Bribe .... What's That?

An Excerpt from my book, NAKED BANANA! released recently.

 

 

I ‘tch-tch’ed when a Supply Chain boss shared in detail on why and how he lost out a contract with an US company recently.

Loss of contract in business is nothing new. It happens all the time. But what made me sit up was the raison d’etre.

“In our correspondence with them, we mistakenly used the word ‘speed money’,” he said over fresh lime soda – salted, of course.

Hmmm. What happened?

“Another faux pas we did was to ‘cc’ a senior executive sitting in the US,” he added.

Hmmm.. Then?

“Flat 10 minutes later …. Mind you, we were about to shut shop and get out, my Blackberry ‘ping’ed and what I read drained out all my ‘juice’,” he added.

What did the Blackberry say?

They scrapped the order immediately.

Why?

My friend was telling me that the American laws do not permit ‘speed money’ – read bribery – and therefore the US company has no other option but to rescind the order.

Bribery …. Was it not the same word that cropped up with another big boss of an auto OEM recently when I pointedly asked him: “how ethical you are?” Not that I was questioning his personal integrity, but was eager to know does this American company dabble in ‘speed money’ to quicken processes!

“We are an American company and our laws are strict and pretty clear. Speed money is strictly a ‘no-no’…. We are committed to anti-bribery,” said the big boss.

By the way, my fresh lime soda partner pointed out that the Indian counterparts of the US company were fully aware of the ‘speed money’ part without which their consignment would never be delivered in the timeframe they wanted. Still ….

What happened next?

“Within seconds after the cancellation email from US, its Indian counterpart called me up and said, ‘just forget. Don’t reply. This order is not yours. Any amount of correspondence will only make life difficult and you will not be the beneficiary anyways’,” elaborated he.

Obvious it was that my fresh lime soda partner was unhappy with losing the order – first time from a big potential client. The order was not huge, but you know ….

This ‘anti-bribery’ and ‘speed money’ topic brought back memories of another interesting discussion I had two years ago in Mumbai with an European senior executive at a leading shipping company – hardly a few metres away from the Bombay docks.

“You know, our company is more than a century old. Our tolerance level towards bribery is zero,” thundered this early 40s foreigner.

I looked at the CEO of the shipping company, a friend and acquaintance and at whose invitation I was meeting this European, with a quizzical look.

Yes, he winked at me!

“If so, what is my friend here, doing for your European company?,” I retorted. “Are you sure, my friend does not indulge in any such activity which in your European reckoning is ‘bribery’ to help your business in India,” I asked.

The European visitor was prepared perhaps for this missile.

“What he does is his problem. Not ours,” pat came the reply.

“Suppose, he has to cough up something ‘extra’ to speed up clearance of your stuff from ports, does it not tantamount to your zero tolerance getting compromised?” – It was me, of course.

Someone pinched me underneath the table and I knew who it was.

Luckily, a lady entered the room to inform the European that the next appointment is getting delayed.

He apologized for abrupt ending and left the room.

“Arre … what have you done?” demanded my shipping CEO friend. He was upset.

“Look, this is hypocrisy of foreign companies coming into India. I appreciate their zero tolerance towards corruption. At the same time, they cannot say that they are not concerned with their facilitators in India – like you – indulging in such practices to benefit them!” I explained.

I am not against corruption or anti-bribery or speed money. But it has to be fought collectively. The way India functions – or for that matter, any country anywhere in the world – businesses spend money to earn money.

Is it not true that even bribery payments are accounted for under some head or other and factored into costing of the product or service to be delivered?

Whom are we cheating?