This is with reference to Shyam Ponappa’s “The Huawei pointer” (May 3), which enumerates the factors that have led to the spectacular success of the Chinese company. Various infrastructure and other factors are necessary for the success of a company, but it is the top leadership, human capital and organisational culture of the company that ensures it a competitive edge under similar market conditions.
However, adoption of the same competencies and work culture in another company is very difficult because unique history, causal ambiguity (reasons for success are too deep-rooted to explain) and bounded rationality (cognitive limitations) come in the way of recreating or understanding the issues involved in the success story.
When the ideal company operates in a different national culture or political system, it is virtually impossible to imitate it. Can any Indian company insist on a six-day, 12-hour work for its employees as Huawei does (“9-9-6”)? Also broad-based employee ownership of the organisation (Huawei has more the 50 percent employees with company stock) may bring in more confrontation rather than collaboration from the trade unions. Six-month rotation of the three top executives might have its negative effects.
This does not detract from the relevance of the article; it makes us think of adaption instead of complete adoption of what succeeded abroad. It is important to note this if you recall the mess we made of quality circles, co-determination (workers’ participation in top management) and benchmarking.
Y G Chouksey Pune