CHAPTER 30

Culture of Innovation and Improvement*

What advances a Nation or Community is not to prop up its weakest and most helpless member as to lift up the best and most gifted, so as to make them of the greatest service to the country

– Jamshedji Tata

For success in intellectual endeavour the first requisite is freedom. We are the most free in India; truly autonomous. Once a member joins a faculty nobody bothers him, be he a lecturer or Professor. Rank does not come in the way of a person’s work. People are able to devote themselves to their research. Any staff member can get the seed money for his research

– Dr. C. N. R. Rao, Former Director, IISc

In this company you will be fired for not making mistakes

– Steve Ross, Late CEO, Time Warner

Background

Brick walls and infrastructure are needed but do not make an institution/organisation great. They facilitate the process of achieving the results. There is a greater force within termed vision and inspiration that are at work to build a great institution. Constancy as well as consistency of the process having vision and inspiration in a cyclic manner helps an institution/organisation to maintain its exalted level. This chapter outlines the way Indian Statistical Institute grew to its stature as a world class institution under its visionary leader Prof. P. C. Mahalanobis.

Vision—characteristic features

Vision is a necessity; it is neither a fashion nor a luxury. Vision is not fantasising. It is not a mere intention of ushering goodness for all. Vision is an essential component in the life of every individual, home, institution/organisation, state, nation and comity of nations.

Vision is hard work comprising of a process of (a) understanding the emerging problems/issues/situations which affect ones well-being in a foreseeable future; (b) recognising the ‘gaps’ in knowledge—scientific, technological, cultural, sociological—which need to be bridged to resolve the emerging problems; (c) formulating measures to bridge the gap and (d) plan of action to prevent/remedy the emerging problems in time. This is the process of ‘visioneering’—the twin task of setting the vision as well as engineering it for implementation.

Vision is a bold exercise alike for governments, institutions/organisations to switchover to ideologies and approaches with a potential to fit into the emerging scenario in place of the time-honoured ones but that are no longer relevant and hence are obsolete.

Vision calls for enormous persuasion as well as effort to raise the societal consciousness. Thus, for example, currently there is lot of pressure on nations to join together in an effort to save the planet from environmental disaster as is reflected by Sir Martin Rees, President of Royal Society plea to boost research in green energy on a budget of the size of the ‘Apollo Moon landings’.

Vision is not static. It is a continually evolving and updating phenomenon. What keeps an institution/organisation of national as well as international character alive and relevant is its ability to be effective at all times. It is the blue print of the vision of an institution/organisation that powers its current effective contributions; and thus makes it ever meaningful and relevant to the society. Thus, for example, in our country, it was the farsighted vision of Dr. Homi J. Bhaba that is responsible for the current status of science and technology, in general and nuclear field in particular. When such a vision fades away, the process of fossilisation sets in, be it an individual, an institution, or for that matter a State.

This is a global era. Global trend is pervading the field of economics, business, finance and technology apart from social and cultural sectors. Therefore, Governments as well as institutions/organisations have to structure themselves to be fit to operate in a global environment. This demands a ‘vision’ that serves best the national interests with a global comprehension and reaches transcending national boundaries.

Vision—illustrative examples

Following few illustrations exemplify the above characteristic features of vision:

1. The decision taken by our Government to be a partner in the far advanced field of International Thermonuclear Experimental Research (ITER) along with US, Russia, European Union, Japan, China and South Korea.
2. Need for different governments and scientists to take up Geo-engineering projects in order to avert the environmental disaster faced by the planet due to global warming. Geo-engineering calls for ingenuity and innovation of the highest order to study exotic ways to reduce global warming including administering a dose of emergency cooling of the earth by rearranging earth’s environment on a large scale to suit human needs and to promote habitability. (Broad 2006).
3. Russia’s plan to build upto 100 nuclear reactors over the next 25 years to reduce dependence on hydrocarbons and to consolidate its position as the world’s energy super power in terms of power generation and distribution and export of oil and natural gas. (Radyuhin 2006).
4. ‘Internet’ which has brought a global revolution in communication is under pressure from the proud and ancient cultures of Asia, Africa and Middle East to recognise and accept their language as legitimate and thus keep the ‘net’ together instead of facing the possibility of any country breaking away from the Internet. (McCarthy 2006). According to Kenichi Ohame, people who are accustomed to use the Internet for five years or more tend to be more proactive; and think, act and believe similarly. Thus, Internet has to be perceived as our engine that propels and maintains the momentum of globalisation and, therefore, it has to be kept intact without allowing any country to break away from it.
   It is gratifying to learn that the global consortium of engineers and linguists has made it possible for all the world languages to be fully represented on the internet and make it truly global.
5. Creation of ‘region states’—a concept expounded by Kenichi Ohamae. Region state is an entity created all over a country by the State to offer the best of facilities in terms of land, air, sea transport and good logistic facilities, all promoting good-quality life in order to be competitive with the best in the world.
6. Emergence of China in less than 50 years after some devastating famines as the world’s third largest food donor after United States and European Union was made possible through a hugely improved availability of and access to food by a combination of sound agricultural policy, improved rural infrastructure and investment in R&D in farm sector. Having a network of 41,000 km of world-class highways second only to US in size in a span of 18 years from 1988 when it did not have even a single kilometer of highway (Iyer 2006a, b).

