Lighting candles: Impact of leadership actions on institution building

Abstract

This paper uses the metaphor of lighting candles to describe the process of institution building. To illustrate this, it drawn upon the actions of a prolific institution builder like Dr. Vikram Sarabhai in order to distill lessons about the impact of leadership actions on institution building. Through picking up an exceptional personality it attempts to demystify leadership actions surrounding the creation and development of institutions to distill learnings for less exceptional people involved in the task of institution building in various walks of life. It reports empirical data from tow institutions, namely. Ahmedabad Textile Industry's Research Association (ATIRA) and Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) which were founded by Dr. Vikram Sarabhai in 1947.