Native Intelligence

Travel & Tourism invariably throw up surprises when you least expect them. In fact often such experiences add to the pleasure of travel and help us break the monotony of our daily lives.This is what happened during our recent visit to the temple town, Tiruchanur. Here is a brief account of what took place during our trip:

We visited Tiruchanur for a day as part of our brief pilgrimage after the wedding of our daughter in Chennai.
We completed our temple visit in the evening after our arrival and decided to retire early to bed as we knew that the following day would be equally long and tiresome. We got up early on the following day, finished our morning chores and set out to have our breakfast before leaving for Tirumala. Myself, my brother and sister decided to have simple and harmless Idlis for breakfast and went to a hotel nearby. Even as we were entering the hotel, I told the waiter that we would like to have steaming Idlis and nothing else. He simply nodded his head in acknowledgement. However, to our surprise, the Idlis served were cold and unappetizing. When Sambar served also was ice-cold, we lost our patience. We protested and walked out in a huff as the guys were not even bothered to explain the situation, clearly showing that they didn’t care.
Although disappointed, we were not in a mood to give up so soon and therefore ventured into a road-side eatery on the recommendation of a localite who vouched for its quality. The place was right in the middle of a busy thoroughfare but we didn’t mind because at that time quality mattered more than hygiene. But it turned out to be yet another disaster. My brother was the first to be served idlis & sambar. As soon as he tasted the sambar, he screamed out loud saying, “God, it is too hot & spicy”. My sister got up instantaneously and said, “if Ravi(my brother) felt it’s spicy, it must be some authentic ‘Rocket fuel’or ‘Gun powder’ straight from the notorious Guntur town in Andhrapradesh”. We paid up for the idlis that we didn’t consume and instantly performed a perfect vanishing act. At this stage, we almost gave up convinced that it was simply not our day. We were not in a mood to take any more non-sense.
As we started to walk back to our place, someone led us to yet another hotel in the same area. Although we were very reluctant, the guy was very emphatic and sounded credible about the quality of snacks in the hotel recommended by him. We entered the hotel disinterestedly without much hope. But then, to our pleasant surprise, our experience was completely different this time. What happened during the next 20 minutes had to be seen to be believed. The idlis were excellent. Not only that, we were coaxed into taking vadas & coffee too which were equally good.

Even as all of us were busy consuming the snacks served, I kept wondering how could this be so. What could possibly account for such a contrasting experience? I asked myself,”Who is the director of this excellent show?” The answers were not far to seek as I watched quite closely and intently. There was a lady at the cash counter who was virtually directing the whole show. She was welcoming guests, giving them suggestions on what to eat, commanding waiters to ensure prompt service etc etc. While doing all this efficiently, she still seemed to manage the cash counter well all by herself. It was virtually a one-man(rather one-woman) show! I was quite impressed with her all round management capability. It was an excellent display of multitasking. She had shown her skills of man management, customer service, and cash management – all at the same time. She also exhibited excellent marketing skills by encouraging us to try out different dishes and we obliged her without any hesitation. And the fact that the food was tasty proved that she was also good at Kitchen management and Quality management.

Here is a lady who doesn’t have any qualification or formal training, comes from a rural background and yet has exhibited wonderful native intelligence (another name for management skills?) which is on par with any well trained Corporate team.
What more proof does one need to say that managers are BORN and NOT MADE.

Sales Conference – A mere annual ritual?

In general Corporates do not show any innovation in organizing Annual Sales Conferences. At least the ones I am associated with have always gone through the process with a time tested formula without making any effort whatsoever to try out new ideas of organizing the same. No doubt they spend a lot of money and resources on the annual extravaganza but all that is done merely for the purpose of giving the employees their due – which is a paid holiday at best. Employees also have come to look upon these events as a perk rather than as an occasion to benefit from. I am not against having fun, but alas ,a balance between pleasure and business is definitely lacking in most of these celebrations. In this respect our company is no exception. Here is a brief account of how it went:

Last weekend was a mix of business and pleasure – probably more of pleasure and less of business. We had our annual Sales conference arranged in Udaipur – the famous Lake city. About 40 of us were huddled together in a historic Fort transformed into a 5-Star Hotel. We reached just in time for a Royal Lunch on Saturday, relaxed for a while and then went for a short pilgrimage to have Darshan of Srinathji and Eklingji. The place where we stayed for 3 days is known as ‘Devi Garh’ Fort. As we landed at the Fort and entered the main yard which is in fact a wonderful garden, we were taken by pleasant surprise by a shower of Rose petals from the terrace. Coming from a city like Mumbai where people are happy being businesslike and informal,this royal treatment must have been amusing to many of us.
Temple visits were prearranged to ensure that we didn’t get caught in the crowds and long queues for hours. We could get an entry straight into the ‘Sanctum Sanctorum’ through a side entrance meant for VIPs. However,once inside,the crowd was unbearable as usual and we barely escaped being crushed by the crowd. I suppose crowds are great equalizers as everyone gets the same treatment. For many of us the experience in Mumbai local trains must have come in handy.
In the night we had a great Rajasthani royal dinner served on Silver plates,which we thoroughly enjoyed.
The following day was essentially the day of the conference,which I will deal with at the end.
The evenings were celebrated with local artists giving performances. One evening we were treated with some nice ‘Qawwali’ music while on the second evening,we had some local folk dances depicting the story of Krishna with Gopis.(At least that is what I thought they were trying out based on the costume and expressions).
The 3rd day was essentially devoted to sightseeing – the Royal palaces,lakes etc and in the evening it was time to catch our flight back home.

The Fort area where we stayed is particularly enjoyable for people who love long walks. I had long walks in the mornings as well as evenings on all the days. The mornings presented a serene atmosphere accompanied by moderate chillness and gentle breeze , an ideal place for meditators.The skyline was superb with majestic mountains all around and the Sun rise from behind the mountains was a treat to watch.

Let me now come to the main business of the conference. We had presentation after presentation interspersed with some (not so serious)debates. There was a clear show of one-upmanship in the presentations. While the Marketing teams from various regions vied with each other, some manufacturing presentations also excelled in the art of exaggeration. But our CMD who generally keeps his own counsel, rarely got into any heated debates. He would generally play his cards close to his chest keeping everyone guessing!
What was missing in the conference then? One expects a great show of ideas from a gathering of people with such diverse backgrounds. Isn’t it a big opportunity to brainstorm on various issues affecting the current business? Isn’t it also an occasion to bounce ideas on future new business opportunities for the short term and the long term? I am sure all this can be done with some preparation by all participants. Instead,most of the participants simply chose to present past year’s data which was already known to many. Won’t it be good enough to merely circulate this data beforehand and allow only a brief discussion for an hour or so on the same? Rest of the conference should simply focus on the future.

Some time back I read a book titled, “Where Good ideas come from” by Steven Johnson. He has forcefully argued in this book that cities are very innovative by virtue of the fact that there is great exchange of ideas. In cities “ideas collide,emerge and recombine”. After all in a Sales conference aren’t we spending huge amount of money and taking trouble to gather people from so many cities? And having done so we don’t make any effort to harness ideas.

Core Competence? – you must be kidding

The whole of last week was quite hectic in the office as we(in the office)were unusually busy. Wonder what we were busy with? No prizes for guessing – we were busy with fire fighting! It was during that chaotic period that an old friend of mine visited me. As we were chatting he casually asked me about our company’s Core competence. “Core Competence?” I replied to my friend,”you must be kidding – there is only one core competence common to all Indian companies – that is – Fire fighting”.
Come to think of it,whatever else we,Indians, may be good at, we are best doing fire fighting. Some one asked – what about systems then(ISO9000,14000,18000,TPM and all that),meaning that since we in India have implemented all kinds of systems,there should be very few crises in the first place. I replied that even to implement systems we do fire fighting. Haven’t we seen a flurry of activity in many companies just a few days before an ISO audit for instance?
Even as children,we were used to postponing our studies right until the last day of the examinations – very often with disastrous results!

This reminds me of an industrialist friend of mine who,when questioned by me as to how he was proposing to expand into a business area which was totally unrelated,quipped- “Our core competence is diversifying into unrelated areas”. Probably he is right. When one is good at fire fighting and crisis management is the way of life,it makes no difference whether the business one chooses is a related area or not.
Typically in an average Indian organization,not withstanding the importance of a customer’s order (which can break or make a business),the system will go at its own pace doing things sequentially instead of in parallel till a crisis point is reached. The behaviour of team members during a crisis has to be seen to be believed. There is exemplary solidarity and team spirit and extraordinary comraderie.
As it happened during the last week in our company – the marketing man pressed a panic button as we failed to keep up with our committed deadline for supplies to a very important customer – the CEO declared “Do what you will but this prestigious order must be executed”. This was followed by the R&D head and the business head screaming that if we failed to service this order we would lose our credibility,our business and our technical position in the market place. Then the plant head was challenged to raise to the occasion and prove that he was the man for the crisis. The plant head was also equally under pressure from his deputies for providing all resources in the quickest possible time. Then every one’s attention shifted to the plant head and his team as the fire fighting exercise started. He moved heaven and earth and quite magically produced the desired results just in time.

