New Delhi : One of the greatest failures of independent India has been the inability to motivate its people, especially in the Government. People should be motivated through empowerment and not by fault finding, or by issuing threats, said TKA Nair, Advisor to the Indian Prime Minister here Friday evening.
“The way to motivate our people is to recognize them and their contributions. We must not forget that our people are humans made of flesh and blood and cannot be treated like machines”, said Nair, who has served in the Indian bureaucracy for over 50 years.
Nair was speaking at the book launch of ‘My Experiments With Unleashing People Power’ by Professor KK Sinha of Birla Institute of Management Technology (BIMTECH) on February 7 evening. The book draws on the extensive work done by Sinha in his role as HR director of NTPC for eight years.
Lauding the role of Public Sector Undertakings in boosting the Indian economy, TKA Nair said he saw no reason for Indians to feel despondent. “We cannot lose sight of what Indian economy has achieved since independence. PSUs have a big role and responsibility. They also have an opportunity to live up to the aspirations of young Indians,” Nair said while alluding to the contribution of legendary PSU Chairmen like NTPC’s Dr DV Kapur, ONGC’s Col SP Wahi and Maruti’s V Krishnamurthy.
“Senior executives, including the CEO and Directors can play a defining role in building the talent in a company and motivating them to take up bigger roles in an organisation. We need to recognize that people contribute much more than capital and equipment, in a manufacturing environment,” Nair who is the former Chairman of the Public Enterprises Selection Board.
Calling for credible methods for measuring performance of public sector bosses, he said people development of should be key measure of performance, at par with parameters like capacity enhancement or productivity improvement.
The book launch was a rare occasion that brought together four chairmen of NTPC, including the founding chairman DV Kapur and serving chairman Dr Arup Roy Choudhury.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr H Chaturvedi, Director of BIMTECH said that appointment of Indians to the top slots in global corporations was a tribute to the Indian management and engineering education.
Share path breaking work to inspire young leaders
Eminent educationist and director general of Indian Management Institute Dr Pritam Singh, urged transformational leaders and professionals to follow the footsteps of KK Sinha to pass on their wisdom to the future generations in the form of books. Successful leaders owe it to the society to document their path breaking work and disseminate it.
Recounting how he reached out to front line engineers, in far flung plants of NTPC, to listen to their issues and grievances, former chairman of NTPC PS Bami, highlighted that leaders must motivate and lead from the front.
Former Power Secretary RV Shahi who led Human Resources and Operations function at the largest power utility, NTPC, used ‘people power’ to outdo established state electricity boards. NTPC was also unique in listening to the voice of NTPC employees at power generation sites and factoring their views in HR policy formulation, he added.
In ‘My Experiments with Unleashing People Power’, Prof Sinha elucidates how human capital has become the key component for survival and success. Unleashing the people power in the organisation thus becomes imperative to achieve business success.
Prof Sinha shares four decades of experience, especially at NTPC, and his experiments in unleashing the vast potential of people in an organisation to create a vibrant and winning organisation.
Prof Sinha, an eminent Human Resource practitioner and thought leader, led HR function at public sector majors SAIL and NTPC with elan. As Director, HR, NTPC for eight years, he transformed the processes and the work culture catapulting it among the “Best Employers” and “Great Places to Work” for 3 consecutive years.
As Professor and Head of Human Resources area at BIMTECH, Prof Sinha leads Center for Management Development, bringing into play his vast experience at SAIL and NTPC and private sector giants like Reliance and Jindal group.
Prof Sinha, has been invited to speak at global forums and has been a consultant with MNCs. He loves to guide budding leaders passing out of BIMTECH’s management programs.
The 294-page book, by leading publishers Bloomsbury India, is available in hard cover for Rs 499.