The Made-in-India Manager

by R. Gopalakrishnan, Ranjan Banerjee

Who are Made-in-India managers? What do they do differently? Over the last fifty years, several Indians have occupied top positions in multinationals across the globe. Shantanu Narayen at Adobe, Satya Nadella at Microsoft, Padmasree Warrier at NIO and Sundar Pichai at Google- there are, today, innumerable instances of CEOs born and bred in India, helming S&P’s 500 companies. What accounts for such a prominent presence of Indian professionals across the world today?

In The Made-in-India Manager, two stalwarts of Indian business and academics examine this little-studied phenomenon and present a compelling that a unique combination of factors has led Indian management thought and practices to become a ‘soft power’ with the potential to decisively impact global managers of tomorrow.

Drawing on their long and varied experience among corporates, the authors

• the deep cultural influences that engender a sharp competitive instinct and an astute business perspective;

• the circumstances that inspire a high degree of resourcefulness in challenging situations;

• the ability to ‘think in English and act in Indian’, which enables flexible functioning in multicultural work environments;

• and, importantly, how today’s young managers can build on these advantages and bring to the table their own generational learning, attitudes and capabilities to ensure future success.

Thought-provoking and provocative, this fascinating treatise takes a long view of the Indian professional’s path to definitive career success, and makes for compulsory reading for every management practitioner.

Genres: Business, India, Nonfiction

143 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 2, 2018

About the author

R. Gopalakrishnan has been a professional manager for forty years. He has a wealth of practical managerial experience, initially in Unilever and more recently in the Tata Group. He has lived and worked in India, the UK and Saudi Arabia, and has travelled extensively all over the world. He began his career in 1967 as a computer analyst with Hindustan Lever after studying physics at Kolkata and electronics engineering at IIT, Kharagpur. He worked in the marketing function before moving to general management. During his years with Unilever, he was based in Jeddah as CEO of the Arabia unit; later, he was managing director of Brooke Bond Lipton India and then vice-chairman with Hindustan Lever. He has been president of the All India Management Association. Currently, he is the executive director of Tata Sons based in Mumbai. He also serves on the boards of other companies.

Reviews

[Amit Verma · Rating 4 out of 5]

In last few years we have seen more and more Indian CEOs rising to the helm of International companies.

Satya Nadella (#microsoft), Sundar pichai (#google), Shantanu Narayan (#adobe), Rajeev Suri (#nokia) to name a few.
This book tries to decipher Indian manager.

What makes them unique.
Why they adapt quickly?
Why they succeed in new lands?

To do that authors explore History of Indian Management milieu, famous CEos of past and Indian culture which installs few good qualities to these elite few.
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Scarcity of resources, command on English and natural hierarchy of an Indian family teaches resilience and patience to Indian managers.
🏵️🏵️🏵️🏵️
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All arguments May not be with scientific backing and many are authors personal observations and derivations.
Although today's world demands well defined sources and references. But it has more of personal observations and accumulated experiences.
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Writing is simple, structured, engaging and even mildly enjoyable. Especially real world examples and history of Indian management is interesting.
🏃🚶🏃🚶.

There is new crop of restless and saltatory managers born near 1990s ;who are volatile and high on confidence with technology on their sleeves;

♾️ but they are considerably disadvataged while facing setbacks.

A good book by @hachetteindia

I am motivated to read , The biography of innovation and The bonsai manager written by the author.

[Akshay Bonala · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is on the perspective of the Authors about why Indians like Shantanu Narayen at Adobe, Satya Nadella at Microsoft, Padmasree Warrier at NIO, Sundar Pichai at Google and many more have occupied top positions at Global organizations.

This review is spoiler-free...

In this book by R. Gopalakrishnan and Ranjan Banerjee, both authors express their views on why Indian Manager who have born & brought up in India and later moved to other countries for higher Bussiness Education / Made-In-India Managers (as referred in the book) are successful in their carriers and acquire top positions in Global Organisations.

In the book, Author's put their points based on their analysis. This entire book can be summarised by answers of below 3 questions.

1. What effects of Indian soil in their bloodline has given them an edge on Mangers from other Nations in the past?

2. What is the cause of the same cannot be applied for tomorrow's Managers?

3. What steps can be taken by tomorrow's to be successful?

In the entire book, there is no proof of anything that Authors have said. But based on their observations, experience in domain and the interview of some Made-In-India Managers, They have drawn the conclusions in the book.

I would recommend this book to readers who what to know the answers to the above 3 questions (Again answers are based on Author's perspective) and also to Every MBA or Manager aspirants.

[Kintan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a well-written and approachable book. I enjoyed an homage to the rigor of the Indian educational system and how it prepares products of that system for greater and harder things in life. Focus on basics such as learnability, adaptability and humility, while important was not unique or new to this book. While key Indian leaders such as Nadella, Pichai and Nooyi are mentioned in the introduction and promotions of the book, much of the book focuses on how to succeed as a manager as opposed to drawing upon deeper experiences from these leaders. I was expecting to read more about specific examples from those leaders.

[Gopal R · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book clearly brings out all factors driving and influencing the way Made-in-India managers act. As the name indicates, the managers are clearly made in India, irrespective of wherever they operate in. Each factor ranging from competition in India, Indian family and societal values, some vestiges of colonialism, empathy, etc, which forge a manager's mindset and characteristics are dealt with. What also comes across are the traits required in a manager.
But the book has some amount of repetition, that could have been avoided!

[Shivani · Rating 3 out of 5]

We’ve seen more and more Indian ceos rise to the top, ceo of adobe, Microsoft, google, Nokia etc etc I read this book because I care about my career and have lots of drive and continue to seek growth. I wanted to understand where that hunger and drive comes from and what influence Indian culture and being raised by Indian parents has had on how I navigate my career. This book really gave me a lot of direction but none of it was rocket science to me which is what I expected and such a blessing because non of this is rocket science to me because I have the opportunities. So 3.3 for this book

[Tarun · Rating 3 out of 5]

Expected it to be a guide to be like one but it is more of an analysis of what made them succeed.

[VijayGopi Ramachandran · Rating 4 out of 5]

a narrative of the global managers of Indian origin. also sheds light on the current generation of indian managers

[Sparsh · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very basic kind of a book. More of a composition than a thoroughly articulated book.

Maybe it’s just that I had high expectations but it turned out to be not so great

[Durga Menon · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Made in India Managers, by R. Gopalakrishnan & Ranjan Banerjee
We’ve been really proud of our Indian born and bred CEOs, CFOs and other top level managers heading various international companies be it Satya Nadella at Microsoft, Sundar Pichai at Google, Indra Nooyi with Pepsico or the latest Dhivya Suryadevara at General Motors, these are few names from the list. This book aims at decoding what makes these “Made in India” managers successful. It’s a very deep analysis beginning from appreciating our Indian roots to the competitive mindset of Indian families to being able to “Think in English and act Indian” this book covers a lot of such factors believed to accelerate the success of our ‘Made in India Managers’.