I never like to write on such issues. But the failure of Lehman raises a lot of questions. The issue of financials does not interest me. What worries me, such a big corporate house how can it collapse. The people working, so well qualified, PHD's, from prestigious management institutes of the world (In India from IIM), all management tools, best brains everything was there. Then what went wrong. Was it wrong Policies, wrong direction, or aiming at just profitability, lack of decision making, lack of check and balances, lack of looking into future.
Is it that our educations is not complete, is it that all the quality initiatives, management principles, economic theories, certifications just for name sake. All companies in the world have to start thinking.
Companies have three components to look into. Its business principles and ethics, its employees and customers, and shareholders. The importance should always be in this order only. The image of the company should be build on principles and ethics it demonstrates and not just states, money should be treated secondary, decision making should be distributed, and checks and balances should be effective. Without which such news will keep coming up. A small search on google will give you a financial firms list that have collapsed or fainted in the past.
The impact on countries like India cannot be ruled out. Where are the economists, political thinkers, university professors, politicians, new channel reporters etc doing? How come none could ever think of this? How come none read reports, analysed data and yet allowed their students/peers/friends etc to join? It creates a big doubt on their analysis skills. Can such thing happen to our banks, financial institutions, corporations. How much are we impacted. Do we have honest figures?
It worries. The good old advice fits. Invest in what is worth the investment. Nothing better than gold.
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