Yeddy & the leadership lessons from the crisis.

Yesterday I was interacting with a senior Govt functionary over some contract related discussions at his expansive 7th floor office overlooking the adjacent Sankey Lake & it’s lush green surroundings that nestles a large sanctuary of birds. After the Business discussions the talk took a lighter banter over a cup of tea, and probably my curiosity had the better of me when I raised this rather awkward question to him; I said ‘Sir your dept & some of its officials in both the states (AP & Kar) are in the eye of the storm that is brewing in state politics’? He took a pause and slowly sipping his tea gave a rather candid answer; he said ‘where there are politicians, how can the bureaucrats be far behind? They use each other well & this is bound to happen’. One of his colleague who was also present said ‘Dont take most of these NEWS (i.e, pertaining to officials who are being used as pawns in this power struggle) at face value, there are a lot of things that more than meets the eye’.

It is said that this crisis was created by a blind sighted leader (Karnataka CM Yeddyurappa) & his approach to handling his team especially when it had powerful Business magnates. Whatever it may be, there are some Leadership lessons that Yeddy can take from this crisis, as I see it

1. A crisis may erupt over a small event (in this case flood relief management) but like a snowball rolling over a mountain slope will quickly gather weight & size .The snowballing in this case has still not ended after scalping several ministerial heads , a Principal secretary, and several Govt transfers. It will eventually end at the bottom but by then it would have stuck into the reputation of the party, the credibility of ministry and chiefly its CM. LESSON: Never skate rashly on thin ice Yeddy, especially when it’s been laid out by your money rich potential adversaries in the party.

2. People affected by the crisis, or sometimes those just watching it, will demand that someone be held responsible which in this unpleasant case is you & your confidants. LESSON: Stop making a spectacle of yourself in front of a hungry media. Leaders don’t cry or whine in front of the media even if to make an emotional point but retain their poise & composure even in tough times. Pls stand up and take a position for the people who have stood by you and don’t get cowed by those after you.

3. This crisis will officially end with some settlement and then comes the clean up. Clean up means change but sometime this fix may be temporary. LESSON: Dont bargain for short term fixes to cling on to your Gaddi, eventually people will judge you on how unwavering were your actions and how stronger you emerged after this crisis.

4. And just as with big, public crises, don’t ever forget that you have a business (in this case a Government) to run. Make sure you’re running it. Crack the whip on those MLA’s who are supposed to be on the ground supervising relief efforts in their districts instead of huddling in resorts.

Cash for Clunkers

Many funny terms & jargon's emanated after the grand bust of 2008 and amongst them ‘Cash for clunkers’ best reflected the euphemism that Americans invented to deal with the aftermath of the excesses. So here was a state funded dole out that encouraged Americans to let go off their gas-thirsty vehicles off of the roads. But whats that go to do with their economy going belly up you might say. Pure economics was the main consideration though to an undiscerning eye it meant that Americans got new, efficient vehicles on their roads where gas-hogs once existed. And I guess there were plenty of takers for the $4,500 vouchers toward new vehicles, it was said that Auto Dealers everywhere in US ended up seeing more clunkers than they ever thought possible. Its another matter that they will make money out of these by recycling it to some poor 3rd world market.

The economics behind ‘cash for clunkers’ was revealing, it actually busted the American ‘free market’ hyperbole that is ‘Tom Tom’ed around the world. The big 3 US Automakers (GM,Ford & Chrysler), much like the motifs of dead towering presidents on Mount Rushmore were destined to be engraved on Automotive history for posterity . That was ideally what the market forces operating in a free market would have wanted to. But no, the stakes were too high for the Govt to sacrifice, closing the Big three would mean loss of 240,000 very highly-paid jobs, a loss of 980,000 highly-paid jobs at the suppliers and local dealers, plus the loss of 1.7 million additional jobs throughout the economy—a total loss of 3 million jobs. Never mind they churned out large sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and pickup trucks that made customers turn away from the counters. It also dint matter that Darwinian market evolution missed them completely, these US automakers became increasingly uncompetitive suffered from considerably higher labor costs than their non-unionized counterparts from Japan & Europe, including salaries, benefits, healthcare, and pensions. In return for labor peace, management granted concessions to its unions that resulted in uncompetitive cost structures and significant legacy costs. And the damning message came as early as in 2006, Consumer Reports reported that all 10 of the cars that it considered to be the 10 best were built by Japanese companies.So the bust came as a blessing in disguise for the Govt to bail them out, even though only 41% of Americans approved of the actions (as per Washington Post poll finding).

If you missed the humor in all this here it goes; The message from the US bailout was clear ‘If you are poor & loose $100 the Govt would do nothing to you , but if you are rich & loose the $100 billion, the Govt would bail you out’ . Bizzare but true.

A case of exploding mangoes

The scene is set among the final days of General Zia and his set of cronies protecting him from what they believe are a bunch of his own aging military generals waiting in the wings out to get him. He comes across vividly as a guy in some sort of dementia (what the author describes as a man self marinating in paranoia). Gen Zia believes he has become a prisoner in own Army house, a 5 mile security cover surrounding him is not enough, there is a fear that someone might be digging a tunnel underground to reach him! And even the itching in his back, which the doctor ascribes to intestinal worms tunneling out reminds him of his forlorn fate. Zia’s portrait as a shrewd but bumbling character is captured vividly and makes for interesting read but that appears only in alternate chapters, in the rest the author meanders listlessly among other unrelated topics (Blind Zainab, Underground cell in Lahore fort, American jaunts in Pak etc).

Characters like General Akthar, Chief of staff Beg, Major Kiyani ( i thought it was the current chief of Army but this guy goes down with the plane), Brigadier TM all appear to be some characters straight out of a typical Pakistan bashing Hindi movie that we are familiar with (the ones Ajay Devgan or Sunny Deol have wrestled with). There is no dearth of similar perception of India/Indians there....Land of Lentil eaters where Gandhi is described as banya while Nehru is a Fornicator, even Lata & Asha are not spared (fat ugly Indian sisters who sing like sex kitten); its all quid-pro-quo feeling across the border reflecting in the book.

Zia-ul-haq is the central theme of the book & he doesn’t disappoint, sample this ..
Without his uniform & presidential paraphernalia General Zia seemed to have shrunk. His moustache always waxed & twirled, drooped over his upper lip . His hair always oiled & parred down the middle was in a state of disarray, like a paraded squad on tea break.

General Zia’s eyes normally crossed, the right one looking in one direction while the left one wandered away to take in something else were for once focused in the same direction on the same objects (the chest of foreign correspondent Joanne herring). The angle of his stare was so obvious that if she drew two lines with a pencil, they would connect the iris of his eye straight to the two white spheres pushed up & pulled together.

He had almost made up his mind to reverse the crescent on the national flag after an Islamic scholar pointed out that it was a descending moon and not an ascending one, but then his advisers reminded him that the flag had been around for 40 years & since nobody actually had any problem with the direction of the crescent, it was better to leave the flag alone.

Mohammed Hanif’s novel exposes the bigotry & intrigue within Pak’s most powerful establishment with his heavily influenced westernized English language .