AYN RAND AND THE WORLD SHE MADE

Fountainhead. Atlas Shrugged. We the Living. Anthem… Time was when rattling off Ayn Rand’s works was passe. Everyone (who was any kind of ‘intellectual’) knew about all of them, had read some of them. Today one needs to spell out: Ayn who? The Stiglitzes and Friedmans stride the stage now… and yet The New York Times reports a spurt in the sale of Atlas Shrugged bringing the novel up to #33 among amazon.com’s top-selling books in January 2009 (a steep fall from the second-to-the-Bible status in the 1991 Library of Congress and the Book of the Month Club survey). And, horrors, this renewed popularity is linked with the subprime-mortgage-related meltdown. Whether this indicates Rand’s continued relevance today or mere grasping of the straw by a drowning economy would be worth examining. For as Rand commented against the acclaim in 1934 for her Night of January 16^th:“they fail to note its theme”, this sudden rise in popularity would make her turn in her grave!

For non-Randians, this needs some clarification. Atlas Shrugged is a story of industrial and other leaders ‘withdrawing their minds’ from being exploited by a ‘socialist’ government. Atlas shrugs and watches as the world rolls off his shoulders… no where near the institutionalized greed that led Lehman Brothers and a host of others (along with the multi-billion dollars bailout) down the drain.

The theme of, the book, in Rand’s own words, is "the role of man's mind in existence," referring to it as a mystery novel, "not about the murder of man’s body, but about the murder – and rebirth – of man’s spirit." It advocates the core of her philosophy of Objectivism with its many facets, like individualism, reason, the market economy and the helplessness of governments. Atlas Shrugged began with negative reviews (Gore Vidal is said to have described its philosophy as "nearly perfect in its immorality.") but achieved popularity in later years. One critic had also written that those who appreciate Rand’s work are far outweighed by those who range “from hysterically hostile to merely uncomprehending." It appears that the ‘uncomprehending’ have risen again.

But it is the relevance of Randian thought that is beyond-the-obvious (and, ‘uncomprehending’) that has led to the present publication. Interestingly, two biographies of Rand have been released within a short time of each other: the book under review here by Anne C. Heller and Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right, By Jennifer Burns (Oxford University Press 2009), bringing out the stark fact that Randian thought is and will be relevant many years to come. Heller has brilliantly managed to include the controversies, the anguish of the young writer-thinker, the growth through the Russian revolution, the wide-eyed travel across the Atlantic, the quest for recognition in the United States – not to forget the complex ideology about individualism/capitalism/democracy. There are summaries of Rand’s various works also in easy reading style in the 567 pages of text, followed by 109 pages of ‘Notes’, 12 pages of Bibliography, 25 pages of Index and 2 pages each of Acknowledgments, Abbreviation Key, and Permissions. With an account that flits between Rand’s formative years and the excitement of success up to the fateful 6^th of March, 1982, Heller shows what made Rand (warts and all) tick then, and why it continues to do so now.

While reviewing a biography, one tends to concentrate on the subject rather than on the author – and much more so when the subject is an intellectual colossus of a different time, different world. And when there is not much more that can be revealed about her. The wonder of the book is the consolidation of Rand’s thinking and her tumultuous life (born at the time of the Bloody Revolution of 1905, dislocated during the Bolshevik revolution, working her way through the labyrinths of Hollywood and her brush with Cecil B. DeMille and her subsequent success, criticism against her that ranged from intellectual plagiarism to irrational reaction to the mildest criticism) all in a single volume without making it sound like one of the Hundred Great Lives.

Heller says it all when she says: At heart [Rand] was a 19^th-century novelist illuminating 20^th-century social conflicts.  Her novels and the best of her essays are well worth reading now, when issues of wealth and poverty, state power and autonomy, and security and freedom still disturb us; and when she concludes her introductory chapter with: Gallant, driven, brilliant, brash, cruel, as accomplished as her heroes, and ultimately self-destructive, she has to be understood to be believed.

