Inside the C-Suite: 21 Lessons from Top Management to Get Your Way in Business and in Life

By Jayaram Easwaran

In the corporate world, one question that's often asked is, 'What does it take to reach the top and stay there?' Be it the fancy MBA in a hurry to get to the top or the hard-working manager slogging for years or the sycophant who flatters his way up the corporate ladder, the C-suite is the ultimate aspiration for everyone. Taking you right inside the C-suite, Jayaram Easwaran presents twenty-one stories based on real incidents during his three-decade career. Each story has a message that addresses the most pertinent problem of our work lives. Stories about the dilemma of being virtuous when the stakes are high, the pitfalls of judging a book by its cover, the dangers of blind ambition, ego squabbles among top brass and many others make this book a treasure-trove of wisdom. This is a book that will help you get your way in business and life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperBusiness
• Release date: Nov 10, 2018
• ISBN: 9789352773701

Jayaram Easwaran

Jayaram Easwaran is an alumnus of IIM Bangalore and director at Casa Blanka India Consulting Pvt. Ltd. He has over three decades of experience in leadership positions at Aricent Technologies, Punj Lloyd, Sutherland Global Services and Eicher. .

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Preface

In a career spanning three decades, working in the corporate sector and as a consultant, I have addressed thousands at engineering colleges and business management institutes and at other corporate forums. One question I’m often asked is, ‘What does it take to reach the top and stay there?’

Be it the fancy MBA graduate in a hurry to get to the top or the patient, hardworking manager slogging at the job for years or the usual sycophant who flatters his way up the corporate ladder, the C-Suite is the ultimate aspirational destination for everyone. To all of them the C-Suite is that hallowed office reserved for those whose designations start with the letter ‘C’, with titles that read chief executive officer, chief operating officer, chief financial officer, chief marketing officer, chief people officer, chief technology officer and so on.

My answers often comprised the usual ingredients: quality education, the right experience and the requisite expertise. I knew that there was more but was unable to get a full grip on what these really were.

And then one day, I happened to see Martin Scorsese’s 1986 movie The Color of Money. There is a scene in which Eddie Felson (Paul Newman) tells Vincent (Tom Cruise) ‘I’ll tell you something, kiddo. You couldn’t find the big time if you had a road map. You got to be a student of human moves. See, all the greats that I know of were students of human moves.’

It suddenly struck me – how well this applied to the business world too.

One had to be a student of human moves!

Reaching the top and staying there is all about one’s ability to successfully navigate the undercurrents prevalent in the rarified environs of the C-Suite. It is how you sense and manage the egos, the politics, the insecurities, the hidden agendas and motivations of people and teams at the top. That’s not to say that such issues do not exist at lower levels. It’s just that at higher levels, egos are more fragile and insecurity is at its peak.

I recall two events that exemplify this.

The first one occurred in the year 2010. I was at the Atlantis in Dubai, having breakfast with a friend who happened to be the chief operating officer of an international bank. The global banking industry had just been through a major crisis.

‘Hope your job is safe?’ I asked him.

‘So far, so good,’ he said. And continued, ‘You know, at my level I will never lose my job because of incompetence. But yes, I could be thrown out tomorrow if I do not manage egos and insecurities amongst my colleagues at the top.’

The other event happened in New Delhi in 1998. One of our divisional heads walked into my room and placed on my desk the minutes of the last review meeting.

He pointed to the first line that listed the names of all attendees.

‘Looks like the internal pecking order has changed again. Do you think there is a message for me? Earlier, I was at number three. Now I am at eleven.’

I had no answer. I was aware that our CEO always hand- wrote the minutes in order to reduce any transcription errors.

That evening I decided to speak with the CEO.

‘Oh my god! Are our senior folk so insecure? I just write down the names in the order in which they sit around the table during the meeting,’ he said.

From then on, all names in the minutes appeared in alphabetical order.

I have worked at leadership levels across the globe in technology and brick-and-mortar companies and I believe the best way for anyone to understand what happens at higher levels in any company is to pick up a job as the executive assistant (EA) to the CEO and be the fly-on-the-wall in their office. But such opportunities are far and few in between, and I hope this book, of twenty-one short episodes, which are fictionalized accounts of real incidents over the course of my career, will provide you a ringside view of the C-Suite and what goes on in there.

Each story has an embedded message that addresses the most pertinent issues of our work lives. Stories about the dilemma of being virtuous when the stakes are high, the pitfalls of judging a book by its cover, the dangers of blind ambition, ego squabbles among top brass that can damage a firm beyond repair, and many others.

The stories are mostly drawn from a variety of Indian and trans-national companies, where, I can say with a certain degree of confidence, egos, insecurities, craving for visibility, survival strategies such as cover-your-ass (CYA) techniques, boot-licking, coteries, back-stabbing and chicanery are universal traits and are industry and culture agnostic. That does not mean that positive traits and qualities do not exist. They do and in great measure! But as is often said, when a dog bites a man it is staid news. And when a man bites a dog… Ah! That is different!

This book attempts to take you on a journey that will help you understand the trials, tribulations, fun and pain that make life at the top so fascinating. It does not matter whether you are a student, a middle-or senior-level executive, or even someone occupying the C-Suite. By the time you finish reading this book, you will, hopefully, be wiser, smarter and better equipped to navigate and deal with the challenges that come your way and help you get ahead in business and in life.

