Announce your vision publically and repeat it, because it will put pressure on you to make it happen: IIM Director
Announce your vision publically and repeat it, because it will put pressure on you to make it happen. Director of Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Indore Prof Himanshu Rai suggested this to small business owners in a conclave organised at Indore Marriott hotel on Saturday.
“Every time, I want to do something, start an initiative, conduct an event or work towards any change, I announce it publically in front of all our students at IIM, because after that, I have a pressure to make it happen,” Rai said.
Guiding entrepreneurs to become leaders, he quoted the importance of having a vision. “You have to become a leader, directed towards an objective, not just someone with a workable idea,” Rai said.
He explained that idea is not vision. “Whatever you want to do finally with the use of the idea, bring a change, make a market, innovate a technology or anything else, it forms your vision, whereas idea is just a suggestion for a possible course of action,” Rai said.
Sharing how his life changed from being an electrical engineer to a professor, he further discussed the importance of having a vision. “I came across a beautiful book ‘Alice in the wonderland’ and it changed my way of thinking and got me to go back to studies after working for 8.5 years in the industry,” Rai said.
Citing paragraph from the book, he noted that one can reach somewhere even without a vision and an idea, but not at some place where they want. A vision has three elements, which should answer the following questions:
• What is fundamental reason for existence of the organisation?
• What are those unchanging core values (values that can never be compromised)?
• What is your big picture of aspiration or where do you want to be in the ideal world?
Discussing how the business owners should choose and work with human resources, Rai explained situational leadership model. Further, he discussed the importance and understanding of right communication.
“We believe we are great communicators, but it is not so, we need to learn about different aspects of communications and basically three entities that have been described in Rig Veda,” Rai said. The three entities are heart, mind and intellect, which is expressed through our facial expressions, body language and words.
The three mantras shared by Rai in the concluding statement were: situation is never as bad as you think and will never be as good as you hope; find a unifying purpose for organisation; and give voice to people who have not been heard.”
Ethics & Processes must for long-term success
“I began my career as an entrepreneur heading something, which was the beginning of private banking sector in India in 1994-45. There were nine private banks that initially started but only 3 or 4 are surviving till date. What made it possible for the banks to survive is following ethics and processes. Leadership is just a tool to motivate and make things happen, but ethics and processes are what drive success in long-term. We have 500 to 600 new people joining the firm every year in this zone of MP. It is difficult to mould them into the culture and bring back unanimity. What makes it possible is our ethics and well-defined process. Leadership is a skill that comes with time and we have built it in employees, who are working in the firm.”
Sunil Panjwani
Zonal head and senior vice president
HDFC Bank Ltd
“Every time, I want to do something, start an initiative, conduct an event or work towards any change, I announce it publically in front of all our students at IIM, because after that, I have a pressure to make it happen,” Rai said.
Guiding entrepreneurs to become leaders, he quoted the importance of having a vision. “You have to become a leader, directed towards an objective, not just someone with a workable idea,” Rai said.
He explained that idea is not vision. “Whatever you want to do finally with the use of the idea, bring a change, make a market, innovate a technology or anything else, it forms your vision, whereas idea is just a suggestion for a possible course of action,” Rai said.
Sharing how his life changed from being an electrical engineer to a professor, he further discussed the importance of having a vision. “I came across a beautiful book ‘Alice in the wonderland’ and it changed my way of thinking and got me to go back to studies after working for 8.5 years in the industry,” Rai said.
Citing paragraph from the book, he noted that one can reach somewhere even without a vision and an idea, but not at some place where they want. A vision has three elements, which should answer the following questions:
• What is fundamental reason for existence of the organisation?
• What are those unchanging core values (values that can never be compromised)?
• What is your big picture of aspiration or where do you want to be in the ideal world?
Discussing how the business owners should choose and work with human resources, Rai explained situational leadership model. Further, he discussed the importance and understanding of right communication.
“We believe we are great communicators, but it is not so, we need to learn about different aspects of communications and basically three entities that have been described in Rig Veda,” Rai said. The three entities are heart, mind and intellect, which is expressed through our facial expressions, body language and words.
The three mantras shared by Rai in the concluding statement were: situation is never as bad as you think and will never be as good as you hope; find a unifying purpose for organisation; and give voice to people who have not been heard.”
Ethics & Processes must for long-term success
“I began my career as an entrepreneur heading something, which was the beginning of private banking sector in India in 1994-45. There were nine private banks that initially started but only 3 or 4 are surviving till date. What made it possible for the banks to survive is following ethics and processes. Leadership is just a tool to motivate and make things happen, but ethics and processes are what drive success in long-term. We have 500 to 600 new people joining the firm every year in this zone of MP. It is difficult to mould them into the culture and bring back unanimity. What makes it possible is our ethics and well-defined process. Leadership is a skill that comes with time and we have built it in employees, who are working in the firm.”
Sunil Panjwani
Zonal head and senior vice president
HDFC Bank Ltd