Bribe Me

For everything you wanted to know on building leadership and management, refer Shyam Bhatawdekar’s website: http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com/

(Also, refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/)

For “out of box thinking” articles by Shyam Bhatawdekar, refer: (Out of Box Ideas) http://wow-idea.blogspot.com/

Read other blogs and knols of Shyam Bhatawdekar at: (Home Page for Writings of Shyam Bhatawdekar) http://writings-of-shyam.blogspot.com/

Here is your chance of buying the book "Sensitive Stories of Corporate World (Management Case Studies)"(at price slashed by around 50% till end December 2011):

For owning your copy/copies of the book, visit the following Amazon.com sites:

For eBook format: http://www.amazon.com/Sensitive-Stories-Corporate-Management-ebook/dp/B004KABBMM/ref=sr_1_1_title_1_kin?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324017641&sr=1-1

For book in print form: http://www.amazon.com/Sensitive-Stories-Corporate-Management-Studies/dp/1456585150/ref=sr_1_1_title_0_main?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324017641&sr=1-1


Bribe Me

The chief engineer Alan Abraham  had been waiting outside the office of the minister, now almost for over two hours.

The energy minister was his boss's boss. Normally his boss, the managing director would call on the minister in connection with the business of his organization. His organization was a state owned company. It was responsible for producing and distributing electricity (power) to the state. However, as the managing director was retiring and was on a long vacation prior to his retirement, Alan Abraham was acting in his place. Chief engineer was the senior most officer on the board after the managing director.

The energy minister Chunni Bhai was the supreme boss of all the power generating and distribution companies run by the government. He was awarded this technology portfolio because he was the only engineer among all the ministers of the government and that too an electrical engineer . It was another matter that he took some ten years instead of the regular four to graduate from the university. The university authorities got so fed up with his long stay with the university that finally they pushed him out as a successful engineer with the minimum pass marks.  Rumor has it that even today he cannot tell you the difference between voltage, current and resistance or between a generator and a motor.

He had already started his political career as his engineering college's student union's president at a very young age. Soon he jumped into active politics of the country after his farewell from the university. So in a way he was a veteran politician and a dim-witted individual. Current democratic processes easily welcomed such people in the country's parliament.

Many of the senior students, his own class-mates and even the juniors of his university had joined the state owned companies. Most of them were merit holders and brilliant engineers but they were his assistants now. And he used to take hell of a lot of pride and pleasure in treating them like pet dogs. He would give them appointment for meetings with him and then make them wait for hours outside his cabin.  The chief engineer Alan Abraham was no exception. 

When the energy minister was sure that he had made Alan Abraham wait for sufficient amount of time, he told his secretary on the intercom, "Send the Chief Engineer in." Alan Abraham entered the minister's cabin but Chunni Bhai did not offer him a seat. He liked his senior executives to stand while he sat.

Alan Abraham said, "You called me?"

Chunni Bhai affirmed using his grunt and body language. After a long pause he asked, "Abraham, do you remember how you had refused me to copy your answer sheets in the university examination? Now the time has come to refuse you the promotion you are entitled to. You are the senior most officer in the company and are the natural successor to the post of managing director. But I can stop it.
Yet, let me tell you, I am not the one like you."

Alan Abraham had worked all these years with the hope of becoming the managing director of the organization one day. He had even told his wife, "Now that managing director is retiring and I am the next in line, I will get that post as a matter of routine. We will soon celebrate  our promotion." He did not want any hurdle in his impending promotion. He did not wish to argue and annoy Chunni Bhai. Chunni Bhai had the formal powers to sign his promotion letter. So he played submissively and did not react.

Chunni Bhai easily won his first point over his intelligent and smart chief engineer. He then went on to his second move, "You see I am the king maker now. And I want to see you directly reporting to me as my subordinate. You can be my next managing director despite your nasty behavior with me in the college days. All you have to do is to pay me 5 crore rupees (one million dollars). My party needs the money for elections. Some money will flow to my party chief's family. Of course I will keep some for my family too."

