New Delhi, April 21 -- Don't be busy reorganizing the deckchairs on the Titanic goes the saying. And yet scores of corporate stewards are neck-deep in their finite job descriptions oblivious to the eventuality that the whole enterprise may be sinking. It's a curious case of monopsony (a market with a single buyer) coupled with moral hazard (taking risks knowing there is no cost) that often ties an individual's thinking to the pay grade. Yet, employees mistake career progression as the license to think bold. Why is it that employees find it so difficult to escape the gravity of their hierarchies?

At birth, we all promise practically infinite potential. The years of pruning-first through the mechanisms of parenting, then the means of forma...