The Hindu Business Line : Don’t shoot the messenger

I am one of those old fashioned guys who is not very savvy when it comes to using new age gadgets that seem to perform more than one prime function. As a result, I have hung on to a very basic mobile phone, an object of constant derision for my children. They conspired to gift me a spanking new phone for my last birthday and since then my life has become very tough. I find it difficult to make even simple phone calls.

In my efforts to establish a rapport with my cell phone, I tapped on a few keys and everything went blank. As a gizmo Neanderthal, I panicked and tried to punch a few more keys.

Nothing worked and I was left with no option but to approach the customer care centre where I was given the usual run around on how the warranty specifically did not cover the very thing that caused the phone to stop working. I was finally told that the phone would need to be repaired at my own cost.

The shocker was when I was told that it would take them upwards of four weeks to set the phone right. As is to be expected, I blew my top at the young person manning the counter and having vented my spleen got out of the place. Of course, I did my cause no good by being angry with the one person who could have helped merely because he represented the face of the company to me.

I tried to reach various levels in the hierarchy at the phone company with zero forward momentum in advancing my case.

The officials hid behind virtually impenetrable layers of electronic voice systems and e-mail addresses that seemingly ended up in black holes. I guess the Biblical King Solomon, as portrayed in a Hollywood film, may have felt a similar sense of frustration when he had to wait for all seven layers of veils to come off before he could get a glimpse of Sheba’s face!

We are all familiar with what happens when things go wrong in companies. The person who gives the bad news gets blown away if junior to us, and is treated to a cold reception if a peer.

Every such occasion progressively encourages the belief that reporting of bad news or wrong practices / behaviour is not welcome. When this happens, the company’s ability to look at itself objectively is lost and an insidious and corrosive rot sets in. The majority of people take their cue from the environment and decide to stay mum. Sometimes, perverse logic is used to put a spin on bad news and make it sound good. People get used to this and get into the mode of reporting only good news and either hide bad news or look away when things are going wrong in the system.

In a business environment, when negative or potentially negative news seems to lurk everywhere, this can lead to disastrous consequences.

A sense of corporate denial sets in and one evasive manoeuvre leads to another more complex one; ultimately disaster strikes and companies implode. Think Enron, think Bear Stearns, think sub-prime crisis. The senior management team of a company must take full responsibility for making sure that they encourage open reporting of negative news or negative behaviour, but what is most critical is to make sure that there is clarity on the due process that is to be followed. The motivation must be to alert the system and to improve systemic responses and not to encourage character assassinations or intra-corporate vendetta.

Actively encouraging negative behaviour, passively standing by when such things happen and even penalising the person delivering the news makes the management team culpable of mutating the organisational DNA.

Most often, the consequences leave a lasting and detrimental impact on the system and the people associated with it. Not all mutations turn out like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

Next time around, I will try and follow my own advice. I will be nice to that young man at the service counter.

(The writer is advisor to 3i Infotech, Manipal Education & Medical Group and IDFC Pvt Equity. He can be reached at mcshekaran@gmail.com )

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