Abdul Kalam's style of management

Dr Abdul Kalam, the missile man and the likely next occupant of Rashtrapati Bhavan, the official residence of the Indian president, has advocated the concept of technology management - a practical philosophy of management which should be learned and adopted by people working on projects.

Abdul Kalam has not only proved to be a good project leader who successfully led the 78-strong team of scientists comprising India's intellectual wealth, but is also an efficient techno-manager. It is rare to see a technocrat who delivers management competencies, a scientist who always talks about society and poverty alleviation.

It is rare to see an expert who has raised a country's image in the international arena, walked through the slums of India and talked to millions of schoolchildren on personality development.

So far, Abdul Kalam has interacted with 50,000 schoolchildren and delivered his simple concept of technology management. He has set an example by his leadership.

While working with scientists, he has certainly developed team building and won the confidence of others to excel in performance. As a patriot, he lives by the slogan "The nation is bigger than the individual".

There are two types of management orientations: primal, which values an economic employee, and rational, which values an organisational employee.

His concept of management is woven around an employee who is a technology person.

The primal management school recognises people for their initiative and independence, while the rational management acknowledges them for their dependability and commitment.

"I value them for their inter-dependence," wrote Abdul Kalam in his book 'Wings of Fire', an autobiography that should be read by everyone. According to him, the primal manager champions independent enterprise while the rational manager serves co-operation.

"I moot interdependent joint ventures, getting the force together, networking people, resources, time schedules, costs, and so on."

Both primal and rational concepts emphasise drive, innovation, and a participation competencies model. Whether in a business or science lab, these behavioural competencies are essential to build a dedicated team.

In the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGDMP), Abdul Kalam integrated the vision of Prof. Sarabhai and the mission of Prof. Dhawan by adapting the high technology setting of Dr. Brahm Prakash's space research. He attempted to add the natural law of latency in funding the Indian Guided Missile Programme to create a completely indigenous variety of technology management.

Abdul Kalam has followed Maslow's model - the psychology of self-actualisation at a conceptual level. The tree of technology management takes root only if there is self-actualisation of needs, renewal, interdependence and natural flow.

The growth patterns are characteristics of the evolution process, which means that things move in a combination of slow change and sudden transformation.

"The tree of technology management, if carefully tended, bears the fruits of an adaptive infrastructure: technology empo-wering institutions, the generation of technical skills among people and, finally, self-reliance of the nation and improvement in the quality of life of its citizenry," he adds.

Technology is the result of group activity. It is not based on individual traits but based on the collective work of many individual talents.

By and large, managers recognise the interdependence of employees and the need for cooperation among people to accomplish work. This is one major reason for the emphasis on building strong managerial teams.

Abdul Kalam has developed a team and considers teams very similar to children in spirit. They are as excitable, full of vitality, enthusiasm, curiosity and with the desire to please and excel.

However, as with children, these positive attributes can be destroyed by the behaviour of misguided parents.

For teams to be successful, the social and business environment must offer scope for innovation.

He, too, confronted many such challenges during the course of his projects but always ensured for his teams an environment which allowed innovation and risk-taking. He advocated a novel idea of developing success criteria - a measurable parameter for each project. There are always multiple and often conflicting sets of expectations for a team's performance. Of course, good teams are able to identify quickly the key persons with whom negotiations of the success criteria must take place.

A crucial aspect of the team leader's role is to influence and negotiate with these key people for their requirements, and to ensure that the dialogue continues on a regular basis as the situation develops, notes Abdul Kalam.

Pon Mohaideen Pitchai is a Dubai-based HRD consultant