Winning & Growing - Management lessons from 2019 election!

General election 2019 is over! Result is announced! Winning party - Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) & Modi-Shah duo has created history, in winning number of seats, retention of seats, increase of vote share, increase in foot print, strike rate, and number of party members etc. Verdict is clear, however, it will take few months for political "pandits", intellectuals, analysts, & politicians to do analysis. It was evident from the results that during last two decades political parties learnt many things from businesses and applied best practices of business that helped those parties win elections.

Winning solves everything.

Now, can businesses learn from recent performance of political parties? Answer is YES, SME companies can learn many management lessons / leadership lessons from BJP’s achievement of seemingly impossible target of forming government in second term in the most complex & challenging environment overcoming all odds. There are learning from failure of political parties also about “what not to do”? Following are the major points (with related evidences that BJP has done during 2014-2019 period) that can help leaders, managers & entrepreneurs of SME companies to grow business year-on-year, sustain growth & market leadership;

1. Leadership:

All stakeholders wish their leader to lead from front, be strong & decisive leader, and work relentlessly to achieve goals. (Evidences: BJP Party President Shri Amit Shah, Prime Ministre Shri Nandra Modi worked 24 x 7 without taking vacation and took several bold decisions in selection of candidates e.g. fielding Tejasvi Surya from Bengaluru south, dropping seating MPs e.g. dropping all seating MPs including those who were winning for more than four terms, forming/breaking/stitching/repairing alliances & clinching seat sharing in time e.g. Alliance with Shiv Sena/JDU resulted in good returns and many other such decisions)  

2. Vision & goal setting:

Vision creates the energy and will to make change happen or achieve goals. (Evidence: A vision of ????? ????, ?????? ????, ?????? ????, ?????? ???? ??? ????????? ???? & Build a new India helped to inspired citizens and organizations to commit, to persist and to give their best.) All organizations must have clearly articulated vision as it acts as practical guide for creating plans, setting goals and objectives, making decisions, and coordinating and evaluating the work.   

3. Mission, Programs & Projects:

Clearly articulated mission is important for an organization because it answers key questions: what do we do, for whom and what is the benefit? It determines the company’s direction, focuses on future, forms basis of alignment and shapes strategy. (Evidence: BJP’s “win 51 per cent votes with Mission 51" helped achieved it in states like Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Haryana”, “Mission Bengal with 23+ seats - achieved 16”, “???? ??? ????? ?? ??? - achieved 303”, and several other state specific mission/projects initiated) Companies too, must initiate change projects as part of overall change program aligned with overall mission, vision & goals.   

4. Core values:

Core values are what support the vision, shape the culture and reflect what a company values. (Evidence: 'India first' is the only religion and Constitution the only 'holy book' for government, nationalism are among few principles at core adopted by the BJP. It’s actions were aligned with core values that has helped it gain more trust from all stakeholders) SME companies must identify core values like ethics, agility, integrity, quality etc. in alignment with vision & mission to help employees to understand and adopt values in day to day work. 

5. Objective assessment & use of data analytics:

In 2014 general elections, we witnessed data, technology, and digital platforms played a central role in the way the campaigns were designed, structured, targeted, implemented, and communicated. (Evidence: BJP took the lead in using technology. candidates to understand the voter stance of a particular demographic and re-tweak their campaign accordingly. e.g. It can allow to understand the voter stance of a particular demographic and candidates can re-tweak their campaign accordingly, candidate can micro-target their messages, and selectively chooses medium of communication and technology.  Another examples can be mobile voters can be targeted through voice broadcasting, using GPS in campaign vans to increase efficiency, and use of cookies on website to allow to harvest and further use information about user’s internet activity towards customized advertisements.) Companies too must use small data as well as big-data analytics to bring objectivity in decision making, analyze & improve business performance, provide higher level of customer service, and improve supplier relationships etc.  

