Management for Transformational Growth of an organisation – 15th July 2022

Hello, ladies and gentlemen. This is C. Paul Singh, President, NISSMAT International. Let me welcome you all this evening, and thank you very much for joining us on the 131st session of our webinar. The subject of today's webinar, as you must be knowing, is Management for Transformational Growth of an Organization. The learned speaker we're going to address this webinar channel, who is a retired army officer and President Vice Chancellor of Amity University Gwalior, and Shri Gautam, a well-known global expert in the imperatives of value creation in business. I extend a warm and hearty welcome to our eminent speakers and all of the delegates present here.

Let me introduce NISSMAT in a few words. National Institute of Security, Safety, Applied Technology, Management and Applied Technology was established in 1990. It started training courses in security, safety and management and applied technology. With the passage of time, it has today become a tank organization with an association of more than 85 scholars and speakers who are providing us inputs in the field of security, safety, topical subject and current subjects. NISSMAT has established four wings: NISSMAT Forum to organize webinars, seminars, conferences; NISSMAT Academy to conduct virtual training programs; NISSMAT Enterprises to undertake audits and studies in various sectors; and NISSMAT Foundation, in due course of time, to start welfare and social work for the society at large, particularly with reference to security and safety.

Having said a few words about NISSMAT, let me introduce the chairman and moderator of the session, Captain Pawanjit Ahluwalia. He took voluntary retirement from the Parachute Regiment of Indian Army at a very young age and started his business career, which was an unknown field for him. With his warmth and empathy he is able to bring out the best in ordinary people. He has an internal sense of finding out the silver lining in the worst situation. He is a businessman who is unafraid of telling the truth, a thoughtful and inspiring leader. He has created an empire for himself under the name of Ahluwalia Holding Private Limited, which has offices at multiple locations in India and abroad. He is the past president and former chairman of Council of International Investigators, USA, and is in the body of Malcolm Thompson Award and Cuterly Award by this council. He shall moderate the session.

With these words, let me delve into the introduction of the subject, that management for transformational growth of an organization. The transformational growth of any organization can be brought about by transformational leaders. Such leaders are able to influence the behavior of the other employees of the organization in a way as to inspire them to perform beyond the laid down goals and objectives of the organization, beyond the laid down capabilities of the organization, laid down as I recall it. Such a growth beyond the laid down objectives of the organization also encourages employees to think of new changes and undertake new responsibilities which go beyond the existing responsibilities of these employees. Emphasis is laid on creative thinking, openness to different type of experiences, and thinking of bigger picture for the organization. This happens when the leaders encourage their subordinates also to facilitate this state and have a transformation in the organization.

Transformation leaders provide the stimulus to give impetus to the growth of our organization. The style of transformation leaders shall be discussed by the eminent speaker, but a few words: it involves cultural innovation, in fact, it involves intellectual stimulation, it involves inspirational motivation. This type of leadership combines a number of other important styles of leadership which we have studied in our management schools. This new mental model of transformation leaders requires — what is required? It requires to assess what other people are thinking, what other people are going to do, what type of training is required for the executive keeping in view the future needs, anticipating how employees will react, how customers shall accept the change, and understanding the challenges of growth beyond the laid down objectives of the organization. This is called transformation leadership side, and this is how the transformation leadership is achieved. With these words I'd like to pass on the session to Shri Pawanjit Ahluwalia to moderate the session. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. President. I'd like to acknowledge today the presence of participants from India, Germany, USA, Singapore, UAE and the United Kingdom. As I speak, we are streaming live on Zoom and YouTube. Today's program has been sponsored by Premier Consulting and Investigations Private Limited. It's also been co-sponsored by India Skills, Premier Shield, Tank Scores and JMD Cargo. During the session I'd request you all to remain muted, keep your videos on so that we can see you, switch off all your cell phones so that you have no sight distractions, and if you have any questions, please pass them on to me. I'll be very happy to revert back to you. NISSMAT is also looking for sponsors for its various programs, and should you be interested, please revert back to me or to anyone in our organization, and we'd be happy to assist propagating your organization.

A word about our illustrious president. A masters in English literature, he has served the Government of India in senior police assignments across the country. He was the first chief of the elite protection force, and he also raised this organization. He also raised the Internal Security Academy in Mount Abu, Rajasthan. During his service with the government he has been decorated with the President's Police Medal for Distinguished Service, the Indian Police Medal for Meritorious Service, the Police Special Duty Medal with bar, a Sena Medal and a number of other commendations and rewards. Post retirement, he has worked as a consultant with the Tatas, where he had the responsibility to streamline the security and vigilance matters of their goldfield division. He has been the chairman of the technical committee of Quality Control of India, which formulated the standards for the star rating of private security agencies. He was involved in developing the curriculum for private security guards training under the security sector and skill development council. He was the head of the committee which designed and worked out national occupational standards for the training of private security guards and qualification packs, and the national occupation standards for the firefighters in India. In 2009 the President of India recognized him as the Security Personality of the Year. He is an advisor to the Asian Professional Security Association. He is the honorary director general of the centralization of private security industry and the assertion of private detectives and investigators. Mr. Singh's face is well known in India as a dynamic security professional, and he is frequently called to share his views on various subjects connected to homeland security on Indian national news channels.

I now have the distinct pleasure to introduce Lieutenant General V.K. Sharma, AVSM. He is the current Vice Chancellor of the Amity University in Madhya Pradesh. General Sharma is an alumnus of the first 12 King George's School, which is now located in Shimla. In 1968 he joined the National Defence Academy and passed out as a permanent commissioned officer from the Indian Military Academy in 1972. He was granted the President's commission in the Corps of Signals of the Indian Army, which he served with distinction for 40 years. During his service he held several command and staff appointments and participated in Operation Rakshak and Operation Vijay, which was the Kargil war. He served almost 7 years of his 40 years in the J&K valley, firstly as a captain, then as a colonel and later as a brigadier.

General Sharma has been an excellent academician in addition to being a military leader. He did his Bachelors of Electronics and Communication Engineering from College of Military Engineering in Pune. He did Masters of Engineering from Pune University and Masters of Management Study from Osmania University, all in first class with honors, standing first in the order of merit in all these exams and all the programs that he participated in. He's also been an instructor at the Institute of Armament Technology near Pune, which is now known as the Defence Institute of Armament Technology. He retired after 40 years of distinguished military service as the Commandant of the Military College of Telecommunication and Engineering, which is located in Mhow, Madhya Pradesh. This college is the center of excellence in electronics, communication, information technology and cyber warfare. During his service with the armed forces he's traveled to every nook and corner of the country and has headed military delegations to France, Germany and the United States.

