Lessons from stalwarts on Change Management, Customer Behavior & Choices that business leaders make to stay relevant
12 JUNE, 2024: Prof. R Srinivasan, from the Strategy area at IIMB, hosted Mr R Gopalakrishnan, Former Executive Director, Tata Sons, for the release of his 19th book, here at IIM Bangalore, on 12th June 2024. Co-authored with Prof. Hrishi Bhattacharyya, Former Senior VP, Unilever, the book, ‘Embrace the Future – The Soft Science of Business Transformation’, makes a powerful case for corporate transformation.
The book’s core tenet is to provide jargon-less insight to aspiring leaders, experienced executives and change-makers. It details candid accounts and cases studies of the authors’ successes and failures as avid change-makers themselves.
Mr Gopalakrishnan had the packed classroom, comprising students of the One-Year MBA at IIM Bangalore, hanging on his every word, even as Prof. Hrishi Bhattacharyya, who joined the launch and the conversation online, took them on a virtual tour of what it meant to be a young sales/ marketing manager in pre-liberalized India.
Offering examples from their own professional journeys in conglomerates and from the time they started their careers selling everything soap and shampoo to creams and condoms in villages and small towns of an India, which had, at that time, no access to internet or mobile phones, Mr Gopalakrishnan and Prof. Bhattacharyya said there is no better learning ground than the “reality of the market” when it comes to understanding customer behavior.
Talking about how concepts turn into ideas, which then become prototypes, models and products or services, they touched upon innovations, adding that the pathway of each innovation is as distinctive as the passage of human beings through life.
They also spoke on the importance of business transformation at a time when new technologies are threatening to upend industries
On change management, Mr Gopalakrishnan said, “Understanding this involves two key skills, and it’s straightforward. The first skill is clarity – knowing what matters, the essence. The second thing to remember is that change has always been around, it’s not something new. What makes our time different is that we have better tools to cope with change. But here’s the key: the gap between the changes happening and the tools to deal with them isn’t necessarily getting bigger. As a result, the emphasis should be on monitoring this gap, because those who have historically flourished recognized the balance between change and the means to handle it properly.”
In a conversation, after the book launch, with Prof. Srinivasan and IIMB alumna Ms Sriiroopa Rao, Prof. Bhattacharyya explained, “One chief lesson why transformation succeeds or fails has to do with combining the art and science of the change – the heart and the mind – and getting the balance of the two right. In life as in business, to effect a transformation, one needs a compelling narrative, one that inspires the organization. Important too is to see transformation as a continuous endeavor and made a part of work culture rather than to consider it an exercise undertaken only in a crisis. We must imagine the future we desire and then fold it into the present.”
According to the authors, the difference between transactional management and transformational leadership is about how change is managed, and to make their case, they drew on over 100 years of their collective experience building transformational initiatives for large-scale ventures.
Lessons from stalwarts on Change Management, Customer Behavior & Choices that business leaders make to stay relevant
12 JUNE, 2024: Prof. R Srinivasan, from the Strategy area at IIMB, hosted Mr R Gopalakrishnan, Former Executive Director, Tata Sons, for the release of his 19th book, here at IIM Bangalore, on 12th June 2024. Co-authored with Prof. Hrishi Bhattacharyya, Former Senior VP, Unilever, the book, ‘Embrace the Future – The Soft Science of Business Transformation’, makes a powerful case for corporate transformation.
The book’s core tenet is to provide jargon-less insight to aspiring leaders, experienced executives and change-makers. It details candid accounts and cases studies of the authors’ successes and failures as avid change-makers themselves.
Mr Gopalakrishnan had the packed classroom, comprising students of the One-Year MBA at IIM Bangalore, hanging on his every word, even as Prof. Hrishi Bhattacharyya, who joined the launch and the conversation online, took them on a virtual tour of what it meant to be a young sales/ marketing manager in pre-liberalized India.
Offering examples from their own professional journeys in conglomerates and from the time they started their careers selling everything soap and shampoo to creams and condoms in villages and small towns of an India, which had, at that time, no access to internet or mobile phones, Mr Gopalakrishnan and Prof. Bhattacharyya said there is no better learning ground than the “reality of the market” when it comes to understanding customer behavior.
Talking about how concepts turn into ideas, which then become prototypes, models and products or services, they touched upon innovations, adding that the pathway of each innovation is as distinctive as the passage of human beings through life.
They also spoke on the importance of business transformation at a time when new technologies are threatening to upend industries
On change management, Mr Gopalakrishnan said, “Understanding this involves two key skills, and it’s straightforward. The first skill is clarity – knowing what matters, the essence. The second thing to remember is that change has always been around, it’s not something new. What makes our time different is that we have better tools to cope with change. But here’s the key: the gap between the changes happening and the tools to deal with them isn’t necessarily getting bigger. As a result, the emphasis should be on monitoring this gap, because those who have historically flourished recognized the balance between change and the means to handle it properly.”
In a conversation, after the book launch, with Prof. Srinivasan and IIMB alumna Ms Sriiroopa Rao, Prof. Bhattacharyya explained, “One chief lesson why transformation succeeds or fails has to do with combining the art and science of the change – the heart and the mind – and getting the balance of the two right. In life as in business, to effect a transformation, one needs a compelling narrative, one that inspires the organization. Important too is to see transformation as a continuous endeavor and made a part of work culture rather than to consider it an exercise undertaken only in a crisis. We must imagine the future we desire and then fold it into the present.”
According to the authors, the difference between transactional management and transformational leadership is about how change is managed, and to make their case, they drew on over 100 years of their collective experience building transformational initiatives for large-scale ventures.