HOW TO BE A MOTIVATIONAL MANAGER

HOW TO BE A MOTIVATIONAL MANAGER An Essential Guide For Leaders And Managers Who Need To Get Fast Results With Minimum Stress Alan Fairweather McMillan Publishers India – 2009 Rs.285        Pages 227

When Maslow, Herzberg and McGregor sashayed into the uncertain realm of human motivation, Management as a science was in its infancy. It was necessary at that time, to define and design the basic building blocks in the form of assumptions about human behaviour, the importance of working conditions (hygiene factors), the significance of human needs (hierarchical or otherwise), and so on. The theories they formulated were relevant to the work context prevailing then; they also formed the strong foundations for further scientific research. It has to be remembered that these studies were held at a time when employees were yet evolving from being a pair of hands, to a whole human being. The Human Relations School was just beginning to take shape.

We have come a long way since then – from ‘hands’ to ‘knowledge workers’ – and the factors governing the employer-employee relationship are far more complex than Maslow et al. could ever have imagined. Rates of attrition are at their all-time high (and ‘loyalty’ is a lost cause); ‘respect’ if any, goes to knowledge rather than to age; and the search for the level of contribution one can-get-away-with (commitment being another lost cause) is rampant. Those who are trained in the theories and practice of ‘motivation’ (HR professionals) are not the ones who are actually required to motivate employees (at least as much as line managers are expected to be). A major question therefore crops up: Can Management motivate its employees? If it can, why is there so much of cynicism around? The number of books spewed out regularly on the subject is proof of its elusiveness. Somewhere along the line though, the author admits: you don’t motivate your team – you create the environment in which they motivate themselves. If that be true, then how correct is it to advise people ‘to be a Motivational Manager’?

This question is particularly relevant when the author asserts: Managing people is a hugely difficult job. A degree in psychology would help but if you haven’t got that then stay with me – I’ve got the answers. One could call his bluff…

… but apparently some managers have that magic wand, most others don’t. Did V. Krishnamurthy for instance, start out with a motivational exercise for the employees of the Steel Authority of India/Maruti Udyog/BHEL? What turned the Indian Railways around under the leadership of Laloo Prasad Yadav – while Rajiv Gandhi’s attempts at instilling pride in India and Indians (Mera Bharat mahan, with references to the Indian Railways being the largest rail network in the world) appear now to be a PR overkill? Large, sluggish, bureaucracy-ridden organisations transformed by a single man’s vision. Where did the motivation come from? What kind of incentives did these leaders give to their managers, staff and workmen – that were not in place already? Neither Krishnamurthy nor Yadav could be the hands-on type of managers – they were as remote from workmen as well as middle management as anyone in those positions could be. So there was no question of their ‘spending quality time’ with the employees.

Krishnamurthy confesses to have met his staff individually and in groups. Laloo Prasad is said to have given a free hand to his managers. Surely, others have been more aggressive in such attempts.

Alan Fairweather says:

·        Know the business you are in, but more importantly, know how to get the best out of your people.

·        Empower them – they should know what’s happening in the organisation/team; give them a feeling of being in on things.

·        Appreciate – demonstrate to your team members that you care about them.

·        Decide who will be on your team.

·        Get out of your office and mix with the team on a regular basis; spend some quality time regularly – it helps better understanding, enables feedback, encourages free flow of ideas.

·        Give feedback – whether you feel comfortable giving it or not, you need to do it for your people.

·        Solving problems is part of your job as a motivation manager. Doing it well or badly determines the level of motivation in your team.

Nothing new? Yes, if you see them as a set of disparate tactics. But as the inevitable outflow of an attitude of caring as much for your employee as you do for the bottom-line – it would be an effective yet simple strategy.

Therefore, one cannot disagree with the author when he quotes William Hewlett: Managers have traditionally developed the skills in finance, planning, marketing and production techniques. Too often the relationships with their people have been assigned a secondary role. This is too important is subject not to receive first-line attention. (Emphasis added).

