B - Schools & Man Management

I say Chaps ! This is my first contribution and is directly attributed to the very cause of the unanimity that binds us together. Its a pleasure being a part of this and we shall raise a small toast to this effect at American Diner soon (drinks are to my account till 8.00 pm)

Apropos to 'Poli-tics' (a thought - would 'Poli-toxic' been a better headline ?).

I discovered this article randomly surfing Rediff and would like to share, its the eternal paradox that one can find one's self to be and we are no different in our (in)signifcant ways.

"Goals, strategy, mission, numbers, methods, profits, so on and so forth -- B-school education teaches you a lot about these and other business jargons.
Of course, it is good to impart management education through a systematic and syllabi-led approach -- based on the learning and experiences of many management thinkers and practitioners.
This obviously manifests into a better understanding of the business environment and the situations you may encounter while shouldering responsibilities in a real environment.
Having said that, have you ever wondered why good leaders are always able to handle complex situations involving far complex people, creating a win-win situation, balancing all the coordinates?
The essence of running a business -- large, medium or small -- is actually being able to drive the most valuable resource, that is, its people, in a cohesive and synergistic manner for the growth of the organisation and also the individuals that make the organisation.
This is something that can never be taught in any B-school -- since managing people will never have time-tested, fixed and structured formulae as against most of the other business issues.
The issue of managing people percolates right from within the organisation to the multitude of external stakeholders. It is crucial to establish the right relationships necessary for any business to survive and foster, having to deal with many constituents such as customers, investors, bankers, government and society among others.
The role of relationships can never be ruled out in any corporate environment, be it internal or external. Growth of any organisation is directly proportional to the ability to forge and manage suitable relationships by the personnel at the helm in the organisation.
And this is something that B-schools may not be able to teach through their curricula, however, rigorous and thought out they are. I believe it can be achieved by a lot of practice, keen observation and understanding of people, and one's ability to work with people from diverse backgrounds.
Beyond the good groundwork, grooming and grilling of an individual to make a successful business manager by any B-school, factors such as gaining continuous insights into the human mind and striking a right chord on the relationship front plays a major role in creating leaders."

(R N Iyer graduated from IIM, Ahmedabad, in 1991.)

Conflict of (whose) interests?!!

Service Industry is primarily based on a client and agent relationship. Existence of such a relationship, as a corollary would mean representation of the service consumer (the client) by the service provider (the agent)....covering all form of service providers ranging from lawyers, bankers, brokers...and property agents. Closely associated with this relationship is the issue of remuneration of the agents, which is the primary driving force for the agents to get into this relationship.

This right and responsibility to represent is conveyed to the agent based on the premise that the agent shall be able to protect the client's interests or serve the client's interests in best manner. One can safely assume that for this end, the agent is expected to undertake all the endeavours possible...permissible under the acceptable and applicable legal and ethical framework. The endeavour to serve the best interests of the client, may not be an outcome of a single event or a collection of discrete events...it is a process, wherein the agents are expected to intitate, build and nurture those relationships. Another important aspect of this 'interest protection' phenomenon is a fact that this is rarely a zero sum game...unless one is in litigation or at hustings...thereby making the solution an outcome of not a maximisation function, but an optimisation function. Simply put, the interests of the client is best protected only when the interest of the counterpart doesn't get damaged.

Now, there is a school of thought that accepting any form of 'gifts' from any of these counerparties, who by the way are legitimate business associates of the agents, compromises the agent in question. Superficially, it does appear to be, however, the things are not as simplistic as it appears to be on the face of it. When one looks at the premises mentioned above, the agents' greatest interest lie in getting the 'best' deal done. This best deal can' t be concluded unless both the parties...and one of them being the client...get away with the optimised situation. As long as this optimised solution is not achieved, nobody's interests gets served...best or otherwise...leave alone that of the agent.

Hence, compromisation (if at all such a word exist!!!) of the agent's position arising out of any pecuniary benefits, by way of gifts, being derived from any profesional/personal relationship with any of the counterparties to the client's agents, is not so much in conflict of the interest of its client but with its own interests and thereby damaging to it, too.

As can be expected of any rational individual, one does not indulge in activities which damages one's own interests or is in its conflict.

(P.S. For an insitutional agent, there are some other areas where the real conflicts lie, but that's the topic for another blog!!!)