HUNGRY PEOPLE, BETTER RESULTS - Unleash the Fire Within to Win Continually in Life by Deepak Malhotra (2017), Bloomsbury, p 298.
Leadership has been a key domain of discussion among
academicians and practitioners in last one century starting with a belief
on Leaders are born to Leaders can be made. Both
the views had their merits and demerits and the literature has proved that one
can learn the art of leadership and become successful leader if one is open to
learning and has developed a positive attitude towards change.
This book by Deepak Malhotra tries to narrate the nuances of
practicing leadership through the perspective of selected successful leaders in
different areas of their work and profession. Though the individuals who have
been selected for their views on leadership and their conception of Hungry
People Better Results have proved excellent records yet the criterion of
their selection has not been made explicit anywhere in the volume. It seems to
be the prerogative and convenience of the author. The efforts made by
Deepak to gather together these many leaders is remarkable. Though the book
looks like a lengthy volume, once you start reading and flip its pages, you can
presumably find it handy, short and simple. At times it gives you a feel
that it is an extended version of Oxford book of quotations, but suddenly you
find a narrative advice on the ways how one can succeed in life and career. The
pathways are illustrative and many a times repetitive.
The book has as many as 29 chapters covering achievers and leaders who have strong messages for practice. It includes business luminaries like Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Harsh Vardhan Goenka, Harsh Neotia, on one side and cricketers like Bishen Singh Bedi and Ravi Shastri on the other. All the leaders and achievers profiled in the book portray strong sense of responsibility. Their vices are convincing, their conception is clear, their advices are authentic and their wisdom is impeccable. Lessons from the corporate boardrooms to the cricket ground, from a successful entrepreneur (PC Mustafa, Preethi Srinivasan, Madan Padaki) to running a big media house (Annurag Batra) and from a cancer fighter (Rahul Yadav) to climbing Mount Everest (Arunima Sinha) are all well recorded and narrated by the author in the book. If I have to summarize and give five common traits that a leader should possess, they could be: High on Integrity, Learning Attitude, Honest Intent, Good Communicator, and High Sense of Humility. The possessions of these characteristics would certainly make one an effective and successful leader. When it comes to theoretical links, one can find these traits well recorded and explained in almost every text on leadership.
I liked this paragraph from the book which has strong message
to convey:
Being the best is not enough nowadays and even benchmarking with the best is not enough. Companies like Eastman Kodak, after eighty years of being number one, do not exist. Samsung has outsmarted the Sony that unseated them. GM is outsmarted by Tesla; Cabbies by Uber. Facebook has vanquished Orkut. If you are on the top floor of an elevator building, there is only one arrow you can press and that is the one going downwards. No one wants to do that! Thus, Inspire, Innovate, Implement, Improvise, Incentivize, and be Independent of Extinction and Dependent on Distinction. (p 239)
Hunger for achievement and intrinsic motivation to perform
better for the achievement of set goals would surely produce better results.
The author has successfully defended the need for Social Media Quotient which
is need of the hour but I have my own reservations on its longevity and
sustainability, yet it made lot of sense to relate it with IQ and EQ. As one
looks at the corporate following the modern ways to respond to their customers
and clients through social media platforms and crowd-sourcing many of their new
products and services, it seems it is going to have its presence at least for
the next few years. And for individual leaders as mentioned earlier, connecting
to the audience is important, social media is facilitating it and is able to
work as two way communication in multi-channel environment.
The writing style of the book is very different as at many
places the continuity gets broken and numerous unsolicited suggestions pop up
which disturbs the flow of reading and by the time one gets formatted to
concentrate on suggestions and preaching, the text of the interview appear.
The author has much to say than the people who are interviewed. This could have
been avoided to focus on the expert's views on leadership. The overdose
of quotations and inconsistent Grey Boxes bites on the seriousness of the text,
which could have been minimally incorporated. Many of these quotes are popular
and could be seen in almost all related texts. There are typo errors at
many places in the book which I think should not find place in a volume of this
kind coming from Bloomsbury. At some places the writing sounds pompous which
distracts the reader. Otherwise the book is a good account of real world
leadership.
The doodles given by Adil Malia are excellent pieces of
original thinking and provide creative portrayal of organizational and individual
reality. Deepak has a lot in store to convey on leadership and motivation, both
from theoretical perspective as well as from practice. Though it is his
second book (first being – Match the Age to Keep Them Engaged: Decoding the
Secrets of Creating a Happy WorkPlace published by Bloombury in 2016),
he has shown his capacity to communicate with the reader and to provide examples
of leaders of today. He needs to be congratulated for having brought so many
leaders from diverse fields in one volume for the cause of finding inner drive
to excel in whatever one takes up.
The students of management would certainly find it valuable,
inspiring and illustrative. Deepak’s presence on social media shall help the
readers to connect with the author and converse on the issues narrated in the
book.