Every story needs a protagonist, an antagonist and a plot where conflicts arise and get resolved. I have tried to provide these in equal measure. I have attempted to keep the language simple, taking a cue from what William Faulkner is purported to have said about Ernest Hemingway: ‘He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary.’

The chapters can be read in no particular order, as every story is complete in itself. This is not the outcome of any kind of behavioural research and not meant to impart any gyaan. All I have done is picked up certain insights gained over years of observation and created short stories from these and I trust that the reader will find her/his own themes and lessons in these.

Before you begin, permit me to leave you with a thought:

In every organized set-up there are four kinds of people:

The insecure ones, who often compete with their subordinates.

The political beings, forever competing with their superiors.

The mature folk who compete with their peers.

And lastly, the true leaders who compete with themselves.

Ask yourself, which category you currently belong to.

And I hope that the insights gained from reading my stories help you decide where you want to be!

1

His Father’s Son

Ten years ago, Param’s father retired from the Indian Army as a colonel.

Param’s early memories of his home in Pune, while his father was still in service, were quite mixed. Two older brothers, his parents and two dogs lived in a spacious, red-tiled bungalow on a two-acre plot in the cantonment area. While life was comfortable, money was always in short supply. When new shoes were bought for the boys, they would always be a size or two larger. Cotton stuffing was used to make them fit and the boys had to literally grow into their shoes.

As kids, they would avoid their father if they could. Not only was he a strict disciplinarian, with him it was always a case of ‘damned if you do, damned if you don’t’. As a consequence, Param and his brothers spent most of their time at Major Krishnan’s place, not far from where they lived. The boys never understood why the Major admired their father so much, and they really did not care so long as he and his wife were kind to them.

Param’s brothers joined the National Defence Academy at Khadakwasla immediately after completing school and eventually became commissioned army officers.

Param was the only one still at home around the time his father retired. As they shifted from their large bungalow to a small, rented two-bedroom house, the reality of their life hit him. The government had provided virtually all of the furniture and fittings in the previous house. Whatever belonged to the family easily fitted into a few large wooden crates – that too provided by the army. That day, Param promised himself that in the days to come, his first priority would be to ensure complete financial security for himself. No matter what the circumstances, he would never allow himself to get to the kind of situation that his parents were in.

Param moved on to complete his post-graduation from a prestigious management school and took up a lucrative job with a leading multinational company in Delhi.

Every time he went home to meet his parents, he felt for them, especially for his mother. On one such occasion, he spoke to his father while they were having the morning tea.

‘Dad, you know I have a large, four-bedroom flat in Delhi. It’s too large for just my wife, our six-year-old son and me,’ said Param.

His father looked up from the newspaper, ‘Then why don’t you move in to a smaller place. You will save some money too.’

To a neutral observer it would appear as if his father was being sarcastic. But Param knew that his father was quite a simple person and meant it in good faith.

‘I was wondering if Mom and you could move in with us, it would be beneficial to all of us.’

‘Don’t worry. We will keep visiting once in a while,’ said his father.

‘No, no … That’s not what I meant, Dad. I would like you to come and stay with us permanently. This is the least I can do for all that you have done for us.’

‘Param, what I did was my duty. I am sure tomorrow you will do the same for your son and wife. And don’t worry, this house and my pension are good enough for your mother and me,’ said his father and turned his attention back to the newspaper.

Param was getting frustrated. He had hit a brick wall again. Why was his father always so self-righteous and refusing to see things from his point of view? He got up and walked over to the other room where his mother was ironing clothes.

‘Did you hear what he said, Mom?’

‘Yes, I heard him. Did you expect a different response from him?’ she asked, carrying on with her chores.

‘Well, it’s been ten years since his retirement and I expected that by now he would get down from his high horse and face reality. You are staying in a rented place and the landlord can ask you to vacate any moment. And it’s not going to be easy for a retired person to rent another place so soon.’

‘You know your father is a self-made man and has his own principles. And he would want his children to also have the same principles.’

‘What principles are you speaking of, Mom? Something that denied us the smallest of things in life while our friends in the neighbourhood enjoyed the best of toys and gadgets? Are you talking of those principles that have denied him the capacity to even buy a house of his own after so many years of service? I want to have nothing to do with those principles.’

‘I feel so sad that you just don’t understand these things.’

‘I am happy this way, so let us be,’ said Param realizing that he had hit a wall with his mother too.

Param left for Delhi the next day and continued to make frequent visits to Pune but never raised that topic again.

A few years later, he joined a mid-sized company as the CEO. His salary virtually doubled and he moved to a larger apartment, in Gurgaon.

As he sat in his spacious twelfth-floor office, looking out through the large French windows, his thoughts went back to how he would make one more effort to get his parents to come and stay with him.

Param’s reverie was broken by a soft knock on his door. His secretary came in to drop off a file. It was his proposal to the company board about acquiring a company in Mumbai. This acquisition would make theirs the largest company in the market research outsourcing space. Once this was achieved, they could easily attract a major strategic investor from abroad.

The board approved his proposal and gave him the mandate to initiate discussions. Once the due diligence process was complete, it was time for Param to travel to Mumbai to meet the chairman and founder of the company they wished to acquire.

They met at a prominent hotel in Juhu. Param noticed how small