Friday, June 12, 2015

MNCs might have a bigger role to play





MNCs might have a bigger role to play

At the outset, I must express my gratitude towards big multinational companies for their outstanding achievements in developing communities across the world. It is heartening to observe how such organizations have contributed to the growth and development of the entire communities where they have made their presence. The objective of this article is not to show who has contributed the most, but to bring to light how much more they can do, with a little shift in their mindset. The purchasing power of ordinary mortals like us who work in MNCs increases dramatically, most of the workforces get easy loans to buy flats, lands, cars, go to places for fun and entertainment. No one can doubt these companies’ sincerity towards quality and commitment to their clients, their foolproof processes for ethics and compliances to confidentiality for safeguarding their clients’ interests. Most MNCs who have gone public are also committed to their shareholders, and have shown remarkable results in making everyone happy; fiscally, materially.

The index of happiness

However, it is time to take look at the happiness index of their respective employees; more than being happy materially, do they have peace? Is there a scale to measure the happiness index? Is it considered important to have such a measure? In most organizations, where the ecosystem is far too regimental employees do not have peace of mind. Do these organizations have peace as their priority? Talking about peace sounds so silly and out of place that I found myself changing the topic and writing about something else; until now. Much to my disappointment, I found that the happiness index of the employees, despite growth and development and increased purchasing power, is getting thinner and thinner every day. Is it worth the time and effort to look at the symptoms, if any, that is causing distress and malaise in society?

The enemy is out there

The world outside has become far too fragile and sensitive; it is an unsteady world, where innocents are killed like rats on the streets. Society is plagued with animosity and hatred. Then how does it justify inculcating or promoting stress and competition as raw materials for growth? Many social behaviorists and spiritual organizations say that if we have to walk past war, and if we have to send those mindless weapons and arms onto museums with a ‘do not touch’ tag, we need to kill wars from within us. And here, I with my years of experience in the corporate, with my limited visibility though, find that all our models of performance and deliveries are based on the model of war, we do think that stress and competition are good, and we need to be at war in every moment of our active working lives. If we have so much of war amongst us, then can we blame the wars that we see outside? Even the simplest of events in offices has an element of competition, e.g. singing, skit, jam (just-a-minute) would be entertaining if somebody wins at the cost of many losing...why so! Why can’t we just have those events and try to perform our best! Why should there always be the-enemy-is-out-there syndrome?

The way we think needs to change

We are born in wars; we live and die in wars. It is not surprising therefore that anywhere there are events with words like 'enemy' 'competition', war, 'fight', then such events get the credibility and instant approval from us. We might suffer because of our dead beliefs, but we don’t realize that the germ is in the way we think, and the remedy to it, if at all, would have to come from the way we think.

The belief that ‘good is the enemy of great’

Of all the things James C Collins has said in his book Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't, we seem to have taken and accepted 'good is the enemy of great' alone? Good is the place where God resides, and it cannot be anyone’s enemy. James Collins has also said, “When [what you are deeply passionate about, what you can be best in the world at and what drives your economic engine] come together, not only does your work move toward greatness but so does your life. For, in the end, it is impossible to have a great life unless it is a meaningful life. And it is very difficult to have a meaningful life without meaningful work. Perhaps, then, you might gain that rare tranquillity that comes from knowing that you’ve had a hand in creating something of intrinsic excellence that makes a contribution. Indeed, you might even gain that deepest of all satisfactions: knowing that your short time here on this earth has been well spent and that it mattered.” Please understand that training your workforce into performing their best is what is important, and in that event, if your performance is good, it’s okay. Processes within the organization need to foster a passion for work, create that atmosphere where productivity becomes a given.

About work

Interestingly, I have asked various team members across levels on what they think about work. All of them said they loved their work; here are some of the responses

1.    I love to make calls and talk to people about...

2.    I love to write codes, it is fascinating...

3.    I am passionate about training...

4.    Oh, clearing challans is so fascinating; I don’t know what I am going to do if I were to be promoted...

5.    I love to work in sales, every day you meet new people, and the incentives are too interesting...

6.    My work is very challenging, being an SA (solution architect), I get to convert the requirements into an architecture and design, it’s a rewarding experience when it gets accepted as a blueprint I feel lucky...

7.    Oh, I love my work as a cashier, every time I am with money, I love it...I know it is sometimes risky, but I feel great when the cash tallies at the end of my work...

8.    Trouver le mot juste, c’est fascinant!! In translation, searching for the right word is fascinating!!

About going to work

However, more than 90% said going to work was stressful! While it is good to know that people do not dislike what they do, contrary to popular belief, it is not so good to know that most do not like to go to work; they look for the holiday list and long weekends in the first week of every year. Of course, it depends on how you sit and frame your questions so the actual feeling surfaces if questions are not framed right, it would appear that the majority don’t like to work; no, they like their work to the point of identifying themselves with them, but they do not want to go to work. It’s strange, isn’t it? Where is the gap? They were not able to identify the reason; so here is my view.

Self-defeating processes

Going to work is stressful because of the modus operandi, because of stress and competition that make the air heavy to breathe, because of mistrust and backstabbing that dominates the work environment, because of being/not being able to align with the processes, getting into the good books of supervisors, in the absence of which work will stop flowing into your kitty! Organizations have learned to compete with their competitors inside out. Sometimes, the competition faced from within the same organization is much worse and crass than the competition faced from outside, there is enough evidence in the past when two departments of the same organization submitted tenders for grabbing the same job. Therefore, it is quite natural to displace the tension to all the stakeholders. It is difficult to change this mindset; yet, it is important to change it! The processes encouraged within are counter-productive, not cost-effective, and therefore, self-defeating.

The bigger role is in the bigger picture

Learning organizations are expected to have a bigger picture. However, the bigger picture has always been to find out ways to sustain, survive and excel in the competitive market. Profit has been a major concern, and undeniably so. With profit, what if learning organizations also focused on peace? Working on a war footing is vitiating the atmosphere way too much, isn’t it? Of course, I know it is difficult, but can this be the priority? That is what I am trying to ask in this article. Can’t peace and profit coexist?

Give peace a chance


Can they deliver peace? If peace also becomes the priority of the learning organizations that have played major roles in growth and development, then this could be one of the most important CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) activities they can ever deliver. If ‘charity begins at home’ is true, then this could be the greatest CSR activity that MNCs can even dream of, and yes, it will also score points in terms of blessings from their workforce. For this to happen, MNCs need to be convinced of its ROI. In my view, this could even stop the war we see out in the world. For this, the whole set of frozen beliefs needs to change.

©Supratik Sen

image credit: google images



#thoughtleadership #leadership #change #mindset #peace


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