Businesses and political parties face crises. But the first have long-term goals; the second are short-sighted
Two established families are fighting to ensure their survival. The Tata group is working to bring back profitability and the Samajwadi Party to ensure re-election. Neither of them has been content with its recently-selected successor and is looking for ways to retract them from leadership and re-install the old guard. Cyrus Mistry is fighting back and blaming Ratan Tata for alleged interference, while Akhilesh Yadav is holding his ground to maintain his strong presence within the Samajwadi Party.
The sagas are similar. However, Indian businesses continue to have a strategic focus that ensures their survival while political parties are haunted by an opaqueness that makes them relatively short-lived.
The brilliance of professional businesses is the simplicity of the mission and the linear actions they follow. The Tatas want to ensure a healthy profit. Accordingly, each of its industries is expected to create a strategy that keeps it competitive. The Tata group recruits the best talent it can to execute the strategy. It has a leadership board that works hard to measure its successes and course-correct, if needed. According to the Tata board, Cyrus Mistry was not doing this well enough. He was made to make way. Ratan Tata had been able to deliver the results. He was asked to return. The story is plain and simple.
Politics also has a potentially simple message but is convoluted in practice. Politics is about parties that can capture enough votes to form a Government. Once in Government, their role is to keep people content so that they can ensure their re-election. They can keep people happy by ‘governing well’, which is, delivering public services. However, since independence, Governments have become increasingly complex and opaque. While the intent of all parties remains to win elections, unfortunately the larger goal of creating a prosperous and harmonious society still hasn't set in. Parties haven't moved beyond power capture. The events within the Samajwadi Party illustrate this reality effectively.
According to some, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav is not being seen as a strong leader. Several political pundits say there are too many power centres in Uttar Pradesh, and thus the Chief Minister is not able to deliver basic public services like law and order. However, this is heresay. The Samajwadi Party has not provided any data points about the failure of Akhilesh Yadav to the people and ensure that it will be continue to govern effectively by bringing in someone else.
Neither is there any understanding about whether Uttar Pradesh has improved under the Yadav rule and who within the Samajwadi Party, beyond Mulayam Singh Yadav, is even taking the decisions (like a leadership board). Instead a fistfight has broken out within the party and factions have been created between father, son and uncles. No one seems to be focussed on governing and building institutions. Instead, the conversation is about power capture by individuals.
The impact of such an action can be deep-rooted. For example, party workers who commit themselves to spreading the ideology of the organisation, are left disgruntled. They don't know what the leadership stands for and are not as motivated to work hard. The conversation has moved from being in Government to being in politics. Much like in the case of employees of a company, it is imperative that party workers know about the larger strategy and product offering ( governance policies). Perhaps this is why governance continues to lag behind politics and India is still unable to attract the best talent into the political sphere.
Unlike business, politics runs on short-term views and is fairly devoid of objective and data-based insights.
Some minor improvements within a few parties have come in, though. For example, in the last Bihar Assembly election, in an effort to engage the women voters, alcohol abuse was discussed and prohibition introduced as a policy measure. The ruling party looked beyond politics and started focussing on governance as a way to keep the votes. But the examples are still too few.
In a few months the dust will settle on the Tata dispute and Samajwadi Party turmoil. While the strategy and focus of the Tatas will allow for it to continue thriving, the Samajwadi Party’s survival and growth might be in question without a clear layout of what and why the party wants.
(The writer is CEO of Swaniti Initiative, a non-profit that delivers development solutions)