Ravi Chaturvedi,
President, North-East Asia, P&G, Addresses JBIMS Students
JBIMS-Mumbai hosted one of its
most illustrious alumni, Mr. Ravi Chaturvedi, on campus for a session on
'Leadership that Transcends Cultures: Knowledge-Based Leadership Vs.
Hierarchy-Based Leadership'. Mr. Chaturvedi, an alumnus of the Batch of 1983
is the President, North-East Asia, Procter & Gamble, and has experience
in leadership positions across many geographies, and is currently based out of
Japan.
Mr. Chaturvedi started off with
the importance that leadership plays especially in today's corporate world. His
articulation of some of his experiences at P&G and how P&G grooms leaders made
it very easy for the audience to understand his points. Stressing on the fact
that managers and leaders who can be successful anywhere in the world are the
need of the hour, he said that his experiences across borders have taught him
that there are more commonalities than differences between people. An
appreciation of these commonalities is what makes leaders successful and also
helps them groom leadership and retain it.
As he went on, he displayed a
pyramid that showed the characteristics of globally capable managers. These, he
said, are functional mastery, proactive and knowledge-based leadership and
global communication. According to him, these skills make successful leaders and
also are the foundation stones of the knowledge-based leadership that was the
centre of discussion. Stressing on global communication, he said that it is not
just the ability to speak a language but communicate with people of varied
cultures. For example, he stated that 'hai' in Japanese means both 'yes' and 'I
understand' and this is where the skill and tact of the leader shows.
By this time, he had the audience
enthralled and then went on to the next part which was titled 'My Beliefs'. He
said that as a practice whenever he takes charge of an office, he lets these
beliefs be known to all his colleagues, which is a critical part of his
leadership style, since it tells people what kind of a leader he is, which makes
it easier for them to work together to create synergies. He started off with
stressing on the point that innovation is an outcome and it thrives when people
have fun and fulfillment through work, and that knowledge-based leadership as
opposed to hierarchy-based leadership is the key to achieving this. An important
belief, which he said, should be practiced is focusing on outcomes and rewarding
results.
The next belief that he put forth
was that change is opportunity saying that leading change, learning to be
comfortable with uncertainty, challenging paradigms and breaking down myths and
important qualities that global leaders should posses. Conflicts are a part of
leadership and he acknowledged this fact. However, he said that in the end
people might agree to disagree but the crucial thing is to commit to a line of
decision.
Going further he put forth the
ability of turning scarcity into resources as an important determinant of
successful leadership and put it as 'Do more with less'. An important point that
he said he has learnt through experience is building a diverse, local
organization for sustainable growth of business. The emphasis, thus, should
be on promoting diversity and developing local talent.
Finally, in his last belief he
laid down the qualities of great global leaders as Caring & Demanding; Chaos &
Order; Change & Minimal Disruption; Passion & Reflection; Head & Heart; Lofty
Vision, Game Changing Strategies and Attention to Executional Detail, Deep Pride
in Accomplishments and Deep Dissatisfaction with the Status Quo, Humility &
Self-confidence. "I am not better than anyone and no one is better than me,"
according to him, are the other qualities.
After this, he introduced the
audience to the knowledge-based leadership model and talked about its various
aspects. With this, he ended his presentation and threw the floor open for
question. While answering question too, he touched upon many aspects of
leadership. The interesting part of the session was when he talked with his
experiences ranging from facing the ground realities as a young MBA in rural
Madhya Pradesh driving a sales van to leading P&G successfully in times of
economic crisis in Thailand. Especially, the experience in Thailand, he said,
was one from which he learnt a lot.
The interaction went on for a
long time and ended with future corporate leaders being groomed on how they can
be successful. The session ended with the students and faculty at JBIMS
expressing their heart-felt gratitude to Mr. Chaturvedi.
