Soon after the advent of computer, many progressive companies started to use it to improve their data tracking and transaction processing. To begin with, only a few innovative companies took the lead. However, in the last couple of decades we have witnessed a wider proliferation and it is still expanding.
Most of the companies followed a predictable path. At first PCs were installed at the desks of the “Big Man” who often did not know how to use it. One of his trusted assistants made use of the computer in some limited fashion; often as a substitute for typewriters. Then some computer savvy youngsters who joined the company convinced their bosses to introduce computers in their functional areas. Often it was some readymade accounting software or some bespoke applications developed by a small software development company run by a friend. Then a Manager (earlier called the EDP manger now called VP (systems)) joined the firm bringing more sophistication in the hardware and software used.
Even at this stage the computerisation was patchy and driven independently by functional / regional satraps with divergent hardware, operating systems and databases. Very often the transfer/ resignation of the individual who was the driving force of this localised computerisation lead to a quick degeneration. Then the VP(systems) with the support of CFO attempted some integration. This integration was limited to some budgetary control, supervision and common procurement strategy.
Eventually the organisation got a CIO who helped the senior manger to see IT as a strategic tool and help the organisation to develop an IT foundation and a framework that would help to bring about a business transformation.
Today, we see many companies at various stages of this transition. But many of the progressive companies have already reached the highest level of sophistication that is described above.
The IT enabled Governance (ITeG) is still in its early stage. It was not so far away when we could observe the PCs in a typical government department placed at the boss’s cabin with secretary using this as a word processor. Those days are gone. But we still have a long way ahead. Even when a catalytic role is played by some central authorities, it is often limited to budgetary control by purse holders with limited appreciation of the larger role of technology enablement. This is akin to what happens in the corporate sector when the controller (Finance and Administration) is in the driver’s seat as far as computerisation is concerned
The top echelons of both the legislature and administration appear to have caught on to the significant role IT can play and the need to have technology visioning rather than technology administration. The establishment of Technology Advisory Group for Unique Projects (TAGUP) is a welcome move in this direction and a strong message.
I believe that the limited set of critical projects brought under the purview of TAGUP is quite significant from the governance perspective. GST implementation and Tax Information Network (TIN) on revenue side and Expenditure Information Network (EIN) on the expenditure side complemented with UID (which can play a critical role in streamlining the outreach to needy) can be a game changer transformation in governance.
This can help to evolve a nationwide strategy for ITeG and develop a framework for managing ITeG Projects with respect to people, process and technology.
History of technology is replete with advances that first met wide opposition, later found acceptance and finally were widely regarded as having being inevitable all along!!- unknown
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Service with a smile
Sometime ago I was travelling to Delhi from Mumbai. As I had a meeting early on a Monday Morning, I decided to take the evening flight on Sunday even though it conflicted with my Sunday siesta and dinner with family. I was to take a 5.30 pm Kingfisher. Being a disciplined person, I was at the counter one hour before and I was informed that the flight was going to be delayed.
Unlike the normal practice, the airline had not sent any SMS intimation of the delay and I was really upset. I wanted to shout but kept quiet as I had learned to accept such callous behaviour from most of the service providers here.
The girl at the counter (I think her name was Chaitali) asked me to wait for a minute and went off somewhere. Within a minute she came running and told me that she has tied up with Air India and had got me a seat on the flight that was scheduled to leave immediately. She took my bag and ran to the Air India counter, finished the formalities, and helped me board the flight. I could reach Delhi in time to spend some time with my mother before she slept.
Compare this with the experience I had in January on one of my return flight from Delhi on Jet airways. That was the day when there was a terrible fog. We boarded the flight which was already one and a half hour late and had to wait inside the plane for another about three hours. Then they decided to cancel the flight and we were asked to deplane. We asked them what arrangements were made and no crew member could give us any guidance.
We reached the terminal. There was such chaos. No boards, no announcements and a long queue to reach the few operating counters. I waited for an hour and could get no assistance. One of my friends who was travelling on the same flight arranged for a car and a hotel booking with the help of his local office. The next day I got no SMS/ telephone update on what to do and I could not get anybody on the phone either. I decided to land up at the airport in the afternoon and finally managed to get a seat in a flight that took off in the evening at seven. I reached home 24 hours late of which 14 hours were spent in the plane/ airport. (Apparently, the Kingfisher flight that was supposed to take off with the Jet airways flight was also cancelled; but managed to take off late at night on the same day.
In both these cases the disruption of service was outside the control of the airline. But the response of both airlines (at least the officers who handled the situation) was different. Although such disruptions are very rare, in airlines business, these are situation that can be anticipated and planned for.
