Case study on crisis management #Out of Experience

 

Case study on crisis management #Out of Experience 

• I and my friend Rohit had gone for my friends marriage at Ahmedabad. Of course new place and not sure about the quality of road transport. 
• Rohit had booked return ticket of AC Sleeper Bus under travels 'M" (8:30 PM) which is few km away from where we are ….!!!!!
• All together - they speak Guajarati, they know Hindi very well first and that’s of course fine. But its clearly showing up that we are not local and easy to loot.
• We are not comfortable enough with the routes too, what Google shows is our way (even we go by auto). But the people are very sweet and no auto guy has misguided and not tried to loot us

Lets get into topic

 

I and Rohit started by auto to the pickup location given by travels, with some tongue twisted road name which I spelled 3 times with my half slank to an auto guy.

we reached at the stop, we have seen bus parked near some garbage at highway.

Driver says that this is not the bus to be started at 8:30 but at 9:30. we have called travels and got settled the situation by coordinating with driver (which is same bus).

We got into this superb bus....!!!

Let me describe the bus here - it is smelling like I kept my face in a bag of 100 ripped onions, bugs on seats, no lights, roads are more cleaned (appreciating point on government)than my superb bus.

we are just thinking that this person will clean everything by the time it starts. waited for almost till 9:00PM and he is not even moving from his initial position...!!!

I asked the driver in some discussion....!!!

BHAI- you have very less time to clean the bus like arranging all bed sheets and stuff.....!!!!

He replied in very smart way...!!!

"Aap kaha se hoo???".... Do you expect anything now??? Here I am so innocent and asked him again.... He just nodded his head and said 'NO' by looking at me from top to bottom.

 

After 2 mints, I and Rohit just looked each other. Rohit said, Lets Leave from here....

we did too….!!! by booking up a new bus under travels 'N".  If we would have  taken that bus, we would be reaching our destination with some complementary # Malaria/Typhoid.

 

we started by auto again on whatever the price that driver said, because auto meter is under repair and its an highway (difficult to get an another auto).

 

Rohit has shared a feedback to the online travel agent (which even rated this 3.9/5) where he booked this travels 'M' from. Of course with his COLD emotions.

Meanwhile, my friend Rohit is just sharing his experience earlier how he missed bus just because of one small mistake and decided to leave on the same night ......

I realized later, what we had experienced is just nothing in front of what he had earlier. Because he reached home by taking 8 buses, crossing 3 states, staying in a lodge for 1 night, half knowledge on routes.

just his 14 hrs. of travel has become almost 32 hrs.....!!!!

 

 

Here we go with 2nd bus, we sat in the bus after an hour almost. Conductor has come and asked for ticket numbers (I and J)….. He did not found our names in the list but we have tickets in our phone. Conductor went back and got a new refreshed printed list…. Still we are out from the list.

went back by taking PNR number from us.....

Here comes the truth, Booked a bus on same date but for NEXT MONTH. So bad time we had, the both dates got matched with Sunday is the reason behind this mistake while booking.

Finally, we are out from there with no tickets.....

But this travels guy suggested us to go for travels 'F'.... Expecting a possibility.

 

we are just Neither panicked nor imbalanced. In fact more confident that’s we are absolutely cool. We are just managing and choosing an options one after another.

 

We are now at 3rd travels 'F' asking for tickets and managed to get 2 AC Sleeper tickets but at 11 PM.

We didn’t had dinner yet and don’t know how this bus could be…. Its almost 10:20 PM and now we have only a road side food option in this short span.

He has some Chinese which can just CLAIMED as Chinese.....!!! (Plz understand)

 

Got into the bus at 11:00 PM, I cannot say its bad or good but ok...!!! he has given 1 bed sheet to both of us..... I don't know how would a strangers got seats together can manage???? (Here, he just gave it to me).

we are just recollecting what all had happened and just laughing like anything......

 

Next day, we are about to reach Mumbai,

New hurdle is waiting for us ….!!!!we come to know that this bus don’t drop us at Navi Mumbai, the last stop is Bandra.......

and of course yar its already late and these all are very frustrated situations.

Continuously checking on OLA for better rates and asked him to stop at Andheri where cab is costing only Rs.700 where as half an hour back it was Rs.1500. It is costing same from Bandra too.. (just a thought to at least save our time).

