Leadership -- TN Manoharan
What do you look for in a leader ?
If you do a Google search , it may throw you some of these characteristics :
Accepts Challenges ,Courageous , Risk taker , Objective about things ,Decisive , Communicates well ,Won’t give up, firm but fair , great listener, Keeps promises , unrelenting focus ,straight forward , Open door policy, let bygones be bygones attitude , Open and honest, follow through Patient, gets everyone involved , operates well under pressure , sense of urgency , being humble.
I saw all of these in Mr T.N . Manhoran ( TNM ) as he walked us through the Satyam Revival story. TNM is no small fry. He was the past President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and is very well recognised and respected in his Profession and by Society as a Outstanding Person. It was a honour for us as he accepted to come and speak to us.
When the Government called him to be a Government nominees on the Board of Satyam in the thickest of messy times ( post the Scam ) , TNM accepted the challenge . He explanation for accepting was simple and very compelling.
1. The Government wanted him to be on the Board
2. As a Citizen of the Country , do the job asked by the Government. The decision rationale was simple and Outstanding .
Many of us know the Satyam scandal -- all for wrong reasons but TNM and his board turned around Satyam and found owners for Satyam in a quick time span ( Tech Mahindra ).
A SWOT was done of Satyam as the new board took over. Focus was on utilizing the Strength and Opportunities rather than worry too much about the weakness and threats.
The Board took some great decision. They worked overtime for " Free" and this decision was significant for Satyam to stay afloat and build credibility with its customers. The Board members met every day !! TNM probably worked the whole day ( read 24 hours ). Shifted his place from Chennai to Hyderabad. The Government mandate was to focus on bringing Satyam back in to operation and find a buyer and nothing else mattered. Relentless focus was made by the Board on achieving this objective.
Customers could have pulled off the work from Satyam but did not as TNM and team requested them to do a " wait and watch" approach. The fact that the entire Board members were not taking any salary or fee must have impressed the customers. They not only waited but started releasing payments to Satyam which helped the cash flow.
Employees were connected through direct meetings , audio calls , Video calls and through e bulletins -- and going by Satyam's presence in every time zone of the world this must have been a tremendous task and midnight oil would have been burnt by TNM and team to connect.. All these meetings were assurances to keep the employees motivated and their morale up so that delivery of existing projects did not suffer. It paid off as customers commented , post the scandal , the delivery was better than pre scam !!
With Customers and Employees being reigned in , Financing was the next task. This was achieved as well.
Process was rolled out to invite bids for takeover of ownership . Bidding results ended in favour of Tech Mahindra.
Communication was done extremely well . With media looking for any small news to be used as "Breaking new" , the whole exercise of communication with various partners was done with care and diligence.
Downsizing happened gradually in a manner that it did not hurt the employees and the organisation in general. Employees stuck to Satyam and made a difference and were significant catalysts to the change.
We all listened in great fascination as TNM walked us through the turnaround process , his thoughts and how the Industry credibility was restored to a larger extent. Work goes on with the reconstruction of Satyam.
If you look at the entire events , you will be able to notice every aspect of leadership quality that has been displayed by TNM. Here is a great case study that all of us should look at and relish the leadership challenge that may come on us .
TNM mentioned as he signed off about being focussed on being basic ,fundamental , and humble .He was thankful to his other board members who were also no small fries , who worked hard to deliver on the Government mandate.
TNM was recognised with the Civilian award of Padmasri in April 2010 for his contribution to the revival of Satyam and the nomination for this award was made by none other than -- his co Board members.. That showed TNM's collaborative approach and the respect he had from his fellow board members.
Awesome is the right word to describe TNM's efforts… on the revival of Satyam.Great leadership and mind you, he got paid nothing for this !!
I liked the last couple of lines that TNM shared on moral lessons from Satyam
Adapt with technology/knowledge changes but stay static on fundamentals
Listen to your head in complying with law and to your heart in dealing with people
Ability may take you to the top but it takes Character to stay there
Nothing is impossible, if attempted with nobility
PS: TNM spoke at a CPE study circle meeting arranged so well by the Ford team. In addition to TNM, there were two other speakers on different topics. Needless to say, the speakers of the other topics did a great job as well , making it a Sunny Saturday Special. Blessed with knowledge and learning's were the ones who made it after being invited. The rest , missed a great opportunity.
