Page 28 - Sept-2020-Issue

ARTICLE
ARTICLE

Business Leadership:

Learning from the Great

Ashutosh Kumar
Senior Manager (Law)
MMTC

leadership and learning are indispensable to each other

..... John F. Kennedy

eaders are movers of peo- denouncing big business for establishing enterprises which
ple, mobilizers of opinion. trying to run the country. On needed long periods of gestation
LEmperors rule, but leaders Tuesday he may be urged by mi- and involved considerable risk
motivate. As Disraeli said, 'with nority group leaders to take over but by establishing scholarships
words we govern men'. When and operate the public school sys- and technological institutions
one does not have strength with- tem. On Wednesday a delegation which would educate scientists,
in, one cannot earn respect and of enviornmentalists may seek to engineers and other technocrats
respect is absolutely essential for close one of his major plants. On for generations to come. Talking
lasting leadership. Hence, leaders Thursday community representa- about his leadership, JRD once
never stop learning. Henry Ford tives may arrive to press for the explained: 'Jamsetji was a man
once said, 'Anyone who stops creation of more jobs and train- of great intelligence, a man of
learning is old, whether at twenty ing in the plant’s area. By Friday extraordinary vision. There are
or eighty'....Leadership is a jour- he may speak in understandable some very intelligent people but
ney of discovery. There are strate- desperation to his company’s they have no sense at all of the fu-
gies to be gleaned; Mantras to be lawyers for help in dealing with ture. Jamsetji had that sense. His
internalized and inspiration to be Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday vision of the future gave him a
borrowed. and Thursday.' sense of what needed to be done
Business leaders are pillars of In history, there are several busi- for the country. And then he had
economy of any country. Their ness leaders who approach to- integrity. Not only money-related
journey towards top is always wards success is always learn- integrity. Jamsetji had integrity of
challenging and inspiring. It is ing for others. Beyond question thought and mind. The final at-
rightly stated that one learns from among them, Jamsetji Tata was tribute was his great humanity-
the experiences of others. Years the most important pioneer en- the way he thought about work-
ago, David Rockefeller, reflecting trepreneur of India. Jamsetji ers nobody in India or abroad
on the challenges confronted by Tata, also known as 'One-Man thought at that time.'
any business leader, in a speech Planning Commission', as Pandit JRD Tata himself was one of the
to the American Bar in 1972, had Jawaharlal Nehru called him, great business leaders which
said: 'A typical executive may laid the foundation for India’s India has ever seen. Alfred
be picked on Monday by a group industrial growth, not only by Sloan once said, 'What is good

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