Message from MD – October 2016

The first six months of the current financial Year came to an end yesterday. Sales, finance, service and construction are the four major pillars of any organization. I am indeed overwhelmed by the stunning performance of the team during the term. I would also like to recognize the courage, perseverance, hard work, integrity and commitment of our team on the total work front. Cheers to the performers.

In business, as in life, there are a few situations where all facts are in black and white, and the answer is immediately apparent. Some issues, however, are a darker shade of gray than other. Everybody faces these kinds of problems, where you are really not sure how to get a handle on them. You have to make a decision, and the decision matters. Often, when you’re dealing with gray areas, you may not have all of the facts you need, or you may be unsure of how to frame the problem, or the people you work with may disagree. These are the types of problems that land squarely on managers’ desks. In our office too, the complex, messy problems tend to get delegated upward. For guidance on handling gray-area problems, let us turn not to the latest management theories but to a much older source – a wide range of thinkers, who, over the centuries, have wrestled with the big questions of human nature, our common life together, and the soundest ways to make hard, important decisions. Managing the gray area is like being at a debate, where your fellow participants include Aristotle, Confucius, and Chanakya. Facing these kinds of events and issues every day, I would suggest boldly that the only path before you is, When you face a gray-area problem, you should work through it as a manager and resolve it as a human being.

Approaching a problem as a manager means working with others and doing all you can to really understand the problem. You don’t decide these things in splendid isolation or with brilliant insights. You get data and use the tools you have to analyze it with other people. In gray areas, however, discussion and analysis doesn’t produce a final decision. In these instances, somebody finally has to say this is what we are going to do and this is why, and that takes an act of judgment. Every manager should ask the following questions as guidelines for making gray-area decisions:

1. What is the final consequence?
2. What are my core obligations?
3. What will happen as it is?
4. Am I left with a better option?

Rotary International proposes a Four-Way Test, a nonpartisan and nonsectarian ethical guide for Rotarians to use for their personal and professional relationships. Of the things they do,

1. Is it the TRUTH?
2. Is it FAIR to all concerned?
3. Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
4. Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?

As people who manage the business of turning dreams into reality, when it comes to dwelling places, reducing the gray areas is a big challenge. To manage the gray areas, the above two sets of questions will help you a lot for sure. Also in-depth analytical work is the crucial first step in addressing gray-area problems. But it doesn’t dispel the gray. That only happens when someone steps forward and makes a decision, based on his or her judgment, as a manager and a human being. It should be a judgment based on the long-standing, powerful ideas derived by asking those eight questions themselves.

Friends, the second half of the financial year is just begun. I wish each and every member of Asset family a great performing season. Enjoy work!