'Adapt to emerging situations'

The biggest challenge that management professionals face today is with regard to reducing the gap between promise and delivery.

At the valedictory session of the All India Management Association's 32nd National Management Convention on 'The Best of the Best : Spirit of the Challenger', industry representatives also spoke of the ability to take repeated risks and adapt to emerging situations as the other major challenges that managers face today.

According to Jaswant Singh, leader of opposition, Rajya Sabha, "The essence of management is to reduce the gap between policy and implementation. The spirit of the challenger is with regard to being innovative and thinking out-of-the-box. To be enterprising is to avoid following the beaten track and understand the difference between self-confidence and arrogance."

John Clarkeson, global chairman, The Boston Consulting Group, said, "Earlier, it was not easy for us to recruit MBAs from India as although they had entrepreneurial talent they were conservative with regard to their career choices. But a manager has to face the challenge of taking repeated risks as these can open up avenues for growth."

"No strategy is going to last forever and we will have to keep evolving and adapt to the emerging situations," he added.