SEARCHING THE RIGHT PEOPLE AND MAKING THEM GROW (by APJ ABDUL KALAM)

Searching the right people 

and making them grow  

Re-entry dynamics!

UNCONNECTED OR IN A CONNECTED way two great scientific minds were responsible for making some unique and beautiful things happen in my life. In 1962, I was working in the Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE) in the Ministry of Defence as a Senior Scientific Assistant empowered as the leader of the Hovercraft Development Programme. I was responsible for the design, development and also piloting the hovercraft. One day, my director told me that a great scientist was coming to ADE, and that I had to explain to him and give a flight demonstration of the hovercraft. When I met the scientist, I saw in front of me a young bearded, philosopher like personality. He was Prof . M.G.K. Menon, the then Director of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, My God, how many question he asked me in twenty minutes? I took him  as a co-passenger in the hovercraft, and gave him a beautiful maneuvered flight on the tarmac.

   He loved the flight and congratulated me. I thought that just like any other VIP visit, this was the end of it. But after a week, I received a telegram  (there was no e-mail in those days!) that i must attend an interview for the post of a rocket engineer at the TIFR, Bombay, within a week My A.D.E Director helped me got an airlift one way by taking special permission from the headquarters. I went for that interview. Three people in the interview panel were sitting there, one was Prof. Vikram Sarabhai, I was meeting him for the first time; second was Prof. M.G.K. Menon; and the third was Shri Sataf from the administration. What an interview it was! Prof. Sarabhai asked me question on what I knew rather than what I did't know this was a new way of interviewing. Within an hour, of the interview, I was told that I was selected and my life was steered from Defence to Space Programme.

  Another re-entry  in my life took place, after the completion of SLV-3 mission. In the year 1981 a lecture series was organized at the Defence Electronics Application Laboratory (DEAL) in Dehradun for presentation of successful technological, scientific programmes of the nation. The first speaker, Dr Raja Ramanna, the then Scientific Advisor to Raksha Mantri, give a talk on Pokhran nuclear test-technological and management challenge. I was the second speaker and Dr. Raja Ramanna himself presided. The topic I dealt with was the evolution of management system for developing India's first satellite launch vehicle.During the lunch time, Dr. Raja Ramana asked me to meet him for 10 minutes. I still remember it was 5' O.clock in the evening,. on Sunday in March 1981, the great nuclear scientist Dr. Raja Ramanna told me that he was convinced that I could provide the leadership to the missile programme envisaged by the DEDO. The focal laboratory for the programme was the DRDL. He invited me to become the Director of the DRDL. I was delighted. That was the beginning of the story of my re-entry to defence leading to the evolution of the missile programme. The rest is history. This ''great soul'' was the Chairman of the Council of IISc and was responsible for guiding the destiny of the Institute for over ten years.

   Empowering the Young Scientists

  I remember an incident with Prof. Vikram Sarabhai during the 1960s Dr. Sarabhai had nurtured a few scientists and technologists Let me share with you how he nurtured them. Whenever he came to Trivandrum, I used to discuss with him the proposal for the development of composite products. At that time I was in the initial stages of my career as rocket engineer, with less than two years of experience in ISRO.

    Apart from me, there were Dr. S C Gupta, a specialist in guidance and Dr. Amba Rao, specialist in Aerospace structures. In spite of our being just introduced into the organisation with few years of experience, Dr. Sarabhai noticed our interest in development of certain materials and system. He funded for the creation of laboratories. He created a fiber composite laboratory based on my proposal, which later became Reinforced Plastic Centre. He created Gyro laboratory centered on the expertise of Dr. Gupta, which later became Guidance Laboratory and Space Structures Laboratory centered around Dr. Amba Rao, which later become advanced dynamics group. these centres became the centres of excellence and incubated many advanced technology mission that fed critical inputs to the space programme.

    Once the potential of a young scientist is understood, the heads of the organisation must invest in them boldly irrespective of the position of the scientist and his/her age. if this philosophy is pursued with sincerity the research would flourish and youth would be encouraged to embrace science.

• Leader with great minds are always looking for the right people to steer a project.
• The right people are self-driven, self-motivated and need no monitoring.
• A high self-concept, his own sense of achievement and grip on the subject makes the selector a positive evaluator, who wants to know what you know and not what you do not know.
• For innovation to flourish, respect the zeal and sincerity irrespective of the age and experience.