Discussion

Whenwe hear the word life cycle, what comes to our mind is the life cycle of a butterfly that we studied in our school days. The life cycle of a butterfly is so fascinating that the phenomenon makes everyone gape with wonder. Where life cycle of butterfly is having a span of one generation, in case of certain birds, it extends to two three generations. Current generation bird starts migrating to another part of the world. On the way, these birds stop, lay eggs and nurture the young ones. By the time the fledglings are ready to fly, the parent birds. lives end. New birds continue the journey and reach other part of the world and give birth to third generation. These third generation birds start migrating back to its original location. However, on the way back, these birds give birth to fourth generation and finally forth generation reaches back the original destination! Again, next generation bird starts migrating!

We have a general impression that human beings do not have the life cycle. We feel that we only evolve, evolve and evolve. However, we have seen from the history that man has built many big civilizations and because of his own mistakes ruined everything! Dynasties rose and fell. Again somewhere new civilization is built again mistakes again ruining! Is this not a life cycle?

Some times, it may extend to several generations; some times, it may get over within one generation. Whether organisations are also having life cycle?

We know that ups and downs are natural and normal to an organisation. There are profits in some years and no profits or losses in some years. Every one would nod his head in agreement to this universal phenomenon. However, the question is, does it happen naturally or because of human errors?

You might have heard people talking about cost cutting initiatives in organisations. Whenever company enters loss zone or slow growth zone, the chanting of cost cutting mantra begins. Every activity comes under scanner to find its usefulness for the organisation. Do we need these many people? Do we need these many activities? Do we need to organise these events? Why should we rent a five star hotel for this meeting? Can we redesign the employee pick up and drop routes? Can we negotiate better with external service providers? So on and so forth! You might have also heard that lots of reports are being asked by .head quarter., lots of analysis are being done, it has become so hectic these days...

One can understand easily that even during good times of an organisation, these expenses and activities should have been questioned; these analysis should have been carried out on a routine basis. May be organization would have stayed healthy! However, during good times we allow the growth of the flab. When diseases warn us, we start doing everything possible to cut fat. If do not listen to such early warnings, fat may end our lives.

Whatever is true for human being is also true for organizations, as organisations are made up of human beings. When organization starts making profit, every one slowly forget the systems, analysis and usefulness of every rupee spent. This leads to failure in the business. Many companies get up when early warnings are seen and start tightening the loose ends. Those who ignore early warnings certainly end up in crash! By tightening loose ends, and by chasing the new targets, organisation will come back to prosperity again. However, once prosperity starts showing up, tightened ends slowly starts loosening. Cycle continues.

Whether being alert and disciplined always itself is unnatural for us? .!