These days it’s hard to be a Director

These days it’s hard to be 
a Director



The old days everyone liked to be a director in a company, 
especially after retirement from government service.


One attended meetings once a month (or more), 
reacted to the items in the board meeting agenda,
 expected the government representative 
(such as in the nationalised banks)
 to keep the necessary watch so that government

 or owner interests were safeguarded, 
and 
trusted the chartered accountant member 
(generally there used to be one), 
to keep an eye on the audit and accounts part of it.


A small fee

 (it depend on the size of the company)
 was given together with travel charges 
and of course board and lodging 
was taken care by the company.

At times meetings were held in places other than 
the headquarters of the bank/company 

? so the director or board member even got 
a bit of Bharat darshan.

 The nomination as a director 
was a post that was coveted.
But 

now,
 times have changed 
and how have they changed.

 Today many 
‘directors’ 
are 
resigning from their positions.

They are called 

‘independent directors’ 
who need to keep their finger 
on the pulse of the company’s working. 
The old days are no more. 

In the case of one 
of the companies in Andhra Pradesh,
 a director resigned much before the alleged fraud occurred 
? or so the papers say ?
 yet he is being hounded and 
many such instances may follow.


And 

what of chartered accountants and their firms, 
who are relied on heavily for 
doing their work honestly and well? 
How competent or correct would 

a director be to interfere to find out
 whether everything was done honestly 

and in a professional way? 

One gets a creepy feeling that 
there may be many firms even now 
who may not be 
satyam

 in their working and suddenly 
a can of worms will be opened catching
 everyone by surprise.


What can be done if salt loses its saltiness? 
Whom can we go to? 

Recently in one of the 
business newspapers 
there was the story of the man 
who gave shape to the 
Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) 
who was extremely professional and expected
 everyone else to be so too. 



Added to these qualities 

he was sporting as well. 
An avid tennis player he always made it a point, 
after he lost the game, 
to congratulate his opponent.




We need men like him 
? men who are not for sale, 

men who will condemn and
 if required correct wrong in friend or foe ? 
in themselves as well as others, 

Men whose consciences are as steady
 as the needle to the pole, 
Men who will stand for what is right though
 the heavens fall or the earth quakes, 
Men who tell the truth and look the world right in the eye,

 Men who are not ashamed to say ‘no’ with emphasis.


Two persons 
I met recently in the university in the city 
said they were pursuing disciplines 

that were practically of little use in the modern world 
? philosophy and psychology. 

Yet I believe these are the most needed
 ? for what is life and living without 

any philosophy or values to guide us. 


Of course we need to understand different psyches 
so that the most difficult thing to control in the world 
? the mind, is sought, 

understood and controlled.