Corporate Dossier
The Economic Times
27 May 2005

Kumar Mangalam Birla shares the lessons that he learnt during his 10-year-stint

From a managerial point of view what bothers Kumar Mangalam Birla most is that he shouldn't turn into a bottleneck when it comes to decision-making. "I'm worried of being a bottleneck and if I find myself being a bottleneck in certain issues, it bothers me," he says. One of the biggest challenges, as Birla points out, was getting a grip on the diversified nature of the business. "Every business had a completely different situation and we would discuss two or three businesses in a day and that required me to switch on and switch off from one business to another," he says. What he found critical was to know each business closely. "If you know the businesses well, you can take the decision in a much speedier manner and with a greater degree of surety," he adds, and while he admits that he can't have complete domain knowledge of everything, understanding the key issues involved is crucial. That helps getting into a review meeting knowing what exactly to look for and what buttons to press.

Birla says that managing a diversified business requires multitasking. "Multi-tasking is an art that increases your productivity. While I haven't yet mastered it, I know how to be more efficient with it," says Birla and adds, "From something that was a challenge, I now enjoy the diversity of the business." And with a thorough understanding of each business, he hardly finds himself as the bottleneck when decisions need to be taken in a blink.

"Intuition and gut feel play a major role in business"
Talking on blink, taking decisions in crunch time scenarios require intuition and gut feel. "Gut feel and intuition play a big role in the world of business," says Birla adding "That's something an MBA can't teach you, you learn it over time." It comes from seeing the business from very close quarters and helps take speedier decisions.

"Transformation is about taking the tougher and less popular route"
It's not very often that Birla looks back and checks what made him the success that he's today. But an intrinsic characteristic he fondly remembers is that he would always end up choosing to answer the tougher questions during exams. But taking the difficult option has obviously paid off. Says Birla, "Sometimes it seems to me that it has been one of my strengths — taking the tougher challenge. A lot of transformation is about taking the tougher and less popular route."

But learning on the fast lane can be taxing. Birla says: "There's a phase of discomfort as a manager when you have to learn to step back and look at the bigger picture. I was used to looking more closely at individual businesses. It's easy to get drawn into the details but there's a period of disconnect when you can't do that any more."

"Communications play a critical role in every organisation"
Communication also plays a critical role, be it towards an individual or a group, feels Birla. One needn't display visionary abilities or perceptible thinking skills, and good communication often means saying very simple and obvious things. "If people have a sense that you are walking the talk, then that tends to allay a lot of apprehension and fears," says Birla. Soon after the group took over the mines, Birla addressed his Australian employees over a satellite link. The message was simple: the group is here to add value and not to shut down the mines, and their co-operation was critical. "Everyone in the organisation wants to feel valued, feel that they are contributing to the company," says Birla.