The Freshman Credo

While the services sector continues to thrive, the industrial sector, particularly manufacturing, too has kicked in as a powerful growth driver in recent years. Indian companies have become more efficient in terms of processes and quality, and are becoming competitive on a global scale. India is also becoming a major hub for manufacturing and export of manufactured products. So, a world of opportunity awaits you. But harnessing this potential requires hard work and the right attitude. As you enter B-school and prepare for a career in business, here are some thoughts that I feel will be relevant when you graduate and face the real world and its challenges. I am sure all of you have dreams to become entrepreneurs or ceos. Here are three things you should remember:

Keep an open mind. Business cycles are becoming shorter and shorter, and business models become obsolete much faster today than in the past. The solution is to unlearn the old and learn the new. Learning is a continuous process and you will need to learn from what you see all around you. You have to create a mindset that is continuously open to ideas and innovations. At ICICI Bank, the 90-day rule of completing a project that we adopted from Silicon Valley start-ups helped us keep tight control over implementation of projects and gave us a huge competitive edge. I personally set aside eight to 10 days every year to bring myself up to date with the developments in related fields through seminars and industry conferences because I truly believe that I will become obsolete in a year if I do not do so. For the same reason, it is compulsory for every one in ICICI Bank to undertake a minimum number of days of training per year.

Be open to course correction. A corollary of learning is to correct one’s errors. Too often we become prisoners of our strategies and plans. Planning is fundamental to any business, but it’s equally important to keep course-correcting when things do not pan out as per plan. In today’s environment it is very difficult to plan for more than two years. You must constantly elaborate and recalibrate your strategies. Do not get bogged down by mistakes; learn to recognise them quickly, take them as learning experiences, cut losses and move on.

Think big, but don’t forget the execution. Great leadership emanates from the ability to dream. But a visionary leader is worthless without the ability to transform the vision into reality on the ground. While having in your mind the big picture of what you aspire for, you must also focus on the details of how to get there. Successful business is about managing the details of execution without losing sight of the ultimate goal. A leader manages multiple activity strands, understanding the part that each has to play, and knitting them into a unified whole.

As I said, this is the age of opportunity for you. We can now see in India the beginnings of a long-term transformation akin to what post-war Japan and China have seen. We have favourable demographics, a large pool of human capital, competitive industry and rising wealth creation. We can reasonably expect the growth rates that we have witnessed in the last few years to sustain for the next 15-20 years. I urge all of you to act differently from the generations before you. Nothing is impossible if you believe in your abilities and work to realise your dreams. This is India’s moment; this is your moment. Make the most of it.

K.V. Kamath, MD & CEO, ICICI Bank