Tarun
Khanna EP2
Track Timing
-
Leaders that build to last (17:15) |
Playing the long game (23:49) |
Passing the Baton (33:00) |
Driving self-discovery with Next-gen (40:42) |
Professional CEOs in Family Businesses (53:42) |
Compassionate Capitalism (01:02:47) |
Growing thoughtfully (01:05:49) |
In Summary - Playing to Potential (01:09:49) |
|
Professor at HBS
Tarun Khanna is the Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor at the Harvard Business School (HBS), where he has sought for two decades to study the drivers of entrepreneurship in emerging markets as a means of economic and social development. At HBS since 1993, after obtaining degrees from Princeton and Harvard, he has taught courses on strategy, corporate governance and international business to MBA and Ph.D. students and senior executives. For many years, he has served as the Faculty Chair for HBS activities in India and South Asia. He was named the first director of the university-wide The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute at Harvard in the fall of 2010.
Outside HBS, he serves on numerous for-profit and not-for-profit boards in the US and India, including AES, a Washington DC headquartered global power company, and India-based Bharat Financial Inclusion Limited (BFIL), one of the world’s largest firms dedicated to financial inclusion for the poor. He is a co-founder of several entrepreneurial ventures in the developing world, spanning India, China, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Recently, he co-founded Axilor, a vibrant incubator in Bangalore. In 2015, he was appointed a Trustee of Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts.
He has recently Co-Authored the book - Leadership to Last with Geoffrey Jones. In the book, Geoffrey Jones and Tarun Khanna interview iconic leaders in India who have demonstrated leadership to last. There are leaders from South Asia and other emerging markets as well to illustrate that the ideas Indian entrepreneurs speak about are echoed by their counterparts in the Global South. All these magnates–Ratan Tata, Anu Aga, Adi Godrej, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Devi Shetty and Rahul Bajaj, to name a few–have built, to general acclaim and acknowledgement, organizations that are seen as forward-looking and innovative. In our conversation, we unpack some of these insights around leadership required to build such institutions.
This conversation is likely to be relevant to anyone who is keen to understand what it takes to build an institution that outlives them.
Published in Sept 2022.
Nuggets from the
Conversation
Leaders that build to last
Tarun speaks about the traits that separate the entrepreneurs that Build to Last from the rest. He calls out three elements. 1) Audacity of intent 2) Humility of demeanour 3) Steadfastness of Purpose.
Playing the long game
Tarun speaks about what keeps the entrepreneurs going over the long term. He speaks about how family businesses have a fabric and provide a safety net that ensures that businesses endure over the long run.
Passing the Baton
Tarun speaks about how family businesses think about the next generation coming into the family business. He speaks about how sometimes the next-gen wants to pursue a different path and how they walk the tight rope of ensuring continuity versus tuning into the passions of the next generation.
Driving self-discovery with Next-gen
Tarun speaks about how enduring families think of dealing with the question of the next generation entering the business. He speaks about how the more evolved families give the next generation an opportunity to actualize their potential and go on a process of self-discovery.
Professional CEOs in Family Businesses
Tarun speaks about how Entrepreneurs think about the Principal Agency problem when it comes to recruiting CEOs. Entrepreneurs are often playing the “infinite game” with the enterprise while the leaders they hire are often there for a stint. He speaks about the distinction between how developed markets like the US deal with it versus how Indian companies often deal with it.
Compassionate Capitalism
Tarun speaks about how Family businesses in emerging economies proactively fill in to take care of elements of Public Good that are not taken care of by the state.
Growing thoughtfully
Tarun speaks about how companies that have a self-imposed constraint (focusing on values, lower corruption or something similar) are likely to grow at a slower pace than a company that is focusing on growth in an unrestrained manner.
In Summary - Playing to Potential
Tarun expands on what the term Play to Potential means to him. He speaks about how given the human condition only about 7/8th of our potential is being tapped. He speaks about the significant unlock if this could be enabled
