The Good, Bad and the Ugly!

Your company could be good, bad or ugly depending on how you manage it.

Everyone in this world makes mistakes. I am yet to see someone who has never committed a mistake. So is the case with the companies too.

Every company makes mistakes. But the difference between the good, the bad and the ugly is that what they learn out of the mistakes.

The Ugly company

When the mistake back fires and losses are sustained, a few companies would try to explain away why these are not important. They try their best to hide the mistake. And then, later try to make up with an excuse that could have the remotest possibility of occurring.

Then, they try to give explanations to convince why this mistake is not really a mistake. Why people who made these mistakes did it in good faith and that they need not be taken to task? And why people who spotted these mistakes and tried to correct it are enemies of the company!

In more than one company, such good Samaritans who had the guts to stand up and say that a mistake has occurred, are often thrown out or into the jails.

One cannot accept a mistake! A mistake is to be hidden in an Ugly Company.

The Bad Company

In the bad company, when a mistake is identified, the person who spotted the mistake is showered praises. And the person who committed it is crucified in the altar.

The reasoning is lost. The error is identified. The person who committed the error is incarcerated and punished for the error he committed. The company justifies the action it has taken and continues on its course. May be, another year or two down the line a similar or a larger mistake is committed by another person in the company!

The Good Company

When a mistake is committed and identified, a professional company would look at how to set right the current scenario for one. Second, it will also find out what are the lessons learnt and how to ensure that this does not occur again in the company.

It is not only to spot the error after its occurrence that is important. The recurrence of the same error again should also be stopped. Only then, the company is a good company and a growing company. We talk of lessons learnt exercise every time a new change occurs.

If it is true for a small organization like a company, what is true for a large Government where errors are as common as mosquitoes in India?

An overdose of Corruption

While we are being fed with an overdose of corruption every day, the mistake mongering people talk of who made the error. How much he or she gained out of it? And what is the presumptive loss to the government because of this error?

Now, could you find anyone in the opposition or in the government talk of a permanent cure to the disease? Is there a single step that the government is suggesting to rectify the string of corruption that is being faced by the public? No, not even a single solution has been put forward by any of the top leaders of either of the parties! They do not even make an attempt to correct the cause of the problem.

Why no solutions?

Even if you suggest a solution, none of the people on the top or in the hierarchy will accept a solution or even have a mind to listen to them. Simply because, most of these people think that corruption is part and parcel of the system. It is like what one of the great saints of Tamil Nadu sang, ‘when people want to kill the tortoise, they put it in water and heat the water. When the water gets warm, the tortoise enjoys it and plays in it. We are as clouded as that tortoise by our delusions’.

We do not realise that one day, this would kill us! Only the good companies grow; neither the bad nor the ugly do!