There is a small snack shop near my place, people call it the “Vadai Kadai” which means “The Vadai Shop” in the local language and Vadai is a small snack made of mashed dhall, mixed with onion, chilly, curry leaves etc., and fried in oil. One day I visited the shop to buy some Bonda (another snack similar to vadai, but filled in mashed potato masala, soaked in batter and fried in oil), that’s when the thought struck me! The Bonda is small snack worth a few Rupees but it is a symbol of cooperation and interdependence.
To bring a Bonda into existence, many things across the entire country are interdependent and have to cooperate. Cooking oil is produced from places like Vellakovil etc., potatoes from Ooty etc, onions from Bellary etc, The Channa Dhal to make Dhall flour from Madhya Pradesh etc. All of these and more have to be produced, transported, protected, etc, to be finally sold to the “Vadai Kadai” vendor to make his final product – The Bonda. The Vadai Kadai vendor does not know any of these people involved in this coordinated effort of bring the Bonda into existence. All he does is buy the ingredients from the provisions store seller, he might not be even aware that so many things are interdependent and have to be coordinated for his product to come into existence.
Likewise, in organizations, there are many unknown faces at work to make that organization run successfully. The bigger the organization, more the unknown faces that work in a coordinated fashion to make things happen. A real leader will have to understand the interdependence of these unknown faces that creates a chain of coordination and cooperation contributing to the organization’s growth.
Image Credits: Pixabay