Azim Premji's secrets for success - 1

1. ·the biggest enemy of future success is past success. When you succeed, you feel that you must be doing something right for it to happen. But when the parameters for success changes, doing the same things may or may not continue to lead to success.
   
2. ·We invested in uncompromising integrity that helped us take difficult stands in some of the most difficult business situations.
   
3. · Routines represent our own zones of comfort. There is a sense of predictability about them. They have structured our time and even our thought in a certain way. While routines are useful, do not let them enslave you. Deliberately break out of them from time to time.
   
4. · Life's battle does not always go to the person who is stronger and faster. The person who wins is the person who thinks he can.
   
5. · Always keep in mind that it is only the test of fire that makes fine steel.
   
6. · As you get bigger, you have to learn to delegate. It?s also an excellent way to get staff involved in the company?s operations.
   
7. · As an advisor, I can say what I want. If I were a politician, I would constantly have to compromise, and I'm incapable of doing that.
   
8. · Character is one factor that will guide all our actions and decisions.
   
9. · It requires courage to keep dreaming. And that is when dreams are most needed -- not when everything is going right, but when just about everything is going wrong.
   
10. · You cannot fire a missile from a canoe. Unless you build a strong network of people with complimentary skills, you will be restricted by your own limitations.
    
11. · Playing to win is not the same as cutting corners. When you play to win, you stretch yourself to your maximum and use all your potential. It also helps you to concentrate your energy on what you can influence instead of getting bogged down with the worry of what you cannot change. Do your best and leave the rest.
    
12. · Everyone feels the fear of unknown. Courage is not the absence of fear but the ability to manage fear without getting paralyzed. Feel the fear, but move on regardless.
    
13. · In our way of working, we attach a great deal of importance to humility and honesty. With respect for human values, we promise to serve our customers with integrity.
    
14. · Guard against complacency all the time. Complacency makes you blind to the early signals from the environment that something is going wrong.
    
15. · If you are always in the company of cynics, you will soon find yourself becoming like them. A cynic knows all the reasons why something cannot be done.
    
16. · Take your time to decide what your core values are. Once you do, do not compromise on them for any reason. Integrity is one such value.
    
17. · Nobody can make us feel inferior without our consent.
    
18. · Change descends on every one equally; it is just that some realise it faster. Some changes are sudden but many others are gradual. While sudden changes get attention because they are dramatic, it is the gradual changes that are ignored till it is too late. You must have all heard of story of the frog in boiling water. If the temperature of the water is suddenly increased, the frog realises it and jumps out of the water. But if the temperature is very slowly increased, one degree at a time, the frog does not realise it till it boils to death. You must develop your own early warning system, which warns you of changes and calls your attention to it. In the case of change, being forewarned is being forearmed.
    
19. · Spend time with people who have a 'can-do' approach. Choose your advisors and mentors correctly.
    
20. · We need an open mind to look at things in a different way and allow new inputs to come in. Otherwise, there is a real danger of becoming complacent or even downright arrogant.
    
21. · We must remember that succeeding in a changing world is beyond just surviving. It is our responsibility to create and contribute something to the world that has given us so much.
    
22. · We believe the combination of excellence in operations and strong execution of our strategy is critical to achieve our vision. We will continue to focus on both in future as well.
    
23. · Constantly ask yourself what new skills and competencies will be needed. Begin working on them before it becomes necessary and you will have a natural advantage.
    
24. · If you do not take enough risks, you may also be losing out on many opportunities. Think through but take the plunge. If some things do go wrong, learn from them.
    
25. · I came across this interesting story some time ago: One day a farmer's donkey fell down into a well. The animal cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do. Finally he decided the animal was old and the well needed to be covered up anyway, it just wasn't worth it to retrieve the donkey. He invited all his neighbours to come over and help him. They all grabbed a shovel and begin to shovel dirt into the well. At first, the donkey realised what was happening and cried horribly. Then, to everyone's amazement he quietened down. A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally looked down the well and was astonished at what he saw. With every shovel of dirt that fell on his back, the donkey was doing some thing amazing. He would shake it off and take a step up. As the farmer's neighbours continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he would shake it off and take a step up. Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and trotted off! Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt. The trick is to not to get bogged down by it. We can get out of the deepest wells by not stopping. And by never giving up! Shake it off and take a step up.

