Do you know what is a 'Fix'?

When you notice that there is a problem, it means that there is a non-conformance to the performance requirement, leading to loss and waste. 1/n

'Fix' is a temporary solution to arrest this non-conformance to reduce the loss till a permanent solution is found out.

Once 'Fix' is in place,follow up action like finding the root cause, identifying a permanent solution, implementing the solution, follow up has to be done 2/n

And then the FIX HAS TO BE REMOVED

Unfortunately, people and organizations are short sighted. They tend to forget about the problem once the 'Fix' is in place, till it snowballs into a major crisis later with higher cost implications. 3/n

Let me give you some examples,

Most of the houses in India have wash basins.The tap invariably is of poor quality & starts malfunctioning leading to water dripping. As a 'Fix', the residents close the gate valve under the wash basin which is kept for an emergency. 4/n

This is fine. But then they are expected to rectify the defect in the main tap or replace it. This is never done,leading to the 'Fix' of controlling the water flow using the gate valve becoming a permanent solution. 5/n

(Many a time, I go to the wash basin while visiting someones home for the first time and straightaway bend down to open the Gate Valve, and the host will amazingly ask me

"How did you know the Tap is not working?"

I tell I didn't know but it is a safe assumption) 6/n

It happens in Cricket too. Instead of playing a 6th Batsmen or a 5th Bowler,sometimes Teams do select a bits and pieces 'all rounder' who can bat a bit and bowl a bit.This is a Fix. In the end,he ends up like what Share Warne once famously commented on field about a Team mate 7/n

"The guy cant bat, or bowl or field for gods sake"

Another fix is using the Spare Tyre when you get a puncture to one of the Tyres. Spare Tyre is normally of poor quality, and the owner doesnt bother to fix the puncture of the main tyre leading to a second tyre failure 8/n

At a macro level, during UPA time, farmers were driven to suicide by wrong governmental policies. Government, typical of its ostrich like approach, applied a 'Fix' by announcing a 60000 crores rupees loan waiver. 9/n

This was a fix. Government did not do any root cause analysis of the problems faced by the Agricultural sector nor find long term solutions for it. Every year this charade was repeated leading to rural sector developing bad habits. It took Modi 6 years to try and fix this 10/n

Another example during UPA was applying a 'Fix' to tackle inflation. Inflation was not something that cropped up one fine day morning. Everyone saw it coming but did nothing till it started shaking the foundation of the Government. Then the 'Fix'ing started. 11/n

First it was the raising of Interest rates, then banning of exports and then increase in CRR of Banks. These didnt constitute permanent solutions. The root cause was more structural in nature 12/n

We did not have a long term inflation managment policy. But who cares? Contrary to what many thought, food was not the cause for inflation during UPA days. Government slept through when Steel producers and Cement producers formed cartels and started raising the prices. 13/n

UPA Government hardly raised a finger when it knew there was a wheat shortage & that it had to import wheat to make up for the shortfall. It didn't do anything to procure wheat when prices were low in international markets but placed orders when the prices had hit the roof. 14/n

Even allowing food consumption was on the higher side, UPA Govt should have seen it coming as people didnt just start eating more overnight. Then they came up with another ingenious 'Fix' - let people change their food habits.

Look around your home and at work. 15/n

See how many fixes are there? You will be surprised

Whenever you apply a 'Fix', please ensure that you go back to the problem, analyze it carefully, identify the root causes, find solutions, implement them diligently - and................don't forget to REMOVE THE FIX n/n