PART 2: THE RENAISSANCE -----> Chapter 1

July 2006


The next day, I packed my bags, boarded a KSRTC bus and went down to Alappuzha. I arrived outside Lok uncle’s abode: ‘Vishnu Nivas’. Opening the gate, I looked at the two-storey building, which was going to be my home for…I didn’t know how long. Would we all have to pack off together, I wondered. I felt for the notepad in my pocket. It was there. I walked past the small garden and uncle’s Zen parked in the porch. On reaching the front door, I pushed the doorbell. It made a sound like a chirping bird. Nandi aunty opened the door and greeted me. The big red bindi on her forehead was her trademark. I entered the sitting room and looked around. There was one thing about Lok uncle even when he had been doing well—he had a modest and simple lifestyle. There was no expensive furniture, no plasma television, no home theatre system and no crystal ware in his home.

Uncle walked into the room. Amma had told me that he was relieved at my offer to help. But understandably, he still looked quite dejected. “Rising costs is the problem,” he said, getting right into the scheme of things. “They are spiraling out of control…and I’m not able to reduce it. Abhi, what do you think about selling off the business?”

He seemed to be in a Catch-22 situation. Looking at his grim face, I remembered the time when I had failed to get into IIM. “Abhinav, you will keep falling down in life. In fact, it happens to everybody. But you must keep getting up. Always look up and you will win,” he had consoled me.

“Uncle, let’s forget about the past and do something about the future,” I said. It was my turn to console and encourage him. “There is always light at the end of the tunnel. We will make up for the past lapses. There is always scope for improvement. Don’t worry. We will solve the problem soon. Don’t think of selling the business. In fact, your business has got huge potential.”

I paused, thought for a while and continued, “The New Testament says, ‘The kingdom of God is within you.’ It means that God has given us all the abilities we need. It is up to us to develop these abilities and use them. We will do this uncle.” I emphasized the word ‘will’.

Lok uncle seemed to be content with my reply. He arranged a room for me in his home. All the rooms were cross-ventilated and no room was dark during daytime. This was something special about his house.

Nandi aunty served me a lunch of rice and her popular meen curry. There was an incident related to her dish, which was quite well known. A few years ago, some folks were shooting a film in the neighboring house. A film star, who was there for the shoot, came over to Lok uncle’s place for lunch. He liked the dish aunty served him and praised her hand at cooking. With that compliment, she came to be known as a good cook amongst friends and relatives. As for the actor, he won a lifelong loyal fan, as aunty, from then on, never missed a single film of his.

After lunch, we went to the factory to meet the workers.

***

Lok uncle’s business premises comprised an area of four acres. There were about fifty workers at his factory, and yes, they were affiliated to some Labor Union. I met Anto Joseph, the Production Manager. He told me a few things about the present situation. Speculation was rife that the firm was incurring losses and it would either be shut down or sold off to a buyer, thereby leaving the workers in the dark.

The workers had finished their day’s work when Lok uncle introduced me to them. He said that I was his nephew and that I had come from Bangalore to help him out in the business. Anto was beside me. I told uncle that I would meet him in his office.

Upon interacting with the workers, I found that these guys had an attitude problem. Each guy talked about the problem being ‘his’ or ‘the firm’s’. They didn’t refer to the problem being ‘ours’ and that ‘we’ had to solve it.

This attitude problem required the creation of an ideal organization climate and culture. This particular aspect was being given a lot of importance these days. People must feel good about their organization and they must transact in an appropriate manner both within and outside it. We had to have a mission, vision and values. We had to define and constantly articulate acceptable behavior to them.

“The problem,” I told them “is more about controllable attitude than about uncontrollable costs.

“Friends, I’m an MBA graduate and I’ve successfully launched a new variant of biscuit in a highly competitive consumer market. Nobody agreed to my idea when I initially proposed it. But I managed to push it through and today the product is a success.” They all looked on, squint-eyed. “I am here to solve some problems Lakshmi Industries is facing. True, there are issues of costs to be dealt with, but we won’t shut this down, nor will we sell it off.”

On hearing this, their eyes widened. They were probably relieved that their jobs would be safe. I went on: “But, to solve these problems, I need your help. You people must believe in your abilities and must stand by me.

“Let me quote Lord Krishna from Bhagavad-Gita: ‘To conquer your enemy and enjoy the glory of sovereignty, I have already slain the warriors. You will only be my instruments.’ Just focus on your job and we will solve this problem.”

Some of them nodded their heads. The others would probably do so after consulting their Union leaders, I thought. I then called it a day for them. As they dispersed, I said good-bye to Anto and went to Uncle’s office located in the premises itself.

There, I started talking about the firm’s organization culture and what we should do about it. Although he didn’t know such jargon, uncle seemed to have understood what I was talking about. But he was a bit too skeptical when he replied, “Da, this is not Bangalore. I don’t think what you say will work here.”

I then realized that we must first focus on finding an immediate solution. “Uncle, don’t worry about that. We’ll first find out the real problem. I want to know everything I can about this business—the organization structure, financial position, procurement of raw materials, production, distribution and people.”

He briefed me on how things were run in the firm.

***

By the time we reached home, night had fallen. Aunty didn’t ask me anything about what I thought about the firm. Amma had told me that aunty would never interfere in business matters. Aunty would never ask Lok uncle: “Did you get that client you were looking for?” or “Did you get those raw materials at the price you wanted?” She was mainly concerned with their only daughter Padma who was a software engineer at Chennai.

While taking a shower, I thought about the business. I knew about organization structures: how they should be, depending upon the nature and size of business. I didn’t know about the financial position of competitors, which we could have used as a benchmark. But they wouldn’t share such information with us. I knew what sort of marketing the firm should go for. But I didn’t know much about manufacturing and that’s where the workers come into the picture. I began to feel the pressure.

***

That night, as I lay on the bed, I wondered what really my heart’s calling was. It was not to work as an employee of a biscuit manufacturing company. I believed that every one of us had a purpose in life. Just like what I had told Lok uncle, every one of us is gifted with some unique talents. It is up to us to discover and use them to find out our destinies. What were my talents? What was my destiny?

I used to rely on intuition to make some tough decisions. My persistence with the mint-coated biscuits was the outcome of my intuition. I just knew it would work. I had had this gut feeling. For the time being, I decided to focus on our turnaround strategy at Lakshmi.

***