Has the Country Done the Root Cause Analysis of "Why Corruption"?

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Introducing Legislation and Creating Gigantic Organizations to Deal With the Chronic Disease "Corruption" Will be Only Marginally Effective Without Prior Diagnosis of the Deadly Disease

The current case in point is the "Lokpal" (legislation to fight corruption) exercise undertaken in India. Entire self proclaiming intelligent crowd of India from all the conceivable segments of the society is busy with it. "Lokpal" is being seen as the major medicine to cure the worst disease of humanity i.e. "corruption".

Now the problem is nobody can give any guarantee that passing this legislation (and its expensive implementation, if it is done the way it should be done) will eradicate or even contain corruption. And it is true because who has ever done any serious and deeper diagnostic studies to honestly understand and accept the real causes of corruption?

There is a dire need to first carry out detailed studies (using the scientific models) to pin down the reasons for the widespread corruption in the country in each and every public and private organizations (most of all, including the government, the political parties and the politicians). The root cause analysis is very vital.

The root cause analysis will spill out the real reasons of corruption. Then the real problems will be understood correctly. It will be a worthwhile investment to go deeper into the cases of frauds, scams and corruption that have taken place. Such case studies will be very useful if they are undertaken fearlessly and truthfully.

Therefore, the self proclaiming intelligent crowd of the country should get busy with this all important exercise immediately. Based on the outcome of such studies most appropriate, correct and effective solutions can be designed and implemented. With the right kind of such preventive and curative medicines, the disease "corruption" can be contained and eradicated. Without such an approach, its only a blind shot in the dark.

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In Democracy Who Is the Ultimate Decision Maker: Citizens of the Country or Their Elected Representatives?

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In Democracy Citizens of the Country Are the Ultimate Decision Makers and Not Their Elected Representatives Whom They Return to the Parliament of the Country

Democracy is the form of government in which all citizens of a country have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. So, ideally, this includes equal and direct participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law. By this process they choose the social, economic and cultural conditions within which all of them will function and live.

A convenient and practical model to achieve this kind of government of people, for people and by people of a country is to elect peoples' representatives through open, free and fair election process. The most important part of this kind of election is to elect only the competent people and reject the incompetent people.

And then send such elected representatives to the parliament to run the country's business on their behalf and under their constant supervision and vigilance.

However the fallacy is that no country in the world can claim that it has the flawless and ideal electoral system. Almost all the prevailing systems in every country in the world have serious faults. Therefore, invariably the elections are not open, fair and free and the persons who get elected through this system are not necessarily competent enough to run the country.

And if the citizens of the country give full and final autonomy to such a body of their elected representatives to decide on the matters that affect the country and its people, they can never be sure of decisions and laws that are always beneficial to the country and its people. If they do not give their guidance, suggestions and recommendations, from time to time, to this body of people and turn a blind eye on them, this body may dish out incompetent and harmful decisions and laws. So the citizens have to be careful all the time.

Before taking final decisions on any important matters of the country and turning them into the laws, all such matters must be debated in the house(s) of parliament by the elected representatives (those in the government and also those in opposition). Then those matters should be placed in the form of a draft by this body of the elected people (the members of the parliament) in front of the people of the country for their consensus and approval. They should have made the draft in consultation with the people so that the draft is a good draft needing minimum revisions. The draft should be fully examined by the people for its overall quality. The citizens should give their additional comments, suggestions and recommendations to improve upon the draft if necessary. Only after a consensus is developed among the people of the country, the draft should be taken up by the members of the parliament to give it the shape of a law.

The essence of the above-mentioned discussion is that the people of the country should play a proactive role and they should remain in the picture well before the matters of importance are decided in the parliament by their elected representatives. Delegating the matters fully to the elected people will never be a good idea and at times it may be disastrous because the elected representatives may not necessarily be the competent people.

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Why Should the Members of Parliament of Any Country be Paid if They Don't Work?

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"No Work, No Pay" is Followed in Every Organization for Everyone and Members of Parliament Can't Get Scot Free if They Don't Work

Members of Parliament (MPs) can't be exception to the rule "no work, no pay".

The case in point is the recent happenings (December 2011) in Indian parliament. Similar happenings took place even in the washed out winter session last year.  It must be happening in other parts of the world too some time or other.

In India, almost half of its parliament's winter session was wasted with no work done till December 2, 2011. Why should MPs get their salaries and allowances for the days parliament did not conduct its business due to continued disruption? The parliament was totally paralysed for nine successive days over the issues (corruption, black money, inflation, foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail) that were the creation of the same MPs.

The two houses (Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha) lost 96 hours of work. They worked for merely 3 hours over all these days. A huge sum of Indian Rupees 2.5 crore is spent on both the houses every day. So the nine days of no work amounted to loss of Indian Rupees 22.5 crore of public money.

A simple worker in a factory does not get his salary if he does not work. Then why should highly paid (MPs get fat salaries, perquisites and daily allowances) and more responsible MPs be paid when they do not work.

Any sane person of little logic will say, "Not only daily allowance but salary and perquisites of such MPs should also be deducted."

Such actions alone will compel the MPs to behave and work. Such an action will certainly send a strong message across. Some wiser people will even suggest that the non-working MPs should in fact be penalized heavily for wasting public money.

However some people may argue with tongue in cheek, "Whether you pay them or don't pay them does not matter much to them since they earn more than that from some other sources. They do not solely depend on their salaries, perquisites and allowances."

But seriously, the MPs should be paid only based on their true contribution to the society. We talk of result orientation everywhere. Start with the MPs to set an example to the rest of the citizens of the country.

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Will You Like to be Happy or Right?

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Either You Can be Right or You Can be Happy: Its Less Likely that You Can be Both

One of the less thought about and talked about reason (but very important one) for feeling stressed from time to time is one’s desire to be “right” or “perfect” all the time. And what is “right” is cooked up by the same person who is trying to be right. Agreed that he/she might have thought about it pretty seriously within the ambit of his own cerebral capabilities and after having read lots of literature on it or by being very observant of the people who seem to be right to him/her etc. Yet, finally, it is solely his/her own perception.

