Perspective View of a City

You never really know a city. Especially one that has been around for centuries ; it can spring surprises even for its long time dwellers. And it is simple logic. You say a person has his story and a building has its own story. Multiply that by scores of thousands and lo... you get a city. You cannot even dream to decipher all its secrets, see all its facets and explore all its corners. But there is a depth at which a traveler settles for.

I recently spent a couple of months in Vadodara, Gujarat. Basically a business trip; and hence I had very little time to see around. All I saw was the office space, hotel lobbies and rooms; and all I met was prim consultants, formally dressed clients or the hotel service at their most courteous persona. Apart from that, the place looked ordinary enough. I could have been in any other part of India to wake up to the same sight and smells. But this did not make sense for a city like Vadodara. I must be wrong somewhere.

So one fine Sunday, I set out armed with a camera in hand and a heart of Columbus to explore the city on foot. It was a warm and sunny winter morning with the harsh light exposing every hidden color. And then it dawned onto me. The depth at which a traveler settles for- the soul of the city. Two hundred year old palatial buildings staring multi storied apartment buildings in the eye; kingly statues and oriental gardens adorning traffic circles busy with the latest Honda's and Mercedes and BMW's. It was a wonderful mixture of old and new.

Fortunately for me, it was the kite flying season; and the kite festival was just round the corner. The old city was a riot of colors- kites of all shapes sizes and colors with a dash of pink manja spinning on a drum. And all this right in front of the fast food outlets, mobile phone sales/service/repair and "More" supermarkets. That felt like nowhere else I have visited.

But it also revealed something about the people of the city. Vadodara is still that traditional city with typical Gujarati lifestyle, an affinity for honest business and an all embracing culture. However, the bout of industrialization has ushered in a metropolitan culture as well. And this, rather than dissolving in the local culture, has been lying layered on the top- like oil on water. In effect, you see two faces of the city- the outer glitter of an emerging metropolis and an underlying traditional lifestyle.

I do not know if this change is for the better or worse. But what I do know is that the city of Vadodara has its own identity and a distinctive culture which gives the place its beauty and charm. I sure hope that this is not lost in the endeavor to grow and develop.

The Dilbert Principle

A cubicle eye view of the corporate company is not a solitary perspective. Cubicles are inhabited by beings differing in objectives, insights and sometimes even species. This is the reason why Dilbert style analysis is not an everyday affair.

Most of the cubicle community consists of wannabe leaders who figure out that the fastest way to leadership is falling in line. And more often than not, a dash of hard work combined with myopic vision helps. If all your thoughts are focused on the next step, on the next rung of the ladder, there is little chance that you’d miss it. The idea is: If you stay in the line long enough, people would join behind you. And lo! You are a leader. But then, even the line ahead of you is long. So you are just stuck there... ranting about those leading you and making life difficult for those who follow you.

On the other hand, people who make it to the top of the ladder have figured out a way to bypass the line. Hence, by corollary, there are few leaders who actually have had an objective look at the company from their cubicle window. They shot up too fast. Hence, there is a clear dissociation between the "management" and “associates” of a company.

This is never a good thing. The value chain of any company flows right through these ground level cubicle dwellers and this value chain is guided and strengthened by the management. The ultimate result is that the guys on the top apply a complex set of management principles and concepts formulated by pinheads like Peter Drucker, dwelling on assumptions based on their limited visibility and understanding of their cubicle days.

Now there are some facts we know to be facts out of the sheer extent of their acceptance. For example: The biggest advantage big companies have over smaller and lesser experienced companies in terms of quality of work is that the former have well defined and robust accumulating their years of experience. These processes are designed and perfected by the upper and top management. Sometimes, the middle management may be asked to give “inputs”. But that is the lowest it can reach.

Since we understand from the previous discussion that managers have a limited visibility of the actual processes at the ground level, we can draw that these processes have a huge scope of improvement. And this can be brought about only by a right mix of skill, expertise and experience. Too much of any of them would be like too much of salt, sugar or spice. It might be interesting, and it might come out good by accident. But it'll never replace the recipe.