In war, there is no runners-up trophy : this was Rajan’s favourite quote.
His friends called him the angry young man in a hurry. Just a week ago, he had joined India’s biggest automobile company as the Head of Corporate Marketing. And he was only 29 years old.
Formative days
Rajan was proud of his achievements. He had studied at a government school in Kota, Rajasthan where his father was a teacher. As a young boy, he envied all those rich kids being chauffeur driven to the private schools. “My son is so bright he will surely make it to IIT,” his mother kept telling everyone, including the milkman.
He did not make it to IIT.
He, however, did make it to The University College of Engineering, Kota, from where he graduated at the top of his class. He gained admission into one of the IIMs, where he soon realised that there existed a subtle hierarchy amongst the students — IITians were at the top, followed by the rest. He resolved to be on the top of the class.
Two years later, he graduated with a Gold Medal.
Fast track
In the next six years, he managed four promotions, and three job changes, and was way ahead of his batchmates from IIM. To Rajan, winning was every thing and the means always justified the end. Every time he made a job switch, he would pick assignments that had clear visibility right to the top. The CEO would be his only customer and bosses in between were tolerated as a necessary evil. Subordinates existed to take the blame if things went wrong.
Seizing the opportunity
The fact that the CMD too came from a marketing background was possibly the only reason why Rajan joined this automobile company. And even though he reported into the COO, Rajan was confident of easy and frequent access to the CMD.
Rajan did not have to wait long for this. He got his opportunity at the next review meeting, where the forthcoming annual dealers’ conference was being discussed. “I think we need to redesign the awards, which have remained unchanged for the last 15 years,” Rajan put forth his idea.
“I agree, Rajan. I have some ideas on this and would like for you and me to discuss this later,” said the CMD.
Over the next few weeks, Rajan sought meetings with the CMD on days when the COO was out of station. And he made sure that none of his own subordinates attended these meetings.
“The new designs look a bit complicated. Are you sure these can be produced?” the CMD asked.
“Not an issue, sir. I know of a good vendor.”
“Great. Let’s go ahead then. I am sure our dealers will love this.”
Delegating
Rajan made one of his team members the Single-Point-Of-Contact (SPOC) and entrusted him with the task of dealing with the vendor. It was no surprise to anyone that instead of envy, the SPOC only earned the sympathy of his colleagues.
Whenever the CMD sought an update, Rajan would check with the SPOC, who would call up the vendor, who in turn assured him that things were on schedule. With a month to go for the conference, the vendor called up the SPOC and informed him that some serious technical problems had arisen but he was confident of resolving them.
The SPOC did not inform Rajan about this call.
The awards were delivered on the day of the dealer conference. The SPOC had them placed on a table behind the stage and informed Rajan, who was in conversation with the CMD and COO.
As the three of them walked towards the awards, Rajan suddenly felt the ground cave in under his feet. Lined up on the table were the awards that resembled some terrible work-in-progress. From the corner of his eyes he saw the COO quietly take a step back.
“We are NOT going to hand over this rubbish to the dealers,” the CMD said and walked away.
For the first time in 15 years, no awards were handed over at the Dealers’ Conference. Rajan did not stay for the rest of the function.
Lesson learnt
A week later the CMD called for him. “I did not see you later that evening at the awards function,” the CMD observed.
Rajan stood there, with his eyes lowered, “I left early that evening, sir. I messed up and am willing to resign.”
“That’s won’t be necessary. Please sit down.”
“I guess you were in a hurry to do everything yourself, Rajan. By the way, whom are you competing with?”
Before he could reply, the CMD continued, “When I look at my employees, I see four kinds of people. The insecure ones who always compete with their subordinates; the political kinds, who are forever competing with their bosses; the mature ones who compete with their peers; and lastly, the enlightened ones who only compete with themselves. Ask yourself which one of these you are and which one you would like to be.”
Rajan had just learnt one of the biggest lessons of his corporate life.
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