Primacy of Principles – `Mean What You Say’


Principles inform the constraints for architecture. Therefore, it is very important to think through extensively before formulating them. Once they are formulated, must be communicated properly, not only to architecture team, but also, post implementation of the architecture, to the entire organisation. Thereafter, the principle must be adhered to at any cost. It may help to have `Primacy of Principles’ as the first principle. Through an anecdote, I will show how IBM used to follow this principle.
“ In 1971, I completed my engineering degree studies and my first job was with IBM World Trade Corporation in Chennai. I joined as Customer Engineer Trainee. I was sent to Bombay, as Mumbai was called then. There were 19 other trainees from various regions of India. We trainees were accommodated in a hotel in Andheri east. Our training centre was at Sakinaka, about a KM distance from the hotel. Our training hours were 9 to 5. Every day, in the morning after breakfast we, 20, used to split into 5 groups of 4 trainees each and go by cab to the training centre. One day just as we were leaving, one from my group wanted to go to the washroom. The rest of us waited for him. When he was done we went to the training centre. As we were entering the training room, our instructor Mr V D Luthra stopped us at entrance and asked “What is this?”. Remember all the trainees were students just out of college. When he asked us “What is this?” we did not understand anything. We were looking at each other. Luthra asked “What is the time?”. We all said “9’O clock”. To that he said “Look at your watch, it is not 9’O clock”. We saw it was 9.02. Luthra said “All of you are late.”. We were, after all, students just out of college. We all said, in a chorus, “Just 2 minutes Mr. Luthra!!”. Luthra asked, “ Who told you that arriving 2 minutes late is all right?”. To this we had no answer. We all said “Sorry”. Now, Luthra asked “ Why are you late?”. We gave him the reason. Luthra asked, if one of us had to go the washroom, why were others late. We explained that every day we came as a group to save taxi expense. He remarked, “ Did the company tell you that if you took a taxi for each, the company would not reimburse you?”. Once again we all apologised. Then we were let in.
We thought that the matter ended there. Obviously it had not. At the end of every week, we used to have a quiz on what we learnt that week. If anyone secured a bad score he would be called and discussed with. (Actually it will be a warning). That week I was called for a discussion by Luthra. He threw the score card in front of me and asked “What is this?”. I could not understand the question as I had done well on all the quizzes. He said “Look at the scores”. I had an `F’ against punctuality. Don’t forget I was student just out of college. I said “ Just 2 minutes Mr.Luthra!”. The dialog started all over again. I had heard them all already. But, then came the bomb shell. If you get one more bad score you are out of the job. Those were the days, job meant so much for a guy like me coming from a poor family. I started sweating. Apologised once again.
I thought it all ended there. But not so. 20 days later one morning when I was getting ready for breakfast, I got a call from my Regional Manager (very senior position), a Bengali Mr.Dutt. He asked me on the phone if I would join him for breakfast. I was confused. I was in Bombay, and how can I join the Regional Manager at Chennai for the breakfast? He said he was staying in the same hotel as mine, and gave me the room number. I joined him. He had already ordered `South Indian Breakfast’ for both of us in my honour as I am a south Indian. I still wonder, how it was so. After feeding me well (not so well, because it was idli sambar, which I loathe), he threw the same score card in which I had `F’ for punctuality. “What is this?”. I was foolish, after all I was a student just out of college, to expect sympathy from my clan, the Madras Regional Manager. Actually the conversations were repeat of what I had with Luthra. After I was warned once again that one more bad score would mean loss of the precious job for me. I had sweat profusely. As per IBM tradition Mr. Dutt put me at ease by discussing his hatred for Bombay’s `Pav Bhajis” (a food item from Bombay). Finally, before leaving his room, I asked him when was his next meeting in Bombay. He asked “What meeting”. He said he came exclusively to meet me. Now that it is done, he was catching the 10’O clock flight back to Madras. This happened to all the 4 of my group, their respective Regional Manager made them sweat literally.”


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