Gaining a wise perspective—by shifting and broadening one’s perspective—is the first step of attaining wise leadership. But unless this wise perspective is followed up with appropriate action, it becomes a missed opportunity. In our view, practical wisdom is always rooted in action. Metaphorically, wise leadership means taking off the colored glasses; experiencing the world as it is; and, based on what you see, identifying actions that are both an authentic expression of who you truly are and appropriate to others at the same time. Wise leaders are sensitive to the context they operate in and fine-tune their actions accordingly while continuing to serve their noble purpose. This balance of context sensitivity and groundedness is often tested by challenging events, as it was one spring day in 2011 for V. R. Ferose, managing director of SAP Labs India.

At five in the morning, Ferose woke up to a phone call from his human resources director, who informed him that one of their young employees had died unexpectedly. Ferose, shaken by the news, hurried to his office while reflecting on his own young life and the journey he had taken to reach the position of managing director.¹

SAP Labs India, one of the fifteen global R&D labs of the German software giant SAP, is made up of two R&D centers—one located in Bangalore and one in Gurgaon. In 2008, Ferose took over the Gurgaon center as managing director when he was only thirty-three years old, making him the youngest managing director of a global multinational company in India. In April 2010, he was also put in charge of the Bangalore center. Among his many responsibilities, he had a clear mandate to boost employee morale at SAP Labs India, where employee turnover was running as high as 19 percent. SAP’s senior management wanted Ferose to bring that attrition rate below 10 percent within two years.

Ferose had a long list of goals. Yet he felt it was important to take time to understand the culture of his company better by paying attention not only to what employees were saying but also why. He read all the posts on the Indian lab’s internal blog, where disgruntled employees were making disparaging comments about SAP and its local management team. Then he reflected on the comments to identify the root cause of the discontent.

Ferose believed that SAP Labs India needed to shift gears and introduce new ways of engaging with employees who were feeling frustrated and dissatisfied with the work environment. For instance, there were no child care facilities for employees on campus, the process for expense reimbursement was long, and the list went on. Recognizing that he did not necessarily have smarter solutions to provide, Ferose invited about ten of the disgruntled employees, along with other interested employees, and encouraged them to find solutions that would work for them and for the company. Ferose got their managers to free up time for the group to work on solving their own problems.

With this support structure in place, employees organized themselves into teams of five to address the problems. One team developed a system to process expense reimbursement claims in less than twenty-four hours. Another team designed and set up a day care facility. Amazingly, these two high-priority projects were implemented within one week with a very limited budget, thanks to motivated employees who volunteered their time and found ways to implement these two projects quickly and cost-effectively. Then these empowered and engaged employees took on more projects. During Ferose’s first year as managing director, employees at SAP Labs India successfully implemented an amazing fifty-two projects, and productivity and creativity shot up. Not surprisingly, Ferose felt he was on the right track.

On the morning when he heard the sad news about his young employee, Ferose wondered both what had happened and whether he could have done something to prevent it. By chance, two significant events were scheduled to take place at SAP Labs India that day. In the morning, a leading Indian business magazine that publishes an annual ranking of the best employers to work for was coming to interview some employees at SAP Labs India as part of the evaluation process (the ranking is highly regarded by Indian employees, and Ferose thought a high ranking would boost morale and help attract motivated future employees). Later that same day, the renowned Oscar-nominated film director Shekhar Kapoor was scheduled to deliver a talk as part of a monthly lecture series that Ferose had initiated to help broaden his tech-focused employees’ perspective. The idea was to introduce them to the unique leadership styles of famous people in the arts, culture, sports, and politics. But given the shocking news, should these events still take place? Ferose wondered. Ferose needed to act both quickly and with delicacy.

Rather than worrying about what he could have done, he decided to focus on what he could do that day. First, he arranged for the parents of the deceased employee to be flown to Bangalore; he also personally offered moral support to members of that employee’s work team, who were devastated. He sent a short, heartfelt e-mail to all lab employees informing them of the death. He also decided that the evaluation process by the business magazine must go on as planned, and he encouraged employees to be open and transparent in their interviews with the magazine representative. He also kept the film director’s lecture on the schedule. Then Ferose retreated to his office and collapsed in a chair. He realized that he had made all these decisions spontaneously, but now that they were made, he started having doubts. He was in a pensive mood when he heard a gentle knock on the door.

A young man in his twenties with a warm smile was standing at the door. “I am Ramesh, and I want to let you know that I am proud of you,” the man said. “I really like what you have done in the past year and feel that you really care about us. I know today is a difficult day for all of us. But I want to tell you that my colleagues and I are committed to this company as long as you are here.”

Ramesh’s genuine words lifted Ferose’s feelings of doubt and, reflecting further, he reached a number of conclusions. He realized that his actions were consistent with his perspective of doing what is right for the employees and the company. Through his actions, he was trying to simultaneously address short-term priorities—shoring up employee morale against a strong blow—while also participating in the evaluation, which would bring long-term benefits. Ramesh’s comments helped to confirm Ferose’s belief that he was acting with authenticity and in a way that was appropriate for the challenging context of the day’s events. He thanked Ramesh and went on to host the film director’s lecture, which under the circumstances was recalibrated to be an uplifting and insightful talk on the link between creativity and spirituality.

With hindsight, it’s clear that the way Ferose acted is grounded in sound management principles, if not sheer common sense. Still, his thoughtful actions conveyed leadership maturity despite his young age, and they were unusual because he used his intuition rather than following a policy manual or a strategy learned in a management training class.

When the annual ranking of best employers in India was published in 2011, SAP Labs India made it to the top five—with an impressive #4 ranking.² Under Ferose’s leadership, employee motivation had improved significantly, with the India lab now ranking first in employee satisfaction among SAP’s fifteen R&D labs worldwide. In addition, the attrition rate dropped from 19 percent in 2009 to 10 percent in 2011 and is projected to be as low as 7 percent in 2012. By April 2012, two years after becoming managing director of whole SAP Labs India, Ferose was credited with the dramatic improvement in the company morale and overall productivity. In late 2012, in recognition of his significant achievements, Ferose was promoted to a larger role within SAP as the head of its globalization services organization.