LEADERSHIP

Sanjay Halikar.
Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things. Peter F. Drucker The concept of leadership has become more relevant in this new world of competition. Effective leadership gives a huge competitive edge to the organization. Leaders provide encouragement and support to their followers. Their creativity inspires and moulds the actions of their followers and helps them to accomplish the goals of the organization. The expectations from the leaders have changed drastically in the twenty-first century. A leader has to think globally and keep abreast with the changing business environment. A leader in any field has to set an example to others, more so in business, he has to be a role model. He should inspire confidence in others. He should be cool and unflinching in a crisis. A leader should be supremely self confident. He should be able to recognize the talent of his subordinates should harness it to the growth of his organization. . I believe that in order for a person to be a good leader, there are certain things that he be proficient at. It should not be that people follow you because they have not choice like in a dictatorship, but rather people follow you because they respect you and genuinely believe in your vision. So who is a good leader? The answer depends on the context. Organizations need to find people who have what they are looking for. Individuals need to find organizations who are looking for what they have to offer. For example, the kind of leader who is good at managing a young start-up company might be different from the kind of leader who is appropriate for managing a mature organization. The more widespread critique of trait and style approaches, though, has come with regard to the idea of leadership behaviors across situations. The most important part to be mentioned is that, the critique argues that different individuals might be differently suited for various leadership situations. Well, there a certain qualities that would be an asset to any leader, they are: A leader has to be a good listener. Communication is extremely important for the smooth running of any business. The leader should be easily accessible. He should device new ways and means to communicate with others. Without good communication skills, it is impossible to become a good leader. A leader has to be a fast learner. He should also be a skilled manager. He should be able to spot talent and nurture it. He should be able to take risk. Honesty and integrity are extremely important for any good leader. A leader has to be pragmatic has to change with the roles he has to play. A leader has to know what is going on and should be able to sort out any problem his team is facing. He has to instinctively know the necessities of the team and try to fulfill it. Leadership is the ability to influence subordinates in achieving the objectives of the organization. It helps in giving a new direction to its followers and helps in accomplishing the stated goals. Without effective leadership, organizations, businesses and nations will collapse

The leader should choose team members who can complement each others skills. The leader has to fulfill the needs of the employees as well as that of the management. A leader has to look after the needs of his team and stand by them. A leader should not get discouraged by criticism. He has to listen to various views and take the best decision in the interest of the organization. Leaders should have the charisma, desire and will power to motivate people. A good leader motivates his people and makes them accomplish seemingly impossible tasksLeadership is the process of getting things done through people. It is about commitment, consensus and achieving excellence. Effective leaders establish high standards of productivity and quality. They are able to meet deadlines and deliver good results under pressure. Leaders must keep in touch with the international standards and must develop new competencies. They must be able to utilize the whole potential of the organization and must try to build a learning organization. Ratan Tata Ratan Naval Tata (born December 28, 1937, in Surat) is the present Chairman of the Tata Goup, India's largest conglomerate founded by Jamsedji Tata and consolidated and expanded by later generations of his father. Tata was born into the wealthy and famous Tata family of Mumbai. He was born to Soonoo and Naval Hormusji Tata, a Gujarati-speaking Parsi family. Ratan is the great grandson of Tata group founder Jamsetji Tata. Ratan's childhood was troubled, his parents separating in the mid-1940s, when he was about seven and his younger brother Jimmy was five. His mother moved out and both Ratan and his brother were raised by their grandmother Lady Navajbai. He was schooled at the Campion School, Mumbai and graduated from Cornell University in 1962 with a degree in Architecture and Structural Engineering. Ratan joined the Tata Group in December 1962, after turning down a job with IBM on the advice of JRD Tata. He was first sent to Jamshedpur to work at Tata Steel. He worked on the floor along with other blue-collar employees, shoveling limestone and handling the blast furnaces. Ratan Tata, a shy man, rarely features in the society glossies, has lived for years in a book-crammed, dog-filled bachelor flat in Mumbai's Colaba district. In 1971, Ratan was appointed the Director-in-Charge of The National Radio & Electronics Company Limited (Nelco), a company that was in dire financial difficulty. Ratan suggested that the company invest in developing high-technology products, rather than in consumer electronics. J.R.D. was reluctant due to the historical financial performance of Nelco which had never even paid regular dividends. Further, Nelco had 2% market share in the consumer electronics market and a loss margin of 40% of sales when Ratan took over. Nonetheless, J. R. D. followed Ratan's suggestions. From 1972 to 1975, Nelco eventually grew to have a market share of 20%, and recovered its losses. In 1975 however, India's Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared a state of emergency, which led to an economic recession. This was followed by union problems in 1977, so even after demand improved, production did not keep up. Finally, the Tatas confronted the unions and, following a strike, a lockout was imposed for seven months. Ratan continued to believe in the fundamental soundness of Nelco, but the venture did not survive. In 1977, Ratan was entrusted with Empress Mills, a textile mill controlled by the Tatas. When he took charge of the

