The four of us (Edie, Arnold, Erica & Jared) have had the pleasure of working with Vibhuti Jha in numerous capacities over the years.  He always adds considerable insights at our quarterly STEP meetings, and possesses intimate and in-depth knowledge of Indian culture, economics and politics.  He is the President for the Human Potential Project, and a faculty member in McDaniel College, Baltimore, in their graduate program “Leadership in Global Enterprise”.

He contributes a regular column to the Times of India.  The text of his latest column (Leadership – Technology, Corruption and Redemption!) is listed below.  We love getting his perspective, so we hope you enjoy it!

Events of the last few weeks and days may not have caused any change in the lives of political leaders all over the world but the pivotal role of technology may perhaps be causing them some concern. In genuine and authentic democracies around the world, where we have freedom of the press, these events have become visible to the public, to the voters and the discussions continue almost round the clock! I am talking about the CWG scandal in India,  Wikileaks exposure of  the US and Pakistan’s double or triple play, Chinese human rights violations in Tibet, to name a few.

In each of these incidents people are witnessing  a crass manipulation of instruments of politics, religion,  diplomacy, economics and war by people in power who incidentally have given every justification for whatever they are doing  ‘in the name of the people.” In each of these events and incidents, technology has played a key role in exposing behind the scene manipulations and it enabled a continuous chase of those events in keeping the fire lit whenever and wherever possible. Even in cases where the issue seemed dead and buried, technology has created the potential and the possibility alive to bring the story to the forefront literally with a click of a mouse.  The dilemma for leaders now is that they cannot hide anymore, not for too long and certainly not forever!

The common man bestows unswerving loyalty and faith to those who are in position of power. They virtually end up worshipping those in power in an unfailing faith and hope that the powerful will lift the common miseries of the powerless. But that perhaps remains a pipe dream. What the leaders need to recognise, and they better do it fast, is that the time for camouflage, deception, forked tongue manipulation of the voters is gradually coming to an end, sooner than later.

And finally, our business leaders must recognise and realise that  technology tracks their every move,  every statement and action and there are just too many eyes watching and observing them whether via the webcam, satellites over or under and the trail left behind on the hardware via the software they use!  Nobody can get away with the lies and deceptions anymore.

The redemption for all leaders will come by committing to a better, authentic and impeccable transparency in conduct and behaviour for a majority regardless of the imperfections, difficulties and challenges of governance in a democratic set up. It is impossible to make everyone happy.  And, of course, there would still be many more who will continue to strive with their innovations in how to beat this imperfect system!  We are humans after all with unlimited potential – we need to channel our human potential in the right direction.