Learning from the Business of Crime
What holds organisations together when formal systems and safeguards are absent? Explore surprising lessons about trust, loyalty, accountability, kinship and teamwork from the world of organised crime.
Business lessons from criminal organisations offer a surprisingly interesting perspective on how groups build trust, enforce accountability and maintain loyalty. While there is no justification for criminal activity, examining the organisational structures and operating principles of such networks offers insights into teamwork, leadership, commitment, and collective responsibility. These lessons give legitimate businesses an opportunity to reflect on what makes organisations cohesive and effective.
(Note: I do not subscribe to criminal activities, nor am I justifying them. Such activities are anathema to me.)
My friend told me a very interesting anecdote. An acquaintance of his was asked to consult with a man of questionable credentials (from a business perspective). While the acquaintance was deflecting the topic of working with the man, finally the man spoke up and said, “In my kind of work, only one thing works, and that is trust. Without trust, we cannot survive”. The acquaintance was surprised and later took the assignment, and it was to her, one of her best.
In a world of increasing competition between companies and employees within these companies, business relationships are guarded and safeguarded by legalese. Reams of papers with clauses and sub-clauses bind these relationships. On the other hand, crime and criminals are held together by minimal documents (for fear of being caught and providing fodder for prosecution). They are held together primarily by trust, which relies largely on a verbal agreement. Incidentally, such an agreement carries high risks. Many of the institutional safeguards designed to compensate for the consequences, such as the legal system (which comprises courts, police and other sanctioned bodies like law enforcement agencies) are unavailable.
Trust, it is said, reduces uncertainty about the behaviour of potential accomplices to a tolerable level and thereby stimulates willingness to co-offend (Weerman 2003; Zaitch 2002). The importance of trust is best highlighted by Niklas Luhmann: “Without trust, only very simple forms of human cooperation which can be transacted on the spot are possible, and even individual action is much too sensitive to disruption to be capable of being planned, without trust, beyond the immediately assured moment. Trust is indispensable to increase a social system’s potential beyond these elementary forms”
Apart from this, there is a need and also a tendency of the criminals to be part of the ‘clan’ – a kind of kinship which explains to a large extent the trust factor between them. Kinship creates a sense of belonging, and this feeling drives criminals to stick together. In fact, kinship and the resultant trust are a competitive advantage in the crime business. These bonds, created through kinship, are most evident in organised crime, which functions much like a parallel corporate business without professionalism.
Given the situations these persons work in, it is without a doubt extremely difficult. Fear exists of being caught unaware, fear of being caught by the legal system, fear of being caught by rivals, fear of no legal recourse and, last but not least, the fear of the ultimate punishment – death! In these extreme emotional conditions, these criminals are expected to perform efficiently. Working under pressure usually separates the men from the boys.
Apart from the emotional angle, the very same conditions, along with the fact that most activities have to be conducted clandestinely, make it even more taxing physically.
In a corporate scenario, in the failure of a relationship and especially if it gets nasty, the option to turn legal always exists and hence the need to have long-drawn-out legal agreements. In the criminal world, it is less common, if not nonexistent. As is seen in the documentation, the Indian legal system has been able to implicate so-called powerful politicians. Since the criminal system eschews documentation, any breakdown in relationships/ dealings cannot go the legal way. However, justice, in this case, can be drastic.
Failure to complete a task or even breaking the trust (in different ways) can result in retribution, which can also be of the final order – life-threatening. In such a scenario where punishment can be in the crudest form of emotional and physical torture, the downsides are very, very high!
While I do not have to delve deep into the various factors which I have listed above concerning the regular corporate world, there are times when I do think that corporate life can be not so pleasant, if not a vicious experience – a political minefield, so to speak. Factors such as trust, belonging etc., seem to be a memory of the distant past. One-upmanship seems to be the order of the day. Any organisation needs to function as a team/ family. Disparate messages create dissonance.
I have noticed that people are not committed to the organisation’s cause; they are merely there as travellers. They are not bothered by failure and look at short-term goals. When it’s time to analyse, the person is long gone!
In such a dynamic, rapidly changing environment, it becomes imperative to roll up one’s sleeves and face the battle in the marketplace. Business today can be emotionally and physically draining. Business rules are constantly changing, and it is best to be prepared. Many employees come in intending to take it easy!
We can take the best parts of the criminal system to understand where we stand in the real world. No substitute for hard work, and no parallel system can replace it. However, it is startling that the parallel economy is half the size of the main economy in India! Therein lies the success and the worry!
