The Photographer’s Curse

The greatest tragedy for a successful photographer is perhaps that he cannot shoot himself. Not that he would always want to but for the breathtaking photos that he clicks of others, both animate and inanimate, he would perhaps be tempted to pose for his own camera, atleast once. An automatic timer is his only chance but that short span would hardly allow him to use his expertise to explore various angles and perspectives. Success has its own failings. Every success comes with a limitation, a blind-spot that fails the successful. Hence everyone, even the most successful one, needs a sounding board, a different eye to help him explore the unknown perspectives and angles. Ditto for organizations that are successful. And, those who fail to realize this, start a downward slide, many a times unknowingly, and reach doom before waking-up. I call this the ‘photographer’s curse’.


There are countless individuals and organizations that have fallen trap to this curse and met their ignominious endings. Air India is under heavy influence of this curse and faces extinction like never before. Kingfisher airlines acquired this curse that has made it untouchable amongst the investors, partners and passengers alike. And now, Indian Railways has invited the ‘photographer’s curse’ with open arms. Railways, that was started in India by the British in 1853 and since then it has served as a effective means of cheap transport, linking the nook and corner of this nation. But years of populist policies have started to take their toll on railways. The recent booting given to Dinesh Trivedi after he increased the rail fares could prove catastrophic for Indian Railways in the long run. Trivedi, who’s predecessors had not increased the rail fare for the last ten years, had made a brave attempt to take railways out of the financial ditch that it has got itself into and save it for the ‘photographer’s curse’ hastening it’s perpetual doom. The railways minister fell prey to populist politics that counts votes but not the real issues. That ultimately if railways also face a situation like Air India then it would perhaps hurt the poor most; talking-away their only means of cheap long-distance transport is overlooked conveniently.

Imagine the plight of the 1.6 million people employed in Indian railways. If the highest governing authority can be thrown away for showing the organization the ‘right perspective’ then who would be left with any motivation or courage to do anything similar in the future! Nothing could be more unfortunate for an organization than a situation like this and for millions of its stakeholders, be it the employees, the partners, the customers etc.

An organization’s chances of avoiding the ‘photographer’s curse’ depends primarily on two factors –

One, has it got enough talent who can show the unknown perspectives and angles to their organization which has been more successful in the past?

And, second, does an environment or more precisely a culture prevails in the organization where it not a blasphemy to differ, sometimes even radically?

In short is there an engaging culture that allows its talents to express radical differences without fear and the organization is open to accept them if they are right, even if it means taking tough decisions at times. If the answer to any of the above two questions is ‘no’ then the ‘photographer’s curse’ is imminent. One last observation, most of the times the answer to the second question is ‘no’, which means that organizations generally have talent to help them explore the various perspectives but they often do not create the right culture to give their members enough freedom to differ & express, whether in words or in action.

Sycophancy Virus

I often wonder why is there so much sycophancy in this country! Chief minister of a northern state expects every visitor to take-off their shoes before they enter the CMO and people are happy to comply! Even the IAS officers are not spared (not that others should have any less self-respect). Politicians, film stars are worshipped as deities, their temples or statues are constructed (many times by themselves) and people are rolling in reverence! Then there are political parties where dynastical successor is worshipped and seen as the only bail-out for the party’s future. There are corporate houses in this country where the employees have to bow in displayed respect and use special salutations when the Chairman passes-by (without of course looking eye to eye with the supremo).


But why go too far? All this starts many a times from one’s own family. In most families kids are not expected to question parents, teachers (even if they are wrong).; wives are expected to treat their husbands like ‘pati parameshwar’ meaning ‘ my husband is my god’, although the husband may often be struggling to make it to the list of being a decent human being; or our society where no one can question the self-styled custodians of religion.

Most of us are sycophants and minority of those who refuse to be ‘one’ are also forced sometime or the other to become a sycophant. Sycophancy is sign of incompetence, a high politically-charged atmosphere and a society based on short-term transactions. Such sycophancy gives rise to illegitimate power in families, societies and organizations and destroys first the engagement of the stakeholders and then the organization itself. Sycophancy is a self-destructing virus that destroys the holder as well as the beholder.

Engagement Velocity

A typical day, the ‘strike-day’ in a particular southern state that has a history of strikes, the scene is all but predictable. The members of the political party that is staging the strike outside the secretariat start the strike on a quiet note. Slowly they start piling in front of the Secretariat building. The constabulary is standing on the other side, with the front row composed of fresh recruits who have been ragged enough by the seniors and are raring to let loose the batons that they are wielding on anything mortal. Then some stones are thrown by the demonstrators. Before the entire verbal order by the constabulary in-charge can be completed the ‘itching front-row enforcers’ let loose their sticks on the 'stoning protesters'. By that time ‘Varun’ arrives to the scene. Varun is the water cannon used by the constabulary to disperse protesters. The next thing you can see is that the demonstrators are floating and are being swept away in a pool of water. At times, if tear gas shells are fired at the demonstrators, there are cadres within them (those wearing masks) whose job is to block the shells and throw them back at the constabulary. The constabulary is seldom wearing masks and the next thing you see is a part of the ‘originators’ jumping on their own missiles, teary-eyed. The whole scene is so predictable and repetitive that it appears both sides know their ‘roles’ too well and in no time everything is over and pridefully ‘nothing’, absolutely ‘nothing’ has been achieved.