Jet airways could have made a difference by just being helpful. They could have made arrangement to provide the instruction by the crew in the plane. The announcement could have been as simple as (i) Those who have a place to stay in Delhi may leave their contact number at the counter and go home and if any of them needed help to get a cab they could contact the ground staff at a special counter and (ii) those who had no place to stay in Delhi could contact ground staff to get help for overnight accommodation. They should have just arranged two special counters to handle these at the terminal and there would have been no crowd shouting. The next day, depending on the weather, they could have arranged to call those who left the contact number and update them on when they could travel.
In the first case Kingfisher had enabled a junior officer to take an exceptional decision and had motivated her to take pride in taking such decisions. (I hope it was not just a one-off decision by the ground hostess who felt sympathy for my distress or who was impressed by my handsome face:- )) I believe such empowerment and encouragement (may be incentivising) would go a long way in improving the service delivery.
Very often many service providers do fail miserably in such nuances of customer service. At best their focus is limited to delivering the functionalities that they have charged for and service quality is often seen as a favour being extended. The more the monopoly power of the service provider, the worse is the service quality.
One way all of us can contribute is to demand for service quality and be bold to protest when it is screwed-up.
Customers don’t expect you to be perfect. They do expect you to fix things when they go wrong.DONALD PORTER. Courtesy http://www.customerservicepoint.com
Note: I have used two anecdotal experiences that I had to make a point. This does not mean that the experiences I had with Jet and Kingfisher necessarily represent their customer service practices.
Unlike the normal practice, the airline had not sent any SMS intimation of the delay and I was really upset. I wanted to shout but kept quiet as I had learned to accept such callous behaviour from most of the service providers here.
The girl at the counter (I think her name was Chaitali) asked me to wait for a minute and went off somewhere. Within a minute she came running and told me that she has tied up with Air India and had got me a seat on the flight that was scheduled to leave immediately. She took my bag and ran to the Air India counter, finished the formalities, and helped me board the flight. I could reach Delhi in time to spend some time with my mother before she slept.
Compare this with the experience I had in January on one of my return flight from Delhi on Jet airways. That was the day when there was a terrible fog. We boarded the flight which was already one and a half hour late and had to wait inside the plane for another about three hours. Then they decided to cancel the flight and we were asked to deplane. We asked them what arrangements were made and no crew member could give us any guidance.
We reached the terminal. There was such chaos. No boards, no announcements and a long queue to reach the few operating counters. I waited for an hour and could get no assistance. One of my friends who was travelling on the same flight arranged for a car and a hotel booking with the help of his local office. The next day I got no SMS/ telephone update on what to do and I could not get anybody on the phone either. I decided to land up at the airport in the afternoon and finally managed to get a seat in a flight that took off in the evening at seven. I reached home 24 hours late of which 14 hours were spent in the plane/ airport. (Apparently, the Kingfisher flight that was supposed to take off with the Jet airways flight was also cancelled; but managed to take off late at night on the same day.
In both these cases the disruption of service was outside the control of the airline. But the response of both airlines (at least the officers who handled the situation) was different. Although such disruptions are very rare, in airlines business, these are situation that can be anticipated and planned for.
Jet airways could have made a difference by just being helpful. They could have made arrangement to provide the instruction by the crew in the plane. The announcement could have been as simple as (i) Those who have a place to stay in Delhi may leave their contact number at the counter and go home and if any of them needed help to get a cab they could contact the ground staff at a special counter and (ii) those who had no place to stay in Delhi could contact ground staff to get help for overnight accommodation. They should have just arranged two special counters to handle these at the terminal and there would have been no crowd shouting. The next day, depending on the weather, they could have arranged to call those who left the contact number and update them on when they could travel.
In the first case Kingfisher had enabled a junior officer to take an exceptional decision and had motivated her to take pride in taking such decisions. (I hope it was not just a one-off decision by the ground hostess who felt sympathy for my distress or who was impressed by my handsome face:- )) I believe such empowerment and encouragement (may be incentivising) would go a long way in improving the service delivery.
Very often many service providers do fail miserably in such nuances of customer service. At best their focus is limited to delivering the functionalities that they have charged for and service quality is often seen as a favour being extended. The more the monopoly power of the service provider, the worse is the service quality.
One way all of us can contribute is to demand for service quality and be bold to protest when it is screwed-up.
Customers don’t expect you to be perfect. They do expect you to fix things when they go wrong.DONALD PORTER. Courtesy http://www.customerservicepoint.com
Note: I have used two anecdotal experiences that I had to make a point. This does not mean that the experiences I had with Jet and Kingfisher necessarily represent their customer service practices.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
“Barbarians at the gate”
‘Barbarians at the gate’ is a book by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar. It tells the story of the largest Leveraged Buyout in the late eighties. I liked the book and the title. It triggered some thoughts about barbarians, at or inside the gate of institutions, who may eventually zap the life and vigour of these organizations and turn them to zombies. The whole train of thought got triggered when I was reading "Too big to fail" a book by Andrew Ross Sorkin which is the ball-by-ball account of the recent mayhem in the Wall Street that spilled to all the Main Streets in the world. This book has been described as the heir to "Barbarians at the Gate" by Financial Times.
