Innovation, similar to communication, which I touched on in the previous issue of Tyre Trends, is a somewhat elusive subject as far as modern organisations are concerned. My intention here is not to delve into the subject’s intricacies but to share my experiences and views with the readers.

I do not know if I am the best person to touch on customer psyche from a marketing perspective. However, on thinking widely and looking at the big picture, I feel I am not very far from the truth that we are all engaged in putting our ideas across and understanding, or very often misunderstanding, relationships and dependencies throughout our lives, be it in family or social and business circles. In other words, we are marketers in the sense that we seek agreement to our views and expect a positive response from those with whom we associate. The Buddha, in one of his discourses, has indicated that the world depends 100 percent on relationships. This is equally applicable to all phenomena in nature, including human relationships. The quality of the relationships is the key determinant of the success or failure of the quality of any human activity. On thinking broadly, quality is a rather evasive term with a wide variety of interpretations, reminding us of the proverbial ‘seven blind men and the elephant’. 

My experience with the ISO certifications naturally prompts me to seek information from the ISO standards. A widely accepted and general definition of quality is the level to which requirements are fulfilled. According to the ISO 9001:2015 QMS, the customer requirements are broadly categorised as: (a) stated requirements, (b) implied requirements and (c) compliance obligations dealing with statutory and regulatory, and other legal requirements. Requirements stated by the customers are apparently straightforward but may need careful evaluation, while the implied requirements need to be invariably derived using the available information and the experience of the supplier or the manufacturer.

At the very beginning, the ISO 9001:2015 standard gives top priority to understanding the context of the organisation, which takes in to account the external and internal issues as well as the expectations of the external and internal interested parties while assessing the business risks and opportunities associated with the same. It is rather discouraging to note that many companies do not pay the due attention to Clause 4.0 in their quality management systems.

The concept of ‘internal customer’ is another important area that is apparently taken for granted in many companies despite the complex dependency and the independency between the processes and the process owners. The several ‘meetings’ that the managers are frequently engaged in – to the level of becoming a malady – could be the outcome of not paying attention to the ‘internal customer’. Habits 4, 5 and 6 of Stephen Covey’s ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’, namely Think Win/Win; Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood and Synergize, can be of valuable guidance in interpersonal relationships. Not understanding the requirements of the ’internal customer’ or the next in line in the value adding process has created closed domains and ivory towers within organisations.

As I have mentioned in one of my previous articles, ‘social distancing’ cannot be considered as post-Covid addition to our vocabulary. Its origins can be traced back to the post industrial revolution, when the traditional craftsmanship and cottage industries gave way for mass production system, which simultaneously resulted in mass de-personalisation. Individual craftsmanship was the norm in my native village in Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) in the fifties. I presume that some of the surviving ‘baby boomers’ can recollect similar experiences in their own countries. Pride of ownership and personal reputation were considered in high esteem – sometimes even at the expense of a little extra profit..

Notwithstanding the tremendous benefits accrued by way of increasing the agility and responsiveness with tools and conveniences of modern communications in the modern organisations, the distancing of relationships has introduced new problems. The importance given to the ‘personal touch’ appears to be the hallmark of an extinct species.

On the same lines, I remember an episode from my days in Nairobi, Kenya in the early nineties, how the owner of a well-known chain of hotels got his Harvard MBA son to work in a hotel kitchen as his first job and set a practical example of humanely understanding the customer psyche. Similarly, when I joined the Bata Shoe Company in 1969 as a management trainee, the first training we were given was to work in the retail shops for one week, irrespective of whether we are going to end up in marketing, purchasing, finance, technical or quality control. I still possess the leaflet we were given on the first day we joined the company, the contents of which goes as follows:

WHO IS A CUSTOMER

• A customer is the most important person ever in our business…in person or by mail.

• Customers are not an interruption to our work…they are the purpose of it.

• We are not doing them a favour by serving them…they are doing us a favour by giving us an opportunity to serve them.

• Customers are not dependent on us…we are dependent on them.

• A customer is not an outsider to our business…but a part of it.

