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A Surfeit Of Gurus
They follow a path pioneered by the likes of Norman Vincent Peale-dead eight years, this Christmas eve-Steven Covey (very much alive, bald pate and all), and Tom Peters. A few decades ago, they would have considered themselves lucky to find a sturdy soap box; today, people pay good money to listen to them talk. Meet India's own management-evangelists, people like Shiv Khera, Arindam Chaudhuri, Rajesh Aggarwal-if you haven't heard much of him, that's because he has just started out-Mukesh Khetrapal and Asit Ghosh. None of them boasts the pedigree of Peters (McKinsey) or the oratorical skill of Covey. But none is short of either the kind of management platitudes Indians love to mouth, like Khera's ''Winners don't do different things, they do things differently'', or theories, like Theory I, Chaudhuri's wholly-Indian approach to management. ''When something is expressed in the form of a theory, people can relate to it,'' says Chaudhuri.
Becoming a motivational speaker is a great career move: Khera charges Rs 20,500 for a three-day workshop; Chaudhuri, Rs 25,000 for a half-a-day's programme; and Aggarwal, Rs 9,750 for a 12-week course. It also seems easy. Aggarwal doesn't have the educational qualifications one would expect of a guru, and his last job was as an administrative assistant with h-p. So, what attracts people to these courses. Says Jogesh Nayar, md, Koshika Telecom. ''There are certain things they teach that can be useful for your everyday life.'' He isn't alone. Arun Kumar of Hughes Software, Ravi Bhoothalingam, formerly of the Oberoi Group, Punj Lloyd's Subhash Jagota, the Hero Group's Pankaj Munjal, and Jindal Polyster's Shyam Jindal have all attended workshops conducted by Khera or Chaudhuri. The speakers, expectedly, have rather immodest opinions of what they do. ''We inspire people to motivate themselves,'' says Khera. And Aggarwal promises to ''shape the destiny of individuals.'' Well, gurus don't say different things, they just say things differently-and charge you for that too! Singular Success
She's 25, a star-daughter, and in the news, but Ekta Kapoor isn't into dancing in the rain, running around trees, or anything else that a woman of her age would have to do to be in front of the camera. "I didn't join films as I wanted to create something new," says Kapoor. As the Creative Director of Balaji Telefilms, today, she is the tube's undisputed soap-queen. One of the company's serials, Kyonki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi has been among the top 10 programmes by TRP ratings for several weeks now, and eight others run on four channels. That prompted Asiaweek to pick her as one of Asia's most influential communicators, a club in which she rubs shoulders with people like N.R. Narayanamurthy (can any list ever be complete without him) and Tarun Tejpal. Kapoor confesses it is the middle-class she gets ideas from, which she sells back to them in good-looking packages. Particularly superstitious, this lass; she chants religious hymns before beginning her work every morning. Praying for the good times to last, eh? An Indian Jerry Maguire
"You haven't heard of Arnold Palmer?'' Ravi Krishnan's reaction makes you think you've asked: ''Who's Sachin Tendulkar?'' But, then, you can't blame the 30-something Joint Managing Director of img/twi South Asia for sounding thus. Palmer was, after all, IMG's first client when Mark H. McCormack founded the company in the sixties. Palmer is a golfer, just in case... These days, though, it's not golf but-what else-cricket that's on Krishnan's mind. Last month, Krishnan grabbed the sponsorship rights for the Indian cricket team, and a fortnight later sold them to the Sahara Group. ''It was a team effort by the three of us-Peter Hutton (also joint MD) and twi's Sanjeev Pandey,'' says Krishnan, who was a corporate lawyer in Australia, before chucking it up to set up shop for IMG in India in 1995. The lawyer-image goes out of the window
when Krishnan tells you he participated in the Australian Open as a
junior, and played domestic cricket in Melbourne with Shane Warne. ''We're
good mates, and try to catch up when we're in the same city.'' Now you
know how he bowled the BCCI and Sahara over! |
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