Organisational Politics

Politics is ingrained in the human DNA. Some people are expert in playing politics while others act naive in these matters. So the application of politics varies from person to person. As the size of the organization grows, the roles allocated to people starts intersecting and overlapping. Thus giving rise to manipulation, mutual push and pulls, bargains, and compromises. This is essentially called organizational politics.

Humans are electrically wired to take the easiest path to any problem. So, when they see some organizational manipulation taking place, they tend to avoid it instead of taking it head on. For example, if some member is adopting ill-practices in the organization then most of us prefer to close our eyes and ignore the problem instead of directly confronting the issue. Many of us have grown up talking about idealist values. One oft-repeated line in ethics paper is "As a concerned officer I will not tolerate corruption" or "As a concerned officer, I will not compromise on the organizational values" blah blah.

In reality, when we enter in any organization, we meet new people. In the initial days, we develop a culture of bonhomie, and mutual harmony. Everyone becomes friend with each other. Especially, corrupt people are most friendly and helpful. So when one fine day, You find out that your friend or acquaintance is engaging in the corruption, you face emotional ambiguity.
As a result, we first deny any such possibility. When it becomes crystal clear, we prefer to avoid it and rather develop an indifference to the whole issue. General justification goes like, why to interfere in others matter? I am clean and that's enough for me. If he is doing, let him do it. Who all will you stop? It is a systemic issue and we can't take on the system. "kyun kissi ke fatte mein taang adana?"

Forget about corruption. Even if a person is creating a negative atmosphere in the office then we generally tend to forgive him. As long as he does not lock horns with you. But if the situation worsens and he falls on your trajectory then you would possibly be taking things up. But this is more because of your personal vengeance rather than your emotional professional commitment towards the organization.

In the past, twice I have faced the situation where my colleagues were involved in attitudinally disoriented behavior vis-a-vis organizational goals. They had their reasons for their disgruntled behavior. In those instances, I felt the pressure and brain waves which a whistle-blower generally faces. It is not always easy to simply stand up and confront the issue or even talk about the issue.

Similarly, I recent met an IRS friend. He is quite bold and someone who plays life on front foot. Even he had developed a condoning or escapist attitude on the issue of corruption. It is always said that confronting a stranger is always easy. But confronting the people who you may know is difficult because it leads to dissonance. Somewhere some myths, perception, and stereotypes are broken.

For this reason, I respect Rahul Gandhi. He may not be a good orator but he has organizational skills. He has introduced the system of primaries in a bulky organization like The Congress. This process of change is a real big deal. Not many leaders are prepared to take such changes and later own up the responsibility for the outcome.

People says he does not share the same political ambition as his ancestors. But I think that has more to do with his upbringing. He always had the power so what should he aspire for? Ultimately, only when you loose it then you realize the worth and develop the aspirations.

For this matter, I respect our PM as well. Though he may not have done visibly enough to change the country and ignite the engine of development. But he dared to abolish planning commission and brought many inter and intra-ministerial level changes which have helped in streamlining processes in the higher echelon of power.

Anyway, Coming back to the topic, How to deal with the organizational politics? The answer to this question depends on where in the organizational structure do you fit in and how you are placed vis-a-vis this chakravyuha of politics? And what sort of existential threat does this pose to the organization?

Why do Startups fail?

Well, I am not a startup expert. Neither I can cite innumerable case studies on the failure of startups. But In past 7-8 years, I have worked with a number of startups of different sizes and organizations which were at a different level of business. Some fizzled out, and some are striving hard to stay relevant. From this experience, I am extracting my inferences.

First a few words on Startups. We are passing through the age of startup revolution. Generally, every progressive economy passes through this phase. In India, this phase is going to last longer than other competitive economies. The reason being first, the slow start of the phenomenon. The 'startup revolution' is taking place at a very slow pace and companies have not been able to sustain themselves beyond series C. Very few companies have reached to the IPO stage. So, it will require some more time for the startup flight to take off. The runway is proving little bit longer than expected. And many companies like Housing or Tinyowl are losing all their fuel on the runway itself.

Second, the breadth is relatively limited. Startup bug has spawned hardly in 2 or 3 sectors. Mainly it is seen in Online Taxi, Online marketplace or real state or food delivery. Others are yet to become household names. Given the size of Indian middle class and Indian economic space, it offers huge space and possess huge scope for future business activities.

Third, It is limited to services based IT-enabled business models. We are yet to foray in the manufacturing or non-IT startups. We have businesses in online wash, online plumber, online taxi etc but we are yet to see a food processing chain industry rising from dust and making it big or an agricultural startup plugging the backward-forward linkages in the economy.