• Customers are not cold statistics…they are flesh and blood human beings with feelings and emotions like our own, and with biases and prejudices. 

• A customer is not someone to argue…and match wits with. Nobody ever won an argument with a customer.

• Customers are people who bring us their wants. It is our job to handle them profitably, to them and to ourselves.

Honestly, I should say that as a freshly joined management trainee in 1969, it took me many years to realise the implications of these time-honoured pearls of wisdom about interpersonal relationships. With the proliferation of online sales and e-marketing, the customer has become an obscure or virtual figure or a non-entity. Going to the bank and exchanging greetings with the counter clerk or having a friendly chat with the vegetable or fruit vendor down the street is a thing of the past and a luxury which only a few retired persons like me can afford to enjoy.

Voluminous studies and research have been done in the past from the time the human relations approach to management which started about 100 years ago. It is still an area that the modern day management thinkers, CEOs and specialists of the many disciplines related to human behaviour are grappling with. New theories and hypotheses are continually emerging. The modern managers are very often overwhelmed by the challenge of discerning the trees from the forest, and I am aware about two companies in my own country that were duped by ‘marketing experts’ – to spend millions on magnanimous customer relations programmes which proved to be failures.

Customer satisfaction is a requirement of performance evaluation under Clause 9.0 of ISO 9001:2015. Some companies have developed rather intricate quantitative methods to evaluate customer satisfaction. Poor response rates are a common trend unless the products or the services are of a high level of importance and the consequences of failures are catastrophic. The cost of not fully comprehending what the customers want can be high and the consequences can sometimes be disastrous.

The behaviour and body language – the genuine vs the artificial smile – can be easily spotted. It could be the glittering front office of a large multinational company or an airline check-in counter or the flight cabin itself. Or it may be a small kiosk or a boutique in a remote village. The underlying principles are the same. The courteous, patient and the enduring etiquette of the saree vendors in many parts of India and the remarkable business success of some minor communities in Sri Lanka provide good examples of staying close to the customers.

Customer satisfaction is the extent to which we strive to meet the needs of the customers. However, the way the modern market promotion and advertising is continuously striving to create new needs and wants with only the financial bottom-line as the supreme priority makes me wonder if we have a ‘hen and the egg’ situation in modern business. It was Mahatma Gandhi who once said, “The world has enough for everyone's need, but not enough for everyone's greed.”

According to a recent market study, some common pitfalls of poor customer experience are enumerated as:

a) Rushing it

b) Losing focus

c) Assuming satisfaction, loyalty, advocacy is the same

d) Letting the stakeholders to influence the customers

e) Making rash decisions

f) Comparing apples to oranges

g) Keeping it as a secret

h) Ignoring the data

i) Thinking short term

j) Standing still

Some important aspects to be considered in understanding the customer behaviour have been identified as follows:

• Marketing positioning and distribution

• Personal factors such as age, gender, education and upbringing

• Psychological factors such as buying motives, perceptions and attitudes

• Situational factors such as physical surroundings, social surroundings and time factor

• Social factors such as social status, reference groups, social media and family

• Cultural factors such as religion and ethnicity

• Lifestyle factors such as status, income and identity

• Geographical factors such as the country, religion, urban or rural

With all due respect to the modern approaches to understanding the customers, I find it opportune to cite a far-reaching teaching from the Buddhist doctrine which has deeper management implications on interpersonal relationships. Once the Buddha noticed a young person called Sigala, from an affluent Brahmin family, worshiping reverently at different directions after having his ritualistic bath at the Ganges. It was found that he was following the death wish of his late father. The Buddha explained to him the real significance of the six directions of worship, which is a lesson for the modern managers on harmonious interpersonal relationships. The discourse covers in great detail the duties and responsibilities of the different stakeholders of the social fabric, namely:

• Parents-children

• Students-teachers

• Husband-wife

• Friends and associates

• Employer-employee

• Individual-religious fraternity

It can be seen how these interactive factors cover every aspect of our lives on a life course approach, irrespective of geographical, national, social and religious boundaries, in a world made complicated by our own ambitions and actions.

