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By:

Quaid Najmi

4 January 2025 at 3:26:24 pm

Bhujbal’s chopper lands in Pune parking lot

Mumbai : In what is suspected to be a breach of aviation protocols, a chartered helicopter ferrying Food & Civil Supplies Minister Chhagan Bhujbal from Mumbai to Pune skipped a designated helipad and landed in a vehicle parking lot almost a km away.   The shocker happened in Purandar taluka, where Bhujbal was slated to attend a function marking the 200 th  birth anniversary of the social reformer Mahatma Jyotirao Phule in his home village Khanwadi.   As crowds of bewildered people watched...

Bhujbal’s chopper lands in Pune parking lot

Mumbai : In what is suspected to be a breach of aviation protocols, a chartered helicopter ferrying Food & Civil Supplies Minister Chhagan Bhujbal from Mumbai to Pune skipped a designated helipad and landed in a vehicle parking lot almost a km away.   The shocker happened in Purandar taluka, where Bhujbal was slated to attend a function marking the 200 th  birth anniversary of the social reformer Mahatma Jyotirao Phule in his home village Khanwadi.   As crowds of bewildered people watched from around the sprawling parking lot, the helicopter appeared to drop speed in its flight, flew over some overhead high-tension electric cables, and descended gingerly into the parking lot - raising a thick dust-storm in which it disappeared for seconds - before touching the ground.   Moments later, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) senior leader Bhujbal and others stepped out of the chopper, looked around in the unfamiliar territory before several vehicles and police teams rushed there. Minutes before there was chaos and confusion with some locals shouting warnings at the ‘wrong landing’.   Eyewitnesses said that the chopper’s powerful rotors created a thick dust storm and sparked alarm among the people in the vicinity, and many scrambled to the spot to check what exactly was going on in the parking lot.   Later, the Pune Police said that a designated helipad was available for the chopper landing but were at a loss to explain how the pilot missed it and veered off quite a distance away in the vehicle parking space. Subsequently, they asked the pilot to fly it to the correct landing spot.   Shaken and angry local NCP leaders questioned how a pilot flying a VIP on an official trip could mistake a parking lot for a helipad when the weather and visibility was clear. They demanded to know whether the helipad was improperly marked or it was a question of communication or sheer negligence.   The Pune Police indicated that they would report the matter to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) which may take action against the errant pilot and the helicopter company.   “There was no accident. We all emerged safely. The helicopter pilot landed wrongly in a parking lot because the helipad was not visible. All of us are fine and there is nothing to worry,” said Bhujbal, before he was whisked off by his security team.   “There are many faults in numerous airplanes and helicopters, including maintenance issues and other problems. That's why I keep saying consistently that VIPs must exercise caution while flying. Fortunately, an accident was averted today, but that doesn't mean the authorities should be negligent. We expect the government to take urgent precautions.” Rohit R. Pawar, MLA, NCP (SP)

BATNA for Internal Politics

Your authority is limited. Your alternatives decide your leverage

One new problem shows up … especially in Indian MSMEs: You realise your authority is not as strong as your designation. And this is where many leaders get emotionally confused. They think, “I’m the leader. Why is this not happening?”


Simple answer: because in legacy MSMEs, hierarchy is only one power source. Informal power is often stronger: old relationships, ownership proximity, “I’ve been here 20 years,” vendor networks, customer control, even family dynamics.


So, you need a different power lens, one that works without shouting. That’s where BATNA comes in.


Which Seat?

Inherited seat: You may have authority, but you’re still negotiating with legacy power … sometimes inside your own family.

  • Hired seat: You have the title, but you may not have the “last word”. People will test it.

  • Promoted seat: You may have trust, but you’re negotiating with peers who remember when you were “one of us”.


Different seats. Same reality: you will negotiate more than you will command.


Job Offers Metaphor

You’ve seen the difference in a person’s tone when they have options. Someone with one job offer is careful, anxious, overly accommodating. Someone with two job offers is calm, direct, not rude … just clear. Nothing about their IQ changed.


Only one thing changed: Their alternatives. That’s leverage.


BATNA is just a formal word for this. It comes from negotiation theory (Fisher and Ury popularised it in Getting to Yes). It stands for: Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement.


In human language: If this negotiation fails, what do I do next? If your answer is “nothing”, you have no leverage. And in internal politics, if you have no leverage, you end up doing one of two things:

  • you beg, or

  • you explode.

Both are bad leadership looks.


Why BATNA Matters

People think negotiation is for vendors and customers. Wrong. In MSMEs, the hardest negotiations are internal:

  • “Give me the data on time.”

  • “Stop bypassing the process.”

  • “Follow the dispatch sequence.”

  • “Don’t promise impossible delivery dates.”

  • “Raise issues early, not at the last moment.”


These are negotiations because the other side has ways to resist:

  • delay

  • forget

  • “network” around you

  • create exceptions

  • act helpless

  • escalate to someone above you


So the question becomes: what happens if they don’t agree? If nothing happens, your rule becomes optional.


Uncomfortable Truth

This is where people misunderstand BATNA. They imagine dramatic options: “I’ll fire him.” “I’ll resign.” “I’ll replace the whole team.” That’s not a BATNA. That’s fantasy. In an MSME, your alternatives are usually not dramatic. They’re structural. A real BATNA often looks like:

  • changing the route, not changing the person

  • building a bypass, not winning an argument

  • shifting the decision to a different forum

  • narrowing scope: “Fine, we’ll run the pilot without you”

  • making a gate: “If you don’t update, you won’t get approval”

  • using coalition support (Week 9, we’ll come to that)


BATNA is not about ego. It’s about options you can actually execute.


Internal BATNA

Let’s say a senior person refuses to share numbers.


No BATNA approach: “Please share… please share… why aren’t you sharing… I told you…”


BATNA approach: “Okay. This week, we’ll review only what is on the scoreboard. Anything not on it won’t get discussed or approved.”


Or a team keeps bypassing the new PO flow.


No BATNA: “Stop doing this. I’ve told you.”


BATNA: “Any PO without the standard details won’t be processed. Emergency exceptions only through me, and we’ll log them publicly.”


Or a salesperson keeps overpromising delivery.


No BATNA: Argue repeatedly.


BATNA: “Quotations will carry a standard lead time unless production confirms. If you want exception lead times, you must bring confirmation in writing.”


Notice: no shouting. No moral lecture.


Just a shift in the rules of the game.


That’s leverage.


(The writer is a co-founder at PPS Consulting. He is a business transformation consultant. He could be reached at rahul@ppsconsulting.biz.)

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