Caution: Mad men around

The Mad Men TV Series hit the world at the right time. The boom years of 2007 were all about idolizing the protagonists in Mad Men. Every male character in the series was successful, rich, cigarette smoking and a hard drinking womanizer; every female counterpart was an unintelligent, polygamous, attractive blondie. You couldn't’t help us not to be carried away in that wave. After all, those were the times when Gordon Gekkos and the Mad Men were omnipresent in our board rooms. Watching the series; I wondered if TV inspired real life or real life inspired TV; it was more like watching a reality TV show in a different setting.

Is their rule ending globally
I am neither rich, successful nor famous, So I guess I can write quite dispassionately about this whole affair. In the last couple of months in case you haven’t noticed (oh you haven’t noticed, can’t blame you for not noticing while sitting in your 160th floor Burj Pad or Yacht parked at the Marina), letters have gone out to most of these mad men who remained in office globally stating ‘Dear Big Cheese who ruled our world; we regret to inform you that you have been fired. We’re really sorry about having to let you go but in case you did’nt noticed, the world has changed while you have not'.

Aaah, I can see that smirk; you don’t believe me. Here’s the hard facts for writing this piece:

• August 2010 – Mike Hurd - HP’s CEO gets fired by his board, he’s caught in a sexual harassment case (Source: Tech Eye)
• July 2010 – Robert Moffat – IBM’s Sr Vice President & Sam Palmisano’s prodigy gets jailed after being caught in a web of sex and hedge fund leaks (Source : Fortune)

Collectively these two gentlemen resulted in a net loss in valuation of IBM & HP of around USD 20 Billion (check out the stock prices slipping on the days the news broke out last month). This was just a sample, I could list more. With due respect to all these big cheeses, they were not mere mortals. These were some of the brightest best minds in the business. Why is it that men who were authoring some of the best turn around strategies failed miserably in this case in something as simple as keeping their fly zipped!!!

Look out: They still rule around here
What is it with successful men that gets them tripping over something as commonplace as beautiful women (any expat into the Middle East would agree that it is one commodity this region has aplenty other than Oil). My personal analysis is that Middle East region is full of Mad Men and teeming with Gordon Gekkos who are idolized and eulogized every day in print. Here’s why

Surrounded by Psychopathic ‘Yes’ Men
Out here of all the places I’ve worked, I have found that on an average most CEO’s are surrounded by too many psychopathic ‘yes’ men. Some of these men seem to be vying for the CEO’s post itself and the others are overpaid expats who just don’t care what happens as long as the money keeps coming. So for approximately 12 hours a day, the CEO (our central character) is fed with a daily dose of how great his decisions have been. Can’t really blame the poor guy to start getting this false sense of invincibility leading to the birth of the Mad men.

Living in a Material world
Again of all the places, the Middle East is the most brand conscious, material conscious region I have witnessed. Want to test it out - go to the office on a weekend and check out how many men you find in there who’re wearing T shirts with a horse on the right side and a number on the arm. Check out the watch being worn by your pizza delivery boy, chances are they’re from Jacob & co. When you start living in such a material world, you cant blame the over paid exec – He’s not worried about his strategies poisoning mother nature, he’s not bothered about painting the economy in various shades of red. He’s just busy making his buck being cocksure of his false arrogance of ruling the world.

If you’re one of those totally idealistic, hopelessly naive and laughably unrealistic guys you may not agree with the above OR worse you may have just become on of those mad men we’re talking about above.