William Dar Dares. The 4 Elements Of ICRISAT's Success

No. The way to success is not a yellow brick road; there's no Alice in Wonderland; and I'm not Frank Baum. Yes! Success is a journey.

2000 January. It doesn´t look good. Up to the year before, ICRISAT has been languishing, its staff decreasing and its funds diminishing – you can almost smell the air of failure. This month, William Dollente Dar assumes office as the new Director General of ICRISAT (International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics) based in Patancheru, India. Dar has to think fast – and he dares not pick up where others have left off and instead dares to start something else. No guts, no glory. Nothing tried, nothing gained. Nothing risked, nothing learned. It calls for a new beginning.

Our new agenda is science with a human face for improving the livelihood of the 300 million poor inhabiting the semi-arid tropics ... across the globe,´ Dar tells whoever cares to listen (G Venkataramani, 04 March 2000, hindu.com). They listen. You get the message, don´t you?

Science with a human face. Five short words and William Dar revolutionizes modern science by saying them – and doing them. I see: Science is people, not process; science is man, not method; science is product, not potential; science is servant, not master. (I know William Dar refers to himself as Servant Leader, not separating faith from facts, religion from science. You cannot separate your heart from your head.)

A little cautiously, in the whole of 2000, ICRISAT dedicates itself, according to Dar (Message from the Director General, Grey to Green Revolution, ICRISAT Annual Report 2001), to:

(a) transform watersheds into ´wealth generators' for the poor
(b) optimize the use of scarce soil nutrients
(c) reduce costs and minimize hazards of pesticide use
(d) open the doors to biotechnology
(e) network
(f) focus on women.

The work is heavy and the workers are few?

This year, the Chinese Government honors ICRISAT scientists KB Saxena and LJ Reddy with the Jin Xiu Jiang Award for their work with new, improved pigeonpea – thereby restarting its cultivation in China. The Chinese use pigeonpea not mainly as food but as green manure on sloping lands to stop erosion as well as enrich the soil. They know their organic matter, which conserves water too.

2000 December. ´ICRISAT scientists are working to break the age-old link between drought and famine,´ says Ian Johnson, Chair of the CGIAR (Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research) and Vice President of the World Bank; he is speaking at the CCD (Convention to Combat Desertification) being held in Bonn, Germany (Annual Report 2001, ICRISAT). He is talking about the CGIAR´s DMP (Desert Margins Program), convened by ICRISAT, for some of the most disadvantaged peoples in the world: Botswana, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Mali, Namibia, Niger, Senegal, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

The DMP is being implemented by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and executed by ICRISAT. The DMP is a collaboration of 9 national research institutions, 3 regional networks, 5 non-governmental organizations, 5 CGIAR centers, 4 advanced research institutes and universities, and 10 development investors and international organizations, including EU, IDRC, GTZ, UNDP and USAID (dmpafrica.net). This is a good example of the mammoth and multi-mutual outreach that is necessary to help solve global problems, and ICRISAT is in the thick of it.

Within the year, to put on the human face to science, ICRISAT launches the Grey to Green Revolution, and can then report (William Dar, Message from the Director General, Annual Report 2001, icrisat.org/media):

The poor of the dry tropics are learning how to grow their way out of poverty, using an ever-increasing number of technologies, knowledge, institutional partnerships, and support networks that national, regional, and international organizations in the public, private, and non-governmental sectors have worked together to develop over recent decades. We are proud to have made significant contributions within these partnerships.

I think the key word there is network. Thus, a partnership is a network of two; support systems and structures and staffs are a network of many. I see networking as integrating, together putting the production, delivery and distribution of science goods and services. I differentiate: The idea of putting together is not the same as the idea of together putting – the first is product-conscious and focuses on what is being put together; the second is producers-conscious and focuses on working together putting together some product or service.

I say the ICRISAT lesson of 2000 is networking.

2001 July. Venkataraman Balaji, Head of Information Systems of ICRISAT, wins the World Technology Award in the World Technology Summit in London, a gathering of more than 200 of the globe´s major players in information technology: scientists, technologists, entrepreneurs, industrialists, financiers, journalists, policymakers (icrisat.org/media). He has invented a low-tech-high-tech question-and-answer system serving in-out data and information useful for farming and fishing in 10 villages in Pondicherry in South India. An Internet service for the Internet illiterate.

