BW Communities

Analysis: Act Upon Your Truth

BW Online Bureau Nov 08, 2014

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><root available-locales="en_US," default-locale="en_US"><static-content language-id="en_US"><![CDATA[Kapil's father worked for 37 years, perhaps with a single employer. To him, retirement may have been an unwelcome and dreaded event — a passage into long days of watching the clock, diminishing social influence and an un-ending struggle to balance a meagre pension income with exploding costs of living. From that stand-point, Kapil's professional contemporaries are better blessed. With multi-million rupee salaries, most can put aside a reasonable nest egg by the time they are into their 40s. A liberal education and a sense of economic well-being early in life gave Kapil and his generation the wherewithal to ask deeper questions — Do I need to be an employee all my life? Do I have to be ‘his master's voice'? Is destiny handed down to me or do I make my own destiny? What's the larger purpose of my life? Kapil had reached that cross-road in his life. The sense of partnership he had enjoyed with Aniljeet for six years had been on the wane.  Aniljeet, like many of his industrialist peers, embraced and pursued the ‘bigger is better' philosophy, may be with a sense of urgency. In the process of getting bigger, the means were sacrificed at the altar of speed. Short-cuts, quick-fixes, forcing jump-step deadlines, over-working people and worse, buying favours; all these are not only considered acceptable but possibly have become the preferred conduct. The Wall Street-dictated measure of ‘quarter on quarter' growth is seen as the axiom of wealth creation by the corporate biggies. This game of creating analyst perceptions and inflated market caps to be recognised as a rich, famous and powerful corporate captain may have been Aniljeet's motivation. Yet, history will tell us how greed and avarice had bankrupted and decimated mighty corporations such as Lehman Brothers, Enron and WorldCom. Clearly, corporations themselves are not to be blamed. The blame may be apportioned to the executive and board leadership for the decisions and choices they made. But within the coterie of such leadership would be one powerful person, invariably the chief executive, who may have lobbied, manoeuvered, pushed or dictated these organisations to temporary recognition and stardom. Sustainable success does not have easy and convenient answers. It comes through hard work, deliberation, open debate, accommodation of multiple view-points, a strong sense of ethics and sensitivity to public opinion. Aniljeet may have started off with noble intentions but along the way got influenced by the ambient industrialist culture — to quickly collect the trappings of success, no matter how. Steadfast and honourable, Kapil had begun to worry that he was slowly getting sucked into the vortex of Aniljeet's agenda. Kapil seemed to be pliable at the edges. He plunged full length into work and its visible manifestations and colluded with the work pressures and deadlines. Unwittingly, Kapil was partnering Aniljeet's scheme of things. At the core, Kapil was cognizant of the many things that were not going quite right. Compromises in raw material and product quality, people quitting because of poor integrity in the work culture, work-life imbalances and employees being made ‘yes men', were some of the symptoms. Kapil had begun to realise that by continuing as the HR chief at Taffet Group, he was naively legitimising Aniljeet's behaviour. As the HR head, he was committed to certain professional principles — of working towards the creation of an ethical and value-driven organisational culture. Kapil reached the conclusion that he was professionally-bound to provide feedback and facilitate a change in approach, or quit. Fortunately, the bedrock of their earlier relationship enabled an open dialogue. Kapil admired Aniljeet's dynamism and ambition. Yet, there were obvious parts to Aniljeet's personality that were an anathema. Whether Kapil realised it or not, he had in a sense become Aniljeet's alter ego. Aniljeet had clearly vanquished his alter ego. Kapil's attempts to engage in a dialogue ended invariably in a monologue with patronising comments like, "Animals survive, we have to thrive" and "This is the difference between a middle class person and me. You can't be adventurous!" Also, Aniljeet's near contemptuous response to Kapil's resignation are all symbolic of a man who has lost his sense of humanity. Kapil is fearful that his exit chat with Aniljeet is likely to suffer a similar outcome. Kapil's lament to friend Inder explains his predicament, "My problem is that I am not getting a chance to stop the wheel I am on… I don't think there is anyway I can stop the wheel." Worthily, Kapil was grounded and continued an inner dialogue with himself. He acted on his conscience. Contrarily, Aniljeet's lack of empathy only shows up his infamy. Kapil acted on his ‘truth' — he will live peacefully with himself.  Jeswant Nair is the global group director of human resources at the Iffco Group of Companies. He is based in the UAE (This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 29-08-2011)