He is presently the founder Vice Chancellor of Amity University Madhya Pradesh since November of 2011. Under his able leadership, Amity University Madhya Pradesh has seen exceptional growth and has been adjudged the best private university in Madhya Pradesh, and continuously for the last three years, from 2017 to 2019, it has been adjudged as the best university. Amity School of Engineering and Technology is also ranked as the best amongst private engineering institutions in the country. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you General V.K. Sharma.

Thank you very much for having given a very elaborate introduction, and thank you to C. Paul Singh, who's given a backdrop about what do you understand by transformational growth of an organization. To begin with, I'd like to mention that transformational growth is not something which every organization can do, or which can be done just by theory without having gone into the nuances and without having adequate resources. When I say resources, the biggest resource that is required for transformational organizational growth is finance, because if it had been that easy, then there would not have been so many cases of businesses closing down. So you will find that about 85 percent of the startups — I can only see you, Pawan; can we put the speaker on? Tamiya, can you do that please? It's already on. Okay, go ahead. I can't see him. Thank you so much, sir.

So I was mentioning that 85 percent of the startups in India, at least, they wind up within a period of two years. Now why does that happen? That happens because, firstly, we are not quite clear about the requirements or the needs of the society. We are not quite clear that what service we are going to provide. If that service is already existing, how are you going to provide the same service in a better manner, which is something which is required? We are not quite clear about what is the competition which is there, and if you're producing something, how will people buy it? Now when all these things are not happening, then you find suddenly that there's a need to change, for which you either require resources, you require time; there's too much of competition, and unhealthy competition at that. People don't want your — any competitor to stay. It is like the shark, the word truly used for businessmen; they try to eat the small fish. Which is why transformational change is required, but it's not very easy to do when required, because time is at premium, the resources are premium, and also the environment is hostile to this. Volatile, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity — that kind of a word which is there. In that, it is difficult, with stiff competition, for businesses to sustain, leave aside transformation growth.

So I would like to share a small presentation. Is my screen visible? Can somebody confirm? Yes, yes, correct, right. So first of all, this is the way I would like to cover: first understand the word transformation itself, then business transformation, change management, and why transform, what is transformational growth, principles, role of management, transformational leadership, and overall conclusion of the issue.

Now the word transformation primarily means the unprecedented. It is because — why do we want to transform? Primarily because of the market turbulence, because of the VUCA factor, because there are so much challenges, because of changes in policies, because of environment which is changing, like the Ukraine war, because of the supply chain disruptions. There are so many reasons that there is no way that you can survive — because of sudden change in technology. So there are numerous reasons that you need to change, and you need to change fast, and you need to change big. So that is what transformational growth actually implies. Now naturally, as I mentioned, it requires you to think big, to think different, out of the box, and to think innovative, because incremental improvement, which is doing by improving by 10, or by improving 15 or 7, that is not good enough in today's world of disruptive business environment. Also, organizations require sustained growth, and it is not that once you change it's good enough. No, you have to sustain, you have to maintain that growth, or maybe higher. So maintenance of, like, the momentum with which you change — that requires to be sustained for you to survive in the markets today.

Now what do you exactly understand by the business transformation? This one definition which can say: it is the opportunity to define a bold ambition that goes beyond incremental change, the opportunity to rethink your business and operating models, and to deliver breakthrough value. Now the word value here I would like to emphasize. Value here applies to the products, to the services that you are giving, to the quality of the services that you are giving, towards the quality of the products that you are giving, and not necessarily to the values that you assign. Values are something like integrity, like your commitment to job, like your loyalty to the organization, and such like things, which are values.

I would like to dwell a little on values itself. People say, like in the army, I remember we used to write annual ACRs. In that there's a column, integrity. So in integrity, either a person has integrity or he doesn't have integrity — why rate him from zero to nine? This was the question on which lot of discussion took place at the MS branch, where I was a participant as a brigadier in MS policy. It was then decided: no, it does not show that a person has integrity either full or not. Like, for example, a person may never, under any circumstances, like to compromise on the national security, but he may compromise on small things where it is not that important. So therefore the person will not get nine out of nine in integrity; he may be given seven or maybe given eight. A person may like to change depending what the pressure — his values may happen. So there the leader gets even lesser marks. So that is how. So therefore, to say that the values constantly will stay the same, especially in today's world, it is not really true. The values change, and sometimes mostly they change because of circumstances. But the word value which is written here applies in a different meaning, which I have just explained right now.

As far as change management is concerned, it refers to the actions which the company takes, needs to take, to alter major components of the organization. Like, either for transformational growth you have to change the total culture in the organization, which is a difficult thing; to change the technology; to change the procedures, the way they operate; to change the internal processes totally and drastically; and to change overall vision of the company — to rethink the vision, that is required to be done. Even the products that the company is giving may be changed, even the methodology of distribution of products may be changed, and even the rate at which the products are being produced or the services are being given need to be changed, in line with what the competition is and why you would require the change.

And organization change management: the method of driving change to bring about a successful resolution. And typically there are three major phases. Obviously preparation, that is planning — and remember, ladies and gentlemen, the time in planning is never wasted, never wasted. Deliberate planning, detailed planning, having plan A to plan B, a plan C. If this happens, what do I do? If that happens, what do I do? And sure enough, something else will happen which you have not planned; still you have to be agile about it mentally and you have to change when required. Next, most difficult thing is implementation. Of course, having policies, having big constitution like our country has, or preparing policies with regard to leadership or with regard to procedures, you can do that, but their implementation on ground, and ensuring that they are being implemented the way you wanted it to be implemented, is something which is tough. And then of course follow through — that means monitoring continuously what is happening, seeing the outcomes and the output, and then making changes depending upon what you desire and what is actually happening.

When I talk about organizational change management, now the transformation changes are pursued in response to generally external forces: a disruptive new competitor, supply chain management has been disrupted, new laws have been formulated which are directly impacting your business, or factors like that. Or there are changes in the market — suddenly market has crashed, there's a depression, there's a lack of availability of resources in terms of cash, and you are not able, or your liquid assets which are there, your fixes which are there, you cannot convert it to cash. There are many compulsions which are there, and mostly these compulsions are not in your hand. It is somebody else who is the driving force and you have to react, or you may see the change coming and act. Both are possible, and both can bring about transformational change. If you are acting, then of course the initiative is with you; you are not being driven. That is forethought which is required — to change your style, to change your products, seeing what is coming. And that can be done from environmental scan, by scanning what exactly is happening in the market, who are the players involved, who are the stakeholders, why I must change, and when should I change, and how much should I change, and what are the resources required for that change. All that is what change management is all about.

Like, example to quote today is the customer relationship management software which people are expected to use, and now almost every company has started using this kind of a software to maintain a feedback from the customers about their services, about their products, about their cost, about their values, about how it can be improved, etc. So every time you buy, even online, you will get a form and a feedback to be filled, and sometimes they even get after you to make sure that you give the feedback.