So, despite much of such research, the question is: can he/she be absolutely sure that what he defined as perfect or right was really right or perfect? No one can be too sure about it. It definitely is not sacrosanct or the ultimate truth. Yet some people pursue these mirages of being right and perfect all the time with missionary vengeance. In addition, such tribes do not want to fail or be seen as failing against the benchmarks set by them.

And see below what they try to achieve in pursuit of meeting this perfectness! They seriously practice it in most trivial things of life as well as things of medium and high importance. Here are some classic examples:

• Pronounce each and every word of each and every language correctly.
• Being dressed prim and proper every minute and every hour of all the days of an year.
• Never squeeze the tooth paste tube or shaving cream tube or moisturizer tube or for that matter any such other tube in its middle.
• Following each and every dining table manner and telephone etiquette and every other social etiquette to the letter as described in numerous etiquette and manners manuals authored by all kinds of self proclaiming experts.
• Never leave the clothes on the beds of the bedrooms or on the floors of bathrooms even for a second.
• Make sure that toilet seat is always covered without fail and flush at least twice after having done the thing in the toilet.
• Always eat the perfectly nutritious food in every meal everywhere. Never ever exceed the calorie and other specifications set out by the numerous nutrition experts.
• Always sleep on the right side of the bed and let the spouse sleep always on the left side of the bed.
• Sticking to punctuality in each and every situation.
• Loading the washing machine or dish washer in the right way- as thought out as right by self.
• All the time trying to set out goals of all kinds and trying to meet those goals and getting upset when not meeting them.
• Pushing the son(s)/daughter(s) to become champions in many things right around their age of 5 or 6 and feeling upset when they fail to meet such expectations.
• Presenting self, spouse and children as the most mannerly creatures of the earth.
• Never miss the deadlines in professional or any other type of jobs.

and the list can go on and on.

Trying to be reasonably effective and efficient is understandable because that can be met within your capabilities and within your other resources. But then excess of anything is bad. When you set out some crazy ideals for self and are likely to expect them from your spouse, children, parents, subordinates and colleagues, it becomes too much for yourself and everyone else around you. And then stresses and strains develop because such tall expectations are beyond the available capabilities and resources. That leaves you and others not only stressed but it is likely to disrupt the human relations from time to time. That further adds to your and others’ woes.

Many times what is right or wrong is never very clear. Different people do things differently and to each one that may be right. So, on trivial and many other issues, insistence on achieving a particular “right way” may be inviting unnecessary stresses. Yet, on some important issues of life what is realistic and achievable must definitely be discussed and what capabilities and other resources of self and others will be required to achieve them must be assessed.

The whole discussion here does not promote accepting a compromising or sloppy attitude towards life but warns all of us against being obsessed about being “right” or “perfect” (as defined by self or others) all the time.

Being flexible and setting realistic and achievable goals within the means of capabilities and resources is the golden path traversing on which will be least stressful and yet meaningfully fulfilling.

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Why Should Only 1% of the World's People Should Have All the 99% World's Wealth (Blatant Social Injustice)?

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All People Together Create Wealth for the Organizations (and Nations) and They Should be Given a Just and Proportionate Share of the Created Wealth

Vilfredo Pareto was a 19th century economist who observed in 1906 that 80% of Italy's land and wealth was owned by 20% of the population (refer http://shyam.bhatawdekar.net/index.php/2011/07/20/abc-analysis-or-pareto-analysis/ or http://abc-pareto-analysis.blogspot.com/).

Over past 100 years, the situation has worsened. It may not be an exaggeration to say (figuratively) that presently just about only 1% of the people have grabbed around all of 99% of the world's wealth. And definitely not necessarily by ethical practices or by honest hard work.

Utter economic inequality and blatant social injustice, isn't it? Yes, it is.

In every organization (whatsoever nature of organization it may be), many people work. Together they create wealth for that organization (and nation). But the distribution of that wealth is quite lopsided. The lion's share is grabbed (by hook or crook) by extremely small number of people who are at the helm of that organization (including the nation). They do it by drawing disproportionately and extraordinarily high salaries, perquisites and profit-share. Obscenely and vulgarly high indeed (at times 1000 times or 10,000 times or so more than the lowly paid other people of the same organization)! The balance minuscule amount of wealth is thrown at the rest of the people (as if obliging them, as if they are slaves or beggars).

Does it mean that those few people at the top single-handedly contribute 1000 times or 10,000 more towards creation of wealth of that organization? Remove the rest of the people and see if these few people (at the top) can create the same wealth that the organization (and nation) is currently creating. It's inconceivable and practically impossible. You need other people (other than those top few) to create wealth.  

It only goes to show that other people too contribute hell of a lot in creating the wealth for that organization. Their contribution is as significant as the contribution of the top few. 

Then it does not make sense in having such a big yawning gap between the emoluments of the CEOs and few other people of these organizations and the rest of the people of the same organizations.
 
Therefore, the highest emolument paid to any person in an organization should not be more than say, ten times that of the lowest emolument in any organization.That's all.

Just because an organization is providing the employment does not mean that the top few of that organization can get away by exploiting hundreds and thousands of people who give their brain, mind, talents, skills and sweat to these organizations.

Some serious thinking and movement are necessary to kill this kind of day-light exploitation of people.  

Shouldn't Some Minimum Formal Education Level be Prescribed for Becoming CEO of a Country?

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If You Need a Clerk in an Office to be a High School Pass, then a Prime Minister or President of a Country Should at least be a College Graduate in Some Professional Discipline if Not a PhD or a Postgraduate

It is interesting and funny to note that while for every job from a sweeper to the highest level of professional in any private or government organization, minimum formal educational qualifications are a must, no such minimum formal educational qualification are prescribed for becoming a member of parliament or minister or prime minister and president of a country.

A manager who manages a small office is expected to be an MBA but you can become member of parliament or minister or prime minister and president of a country responsible for managing the larger affairs of a country without going to even a primary school.

