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Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Amazing Grace: Insights on Barrack Obama from the Top PGDM College in Delhi NCR

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.”