Fourth, We are largely revolving around services based model and product based startup market is still untapped. Primarily this is attributed to our investor class inclination to see quick revenue model in any business. The Baniya class wants quick and assured returns so they press for services based business model. Products take some time to build and achieve product-market fit. Thus, revenue generation in product startup begin at a later date but once it starts flowing, it'll fill your coffers sooner than you expect or imagine.

There are other reasons but a discussion on them requires a separate article. Anyway, Startup culture is something not new. We have been doing businesses across roman and Persian empire since the beginning of time. However, this time, it is a difference of scale, speed, and space. The time it took for Flipkart to reach 1000 crore club was less than five years. Similarly, earlier businesses were small or mid-sized businesses but the one spawned in the current age and who have become the face of startup revolution in India are reaching scale. For example, a number of transaction on Billion day sale or number of taxis booked on Ola are really high. And powered by IT, they are going national or global in no time. Earlier it used to take a decade or two to open new branches in different cities and states but current age startups are directly reaching to their customer with the help of Information Technology.
However, interestingly one thing remains constant. Earlier trade models were dominated by Baniya and specifically Marwaris and even the current age young entrepreneurs also predominantly belongs to the same community.

Every successful startup has its own success story. However, there are denominators which are common to all of them. To list a few, a balanced, closely bonded, core team, prehistory among core members, power of the platform, business skills like selling and marketing, the problem statement and innovation quotient of the solution, good tech team and leadership. Largely one can factor it in two heads the Team and the Idea. And if I have to choose one then it would be Team because if the team is motivated and competent enough, they can always find one or two unsolved or half-solved problems in our surrounding.

In the recent times, we are seeing a number of startups failing. Some fizzle out before even beginning but other go off-track before taking off for example food tech startups. Thankfully for India, no mid-air crashes have happened except the case of housing. Thus, we have some pertinent questions on why do startups fail and is this startup thing going to work in India?

The ones which are not even able to start are primarily startups with unbalanced or fragile teams. For example, nowadays a number of management graduates think about opening a startup but they are not able to find the complimentary skillset of technology in the market. Thus, organizations become top-heavy most of the time. The other team problems like lack of clear division of responsibility, everyone's desire to become a photo face of the organization, ego-clashes, and lack of trust among core team members leads to tyre-burst before even beginning the journey.

Secondly, the Idea. Generally, if first is in place then you can make a solid beginning. But how fast the team pace up on the runway is decided by the nature of the problem which the team is trying to solve. In general parlance, some problems are vitamins (luxury items for the common man) and others are painkillers (must solve). So the team must know what is it trying to solve? If it is painkiller then trying out different solutions is more important instead of delivering a quality solution. Thus a good interactive GUI or classic user flow are features which come in the phase of expansion rather at the launching of the product. However, if the problem is luxury then the quality of experience matters from day 0. Further, sellability of the idea also matters. But these are fringe factors. Given the size and diversity of India, one can always find appropriate product market fit.

The Third factor relates to the last point. That is the speed of startup. A slow startup will always be beaten in the race because that somewhere down the line it becomes the culture of the organization. So if team members are not thinking about the idea while eating drinking relieving then it does raise my doubts about its success. The speed enables you to try out different models in short time. It runs on the "try fast, fail fast" model. This helps in finding the quick product-market fit thus giving the company a first-mover advantage if the problem is new. Remember the law of nature, there are always seven teams simultaneously working on similar kind of problems from some underground garages.

If the first three variables fall in place then the fourth one is automatically taken care. It is about investment. Finding an investor is akin to finding a right university in the USA. Every aspiring MS or MBA candidate gets an admit from the US universities provided he knows his profile and applies according to his Aukaat. One has to mould the company profile, his own profile, team profile and product profile in order to put the hat on investors head. Investors money acts as a fuel which allows the company's plane to take off in the start-up world. However a point of caution, an investor should only provide fuel. He should not provide pilots. The responsibility and rights of piloting the place lies with the core team only. And always take good fuel i.e. always accept good money. Don't allow investor to take your plane or occupy too many seats in the plane in return of some ounce of fuel. These investors are new age Bollywood avatar of Lala, the famous money lender character of our 70's or 80's movies.


Now comes the two most important things for the in-flight journey. First is expansion plan. An indiscriminate hiring during expansion phase will sound the death-knell of the startup. So one should ensure that next line of leaders shares the same vision and energy as the core team. But evidently, the core team has monetary motivation for being energetic. What about new hires. Thus, organizations should be forthcoming in sharing their stakes with team members. More importantly, core team members should watch out for attitudinal disorientation among next line of employees and should immediately fire people with negative thoughts. As one says, one rotten apple spoils the whole barrel. One negative influence can bring down the motivation of the whole team.

