Monday, July 04, 2005
OZYMANDIAS
The bigger they are, the harder they fall!!
The media of Corporate India , though less prone to paeans of personal grandiloquence than the Continent or Europe , has also prided itself on anointing certain individuals who are deemed Super Achievers—endowed with the Midas touch, imbued with fountains of insight and skill, and with savvy and gumption to turn around companies teetering on the brink of disaster without fuss. The more-knowledgeable ones have always averred that success in business is founded on teamwork, application and needs more than a slice of luck to get by. Yet persistence with assigning arbitrary greatness will mean that ever now and then, somebody comes unstuck. My guess is that this happens because the media in its sagacity feels that nobody would want to read about insipid plodders, dreary journeymen and assiduous antlike accumulators.
It was only a matter of time before the plug was pulled on Rajeev Karwal, the MD & CEO of the troubled Electrolux Kelvinator Ltd (EKL) last week.. The beleagured Electrolux Kelvinator had been battling losses for some time now and it is rumoured that it will be soon sold to the Videocon Dhoot Group. The owners of the renowned Kelvinator brand have taken a pounding from the likes of Samsung and LG, and fared only passably well in its other categories of microwave owens and Acs.
He of course had notched up notice-worthy successes in his stints with Philips, LG, Surya Roshni and Mirc Electronics. He had won flowery encomiums throughout his career and was hailed as a marketing genius, a business wizard and a turnaround specialist.
And yet he failed….
Look on my works ye Mighty, and despair!
The bigger they are, the harder they fall!!
The media of Corporate India , though less prone to paeans of personal grandiloquence than the Continent or Europe , has also prided itself on anointing certain individuals who are deemed Super Achievers—endowed with the Midas touch, imbued with fountains of insight and skill, and with savvy and gumption to turn around companies teetering on the brink of disaster without fuss. The more-knowledgeable ones have always averred that success in business is founded on teamwork, application and needs more than a slice of luck to get by. Yet persistence with assigning arbitrary greatness will mean that ever now and then, somebody comes unstuck. My guess is that this happens because the media in its sagacity feels that nobody would want to read about insipid plodders, dreary journeymen and assiduous antlike accumulators.
It was only a matter of time before the plug was pulled on Rajeev Karwal, the MD & CEO of the troubled Electrolux Kelvinator Ltd (EKL) last week.. The beleagured Electrolux Kelvinator had been battling losses for some time now and it is rumoured that it will be soon sold to the Videocon Dhoot Group. The owners of the renowned Kelvinator brand have taken a pounding from the likes of Samsung and LG, and fared only passably well in its other categories of microwave owens and Acs.
He of course had notched up notice-worthy successes in his stints with Philips, LG, Surya Roshni and Mirc Electronics. He had won flowery encomiums throughout his career and was hailed as a marketing genius, a business wizard and a turnaround specialist.
And yet he failed….
Look on my works ye Mighty, and despair!
No thing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that Colossal Wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
