How leaders should manage failure? ... A true story

(Former President of India Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam at Wharton India Economic forum , Philadelphia , March 22, 2008)

Question: Could you give an example, from your own experience, of how leaders should manage failure?

Answer by Dr. Kalam: Let me tell you about my experience. In 1973 I became the project director of India ‘s satellite launch vehicle program, commonly called the SLV-3. Our goal was to put India ‘s ‘Rohini’ satellite into orbit by 1980. I was given funds and human resources — but was told clearly that by 1980 we had to launch the satellite into space. Thousands of people worked together in scientific and technical teams towards that goal.

By 1979 — I think the month was August — we thought we were ready. As the project director, I went to
the control center for launch. Four minutes before the satellite launch, the computer began to go through the checklist. One minute later, the program threw the launch on hold; the display showed that some control components were not in order. My experts — I had four or five of them with me — told me not to worry; they had done their calculations and there was enough reserve fuel. So I bypassed the computer, switched to manual mode, and launched the rocket. In the first stage, everything worked fine. In the second stage, instead of the satellite going into orbit, the whole rocket system plunged into the Bay of Bengal . It was a big failure.

That day, the chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization, Prof. Satish Dhawan, had called a press conference. The launch was at 7:00 am , and the press conference — where journalists from around the world were present — was at 7:45 am at ISRO’s satellite launch range in Sriharikota [in Andhra Pradesh in southern India ]. Prof. Dhawan, the leader of the organization, conducted the press conference himself. He took responsibility for the failure — he said that the team had worked very hard, but that it needed more technological support. He assured the media that in another year, the team would definitely succeed. Now, I was the project director, and it was my failure, but instead, he took responsibility for the failure as chairman of the organization.

The next year, in July 1980, we tried again to launch the satellite — and this time we succeeded. The whole nation was jubilant. Again, there was a press conference. Prof. Dhawan called me aside and told me, ‘You conduct the press conference today.’

I learnt a very important lesson that day. When failure occurred, the leader of the organization owned that failure. When success came, he gave it to his team. The best management lesson I have learned did not come to me from reading a book; it came from experience.

Pata Nahi....

Pata nahi kyon mai ish tarha kavita types yeh likh raha hoon....

Pata nahi ...but i am missing you really badly tonight....
Pata nahi kyon...aaj mujhe bahut kammi khal rahi hai tumhari.....
Pata nahi kyon aaj mujhe lag raha hai....I am not complete.....
Pata nahi kyon aaj mujhe ish bandh kamre mai ghutan si lag rahi hai....
Pata nahi aaj lag raha hai....I am not able to smile today......
Pata nahi mujhe aaj mai apne aap se bhi baatain nahi kar raha hoon.....
Pata nahi aaj aisa kya ho gaya hai........
Pata nahi tumhe tumko tum meri zindagi ka sabse ehem hissa ho......

Pata nahi par mere se aaj bardast nahi ho raha hai .......
Pata nahi shayad aaj raat ko mai so paaunga bhi ya nahi......
Pata nahi shaayd aaj raat ko mai ro paunga bhi ya nahi........

What Options Do We Have???

Again there was a bomb blast in the seat of power in India some days back. Again some stats were updated....X number of people died and Y number of people got injured. The government appeared as clueless as always. Sweeping statements were made by our adorable politicians. Finger pointing started within half an hour of the news being flashed in news channels......... Something else  happened this time which caught my eye, family members of some of the injured heckled our adorable politicians when they decided to play a visit to the injured ones and show their heartfelt genuine concern to them....It caught my eye, precisely for one reason, people were getting pissed off with the sweeping statements made....It was the proverbial example of tall talks and short work of our adorable Indian Politicians....


As the day progressed, the stats kept on fluctuating with it being X+1 people dying....and Y+1 getting injured...As always opposition started baying for the ruling governments blood...That night, I was not able to sleep (I am an insomniac) and was thinking what all can we Indians do to stop these cowardly acts....Bingo...I got my answer (I am intelligent ;-))in a minute....We need to vote this government out and elect a new stronger one...One which will at least show some spine....make some newer statements instead of the same stale ones, like "We will ultimately win this war against terrorism" and if they do find their guts...then act against the perpetrators of these terrorist acts.....


