At this time of the year, every year, there is much talk about campus recruitment, especially at the major management colleges. They talk about priority companies and priority industries. Which one will get the first opportunity to hire the brightest and the best? A new format has been suggested by one of the IIMs, in which they will have all from one industry, available at one time, to make it easier for recruiters as well as candidates. And as always, there is a lot of talk about the highest salary offered this year which was lower than the highest salary offered last year. Obviously, it was a spin-off from the effect of the two-year recession, especially in the financial sector. Students are rated on the basis of salary offered, and even the Institutions are rated based on the average salary offered to their students.
I wonder whether there is any emphasis on 'contribution'. What will the young person expect to 'contribute' for their salary, to the company and clients and to the community that it serves? Does the question of 'contribution' ever cross the mind of the young person? And if it does not, is it that we have somehow failed in instilling this value during the school and college career?
Who are the role models in India, successful in their careers and also great 'contributors' to the community and the country?
I would focus on just three of them who have influenced this vast country of 1.2bn (billion) people. There are many, many others who have had regional impact, and even local district impact, which is also a great contribution!
One such significant contributor is Dr Verghese Kurien, the founder of the Kaira district milk cooperative society in Gujarat. Almost single-handedly, this dairy technologist from Kerala went into alien soil in Gujarat, and within a few decades became the author of the ‘white revolution’. India, which was importing milk powder earlier and was a milk-deficient country, has converted into a milk-surplus country! Amul became a household name. Amul had milk to spare, to enable it to venture into branded butter, cheese, curd and chocolate.
Dr V Kurien not only had a successful career, but he also helped to change the country. He will always be remembered!
Another significant contributor was Dr MS Swaminathan, the eminent agricultural scientist. Yes, he pursued a career in agriculture, but went beyond that sphere of life. He created the 'green revolution' in India, in the same way as Kurien had created the ‘white revolution’. New methods of cultivation were taken to remote areas of the country to make sure that yields were now multiple times what they were earlier. India no longer needed to import grain. In fact, India could now export food grains.
Thanks to the contribution of Dr Swaminathan! He helped to change the country. He will always be remembered!
Yet another significant contributor, but not so well known, is Bindeshwar Pathak, the engineer from the public works department of the Bihar government, who developed a new sewage system which used very little water and where the sewage could be used to generate gas. He did not get much support for his innovative development, so he quit the service and, with encouragement and loans from friends, started Sulabh International Social Service organisation. In a short time, Sulabh toilets spread around the country. It provided an alternative to the physical carrying of night soil. People engaged in this activity earlier were provided with more dignified jobs as monitors of Sulabh toilets. Earlier, bathing and use of toilets were free for women and children, whereas men were charged a small fee. Toilets are kept clean by the monitors. In spite of the free admissions, Sulabh toilets still made a profit. The gas from Sulabh toilets in Patna helps to provide electricity to the Patna General Hospital.
There is no sanitation system in much of India. Over 50% of the population in cities like Mumbai lives in slums, on pavements, and have no regular toilet facilities. Pathak saw this crying need. He also saw that the government and municipalities were not providing a solution. So, he developed a unique solution. So unique that he is now a UN expert taken around the world, advising authorities in Africa and South America.
One day, Bindeshwar Pathak will be recognised as a significant contributor to the community in India. Someone who took up a problem that everyone else shied away from and found an effective and economical solution.
Dr Kurien, Dr Swaminathan, and Mr Pathak had careers. They worked for money. But they looked beyond, to see how they could make a contribution. It was not the highest salary. It was the balance of money—what do I get? And contribution - what do I give?
Finally, we go back to Maslow's 'Hierarchy of human needs'. The final striving for all of us is for self-actualisation. Food, clothing, shelter and sex are all lower in the hierarchy. It is self-esteem and self-actualisation that people finally search for and work for!
(Adapted from The Impatient Manager by Walter Vieira (Sage/ Atlantic Publishers)
(Walter Vieira is a Fellow of the Institute of Management Consultants of India - FIMC. He was a successful corporate executive for 14 years, capping his career as Head of marketing for a Pharma multinational, for India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka- and then pioneered marketing consulting in India in 1975. As a consultant, he has worked across four continents. He was the first Asian elected Chairman of ICMCI, the world apex body of consultants in 45 countries, in 1997. He is the author of 16 books, a business columnist, an international conference speaker and has been a visiting professor in Marketing in the US, Europe, and Asia for over 40 years. He was awarded Lifetime Achievement Award for Consulting in 2005, and for Marketing in 2009. He now spends much of his time in NGO work - Consumer Education and Research Centre, IDOBRO, and some others.)