Alan Abraham was stunned to hear this. Though he had heard from various sources that some ministers traded the promotions and transfers of the executives under them, he never could imagine the blatant way in which it was actually done. So far it was all hearsay, but today he was experiencing it. He thought to himself, "So what I had heard was true."

He opened his mouth after a long silence, "How can I ever collect such a huge sum of money? My entire life's savings are no where near this amount. And why should I pay? I am the senior most person in the organization and as per the rules I am entitled for the post of the managing director. You signature can only be a formality. Don't you think you can do it easily without the money?"

Chunni Bhai laughed loudly as if he was highly amused by the chief engineer's statements. He spoke with a hint of ridicule, "Oh, you are one of those few puritan types. I have heard about your clean image. So what I heard is true. Yet, my guess was you already might have amassed crores of rupees by now. After all you had been holding a higher post for quite sometime now; it was very easy for you. There is ample scope for earning the 'under the table money' in your setup. Every Tom, Dick and Harry is minting, god knows how much, money. But do not worry. I will make you the managing director and in your tenure of three years on this post you can still make tons of money. Only don't get caught while making the extra buck. I normally allow full freedom to officers at your level. All I expect is the initial fee and then the occasional demands I  will make on you from time to time. That's all."

Alan Abraham could not believe what he heard. He was literally frozen. He was in no position to utter a word.

The minister sensed Alan Abraham's hesitation and so counseled him, "Well, I give you a week's time. We have to fill in managing director's position soon; its overdue already. So, bring in 5 crore rupees and I will  issue your appointment letter. You are the senior most officer and I will prefer giving the post to you because it will not involve any twisting of the rules. But if you are unwilling to toe the line, I will appoint your colleague Das Babu as the next managing director. I had heard already about your clean image and therefore, I have already conferred with Das Babu in anticipation of your refusal to my proposal. Das Babu has accepted my proposal in toto. Das Babu is quite an understanding type and a willing horse. A clean gentleman. I like him."

A week later every employee of the electricity generation and distribution company read the circular letter issued by the office of Chunni Bhai (the energy minister) with the following contents:

"Mr Alan Abraham, Chief Engineer, who has not been keeping good health for quite some time has proceeded on a long medical leave prior to his retirement from the Company. In view of this, Mr Das Babu, Additional Chief Engineer is being appointed as the Managing Director of the Company. All the employees of the organization are requested to extend their full support and cooperation to Mr Das Babu."

The Super Mart

The print of the first 46 case studies/management anecdotes in book format is now available at a price. Send your order for the number of copies of the print to prodcons@prodcons.com

For everything you wanted to know on building leadership and management, refer Shyam Bhatawdekar’s website: http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com/

(Also, refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/)

Super Manufacturing Inc, abbreviated as SM, is a very huge organization by any standards. In its one and only factory, it employs more than 25000 employees under one roof. The company is a seat of tradition and culture since it has already existed for more than 80 years. Not only it embraces all kinds of manufacturing activities, it also envelops within it various other colorful human transactions. The large employee strength of 25000 people produces a very conducive environment for these colorful human exchanges. And for that reason, the insiders- its employees call it as SM- full form being Super Mart.

An early morning exchange of dialogues between the husband and wife at many homes of the employees of SM is typical representation of one of the several human transactions that take place within the premises of SM- the Super Mart. Here is an example:

Wife says to husband (employee of SM), “I am making pan cakes for the breakfast today. Today’s item in the menu of the breakfast of your factory cafeteria is all rubbish, you were telling. And they make it no good.”

Husband replies, “Do not take the trouble. Today my friend who runs his own regular and private breakfast counter for the first fifteen minutes at the start of the shift is introducing a new item- the North Indian samosa. It is a spicy delicacy. He promised all of his regulars that samosas made by his wife are brilliant. I overheard it and I am going to patronize him today. So, skip the pan cake, I will relish the yummy samosas and I promise to get couple of them packed for you too.”

Wife comments, “Hey, you are a darling. And I must say that you do have talents in your factory. Great. Do give them enough business so that they keep making and selling such wonderful eats in the factory.”