THE MANAGEMENT MASTERCLASS

THE MANAGEMENT MASTERCLASS Edited by Emma De Vita For Management Today Hachette /Business Plus 2010 Rs 199   pages 190

What makes good management, asks Sir Terry Leahy, CEO Executive, Tesco, in the Foreword. A question that, in the best of times, can only be tentative, and the answer even more so. It is generally known, though rarely accepted, that a manager grows through experiential learning, that there just can’t be preset rules out there in the jungle, and all theories and formulae go out of the window when you have your entire workforce camped at the door of your workplace. So what’s to be done? You assess the situation and work out whatever negotiation is possible with such of the leaders as are recognizable. (In a mob situation, the leaders melt into the mass so effectively that you wonder where they disappear when you need them most). Emma De Vita, the editor of the book under review, thinks that one effective measure would be to read her book: View this book as a short cut to becoming a brilliant manager in the 21^st century. It’s meant to be kept to hand so that when you find yourself in need of some help or inspiration, you can delve in…

Now, if you want to read this book as normal people do (cover to cover) you have a problem. There is not much of straight text here. After every few lines there are breaks. There are 20 sets of Your Route To The Top, 8 of Do it right, 22 Crash Courses for myriad situations, and

26 Ten Ways

to do umpteen things. And then there are quotes interspersed – ranging from Dolly Parton and Duke Ellington to Chekhov and Churchill to George W. Bush. The Bush-ism is unbeatable – It’s clearly a budget. It’s got a lot of numbers in it.

Along the way the reader will be introduced to various ‘syndromes’ like the ‘Someday Syndrome’ which is quite obvious. The Hubris Syndrome: the closer we get to power, the more our brain starts to feed on it. Symptoms include the habit of seeing the world as a stage on which to exercise power, with a growing belief that we are accountable only to God. The Tall Poppy Syndrome is a sort of fear of the top position – the name has been drawn from Livy’s History of Rome which reports that when Tarquin (The Proud) symbolically cut off the tall poppies in his garden, his son, Sextus, killed all the important people in the town. The Corollary Syndrome gets you thinking that what you are thinking is what everyone else is, or should be, thinking. There is also a peculiarity called micromanagement, which most people in management are acutely aware of. Based on some obscure Freudian theory, it has been concluded that children who did not learn the art of ‘elimination’ get constipated and in their later years become obsessively tidy adult preoccupied with petty details. No, TPM practitioners with their ‘a place for everything and everything in its place’ are not constipated, at least not chronically.

The introduction starts rather boldly: If you are engaged in your work and want to get ahead, then this book will give you the leg-up that you need. If you don’t care for success, then perhaps this isn’t for you. Can authors be sued for tall claims under the Consumer Protection law?

There is no claim, however, of being comprehensive or original, the book trundles on with humour that doesn’t quite get there; in fact it stops short of the facetious. Of course the usual contents of leadership, team building, emotional intelligence, communication, delegation, decision-making … all that a management book should have, are all there. But what kind of hand-book can claim to inspire at critical moments? What sense, for that matter, does it make to be informed that your first step in Your Route to the Top is that you should fulfil your goals? Or if you want to get noticed, the first step is: Take the lead?

A more pertinent question therefore, Sir Terry, would be: What makes a good management-book? From the one-minute management tactics to tomes that strain more than your elbow, you think you’ve had it up to the ears … oh, but there’s still a lot to follow. After all there is so much they don’t teach you at Harvard!

Corporate Chanakya

Corporate Chanakya

Successful Management

The

Chanakya Way

Radhakrishan Pillai

Jaico Rs.275 Pp:317

‘India’ has always fascinated the ‘western mind’. Fabulous tales of wealth, of a large powerful kingdom that went back hundreds of years, of mysteries fed on unrecorded history and romantic tales brought in by travellers, and spiritualism. From Aryans to Moghuls and European colonists, the old elephant has silently drawn them all – who, awed by its enormity, and variety, and its deep inscrutable memory, have trundled blindly on… 

So, books with an eastern flavour were grabbed hungrily with the hope of connecting the powerful trunk with the tiny tail and all-in-between, gaining international recognition, even by the likes of Jumpa Lahiri. There is thus a tendency among writers to showcase the mysterious, and present it to the hungry western search for ‘something different’.