I am sure the readers will have similar stories to tell from their experiences which should prove India’s undisputed global leadership in Fire fighting & Crisis management.

Information Trap and Consequences

Every one loves information. Right? This is because we are all taught to believe that information is power. But what happens when one is fed with too much information,most of which is superfluous for taking a decision? Worse still,what happens if the information given is not quite genuine but has a vested interest? We will examine all this in the light of my recent business experience. For the past 2 weeks at work,we have been working overtime on ways and means of coming up with a strategy to handle a competitor who has outsmarted us by feeding highly biased information to our common customers with the obvious intention of winning critical deals. For those who may be interested,we are in the business of manufacturing Transformer oils. These are sold to transformer manufacturers who,in turn,sell to Power Utilities. Our competitor has a simple ‘modus operandi’. He will make a lengthy presentation only on specifications of the product,totally ignoring the performance requirements. Typically,all the international standards(whether relevant or not)will be cited in detail while waxing eloquent on how the Indian Standards are lagging behind. Then,as the customers get confused(customers being electrical engineers do not have a quick grasp of chemistry of oils),he will push forward his case for an oil with an atrocious specification suiting his specific raw material. This ploy had indeed worked more than once and it was quite a while before our management woke up to the realities. Now ,of course,our company has also decided to launch an aggressive information campaign based on the ‘right specifications for the right performance’. It will take some time to control the damage done,but nevertheless,we are confident this will help all concerned in the long term. This business experience reminds me of what management experts call ‘Information Trap’. When one is lost in a sea of information(like our customers from Utilities),one loses the benefit of integrated knowledge. One loses the power of discrimination and under such circumstances can not appreciate whether a piece of information is genuine or biased or has a vested business interest. Very often,we do not know from what distance we should view an information so that we don’t fall into this trap. The information trap typically will result in lack of discriminating knowledge which is one form of ignorance. And the ignorance can ,in turn,manifest itself as stress,as it happened in the case of our clients. Yes, I must emphasize that Ignorance is,indeed,STRESS – NOT BLISS,as is commonly believed! What gives us Bliss is not Ignorance but Knowledge. Ignorance and Stress together can form a ‘vicious cycle’,meaning that more the stress generated the more the ignorance it breeds and vice versa. In the case of our clients,the resulting panic led them to pick and choose the best specifications from all the available international standards (which is stupid to put it mildly). This is because the only way we know of relief from stress is to pass it on to others. The net result is the industry ,as a whole will stand to lose. The customer would be buying an oil which is over-specified for a purpose and therefore would be paying a higher price. The supplier,on the other hand, would be forced to depend upon uncertain sources of raw materials and to that extent service levels would be poorer. How,then,does one get out of this ‘vicious cycle’? The best way is to come up with a ‘virtuous cycle’ (there has to be a corresponding virtuous cycle for every vicious cycle). In this particular case,the virtuous cycle is obviously – Knowledge and Bliss. This is what we have decided to do now to counter the strategy of our competitor. That is,we have undertaken the task of spreading genuine knowledge about oil chemistry,technology and most importantly specifications as related to performance. It will take time but the results will be long lasting.

Rejoicing over Competitor’s Failure

“Doctor,our competitor’s product is failing completely whereas ours, which is of acceptable quality, is failing only marginally”, my colleague shouted at the other end of the phone excitedly. “It is indeed interesting”, I said sharing his excitement and realizing the implications of the result. Now ,we can leverage our better quality product to get a better price.
To my colleague the failure of our competitor’s product seemed to be more of an “Eureka moment” than any of our successes earlier.
It appears that the competitor’s failure is relatively more relieving(of stress),enjoyable,and something to relish.
Isn’t it a strange and convoluted logic? It speaks volumes about present day stress at work. People are constantly pressurized to perform. If a product of good quality is made, the focus shifts to cost and if cost parameter is also met,there is pressures on service. And if all issues are satisfied, then there is constant demand for showing the numbers quarter after quarter. The milestones are constantly being shifted to levels beyond reach.
Looking at it from a business perspective,it is almost a war-like situation out in the market place. And as they say,all is fair in love and war. Or is it? Today, marketing is all about outwitting the competitor. Today’s Marketing function is over-obsessed with the role of ‘Competitor Watch’. On the contrary,a balanced approach with equal emphasis on customer focus and leveraging one’s strengths along with information gathering on competitors will yield more dividends in the long run.
This,I feel,is one of the greatest pitfalls of the modern day Free enterprise(wishing our competitor failure and rejoicing over the same).Personally,I feel that this mindset of rejoicing at some one’s failure can eventually become part of our personality and affect our ethical behaviour in our daily lives too.