Organisations succeed and grow when they are built and/or headed by visionaries who can dream up or recognize processes, products, technologies or services that make sense and also have the ability to implement and scale these dreams. But if the organisations don’t have a process to ensure that there is a culture and succession plan that will ensure that they continue to bring to the helm such visionary leaders, gamesters and bureaucrats will rise up to fill the vacuum. Then the organisational decay sets in.
It is easy to recognise this decay when it has already manifested in the form of dissatisfied customers, loss in market share, dropping profitability and so on. However the seed of such decay could have kicked-in even when apparently everything is hunky-dory. And it is very difficult to recognize it then. Some of the early symptoms that go unnoticed till it is very late are discussed here.
Form gets priority over substance
One of the early weaknesses that can be observed with these brain dead captains is the focus on ‘process for process sake’ instead of the processes being used as a tool to manage and grow the business. The bean counters, corporate secretaries and legal eagles who have very little appreciation of the nuances of business take over.
The atmosphere so created, stifles innovation and initiative, business leaders leave and clerks and paper pushers rule the roost.
Business strategy gets driven by corporate secretaries.
Structuring and restructuring of companyto consolidate power and meet private agenda of the management becomes the priority. Sometimes this gets driven by the unholy alliance of some shareholders and the management who then works towards maximizing their self interest. The interests of the organisation, its people, customers and its shareholders at large get compromised. It can become a vicious cycle with both the management and the interested shareholders believing that what they do is for the good of the company.
The people become pawns.
People instead of being utilised as resources that drive the business and who are to be nurtured, become pawns to be shuffled around on private whims and fancies of management.
People are controlled with their weaknesses, follies, mistakes and insecurities and not enabled and encouraged. Then they fail to earn loyalty from the ranks.
“I, me, myself”
The top managers spend lots of time in office to push their private agendas and priorities ranging from managing their finances for activities of their clubs, children’s projects, their admission etc. The priorities of the organisation gets back seat.
This acts as a downer for the working class. Listen to the gossips at the water cooler and we can judge the respect the top managers command.
Moral decay
In this stage of degeneration, decisions are driven by greed;private bonus and benefits get to have priority even at the cost of long term survival. It is this moral decay that drove Wall Street to develop products and deals that turned toxic for the whole financial markets around the world. Enron, WorldCom, Satyam, Arthur Anderson, Lehman, AIG episodes are monuments of this moral decay in the recent history. Many more are around; it is just that they have not been caught.
Some organisations don’t recognise these early warnings and act upon them, and that is one of the reasons why the corporate longevity is not so high.
"I searched the whole world for a bad mind, never found one
Looked into myself, found the worst of all" - Unknown
Organisations succeed and grow when they are built and/or headed by visionaries who can dream up or recognize processes, products, technologies or services that make sense and also have the ability to implement and scale these dreams. But if the organisations don’t have a process to ensure that there is a culture and succession plan that will ensure that they continue to bring to the helm such visionary leaders, gamesters and bureaucrats will rise up to fill the vacuum. Then the organisational decay sets in.
It is easy to recognise this decay when it has already manifested in the form of dissatisfied customers, loss in market share, dropping profitability and so on. However the seed of such decay could have kicked-in even when apparently everything is hunky-dory. And it is very difficult to recognize it then. Some of the early symptoms that go unnoticed till it is very late are discussed here.
Form gets priority over substance
One of the early weaknesses that can be observed with these brain dead captains is the focus on ‘process for process sake’ instead of the processes being used as a tool to manage and grow the business. The bean counters, corporate secretaries and legal eagles who have very little appreciation of the nuances of business take over.
The atmosphere so created, stifles innovation and initiative, business leaders leave and clerks and paper pushers rule the roost.
Business strategy gets driven by corporate secretaries.
Structuring and restructuring of companyto consolidate power and meet private agenda of the management becomes the priority. Sometimes this gets driven by the unholy alliance of some shareholders and the management who then works towards maximizing their self interest. The interests of the organisation, its people, customers and its shareholders at large get compromised. It can become a vicious cycle with both the management and the interested shareholders believing that what they do is for the good of the company.
The people become pawns.
People instead of being utilised as resources that drive the business and who are to be nurtured, become pawns to be shuffled around on private whims and fancies of management.
People are controlled with their weaknesses, follies, mistakes and insecurities and not enabled and encouraged. Then they fail to earn loyalty from the ranks.
