The Hindu Business Line : All about winning the rat race

In India, at one time, life in workplaces was simpler. Whether it was public or private sector, there was little competition, it was a sellers' market and customers had to lump it or leave it. There is the famous statement attributed to Henry Ford that "Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black"! In India too, buyers had no choice but to take whatever was offered at whatever price, without any guarantee of product quality or safety.

The liberalisation process initiated in 1991has changed all that. The choices for customers have widened to an incredible degree. Customers, even in rural areas, have become highly demanding and discriminating.

Producers of goods and services have been driven to lure them with all kinds of fancy offers and gifts. Leave alone the proliferating, sprawling private malls, the outlets of even public sector companies nowadays sport facades which are irresistibly appealing. There is no comparison with the present-day spit-andpolish of shops and offices with the shoddiness one used to encounter barely 15 years ago.

In their dealings, executives, at least outwardly, behave in an ingratiating manner, although the after-sales service may still leave much to be desired.

The number of advertisements put out through print and electronic media is becoming so large as to eat into regular stories and programmes.

And they are getting to be more and more imaginative and gripping in their content and presentation. At some point, perhaps, it will be necessary to institute national awards for the best of the lot.

In short, the available time and space have become impossibly crowded, and the struggle for survival itself, forget success, has come to resemble the furious shoving and jostling of penguins on the brink of the ice-floe in order to push one of their comrades into the waters below to test the presence of their mortal enemies, the leopard seals and killer whales!

The fact that one can win against the outside forces only by adopting all the combative techniques of cut-throat competition affects the atmosphere in workplaces too.

Which means that operatives at all levels have to be constantly on the look-out for threats to their prospects and standing from the ruses, stratagems and spoils of their colleagues.

TRICKIEST PART

Even such a trifle as the time spent by a colleague with the boss or the number of times the boss sends for him may hold clues providing food for thought.

Or, an associate who, till the other day, used to be fawning on you and responding to your greetings expansively may suddenly give you short shrift without any provocation on your part.

The trickiest part, while still appraising the bearing of such storm signals on personal equations and power shifts, and being on guard against ugly surprises, is to maintain a show of close-knit camaraderie and spontaneous warmth and friendliness as if you do not have a care in the world.

Globalisation has introduced a cross-cultural angle to what may be loosely called office politics. No doubt, the interpretation of human behaviour within the same cultural setting is complex enough. It becomes infinitely more so when it encompasses numerous players with different national backgrounds, diverse racial characteristics and varied temperaments.

How does one emerge the winner in what is no longer a rat race, but a rat marathon? Amazingly, the answer is simple: Keep your cool. Let your words and actions have a touch of class.

Never go eye for an eye or tooth for a tooth, and never hit below the belt. Volunteer to help solve others' problems. Speak well of others before themselves and behind their backs. In short, be good, do good!

B. S. RAGHAVAN

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All about winning the rat race