'A Leader Should Know How to Manage Failure'

'A Leader Should Know How to Manage Failure'

(Former President of India APJ Abdul Kalam at Wharton India Economic
forum , Philadelphia , March 22,2008)

Question: Could you give an example, from your own experience, of how
leaders should manage failure?

Kalam: Let me tell you about my experience. In 1973 I became the
project director of India 's satellite launch vehicle program,
commonly called the SLV-3. Our goal was to put India 's "Rohini"
satellite into orbit by 1980. I was given funds and human resources --
but was told clearly that by 1980 we had to launch the satellite into
space. Thousands of people worked together in scientific and technical
teams towards that goal.

By 1979 -- I think the month was August -- we thought we were ready.
As the project director, I went to the control center for the launch.
At four minutes before the satellite launch, the computer began to go
through the checklist of items that needed to be checked. One minute
later, the computer program put the launch on hold; the display showed
that some control components were not in order. My experts -- I had
four or five of them with me -- told me not to worry;
they had done their calculations and there was enough reserve fuel. So
I bypassed the computer, switched to manual mode, and launched the
rocket. In the first stage, everything worked fine. In the second
stage, a problem developed. Instead of the satellite going into orbit,
the whole rocket system plunged into the Bay of Bengal . It was a big
failure.

That day, the chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization,
Prof. Satish Dhawan, had called a press conference. The launch was at
7:00 am, and the press conference -- where journalists from around the
world were present -- was at 7:45 am at ISRO's satellite launch range
in Sriharikota [in Andhra Pradesh in southern India ]. Prof. Dhawan,
the leader of the organization, conducted the press conference
himself. He took responsibility for the failure -- he said that the
team had worked very hard, but that it needed more technological
support. He assured the media that in another year, the team would
definitely succeed. Now, I was the project director, and it was my
failure, but instead, he took responsibility for the failure as
chairman of the organization.

The next year, in July 1980, we tried again to launch the satellite --
and this time we succeeded. The whole nation was jubilant. Again,
there was a press conference. Prof. Dhawan called me aside and told
me, "You conduct the press conference today."

I learned a very important lesson that day. When failure occurred, the
leader of the organization owned that failure. When success came, he
gave it to his team. The best management lesson I have learned did not
come to me from reading a book; it came from that experience.