Why transform? I've already discussed here: declining profits, structural industry change, technology shifts, financially the company is underperforming — you just can't change; the biggest reason is this — and of course markets have come down, crash, there's strategic preemptive which is there. So these are the reasons why we need to transform. There's no option: either we quit or we transform. There's no third option there.

When you talk about transformation growth, we have discussed that it means big change. Changes required: reorientation of organization, that requires high resources, and of course even the reformation of the portfolio and business activities in totality. Growth should be led and managed without sacrificing the organization financial and operating results. Sometimes you have to borrow big amounts of money to generate funds; you have to take adequate amount of risks, and risk is inherent in every transformational growth which is required. Risk is inherent; without taking risk you cannot transform the growth by taking a big leap. And of course there are all types of people who will need to change: that is the marketing and the sales team, the customer acquisition, the product services, the leaders, the customers experience, the staff who are handling the customers, and of course the loyalty of the customers, of your own staff. And because of market conditions, competitive threats and customer sentiments which are involved, and the type of feedback which is there, all these things become of paramount importance in today's world.

There are seven principles which one must keep in mind for achieving transformational growth. The first one I think is most important: that is, look past the myths. We have some myths. Like, for example, I give you — I'm in a private university. There was a myth that the advertisements will enhance your admissions. One year I decided that we will go without advertisements. It has just been the word of mouth of people who have passed out from here, graduated, our own staff, and only through the social media shall we advertise. Stop spending money on advertisement. And we found next year there was incremental growth — of course not too much, about 20-25 in admissions, which is quite a good growth without advertisement. So that it was a myth that only advertisements will receive a need of growth. All good things, they don't require advertisement, like fruits. We all know they are the best source of nutrients. Have you ever seen an advertisement for the fruit? No. You see advertisements for the products which are difficult to sell; then only the advertisement is required and money is spent.

Similarly, clean sheet a bold growth goal. Sometimes we lay goals which are beyond achieving. You know that you can't achieve those goals, so best to change them, clean all of them, change the goals if required. And drive big impact from multiple moves. You know only one methodology in one direction? No — you have to have multiple moves, find multiple people in different directions, using different methodologies if required to achieve the goals. Same goal, but there are 20 ways that you can function, and you must use all the methodologies. Like in the army, when you capture an objective, you use all sorts of firepower that is required. And of course there is constant flow of growth executed with vigor. Now this is very important; it is the rate of momentum which requires to be maintained. The momentum of attack, the momentum of your achieving the vision must be maintained with same vigor. You cannot let down in between. And turn measurements into competitive advantage. You have to measure in quantitative advantage, in a competitive advantage, how much growth you're actually achieving or where you're heading. And of course capability building is to be made a priority. You have to have your human resources trained, you have to have adequate amount of finances, you have to have the liquidity to generate funds, you have to have your customers growth and the way you achieve it, your supply chain management — all those things will have to be taken into account.

Role of a manager: of course these things are known to all of us. Having a clear vision, holistic management of change strategy, and then prioritization is something very important. You must prioritize what will happen first and what cannot wait. There are 20 problems which will come up in any business, so what can wait, where you can take the hit a little bit, make a strategic retreat so that you can bounce back — that is what is important. And of course employee-centric is something very important. The employees have to be explained what change you are expecting, why you are expecting that change, what is expected from the employees, whether there is a shift in their timings which is expected, that their structure, even their salaries would be maybe a little lesser if required, because the organization has to sustain. So those things have to be told well, in the manner that the employees understand, in the language that they understand, in the sentiments they understand. Unless that is done, the change cannot be brought out in the way you would like to have. And of course creating a high performance culture — you cannot have mediocrity with toxicity around when you want transformation change for a transformational growth.

This is a sort of a diagram which shows the job of a leader. The leader basically requires: visionary, he has to be creative, he has to be empowering and he has to be performing. All those things are of course within the leadership mastery. The leader has to be quite confident about himself — people mastery and of course enterprise mastery. So these are the total, and what are the forces, internal forces as well as external forces, which are acting in any organization. It is not easy to control the HR, the biggest resource; I think it needs to be controlled — human resource. If you can completely control the human resource, if they can deliver the way you want, I think 75 to 80 percent of the job is done. Remember, the biggest source is never the financial resource or the infrastructure source; it is always, invariably, the human resource, because humans can create infrastructure, the humans can create funds, humans can create technology, all like that — not the other way around.

Seven characteristics of a transformation leader: openness to new thinking, talent from broadening minds, commitment to listening. This is something very important, that the leader must have enough patience to listen when people come up with the problem, when people come up with new ideas. Sometimes people got no time; we got 20 other things to do, you got telephone calls all the time, you got webinars to attend, meetings happening. But please, I think, to develop listening skills is very important, to get proper feedback and understand the sentiments, the body language of the people when they talk, how they are expressing, how much frustrated or delighted they are, and what is their state of mind. The state of morale, something very important, is something which is ever changing; it is not constant, but it is the most important factor in bringing motivation, which is very important. And of course tolerance for ambiguity, I would say, is a very important trait of the leader, especially when it comes to higher responsibilities. Trusting team members and ability to inspire the leader they led. And of course a great number of change management activities and transformations are becoming more complex today — not easy, as I mentioned in the beginning itself — and it requires good amount of resources, good amount of leadership values, and good amount of finances, infrastructure and other details and planning to be done to transform.

Now this is a model, what all is required — skills. You can just read that; I will not take too much of time there. Basically clarity of purpose, evaluation opportunities and return on investment. This is what the strategy — mainly on these three issues that we have to follow. Of course, and budget governance, prioritization I mentioned, capabilities, communication of change, stakeholder management, performance management, of course integration of re-engineering, reprocessing, competency management and cultural alignment.

I'll give an example here of our own founder president, Dr. Ashok Chauhan. The Amity group started in 1994, which is not too old a period. And that time Dr. Ashok Chauhan met Colonel K.J. Singh from the Corps of Signals and General Kenya Singh, and where he set up industry, and he deployed 6000 Germans who were being given salary by him — a matter of pride for everyone. That was in late 80s and early 90s. Then he decided, came to India. He said, I must use my knowledge for education. Amity is primarily into education, nothing else. So in 1994 the two of them started from Noida — no clerk, no resources. At that time a body called Rhythm Education Foundation was founded, and they decided that let us have, within next 20 years, a university in every state. So his vision has translated: Amity has internationally benchmarked campuses today. There are 12 universities in India, three are coming up next year, we've got 13 campuses abroad, and ultimate vision is to have one university in every state and get these among the best. The Amity University Noida, in the rankings that were given today, is at number 25 in the country in the universities ranking, which is very good. My own Amity School of Engineering Technology today is at 153 amongst all engineering institutes of the country. Total there are about 1300 engineering institutions out there, and we stand at 153. So all that is happening because of his dreams, because he has always believed in two things: an eye on vision and eye on implementation. Implementation is something which is very, very important — having vision as much as the business.

