You Can Make It Happen

Anil Swarup spent more than three decades in the Indian Administrative Service, serving as Coal Secretary and School Education Secretary to the Government of India. In this book he draws on that experience to ask a practical question: why do some teams meet their targets while others, with the same resources, do not?

His starting point is that no situation is ever perfect. Rather than waiting for ideal conditions, he argues, people who deliver learn to work around imperfections, move a team from failure towards success, and keep going. The principles he sets out are meant to apply well beyond government, because they begin with the individual.

A recurring theme is that small changes to daily routine can improve the odds of success. The book also looks at what it takes to make an idea workable in a democracy, where a good proposal still has to be politically acceptable, financially viable and administratively feasible.

Swarup is also the founder of Nexus of Good, a voluntary organisation, and mentors students and young executives. This is a book for readers who want to act on their intentions, written by someone who has had to deliver results inside a very large system.