Shouldn't the people of the country start insisting that their representatives in the parliament should be formally highly educated in some related professional discipline or otherwise they wouldn't vote for them?

Is Anyone Talking and Doing Something about Innovation, Productivity and Cost Reduction?

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Economies of Countries Will Keep Improving Only by Innovation, Productivity and Cost Reduction; Not by Merely Artificially Manipulating the Purchasing Power of People

The economy of any country is thought to be improving when there is lot of economic activity going on in the country. Economy is said to be healthy and growing when the producers of goods and services are able to continually sustain their higher productions and sales and the customers/consumers (the pubic of the country) keep buying those goods and services in abundance in terms of value and perhaps also in quantities.

This necessitates supply of goods and services that satisfy the existing and potential needs of the consumers and making these available at prices that can be met by the purchasing power of the buyers. The purchasing power is artificially enhanced normally by providing the loans in an easy manner to the consumers.

Now either because of ineffectiveness and inefficiencies of the producers or/and because of their greed to make still more profits, the prices of the goods and services are jacked up. The people still buy as the machinery to pump in the loans to the buyers is also in action. The purchasing power seems to be intact or rather getting further strengthened.

But in reality what happens is that this jacking of the prices by one or few producers has a cascading effect on the prices of other interdependent goods and services. Also in reality, there is full or partial absence of the free economy that is thought to be working purely on competitiveness in the market and on the relationship between supply and demand patterns. In reality the producers also often gang up and create a cartel or lobby and wield their power on the buying public by making sure that every producer without any exception decides to raise the prices of goods and services provided by them. The competitiveness is thus thrown out of the window.

This has a telling effect on raising the inflation in the country. A stage comes when this inflationary spiral reaches a height where the purchasing power of people even with supply of loans to them looks highly limited in continuing buying the goods and services. The result of this is a slump in the buying spree.

As the buyers put a brake on their buying, it affects the producers adversely. The producers can no more sustain their production and selling activities. They start downsizing and people lose their jobs. The purchasing power of people further reduces.

This might then lead to economic recession. The entire cycle repeats every ten to twelve years and it affects everyone pretty seriously.

If you look at it, in all of this, no one is talking and doing anything seriously about innovations, productivity and cost reduction. The key to sustained economic growth of a country lies in concentrating on these three aspects and not to play around too much only in making the people artificially rich by giving loans and enabling them to buy the goods and services at unjustifiably high prices resulting out of no or little emphasis on innovation, productivity and cost reduction and the greed for unbridled profiteering.

If following actions are taken one can solve the issues brought out in the foregoing discussions and keep the economy flying high and healthy all the time without undue inflationary impact on the buying public.

1. The producers must use their creativity and innovations more and more in creating goods and services that are increasingly useful to the public and can be produced at significantly lower costs. Since continual improvement is a mandatory clause in all the ISO 9001 certified companies, the ISO 9001 auditors should strictly audit this aspect of creativity and innovation of the products and the cost of their production and selling, in quantitative terms and not merely in qualitative terms.
2. The producers must employ the best possible ways to improve the productivity in their organizations. The improvement in productivity should be audited by the auditors in a very strict manner in quantitative terms.
3. The organizations should put their best efforts in bringing down the overall costs of production and selling. The cost auditors should keep a tab on the cost reduction brought about by the companies.
4. There should be an upper limit prescribed for making profits. For example, companies can be allowed to make only up to a maximum of 30% profit on their individual products and services. This also should be strictly audited and defaulters should be taken to task.

All these actions will keep the the inflation under strict control and buying public will get the innovative and useful products and services at the best possible costs/prices. The producers will get a guaranteed level of profits (say 30%). The loan borrowing will be kept to the minimum by the public which is good for them.

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Why Those Horrible “No Reply” Emails?

Every Email Should Allow "Two Way" Communication

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Here is a small little story about a person who bought a sophisticated automatic hammer. And then you found him busy fixing the nails all over on the walls of his house.

When the entire walls of all the rooms started getting the nails fixed into them, someone asked him, “Hey, why so many nails in every wall all over?”

He replied pretty seriously, “I have bought this new automatic hammer and it automatically does the work of hammering the nails into the walls so very easily. I could never do such a thing with my old manual hammer. And so now, I am making full use of this wonderful tool.”

That exactly explains why we keep receiving those tons of horrible “no reply” emails from all kinds of our business associates, service providers and everyone else. An irritating abuse of the technological toy they have now!!

Those emails are like, “We have spoken to you, now you shut up, we did our job.” You have a reason to feel insulted.

Most “no reply” emails leave you with mixed feelings of very partial satisfaction but more anger, frustration, insult and helplessness.

If these “no reply” emails arouse some questions, some doubts, some queries in your mind (which is what happens most of the times with such “no reply” emails), you have no way of getting them clarified.

Some “no reply” emails are seen to insert a link in them. This kind of “no reply” email suggests that you can go to that link and get your problems and queries voiced. However, invariably, such links take you through a very circuitous and horrendous route and land you on some useless space on the vast Internet. Invariably you never meet up with the person who was the brain behind programming that “no reply” email. So, then after trying for a while you give up.

If you are left with a choice, you will definitely like to dump such business associates, service providers and others who shoot out such “no reply” emails.

Then what was the sense in that “no reply” communication? It only indicates a sheer sense of irresponsibility and non-accountability on the part of the sender of such a “no reply” email.

Shun the “no reply” email and get on with the “two way” communication with every piece of communication and email.

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Are Hierarchies and Titles Necessary?

Hierarchies and Titles Create Bosses, Leaders, Superiors, Dictators, Red Tape, Boundaries and Who Needs Them; We Don't

In my previous post, I hinted that the distant future will see leaderless, boss less or dictator less societies. Human beings will be "human beings" in homes and in social arena. And in the professional domains (in offices, factories, government departments, hospitals, departmental stores etc) these human beings will be "professionals". Period.

The hierarchies, class divides and titles will not exist- they will become redundant and obsolete.

