Only when the shit hits the fan

It took full blown balance of payment crisis in 1991 for the government to realize that the then prevalent model of economic development was no good.

This time, rating agencies were giving final touches to their communique, reducing India's credit rating to junk, which prompted some policy action.

Economic prosperity comes when we grow at a rate substantially higher than inflation. In our case, however, we have to work even harder, we have a huge backlog to clear. We have to lift existing people out of abject poverty, we have to account for new people we are adding to our population.

Our collective psyche has been shaped by our distrust of foreigners who ruled us, used us and left us in economic ruin. Earlier, we were fighting between ourselves and allowed outsiders in to come and take advantage of us. This time, we are fighting among ourselves and shutting them out and letting opportunity pass by.

It would be so nice if political parties who dispose of a specific policy action can come up with an alternative as well. It is so easy to destroy or reject something, it is extremely difficult to come up with an alternative. Let all political parties share their economic plan of getting India on a 9% +  GDP growth path. Let these plans be scrutinized by eminent economists. Let there be debate on the over all economic plans of these parties, vs street fights on a specific policy action.

Let us not wait for the shit to hit the fan every time, for us to take action!

Kingfisher - Lessons in Management - What not to do

Kingfisher is giving plenty of material to the management schools, for them to use as case studies in their class rooms. Unfortunately most of these lessons are of type "what not to do".

The latest being the email that the CEO of the company sent to its employees asking them to rejoin on 13th October, so that the lockout could be lifted.

What an impersonal way to get the airline of the ground! Especially after the tragic death of wife of an employee, directly as a result of airlines messed up situation.

Would it not have been better  for the CEO to organize a  town hall? He could have been physically present at the Headquaters, he could have addressed people directly, empathizing with them in this difficult time. Employees in other cities of the country could have been asked to come to the local offices, where video conferencing could have been arranged. Better still, the CEO could have flown to a few  large locations, where large portion of the employees are based and could have talked to them directly.

What Kingfisher demonstrated is how a manager operates, the need of the hour is to demonstrate how a leader operates. Kingfisher employees need to be given hope and confidence that there is someone out there looking after them.