does
think What it means in our context? researchers might
not mean creating a few islands of what the
ge in our
but bringing about an all-round chan
call excellence, most
decision‘making abilities, in our abilities to tackle our
3 t
immediate problems. ‘

we have gained much, achieved

In the 49 years of independence,
Still we face awesome problems. Three out of four Indians
much. rty
are still in villages; every second Indian is below the pove
line is merely keep ing
line - and our definition of the poverty are
. - Two out of three Indians
the body and soul together
livelihood, but they earn only
dependent on agriculture for their income. Our
of every three of the national
one rupee. out commodity
in increasing our feed. fibre and
aohievements year has
production are laudable, but as the just concluded
dependen t upon the vaga ries of
shown, they are still precariously few who
nature. ,These are all challenges for those fortunate
principles of excellence
have had the opportunity to imbibe the
in management.
 The students graduating tod
ay will also graduate fro
learning and analysis to one of act m a world of
learning ion and ach iev eme nt.
never stops, we must remember While
honour wha t Ari sto tle said:
and rewards always fall
on those Who show their
and good qualities in knowledge
action. Action, especially
action, invites opposition and effective
anger from established
You must learn to withst structure.
and such opposition and
turn it into sources of if possible, to
internal strength.

The tasks before us require

that the poor and the wea
organised into institutional struct k must be
collective power of the ures that are strong.
se organisations. The
you will, these new structures if
must be wielded so as to confer
democratic rights the legitimate and
upon the members of suc
structures must themselve h str uctures._ The
s survive and gain in str
not a task for politicia ength, This is
ns, but I submit, the ultima
for_exoellenoe in profes te challenge
sional management in Ind
ia.
Q

You, the graduating class, are equ

ipped with tools of modern
management and° I hope, a practical understanding
them in the management-o of how to use
f the country’s organisat
add to this knowledge a more ions. you must
important ingredient: a commitment
to the society and all its
members.' This combination will
your professionalisation make
complete and bring honour
your Institute. to you and

Every time I come to thi

s Institute, I remember your first ful
time Director, Professor l~
Ravi 'Ma tthai and I cannot
recalling the personal hel p
example he set. Even.as
his tasks — studying, he excelled in all
managing affairs of a
teaching, building this great instit multi-netional,
felt a sense of-non-fulfi uti on — he was restless;
lment.- he
I would like to believe
found that fulfilment in that he
the last phase of his‘dife,
his physical strength dec when even as
lined, he committed himself and
considerable abilities to the service all his
process of professionalisa of the poorest. The
tion of Ravi Matthai was-co
then and it, would he as mpl ete d onl y
much for this as' for this
institution that he would fine
be remembered.
«v
It is rsaid that there used to be
would a speculation as to
h@w Ravi
conclude his
convocation address,
Shakespeare or from the quoting either from
Bible. _ On this Easter
like’ to turn Monday, 'I would
to the Bible. The parable of
"Behold, a sewer went for the Sewer says:
th to sow; and when he sow
fell by the way—side, ed, some seeds
and the fowls came and dev
Some fell upon stony places oured them up.
where they had not much
forthwith they sprung up. earth; and
Bec ause they had no deepness
of earth,
and when the sun was up they were scorched; and because they had
no roots, they Withered away. And some fell among thorns and
thorns sprung up and choked them. -—But others fell into good
ground and brought forth fruit some hundredfold, some sixtyfold,
some thirtyfold,"

,As you leave the groves of aoademe, I commend to you a life of

hardship, of care, of integrity and of.servioe. It is possible
that a few of you may fall by the wayside and be devoured, a few
may wither away because there is no deepness of root; but I
sincerely hepe and pray that most of you, like the seeds of the
sewer of the parable, will fall on good earth and bear fruit,
some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, and some thirtyfoldu

I wish you well.