Manthan: Art & Science of Developing Leaders
By K.K. Sinha, Ajay Soni and Indranil Mitra
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About this ebook
All of us are aware about the spurt in leadership development activities in India over the recent years. There have been frantic efforts in Indian as well as foreign companies to develop leadership quickly across all levels in the organization. The reason of this recent surge lies in the current growth trajectory of Indian companies. Many Indian companies are growing at a rate which is mind-boggling. Companies which grew at 3 to 4 percent per annum for the first 30 years of their history, grew 10 fold or more since the advent of the new millennium. There are examples of several companies which have expanded phenomenally during the last decade, from Pan-India operations to manufacturing in 5 countries and doing business in 30 countries, increasing their manpower five times more than the number of people they had ever hired. This has put tremendous pressure on companies to develop leadership at all levels in the shortest possible time.
So the natural question that comes up is: what kind of leaders do we need today in India?
When we explore our own past, we expect our leaders be it in the form of god, king, or entrepreneur, to be 'Sarva Guna Sampanna', i.e. one who has all identified competencies and qualities required to be the 'right' leader. Today the imperative for senior leaders is to keep actualizing the talent in themselves and also in the band of leaders all over, whether leading from the front or middle or behind.
K.K. Sinha
KK Sinha is a Graduate with Honours in Economics and Post Graduate in Personnel Management / LSW (Gold Medalist, University of Patna). He has worked and also associated as Consultant in organizations like SAIL, NTPC, Reliance and Jindals, Damodar Valley, Aditya Birla Group, Adani, Tata Power etc. He has received extensive learnings in Human Resources in Harvard Business School, Templeton College (Oxford), Michigan Business School, Tata Management Centre, IIMs. He has also written a Book, “My Experiments with Unleashing People Power”,which has been rated in Business Standard's The Strategist top five. Currently, he is associated in the leading Business School, Birla Institute of Management Technology (BIMTECH).
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Manthan - K.K. Sinha
MANTHAN
ART & SCIENCE OF
DEVELOPING LEADERS
MANTHAN
ART & SCIENCE OF
DEVELOPING LEADERS
Editors
K K Sinha | Ajay Soni
Indranil Mitra
© BIMTECH, Greater Noida, 2017
First published, 2017
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To
Our wives
Chitra Sinha
Deepti Soni
and
Roopali Mitra
Samudra Manthan
The son of Maharshi Attree, Durvasa was a brilliant sage. He was an ascetic par excellence but was widely known for his quick anger and tart behaviour. Once sage Durvasa went to meet the King of Gods Devraaj Indra who was ready to move out on his celestial elephant Airavata for a royal visit. Sage Durvasa met Indra and felt very happy. The sage, out of humility and respect for the King of Gods, offered Indraa a special garland given to him by the God Shiva. Indra accepted the garland and placed it on the elephant’s trunk in order to prove that he was not an egoistic God. The elephant, out of his own ego, threw the garland on the ground. This enraged the sage as the garland was a dwelling of Sri (Laxmi or fortune) and was to be treated as a prasada or a religious offering. Durvasa felt humiliated, got furious and cursed Indraas well as all devas to be deprived of all strength, energy, and fortune.
Laxmi, the mother of Universe and goddess of fortune, disappeared after this incident. In battles following the incident, the Devas were defeated and Asuras (demons), led by King Bali, gained control of the universe. Indra and the Devas, led by God Brahma, went and sought help from the Supreme God Vishnu who advised them to have a dialogue with theAsuras. Guided by God Vishnu, the Devas formed an alliance with Asuras to jointly churn the ocean, so that the goddess of fortune Laxmi reappears and the Devas find the nectar of immortality and share it among them. However, Vishnu told the Devas that he would ensure that only the Devas obtain the nectar and become immortal.
The churning of the Ocean of Milk was an elaborate process. Both Devas and Asuras decided to use Mount Mandara or Mandar Parvatas the churning rod. Also, King of serpents, Vasuki, who resides on Shiva’s neck, became the churning rope. Lord Vishnu took the Avatar of Turtle (Kurma) and bore the churning rod, the Mount Mandara on his back. The demons demanded to hold the head of Vasuki, while the gods, as advised by Vishnu, agreed to hold its tail. The great churning, Samudra Manthan began. As a result, the demons were poisoned by fumes emitted by Vasuki. Despite this, the Gods and demons pulled the snake’s body, back and forth, causing the mountain to rotate, which in turn churned the ocean.
