*(Former President of India APJ Abdul Kalam at Wharton
> India Economic forum, Philadelphia, March 22,2008)*
>
> *Question:* Could you give an example, from your own
> experience, of how leaders should manage failure?
>
> *Kalam:* Let me tell you about my experience. In 1973 I
> became the project director of India's satellite
> launch
> vehicle program, commonly called the SLV-3. Our goal was
> to
> put India's 'Rohini' satellite into orbit by
> 1980.
>
> I was given funds and human resources -- but was told
> clearly that by1980 we had to launch the satellite into
> space. Thousands of people worked together in scientific
> and technical teams towards that goal.
>
> By 1979 -- I think the month was August -- we thought we
> were ready. As the project director, I went to the control
> center for the launch. At four minutes before the
> satellite
> launch, the computer began to go through the checklist of
> items that needed to be checked. One minute later, the
> computer program put the launch on hold; the display
> showed
> that some control components were not in order. My experts
> -- I had four or five of them with me -- told me not to
> worry; they had done their calculations and there was
> enough reserve fuel. So I bypassed the computer, switched
> to manual mode, and launched the rocket. In the first
> stage, everything worked fine. In the second stage, a
> problem developed. Instead of the satellite going into
> orbit, the whole rocket system plunged into the Bay of
> Bengal. It was a big failure.
>
> That day, the chairman of the Indian Space Research
> Organization, Prof. Sottish Dhawan, had called a press
> conference. The launch was at 7:00 am, and the press
> conference -- where journalists from around the world were
> present -- was at 7:45 am at ISRO's satellite launch
> range in Sriharikota [in Andhra Pradesh in southern
> India].
> Prof. Dhawan, the leader of the organization, conducted
> the
> press conference himself. He took responsibility for the
> failure -- he said that the team had worked very hard, but
> that it needed more technological support. He assured the
> media that in another year, the team would definitely
> succeed. Now, I was the project director, and it was my
> failure, but instead, he took responsibility for the
> failure as chairman of the organization.
>
> The next year, in July 1980, we tried again to launch the
> satellite -- and this time we succeeded. The whole nation
> was jubilant. Again, there was a press conference. Prof.
> Dhawan called me aside and told me, 'You conduct the
> press conference today.'
>
> I learned a very important lesson that day. When failure
> occurred, the leader of the organization owned that
> failure. When success came, he gave it to his team. The
> best management lesson I have learned did not come to me
> from reading a book; it came from that experience.
>
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