Sunday, 17 June 2018

Rang De Basanti

Rang De Basanti ! 

There’s a trend these days finding management lessons from usually unexpected places. One such place was the famous Mumbai Dabbawallas. And to learn from famous movies is also on. “Lagaan” did teach us many management lessons. Now that the movie “Rang De Basanti” (RDB from now onwards), has been selected as the Indian entry for the Oscar, permit me to try and locate some of the principles of management, as suggested by Fayol.

I liked the movie though not the means adopted by the youngsters to reach the ends.  This movie being a cult movie, it might encourage the youth to get on the violence path. This may lead to an ‘Educated Naxalite’ path and a free-for-all in the society. I would have preferred other methods for addressing their grievances. I would have much appreciated had they taken an approach like a smart ‘sting operation’ to expose the corrupt minister. (Wish somebody remakes the movie from that point onwards when they take to violence, wish I had the means to do it! May be it would not have allowed the director to compare their ‘reel lives’ and the ‘real lives’ which was the main these on the movie.) Nonetheless, the movie offers a number of management lessons.

Subordination of Individual interest to the corporate good  - Every individual (and organization - what is it other than a bunch of individuals?) must have a common ‘Laksha’ (Is Hrithik listening?). It would be to channelize their individual energies for carving out individual successes which would be translated to the organizational achievement. Organizations keep to their niche areas and keep exploiting (that is the precise reasons for huge dollops of dollars and pounds and Euros getting in India in BOPs and Call centers) to the hilt. Here one of the characters has to eliminate his powerful and influential father just before  the climax (it is one aspect which may not go down with many, but please understand that we are not on the judgemental seat here;  we are simply drawing management principles from it) but does it all the same.

Esprit de corps - The English girl is totally bamboozled (and so are we, the spectators) by the close friendship which the youngsters have. They are true friends whether in their care free ‘awtars’ or while on a mission. They care too hoots about what others, including what their own family members think of them. In any organization its the espirit de corps which accounts for many a great achievements. We don’t need to go far, just have a look at  Infosys to confirm this. In the movie, they all adopt the English girl who has so much of cultural difference with their style of living. Why even Aamir’s parents also don’t have any inhibition towards her, in fact his mother herself suggests that she might have fallen in love with her! In organizations if only there are no informal groups based on regionality, caste or language, we all could prosper much faster.  To be honest, it takes a lot of expansive time in many organization for such adoption.

Initiative - All through the movie they have shown tremendous initiative. Whether driving rash, diving backwards in to the pond below, taking the law in their hands (of course this could be debated, as is written earlier), taking over the radio station to send the message to the countrymen after shooting down the corrupt minister etc.  If only most of the persons own the problems, find their innovative solutions; in short take more initiative, most organizations would do much better.

Division of Work - In the beginning, they all are drifting, except for the English girl and Soha. But once they have their ideas clear on how to go about getting justice for their departed friend, all pieces fall in line nicely. At the end, their plot to bump off the minister, to overtake the radio station, to man it skillfully and to address the countryman was a well planned and executed activity which had the work well divided. That they have the chivalry to keep the girls out of it, is another good point.

Equity - It was to be a movie with Aamir the hero; most of us would have expected that he would have got into super hero activities. However, it is a equity which is evident through out the movie, especially toward the end. The temptation to have Aamir speaking on the radio at the end was wisely resisted. They all have definite roles to play and they play it to perfection even if they may not have bargained for the bullets that they would face!



We have only seen five of the principles depicted in this flick, there would be others as well. As long as we understand the principles as management students and the message that we can’t just sit around waiting for things to happen and be proactive, this movie would have achieved its aim, whether an Oscar with it or not.  
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