However, most of the things which I have written here are common day knowledge and possibly most of us are aware of these things. It is a matter of how you do it. Simply knowing what to do is not sufficient. In this regard, I must apologize because there is no one rule-book, there is no magic wand and there are no defined strategies. If there is one thing which captures the "how-to" then it is organizational leadership. Of the 100 employees, 90 will look up to leadership in awe for inspiration and motivation. 95 will seek direction and vision from the core team. And 99 looks up to them for the salary and selfish gains. The leadership quality lies in understanding these human whims and fancies and executing the plans accordingly.

A leader should guard the organization culture in a zealot manner. It needs to be positive, open and purposive. As Kunal Bahl says, everyone is looking for a purpose in life. If a startup is able to show its employees the path and the core team can run on it from the front then startup will continue to fly. Else either it'll crash in air or will make a hard landing.

Why am I doing this?

Everyone once in a while such existential question keeps arising. The reason being passion requires some purpose. Everything needs an anchor. So if you are a runner then better set a target or find some purpose.

This first paragraph reflects the reason why I need to write more and more. Writing is nothing but the reflection of your mind onto paper or blog. If one uses a lot of backspace button then this reflection is censored. For me, The precise reason for writing daily blogs is my wish to develop a skillset of error free writing, with a mix of journalistic, philosophical, humorous and aad aadmi attitude. This would also help in developing the skill set of a good storyteller. Further, I wish to clear my mind every day and develop the art of coherent writing embedded with powerful expressions. Sometimes I wonder if this sort of motivation good in the long term?

Psychologists have defined two types of motivations. First is extrinsic motivation, other is Intrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation has various sub-categories like identification, introjection, and amotivation etc. As the name signifies, Extrinsic motivation is maintained due to expectations of external rewards, or external factors like idolizing some sports star. However, Intrinsic motivation is driven by love for what you are doing. It is akin to doing things for the sake of doing. So for example, Ambani is making loads of money because he loves making money. Sachin keeps playing all these years because he loves playing cricket.

No need to mention that intrinsic motivation is more stable and sustainable than extrinsic one. Thus, parents and teachers and coaches often try to push a person from territory of extrinsic motivation to intrinsic motivation. This is achieved by following the principle of CAR i.e. Competence, autonomy, and recognition.

I often see people are afraid of taking some assignments or doing certain jobs. Sometimes it may be inherent disliking or disinclination but in many other instances, a person may not be interested in the job because somewhere deep inside he is not confident enough of being successful. He does not consider himself as competent enough for the job. So building competence is the first essential step in Intrinsic Motivation.

Next comes Autonomy. If a person who is fully competent is not provided his freedom of pursuing things then he would not be intrinsically motivated. So hypothetically I play good drums but if the environment restricts me from playing drums then I would not be falling in love with the activity.

Third is Recognition. Whatever one may claim but the fact is everyone loves appreciation. Why do leaders or politicians gets so attracted to sycophants or boot-lickers? They are criticized for every small step of yours day in and day out so somewhere the self is destructed and hurt. In such situation, when someone come and appreciate leaders, leader feel confident and prefer to keep these people in close circles. So one needs constant appreciation in order to internalize certain attitude and behaviors.

I have the autonomy and recognition from so many generous and loving friends. I need to develop competence to take off in the world of writing. Anyway enough gyan for the day. Will post the rest later.

Corruption: To what extent is this justified?

Ratan Tata was once asked "What kind of ethical rules or codes apply in a startup culture which is surviving month-to-month, with no certainty of paying employees beyond a year?" "Shouldn’t the survival of the company and feeding your employee’s families be the priority, even if it means knifing someone in the back, or paying bribes in Indonesia or Vietnam"?

Tata turned pensive and said “I’m afraid I have to take a view that there’s no difference. Because it’s not a band that you cross, it’s a thread. You cross that line, and you’re on the other side.”

Staying ethical is relatively easier when you’re a massive group with 100 subsidiaries but what happens when you are a newbie and the whole world around you is playing devilish and creating barriers which are near impossible to jump without crutches of unthical practices. Could Microsoft, Facebook, Apple, Uber, Samsung, Reddit, Twitter, Oracle and many others would have made it so big without following those shady practices in their early days?

Some people believe it's OK to veer towards the shade of grey till the time you pull yourself out of a hole of obscurity and put yourself in position to do what’s right.

