This is a question we were asked by a female professor at the MIT. I forgot her name. We were listening to her as a keynote speaker when we attended an HP event in Hannover.
It was all a long time ago. Those were good times. Hewlett Packard celebrated the “Wind of Change”, the victory of the UNIX servers against mainframes. And in the evening, shortly before they flew to Tokyo, the Scorpions played.
But first, the professor presented a wonderful oratory on “management and enterprise culture”; including a short story I remembered when I attended theWorkshop at Rise.
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Here they are: story, question and answer.
The story:
Queen Victoria reigned over the “British Empire” for more than 60 years. During her reign, the upper and middle classes in Britain enjoyed an extraordinary time of economical wealth, and the British Empire was at the zenith of its power. She was the first British monarch who also held the title Empress of India. Everybody called the time the Victorian Age.
But how was it possible for her to reign over her empire? Take for instance India. In India, her Governor General held the power. In the British Colonial Empire, he was the only person to hold the title of Vice Kind of India. This was meant to underline his authority over the local princes and chieftains.
British-India was reigned by the advice of the Governor General, who was a subordinate of the London “India Office”.
Now, the communication channels between Kensington Palace and Dehli where everything but short. Telex and radio engineering were going to be invented a century later. Consequently, a dispatch written by her Majesty the Queen took 6 to 8 weeks (one way!). That means the dialogue must have taken 12 weeks!
So far our professor. Now comes the question:
Looking at these circumstances, how was it possible to reign the “British Empire” so successfully? Just keep in mind that you can send and receive data around the world in seconds without much of an effort today!
Embarrassment and silence all over the room. The general opinion was that it could not be done. No telephone, fax or email.
Then came the answer to the question by our wise professor:
It was very easy, because the Governor General in Dehli thought in exactly the same way as Queen Victoria in London.
The story remains unforgettable to me. It contains a beautiful truth, which is why it is my pleasure to relate it.
RMD
(Translated by EG)
So here is a song:
Scorpions – Wind of Change – Red Square Moscow 2003
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