Academia Promoting Corruption

Academia promoting Corruption ! 

Background

From Nov 2014, I was working alone on a research topic which I'm passionate about. The research was aimed at looking at how companies should ideally be run so that employees love their work, do not have any complaints whatsoever and employers are also happy. Basically, the research was looking at how to create a Utopian society within a company. And if it can be done for one company, my hypothesis was that the same logic can be applied looking at the entire world as one massive company. And in such a case, a Utopian world society would be the output of that research and I was working on the strategy formulation for this..

Back in June/July 2015, an incident happened in my Communication for Leaders course at IIM Bangalore and it is worth mentioning. At that point, the strategy formulation was in its very initial stages and I had no idea whether I will be able to connect the dots and finish the work. Luckily, I was able to do it. But at that point in 2015, I wasn't sure whether it will get over. I just trusted my gut and moved forward.

I took this course called "Communication for Leaders". In 2015, my communication skills were extremely blunt and not as close to how sharp it is right now. So, I took the course hoping it will help me improve my communication skills and make it sharper. The course was good and there were some useful tips that the prof told us, but to be honest I expected it to be a lot more value adding.

Now, let me talk about an incident that happened in one of our classes which really irritated and bothered me to a point where I actually had a debate/fight with the prof in class. As a reader, I would request you to please put yourself in the position of a student who is attending a course on how to communicate effectively.

In one of the classes, the professor was vouching for office politics and asking all of us to use it to our advantage throughout our careers. Let me explain further using the exact example the professor used in the class. The professor was saying that if I'm a CMO of a company or a CFO of a company, I'll have a different objective in mind. A CFO might want costs to go down. A CMO might want more marketing budget from the CEO. The objective of the CMO and CFO will be different.  So, the prof was saying that the CMO or CFO should influence the CEO using their communication skills to get whatever it is that needs to be done for them. And the prof was basing this on recommendations from a Harvard Business Review article.

I felt this was extremely stupid and totally wrong and my blood was boiling at just listening to this.If while reading this, you don't think it's a big issue or if you think the professor was right to say that, your mind has already been supremely corrupted by the academic system around and you don't even realize it.  Read on. I'll make it extremely clear for you.

I was sitting beside 2 of my close friends. Both of them turned to me and said they were feeling that the prof is not right. And I was wondering how 60 people sitting in the class could stay silent listening to this.

So, I raised my hands and told the prof "Sir, I have a doubt. Assume that I'm a government servant like a a revenue officer or tender officer or any government official for that matter. If I have to select between 2 contractors for a job, I should ideally give the job to the contractor who gives me the best quality service at a cheaper price. Now, imagine one of the contractor bribes me to get the job? Isn't that clearly illegal?"

The prof responded saying "Yes, it is indeed illegal"

I then asked the prof "Ok. So you're agreeing that in the case of a government official, it is illegal. Now, how is that case any different from the case of a CMO/CFO trying to influence a CEO for their personal objectives and in that case, by telling us to act this way and promoting such a behavior, aren't you effectively sowing the seeds of corruption in all our minds?"

I knew it was a powerful statement and it sent out a strong thought wave across the entire class room and prof and everyone in the class were taken aback. I myself was trembling a bit saying this out loud because in essence, I'm challenging a professor who is supposed to be wiser and more knowledgeable than me. But he was stunned and had absolutely no response.

Exaggerated response on the Prof's face 

If it were me who is the CMO/CFO, I'll collaboratively discuss with the CEO and the CFO/CMO and other stakeholders and we will come to a mutual consensus as to what is good for the company. But I will never use office politics to my favor. And how will we do this? The CMO's path would have a net profit estimate for the company. The CFO's path would have a net profit estimate. Both the CFO and CMO will collaboratively discuss with the CEO and decide which is better for the company and proceed forward.

Now, if you say that "Office politics is inevitable. That's how the world works. Nothing can be done. Deal with it!" - Then you're consciously stopping yourself from thinking independently  and you're using societal conditioning thoughts of "That's the way the world works" and preventing free independent logical thought to take control. In an ideal utopian world, such stupid office politics should not be allowed and it should always be merit based. It is because I was working on my theory on how to create such a Utopian society and I realized that my prof was potentially corrupting students in the class that I made such a statement. 

My prof asked me whether I would not try to influence a CEO if I were a CMO/CFO. I was extremely clear and fought with him in class, told him I'll never ever do that and the prof finally escaped because somebody else asked some question which the prof could answer and he digressed from the argument we were having.

