Companies are like human beings. Just like
humans are born, grow and perish a natural death, so do companies. The percentage of companies which have
survived the last 100 years is very close to the percentage of centenarians in
the human race. Therefore, uniquely, companies like IBM which has been around
for half a century, Tupperware which has done a century, GE, and Encyclopaedia
Britannica, have been through their own ups and downs. Some of them have come
to the brink of extinction and turned back while others climbed the scales of
success and dropped to their current state…just like human life.
Our first decade is leading into the
second. For those of us who have lived it this past decade with the company, it
feels like almost a lifetime. It has taken us from the depths of chaos and
controversy to the heights of spinning almost unimaginable success, and both--
the heights and the depths —have left us wiser.
The question is not so much what we have
done so far, but where do we go from here. Despite the various changes that we
have undergone over the years--changes like those which are undergone by
mountain streams becoming small rivers.
In reality, the river is not the same as it was a few minutes ago and
yet, it is changeless. From the outside looking in, we as a company, as an
entity and as a network, may look the same, but we have grown and continued to
grow and we continue to change. Not at the same rapid pace of the mountain
stream which we were in our early years, but at a slower, steady pace of a
river that is coming into its own.
We are now a river with many
tributaries—all flowing into this mainstream which we hope and aspire will one
day become the mighty Amazon of companies on Earth. Why? Not because we are more efficiently run
or that we are more effectively managed or even because our marketing skills
are unparalleled. Not because of any of these!
It is simply because our heart is in the right place and therefore our
vision too, which makes us all share a common spirit —from our most junior
employee to the Board of Directors, from the networker who signed in yesterday,
from a V Partner, to even our suppliers, who have come to accept who we are;
and many of you, who share this powerful dream.
Just like the late Dr. Martin Luther King
had said, I have a dream.
I have a dream that one day we will change
the future of the human race. These
words may sound grandiose and have been echoed many times in the past by many
great people. Yet, they hold true till today.
If it is dreams that will define who we can
become, then let us dream far and wide; let us dream to the dizzying heights of
raising mankind to the ultimate purpose of living in harmony, in peace and in
love—as envisioned by almost every philosophy and religion since beginning of
time.
So how do we do this? Let us begin with
little steps. The beginning is not by creating more efficient systems but
rather by more effective caring, by better concern to delivering customer
service to every networker; and equally by appreciation and support for the
very long serving, very first people who remain steadfast till today. It begins
with better dialogue and more effective communication, not just between the
company and the network but also between every leader and his network. For, it
is in greater communication that we have greater understanding. Instead of
anger, we should have appreciation for everyone’s efforts, and the
understanding required towards each other’s mistakes. For, ultimately we are but only one family.
Whether it be with the V family or the QI family or the family of
nations—because in the end, we are all the family of Mankind.
Let truth shine, let love bind, and let us
arise and awake into this new dawn, this new decade, this new phase—the next
decade.