The year 2011 had been a year of strikes- the big Maruti strike, the Bosch strike, the Coal India strike, the endless Air India strikes and more…However it is still not clear what most of these strikes were directed at or what they aimed to achieve. For instance the Maruti strike started on a demand to form a separate union by workers at a particular plant, continued on workers disagreement to sign a ‘good-conduct bond’ instructed by the management and failed to achieve anything substantial except causing the company to lose on critical sales especially of diesel cars at a time when total car sales were not looking particularly bright (YoY). The Bosch strike started with workers protesting against proposed outsourcing of ancillary activities by the management, with accusations by workers against management’s changing stance and retraction from promise of not doing so! The strike ended without any agreement and the case has been referred for adjudication. The Air India strikes by pilots, ground-staff have been riddled with controversies in the backdrop of despicable performance by Air India. In short, in all these cases the disengagement was clearly staring at the world. It was more than obvious that a severe lack of trust and low engagement was the bigger reason than any other quoted by the workers or the management for these strikes. They appeared to be too orchestrated and both the sides taking historical roles rather than trying to understand each other or converse with each other.

Direction is always relative to something – Instead of saying that the church is to the north of capitol or to the south of the supermart, if we say that the church is in the west, you will never find one, would you? Similarly engagement is always relative to something. Engagement to job, to the leadership, to the contributions, to the idea-sharing & creation, to the career-options and more, on the super base of organization-culture of trust & openness. And, hence, any misdirected engagement effort, which is not clear on objective it seeks to achieve, shall not yield anything. The onus of this does not always lie with the management alone but also with the employees. Else, both the parties shall continue to ‘act’ their ‘roles’, without practically achieving anything worthy.

Just to reinforce in the new year - Engagement is like Velocity, which is a Vector entity - must have speed as well as direction!

What is common between Anna & Starbucks?

Further to my July 30 post 'Eyes on Star-bucks', the Starbucks strike at Chile has ended. In July, the nearly 200-member strong union in Chile launched Starbucks' first strike at company-owned stores, seeking pay that keeps up with inflation, a $100 monthly lunch stipend, as well as other benefits.

Although the strike ended with the company willing to welcome back the unionized partners, the larger issue that this low profile strike stirred has not been lost on many. Experts feel that Starbucks strike in Chilie is a symptom of a larger people movement in that region. Not only starbucks, some other companies have also seen such conflicts. but to read these strikes as organization-specific and only IR-related case would be a huge error. Rosa Luxemburg describes - 'workplace struggles as part of a fabric of broader political struggle against the state and its imperialist wars. She points out how essential it is to see the overlapping between political and economic struggles, to see how struggles for unionization emerge in the context of broader political upheavals. She also points out to the dynamic relationship between economic and political struggle and how they enrich one another.' (source: blackorchids collective)

This is why Anna's movement in India perhaps has a huge significance. More than anything else, the mass-support to Anna's movement is a representative of the angst of people against the corrupt system. The movement also marks yet another major show of real people power and spontaneous support rather than orchestrated show of strength that most of the political parties have been doing in India.

Nations and organizations cannot remain blind to such movements, whether in Chile or India. Engagement of people in any systems can only happen on real and equal terms and by initiating concrete steps towards building both rational and emotional connect with the enterprise.

London Bridge Is Falling Down...

Engagement is not appeasement. The recent loots in U.K. are a testimony to the fall-outs of a so-called welfare state, which has been for years breeding lazy bones at the cost of hard-earned tax-payer's money. This over-zealous strategy of many European nations to engage its citizens through appeasement has boomeranged. Such moves meant free food, clothes, parties etc. for many. Now these louts are on rampage because they see all these freebies receding. And the hardworking taxpayer, who has shared the burden of these insolent liabilities for all these years, have to bear the brunt.

In India there have been plenty of such appeasement moves that have ranged from government-mandated schemes like NREGA etc. to politically-mandated ones like free rice, free ration, free television etc. So much so that businesses in some states have complained shortage of labour because nobody wants to work. And why would they, if they are getting everything for free. In the process what are we breeding? A generation of indolents who are addicted to free-living; nonproductive and corrupt.
Organizations should draw lessons from such instances and not fall in the trap of becoming appeasing- institutions for their employees. I repeat engagement is not appeasement. Unfortunately many of our organizations have committed this mistake. Some organizations have done this in the past in the name of so-called ‘welfare’ and look what we have today. Except few institutions, most of these institutions have become jumbo-liability for the country (Air India tops this list by nautical miles). Not to talk of the endless miseries that an average taxpayer (the ‘common-man’) has whenever he has to deal with most of these institutions. Some other institutions have done this in the name of retention. Actually in 2008, the Hewitt salary survey pointed-out that ‘the pressure to retain talent has bred mediocrity’. The finding clearly showed that the salary differential between the top performers and the mediocre had shrunk, indicating that hikes have been less strategic and have not always gone to the ‘right’ people. The result – talent-shortage, high attrition and low engagement.

Organizations can continue to appease their employees but remember ‘a London’ can happen someday in such institutions as well. Reward productivity, reward efforts and results, reward creativity but do not breed apathetic sloths and mediocre.