Miracles in Management
- By Prof. Sharu S. Rangnekar, Rangnekar Associates, Mumbai, India
Whenever a manager is given a task, he can ask two questions: 1. Why do it? 2. Why not do it? If the question is Why do it, he collects number of reasons why he should not or cannot do it. However, if he asks the question why not do it, he finds ways to do it. In this connection there is a legend about General Bhagat who was the only Victoria Cross holding officer in the Indian Army (all other Victoria Cross holders were soldiers). He was extremely popular in the army and it is said, for this reason, the politicians managed to retire him before he became the Commander-in-Chief of the army. However, they thought highly of him. So when he retired, the minister called him and said "Generalsab, we want your help to run Damodar Valley Corporation. This public sector company is doing very badly. In fact DVC is now producing power less than half it produced in the best of its days. We would like you to be the chairman and double the power production in the next six months." Like a traditional soldier, General Bhagat said, "Yes sir, I shall try my best". He took over as the chairman of DVC and called the engineers. He told them, "The minister is expecting DVC to double its power production in the next six months". "Impossible!", said the engineers. "The production is not going to increase - it is going to decrease. DVC was the first public sector project after independence. By 1972 all the power plants which had started at that time have thrown their equipment out of the window. But, we are still flogging the equipment. Furthermore after 1962 Chinese war, our foreign exchange allocation was stopped and we were asked to use local spare parts for our equipment. Our equipment is imported. The local spare parts not only do not work properly - but spoil other spare parts. So the equipment is in shambles and is going to produce less and less and not more and more." "Look here gentlemen", said General Bhagat, "Although by qualification I am an engineer, I have never done any engineering. I am an infantry man and I know how to fight. But I don't want to fight against you - I want to fight for you. Please tell me what I should do so that you can increase the power production." "The least you can do is to get us an import licence for importing spare parts", said the engineers. "Okay", said General Bhagat, "You give me the up-to-date list and I will get you the import licence." "We gave such lists to five previous chairmen", said the engineers, "But we never got any import licence." "I am different", said General Bhagat. "I am going to the minister with the list in my right hand pocket and my resignation in the left hand pocket. I am going to tell the minister to accept this - or to accept that!" The engineers were impressed. The previous five chairmen were never ready to resign - they wanted extension. Here is the first chairman who is ready to resign on an issue and after all he is a Victoria Cross holder - he may really do it. So the engineers went to their assistants and asked them to make spare parts up-to-date list. When the list was ready, General Bhagat went to Delhi and met the minister. He told the minister, "Sir, we are ready to increase power production - but the machines need imported spare parts. Here is the list. Amount of foreign exchange required is Rs. 4.3 crores. The machines must have imported spare parts to function efficiently." "I agree in principle", said the minister (people without principles readily agree in principle), "but the finance ministry will never allow this". "Then sir", said General Bhagat, "Please accept my resignation". "Why Generalsab", said the minister, " we are not in a such great hurry and you can take your time to improve power production." "No sir", said General Bhagat, "The machines need imported spare parts - they don't need a chairman. What is the point in giving them a chairman instead of imported spare parts?" "Okay, Okay", said the minister, "let us go to the finance minister". To cut the long story short, he got the foreign exchange licence, opened letters of credit and ordered all the spare parts. In six months, DVC power production doubled. But the miracle was: not a single spare part had landed in India! The machines were producing with the same spare parts which were considered non-functional earlier. What happened? The engineers told their assistants, "Look here the chairman has got us the licence and has ordered the spare parts. Next time he meets the minister, the minister is bound to ask "Generalsab, What about the DVC power production?" We don't want him to lose his face. So you better increase the power production". They asked the question "Why not do it?" and they did it.
World faces new breed of terrorists
- By Paul Haven And Chris TomlinsonCourtesy Mr. Mayer Nudell, USA.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - From the dusty Sahara to the jungles of Indonesia and in the cauldron of unrest that is US-occupied Iraq, a new generation of terrorists is emerging to take the place of elders who have been killed, captured or forced deep underground. Young, violent and energized by a deep hatred for the United States, its Western allies and Muslim governments seen as kowtowing to Washington's will, the new class has been writing a new history of terror in blood -- from Istanbul to Madrid to Yanbu, Saudi Arabia. "These are the men that are the new, 21st century terrorists," said Evan Kohlmann, a US-based terror expert. He said it is "very literally, a group of second- generation Osama bin Ladens." At the fore of the next generation is 38-year-old Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a former commander for bin Laden who has links to terror groups from North Africa to the Caucuses. He has allegedly maintained ties to al-Qaeda and is believed to be leading resistance to the US occupation of Iraq. The CIA says Zarqawi was the black-clad militant who pulled a long knife from his tunic and decapitated American Nicholas Berg in a gruesome video released by his killers in May. He is also believed to have had a hand in the March 11 bombings in Madrid, Spain, countless strikes inside Iraq and a failed chemical attack in his native Jordan. US authorities are offering a US $10-million reward for his capture, setting him apart from the other new guard. "Zarqawi's background in jihadi activities is as extensive, in many ways, as that of Osama bin Laden," said Richard Evans, the editor at Jane's Terrorism and Insurgency Center in London. "He is a jihadi fixer, with access both to funds from Gulf Arab backers and a loose network of jihadi groups around the