Well what options we have....Anyone who has any remote knowledge of Indian Politics, would  know...that India has like a million, billion, trillion, gazellion different political parties....I mean parties are created...in the blink of an eye in India.....We have political parties catering to every taste, size, color, creed, cast, region, state, brand of under wear and God knows how many more options.....But primarily all of these political parties can be classified into three broad categories:

• Congress(I) + allies
• BJP + allies
• Third Front = All allies

You are all Eienstiens......so I guess ..you would have figured out....the common factor above is of course Allies :)

What are allies?? Allies are the fair weather friends...who jump a bandwagon at the drop of a heart....If you have been reading my post above...then these are the gazellion political parties...I had talked about.....Each of them think they are King Makers....even if they represent one sex of a sub-sub...caste of a sub-caste of a caste in their constituency of 1000 people.....

So what options we have...if we do vote out the Congress (I) + Allies and do elect a new government....

Congress + Allies


Confused.....because I had just said what are our alternatives if we vote out the incumbent government led by Congress and its allies......What do you expect...despite the numerous scams tainting the government, the 80 year old leading PM contenders, a not so young Rahul Baba who is yet to leave any significant mark in politics..in all probability they would still be voted back into the seat.....We Indians...we are fools...we know it.....but lets see what happens....

1. We will have some 80 year old as our PM (as Rahul Baba will be too busy suckling on to Mummy ji)
2. Bombs will continue to return to haunt us...just like monsoons each year....
3. The PM and his cronies will still declare...."We WILL win this war on terrorism"
4. Terrorists will be the happiest folks as they know...nothings gonna be done by the Indian government
5. We will continue to make ourselves fools 
6. We will continue to appear as the weakest nation in the world.....just ahead of Guinea Bissau and Burkina Faso
7. We will continue to act as the weak nation we are ....just ahead of Guinea Bissau and Burkina Faso
8. Twenty three new development projects will be inaugurated for the up-liftment of the poor
9. These development projects will be named after everyone in the Gandhi family....including the still un born children of Rahul Baba
10. No development will still be achieved.....
11. Scams....why am I talking about it.....they will happen...after all that's one thing our adorable politicians are good at....

BJP + Allies:

The second alternative we would have.....yes, Bharatia Janata Party and its bunch of allies...Lets see what will happen if this scenario becomes a reality

1. Boooooooom!!!! You heard it...you will get to hear the largest bang possible...........Yes..India would do a Pokran III...
2. Newspapers headlines will be full of bravado......
3. Followed quickly by Pakistan......Status Quo will be maintained after Pakistan does its own nuclear bomb test.....
4. India might...just might get into a fire fight with Pakistan terrorists....
5. Terrorists will hit back with a vengeance...and more common people will die even as our adorable politicians garner Z+2-1*3 security for themselves
6. Infrastructure projects already approved by the previous incumbent government will be renamed as Chatrapati Shivaji/ Veer Savarkar XYZ development projects
7. Even after renaming no development will be achieved
8. Witch hunting....oh!! the favorite sport of our adorable politicians will be played with a vengeance ...every Congress  and its allies politician will be proved to be embroiled in some scam or the other
9. No congress or its allies politician will still go to jail.
10. Scams....why am I talking about it.....they will happen...after all that's one thing our adorable politicians are good at....

Third Front = All Allies:

Hmm!!! Seems unlikely....but "yeh India hai...yahan par sab kuch ho saktha hai".....They are actually the essence of India....."JUGAAD"...You heard it....its a quintessential example of JUGAAD.....A rag a tag collection of parties coming together....to form a government.....Lets see what will happen if such a reality does dawn upon us......

