Misplaced Focus

The Indian system has an uncanny knack and ability of beating the system or taking it such levels of irrationality that it grounds it!

The recent emphasis by the regulatory authorities on compliance to the "Know Your Customer" guidelines is yet another case in example. The process has been reduced to an absolute farce with whole emphasis having shifted to the documents rather than tweaking a very critical marketing and risk management tool to meet regulatory requirements also.

The other cases relate to quality management systems like ISO 9001 certification or the CMMi and the like. The objectives of these systems and standards have been completely forgotten! The emphasis has completely shifted to the documentation with little or no focus on the process or the metrics! So much so that these systems have been completely commoditised resulting in a significant erosion of the faith.

The accreditation bodies, the certification agencies, auditors, assessors, consultants’ et al have all to take blame for the same. The mechanism that is prevalent in more mature markets cannot be and should be used in the Indian markets. If we ape the west we will make monkeys of ourselves! The Indian system has always been a much policed system and needs to be dealt as such for some more time to come! Assessors also need to reorient they audit mechanism which currently is operating in extremes mode. They are either so flippant or so very critical. Assessors should be constructive and refrain from taking positions that may their personal point of view.

Till these happen we can only sit back and hope!