Leadership Lead Speak

Only Yourself to Beat!

Apr 1st 2010
By Satnam Singh

During the pre-downturn period, PFCs business grew at 15% year on year. Ironically, after the
meltdown, the companys business has begun growing at 30%, scaling a net profit increase of 63% in the
fiscal 2009. The net profit increased by 82% for the quarter ended Dec 2009. How is this organization
able to maintain such a high level of growth and deliver financial results consistently?

The secret of this Management style is based on simple principles

While others benchmark performance with their peers or best-in-industry, PFC does not. Benchmarking
cannot be done accurately. It could either create an artificial limit but then the full potential is not
exploited if it is set too low; or it can signal that it is impossible if it is set too high and creates de-
motivation. PFC follows a simple yet effective technique which is: One should benchmark with oneself
and become better and better every day. If this is followed as an attitude, it will work wonders for the
individual and the organisation as well.

While other companies think that monitoring is essential for performance, PFC does not. You only
monitor when there is no faith in the people you assign the job to. One should chose the right person for
the job and give empowerment and trust to deliver results.

Where, on one hand, other companies analyse the reasons for delays - they spend energy and time
understanding the whys and why nots of why a task was not performed. PFC does not. There is no
need to spend time in analysing reasons for delay; one can always get very valid reasons. Instead, one
should focus on getting the task done. The bottom line is that the job should move on and not get
delayed further due to such analysis.

Other companies spend energy and time reporting on activities performed, but PFC does not. We do not
lay stress on what did you do today, we focus on what did you achieve today. The focus of people is
shifted towards results achieved regardless of activities. This creates a shift in the thinking process:
when you have not achieved anything day after day, self introspection starts and thats when thinking
starts to improve oneself.

This management style is aligned to PFCs ambitious motto that the company has adopted: We create
possibilities for a better tomorrow. The results show there is no such thing as trying when it comes to
achieving results, and PFC has demonstrated that they know how to do it consistently.


SATNAM SINGH
CMD, PFC LTD

CAREER
Chairman cum Managing Director, Power Finance Corporation Ltd since August 2008. 31 years of varied
experience in power and financial sectors.

EDUCATION
MBA in Finance & Marketing from UBS, Chandigarh. B. Com, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar

INTERESTS
Reading and playing the tabla (is a graduate in Indian classical music), and yoga