Now his innovative leadership strategies transformed the AKC group, that was Ashok Chauhan group, into a sustainable value-driven conglomerate to transform the educational landscape of the country. And he follows four — his mission is to follow four Es. Edge: as he means, go to the extreme of any situation, what can happen. Knowledge: go to the extreme knowledge which is existing today. We always advocate — the students in the first go are told what are the limits of knowledge in that particular field. Like a physics student, he should be told that the smallest particle discovered today is what; astrophysics person should be told how far the galaxies are which we have seen through telescopes — the limits of knowledge, so that students can start thinking beyond that limits. That is the edge. Of course, enthusiasm has to be maintained, excellence and execution in all the works of life. So that is all that I would like to mention here, and with this I stop sharing my screen and I end my presentation. So thank you very much for sparing your valuable time and for listening to me.

I think it's been a wonderful talk that you've given, and I think majority of the people here would be able to understand and align themselves with your talk, because this is so apt with what is happening in the industry today. Whether you're in service, or you're providing a service, or you're manufacturing a product, I think what you said is so apt for each and every person who is listening to you.

Our next speaker is Mr. Gautam Mahajan. Mr. Gautam Mahajan is the president of Customer Value Foundation. He mentors the Value Creation Alliance, the creatingvalue.co, and is editor of the Journal of Creating Value. He's a graduate of IIT Madras, where he was an institute merit scholar, has a master's degree in mechanics, and has completed his PhD coursework from the Illinois Institute of Technology, and an MBA from the Suffolk University. He is helping value creation centers in Denmark and at the University of Maryland, and the value school in Japan. He is also an inventor, with products being used around the world, and has 18 US patents to his name. Gautam ran businesses for a Fortune 50 company in the United States for 17 years before returning to India. He has developed leaders, CEOs and executives. He's consulted MNCs like Alcoa, DuPont, Continental, Reynolds, GE, GTE, ITC, Sealed Air, Total, Birlas, Godrej, ITC, and Solvay. He is the author of six books: Customer Value Investment, Value Dominant Logic, The Value Imperative, Total Customer Value Management, and How Creating Customer Value Can Make You a Great Executive.

He has been the president of the Indo-American Chambers of Commerce and was chairman of its East India committee, vice president of All India Plastics Manufacturing Association. He was a member of the US India think tank; he was chairman of the US India Economic Relations Forum. Among his honors is a fellowship from Harvard Business School and Illinois Institute of Technology. He was honored by the Illinois Institute of Technology with its Distinguished Alumni Award in 2001. He has spoken on creating value all over the world, including the Indian IITs in Jammu, Mandi, Delhi and Gandhinagar. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Mr. Gautam Mahajan.

I think we've heard a very comprehensive talk by General Sharma. I'm going to limit my talk to leaders and managers of transformation, and what they have to do to change their mindset to become effective transformational leaders. I am the founder editor of the Journal of Creating Value — and that's this one — and we have people like Phil Kotler and Jack Shaite on the board. And I help CEOs to create value. I mentor the Creating Value Alliance, and we have two value schools in Japan, a value research center in Kyoto, a center in Denmark and one in the US. Our fifth global conference on creating value is in Japan on September 2nd to 4th of this year.

Transformation is change and the process of changing. Value creation helps you transform in the right way, and by doing good. Leaders have to create value to transform effectively, and transformation managers do have to create value. Now I'm just going to ask — and I know the only way you can respond is by raising your hands through the Zoom link — but how many of you have transformed yourselves? I can't see the answer, but every single one of you has gone through a transformation. General Sharma went through a transformation by leaving the army and joining Amity, or in running various organizations, or having different assignments. All of you transform from being a student to being someone in the work place, and many of you do it unconsciously, and many of you manage that transformation well. And the more positive you are in your thinking, the better your transformation process will be, and the more prepared you are, the better your transformation will be. Now most people talk about transformation as a process, as a functional thing. I will not speak about process, but about your purpose: how to create value, how to get a value creation mindset, and how to create a truly lasting transformation.

Companies, like people, keep undergoing transformation routinely, and we notice some of it. McDonald's making a vegetarian burger is transformation. Many during Covid have tried to become more nimble, agile and fast. Companies are learning that customer centricity is real and a need. IBM transformed itself from being a hardware manufacturer to being a soft services company. Amazon started as being in physical books in 1995, but today they're into selling everything, and for others, and in 2006 they went into cloud computing and are one of the biggest in the world. Maybe you never heard that American Express started in 1850 as an express mail delivery service and transformed to credit cards in 1950. Netflix went from renting DVDs to streaming content and owning content. YouTube — all of you have heard of YouTube — was a dating site in 2005, and bought by Google in 2006 to become a video site. Apple moved from being a desktop company to mobility when Steve Jobs came back.

And the process of transformation you can learn about from books, and the process includes evaluating your existing business situation, executive buy-in and employee buy-in, focus on communication, eliminate fear, be agile, etc., etc., close the skill gap, measure your employees engagement. But what and why people fail and companies fail is because you do not focus on the mindset.

So let's start with value creation and leaders. To do that we must define the word value. Value is a word that is used by everyone in any old way. It's used loosely and it's used contextually. So some people think that value is price; some people think value is quality. Value is not price, value is not quality. It's the sacrifice that you make to get something of benefit, and that is value — when you get more benefit than the sacrifice you make. So if you're a student, you sacrifice your time and you study hard and you get a degree, and if the degree is worthwhile, if it's beneficial to you, then value has been created for you. Then there are people who say price for value, meaning they're price conscious, but you also have heard people say money for value, meaning they're conscious about quality. To put an end to all this, the Journal of Creating Value has a definition which is in use now: creating value is executing proactive, conscious, inspired or even normal actions that increase the overall good and well-being and the worth of ideas, goods, services, people or institutions, including society and all stakeholders — like you, like employees, customers, partners, shareholders and society — and value waiting to happen, and to do good.

So in a business sense, value is what something is worth to you, and the value of the products that people buy — they buy your products over competitive ones if they perceive you create more value, more good, better worth than competition. I will discuss the concept of value waiting to happen later. And you're creating value when you improve the well-being of people. So transformational people must have an ultimate goal of improving the well-being of people and stakeholders. So we have always to keep the definition of value in mind.

Today I will discuss four different areas of creating value and leadership. First, what does Phil Kotler say on value creation and marketing and management's primary role. Second, primary role of a leader is to create value in transformation. Third, leaders must have values. And fourth, leaders of the future must transform through value creation.