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As a surviving member of the ‘baby boomer’ generation that commenced with the rapid economic growth following the World War II, I think we are, in a broad sense, privileged to have witnessed and experienced the happenings and consequences of about 50 years in the 20th Century and about 30 years in the 21st Century. When contemplating on the term literacy and its traditional meaning of being able to read and write from an educational perspective, I feel it fitting to cite a few real-life cases, from way back, which make me to wonder whether the above interpretation of literacy is all encompassing.

a) My maternal grandmother, who was born in 1900, did not know reading or writing, a typical feature about the female folk in that era, especially in the remote villages. Despite this apparent handicap, she successfully managed the day-to-day administration of the paddy fields and the rubber plantation, including finances, and raised three children to become worthy human beings.

b) Then there were these three young people who had migrated to Colombo with minimal formal education and started their business in humble ways to become well recognised icons of international fame in the healthcare, confectionary and rubber footwear and tyres, respectively, the latter being related to my own core field, the rubber industry.

c) Last but not the least, the late Martin Wickremasinghe, born in the late 19th century, who attended school only up to the 7th standard, wrote hundreds of books on diverse subjects such as history, anthropology, sociology, religion and literature and several novels (some of which were translated to several languages), which rightfully recognised him as a well-respected scholar and the greatest writer in Sri Lanka.

While it may be futile to compare apples with oranges, I feel that literacy has a utilitarian perspective, which can change with the social context and the circumstances. With my manufacturing background, I see a close parallel of literacy and quality. Out of the hundreds of definitions available of the latter, ‘fitness for use and the level to which requirements are fulfilled’ is applicable to literacy as well.

When going through the available information on the subject, it is noted that ‘literate’ can be traced back to the early 15th century from the Latin word literatus, meaning learned, educated and lettered. Initially, literate meant someone who was well educated, learned and acquainted with literature, and over time, as basic schooling became more widespread, the word was adapted to describe the foundational skill of reading and writing. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines literacy primarily as ‘the ability to read and write’. Two core definitions for the term are identified as Basic Literacy, the fundamental ability to read and write, and Specialised Literacy, the competence, knowledge or skill in a specific subject area in which common modern applications include:

a) Computer literacy: The ability to use computers effectively.

b) Financial literacy: Understanding and effectively managing personal finances.

c) Health literacy: The capacity to obtain, process and understand basic health information and services.

It could be inferred that we, the ‘baby boomers’, currently at an advanced stage in life, cannot do without the above basic literacies, and as a minimum, the routine health check such as blood sugar, blood pressure, LDL and HDL etc. to survive and lead active lives.

It is said that writing originated primarily out of economic necessity as the early agricultural societies grew and needed to track goods, taxes and trade. The evolution of writing from rudimentary clay tokens in to the world’s first independent writing systems in Mesopotamia, Egypt, China and Mesoamerica around 3200 BC to 3000 BC is a story that requires a deeper elucidation at a different forum.

Literacy is considered as one of the most important foundations of civilisation and has played a crucial role in human survival and existence both evolutionary and historically. However, instead of going into a deliberation of these foundational perspectives, I intend to offer some of my personal insights and recollections on this important subject over the past 60-plus years. I can recollect how at preschool stage, we were initiated into the basics of reading and writing using slates and slate pencils (made out of a silicious material) and the ‘black boards’ in the class room where chalk was used for writing. Literacy mainly meant the ability to read and write and, in later classes, in performing basic arithmetic. In schools and workplace, literacy was closely connected to formal education and subject knowledge. A literate person was one who could understand written communications, reads books and newspapers, write letters and maintain records and perform effectively in society. It was directly connected to social respectability and economic progress.

Literacy in English was considered as a rare virtue in countries which were under the British colonial rule. It was confined only to a few ‘high level’ schools in Colombo and in some major towns. Hailing from a rural background and having attended a small primary school in a remote town, I have first-hand experience of the panic and inferiority when I started secondary education in Colombo. This was especially true when we started studying for the Government (Ordinary Level Exams) in the science stream which was all in English. It was a struggle to get adapted and face the challenge, which I would say, I managed fairly well.

