Vol 17 – What do great Leaders do – they attract great talent

As investors, at Itus, our core philosophy in investing in the businesses we like is to allocate capital behind great people and teams (measured by their capital allocation reinvestment philosophy).

This philosophy above, is no different for the government. Today, one of the reasons global allocators talk about India being a big beneficiary of capital flows this decade is because of the leader. However, as with great companies, great leaders attract talent who have the ability and willingness to effect change.

In the past, I have often seen people criticize the government (they still do ?) and I have concluded that the reason for this is –

a) It is easy to do

b) More importantly, the govt has too many aspects on its plate to focus on and hence a individuals priorities will always never be met.

However, one of the most important aspects I believe the government lends itself to criticism is they do a poor job most importantly, the govt does a poor job of communicating i) what they do ii) how hard it is to do what they do.

In this 45 min video – Sanjeev Sanyal does an impeccable beautiful job of doing exactly this (communication). Every Indian watching this will appreciate:

a) how difficult it is to effect change within the government

b) Some of the changes that have been effected and its impact for the long term

Video link below :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NoOtpKg9d0

 For those, who are not patient enough to watch the entire video the below is a summary of the sections basis your area of interest)

1. Section 1 : Changing processes that were set many years back around company closures ( Simple changes having non-linear impact)         Time Stamp : 7:30 – 15:00
2. Section 2: Rules set in the past and its relevance in today’s world. Many people were not aware but  till this rule was change, it was a crime to work from home for BPOs ? Time Stamp : 15:30 – 25:00
3. Section 3: Legislative Changes : 25:00 onwards (Understanding Legal Metrology Act of 2009 – Process reform) and the implications of this. What this meant when the process of rent seeking extended to legal
4. Section 4: Why it is important to add State Capacity for Process Reform for de-bottle necking in areas that are important . This will help understand why the number of patents issued will increase in India and IPR ( which was not a serious prerogative in the country should become extremely important going forward. Lawyers – take note ?