In September 2001, KB Saxena, pigeonpea breeder of ICRISAT, receives China´s highest national honor, ´2001 Friendship Award´ for reviving Chinese farmers´ interest in pigeonpea as a source of food, fodder, fuel, and fertilizer (icrisat.org/media). The Chinese give credit to whom credit is due.

2002. From where I sit, I see that ICRISAT extracts from the outside lesson of networking the inside lesson of teaming; thus is the dream ´Team ICRISAT´ now given flesh (Research for Impact, ICRISAT Annual Report 2002), which greatly boosts staff morale (bar.gov.ph). In January of that year, ICRISAT undergoes a major restructuring, and Martha B Stone, Chair of ICRISAT Governing Board, happily reports: ´The staff has signed on to the concept of Team ICRISAT.´ All for one, one for all; they are more than the famous Three Musketeers for one science.

In the same year, ICRISAT wins 2 awards: the King Baudouin and CGIAR Best Scientist. ICRISAT is one of the 15 non-profit international centers under the CGIAR (Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research). The first is awarded once every 2 years, the second yearly. The CGIAR centers are: WARDA (Africa Rice Center, in Benin), BI (Bioversity International, Rome), CIAT (Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical, Colombia), CIFOR (Center for International Forestry Research, Indonesia), CIMMYT (Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maiz y Trigo, Mexico), CIP (Centro Internacional de la Papa, Peru), ICARDA (International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, Syrian Arab Republic), ICRISAT (International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, India), IFPRI (International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington DC), IITA (International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Nigeria), ILRI (International Livestock Research Institute, Kenya), IRRI (International Rice Research Institute, Philippines), IWMI (International Water Management Institute, Sri Lanka), ICRAF (World Agroforestry Centre, Kenya), and WorldFish Center (Malaysia).

2003. Jonathan H Crouch, an ICRISAT staff, wins the Promising Young Scientist Award from the CGIAR. As well, ICRISAT is rated Superior by the CGIAR (icrisat.org/media).

2004. Lava Kumar, another ICRISAT staff, wins the Promising Young Scientist Award from the CGIAR. ICRISAT wins another King Baudouin Award, this time for collaborative research with the Rice-Wheat Consortium for the Indo-Gangetic Plains (icrisat.org/media). This is an unequalled 4th such award for ICRISAT, the first being won in 1996 and the second in 1998. Again, ICRISAT is rated Superior by the World Bank.

2005. The President of India inducts Sushma Reddy, Manager of ICRISAT-VASAT Information and Communication Technology-mediated information hub at Andhra Pradesh, as a fellow of the Jamsetji Tata National Virtual Academy for Rural Prosperity. ICRISAT wins the World Bank´s Development Marketplace Award for 2005 (author not named, financialexpress.com).

2006. There are 2 honors: Ram P Thakur, plant pathologist of ICRISAT, wins the CGIAR Outstanding Scientist Award and ICRISAT wins the Outstanding Partnership Award, shared with 10 CSOs (civil society organizations) (ICRISAT Happenings, 8 December 2006). The ABI (Agri-Business Incubator) initiative of ICRISAT receives the Best Technology Incubator 2005 Award from the Ministry of Science and Technology of India (icrisat.org/media).

2007 June. ICRISAT has just been rated Outstanding by the CGIAR for its overall performance in 2006 (icrisat.org/media). That is, Outstanding among the 15 international centers of the CGIAR.

I write about the award and call William Dar the (´Al Gore of Science´ – see my book, Team ICRISAT Champions the Poor, 2007, ICRISAT, pages 55-57; you can also check americanchronicle.com).

2008 June. ICRISAT has just been, again, rated Outstanding by the CGIAR, for its overall performance in 2007 (icrisat.org/media). I write about it that same month (´Rated O Twice!´ When Drought Comes, Can ICRISAT Be Far Behind?' frankahilario.blogspot.com).