In those days, literacy was essentially confined to formal education and subject knowledge. Students were expected to memorise facts, understand texts and reproduce the information during the examinations. Books and libraries were the main sources of knowledge. Teachers were well recognised and respected as the primary sources of knowledge. And learning was generally a disciplined and structured process. And information, though limited, was relatively organised. I do not consider this as a deficiency or a weakness at all, because it fitted well with the societal and business expectations of those days.

I can well remember the day of my first interview seeking a job, which happened to be in the rubber industry. Instead of asking about isoprene or how the RSS (Ribbed Smoked Sheet) is made, although I managed to cram some information about the latter, I was asked about Ohm’s Law and how steel is made from iron ore. I was lucky because in our Advanced Level class, we had studied the above, and this paved way for a lifelong career in the rubber industry.

Literacy seems to be directly proportional to the rate of percolation or trickling down of the technologies to countries in our part of the world, and this was a rather slow process until the early eighties. However, mankind is evolutionary geared for ‘adaptive radiation’, which in modern jargon can be interpreted as how quickly we learn and get used to the new situations and contingencies as we meet new frontiers. According to the modern theories of cognitive learning, we acquire new knowledge through assimilation of new concepts (schemas) or by accommodation of incoming concepts into our existing knowledge. As an example, I can relate with my personal experience how my literacy in rubber technology evolved, starting as young trainee with very little knowledge on rubber. With the rapid development of science, technology and globalisation and artificial intelligence, the meaning of literacy has expanded beyond the traditional horizons.

In contrast to the scenario of over 50 years ago, today’s literacy has grown to include cultural awareness, ethical understanding, workplace competence, computer literacy, digital communication and the ability to manage continually increasing volumes of information; some of them are very often recurring and sometimes redundant. Some key diversions are shown as follows:

a) Educational and subject literacy: While mathematical and scientific literacy, language proficiency and analytical thinking is essential, they go beyond memorising facts to effective application of the knowledge.

b) Cultural literacy: This has become increasingly important in this era of extending globalisation for respectful understanding and effective communications. This also includes awareness of history, religion, social values and traditions, which lamentably is declining amongst the younger generations.

c) Ethical literacy: This simply means the ability to distinguish the right and the wrong, social responsibility and taking morally sound decisions. Ethical failures can cause serious and disastrous consequences at the work place or the society.

d) Workplace literacy: Today’s workplace literacy includes communication skills, teamwork, time management, leadership, and most importantly, emotional intelligence and empathy.

Cognitive overload is another major challenge in this era of information wilderness where virtually every perceivable member of the community is inundated with vast volumes of information every moment, which often creates confusion. The human mind has limited capacity for attention and memory. Continuous digital distractions can weaken concertation, reduce reflective thinking and may affect mental wellbeing.

While the meaning of literacy has undergone a remarkable transformation over the past 60 years or so, the digital age has created opportunities as well as unpresented challenges. Modern literacy requires not only access to information but also the wisdom to evaluate, analyse and apply it effectively. Books, reading habits, reflective thinking and reliable sources of knowledge remain essential even in the era of artificial intelligence.

For many years, literacy and competency have been considered as different subjects. However, in the modern world, the demarcation between the two have been gradually getting blurred. Literacy does not simply mean how much one knows but more on how the knowledge is applied for value creation. This convergence is evident in all walks of life. Employers are increasingly seeking persons who can demonstrate competence rather than merely possessing qualifications. Competency-based education has entered the curricula of many private and governmental institutions in Sri Lanka. Conventionally, Sri Lanka is said to possess one of the highest literacy rates in the region. However, the progress achieved in many aspects of socio-economic, ethical and cultural fronts do not seem to have a matching congruence with competency.

As the American writer, futurist and businessman Alvin Tofler (1928-2016) once quoted,

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”

The meaning centres on the shift from static knowledge to the critical need for constant adaptability in a rapidly evolving world.

The author is a Management Counsellor from Sri Lanka.