The Samudra Manthan process made a number of things appear from the Ocean of Milk. First, a lethal poison known as Halahala appeared. This terrified the gods and demons because the poison was so powerful that it could destroy all creation. Then the gods approached Lord Shiva for protection. Shiva consumed the poison in an act to protect the universe.
All kinds of herbs were cast into the ocean and several Ratnas (gems or treasures) appeared from the ocean and were divided between Asuras and Devas. According to the quality of the treasures produced, they were accepted by Vishnu, the Devas, and the Asuras. Some of the significant things that came out of the Samudra Manthan were, the Goddess of Fortune and Wealth Lakshmi, the Apsaras, various divine nymphs and Varuni.
Similarly, three types of supernatural animals appeared like Kamadhenu or Surabhi, Airavata, and several other elephants, Uchhaishrava, and the divine 7-headed horse.
There were three valuables – the Kaustubha, the most valuable Ratna in the world, Parijat, the divine flowering tree and Sharanga, a powerful bow, other things were produced such as, the moon Chandra, Vishnu’s conch Shankha, , the goddess of misfortune Jyestha or Daridra, the umbrella taken by Varuna, the earrings given to Aditi, the Celestial Wish Tree Kalpavriksha, the purifier of the universe Tulsi and Nidra or sloth.
Finally, Dhanvantari, the heavenly physician, emerged with a pot containing the heavenly nectar of immortality, Amrita, Fierce fighting ensued between Devas and Asuras for the nectar. To protect the nectar from Asuras, the divine Garuda took the pot and flew away from the battle-scene.
The Devas appealed to Vishnu, who then took the form of Mohini a beautiful and enchanting damsel Mohini, who distracted the asuras, took the amrita, and distributed it among the Devas. The Devas instantly drank it and Asura Rahu Ketu disguised himself as a deva and drank some nectar. Due to their luminous nature, the Sun God Surya and the Moon God Chandra noticed the switching of sides and they informed Mohini. But before the nectar could pass RahuKetu’s throat, Mohini(Lord Vishnu) cut off his head with her Sudarshana Chakra. But as the nectar had gone down his throat he did not die. From that day, his head was called Rahu and body was called Ketu. The story ends with the rejuvenated Devas defeating the Asuras.
Ksheera Sagara Manthan (the Churning of the Ocean of Milk) is one of the most famous periods in the Puranas. The story appears in the Bhagavata Purana, the Padma Purana, the Mahabharata and the Vishnu Purana. It has a deep rooted meaning and has a symbolic significance for the leadership of today and tomorrow.
The ocean represents the unknown, unfathomable depths of external as well as internal environment, which is uncertain. It could be the human psyche or the complex external environment of a leader.
Devas & Asuras represent the positive and negative energy of one’s self. The negatives include ego, greed or lust for power, status, wealth and the delusion of becoming supreme. On the other hand, the positive energies lead an individual to be virtuous, ethical, humble and conscious.
The Leader, like the Devas and the Asuras (the positives and the negatives of one›s self), has to churn the Ocean of Milk (the mind) for the nectar of immortality (self-realisation). With Mount Mandhara (concentration) resting on Vishnu’s Kurma Avatar (withdrawing and controlling the senses), and using Vasuki (desire) as the churning rope, a leader needs to choose the path of discovering oneself and along with his/her colleagues, achieve the common purpose, the common goals.
