Leaders as brands

When we talk about a leader as a brand, the only Indian example that used to come readily to mind was that of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. He was an undisputed, undeniable brand in every sense of the term. This is not to undervalue the contribution of other political leaders like the simple but effective Lal Bahadur Shastri or the charismatic Jawaharlal Nehru, both of whom had their followers. Suddenly the Indian leadership stakes has a new entrant in Anna Hazare. What a leader! If someone can actually move our government and even the normally sluggish Manmohan Singh to action, he deserves nothing but the highest praise and the eligibility to enter the top brand management stakes. While it is understandable if I were to break into eulogistic rapture about his actual achievements I shall carefully desist and attempt to stay with the leadership brand, its characteristics and the learning therefrom for young aspirants. What can we learn from the Annas of the world - about leadership and branding?

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'CK: The inveterate optimist.'

I've had the opportunity to listen to CK Prahalad a couple of times, once at IIM where we were involved with the event - he was addressing the Alumni.

On a personal level, he was very easily approachable, friendly and there were no airs about him. No one interacting with him on a casual level, without knowing who he was, would have been able to guess that this was one of the most respected management thinkers of our time.

On the professional front, the key thing that always struck me about him was that he was an inveterate optimist. This was even while all around us, and particularly those in India, were always negative about what we perceived about the business environment. He was optimistic bout the India story, and stories of few companies that he had watched grow made for inspiring and motivating talks across the world. Whether it was the case of Aravind Eye Hospital or the sachet revolution of CavinKare, they opened up the world to the Indian opportunity and innovation.

Even if you look at the Bottom-of-the-Pyramid approach, while many of us were stuck in theories of how the burgeoning Indian population meant impending doom, he forced MNCs to look at the emerging Indian middle class from the other perspective of untapped opportunity. While he was contributed in many ways to many organisations, and inspired very many individuals and corporate leaders, he will be remembered most for awakening us to 'core competencies' and 'bottom of the pyramid'. Those shall remain etched for long.

To me, someone of his capacity and competence, and someone who commanded so much respect, speaking the India story, at forums of repute around the worlds, was his greatest contribution to our country.

(Ramanujam Sridhar is CEO, brand-comm, and the author of Googly: Branding on Indian Turf.)