The Hindu Business Line : Corporate allergens

Urticaria (or hives) is a skin condition commonly caused by an allergic reaction and is characterised by raised, red welts or wheals on the skin. It is also known as nettle rash. Why am I talking about this problem? You guessed it: I have just been down with an attack which left me house bound for almost a fortnight. While idling at home, my mind wandered and this article is the result.

Well, what does urticaria have to do with corporates? Plenty, I feel.

Companies as well as the individuals who work for them are constantly plagued by allergens — both from within the system and from external sources. Of the two, I feel that the more dangerous ones are the internal allergens that inhabit every nook and cranny of any organisation. I would broadly classify these allergens as: inter-personal, inter-group and intra-group. Medical science may not have answers to what causes these eruptions. It is also clear that there are no guaranteed treatments, but this is hardly the way we can view it when it comes to the effects of such eruptions on corporate enterprises. When performance is measured by metrics such as sustainable and profitable growth, and principles such as creating and enhancing leadership and so on, there is no way companies can countenance what medical science has been forced to accept; that is ‘such things are unpredictable and cannot be controlled; they can only be coped with’. More often that not, managers tend to resort to the ‘line of least resistance’ principle and let things be in the hope that the problem will be self limiting and will play itself out. It is possible, that in some cases, it is the context that brings out the allergy reactions. More often than not, these attacks happen because of person-to-person issues. Even if the proximate context is removed, the inter-personal allergens are in stasis waiting for the next possible trigger to erupt into action. This points to the need to make sure that irritants are identified, addressed and minimised. Perhaps, what is needed is a continuing campaign that will carefully examine the people-to-people linkages within groups and between groups and scan for systemic and people-related urticaria and map them on a dynamic basis. The next logical step will be to take appropriate and immediate action.

Allergens are normally wake up calls pointing to some systemic imbalances that have deeper roots. We need to establish early warning signals that on detecting allergens will flash orange and yellow on the dashboards of managers at all levels. It is important that they must be trained suitably and are sensitive to spot the symptoms early by observing visible changes in behaviour as also through mapping signs of fraying linkages. Systems and processes must also keep evolving so that flash points can be minimised. In addition to all these steps, preventive action based on experience should also be used to mitigate the onset of corporate urticaria. And this is just the internal battle! We still to need to figure out how to tackle external allergens.

(The writer is advisor to the Manipal Education & Medical Group, 3i Infotech and Blue River Capital. He can be reached at mcshekaran@gmail.com)