If you do a Google search , it may throw you some of these characteristics :
Accepts Challenges ,Courageous , Risk taker , Objective about things ,Decisive , Communicates well ,Won’t give up, firm but fair , great listener, Keeps promises , unrelenting focus ,straight forward , Open door policy, let bygones be bygones attitude , Open and honest, follow through Patient, gets everyone involved , operates well under pressure , sense of urgency , being humble.
I saw all of these in Mr T.N . Manhoran ( TNM ) as he walked us through the Satyam Revival story. TNM is no small fry. He was the past President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and is very well recognised and respected in his Profession and by Society as a Outstanding Person. It was a honour for us as he accepted to come and speak to us.
When the Government called him to be a Government nominees on the Board of Satyam in the thickest of messy times ( post the Scam ) , TNM accepted the challenge . He explanation for accepting was simple and very compelling.
1. The Government wanted him to be on the Board
2. As a Citizen of the Country , do the job asked by the Government. The decision rationale was simple and Outstanding .
Many of us know the Satyam scandal -- all for wrong reasons but TNM and his board turned around Satyam and found owners for Satyam in a quick time span ( Tech Mahindra ).
A SWOT was done of Satyam as the new board took over. Focus was on utilizing the Strength and Opportunities rather than worry too much about the weakness and threats.
The Board took some great decision. They worked overtime for " Free" and this decision was significant for Satyam to stay afloat and build credibility with its customers. The Board members met every day !! TNM probably worked the whole day ( read 24 hours ). Shifted his place from Chennai to Hyderabad. The Government mandate was to focus on bringing Satyam back in to operation and find a buyer and nothing else mattered. Relentless focus was made by the Board on achieving this objective.
Customers could have pulled off the work from Satyam but did not as TNM and team requested them to do a " wait and watch" approach. The fact that the entire Board members were not taking any salary or fee must have impressed the customers. They not only waited but started releasing payments to Satyam which helped the cash flow.
Employees were connected through direct meetings , audio calls , Video calls and through e bulletins -- and going by Satyam's presence in every time zone of the world this must have been a tremendous task and midnight oil would have been burnt by TNM and team to connect.. All these meetings were assurances to keep the employees motivated and their morale up so that delivery of existing projects did not suffer. It paid off as customers commented , post the scandal , the delivery was better than pre scam !!
With Customers and Employees being reigned in , Financing was the next task. This was achieved as well.
Process was rolled out to invite bids for takeover of ownership . Bidding results ended in favour of Tech Mahindra.
Communication was done extremely well . With media looking for any small news to be used as "Breaking new" , the whole exercise of communication with various partners was done with care and diligence.
Downsizing happened gradually in a manner that it did not hurt the employees and the organisation in general. Employees stuck to Satyam and made a difference and were significant catalysts to the change.
We all listened in great fascination as TNM walked us through the turnaround process , his thoughts and how the Industry credibility was restored to a larger extent. Work goes on with the reconstruction of Satyam.
If you look at the entire events , you will be able to notice every aspect of leadership quality that has been displayed by TNM. Here is a great case study that all of us should look at and relish the leadership challenge that may come on us .
TNM mentioned as he signed off about being focussed on being basic ,fundamental , and humble .He was thankful to his other board members who were also no small fries , who worked hard to deliver on the Government mandate.
TNM was recognised with the Civilian award of Padmasri in April 2010 for his contribution to the revival of Satyam and the nomination for this award was made by none other than -- his co Board members.. That showed TNM's collaborative approach and the respect he had from his fellow board members.
Awesome is the right word to describe TNM's efforts… on the revival of Satyam.Great leadership and mind you, he got paid nothing for this !!
I liked the last couple of lines that TNM shared on moral lessons from Satyam
Adapt with technology/knowledge changes but stay static on fundamentals
Listen to your head in complying with law and to your heart in dealing with people
Ability may take you to the top but it takes Character to stay there
Nothing is impossible, if attempted with nobility
PS: TNM spoke at a CPE study circle meeting arranged so well by the Ford team. In addition to TNM, there were two other speakers on different topics. Needless to say, the speakers of the other topics did a great job as well , making it a Sunny Saturday Special. Blessed with knowledge and learning's were the ones who made it after being invited. The rest , missed a great opportunity.
Comments
Srikanth - thanks for sharing with the wider audience - Excellent write up!!
My take away was a major factor for the turnaround was the ONE objective that all stake holders ( Employees, Customers, Government,Industry, The BoD) had : To Revive Satyam!
The other touching factor was the Employees - Manoharan was very forthright in capturing their plight as well as their contribution to the turnaround. Hurrah to the common man !
Thanks for sharing
Vidhya
With Best Regards,
Ganesh
Shobha