PART 2: THE RENAISSANCE -----> Chapter 8

I dropped Radha at her home. She compelled me to meet her parents. But I just met Mahesh Annan at the gate and came back home.

I found Nandi aunty smiling after quite a while. Maybe Lok uncle had told her about our reduced costs. I usually didn’t see him at his home. He spent most of his time in the reading room.

I was relaxing in my room, thinking about the day’s happenings when Nandi aunty called me to attend a phone call. I picked up the extension to find Padma at the other end.

“Hi, Annan. How are you?”

“Fine. Tell me…how’s things?”

“Good. Very good...in fact. I put in my papers as soon as I got here. I have changed my phone number. And guess what? My ex came to our office today. My friend must have told him I was back. When I refused to meet him, he began to create a furor. So I met him.

“The first thing he asked me was about our marriage—whether I had told Achan or not. I told him that business was not well and that we might have to shut it down. On hearing this, he looked really frustrated and left the place. He didn’t come to see me again and he even stopped e-mailing me.”

“My God!” I exclaimed. “That fellow was a fraud after all.”

“Yes. You were right. And I thought we could communicate simply by looking into each other’s eyes without saying a single word. He only wants Achan’s money. He doesn’t want me,” she lamented.

My counsel had worked. And that weasel was so stupid. He had shown his true colors even before any progress was made in his aim.

“So you’ve finally realized. When are you coming back?”

“I’ve to work till the end of this month. I’ve already told Amma I’m coming back,” she replied.

“Okay! Congratulations. Now do you think you’ve made the right decision?” I asked her.

“Of course Anna! And you’ve had a significant role to play in this,” Padma acknowledged.

“And Padma, don’t forget the Rule of Reversal. Its still applicable to you,” I reminded her in a joking manner.

After hanging up the phone, I was wondering how this issue could have held all of us to ransom. Just then Nandi aunty walked into the room.

“So she’s finally got back her senses,” she said, looking sternly at me.

I grew anxious. Had she been eavesdropping on our conversation? No…couldn’t be. Maybe she was just talking about Padma quitting her job and coming back.

“I was listening to your conversation from the extension,” she revealed. “I had also heard Padma talk about someone to you when she was here the last time.”

I felt as if mud had been thrown on my face. I didn’t say anything.

“Is the problem completely solved?” she asked. “That’s all I want to know.”

“Yes. It’s been solved. Padma had a crush on someone whom I suspected to be a fraud. She hadn’t realized it then, but now, she has. I told her you want an arranged marriage. I think now she’s convinced,” I blew the gaff.

“Abhi, I know my child. Even when there is a small change in her behavior, I can sense it. I didn’t tell Lok Anna because he wouldn’t bear it at this stage. So I kept mum. Padma is now safe because you were here. It’s all a coincidence. Isn’t it?”

“Yes, aunty…I guess,” I answered.

I don’t know why, but my eyes got wet. Nandi aunty left the room. My experience with this problem taught me another valuable lesson: as parents, you’ve got to trust your children; but don’t trust them blindly. Because no matter how old they get, they are still less experienced in life than you and are bound to make mistakes. Keeping a watchful eye on them can help prevent undesirable consequences.

***

Lok uncle left in the morning and kicked off the Marketing Campaign. He had a few acquaintances to meet. We expected him to be back in a few days’ time. Potential clients preferred to do business with our rivals for their competitive prices. They used to come to us only when others were uninterested in supplying small quantities to them. But from now on, our prices would also become competitive.

Once Lok uncle would bring the orders, we would have to hit the ground running. We had to further increase the speed of production. So in the meantime, I decided to focus on the procurement of raw materials. We had to have efficiency in the purchase of raw materials. There were two ways to do this. One was to purchase a large quantity in anticipation of future demand. But this would increase the cost of holding inventory. Another way was to get the supplier to deliver the raw materials only when we needed them for production. This was known as Just-in-Time (JIT) Purchasing.

JIT purchasing required suppliers to frequently deliver smaller quantities of raw materials. This would provide sufficient supplies to meet immediate production requirements. Integrated Solutions like ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) would make things much easier but ERP was way too expensive for us, at the moment.

