Turbulence and Triumph

Most management personnel in their quest to rapidly rise in organizational hierarchy in current environment have no qualms in setting aside ethics, principles. They are willing to compromise and blindly follow orders of superiors, whether they are politicians, bureaucrats or senior management personnel as long as it serves their personal interests. If in the process, the organisation suffers is not their slightest concern. 

Air India's ignominious fall from its once iconic stature can partly be attributed to this inherent weakness in executives, at all levels, who personally flourished due to self-serving attitude but ensured diminution of the airline - leaving no option with the government but to eventually privatise.

In an environment where few worked to prevent the free fall in the post J R D Tata era, a few individuals, however, stood out. The author, Jitender Bhargava, was one of them. Being uncompromising, unrelenting, unwilling to collude in decisions, if he sniffed symptoms of nepotism or corruption or likely to harm the organization, he crossed swords with the political establishment, chief executives, his management colleagues and the powerful unions.