5 Key Management Lessons from Bihar Elections

5 Key Management Lessons from Bihar Elections

By:

Vijay Sardana

Bihar has once again proved that voters in election and Consumers in market will decide the fate of the party, product or the company. They are the King Makers. We should respect them and learn from them. If you are not able to understand them, it is our problem, don't shift the blame to other factors. Accept the fault and learn and move ahead.

Neither Brand ambassador nor gimmicks of marketing by top management will please Voters and Customers. One must perform and deliver as per the promises made and expectation of Voters and Consumers to remain in business.

I am sharing based on what I have seen based on my one-to-one discussions with political and business leaders in last few years. Bihar is just recent example and proved the following points.

1 Leadership and Board Room must listen to foot soldiers, without screens and layers, not just close network of key managers: Political and Corporate leaders once come to power assume they know all and start dictating terms without understanding changes taking place on ground. Other team members also assume that top management must have all information from 'their' own sources. Everyone gets shock when they see the results contrary to their own created assumptions and illusion. Bihar election is one example. Will UP elections repeat this? Time will tell.

Question: How many times leaders called up foot soldier and wanted their frank opinion on what is the mood on ground and feedback of voters and customers?

Suggestion: Top management must visit ground zero, without their favourite 'trusted' managers those who are used on daily basis, for advise to develop independent view on facts on ground. 

Never go for 'pre-planned conducted tour' approach. You will rarely get factual position or situation.

Why leaders want that people should receive them on ground and welcome them, when they are on mission to explore and learn about ground reality. In olden days, kings used to visit streets to seek feedback of common man. Window dressing will always give fake picture and lead to failure.

Action: When you go to market, please visit as consumer not as the boss of your team or company, please buy your own products and feel the experience. Always try to file a complaint or feedback and see what is the response of your service team. You may use your drivers address or his name to know the facts. This first hand experience will expose weak points and will keep your team on toes.

2. Over-dependency on 'favorite team of managers' may create smoke screen for you: Once you are on driving seat, you want to drive fast. Many small things may miss your attention. You will start focusing on big things and wants to go with speed to get results. You may leave organizations in the hands of trusted people. It is true that you can't see every thing, but you must have system to cross check what is fed to you is correct or not.

Why Mr. Modi was not able to get pulse of the people in Delhi & Bihar elections. Why Mr. Modi failed to communicate with people those who were not supporting Party election managers approach in elections. Think about it.

Suggestion: As a leader, they always talk to people, especially those who are criticised by your trusted core group to understand other side of the story. Please understand why few people criticise certain people, because both are not thinking alike. This itself is a good resource for the leader to explore options. Difference of opinion on the same issue gives major insights and intelligence. Both sides will have their own facts and assumptions. Use them for better planning and execution. 

Action: Always invite people with different approach than what is presented to you by your core team. 

Caution: There can be smoke screen to hide the facts or to hide incompetency of trusted managers from you. Many times juniors have better insight than seniors because they are close to ground but will not speak in front of the seniors.

You must talk to them separately and keep their inputs confidential to develop confidence among junior team members. Unfortunately, many senior leaders try to pitch two people against each other to play politics to retain their supremacy. This will reduce confidence among juniors about top management. This disrupts the information flow and organization suffers. This also puts the questions mark on capability of top management about their motive and capability to govern. Bihar election is one example. Many corporate examples are also in front of view which I can quote.

3. Factors responsible for Success in past may not exist any more, ground reality changes everyday: In politics and business, voters and consumers aspiration and perception changes every day because of many developments in society. This is the biggest blunder when we think 'we now everything about what consumers wants' sitting in Head Office and Corporate Offices. Most of the time voter and consumers convey what they want . Arrogance and over confidence does not allow these voices to get proper ear.

Rs. 200 per kg dal, food inflation was more important for ladies voters than taking about investments and foreign policy matters. Voters were suffering every day due to food inflation but BJP was not addressing these issues, why? Outcome is defect in election or product failure in market.

Suggestion: Learn to change the channels of communication or have multiple channel of communication. Your favorite channel may not be telling you the voice of society and stakeholders.

Encourage  people to tell why your idea will fail. Anyone who says your ideas are always good without showing his own analysis, is trying to please you at the cost of your company or party. Share your assumptions with foot soldiers as well. They can tell you the factual position.

Caution: If they are quite or not telling anything it means they don't trust you and your management style or other senior people sitting around you. It means you have big problem at hand.

Action: As top management never tell your choice or preference. Everyone will start appreciating the idea. Is Boss always right? I suggest go with blank sheet and ask them to tell what is expected in product or communication or services by the voters and consumer. They will tell you facts. Now you have inputs to conceive the campaign or product based on inputs, not the other way round.

4. Correct Communication creates positive Impression but False Communication creates mistrust: Mr. Modi was not talking but he was always communicating on vital issues. By not talking on important issues means you were communicating that you are not serious on issues affecting common man. His silence on unfortunate incidence in Dadri, was sending message as if he is not keen to address these issues or he support such extreme elements.

If you analyze speeches by BJP leaders, it was far from ground reality. What voters were thinking and what leaders are talking was not same  not the same. Criticism of JD(U) government was not the same in voters experience.  This created a gap between BJP and voters. This also questions the intelligence of BJP leaders to understand voter and their thinking about what is going on. This forced voters to take a considered view and outcome was BJP lost. 

This is the same mistake corporate make. They launch a product based on fabricated or complicated market survey or based on wishes of top management and products fail in market.

Suggestion : Please remember, 'You cannot not Communicate'. When top management does not communicate on time, it indicates either they have different priorities or they are confused. Both situations are not good for organization building, because team wants to now which direction they should move and deploy resources. If you are not clear, call the team and discuss what you want and take honest feedback.

According to my experience, Marketing needs very simple and common sense approach. "Do what is required by the voters or consumers". Don't make life complicated by showing past experience and intelligence when not required.

Senior and experienced managers and experts have tendency to bring some new dimension, because common sense does not project their expertise and past experience. They do it to prove their worth to management.

Because of their seniority or authority no one questions them. When juniors are quite and not reacting, read their body language. Very often the message is 'something is wrong'.

Action: Go back to drawing board recheck your assumptions and cross check the facts. Don't use the same team or people to cross check the facts, they may be your trusted people. Remember - they are still human beings.  They will try to defend the wrong inference or concept to protect their goodwill in your eyes.

5. Learn to accept the defeat and mistakes as leader. BJP is trying to find escape route to shift the blame away from the leadership. This is unfortunate.

Recently, I was in one senior management meeting, there also senior leader of team was trying to deflect the failure by mentioning irrelevant logics. Every body in the audience was understanding what is going on, but people were quite.

Outcome: The image of leader gone down in the eyes of rest of the team, when defeat is not accepted as learning experience. People start loosing confidence on the leadership. Worst of all, when all started to plan how to cover up themselves so that implication of loss or defect should not impact them. This is first step in the downfall of the organization.

I hope there will be many learning from these election outcomes. I am fully aware, more mistakes will happen in coming days, means we will have many new examples and lessons. This is the beauty of market place and political battle field.

My firm belief is nothing exist without logic and reason in politics and market place. Do we have capacity to understand these reasons and logics? This capability of top management will decide success and failure in coming days.

In the end, please keep in mind, brand and size does not matter in politics and business. Successful identification and execution of product  needs and policy needs will decide who will be the winner in dynamic place like market and politics.

Please do not take voters and consumers for granted. They evolve and learning with time. In digital world, people have more access to information than what they can handle. They learn and change their behavior faster than earlier days.

Are we developing a learning organisation? If not, God Bless us.