What corporate leaders can learn from the Swachh Bharat Mission

The sheer scale of accomplishment under the scheme has key lessons in leadership, project management and planning that can be taken straight to India Inc's boardrooms

The buzz around Prime Minister Narendra Modi announcing India is an open defecation free (ODF) country on the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi later this week is founded on some staggering numbers around toilet coverage under the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) launched by the PM on October 2, 2014. Mind you, the story is well beyond just the numbers being thrown around because a key behavioural change was brought about in a country where open defecation was historically ingrained.

First the numbers: More than 100 million toilets were constructed in rural areas; the national rural sanitation coverage which was 38.7