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Adaptive Leadership

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How the best Indian companies drive performance by investing in people.

Leadership Lessons from India by Peter Cappelli, Harbir Singh, Jitendra V. Singh, and Michael Useem

Included with this full-text Harvard Business Review article: 1 Article Summary Idea in Brief—the core idea 2 Leadership Lessons from India

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Leadership Lessons from India

Idea in Brief
The leaders of India’s biggest and fastestgrowing companies take an internally focused, long-term view and put motivating and developing employees higher on the priority list than short-term shareholder interests. To engage employees, these leaders create a sense of social mission that is central to company culture, encourage openness by developing and personally modeling systems that provide transparency, empower employees by enabling communication and pushing decision making down through the ranks, and invest heavily in training. These individual practices aren’t new, but Indian leaders combine them in a coherent package and give them consistent emphasis. The authors advise that Western leaders adapt this managerial approach to their own circumstances, pursuing in particular two readily achievable goals: investing in training, and strengthening social mission.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PUBLISHING CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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How the best Indian companies drive performance by investing in people.

Leadership Lessons from India by Peter Cappelli, Harbir Singh, Jitendra V. Singh, and Michael Useem

COPYRIGHT © 2010 HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PUBLISHING CORPORATION. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Vineet Nayar, CEO of the Indian IT services giant HCL, likes to rock the boat. Asked what he wished his greatest legacy to be in five years, Nayar responded without missing a beat: “That I have destroyed the office of the CEO.” He led the charge that

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