1. There will be 29 parties in the coalition government and 32 contenders for just the post of the PM
2. There will be at the least 64 Cabinet Minister and 128 Ministers of State (see the exponential rise)
3. There will be another 256 ministers...without any portfolio...but never the less ministers
4. There will be 8 Prime Ministers within the span of 5 years...i.e if they pull it that long
5. Terrorists will have a gala of a time.....because our defense forces will be out of bullets....as the ministry of defense and ministry of commerce will be fighting over in whose constituency the ordinance factory should be opened
6. Each time a deadly terrorist attack  would occur...there will be finger pointing between Ministry of Rural Development and Ministry of Tribal Affairs....both the ministers belonging to different parties....
7. Government will forget to point fingers to the terrorists with all the internal squabbling 
8. The 256 ministers without portfolio will be in permanent world trips....learning about ways to reduce flatulence/increase gobar gas capacity/exotic locations for new Bollywood movies.....
9. The Jugadus will announce 175 new populist development projects
10. These deveopment projects will be named after neutrals and some unknown political entities like Seth Chunna Mal/Lovely Singh/Seth Koyla Mal
11. No development will still occur
12. Scams....why am I talking about it.....they will happen...after all that's one thing our adorable politicians are good at....or its allies  politician ...however will be prosecuted

Man...I know...all of you are probably gonna think...I am pessimist...I mean I did not write a single word of appreciation for any of the political parties.....I lampooned all of them.....h ah ah ha ha ha

Nonetheless this is the current scenario of our politics.....

PS: If I get arrested by the government after writing this...please get in touch with Anna Hazare...so that an agitation movement can be launched to grant me freedom ;-)

The Cracked Pot

Thought of putting this one in my blog. Its a beautiful story I read somewhere...probably in of those chain mail forwards. Nevertheless the story is a good one and here it goes.....

An elderly Chinese woman had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a pole, which she carried across her neck. One of the pots had a crack in it while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water, at the end of the long walk from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full.

For a full two years this went on daily, with the woman bringing home only one and a half pots of water. Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it could only do half of what it had been made to do.

After 2 years of what it perceived to be a bitter failure, it spoke to the water bearer one day by the stream "I am ashamed of myself, and I want to apologize to you. I have been able to deliver only half my load because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house. Because of my flaws, you have to do all of this work, and you don't get full value from your efforts" the pot said.

The old woman smiled, “Did you notice that there are flowers on your side of the path, but not on the other pot’s side?” “That’s because I have always known about your flaw, so I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you water them. For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table. Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house.”

Moral: Each of us has our own unique flaws. We're all cracked pots. But it's the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding.

Embarrassment & Stuck Zipper

Wifey gone on business trip to US and the initial euphoria of returned bachelorhood gone...life is pretty drab these days....except for one interesting thing which happened recently.

I live in a noveu rich locality with several gated society buildings all around. Somewhere very near to this place is a building which acts as hostel for foreign exchange students mostly from sub -saharan Africa or south east Asia occasionally a Brit or American can be seen also....

There is one department store near our place and everyone comes over here for purchasing daily needs. I being a lazy dumb ass, walked into  the department store in my shorts and Tee one fine Sunday morning to get a pack of mother cow's juices.....

Normally, I care a damn for low fat/skimmed/toned/double toned/quadra zillion million toned milk.....seriously its too damn confusing....for me as long as its white and liquid...its milk.

I picked on a carton of milk and was just coming out of the aisle when I nearly collided with a rather well-dressed, well endowed, tall, slim British-ish woman in a comely lavender dress.

Comprehensive eye make-up was spotted. I am no expert, but I think it was a one-shoulder floor-length dress with a slanted empire waist. Classy indeed.

Unfortunately my milk carton had fallen down and the British-ish lady picked it up for me. “There you go,” she said, handing over the milk carton.

I barely managed a Thank U.........I was using small words because I was holding my stomach in.

She turned around and was about to walk away, when she turned back and said if I could help for a second.

“O… K…” I said struggling due to lack of oxygen.

I am not making the rest up.

“Can you zip me up please. I think it is stuck.” She looked tremendously embarassed

But my embarrassment was making her embarrassment look like an amateurish embarrassment who practised being embarrassed only for occasional office embarrassment tournaments.

I noticed, the offending zipper was a tiny one stuck halfway between her waist and her under-arm, leaving a few inches of her dress open on the side.

I sheepishly pulled up the zipper a couple of times. Nothing happened. And then I held the dress and she pulled the zipper.

Nothing.