Azim Premji's secrets for success - 2

1. · Some people follow the beaten path. Few take the road less travelled. Yet others choose to create their own path.
   
2. · Managing change has a lot to go with our own attitude towards it. It is proverbial half-full or half-empty glass approach. For every problem that change represents, there is an opportunity lurking in disguise somewhere. It is up to you to spot it before someone else does.
   
3. · If you succeed 90 percent of the time, you are doing fine. If you are succeeding all the time, you should ask yourself if you are taking enough risks.
   
4. · As a country we are on the threshold of a unique opportunity. To manage this opportunity, we need to understand what will drive the changes in the future and how we need to manage them.
   
5. · If you set high standards for yourself, you strive to meet standards and hence remain modest.
   
6. · The greatest benefit of your education lies not only in what you have learnt, but also in working how to learn. Formal education is the beginning of the journey of learning. In the world of tomorrow, only those individuals and organisations will succeed who have mastered the art of rapid and on-going learning.
   
7. · Pessimism is contagious, but then so is enthusiasm. In fact, reasonable optimism can be an amazing force multiplier.
   
8. · We must remember that many have contributed to our success, including our parents and others from our society. All of us have a responsibility to utilise our potential for making our nation a better place for others, who may not be as well endowed as us, or as fortunate in having the opportunities that we have got.
   
9. · To be able to gain the respect of the diverse spectrum in our country, better than being called just a wealthy person or a successful businessman. I have managed to gain respect of everybody that is the biggest accomplishment. All this, only because of hard work and by overcoming peer competition by working harder.
   
10. · Excellence is not so much a battle you fight with others, but a battle you fight with yourself, by constantly raising the bar and stretching yourself and your team. This is the best and the most satisfying and challenging part about excellence.
    
11. · Delegating authority and responsibility speeds things up and gets decisions made faster. It empowers people more, and it allows them to further empower those who report to them, because their jobs have suddenly become much more responsible.
    
12. · You don't demolish a cash-cow business. You just simultaneously try to build the business of tomorrow, which really differentiates you.
    
13. · I don't think customer relationships are really owned. The customer is a remarkably selfish person: He takes the relationship to where the execution is in his favour.
    
14. · Any position of power or wealth means an enormous responsibility of trusteeship. The higher the share price goes, the higher becomes the expectation from investors, on the company, to perform. If the price rises to unrealistic levels, it will lead to unrealistic expectations.
    
15. · I think the most important reason for our success is that very early in our quest into globalisation, we invested in people -- and we have done that consistently and particularly in the service business. People are the key to success or extraordinary success.
    
16. · Our experience as a company is that if your top management is not global, they tend to collect people who are of the same kin. It is the most difficult transformation. If you are a smaller company, a less of an international brand name, it's not easy to get the best globally as your top management. It takes time and it takes a lot of nurturing.
    
17. · There is one thing that constantly determines success. Some call it leadership. But, to my mind, it is the single-minded pursuit of excellence.
    
18. · Exercise, be active and not lead a sedentary life. A certain physical activity should be maintained -- walk, skip or jog -- along with a good food diet. That is the only way to de-stress.
    
19. · The advantage of building teams focussed on quality is that the teaming culture eventually spreads to the rest of the organisation and teaming becomes a way of life.
    
20. · Success requires no explanation and failure permits none. But you need to respect yourself enough so that your self-confidence remains intact whether you succeed or fail.
    
21. · Progress is defined by the changing nature of issues that a society considers topical. We have made the transition from concern for just basic literacy to improvement of the quality of education. We need to progress from a compulsion to mass-produce stereotypes to creating independent thinkers and active learners. We have to create the right balance between our diverse subcultures and create an education system that caters to the need of every one of them.
    
22. · Most people wait for something to go wrong before they think of change. It is like going to the doctor for a check up only when you are seriously sick or thinking of maintaining your vehicle only when it breaks down.
    
23. · We should question the customer. Too often we just follow instructions. If we have a point of view that is different, we should question the customer's instructions and say, "We think what you are asking us to do is wrong; it would be better to do it another way." If we have to fight to make ourselves heard, we should do that because customers won't want product problems to come back three weeks or months or years later.
    