Contents
Foreword by Padma Bhushan Dr. Mrityunjay Athrey
Messages
Preface
Acknowledgements
SECTION I – LEADERSHIP: THE INDIA WAY
SECTION II – LEADERSHIP IN TODAY’S TIMES
SECTION III – DEVELOPMENT OF FUTURE LEADERS, TODAY
SECTION IV – SUCCESSION MANAGEMENT
SECTION V – BUILDING GLOBAL LEADERS IN UNCERTAIN TIMES
SECTION VI – LEADING TRANSFORMATION
SECTION VII – DRIVING INNOVATION AND BUILDING DIVERSITY
SECTION VIII – CONCLUSION
Foreword
I am happy to write this Foreword for a number of good reasons. First, Leadership has an important role to play in all organisations. An injunction in industry has been—‘Lead; don’t just manage’. In the armed forces, it is—‘Lead; don’t just order’. In politics, it could be—‘Lead; win elections; and transform’. Second, good Leadership is in short supply, almost everywhere. Especially, in business enterprises, where Survival/Continuity is essentially the first objective, before the other Corporate Objectives, like Growth, Profitability, and Image/Reputation, can be achieved. In the global management thought, there is the talk of two wars—war for the customer and war for the talent. The longer the strategic time horizon, winning the war for talent is even more important. The importance of winning the war for talent is directly dependent on the length for strategic time horizon. Good talent will attract the customers, and earn their delight. Leadership talent is the prime mover amongst the pool of all talents. Third, Leadership development is even more critical for corporates in India, which is currently the fastest growing major economy according to international comparative data. If infrastructural and administrative constraints are reduced, the economy could even grow by 9 per cent for a decade or more.
In the above context, books on Leadership act as perfect reads for professional managers, teachers, and trainers. This particular book has a number of strengths, which makes it even more applicable. It is set in the Indian context and the majority of contributors are Indian managers. They come from pan-India and in some cases from other parts of the world and belong to organisations which have grown from local to regional. To begin with, they have been grappling with their own role-specific leadership challenges. The seniors among them would appreciate how far we have come from the earlier debates on leadership in the Indian Management scene, since at least the 1970’s. I returned from the Unites States in 1967, after studying management at Stanford and Harvard Business Schools, to join the faculty of the Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata. We were confronted with basic questions like—‘Do we even need managers under the license-permit raj?’ The debate progressively shifted to more and more significant questions. Do we need leaders rather than managers? The answer was that we need people with all the managerial competencies, in addition to Leadership skills. If a ‘leader’ came into industry from the armed forces or the civil services, he needed to be further equipped, on the job, with the relevant management competencies continued. Are leaders born or made? Well, it is an advantage to have some personality predispositions towards leadership but not a precondition. With a high motivation to succeed, people from various backgrounds turn into leaders. Even the ‘born’ leaders need to develop some managerial leadership skills. Depending on varying potentials, some leaders may find their level at local, functional, divisional, or similar arena of leadership. Only a few will make it to national and global level of business leadership.
The structure and varied contents of the book allow the reader, and a particular company’s HR Head and top management to benefit from those sections that may be most relevant and useful to them. There are seven sections each with a specific theme. The starting sections introduce basic issues and concepts while the later sections deal with increasingly complex issues of leadership development. This mirrors, partly, the evolution of reforms in the Indian economy and changes in the world economy. The 1991 structural reforms in India constitute a watershed. Three types of reforms were envisaged: Liberalisation Privatisation and Globalisation (LPG), Globalisation and Privatisation. Out of these domestic Liberalisation has made the most progress, for political reasons. There is much greater ease for the entry of businesses. This has intensified domestic competition. Good leadership is required to take advantage of the new opportunities and also to protect the firm against the new threats. The second reform making significant progress is Globalisation. Many sectors are being opened up for foreign investment. Indian firms need leadership to take advantage of global opportunities for selling goods and services as well as sourcing them globally for optimum quality, cost, service, etc. The third reform of Privatisation has made less progress. There are two strands to it; one has advanced more than the other. Many sectors, which were public sector/government monopolies, have been thrown open to the private sector as well. These include Telecom, Power, Civil Aviation, Insurance, etc. The other strand, Privatisation of public enterprises, had not moved much. Successive governments—both UPA and NDA—have been hesitant.
To the business leadership challenges of the above reforms, the global financial crisis of 2008, China’s debt bubble and slowdown, terrorism, regional wars, refugees, anti-trade, anti-immigration attitudes in G7 countries, etc., add more pressure.
The reader may find some relevant experiences and insights, for many of the above issues, in one or more of the 86 articles in the book. The title, Manthan, itself is indicative of the churning and unending search for the effective leadership approaches. Many processes involved in the evolution of the book should be reassuring. The ideas were gathered over a period of three years and hundreds of executives have participated. Space for their creative inputs and interaction was provided by a number of round tables. The three editors have done a creative and painstaking job. Their varied backgrounds have enriched the processes and contents. BIMTECH, the business school has provided generous institutional support. It is the sustained collective efforts of the participating management leaders, editors, and BIMTECH that have given us this valuable compendium.
