(Former President of India APJ Abdul Kalam at  Wharton India Economic forum , Philadelphia, March 22,2008)

Question: Could you give an example, from  your own experience, of how leaders should manage failure?

Kalam: Let me tell you about my experience.  In 1973 I became the project director of India's satellite launch vehicle  program, commonly called the SLV-3. Our goal was to put India's "Rohini"  satellite into orbit by 1980. I was given funds and human resources -- but was  told clearly that by 1980 we had to launch the satellite into space. Thousands  of people worked together in scientific and technical teams towards that goal.

By 1979 -- I think the month was August -- we  thought we were ready. As the project director, I went to the control center for  the launch. At four minutes before the satellite launch, the computer began to  go through the checklist of items that needed to be checked. One minute later,  the computer program put the launch on hold; the display showed that some  control components were not in order. My experts -- I had four or five of them  with me -- told me not to worry; they had done their calculations and there was  enough reserve fuel. So I bypassed the computer, switched to manual mode, and  launched the rocket. In the first stage, everything worked fine. In the second  stage, a problem developed. Instead of the satellite going into orbit, the whole  rocket system plunged into the Bay of Bengal. It was a big failure.

That day, the chairman of the Indian Space Research  Organization, Prof. Satish Dhawan, had called a press conference. The launch was  at 7:00 am, and the press conference -- where journalists from around the world  were present -- was at 7:45 am at ISRO's satellite launch range in Sriharikota  [in Andhra Pradesh in southern India]. Prof. Dhawan, the leader of the  organization, conducted the press conference himself. He took responsibility for  the failure -- he said that the team had worked very hard, but that it needed  more technological support. He assured the media that in another year, the team  would definitely succeed. Now, I was the project director, and it was my  failure, but instead, he took responsibility for the failure as chairman of the  organization.

The next year, in July 1980, we tried again to  launch the satellite -- and this time we succeeded. The whole nation was  jubilant. Again, there was a press conference. Prof. Dhawan called me aside and  told me, "You conduct the press conference today."

I learned a very important lesson that  day. When failure occurred, the leader of the organization owned that failure.  When success came, he gave it to his team.

The best management lesson I have learned  did not come to me from reading a book; it came from that experience.