80: Om Prakash, Chief Executive, Northrop Grumman

Om Prakash is the current CEO of Northrop Grumman Japan, a
position he has been in since 2019. Prior to this he was Northrop
Grumman’s Director for Corporate Strategy and had also served in
the United States Air Force where he performed numerous roles
including a test pilot with over 3 000 flying hours in 60
aircraft and as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence for
Manufacturing and Industrial Base Policy before retiring with the
rank of colonel. Mr. Prakash has a bachelor’s degree in
engineering from the US Air Force Academy as well as master’s
degrees in aeronautical and astronautical engineering
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology), and national security
strategy (National War College).


 


In his interview with Dr. Greg Story, Mr. Prakash describes how
his background in the military and involvement in many leadership
transitions has helped his civilian career by being able to make
decisions based on limited information. When discussing the topic
of new leaders introducing change, Mr. Prakash is a supporter of
author Simon Sinek’s philosophy to “start with the why” and
believes that if a leader is clear, open and willing to listen to
their team, they are more likely to succeed. When describing his
own leadership style, Mr. Prakash says it is important for him to
get to know his team as individuals and encourage them to grow to
their full potential, even if that means them moving on to
something bigger and better. As Mr. Prakash says, a good leader
does not keep talented people under them to make their own job
easier.


 


To help foster creativity Mr. Prakash believes incentives are
needed not only at a team level but across an organisation. 
These incentives can take a variety of forms including financial,
recognition, or as promotions depending on the recipient,
organisation, and context. An incentive that may motivate one
person to come forward with a creative idea may not motivate
another person. To understand what motivates people, Mr. Prakash
points to the need for leaders to know their people and their
desires and suggests leaders can simply ask their teams what they
want as incentives.


 


Recounting a story from when he was in Japan in the late 1990’s,
Mr. Prakash recalls seeing people sending text messages and
thinking it was a strange concept that would never catch on in
America. He highlights the point that there are different mediums
of communication preferred by different people for a variety of
reasons, such as age and background, so it is important to
experiment with different communications media. Similarly, he
believes it is important to have team meetings not always run by
himself, but have the meeting led by different members of the
team as they will bring other qualities to the meeting.


 


When discussing the topic of work delegation, Mr. Prakash
describes some important factors that good leaders need to
consider when delegating work.  These factors include the
comfort and skill level of the people who are taking on the work,
discussing the deadline and time-management including leaders
expressing how much time is to be spent on a task, as well as
feedback. Mr. Prakash talks about how it is important for leaders
who delegate work, not to delegate any criticism that arises from
the work or to withhold praise.


 


In his first piece of advice to newcomers to Japan, Mr. Prakash
suggests not assuming that they were understood just because they
received a positive response (Hai). People assuming that they
were understood when they in fact were not can lead to difficult
situations that can be avoided by checking for understanding. He
also believes learning Japanese has been very useful to him
including making friends that he probably otherwise would not
have made. Lastly, Mr. Prakash acknowledges that in a business
setting, people may get in to trouble if their Japanese is not
proficient enough to pick up all the subtlties and nuances.