Intellect and Intelligence.

Intelligence is different from the intellect.

The intellect works within the field of the known.

Intelligence breaks off. It looks more into the spirit or essence behind an issue.

Attachment to world wide web, books, symbols, dogmas and practices has made people blind to the essence of a matter. They tend to go by hard facts, not what the facts subtely reveal. This is more like going only by what a person says without understanding the spirity in which it is said or even taking cues from things that are not said.

In modern world, especially in the internet era, it is easy for a Manager to depend more on intellect than on intelligence. He gets attached to the data and information available at the click of a mouse, and tends to make decisions based on it without applying his intelligence. In the bargain what is lost is the ability to understand the spirit behind any issue.

This is precisely what happened to Naresh Goyal and Jet Airways. Applying the intellect, the decision taken to sack 1900 employees was correct. But if he has applied intelligence, he would have realized that it is not in the spirit of building a world class airliner, that is essentially service oriented and dependant on people to maintain its quality. Instead of sacking, if he had called them in and requested all of them to tighten their belt to tidy over the difficult period, the employees would have happily done so. Instead, today, he has eroded his brand equity, credibility and goodwill so much so that he will find it tough to get quality people to join his organization in the future.

The history of India is replete with instances of intelligence taking precedence over intellect. Like many other things, intellect domination is what we have imported from the West as part of Globalization.