So what really
determines leadership? Does the position or office determine the leader or is it
the capacity to lead? Just because a person holds a certain position in a
company or in government does not necessarily mean they can be a leader. They
are expected to be able to lead, but what truly makes a person a leader?
In today's leaner, flatter
organizations, leadership isn't limited to people in the executive suites or
corporate boardrooms. Leadership, today is not just limited to the higher
echelons but needs to be incorporated at every rung of the organization. In the
international marketplace, economic leadership of the clichéd third world
countries is slowly catapulting them to the higher strata of global business.
Today market trends are constantly
mutable and countries are ever wrestling for power, forever striving to grab
their fair share of recognition. As a noted trend, the recent past has witnessed
a spurt of smaller and evolving countries like China, India, Russia and Brazil
trying to raise their heads and make a mark in the international business
scenario, much to the chagrin of the big boys like America, UK, France and
Germany, who would much rather they remained in the umbra.
“The idea of working for a
Chinese or Indian firm is still so new that it does cause alarm,” said Phillip
L. Swagel, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in
Washington.
The most talked about
Mittal-Arcelor deal has given an added impetus to the growing powers of these
evolving countries vis a vis the existing ‘super economies’.
Indian industry bodies have said they are proud of LN Mittal’s
leadership, which has set a new benchmark in a globalising world and raised the
banner of the power of Indian business.
The ink has dried on the
Mittal-Arcelor deal and is the latest sign that shareholder activism is reaching
into the once-staid boardrooms of Europe. The agreement to pair with Mittal,
caps a wrenching turnaround for Arcelor's board and its management, who once
dismissed the idea of a merger with a "company of Indians" but were
forced to backtrack after shareholders threatened to revolt.
It has also silenced politicians in
Europe who once criticized Mittal, raising hope that protectionist barriers may
be softening in Europe.
Management…Indian
Style
At an age when chutneys and curries
have found shelf space with baked beans in the international market, Mittal
incorporated a very basic Indian feature ingrained in most of us--- of
judiciously harnessing our resources. So, where major Indian corporates were
infusing Western style management techniques, by way of technology and manpower,
Mittal swam against the tide. He used the truly Indian value of parsimony and
downsized his plants, cutting down on ‘extras’ and thus imbibed a ‘no
frills’ kind of efficacy.
Business leaders have watched the
Arcelor deal closely and apprehensively as the graph of ascendancy to power has
clearly shifted to countries like India. But a new formula of ‘trim’
management spearheaded by Mittal, is sure to become the international business
mantra in years to come. Culture plays a very important role in management
development. Mittal’s trademark style of cost effective economical management
has given the international business scenario a different flavour.
The
Deal…
The Mittal bid may give rise to a new image of India, and of
emerging markets more generally, as a profound and sophisticated threat to the
‘big brothers’. European concerns partly reflect the unknowns of how Mittal
Steel will apply its low-cost model to Arcelor's plants. Steel industry analysts
say that Mittal Steel is far leaner than Arcelor and is likely to trim, but
Mittal has denied that there will be any plant closings or layoffs.
Europe is also wary
of the eminence of business models invented outside the West - whose inventors
claim that they can operate Western companies better than Westerners do. In
interviews, several India-based expatriate workers for European multinationals
all argued that it was this deeper, high-end threat that worried Europe.
L.N. Mittal – The Iconic History
The Sultan of Steel is signing a deal for yet another
steel plant in Orissa, a turnaround move at a time when India was gearing up to
his project in Jharkhand, thirty years after he left the country for Indonesia
in the mid 1970’s. His career kick-started after his phenomenal role in the
revamp of the family steel plant which was by then in a sordid state of
disrepair.
To prove that this was no fluke, Mittal acquired a 1.3
million tonne, Iscot Steel plant in Trinidad & Tobago, which was losing
$1,00,000 a day. A year later, the Mittal ‘Midas touch’ proved lucrative for
the sagging company and it started yielding profits.
L N Mittal had finally arrived in life! In the year
1994, he went on to disassociate himself from his family and formed Mittal
Steel. It is the world's largest steel producer at 70 million tonnes a year;
almost double the world's second largest producer - Arcelor.
An Astute Player
The Arcelor deal must be viewed as a symbol of globalisation rather than a symbol of Europeanisation. An innate, scrupulous Indian mindset and an astute style of maneuvering have made LN Mittal grow from strength to strength. In the year 2001, he shuffled his cards with a keen insight of a veteran player. As a quick follow-up to his bid for a Romanian mill, he donated 1,25,000 pounds to Tony Blair’s Labour Party. This resulted to Blair communicating to the Romanian Prime Minister in clear terms that his country’s entry to the European Union would be sped up if he conceded to Mittal’s desire. The rest, as anyone can guess, worked out to Mittal’s benefit.
An Ascending Graph…
The much talked about merger with Arcelor
translates into the good news that a globalising India Inc is not doing too
badly in acquiring European companies. India's pharma giant Dr Reddy's
Laboratories recently made one of the largest overseas acquisitions of a German
drug maker Betapharm. Videocon earlier took over the picture tubes business of
France's Thomson SA.
Equally successful with Euro acquisitions are leading companies like Ranbaxy, Reliance Industries and auto parts maker Bharat Forge. As global business rides an all time high, boundaries are fast dissolving.
and the end note...
The world is yet to watch this ‘desi’ formula unfold in the international game for economic power. But for now, Indians can rub their hands in glee, for a true blue Indian has glorified the Indian flavour of judicious cost cutting and garnished the sizzling hot dish of man management.