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The industry is increasingly recognising that competitiveness requires far more than just low wages for strategic innovation. Investors and industry associations are fully aware of this and emphasise that competitiveness inevitably involves creating added value, and that this can only be achieved through investment in talent. Companies are seeking employees with skills in innovation, critical thinking, teamwork and leadership.

Although some disadvantages make Mexico a risky investment location, they do not deter investors. Government stabilisation is contributing to a significantly more favourable investment climate over time and offers numerous advantages for expanding into the country.

However, Mexico presents several persistent disadvantages, risks and challenges for investors. Intense competition from cheap imports continues to strain the domestic market. This creates significant downward pressure, and even simple price adjustments can erode the profit margins of manufacturers of high-quality products. Infrastructure and logistics deficiencies hinder business operations. Mexican logistics infrastructure is considered outdated, particularly regarding intermodal connections, and customs procedures have become less efficient. These factors can increase operating costs and complicate supply chains.

An acute shortage of qualified personnel persists. Despite a young population, the high-tech manufacturing sector suffers from a critical lack of qualified staff, primarily due to high employee turnover and a lack of skilled workers in areas such as welding and maintenance.

Investors face complex challenges, including a tight labour market with rising wages, unreliable energy and water supplies in some areas and ongoing social conflicts that hinder the achievement of business goals. Mexican exports are primarily driven by a shift in trade away from China, rather than by a massive and widespread transfer of foreign capital.

Extortion and kidnapping are observed, particularly in border regions, with significant negative consequences for businesses and foreign investment. In response, the Mexican government has passed a new, comprehensive anti-extortion law, the implementation of which is being closely monitored by business associations.

Mexico offers a stable macroeconomic environment that surpasses that of many emerging markets. Numerous opportunities make Mexico an attractive manufacturing location for many industries…

Players in the Mexican tyre market are adjusting their strategies and focusing more on the domestic market or Brazil and Latin America due to the uncertainty persisting in Mexico regarding deliveries to US because of frequent changes in tariffs imposed by the Trump administration, regularly leading to delays or postponements of delivery dates.

The Mexican tyre industry faces several challenges, but its future will depend on its ability to develop innovative and high-quality products (such as tyres for electric vehicles), adapt its workforce to new requirements and succeed in the complex context of trade policies and global competition to ensure a sustainable and socially responsible future.

Despite some negative economic and social impacts, Mexico offers a stable macroeconomic environment with moderate inflation and rising wages. This has in a way a positive effect on public welfare state and as well as on the automotive and tyre industries. Therefore, rising vehicle sales and increasing disposable incomes are driving tyre demand. Mexico’s position as a hub for tyre production and exports is strengthening. Infrastructure development and growth in the automotive sector including tyre manufacturers are generating additional demand.

A positive aspect of the work ethic of many Mexicans lies in their exceptional productivity and their willingness to work long hours to complete their tasks. In modern industrial environments, employees are characterised by a high degree of professionalism and commitment. The Mexican tyre industry, for example, exemplifies a rapidly modernising work culture. It promotes a strong female presence and employs a very young workforce, with 75 percent of employees being under 35 years old. n

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While the tyre and rubber industries are experiencing one of their most dynamic periods thanks to North American integration, the retreading sector continues to face economic, cultural and market challenges in its efforts to regain momentum.

Few Latin American economies currently occupy as strategic a position within the global tyre industry as Mexico. The combination of manufacturing capacity, geographic proximity to United States and the advantages provided by the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) has consolidated the country as one of the leading tyre and rubber manufacturing hubs in the region.

In recent years, US trade policies directed at producers located outside North America have further strengthened this position. Investment relocation, nearshoring strategies and the need to secure regional supply chains have created particularly favourable conditions for Mexican industry.

The effects are visible throughout the value chain. Tyre manufacturers, rubber compound producers and raw material suppliers are operating at high activity levels, largely driven by demand from the US market. Industry stakeholders consistently point out that the current challenge is not finding customers but maintaining sufficient capacity to meet North American demand.

The rubber compound industry is perhaps one of the clearest examples of this trend. Benefiting from the regional trade environment, many companies are operating close to full capacity, supplying tyre manufacturers as well as other rubber-related industries. A similar situation can be observed among several retreading material suppliers, whose primary concern is not local demand but their ability to meet growing requirements from United States.