It is true to some extent even today. A doctor is a doctor today; a surgeon is a surgeon; that's it. An author is an author, a carpenter is a carpenter, a plumber is a plumber, a tennis player is a tennis player, a movie actor is a movie actor. And all of them are treated as such if they have the desired expertise and more over, if they are good at their craft, they are more in demand and they can command a high price for the services and expertise they offer. Other professionals are still called by their "professional identity" though they may be less in demand and also earn less. In either case, they do not need titles or prefixes or suffixes like junior, assistant, middle, senior, top, additional, joint and what other funny things you can think of.

As soon as you use these kinds of titles with the "profession" of a person, you start putting him in a class oriented society, you start creating hierarchies, you create superiors and inferiors, boss and subordinate, leaders and led and simultaneously you start promoting duplication of work, unnecessary red tape and sluggishness in communication etc. What for?

When you hire the services of any independent contractor whether he is tutor of math to your child, a baby sitter, a plumber, a tailor of your suit etc, you do not turn into his boss or his leader just because you have hired his professional services and the hired professional does not become a subordinate nor does he need your intelligence or advice. He finishes his work, gets paid by you and walks off still with the same "professional identity" with which he did the work you assigned him.

A similar treatment needs to meted out to every professional who joins as a permanent or temporary professional in any organized joint whether that is a factory, an office, a corporation, a government department, hospital or a departmental store.

The hierarchies and titles should be done away with and every professional should be treated on par with any other professional. There is no need to put them on the various rungs of a ladder; all are professionals after all. They get employed if they are good, get paid as per their expertise and as per the supply and demand ratio of that particular professional expertise.

An engineer remains engineer, doctor remains a doctor, actor remains an actor, soccer player remains a soccer player throughout his life unless he acquires some other professional identity by acquiring a new expertise. Where is the need to take him through a plethora of titles throughout his life-time by calling the same person from time to time as junior engineer, assistant engineer, deputy engineer, engineer, senior engineer, chief engineer, assistant manager, deputy manager, manager, senior manager, chief manager, assistant vice president, vice president, deputy senior vice president, senior vice president, group vice president, additional president, president, group president and what have you? Same is true with every other profession.

When the professionals will work like real professionals without the various pressures of hierarchies looming large on them, the overall effectiveness and efficiencies will definitely improve in every project.

Please do read a related case study at: http://management-anecdotes.blogspot.com/search/label/Designation%20Burst

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Do We Really Elect the Right People in Democracy?

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Money Backed Election Model is the Culprit in Corrupt Democracy

 

If democracy is the government of people, by people and for people, then I wonder if it is happening in any democracy any where in the world.

Elections are being fought by the political parties and its people on the basis of massive money pools created by the smart alecks- huge sums of the money largely extracted from  the obscenely rich corporate bodies and such others. And obviously they throw this money at the prospective politician as their smart investments with the assurance of highest possible returns on these investments.

 

Then, elections are fought using such unimaginably large sums of money by the people who can afford to do so. What happens to those other more deserving candidates with no money of their own or with no dirty skills of squandering the money of others? The electorate is totally deprived of these better candidates and democracy suffers hugely.

When the contesting candidates get elected by using the money provided by the corporations and other rich bodies, they work only in favor of the corporations and the rich people and totally neglect rest of the people of the country.

Therefore, remove the money from the election scenarios. The elections should be fought without money. I suggest a following model:

• Any citizen of the country should be eligible to contest democratic elections. Some minimum and maximum age and educational qualification should be imposed. 
• The candidate offering himself/herself to get elected must not have any criminal record or he/she should not have any criminal proceeding going on against him/her at the time of going through the election process. 
• Every candidate will have to submit a detailed bio-data with their photographs to the body that organizes and administers the entire election process. 
• This body will publish the bio-data of the candidates at governmental expenditure in the media. This will account for only marginal additional expenditure on government's total election budget. 
• The candidates will not canvass the way they do now by spending the enormously huge amounts of dirty money they collected in a dirty manner. Instead, specially created TV channels or even the existing TV channels will provide certain equal time slots to the candidates to make their presentations to the public. The expenditure for this will be borne by the government; after all that is the people's money now being used very decently for a very important cause. Plus the candidates' bio-data are already available with the public now. 
• The voters will be able to see and study these presentations and the detailed bio-data of the candidates contesting the election and they will decide whom to vote based on their merits. 
• The voters will vote on the appointed day for the candidate they chose.

Will the Future See Leaderless Societies?

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The "Leader" or "Leadership" Paradigm Will Become Obsolete in Future

Egypt's "leaderless" revolution has shown in clear terms that people do not need leaders for their achievements.

"The need for a leader" hoax has been drilled into the minds of people by the interested and selfish parties over the ages. As a result of this brainwash, it created a mindset of dependency of people on their so called leaders. This age old paradigm created dictators, bosses, superiors, leaders, hierarchies etc. It injected a sense of helplessness among the people and it tarnished their understanding and assessment of their own potentials.

The future will see emergence of new paradigms: the "people" paradigm in general or social life and the "professional" paradigm in the work life. All we need for maintenance and growth of societies and organizations is to accept this new concept that every human being is a "person" and a "professional". No human being is either boss or subordinate, leader or follower, dictator and oppressed, superior or subordinate, higher hierarchy or lower hierarchy, highbrow and lowbrow etc.

All are equal persons and equal professionals. And they have a right to live their lives as such.

People will live in peace with each other in their social lives and the professionals will run all those domains that need to be run effectively and efficiently so that people can live in peace.

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Are CEOs of Private Sector Companies as Precious as They Are Made Out to be?

(Read the inside stories of the corporate sector in the form of short management case studies at: http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com/ or http://management-anecdotes.blogspot.com/ or http://corporate-case-studies.blogspot.com/. To procure the printed bound book containing these sensitive stories, write to: prodcons@prodcons.com)

CEOs of Private Sector Companies Alone Don't Achieve; So There Is No Need to Pay Them Obnoxiously and Obscenely High Salaries

It is beyond comprehension why CEOs of private sector companies should draw terribly and vulgarly high salaries not only as compared to other employees of these organizations at different levels but also as compared to the very next level of executives who also take up lots of responsibilities and contribute towards the success of that organization.

