The iconic founder and past CEO of Infosys, N R Narayan Murthy in an address to his employees once said, “we live in an era of instant gratification“. He went on to observe that the generation of today finds it difficult to delay or postpone gratification. Everything must be had now or be done yesterday. Be it a purchase of a new tech gadget or an automobile or even a high cost acquisition, it must be made now. The concept of sacrifice has little relevance in such context. The philosophy that drives this behaviour is “live for the day, we shall see tomorrow”. A stark contrast to the philosophy steadfastly adopted by the Infy founders who resisted all temptation to cash out, delayed gratification and built the company into an iconic IT bell weather over three decades. It was only after the founders retired and formally exited the company in 2014, that they decided to exercise their options with the due diligence and governance. No wonder, Infosys will always remain the beacon of post independence corporate India that espouses the highest standards of ethics, governance and simple, middle class values.Where does one see such monumental sacrifices being made today? Alas, almost none. When you look around, you see high testosterone driven agendas of market cap, net worth and crazy stock market valuations as a prime driver of business. PE investors discussions dominate boardroom and functional meetings than the actual nitty gritty of how to build a long term sustainable company. The core agenda is to get to the USD 1 bn valuation and more, raise funding and look like a suitable bride to a PE investor, VC or even a philanthropist. Focus has shifted from drafting a solid medium to long term business strategy to how do we make the fast valuation and raise funds and even cash out in the bargain. By saying this, I do not intend to run down the new economy businesses (e-commerce poster boys namely Flipkart and Snapdeal) but would attempt to draw caution that business is a marathon and not a sprint.

Talking to professionals makes it rather more unnerving. Again, this is not a sweeping generalization that I make but a worrying trend seen. Coupled with the bane of instant gratification, classically exhibited behaviour is of Ephemeralism. Most conversations, acts and displayed behaviours indicate short-term, tactical, temporary and superficial agendas. The granular core is missing. In a business setting, tactics get prominence over strategy, personalities gain eminence over content, decades of experience (qualitatively relevant or not) trumps logic and “any-how fix it and get the results” mindset takes centre stage over a well thought out and executed game plan. Time is the biggest resource which is in acute shortage and that essentially drives these behaviours of instant gratification and ephemeralism. I know that I run the risk of ruffling a few feathers but whomever you talk to confides openly or in private – the world has changed dramatically. There is so much more pressure to deliver results in shortest time possible and demonstrate utility to the organisations we serve. This is unfortunately leading to short-term tactical thinking, building next-gen leaders who are not visionaries per se but “doers” or “fixers” and a corporate ethos of tactics and transiency. Again a disclaimer: not all organisations or individuals would agree with my views. The sole aim is to escalate an underlying pattern or a trend and not snare an individual.

How does one then break this pattern? This does not have a simple answer. Course correction can happen at the starting level of the individual followed by teams. Individuals in positions of responsibility and authority need to embrace a mindset of “Long Term Play”. Whatever the pressures from Senior Management, they must collectively bargain and negotiate for a 1-2 years road map. It starts with the budgeting and setting expectations exercise. In the ongoing budgeting season, teams must rally around the Business Head as plans get presented and prevail upon the temptation to succumb to short term pressures. Plans must necessarily incorporate strategic and competitive business differentiators which are difficult to replicate, generate revenue and gain market and customer share. When teams are held accountable (Balanced Scorecard) for building the strategy and delivery of results, short term approaches go out of the window. Managements get willing to talk on a quarter and half yearly basis and not on the myth of monthly magic. This is very helpful as business teams are set free of the tyranny of monthly performance (though important but not the ultimate KPI), build strategic programs of good duration and monitor progress Q-o-Q and finally ensure good business health. Results get predictable, sustainable and outlook shifts from immediacy to long-term. This is a must if organisations are to remain vital and relevant.

Another critical piece in the puzzle is to hire/recruit the people who embody the long term approach. This is a must for hiring in atleast strategic, business-critical, innovation-led and operations and support function roles. This does not mean that people in other functions are not important. Of course, they are very much a part of and are required to be playing their roles well. When leaders display long term play, walk the talk of sustainability over immediacy and reward performance for a balanced score, mindsets shift over time. Teams understand that month magic is not the barometer of success and that results get built over time through patience, resilience and long term approach.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this post are solely of the author and does not have any link or connection with any individual or organization or does not attempt to establish correlation of any kind whatsoever.