Against the headwinds: Leadership is a solo ride

On Friday, Oct 15, Dussera day, we had a very insightful session by Mr Deenanath Harapanahalli. This was the 26th webinar in the Wise Views Series hosted by Prasad and Sudhakar. These webinars have been broadcast every Friday evening, for the past 6 months without a break. Our complements to Prasad and Sudhakar on this phenomenal achievement.

About Mr. Harapanahalli

Mr. Harapanahalli is the founder and CEO of LifeCykul a technology platform that helps companies improve their employee engagement. He is an accomplished corporate leader, author, concerned citizen and above all an avid cyclist. Mr. Harapanahalli is best known for organizing India’s most famous cycling event, the Freedom Ride which has attracted 100,000 participants so far. The event is held on important days every year such as Jan 26, August 15, October 2 and October 31 (birthday of Mr Sardar Patel).

Mr. Harapanahalli was earlier the head of Invesco. His corporate experience spans M&A, Private Equity, Strategy Consulting and Technology. A much sought-after speaker in various forums, Mr. Harapanahalli is an engineer and MBA from the prestigious Carnegie Mellon University.

Ventures

After he quit his successful corporate career, Mr. Harapanahalli has tried different ventures with varying degrees of success:

Cycling events: Mr. Harapanahalli flagged off his cycling venture as a 200 people event in 2009. Since then, it has scaled up and attracts thousands of participants. The whole event is managed today on a digital platform. The first Freedom Ride held in 2009 was 62 km long (62 to denote the number of years of independence). Now it is over 100 km.

Stations: These are centers in urban areas where people can pick up a cycle, ride to their destination and return the vehicle there. Essentially, this is a cycle sharing arrangement. Mr. Harapanahalli could mobilize 3000 cycles in four cities- Hyderabad, Jaipur, Ujjain and Gurgaon where smart cities were being set up and the local governments extended full support.

Clinics: The whole idea was to enable people in cities to get their cycles repaired. In many urban communities, children are not able to ride bicycles, because they are not in good condition. And it is cumbersome to get them repaired. Mr. Harapanahalli organized a mobile van to go around offering this service and repaired a total of 25,000 cycles. This venture was closed down as demand did not pick up as expected.

Magazine: This venture also could not take off owing to the rise of digital media and has been folded back into the LifeCykul platform.

Retail: This venture could also not take off and has been folded back into the LifeCykul platform.

Park: The Palapitta Cycling Park (named after the State Bird of Telangana “Pala Pitta” or Blue Jay ) is a venture of which Mr. Harapanahalli is justifiably proud. The park is located in a 46 acre reserve forest, situated opposite the Botanical Garden in Kothaguda. This is a naturally beautiful area (with about 1000 peacocks) that has been converted into a traffic free area for cyclists. This fits in well with Mr. Harapanahalli‘s vision of providing safe infrastructure for cyclists in the country. The Park provides a sense of adventure to cyclists. It attracts 25,000 + visitors. It has a well- designed cycling track running up to 3 KM right in the middle of a sprawling urban forest. The project has been described as “trash to treasure” (The Park was full of garbage and construction debris earlier.). Visitors can either bring along their own cycle or rent one right at the park. Some 1000 cycles belonging to the stations have been placed inside the park. There are many additional cycling related facilities to enhance the cycling experience in the park.

As in cycling and so in career and life, the competition is always with oneself. Competition from others does not really matter. It is all about what we are doing to stretch and develop ourselves and get more done.

Many people aspire to be a leader but without having the required passion or risk-taking abilities. They want to be guaranteed success by being provided with the necessary resources, like teams, etc. The real world does not work like this. We can be appointed as a manager by someone. But we cannot be appointed as a leader. We must find our own sweet spot and make things happen. Fundamentally, becoming a leader is an individual process. We must evolve into leaders. We cannot be crowned leaders.

There are no inspiring leaders; only inspired leaders. People who are fired up about their own goals inspire themselves to achieve levels of exceptional performance. In the process, others too get inspired. It does not make sense to start with the goal of inspiring others. We must begin with the goal of being an exceptional performer. Then others will be inspired. And unless we are inspired, we cannot inspire others.

An incompetent person becomes competent with the help of motivation, discipline and development. A competent person can slide back into incompetence through demotivation, constraints and opposition.

A competent person needs inspiration to become inspired. On the other hand, an inspired person can become disillusioned, become complacent and even slide back to incompetence. It is this fear of disillusionment and the possibility of sliding down that holds us back.

Leadership headwinds

There are many hurdles which leaders have to cross.

Constraints: We feel there are too many bottlenecks.

Disconnects: Others may not be aligned with what we are trying to do.

Demotivation: We may get demoralized at the way things are going.

Disillusionment: We may think that the whole effort was pointless.

We should not be disillusioned even if our venture does not succeed in financial terms. Anytime, we attempt something, we create an asset, something of value. Mr Harapanahalli once saw a little kid (7-8 years old) at the gate, as he was entering the cycling park. Initially, Mr. Harapanahalli felt like ignoring the child as he looked like a beggar. But when he came out of the park, he saw the child still waiting. Only then he realized that the poor boy was only trying to get in and cycle. He had no money to get in. Mr. Harapanahalli immediately arranged for the entry fee. (When the child was looking for help, Mr Harapanahalli recalled his engineering days, when the head of the Computer Science centre was kind enough to give him the permission to go inside and run programs. But for that permission, he would never have come so far in life.) The feeling of satisfaction which Mr Harapanahalli had while helping the child, was probably more than adequate reward for the efforts he had put in.

