Page 30 - #letter to son

MORNING
Dear son,

Often, I’ve thought that my mentors and seniors had a remarkably
striking common strain.

They were all professors of competitive response. They took a decision
fast and they took it in the interest of all. Today, I’ve come to greatly
value this trait. I’ve realised that sitting on a decision is infinitely worse
than taking a quick and calculative decision. Kill the file or the file will
find a way to kill you.

At the home décor manufacturing enterprise where I worked, I had a
brilliant mentor and boss, and his job, as he saw it, was to get you ready
for the struggles and competitions that lay ahead. I tiptoed around
him, trying to understand his mind and see how it worked. He broke
you down. And then remade you. Just like tallying the debits with the
credits.

During one point, his factory – his entire business – faced a life and
death situation. Most of the shopfloor employees decided to declare a
strike, seal work and bring operations to a grinding halt. They sought to
bring the firm to its knees.

Their call for a strike was quite unfair. Though they were paid industry-
leading salaries, handed-out a handsome bonus that was higher than
industry standards and were covered under all labour regulations, they
demanded that bonus payouts should not be deferred. Note that these
deferred payouts were only a part of the full bonus.

Someone else in our chief’s place would’ve folded under pressure and
crumpled to acquiesce. For it was not a part of the labour force that was
threatening to cease work – it was the majority of it. But not him.

The chief called on his trusted team for consultations and within hours
took a decision. What he did jolted us out of our chairs.

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