Phil Kotler wrote in our Journal of Creating Value that marketing is value creation. He says leading marketers see modern marketing to be all about value creation. Marketing aims to meet human needs by creating value. He goes on to say: I do not know what you thought marketing and management was, but in my mind they are intrinsically a value creating discipline. Outstanding marketing and management companies see marketing and management transformation as intrinsically involved in value creation. So you can see that value creation is a very important part of your business, but none of you really know much about it, and we'll talk about that too.

So, primary role of a leader is to create value and transformation. Since this talk is about transformation, and creating value and transformation, let me focus on this aspect. There are four areas here. Your role as a leader and in transformation is to create value. You're not taught to create value. You have to get a value creation mindset, and value helps you strategize and innovate better, so that you can start to look at value destruction and value waiting to happen, including innovation. Why do I mention this? Because transformation is not just a process, it is not just change, it is not just functional. To be effective, there must be a mindset change which impacts culture, other change, transformation and things of that sort. This mindset comes from creating value.

Let's talk about leaders. People need leaders not because they meet their performance goals, but because they create value — that is, they go beyond the performance expectation. So if you want to be leaders, if you want to do well in what you're doing, you have to go beyond what your customers expect, what your bosses expect in terms of performance and so on and so forth. You have to create value, which is going beyond what is expected of you. Notice all the leaders around you are there because they created value. Look at General sahib — he's created value, and that's why he's there. Mr. Singh — they've all created value, and that's why they reached where they reached. And so just meeting numbers and performance expected is not good enough, and especially not so in today's world. If I can leave you with that one thought, you will become better leaders and better in transformation.

Let me give you two examples of companies that transformed during Covid. Many companies hid behind the problems caused by Covid. Some companies in India ignored the labor force in their factories because the factories were shut down due to lockdown. The company I'm speaking of, Parijat Industries, focused on these workers, and even though the workers were let go, they were taken care of, and the moment the lockdown was removed, they were ready, and 100 of their workforce returned. Consequently, for a time period they were the only manufacturers and captured a higher market share, and even the collections, debts, improved by 70. This happened because first they created value for the employees, and second, they created value for their dealers, because they were able to supply to the dealers, and had transformed themselves successfully in Covid times.

The second example is of Bajaj Auto, who 10 or 15 years ago started to feel that China might compete for motorcycles in the Indian market. They realized they had to start from scratch and change the mindset and add more value, and therefore they hired fresh people to design, to transform, to market world-class bikes. They wanted a value creation mindset. In a few years they had higher quantity, quality and higher technology bikes at reasonable prices. Result: Chinese bikes could not enter India. Bajaj took these bikes into Africa, where China dominated. They took over the market, leaving the very high end to the Japanese and the very low end to the Chinese. And this is because they decided to transform themselves through value creation.

I also said that I'll tell you that leaders are not taught to create value. People who reach the top do so by creating value. No one has taught them how to do this; no one's taught you how to create value, and that's what I'm trying to change. I'm trying to get people to teach managers, to teach students, to create value so that they will become value creators in the new world. So these people who reach the top did it because it was in their nature to do so; it was in their nature to create value. They were then creating value unconsciously, and therefore could also be destroying value unconsciously. And so we have to teach them how to create value in a more effective manner.

Value creation for leaders: about you, you as a person, not just as a leader. You can also create functional value for yourself by learning, education, training, practice, exercise. But the most amount of value you create is when you create value for others. So when you start to create value for your people, or your employees, or your customers, they will come back and create value for you, and they in turn create value for you. They recognize you as a value creator, and this is the most important transformation you can cause.

Value helps you to strategize and innovate better. We have to have a purpose, and the purpose is what we stand for. Why are we in business? What is our purpose? Is it just to make money, which really is a result, or is it to achieve some good? And therefore we start to look at value destruction and value waiting to happen. How much time do I have? Another five minutes, sir. Okay.

So when you look at value destruction, you want to see how you can change that into value creation. So when electric cars, autonomous cars, self-driving cars come, there'll be value destruction for professional drivers, existing manufacturers and repair shops, insurance, and for taxes. Another example is smart cities. We know that smarter cities is all about transformation. Everyone says we must have smart lighting, and smart lighting means poles that go on and off as required. But no one looks at the value destruction of poles. Poles are like other infrastructure: they use maybe 10 to 20 of the time, they're expensive, they take up land space. If we accept these to be value destroying, we're forced to look at alternatives. And what are these? You could use drones to light the street on an as-needed basis, or better still, our poles could be replaced by flying poles or drone poles, and light the path for us as we walk. Elegant, simple solutions — no poles. Value waiting to happen is innovation potential all around us that we do not notice. Most of us did not even think that a self-driving car was possible — I did not — and after someone brought it out, we said, oh yeah, it's obvious. And that was value waiting to happen. I can give you many examples, but because of time I must keep moving.

Leaders must have values — value with an s. Value and values are distinct. Values form an important part of value creation and are our essential beliefs, our ethics and morals too. Many leaders and companies mistake corporate traits with values. Traits include ambition, competency, individuality, equality, service, responsibility, accuracy, respect, dedication, diversity, improvement, enjoyment, fun, loyalty, innovativeness and excellence. Items that fit into values are integrity and honesty. So leadership training does not focus that highly on values, but the culture must reflect basic values. Transformation must be based on values.

Leaders of the future must transform through value creation. Now, whenever, before, our basic beliefs will be shaken, and our fears of lack of control as technology takes over will require business leaders who can create value and avoid value destruction during this digital transformation. This requires changing the entire old way of thinking that value means creating profit. In August 2019, 300 CEOs of the largest US companies signed off on the Business Roundtable's new purpose of a company, which is to create value for all stakeholders, who, you know, are employees, customers, suppliers, communities, society, environment and shareholders. Davos in 2020 said the same thing. So there is to be a supposed seriousness of purpose to create value, and therefore all of you should join that bandwagon, because that's what all the business people are looking at.

And to look at purpose, you first have to ask yourself, what is your purpose? What is your purpose for your family, for your friends? And people have found in a study that people with purpose live 15 longer. Maybe you don't want to live longer, I don't know. Is my business purpose to make money for stakeholders, or to leave a happier world? Since leaders can be shareholders, should they look at creating happiness? At the very least, your purpose should go beyond making money and increasing shareholder wealth. This purpose will help you revise your vision and then your mission, help you transform keeping purpose in mind. The purpose of the transformation should relate to the organizational purpose and make it more effective; otherwise transformation will be at odds with the purpose of the company.