24. · We cannot be the best in everything we do. We must define what we are or would like to be best at and what someone else can do better.
    
25. · No successful company should be taken for granted. A company to survive in this competitive world should change the rules of the game, be it its business model, technology, delivery model, supply chain that significantly affect the ongoing change of the company.

Dhirubhai Ambani - "Dhirubhaism" (2)

On Dhirubhai H Ambani again, unabashedly so, and for a very good reason.

I guess it must have struck many readers by now that I idolised Dhirubhai. They are right. I do. Every column I write on Dhirubhaism invites an outpouring of mail, some even requesting me to mail them the previous column on Dhirubhaism.

And I am glad that I have an opportunity to share what I've learned from Dhirubhai with you.

He was a one-in-a-million human being, and I was blessed to have had him as my boss. He taught me many things that have transformed an ordinary executive that I was, to be the founder chairman of an agency that grew from nothing to one of India's largest.

I would have never achieved that without him. It would be a shame if I then let his extraordinary teachings gather dust. And judging by the response I receive, it looks like there are some really eager learners out there. So here goes.

Dhirubhaism:Leave the professional alone!

Much as people would like to believe, most owners (even managers and clients), though eager to hire the best professionals in the field, do so and then use them as extensions of their own personality. Every time I come across this, which is much too often, I am reminded of how Dhirubhai's management techniques used to be (and still remain) so refreshingly different.

For instance, way back in the late 1970s when we decided to open an agency of our own, he asked me to name it. I carried a short list of three names, two Westernised and one Indian. It was a very different world back then. Everything Anglicised was considered "upmarket."

There were hardly any agencies with Indian names barring my own ex-agency Shilpi and a few others like Ulka and Sistas. He looked at the list and asked me what my choice was. I said "Mudra": it was the only name that suited my personality. And the spirit of the agency that I was to head.

I was very Indian and an Anglicised name on my visiting card would seem pretentious and contrived. No further questions were asked. No suggestions offered, just a plain and simple "Go ahead and do it." That was just the beginning.

He continued to give me total freedom -- no supervision, no policing -- in all my decisions thereafter. In fact, the only direction that he gave me, just once, was this: "Produce your best."

His utter trust in me was what pushed me to never, ever let him down. I guess the simplest strategies are often the hardest to adopt. That was the secret of the Dhirubhai legend. It was not out of a book. It was a skillful blend of head and heart.

Dhirubhaism: Change your orbit, constantly!

To understand this statement, let me explain Dhirubhai's "orbit theory."

He would often explain that we are all born into an orbit. It is up to us to progress to the next. We could choose to live and die in the orbit that we are born in. But that would be a criminal waste of potential. When we push ourselves into the next orbit, we benefit not only ourselves but everyone connected with us.

Take India's push for development. There was once a time our country's growth rate was just 4 per cent, sarcastically referred to as the "Hindu growth rate." Look at us today, galloping along at a healthy 7-8 per cent.

This is no miracle. It is the product of a handful of determined orbit changers like Dhirubhai, all of whose efforts have benefited a larger sphere in their respective fields.

In a small way, I too have experienced the thrill of changing orbits with Mudra. In the 1980s, we leapt from the orbit of a small Ahmedabad ad agency to become the country's third largest ad agency -- in just under a decade.

However, when you change orbits, you will create friction. The good news is that your enemies from your previous orbit will never be able to reach you in your new one. By the time resentment builds up in your new orbit, you should move to the next level. And so on.

Changing orbits is the key to our progress as a nation.

Dhirubhai Ambani - "Dhirubhaism"

Dhirubhai Ambani was no ordinary leader. He was a man who gave management a whole new "ism".

There is a new "ism" that I've been meaning to add to the vast world of words for quite a while now. Because, without exaggeration, it's a word for which no synonym can do full justice: "Dhirubhaism".

Inspired by the truly phenomenal Dhirubhai H Ambani, it denotes a characteristic, tendency or syndrome as demonstrated by its inspirer. Dhirubhai, on his part, had he been around, would have laughed heartily and declared, "Small men like me don't inspire big words!"

There you have it - now that is a classic Dhirubhaism, the tendency to disregard one's own invaluable contribution to society as significant.

