Ishan
Institute of Management & Technology is one of the top PGDM colleges in
Delhi NCR in its own right. The first graduate business school in Greater Noida
has earned respect that it commands today by building a legacy. It has taken 21
years to build this legacy and hopefully the academicians and the student community
can extend this streak of academic genius over the coming 21 years and more. As
a top PGDM college in Greater Noida, the academicians believe that it would be
absolutely criminal to not indulge in an act of intellectual surgery by laying
the ten year regime of the outgoing U.S. President Barrack Obama on the
surgical table of case studies in leadership.
It
has been fashionable for business schools in India and other countries in South
Asia to chant hymns in praise of outgoing U.S. Presidents primarily because corporate
India wants them to do so. At Ishan Institute of Management & Technology,
the academicians of the business school have endeavoured to get a glimpse of
the third world view of the outgoing U.S. President Barrack Obama. This
perspective holds water in the contexts of South Asia, the aspirations of India
and of course first generation business leaders. In this piece we select a few
of those events that showcased Barrack Obama’s leadership qualities.
Obama Care in 2008: Engineering a
Fiscal Stimulus for U.S.A and the World
Cometh
thee hour, cometh thee hero! Many orthodox academicians of business schools may
make the vitriolic allegation of idolizing Barrack Obama for the solutions that
he proposed and implemented in the aftermath of the sub-prime crisis. Keynesian
pump priming is old fashioned ventilation for a free market economy that is in
coma. Cynics also lament the challenges of fiscal profligacy, risks of falling
of the fiscal cliff and the withering away of the welfare state in the after
years of the adoption of Keynesian fiscal policies. Yet at the core of the
analysis or rather paralysis by analysis, lies the thread bare fact that the
sub-prime crisis of 2008 just like the Wall Street crash of 1929 was an act of
the invisible hand of the market and it required substantial action from the
government. It is interesting to note that the viral mechanism of international
trade and institutional investments that were responsible for the outburst of
the financial crisis finally led to the spread of the antidote. President Obama
showed the world that Keynesians pump priming is effective as a turnaround strategy
and that he is a master craftsman of turnaround strategy.
Hurricane Katrina: Rise of the
Working Class Hero
A
natural disaster is not about chanting hymns in worship of God and shedding
tears. When the going gets tough, President Obama gets going. Instead of paying
a one stop formal visit or an aerial survey that most politicians across the
world prefer to sidestep public wrath and fury, the U.S. President Obama rolled
his sleeves and got to work with the crew for relief and rehabilitation. The message
is loud and clear. First, do not deny a problem when there is one. Second,
words of sympathy and assurances are fine. Work for relief and rehabilitation with
a hands-on approach is far better. The hurricane proved a time tested truth
that holds good for both the electorate and the governing boards of
corporations: the best way to win elections is to work to win trust. Everything
else will follow.
The War on Terror: Damage Control
in Action for Better PR
During
the Second World War the strength of the Axis powers collided against the
colonial empires of the Allied Powers. Despite the fact that the victory of the
Allied powers it was difficult to tell if the battle was between good and evil.
The war on terrorism initiated by George W. Bush Jr. was similar. In the aftermath
of the 9/11 attacks it was only rational for the United States of America to
take punitive action. But as the war progressed from targeting terrorists to
installing puppet regimes in Afghanistan, Iraq, other areas like Egypt and Syria
it became increasingly clear that the United States had to change course. While
the Syria crisis is work in progress, it must be accepted that Obama showed the
world that the hand that can slay the demons can also be the hand that cares
for the weak. Obama, the effective diplomat was amply on show during the Af-Pak
years. Operation Geronimo was indeed a surgical strike of gold standards of
clinical efficiency.
Obama in India: The Melting Pot of Cultures
The
oratory skills of Obama have been closely followed by the world over. There
have been several top notch orators who have visited India. But one must accept
that Obama’s speeches were not one way traffic flows but rather interactions.
The Siri Fort auditorium address in New Delhi, the St.Xavier’s College Mumbai
address to students, the address on the floor of the Parliament House in New
Delhi where he called upon the inspiration of Swami Vivekananda, his
partnership with Dr.Manmohan Singh that gave birth to the Singh Obama
Scholarships and his famous handshake at tea with the Indian PM Shri Narendra
Modi have been widely followed by people in India. For the first time the
Indian Diaspora in the United States and the people of India realized that it
is possible to combine the process discipline and efficiency of an American
corporate enterprise with the family values of an Indian enterprise. It shall
not be incorrect to state that the impact that U.S. President Barrack Obama has
created in India is no less than the impact that Rabindranath Tagore had
created on his first world tour across Great Britain, United States of America,
Argentina, Germany, Italy and Japan or the visit of the Mahatma to Pietermaritzburg
in South Africa. These were all game changers.
At
Ishan Institute of Management & Technology, we have integrated excerpts
from Obama’s autobiography “The Audacity of Hope” in our lectures on business
communication, videos of his addresses on foreign tours in Leadership and the
implementation of Obama care in the case studies of economic environment of
business. Academicians at this top business school of Greater Noida refer to
him in the words of John Lennon of Beatles as “working class hero.” The millennial
generation of PGDM students refer to him in the words of DJ Bravo: “Don’t
forget Michael Jordan ... Obama a champion.” As we conclude this footnote in the glory of
Obama let’s do it in his style of a C-suite corporate leader:
“Let’s get back to work.”