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We need a plan (View Comments)
Walter E Vieira is a senior management consultant who started India’s first Marketing Consulting Company (MAS) in 1975. He offers consulting and training services to companies in India, S E Asia, Africa and USA, over three decades.
Posted On Monday, December 21, 2009 at 12:14:25 PM
Somehow, most Indians are not good planners. We have many other positive qualities, but being good planners, is not one of them. I do not know how we lost the capability for good planning. If one goes through the details of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro, one will find/or assume that they were excellent planners. They planned the city; the water supply, the drainage system, the water reservoirs and the myriad other aspects needed to create a great and organised city. However, between then and now, a lot has happened. And the ability or inclination to spend time in planning is one of the areas where we have lost.
A friend of mine from Belgium came to India and he wanted to get around Mumbai without being a burden on my time, to take him around. So he went to the bus depot at Flora Fountain and asked for a map of the city. They did not have one. It was out of stock. He tried to get one at a few book stalls in the area. No success. He was surprised. In any European city, this would be available anywhere. And the reception at most hotels would give a map away for free! Why was this? Because there is no great demand for maps anyway. We don’t have to look and plan. We ask people along the way for directions. And we are happy, even if occasionally they misdirect us.
When I ask a salesman in India, where he is working today – he tells me about the general area. For example, he will say ‘I am working in Colaba today.’ Does he have a detailed plan of work? Where exactly will he go? Who will he see? What will he say? What does he hope to achieve? Some do not. They may not realise that even selling today is a ‘brain game.’ Unless you spend 25% of the time in thinking and planning, the other 75% of leg work will not get the expected results. The days of 100% of legwork are over. Today, most if not all jobs require 25% to 33% headwork to make the balance amount of time in legwork, more effective.
The result of such an attitude towards PLANNING. We build large airports at places like Hyderabad and Bangalore. But we do not plan for good roads from the city centre to these swank new airports – with the same fervour. We build a sea-link from Bandra to Worli in Mumbai at a high cost of Rs.1400 crores (originally planned estimate was Rs.450 crores) But we do not build roads at either end to take the traffic further as speedily as it traveled over the bridge. We build traffic flyovers in Mumbai, but do not plan what we will do with the area under the flyovers. So we have the unsightly view of disbanded autorickshaws and cars, covered in layers of dust, parked here and for free. We plan for large increases in production of cars – but we do not plan concurrently for more road space. We give permissions to high rise buildings – but we don’t plan for at least two parking spaces for each apartment – something that even a small, not so affluent country like Jordan does.
Our young people must break this mould. They must put an emphasis on planning – not just operations. When we all do that, we will finally save time, save money and achieve more. And there will be few surprises!
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