Many organizations in public or government sectors and NGOs do pretty decently despite the fact that the chairmen and CEOs of public sector profit making huge conglomerates, CEOs of the states, judges, governmental bureaucrats etc get paid just about marginally more than the other senior employees or even the other employees. Then, what is so great about the CEOs of private sector organizations?

And it is not that after paying astronomically high salaries, all the CEOs run their companies effectively or ethically. Many of them still remain as corrupt and greedy as they could be despite getting large sums of legitimate money.

It is high time that the shareholders of the private sector companies should wake up and start exercising more control over the board of directors of their companies in order to regulate the emoluments of the CEO they appoint.

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Who Are responsible for These Deaths?

Remove the Security Cover of All the Politicians

Today 35 innocent people got killed in blasts at two Moscow metro stations.

This is not the first and the singular mishap. It looks like as if it is becoming a norm.

Who are responsible for such deaths?

The obvious answer will be: apparently those who planned and executed the blasts.

But on deeper thinking, you will come to the conclusion that the primary responsibility squarely falls on those people who hold now and held in the past, material political positions in numerous nations from time to time and who, by their dim witted thinking and actions, motivated by their greed and selfishness, created and spread disgruntlement and hurt in a large majority of human beings.

These people holding material power positions never get killed in such blasts because they are cozily protected by the machinery and the security which are heavily financed by the tax payers many of whom though fall victim to these blasts since they are not protected the same way.

Remove this cozy protection machinery and security given to these political people and then let us see how many people volunteer to become the so called leaders of the masses. Good people those who are non-corrupt and so, fearless may still opt for it.

And then the same political people will start behaving with greater responsibilities and will think, communicate, negotiate and act more prudently.The blast and killings might reduce significantly.

Originally posted at (Running Commentary on the Run) http://running-comments.blogspot.com/

Read the “inside” stories of the corporate world at: (Management Anecdotes) http://management-anecdotes.blogspot.com/

Children Acting in Movies or Working in Reality Shows: Is That Not Child Labor?

Ban All Kinds of Child Labor

It's true that human beings are the worst irrational animals. Some things look black to human beings but some other things that are also equally black do not appear to be black to the same people. Ironically, those things are perceived as white and bright and people tend to glamorize them. And then, they cash on it.

Children working in unorganized sectors, like picking up the rags on the streets or engaged in begging etc for some business goons are pitied upon by the society and governments etc.

Children working in various kinds of offices and factories in the organized sector including the corporate sector are also pitied upon by the society and governments.

People talk a lots on these kinds of child labor and advocate to ban them. That's good. Do it.

But what about a large number of children who are engaged by the movie world and the reality shows on television and working for them? Is that not child labor? Perhaps, it is as bad as the ones cited earlier. These child engagements hammer and impact the cerebral aspects of the growing kids on the wrong side and that is highly damaging.

So ban the children acting in the movies and working for the reality shows on television or some similar engagement of children that should be termed as child labor. Ban them all. Do it now.

Read the “inside” stories of the corporate world at: (Management Anecdotes) http://management-anecdotes.blogspot.com/

Are You Really Successful?

Check Out Your Score of Success After Reading This Article

Success: Wide Spectrum Paradigm

Success paradigms have a very wide spectrum. Seen as rich, turning into celebrity, becoming popular, getting known, seen as influential or recognition of your high status are pretty common success criteria for a very large number of people. In a way, this means that you tend to feel successful when other people acknowledge that you are successful. It may be out of your approval addiction. Even if you are not approval addict, you, on your own (irrespective of what others think), may also feel successful if you achieve certain degrees of any one or more of these things. However, even in here, if large majority of others think that achieving the degrees of success you have achieved in the parameters listed above are not good enough for you to be recognized as successful, your own assessment of yourself as being successful may get diminished in your own mind. Again, approval addiction, may be of lower order.

Also, if you have all of these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status) as per your assessment and others also recognize that you have achieved all of these but your own child thinks that you have neglected him/her all through his/her life and he/she hates you for that; are you really successful?

You have all of these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status) as per your and others’ assessment but you have treated your spouse in a such a derogatory manner that she/he is on the brink of asking for divorce or running away with another person; are you really successful?

You have all of these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status) but when your father or mother needs you most in his/her sickness or any other trying situation and you are away on your business all the time and grossly neglect him/her; are you really successful?

You have all of these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status), but fight tooth and nail with your brother(s) and/or sister(s) to meet some selfish ends and severe all the relationships, are you really successful?

You have all of these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status), but you did not look after your children's education, development and growth and because of this negligence, they ended up without any decent education, grew with skewed values, got into drugs and other bad habits, have become irresponsible and undisciplined, are you really successful?

You have all of these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status), but you wife has not grown much after her marriage with you since you have not supported her enough as a husband, are you really successful?

You have all of these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status), but you have not acquired and assimilated the proper education to develop yourself into a cultured and refined human being and constantly brag about yourself, belittle others and are in a habit of ill-treating and insulting the people, are you really successful?

You have all of these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status), but you have fallen into becoming a drunkard, a junkie, a womanizer, smuggler, bootlegger etc (even though the charges might not have been legally or socially acknowledged or confirmed), are you really successful?

You have all of these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status), but you have got into habit of saving your face by impressing upon people that you are successful or better than them or many others and in the process you have to act, pretend, fake or camouflage (meaning that you are not a genuine person), are you really successful?

You have all of these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status) but a large section of people also throw rotten eggs or shoes at you or in extreme case, plan to kill you or even kill you because you have antagonized them harshly, unreasonably and unethically; are you really successful?

You have all these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status) but you have been corrupt and greedy and have amassed money illegitimately (though may or may not have been caught doing so by law or by people); are you really successful?

You have all these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status) but have misguided the people dependent on you, manipulated and exploited them to achieve your personal interests, took wrong decisions affecting the people (and have not been caught by law or by people), are you really successful?