Yet, while manufacturing is experiencing a period of expansion, the retreading sector faces a very different reality.

The paradox is striking. In a country that markets more than 40 million tyres annually and possesses one of Latin America’s strongest industrial platforms, retreading has not been able to regain a sustained growth trajectory.

During his presentation at the Latin Tyre & Auto Parts Expo Panama 2025, Juan Carlos Hernández, then Commercial Manager of Hules Banda, presented figures that help illustrate the scale of the challenge. According to the data presented, Mexico marketed more than 40 million tyres during 2024, with an estimated potential of over five million tyres suitable for retreading. However, only around 960,000 units were actually retreaded, representing a retreading rate of approximately 18 percent.

The figures become even more revealing when analysing installed capacity utilisation. While tyre factories report average idle capacity levels close to 14 percent, retreading plants operate with approximately 70 percent idle capacity. Furthermore, during the first months of 2025, retread production showed a decline of nearly 9 percent compared to the previous year.

The reasons behind this situation appear to be less related to technical capabilities and more connected to the economic incentives currently shaping the market.

The growing presence of low-cost imported tyres has significantly transformed purchasing decisions across many fleets. According to Hernández’s presentation, nearly 40 percent of the radial truck tyre market consists of Asian products sold for less than USD 150 per unit. As a result, the economic gap between purchasing a low-cost new tyre and investing in a retread has narrowed considerably for many operators.

In this context, measures such as tariffs on selected imported products have so far failed to generate significant structural changes in market behaviour or retreading activity levels.

However, attributing the situation solely to pricing would be an oversimplification.

One of the most interesting observations highlighted by Hules Banda points to a less visible but potentially more significant long-term issue: the gradual loss of tyre management culture.

For decades, retreading formed part of a comprehensive asset management strategy, where tyres were managed throughout multiple life cycles in order to maximise cost per kilometre performance. Today, in many segments of the transport industry, that approach has increasingly been replaced by purchasing decisions focused primarily on immediate acquisition costs.

The result has been lower casing utilisation, fewer maintenance and monitoring programmes and increasing difficulty in demonstrating the long-term economic benefits that have historically supported the retreading business model.

Paradoxically, those segments that continue to manage tyres as strategic assets still demonstrate the relevance of retreading. Fleets operating premium and medium-tier tyres remain highly dependent on retreading to optimise operating costs, improve profitability and maximise asset utilisation.

CIRCULAR ECONOMY BEYOND END-OF-LIFE TYRES

Another issue deserving attention is the way the circular economy debate is currently evolving within Mexico’s tyre sector.

Much of the public and regulatory discussion focuses on end-of-life tyres (ELTs), collection systems, reverse logistics and recycling or recovery solutions once the product reaches the end of its useful life. By contrast, strategies aimed at extending product life through reuse often receive considerably less attention.

This is particularly relevant given that internationally recognised circular economy principles establish a hierarchy in which extending product life generally delivers greater environmental value than interventions applied after a product becomes waste.

From this perspective, retreading represents one of the most tangible examples of circularity within the tyre industry, as it preserves the economic, material and energy value embedded in the original casing for a longer period.

Mexico will undoubtedly remain one of the leading players in the North American tyre industry. The strength of its manufacturing sector appears well supported by regional integration, industrial investment and strong demand from United States.

The question that remains is whether the retreading sector will be able to become fully integrated into this growth story.

The industrial capacity exists. The technology is available. Premium market segments continue to require strategies focused on maximising cost per kilometre performance. The challenge appears to lie elsewhere: rebuilding tyre management culture and repositioning retreading as a strategic tool for competitiveness, efficiency and circular economy performance.

At a time when much of the discussion focuses on managing tyres at the end of their life, perhaps the more important question is how to ensure that life lasts longer in the first place.

