Monday, May 15, 2006

Most Admired leader


NRN as we fondly call him ( Infosys Chairman and Chief Mentor ), has emerged as India's most admired business leader, for the fifth consecutive year, in the 5th Annual B-School Study conducted by Brand-comm, a leading brand consulting, advertising and PR firm headquartered in Bangalore .

About 545 students from 13 leading management institutes across the country participated in the survey.

B-school students admire Narayana Murthy for being a socially responsible individual. He is looked up to as a leader who is honest and passionate about his work. The clarity and consistency in Murthy's personal branding and positioning seem to have been highly effective for the last five years.

It's quite fascinating to see how he has captured the imagination of the whole country. One of the most fascinating aspects of management literature has been leadership research and the concept of servant leadership truly goes with the persona of NRN.

One thing which stands out NRN from rest of the Business Leaders is ability to understand the pulse of youth. The way he communicates and empathizes with the concerns of youth today is really fascinating. He knows the kind of movies they watch the kind of music they listen. As a youth icon he really connects well. I recall a very small but significant incident which happened in Infy campus some time back when an interview session was going on candidates in the waiting room were sweating it out wondering why the A/c is not working.

Suddenly a man came from one of the entrances and looked around saw people sweating and checked the A/c switches and said "oh someone forgot to switch on the A/c ".He switched it on and walked away …. Suddenly the folks realized that it was NRN, the great man himself and he had walked away ….

This reminds of the views of Mr. Blanchard's who said that leaders need to be servants to their people.

“We don't need leaders who parade around with a big ego or try to mold their companies in their own image.."

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