Designation Burst

At 78, senior Dolatia was still fond of going to his vulgarly ostentatious corner office at the top floor of corporate office of Dolatia Group.

Dolatias had mopped up literally billions from the gullible public that hoped to become rich by dealing in the Dolatia shares. It was another matter that even after passage of five years since tons of money was collected, the investors did not see any dividend check.

On the other hand, the company had purchased three huge mansions and some twelve up-market cars of the latest models and gave them to the three directors of the company (and indirectly, to their wives and their grown up children) apart from the fat salaries the three executive directors were already drawing since the inception of the company. One of the executive directors was also the CEO of the company. And who were they? You guessed it right- they were all Dolatia clan- the senior Dolatia and his two sons.

As per very private inner circle of Dolatias, Dolatias used to boast of their uncanny talent of grabbing people's money and using it to their personal advantage. They used to believe that if you can get milk from others' cows, you don't have to use your own. They also used to boast of having hired highly intelligent "servants" from all over the world, at a pretty cheap price to run their company. To them the highly skilled "professionals" were no more than the domestic help.

In the mean time, the old man Dolatia was suffering from bouts of amnesia. So he won't remember the names of his servants (the executives of the company). Nevertheless he was very fond of summoning them and giving them orders on business matters.

On one usual day, he called a senior executive to his sprawling cabin. This gentleman was the Senior Chief Vice President- Manufacturing, perhaps the most important and most useful person in the company. Dolatia always seemed very courteous to any onlooker. He offered him seat to sit down. One dared not sit down in front of Dolatia unless offered a seat by him.

Dolatia looked at the new arrival quizzically and threw a question at him, "Who are you?"

Most senior executives in the organization were aware of Dolatia's amnesia condition. They knew that he had no control over his memory; he used to forget things every now and then. So they won't mind his obnoxious behavior. The Senior Chief Vice President- Manufacturing said politely, "Sir, I am Philip Mathew, your Senior Chief Vice President- Manufacturing."

Dolatia retorted in an irritating tone, "Look Mathew, I am not asking that- your designation. That- I have bestowed upon you. I keep distributing those things from time to time- chief, senior, senior chief, chief assistant, senior chief assistant and so many of them. I keep them in my pockets always. All I am asking you is, "Are you a babu (a clerk or an administrator) or an engineer?" Based on that I will decide whether I should assign the work, I have in mind, to you or to someone else who is more suitable for that type of work. It's a top level job and I must have the right person to do it."

In summary, Dolatia had just about two classifications of his senior people- a babu (a clerk or an administrator) or an engineer; designations really did not matter.

Related Books

1. "Sensitive Stories of Corporate World" (available from Amazon, get it online as a paperback or an eBook)

Read many more management anecdotes/management case studies in the eminent author Shyam Bhatawdekar's best selling book "Sensitive Stories of Corporate World" available online from Amazon as an eBook as well as a printed book.

2. "Sensitive Stories of Corporate World (Volume 2)" (available from Amazon, get it online as a paperback or an eBook)

Read many more management anecdotes/management case studies in the eminent author Shyam Bhatawdekar's best selling book "Sensitive Stories of Corporate World (Volume 2)" available online from Amazon as an eBook as well as a printed book.

Other Related Reading

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Also, refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/

For “out of box thinking” articles by Shyam Bhatawdekar, refer: (Out of Box Ideas) http://wow-idea.blogspot.com/

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