globe." Zarqawi may be the villain of the day, but he is by no means alone among the new faces taking up senior positions in the world's most-feared terror groups. In Indonesia, Zulkarnaen, a former biology student who is one of the few militants from the region to have trained in Afghanistan, stepped in late last year as operations chief for the al-Qaeda-linked Jema'ah Islamiyah (JI), replacing Hambali after his August arrest. Zulkarnaen, whose real name is Aris Sumarson, is believed to be about 40. Another top new JI figure is 33-year-old Dulmatin, a Malaysian electronics expert nicknamed "Genius," who is believed to have designed the bomb used in the 2002 Bali attack that killed more than 200 people. Dulmatin was reportedly a used- car salesman before turning to terrorism. In Spain, a 36-year-old Moroccan named Amer Azizi is believed to have supervised the bombings in Madrid, acting as a link between al-Zarqawi and a cell of mostly Moroccan al-Qaeda members. Azizi is thought to be the leader of the al-Qaeda-affiliated Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group. Azizi also was recently indicted in Spain for allegedly helping plan the September 11 attacks in the United States. "It is Azizi, obviously. He is the one that makes the connections, not only with all the arrested people and other suspects, but with the external groups that could have helped mastermind these bombings," said Charles Brisard, a French private investigator who works for lawyers of September 11 victims. In Turkey, authorities say they are looking for a man in his 30s named Habib Akdas who was little known before he allegedly orchestrated bombings in Istanbul last November that killed more than 60 people. Akdas is believed to have met bin Laden in Afghanistan in 2001 and received military and explosives training there. Little else is known about him. Some of the most virulent new guard aren't waiting for the capture or killing of their predecessor to move to the fore. Last year, Nabil Sahraoui, an Algerian in his mid- to late-30s with a reputation for ruthlessness, ousted the leader of the North African Salafist Group for Call and Combat and quickly pledged allegiance to bin Laden. The terror organization, which wants to create an Islamic state in Algeria, had dwindled to a force of only a few hundred men hiding in the Sahara, but has had a resurgence since Sahraoui took over, analysts say. Another man experts say will likely be heard from again in the form of new acts of savagery is Abdulaziz Issa Abdul-Mohsin al-Moqrin, a 30-year-old dropout trained in Afghanistan who is believed to be involved in attacks on May and November 2003 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, that killed 51 people. He has not been linked to the May 1 attack in Yanbu that killed five Westerners and a Saudi, but he issued a statement praising the work of the killers. "The Yanbu Cell that implemented the heroic successful operation this month is one of the best examples of what is required," al-Moqrin said. Al-Moqrin, a Saudi, took command of al-Qaeda's Saudi cell when his predecessor was killed in a May 2003 shootout. Men like bin Laden and his right-hand man, Egyptian surgeon Ayman al-Zawahri, all met in the CIA-funded Afghan war against the Soviet Union in the 1980s. Their focus on international terrorism moved into high gear following the first Persian Gulf War in 1990-91, and the US decision to permanently keep military bases in Saudi Arabia. Largely ignored by the outside world, they found a home in the chaos of 1990s Afghanistan, which was destroyed by war and ultimately fell under the sway of a young, impoverished Islamic student movement known as the Taliban. Today's terrorists have a new incubator: Iraq. The top US commander in the Persian Gulf area, Gen. John Abizaid, acknowledged in March that foreign terrorists have "gotten themselves established" in Iraq. Officials believe Zarqawi is leading them, though some analysts warn that there may be other figures in the background. Mohammed Salah, an Egyptian journalist who has focused on al-Qaeda and other extremist groups, said men like Zarqawi and other terror "stars" are not the end of the story, and are probably not behind every attack they are blamed for. "It is important to note that it could be in al-Qaeda's interest to propagate certain names while others work in the shadows," he said. "Also, governments sometimes have the tendency to blame any attacks on the known fugitives because they need to blame someone." Hundreds of foreign fighters are believed to have flocked to Iraq. That is still far fewer than the 15,000 to 20,000 men believed to have passed through terror training camps in Afghanistan since 1996. The presence of more than 130,000 US soldiers in Iraq means extremist fighters can't settle in for extensive training, but there are nonetheless troubling signs that militants maybe using the country as a terrorist testing ground. On May 17, attackers rigged an artillery shell packed with the deadly nerve agent sarin for detonation. US officials said they are not sure if the assailants knew the 155-mm shell had chemicals in it, but the incident has raised fears that insurgents may have more -- and will learn how to use them to greater effect. Washington has long warned that al-Qaeda might be trying to launch a chemical or biological attack -- overseas or in America. US officials say al-Zarqawi likely has been involved in three major terrorist-style bombings in Iraq since the war began last year: the August 19 truck bombing of UN headquarters in Baghdad that killed 22 people; the August 29 car bombing outside a mosque in Najaf that killed more than 85; and the Nov. 12 suicide-truck bombing outside Italy's paramilitary police headquarters in Nasiriyah in which more than 30 people died. Iraq is by far the most troubling spot on the globe, but many analysts and intelligence officials point to Africa as another area of concern. Across that continent, terrorists have taken advantage of weak, ill-equipped governments and vast, ungoverned spaces. While most African-Muslims are moderates, poverty and discontent have combined to inspire a significant number of young men to join terrorist ranks. Sahraoui's Algerian Salafist group was blamed for the kidnapping of 32 European tourists last year. Algerian commandos freed 14 of the captives, while Germany paid a ransom for the remaining 17 who had been taken to neighboring Mali. One hostage died of heat stroke. The Algerian group also has connections with similar groups in Libya and Morocco, and many of the leaders trace their beginnings to Afghanistan. Please send your comments or feedback to newsfeedback@abs-cbn.com TODAY