“I, me, myself”
The top managers spend lots of time in office to push their private agendas and priorities ranging from managing their finances for activities of their clubs, children’s projects, their admission etc. The priorities of the organisation gets back seat.
This acts as a downer for the working class. Listen to the gossips at the water cooler and we can judge the respect the top managers command.
Moral decay
In this stage of degeneration, decisions are driven by greed;private bonus and benefits get to have priority even at the cost of long term survival. It is this moral decay that drove Wall Street to develop products and deals that turned toxic for the whole financial markets around the world. Enron, WorldCom, Satyam, Arthur Anderson, Lehman, AIG episodes are monuments of this moral decay in the recent history. Many more are around; it is just that they have not been caught.
Some organisations don’t recognise these early warnings and act upon them, and that is one of the reasons why the corporate longevity is not so high.
"I searched the whole world for a bad mind, never found one
Looked into myself, found the worst of all" - Unknown
Saturday, February 27, 2010
India gets a CIO
“Who said Elephants can’t dance” is a book written by Louis Gerstner the CEO who turned around IBM, the ailing giant that it was in 1992. I am sure many of us feel the same about India. We used to have a growth rate of around 3% that was termed as the Hindu rate of growth. That is history, and we are now demonstrating to the world that Indian Elephants can dance too.
One of the key strengths that any country, corporate or individual needs to compete in this new world is strength in Information and Communication Technology. And it is an area India has clearly demonstrated comfort among a broad cross section of the society. Today we have a booming IT industry ranging from cottage industries to International Giants. But we have not yet capitalised on this strength in strengthening our governance Infrastructure on a national scale.
We have patches of brilliant executions across the country. The modernisation spearheaded by NSDL and NSE with support from SEBI has catapulted the Indian capital market to world standards. There are many other examples like the bhoomi project in Karnataka, VAT computerisation in Kerala, and many more. The tragedy is that this learning is almost quarantined and has not yet formed a part of the DNA of governance. The concern is not just this isolation, there is significant duplication of efforts and investments which benefits the vendors more than the users.
For example GST is one of the most critical national initiatives India is embarking on. The empowered committee after protracted deliberations has brought out a Discussion Paper on GST on November 2009. The Finance Minster has announced that the target for implementation will be 2011, revised from the original target of 2010. A project of such magnitude and transaction intensity can and will succeed only with the help of a powerful ICT infrastructure. But we hardly see sufficient focus on issues of computerisation in all these discourses and deliberations. Each of the interested parties and states are on their own trip and trying to push their own agenda.
What we need now is to establish a framework and guidelines to facilitate IT enabled Governance (ITeG) on a national scale . The Government has woken up to this challenge. It has asked Nandan Nilekani, the Chairman of Unique Identity Authority Of India (UIDAI) to head a newly constituted Technical Advisory Group for Unique Projects (TAGUP). This is a welcome development and can surely contribute towards integration of the divergent initiatives that are going around (often in circles).
I remember attending a party soon after Nandan was appointed as the chairman of UIDAI (read up It Made Sense – 3; Nandan and the Unique ID*). I made a remark that it looked like we have a CIO for government. One investment bankers based in London who was attending this party quipped “I have now one more story to sell India”
But the remark looked a bit preposterous at that point of time. Today it is a reality. I have been keenly watching the development of UIDAI. There appears to be a clear strategy that it is following. The concept note was world class. The RFP that has recently come out for application development can be easily termed as one of the top quality RFP brought out by any government agency. He has also managed to bring together a world class talent pool to support him.
India looks good, India looks corporate, and India has now has a CIO...Read it aloud, it sounds nice and almost musical
“Part of the inhumanity of the computer is that, once it is competently programmed and working smoothly, it is completely honest.” Isaac Asimov
One of the key strengths that any country, corporate or individual needs to compete in this new world is strength in Information and Communication Technology. And it is an area India has clearly demonstrated comfort among a broad cross section of the society. Today we have a booming IT industry ranging from cottage industries to International Giants. But we have not yet capitalised on this strength in strengthening our governance Infrastructure on a national scale.
We have patches of brilliant executions across the country. The modernisation spearheaded by NSDL and NSE with support from SEBI has catapulted the Indian capital market to world standards. There are many other examples like the bhoomi project in Karnataka, VAT computerisation in Kerala, and many more. The tragedy is that this learning is almost quarantined and has not yet formed a part of the DNA of governance. The concern is not just this isolation, there is significant duplication of efforts and investments which benefits the vendors more than the users.
For example GST is one of the most critical national initiatives India is embarking on. The empowered committee after protracted deliberations has brought out a Discussion Paper on GST on November 2009. The Finance Minster has announced that the target for implementation will be 2011, revised from the original target of 2010. A project of such magnitude and transaction intensity can and will succeed only with the help of a powerful ICT infrastructure. But we hardly see sufficient focus on issues of computerisation in all these discourses and deliberations. Each of the interested parties and states are on their own trip and trying to push their own agenda.
