An article on how leaders in Gurgaon function during the tough economic times
(Asmita Saini, Intern Psychologist, SELBIC)
Leadership is an important construct in the current times. Note the word construct here. A construct is an idea or theory containing various conceptual elements, typically one considered to be subjective and not based on empirical evidence. Leadership in and of itself is a highly interesting and extremely elusive idea. Sounds complex? Read on….
In simple terms, leadership refers to the action of leading a group of people or an organization. But the question is
who would you call as a leader?
What are the visible qualities or traits of a leader?
How does a leader function? Why do we need leaders?
What is their role in times of change and crisis?
What are the different ways in which we look at and conceptualize leadership?
These are some of the important questions surrounding the issue of leadership.
This article aims to shed some light on the topic - how do leaders function in times of economic crisis or simply in tough times. For this purpose, we interviewed CEOs/MDs/Founders/Owners of different organizations in Gurgaon and here we present to you in the form of case studies, the insights that they provided about their leadership styles and also about the concept of leadership as a whole.
We hope that you will find the ideas and information here not only interesting but also enriching. ;)
Case Study 1
Name – Mr. R.K Saini
Designation – Director
Enterprise Name – R K Industries
Location – Gurgaon, Haryana
We interviewed a highly successful owner of a Manufacturing Industry situated in Gurgaon. It deals in manufacturing and supplies of a wide range of products ranging from machine parts to car seat covers. The success story of this leader and entrepreneur is a highly fascinating and inspiring one. He started with a capital of just INR 65,000 in 1990 and from there on-wards he took his manufacturing industry.
A pioneer in those days, to great heights. As per him leadership is a painstaking work of love and labor. He believes that being a good leader is not about being a natural leader- born bright and savvy - but it is about being a visionary who learns at his own pace and manifests with sheer hard work what he envisions and dreams of.
Leadership for him is also putting your intellect at work. He is of the view that no matter what the prevailing economic conditions, you have to persevere and stay consistently good with your business strategy and stick with your team. In order to lead well, one needs to be a good supervisor and for this one needs to be extremely knowledgeable with every aspect and component of one’s business- from the highest level to the lowest rung of the ladder. Team management and proper delegation of work and proper supervision are important in this domain, as per him.
He gave the example of the business story of Mr. Ambani of RIL and cited the movie Guru, as a classic and insightful movie on the tips and tricks of leadership and business management.
Case Study 2
Name – Ms Ritu Goel & Mr. Puneet Goel
Designation – Chief Executive Officer & Chief Technology Officer
Enterprise Name – Co verify
Location – Gurgaon, Haryana
Next we interviewed a dynamic woman entrepreneur with more than 15 years of experience in the VLSI industry. Her firm deals with software assisted hardware verification and is based in India but it mostly draws its clientele from countries outside India.
This CEO believes that leadership when related to managing interactions with a large number of individuals, it’s about motivating people, taking care of their aspirations and needs and also about possessing problem solving skills to tackle issues and lead by example. But if you are in charge of a firm being run by a small team, leadership is about motivating oneself and while citing Sadh guru, she said, it’s about Inner Engineering- if you are a mess within yourself, you will be a mess outside. So one has to manage oneself first in order to lead others and be a good leader.
Qualities of a good leader as per her are-a leader should possess integrity and should feel delicately for the cause, should be humane and compassionate. Leadership as per her is a mix of both genetic factors as well as experience and skills, a thought provoking reply to ‘whether leaders are born or made’.
As per her, knowledge definitely contributes to the quality of leadership but there is no direct relationship between knowledge and leadership.
As per the Chief Technological Officer of the firm, leadership is knowledge based and is about showing people a different path, it’s about convincing people by showing them the advantages and disadvantages of a particular situation.
He steered the conversation in the direction of the importance of creativity and innovation and said that a startup should exist only if it is doing something different. Innovation is important in the area of technology, was his experienced insight and here he added that leadership is unique in terms of how different people embody leadership skills and qualities.
If we talk about leaders, specifically in the area of technology, he said that they can function and exist in tough economic times only if they innovate. In the Indian scenario, most companies are ‘Lalaji Style’ in his words, meaning that they just care about profits and not creative solutions to problems.
He said that in the Indian scenario, very few software and hardware firms are into innovative products because firstly they have a simple profit oriented approach and secondly there are issues like software piracy and bad policies which do not incentivize innovation in the tech industry.
These are like the logistical challenges that he pointed out in the broader context of leadership in the techno world, relating to the Indian context. The positive thing for good leaders to do as per him is to effectively utilize the talent pool. So being a leader is also about being an original thinker and being a generator of good ideas! J
Case Study 3
Name – Mr. Manoj Kukreja
Designation – Founder
Enterprise Name – VM Live Pvt. Ltd
Location – Gurgaon, Haryana
Next we interviewed the MD of a private organization dealing with business services. When asked about how a leader like him would function in tough economic times, he pointed in the direction of finances- that he would simply manage the finances and look for more business- like when he was providing services to automobile industries and the automobile services went down, he instituted a team to look for business in the non-automobile industry.
As per him, managerial qualities are required to run the show, getting the confidence of the team members on you involves knowing the clients as well as your employees. So as per him leadership in the marketing industry primarily revolves around building and managing relationships as well as team management. When asked with what sort of leaders does he identify with at a personal level, he cited Jack Ma, the owner of Alibaba, known for his authoritarian style. Need I say more?
SELBIC, Gurgaon, offers ample of services in the area of Business Psychology. So do avail our unique services in the areas of Counseling & Coaching, Business Development, Selection & Recruitment and Training & Development. We will be happy to assist you.