5%... 6%... 7%... 8%... 9%... 10%... 9%... 8%... 7%... ( ? ).

.

We as Indians were used to the ‘Hindu rate of growth' for decades and we somehow muddled along. Suddenly, over the last 10 to 15 years, we started seeing a spurt and saw growth rates that were touching much higher peaks consistently. We started believing that we were capable of consciously encouraging such a growth rate and also in using the fruits of such growth in addressing income inequalities. Not to worry — we have managed to enmesh ourselves in a sticky web of scams, corruption, policy paralysis, Parliament versus civil society posturing, etc, over the last two years. Given the troubled world economic scenario, we may soon slip back to our old ways if we don't break out of this vicious cycle. Talk about shooting oneself in the foot!

They tell me that the picture that we see on the TV screen is made up of millions of pixels. Miraculously they coalesce into images that convey meaning to us. Disaggregated, they remain meaningless blobs of colour. This is the image that came to my mind when I listened to a TV broadcast about a high-profile executive's exit from a storied company that enjoys huge brand equity. The company in question is a thought leader in its space, a darling of the stock markets and a favourite on campuses at placement time. The news anchor laid out the purported reasons for the parting of ways, with delicious hints of strife and discord in the Garden of Eden.

I wondered as to how such a seemingly dysfunctional organisation could present such a great front to the world. Driven by the thinly veiled jealousy that marks most of us when confronted with successful icons, I was salivating at the prospect of juicy scandals that would rip open the facade of greatness. Using the hop-scotch method (someone I know, knowing someone in the company), I got to someone senior in that company.

On further probing and reflection it occurred to me that what I understood as serious discord was probably a function of the ability of some senior people in the organisation to invent internal problems and enemies even if the company did not have major external challenges. However, what I learnt about the root causes of the problems hinted at in the company were a revelation to me. It is indeed a phenomenon that is, in fact, quite common in most corporate organisations. As always, dear reader, I am happy to share the fruits of my labour with you!

Ego: This is probably the single most important factor that helps creates monsters where none exist. The inability to accept someone else's point of view invariably leads to insistence on a bull-headed, unidirectional approach to issues, with predictable results. This also has the collateral effect of making sure that team work is negated and sycophancy rules supreme.

The Indian Crab Syndrome: Another insidious practice that many people indulge in when they make insinuations and generate whispers to pull someone down. Much like the children's game of Chinese Whispers, distortions take place at each baton-passing stage and the final version looks nothing like the original. After a while these issues take on a life of their own and go out of control, much like Frankenstein.

Idle minds: Not having seen the devil, I have no idea what he or his workshop look like. Human devilry clearly thrives on idle time. Northcote Parkinson famously said, “Work expands to fill the time available”; he probably should have said: “Problems will be created to occupy the time available.”

Information asymmetry: We all know that sound waves suffer from the effects of attenuation — they become weaker with distance travelled. Similarly, any communication tends to become fainter, the longer it travels. This can happen due to a variety of reasons such as geography, hierarchical distance from the power centre and, most damagingly, due to opaque management practices. The human mind abhors a vacuum and communication gaps are filled up with gossip and ghosts conjured up out of one's own fears in an organisational context. The net result is a disconnected and de-motivated people pool.

Let me stop with this illustrative list; suffice it to say that there are probably many more factors that can reinforce this thesis.

President Ronald Reagan called the Soviet Union the ‘Evil Empire'. His motive was not just to position the Soviet Union as the arch enemy of the US, but also to make sure that the US stayed ahead of the curve in all that it did then. The idea was to unite everyone in the US and in many parts of the world against a ‘common enemy'. If I recall right, someone even said at that time that if the Soviet Union did not exist, it would have been invented to serve this purpose.

Where corporates are concerned, there is no need to conjure up enemies. The march of technology, demographics and consumer preferences, political and economical circumstances provide enough natural challenges that need to be managed and overcome. There is really no need to wilfully create a Fifth Column within the organisation.

(The writer is corporate advisor to the Manipal Education and Medical Group, and an IIM A alumnus (1971). )

E-mail: >mcshekaran@gmail.com

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