Balancing quality,cost and fast delivery

“You ought to pay the price for the privilege of supplying your products to Sony”, I was told. I asked – “What is the price you are talking about?”,to which he responded,”The price is that you have to sell your product at a loss!”.
This conversation took place years ago(perhaps in late 90s)when our company wanted to sell ‘copper clad laminates’ to Sony,Japan. That was the height of arrogance on the part of the Japanese giant at that time(I wonder how they treat their vendors today). And it was not without reason. They knew quite well that the mere fact of a sale to Sony was great advertisement for vendors to promote their products elsewhere. No wonder they demanded quality products at the lowest possible prices. It is a different matter that our management at that time decided against selling at a loss.

Quite interestingly,I have recently had a somewhat similar experience, with the roles reversed. This time around,I was the buyer negotiating a purchase of Rs 25 lakh worth of an equipment from two American MNCs. Both are very highly reputed companies known for world class quality and were desperate to bag the order. And both confessed they needed our account very badly and the deal was very important to them. There was a flurry of activity from both parties as they made several power point technical presentations followed by hectic lobbying at various levels. One of the parties seemed to have a slight technical edge as well as a reputation for better service. When they tried to use that as a reason for their slightly higher price,I straight away put them on the defensive saying that a better service could at best give them a slight edge in securing the order and certainly not justify any premium. To cut a rather long story short,we got the best possible deal as an important and influential customer.

It is often said that it is quite rare to get high quality,low cost and fast delivery at the same time. But,as our present experience proved,in today’s competitive world and especially in emerging markets (such as India and China),it is possible to get all three at the same time.

‘Strategic’ Fall – ICI Style!

Of late Jinnah,Nehru,Gandhi,Patel etc are hitting the headlines even as some BJP heads have rolled or are set to roll. The history of Partition of India has always been as fascinating as it is controversial. There are points and counterpoints. While Jinnah was always painted as the villain of the piece,there are some who disagree and say that Patel and Nehru were equally responsible for partition. Many hold the view that we all should be eternally grateful to Nehru and Patel for having achieved partition against heavy odds. They would argue that if partition had not taken place at that time,it would have led to ‘balkanisation’ of our country – meaning that it would have resulted in the creation of several Pakistans in our midst today. What a scary thought! (As if one Pakistan as our neighbour is not bad enough).

I am sure that the entire partition history could easily make for an excellent case study for MBA students. There are key leadership issues,critical moments of decision making,vision and mission related aspects,strategic thinking and its implementation,dealing with a foreign stakeholder etc etc. Above all,the actors in the epic drama had a responsibility(accountability) to the future generations.

While the historical debate on personalities and leaders will continue till eternity,it reminded me of debates among our friends’ circle on a relatively more mundane issues like the swinging fortunes of a multinational company that we worked for. For those of us who worked around the same time in the multinational company ICI,the story of its ‘fall and fall’(quite consistently) after its hey days is always fascinating. Whenever we meet even today after so many years of its fall,the favourite topic for discussion is always ICI. The reasons for ICI becoming a favourite topic are not far to seek. Once upon a time this British giant was an acknowledged global leader for its great inventions and innovation led growth in commodity chemicals as well as pharmaceuticals and specialty chemicals (Invention of the life saving blockbuster drug ‘INDERAL’is one among a series of inventions the company is famous for). Besides,the company was also known to be highly caring for its employees and established itself as one of the paymasters. For precisely the same reasons,the company also attracted several talented youngsters as their first choice of employment.
When such a great company begins to fall and ultimately disappears it would justifiably attract cynical comments and critical analysis by everyone connected with the company.
If one could carefully put together all the bits and pieces of the story of ICI’s fall,I am sure,it would be quite an insightful case study for an MBA programme.
No wonder,then,we would dissect several key personalities who contributed to its mighty fall. We would also discuss various strategic mistakes/blunders committed by the company on various investments (and dis-investments?)and then go on to consider various alternative scenarios which could have led to different outcomes etc. We could clearly see the company shrinking fast right in front of our eyes so much so that today it does not exist! As one wise colleague of mine pointed out,globally as well as in India,it looked as though the company was operating on the basis of BOT(Build,operate and transfer). They built several plants and businesses world wide,operated them for a while and sold them to other MNCs. Looking back,I feel,may be that was ,after all,the undisclosed grand strategy of the top bosses of ICI,UK. But Truth,as always,is elusive.
Whatever may be the reasons,the lack of vision and the style of leadership or management had certainly caused a great damage to thousands of employees of the company over a period of time. It led to insecurity at all levels,talented people being fired for no fault of theirs,large scale relocation of people to different plants and places etc.