I recommend this book to practicing managers, HR executives, management students, teachers, researchers, and consultants.
Messages
In the rapidly changing world, there is a constant need to create leaders who are able to adapt and create value for the enterprise. In this VUCA world developing and nurturing internal leadership talent, hiring great leaders from external environment, helping the new leaders assimilate in the corporate culture while ensuring they retain their own personal identity, originality and specialty for which they were inducted is the most crucial challenge. Good leaders know that business is a churn (manthan) that produces new value by constantly thinking of newer and better ways of meeting customer needs. It is a manthan between employer and employees, between businesses and customers, and between leaders and followers. Being able to carefully balance the interests of all stakeholders is the art of leadership.
Based on three years of research, Professor KK Sinha of BIMTECH and Ajay Soni from Aditya Birla Group and Indranil Mitra from NTPC have offered a unique perspective on this critical area of business management in this excellent compilation. Business schools across the world continue to grapple with the complexities of leadership; this book offers some important insights and I am confident that it will become a valuable contributor to the discourse. My congratulations and best wishes to both of them for this excellent work.
Mukesh Ambani
Chairman and Managing Director
Reliance Industries Limited
I am delighted to learn that as a part of its research activities, BIMTECH has taken a major initiative in examining various aspects of leadership qualities, by inviting leading HR professionals from Industry, Business and Academics to take part in 16 Round Table discussions across India. Their views and ideas have now been edited and compiled into this book. There is no doubt that leaders make and shape the course of institutions, and nations, and therefore, anything that helps to build better leaders, is most welcome. My congratulations on this effort, which I am sure, will benefit the task of taking forward the development of our country and creating jobs for the millions.
R.C. Bhargava
Chairman, Maruti Suzuki
Leadership is a complex phenomenon and given its multidisciplinary nature, the process of developing leaders needs to be seen from multiple lenses. I am happy to note that the authors have attempted to capture the views and experiences of several eminent leaders and HR practitioners to create a collection that would be enlightening for the readers. I wish them all the best in their endeavor of creating well rounded, ethical and inclusive leaders for all walks of life.
Adi Godrej
Chairman, Godrej Group
A brilliant articulation of thoughts on the gargantuan debate on leadership at a time when India’s own thinking on the subject is gaining global recognition. A great idea to get these eminently valuable insights from an eclectic selection of minds into one place. I am sure this compilation will go a long way in enriching the conceptual understanding on this complex topic. Best wishes to Professor Sinha and Ajay Soni and Indranil Mitra for making this happen.
Harsh Goenka
Chairman, RPG Enterprises
The book clearly briefs that leadership is demonstrated by action and example. Refreshing and insightful.
Gurdeep Singh
Chairman and Managing Director, NTPC
The need for leaders is felt, across all segments of society now, like never before. The accelerating developments in the world, set in the perspective of an acute lack of leadership in many domains, serve as yet another reminder of the need to develop leaders. This need for a new generation of leaders is amplified in the rapidly growing economies, such as what we are witnessing in India.
Manthan: Art and Science of Developing Leaders is a timely treatise on the subject of Leadership Development, set in the context of the current Indian business and social organisational ecosystem. The authors, Professor KK Sinha and Ajay Soni and Indranil Mitra have gleaned insights from research and engagements with leaders across domains and sweetened with the learnings from their own rich experience of several decades, it is a wellhead for all leaders to read. An important book on the subject, and a must read for those involved with the Art and Science of developing the next generation leaders.
My personal compliments to Professor KK Sinha and Ajay Soni and Indranil Mitra for gifting this to our generation
Anil Sardana
CEO and Managing Director, Tata Power Company Limited
Manthan: Art and Science of Developing Leaders is a culmination of commendable efforts put in by KK Sinha and Ajay Soni and Indranil Mitra by bringing the minds and thoughts of Business Leaders and HR Practitioners together in the field of leadership development. The master piece work dovetails research with narratives on leadership quotient and styles in an elucidate manner coming from the thought leaders in the field. This scholarly work of Sinha, Soni and Mitra is supported by rich anecdotal data and stands the rigour of test for an authoritative compilation that tells all about leadership qualities, capabilities and development processes.