So today I have defined value creation — it is about doing good. I spoke about Phil Kotler's view on marketing, which is value creation, views on management, which is value creation. You have learned that the role of a leader is to create value. You're not taught to create value, and if you are doing this unconsciously, you could be destroying value unconsciously. Once you learn about value creation, you can get a value creation mindset, which will help you strategize and innovate better, and you will start to look at value waiting to happen and learn to look at value destruction potential to create even more value. Your business purpose is to create value for all stakeholders. We need value-creating leaders for the future to create more value. Transformation must have the ultimate goal of improving the well-being of people and of society and of stakeholders.

So just to finish: to transform, you need to start with a purpose, you need to have a mindset change, you must avoid value destruction, you must imbibe a culture that transformation must contain values, you must have values, and you must create value for everyone. And there is no one formula in creating value; you have to do it generically. I hope this will help you transform yourself and handle transformation in a better fashion. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Gautam. Thank you very much — good, enlightening speech. I'd start by asking the first question: does growth create value, or value creates growth? Gautam?

Can growth create value? If value is defined as money or making profit, then growth will create a value. But actually, creating value will create growth. Which comes first? Creating value always will come first.

We get your opinion? In my opinion, it is the individual who has got value as well as values. Like, when you hire someone, you hire a person who's got values, and who defines the value the way he perceives it — it is not defined by the way somebody is teaching you. If I perceive what is my value, I shall act in that way. People do not learn, you know, from various books and all that; nobody reads this. My perception is common that the individual, as a total, as a human being, has got values which are changeable depending upon time, depending on circumstances, and the value which he ascribes — like the first definition Mr. Gautam gave was how much he is prepared to sacrifice to achieve an objective. So that also will keep on changing. So both are changeable to that extent, and it is depending — you are seeing a person, a leader, in totality rather than going to the worth.

One more question. There's a myth which says growth isn't something leaders can control; it is the result of market forces, competitive dynamics, customer preferences or sheer luck. What is your take on it? Gautam, you first.

So first of all, the growth starts with the customer, and growth doesn't mean that the market is growing. You can grow within a non-growing market because you're adding value. For example, in the fertilizer market in India, if there is X amount of fertilizer to sell in a particular region, the company that is most desirable is the company that has a relationship with the farmers, and so their growth is much more than the growth of the others. They've created value by having a relationship and having a brand that reverberates with the farmer. So I don't think — there are companies that grow even in bad times. A lot of companies grew during Covid; a lot of companies did not grow. And you've got to ask yourself why those companies grew, like Zoom — because they offered something that was of value to people like you and me.

If you give your take — I'll repeat the thing again. There's a myth that says growth isn't something leaders can control; it is the result of market forces, competitive dynamics, customer preferences or just sheer luck.

The fact saying that the leaders cannot control growth is something which is a very detrimental statement to me, because if that means, I think, that there is no need for leaders — that it may be auto driven — it doesn't happen that way, to my mind. While the conditions of the market, the forces, they are there, the circumstances are there, in spite of that it is a leader who will make growth, it is a leader who will transform. And people — the most important, when we talk about people, processes and technology, in that order, people come first, the processes come later and the technology comes last. So therefore leader can definitely drive, and that is why the CEOs of the companies, they make changes, they make all the difference. I think the leader can leverage the growth much more than the circumstances and other things.

Of course, if you had the opportunity to listen to a video by Mr. Rahul Bajaj, where he said that the circumstances matter most — now his own story, in his own words. He says that he was asked to make a documentary on his own success, in which he was made actor, of course, which he said could have been somebody different, but people, they brought him inside. Then he was taken to a place in Rajasthan where his grandfather lived. There he went and he saw — he was taken to a house where his grandfather lived, a very old, dilapidated state house, and there, he says, he found this security guard standing, and he asked him, by his name, how come you are here? He said, because I belong to this place. Then he said that story which has been narrated — that Rahul Bajaj's grandfather was from a very, very poor family. He says he was playing outside when some very rich person going on a horse saw him, and he took him, he went to his house, and he asked — the mother came out, and he asked in Rajasthani, whose son is this? Then she said, mine. And then he said, if that be the thing, I'm going to take him away. Then of course the father came; they said nothing doing. Then of course he explained: I will transform him, he will remain your child, but I will make him, and you can meet him. And he took him away, and the rest is history. Now he was wondering — now here the circumstances come. He says, if in my place the grandfather of the security guard had been picked up by the same old man, probably I would have been a security guard and he would have been the CEO of Bajaj. That is what circumstances, that destiny, is about. So therefore, to say that it is total hard work — the transformation is also there, but the destiny and the circumstances count.

Can you ask your question please, Hema Suri? I don't see her.

Both the speakers gave a very illuminating talk on the transformation, and what I could glean out of it is, firstly, the leader has to always keep the environment in mind and keep changing his values, what Mr. Mahajan says, based on the environment. Second aspect is that, Mr. Mahajan, would it be prudent to say that when the values change, the objectives come out, and does it translate to management by objective?

So objectives and all of these are a result of your strategy, and your strategy depends on what your thinking is. And very often the strategy of a company is just to survive, and they forget that they should really be creating value for the customer and the other stakeholders. And if they do that, then their objectives will become clearer, the purpose will be clearer, and they will be able to grow in a better fashion. So I would say that it's extremely important to start with the purpose and then to actually have a creating value mindset.

Would you like to ask a question, please? He speaks to us from Dubai. Not right now, actually. It's a very, very, you know, informational session for me and a very eye opener. Thank you so much to the speakers; I've been really obliged to attend this. Thanks.

Satan, you have a question to ask? Could you unmute yourself, please? And organizers, for a very useful session — really, I loved the session. I think there should be more, other one hour each for each session. My question is: what are the present roles of the leaders in present scenario after Covid-19 for value addition and transformation?

What is the present role of the leaders? Covid-19 has had certain adverse effects, but it also has had certain positive impact. The first one — you are seeing today that we are on video conferencing, talking to each other, which would not have happened in this manner probably had Covid-19 not taken place. Right? There was no concept earlier of video conferencing from across the world happening the way it is happening today. The distances have been reduced; that is one. The value of the internet has increased much more; that is the second impact which is there. And third, last but not the least, the timings have been compressed, multitasking has increased, the work from home culture has commenced, the costs on offices, on transportation, on infrastructure have been much reduced, and of course the costs have been cut down by a number of factors. Advertising has reduced; the social media has increased much more.

