 |
Goa Institute of Management Holds Talk by Mr. R. Gopalakrishnan As a part of "Ribandar Talks - A lecture series by eminent personalities", a student driven initiative, Goa Institute of Management, Goa organized a talk by Mr. R. Gopalkrishnan, Executive Director, TATA SONS, Chairman, Rallis India, Ex Vice-Chairman, Hindustan Lever Limited. "The Man Who Became A Bonsai" Mr. Gopalkrishnan sees a typical manager as a "Bonsai" whose growth has been restricted by making him do stereotype tasks without much challenge. He feels management is all about instincts. There is no definite protocol, which can be followed in management. A typical manager becomes a "Bonsai Manager" by the age of 30 years. Unless he/she chooses to look out for grass root experience and be ready to sweat out on the shop floor. There is a need to increase one's span of mind, go for healthy mental food and accelerate one's growth by following his/her instincts. He cites his example and attributes his success to his days in Hindustan Lever. Wherein after graduating from IIT Kharagpur in Computer Science, he joined HLL and was asked to go out and sell soaps in markets of Nashik (wherein he fancied of sitting in an air-conditioned cabin punching keys). "An Engineer selling Soaps", according to him there is a need to understand the product and the consumer, failing which one can never be a good manager. He feels, management education does not guide us to take instinctive decisions, it just provides us with knowledge required to follow our "Gut Feeling" to take such decisions. In the world of management, there are no proven managers because management is all about instincts. When one rises in management, one should rely on his instinctive decisions, since there are no prescriptive solutions. "Managers should be implementers rather than mere planners." Management is an art, which cannot be taught unlike subjects like marketing, finance, etc. Subjects like HR and OB only help in providing an insight to management and those who learn what is not taught grow to become Top Class Managers. Contributed by - |
 |
|
|