A good read for leaders at present and leaders to be.
S.K. Acharya
CMD, NLC India Ltd.
I am happy to note the hard and sincere work made by the Editors of this great venture incorporating more than 65 thought leaders’ observations and experiences on Leadership Development. I am indeed happy and satisfied that the Authors have honestly attempted to propound that Leadership Development is no longer Science only, but more of an Art in order to deliver sustainable success in organisations.
My best wishes for this so very valuable contribution towards one of the most critical and challenging need of Leadership Development.
Padmashree Dr. Pritam Singh
Chairman – LEAD Centre
Congratulations on putting together this volume on leadership styles and leadership development for Indian enterprises. This will be a valued contribution to the business literature in India.
Robert S. (Bob) Kaplan
Senior Fellow and Marvin Bower Professor of
Leadership Development, Emeritus, Harward Business School
An excellent book on leadership development in India. I truly appreciated the diverse viewpoints from more than 50 practitioners and thought leaders. Sinha, Soni and Mitra have truly synthesized the art and the science of leadership development.
Dr. Jagdish N. Sheth
Charles H. Kellstadt School of Business,
Goizueta Business School, Emroy University
Manthan: Art and Science of Developing Leaders is an excellent collection of articles on all aspects of leadership. It has emerged as one of the best pieces of intellectual work and contribution on the subject. Dreaming the future, its articulation in terms vision and defining how to get there are some of the most important characteristics of leadership. ‘Art and Science’ have rightly been captured in title of the Book in-as-much-as both these faculties shape leadership just as Fixity and Flexibility both are essential for a good, effective and successful leader. Science of leadership and Art of leadership can and should move parallel and converge as needed. All the Essays in the book provide wealth of knowledge-conceptual, strategic and also implementation. An extremely directional and educative and a must read book not only for H R and OB professionals but also for all those engaged in the field of managing – in fact, Leading.
R.V. Shahi
Chairman and Managing Director
Energy Infratech Pvt. Ltd.
The book Manthan: Art and Science of Developing Leadership brings together the rich experiences of scores of distinguished HRM practitioners as well as academics who have had extensive real life experience in the field. Leadership has been a vital element in securing excellence of not just corporates but every kind of organisation ranging from NGO to the Government, the more so in our complex and turbulent times. My best wishes that this book plays an inspirational role not just for HRM practitioners and managers but also for students and faculty.
Dr. Pradip Khandwalla
School of Inspired Leadership
The workplace of the 21st century is characterized by great complexities, uncertainties, ambiguities and interconnectedness. Unprecedented and discontinuous growth brings to the fore, both opportunities and challenges. The purpose of organizing HR Roundtables under the theme The Art and Science of Developing Leaders
was to bring the companies, consultants, academic institutions and leadership coaches and trainers on a common ground, to collate their experiences, to share processes, to look at best practices and to predict the future roadmap for leadership development in India during the coming decade.
It is a matter of great pleasure to witness the various perspectives of eminent professionals on these issues in print. I wish this book all the success!
Dr. H. Chaturvedi
Birla Institute of Management Technology, Greater Noida
Manthan is a book about Leaders – the main asset of companies that is so talked about and understood less than any other. The authors, also while editing views and experiences of host of leaders have presented a very useful summation to think of the critical ingredients and the processes of developing leaders and elicit some of the practical science and wellillustrated Art for organisations to build leaders, emphasizing the unique India Way. I consider myself fortunate to be part of this great journey of creation and compliment the effort of KK Sinha, Ajay Soni and Indranil Mitra.
Kamal Singh
Executive Director & CEO Asia-Pacific,
UN Global Compact Network India and Former DG, NHRDN
Manthan: Art and Science of Developing Leaders will be a great resource for business and HR leaders as they craft their strategy to build leaders for tomorrow.
Wishing BIMTECH team best wishes for this new project.
Ester Martinez
Editor-in-Chief, People Matters
Professor Sinha and Ajay Soni and Indranil Mitra bring helpful insights and practical advice about how companies can master leadership development. The diverse viewpoints presented by more than 50 authors are sure to inspire and enlighten readers of Manthan!