What we need now is to establish a framework and guidelines to facilitate IT enabled Governance (ITeG) on a national scale . The Government has woken up to this challenge. It has asked Nandan Nilekani, the Chairman of Unique Identity Authority Of India (UIDAI) to head a newly constituted Technical Advisory Group for Unique Projects (TAGUP). This is a welcome development and can surely contribute towards integration of the divergent initiatives that are going around (often in circles).
I remember attending a party soon after Nandan was appointed as the chairman of UIDAI (read up It Made Sense – 3; Nandan and the Unique ID*). I made a remark that it looked like we have a CIO for government. One investment bankers based in London who was attending this party quipped “I have now one more story to sell India”
But the remark looked a bit preposterous at that point of time. Today it is a reality. I have been keenly watching the development of UIDAI. There appears to be a clear strategy that it is following. The concept note was world class. The RFP that has recently come out for application development can be easily termed as one of the top quality RFP brought out by any government agency. He has also managed to bring together a world class talent pool to support him.
India looks good, India looks corporate, and India has now has a CIO...Read it aloud, it sounds nice and almost musical
“Part of the inhumanity of the computer is that, once it is competently programmed and working smoothly, it is completely honest.” Isaac Asimov
Monday, February 22, 2010
The art and ethics of lying - Part II
My posting on “The art and ethics of lying” evoked quite a few responses; some as comments in the blog and some as emails. The two comments given below are thought provoking.
“Thought the rule was not ‘Don’t lie’ but ‘Don’t get caught?’ (by others or by self-guilt) Ethics is an essential compass - a needle towards north, but - but true north is slightly different on Earth?” Sajan
“I think you carry the thread too far. Saying "I bluffed" does not mean that I will do the things that you cite later in the paragraph. When I am talking with you on a contract, do not my morals require me to be responsible, (loyal, even) to the party I represent? So I say "If you do not accept my final offer, we will walk away". I might e bluffing, and this is a lie; but do I own no debt to my colleagues to get them the best deal from you? This need not be a slippery slope (Once we allow in western music, we will end up with...).” Sanjeev Gupta (ghane)
I did not mean that it is always possible to live by the commandment “Thou shall not Lie.” There could be occasions when lying is fair and even necessary. Let us take an extreme example to make a point. Consider that you are standing at a junction and a person comes running totally scared and he runs along the right fork at the junction. After few minutes you see a thug coming running with a gun and he asks you which way the first person went. You may prefer to lie to save a life. There may be less dramatic reasons where lying is the right thing to do.
As Machiavelli argues in ‘The Prince’ “A man who wishes to profess goodness at all times will come to ruin among so many who are not so good. Hence it is necessary for a prince who wishes to maintain his position to learn how not to be good and to use this knowledge or not according to necessity”. A desi corollary is “the Good may often bear the fruit of the Bad”
Then there is the question of business ethics that Sanjeev has raised. Business in that sense is like poker. It requires strategies and posture that could be termed as lies in the normal sense. But that is how poker and business are played. But poker and business have their own set of rules. So in this case being good is about playing as per the rules of the game.
Game theorists will point out that reciprocal altruism, (generous tit-for-tat) which while showing a friendly face to the world will not want us to be exploited, is the most sensible strategy for survival.
But what is more reprehensible is when you become the follower of Shakuni and take pride in the rigged dice game where the balance between rational self interest and selfishness tilts as per convenience. It is then that the lies get to be amoral.
As Laurie Calhoun noted in his article The Problem of “Dirty Hands” and Corrupt Leadership “In thinking about this issue, it is important to distinguish self-serving opportunists from those who suffer corruption through their sincere efforts to govern well. Self-serving opportunists often rationalize their dubious measures to themselves through self-deceptive references to ‘the good of the whole,’ claiming that group loyalty demands moral sacrifice or that ‘the end justifies the means.’”
Such rationalisation could become a slippery slope. Especially if we start to justify in relative terms, drawing examples of errors and omissions that we see around particularly that of people who are held in high esteem. In this world of seven billion human beings, who by design are not perfect, there would be statistically significant sample for aberrant behaviours from all walks of life.
That is the message that comes from the story of Yudhishtira’s chariot settling down to the ground when he lies. It reminds us that while we may have a justification of an ‘extenuating circumstance” a deceit is still a deceit.
So while it may not be humanly possible or even unnecessary to strive for absolute truth and justice, it could still an ideal, a ‘guiding star’ (concepts like ‘six sigma’ and ‘ethics in business’ are examples of attempts to represent absolute ideals which many may never reach) so that when we are faced with moral conflicts we could attempt not to justify our selfish acts in relation to the ‘immorality and injustice we see around’.
