Me, Micromanagement and Narendra
Like all my stories, this one
begins with the debate I often have with my husband. I am a micromanager. And
he on the other hand is a people’s man. A motivator, a delegator and an ideal
leader who reinforces the creativity of his team and celebrates in their target
completion more than the company’s joy in having the task done. Undoubtedly it’s
the most effective way of management. He is appraised for this year after year.
While I have been often criticized for spoon feeding my team mates and getting
work done exactly the way I would want, rather than leaving scope for mistakes,
improvement and self realization. I may not be perfect, yet I am a perfectionist.
I set my own policies, quality checks , operational processes and even
schedules. Many a times, I see my way as the only ideal way. While I still
believe that its true – because I set my way based on a lot of logic, I leave
no benefit of doubt for someone else’s creativity.
However, having said that, I have
been no failure. Have tasted success, appraisals, achievements , and even won
hearts of my team mates at the end of task completion ! The need to justify my
micromanagement, once led me to reading an article in Business Week. It said
iPhone5 would never have had bugs and maps app with issues, had Steve still
been alive. Steve would get to details with his engineers and test, design, himself.
Oracle’s (ORCL) Larry Ellison,
Microsoft’s (MSFT) Bill Gates, and Amazon’s (AMZN) Jeff Bezos all
micro-managed, and their companies all delivered phenomenal growth and
innovation under their watch.
Most companies have great
innovation ideas. But what separates the winners from the losers is not their
ideas, but their ability to execute. Great innovations are often delayed and
watered down by cross-functional teams that have disparate motivations. A CEO
who is a micro-manager has the ability to cut through roadblocks and force
uncooperative team members to take on audacious challenges that drive value. Steve
was famous for pushing his engineers past the bounds of what most considered
reasonable—and getting great results from it.
A good micro-manager has the
ability to ensure his or her team stays focused on the customer and delivers an
experience that delights, without flaws.
Disney (DIS) founder Walt Disney
was a well-known micro-manager who obsessed over every detail of every ride
design at his theme parks. While he was roundly criticized for this, the end
result was an amazing experience for park visitors, making Disney stand out vs.
all other less inspired competitors.
It’s no coincidence that many
great micro-managers are owners or founders. To be an effective micro-manager
you need a clear vision for success and how to achieve it. You also need
confidence and risk tolerance. It is much easier to be a delegator/motivator
CEO. If an initiative fails, delegators can always blame others.
Micro-managers, on the other hand, risk their own skin every day.
If you are serious about results,
micro-management is a big advantage. The key to being a great micro-manager is
to be selective. If you micro-manage too much or create unwieldy approval
processes, you create unproductive bottlenecks. Successful micro-managers
insert themselves into mission-critical, customer-facing aspects of the
business.
Sam Walton (Wal-Mart Stores
(WMT)), Bill Marriott (Marriott International (MAR)), and William Rosenberg
(Dunkin’ Donuts (DNKN)) were all well-known micro-managers who spent a large
part of their time visiting their own stores to ensure their product was top-quality.
Companies without micro-managers
are more susceptible to product and operational crises, because their leaders
are less able to identify potential problems on a proactive basis.
And we are now on the verge of
choosing the CEO of not any other company but the one that literally gives us
our bread and butter. India. Yes, we do not need a PM. It’s a word of the past.
We need a modern CEO. A bit shrude, even autocratic and is blinded by his own
vision for the company India. India has its own customers, its own brand,
marketing strategies, employees, operational policies, and even rivals. We need
someone to take this company head on. Enough of pampering the company by calling
it Mother India. The Rural India. The Kisaan vikaas india. Enough of you
Gandhi. I mean Mahatma Gandhi. Let me tell you, we did not get freedom because
of your silly ahinsa rallies. We got it because of the autocratic, man of the
era, Mr. Hitler, whom british were so drained out of fighting with, that
instead of deploying more people to take care of business here, they decided to
let go. And if Hitler was really bad enough as portrayed, why did Subhash
Chandra Bose ally with Japanese ?
Indian herd was clueless then and
is clueless now. We just know to follow. Our politicians fooled us then and
fooled us now. While Gandhi was playing his funny tactics here, Indians were
allying with Japanese, got in Hitler’s help to shoo shoo the British. And once done,
branded Gandhi as the father of Nation and India itself as our mother ! really
? and we still believe that ?
Get over it guys. Running India
is a serious business. A company with highest potential , maximum man power,
maximum capital resources and wide geography. Don’t we know how America and
China are scared of Indian progress ? You really think US and Britain had
boycotted Narendra Modi because of Gujarat riots ? As if they care so much ?
Narendra Modi (from here on,
calling him Narendra – somehow calling him by his first name makes him My man) –
is a micro manager through and through. If you have read latest stories, he
even micromanages the arrangements for his rallies ! decides the flowers, and
the way supporters are ferried (via elephants or buses) and even the schedule
and duration.
His major achivements are seen in
his home state. In terms of transit, Ahmedabad under Narendra pursued a bus
rapid transit system that’s proven more successful than others in India. Pune’s
BRT rollout has been an outright disaster, for example, with its leadership
sent to Ahmedabad — or “NaMo Land,” as the Pune Mirror calls it, referring to Narendra’s
leadership — to examine the 75-kilometer network and figure out how to make its
own lines work. While Narendra prioritized the BRT system, the city is
currently planning for a proper metro line that will connect it with the nearby
state capital, Gandhinagar.
According to the new city plan
for Ahmedabad, Gujarat’s largest metropolis, vast swaths of the central city
will be buildable up to fairly high densities, allowing for a dense thicket of
mid-rises and even short towers. While transit corridors will be upzoned and
left in private hands, slum dwellers on the banks of the Sabarmati River were
removed to outlying areas, as is customary in Indian urban renewal projects. In
addition to rezoning land along the river, the project reopened waterfront
space for public use and added amenities like an amphitheater, food courts and
play areas.
Narendra has often coupled
density hikes with infrastructure by charging developers for increased FSI. In
Ahmedabad, the money will mainly go toward infrastructure, while in Surat the
connection was even tighter — development at densities up to mid-rise levels
will finance Outer Ring Road, a 66-kilometer (41-mile) corridor around the
city. “Surat has also made its mark as the ‘Flyover City of Gujarat’,” reads
his website, “due to the many flyovers that have been built to ease traffic
from congested areas.”
Narendra has, presided over a
general loosening of zoning regulations in Gujarat. Smaller cities have already
seen increased densities. In Rajkot, a city of 1.6 million, Narendra personally
announced the decision, saying that “the state government has decided to
approve a 25 percent increase in [allowed density] for the benefit of common
people” — a move also welcomed by real estate developers. Jamnagar and Surat,
too, saw density boosts.
Narendra’s main strength is
economics. The markets are ecstatic over his rise, and he’s running largely on
his record of growth in Gujarat, which he’s led as chief minister since 2001.
The northwestern Indian state has seen 10.3 percent annual growth between 2003
and 2012, 2.4 percentage points greater than the country as a whole, appealing
to a country whose economic growth rate has slipped to around 5 percent.
Like many however say,
progressing a state was easier – like even UP and chattigarh for that matter –
simply don’t listen to anyone and do what you want. However, running a country,
and territories like Delhi with internal pressure, may be different. How his
micromanagement skills take him through remains to be seen. Whether he will get
bogged down with sheer pressure and vastness of governance, or have a few
trusted aides whom he shall delegate enough to be micromanaged, will not only
make a new story for company India, but shall also justify and reinforce the thought
process of working into the minutest detail as a leader.
The story is yet to be revealed.
24th April, here I come to vote. Lets see what happens.
