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BILATERAL BEATDr. A P J Abdul Kalam address at PIM Alumini AuditoriumIndia‟s former President Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam during his visit to SriLanka from 20-24 January 2012, delivered a lecture titled „Economic Developmentand Creative Leadership‟ at a forum jointly organised by the Post Graduate Instituteof Management Alumni (PIMA) and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants(CIMA) on 22 January 2012.World renowned aerospace engineer and the 11thPresident of India Dr. A.P.J Adbul Kalam emphasised onthe need for a generation of creative leadership in all countriesin order to build vibrant businesses and in turn, createaccelerated national economic growth. He also urged educationalinstitutions in Sri Lanka to be geared up for the large number of creativethinkers needed by different disciplines and to facilitate the youth of Sri Lanka to doso, the former „People‟s President‟ also encourage co-competencies within a nation,proposing that India and Sri Lanka should make use of the unique „sea wealth‟ open to both countries, byjointly going into underwater research in a big way so that the wealth will be opened to both countries.“A nation‟s economic development is powered by competitiveness. Now competitiveness ispowered by knowledge. This is powered by technology and innovation which is powered by the resourcesinvestment and this is powered by revenue and return on investment. This in turn is poweredby volume which is powered by quality and value of products which is powered by employee productivitywhich is powered by employee loyalty which can be gained through management leadershipwhich is powered by creative leadership. One must exercise the need to change traditional roles. Thehigher the ratio of creative leaders in an organisation, the higher the chances of success within theorganisation and accelerated national economic growth,” he said.Dr. Kalam then went onto describe the traits a leader should possess, stating that leaders must havea vision, a passion to transform the vision to action, travel into unexplored territory by creating their own pathsand learn to absorb and manage failure and give success to team members, pointing out that this applies topolitics, industry, education or for any development.“A leader must have the courage to take decisions and have mobility in management. Everyaction of the leader should be transparent with integrity to succeed.”“What type of world we are going to see and itis it possible that there could be prosperity and peacethroughout the world or only for a few nations?” heasked the audience. “Sri Lanka or any other nationcannot live in isolation from the rest of the world. In aglobalised world our problems and efforts are sharedand prosperity and happiness will hence be shared.”He then went on to outline a vision for 2030 evolved by his students all across the world and highlightedsome of the plans set in motion in India in order to reach several goals by the year 2030. Kalam notedthat one major aspect of economic development is bringing about rural prosperity, adding that there will bemany business opportunities in India and that Sri Lanka and India should work together to improve bilateralrelationships.“The world needs compassionate leaders and leaders with a vision – Mandela and Gandhi areexcellent examples of this but this combination is very difficult to achieve,” he concluded.Previous Page Back to Cover Page Next Page