Is Your Company Professional at the Fore but Lala at the Core?

Comparing a professional versus a lala company is a very interesting exercise.

The conventional wisdom is that a professional company is a professional company and a lala company is a lala company and never the twain shall meet.

This, however, is too simple a view.

In India, there are several companies which are "Professional at the Fore but Lala at the Core?"

Surprisingly, many of them call themselves as MNCs.

How to determine whether your company is one?

Well, it's not that hard to figure this out.

The biggest tell-tale sign is that the company's management has Indians both in the India office and in the office abroad (typically in the US).

Those in the management are a close-knit coterie consisting of the loyalists and the stooges. And management in such companies is nothing more than a pack of jokers.

Anyone working in such lala companies must always remember about "Why It's Dangerous To Work For An Organization Led By A Pack Of Jokers?"

Here are some more tell-tale signs:

• The top man has a close circle of trusted lieutenants. The only real qualification of the trusted lieutenants is their loyalty to the top man.
• The top man is not used to anyone challenging his ideas and thoughts. The trusted lieutenants would get the order enforced mostly by hook and crook.
• The top man promotes those who are his stooges and sing paeans in his praise. And if you don't do do,  you stand no chance to go up in such a company.
• The top man and his stooges literally run the show and make all the central decisions. There is no real delegation.
• The stooges force the people under them to remain unsettled by crossing the line and going to those below to gather information to show the people under them their true place.
• The top man starts a new initiative every month but maintains a hands-off approach. He also puts one of the stooges in charge of escalations knowing that it has not worked in the past and will not work going ahead as well.
• The top mean beams with silly pride when praised by the stooges and feels even more elated when others praise him.
• The stooges maintain a close circle withholding crucial information, play behind the scene games to discredit others and use office to sharpen their political skills.

In such companies the top man and and his stooges show as if they are professionals at the fore but can never hide from the smart folks down under of their being a true lala at the core!

Note: Lala is a Hindi word. In case you are wondering what the meaning of the word lala is, read the following: http://sanjaylakhotia.blogspot.in/2011/07/professional-vs-lala-company.html