The Hindu Business Line : Why creative destruction matters

I am a very reluctant gardener. My idea of gardening is to inspect the garden from a safe distance and admire the results of someone else's hard work. A modern day Alexander Selkirk surveying his leafy domain. The last month has been very hard as our gardener decided to take off without notice and I had to step in. The result — an unkempt garden full of weeds.

Serious gardeners take care to ensure that weeds do not take root in their gardens. Weeds not only distract attention from the primary purpose of the garden, but also occupy space allocated to plants and suck up much needed nutrition.

Even if the weeds somehow find a way to escape their attention for a while, gardeners make sure that they de-weed their gardens regularly. This not only ensures that the garden achieves its purpose, but also guarantees commensurate returns for the inputs and efforts being expended in maintaining it.

Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, the `big three' among the Hindu gods, essentially represent creation, nurturing and destruction/renewal. We know that seeds sprout into trees, the trees bloom and flower and at the right time, the leaves and flowers wither away setting up a cycle of renewal. These three activities pretty much represent the life story of all living things as also of institutions and companies.

However, if we are to closely look at how things actually play out in real life in companies, we will find that the activities reflect a lot of Brahma, a lot more of Vishnu but not enough of Shiva. This applies to all facets of a company's activities, whether it relates to business activities, research and development, people management and development or systems and processes.

Over a period of time, vested interests, complacency and sheer lack of focus in addressing the future contribute to this state of affairs.

Nurturing instincts

In many ways, companies and individuals are like gardens. Company managements are happy to ideate and most times happier still to encourage translation of such ideas into business cases, but the same force does not seem to be applied when it comes to focusing on "creative destruction." Most often, there is a fear associated with this activity as it seems to connote failure of earlier decisions made, failure in individual performance, a negative reflection on the brand and so on, all of which ultimately leads to a lack of adequate commitment for the future.

Individuals sometimes go beyond the status quo and try to be creative; they are comfortable nurturing existing things, but are loath to attempt any "creative destruction".

The problem is embedded in the words themselves — we tend to associate any destructive act, however creative it may be, with negative consequences and find it very difficult to see it as a necessary precursor to a process of renewal and rejuvenation.

This issue takes on a critical dimension when we see the rapid change in all that is happening around us. Companies that are largely wedded to the status quo tend to spend more and more time on nurturing their gardens, weeds and all. However large they may be in size, they lose out to agile new entrants and other companies that are constantly reinventing themselves to face the evolving challenges.

Not all about status

Individuals become protective of their status and all that goes with that status and start demanding that others pay obeisance to them. Respect and an ability to add value on a continuing basis is the coinage that will increasingly get the desired responses in people and not just status. Anyone who ignores this fundamental axiom, does so at the peril of ignoring his or her career growth.

Similarly, no company can afford to house and nurture such individuals as they are most likely to encourage similar behaviour in others. The net result would be to drive away high performers who would like to focus on renewal and rejuvenation as well. This sets up a vicious cycle where the individuals concerned stultify and stagnate, with consequent impact on the company.

In order that individuals in the system grow and, through proper alignment with the organisation's own objectives, ensure success of the system, it becomes necessary that even as Brahma and Vishnu are worshipped, we do not forget to pay our dues to Shiva and all that he represents.

(The writer is advisor to 3i Infotech, Blue River Capital and IDFC Private Equity.)