With reference to Swaraj Baggonkar's front-page report, "Pay cut for five Suzuki directors as a result of mileage scandal" (June 9), the Japanese are known for their moral and ethical standards. Their forthright approach in fixing responsibility and penalising the guilty with regard to the scandal in question is impressive. They don't look for junior scapegoats, as we, in India, often do; instead, they go for the top people. No one can beat them in accepting mistakes and publicly apologising for the same.
The West handles such matters differently. German car maker Volkswagen committed the grave offence of cheating on emission tests. None of the people in the top management team was known to have taken pay cuts. Citi Bank made billions from the Libor scandal. When the bank was caught, it coughed up a hefty fine, but as far as I can remember there were no job or pay cuts. For both companies, the cost-benefit analysis seemed to go in their favour.
Then there was the WikiLeaks episode and the fate of one of its founders Julian Assange. He can't even return home and has been forced to take asylum at the Ecuador embassy in London. So much for freedom of speech and other advantages of living in a democracy!
Hats off to the Japanese way of doing things, whether in business or other dealings. We need to learn from them. If a similar incident had happened in India, some mid-level managers would likely have been sacked or transferred and that would have been the end of the issue.
Krishan Kalra Gurgaon
Letters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to:
The Editor, Business Standard
Nehru House, 4 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg
New Delhi 110 002
Fax: (011) 23720201
E-mail: letters@bsmail.in
All letters must have a postal address and telephone number
