Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Mero gaam, Manthan (1976) (folk version)


Kurien's management genius is hard to replicate. We are talking about a person who has helped align the livelihoods of over 1.7 million women with the creation of one of India's most valuable brands - Amul.
However, I think his failing lies in his rigid faith in cooperatives as the sole means to building something like Amul. In doing so, he rejects the very idea of capitalistic finance.

Agreed, that capitalistic organisations cannot by design retain the same social focus as cooperatives, still, their ability to attract private capital and scale up, without getting too political in the process enables them to have a much greater impact. Amul remains an exception as it was created under exceptional circumstances by exceptional people. Tata, Reliance, Airtel and SKS microfinance are more commonplace.
Cooperatives definitely have a place, but I have come to believe, that their institutional superiority is a function of easy availability of capital (a prosperous society) and good governance system (an evolved society). Cooperatives therefore, I am inclined to think are better suited to maintaining "social development" as against aiding "social development". Capitalistic organizations that follow the rule of the market (and hopefully with regulatory supervision to ensure that this is not the same as the rule of the jungle) are better at bringing social development.

Monday, January 18, 2010

My Favorite Management Gurus

Name Specialization Rating
Michael Porter Strategy ***
Philip Kotler Marketing ***
Amartya Sen Development ***
Verghese Kurien All of the above *****
Brealy and Myers Finance ****
CK Prahalad   Strategy            ****
MK Gandhi Leadership *****

Views are personal :-)