Catalyst: a condition, event or person that is the cause of an important change. A catalyst is also a substance that causes or speeds a chemical reaction without itself being changed.

 

As a student of chemistry we’ve all read about catalyst. But more often than not the importance of this word fades away as we grow and stop talking chemistry. However, whether we realize or not, ‘catalysts’ keep playing their roles around us silently. Only sometimes do they make their identity and presence felt.

 

Do we remember an incident at home when over a week end entire family was sitting in a grumpy mood due to some minor incident? May be the maid took a sudden off or the cable television conked off making one person shout and others fume & fret. Suddenly an old family friend drops in, starts cracking jokes, makes everybody smile and takes everybody out for dinner. Within few minutes the sullen faces and sombre mood changes to become bright and cheerful. This is when, without our realizing, the old friend behaved like a ‘catalyst’ to transform the atmosphere. I wonder how many of us have actually been catalysts for others in life.

 

There was an old hindi movie ‘Parichay’. In this movie the hero, Jitendra, transforms the spoilt gang of siblings led by Jaya Bhaduri. Grandfather of the children, Pran, had a tough visage and was a strict disciplinarian. Suddenly a ‘catalyst’ comes in and transforms the complete atmosphere in the household. Pran goes out for few days and when he returns he sees the visible change around himself. ‘Catalyst’ came for a short while, did the transformation and vanished. Something similar happened in the movie ‘Khoobsoorat’ where the role of ‘catalyst’ was played beautifully by Rekha to once again transform a strictly disciplined household into a lighter and fun filled place. I’m sure my friends would be able to recall many such movies and incidents in their lives where one person, coming from outside for a short while, made permanent changes in the prevailing situation.

 

But why did I decide to write about this issue today? Genesis of this thought is the changes that we see in the corporate world. In the course of my professional journey I have seen many changes in management of companies where I have worked and even where I have not worked but have observed closely the events at those places. There are two predominant schools of thought in this respect. One, when the management or the CEO changes we see a complete change in senior management. Previous management is considered either inefficient or not trustworthy by the new leadership and they get their own set of trustworthy people to run the show. GE as a philosophy believes in this management technique. But otherwise also we find many strong CEOs who travel with their trusted retinue. Should I name some of them here? May be, may be not. But a recent close example could be movement of Mr. Romesh Sobti as the CEO of IndusInd Bank. Almost entire senior management was brought in by him from his previous organization. This strategy worked for him and the bank is doing quite well today. Second thought is of the CEOs who are supremely confident about their own abilities so far as strategy, people management and change management are concerned. These are the people who strongly believe in the existing people and their own abilities to work with them to bring the necessary changes for well-being of the organization. A classic example of this could be the change at Tatas. When Mr. Ratan Tata took over the reins he almost completely changed the management set-up. We now have the benefit of hind sight to say that the strategy was immensely successful. Now when Mr. Cyrus Mistry has taken over we haven’t heard any mass change or any change for that matter when it comes to the management of Tata companies. There’s nothing to suggest that his strategy is not working, though we don’t hear any dramatic positive change also. Generally, this strategy will give very slow results, either way. The pace of change will remain gradual and sometimes ineffectual.

 

While the requirement, usage and effectiveness of these two strategies in the corporate context may be dependent on many factors like the CEO, people, organization culture, maturity stage of the organization itself, availability of time etc., one thing is sure. The first strategy creates initial turmoil and a blood bath, but results, good or bad, are quick to follow. We may observe the overall direction of change in about 6-9 months. Second strategy by its nature is slow moving. Change, if at all, is very slow and is difficult to observe, particularly from outside. We can therefore see the difference in the style and approach of M/s. Ratan Tata and Cyrus Mistry. We obviously know the success of the former and are still awaiting results from the latter.

 

In between these two there’s another strategy. In this strategy ‘Catalysts’ have a very important role. New CEO takes over and analyses the situation for a while. He moves quickly and gets one or few catalysts in the system to transform it. There’s no move on his part to replace enmasse the existing leadership. He identifies the strengths and weaknesses of the existing team, figures out the quick changes that are required and gets the change agents on board. These catalysts re-energise the moribund staff. More often than not, the time immediately preceding management change is that of uncertainty and fear. A reassurance to staff that there’s no move to replace them makes them feel little more confident. But with the arrival of ‘catalysts’ these moribund people suddenly feel energized and a need develops in their mind to prove themselves against these new comers. Eventually both, the ‘catalysts’ as well as existing staff, start working hard with new gusto. Net gainer is the organization.

 

I’ll give two quick examples to show the success of a strategy based on ‘catalysts’. One, when there was a change of management at iconic Infosys. There was no move by the new CEO, Mr. Vishal Sikka, to change the entire senior leadership. He imported few ‘catalysts’ from his previous organization and did some minor tinkering when it came to people. Few who left largely did this on their own accord. But primarily the new guy leveraged the strength of existing staff, motivated them and got the ‘catalysts’ on board. Results now prove that not only his strategy is working but it’s been fairly quick. After all the CEO of a publicly listed company has to be something like a superman who needs to show results on quarterly basis, that also without any time lag. Second example is that of the great political CEO that we have. Our own Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi. When he took the office, surprisingly, there no effort to change the bureaucracy. Instead he got few catalysts like his own Principal Secretary for whom he had to change the law and people like Ajit Doval. By and large the secretaries remained the same, including the cabinet secretary. But he along with the ‘catalysts’ re-energized the central bureaucracy like no other PM has done till now. Irrespective of what the masses and the media feel and say, people in the know of things are aware that the system has started working and is working fine. Green shoots are already visible with greater changes likely to be visible soon.

 

Limited point I am trying to make here is that more often than not a strategy based on ‘catalysts’ gives quicker results for organizations and nations without giving the pain associated with the surgical change in the management.

 

As my initial examples have shown, this phenomenon is not restricted to organizational life. It has a strong bearing in our personal lives too and in more ways than what we can imagine. It can work wonders in team sports, schools and colleges, family environment and even in the personal life of an individual. Just imagine a day when we left our home in the morning in a huff due to an issue like breakfast not ready on time, geyser not working, office clothes not ironed properly etc. We board the bus or the train and find a calm and composed man reading his newspaper sitting next us. He starts a small conversation, shows us a funny news item though we are not interested, makes us respond and by the time we get down from the train or bus we are again smiling and are cheerful. A ‘catalyst’ can transform our lives, our moods and our very being.

 

My Little Thought Of Life in this context is that it will do us good if we understand the importance of the concept of ‘catalyts’ in our lives and leverage it fully to improve ourselves and the environment around us. For this we need to know the situation where a ‘catalyst’ can play a role. And then decide whether to get a catalyst or to become one ourselves. If we need to bring this catalyst from outside, identify the right person and get him on the scene quickly. Catalyst after all causes or speeds up a chemical reaction.

 

To my friends and readers I wish an ability to analyse the situation well and use the ‘catalysts’ or become the ‘catalysts’ to make our own as well as others life joyous and successful.