Marc Effron
President, The Talent Strategy Group
Preface
At the turn of the millennium, the world started examining and exploring the challenges of an uncertain future. One of the major challenges that have emerged is that with the rapid change happening in all spheres of life–including technological, economical, political, social, and cultural, there is an acute shortage of right leadership. In a growing and transforming world, it is essential to develop the right types of leaders, who steer, inspire and guide their people through challenges.
In the Davos Business Summit, one of the issues that emerged as a major concern was the crisis of Leadership in all walks of business and governance in the new millennium. The world would need to actually work in a focused manner to meet this crisis. We are already experiencing the Leadership shortage in the business, highly accelerated today by ever- changing business realities like globalized market, demanding customers, availability of capital, regularity shift, changing work force profile, rapid technological changes etc. Under the circumstances, corporates particularly need to identify and innovatively work not only on critical success factors like cost, quality, speed, delivery, learning and innovation, social responsibility, etc., but also primarily on development of talent and leadership.
Leaders, who only live in the present and respond to its special pressures and demands, would fail to achieve quality of leadership and the change required in the future. In today’s digital age, transparency and social awareness have to be the cornerstones of any organisation. Leaders and their Human Resources teams need to align their current values accordingly. Some fundamentals, like truth, humility, courage, energy, edge, equity, and social justice, will have to be brought back into the organisation leadership DNA.
All of us are aware about the spurt in leadership development activities in India in the recent years. There have been frantic dramatic efforts in Indian as well as in foreign companies to quickly develop leadership skills at all levels in an organisation. The reason of this recent spurt lies in the current growth trajectory of Indian companies. Many Indian companies are growing at mind-boggling rate Companies, which grew at 3 to 4 per cent per annum in the first 30 years of their establishment, increased 10-fold or more since the advent of the new millennium. In the last 10 years, several companies have phenomenally expanded from Pan-India operations, manufacturing in 5 countries and doing business in 30 countries, and five to ten times increase in their manpower This has put tremendous pressure on companies to develop leadership at all levels in the shortest possible time.
So the natural obvious question is:
What kind of leaders do we need today in India?
When we explore our own past, we expect our leaders to be in the form of a God, a king, or an entrepreneur and to be Sarv Guna Sampanna, i.e. someone who has all identified qualities required to be the ‘right’ leader. Today, the imperative for senior Leaders is to enhance their own leadership skills, and foster those skills in other leaders either by leading from front by being their people.
Researchers have been researching, advising and rewarding how leadership needs to be developed or is getting developed in successful organisations. People have been identifying competencies, which act as basic ingredients in leadership and have been defining as well as penning down the roles, styles and attitudes of successful leaders.
Scholars have for long been grappling with various questions on leadership: Who are leaders? What makes them tick? Is it their personality or education, or is it being good role models? Have they risen to be a leader, or are they just born with it? or Is it life experiences that make a leader?
As we started discussing on leadership, sometimes we argued that developing leaders is a science while at other times we opined that it is an art. Given the complexity of the phenomenon called ‘Leadership’, and its multidisciplinary nature, developing leaders needs to be looked at from multiple lenses. Therefore, to continuously work on developing future leaders with the competencies, qualities, values, and experiences, the development process has to be carefully adopted. This implies that Leadership Development is an evolved process, thus a science. On the other hand, developing leaders is essentially development of people to their true potential. True human potential is indeed unknown and unfathomable. Thus, this journey of leadership development is a deeply personal and almost a spiritual journey rendering it as an art form.
After several rounds of inspiring conversations, we derived the conclusion that developing leaders is as much of an art as a science.
BIMTECH is an ever growing business school that has been working on its strategy of continuous improvement. This has led BIMTECH to reach a level of excellence in just over two and a half decades. To reach the level of seventh ranking amongst India’s top ten private B-schools and the sixteenth in the top 20 of the India’s combined list of B-schools has indeed been a journey with rigor, speed, passion and commitment to its vision of ‘To be known for developing ethical global leaders and entrepreneurs striving for sustainability and inclusive growth.’ While moving on this challenging path of continuous development, apart from presenting brilliant youngsters to the pool of tomorrow’s Leaders in the business year after year, we thought it would be an interesting offering to the world of academics and at the same time the dynamic world of corporate, to examine and explore a live and the critical subject of contemporary significance, Leadership Development.
We thought that with rampant, expansive and