The Wall

Tomorrow marks the 20th Anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Though I would prefer to call it as the ‘dismantling of the Berlin Wall’ lest future generations think that the wall just came tumbling down by it self due to poor construction materials used – Malaysia style. No. It was dismantled by the Germans who years earlier plunged the world into a war and then with this single act brought it together again; of sort.

Thomas Friedman identifies the fall of the wall as one of the 10 or so global movements that brought about the flattening of the world. It was indeed a momentous event. At the very least it removed a monstrosity from the heart of Berlin and at its very best, it heralded the end of the cold war and the demise of the Soviet empire and with it its Communist apparatus. The world was indeed a different place then.

I remember words like ‘glasnost’ and ‘perestroika’ which were probably the most loved and used words coming out of the old Soviet Union. The other was probably the Red Army and of course for the wrong reasons. The fall of the wall not only reunited Germany, ended the cold war and unleashed a new economic dynamism, it also brought forth a new Russia. I can only imagine what the Russians would have felt as they watched their empire crumbling before their eyes. Suddenly the Kremlin was not that imposing nor the communist menace that dangerous – if at all it was a menace. I remember reading some years back where, this was one of the busiest and exciting time for the world’s secret services. Every intelligence organization in the world was on tenterhooks as they just did not know what was going to happen to Russia. Nobody could say with any level of certainty what will the fall of the Soviet Empire bring about. One thing was sure though : The architect of this amazing change – Mr. Mikhail Gorbachev was well protected and the governments of the free world headed by the United States had probably readied a small army and armada to whisk him away from the Kremlin if things had gone out of control. Such was the man’s importance to what Americans had been dreaming for decades. To see the end of the ‘evil empire’ of the Soviet Union. Interestingly, there are also reports saying that Margaret Thatcher and Francois Mitterrand were not that happy about the re-unification of Germany. I suppose it brought some bad memories to them. They can be forgiven because Germany has a habit of getting the world into disorder. But then again, Margaret Thatcher could also have found her match in the towering figure of Helmut Kohl. Strange names indeed in the era of Obama-mania. But these were the ones ruling the world at one time. With Bush the senior of course.

As the world celebrates this event tomorrow, I am hoping that we are also conscious that as leaders in our respective organizations, we are tasked to bring down walls too. We need to break down the walls of indifference, apathy, lack of focus, disregard to customer value, meltdown of organizational values, misalignment of vision and mission and a general disregard for good corporate governance, the deadening dearth of innovation, the stupor of complacency and the paralyzing short-sighted and myopic corporate planning and strategy. Indeed, we have these walls to break down by not shovels and metal roads as the Berliners did 20 years ago but through our determined and honest leadership practices. This is the time for courageous leadership and it is the responsibility of every CEO to allow for this type of leadership to emerge at every level of the organization. And, this is the type of CEOs that the corporate boards need to have in place. 2010 will be a defining moment for most of our organizations as we will come head to head with a single choice : Do we change the way we did business or do we do things the way we did? If the answer to this is change than we have multiple walls to break down fast.

And as citizens of this country, lets also remember that over the last 20 years, as the world came together politically; we have grown apart internally. There are invisible walls running through the very fabric of our society. The tapestry that once made us strong is being strained at the seams. All the while divisive walls are being erected by both words and deeds. As one columnist said in a local paper, its hard to imagine that a wall can running through in the heart of our beloved KL. But I think there are many already dividing us.

Remember that one young man died bleeding in no man’s land while trying to escape the former East Germany while the West Germans just stood by and looked helplessly. Such are the consequences of a wall. Whether one in our political landscape or one in our organizations.

The question is : Are we breaking down walls or are we erecting more in our daily interactions with our people and stake holders?

Happy anniversary Germany!