IIM-B welcomes Lalu Prasad Yadav!!
“Railway is like a cow that must be optimally milked, lest it turn sick.” The new management mantra from lalu…
This Month IIM-B would be eager to welcome this guest lecturer. After delivering a lecture at IIMA last September, on the “Turnaround of Indian Railways”, he became a global guru of sorts to students from Harvard and Wharton (Delhi). Adding to the fodder, this case study of the Turnaround of the Railways has now become a part of the curriculum for Post Graduate Programme in Management for Executives.
When Lalu took over, the Indian Railways was a loss-making organization. The Rakesh Mohan Committee (headed by Rakesh Mohan, secretary, department of economic affairs) had termed it a ‘white elephant’ and predicted that it was destined to hit Rs 61,000 crore (Rs 610 billion) in bankruptcy by 2015.
Defying all these predictions, the Railways booked an unprecedented surplus of 110 billion rupees (2.47 billion dollars). Lalu Prasad Yadav is now credited with engineering the financial turnaround of Indian Railways, that was on the verge of bankruptcy before his appointment to the office. What makes his performance commendable is that he has left passenger fares untouched and has found several other profitable sources of revenue for the Railways. he improved on his first year’s performance by stating a profit of 14000 crores with decreased freight and unchanged passenger fares in 2006..then in current 2007 budget, he increased the profit level to 20000 crores with introduction of cushion seats in all unreserved compartments. The turn around story thus becoming interesting management lesson…
Here is to welcome ‘Laluji’ to Bangalore….
For any orgainsation the changes are not Expected overnight. Likewise, even for Railway dept. Laloo alone cannot claim to the success. It could be the measures taken by the previous ministers such as Nitish Kumar.
Take the example of our own BMTC Bus. The Transport department of karnataka was making huge losses. The one of reason sighted by the epartment was the Free Passes Given to Students!! Even the Talented PGR Scindiya Couldnt turn the BMTC into Profit!! Now, the BMTC is making Profits from the past 2 years. Thanks the the officials such as upendra tripati. Does the lesser known transport minister Cheluvaraya Swamy Claiming for success??
Even Behind the Railway Department’s Success there could be Talented Officials. As far as lalu’s Claim for the success of Jersy cow(as he calls), Not more than a BIG JOKE. Laloo Just the media Hype. Nothing more than JOKER.
Master strokes from master manipulator. I pity for the railway minister who would succeed him. I believe the neglect of all safety norms takes a few years to be evident, and by that time Laluji would either be back in Bihar or turning around another ministry.
Agree with both the above comments. Laloo has managed to do whatever he has in Bihar, and now is running away with all the accolades for the railways!!! Seriously, isn’t it insane?
@ Naren, I agree with you. With time, we will sure know the real guys behind the turnaround, if it is one. For all you know, it could be a combination of work done by the prev Rlway minister (guess who), and the timely pickup of manufacturing sector (= frieght traffic).
Even if it is all Mr Yadav’s work, like I said, he has a lot of wrongs to undo. So I certainly am saving my praises for him.