Radhakrishna Pillai provides new fodder. Driven by his dedication to the Chinmaya Mission, he seeks to present Chanakya as an expert on modern management. And, (no surprise) he starts off with the proverbial search for inspiration within (‘something vital was missing…’) when he claims to have stumbled on Arthshastra. He also heard a voice while on a pilgrimage, telling him to live the Arthshastra, not just study it. So, from a professed search ‘within’ (which should mean ‘within ourselves’ except to those who have the privilege of voices) Pillai searches within the deep reaches of sub-continental wisdom. And of course, he could not understand anything. So he went to, right, an Ashram. Guru-shishya parampara, no less. One unnamed mentor adds to the mystery: As you grow and experience life, you will understand the book better. What happened at the ashram is not disclosed (privileged communication?), but that period ‘changed his life forever’.

The ‘Acknowledgements’ reveal that the author met Gurudev Swami Chinmayananda ‘when I was a child’. Later, Swami Tejomayananda ‘continues to support’ him. With that life-long association with the Mission one wonders over the ‘stumbling’ and the extent of unguided confusion. It of course helps to thicken the eastern veil.

This review does not even dare to challenge the genius of Chanakya. His thoughts on good governance, strategy and international relationships are legendary. What jars is the unwarranted obfuscation of his work. Distortion of history by the uneducated, for whatever reason, is understandable; the ‘educated’ indulging in such activities raises basic fears …

·        ‘Chanakya was credited with masterminding the defeat of Alexander in India.’ There is no record of an Alexander-Chandragupta Maurya battle. The reasons for Alexander’s return after the victory over Porus (Puru) are well-documented and do not need reiteration here.

·        ‘India was split into various kingdoms during the time of Chanakya. He brought them altogether under one central governance, thus creating a nation called ‘Aryavartha’ which later became India.’ This does not even merit a comment. 

Further, the author’s attempts at correlating various verses from Arthashastra to modern management are gems of unintended hilarity. The parentheses for Pillai indicate Part–Chapter–Subheading of the book; Pillai has attempted to relate the quotes from Arthashastra to the subheadings.  

Chanakya (7.15.9) says: In the absence of help-mates, he should find shelter in a fort where the enemy, even with a large army, would not cut off his food, etc.

Pillaispeak (Leadership – Competition – Safe Retreat): ‘the business leader should find a ‘fort’ in his counterparts…’ a sure-fire method, rest assured, in a gherao situation!

Chanakya (4.1.1) says: Three magistrates, all of them of rank of ministers, shall carry out suppression of criminals.

Pillaispeak (Leadership – Competition – Tackling Terrorism): ‘A strong stand against terrorism is the need of the hour.’ Bravo! Corporate (this is about business management, after all) victims of 26/11, kindly note.

Chanakya (1.13.16-17) says [The Leader/King] should favour those contented, with additional wealth and honour. He should propitiate with gifts and conciliation those, who are discontented, in order to make them contented.

Pillaispeak (Management – Employees – Stopping Attrition): ‘Create your own culture: break all the rules …let your organisation be the one where everyone feels proud to work.’ Who says Management is without its contradictions?

Chanakya (1.8.22) [the leader] should make new men well versed in the knowledge of his ministers.

Pillaispeak (Training – Organisation – Lost Your Job?): ‘Be ready for a change.’ Way to go!

Chanakya (2.4.32) [The leader] should not allow in the city ‘outsiders’ who cause harm to the country. He shall cast them out in the countryside or make them pay all the taxes.

Pillaispeak (Training – Organisation – Migration: To Accept Job Seekers?): ‘People who migrate not only come with suitcases but also bring along their culture, habits, and mind-sets. Therefore, be ready to adapt.’ Local political parties, please note!

