“I create problems, and then I solve them. That is my style!”, declared the department head smugly.
I heard this statement a long time ago. At that time, I did not take it too seriously as I thought that it was the peculiarity of one rather ‘strange’ individual. After having spent a couple of decades in business organisations, I have come to realize that this was not an isolated incident. It prompted me to think more deeply about the underlying factors and led me to the all-important topic of ‘relevance in business organisations’ and the various ways in which we try to achieve and maintain and enhance our relevance.
Relevance is the central theme in organisational life. Relevance comes from ‘value addition’. What is valuable and how much it should be valued is always defined by the customer. The term ‘customer’ includes internal customers also. The most pragmatic definition of a ‘value added activity’ that I have come across is that ‘it is an activity that the customer is willing to pay...
