Financial Times

Encouraging growth and development with equity
The University Grants Commission to celebrate its 25th anniversary organized a workshop under the theme “growth and development with equity”. Leading academics, government officials, consultants and private sector business leaders had been invited to make presentations. The organizational committee should have focussed with greater emphasis, the importance of the leaders and leadership role in growth and development with equity. The nation’s growth and development, as well as that of the business sector, universities and people are always as a result of effective leadership roles of committed and visionary leaders, implementing strategies for growth with the enthusiastic support of all stakeholders.

A young business leader, marketer and communicator in his book on leadership, which refocuses and re-frames the search for effective leadership by connecting attributes to results shows that “leaders who aren't getting results aren't truly leading, or more specifically leaders who aren't getting desired results aren't truly leading”. “Every leader does get some results by definition, if only in the sense that every organization is “perfectly designed for the performance it achieves". “Leaders must learn to understand and focus on designed results. Leaders do much more than demonstrate attributes. Effective leaders get results”.

Another experienced business leader was heard giving a lesson in leadership in managing a challenging issue of governance, following a study of a post implementation review report submitted by a professional. His advice noted below is worthy of emulation, if growth with equity is the objective.

* Accept every key challenge as a personal challenge for leadership action in the future, taking failures as personal failures of leadership role and responsibility and never apportion blame to any subordinate for such failures

* Treat every issue from the past as a historical recording there only for drawing learning points for future leadership action.
* Never probe and chase after failures unless there is integrity or issues of moral turpitude involved

* The managed community must see immediate decisive leadership action, demonstrating a renewed personal commitment to hold the team accountable in the future

* Seek options for systems improvements, capability enhancement (knowledge, skills, attitudes) effective MIS with early warnings, and communications effectiveness improvements

* Seek not only to address the specific issues that emerged but always take the opportunity to enhance and further improve management effectiveness, leveraging the opportunity to raise the good governance bar in general

* Take the opportunity to reiterate the existing controls and systems better communicating them and enhancing capability across the board

* Never focus the changes only to the unit where the problem arose but address issues across the organization in order that all learnt lessons are shared

* Make it a point to revisit such issues at leadership level and re-assess effectiveness of action taken.

A business leader addressing the UGC work shop highlighted the importance of fiscal discipline in assuring growth with equity, drawing a reference from the preaching’s of the Gauthama the Buddha, quoting that a man must spend his income earned on consumption, only having retained a larger share for investments for the future and saving for any unforeseen contingency.

He went on to relate an actual story of a young boy who started life as a bicycle cleaner in a garage in Sri Lanka and became one of the richest entrepreneur bus magnates to highlight the importance of fiscal discipline in growth. He said that this boy had bought his first bus with his savings and with hire purchase finance from Rowlands.

He drove the bus and everyday he spit his income into six tills in equal share, one for meeting his fuel expenses, salaries and regular monthly payments and commitments, one for paying the lease finance commitments, one for replacing tyres and major repairs and overhauls, one for the purchase of his next bus, one for any unplanned emergencies and one for himself and his family expenses. Any savings in these tins were added to the savings till to buy his next bus. When drawings exceeded the available funds in the tills, he would either work harder and longer and increase prices and increase his income or reduce his expenses by careful spending and lowering waste.

The above action of a boy with no management education or knowledge of finance and represents highest levels of fiscal discipline, with effective resource management via pricing strategies, productivity and waste control.
He had understood the management concepts of variable costs, fixed expenses, finance costs, repairs and renewals funding, depreciation with funding, risk management and distributable profits when he established the tills for revenue shares.

Do governments, universities and businesses practice such a disciplined approach to fiscal management? The ST, Central Bank, leaders of governance and business must take a cue from this young entrepreneur and exercise fiscal discipline for growth with equity.
(The writer could be reached at - wo_owl@yahoo.co.uk)

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