The Thing about ‘The Professional’

Subroto Bagchi is such a delight with ‘Go Kiss the World’, you start with him and he grows on you, gradually but surely, much like the torque profile of a diesel engine- no lags, pure thrill! you even get in unison with him if you kind of had a similar ‘growing up years’ and a lot of readers myself included start to circumscribe him in ‘idolatry‘.

With ‘The Professional’ he looks like a man in hurry; out to quote record number of books he has authored despite not being a full time writer,  ironically enough he even claims so in the length of the book!

Subroto Bagchi has though strived to give an inviolable structure to book and once you are done with the book you realise how fantastically have the chapters been placed except that some of them barely carry substance in them. It’s much like the New Year’s resolution which stays resolute just for a month and then wanes down or a Multi Storey where the Mason did a great job but the Architect left much asking.

The book starts with a disclaimer prescribing readers’ to be disciplined with the sequence of chapters if they want to draw maximum out of them and then takes them to an instant high with the story of Mahadeva – The Professional. One starts to get the feel of a refined Bagchi, the much more experienced and learned Bagchi who had is best saved for the last. So lucid is the start that you just place the Book in the top draw and say ‘Oh my God, this is not just another self-help book, it’s one of those pocket lexicons that young professionals need to refer to learn and mavens to refresh’.  

The initial high though wanes and the ride becomes unexciting and banal as one goes along the book. There is pretty high probability that you end with a sigh and the feeling of ‘old wine in an old bottle’. I might not be the most educated or best exposed when it comes to leadership and fundamental of it especially when placed opposite Mr. Bagchi but there is one quality which has been sworn on by most modern thinkers and that is the quality of being unassuming , being humble and these perfectly resonate with me.  Jim Collins in his paper Level 5 leadership defines a level 5 leader as one who builds an enduring greatness with his personal humility and professional will. The great Marvin Bower in Will to Lead classifies Unassuming Behaviour as one of the primary tenets of being a leader. With this book Mr. Bagchi has done a bare minimum to justify this. With a very high regularity he has tried to inject it among the readers that Mindtree is the most professional institution created across Globe ever and he the best professional. He has exalted and exemplified himself and Mindtree with such regularity that it starts to get onto your nerves. Most of the great examples on professionalism and honesty have been picked from Mindtree and the way it conducts business and with high handed statements like “the people of who report into me are the most talented ones” Mr. Bagchi does not really talk about the people reporting into him but him and just him.

A few chapters in the book like the one on Vision and another one on Affective Regard are so aloof, they seem extremely force fitted, bereft of any engaging narrative. When I was done with around 3 quarters of the book, I started to ponder if the book is really meant for any professional or just an IT professional? The examples are so IT services laced that for someone who has never seen that way of life will probably never be able appreciate the essence of the writing.

Even the stories are so ‘Bagchicentric’ that at one point you just start to wonder if the guy is too desperate and literally begs to be respected. To me NRN and Nandan Nilekani epitomise professionalism and wealth creation for most middle class (Rajat Gupta too featured in that list until recent past!), and I placed Bagchi just about being there but with this book I wonder if he can ever create a master pieces like Imagining India and Better India, better World.

So lost in his grandiose is Mr. Bagchi that while writing a complete chapter on Mavens, Connectors and Evangelists he has not spared a single syllable to acknowledge the legendary work of Malcolm Gladwell – the man who has so delightfully written on the Mavens, Connectors and Salesmen in the Tipping Point or is it just plain plagiarism, I would though never put in question the veracity in Mr. Bagchi’s writing so let us just call it adaptation without acknowledgement!

Going further, the book just labours to conclude and has no real meat. It proceeds like a well thought employee manual for Code and Conduct of Professional ethics for young professionals and in parts reminds me of the elaborate manual which Infosys handed out to each of the incoming GETs.

Unlike some die hard Bagchi fans, I will never recommend this book to be a mandatory reading among young professionals or about to be professionals, the best I can do it is put it under the list of suggested reading. To my mind, in order to develop world class professionals and leaders we need to offer a global outlook and this book is certainly does not offer it.

I often tell one of my best friends and mentor at work that my respect for him is intermittent but adoration is permanent and that holds just as well for Subroto Bagchi. I think I will just wait for the Best of Bagchi to come. To my mind he still has plenty to offer and he still has saved the best for the last!