The Cork and The Fish
By
Mr. Sharu S. Rangnekar, Mumbai, India

In every management situation, there are complaints about constraints and pressures. The right decisions cannot be taken because of internal constraints and external pressures. Particularly, the political pressures seem to play increasing role and managers tend to justify their wrong actions or lack of action on these pressures.

When asked: "What are you doing about it?" , the response is; "Nothing can be done!" As a manager remarked, "We are floating like a cork in the stream . Visually we are at the top - but the direction is decided by the current of the stream. The cork flows with the current". However, in the same stream there is fish which is also affected by the current. However, it keeps on navigating itself towards the direction it wants to go. Otherwise all fish will end up in the sea. Particularly in the breeding season, the river fish swims upstream to lay eggs.

The first time I visited Amritsar was a few months after "Operation Blue Star". There was still tension in the air. My hosts showed me the Jalianwala bagh and the Golden Temple the first evening. Next day they said there was not much else to see - but it would be interesting to visit the Wagha border.

"What is there to see in a border?" I asked.

"There are Indian soldiers and Pakistani soldiers on two sides of the border - at sunset both the flags are lowered and there is a drill. This is very interesting to see because the drill is identical on both sides of the border and looks like a mirror image."

In India, we cannot resist the hosts and there I was at the Wagha border the next evening. About 100 people were there on either side of the border. On our side there was a school teacher with about 20 students. She was telling them, "When the flag moves in the evening, all of you sing 'Sare Jahan Se Achchha Hindostan Hamara...".
I asked the school teacher "what is this happening?".

She replied "It is my practice to bring a batch of my students here on the first day of every month so that they can look at the moving flag and sing. I do it every month - although this month was very difficult for me."

"Why was it difficult?" I asked.

"Because this is the "Pay and Stay" month in Punjab".

"What is "Pay and Stay" month?"

"This month teacher's transfers are announced. If you pay, you stay, if you don't pay, you are transferred. I wanted to stay, so I had to pay. So my budget was very tight this month. Every time I bring a batch of students here, in the case of 3 or 4 students the parents say they cannot afford to pay for their children. Each such child costs Rs.10/- to be brought here and taken back by bus. So there is an expenditure of Rs.50/- every month and this month it was very difficult to spare this amount as my budget was very tight."

"When this is what is happening to you why do you want the children to sing 'Sare Jahan Se Achchha Hindostan Hamara'?"

She asked me spiritedly "Who is going to improve India? I have not been able to improve it, you have not been able to improve it, I have no influence with the prime minister or the chief minister but I have some influence and I am going to use it. My influence is on these children. They believe me. So I bring them here, let them look at the flag and let them sing 'Sare Jahan Se Achchha Hindostan Hamara'. When they grow up, they will be proud of India and at least some of them will try to improve India."

I feel this teacher has the basics of Management which comprise:
1. To identify your responsibility and get committed to it.
2. To identify your resources and ultimately realise your most important resource is yourself.
3. To experiment with the resources.

This teacher has decided that her responsibility is to improve India. Her main resource is herself i.e. her influence on her students. She is experimenting with it.

This teacher is planning to navigate herself towards the goal. As Drucker puts it "With planning you may not reach the goal - but you reach somewhere around it. Without planning you get only consequences."

The cork that floats on a stream has a position but no power. The fish that navigates itself does not have much position - but has power and space and can move towards its goal.