We decided to build relationships with a few suppliers to secure their cooperation towards the JIT initiative. We could also require them to inspect the quality of their supplies themselves, in return for providing bulk orders to them. I was looking at suppliers who would treat us with respect and share our values so that they would keep their promises. We could then grow together. Accompanied by our Purchase Manager Srinivas, we went on to meet the suppliers in the vicinity of the area because they could easily deliver the materials JIT to us.

A large supplier was quite expectedly indifferent to us. After all, he was not dealing with a very important customer. But on meeting smaller players, we found they were receptive to our ideas and were ready to cooperate as part of this system. I thought that perhaps, we could enter into a partnership with them in future. That would make great business sense.

***

After considering the procurement plans, I decided to observe the workers and learn to do some of their work myself. A professor had taught me in B-School that if you have to get the workers to work, it would be helpful to know the work yourself. During this time, we also successfully dispatched the Captain’s goods. I was also constantly in touch with Lok uncle.

***

A few days later, Lok uncle arrived after his campaign with some bulk orders. I thought it would be a hectic time from now on for all of us. We would have to achieve on-time delivery. But Lok uncle had other plans. The orders were mainly from clients who wanted to maintain reserve stock. So we had enough time to supply the product. Uncle was clearly cautious.

“We could have got Mr. Mehta’s order worth more than a crore rupees too,” Lok uncle said to me and the other executives. “But I made up my mind that we’ll first make sure that we can make the deliveries on time, and also achieve the costs we had calculated. Then we’ll go for larger ones.”

Lok uncle was right. His ‘look before you leap’ policy was more sound. This was probably the difference between maturity and the lack of it. Uncle’s decision gave us enough breathing space to focus on our labor force. Adequate training and development sessions could be conducted. We could also experiment with some more cost reduction techniques.

I had a long meeting with Lok uncle in his office. We had to discuss a few things I had thought of, in his absence. After some deliberation, he agreed to our JIT Purchasing plan and instructed Srinivas to arrange to implement it as soon as possible.

The next focus area of our meeting was labor. We decided to have a combination of theory and practical structured into our development programme. We were inclined to call it a ‘development programme’, because it would take place on a continuous basis. But we finally decided to name it a ‘Training and Development Programme’.

I believed that, by nature, most workers are good human beings. They don’t come to work with the intention of wasting raw materials and damaging equipment. They all want to create good products and receive appreciation for it. So my idea was to help them achieve it by developing them and rewarding them suitably based on productivity. Lok uncle saw this view point and agreed to it.

I wanted Radha to help me out on this aspect too. But she had already done so much for me. I didn’t want to take advantage of her. I dropped the idea of bringing her into this.

It was then time for me to introduce a relatively new concept in labor relations which I had thought of. I wondered whether this idea was crazy. Old habits die hard. I decided to present it to Lok uncle anyway.

“What’s the ultimate aim of man?” I asked uncle.

“You tell me,” uncle said.

“The ultimate aim of man is to achieve ‘moksha’ or ‘be one with God after death’,” I said. Lok uncle raised his eyebrow in response. I continued, “The spiritual development of man is important for this reason. Also, as you know, our state of Kerala is notorious for a high rate of suicides. I think that’s because people here lack the mental strength to face difficult situations.”

“Yes Abhi,” Lok uncle replied. “I’ve realized that change is the law of nature. Just as problems come, these will also go. If man endures these problems, he will ultimately emerge successful. This is evident from our own experience.”

“Exactly. So development of mental strength is very important. Uncle, I propose a programme with this end in mind,” I said as uncle listened attentively. “Our workers must be subject to meditation on a daily basis before starting work. We’ll have to sacrifice around 40 minutes out of the working hours for this purpose. An instructor trained in Yoga must be hired for the purpose. If need be, the canteen must function in the mornings too.”

Uptil now, Lok uncle had accepted my ideas without any objections. But he refused to accept this one. His face wore a sarcastic look and he replied, “Abhi, I haven’t heard of this idea anywhere. Maybe executives may have to undergo this sort of a programme, but not workers. We’ll arrange a five-day workshop on meditation, if you insist, but nothing more than that.” He paused before continuing, “Tut-tut… meditation? Certainly not during working hours! And certainly not on a daily basis. Let them meditate at their homes after attending the workshop.”

