Excellence is not by accident but is a process: Kalam

Says individual, organisation, nation continuously strive to better oneself

Excellence is not by accident. It is a process, where an individual, organisation or nation continuously strives to better oneself, said former President of India APJ Abdul Kalam at an interactive discussion held at Microsoft India Development Centre in Hyderabad.

“They set their own standards. They work on their dreams with focus and are prepared to take calculated risks. They are not deterred by failures as they move close towards their dreams. Then they step up their dreams as they are close to reaching the original targets. They are not in competition with anyone else, but themselves. That is the culture of excellence.”

Kalam was addressing over 500 managers and employees of MSIDC. The event was organised by MSIDC's Management Excellence Community (MEC).

The MEC, founded in 2008, is an initiative that aims at bringing the manager community together and helping them with their specific needs so that they can grow to become future leaders.

Kalam said nine key qualities embodied a true good leader –– vision, passion to realise the vision, willingness to travel on a new unexplored path, ability to manage successful failures, courage to take decisions, nobility in management, transparency in every action, ability to master a problem and work and succeed with integrity.

Narrating incidents from his own life, Kalam spoke how the failure of the first SLV-III satellite launch taught him some of the most important lessons of his life ... that a true leader always takes up responsibility for failures himself while giving credit to his team for successes achieved.