Article - 82 Week 48 Culture of Big Talk

Article - 82  Week 48

Culture of Big Talk

Culture is a gooey stuff, brewed with individual biases and beliefs into a gigantic sticky snowball. It's so overbearing that it strongly controls and directs the thoughts of the very individuals who contributed in building this sticky snowball in the first place. The set of responses of any individual in a group or industry has a clear pattern and commonality. To an outsider this looks strange and funny at times, unless he gets carried away to lose his shirt at a later date. He tries to rationalize his observations, based on his own culture. When we talk about groups, they do not necessarily mean to comprise of a geography or demography. The group could be engaged in a specific industry or business over a large geographical or time span, influenced by common factors like government regulations and policies, consumer appetite, and various other terrains of the enterprise. 

There are many facets to the culture of our Indian shipping industry - both good and bad. We shall discuss about one of the facets - Big Talk & Despondency. I have yet to come across one in our industry, who believes that the future holds promise for Indian shipping. Some people believe in a state of stagnation at best, while majority love to stay in their make-believe temple of doom  and confusion. Meet any sales professional in our industry. They would spew up unbelievable numbers on your face! They throw such fantastical numbers on your face like so many1000 containers, that too from a small port incapable of handling such a volume in months, or so many million tons of bulk cargo to put even China's appetite to shame, or so many tons of air cargo that no plane has been built to carry that kind of load. If bravado is a mask to hides one's vulnerability, such claims are no more than pumped up words to hide the deep seated despondency within. To outsiders, such claims are mind bogglingly incredible at times.

It's time for us to stay away from such fantasy and indulge in a real a world with real numbers. And these are by no means small any more. They are impressive numbers in the backdrop of a buoyant economy. By believing in reality and working with confidence, we can change this culture of Big Talk  to Real Talks.

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Brgds

Capt Rath