I'm sure everyone who knew Dhirubhai well will have his or her own little anecdote that illustrates his unique personality. He was a person whose heart and head both worked at peak efficiency levels, all the time. And that resulted in a truly unique and remarkable work philosophy, which is what I would like to define as Dhirubhaism.

Let me explain this new "ism" with a few examples from my own experiences of working with him.

Dhirubhaism No 1:Roll up your sleeves and help.

You and your team share the same DNA. Reliance, during Vimal's heady days had organized a fashion show at the Convention Hall, at Ashoka Hotel in New Delhi.

As usual, every seat in the hall was taken, and there were an equal number of impatient guests outside, waiting to be seated. I was of course completely besieged, trying to handle the ensuing confusion, chaos and protests, when to my amazement and relief, I saw Dhirubhai at the door trying to pacify the guests.

Dhirubhai at that time was already a name to reckon with and a VIP himself, but that did not stop him from rolling up his sleeves and diving in to rescue a situation that had gone out of control. Most bosses in his place would have driven up in their swank cars at the last moment and given the manager a piece of their minds. Not Dhirubhai.

When things went wrong, he was the first person to sense that the circumstances would have been beyond his team's control, rather than it being a slip on their part, as he trusted their capabilities implicitly. His first instinct was always to join his men in putting out the fire and not crucifying them for it. Sounds too good a boss to be true, doesn't he? But then, that was Dhirubhai.

Dhirubhaism No 2: Be a safety net for your team.

There used to be a time when our agency Mudra was the target of some extremely vicious propaganda by our peers, when on an almost daily basis my business ethics were put on trial. I, on my part, putting on a brave front, never raised this subject during any of my meetings with Dhirubhai.

But one day, during a particularly nasty spell, he gently asked me if I needed any help in combating it. That did it. That was all the help that I needed. Overwhelmed by his concern and compassion, I told him I could cope, but the knowledge that he knew and cared for what I was going through, and that he was there for me if I ever needed him, worked wonders for my confidence.

I went back a much taller man fully armed to face whatever came my way. By letting us know that he was always aware of the trials we underwent and that he was by our side through it all, he gave us the courage we never knew we had.

Dhirubhaism No 3: The silent benefactor.

This was another of his remarkable traits. When he helped someone, he never ever breathed a word about it to anyone else. There have been none among us who haven't known his kindness, yet he never went around broadcasting it.

He never used charity as a platform to gain publicity. Sometimes, he would even go to the extent of not letting the recipient know who the donor was. Such was the extent of his generosity. "Expect the unexpected" just might have been coined for him.

Dhirubhaism No 4:Dream big but dream with your eyes open.

His phenomenal achievement showed India that limitations were only in the mind. And that nothing was truly unattainable for those who dreamed big.

Whenever I tried to point out to him that a task seemed too big to be accomplished, he would reply: " No is no answer!" Not only did he dream big, he taught all of us to do so too. His one-line brief to me when we began Mudra was: "Make Vimal's advertising the benchmark for fashion advertising in the country."

At that time, we were just a tiny, fledgling agency, tucked away in Ahmedabad, struggling to put a team in place. When we presented the seemingly insurmountable to him, his favourite response was always: "It's difficult but not impossible!" And he was right. We did go on to achieve the impossible.

Both in its size and scope Vimal's fashion shows were unprecedented in the country. Grand showroom openings, stunning experiments in print and poster work all combined to give the brand a truly benchmark image. But way back in 1980, no one would have believed it could have ever been possible. Except Dhirubhai.

But though he dreamed big, he was able to clearly distinguish between perception and reality and his favourite phrase
"dream with your eyes open" underlined this.

He never let preset norms govern his vision, yet he worked night and day familiarizing himself with every little nitty-gritty that constituted his dreams constantly sifting the wheat from the chaff. This is how, as he put it, even though he dreamed, none of his dreams turned into nightmares. And this is what gave him the courage to move from one orbit to the next despite tremendous odds.

Dhirubhai was indeed a man of many parts, as is evident. I am sure there are many people who display some of the traits mentioned above, in their working styles as well, but Dhirubhai was one of those rare people who demonstrated all of them, all the time.

And that's what made him such a phenomenal team builder and achiever. Yes, we all need "Dhirubhaisms" in our lives to remind us that if it was possible for one person to be all this and more, we too can. And like him, go on to achieve the impossible too.