Thursday, January 22, 2009

7th January 2009

This date on my calendar could have been just another day in my life... but it happens to be the day of shock and unfolding of unbelievable stories... yes, I am talking about Ramalinga Raju's confession to SEBI about inflated financials of the company.

I have chosen to speak to my friends about what goes on inside our organization as I have got so many calls from my friends and family enquiring about my well being and that of my family.. I feel responsible to share this with you all. However I am not in a position to share any of my knowledge on this fiasco of this huge scale. So bear with me...

I still remember the scene... I was in an internal meeting with my taskforce team, passionately explaning my strategy to improve 'Employee Satisfaction' (We call this as Associate Delight Index - ADI). Suddenly one of the members stepped out for a minute or so only to return back that there is a news on TV that our chairman has resigned.

We all rushed to the common room where TV is played... to my utter shock and disbelief.. the story slowly unfolded in front of us... the stock price is dropping quickly by the minute... in a span of few minutes the price nearly halved.. Even then the entire story did'nt sink into me.. I immediately called my wife to update her and told her not to panic if someone calls her for clarification and I would'nt be able to confirm or deny any news either.

The next thing I realized is I am in the middle of an ad-hoc meeting at Labrynth with some senior colleagues... all huddling to digest what we saw in the media for the last hour and half.. the same thing was being repeated with more drama..

The meeting was more informal, we had the audacity to crack jokes (I guess that is a natural reaction to calm yourself from the stress you are going through) and thankfully the leaders handled the situation very well..

After a small huddle, we dispersed only to gather back in small groups to further carry out our discussions... the common questions (Not in the same order)I could hear in the aisle and hallways:-
1. How is this possible?
2. How can he do this?
3. What should we do now?
4. What will happen if the Share Price goes to 'Zero'?
5. Will we get our Salary this month?
6. How will our customers react?
7. Why are they using words like 'Fraud'; 'Scam'; 'Enron of India' etc?
8. How can one individual bring us down?
9. Are there other leaders involved in this? What was CFO doing all this while? Where is he now?
10. Whom should we believe / not?

Many senior colleagues who have spent more than 5 years (Loyalists) were very much emotionally disturbed... I have no words to comfort them..

The day was longer for all of us... I found myself hanging around till 8 pm at office with my team members..

I will talk more about what happens inside an organization (Emotions and Stress levels of associates) that is going through such a massive crisis.

I was affected too by what was happening to me and around me... after so many days, I have chosen to come out and post these thoughts of mine now, just because I feel I m in control of the situation than the otherway around...

watch out for more...

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