Leadership - Apollo 13, Kemal Ataturk & Reliance Industries

Among the annals of World War II, one of the most crucial blunders committed by Adolf Hitler was his inexplicable decision to turn his attention eastwards and invade the Soviet Union. With this decision, Hitler also poured water over his secret pact with Russian dictator Joseph Stalin, of not going to war with each other. On hearing of the Nazi invasion, Stalin’s initial reaction is said to have been a feeling of blatant betrayal, rather than rage. Hitler’s decision to invade Russia also turned out to be the most fortuitous for the Allies and for the future of the continent; it began the end of the Nazis. After the blunder, Hitler compounded the error with an ongoing series of bad decisions on the Russian front, which eventually led to the complete annihilation of his war machine.

How leaders make decisions has been a topic of discussion, research, MBA programs, break room talk; probably since each of these faculties were invented. But arguably any seasoned leader will confirm that over time decision making becomes second nature and leaders reach a point whence the sequential steps of analysis of the facts, shortlisting the options, weighing the pros and cons, risks and impacts and finally making the call, get compressed into a single flash of a decision. Similar to Sherlock Holmes reaching a probable hypothesis in a flash, by involuntarily skipping over his avowed methodical steps of deduction, even though the resulting hypothesis was built upon the exact methodical steps.

Rather than studying leadership through books and lectures, a study of anecdotes displaying the traits, can be more instructive. Casting a wide gauntlet with an expansive time horizon of the past 100 years, affords a potpourri of events, to catch glimpses of key leadership decisions at times in history. We can dwell on each of these glimpses, resurrect the situation in our minds, analyze it with the luxury of a 20-20 hindsight and hopefully learn something for the future.

Envisioning a Nation - Infinite Time Horizon

At the end of World War I and the subsequent collapse of the Ottoman Empire, on the same Anatolian peninsula, there emerged a leader and statesman with an extremely broad and long vision - that was Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. After defeating the Allies’ strategy to partition Turkey, he quickly dismantled the remnants of the Ottoman Empire and became the first President of a modern day Turkish Republic. Over the next 15 years he introduced reforms and policies that became the bedrock of a modern nation.

One of his signature achievements crafted with a vision of an infinite time horizon, was the changing of the alphabet used to write Turkish language. Turkey had been plagued with an abysmal mass literacy rate of 10%. Ataturk understood that the key reason behind the illiteracy was the Ottoman Turkish alphabet based on Arabic alphabet. The difficulty in learning the script, was resulting in challenges in learning the language. To progress and prosper, Turkey needed to eradicate mass illiteracy; and mass literacy needed a simpler script based on Latin.

He consulted linguistic experts, scholars, military generals, politicians. In face of stiff opposition and skepticism (and probably disbelief from many quarters), he eventually gathered everyone in a meeting. On asking each individual how long would it take for such an alphabet transformation, he received answers ranging from a few years to may not be possible at all. At the end of going around the room, he is said to have proclaimed; “Gentleman, you have six months to make this happen. And, your six months ended yesterday”. There could have been no better way to show the conviction and urgency in his vision and must have also quelled all the doubters from second guessing. This was decision making with an urgency, for a vision with an infinite time horizon.

Over the next few years, he unleashed a series of focused initiatives towards his goal. A new alphabet was designed using Latin script as the foundation. In 1928, Turkey launched the new alphabet and abolished the old Arabic alphabet. Ataturk then traveled across the country promoting the new alphabet. To buttress the transformation, he made primary education free for all (boys and girls). He unleashed a mission to make knowledge and modern thinking the pillars of a forward looking nation.

Ataturk’s vision soon started showing results. By 1940, Turkey’s literacy rate had more than doubled to 20% and has kept growing through the decades. Today, Turkey boasts of a literacy rate of 96%; including a rate of 93% among women.

Failure is Not an Option - Apollo 13: NASA’s Finest Hour

Very few events in recent memory can boast of cutting edge technology, video games in real life, risk taking, race against time, team work, meticulous planning, intense public limelight, sheer grit and to top it all - accurate decision making by leaders. That honor goes to the “successful failure” of NASA’s Apollo 13 mission in April 1970.

At the end of the 1960s NASA was basking in the glory of two successful moon landing missions (Apollo 11 & 12). United States had fulfilled President Kennedy’s promise to put a man on the moon before the end of the decade, and in doing so, NASA had soundly beaten the Russians; especially after having lost the initial laps - the first satellite (Sputnik) and also the first human in space (Yuri Gagarin) were both from Russia.

Apollo 13 was meant to be the third moon landing and the breakneck pace of operations, meant it would be launched within 9 months of Apollo 11. Gene Kranz, a tested veteran since the days of NASA’s Mercury and Gemini programs was the head of all Flight Control. The entire mission was under his operational leadership from NASA’s Mission Control in Houston. Gene having overseen the Apollo 11 & 12 missions, was no stranger to success.

After a successful liftoff from Cape in Florida, Apollo 13 seemed to be smooth sailing to the point of outright “dull” in the words of the flight controllers. But the premonition of triskaidekaphobia soon changed into reality; a routine step of churning the oxygen in the tanks, caused a short circuit in the spacecraft’s service module, blowing out 2 of the 3 oxygen tanks on board. The spacecraft started losing power for the fuel cells and two key resources required for survival started dwindling in supply; power to run the spacecraft systems and water that was used for drinking and as a systems coolant. Once the magnitude of the damage was ascertained, Gene’s flight control had to make the tough call - the moon was no longer the mission objective; the mission had changed to bringing the crew back alive.

