510. The New General Manager

Thangappan, who, since the time he had joined the firm, been working, for long, in the branches of the firm located in the Northern part of India, was promoted as the General Manager of the Southern Zonal Office of the firm at Chennai, on the retirement of Nambi, the incumbent General Manager.

When Thangappan joined the office at Chennai, Nambi, who had a few days for retirement, introduced the office staff to Thangappan.

"This is Ramesh, my Personal Secretary. He has been working in this firm for the past ten years. He has been serving as my right hand. He is capable of doing the jobs I do, as efficiently as I could, if not better than I could. More importantly, he is highly trustworthy. I am sure that he would be of assistance to you, as much as he was to me" said Nambi, introducing Ramesh to Thangappan. 

Ramesh greeted Thangappan. Thangappan reciprocated his greeting, even as he was wondering whether Nambi's praising him so high over his face won't make him feel conceited..

"You have been working only in the North. The atmosphere there would have been different. The market, the customers, the office environment, work culture will all be vastly different here from what they are in the North" said Nambi.

"I hail from the South, having been born in Tamilnadu" said Thangappan, with a smile. 

"I am not suggesting that you are unfamiliar with this territory. I meant that it would take some time for you to get adjusted to the atmosphere here. Till that time, the assistance of people like Ramesh will be useful to you" said Nambi, by way of clarifying his remarks. 

"I understand" said Thangappan. But, a thought that he should not rely too much on Ramesh was registered in his mind, even at that moment.

"Come in, Ramesh" Nambi greeted Ramesh, who visited his house. "How is the firm going?"

"Sir! It was to talk about the state of affairs at our firm that I came to meet you" said Ramesh. "After Mr. Thangappan had taken over as the General Manager, we are facing a lot of problems. There are issues relating to internal management as well as managing the customers. A couple of our long-standing customers are likely to leave us!"

"Why? Thangappan is an experienced person. Though he is new to this office, he should be able to function effectively, by taking the help of able and trustworthy people like you What is the problem?"

"The General Manager, in general, doesn't accept my suggestions. Many times, he doesn't even discuss issues with me. Of course, that is his privilege. But, you know about Vinayakam, working in our office..."

Yes. Vinayakam, the 'all-knowing' Accounts Assistant. He is a good-for-nothing fellow. He has no knowledge about our business or about office procedures, but he will keep interfering in all matters, offering unsolicited advice. As you are aware, I have reprimanded him a couple of times. What about him?"

"He is the main advisor to the General Manager, these days. The General Manager consults him on most of the issues. Most of his decisions, taken on the advice of Vinayakam, have gone wrong, resulting in more and more problems to our firm. But the General Manager has not realized this."

"A person holding a responsible position in an organization should study the people working under him, assess every one's capabilities and shortcomings and should decide whom he should listen to and whom he shouldn't. If he fails to do this, and acts on the advice of someone, blindly trusting his judgement, it will cause harm to him and to the organization. What is it we can do? It is for Mr. Thangappan to think clearly, choose his advisors wisely and function efficiently" said Nambi, with a deep sigh.

Thirukkural
Section 2

Materialism

Chapter 51
Assess Before Accepting

Verse 510 (in Tamil):

thErAn theLivum theLindhAn kaN aiyuRavum
thIrA idumbai tharum

Meaning:

Selecting a person without assessing him, and doubting a person after selecting him will both ensure enduring distress.

(This is the English version of the Tamil story 'pudhiya nirvAgi' by the same author.)

Verse 511 (Soon)
Verse 509