Nepe,

I take your point well. That's a good piece of advice on caution. And thank you for your email. 

Saroj, BC, Copycat, Usofa and Bhusan,

Many thanks for your postings, and for your thoughts here. I appreciate them.

Jet Favre,

When I decided to post these Union-related troubles on Sajha, I was acutely aware of what the famous baseball coach of LA Dodgers, Tommy Lasorda, had said on a different occasion: "Eighty per cent of the people don't care about your problems, and the other 20 percent are glad that you are having them."

But since I am the chief executive of a company AND a long-time contributor to Sajha, I decided to go ahead and bring these two personas together here to share my real-world, Nepal-specific observations and experiences because I wanted others to learn from my experiences and mistakes in Nepal so that, under similar circumstances, their results may be better in future when and if they become a part of corporate Nepal.

If you think this sort of sharing is NOT really necessary, well, then, let us agree to disagree.

Onto your questions:

1. Why did you wait so long to start this thread when these incidents occur almost everyday?

ANS: Because I was not here earlier, you probably think that I should spend all my time condemning all sorts of bad happenings in Nepal on Sajha. But that's not how I spend my time.

Last year, I wrote this article (please see the Web link below) as an advisory guideline to CEOs of Nepali companies, some of whom have since called on me to ask for further advice and suggestions. For sometime now, I've also been teaching a course to young Nepali managers, and the course deals with how to negotiate honestly, openly and strategically with Union leaders in Nepal. I have used the lessons of my own course to sign an agreement with the designated Union at my company that enjoys the written support of 85 per cent of the staff. And I was able to do that while letting 34 staff members to depart from the company in these times in Nepal on amicable terms without a single day of shutdown or strike.  

Presently, I am in the process of creating a loose coalition of lawyers, industrial relations expert and others to figure out ways to address labour union issues in Nepal.

I'm NOT sure how successful or effective my (these small, small) efforts will be, but the fear of results have not really stopped me from trying to do my best re: things I see as right in Nepal.

http://www.nepalitimes.com.np/issue/2007/10/05/StrictlyBusiness/14023

"2. Did you just scream bloody murder because you assumed it could never happened to a Harvard laureate like you?"

ANS: I fail to see what my university's got to do with me now or with the present problems that I am trying to address. So, the answer to your this question is: No.

The truth is, as a Nepali manager in Nepal, I am as vulnerable to and worried about Nepal's larger problems as anyone else in my shoes here. So, I am quite wide-eyed about this.  

3. "Now that you just survived an attack does it make you more special than other victims in the past?"

ANS: No.

I've never thought of myself as a victim in any sense. Like I said, I share these issues here so that there is better awareness and education and information and knowledge about these sorts of things out there.

Besides, quite frankly, I can't afford to lose hope and feel victimized: after all, every single day, I need to muster enormous energy to boost the morale of so many staff, and I greatly enjoy that aspect of my job.

I hope I have addressed your concerns. Thank you for your questions.

oohi

ashu