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Lessons from the Past 158: Logjams Breaking the Speed of Progress
Walter Vieira 07 August 2026
Economy & Nation
I wrote this comment 14 years ago. It would seem nothing has changed. The suggestions are still relevant. Hence, a repeat.
 
I came across a write-up on breakthrough thinking, a concept developed by Michael Shays in the US, where he runs seminars and workshops to help people develop this way of thinking. They help people break through conflict and gridlock in solving complex business problems by:
  • removing obstacles to simple solutions 
  • broadening the options for solving a problem 
  • avoiding unnecessary analysis that wastes time 
  • producing answers that deliver greater benefits in TQM and other programmes 
  • guiding participants towards solutions that work in the long term 
  • increasing the likelihood of those solutions being implemented 
One of the workshops he conducts is titled 'Seven Principles to Improve the Way We Solve Problems'. Of course, many others attempt to achieve the same objective through different approaches, the most famous among them being Edward de Bono.
 
Looking around us in India, we need a great deal of help in unplugging our logjams. Take Mumbai's traffic. It now takes at least an hour and a half to get anywhere from anywhere. The number of cars has increased dramatically (500 new cars on the road every day?), while the number of two-wheelers, virtually absent 10 years ago, has grown exponentially. Yet, the road infrastructure has remained largely the same. Add to this the chaos of lane-changing, jumping red lights, constant honking, partial road repairs and hawkers spilling off pavements onto the roads and you have a logjam. It is getting worse every month, every day, even every hour.
 
What we need is breakthrough thinking—not more roads, more flyovers, more traffic lights or more traffic police. We need more efficient public transport: metros, above and below ground; trains with more coaches and greater frequency; and buses that are regular, air-conditioned and run more frequently.
 
There appears to be little breakthrough thinking. Otherwise, how does one explain the absence of a direct bus service from Mumbai airport to the city when such services exist in smaller cities like Bengaluru and Hyderabad and in cities across the world, from Chicago to Shanghai?
 
Another significant logjam is the judicial system, where it can take 20 years or more to obtain a final judgement on a relatively simple matter, such as whether the defendant is a licensee or a paying guest—something that could be decided in three working days. Instead, there is a backlog in the Supreme Court, an even larger one in the High Courts and a still greater one in the small causes and sessions courts.
 
Can breakthrough thinking not be applied here as well? Perhaps through appointing more judges; introducing two or even three shifts in courts; setting schedules and deadlines for different categories of cases; limiting the number of adjournments; placing a cap on appeals based on the type of case and the number of previous appeals; computerising all records; and providing online access to case information from start to finish, making monitoring easier. These are merely the obvious ideas. There are undoubtedly many more that could emerge through breakthrough thinking.
 
In India, we are paying a heavy price for these logjams. They also breed corruption and diminish our standing in the comity of nations. Should we—and can we—begin now?
 
You may also want to read other articles written by the author. Here is the link: https://moneylife.in/author/walter-vieira.html 
 
(Walter Vieira is a Fellow of the Institute of Management Consultants of India - FIMC. He was a successful corporate executive for 14 years, capping his career as Head of marketing for a Pharma multinational, for India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka- and then pioneered marketing consulting in India in 1975. As a consultant, he has worked across four continents. He was the first Asian elected Chairman of ICMCI, the world apex body of consultants in 45 countries, in 1997. He is the author of 16 books, a business columnist, an international conference speaker and has been a visiting professor in Marketing in the US, Europe, and Asia for over 40 years. He was awarded Lifetime Achievement Award for Consulting in 2005, and for Marketing in 2009. He now spends much of his time in NGO work - Consumer Education and Research Centre, IDOBRO, and some others.
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