Vision and institution

At the level of an institution, visioneering is essentially the work of a leader. The chief executive officer of an institution has to be, in the first place, a leader of vision, a leader of thought and a team builder of a high order to build an institution capable of breaking new grounds. One should know the ‘footprints’ a leader leaves behind on the sands of time to make life sublime and then follow the footsteps. This chapter attempts at knowing the footprints left behind by Prof. P. C. Mahalanobis, the founder of the Indian Statistical Institute, a knowledge institution.

During the stewardship of Prof. P. C. Mahalanobis till 1972 when he passed away, the Institute through its work, effort and contribution placed India not far from the centre of the statistical map of the world. The characteristics of the model of managing the institute that led to such an achievement are given in Table 30.1.

Before proceeding further it is to be noted that our Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has declared 29 June as National Statistical Day, which is the birthday of Prof. Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis, the doyen of Indian Statistics and founder of the world-class institution Indian Statistical Institute.

TABLE 30.1 Characteristics of Mahalanobis Model of Managing Knowledge Institution

Characteristics
Have a clear vision Be an entrepreneur par excellence Recruitment: focus on the potential and not so much on the track record Be unorthodox to build a new culture for research to flourish with freedom Network for ‘brain irrigation’

Clear vision

Professor’s vision was that statistics should be developed as a key technology. A brief description of the manner in which he articulated and shared his vision with the workers and inspired them is as under:

• The policy of the institute is to integrate research, training and their practical applications.
• Statistics is a branch of technology dealing with a world of reality and not a world of abstraction which is the domain of mathematics.
• The institute has to recognise that eminent and influential persons do not share the same view that the institute holds on statistics, it is in such a recognition that the challenge lies for the institute to chalk out its own policy on education and research in statistics to promote it as a key technology.
• While emphasising the practical aspects of research, he used to use the phrase ‘aero-navigation in viscous fluid’ to symbolise projects of no value to contribute to pure theory or to solve a practical problem.

Entrepreneurship par excellence

Innovation is impact, social and/or economic, on the society. The Professor was not an ivory tower scientist divorced from reality but an entrepreneur par excellence as he made statistics a key technology to cause its social and economic impact at the national and international level. Notable examples of this entrepreneurship are as follows.

The national sample survey (NSS)

No other country in the world has such a widespread net so as to collect data at regular intervals of time through large-scale national sample surveys on a wide spectrum of activities—social, economical, industrial, education, health, employment and research. The data collected through national sample surveys forms the bedrock for planning and decision making. The entire set-up conceptualised, planned and implemented through the efforts of Prof. Mahalanobis has been acknowledged and appreciated as a feat of great imagination and ability the world over.

The central statistical organisation (CSO)

CSO was set up as a key wing of the Government of India at the suggestion of the Professor. In its formative years he bestowed his energy for its growth and sustenance.

Planning

Professor, a physicist-turned-statistician, was greatly responsible for the development of econometrics and economics planning. The second five-year plan was the brainchild of Prof. Mahalanobis.

United nations statistical commission

Professor was largely responsible for setting up the commission and he was considered its doyen and champion of the developing countries to meet the statistical needs besides being an outstanding promoter of the development of statistical methods throughout the world.

International statistical education centre (ISEC)

Professor’s emphasis on the need and importance of statistical training at the international level was reflected in the establishment in 1950 of an International Statistical Education Centre (ISEC) under the auspices of UNESCO and the Government of India. The centre jointly run by the International Statistical Institute and the Indian Statistical Institute conducts courses for teachers and government statisticians from the countries of Asia, the Commonwealth, Africa and the Far East.

Ventures of Prof. P. C. Mahalanobis

An entrepreneur is also the one who seeks or sees an opportunity and seizes it to cause a social/economic impact. This is evident from the following examples.

