DR.
VERGHESE KURIEN
INTRODUCTION
EARLY YEARS
Verghese Kurien was born on 26 th November 1921.Kurien
graduated with Physics from Loyola College, Madras in 1940. He did
his B.E. (Mechanical) from Madras University and went to USA on a
government scholarship to do his Masters in Mechanical Engineering
from Michigan State University. He also underwent 9 months of
specialized training in dairy engineering at the National dairy
Research Institute of Bangalore.
PREPARATION FOR LEADERSHIP
o Starting of Career
Varghese returned to India after completion of his studies and on
May 13, 1949 he headed for Anand, a place in Kaira district of Gujarat
where he was supposed to spend five years as an officer of the Dairy
division in return for the scholarship paid by the government.
o Life turning Anecdotes
On arriving at Anand, he found that the farmers were being
exploited by the distributors of milk and the entire region was
controlled by a shrewd but clever businessman called as "Pestonjee
Edulji" who marketed Polson butter. Looking at the struggle of these
people to survive and mesmerized by the personality of their leader
Tribhuvandas Patel who was trying to unite the farmers and form a
cooperative movement against the exploitation, Dr. Kurien left his
government job and joined forces with Tribhuvandas Patel and the
farmers to start the Milk Cooperative movement in the region
registered under the name of Kaira District Cooperative Milk
Producers Union Ltd (KDCMPUL), which was later renamed to now
popular "Amul".
o Infuence of others
Tribhuvan Das Patel motivated him by saying that he is the right
person because of his intelligence and expertise to carry forward the
movement raised by farmers. Tribhuvan Das Patel later associated
himself with Verghese Kurien and both of them tirelessly began to
work for farmers.
3. UNIT 1
o Meaning of Leadership
Mr. Kurien with the ideas he had in the diary technology
impressed Mr Patel.Mr.Patel wanted a leader to solve the problems
related to milk production and farmers issue.Kurien was leader with
dreams. He started giving ideas to the cooperative, shared his views on
how to go ahead and advised them in the selection of machinery for
manufacturing milk. He started working day and night for the dairy
along with Tribhuvandas and hundreds of farmers. On the advice of
Dr. Kurien, Tribhuvandas left the old machinery of manufacturing
milk and collected money from the cooperative and bought new
machinery from Larsen and Toubro in 1951.
o Leadership Era
Kurien belonged to an era of the team leader and the change
leader. He was an transformational leader who had a vision with the
mission to accomplish. He influenced the farmers of Kaira about the
importance of co-operatives which would eliminate the middlemen and
connect them with the consumers. He had immense knowledge of the
dairy industry.
o New or Old Paradigm
Kurien belonged to an era who always wanted to grab the
opportunity that was created. He was always ready for the new
challenges. He always emphasized on the farmers part in the co-
operative, he always facilitated the people associated with the
organization. He encouraged Women, people from all caste to be part
of the co-operative. Hence,he belonged to the new paradigm.
o Success
With the new machinery in place, the procurement capacity of
the cooperative rose from 200 litres of milk in 1948 to 20,000 litres in
1952. Slowly and gradually the name of Kaira reached till Delhi and
the Anand model of cooperative started growing. After returning from
New Zealand, Dr. Kurien started his experiment of obtaining milk
powder from buffalo milk. Through a series of experiments under the
guidance of Dalaya and other cooperative members, Dr. Kurien
became successful in making milk powder from buffalo milk and
planned to build a plant where they could manufacture the buffalo milk
powder. It made dairy farming India’s largest self-sustaining industry.
It became the largest rural development provider.It became 1/3 rd of all
rural income
4.UNIT 2
o Characteristics of a great leader
1.Optimism.
Although, Kurien stopped for a few days but looking at the
struggle of the farmers he stayed back. He worked for the farmers in
creating a better life for them by taking the cooperative movement
ahead. He started working day and night for the dairy along with
Tribhuvandas and hundreds of farmers
2.Clarity of Vision and ability to share with others.
