Dictators were living in their forts employing national funds and a strong security apparatus to enslave the people and squander national income. Their comfort come from the fact that it took a superpower with hundreds of thousands of soldiers to remove Saddam. Indeed Saddam case was in fact a set back to democracy and freedom although America keep prouding itself of toppling him. Dictators thought only America can through them out and were convinced that after Saddam experience America will not do it again.
All of the sudden and out of no where and without any precedent or written theory, a poor, unemployed Tunisian individual change the whole equation and brings down a dictator in less than a month. By all standards, Mohammed Bouazizi is a world hero and a historical milestone in the fight against oppression and dictatorship. The world after his revolution is no longer the same and forever.
Now every dictator is re-calculating and realized his weakness against the people he is oppressing. The world of dictatorship also has changed forever. I feel that every person on earth now is indebted to Bouazizi, who burned himself to death so dictators become exposed not only in Tunisia but the world over.
What in it for managers ?. Even in management there are managers who are dictators, oppressing their subordinates and misusing power. What a manager fails to see is that a junior members of staff who could be 2 or 3 levels below him can do harm to him or his career. There are real cases where the senior manager career was destroyed and he ended up thrown out and such unpleasant end was indeed initiated secretly by such junior staff.
Arrogance, greed, excessive power and underestimating what others can do are behind the sad ending of many executives. Add to that uncontrolled sex drive then you get the magical formula for career suicide. We have a saying which says : Man's failure is usually because of what is between his jaws (the tongue ) and what is between his legs (.....).
Hamad S Alomar
Riyadh