Look at this situation! This is a simple example of how Academia at it's core (Reference to the Harvard Business Review article I was mentioning earlier) is designed right now to promote corruption.

If academia is liberal around this, one can never expect the industry to be corruption-free. For example, if in that class of 60 people, the professor had made the mindset of even one person a little liberal from an office politics/corruption point of view and that person goes on to later be a corrupt person in the society and does society harm, then it is not that person's problem alone. That person's mindset has been conditioned by the academic system. So the academic system inherently is promoting corruption.

The fact that academia is promoting corruption needs to be acknowledged. This has been happening over so many years and no one questions. That is totally insane ! Surface level anti corruption systems and prevention measures  taken by governments and industries will never ever solve the problem. For solving this problem in a sustainable way, academia needs to take initiative and create change to change mindsets of people and kill the problem at the source.

The same day after I had a fight with my professor, someone posted the below message on our confessions page. Confessions is a facebook page where anyone on the campus can post messages anonymously. (cfl stands for communication for leaders) 

Now to all people who saw this post way back in 2015, I have an admission/confession to make. My strategy formulation was at a very early stage in 2015. But I knew I had made a powerful statement and sent across a strong thought wave which penetrated the minds of people in the class as well as other people in campus who knew about my debate with the prof.

In 2015, I did not know whether I'll ever be able to complete my work. But I wanted some proof that I made this statement and there were people listening to this so that I can use this proof later on to tell a larger audience that their minds are being corrupted by the academic institutions and they need to step back and realize it for what it's worth and take corrective actions. 

So, this post was posted on the IIM Bangalore confessions group by none other than myself :) because I knew someone would respond and then I can use the screenshot as a document to make my point to a larger audience at a later day that current academic systems are designed to promote corruption. And this is just one example but an extremely  powerful example of how corruption is prevalent in the society because of our academic system.

Now that my work is over and the dots have connected, I'm doing exactly that by posting the screenshot here. You're reading this now and you now understand about this one example of how academia promotes corruption. I wanted my audience to realize this. Hence, I posted on the anonymous group 3 years back foreseeing this day where you'll be reading it. 

It also gives you an idea about how much people's minds have been corrupted by the system around. Corruption is just not when some government individual takes bribe and that becomes news or there is a big scam  and you're like "The entire administrative and legislative deparetments. of the country are corrupt" At a fundamental level, it impacts the society a lot more through every individual's actions and the minds of these individuals have been influenced by the academic system through which they've gone through.

In the confessions post picture I shared above, Vaibhav who is my senior from IIMB has said that I'm a strong powerful thinker. What was so strong or powerful about it? Isn't what I asked an extremely basic question? Isn't that what corruption actually is? What am I doing - I'm just thinking freely!  So, what is everyone else doing? Are they even thinking or just living some zombie life going with some illogical flow that society has created? And ever since academia has been there, everyone has accepted these norms. So, who is really thinking independently here?

I consider the Harvard prof to be insanely stupid for having written that paper because it is being used by campuses across the world to corrupt the minds of students. The prof hasn't thought it through completely. The Harvard review board hasn't thought it through completely. And if such a fundamental flaw is inherent in their review board, how many more such articles would they have approved? The students and professors reading this article and accepting it at face value haven't thought it through completely. Then what is the purpose of critical and independent thinking? I feel sorry for all the minds that have been corrupted and still defend such stupid articles. 

Next time, you're involved in an office politics related situation, think independently whether you're corrupting your own mind by acting a particular way for some short term gain by pledging the honor of your soul and individuality. If you're doing that, your mind is no different from the minds of people you tag as corrupt government officials. Fair enough! You might not get caught but you are answerable to yourself ultimately and will have to live life knowing at heart that you're no different from such people. 

Anyway, to my communications professor - If you ever end up reading this post of mine - just one humble request - Please think independently and teach. Just because something is written in some stupid Harvard article doesn't make it right. If it means you having to fight it out with the Harvard prof, do that first and then teach but don't teach without having conviction on what you're teaching. You are indeed corrupting kids and a generation of manager/leaders who will be taking this country forward. So, I'm wrapping up this post by just asking you to think independently and not blindly follow something just because some Harvard prof says so. 

It's just one life we have and we should complete conviction over every single action of ours :)