Sankhya, the indian journal of statistics

Sankhya, the Indian Journal of Statistics was founded, edited and run by the Professor till his death. It is an international journal in the sense that it receives contributions from statisticians and probabilists the world over; international also in the sense of maintaining a standard comparable to the best in the world. And, this has been so from the very beginning. This is something that cannot be said of many scientific journals in the country. There have been many other individual Indian scientists of world stature, but there have not been many Indian research journals which have equaled international standards.

The press

The way PCM tackled the material and organisational problems of bringing out such a journal is instructive of his general approach to problems. Thus, at the material level, one of the most essential things that was required was a printing press equipped with a large number of mathematical symbols. No such press was available at that time in India. PCM solved the problem in the following characteristic fashion. In 1932, he imported from England a small hand-operated type casting machine. He inserted into that equipment hand-cut dies made by local workers at his direction so that it became possible to reproduce a large number of mathematical and other special typefaces. That collection became one of the largest of its kind in the world. It is not only the entrepreneurship displayed here that deserves attention but something more. The machine cost was $100 or roughly Rs 1400 at that time. PCM did not wait for anyone else to pay for it or give approval to the institute purchasing it. He clinched the purchase by paying the cost himself. True, he later reported the matter to the Council and the money spent by him was refunded. But, it is characteristic of PCM that he did not wait for any assurance of the refund. This was, of course, neither the first time nor the last that PCM acted thus.

Computers

In those days, outside the ISI, some computing activities were carried out in the TIFR, the Indian Institute of Science, some of the IITs and some Defence Laboratories; but nowhere did the activities go beyond what was being done in the ISI.

PCM made various attempts to acquire a large and powerful computer system but was prevented from doing so by the lack of government support. It was in this context, in 1964, PCM took a bold step, something typical of him; he rented on behalf of the ISI, without any grant of loan or any assistance from the government, an IBM 1401 system. The institute had to devote about 50 per cent of the time of this computer of providing services to government and industries to earn money on business terms in order to pay the rental to IBM, so that the remaining 50 per cent of the time could be used for scientific work, research and teaching.

Computer research

Computer research at the Institute was not just restricted to data processing or to solving complicated mathematical problems. It also includes line of research that became extremely important and which received acclaim at the world level that of pattern recognition and machine learning.

It is also noteworthy that while designing the course given by the Institute, computer training was included in all of them. In course of time, the Institute became one of the foremost centres of computer training in the country.

Documentation research and training centre (DRTC)

When late Dr. S. R. Ranganathan, the doyen of Library Science, retired and settled down at Bangalore, the Professor provided all the facilities at Bangalore to establish DRTC according to the stipulations of Dr. S. R. Ranganathan.

Recruitment—focus on the potential and not on track record

Almost all the young scientists recruited by the Professor proved their worth in the course of their careers. Some of the significant features are as under and they cover briefly the issues related to attitude, emoluments, freedom, handling of scientists in order to promote excellence in research:

1. Prof. PCM’s approach was not only of seeking persons of proven merit but also young persons who gave indications of having potential merit who would flower in the conditions he created for the nurturing of merit.
2. In tangible terms, this meant recognising that academic excellence is very largely a matter of hard work, discipline, training and guidance, facilities for work, encouragement, examples set by others, interaction with senior scientists of proven worth, an atmosphere where the pursuit of knowledge is given the utmost importance and an environment where the highest standards are maintained.
3. So PCM’s strategy for promoting scientific research of the highest standard and maintaining the standard at that height was two-fold; first, to manipulate the conditioning factors to their optimum state and then to expose as many potential talents as possible to benefit from them and to flourish.
4. Recruitment style adopted by Professor was informal and friendly. He was more concerned with assessing the strengths and capabilities of the candidate rather than their track record. He would do so by making the candidates feel at home, at ease. He would mention at the very outset to the person that he was free to pursue the work of his choice. One can see instances of this in the experiences of persons like Dr. R. L. Brahmachary, recorded in Rudra (1999).
5. Regarding emoluments, Professor had his own approach. He would start at the low level. This was perhaps to find out the real concern and emotional attachment of the candidate for pursuing a career in research by accepting even a financial sacrifice to have a good career. Once Professor felt convinced about the quality of output and dedication to research he would enhance their emoluments several times.
   Another strategy for starting a recruit on low salary was to minimise the risk of wrong selection. There was a bright chance of an incompetent one leaving the institute as he would soon discover lack of opportunity to grow. Thus, starting on low salary followed by quick reward to the deserving had the purpose of identifying, retaining, and promoting young scientists who would value a life of research.
   Professor had affection and respect for young scientists. He certainly had excessive regard for potential talent. A case example pertaining to Amitabh Basu, then a young anthropometrician mentioned in Chapter 31 brings out vividly the concern Professor had for young scientists in spite of his being busy with his work schedule extending up to 12–14 hrs/day.
   Professor was always extremely patient with young scientists. This did not imply that he was not rude or rough with them.
   Even the young scientists could take liberties to fight fiercely with the Professor. The well known instance to be found in record is that of the rough exchanges between Dr. Ashok Rudra and the Professor which lead to Rudra walking out after being thrashed by the Professor and the magnanimity of the Professor by sending out a letter reading as under that very day after a while to Rudra “My dear Ashok, I am sorry, I spoke rudely this morning. In my annoyance I spoke so harshly and I offer my apologies. I would greatly appreciate your seeing me for a short while this afternoon or evening at any time that suits your convenience.” Rudra (1999).
   Professor was always endeavouring to maintain excellence in research and he promoted excellence through diverse ways. Some of the key methods he pursued are as under:
   • Provide the best of facilities and create a good ambience.
   • Have simplicity and informality to promote easy accessibility and free discussion at all times and at all levels.
   • Be an egalitarian in handling scientists by not discriminating against senior, more important scientists. It was a very common practice to find when renowned scientists of the world who would visit the institute, the young scientist(s) who had the same field of interest as that of the visitor would be totally associated with him during his entire itinerary. This helped them to interact well and develop many new areas of research on the one hand and enable the young scientists to scale new heights in their career.
   • Create difficult situation in academic sense, for young scientists to struggle and swim to shore successfully.