You have all these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status) but you have been responsible for hurting people physically or mentally or financially because of which those people suffered grossly in their life (and you have not been caught by law or people and you still live a high brow life shamelessly), are you really successful?

You have all these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status) but your thinking, advices, decisions and actions have led to careless accidents, skirmishes, battles and wars killing civilian and military people, are you really successful?

You have all these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status) but your thinking, advices, decisions and actions have led to provide, illegally or legally, such goods and services whose production, distribution, disposal and consumption pollute the environment and adversely affect the people health wise and economically, are you really successful?

You have all these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status) but your thinking, advices, decisions and actions have led the prices of basic human requirements like essential food stuff, water, education and health care soar sky high to the extent that the citizens of the country/world cannot afford them, are you really successful?

You have all these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status) but you have, in fact, bought all of these by manipulating/lobbying unscrupulously the power, the people and the media and it has not come to you by adopting natural, ethical and legal course, are you really successful?

You have all these (rich, celebrity, popular, known, influential, status) but you are not able to look after your health due to variety of reasons though within your control and therefore, you are perennially physically, intellectually, mentally, emotionally or spiritually sick causing troubles to yourself and people around you, are you really successful?

Read the "inside" stories of the corporate sector at: (Management Anecdotes) http://management-anecdotes.blogspot.com/

Doctor or Mercenary

An Appalling True Story

This true appalling incident saddened me lots. A friend of mine narrated this to me.

His father recently died from heart ailment. My friend had admitted his father to the intensive care unit of a hospital run by the most reputed heart specialist/surgeon of a big city of a big country of the earth. His father had the second heart attack and was in an extremely critical state. The heart specialist/surgeon confirmed that his father was very critical and chances of survival were less and he insisted on an immediate operation and emphasized the need to install a pace maker if he wanted his father to be alive and recover.

Accordingly, a pace maker was installed in the body. Yet, the things did not work and he died. When the dead body was being taken away from the hospital, my friend requested the attending doctor (different from the heart specialist/surgeon) to take out the pace maker from the body and hand it over to him, after all it was hardly used.

The attending doctor checked up and mentioned that there was no pace maker in the dead body. My friend was shocked; he couldn't believe. He told the attending doctor about the operation performed the day before and also told as to how the heart specialist/surgeon had emphasized on installing the pace maker. The attending doctor once again confirmed that there was no pace maker in the body.

Immediately, my friend spoke with the heart specialist/surgeon about it and the heart specialist/surgeon offered him enormous amount of money to keep his mouth shut.

Read the “inside” stories of the corporate sector at: (Management Anecdotes) http://management-anecdotes.blogspot.com/

Proactive Approach to Recession

Need for Permanent Solution

Many recessionary cycles have come and gone creating social and economic havoc and they keep coming back again and again to create the insurmountable problems. Nobody seems to have found a permanent solution for this. It is high time that the people who are responsible to prevent them from the root level to recur get together and put their heads together to find permanent solutions. Is it really that difficult? The answer is plain "no". But it requires the missionary zeal to tackle this Himalayan task. There is a need to adopt a proactive approach.
It's no good then just to think and find solutions on papers but implementation and actions will only bring about the desired positive results.

Read the “inside” stories of the corporate sector at: (Management Anecdotes) http://management-anecdotes.blogspot.com/

Husband-Wife Relationship: Don't Expect Your Partner to be Your Carbon Copy

Celebrate Uniqueness but Do Change for Better

It is a myth that the marital discords, at times, also occur due to the differences in the personalities, attitudes likings/disliking, habits and behaviors of husband and wife. That may be the triggers but the real root cause of the dissonance or conflicts is that one of them wants the other to change into the carbon copy of the self. This extraordinary expectation can be very heavy on the other person particularly when this demand or expectation is expressed in a forceful or condescending manner. One must understand that it is very difficult to change one’s personality, attitudes likings/disliking, habits and behaviors not only in a short period but also over long period. If the wife likes watching romantic movies or reading romantic novels and husband likes to watch action movies and action novels, it is not necessary for them to expect the other to do the same. As understanding husband and wife, they may start taking interest in each other’s likings over a period of time- that’s the best thing to happen and ideally should happen. Or it may happen that one is a very tidy person and other compromises tidiness for whatsoever reasons, one must learn to let go each other. The tidy person should compromise with other person’s untidiness and untidy person should try to become tidier gradually and also, in the process, both should help each other in making the home a tidier place. Yet, the two are unique individuals and forcing each other to become “ditto” is not the answer. The best thing will be to enjoy and celebrate the uniqueness of each other while some good changes may be taking place in both- and they must, if they love each other or want to love each other.

Read the “inside” stories of the corporate sector at: (Management Anecdotes) http://management-anecdotes.blogspot.com/

Who Says Marriages Are Made in Heaven?

No, They Have to Be Worked Out on Earth

Taking marriage for granted is the sure shot way to failure of marriage- it may result in withdrawals, tenseness, irritation, bickering, sadness, unhappiness, discords, fights and may be, divorce.

Everyone gets adversely and negatively affected- husband, wife and children.

Never ever assume that since it was love at first sight or second sight or it was a well analyzed or well planned search for the life partner through a series of dating procedures or it was a perfect match making by way of arranged marriage procedure also involving parents or other well wishers and also the horoscope matching pundits, it will automatically end up in a perfect marriage. Do not think that successful marriage will automatically happen.

No, it does not happen; it has to be worked out. It requires the necessary values, knowledge (rational, emotional and spiritual), thinking patterns (paradigms) and a strong will to develop and implement the related skills and competencies and finally using those skills and competencies through out the married life. Also refer: (Life Management: Effectiveness Management: HSoftware) http://humansoftware.blogspot.com/ http://knol.google.com/k/shyam-bhatawdekar/management-in-life-profession-family/6txz9nck6g3/3#

Developing the marriage related skills and competencies and implementing them need to be addressed with lots of seriousness. You will have to list down what skills and competencies you should develop and implement to make your marriage a success. Get knowledge on them, acquire them, practice them and implement them. Also refer: (Competencies- Life Management) http://shyam-bhatawdekar.blogspot.com/ or http://knol.google.com/k/shyam-bhatawdekar/competency-matrix/6txz9nck6g3/4#

To help you further on how to make your marriage a real success be guided by the important tips that are given at (Counseling: Psychological) http://counselingfamily.blogspot.com/ and (Parental Responsibilities) http://parental-responsibilities.blogspot.com/

Good luck.

