While India boomed, its leadership bummed

While India boomed, its leadership bummed
8 May 2009, 0721 hrs IST, Vinod Mahanta, ET Bureau

Many CEOs would agree that the slowdown is a great teacher. Every mistake and each oversight teaches a new lesson - the hard way. Never before have leaders of India Inc faced a tougher test, and that too, immediately after their best inning ever. But it's their response to the event that leaves one perplexed. Perhaps, a deer caught in the headlights best describes the initial reaction of leaders nowadays.

As bad news flows in unabated and more and more management blunders come to light, it becomes amply clear that the leadership in many companies have been caught off guard. They are unprepared to deal with a crisis of this magnitude. Their cluelessness is confusing their workforce even more.

The scrapped projects, brutal layoffs, drastic pay-cuts, sudden top management reshuffles and unrealistic cost cuts all seem like knee-jerk reactions, not the proactive leadership that is the need of the hour. As Warren Buffet famously said, "It's only when the tide ebbs, you find who is swimming naked". Sadly, in this moment of crisis, many leaders have been found without the proverbial fig leaf to hide their shortcomings.

The leaders want to show we are doing something. The best thing for many could be going about the business the right way, making tactical changes where needed but continuing to chase the long-term vision," says Sangeeth Varghese, author and leadership thinker.