And the adverse impacts are that the fake news and disinformation has increased at a much faster rate. The rogues who are there, the cyber attacks, the cyber crimes have increased at a much faster rate. Even the journals — predatory journals which are charging money, or the journals which are cloned and are taking the academicians for a ride. And not only that, sometimes the academics themselves get taken for a ride. They send a paper in a cloned journal, and thereafter, when it is called out, they say, well, how could I make out that this is a good journal? That is what. And academic integrity today is something which needs to be seen, because I am in the academic world also. Like in our university, I would like to mention that we have got a center for detection of fake news and disinformation — Center for Detection of Fake News and Disinformation — which is the center of excellence which we have created post Covid because of all these issues. And we have got softwares to catch the faked or forced pictures; we have got methodologies to detect which are the journals which are clone journals, the journals which are fake journals, the journals which just make money. I've seen the journals being launched, coming to the Scopus indexed list and then making money, charging 20,000 rupees for each article, publishing useless articles, unwarranted articles, in a period of about six months making about one crore rupees and then closing down the journal straight away. By the time Scopus detects that, the publications have gone away, and that is too late; the person has got money and they vanish. This is what is happening in the academic world today, and similar things are happening in anything which is being controlled, which is more dependent on internet. And the dependence on internet is increasing day by day. It will continue to increase with the kind of bandwidths that are available, with the cheap rates that are available, particularly in India, and also with 5G coming. So this is what the changes which have taken place because of Covid — positive and negative both, highly leveraged.

So thank you so much. Thank you. I have a question which is coming from somebody who's on YouTube. They asked two questions, actually; I lost the first one. Can you measure value? Gautam?

Yeah, we measure value. We measure value all of the time. We've measured value for companies like GE Capital in Stamford, Connecticut, companies like State Farm Insurance in Springfield, Illinois. We've measured value for Wisconsin Energies, we've measured value for American Express, for Coca-Cola. I mean, you name the companies, and we've done work in the last 40 years, 20 of which I have been involved in, and the 40 years was a guy called Ray Cardoplasty who started all of this at AT&T.

So when you measure value for a company, is it the sum total of measurement of value achievement of each employee? No. The most common form of measuring value is to find out what the customer values. So if I am a customer, what is the value that I perceive is being created for me — not what the company thinks it's giving to me, but what I think the company is giving to me. And the company really has to measure the value I as a customer give to the company. And actually the whole process starts with the company creating value for the customer, and the customer in return creates value for the company. And if the value that the customer gives to the company is bigger than the value it receives from the company, then a form of profit is made for the company. And that's very important. I mean, people think that they can just get value from someone or extract value. You first have to actually create value for someone; then alone will he come back and create value for you. So the measurement is done all of the time. I'm writing a paper with a Japanese professor on measuring value to and from stakeholders. So what is the value that a company is creating for society or for the environment, and what is the value that the environment or the society is creating for the company? People think it's a cost if I do something for the environment; it's a cost. They forget that the environment is also going to do something for them that is useful. And if that value created by the environment is bigger than what you're giving to the environment, then the environment actually becomes a profit center.

Sorry, go ahead. The follow-up question says: if you can measure value, how do you turn measurement to competitive advantage?

So the measurement is always done versus competition. So, for example, I'm wearing this shirt. How did I buy this shirt? I just didn't go and close my eyes and picked up a shirt and came. I looked at the shirt, and I looked at four or five, six shirts, and I shortlisted two or three of them, and then I looked at the price, and I might have bought the most expensive or the cheapest or the one in the middle, and I bought the one that would create the most value for me. How would it look on me? Would it wear well? Is it easy to iron? Can I travel with it without crushing it? Are the colors okay? And so on and so forth — is the material what I really want? Those are the benefits that I'm getting, and for that I pay something to the shop, and I also pay the shop my time, because I've spent the time to go there and browse. And so that's a cost to me, and that's why the digital world becomes, or digital buying becomes, so much better, because maybe you don't spend that kind of time, you don't have to physically go somewhere. Many of you, almost all of you, have used greeting cards. No one uses them anymore, because it's too much of an effort to go to a store and buy a greeting card and then put it into an envelope, put a stamp and mail it. The cost of doing all that is too high for us.

PK, what is your opinion on this? How do you turn measurement to competitive advantage?

My opinion is that the measurement sometimes can be deceptive. I'll give an example. Like, the Kingfisher Airlines was highly valued. At that time it had introduced new aircrafts, luxury provided in totality; everybody was liking it, and people were liking it like anything. Vijay Mallya was at the top of the world. But at that time it was perceived that they are giving high value to the customers. All customers were taken in by a very high class of service, very high quality of aircrafts, maintenance, operations. But then it could not be sustained. Why? What are the reasons? I would not like to discuss it. Second thing is that the values which people perceive are good for them — like, for example, in Sri Lanka the taxes were reduced, the petrol cost was reduced, all that. People perceived it good; they might value that particular president who has been there for a number of years. People, they voted for them again and again, not realizing ultimately what damage is being done at national level. So therefore the perception of the people is not always correct, and it is not always that the majority is always right. So therefore the values have to be seen in national interest, in the overall interest of the society, rather than feeding or giving freebies and people getting votes out of that, which is happening in the political world today. We have to see what is the national interest, ultimately what is good for them.

It is like making history — like, work hard, you know. When a student comes, there are two ways. There are teachers who gain cheap popularity by trying to appease, by giving him extra marks, by leaking out the question paper some way or the other. That is wrong, those methods. But the students, at a particular time, they feel that that teacher is giving us too much of happiness; they vote for him, they give him the feedback. Another one is very strict, who means business, who teaches them like anything, who gives them extra work, who makes their life miserable, but for their own good. Those people are remembered after they have left the university. When they come in life, then they will say, yes, there was a teacher like that, took us to task, but what we are today is because of that person. So therefore the perceptions of the customers may not necessarily be giving the true value which may be perceived. Actual values which come out are different then, because in the national level interest, in the higher level interest, they are quite different.

So General sahib, I think you've said too many things here. One, in the Sri Lanka example, when you reduce taxes, you have to look at the value destruction potential of reducing taxes. That's why I talked about that. Second, I think you have to look at the value that the customer is getting, and in Kingfisher the customer was getting a good value — perceived, they were getting good value. But the value that was being created for Kingfisher might not have been sufficient, because of a flawed way of financing or whatever it was, whatever caused the thing. So there are two distinct things, and so we have to look at them in a distinct and different fashion. That's all I wanted to say.

So if I may be permitted to say just one minute — yes, yes, sure, why not, just one minute. So I would like to mention here that some of the frauds which are taking place are not known to the customer, not known to the people. The marketing frauds which are happening, the frauds which are happening in the banks — they come into light later. Until that time they are made to feel, and they feel so, that the person is right, that that's the way that things should progress. There was a time, like, Kingfisher was the modern airlines — everybody thought so, not knowing what methodologies have been used, those which come into light at a later stage. So that's what exactly I was trying to say: since the perceptions change, it's not necessarily true that whatever people perceive is the correct thing.

May I ask the President to throw some light on this particular question? You know, the question was: how do you turn measurement to competitive advantage? What is your take on it? You're asking me? Yes, I'm asking you.

