‘Generation on the cusp’
If age could. If youth knew. Perhaps that’s the reason that while the youth today knows that it has the capability to take on the baton, it realises the need to learn from the experiences of achievers. As the hunt was on to discover the young Tycoon, the prospective candidates were given a fair exposure to the mindset of the ‘tycoons’ of the country, in various walks of life — Sandeep Pandey and Arvind Kejriwal in public awareness, Tarun Tejpal in media, Rajyavardhan Rathore in sports and Lt Gen SS Mehta and Madhukar Rao in public policy — at the one-day Leadership Summit hosted by Career Launcher, on the eve of Tycoons final. Tycoon in the dictionary sense these speakers not be, but their thoughts, their actions and their impact on the society are truly that of a tycoon. So, were the Tycoon event finalists awed by their presence? Far from it. With their volley of questions on some fundamental issues, the microcosm of India that the final 48 represented, ended up winning the speakers’ heart. A report on the sessions

The threat, as the young generation readies to take on the world, “is that goalkeepers like me will hold you back,” Lt general SS Mehta, an ex-armyman and the director-general of CII, cautioned the youth in the opening session of the Leadership Summit. Pointing at the change that had occurred in the society and that had led to the go-getter mindset of the youth, he said, “We are an old culture, and the threat that will come to you will be from the culture of patronage. What our predecessors enjoyed doing most was to be patronised. And a patronising culture tends to be status-quo. The worry is ‘I should not lose’. So if I buy a suitcase I should cover it (for the fear of it losing its polish).” He said the greatest transformation that had happened was that the attitude had changed to ‘I can win’. “If in my generation I had tried to change job, the whole family would have made me change my mind. We were risk averse, you are risk friendly… My regret is that I was born 60 years ago,” he admitted.

But the ‘I can win’ attitude too has its pitfalls, pointed out Lt General Mehta. “I can win attitude can lead to arrogance, lack of patience and tolerance.” He put this in the context of education scenario in India, where, out of 460 million children, a 100 million do not go to school and 270 million are dropouts. Therefore, the privileged ones must not fall into the luxury of giving up. “If the conscience of society is not in your makeup, you will end up wanting to be the richest person.”

The next speaker was Madhukar Rao, co-founder of Parliamentary Research Service, who, following his engineering went to the US for an MBA, but came back to India on completing MBA. He told the gathering that he was moved by the disparity between India and the US and that he didn’t want to be a fence sitter. Each one can make an impact, he felt, but not knowing what his calling was, he first became an investment banker in Mumbai. He later joined Pratham. He had a number of lessons from Pratham to share with the gathering. An issue that he raised was that of scalability. “Small is beautiful, but large is useful. There are advantages in small, but you need large-scale solutions.”

Talking about his work with the parliamentarians in his current role, he said the public perception was that half the parliamentarians are uneducated and have criminal record. Whereas 83 per cent MPs have degrees and half of them have second degree. And only 7-8 per cent have criminal record. He said more often than not, politicians took stands which they themselves didn’t believe in. “If you can’t take a public posture on what you believe in, what’s the point,” he wondered.
The question session provided a glimpse of the quality of participation that was to be expected through the day. To a question on what positioning should one take as a leader (should the leader be at the forefront, with the people or behind the people), Lt Gen Mehta replied that the position could not be static. “You can’t be too ahead, not too behind, and not always with the people.” The purpose of shifting positions, he said, was that of gathering information, assessing pace and talent of the group. “Good information means good policy,” he said.

Answering another question he compared life to a battlefield and said, “Nothing in life is as good or bad as it first appears.”

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