I wonder if this principle applies to paying some bribe to get a government job? Or by this principle, Is it justified on the part of politicians to use money and muscle power in fighting elections? They may do it on the pretext of greater good which they intend to bring to their locality. Is it justified on the part of budding entrepreneurs to give some kickbacks to bureaucrats or the politicians to get some business? See ultimately it is Business. If you put some money somewhere, you got to recover it. And it is not always about money. Simple situations like data manipulations in order to impress investors or customers here and there to gain some short-term benefits may also fall under this category.

Generally, Companies follow the model of VUEIM in resolving this. V stands for vision, U for users, E for employees, I for investors and M (Me) for the CEO or chief decision maker. This is followed in the decreasing order of priority.

The problem with violating these code of ethics, as beautifully summarized by Mr. Tata is It is a line which you cross and not the band. And it requires commanding nature of self-control and renunciation to say enough, just this last time for the sake of company. And nobody does it for others or company or organization. At the end of the day, we do it for ourselves.

But at the same time, such idealism is not considered pragmatic. The trees which do not bend are the first to be uprooted when the storm comes. Either your roots should be strong enough to bear the storm or be ready to be uprooted. Means, either the leader should be very adamant and stubborn to his principles and be prepared to take loads of criticism with a huge grin and wide faced smile or be casual about compromising his position.

So it is all about knowing yourself. What is your like dislike and limits and accepting the truth as it is. This situation is so difficult in a culture where corruption has become so integral part of our life. And it also depends on whether you believe in next life or not.

One very simple thought experiment can help in resolving this dilemma. If somebody hit you, what action do you take and why? If someone slaps me and I slap him back, then there is no point of claiming sainthood, You will do corruption when it is forced on you due to your opponent. If you do not slap him back because of being beaten blue or red then it indicates you'll do corruption when you could. If you do not slap him back because of your conscience then you are the next saint on this holy earth. Please post your charan here. I will touch them and take your blessings. :)

West Indies "The champions" and English "The forgotten"

How close were the English but how far it proved? Everyone is gung-ho about the magical ruthless powerful sixes of Braithwaite but my sympathy, my heart goes out to Stokes who became the victim.

But as Nitsche has correctly put, "Whatever doesn't kill you, makes you stronger". For Ben Stokes, this was the most vulnerable moment of his life till date but this would also prove to be the strongest moment of his entire life. Whenever he will be down or depressed, all he has to do is close his eyes and think of these four balls. Nothing can go worse than this. This was the bottom. And probably this would prove to be his liberation.

A colleague explained me the nature of fear yesterday. He said 'Fear is like a spring'. The spring in normal position is in a natural state. When we stretch it, the tension increases. The farther you move away from the normal position, the greater would be the tension. Physicists have described it as the function of displacement. However, after a point, the spring reach to an irreversible state. After this point, there is no more tension. There is no desire to go back to normal position and there is no force pulling you back to the origin. Fear is analogues to this. When you induce excessive fear in some person, after a point the fear of fear just go away. You become fearless.

I do not know whether who I would have loved to see winning. Ultimately, it's a game and someone has to win and other has to lose. But given the hardships which WestIndian team faced, It was wonderful to see them coming out with flying colors and win against all odds.
I just wish Ben Stokes recover from this shocker and do well in future.

Friends

Last night, I went to meet some friends in Delhi. They had all gathered from different places. We played cards and discussed a number of things. Some were from government sectors. Some including me were from the private sector.

It was good.

Power lies in the Network

Hanna Ardent distinguished between Power, violence, strength and other connotation of power like force. She says strength is individualistic. Force has some element of violence. But power lies in the network. Power comes when a group of people comes together for a common cause. And power disperses the very moment you recede back in your personal sphere.

I saw a message on whatsApp. A person goes to fruit vendor to buy some grapes. He asked the price of grapes bundle. The vendor replied 80 rs/kg. In the side of the bundle, some unbundled grape pieces were lying. They were same. They got plucked or got separated while handling the bundle. Out of curiosity, the person asked about prices of individual pieces. The vendor replied 30rs/kg. The person was left amused. He received a lesson in the power of the network.

Yesterday one of my colleague was managing some file. Out of curiosity, I asked him about what is he doing. He asked me to come and see. I got up from my seat and went to his place. He was inserting some visiting cards in a big file. I flipped through the file which was essentially a visiting cards catalogue. It had nearly 10000 visiting cards, well catalogues and of people who holds a responsible position in various positions in the government or private sector. No surprise, the file belonged to my manager. He has meticulously managed all the visiting cards he has received over the years in a catalogues file. It took me not less than one second to understand the power of network and importance of connecting with people around.

Sadly, today power is confused with influence or ability to distort rules and do vices. However, in a true sense, power is the most sacrosanct word of the dictionary that characterizes the social capital and convey the ability of humankind to do the impossible.
Hail Power. :)