I maintained my composure and replied, “Uncle, that’s the point. They will not meditate at their homes. Maybe they’ll do it for two weeks...but they won’t do it for more than two weeks, because it will take at least a few months for the benefits to appear.

“Our workers will not have the patience to wait that long. That’s why I’m saying that we should have them meditate in our premises daily before starting the day’s work.”

Uncle was still skeptical. He looked at me as if I was crazy. I continued, “Entrepreneurs must think like nobody else has before. That’s exactly what makes them entrepreneurs…the ability to take risks and make bold decisions.” Uncle now began to show a little more interest.

“The benefits of meditation will outweigh the lost time and effort,” I maintained. “It will improve their productivity and help them to meet tough deadlines later on. It will improve their sense of wellbeing. Uncle, trust me on this.”

Lok uncle finally asked me to work out the expected cost of the ‘Spiritual Development Programme’ as I called it, including the benefits we would have to sacrifice to implement this programme.

It obviously was a tough call to make. A cost-benefit analysis could not be conducted because the benefits attributed to this programme could not be quantified easily.

“Whatever be the cost, we have to go for this one,” I declared to our Finance executive. Was I determined to go ahead with this one just because Lok uncle had initially rejected it? Was I egoistic? No. It was because I just knew this idea would work. I had this gut feeling. My mint-coated biscuits worked. So, why not this?

“We’ll have this informally communicated to the workers first,” Lok uncle suggested. “Or else they will become skeptical when they hear it from us formally. That is, of course, presuming that the benefits shall outweigh the costs.”

“This programme will actually enable them to get an extra half hour break from work,” I responded. “So they are unlikely to reject it outright. Once they realize the benefits from the programme, we can then probably convince them to put in half an hour more of work.” Lok uncle too saw this possibility.

“Abhi, you had told me about creating a favorable organization culture. What should we do to create it?” Lok uncle asked me.

“We must constantly articulate the values we believe in, and the behavior expected from them. We must also set examples for them by adhering to the values we preach,” I answered.

“I leave that to you,” uncle said to me.

I agreed to bear the responsibility. This was also a huge challenge for me. It involved changing the attitude of workers and employees of the organization towards their work.

“I’ll inform you before implementing my ideas,” I replied to uncle.

I expressed my desire to speak to the workers in a couple of day’s time on the programme. Lok uncle obliged.

Walking out of his office, I got back to the factory observing the workers and finding out bottlenecks in the process. I thought about Radha. I imagined she was here with me, observing the workers. Her big black eyes would epitomize concentration. I sighed. I thought of what she had done for me. She was the person who had actually kick-started the whole turnaround process with that Work Study. She was the one who had really created the self-belief in me.

“What should I do for her?” I wondered aloud, oblivious to my surroundings.

“Buy her a ring,” somebody replied.

I turned to find Anto standing beside me. He was smiling at me. I grinned back. A ring? Did he know whom I was thinking about? I would now have to deal with the office grapevine.

***

The next day, we estimated the cost of the programmes. Lok uncle gave the go ahead for both the programmes. Anto would be in charge of training the workers initially. We would hire a professional trainer later on. One of our executives had an acquaintance; the man was a Yoga instructor in the locality. On approaching him with the proposal he agreed. Things moved fast. This was also a hallmark of an efficient administration, where quick decisions were made and implemented.

At night, I was preparing the speech I would deliver the next day. Anto had already given the workers some idea about the programme. He also told them about the speech I would be delivering.

The speech was very crucial for Lakshmi because if it failed to have the desired impact, we would fail to create a suitable organization culture and our entire Spiritual Development Programme would become a failure.

I planned to address them in the morning itself. A talk in the evening would never succeed in grabbing their attention. They would be too tired to listen and be inspired. By the way, how could I inspire them? I had no idea on how to connect with each one of them. But I had no choice. I decided to proceed with the idea that Trade Unionism was not really a barrier to our communication with the workers. And I scribbled away in my notepad late into the night.

***