How can a consistent loser transform itself into a consistent winner? The key word there is transform. When it comes to an institution, it´s the team members who do make it happen – or do not. And when it comes to any team, it´s the captain who leads them to victory, or defeat, or lackluster performance.

This time, I want to understand how is it that ICRISAT has been a consistent high achiever; since I cannot for the love of me study ICRISAT senior staff, I will content myself with a little study of Captain of Team ICRISAT William Dar.

What motivates this Ilocano from faraway Santa Maria, Ilocos Sur in Northern Philippines to inspire himself and lead other people to excel in their science in India and in other countries in Africa and Asia? Think out of the box of science. The way I see it, in essence, science is the business of knowledge applied to generate more knowledge, which may take the form of product or service. Now then, since we are in business, to comprehend success, let us learn from business management.

To appreciate continuing high performers, according to one study by two Harvard professors of business administration, Laura Nash and Howard H Stevenson, there are 4 ´satisfactions of enduring success,´ and these are (Martha Lagace, June 2002, ´Four Keys of Enduring Success: How High Achievers Win,´ hbswk.hbs.edu); noting the same Harvard study but stating differently, there are 4 ´desired ends´ of success (James Heskett, May 2004, ´How Much Is Enough?,´ hbswk.hbs.edu); or, there are 4 ´components of success´ (Paul B Brown, April 2004, ´Off The Shelf; Turning Success Into Fulfillment,´ query.nytimes.com). Combining the explanations of Lagace, Heskett, and Brown, here´s my version of the 4 elements of success as seen through the eyes of Nash & Stevenson – AHSL:

Achievement. Successful people compare their accomplishments favorably with those of others with similar goals.
Happiness. Successful people are contented or well-pleased with their lives at the moment.
Significance. Successful people see the impact they have on the lives of others they care about.
Legacy. Successful people see their accomplishments or values infused into the lives of others as to help them find success themselves.

Nash & Stevenson have learned that successful people are ´grappling with all 4 satisfactions almost constantly´ (Lagace). To me, that is the same as saying, ´To succeed is to achieve for yourself and be pleased with your life, and at the same time to have a measurable impact on the lives as well as quantifiable effects on the values of others.´ Significance is current; legacy is current extending into the future. And: To know when you have enough success takes some getting used to.

I say the 4 components of lasting success must be what the team captain strives at along with the members of the team. There is no team without members.

William Dar, high-achieving Team Captain, starts with a low-achieving not-quite-a-Team ICRISAT. From what I know of him, he has learned his brand of management in the Philippines and in India on the job, by the mouth, by the ear, by the eyes, by the mind – hands-on, asking questions, listening, reading, thinking. Learning, making mistakes. He never forgets that even as he is the leader and in the limelight, as a manager, he is only a section of a bigger picture, remarkable as he may be, a part of the quilt work. He´s not alone.

(In the image, behind him, at the level of his head, is the logo of 'Science with a Human Face' - and that's using your head.)

His mark is everywhere, if not obvious. For instance, it intrigues me that the succession of titles of the annual reports of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics itself implies a story of continuing growth, of long-term success – a creative mind at work:

2001: Grey to Green Revolution
2002: Research for Impact
2003: Building a Strong ICRISAT
2004: Sowing Seeds of Success
2005: Germinating the Seeds of Success in the Semi-Arid Tropics
2006: Nurturing the Seeds of Success in the Semi-Arid Tropics
2007: New Horizons of Scientific Excellence for the Semi-Arid Tropics

Another way of looking at Nash & Stevenson´s 4 dimensions of enduring success, AHSL, is to look at them as part of an acronym: ACHiLLES, to mean Achievement, Happiness, individual Limitations, Legacy and Significance. Do not forget that our individual limitation is our Achilles heel, our weakness. While aware of his own limitations and those of others, in his managing William Dar nevertheless dares to achieve, to be happy, to leave a legacy, to be significant.

In managing, if you succeed despite great odds, you are a hero.

As I see it, Team Captain William Dar dares his Team to succeed, and he dares the rest of us in the name of creative capitalism to work out personal benefits along with social growth. If we are so smart, why aren't we in The Smart Revolution? *