Booked a cab,

wah....!!!cab driver is unable to figure out where we are...!!! we asked driver to stay at some metro station which is 300 - 400 meters away from where we got down. we walked down till there with the luggage and frustrated mood. we are finally in....!!!!

Rohit requested driver to take through my way even though its going to be so long...!!!

 

At the back of his mind, Rohit is feeling bad that all this mess is because of him and

while I am getting down he said- "I am sorry yar, all is my bad."

I replied with a smile…"chill yar….. its just happens."

He left with a smile on his face.

 

I know and it is of course unintentional. He even knows that I will not think on negative side

But a sentence he said and I replied actually means a lot to both of us.

 

Time to get into GYAN

 

1) Three common elements that we see In crisis are….!!!!

 

a) A Threat -Here, Loosing up a mode of transport to reach destination, Unknown locality, places at highway (public free and scary).

b) Surprise elements- unexpected condition of bus which has a rating on 3.9/5#1st situation, wrong booking of tickets for next month and no availability of tickets for further buses #2nd situation, 3rd bus not dropping us at our destination #3rd situation.

c) Short decision- Leaving out from the 1st bus and booking a tickets for second, choosing an auto for any price that he asked for, just leaving out from 2nd bus and choosing 3rd one, booking a cab - looking at best possible way.

 

2) Few types of crisis are below:

 

a) Sudden Crisis - A unwarned crisis that comes beyond ones control which is what we see

• In availability of Auto rickshaw here.
• 1st bus got delayed and also its condition.
• 3rd bus arrival stops are not at the point where we wanna go.

b) Smoldering crisis - Smoldering Crisis and sudden crisis has a thin line difference. This is due to our internal issues like negligence which we have done while booking a ticket for 2nd bus (chosen wrong date)

 

c) Signal Detection.

Sense-making: Making sense of crisis retrospectively - Identifying the threat of falling ill by looking at bus condition & detecting a less possibility of auto rickshaws at highway and taking the 1st one.

Perspective-taking: An answer from 1st bus driver of where are you from???... understands everything (An other person point of view).

 

d) Preparation and Prevention.
After a detection, Preparation and prevention is very important one.
Where we prepared and prevented our self by booking a 2nd bus immediately by looking at the distance of pickup location too.

 

e) Containment and damage control.
The aim of the crisis is of course to limit the threats and hunt for survival.

Here, thought of booking a 2nd bus to save our health 

Booking a cab for a better price and also to save the time of reaching destination instead going till Bandra.

 

f) Recovery
If we notice …. We have blocked our 2 bus ticket charges with various online agents.

Organization should not concentrate only on limiting threat but also have to run the existing one right…????

This is how we thought of giving feedback on 1st bus condition so that we can push for my returns and
2nd bus ticket is booked for march and it is easy to get full refund.

 

g) Backup.
Organizations always try to have parental company for their economical crisis or for any support. This is a very good support to incumbent who can concentrate on innovations without thinking on any financial crisis.
Rohit concentrated on solving this issue leaving his pocket weight (ran out with the balance too)…..Just because I am with him for backup.

 

3) Learning other management lessons from one management lesson.

  

This entire story run behinds the crisis management. Once we see heading "A case study on crisis management", we generally stop thinking outside the border. we can learn other management lessons from the same……
In fact we have many in one situation itself…!!!

 

A few are below…!!!

 

a) Need for change and risk management is clearly portrayed.

 

b) Leadership qualities that I observed from my friend Rohit.

• Very patient through out the problem.
• Never gave up on the process.
• Motivational story what he experienced earlier. This of course require to your army to fight against your opponent.
• Looking at your stakeholders- Rohit is always thinking about my difficulty and he is trying to make me comfortable.

c) Rewards and Recognition.

 

That’s ok if we work till 12:00 PM at night to complete an emergency task and might got frustrated, but a single sentence from boss like "GOOD WORK DONE".A small sentence in a mail is a Reward which brings a glow and satisfaction to us ryt…???

Here, A single sentence from Rohit  "I am sorry yar, all is my bad." and same single sentence from me "chill yar….. its just happens." means a lot to us and brought a smile on our faces.

 

 

 

- Siva