Once the teams and the crew on board had regrouped and some semblance of order restored, the mission was staring at a pivotal decision. Whether to do a hard turn of the spacecraft to bring it back home quickly, which would need the engines in the service module or make the spacecraft go around the moon, delay the return to earth, use the lunar module as a lifeboat and in process evaluate the safest option for success. Due to the oxygen tank explosion, the condition of the main engine in the service module was unknown, but there was no data indicating its demise either. To do a hard turn around, they would have to jettison the lunar module and assume the main engine to be in a working condition to bring the spacecraft home. The other option of going around the moon was going to buy them time, without having to risk firing the service module engine. But, this option needed the lunar module to support the crew of three for four days; when it had been built to only support a crew of two for two days.

With the spacecraft hurtling towards the moon some 200,000 miles from earth, there was a chorus of team members from both camps. Each was analyzing the risk from his point of view and his experience and gut. Another dimension to all this was the entire national media focused on the crisis. A wrong call could mean the difference between life and death for the crew and would also ensure an illustrious career ending in ignominy and lifelong repentance. The mission was looking for a decision from the Flight Director - Gene Kranz.

Gene made a gutsy and prescient call. He decided that they were going to go around the moon. He was going to take his chances in having his team figure out how to make the lunar module support a crew of three for four days. Jettisoning the lunar module and firing the service module engines to make a hard turn towards earth was too risky without any guarantee of the health of the service module engine.

The spacecraft did go around the moon and was then positioned to start its journey towards the earth. With some ingenious steps, NASA did figure out how to make the lunar module sustain the crew for four days. Before the earth atmosphere reentry, the service module was finally jettisoned. The sights of the module confirmed that Gene had made the right call. Entire panels of the service module had been blown away by the explosion and its engine may not have worked at all, if fired.

Against some of the longest odds faced by a mission, the crew was brought back home successfully. This was a victory of men over machines, they themselves had built (there were no women in Flight Control in those years). The mission was dubbed a “successful failure”; it was NASA’s finest hour.

Rescue of a Petrochemical Plant - Coordinate Horizontally, When in Crisis go Vertical 

India’s largest industrial group Reliance Industries (2018-19 Revenues: $87B) has many firsts to its name. From the humble beginnings of its founder Dhirubhai Ambani, to its present operations in petrochemicals and the wireless revolution through its service called Jio; Reliance can boast of being one of the handful of entities to achieve so much in less than two lifetimes.

One of the fitting thumb rules that Reliance has preached in its operations - “Coordinate horizontally, but when in crisis go vertical”; and a leadership that is able to make fast, calculating and gutsy decisions, is something that should be taught in business schools. Out of the many death defying moments the company has endured, the one related to its massive petrochemical plant at Patalganga (50 miles south-east of Mumbai) can be a case study in leadership decision making.

On July 24, 1989 the Indian monsoon brought a deluge like one never seen before to the area around Reliance’s Patalganga complex, causing a nearby river to overflow, resulting in the entire plant going underwater. As with any business based on operations, each minute of a shutdown is a direct impact to the top and bottom lines. Getting the plant back as soon as possible, became the overarching objective. Reliance wanted the plant back in weeks.

After cleaning out the plant of tons of debris that had come with the deluge, Reliance assembled a special team including top dollar international expert consultants flown in to be on site. One of the goals was to bring back two huge compressors within two weeks. During the daily briefings, contrary to expectations, the consultants provided a grim and discouraging outlook - they would be lucky to get even one of the compressors back in three months. That corroborated with the general view among the experts within India. This was no answer Reliance was looking for, regardless of who was the bearer of the message.

Realizing that the consultants were never going to accept the aggressive goals, Plant General Manager of Operations K. K. Malhotra decided to go “vertical”. He called Reliance Petroleum CEO Mukesh Ambani. They agreed that the sheer presence of the consultants on the team was going to be counter productive and going to sap the morale of the entire team. If the consultants stayed, it was going to be a matter of achieving the goals in spite of them, rather than because of them. The consultants were let go overnight. The call was as much an instance of fast, gutsy decision making; as much as of the confidence they vested in themselves and their teams, that they could do the job sans the consultants.

The team then analyzed the task on hand, came up with a game plan and over the course of next few weeks flooded the effort with maximum permissible resources. Factoring in the cost of time, any monies wasted due to the excesses, would be paid back many times over by getting the plant back online sooner.

Reliance and the team got the entire plant back to an operational state in three weeks.

Buck stops with Me...

Each of these glimpses offers a perspective on a dimension in leadership and decision making. Kemal Atuturk’s was a leader’s altruistic vision with an infinite time horizon, backed by political dexterity to make it happen. Gene Kranz’s was an exercise in analytical thinking, trusting a team, instincts, leadership and high pressure decision making in public limelight. Reliance’s was leadership during a crisis with guts to fire expert consultants hired for the very job. K. K. Malhotra took on the risk of solving the problem with no “outs” in case of a failure, when in general, asking for removal of resources for an effort to succeed is like an anathema.

Each of the events scream at us with the sense of urgency. Each of the protagonists made a call that changed the course of events. But behind the veil of the call the world witnessed, each had also made another call in his mind - “the buck stops with me”. That's true leadership.

-- Manoj Bidnurkar

References

Wikipedia - Mustafa Kemal Ataturk - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustafa_Kemal_Ataturk

Failure is not an option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond - by Gene Kranz, Simon & Schuster, ISBN-13: 978-1439148815

Apollo 13 - Movie - Directed by Ron Howard, Universal Pictures

Business Maharajas - by Gita Piramal, Penguin, ISBN-13: 978-0143415831