Public Sector Blues

Handling a public sector and that too remaining confined within the cloak of archaic rules and processes is no mean task. And when the corporate in question is in the business of flying planes, a business that can easily be termed as the mother of all businesses, the job assumes the pinnacle of complexity.

The mother term is coined by me, now for the second time, the first being for the lifeline of the nation that also qualifies to fall in a similar category as the mother of all bureaucracies. 

While the essential difference between the public and the private lies in the ownership pattern, one being owned by the public at large and other by a private body, it is not a gospel mandate to have differences in the way they operate. Why the public sector cannot be allowed to operate and also prosper like the private may perhaps always remain unanswered.

Unless and until we all and that includes the mighty government machinery, start believing in the supremacy of deliverance over everything else, such dilemmas would always continue. Why process has started taking overriding precedence over deliverance in a nation like ours that still has miles and miles to go is indeed beyond my comprehension. A system that judges merit based on considerations that are often poles apart from sheer deliverance can never lead a nation to glory shall always remain my firm belief. But yes, the India of today is witnessing change of an order never experienced in the past and that alone is the silver lining in the dark skies.

Often my airline is questioned on its inability to match the private sector on various operating parameters, and this is unfortunately always done without due appreciation of the fundamental reality that there is no level playing field. The decision making processes, the contractual mechanisms, the checks and balances, the focus on process at the cost of deliverance and lack of clarity on the purpose or the objective are all widely different. The complex process oriented world of the public sector is no match in front of the simple output oriented universe of the private. And above all, “hindsight” is much less at work in the private as opposed to the public sector.

Does it imply that the public sector should slowly be allowed to fade away simply because of our inability to change the ground rules and provide an almost level playing field to it? A course correction is the need of the hour for contrary to the general perception, the public sector has still not lost its relevance in entirety. A mixed economy is what a developing nation deserves for it keeps both sectors in check to the advantage of the public.