Read the “inside” stories of the corporate sector at: (Management Anecdotes) http://management-anecdotes.blogspot.com/

Giving Numbers to Human Beings Is Dehumanizing

With Powerful Computers, Word Processing Is Possible; Giving Numbers of Any Sort to Human Beings Is Not Necessary- It Is Dehumanizing

Many countries have this system of assigning a unique identification number (called severally, different name in different country) to each and every person who lives in that country. Many other countries are trying to ape the others.

In fact, with powerful computers available all around us, giving numbers is not at all necessary. Powerful computers with large capacities can perform word processing very effectively, accurately and fast. So, where is question of giving numbers? In fact, no numbers should be given to people by any one in future, say by banks, credit card companies, schools or anyone else etc and existing numbers should become defunct. These days we are literally sick of all these numbers- there are hundreds of them with everyone and we just don't know how to manage them. Every Tom, Dick and Harry slips a number to us.

You will ask how to give the unique identity to a person then? It is simple. The full name of the person, correctly spelt read along with the person's mother's maiden name, date of birth, place of birth etc will give unique identity to each person. For internal processing, computers can generate their internal numbers if necessary.

Giving numbers is dehumanizing. You don't remain you but a number. Nonsense.

Giving unique numbers is not important and not necessary. What is necessary is a foolproof system of capturing the names of all the persons on computer. And further updating system should also be intact and foolproof.

Read the “inside” stories of the corporate sector at: (Management Anecdotes) http://management-anecdotes.blogspot.com/

Who Bells the Cat in Recessionary Times?

Who to Initiate and What to Initiate?

Perhaps, everyone. But someone has to initiate. Governments and the corporate sector are the ones who should take the lead to tackle the issues related to recession. Both should try and generate employment as the first step. Both, in fact, have peoples' money. It's people in general, the public who fund the governments and corporate sector by way of various taxes and investments. Public has the real claim on that money. This is the occasion when saving/providing/generating employment should be the first and foremost priority of the governments and the corporate sector. It is best done by starting new projects which will need purchasing goods and services from various organizations and people. The economy gets put into the first gear now. It will need lots of torque though- lots of efforts, lots of will power, lots of missionary zeal, lots of spirituality (nothing to do with religions or gods). And that can alone start the engine of progress once more.

These new projects will provide large degrees of employment to people as direct, contracted and temporary employees in them. Also, these projects will need lots of goods and services from the goods manufacturers and service providers. They, in turn, will once more get into action and will be capable of retaining their existing employees and perhaps, may need to employ more people to cope up with new orders. They may need additional financial support which will give work to banks and financial institutions. This whole cranking of the economic system will give more purchasing power to the public in general and to various organizations in corporate, governments and other sectors. Once more the places will start humming with hopeful activities.

In all this, the governments who are the elected/appointed servants of the public in general and who have to work for the people in general, will have to take the lead role in pumping the new life, by way of not only initiating the new projects but also by supporting the deserving banks/financial institutions and the industries. However, governments will also have to learn to exercise stricter non-corrupt governance over the organizations to whom they will advance the revival money. Also, governments will have to dramatically curtail their own non-value adding, nonessential expenditure. This whole process may give opportunities to some anti-social elements in every organization, including the governments to squander the public money now being used for new projects and as revival packages to banks/financial institutions and the industries. Governments, auditors, justice departments, media and the public will have to keep a great watch on these kinds of corrupt people and will have to deal with them with severe penalties if these people do indulge in such corrupt practices. They will have to ensure that the money being pumped in for revival of economy is utilized effectively and efficiently.

Read the “inside” stories of the corporate sector at: (Management Anecdotes) http://management-anecdotes.blogspot.com/

Capitalist Model is Great But It's an Illusion

Capitalism or Socialism or an Intelligent Blend?

Among all the known models, the capitalist model seems better, more effective and more beneficial for most people in every way. But there is a catch to it. It works well when things are done in a "natural' way, when people behave in a "balanced" manner, follow the life's "fundamentals" and operate on a "win-win" approach. The moment these things are screwed up by the people with large ulterior motives and exploitative behavior, the model gets screwed up in reality. It looks like an illusion. So, in reality, we cannot think of an Utopian society of only value based people. There are always those monsters and criminals and greedy people who do not value "values" much and remain utterly selfish. These people gang up and screw up the advantages of capitalist model and free economy. The result: recession and yet worse, economic depression.

What's the solution then? It has to come in the form of some socialist controls which work as deterrents on the value-less unethical actions of the people who try to indulge in them. These controls can be introduced and exercised in the form of laws passed by the democratic systems or the bodies, institutions or organizations of the people from the entire human society. In the capitalist model, a spirit of taking care of the general public should be integrated. The whole affair has to be a win-win outcome. The phenomenon of "people who have money keep on making money at the expense of others" should be constantly watched and people in general should be facilitated to get their proportionate share.

A judicious mix of capitalist model with socialist spirit emerges out to be the winner.