It is very much on record that the young scientists would fight fiercely with Professor, and get annoyed with Professor’s rebuff and walk away only to be welcomed back by Professor with a genuine show of repentance on his part to what happened.

These were the landmark features which enabled the Institute to attract, train, empower and retain the best, brightest and talented persons; and these in turn helped the Institute to attain a world stature as an institution of excellence in the field of statistical research.

Unorthodoxy

Be unorthodox to build a new culture for research to flourish with freedom

By the time PCM died in 1972, the Institute had acquired, in matters of management, a staff structure, service conditions and a few rules and regulations which had been accepted as a standard for institutions run with public funds. These resulted from the pressures exerted by the workers of the Institute and by the Government of India.

It is worth noting that many of the features of the unorthodox management style that the Institute followed till 1972 with great success are now being adopted in many institutions striving to be centres of excellence.

The Institute never closed. There were no holidays except the weekly Sunday. Even on Sundays those who wanted to come and work had all the opportunity to do so. There was a fixed number of days in the year workers could take as leave.

There were no differences among workers. All were ‘workers’; some of them were called ‘technicians’. There were salary scales but a very large number of them, differing from each other very marginally and overlapping each other very largely. The result was an impossibility of dividing workers into distinct compartments like Professors, readers, lecturers, etc. This was perhaps the motivation behind the system conceived and enforced by PCM.

Professor did not like tiers of hierarchy. For many years, starting from Prof. Mahalanobis down to the minions, everyone was a worker not known by his designation but by his roll number. The roll number of Prof. Mahalanobis was zero. So, there were no designations and no concept of posts for a very long time.

There was no concept of a ‘post’. When a person was appointed, a post would be created with a fixed salary scale. When the person left the job or retired, his post did not fall vacant; it simply disappeared. This avoided one of the many factors responsible for lowering of standards in academic institutions. On the other hand, if Prof. Mahalanobis or any of his senior colleagues came to know about a person with potential or proven talent, a post could be created to accommodate him.

The absence of the ‘post’ concept did not mean doing without selection committees. The key thought of locating the ‘proven/potential’ talent and inviting the person to join the institution needs to be noted, a practice also found in London School of Economics (LSE).

If recruitment was not made by following any rigid procedures, what is called ‘lien’ in Civil Service language, was also a matter that was highly flexible. There were no rules for lien worth the name. Anyone who left the Institute as a scientific worker could come back and join the Institute anytime. In many instances PCM tried his best to prevent scientific workers from leaving the Institute to study or to teach in universities abroad. Sometimes he succeeded, sometimes he failed.

He recognised the value of efficient administration and treated with respect persons of proven ability with respect. At one point of time, he left the administration to a Committee consisting of the heads of different sections. As long as the committee members were unanimous the Professor hardly tampered with their decisions.

New areas of research

Image processing, computer vision, artificial intelligence, fuzzy mathematics are some of the new cutting edge technologies of the present day that had their early beginnings in the Institute. The division responsible for research in those areas has earned international recognition for its work. In the formative years the Professor and Dr. C. R. Rao a long time associate of the Professor as well as one of the greatest living statisticians of the world gave considerable support for establishing the research division. There was a time in the formative years when Professor would bestow his attention for each and every publication related to the new field and offer a large number of comments. He would also facilitate the process of young scientists to come in contact with the leading lights across the globe. Thus support of Professor meant total support, and not just a budgetary one.