Oh yeah. You see, actually the two speakers have, I think, spoken very well and excellent. But the question is measurement of value. First, the measurement of value is a process which can be known once you have — it's not creating a value. Say you want to create and sharpen a knife, and this sharp knife is a value creation. So that will give you the value; in this case it is gradual; you have to realize that. I'll tell you about value creation. I was with Tata as a consultant for some time. I went into details as to why in this particular group, for the last more than 100 years plus, never a strike has taken place. As a police officer, I was just thinking why no strike has taken place — everywhere I'm finding strike, strike, but Tatas never have a strike. So I went into the details in my mind and asked some people, because I was a consultant with them, and I got the details. Here I'll tell you both the things: the leadership qualities, as General has pointed out, and also value creation, as the president said.

I came to know after study how — look what is the value in their case. Value is very, very minor things in the working, but it ultimately led to no strike. Now what they were doing was, every time something happened to a family of their employees — thousands of lives — not only would they look after that, they'll add something to them, not in terms of money only, but also giving employment to the second person, whosoever was in the family. It was created a permanent feature that they will somehow manage to give employment to the person. Second, some miners died sometime in the coal mine, when these things will cave in, where the houses are there, because underneath they go on mining, and sometimes the particular soil will cave in and the house will give in. Here they will look after the family in such a way — new fans, new houses, everything created — and whatever damage is there, double that advantage. I'm not talking in terms of money; it is a value system which they have created, and that value system has helped them in getting returns in terms of no strike. So you can't literally differentiate — I mean, there's no such sharp differentiation between value system and leadership. Any good leadership will have to create value, and ultimately you may measure it in terms of this. I mean, this is something which I would like to tell.

Second, we talk in the management of positive strokes. What is the positive stroke? That you're patting — if something happens, you'll get rewarded, so that the person goes ahead. That is what we call — General will agree with me — positive strokes. So when you give to a person — I'll give you a very interesting example of positive stroke, which is on the value system. We say you give a positive stroke. One of the very, very ordinary citizens, who were not so adept in management — his child was less than one year old, and he was just trying to walk. He fell down, and the mother patted the child and said, get up; it is not that you are hurt, but that ant which was there — in Punjabi. This is definitely a positive stroke to a child: it is not the fault of you; go ahead, get up and go ahead. So this is again our value system in our country. In our generation it is so positive that — now we give a term of positive stroke in management, but our value system is that we are very positive. And when there is a negative, we'll give a negative. For example, a child in those days — now the diapers have come — a child just has a sort of irritated face there, because he has defecated there, so that the child in future tries to control his motions. So there is a difference there — not much of difference — but leadership, that is the leadership quality, is giving negative or positive stroke, but in terms of value system, the value system. So my submission is that there's going to be no strict demarcation. And if you ask me, then I can conclude also the session here — we want to carry on? Let's go ahead and conclude the session, as we're running out, because the time is going.

So, concluding: the first speaker very beautifully started with — this is not the financial management only with which you want to create — but this uncertainty. To cover the uncertainty is beautifully provided: how a transformational leader controls the chaos, how it reaches the full potential in terms of care, so the risks are managed properly, and how he is willing to take risks and ask others also to take risks, and that sort — to thrive through the chaos. That is the transformation; he strives through this. The second speaker has beautifully started with this thing and came to the value system, and I think he pointed to one line: it has to be mindset. This is something which we may not miss. We go by objective — what is value, sir? Dr. Gautam — but it's a question of mindset. He is talking about a mindset to be created. That value system should be there in the leader's mindset, and if he has got that mindset, certainly he will give positive values to his business and come and go over the chaos. So one side the leadership — that you take risks, you thrive through the chaos, you overcome the chaos, and somehow ultimately you have transformed the organization. The other is this: by creating certain values. So somewhere these two streams cut together, because we have not laid emphasis earlier on something like value system. A new word has been given, and that word is definitely positive — that positive values have to be created — and Dr. Gautam has gone into details of this.

I'd like to say, giving tools, certain examples have been given beautifully by Dr. Gautam. I'll go to one or two examples. One example is of Walmart. The chairman of Walmart, who created this — it is understood that he went from one place to other places, and found out he was complimenting most of the people. Because of concern about getting into loss, and the employees — he was giving that possible compliment: you know it happens, you'll be able to do it. After going through the entire system, he created a Walmart which is value based, but at the same time, as a leader, he was able to give positive strokes, to give compliments to his employees and create involvement. The second is a political leader. The political leader — you can talk about Nelson Mandela. Nelson Mandela brought about a mindset change through rugby. In the rugby tournament he used to be there, and it used to create a sense of: you countrymen, we can't remember — with the result that his countrymen ultimately — that led to ending apartheid, and he was able to win over that. So the leadership, the values, they merged together, and ultimately, as a transformational leader, those who are there, they have to imbibe the values. At the same time, as pointed out by General, there are certain points when we should be prepared to take risk. And here I am talking only in terms of the subject: these leaders, if they are able to overcome the chaos and make the employees think — employees, I am talking in terms of his subordinate managers — think that nothing will happen, you can overcome the chaos, then I am sure that the transformational leader will be able to bring transformation in the organization, and that organization will have its own growth, because you're passing through a stage of stagnation somewhere and you want to go. They are knowing what is happening; their mind is: yes, this is happening, but what can happen — and that is the transformation.

With these words, I'd like to immensely thank Mr. Speaker — I mean, I could not resist clapping hands — and Dr. Gautam. And the President finished the speech — excellent exposure for us as transformation leaders to create value system. And thank you very much, General Sharma, for having very objectively given some evidence, example of Amity's growth and all, and I'm very, very thankful to the delegates who have borne with us all the time and been with us for such a long time.

Our next webinar is going to be — it is actually an interactive session. We have got two types of sessions going on: one is a webinar where there are two or more speakers, and one is the interactive session where there's only one speaker, and the interactive session is reduced to only one hour, including opening and closing and all that. Next is a very important growth of export in defense industry — India's defense interest, that is, growth of Indian defense industry. It really is the subject of great importance. Major General Doctor P.K. Chakravarty, who is a graduate of National Defence College, and he got his doctorate from an institute of technology and sciences, and he is an excellent writer also. I've seen him on the TV channels also, the defense analyst. He is going to be our valuable speaker. I'll request all the delegates to be with us on 29th July, again same 6 p.m., and with this I thank you all for being with us. Thank you very much indeed.

Mr. Chakravarty would be speaking to us from the United States. He's lecturing there in the University of Texas at Austin, and he'll be speaking to us from the university there. He's speaking to us from USA; he's gone there teaching. Thank you very much indeed. Thank you. Thank you, VK, thank you so much. Gautam, thank you so much, and a very enlightening talk. Thank you very much, everyone, for being here. Very illuminating, our thoughts — both the speakers, fantastic. Thank you. All right, so thank you, bye-bye.