“We are all in the gutter. But some of us are looking at the stars” Oscar Wilde
“Thought the rule was not ‘Don’t lie’ but ‘Don’t get caught?’ (by others or by self-guilt) Ethics is an essential compass - a needle towards north, but - but true north is slightly different on Earth?” Sajan
“I think you carry the thread too far. Saying "I bluffed" does not mean that I will do the things that you cite later in the paragraph. When I am talking with you on a contract, do not my morals require me to be responsible, (loyal, even) to the party I represent? So I say "If you do not accept my final offer, we will walk away". I might e bluffing, and this is a lie; but do I own no debt to my colleagues to get them the best deal from you? This need not be a slippery slope (Once we allow in western music, we will end up with...).” Sanjeev Gupta (ghane)
I did not mean that it is always possible to live by the commandment “Thou shall not Lie.” There could be occasions when lying is fair and even necessary. Let us take an extreme example to make a point. Consider that you are standing at a junction and a person comes running totally scared and he runs along the right fork at the junction. After few minutes you see a thug coming running with a gun and he asks you which way the first person went. You may prefer to lie to save a life. There may be less dramatic reasons where lying is the right thing to do.
As Machiavelli argues in ‘The Prince’ “A man who wishes to profess goodness at all times will come to ruin among so many who are not so good. Hence it is necessary for a prince who wishes to maintain his position to learn how not to be good and to use this knowledge or not according to necessity”. A desi corollary is “the Good may often bear the fruit of the Bad”
Then there is the question of business ethics that Sanjeev has raised. Business in that sense is like poker. It requires strategies and posture that could be termed as lies in the normal sense. But that is how poker and business are played. But poker and business have their own set of rules. So in this case being good is about playing as per the rules of the game.
Game theorists will point out that reciprocal altruism, (generous tit-for-tat) which while showing a friendly face to the world will not want us to be exploited, is the most sensible strategy for survival.
But what is more reprehensible is when you become the follower of Shakuni and take pride in the rigged dice game where the balance between rational self interest and selfishness tilts as per convenience. It is then that the lies get to be amoral.
As Laurie Calhoun noted in his article The Problem of “Dirty Hands” and Corrupt Leadership “In thinking about this issue, it is important to distinguish self-serving opportunists from those who suffer corruption through their sincere efforts to govern well. Self-serving opportunists often rationalize their dubious measures to themselves through self-deceptive references to ‘the good of the whole,’ claiming that group loyalty demands moral sacrifice or that ‘the end justifies the means.’”
Such rationalisation could become a slippery slope. Especially if we start to justify in relative terms, drawing examples of errors and omissions that we see around particularly that of people who are held in high esteem. In this world of seven billion human beings, who by design are not perfect, there would be statistically significant sample for aberrant behaviours from all walks of life.
That is the message that comes from the story of Yudhishtira’s chariot settling down to the ground when he lies. It reminds us that while we may have a justification of an ‘extenuating circumstance” a deceit is still a deceit.
So while it may not be humanly possible or even unnecessary to strive for absolute truth and justice, it could still an ideal, a ‘guiding star’ (concepts like ‘six sigma’ and ‘ethics in business’ are examples of attempts to represent absolute ideals which many may never reach) so that when we are faced with moral conflicts we could attempt not to justify our selfish acts in relation to the ‘immorality and injustice we see around’.
“We are all in the gutter. But some of us are looking at the stars” Oscar Wilde
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Few Good Men
Recently there were couple of accidents in the construction site of Delhi Metro. There has been much hue and cry demanding the blood of senior officers. Criticism and accusations were part of daily news. I was surprised at such negative media attention on an organisation that in my mind is an icon of national pride.
I “Googled” for some facts. Since the construction work started in 1998 there have been a few accidents in at the Metro construction sites. But the incidences have been very few and except one or two instances these were minor. Even by international standards the accident history of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) related to its construction activities is quite low. On the other hand in the last eight years of operation of the Phase 1, there has been not a single accident in its operations.
I agree that we cannot condone accidents and we need to expose inefficiencies, failures and corruption in all public projects. When I read through the press coverage on the recent accidents at DMRC construction sites, I almost got a feeling that it is one of the most poorly managed projects.
But the reality is that this is one of the few institutions that our country can be proud of from the point of its magnitude, scope, design, implementation, operations and maintenance. Name any area the score is superlative. It has been spearheaded by a man who has proved himself multiple times in projects of such scale and national importance which has been widely acclaimed around the world.
We don’t need to treat such people and institutions like Gods and close our eyes when they make mistakes. But when we present these cases we should place these in proper perspective. Very often we see these cases blown out of proportion whereas the incidences which need true and sustained exposure are buried so fast.