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I can still vividly remember a journey I made in 1995 with my young Kenyan MD (who is no longer living) in a hired car from the Delhi Airport to some town close to Ludhiana to meet a tyre moulding machinery supplier. The travel was through vast expanses of paddy fields extending to miles, and in between, we could see large industrial sites far away. A clear sign of industry and agriculture co-existing synergistically. When passing the area called Kurukshetra, the driver mentioned that there was a war at this area a long time ago. He was obviously referring to the great war of the epic Mahabharata, a subject which still generates ample curiosity in me even at this advanced age. With growing years of maturity, I am more convinced that the great war symbolically and semantically depicts the inner conflicts going on in our own minds, while these are conventionally polarized as ‘black and white’ under the ‘all- or- nothing’ principle, and Kurukshetra represents our own hearts and intellect, commonly called the emotional brain and intellectual brain in today’s jargon. Equipped with my industry experience acquired for nearly six decades, I am tempted to make a rather feeble effort to understand what has changed in the managerial mind map over the past 50 odd years. It would be similar to finding parallels between the Vietnam War in the late sixties and current war going on in the Middle East, despite the common factor, US.

Quite in contrast to machinery and materials, the man component of the traditional 4Ms is the most confusing area despite the vast research that has been carried out over the years. It is said that the adult human brain consists of about 86 billion neurons, an astronomically high figure compared to memory capacity of the modern computers. Over the past few decades, the modern managerial mindset has undergone profound transformations. Managers today, particularly in the age group of 35 to 50 ( Gen X), operate in an astonishingly different scenario compared their counterparts 50 years ago. The two eras are fundamentally different and attempting to compare them is largely futile. The rapid changes, technologically, culturally, socially and psychologically, are so vast that today’s managers are shaped by globalisation, digitalisation and fierce competition, which has significantly altered their cognition, thinking patterns, values and behavioural approaches.

While most living managers of the older generation adopt a stance of lamenting about the ‘’good old times’, I think it would be more prudent to understand the realities of change. Management philosophies have undergone profound change, evolving from Taylor’s scientific management and Fayol’s top-down framework based on five key managerial functions to the humanistic approaches advanced by Carl Rogers and Maslow. This is the universal feature of impermanence of all conditioned phenomena (cause-effect related), discovered more than 2,600 years ago by Lord Buddha and some Greek and other Eastern philosophers. Endeavoring to maintain stability, in an ever-changing world scenario, has been the driver for the emergence of management concepts and theories, including the latest approaches seen in the contemporary modern world. Comparing modern managers with those from 50 years ago is unrealistic because of the complete change in the context. Earlier managers operated in stable and localised economies, while modern managers operate in a dynamic globalised environment. It is sometimes said that ‘when the President of the United Sates sneezes, the Eastern leaders catch a cold’, a fact amply demonstrated by the recent events.

Decision-making in the past was slow and experience-based, while today it is data driven, rapid and technologically assisted. Traditional management emphasised relationships, loyalty and progressive and gradual growth, while modern systems emphasise on performance metrics and quick results, like the instant coffee.

The growing corporate trends due to industrialisation over the past 30 years especially has witnessed increased focus on productivity, efficiency and outputs along with standardisation, which has made workers and managers becoming a part of a mechanised system. Modern corporate managerial thinking is also been heavily influenced by globalisation, due to exposure to international competition and the need to adapt to diverse cultures and markets and the pressures to meet global benchmarks and standards. The constrains and the stresses imposed on countries such as Sri Lanka is tough in these areas. A good example is the EUDR requirements, which initially was a nightmare to the rubber product manufacturing companies. A far more serious non-technical consequence is that the concept of a ‘global village’ is eroding values of the strong cultural and ethical foundation, leading to identity dilution among managers

During my association with the industry, particularly over the past 20 years, I have personally witnessed decline of the traditional values in the modern managerial mindset. This is also seen in some professional associations in which I have been a member for a long time. Some of the key trends noted are as follows:

a) Limited understanding and low priority given for religion, history and cultural heritage.

b) Reduced emphasis on ethics, empathy and social responsibility despite the fact that this has become a ‘catch word’ in most corporate circles.

c) Over reliance on technical knowledge and digital skills.

d) Decline in the respect for elders and their experience (crystallised knowledge)

e) Over confidence due to access to information, which brings forth a ‘know it all ‘stance.

f) Diminished openness to learn from others.

g) Difficulty in accepting criticism and feedback

While these tendencies directly affect workplace relationships, team cohesion and leadership effectives, the hidden or latent consequences have more deeper implications on personal and social wellbeing.

