The Slippery Slope

 

Been wanting to write about Chanda Kochhar who has been in and out of news, for all the wrong reasons. She had risen to the post of CMD at ICICI bank, then the largest private sector bank in India. Earlier her steering of the bank in the face of 2009 meltdown (ICICI had exposure to Lehman Brothers, the news leading to flight of a lot of deposits from the bank) had cemented her place as the high priestess of high finance in India. Her daughter’s marriage was attended by the Who’s Who of India – the Union Finance Minister, the Maharashtra Chief Minister, Amitabh Bachchan, Mukesh Ambani et al.. Then suddenly, Chanda Kochhar came crashing down. She and her husband were both arrested on charges of gross corruption, profiteering, conflict of interest and other counts. 

This was not the solitary such case. Think Rajat Gupta. He went where no Indian had gone before. Baker Scholar at Harvard Business School, the first foreign-born Managing Director of McKinsey & Co., co-founder of Indian Business School and so on. He served a two-year prison term for insider trading and McKinsey dropped him from their alumni database and called clients worldwide to say that they would have nothing to do with him going forward. 

Ramalinga Raju. He was the poster boy of Indian IT dream. In its heydays, Satyam Computer Services founded by him represented the might of Indian IT capabilities and was described as its “crown jewel.” It operated in 60 countries, employed 50,000 staff and was the first Indian company to be listed on three major international stock exchanges, NYSE, Euronext and Dow Jones. In 2009, Raju admitted to embezzlement of Rs. 7,136 cr which led to his conviction and sentence of 7 years’ jail and fine. 

Obviously, these were very bright people. However, at some point, they lost their moral bearings in a big way and could no longer distinguish between right and wrong. Why does this happen? I read up a bit on it and also reflected a bit more. There appear to be four common pitfalls leading to such successful people landing up on a slippery slope of no return. 

First is the corrupting influence of power. Power is the number of people our actions influence X the amount of that influence. As we grow into our jobs, we find both components of power increasing and our acquiring more and more power. This power is very intoxicating so, like a drunkard craving more and more whiskey with each passing day, we also seek out means of increasing our power, sometimes by any means. 

In our quest of more and more power in a hurry, we take our first, tentative steps at cutting corners or beating the system. What happens is, if we are successful, these infringements tend to be initially ignored and later applauded. So, gradually when we go on to ever bigger transgressions and keep getting away with them, we develop a sense of invincibility – I’m Muhammad Ali; no one and nothing can touch me … this is the kind of pitfall which leads a cop from interrogation through third degree to things like the horrific Bhagalpur blindings.

When Chanda Kochhar was sitting in that MBA classroom at Bajaj or when Rajat Gupta was considering his first job or when Ramalinga Raju ventured into business, they must’ve dreamt about big things that they wanted to achieve. I do think, their achievements exceeded their original dreams by miles. After earning so much, attaining so high statuses and feted by the highest and the mightiest, why then did they crave for so much more that they let their morality go by the board? What they developed was ambition without purpose. This is when despite having all the money in the world, one tries to acquire more and more without any use for it; despite having a huge conglomerate, one indulges in a merger and acquisition spree without it helping the bottom line; and so on. 

The final and probably the most dangerous pitfall is suppression of guilt through rationalisation. It starts small. Justifying an irregular action on the pretext of helping a subordinate, later, for the sake of the department or branch, even later, for the larger benefit of the company/ industry, and, if one is intoxicated/ megalomaniac enough, justifying by claiming that it was all for the sake of the country or the world. 

The problem is, while errors of judgement or competence slip-ups can sometimes be redeemed, it is impossible to restore status-quo-ante after an ethical slip-up. 

[Small factoid: Chanda Kochhar completed her MBA from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Bombay in 1984, the same year I completed mine from IIM, Bangalore.]