Then I pulled down on the zipper in order to do the old “rezip with momentum” trick. Which is when I realised that the zipper went all the way down.

At this point of time my embarrassment would have probably made George Bush Jr.'s embarrassment at not finding WMD with Saddam look puny....

kept at it for another 5 mins. The bloody thing would run smoothly to a apoint and then simply get stuck.

Eventually we realized that our relationship was going nowhere.

"Maybe I should go find a woman to help me…” she said, opening a whole new can of mental worms.

“I am sorry I am so bad at this…” I said.

And then we parted on amicable terms. I turned around and ran out of the store clutching my milk carton and gasping for air.

Moral of the Story -  Should have been a little thinner so that I could hold my breath for some more time :)

Wifey Flying

Wifey flying to onsite and yes that means US of A on Sunday i.e. 26 June 2011. Am not sure, whether I should feel happy or sad. I guess am happy-sad or sad-happy.
I am happy-sad because I am happy for her to get the opportunity to travel onsite and I am sad because that means I am going to be all alone for the next half year. :) :(

I am sad-happy because she will be sad once the initial euphoria fades out and she will have to slog it out and I am happy as I will be able to relive my bachelorhood again for 6 months. :( :)

That Time Of The Year

Its that time of the year....which makes every Indian wonder...No not about the date of arrival of the rain laden monsoon clouds....Well we Indians are an agrarian society so we do think about the monsoons. But this time there's something else coinciding with the thoughts of the approaching rain. Its the rain of money......Yes...u heard right...money....... the time of the year has finally arrived when every Indian dreams that he will be washed with this rain of money....free money at it.....On Second thoughts, well not completely free, the damn government will take 30% of it....but that still leaves enough.....for them to become the next rich man/woman.

You can feel the buzz in small town India like the distant rumble of thunder marking the onset of the monsoons. KBC and Big B are coming back on Television.  Yes, KBC is coming soon and the lines have opened for the initial round of questions which need to be answered by SMS. The last year was especially good for KBC with Big B coming back after a hiatus. The show was catapulted with stratospheric ratings. The sight of the common man coming into the show with nothing and going back rich became an all too common site. Big B with his baritone and the ubiquitous Computer ji won everyone heart. One episode that remains stuck in my mind had a young marwari stapling of a boy who had come on the show last year. He had taken a loan of 17000 bucks from his uncle so that he would spend it all on sending SMS's to the show. Before Big B had even asked the first question, the boy had said, I am a marwari and I will make a profit on my investment of 17000 bucks. Profit, he did make a handsome profit by earning 25,00,000 bucks. The boy, I can say in a way showed the way to play the game show.

Last year, I had been lucky in a way because I had taken ill and had been hospitalized when the show, KBC, began. This meant I was bedridden and with no other work, got to see all the episodes of KBC. I had been an avid quizzer all throughout my life, including un-disputed champion of university for 3 straight years. My wifey had been very busy those days, what with office as well as all household chores. But she did find time to watch the show on some of the nights. She was mighty impressed with me when I used to answer the questions asked during the show. But I had forgotten my wifey is a Sindhi and Sindhi's are second only to Marwari's when it comes to money acumen. She has taken the onus of sending me to KBC this time around and this means she stays awake till midnight everyday to listen to the daily question of KBC qualifier which comes sometime around midnight everyday. This despite, she has to wake up at 7:00 AM in the morning to go for office. This a big and by big, I mean really BIG deal because my wifey loves her sleep. She waits patiently for the question and then after deciding on the correct answer begins with her ritual. Yes, a ritual, every day 10 SMS's are sent from my mobile numbers in response to the questions put forth by Big B for the KBC qualifiers. This means my phone bill increases by 50 bucks daily for each SMS costs 5 bucks. I am a relative low user of mobiles (many of my friends would vouch for this... ;-) ) that means my phone bills are shooting off the roof these past few days......

I am sure, the white collared IIM boys on the payroll of Mr. Sunil Mittal while performing the month on month graphical analysis of my mobile phone bill this month would be very happy. I shudder to think, if wifey had watched the episode of the Marwari boy who had taken the loan to send SMS's, what my bill would have been ......