The Buddha in one of the discourses has observed that a person can victoriously face a battle against an army of elephants, horses, chariots and infantry by having the necessary resources, but it will be more difficult to win the war within due to mental conflicts.

Most business environments are characterised by aggressive target setting, continuous performance evaluations and competitive organisational cultures, which has caught the managers in a perpetual rat-race where success is narrowly defined by targets and profits while there is hardly any time for reflection or personal growth. This creates a certain emptiness and dissatisfaction even among the high achievers.

I find it interesting at this juncture to refer to the historic concept of Sigmond Freud (considered as the founder of Psychoanalysis), the structural components of the mind, namely Id (pleasure principle or gratification), Ego (reality principle) and the Super Ego (ethical and moral conscience). In order to minimise the negative impacts of the conflicts between them, the Ego resorts to defence mechanisms, or temporary coping solutions. Some of these are denial of the problem, repression of the feelings, projection of the blame to somewhere else and rationalisation or giving logical but false explanations. While these   are useful in the short term, over reliance can interfere with mental functioning and emotional growth. All of us are unconsciously resorting to one or several of these in times of emotional turmoil.

The pressures of modern management have led to an exponential growth in mental health challenges in recent years, which include common mental disorders such as stress, anxiety, burnout, depression and features associated with Borderline Personality traits (emotional instability and impulsivity), which result in work-life imbalance and chronic dissatisfaction.

Due to the high psychological demands, there is a growing need for career and workplace counselling. Counselling is a relatively new term that came into prominence around the mid-20th century, before which guidance and support was traditionally provided by the religious institutions, parents, teachers and the elders in the society. Over the recent years, counselling has evolved as a unique profession. Many organisations, especially the larger ones due to the seriousness and gravity of the problems they experience, have established counselling as a regular activity performed in-house or outsourced. Counselling helps managers to cope up with stress and expectations, supporting emotional regulation and resilience and enhancing self-awareness and interpersonal skills, which results in reconnecting purpose and meaning and balancing professional and personal life to develop a healthier mind set. The modern managers must endeavour to have a balanced mind set which is an integrated mix of technical competence, human values, cultural awareness and emotional intelligence and wellbeing. Only then they can move beyond being mere ‘cogs in a wheel’ and become holistic, effective and ethical leaders in the modern world

It is somewhat ironic that Human Resource Sustainability is not named as a single standalone goal in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) but covered under several headings such as Good Health and Wellbeing, Quality Education, Gender Equality, Decent Work, Economic Growth and Reduced Inequalities.

While I do not have firsthand information on how human resource counselling is caried out in other countries, my observations and experience in Sri Lanka is that it is done more in a fire fighting or reactive mode, where corrective and remedial measures are taken only in cases of psychological deviances. It is somewhat surprising because Sri Lanka is famous for its preventative public health care in pre and postnatal maternity health and school dental health. Industry safety and health is fairly well addressed in most large, medium and some small enterprises, although these are mainly covering the operational levels. Currently, several standard stress, anxiety and depression measuring scales, both qualitative and quantitative, are available, but they do not seem to be used proactively to detect the cinders underneath the ash. People in emotional distress invariably need to vent their thought and emotions, which causes several cognitive distortions and mental disorders. Active and empathetic listening plays the major role in a therapeutic counselling relationship

Coming back to the Mahabharata, the classic instance of counselling for a person in deep emotional conflict and inner war is the Bhagwat Gita, and all of us will need Lord Krishnas in different disguises at some stages in our lifetimes.

It is interesting how Buddha has adopted an integrative approach to the four aspects or components of wellbeing for human progress as:

• Physical wellbeing
• Mental wellbeing
• Social wellbeing
• Spiritual wellbeing

The author is a Management Counsellor from Sri Lanka. 

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