Xcelent Mngmt Lesson

Xcelent Mngmt Lesson




THIS DEFINES

LEADERSHIP.........................................................





(Former President of India 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?



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 the launch. At four

minutes before the satellite launch, the computer began to go through the

checklist of items that needed to be checked. One minute later, the

computer program put 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, a problem developed. 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 learned 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 that experience.





APJ Abdul Kalam:"A Leader Should Know How to Manage Failure"