The whole world is in a crisis and no it's not one of those funny 2012 stories of a probable and impending doom brought about by a bunch of antique civilizations who either were too excited or too stupid to be making calendars as far as 2012 when they could not even predict their own doom.
And the whole world cries, 'My god, the world's ending', when the reality of the ancient prophecies ending in 2012 can be easily explained by an acute and sudden shortage of paper or a dead dayologist who suddenly realized that his life's entire meaning and existence was nothing but an emperor's muse to get news TRPs in the year 2008 !!
Yes sir, we've never been bludgeoned with as much 'news of no use' as in 2008. And i see no let down until the real end of the world....
But why should one even waste an ounce of time on the fiction of 2012 when we have realities of recession in 2008 itself. And now in January 2009, one can confidently say that the whole world screwed up itself big time. But what is this business of market correction. When a company on wall street (for those who do not know it is indeed a street and not a method of selling overly priced tuxedos, laptops, blackberries, limousines and business class tickets on a private jet) does some hanky panky in their accounts and operations, it starts a chain reaction of sorts where all neighbours and friends and family and their families servants etc. suddenly find themselves trying to worry about financial terminology which looks like words out of a swahili dictionary at first.
And in all this comedy of grammatical errors and calculators calculating wrong calculations, the whole world goes into this frenzy which is either called as the dreaded 'bloodbath' or in some industries coated with sugar and chocolate and baked for 20 minutes and called 'Market Correction'. What market correction is is walking into the office one fine day and asking all vegetarians to fry fish for supper because that's what the entire world is doing and is the right thing to do, even if it makes no bloody sense at all whatsoever.
As a result, you see companies halting recruitments, holding up hired freshers and postponing further plans of appraisals and business expansion till the dreaded winds of recession pass on. But we don't mind it at all and go about our business believing that its a sign of happy days around the corner and the winds shall change and the market will 'correct' itself and people will be happy even if it means lower salaries and achievement goals.
My take on this affair is that while it is good that companies get kicked in the rear and get back in shape, why is that they have to get a proverbial 'kick' to 'correct' themselves ? What are those high rankers from management institutes really doing to ensure their companies set benchmarks and not strip their pants down and bend over every second quarter ?
To be honest, I don't know an answer but what i do know is that if you really think about your company and have a sense of belonging and ownership from top to bottom, you would always ensure that it keeps its pants up and runs like a fine tuned engine. Sadly my views are in a minority.
Today, the only aspiration that a large number of people have is the desire to have their employers massage up their ego and bank balances even if it is their first job. And all that with the least possible input and effort and in the least amount of time. That's like watching satellite TV all day long and getting free food and desserts with every episode...Tempting, right ?
So what should you do ? Well, do as you please, I'm not here to preach. But the reality is that when companies go into correction, its a sign that its made up of people who have not really understood the meaning of ownership and dedication. Companies who've inflated themselves and their executives so much so that an economy class seat on a plane sounds like sitting naked on a porcupine, are bound to fall sooner or later and the sad reality is that it takes along people who had real aspirations for the company's growth and the industry.
All said and done, it's also true that Market Correction is not a bad thing per se, though the outcome may not be Bavarian Strawberry Shortcake but nevertheless a decent and fulfilling cupcake. But then aren't we all designed for cupcakes in the first place ?