company, it was one of the few sick units in the Tata group. Ratan managed to turn it around and even declared a dividend. However, competition from less labourintensive enterprises had made a number of companies unviable, including those like the Empress which had large labour contingents and had spent too little on modernisation. On Ratan's insistence, some investment was made, but it did not suffice. As the market for coarse and medium cotton cloth (which was all that the Empress produced) turned adverse, the Empress began to accumulate heavier losses. Bombay House, the Tata headquarters, was unwilling to divert funds from other group companies into an undertaking which would need to be nursed for a long time. So, some Tata directors, chiefly Nani Palkhivala, took the line that the Tatas should liquidate the mill, which was finally closed down in 1986. Ratan was severely disappointed with the decision, and in a later interview with the Hindustan Times would claim that the Empress had needed just Rs 50 lakhs to turn it around. In 1981, Ratan was named director of Tata Industries, the Group's other holding company, where he became responsible for transforming it into the Group's strategy think-tank and a promoter of new ventures in high-technology businesses. In 1991, he took over as group chairman from J.R.D. Tata, pushing out the old guard and ushering in younger managers. Since then, he has been instrumental in reshaping the fortunes of the Tata Group, which today has the largest market capitalization of any business house on the Indian Stock Market. Under Ratan's guidance, Tata Consultancy Services went public and Tata Motors was listed on the New York Stock Exchange. In 1998, Tata Motors introduced his brainchild, the Tata Indica. On January 31, 2007, under the chairmanship of Ratan Tata, Tata Sons successfully acquired Corus Group, an Anglo-Dutch steel and aluminium producer. With the acquisition, Ratan Tata became a celebrated personality in Indian corporate business culture. The merger created the fifth largest steel producing entity in the world. On March 26, 2008, Tata Motors, under Ratan Tata, bought Jaguar & Land Rover from Ford Motor Company. The two iconic British brands, Jaguar and Land Rover, were acquired for 1.15 billion ($2.3 billion). Ratan Tata's dream fulfilled, His Tata Nano Car 2008 Ratan Tata's dream was to manufacture a car costing Rs 100,000 (1998: approx. US$2,200; today US$2,528). He realized his dream by launching the car in New Delhi Auto Expo on January 10, 2008. Three models of the Tata Nano were announced, and Ratan Tata delivered on his commitment to developing a car costing only 1 lakh rupees, adding that "a promise is a promise," referring to his earlier promise to deliver this car at the said cost. Recently when his plant for Nano production was obstructed by Mamta Banerjee, his decision of going out of West Bengal was warmly welcomed. On October 7, 2008, After a controversial stay in West Bengal, Ratan Tata and his men on Tuesday shifted their Rs 1-lakh car Nano project to Sanand near Ahmedabad at an investment of Rs 2,000 crore (Rs 20 billion), declaring that efforts will be made to roll out the world's cheapest car from a make-shift plant to meet the deadline. Praising Modi for speedy allocation of about 1,100 acres (4.5 km2) of centrally located land, Ratan Tata said that the company had a great deal of urgency in having a new location and was driven by the reputation of the state. He successfully made a secret deal with Narendra Modi who agreed to give him a soft loan to the tune of approximately $10 billion to make the car in Gujarat.

