Thursday, September 21, 2006

Lalu ban gaya gentleman?

He came, he spoke, he conquered. Read what I think of Laluji's maiden b school appearance here.

7 comments:

  1. interesting. something 'different', surely from him...

    and speaking of railways, i must mention the Delhi metro system... though it might not have anything to do with mr. lp yadav, the fact that it's much better than the ones here in philly or even in new york makes you feel proud as an indian.

    guess the IIMs should consider doing a case study on how the delhi metro system came in to being - in one of the most populated, conjested, polluted cities of the world, and much before its projected deadline!

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  2. Lalu's lecture at IIM-A has created so much for media that for past 2-3 week there is not a single newspaper, weekly, or monthly, which has not covered this. This could well turn out as a new trend for business school to invite person from obscure field and share their success. i remember some year back IIM indore added movie LAGAAN in its course. it see it as apositive sign as school will be taking up a real life example more relevant to indian context and not digging into to book/ case studies totally alienated to indian context and most of their author are too much influenced by thir own surrounding.
    not just buisness but other institutions can also follow this and turn back to lacal resource / course of knowledge.

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  3. Here are some thoughts that I have reproduced from my personal blog:

    Lalu Yadav, The "Turn-around Guru" Examined

    The media has found a new poster boy! Meet Lalu Yadav, the new age management guru, whose single-handed turn-around of the loss making Indian Railways has propelled him to corporate stardom.
    A little scratching beneath the surface reveals a different picture of the new “role-model” for management graduates.
    Lalu Yadav is the prime accused in over 36 cases of the Rs. 950 Crore fodder scam#; is accused in a whole range of cases ranging from owning assets disproportionate to income and embezzlement to criminal conspiracy and misuse of official position; is widely known to orchestrate socially divisive policies based on caste and blatant minority appeasement in his home state; protects notorious, supreme court-convicted criminals like Shahabuddin, who is a member of his political party.
    Despite a near uninterrupted, 15-year stint as the Chief Minister of Bihar, a rare feat in the history of Indian politics, his home state, to this day, continues to be one of the most poverty-ridden, lawless, corrupt, and undeveloped states in India. With 43%* of its population living below the poverty line, Bihar is the second poorest state in India and continues to be one of the worst performing states in India on almost all HDI (Human Development Index) counts over the last decade.
    The commendable turn-around in Indian Railways, widely attributed to Lalu by sections of the media, was actually engineered by Sudhir Kumar, Officer on Special Duty for the Bihar State Government, who is an IAS and MBA. While Lalu deserves credit for hiring the right talent, it is Sudhir Kumar, who did the planning and ground-work for the dramatic turn-around of the loss making PSU.
    Despite his dismal report-card as the Chief Minister of Bihar, his involvement and conviction in one of the biggest scams in the country's history, his politics of blatant minority appeasement, and the multitude of criminal cases pending against him, large sections of the media are projecting this man as a “New age management guru” and a “Role model”. With role-models like Lalu, who aren't exactly class topers in the Ethics and Morals department, one can only hope that the new crop of management graduates from IIMs don’t end up emulating an Enron. God forbid! Perhaps, Lalu would be a better role-model to fellow corrupt politicians trying desperately hard to improve their public image through effective media campaigns.


    Sources
    # - BBC World
    • - National Human Development Reports, 2001

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  4. Rashmi,

    I don't think it is fair to attribute the turnaround of Indian Railways to things like good luck and economic boom.

    This guy does deserve a pat on his back for doing what he did to Indian Railways.

    If economic boom is a factor, why have not the other ministers done wonders in their portfolios?

    We always jump at a chance to criticise people. Likewise, we should also learn to praise them when they have earnt it.

    Rajni
    (http://rajnis.blogspot.com)

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  5. As Vinay Said, if he the role model, i have a question to people at IIM A, how many of them would like to be lalu or would want their kids to be lalu's of tomorrow.

    Now looking at it more rationally.
    Lalu has been at the helm of railways only for 2 year. An organisation which is the second largest rail network in the world and is one of the biggest employer in the world changed in 2 years. How practical and feasible is that. To see the resulst of cahnges in organisations of this size it takes years. That is also one of the reasons stated for the failure of PSU's since often people become heads only for small time and decisions are not atken for long term.

    i found nitish kumar's statement more apt on CNBC awaaz. "agar ped paanchwe saal mein phal de aur ek naya mali aaya ho to iska matlab yeh nahin ki sab is mali ne kiya hai".

    If the common man here in these blogs knows that it was not lalu who took the right decisons but sudhir kumar then why didnt IIMA invite sudir kumar.

    though i dont want to doubt the credibility of IIMA, but if sudhir kumar would have been invited then which news channel would have reported it, which news paper would have covered it, which blog would have discussed it and who would have known Raghuraman.

    After all IIMs do teach marketing, and they are world class in it so this definitely was a win win situation for both IIM A and Lalu.
    Except for the moral values which we say all the business man should imbibe.

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  6. Being a Bihari, it somehow doesn't sit with me that Laloo is undertaking reforms that minimise the opportunity for corruption.

    Maybe Laloo believes he has enough in his kitty already, hence, has decided to increase his chances of career progression. Who knows?

    All said and done, he definitely is getting some good publicity. He can thank IIM-A if he becomes our next PM. Now that is a thought that makes me want to chuck.

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  7. This is the same guy who mismanaged Bihar for 14 years.

    http://apunkadesh.blogspot.com

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