Your Friendly Philosopher & Guide

The IIMites aren’t God sent, nor God take some extra time to program their minds. They are normal Homo sapiens with 1 head and 1 brain, just that they are blessed with more money and more power to play and experiment with. Most corporate in India and around the world have been set up by people who never had a formal degree in management, and 2 years training could never convert an ass (I mean donkey) into a horse.

No, my aim was not to put down the MBAs, but was to compare the present Corporate Management System to our age-old systems of our mighty Kings…

The hierarchy

CEO – The Emperor
VPs – The Kings
Brand Manager, Senior Managers, Marketing heads, HR head et al – Ministers
Executives, Support – Soldiers

The lifestyles

CEOs – Go in the best car like the Emperor used to go on mighty elephants
VPs – Go in the second best cars like the King went on horses
Middle management – Stick to their small cars like the Palkis
Executives – Go by bus, walk or bikes like the soldiers went on some second grade horse as seen in the war scenes of Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan or Chopra’s Mahabharat

The work culture

The Emperor/CEOs – Emperors are invisible most of the times, they never interact with soldiers, spend most of their time on recreational activities, and never panic till the Kings/VPs press the emergency button.

VPs/Kings – They spend half their time on recreational activities, and half their time in meeting the middle management/ministers to understand what is happening in the Kingdom. Most VPs don’t like ministers who rebel or complain about the real situations.

Ministers/Middle management – They are the most problematic bottleneck of any kingdom/corporate. They know how to keep their VPs happy. They lie, and hide the truth most of the time, as they know it will hurt the King’s interest.

Executives/support/soldiers – They are the ultimate sufferers. They are the one who slog their butts most of the time, and the ministers, Kings and the Emperor bask in their efforts. They live on the hope of a better tomorrow inoculated by the ministers/middle management. They are kept out of VPs/CEOs sight, until and unless they flaw majorly.

So when will our Emperors/Kings come in disguise to take the first hand report from the soldiers to understand the real problem/situation of his Kingdom?!