In a striking contrast to multinationals like ICI,some of the Indian companies I worked for in senior positions,had a different style of functioning. One of the companies I worked for a few years back in Hyderabad was also falling freely in all respects(top-line,bottom line,financial liabilities etc). However,in this case,nothing was left to the imagination of the employees or even the share holders. The company owners would openly flout rules and blatantly misuse their ownership rights on the company by indulging in asset stripping,manipulation of purchase and marketing function etc. Since everything was done as a broad day light robbery and everyone knew all facts,there was nothing left for a discussion,debate or analysis! Contrast this with the multinational company ICI,wherein, everything was carried out in a very subtle and polished manner,which,in turn, gave rise to endless debates and spicy speculations on the intentions(or hidden agenda) of the managements.

Dealing with redundancy in Indian corporates

Redundancies in Corporates are very hard to tackle. I for one feel that this is going to be a huge issue in the Indian corporate sector in the coming years. What makes the issue even more difficult is that there are different kinds of redundancies each having its own unique features. One has to deal with technical redundancy and marketing redundancy. Then one has redundancy at the top management and middle level management. Yet another category is among the old,trusted people who become redundant as against the fresh guys who are redundant. Even more intriguing is the case of consultants who become redundant. I dealt with nearly all types during my long career and had varying degrees of success.
Each redundancy requires a sensitive handling and in certain cases one has to simply live with redundancy! Considering such complexities I am always amazed as to how the IT companies are dealing with this problem in such huge numbers.
Let us take the case of technical redundancy. This is the most common type which is caused due to people not updating themselves with technical skills relevant to the organization. I have seen companies in the manufacturing sector change their emphasis from commodities to specialty products over a period of time while the company’s technical and marketing personnel are ill-equipped to cope with the change.
Very often the organization is also guilty of making their manpower irrelevant for new challenges as they do not spend money on training their key personnel on the new skill sets needed. This can lead to large scale redundancy which is very dangerous.

I will recount my specific experiences with regard to redundancy.
This happened a few years back when I inducted a young and well qualified guy into our team with a specific role of aggressively commercializing the research output of certain experienced researchers. I did everything possible to make him successful. However,as it turned out,he could never get the cooperation from the senior guys reporting to him. It didn’t help matters that he was new to that field of work and had to cover a lot of ground to pick up and be on par with the rest of the guys. In India as well as elsewhere,technical knowledge is always respected and therefore,the guy soon became redundant as he was deficient in the same. Having taken personal efforts to bring him into into our team,I found it very difficult to tell him that his position was superfluous in the absence of his ability to pick up the technical nuances of the field. Fortunately for me,the guy saved me the embarrassment by offering to resign himself.

The case of a consultant who became redundant due to negative attitude is even more intriguing:
The consultant whom our organization hired was a retired guy with a lot of experience in his field. However,he proved to be a liability purely because of his poor attitude. Due to a feeling of insecurity perhaps, he was not forthcoming with all the necessary information and was found to be deliberately suppressing facts and figures. Not surprisingly,he became redundant due to his own negative attitude. Organizations are always in a hurry to achieve results and will not tolerate deliberate slow down. He brought about his own downfall. I had absolutely no difficulty or embarrassment in getting rid of him.

There was another case of redundancy somewhat similar in the sense that this was brought about by the guy’s deliberate misrepresentation of his skill sets. He projected himself as a chap with technical marketing skills whereas he was a mere technical guy. Misrepresentation of his skills might have landed him onto a good job but the joy was short-lived. He soon paid the penalty by being fired without any sense of compunction on the part of the management.

In one of the organizations I served there was a very peculiar case of redundancy created with the full knowledge of every one concerned! The company is a family driven organization being managed by second generation entrepreneurs. The company was founded by a highly respected first generation entrepreneur who gathered around himself a set of loyalists. These people stood out more by their personal loyalty to the founder-chairman than professional skills. Somehow the business grew over the years thanks to the hard work of the entrepreneur. As the second generation family members took over,it became very difficult to retire the old and trusted loyalists,although a new and younger management took over.
This is accepted by many in the organization although it does look very awkward. The awkwardness arises from the fact that a small group of old and loyal employees keep attending office everyday contributing virtually nothing! One can easily see the cost (to the organization)in terms of erosion of cultural,moral and ethical values.