The reasons for this phenomenon are many. The real scams get buried because media may have been bought over with the financial and political muscle of the perpetrators. Lack of support to genuine organisations and genuine people have many underlying reasons. The corrupt don’t want ‘the clean’ to succeed or deliver. The ‘good’ believes that only his goodness is the authentic variety. Then we have the “Indian Crab syndrome” which cannot stand the other guy rising above mediocrity. We are happy to pull him/ her down. Recently I was talking to a person who was instrumental in establishing and nurturing an institution of national importance. He confided to me that he was surprised at the extent of anger (not just jealousy) that the success of his institution had evoked.
We recently witnessed this kind of failure when practically very few took a public position to support Shahrukh Khan when there was a backlash against his remark about allowing Pakistani Cricket players to play in IPL. We have seen many more such examples of unwarranted allegations and criticisms; Sound bites on RK Pachauri, CB Bhave, Shashi Taroor etc are examples of this.
There is nothing new in this other than a suggestion that there is a need to stand up and support those few good men who try to make a difference. If you are too scared to open your mouth, at least try to take a position as a group.
"First they came for the unions, but I didn't speak up because I wasn't union. Then they came for the communists, but I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the Jews, but I didn't speak up because I was Protestant. And then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak up."
- Reverend Martin Niemoller a German Lutheran monk who was arrested by the Gestapo in 1937
I “Googled” for some facts. Since the construction work started in 1998 there have been a few accidents in at the Metro construction sites. But the incidences have been very few and except one or two instances these were minor. Even by international standards the accident history of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) related to its construction activities is quite low. On the other hand in the last eight years of operation of the Phase 1, there has been not a single accident in its operations.
I agree that we cannot condone accidents and we need to expose inefficiencies, failures and corruption in all public projects. When I read through the press coverage on the recent accidents at DMRC construction sites, I almost got a feeling that it is one of the most poorly managed projects.
But the reality is that this is one of the few institutions that our country can be proud of from the point of its magnitude, scope, design, implementation, operations and maintenance. Name any area the score is superlative. It has been spearheaded by a man who has proved himself multiple times in projects of such scale and national importance which has been widely acclaimed around the world.
We don’t need to treat such people and institutions like Gods and close our eyes when they make mistakes. But when we present these cases we should place these in proper perspective. Very often we see these cases blown out of proportion whereas the incidences which need true and sustained exposure are buried so fast.
The reasons for this phenomenon are many. The real scams get buried because media may have been bought over with the financial and political muscle of the perpetrators. Lack of support to genuine organisations and genuine people have many underlying reasons. The corrupt don’t want ‘the clean’ to succeed or deliver. The ‘good’ believes that only his goodness is the authentic variety. Then we have the “Indian Crab syndrome” which cannot stand the other guy rising above mediocrity. We are happy to pull him/ her down. Recently I was talking to a person who was instrumental in establishing and nurturing an institution of national importance. He confided to me that he was surprised at the extent of anger (not just jealousy) that the success of his institution had evoked.
We recently witnessed this kind of failure when practically very few took a public position to support Shahrukh Khan when there was a backlash against his remark about allowing Pakistani Cricket players to play in IPL. We have seen many more such examples of unwarranted allegations and criticisms; Sound bites on RK Pachauri, CB Bhave, Shashi Taroor etc are examples of this.
There is nothing new in this other than a suggestion that there is a need to stand up and support those few good men who try to make a difference. If you are too scared to open your mouth, at least try to take a position as a group.
"First they came for the unions, but I didn't speak up because I wasn't union. Then they came for the communists, but I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the Jews, but I didn't speak up because I was Protestant. And then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak up."
- Reverend Martin Niemoller a German Lutheran monk who was arrested by the Gestapo in 1937
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
The art and ethics of lying
“Ashwathama is dead” replied Yudhishtira.
He also mumbled under his breath “May be a man or an animal”. (अश्वत्थामा हतो नरो व कुंजरो व”)
Drona the Commander in Chief of the Kauravas and also the teacher of both Kauravas and Pandavas who obviously heard only the first part of Yudhishitira’s reply was devastated believing that his son Ashwadhama was no more. He laid down his arms and then he was killed by Draupadi’s brother.
In the story of Mahabharata, Pandava’s are the good guys and Kaurava’s are the bad ones. The war and destruction of Kurukshetra was primarily caused by greed and intransigence of Kauravas.
In this war of good and evil Pandava’s had to use deceit a few times. Although many would sympathise with these strategies, none of the parties who implemented these were proud of this. After Yudhishtira lied (first time in his life) about the death of Ashvathama, his chariot which was always few inches above the ground, settled down to earth. Each of the players was filled with remorse at the deceits that they had to use disguised as strategies.