6. Customer service:

Fulfilling promises given to customer through effective execution on ground and there by meeting/exceeding their expectations can increase customer retention/loyalty. (Evidence: BJP government executed projects, increased speed, completed projects on time, completing few of pending activities like rural electrification, constructions of houses, construction of toilets, providing gas cylinders, extending health insurance scheme, push for LED bulbs to reduce electricity bills, direct transfers to woo the “poor” constituency which voted for rival parties in previous elections are few examples. Beneficiaries experienced the change, show the high service level and voted BJP again)  

7. Consumer segmentation & research:

For decades, political parties used to segment voters in to religions, language, geography & cast. BJP identified female voter segment and millennial generation/Gen Z voter segment as large segment who are aspirational, whose needs and wants are totally different than Baby boomers & Gen X voters. Hence, BJP could focus of these new segments not identified by other rival political parties, attracted them & engaged them through right message & communication medium. (Evidence: BJP’s vote share increased in several seats in spite of complex social cast & religious arithmetic) SME companies should continue consumer segment analysis and consumer behavior research for new product / service development or improvement.

8. Key messages & marketing communication:

BJP communicated several key messages using integrated marketing communication through one on one meeting, group meetings, large number of public rallies, interviews of their leaders on news channels, took part in panel discussions every day, blogs, PM’s Mann Ki baat through radio, addressing BJP booth workers using video conference, using social media like Facebook, twitter, YouTube, NamoTV, whatsapp etc. and print media very effectively. All companies must develop & execute integrated marketing communication plan with key messages & engage all stakeholders. (Evidence: In 2014, BJP used all digital platforms, including mobile and mobile Internet. Combined with advanced use of analytics to decide how, where and when to communicate, the campaign targeted 810 million voters in 543 constituencies across 11.36 lakh (1.13 million) polling booths. Chai-pe-charcha in 2014 general elections & ??? ?? ??????? in 2019 general election are few examples of successful campaigns through which key messages were communicated)

9. Take bold & strategic decisions & focus on execution:

BJP focused on PM Narendra Modi whose image as a strong decisive leader who can implement big projects, device welfare schemes, execute those schemes and is tough on terrorism helped the party. Modi’s credibility among various segments of the society was a key factor. (Evidence: BJP government took bold & strategic decisions like Notebandi, GST, making Aadhar card compulsory etc. for long term benefits, even these actions were not perceived as populist decisions. Action against terrorist camps through surgical strikes and bombing of their camps helped wipe out voter sentiment around issues of national security)

10. Prepare & work on alternate plans:

Successful companies / leaders always work to prepare & work on alternate plans to continue achieving success even if original plan suffered any failure. (Evidence: BJP focused on 120 seats it lost in 2014 general elections, particularly in states like Odisha and West Bengal, worked in these states for five years, building organizational set-up, and communicating to potential votes to create in-roads. Gain in seats in Odisha & West Bengal has offset some of the loss of seats in other state like UP.) Always keep Plan B & Plan C where stakes are high.  

11. Persistence, ground work, building team:

BJP is one few political party considered as cadre based party. Relatively young, founded in 1980, is now not limited to Hindi heartland, as it has increased its foot print, is in power in 18 states/UT (as on 24-May-2019). BJP relentlessly perform ground work, build team of local leaders forms state teams, district teams, polling booth in-charge and even “Panna Pramukh-person responsible to pursue 50 voters registered on one page of voter list” and this team work with people / serve people for many years. (Evidence: It took 10 years of work to form government in Gujarat in 1990 as coalition government and in 1995 its own majority government. BJP started working on building local teams in West Bengal, Kerala, Odisha etc. few years ago with aim of forming government in future)

Corporate culture & business practices helped political parties to improve their performance, developing & executing strategy, and communication. Businesses/companies also can learn several management lessons from political parties!

............................................................................................ This article is authored by Ketan Gandhi, President & CEO, KgGuruji Consulting & Services.