Vijaya kumar, Business Owners Worldwide Inc. (USA) alumnus and the founder of Aequitas Global strongly support No Sir No Madam drive for development. He wanted to bring something in the society from a long time. Therefore, during the recession period of 2008, he came up with a wonderful operation, Aequitas Global. Aequitas Global imparts strategic business solutions for micro, small, and medium enterprises (SME).
Vijay hails from Coimbatore. He has an extensive experience of 20 years from marketing to strategies in the corporate sector. He founded Aequitas Global in the year 2010 formally and has been helping organizations since then. Vijayakumar is working closely with start-ups as mentor for the last eight years. He has helped many entrepreneurs succeed.
He relates himself very much to first-name culture and has inculcated this in his organization from day one. Even the vernacular language is allowed at his workplace for the eradication of Sir/Madam taboo. He prefers No Sir No Madam culture, because first-name makes it easier to connect with people. He acknowledges that Sir/Madam tradition is widespread in India. Vijay opines, “It is more of a mindset issue, rather than making it a personal priority.”
Vijay has experienced extreme Sir/Madam culture in dealing with educational and other societies. However, he articulates that respect can be shown without salutations. Name can connect two people for a long period. He shares while talking about a guy from Europe, “I am connected even after a year because we address each other by first name”.
Vijay pinpoints, that in our country, Sir/Madam formality creates a boundary wall between two people. This initially forms communication gap and finally loss of connection.
While discussing government sections, Vijay verbalizes — In Government sector, I worked with IAS level people, and I found that they do not bother about Sir/Madam Salutation. Notwithstanding, officers of 2nd and 3rd grade are much bossier, and it is difficult to change them. They take Sir/Madam as an ego massage.
Remembering an instance about blue-collar job holders, Vijay recollects, “my friend who is the head of HR for an automobile company with approximately 5000 workers within the organization in Chennai. We were discussing something, and a driver drove the car inside the office with a speed of 80/90 kmph. My friend called the driver by his name, though he was quite far from us. Realizing the fact that the boss knows him personally in the crowd, the driver’s nature changed completely, that is the magic of the name connect.”
He vocalizes, “I am here for work, I should not bother about who is calling me what, unless, and until it affects me personally or my business. I think this definitely needs to be abolished completely, if they wish to bring in the professional culture,” speaks Vijay.
Salutation decree is ingrained into people since the British rule. Indians do not even bother to understand the logic behind it. Vijay opines, “If they knew the real meaning of Madam nobody would call a woman as madam.”
Vijaya, as a responsible citizen believes, re-structuring of the Indian education program should be done. He announces, “Scrape this examination system and build an education system properly. “He acclaims, “Until and unless this slavery system is changed nothing will change.”
Vijay wraps-up by saying—No Sir No Madam culture has to go viral for sure. However, it needs awareness that can be done through social media. Once we understand the reason behind not using Sir/Madam, everything will change.
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