HUNGRY PEOPLE, BETTER RESULTS by Deepak Malhotra

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.

101 Myths & Realities @ the office by UTKARSH RAI

101 MYTHS & REALITIES @ THE OFFICE - how to get the best out of yourself and your team, by UTKARSH RAI (2012) Portfolio, Penguin Books, India p 283

In the early decades of the twentieth century, a German sociologist, Max Weber, among few scholars, initiated thinking on the development of efficient systems for organizational administration.  He developed the basic principles of Bureaucracy which surrounded on position, authority, performance, social standing (personal contacts), role clarity, task responsibilities, hierarchy, rules, standard operating systems, procedures, norms, behaviour etc.  More or less during the same timeline (1916), Henry Fayol (the CEO of Comambault Mining), a French mining engineer, identified 14 Principles of Management for general administration.     As Weber's principles, these principles also provided a general guide for work efficiency and called for developing proper systems in order to manage the resources of an organisation more efficiently.  In the literature on management primarily this was the beginning point when general administration was discussed at such a length and both academia as well as the practitioners were realising the importance of systems and structure for office work-flow.

Hundred years down the line, the principles of work behaviour for efficient use of resources are reiterated in changing business environment.  The relationship between boss and subordinates, management and employees, business and society has been under scan in last 30-40 years and there is evidence that it is very difficult to find a universal approach and timeless practice which can lead to best possible results as outcome from the workforce.

In these times a book by Utkarsh Rai on looking at the prevalent myths at the workplace as against the realities make a strong case for its practice and follow up.  The author successfully draws 101 myths and counters them with the realities and provides prescriptions for management as well as the employee to get prepared and to get away with the general thinking which is in many cases wrongly perceived and placed.  The book covers almost all parts of the general principles of management starting with promotion and taking along other intrinsic and extrinsic factors of work, like salary, career, working relationship, colleagues, subordinates, appraisal etc.  The foreword written by Nandan Nilekani and the praise by Kiran Majumdar Shaw and Som Mittal positions the book before its readers with conviction and clarity.  This might initially be a strategic decision of the author, however after reading the book I too felt attached to their views on appreciating the author for clearly explaining the myths and posing it with the prevalent reality and the way as to how to face it.

The style of its presentation is simple and very much reader friendly as it is positioned as a guide for all employees at different levels of management.  I get reminded of the management challenges that Peter Drucker [Management Challenges in the 21^st Century, 1999, Butterworth-Heinemann, USA] talked about in his book through assumptions and realities whether on the role of management, or the approaches to deal with employees. 

The simple language of the book through the practical examples and day-to-day events make it engrossing, relevant and convincing.  It is written in a format which suits self-help books but is packaged quite differently as one can jump from one myth to another one very easily without being caught in missing the continuity. The conversations at the office cafeterias could be observed and one can easily find the scenarios wherein the book fits well and provides a simple prescription as to how to deal with the situation at hand whether you are an employee or a manager.  The prescriptions are more suggestive in nature and the perspective is very positive which come very handy while one encounters a dilemma as to how to deal in such a situation.   

As I was reading through the book and looking at the myths and realities I often got reminded of a concerned theory from management, leadership, or/and motivation literature.  Though the book does not really cite any theory but it is quite aptly seem to be applied which looks coincidental.  This is where and how theories and practice bridge the gap and this is what for I like this book.  I wished some more myths in the categories of work-life balance, stress, time management, organizational conflict, mindset mapping, challenges, training and learning, etc.  Though in most of the cases both the perspective have been taken, however at some places, e.g., Myth - communicating in the native language will help the project, Reality – it might hinder team relationships for those who do not understand the language, (p 256) the prescription for employee is missing which could have been done.

The work experience of the author is well reflected all through the book at different levels of management and certain practices of an ideal versus practical life are nicely related and juxtaposed in the text of the book which even a layman can follow. Just to mention an example of this is myth - my colleague is my best friend, as against the reality: the real check of friendship is when one is promoted over other.  This is so practical that one faces it day in and day out at the workplace.  Such myths make the book practical as one relates with the book and finds oneself in one or the other myth.  After going through all the myths and realities one tends to discover the dominance of the great power of soft skills over the technical knowledge of one’s specialisation or one’s core area.  In most of the cases I found that the role of interpersonal relationship is dominating and having a clear conscience with positive bent of mind solves almost all the problems that one faces at the work place.

The organizational priorities, manager’s choice (based on logic and rationale and not favouritism), employee’s attitude and aspirations, social pressure, etc are elaborated through the myths and realities which make the book rich, reflective and reiterative at many places. The author deserves all the kudos for this effort. Though much has been written on principles of management in the last century, many have researched the 14 principles from the angle of their applicability in the present context [e.g. Rodrigues (2001) Fayol’s 14 Principles of Management then and now: a framework for managing today’s organizations effectively, Management Decision, 39(10) 880-889], many have questioned timelessness of those principles, yet those principles find their relevance as they are the academic reference points in the management literature. This book provides a practical outlook to the theoretical principles in the modern day organizations and suggests a well charted path for how to get best out of yourself and your team. For employees of today this book provides a hope for tomorrow.