Articles by K. Hariram

After settling down comfortably into my seat on a flight from Chicago to San Francisco, I started browsing through my digital copy of the latest issue of The Economist. Much to my surprise, I saw an article titled, The Usefulness of Managers beginning with the sentence, “Is your manager really necessary?”

Bingo!!! My mind went back to so many discussions we keep having about our Indian Pharma industry and the various arguments about line management and their contributions, role clarity, their usefulness and the often-asked question, “Are they really effective?”

When the top leadership says, that effective managers are a rare breed with comments such as, “they are the weakest link in our chain”, my mind keeps racing through with the thought as to, “if they are not, who has to be responsible to make them effective?”

Having been a line manager and climbing the ladder against odds, I can understand and empathise with both sides of this management world.

However, when these doubts and questions keep raising its head often, my curiosity quotient kept raising a question, “Are we in Indian pharma very unique to have such challenges?” A chance meeting I had with a team of Google senior management personnel based in Google’s headquarters in California during this trip gave me an interesting insight on what Google did and what it continues to do.

Much to my solace I found that their apprehensions were similar to what we in Indian Pharma face. The differentiating factor was that their “people operations” team (HR) has applied the Google Way (data analytics) to management analysis and developed a manifesto entitled Eight Habits of Highly Effective Google Managers.

In the organisational context, LEADERSHIP appears more glamorous than the word MANAGEMENT. When it comes to a team whether small or large, we need to realise that the first requirement is to be an effective manager and then a leader.

Why so?

First and foremost, Managers are responsible for making sure that things are done properly. And while leaders may bring us vision, inspiration and challenge, these things count for nothing without the efficient implementation brought about by good management.

To be a great manager, you must have an extensive set of skills, both hard and soft – from planning and delegation to communication and motivation.

The skill set is so wide, and hence, for your long-term success, it’s wise to analyse your skills in all areas of management – and then to challenge yourself to improve in all of these areas.

So, a fundamental question that is unasked, but lingers in the mind often is, Are managers really necessary?

In the organisational context, LEADERSHIP appears more glamorous than the word MANAGEMENT. When it comes to a team whether small or large, we need to realise that the first requirement is to be an effective manager and then a leader. Why so? First and foremost, Managers are responsible for making…