ISRO successfully placing a record 104 satellites, in orbit in a single launch is definitely a “dent in the universe.”

ISRO has characteristics of most government-owned organizations. ISRO’s progress was in fits and starts, the budgets limited, talent shortages always a major issue and not to mention international sanctions.

All these challenges might sound familiar to your organization, but ISRO as an organization has set standards worthy of emulation.

Low cost = High quality.
ISRO —or rather, its commercial arm, Antrix—has a reputation in building up low-cost, high-efficiency launcher of small satellites. We have speculations that ISRO’s commercial future may lie in establishing itself as a low-cost space solutions provider.

Making a quality product at a competitive price, is what ISRO has achieved.

To make India a manufacturing hub, Indian companies will have to make quality products on time, manage the logistics and produce at a very competitive cost.

This is possible if we create an Organizational Culture which supports such initiative.

Learning from failure.
A P J Abdul Kalam’s oft-narrated tales is the one such failure. The then chairman, Satish Dhawan had put him in charge of the first satellite launch vehicle project (SLV) 3 in 1973.

The SLV-3, with the Rohini satellite, was finally launched in 1979, but crashed into the Bay of Bengal five minutes later.

At the press conference that followed, Satish Dhawan took all the blame for the disaster. Despite the SLV-3 being Kalam’s project.

A year later, the SLV-3 was launched successfully. Kalam was stunned again, because Satish Dhawan gave him all the credit.

Learn from failure and turn it into success is one attribute which ISRO stills holds to its core. ISRO turns every story of failure into a story of success.

Again this is an Organizational Culture which creates such stories…

What do you think?
What initiatives can we take to create a similar culture…