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By:

Rahul Kulkarni

30 March 2025 at 3:32:54 pm

BATNA for Internal Politics

Your authority is limited. Your alternatives decide your leverage One new problem shows up … especially in Indian MSMEs: You realise your authority is not as strong as your designation. And this is where many leaders get emotionally confused. They think, “I’m the leader. Why is this not happening?” Simple answer: because in legacy MSMEs, hierarchy is only one power source. Informal power is often stronger: old relationships, ownership proximity, “I’ve been here 20 years,” vendor networks,...

BATNA for Internal Politics

Your authority is limited. Your alternatives decide your leverage One new problem shows up … especially in Indian MSMEs: You realise your authority is not as strong as your designation. And this is where many leaders get emotionally confused. They think, “I’m the leader. Why is this not happening?” Simple answer: because in legacy MSMEs, hierarchy is only one power source. Informal power is often stronger: old relationships, ownership proximity, “I’ve been here 20 years,” vendor networks, customer control, even family dynamics. So, you need a different power lens, one that works without shouting. That’s where BATNA comes in. Which Seat? Inherited seat:  You may have authority, but you’re still negotiating with legacy power … sometimes inside your own family. Hired seat:  You have the title, but you may not have the “last word”. People will test it. Promoted seat:  You may have trust, but you’re negotiating with peers who remember when you were “one of us”. Different seats. Same reality: you will negotiate more than you will command. Job Offers Metaphor You’ve seen the difference in a person’s tone when they have options. Someone with one job offer is careful, anxious, overly accommodating. Someone with two job offers is calm, direct, not rude … just clear. Nothing about their IQ changed. Only one thing changed: Their alternatives. That’s leverage. BATNA is just a formal word for this. It comes from negotiation theory (Fisher and Ury popularised it in Getting to Yes ). It stands for: Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement. In human language: If this negotiation fails, what do I do next? If your answer is “nothing”, you have no leverage. And in internal politics, if you have no leverage, you end up doing one of two things: you beg, or you explode. Both are bad leadership looks. Why BATNA Matters People think negotiation is for vendors and customers. Wrong. In MSMEs, the hardest negotiations are internal: “Give me the data on time.” “Stop bypassing the process.” “Follow the dispatch sequence.” “Don’t promise impossible delivery dates.” “Raise issues early, not at the last moment.” These are negotiations because the other side has ways to resist: delay forget “network” around you create exceptions act helpless escalate to someone above you So the question becomes: what happens if they don’t agree? If nothing happens, your rule becomes optional. Uncomfortable Truth This is where people misunderstand BATNA. They imagine dramatic options: “I’ll fire him.” “I’ll resign.” “I’ll replace the whole team.” That’s not a BATNA. That’s fantasy. In an MSME, your alternatives are usually not dramatic. They’re structural. A real BATNA often looks like: changing the route, not changing the person building a bypass, not winning an argument shifting the decision to a different forum narrowing scope: “Fine, we’ll run the pilot without you” making a gate: “If you don’t update, you won’t get approval” using coalition support (Week 9, we’ll come to that) BATNA is not about ego. It’s about options you can actually execute. Internal BATNA Let’s say a senior person refuses to share numbers. No BATNA approach:   “Please share… please share… why aren’t you sharing… I told you…” BATNA approach:   “Okay. This week, we’ll review only what is on the scoreboard. Anything not on it won’t get discussed or approved.” Or a team keeps bypassing the new PO flow. No BATNA: “Stop doing this. I’ve told you.” BATNA:   “Any PO without the standard details won’t be processed. Emergency exceptions only through me, and we’ll log them publicly.” Or a salesperson keeps overpromising delivery. No BATNA: Argue repeatedly. BATNA:   “Quotations will carry a standard lead time unless production confirms. If you want exception lead times, you must bring confirmation in writing.” Notice: no shouting. No moral lecture. Just a shift in the rules of the game. That’s leverage. (The writer is a co-founder at PPS Consulting. He is a business transformation consultant. He could be reached at rahul@ppsconsulting.biz.)

Lateral upgrade to ailing annihilation

Updated: Oct 21, 2024

Lateral upgrade to ailing annihilation

Being the first person from the private sector to be appointed as chairperson of Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) as part of the government’s lateral initiative, Madhabi Puri Buch also holds the honour of being the first woman to hold the top post as capital market regulator.

But the laurels that the former private sector banker enjoyed in her earlier stint with ICICI Bank, was marred with allegations that she and her husband were having a stake in offshore entities, which were used to artificially inflate shares of Adani group companies.

Terming the allegation as `character assassination, Buch clarified that all disclosures have already been furnished and the fund in question did not invest in any securities involving the Adani group.

When it rains, it pours. This allegation was subsequently followed by Congress Party allegation that Buch had received salary and post-retirement benefits from ICICI Bank after she quit the private sector bank.

In its clarification to the stock exchanges, ICICI Bank asserted that the payments made to Buch were purely retirement benefits after her exit from the bank and they were neither salary nor employee stock options.

Prior to these allegations, Buch tenure at SEBI was all about bringing in quick reforms on operational issues by changing the format of consultation paper to bring in larger responses digitally. Being data savvy, the rationale of her decisions were democratic based on big data analysis derived from the responses received to the consultation papers.

Further she bifurcated the duties of the SEBI staff between operations and enforcement, which were done by the same persons earlier. Having worked for the private sector in the capital market domain space, Buch had a better understanding of the subject compared to officers from the administrative service in the past that reflected even in her orders as a whole-time director at SEBI before becoming the chairperson. As a whole time director at SEBI, her orders on adjudication issues were more directional to the capital market space, according to experts in the compliance space. She was also quick to revamp the old provisions of the 90s at SEBI.

Being tech and data savvy, Buch enhanced regulatory surveillance and detection of market manipulation, insider trading and fraud while also emphasizing on strengthening corporate governance by introducing stricter rules for independent directors and enhancing disclosures for related-party transactions.

To put in perspective, the annual report of the capital market regulator in the just concluded financial year revealed that the number of investigations related to insider trading jumped to 175 in 2023-24 from 85 in the preceding year while probes related to front running jumped over three times to 83 from 24 in the preceding year.

Transparency in mutual funds by implementing measures to protect retail investors along with tightening norms for initial public offers, particularly in the SME platforms were some of her other positive initiatives including confirmation of denial of any market rumours within 24 hours for the top 100 listed companies which will be extended to top 250 companies from December 1. However increased transparency and compliance with tightening regulations led to increased operational costs for the market participants and hence faced resistance from certain quarters. Born in 1966, Buch completed her primary education in Mumbai and graduated with specialization in Mathematics from Delhi and later obtained a management degree from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. In between, she got engaged to Dhawal Buch, a director at a consumer goods multinational at the age of eighteen and got married at the age of 21.

Besides ICICI Bank, Buch also worked as a lecturer at a college in England, worked at Greater Pacific Capital in Singapore and ICICI Securities as its CEO. She also worked as executive director on several private sector companies and as a consultant for New Development Bank (Brics Bank).

What now remains to be seen, is whether Buch, who survived the 26/11 terror attack when she along with her husband, was attending a meeting at Taj, be able to overcome the current ordeal. Keeping fingers crossed for the times to come.

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