The altruist administrator

You always do not need the same kind of person to inspire you. Isn’t it? Different types of people can inspire or leave an imprint in your minds at different stages of your life. It can be a writer, an activist, a teacher, an administrator etc. We had a session today under the aegis of MIST (Management Insight to social transformation), a DoMS initiative, by Mr. Gagandeep Singh Bedi who was a collector of Cuddalore district during the Tsunami. Not an inspirational personality if you go by what he spoke as other greats can do but if you carefully observe what he did and how he did during those horrific Tsunami days, you will realize, it requires a great soul to achieve that.

You take an area and there was something to learn from him whether it be people management, material management or funds management. As Robin Sharma says – “Every person you meet in your life has a story to tell and a lesson to teach”. Few fantastic lessons for the jargon infested MBAs like me and others are….1.Always have a dynamic or an open mind while handling any kind of situation 2. There can be better solutions suggested by people whom you think aren’t capable of. 3. People will always be willing to help you, no matter how much politicized or unsupporting the culture is.

There was one striking learning from his Tsunami experience. The way in which he went ahead deciding on the type of temporary settlements to be built for the affected by keeping all the stakeholders into the decision making process was noteworthy. The diligence with which the feedbacks from the residents were taken to improve their living conditions shows how people-centric he was in his entire functioning. This reminds me of a famous Ogilvy quote – “The customer isn’t stupid. She is your wife”.

Amidst this entire effort of Mr. Bedi in rehabilitating the affected, the immediate measures, the interim measures and the long term measures he took, there was a certain element of simplicity in thoughts that was conveyed. We as MBAs or engineers are always taught or brought up to think in the most sophisticated manner. I think to some extent our educational system also has a role to play here. Simplicity is often, rather most of the times not given adequate importance. By looking at the approach of Bedi, I feel its time, we not just change our approach but dwell over whatever Da Vinci said long time back – “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”