Making the Elephant Dance: The Turnaround Story of Sail

At a time when businesses stare at unprecedented uncertainty, the SAIL turnaround story brings to us lessons of how companies can make miracles happen. Making the Elephant Dance talks about how the greatest business challenges can become the harbinger of the biggest corporate transformations, and how leadership can be the key influencer when companies face existential threats. The economic reforms of 1991 transformed the Indian steel industry overnight from the most controlled to most open. This book is a narrative of the steel mammoth, SAIL, which fought back an existential threat to emerge as a winner when a combination of domestic and global factors plunged the industry into its worst ever crisis. The book delineates its in-house strategies, implementation challenges and the actions undertaken to bring about an unprecedented organizational transformation by those who participated, experienced and lived it.

Review :
The book "Making the Elephant Dance" by Mr Arvind Pande and Mr Sanjay Kumar is a valuable contribution to the Management Literature. The insights from this book can be leveraged not only by the future managers of SAIL, but also managers across the Indian and global steel industry. I had been closely associated as a Management Advisor, in a previous turnaround of SAIL, in 1985-88, with the then Chairman, Mr V Krishnamurthy. His main message to the workers was. Let us together raise the production, productivity, and profits of SAIL, so that we can deserve a modernization investment of Rs 15,000 crores from the Government of India. The whole team marched towards this goal and SAIL rose from a loss of Rs 350 Crores per annum to a profit of Rs 1,000 Crores. A similar tune was echoed when 1991 Economic Reforms of India created a new and highly competitive environment. By 1997, SAIL needed another turnaround effort, and this time the company was ably led under the captainship of Mr Pande, who was Chairman from 1997 to 2002. Mr Pande comes in the tradition of a Civil Servant, turned Manager, Corporate Leader, and writer. The book can be used creatively in MBA and Executive Training Programs. Each of the fifteen chapters can be seen as a case study with lessons in some of the key management issues. I commend this book to policy makers, business leaders, managers, teachers, and consultants.--Dr M B Athreya (Padma Bhushan) "management advisor, one of the founders and pioneers of Indian Management Movement, Education and Executive Training" Making the Elephant Dance is a brilliant story of the exemplary turnaround of SAIL, the pride of India, under the visionary leadership of its former Chairman Shri Arvind Pande who has penned with rare insight, his first-hand account of the restructuring and revival of the giant central PSU in the turbulent times by the turn of the 20th century. This outstanding treatise is a must-read for corporate leaders, research scholars, policymakers and management students. --Prof Arun K Rath "Chairman, Centre of Corporate Governance, CSR and Sustainability Indian Institute of Management, Nagpur" Shri Pande was at the helm of SAIL during some of its most difficult years towards the end of the last century. Vagaries of a cyclical industry, SE Asia's economic meltdown, high capital charges, inadequate competitive capabilities, etc., had pulled down the financial position of India's largest steel company. Restructuring of the business, enhancing service parameters, improving product mix, downsizing manpower, etc., were some areas where complex decisions were taken. The entire organization was galvanized to bring about a remarkable turnaround in the fortunes of the company. As Chairman, Shri Pande had done it all and seen it all. This book portrays the journey of that transformation story. This book offers insights that can find resonance with the future practitioners in the steel industry. A great read! --Soma Mondal "Chairman, SAIL"