S Ramakrishnan Blog5/8/2021
If you want to cross the line from white, you better have the balls to face the consequences, rather than blame the environment, or others doing it, or the unreasonable nature of the line.This captures, in essence, the dynamics when people leave big corporate and join small(er) firms.
They want blue-chip companies on their CVs to showcase to friends and family, to launch their career, and above all to be proud of themselves to be part of a great brand name is to have achieved something worthwhile. Those who start with not-so-big-names are almost always eager to get into a big firmto be part of the so-called-elite club. People start learning how things work; mostly there is an awe and aspiration around the scale and intensity of the businessalways sending the message there is so much more to explore. They may hate to admit itbut it is a fact; there are loads of equally (if not more) capable people doing pretty much the same thing. And, as part of the crowd, their work, their achievements, and their progress everything seems to be a miniscule microcosm of the big corporate name. Inability to associate progress and success with ones own name (ego) is a huge motivating factor for people to start out on their own. More often than not, large firms go through tremendous rounds of deliberation, risk vs. There is a strong management theory (with its due number of critics) that it is important to do something than nothing at all. While politics in office or being passed over for an important promotionrole may seem immature or illogical to move out of a big name. Will you still do it Would you be comfortable in defending your action to the whole world. I have heard several excuses for slight deviation from the rule. Assume people will get to know exactly what you are doing; will you still be comfortable Chances are that if you are willing to take a bold stand in support of your decision, then it is already clearit is pretty much white; if not, walk awayyou are getting into nasty territories. My response: who is everybody Who do you really want to compare yourself to Sure, chances are that compared to Dawood Ibrahim, or the Italian mafia, or Al Qaeda terrorists, your steps are a wee bit milder. But dont delude yourself into thinking what you are doing is acceptable just because many have been doing it. If you really aspire to be world-class in the ethical side of your business (as well), you need to look at the right set of leaders. Apart from the stories in business press, I Have heard countless stories from current and ex-employees about their extremely high standards of self-governance, and ethical conduct be it hiring, arranging office space, client situations, et al.their grit and firmness in ethical issues is truly recommendable. Now thats the benchmark organizations need to aspire towards. My responses: 1) you are risking what you have when hunting for more. Go back to the Buffett guideline you just have to assume people will eventually know and then what do you do 2) What is the message you are giving your employees The minute you cross the line on one subject, you have to accept that the employees will side-step every damn line which they think is unreasonable or breaking the rule on X, Y and Z is ok; e.g. I work hard anyways, how will it matter if I dont report one day off officially as leave OR oh my finance folks are such a pain that they will not reimburse my liquor bills; no problem I will just inflate my food bill and so on and so forth. At least these folks are not delusional; they are not trying to fool anyone; they are clearI am stepping from white to black, and I am completely responsibleaccountable for what happens next. They are probably also clear that their employees may try to bend a few rules themselves.but in all probability, those side-stepping-actions-of-employees would be met with the same rigor and self-determination. In other words, the firm would take charge and take remedial action, face consequences strongly.
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