Networking for brain irrigation

If by brain drain we mean loss of intellectual resources by the country, we may use the term irrigation to mean the enrichment of the intellectual resources of the country.

Professor believed in establishing and maintaining continual contact with scientists the world over. In addition to having the contacts through books and journals, he believed very strongly in personal contacts and accepted the view that personal contacts are indispensable.

During the life time of the Professor many eminent scientists in diverse fields visited the Institute, stayed in the Institute’s guest house for varying lengths of time and a number of them on several occasions.

The important features of the visit, stay and the manner of interaction with them are worth noting and they are briefly as under:

• Material conditions of the guest house were no match to the comfort one commanded at star hotels or luxurious guest houses. Still the guests, intellectual giants in their own field, were happy to stay in the Institute’s guest house. This was largely due to the Professor’s charm and the fine art he had developed to make the guests happy at the guest house. He would personally supervise the arrangements for his guests.
• Distinguished visitors staying at the guest house meant a lot to the Professor in terms of having useful interaction with them. It afforded the time for the young scientists to meet them even beyond the normal time to interact on problems of mutual interest in a friendly and homely setting. During those days it was a common sight in the evenings to see the young scientists in the company of the great and accomplished ones going around the Amarpali pond seriously discussing something and suddenly disappearing into a class room to write on the board.

Brain irrigation was done at least cost as the guests would stay at the Institute’s guest house and no salary, no honoraria or allowance worth the name was being paid. This least cost was possible due to the Professor’s charm in meeting every minute needs and fancy of his guests.

An observation

What is demanded of any institution/organisation in the present global environment is a focus on reducing bureaucracy, encouraging entrepreneurship, attracting and retaining talent, constant update of the method of operation, and networking for brain irrigation. All these elements were there in the Professor’s management style.

The Professor, was he a dictator?

There was a strong impression that the Professor was a dictator. This is not true. When the fact of life is such when even any ordinary builder of an institution attracts the title ‘dictator’ it would have been a matter of surprise had the Professor, the builder of a world-class Institution like Indian Statistical Institute had not earned the title of a dictator. In this context one should recognise the following traits one need to demand of himself to accomplish the task of building a world class institution:

• Ability to provide dynamic leadership
• Vision and courage of conviction coupled with the spirit of a pioneer to propagate, establish and implement new ideas unknown to the people of the times
• Indomitable courage and tenacity to fight all opposition to clear the obstacles and make way for the new pastures for advancement of science and society.

Without such traits accomplishing an outstanding feat is not possible and this should not be termed dictatorial. This is in fact the considered view of Dr. C. R. Rao a long time associate of the Professor.

Thus, the contributions of the Professor to the specific area of managing a knowledge institution are his

1. Global vision
2. Courage of conviction to take bold decisions
3. Capacity to ably handle highly heterogeneous diverse situations at national and international level
4. Proactive support to intellects and academics from diverse fields
5. Indefatigable energy to persuade bureaucrats to adopt to new ways of thinking
6. Micro-focus to extend frontiers of knowledge in specific areas as well as macro-focus on application of knowledge to far wider areas of national importance.

An urgent task

World-class institutions have been built in India in every field—industry, education and research. Powerful visionaries are behind these institutions. Posterity must have easy access to know the ways and approaches they adopted to build a team and inspire the team to fight the adversities and bottlenecks that stood in their path to realise their vision. For an institution to remain as world-class, it has to find a succession of leaders and visionaries as has been possible to find for example in institutions like BARC, ISRO, AIIMS, IISc and House of Tatas. How to accomplish this is an issue that needs to be researched, documented and published. This task is of utmost urgency and importance today when India has to have every institution modelled standards, world class.

Conclusion

In its citation for the 2005 Nobel Prize award for chemistry, the Nobel jury has stated “Imagination will soon be the only limit” to what kind of molecules can be built in the future. This emphasis on imagination is true of any other field of knowledge and knowledge industry.

Thus, imagination is a key resource of a knowledge worker, which gets enriched and becomes more productive when supported by one’s own intelligence, brilliance and talent. Therefore, any institution dealing with knowledge workers has to have an environment that promotes imagination on one hand and on the other an ambience that stimulates in one a sense of commitment, contribution, besides a feeling that one is effective in his work and contribution. Prof. P. C. Mahalanobis, during his stewardship of Indian Statistical Institute, succeeded in creating such an environment and it happens to be the most significant factor of managing a knowledge institution.