WHAT MAKES A GOOD MANAGER?

There is an old anecdote from the life of Henry Ford, the legendary American industrialist. A high profile seminar was being organised in the US where Ford and his friend Alfred Sloan were also present. A young man made a wonderful presentation, full of facts, figures and citations. His presentation was informative and organised. A highly impressed Sloan could not restrain himself and asked Ford how much salary would be paid to the person if he was hired. Ford gave a rather cryptic reply: “$300 for a lifetime.”

Visibly surprised Sloan asked if Ford was serious. Ford’s contention was that whatever the young presenter had read out of his paper could be found in an encyclopedia costing $300. A point to ponder even after several decades have passed. Particularly in view of the recent ASSOCHAM study that found that most of the 5,500-odd business schools in the country produced ‘unemployable’ sub-par graduates, whatever the term employability may mean.

While such questions are raised in other streams of education too, including school education, management education needs to be viewed differently given the exorbitant fees these B-schools charge. Of course, the veracity of such studies also needs to be examined more thoroughly, but the basic issue remains — what makes a good manager?

In fact, in an article titled ‘The Trouble with MBAs’ published in an April issue of Fortune in 2007, a similar question was raised. The crux of that article was succinctly stated as: “Employers are finding that freshly minted graduates lack key inter-personal skills, so B-schools are changing to ensure that quantitative geniuses also learn how to hug it out.”

But it seems that the B-schools aren’t changing or else even eight years after the article, the ASSOCHAM study would not have found what it did in its study. Coming to the basic issue of what makes a good manager, we need to realise first what goes into the making of a manager. Fanciful jargons notwithstanding, the key has to be found in the fact that management as a discipline is of a more recent origin, but management as a practice is ancient.

Whether people in the past were managing or mismanaging may be open to debate and needs research, we certainly can say that mismanagement is rampant in the present times too. Look at those colossal failures, look at those astronomical sums lost in corrupt deals, look at those persistent recessions. Where do we go wrong? The answer is: When we do not address the basics. And the basics are the same as they were.

Managing righteously, managing with the help of dharma, as told in Ramayana. Managing dispassionately as suggested by Lord Krishna in the Gita, managing for the larger good, not for profit alone as recommended by Gandhi.

Looking for the rule book to be the good books in B-schools is perhaps not helping. Rather, we need to look at the good books for the rule book. Of course, for the logically suave this can be utopian and idealistic. But that is the precise point. Unless we aim for the idealistic, how can we achieve it? Unless we identify the right objective, how can we reach there? The answer to the present-day woes does not lie in MBAs — that is Master in Business Administration. The answer lies in MVAs, that is Masters in Values Administration.