Their use of these strategies was more and exception to regain what the Pandavas lost to on account of the treachery of Duryodhana and his cohorts.
Today in the jungle of governance (of both corporate and the country) we see the use of treachery as a strategy to achieve one’s end. Shakuni’s deceit is packaged and sold as the strategy of Krishna.
We see many who proudly boast “I bluffed” with a gleam in their eyes that shows how smart they feel. It then becomes a part of their nature to say white lies or to palm out concoctions of facts, suitably laced with lies to suit their convenience. They will use this strategy to get what they want or to destroy whoever comes in their way. They will work on the insecurities of their colleagues and egg them on to make mistakes. They have no shame to take credit of others achievement and will feel no compunction to exploit. They, like the renowned Tuglak, will work towards fomenting discord in their team so that they can promote their agenda without opposition. They will stand in the frontlines of the temples and front benches of churches.
These are not strategies to achieve a larger goal; but a means to further their private agendas. If you have to survive in this modern jungle, the easy way out is to join the gang.
But if you have little scruples left and you are not yet ready for ‘vanaprasta’ (ie; be the monk who sold his Ferrari), then you need to learn to recognises these seekers of self interest to have your own strategies for survival.
It is going to be a difficult task because in this endeavour you are going to be mostly alone, because the ‘good guys’ seldom co-operate or stand-up for their fellow ‘goods’ unlike the ‘bad’ . (Take a look at my earlier posting "To be or not to be (Part 2) – Of Good being Bad" for some thoughts on this)
Otherwise you should be lucky enough to have ‘Krishna’ (the God) as your charioteer and/ or you should be willing to redefine in your heart what you mean by victory.
"Let the lie come into the world, even dominate the world, but not through me......
Writers and artists can do something more: they can vanquish the lie.......
Once the lie has been dispersed, the nakedness of violence will be revealed in all its repulsiveness, and then violence, become decrepit, will come crashing down" Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsy, Winner of Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970
He also mumbled under his breath “May be a man or an animal”. (अश्वत्थामा हतो नरो व कुंजरो व”)
Drona the Commander in Chief of the Kauravas and also the teacher of both Kauravas and Pandavas who obviously heard only the first part of Yudhishitira’s reply was devastated believing that his son Ashwadhama was no more. He laid down his arms and then he was killed by Draupadi’s brother.
In the story of Mahabharata, Pandava’s are the good guys and Kaurava’s are the bad ones. The war and destruction of Kurukshetra was primarily caused by greed and intransigence of Kauravas.
In this war of good and evil Pandava’s had to use deceit a few times. Although many would sympathise with these strategies, none of the parties who implemented these were proud of this. After Yudhishtira lied (first time in his life) about the death of Ashvathama, his chariot which was always few inches above the ground, settled down to earth. Each of the players was filled with remorse at the deceits that they had to use disguised as strategies.
Their use of these strategies was more and exception to regain what the Pandavas lost to on account of the treachery of Duryodhana and his cohorts.
Today in the jungle of governance (of both corporate and the country) we see the use of treachery as a strategy to achieve one’s end. Shakuni’s deceit is packaged and sold as the strategy of Krishna.
We see many who proudly boast “I bluffed” with a gleam in their eyes that shows how smart they feel. It then becomes a part of their nature to say white lies or to palm out concoctions of facts, suitably laced with lies to suit their convenience. They will use this strategy to get what they want or to destroy whoever comes in their way. They will work on the insecurities of their colleagues and egg them on to make mistakes. They have no shame to take credit of others achievement and will feel no compunction to exploit. They, like the renowned Tuglak, will work towards fomenting discord in their team so that they can promote their agenda without opposition. They will stand in the frontlines of the temples and front benches of churches.
These are not strategies to achieve a larger goal; but a means to further their private agendas. If you have to survive in this modern jungle, the easy way out is to join the gang.
But if you have little scruples left and you are not yet ready for ‘vanaprasta’ (ie; be the monk who sold his Ferrari), then you need to learn to recognises these seekers of self interest to have your own strategies for survival.
It is going to be a difficult task because in this endeavour you are going to be mostly alone, because the ‘good guys’ seldom co-operate or stand-up for their fellow ‘goods’ unlike the ‘bad’ . (Take a look at my earlier posting "To be or not to be (Part 2) – Of Good being Bad" for some thoughts on this)
Otherwise you should be lucky enough to have ‘Krishna’ (the God) as your charioteer and/ or you should be willing to redefine in your heart what you mean by victory.
"Let the lie come into the world, even dominate the world, but not through me......
Writers and artists can do something more: they can vanquish the lie.......
Once the lie has been dispersed, the nakedness of violence will be revealed in all its repulsiveness, and then violence, become decrepit, will come crashing down" Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsy, Winner of Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970
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