Chanakya, Kautilya, Vishnugupta, Kingmaker, lawmaker, strategist, tactician, philosopher, the Indian Machiavelli, with strong views on economics, leadership, management of palaces/princes, and of course, politics… could certainly do with competent handling.

Rajni Bakshi's Bazars, Conversations and Freedom (Penguin:2010)

Cadbury's Purple Reign: A Review

Cadbury! The reaction is nothing short of Pavlovian. But back in the early 19th century who had ever heard of mass-produced chocolates. And chocolates weren’tthe first of Cadbury’s merchandise. John Cadbury in distant Birmingham, sold tea and coffee, and some cocoa, for a living. He switched over to the manufacture of cocoa. And since then the Cadburys have looked back only with pride.

From Birmingham to Bourneville and to the ends of the earth; through wars that were not only between nations, where weaponry comprised sagacity and mental agility, the ability to change over methods of production, change over products with strict adherence to values while rivals revelled in adulteration. How else does one sustain a business across every region of the world, when that business depends on impulse buying? Purity of inputs, innovative presentations, bold decisions, constantly reinventing oneself … and many more leadership initiatives largely unknown then, general practice now. And let’s not forget that the business goes head-on against people’s ideas of health (waist-line management!) and dental hygiene and addiction to ... chocolate. In such an impulse purchase area (one-little-chocolate-won’t-make-a-difference) Cadbury can dare to talk of consumer loyalty as a key part of its success!

But, with a fun subject like chocolates to tackle, one would have expected to see something of coffee table book, a glossy presentation choc a bloc (pun intended) with the company’s numerous mouth-watering varieties. But John Bradley chooses the more serious path – chocolates, like cartooning, is apparently serious business. With his racy conversational style he handles this ‘insider’s perspective’ with the right dash of nostalgia mixed with a not so dispassionate account of the phenomenal rise of the purple pledge of purity. We see the company rise through the stages of adopting the factory system without exploiting young children or creating urban slums (yes, it’s that old!), the speedy acceptance of labour saving machines – manual at first, then operated by electricity, setting up the Cadbury World. The last of which was an attempt to show the public – and its customers – the ultra-hygienic  conditions in which their favourite chocolate was produced at Bourneville; an attempt that proved hugely successful. We see the foresight of the early Cadbury leaders in moving to Bourneville, setting up infrastructure aligned with the facilities available in the nearest ports, and planning for expansions which could scarcely be anticipated at that time. The company’s relentless Brand Management programme, to the point of becoming a household name and beyond, is perhaps the most insightful part of this book.

It is interesting to note that Bradley touches (just barely) the controversy over the worms found in some of their chocolate bars in India. The furore over worms in chocolates and pesticides in the colas seems to have arisen almost simultaneously towards the end of 2003 – and died equally suddenly. John Bradley refers to the
situation as ‘insect grubs’ found in ‘a handful of the 30 million bars of Dairy Milk bought in India’. He tries to dismiss it as an ‘occupational hazard in the chocolate industry… almost always caused by poor storage conditions in retail outlets.’ But in October 2003 a Cadbury spokesman is reported to have said: "We believe that by and large retailers follow our operating instructions and adhere to the required storage conditions1." And of course Amithabh Bachchan was called in to clear the air of the worms! The question is not that worms were found. The improvements made by the manufacturer to retain / regain its market after this are important – the company’s response by way of heat-sealed foils and extra layer of sealed packaging for some of its items proved their commitment to quality and retention of customers.

While speaking of India again he refers to the model (Shimona) who danced on to the cricket pitch, getting the Campaign of the Century award in Indian advertising for Cadbury. But if one is permitted a touch of nostalgia, one misses the mention of Hamid Sayani who for years (as it seemed then) was the virtual standard bearer for Cadbury. His ‘Goodness of Milk in Every Block!’ resounds to this day recalling those heady beginnings of the Bournvita Quiz Contest.

Bradley ends the 340-page narrative on a philosophically wistful note. The past boldness, standards and values, he says, if they are adhered to, Cadbury will continue to grow. A chocolaty cheer to that!