Apr 3, 2024

 After a lively Industrial Board meeting with Charles and company, I went on to take a break on the 2nd floor- which housed a nice glass room, with a few tables and chairs. You could have bring your refreshments here and have at it. This was the designated room for those that did not fast. I poured myself a black coffee ( instant it was, and not a Nespresso like usual- but, hey, at least it was something warm and coffee flavored- I would take that over nothing in a heartbeat). Soon I was joined by some other compatriots who were non-muslims and hence also not fasting. This had, over the last few weeks, turned out to be a regular gathering of the same faces. The cabal was a child of Ramadan, as that is what brought all of us together at least once a day, mid morning, for our much needed coffee break. In most sessions, we ended up discussing some specific crisis that cut across all of our respective areas- in other words, some ongoing problem that touched the whole company in some way. Today, though, one of the chaps from IT asked me what my thoughts were about this joint, now that I had been hanging around for almost a year. I know I will often get this question, but somehow I am never prepared for it. However, almost intuitively I answered him. I said that I thought the joint had some excellent people, who were folks of tremendous knowledge, integrity and generally speaking nice guys that one could hang out with. However, I had observed that there existed a chronic malady - which was a sort of fear psychosis, that prevented most people from speaking their mind and challenging authority, even when they knew it was the right thing to do. As a result, they said one thing to authority and power, but the opposite when hanging out with fellow coffee drinkers. I believe this was stemming mainly from a fear that they might be construed as “trouble makers” or “ rabble rousers” and therefore be terminated. The choice for me is simple. If you raise the alarm, there is a minute chance you might be fired today. If you don’t raise the alarm there may be a more than minute chance that the company will cease to be profitable and we all lose our jobs in the near term  ( say  in one or two years from now). I say this because , unlike oil, this is a very dynamic and competitive industry where the margins are wafer thin. This means one false move is usually enough to render it hors de combat. On the other hand, I do understand that people in Dubai, especially non-nationals, really value the employment and the dirham salary. They probably bank on it not just to sustain their families in Dubai but also , via remittances, their extended families in India. As such, they might not be as kicked about the long-term well being of the company as they are about the short term stability of their income. But it is one of those negative spirals that take a perfectly good organisation and make it both an underperforming and at the same time a toxic joint. But I have not lost hope yet. While there is the usual politicking with the big boss, and the obvious fear of middle and lower staff of going against the grain, all of this is somewhat mitigable by increased communication. If a large group of diverse stakeholders sit down together and discuss, 90 percent of the issue melts way. And it is a good indicator of the nature of the issue itself. A technical problem is almost always solvable via discussion. A political not so much. A case in point is the recent implementation of a new IT system in the shop floor to improve data capture at a very granular level. The idea is not new and in the wake of the Internet of Things revolution, digitalisation is being pursued at every level and within every layer of work. The system was implemented in the beginning of the year, without full testing. It was a bit like the Pfizer vaccine being implemented except that for that one can still plead extenuating circumstances. Here, it was done by executive decree, because promises had been made to the Board that it would be done. I think this type of behavior is probably also rampant in the Indian (and other ) governments. Loads of people are pressurized to deliver and they get creative about achieving it. I never understood why. In my last employer, this was rampant. Some guy would have the goal of implementing something. He would do it, without proper care, and then tick the box and move to his next role. The next person in the role would need to pick up the pieces. At least this is still somewhat workable in a behemoth multinational. You could move to a different country in your next role and get air cover under a whole new regime. But in a smallish company that is located in one office, one is not going to be able to run and hide. If you simply tick a box, it will unravel and it will happen right in from of your very eyes. And then the only response available to you, assuming you are not the ownership-taking samaritan in the first place ( else you would not be here), is that you will start blaming other people. In the case, the main man who was trying to push the implementation started lashing out at everyone but himself. The system was not working and it had massive implications in closing our books monthly. Data coming from the system was all over the place and more or less rendered not credible. But instead of trying to really deep-dove and understand the causes, the main man started throwing all kinds of stuff under the bus without any basis. “SHop floor people don’t want this system to succeed”. “It is making transparent many of the bad behaviors that they were indulging in for years- so they are trying to sabotage it” “ Finance does not want this to succeed, so they are creating barriers “- and so on. In terms of evidence for these claims, there are random pictures of boxes in the factories with the wrong tag or bar code being whatsapped to the group CEO- in order to create some smoke to back these claims. It is incredibly funny how it is playing out and I am sitting somewhat on the sidelines an enjoying the show. There is, however, a lot of learnings to be had from this episode. As of yesterday’s plenary exchange on this subject, it seems like we now have the real reason for the problem identified and are  making progress towards resolving it. But it will take some time- and meanwhile, we will need to make all kinds of Financial Provisions. All this could have been avoided if the Project Sponsor and Manager ( the main men tasked with this) had chosen to engage more widely.