The book Count Your Chickens Before They Hatch fetched Arindam Chaudhuri the highest ever advance for a non-fiction work in India. He broke his own record for the highest advance with his last book The Great Indian Dream, published by Macmillan India.
As a management consultant, Chaudhuri specialises in the areas of strategic vision; leadership; social sector consulting; comparative management techniques and global opportunities; and threat analysis. For the last few years, he has been conducting workshops on leadership and strategic vision — exclusively for CEOs, MDs, directors and presidents from the corporate sector. He also happens to be the highest paid speaker in the country.
A dreamer, basically, Chaudhuri is into a lot of creative work, which includes film production and direction. Despite being a ‘Corporate Guru’, he is more socially oriented with his foundations at work. In an era of free market, he feels the market needs to be constantly monitored and it is dangerous and harmful to allow the market to rule the human race. In The Great Indian Dream, he clearly explains that “survival of the fittest” is an animalistic term and vouches for “survival of the weakest” as the guiding force for the next millennium.
As a diversion from his usual academic and management issues, the founder of Planman Consultants speaks about planning for Bangalore, society, and youth in an interview with T R Sathish Kumar of Deccan Herald:
Excerpts:
Do you think the growth of Bangalore is keeping pace with the boom in the corporate sector?
You see a clear-cut north south divide in terms of growth, when you visit Bangalore. The difference is caused by the big educated manpower here. I admit the infrastructure in the city is crumbling. But still Bangalore is far ahead of any city in the north. It is only that the growth here has been more than what had been planned. And, I like the kind of commitment the government has here. It listens to corporate bigwigs, it responds well. Despite all this, a vision is lacking. The vision has been growth, but a benchmark has not been set. The requirements for the coming few years need to be planned. Only when we compare Bangalore with cities in China, it is far behind.
What is the role of education in a society?
It is the job of the educational institutions to ignite the fire in the bellies of their students. If you don’t give them a vision, the students become headless chickens. In this regard, IIPM students are far ahead of their contemporaries. With the kind of background they come from and the kind of people they interact with, they are world class. They are not just smart with good communication skills, but have a commitment and passion for growth and a vision for India. They know that they owe a lot to the society. It is due to all these reasons that the corporates abroad come to us year after year to recruit them.
Of late, management students are opting for internship in social organisations. How do you see this sector?
The NGO sector should look at itself as a corporate entity. NGO work cannot go on in an NGO manner. An NGO is essentially a corporate doing social activity. Even corporates do a lot of things in the social sector. If a corporate can do it well, the NGOs can do it better. This country needs so many more NGOs. They need to change their perspective. We have been experimenting with social work in our foundations, with active involvement of our students. The results have been positive.
Most people lament not having enough time. How do you manage your time?
If you have great people with you, you need not worry about time management. The key is with searching for people. Our’s is a simple model. We absorb nearly 50 per cent of the good students in the IIPM into our organisation. We part with the rest for the benefit of other corporates. As we train our students for three years, we know their strengths better than anybody else. So, we just give them responsibilities. Once you have the right people, you need not worry about time. You can do many things at a time. That is how, at Planman, we have done work very efficiently. Here one person is worth more than three persons. Great people give me all the peace of mind.
Do you think the youth in India are on the right path?
There is a lot of frustration among the youth. Everybody is looking at jobs rather than education. In job, they look forward to go abroad. If there is a change that they want to see, they cannot just sit and wait for it to happen. They should contribute towards it. When I speak to a young person, fresh out of college, I find that I have a lot to learn from him. The moment you are 35 and above, you stagnate. All the energy and enthusiasm starts drying out. The young people need to believe in themselves: that they can change the world.
