Same shit happens in organisations

Although I have pretty much dumped cricket from my life, the backroom twists and turns excite me no end. Like all religious Indians, I have been carefully following the Greg Chappell versus The Great Indian team nautanki, with a good deal of interest. And the reason is: the current situation in the Indian cricket is ditto what happens in the corporate world.

A kick-arse, professional, unbiased, results-driven leader joins a large existing company. A company that is packed with executives who live on their past glories, suits who are long past their sell-by date. The new CEO’s mission is to turn this ‘living in the past’ company into an aggressive, cutting edge, today’s organisation. And to make the seniors managers accountable for their performance. So he comes in and puts his plans into execution.

However, the managers, who, despite not delivering results in the market place are heavily paid and toasted in the social circuit, start to feel insecure by the CEO’s dramatic changes and cut-throat style of functioning. They feel threatened and see the possibility of changes at the top level. At the same time, they have become too old and slothful to learn new tricks. So they do the only thing they know best in order to save their own skins: they get together and politick against the new boss. They unleash rumours into the boardroom that the man is not a people’s person, that he’s going around destroying morale in the office. That since he’s an outsider, the chap doesn’t understand local markets and working conditions. And that he’s cut-off from the core group and is inapproachable. They even use emotional speeches to grain brownie points with the shareholders. These slimy execs understand their only chance to make these ploys work is to hunt as a herd, and they go all out in a ‘huddle’ to save their jobs.

And because of all these political machinations and power games, the distracted company turns up with even more dismal results than the past, and the new CEO is left with no option but to put in his papers.

Which is why I am not at all surprised Chappell has booked himself a one-way ticket on Quantas. And I will be even more surprised if a single senior Indian player gets sacked. I have seen the same scenario played out in many organisations. I am sure you have too. And maybe even participated in it.