A Wonderful speech on Managing Failure - APJ Abdul Kalam

Former President of India APJ Abdul Kalam : 'A Leader Should Know How to Manage Failure'

India Knowledge@Wharton: 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.

Force India| Kingfisher| Vijay Mallya| Fisichella

Fisichella to drive for Force India

Italian racer Giancarlo Fisichella will drive for Force India, the Formula One team established in October, 2007 through a consortium headed by Dr Vijay Mallya and Michael Mol .

It has been learnt that Fisichella's name was finalised for the second seat primarily because of the experience he brings to the team. The Renault driver will be partnering Adrian Sutil, who drove for Force India's earlier avatar - Spyker. Fisichella had tested for Force India during the winter testing programme in Spain and faced competition from six other contenders. The contenders list included heavyweight candidate Ralf Schumacher, who later ruled himself out.

A1| Grand Prix| Narain Karthikeyan| India

First win for A1 Team India
Sunday, December 16, 2007


A1 Team India’s Narain Karthikeyan paid tribute to his superb pit crew taking his and the team’s first-ever A1GP race win in an incident-packed Feature race at Zhuhai International Circuit in China.

Karthikeyan was joined on the podium by New Zealand’s Jonny Reid, who started from tenth on the grid, and South Africa’s Adrian Zaugg, who finished third.



The 30-year-old Indian driver, who started from third on the grid, took the lead from New Zealand during the second pit stop window on lap 29. Despite a huge amount of pressure and some excellent racing from Reid, Karthikeyan held off the New Zealander’s Black Beauty racecar and crossed the line to score India’s first A1GP success.

After the race, a delighted Karthikeyan said: ‘The team has been working really hard at pit stop practices and they’ve done a really good job this weekend. Both the pit stops were excellent. Unfortunately I got stuck behind Pakistan on the out lap of my second stop, so I couldn’t push, but I came out just ahead of Jonny. There was a lot of pressure towards the end but then his tyres went off as well as mine and then we were equal - after that I just got the job done.’