Lucky nine

We are delighted to present to you this ninth anniversary edition of Outlook Business. It’s been a great journey for us so far trying to bring you exciting stories of successful entrepreneurs and new emerging businesses. This year, we bring to you profiles of nine prominent leaders who have either built their business empires from scratch or taken their inherited businesses to another orbit driven by their extraordinary vision and effective leadership style. These stories are quite unlike the other profiles you would have read about them — it’s not about their smarts, foresight or ambition but how they deal with their people, especially their operating managers.

The qualities of these successful leaders are strikingly similar. First is their people connect — their ability to establish personal rapport. They boost the confidence of their key managers to get them to deliver more than what the managers themselves think they can achieve. This is done by placing a high level of trust, and the managers then make their best efforts to not let their bosses down. Second is their ability to take a helicopter view and narrow down the strategic issues. Managers are often more focused on immediate opportunities and challenges and the big picture often gets short shrift. Third is their extraordinary energy that often inspires their managers (or compels them) to push themselves without being
asked to do so. 

As India’s entrepreneurial class is booming, with lots of young men and women setting up their own businesses, these stories should provide interesting insights on how to build a lasting organisation. We hope you find this edition an interesting read.