Leadership at 26,000 feetLessons from Mr.

Raghu
Raman, President (Risk, Security and New
Ventures) at Reliance
The classrooms of IIM Ahmedabad have had many a leader from the Corporate
World, everyone an accomplished achiever in many a different business battlefield.
The uniqueness of this visitor was the battlefield that he got his MBA from, the
highest and most difficult war terrain the world. For, guarding the Siachen Glacier is
not like guarding the rest of the motherland. For a short span of 1 year (which
seems like forever in that inhospitable and inhabitable terrain), our brave and
committed soldiers volunteer risk their life in the midst of hostile rivalry and
freezing cold to protect a strategically important piece of territory which is bitterly
fought for between us and our neighbors to our west. Mr. Raghu Ramans
contention is that there is no better place in the world than here to gain lessons
about leadership, managing complex situations and even life.
Raghu has had a distinguished career both in the Armed Forces and after it, in the
boardrooms of businesses. A Commerce graduate from Delhi and a passout of the
Indian Military Academy, he has served in various units of the Army and has also
served abroad in Indian Peacekeeping missions. Outside the Army, he has had
diverse stints in primarily three different Organizations; the Mahindra Group,
Government of India and Reliance Industries. Look closer into his profile and you will
realize the sheer variety of his work; his roles in the Mahindra Group have included
being head of Mahindras World College, risk mitigation and security consulting
businesses and a Joint Venture with British Aerospace ! In his tenure with the
Government, he was distinctly handpicked to run a start-up in the area of National
lntelligence (Nat-Grid), a highly ambitious and successful venture of the Ministry of
Home Affairs.
Given that Raghu had such a variety of experience and he could have talked about
any of these roles, it is only fit that he talked about his one year stint in the Siachen
Glacier, which he proudly claims to be the period in which he gained the best
lessons possible. We were given a detailed overview of life in the Siachen Glacier
(no pictures or videos please!) and came a little bit closer to understanding the kind
of adversities our soldiers face in reaching the glacier and keeping it draped with
the tricolors of the national flag throughout the year.
When every step taken during a routine patrol (which could take days at length)
could lead to a fatal fall into a bottomless abyss, teams are tied at the hips and you
trust your teammates to the peril of their lives. Decisions are taken by commanding
officers which could send men to their death. Your carelessness or bad fortune could
lead to the loss of lives of your entire team. Orders are obeyed beyond question. A
Commanding officer leads from the front and this inspires his team to protect each
other at every cost. And the leader often bears the burden of the lives of his team
and their world.
The outstanding lessons which Mr. Raman taught us by invoking the experiences of
Siachen Glacier as well as his expansive knowledge of the 26/11 operations in

Mumbai by our NSG are lessons which will be far remembered by us even when we
would have forgotten other worldly subjects like finance or operations. Them, and
an inerasable sense of love, respect and gratitude for the kind of work our Armed
forces perform in order to let us go about our businesses.