Trust !!!

Its just 5 alphabets but means so much when not honored. I am thinking about this with a backdrop of Satyam's fraud that has horrified every shareholder in India. My nature of going overboard made me devise a rule never to trust a person who has done anywrong at any point in time or has not shown integrity in a situation of commercial loss.
This makes me go back to the B School class of Prof. Vinod Kalia. Prof. Kalia is an ex-VP sales and marketing of Escorts Farm Equipment. He gave us a case study which went as:
- A productive worker was found cheating the company for his commercial benefit.
- His supervisor is pressing charges against him and requesting for his dismissal from duty
- The implications of his dismissal are that the Union may go up in arms against the management and there would be some loss of production incase the person has to go.
Question for the management: Should he be let go?

We recommended that he should be let to continue as there would be a loss of revenue but should be given a stern warning. We were surpised by Prof. Kalia's verdict that the management should take a stand on either side and there is no mid-way when it comes to integrity. Although, we were not happy then as it costed us grades but in the hindsight the suggestion was good, to say the least.
It s the responsibility of the management to instill the belief in integrity, even at the cost of commercials loss. This is something that may be hard and harder to keep up with time. But, when you look in hindsight with an example of Satyam, unless you do that you have to make a bigger lie to cover the last lie. This lying will end only when the position will become absolutely unrecoverable. This may lead to loss of face, reputation, and disruption in the lives of many workers who have spent their time and sweat for the company.
So, in essence Integrity is not an option. Its a virtue that will make customers comfortable, employees loyal, management alert. So be it.