Manpower – the most critical asset to any organization

The other day in my office,as we finished our review meeting,my junior colleague told me, ” I need to discuss something important with you, sir”.
“If it is merely important we will discuss tomorrow; If it is indeed urgent,we could discuss now”, I joked. He interjected to say that it is, in fact, both important and urgent. Therefore,we had no choice but to sit down and discuss.
As it turned out he was going to submit his resignation. As my colleague was a highly trusted member of my core team,I decided not to give in immediately without a proper discussion.
This post is not about my colleague or his resignation,which has by now become a routine affair with all companies,but about the value of Manpower.
We all will readily agree that materials,machines,money etc are great assets. However,when it comes to manpower,it is not so obvious. This is because unlike the other assets,under certain circumstances,it could also turn out to be the biggest liability!(there is no need to elaborate on this point).

I had a first hand experience of the value of this asset when I lost 2 of my core team members in quick succession recently. I know it for a fact that it is highly difficult to substitute a high quality technical person,not to talk of building a core team. It is very easy to lose momentum in business under such circumstances and once lost,it is even more difficult to regain the lost ground!

Today,in the context of rapid industrialization in India,quality manpower has become a scarce commodity. This is particularly true of manufacturing sector which relies heavily on highly committed R&D and other technical personnel to run the show. The demand has far outstripped the supply and therefore there is constant churning of manpower taking place at all levels. It is this turnover which is driving the salary levels higher and higher.
Today’s conditions demand a very proactive role on the part of HR Managers in terms of retaining talent and build on the skill sets of key personnel on a continual basis. Instead of taking up this difficult task,several HR departments are happy functioning as recruitment managers today. Such an outdated and conservative role would indeed render them redundant in the long run. This brings me to another important topic which is equally relevant in India today – that is redundancy.

HR Management and Mahabharata

The other day I was watching (on TV) an old Telugu film based on a certain story from Mahabharata(“Nartanasala”). The film was all about how the Pandavas spent the last year of their forced stay in jungles. They were supposed to spend the last year incognito and they chose to stay in the court of Virata King.
What caught my attention and fancy was not the main story of the film but the manner in which the stalwarts from Duryodhana camp conducted themselves during their battle with the Virata king. The stalwarts I am referring to are Bhishma,Drona,Kripa etc. These were well acknowledged great warriors. As it turned out they were literally forced to choose Duryodhana’s camp over Pandava’s because of certain compulsions which I will not get into now.
Throughout the movie,and especially at the time of the battle with the Virata king,they made no bones about where their loyalty lies. They were making blatant and open statements in support of Pandavas at every opportunity and context presented to them. Worse still,it was quite awkward to see them admire Arjuna’s superior power,ability,skills and humility in the battle field even as Duryodhana was helplessly protesting against their statements.
Throughout Mahabharata ,one will find several instances of these great warriors exhibiting brazen support for the Pandavas. Notwithstanding the truth behind their statements and observations,isn’t it unethical and immoral to glorify the enemy camp at every given opportunity which can seriously demoralize the forces of Kauravas?
These instances bring to sharp focus the questions of morality in warfare on the one hand and the HR management skills of Duryodhana on the other.(I am deliberately using a modern day jargon to emphasize the relevance of our great epics even to the modern day!). HRM is all about team building and retaining the core team members. The question is how did Duryodhana tolerate such people in his core team? How could any leader trust such people, even after repeated show of bias in favour of enemy?
Any modern day HR manager would have fired such employees with no loyalty to the company, however brilliant or talented the guy may be.

There is yet another example of poor judgment by Duryodhana when he was extremely happy to have the entire army of Krishna whereas Arjuna chose the Lord over His army(That is another story,though).

Strangely,the same Duryodhana showed exemplary HR skills when he inducted the great Karna in his core team by offering him attractive incentives and privileges in the form of a separate throne and kingdom at a crunch time during the latter’s life. And Karna proved to be a firm and powerful ally and friend till he died in the war. One could easily rate Karna’s induction and the manner in which his loyalty was bought over as a masterstroke and a brilliant move on the part of Duryodhana.
I guess this is the only instance of Duryodhana’s good HR skills in the entire epic.