The organizational/corporate equivalents of prominent characters of Mahabharata

Even though I have yet to read the Mahabharata fully, the stories and characters of the epic have always impressed me and influenced me. Of course, I have read a number of discourses on Mahabharata, starting from Kuttikalude Mahabharatham(Children’s Mahabharatha) and many books written on various characters of Mahabharatha in Malayalam or translations into Malayalam from other languages like Hindi, Marathi etc.A chapter, which was part of SSLC Malayalam syllabus from a book(Bharataparyatanam) written by the great critique from Kerala,, Mr.Kuttikrishna Marar was the starting point. The moment I had some money saved from my monthly hostel allowance, I procured the book and must have read the content at least 10 times. I have always been impressed by the intellect, determination , love and care of Devabratha (who later  came to be known as Bhishma for the sapath  or pratigya he took for taking care of the interests of his father),by the heroic deeds of Arjuna & Karna, the friendship of Duryodhana, the dharma way of Yudhishtira, and of course the naughty but all encompassing and dispassionate view  of Krishna……..The list is endless. And what impressed me more that each of these characters represented many aspects of the good or the bad, the right or the wrong  or some kind of traits that exist in human beings.

Many  might have thought that these were stories of the long-gone era, but as a discernible observer of organizations, you may find that many of these characters are alive and kicking. And in today’s ultra-competitive environment that exist between corporations or other organizations or between people of the same organization, you may find the existence of the full-blown modern versions of them.

If you observe your organization, you may find a number of these characters existing in your organization. You may find a  Sakuni, in you midst, who tries to instigate many around them with their at times even innocent-looking comments or remarks. Anything happening around them , they try to interpret in their own negative ways and even advise some others  with how to interpret them. Organizations have their own Duryodhanas, who fall prey to such interpretations or advices. For example, the Sakunis  may spend a lot of time analyzing mails send by others  and  attribute meanings which the sender might not have even imagined to exist. They influence the receivers of the mails with the unfortunate connotations leading to a spat or at least a misunderstanding between two friends. Even though  Duryodhanas are more straightforward and dharma-oriented(according to me more so than the Dharmaputra / Yudhishtira), they are highly influenced by the likes of Sakuni who knows where  and how to tickle their  weak spots).

Of course, the organizations have their own Bhishmas, who puts forth their verdicts as the final word on dharma. Taking the email simile, the organizational Bhishma may even put strictures on whether such mails be sent or who to mark copies.

The organization also may have Viduras, who takes a dispassionate view of everything and just serves the King as they  are duty-bound; they may do so even when they know for sure that the King is not necessarily doing the right thing.

Disclaimer: If anybody in any organization identify him/herself with any of the characters mentioned above, it is only accidental, even though it might validate my analogy.

Executive Compensation In Limelight But Analyses Are Flawed

Lots of articles have bee appearing in business dailies and business magazines, of late. It may be an indication that the policy makers, regulators, academics , media and public in general have realized that executive compensation is an important issue in our country too. Business Line dated 12^th March and 13^th March both carried articles on executive compensation.”Honchos rake it in, no questions asked’ by S. Muralidharan  and “ Corporate top brass too highly paid” by B.S.Raghavan. While the article carried some interesting data and accompanying facts, some of the contentions  or the arguments of the authors  are  disputable. For example, Mr. Raghavan said that “the blame  for letting the fat cats have their own way has to be laid squarely on the shareholders”. In a large majority of Indian companies, promoters hold very high stakes and they themselves are in the management and hence the ‘fat cats’. For example, the promoters of Jindal Steel & Power have a stake of 58.91% in the company and thus can get any resolutions on the executive compensation(including that of Naveen  Jindal, CEO) passed. As long as there is no regulation or at least a convention or practice of interested parties abstaining from voting on resolutions when it is concerned about themselves(and not about the company’s plans per se),outside shareholders  can do very little to influence the decisions even if SEBI’s new stipulation of minimum 25% public holding is in place.

The argument of difficulty of getting talent for lesser emoluments  by companies echoed by Mr.Raghavan also doesn’t merit much attention in India because when they do so, promoters are making a proclamation that they/ their nominees are highly talented. Who sits in the judgment of talent of Mr.Naveen Jindal? Will he move over to another steelmaker, say, Tata Steel(who incidentally pays much lesser to its professional CEO)?

And last but not the least, the authors make the common mistake everyone else writing on Indian CEO compensation makes when writing about CEO compensation: compare  them with US CEO pay levels. The comparison is out of context as US companies, by and large(at least about whose compensation levels  people write on), have  professional CEOs whereas Indian companies mostly have promoter CEOs(by whatever designation they are called). A comparison can make sense only when compensation levels in companies like HUL or ITC or L&T or Maruti Suzuki or companies from certain groups like Tatas or Aditya Birla where the promoters usually don’t hold any executive positions, are compared with their US counterparts.