If we try to fight or dodge the headwind, we tend to lose. The champions know how to harness the headwinds to their advantage. In other words, leaders are not bogged down by constraints. They find a way to navigate the terrain not by naïve bravery but by thinking through and finding insightful solutions to the problem at hand. It is easy to do so if we have engines, sails and wings. But in leadership as in a cycle ride, we are the driver, the passenger and the engine. We must enjoy the ride. That is why Mr Deenanath feels that leadership is ultimately a solo ride. We have to take charge and drive ourselves to become the leader. No one will declare us as a leader and make available the necessary resources.

Q&A session

On why he moved out of the corporate world.

In one sentence, Mr. Harapanahalli was excited by the opportunities thrown up by New India. Once he had fulfilled the mandate given to him at Invesco, he was ready to become an entrepreneur. While his early ventures were not successful, LifeCykul is now back with a revitalized technology centric business model. The Suryathon event (Surya Namaskar for life) conducted (as part of the annual Yoga Day) virtually in June 2021 attracted 23,000 participants.

On leadership as a solo ride and lessons from cycling

The three main challenges in cycling are road friction, elevation and the wind. Road friction and elevation are more tangible, but the most potent force is the wind. To win a cycling race, one has to harness the wind. That is where teamwork comes in. Team members shield the champion from the wind. But they cannot be ordered to do so. They must volunteer to do so. Each member of the team helps the winner in some way. The winner must work hard to deserve this help. That is why it is a solo ride. But the victory is ultimately a team effort. There is enough data in a cycling race to reveal who worked hard and who were helpful to others.

Extending this to the corporate world, Mr. Harapanahalli mentioned that when there is a crisis, people who have the attitude: “Let it not stick to me. Let me cover myself.” can be easily detected. Similarly, people with the attitude:” No matter what happens to me, I will try to get the team out of trouble.” will also be noticeable. As Prasad summarized, assuming accountability and taking risk for a larger purpose are the essential tenets of leadership.

On women in leadership

Women are known to jump in and contribute without worrying about rewards. What can we do to enable women to become good leaders?

Mr. Harapanahalli felt that the best way to help women is to get out of the way. Traditionally, the challenges which women have faced have been essentially about how we have structured work and personal life. WFH has transformed the work environment and enabled women to step up. Earlier, the social context and the industrial infrastructure got in the way of women. Technology and WFH have addressed many of these challenges. Now women do not have to be worried about leaving office early to reach home (or staying at home) and attend to domestic duties.

Since the 1990s, things have become progressively easier for women. Women now have momentum in their sails and may well overtake men very soon. Women are taking charge in all spheres. Mr Harapanahalli’s usual advice to young men who join his company is that if they do not work hard, they may at the age of 35 see themselves being managed by a 25-year-old woman!

In our enthusiasm to help women, there is the danger that we might be making it look “non meritocratic” and thereby undermining their success. Having quotas is the biggest injustice we can do to women.

On technology interventions in sports

There was a time when only a few superstars could afford it. Take the case of measuring the speed of a smash by PV Sindhu, the badminton player. Earlier, we needed sophisticated cameras to do this. But now sensor prices have come down and we can do this by spending about $ 100. In other words, technology has become democratized. Data can be collected and analyzed to raise performance to unprecedented levels. All of us can keep getting better and better at our chosen sport. The LifeCykul platform can collect various kinds of data about employees and monitor their physical well-being, mental being and burnouts. In the entire history of human civilization, technology has never had a bigger impact.

On trying to win accolades and gain visibility

We should jump in to solve a problem. Jumping in to get noticed is not inspiring. But there will always be people who are doing things to gain visibility or to win accolades. We should be more focused on taking care of people who are focused on getting things done but are not getting their due recognition.

Disruptive thinking

Average behavior only leads to average results. To get extraordinary results, we need disruptive thinking. We need leaders who are unreasonable.

Nature vs Nurture

Mr Harapanahalli is of the firm opinion that leaders are not born, but made and made by themselves.

On Sports and leadership

Sports teaches us many things. In sports, teamwork and goal orientation are important. We learn to deal with factors beyond our control. Business in many ways is a made-up reality. It is like a computer game. If we fail, we can restart. Sports is a moment of truth. We only get one shot. Either we reap the reward, or we pay the price.

In business, there is not enough focus on execution. Armchair philosophizing in conference rooms is common. In sports, execution is all that matters. There is no place for a passenger. A fielder cannot stand on the cricket field and watch a ball pass close to him. If he does so, he will be removed from the team. In business, such things happen routinely, and bystanders continue to flourish! Mr. Harapanahalli suggested that we should all read the book ” Execution” by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan.

On entrepreneurship in India

The real challenges which entrepreneurs face in India are not marketing or finance though they are important. More than the availability of good ideas or business models or finance, what pulls entrepreneurs down is India’s regulatory environment. Compliance and taxation sap a lot of energy out of entrepreneurs. India ranks low on the ease of doing business. The foundation on which the ecosystem rests, needs an overhaul.

We borrowed many of the antiquated laws and regulations from the British and continue to follow many of them even today. The authorities must also wake up and realize that it is wrong to treat every business as if it is run by crooks. The regulatory issues are similar to the invisible headwinds in cycling.

Prasad added that the ICFAI Online MBA program encourages students to study and understand the business environment form Day 1. If students can understand the pain points in the first year, by the time they go into the second year, they are more likely to have a credible plan of action.

We thank Dr. Vedpuriswar for bringing out the highlights in the form of this note