India’s milk production jumped from 20 million tonnes a
year in the 1960s to 122 million tonnes in 2011 under Kurien’s
charge.He was also the first to come up with the idea to manufacture
milk powder from buffalo milk, while the rest of the world was only
using cow’s milk. Kurien was able to think beyond milk production
to expand the dairy industry as evident in his push to manufacture
edible oils.
3.Ability to inspire and motivate others
4.Integrity
o Strengths and strengths matching leadership role
He was never been an boss-centered leader, instead a leader of
people, he brought in the trust of milk producing farmers together to
be part of the system .A cooperative society which connects farmers
with the consumers by avoiding the middlemen interference. In the
process, it improved the lives of the rural dairy farmers.
o Kurien as an Entrepreneur
Dr.Kurien was an social entrepreneur,whose life was dedicated to
the welfare of the milk producing farmers and has been significantly
successful in establishing different boards and taking over the
leadership.He was also an serial entrepreneur who established many
organizations that facilitated the diary industry. He founded the
Institute of Rural Management Anand(IRMA) to groom managers for
co-operatives in 1979. He instituted Operation Flood, also known as
the “white revolution,” a long-range program with the objective of
increasing milk production while both augmenting rural incomes and
keeping prices within reach for consumers through the expansion of
the cooperative movement.
5.UNIT 3
o Dimensions of Social Value System
1.Power Distance
Mr. Kurien had Low power distance which meant there was
equality in power in the organization.
2.Collectivism
He played a key role in setting up co- operative across India
and outside Co-operative.He worked for the farmers in creating a
better life for them by taking the cooperative movement ahead. He
started working day and night for the dairy along with Tribhuvandas
and hundreds of farmers.
o Mission of the organization
Amul’s Mission is to manufacture world class products of
outstanding qualities, providing related services and solutions to
client’s while utilizing latest technologies, highest business
standard,work ethics Corporate so we(AMUL) can make every
customer SMILE.
o Kurien-Transformational Leader
As he took on the responsibility of running the cooperative,
and as they began to achieve some success, he was struck by the fact
that India, despite its long history of dairying and with milk and milk
products important to the diet, was struggling unsuccessfully to meet
domestic demand. And his diagnosis was simple: there was no
organised processing and marketing of milk and milk products. As a
consequence, producers received uneconomic prices for milk and had
no incentive to either increase their herds or to improve productivity.
What was happening in major milk producing areas like Punjab and
Gujarat was the sale of the best milk animals to urban dairies in Delhi
and Bombay where they were destroyed after a single lactation,
depleting the gene pool of high producing cows and buffalo. He
transformed Milk deficient India to Producing Surplus of Milk.
o Organization Culture
Amul’s Culture can be defined has producer oriented,
consumer centered and holistic development. It follows more of a
mission culture with the blend of all.
6. Unit 4
o Barriers to individual or organizational Communication under his
Leadership
Mr.Kurien never faced the ire from the employees or from
any of the stockholders in the organization.
o Management By Wandering Around (MBWA)
Mr. Kurien was never a traditional manager, he would go to
the Dairy’s production area and would speak to the employees. This
would encourage people to work efficiently and would help bring out
their ideas.
One day, Verghese Kurien came to the office unheralded
and he noticed that one of his senior employees was drinking milk out
of a milk can. When the employee noticed him, he became very
anxious and told that he was not drinking the milk but was examining
the milk. Verghese Kurien didn’t utter a single word, but made orders
that from the next day on wards; each and every employee must be
given half a liter of milk daily.
o Open or closed communication under his leadership
Kurien preferred to have open communication with the
employees of the organization. He always wanted to build trust among
the employees. Communication across traditional boundaries enables
leaders to hear what followers have to say, which means the
organization gains the benefits of all the employee’ minds.
o Communication channels with employees
Kurien would spend most of the time at Amul.And hence he
would always available for any kind of problems an employee
faced.He would discuss the issues face to face.
REFERENCES
http://drkurien.com/
https://indiadairy.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verghese_Kurien
