Business Management

Business Management.

As I look back to 1947 and how our people left Mangalore in hordes to the Gulf countries to work in the just opened oil fields in Kuwait and others were sent by their parents to USA for further studies and our old houses were sold and bought by others and the demography gradually changed. In education we could hope for a B.A , B.Com or a B.Sc but you had to have money which was in short supply with my mother which pained her a lot. But what I know today, was learnt on the field of experience, for which I am ever grateful to God and want to share this experience with those who can not afford.

When we speak of Business Management we think only of the MNCs. If that was so, we would have been poor indeed !

We have retail and whole sale ones, which have been operated by ordinary people, and who picked the trade and tricks from their elders all of whom were creative and enterprising. Perhaps in those days there were fewer sharks and devourig whales !

Now with these predators, there is danger everywhere. One needs to see as one approaches, but how can people unable to discern know ?

Let us hope in the coming days we shall explore this field !

I would not touch the MNCs. They are grown out from the simple household businesses, where there was a Manager, Area Manager and Accountant and staff.   Did you ever think when this Business Management idea propped up ? If you are an inquisitive mind then, let us explore.

I began my working life in Doha Qatar with an Arab from Palestine, and this was a good omen. In 1948 their family too had to leave their home in Haifa, on the mediterranen coast of Palestine a land known as Canaan during the time of Abraham and because of his grandson, Jacob, who was known as Israel, later it was that name the Jews gave the land of Canaan and they got it back by the power they had acquired, not like Moses bringing them from Egypt. That time they were full of the kowledge of Yaweh.   Now it is weapons and muscle power.

My future boss might have been 22 years old when he came to Dukhan a oil town where he learnt photgraphy and printing.   In 1952 Queen Elizabeth's coronation,took place, and the Sheikh of Qatar was being sent but there was no one in Qatar who could take photographs so they were thinking of bringing one from Bahrain. But their accountant too was a Palestinian and he knew him. He told the Sheiks they could call his friend and he did the job and all were pleased and told him to start a studio in Doha, and so started from scratch a studio, and he named it SALAM STUDIO AND STORES.   It was 1954 and oil exploration was started that year by Qatar Petroleum Company.   Was this chance meeting ?   I was a 14 year old and that year was the one in which bigots killed Mahatma Gandhi.   I had a strong feeling later that this was a meeting destined by God himself just like everything else.   That is why I have a strong feeling towards them. We too had lost our wealth, and home for the same reason he lost. Jews had an agreement with Bafour the prime minister of England in 1917.   Cash less economy began then, as funds from Germany went to England.   The money was of the Jews - they wanted a homeland and the British wanted the crude oil from the deserts owned by the Ottoman Empire.   The first world war ended the monarchies and were replaced by one man one vote, but the representatives of the people were funded by the bankers and corporates, as it is happening now.   Kaiser had to abdicate and the Germans had to pay to British and French compensation for years, which brought misery and when they started making allegations against the Jews, most of the rich ones like the Rothschilds, Vanderbilts, and others had found foohold in USA and England.   Do you find any simiarity to the world today.   It is the standard tecnique.   When the people were revolting and HItler had joined the Worker's Party there was a fear in the west. He was a very magnetic and powerful speaker. Ultimately he made some violent protests for which he was arrested and there he decided to join politics. He stood for elections and won.   There was earthquake in Amerca, Kaiser had abdicated and no money from Geermny but the war was to be won by the Naval might of the Brtish Empire who had to be paid and the money came from USA, but left the people with empty pockets and so it was called the GREAT DEPRESSION. But the foot prints have been washed away but the suspicion does not go away. The same drama was enacted to oust Saddam and in 8 years the nation went bankrupt. See the pattern and they are the same banking families. Do you think it ends there ?

Human beings are bound to repeat history since they have stopped thinking for themselves and depend on newspapers and now television.

Coming to business, be it of any kind it involves interactions among people all of whom like to be treated nicely.   Not only that it involves the use of money, which the buyer pays for the goods the seller provides. If one is not careful, a buyer can get hurt and a disruption can take place and cause harm to the enterprise.   But if people go about these things without applying their mind, because they go by what they think is good for themselves then there is a ditch in front of them in which they will fall and then their troubles follow. I feel the example of Abu Issa is a good one. He started from scratch without much expections, but he too was guided by God and in a humble way, reached the pinnacle, but after he died, things began to unravel as his children took over and and I left and came to India.

If you want to study on your own there are correpodence courses. The most important thing you should remember is there are four pillars on which any business stands and you have to know the A - Z of that business, at least keep your eyes open for predtory sharks and bad advisors.

The four pillars are
1. You as the manager, or your boss
2. The people who work for you to run the business.
3. Your Suppliers and Bankers.
4. Your Customers who come to buy their needs and have an ego.

You have to be constantly aware to keep a harmonious relationship between all. You should be just and give every one what was agreed.   I think I will continue this in my next article.