Mangalore incident is very shameful. What is even more shameful and worrying is the fact that only a few high end TV channels, are opposing using intricate language which the upper class or the so called educated people who fell visiting Pub is ok wants to listen. Other than this no one worth the name has come out openly against this atrocity.
A few goons enter a place which other wise they are banned from and ill treat, beat up women who in any other place would be more than a match for them and the entire government is pussy footing over this issue. As if on cue, politicians have quickly caught the event and have used it to come on national TV and deliver high moral sound bites, which they themselves do not believe in. All this with a hope that it will bring in the marginal 1 % additional vote which is enough to tilt the scale in their favour.
The entire Mangalore Pub incident was well choreogrpahed and the TV crew was readily available to record the Reality show and beam it on National Channels. What are the names of the people who were beaten up? Which college they belong to or belonged to? What are the current students of that college, their colleagues in the office campuses doing about it?
Are they all so scared that they do not want to come out in the open objecting to it? Or they feel that the treatment met out to their fellow students or colleagues is what they deserved?
Another aspect which is abhorring and I fell absolutely horrendous about, is that this is being done in the name of Hindu Religion. Hinduism gives equal status to women. The scriptures always encourage tolerance and pardons; never brutal public punishment.
Politics and religion are getting dangerously close and upstarts are enacting scripted plays surprising unprepared small segment of persons and getting public mileage to sway public opinion. If we do not get a clear minded leader quick enough, to steer clear of this kind of abysmally low level of politics, we may go the Taliban way soon and our freedom may vanish.
I have stayed and worked in Mangalore and I have always enjoyed the hospitality of Udpi and Mangolereans. I am shocked that such an incident has been perpetrated on them. My sympathies and I prey that one of the localite be it a Hindu or otherwise take this up on himself as a challenge and mobilise public opinion fearlessly to sub due and clearly condemn the so called morale brigades openly so that they don't dare repeat such atrocities in future.
Satyam Saga
I was discouraged in not writing about the Satyam Saga in the last few days, given my rather critical views and the impact it may create. But I can not hold on further - so here goes my views.
Satyam is a IT leader which has grown to this level through the sheer aggressive drive of its promoters, their commitment and the hard work of the many professionals whose dedicated effort also made this possible. Somewhere along the line, the same characteristics which made this company reach this level of operation, predominantly risk appetite, has gone awry. Instead of owning up the mistakes, and sharing the risk perception with the major share holders, the management had tried to save the situation and resorted to manipulative ways which drove them to cook up accounts.
The first major mistake which the promoters owners did was to continue to treat the company as their personal fiefdom in spite of becoming minority share holders. Employees and the many institutions which invested had implicit faith in the promoters who had brought fame and good returns to them in the past and were not cunning enough to think otherwise.
What the long term investors did not realise was that the promoters appetite for risk had moved on to more riskier avenues in which they had a belief for the future. May be it is still true; but legally and morally they were bound to take the larger stake holders in to confidence, especially the employees.
The fraud which has been done and is currently hurting the employees and other stake holders could not have been done by a select few and that too in a short time. Many of the 42 vertical heads, their vertical's financial controllers or accountants should have been aware of these. Similarly the HR group should be aware of the excess employee list or the fictional list and the money being drained out. Cash with drawal or miscellaneous accounting expenses (euphemism for political cash expenses) must also have been done with the knowledge of all senior officers of the verticals.
Such practises when not collated and viewed as stand alone events, tend to distort the overall picture. (Each one is doing only a minor bit and that too occasionally ; but put together it all adds up to a very large amount). Employees are caught between the devil and deep sea here. If these expenses do not take place, they may tend to believe that their prospects of revenue protection or statutory clearances do not come in as desired. Even when they know that the promoter is taking the money for his personal operations, they typically turn a blind eye as they believe they deserve it.
This perception should change. Executives with delegation of powers in organisation should oppose such moves, even at their risk of being in the bad books of management. They may loose their job or hurt their career growth; but by tolerating they are becoming criminally liable for false fully accounting and misleading the public.
Another major issue is that of inflating the receivables. This is a practice that typically bring down many an organisation. Any responsible officer can not and should not inflate the receivables quarter after quarter, year after year and continue to report inflated profits. Even when they book the orders at competitive prices, they would have known that the profits are not realisable. It is therefore clear that many in the organisations would have known for some time now that the game is over, but because of their own selfish interests and foolish approach, they continued to believe that they will some how overcome the follies for which they have also been responsible.
This is never done and such an approach can only come to this disastrous end as is seen here. There are many lessons to budding executives here in the Satyam saga and I wish they pick it up for their own sake and the interest of the country at large.
Satyam is a IT leader which has grown to this level through the sheer aggressive drive of its promoters, their commitment and the hard work of the many professionals whose dedicated effort also made this possible. Somewhere along the line, the same characteristics which made this company reach this level of operation, predominantly risk appetite, has gone awry. Instead of owning up the mistakes, and sharing the risk perception with the major share holders, the management had tried to save the situation and resorted to manipulative ways which drove them to cook up accounts.
The first major mistake which the promoters owners did was to continue to treat the company as their personal fiefdom in spite of becoming minority share holders. Employees and the many institutions which invested had implicit faith in the promoters who had brought fame and good returns to them in the past and were not cunning enough to think otherwise.
What the long term investors did not realise was that the promoters appetite for risk had moved on to more riskier avenues in which they had a belief for the future. May be it is still true; but legally and morally they were bound to take the larger stake holders in to confidence, especially the employees.
The fraud which has been done and is currently hurting the employees and other stake holders could not have been done by a select few and that too in a short time. Many of the 42 vertical heads, their vertical's financial controllers or accountants should have been aware of these. Similarly the HR group should be aware of the excess employee list or the fictional list and the money being drained out. Cash with drawal or miscellaneous accounting expenses (euphemism for political cash expenses) must also have been done with the knowledge of all senior officers of the verticals.
Such practises when not collated and viewed as stand alone events, tend to distort the overall picture. (Each one is doing only a minor bit and that too occasionally ; but put together it all adds up to a very large amount). Employees are caught between the devil and deep sea here. If these expenses do not take place, they may tend to believe that their prospects of revenue protection or statutory clearances do not come in as desired. Even when they know that the promoter is taking the money for his personal operations, they typically turn a blind eye as they believe they deserve it.
This perception should change. Executives with delegation of powers in organisation should oppose such moves, even at their risk of being in the bad books of management. They may loose their job or hurt their career growth; but by tolerating they are becoming criminally liable for false fully accounting and misleading the public.
Another major issue is that of inflating the receivables. This is a practice that typically bring down many an organisation. Any responsible officer can not and should not inflate the receivables quarter after quarter, year after year and continue to report inflated profits. Even when they book the orders at competitive prices, they would have known that the profits are not realisable. It is therefore clear that many in the organisations would have known for some time now that the game is over, but because of their own selfish interests and foolish approach, they continued to believe that they will some how overcome the follies for which they have also been responsible.
This is never done and such an approach can only come to this disastrous end as is seen here. There are many lessons to budding executives here in the Satyam saga and I wish they pick it up for their own sake and the interest of the country at large.
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