B.N. Dastur
The twenty-first century is dynamic stability. If anything is stable, it is dynamism, change, change. I have been coming and going to America since 2000. Kodak, Border Toys-R-Us went bankrupt before my eyes. Albertsons, Sears, J.C. Giant companies like Pany, Macy's lost their luster. Jet Airways and Kingfisher went out of business in our country. There is no shortage of reasons, but the main reason was resistance to change. There has been no shortage of seminars on 'Resistance to Change' around the world. The cemeteries of industry and hospitals of business are overflowing with organizations that were foolish not to keep up with the changes. At home, the industries in Ahmedabad are fine, but the temples marketing God also had to fraternize with change. I was Hanuman's neighbor in the camp for fifty years. The once popular Hanuman temples have lost their luster, but Hanuman's Camp of Camp still shines. Today's devotee does not come to the temple with bare feet, but in a luxury car. All of them want a 'smart' temple. Want parking facility, want food nearby, want security so that no one can do anything. Even organizations that adopt a positive approach to change do not fully understand what to do. Consumer expectations are skyrocketing. What they like today may not be liked tomorrow. Globalization, unprecedented uncertainty, economic and political roadblocks are taking their toll. It is not known when the stakeholders-suppliers, distributors, retailers, government officials, shareholders, employees will sit down. Case studies done in supposedly excellent business schools don't work. The virus of political behavior and defensive routines in every organization, be it less, shows his charisma. Before writing the book 'Politics a Way of Life in Organizations', I had studied the giant companies of Europe and America of our country. It was often felt that the senior managers of the company were afraid of changing their power equations. The introduction of transformations also changes the power equations. In my client company I tried to penetrate the South Indian market, did the necessary homework, collected resources, learned the process of using resources, but the senior managers did not give the necessary support. The reason? Because these managers felt that they did not have the knowledge of the English language necessary to do business in South India and they feared that the new managers who knew English would dilute and take away their power. Relatives who 'worked' in most companies did not like my presence, barring exceptions like Torrent, Zydus, Sims, among the consultancies of family firms. Authority is essential to bring about change. That's not the job of Kachapocha. It is sometimes necessary to bulldoze over resistance to change, which family members do not like. 'I don't want to be axed,' an Aghabola family manager told me in a fit of rage. Even experts who write books on transformations discuss such experiences. The story of Steve Jobs' ouster and comeback is worth reading. In the nineteenth century, Charles Darwin (12-2-1809 to 19-4-1882) said, 'Happy is he who loves change.' The autobiography of the 'Diamond King' of the world, Govind Dholakia will teach a lot.
Image Credit: (Divya-Bhaskar): Images/graphics belong to (Divya-Bhaskar).
