IMR JAN 2013 - Indira Institutes

Seth Consultantscreated that new post called Business Headas he mentioned. He gave up his BusinessHead duties long back.Y: And so now we have yet some more grosslyoverpaid "top managers".L: Found it! So tell me what did you think ofhis statement? "Not a free bus for ticket lesspassengers”, and that bit about pulling ourown weight. Reminds me of olden day oarshipswith lots of poor fellows rowing?Y: So those fellows sit and beat the drum andwe row?V: No, no. No drum beating and all that. Theyenjoy themselves fully without distractions.That is why they appoint others - to beat thedrum and whip the slaves.L: Right. Full of joy, the both of you are.BL: Now tell me I don't remember hearingabout those business wide teams before?V: Of course not! Only specially chosenemployees are on those teams!Y: And we are not special. But, I did hearsome months back about some suchproposal. I thought everyone knew.L: Maybe they sent it only to you DepartmentHeads. I definitely don't remember it.Anyway the Marketing Department andBusiness Development people must berejoicing.V: Rejoicing?L: Well okay, I believe the exact word isschadenfreude.Y: What? Use simple words.L: German word, which found its way intoEnglish. It means, "joy at the misfortune ofothers".V: Oh, you are talking about the advertisingand marketing consultants.Y: Tell me, he said that the experiment failed,but did anyone ask why?V: Ask why? No, no, no, no, no. That is alldangerous. Then you may have to findsomeone at fault.L: But –Y: No buts, it was an experiment which failed.L: But, then how do we know that otherexperiments won't fail?Y: What? You still have some doubt? Of coursethey will fail!V: Yes, I was just going to say that but he said it.In all those so called "non-core areas" we havegreat expertise, developed over many yearswith much effort, but it is being lost now andour external professional agencies are doingvery poor quality work, and at a very high costalso. Only when the system collapses, theneveryone will realize.CV: We don't seem to be meeting very regularlythese days?Y: (Laughing) Coordination problems?L: Sorry, I don't get it.Y: Projects are accepted here at HQ. We gothrough and tentatively, in principle agreethat it can be done and then it is circulated forapproval. Last time some projects wererejected here. But then the businessdevelopment team at Pashchimpur called theparty for negotiations.V: Not only that, the best part is that they haveaccepted (other) projects for which they donot have the capabilities!Y: Even better, some projects are only handledhere. Some months back they found out thatDakshinpet has accepted such a project andcompleted it without informing any one. Onlyat the time of accounting and billing did thewhole thing come out and become knownover here!V: You don't know the whole story,Poorvanagar did the same thing, and thenthey used the wrong accounting code.DL: One part of what he said got me a bitIndira Management Review - Jan 2013 73