Samundra Manthan – Churning the ocean 

ajaikapoor

Demonetization by the government of India has been hailed as a bold but risky political move. People are worried about the long lines, the inconvenience and the fall out. It is not the main issue. It is a symptom of the real problem though. No government is capable enough to understand all the impacts of radical change. So making radical change is like churning the ocean. You may get the nectar of life but you will also get the poison for sure…

To stretch the metaphor, the nectar expected is a radical transformation of national character. Honesty, selfless service and civic sense enhanced; corruption, conspicuous consumption and selfishness de-valued. This is the values and moral argument. 

Associated with this policy is the practical impact on people’s well being. The constraints placed on their ability to pursue private goals. To lead their lives as individuals, searching for their happiness and fulfillment in family, business and secular projects, not just worker bees in a vast national project. This is a different values and morals argument. 

The nectar of one point of view could become poison for the other. Should governments decide national purpose? Certainly leaders should articulate the emotional and spiritual aspirations of citizens, in order to gather their support and votes. This is good politics. Gandhiji was a successful politician not because he manipulated the masses, but because he voiced the deepest and best aspirations of the people. But the end result of governance is to accommodate all those who do not share in these same aspirations. It will be these people who will have to swallow the poison willingly for a cohesive national project to be successful. They will be the “Neelakanth” that allows the churning to continue. 

The politics is playing out as a morality play between the demons and the gods. Each side claiming to be representing the good and demonizing the other. This is the real issue I have with this policy. It has setup this morality play and drama that will consume the public mind. Unfortunately the evil is us. The good is us. We are in the words of Gandhi being “gutter inspectors” and finding filth. We could instead look up and find fellow citizens. 

Published by ajaikapoor

Dr. Ajai Kapoor holds a PhD in Operations Research from Carnegie Mellon University. He is the winner of the Fulkerson Prize. He completed his B.Tech from IIT Delhi. He has over 16 years of consulting experience helping companies design innovative logistical solutions based on Theory of Constraints (TOC). His passion is to help companies deploy these solutions as a disruptive force in order to obtain a decisive competitive advantage. His focus is on applying first principles to create simple solutions that can be implemented at scale. He believes in using the power of TOC to resolve deep conflicts within and between organizations, strengthening the integration within companies and with their suppliers and partners. Ajai’s consulting focus has been on Operations Solutions for high uncertainty environments. These include New Product Development, Airline Maintenance, Supply Chain and R&D organizations. He has worked with Boeing, Amdocs, Larsen and Toubro, Alaska Airlines, Delta Airlines, Medtronics and US Air Force. Ajai is an entrepreneur, having started a company that focused on providing TOC based software for project management. Currently he is Partner at Goldratt Consulting. He lives in San Jose with his wife and two sons.

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