Ratan Tata has won many awards and commendations. On the occasion of India's 58th Republic Day on 26 January 2000, Ratan Tata was honoured with the Padma Bhushan, the third highest decoration that may be awarded to a civilian. On 26 January 2008 he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian decoration. He was one of the recipients of the NASSCOM Global Leadership Awards-2008 given away at a ceremony on February 14 2008 in Mumbai. Ratan Tata accepted the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy in 2007 on behalf of the Tata family. Ratan Tata serves in senior capacities in various organisations in India and he is a member of the Prime Minister's Council on Trade and Industry. In March 2006 Tata was honoured by Cornell University as the 26th Robert S. Hatfield Fellow in Economic Education, considered the highest honor the university awards to distinguished individuals from the corporate sector. Ratan Tata's foreign affiliations include membership of the international advisory boards of the Mitsubishi Corporation, the American International Group, JP Morgan Chase and Booz Allen Hamilton. He is also a member of the board of trustees of the RAND Corporation, University of Southern California and of his alma mater, Cornell University. He also serves as a board member on the Republic of South Africa's International Investment Council and is an Asia-Pacific advisory committee member for the New York Stock Exchange. Tata is on the board of governors of the East-West Center, the advisory board of RAND's Center for Asia Pacific Policy and serves on the programme board of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's India AIDS initiative. In February 2004, Ratan Tata was conferred the title of honorary economic advisor to Hangzhou city in the Zhejiang province of China.He recently received an honorary doctorate from the London School of Economics and was listed among the 25 most powerful people in business named by Fortune magazine in November 2007. In May 2008 Mr Tata made it to the Time magazine's 2008 list of the World's 100 most influential people. Tata was hailed for unveiling his tiny Rs. one lakh car 'Nano'. On 29th August 2008, the Government of Singapore conferred honorary citizenship on Ratan Tata, in recognition of his abiding business relationship with the island nation and his contribution to the growth of high-tech sectors in Singapore. Ratan Tata is the first Indian to receive this honour. Ratan Tata is a very responsible ethical man. In todays world of cut throat business principle and unethical subtle fudge, it is refreshing and inspiring to see a many who not just by his words, but by his actions has set himself apart from our morally corrupt businessmen. He was not just a good man, he is also a brilliant businessman. His unique vision redefined the potential of the Indian corporate sector as he challenged conventional wisdom in several areas. He was probably the first Indian businessman to recognize the strategic significance of investors and discover the vast untapped potential of the capital markets and channelize it for the growth and development. Ratan Tata is also a very modest and simple man. Even though he was born into old money, he has never ever shown any arrogance to anyone. He is a very reticent man and intensely dislike the publicity that everyone seems to like. He is just not respected by the general public, he also equally respected by his contemporaries and his employees. Tis could be seem when Tata had issue in West Bengal with its Singur project, the whole of the Insian business stood behind Tata and remarked that if the West Bengal government treated Ratan Tata so disrespectfully, then there would be no futher investments in West Bengal. Also, one

of the qualities that I admire the most about him is that he is a man of his word. If he says something, then he does that. This is so unique in todays world, where if you just miss one step, then your friends turn into your enemies. Like his determination to launch Nano at a price of 1 lakh rupees. His words when the prototype of the car was displayed in front of national and international media, A promise is a promise. His irion clad determination also has inspired me a lot. It just his determination to see the thousand of families that travel on a motorcycle to have something safe to travel in resulted in Nano be though about produced. He has also contributed a lot in bringing India to a global stage. He is a man of which all of India can be proud.