The visionary quality of a leader is another qualification that comes as a strong preference of followers. They want a leader who has the capacity in delineating plans to achieve organizational goals and objectives. This is leadership direction. This also translates to the leader’s concern for the organization. The people interpret this as a leader who does not only see himself or herself as useful in the present set-up but as someone who can still serve at some future time. A leader who has dreams and aspirations for an organization’s future shows concern for the people’s welfare in general.

A leader who knows where the organization is going must have been having a strong grasp of what he or she is doing. Doable plans are not arbitrary. Goals are based on concrete reality. Only if the leader is well versed with everything about the organization can he or she be able to make plans on how to improve the group and their structure in the future. If a leader plans unrealistically because he or she does not know the group’s realities, his or her propositions are not only unviable; they will also be construed by their followers as nothing but a vacuous wish list.

A clear vision stems from proper orientation. What better basis for forward direction can there be than full knowledge of present position. A visionary with solid plans knows exactly what to alter and what not to change. All the less than satisfactory qualities of the group will be deemed by a good leader as potential changes. On the other hand, all those qualities that work for the benefit of the organization will remain intact under a good leadership. For a leader to know which is which, he or she must know the group like the back of his or her hand.

A leader cannot move forward alone. Carrying the group into the future requires an inspiring leader. He or she will need the active participation and cooperation of the entire human resources of the organization. Growth is only possible in a positive and fertile environment. Nothing much grows in the dark. Members of the organization will follow a leader who is enlightening, vibrant, dynamic, tireless, and totally positive. The sum of these attitudes is inspired leadership. An inspired leader produces inspired followers. With inspiration come group enthusiasm, energy, voluntary cooperation, and definite action on the achievement of group goals.

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Man’s materialism and greed that are carried out at the expense of nature have not changed from 19th century, as seen in William Wordsworth’s poem “The World Is Too Much with Us” (1807), till now that man is already in the 21st century. Man’s unnecessary, profligate, and irresponsible consumption has been continually depleting the finite resources of nature.

Society’s culture of ‘getting and spending’ in pursuit of material wealth and comfort in Wordsworth’s world of 19th century rural England is as much the same as the culture in today’s 21st century America. The only difference is that nature from which man extracts resources is now depleted. So, the natural world has changed but people’s attitude and behavior have not.

Nature and man’s materialism have always been in conflict – with nature at the losing end. We have been insensitive to the goodness and abundance of nature in our materialistic pursuits. Man is not at awe with nature anymore. He just sees it as a tool to help him towards materialistic success. If ancient people, even the pagans, were steep in some mysterious mythological communion with nature, today’s man is totally unmindful of the sensitive role that nature plays in our lives.

The “World Is Too Much with Us” talks about modern man’s misplaced spiritual link with nature. What used to be is now just found in memory. The poem’s images and metaphors are a sum total of the poet’s impassioned opinion on the theme of man’s relationship with the natural world. For Wordsworth, the progress of man is fatalistic that it costs the existence of nature itself. Modern progress and nature are destined to be in conflict.

For Wordsworth, man is brought up on a destructive lifestyle that starts him out on the perfect potential of nature, but eventually leads him into the harmful ambitions of adult life. The poet’s world is the Industrial Revolution where he saw the ill effects of a monumental step in mankind’s history. He saw the harshness of the Industrial Age and predicts that man will destroy nature. Two centuries later, today, Wordsworth’s prediction rings true. Man’s materialistic ambitions of the Industrial Revolution are translated into today’s greed and ignorance of the finite realities of nature.

Wordsworth accuses the modern age of having lost its precious connection to nature and everything that can lay meaning to this potentially constructive relationship: “Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers; /Little we see in Nature that is ours; /We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon” (2-4). Adults are simply engrossed in the material value of things and possessions: “Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers (2). Man has exploited nature as a commodity even if he should not and, on the contrary, should in fact coexist with mankind: “We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon” (4). Nature, in all its innocence and purity, is helpless in the face of man’s destruction of it, and that no meaning can be found any more in man’s materialistic lifestyle: “The Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;/The winds that will be howling at all hours” (5-6). Man does not even
recognize the destruction he wreaks upon nature: “For this, for everything, we are out of tune;/It moves us not.–Great God! (8-9).

The last lines of the poem point to Wordsworth’s observations that if he had the same faith on the ancient and pagan gods and sees the world based on a purer vision, this faith might make him less depressed with how the world has turned out to be. That ancient belief can make him see the world in a different light, far purer and cleaner than the vision of man in the Industrial Age because pagans worship nature and hold it in awe and reverence.

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Government of India has proactively stepped in to rescue Satyam and control the damage done by Satyam scandal to India’s overseas image. Satyam founders Ramalinga Raju, his brother and financial head of the company are in judicial custody for interrogation. Government has appointed three experts as new board members and looks like Satyam and India’s corporate image will be saved though founders of the company are facing criminal charges and may face severe punishment. Analysts are now trying to study the fall of this giant which ushered outsourcing to Indian shores in the first place.

Satyam was one of the pioneers of outsourcing business in India. Ramalinga Raju became a legend and a hero in his homeland for ushering in new prospects and boosting economy of the state and country. History of Satyam dates back to the time when Raju offered services to his first client almost free of cost with his mantra ‘if you don’t like service don’t pay’ just to build an image of credibility and an empire. Experts feel that it was the competition and emergence of new software giants like TCS, Infosys which made Raju falter and gamble ambitiously to stay afloat. Raju continued to offer services at lesser costs and compromised on profits (made them up by forging). It could be wrong financial and overall management strategy of the company or total lack of it which finally became its nemesis. Added to it was the greed and ventures in to real estate. May be global financial crunch was the final prick that burst the bubble.

While the rise and fall of Satyam will go into business books as there are many a lessons to be learnt from the whole saga but Ramalinga Raju’s rise and fall will be more dramatic.

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Via New York Times

Werner Herzog’s film Aguirre, the Wrath of God (made in 1972) will always be counted among one of the finest and magnificent films ever made. The theme of the film and characterization of Aguirre will find a special mention for time immemorial in the history of film-making. 

Amazingly this film on greed and ambition of a man for wealth, fame and power and ultimate descent of man into self-destruction, brutality and total insanity in his mad pursuit of the same is so relevant even this day. This film has no wings of human fantasy. The expedition which goes in search of El Dorado, the land of gold and to spread word of God looks so similar to many undertaken in the human history for years. Wars have been waged, battles have been won, and man has conquered Land and Nature by simple brute force fuelled by mad ambition to rule. Also Nature too has humbled man by equal force, if not more. Another subtle important truth that comes across in the film is that religion cannot tame human greed but rather can become a manipulative tool for the strong in the ultimate conquest.

On the last day of the year 2008 when world is sinking deeper into financial crisis due to ever-dominating trait of greed and ambition of human beings, this film indeed is a must-watch for all those who want to deconstruct darkness and brutal aspects of human soul.