(Text of a speech given by Amol Karnad, President, Alacrity Foundations Private Limited, at the Alacrity Day Get-together on 19th July 1989.)

Good Evening,

Two days back I spoke to Ramakrishna* and told him that I would like to make a little speech this evening. Even as I said this I was not quite sure if I was doing the right thing. On the one hand the opportunity to share my thoughts with the whole Alacrity organisation, coming as it does only once a year, was very tempting. On the other hand I had to remind myself that I am a very serious person with the potential to strike too serious a note and may be spoil the evening's fun. This reminds me of an earlier experience. We had asked our advertising agents, Take Wing to help us change our name from Alacrity Consultants. In this connection, they had invited me to visit their office and talk to them on Alacrity's philosophy. It turned out to be, as expected, a long, serious session. And after about three hours a young person in Take Wing's Office got up and asked me : Is it really fun working in Alacrity ? Now my reply to that was : "Well I personally find it great fun. But if you want to know what the others feel you will have to ask them ." I don't know whether he came round to ask you that. Fortunately for all of you, this evening you will have to put up with my kind of fun only for the next fifteen minutes or so. I only hope it will not in that little time manage to adversely interfere with your appetite or digestion later.

I presume that we are all reasonably satisfied and proud members of Alacrity. I believe we have good reason to be so. Alacrity today is one of the fastest growing companies in South India. This is backed by market information. It has a unique market image as a value based business. We are the single largest builders of residential flats in Chennai (Madras) City, almost twice as big as the next builder in the market. Our KRYKARD brand is an overwhelming market leader in South India for Servo Stabilizers in a specific range, with a market share as high as 40%. We have been approached by the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, to help them develop a course on value based management. Senior bureaucrats have started to approach us for informal consultation. Applications for jobs in Alacrity keep pouring in although we hardly advertise. From all accounts, competitors look up to us and admire us. In short, it seems to me to add up to a remarkable success story. My subject, this evening however, is not the success itself so much as the future responsibility that Alacrity faces as a result of this success. There are already strong indications that Alacrity as a value based company will be called upon to take up a leadership role in various facets of business and social development. I see this as an exciting opportunity for the growth, development and fulfillment of each one of us here. But the opportunity could turn into a frightening prospect if we do not seriously start preparing ourselves for it. This preparation will require not merely an identification with the company and a physical belonging in it but will require a moral commitment and an intellectual involvement of a very serious kind. In other words, it will require that all of you start understanding and working towards what I earlier called "my kind of fun".

To give you a better insight into what this preparation really means, let me take you back to the early days of Alacrity. I know I do this a little too often. But I do it not to rub into all of you our early achievements, but only because I think those experiences have an important direction to offer for the process of our future development.

In 1978 when we started Alacrity, we were as young as most of you assembled here this evening. As qualified or not qualified academically as many of you. In the eyes of the world around us, we were as immature or inexperienced as the world around you may perceive many of you today. Our actions appeared rebellious and threatening to the people around us, particularly the elders. Every time a tradition or a convention was flouted, they were quick to call it irresponsible. We were constantly told that our values were impractical, our courage was rash and reckless, our enterprise was too risky and our age, experience and qualifications were hopelessly inadequate - we were doomed to failure and disaster. In other words, we were under the close and constant scrutiny of people who were genuinely concerned for us but, who did not have the experience to see us develop beyond them. Yet we did not falter. We were quick to recognise that all of them meant well. We also realised that if we could not communicate with them and inspire their confidence, it was going to be very difficult to succeed in communicating with a strange market outside, which was necessary of course for the success of our future business. But we believed in our own thoughts and in our own way of doing things and we were not willing to change this for their temporary comfort. We, however, accepted that we had a responsibility to reassure them sooner or later and, for that purpose, we had to be successful both professionally and personally. So, instead of resenting the pressure they put on us, we learned to enjoy the attention it provided and even used the pressure to raise our motivation. Instead of running away, we stood our ground and communicated strongly but politely. If they could lead a simple life, we showed them that we could lead a simpler life. If they felt important because of their designations, positions and salaries, we showed them that we carried for greater self confidence without those crutches that they depended on. If they believed that anger, frustration and disgruntlement were a natural way of life, we showed them that we could retain our excitement, calm and fair play even in the face of failure. If they complained that our beer parties once or twice a month were an extravagance, we proved to them through simple arithmetic that their tradition-bound ceremonies, including weddings, were many times more extravagant. If they believed that their professional life and personal life could not be mixed, we showed them that our families could work alongside us to achieve better results than they imagined. If they believed that life at home would be disrupted as a result, we showed them that our homes ran as smoothly as our offices. In the end, they had to give us not only their respect but also their admiration. That in effect established us as the leaders within our families. From there it was just a question of extending the same experience into the market place and finding similar acknowledgement from a wider section of society.

This account is not an oversimplification of the process of leadership. I believe this is exactly how it takes place in every organisation whether at home, at office or on the sports field. Our courage was not in doing things differently - most individuals are capable of that. Our courage was in being accountable for not only the different things that we did but also for how we did them. We were not rebels rejecting convention and tradition because we found it convenient to do so or because we had no other basis for drawing attention to ourselves. We were a group with a mission, with the motivation, drive and the discipline to pursue the same in the face of odds and failure. It made us irresistible as members of an organisation and as a business. The products and services that followed in my opinion had to be outstanding and successful. I see this as a law of nature.

Some aspects of the circumstances facing many of you today who are in the early stages of your career development cannot be far different from those we faced early on. All young people have a yearning to prove themselves and, in this process, they are under the close scrutiny of people who are concerned for them. But there is one major difference. I believe in Alacrity's top management today, despite its varying styles and idiosyncrasies may be, you have a team that is eminently capable of directing your development. In Alacrity's mission and its future opportunities the top management has every reason to hasten the pace of your development. But they also have the responsibility to set exacting standards for your development. We have already recognised and declared that your leadership task tomorrow will be more exacting than our task today. So there is no reason for us to grudge you a development beyond our own levels of experience. But what of your own responsibility ? This is where I wish to voice a little concern. When we were taking Alacrity through its early trials, we had to rely on our own judgment and experience. Today you have a top management which is eager to provide whatever direction or guidance you may need. Yet, despite several initiatives from us, I have found only sporadic response and enthusiasm from your side. There has been a singular lack of contribution from your side to to the intellectual dimensions of our planning and development. On the other hand, I have sensed a possible fear of the standards and the evaluation system. At times, I have even observed a tendency to cynicism and pettiness. May be, I am getting a little impatient and overreacting in which case I would request you to forgive me. But you will understand this is only on account of a concern for Alacrity's future. I am, however, clear that we cannot today allow the sentiment of being together as members of the Alacrity family to result in an underestimation of the quality of development that is required of each one of us. We need to bring to bear on our work the same degree of involvement, enthusiasm and competitiveness that we displayed in the sports meet. We need to spend our after-hours  more seriously than we seem to do now. As many of us as possible need to develop scholarship and technical proficiency through concurrent research, debate and discussion. We have to learn to emerge as leaders from within our brothers and close friends, for that is how the organisation is made up. We need to stop worrying about being popular and start taking a stand for what is right and responsible. Above all, we need to grow up quickly from being frightened, uncertain and hardworking officers or managers to confident, accountable and solid leaders. In the new system that we have given you, every single one of you has an opportunity to do this. The future of Alacrity is in your hands. I am sure you will not let us down. And I hope you will have the same fun that we have had and aid to continue to have in the future.

Thank you.

* Vice President - Personnel & Administration, host of this Get-together.