Read the “inside” stories of the corporate sector at: (Management Anecdotes) http://management-anecdotes.blogspot.com/

Drinking Is Nothing Great

• Taking alcoholic beverage or hard drinks or liquor is not a necessity.
• Drinking is not compulsory. No one can force you to drink.
• It is not a social etiquette that you must drink in private or business parties. If you do not drink, it does not mean that you are socially unfit. A non-drinker is absolutely OK in any party- perhaps, lots better than those who drink.
• In parties when offered a drink and you do not wish to take the drinks, simply say,"No, thanks". You do not have to give reasons or be apologetic about it.
• Do not fall prey to peer pressures and take to drinks.
• It is definitely not an "in" thing to drink. So, do not drink just to keep up with Joneses.
• Do not be sure that you have control over the drinks and so, it is OK to be a social drinker. Do not be under impression that your social drinking will not turn you into a habitual drinker and finally, into an alcohol addict (drunkard).
• Addiction to alcohol starts with social drinking.
• Large number of people who turned into alcohol addicts have ruined their and their families horribly.
• Habitual drinking may destroy relationships.
• Habitual drinking will drain one out financially.
• Taking alcohol beyond a limit and regularly will endanger any one's health. It can badly damage the liver.
• One makes a mockery of himself in parties and gatherings after taking drinks which he can not hold.
• Once drunk, a person may blurt out what he should not, It may harm him and the person or organization about whom he did the loose talks under the influence of hard drinks.
• No one should ever drink up to a point where he loses his sanity. Alcoholic drinks are notorious to rob one off one's sanity and civil behavior.
• As soon as a person who does take drinks occasionally starts the craving for drinks, it is the signal that he should stop it for ever then onwards. Else, the habit may go beyond control.
• The worst signal is when a person gets a craving and starts taking drinks even when alone with himself and without any society to accompany him in drinking.
• It is a wrong notion and that too an absurd one that one has to drink if in armed forces or in business circles, for one to be successful. A large number of successful people in armed forces and business have been teetotalers.
• Drowning one's sorrows is not possible by drowning oneself in drinks. It only turns one into a drunkard ultimately.
• Contrary to the general thinking and experience that alcoholic beverages are mood lifters, they are in fact depressants.
• In all, there are more disadvantages in taking to drinking than advantages (advantages are hardly any, really).
• So, it is not so great to drink.

Read the “inside” stories of the corporate sector at: (Management Anecdotes) http://management-anecdotes.blogspot.com/

Right the First Time?

Right the First Time? No! Never!!

Japanese, we hear and read, have become famous for doing every thing right the first time. What with their TQM, zero defect programs, kaizen and gemba kaizen etc.

However, in many other countries, it is opposite; right the first time? No. Never. It is not even right the second time or the third time.

A friend of mine who is a business manager in one of the reputed organizations in a big city was narrating me an experience. He wanted to organize a training program for the managerial staff in his company on "productivity". For this, he was in search of a good video film on "productivity" with around 20 to 30 minutes of running time. He came to know that an organization devoting itself fully to the cause of productivity training was having such videos. He contacted the organization personally. He was put to a clerk who was supposed to show him the list of videos the organization had and also to arrange a preview of videos which my friend would select.

My friend had to sit in front of the clerk for nearly half an hour before the file containing the list of videos was traced. After the list was traced, it was found to be an old version. The clerk said, "I think that we have received some twenty more videos since then". Let me check my other records. Other records were equally difficult to locate. So, he stretched his memory and and updated that list- God alone knows how much and how accurately updated that list was!

My friend scanned through the list and selected two videos titled "Productivity" and "Productivity is Every One's Business". In the list against the titles of the videos was written the language in which narration was for the video. On checking with the clerk, he ensured that the narration for the two selected videos was in English, which is what my friend required.

Then, my friend met the officer in that organization who asked my friend to come again the next day for the preview. He instructed the clerk to ensure that at 4 PM sharp the next day everything would be in readiness for showing the videos. The clerk nodded in confirmation.

As per the program, the next day, my friend reached the productivity organization at 4 PM and met the officer. The officer asked my friend to sit down and asked, "Yes gentleman, what can I do for you? From which company you are? etc." My friend some how checked his annoyance and keeping his cool said, "I met you yesterday and you asked me to come today at 4 PM for preview of those videos, you remember?"

The officer looked amused. "Yes, yes, now I remember. I never thought that you would really be so serious about them and also be so punctual". He called the clerk and ordered him to do the needful and asked my friend to follow the clerk.

The clerk gave a big yawn first and then called his computer cum LCD operator, "Listen, show these videos to the gentleman". The operator quipped, "But how's that possible? We have already given the projection screen to ABC Company this morning only". The clerk went on, "Doesn't matter, project on the wall; after all this gentleman wants to have just a peek at them. Even if the projection on the wall is not very decent, don't worry".

Well, that's that. The operator took him to a small dingy room which was supposed to be the computer laboratory cum the projection room for LCD projector. In an almirah, the DVDs and VCDs containing the videos were kept one on other quite haphazardly. The operator took nearly twenty minutes to pull out the jackets of the DVDs on which were written the titles of the videos that my friend wanted to see. The operator connected the LCD to the computer but LCD's lamp would not light up. He started fiddling with the wires, plugs and adapters and in the process, got a mild electric shock. He smiled at my friend, "That's part of the job. This is not the first time". Finally, the LCD and computer, both started. My friend adjusted himself on to a broken stool trying himself to keep away from the open electrical wiring all around. And what did he see on the wall, a video titled, "Do it Right the First Time".

"My God, this is not the video I wanted to see", my friend said. The operator was not much disturbed though. He said, "Doesn't matter. The video you want to see must be in the jacket meant for the video "Do it Right the First Time". So, he took out the DVD from the jacket labelled "Do it Right the First time" and loaded into the computer.

This time the title that came on the screen-wall was, "Right Methods, Right Answers".

And that was the beginning of an unending research project. The operator was taking out DVDs/VCDs one by one from each jacket (right method!) and started showing their titles to my friend through projection on the wall-screen. Not a single video was kept in it's proper jacket. "Effective Executive" video was kept in "Negative Attitudes" and "Negative Attitudes" video was kept in the jacket meant for "Modern Scientific Management" and so on.

It took the operator exactly one hour before he stumbled on "Productivity". My friend, at last, took a deep breath and the operator beamed as if he had made the greatest achievement in the world.

"Yes, the title came all right- "Productivity". Only the title was in English- narration in the film that followed was in some language other than English.

Just above this dingy small computer laboratory cum LCD projector room, in the lecture hall of this productivity organization, a training program was being conducted by the same organization. The name of the program was "How to Solve the Problems Systematically?"

Read the “inside” stories of the corporate sector at: (Management Anecdotes) http://management-anecdotes.blogspot.com/