Now, let us turn to one of the scenarios within the factory:

Subbaramani, a senior manager has to surprise his better half on her birthday which he had forgotten about totally till this afternoon. For past few years, after being together in the wedlock for more than 25 years, this senior manager often forgets his wife’s birthday. But since one of his younger assistants wants to go home early today to celebrate his second marriage anniversary, this senior manager remembers about his own wife’s birthday. So, he wants to surprise his wife by presenting her a gift.

He dials a number on his office intercom and speaks to Peter. Peter is the master craftsman on one of the shop floors of the factory who sells various dress materials to the employees of the factory including the managers. Subbaramani is Peter’s regular customer and calls him directly only when he is need of the wares sold by Peter. He asks, “Peter, is that you?”

Peter asks, “Is that Subbaramani sir? Good afternoon sir. Sir, why did you take the troubles to ring me? I myself was about to telephone you to give you the good news that the new stock of dress materials has arrived. Will you come to my department please to have a look at them? I have all of them in my cupboard. Sir, please hurry up before the fresh stock gets sold out- there is a big demand in the factory.”

And then, without any further delay, Subbaramani walks to Peter’s department and buys an expensive piece of dress material as a gift to his wife to surprise her.

Here is one more scene from the premises of the factory:

The general manager of production department is one of the busiest senior executives. He spends some 15 to 16 hours of his day in the factory on the production shop floors. Some employees gossip, “His wife is not all that attractive, that’s why.” So this general manager does not find time even to file his income tax returns.

But he is not much worried. Exactly before 15 days of the last date for filing the income tax returns, one of his able assistants who carries out a side business of filing income tax returns of all the senior managers of the factory comes to his office and does that job for him. The general manager willingly pays him the professional fee as demanded by him.”

This able assistant of the general manager does not encroach the territory of other two employees of the factory working in some other technical departments. As far as their private business in the factory is concerned, they also act as income tax return specialists but who specialize in filling the income tax return forms for junior managers and workers respectively. The three have a good understanding among themselves and have demarcated their areas of operation quite well.

While some of these employees of SM turned part time businessmen within SM charge for providing their expert services at the door step, the chief of quality assurance department, quite senior in age, does it free of charge as a fatherly gesture and as a philanthropist. He is an avid student of astrology, horoscopes and palmistry. Every day, at the beginning of the day, he calls his test pilot over the phone and warns him about the inauspicious time slot of the day during which the pilot should not undertake the test flight of the small and light passenger aircraft the factory produces (aircraft is one of the several products the factory produces). The test pilot abides it truthfully.

Some of these intrapreneurs (internal entrepreneurs) have seasonal business loads. For example, Raj- the personal secretary of head of human resources department- takes the bookings for renting out the seven taxi cars of different descriptions he owns. He uses the factory’s intercom system without any hesitation to take these bookings from the other employees of the factory. His own boss also hires his cars when needed. Raj is extremely busy scheduling his seven cars on various holiday tours particularly during the summer months.

He receives a call from one of the employees of the factory, “Raj, is your air-conditioned luxury car available for a week from 15th April? I am going on a holiday with my wife and kids and this time I want to give them a real luxurious treat. So I want only that car.”

Raj replies, “Just give me a sec. Let me check the allotment of cars on the spread sheet.” (Raj uses factory’s computer for this purpose). After checking, he resumes, “I must say, you are lucky. That car will be back from another trip on 14th April late evening. No problems. So, I am taking your confirmed booking. Enjoy the holidays, buddy.”

Then there are employees who are life, vehicle, property and health insurance agents. They have a ready captive customer base of 25000+ people right inside the factory premises. Barring a few, all the employees have bought one or the other insurance policy from them. Good show.

Recently a management consultant was contracted by the management of the company to study the human resources practices being followed in the company and to suggest further improvement measures.

The consultant studied the things pretty thoroughly observing various aspects of human resources in the factory. Apart from using his usual management models and techniques, he also used his innate wisdom of a detective for carrying out in-depth and confidential investigations in certain areas which he perceived as extraordinary areas after completing his study. These areas particularly belonged to the areas of operation described earlier. And he said to himself, “Aha, eureka!! Now I do have some stuff to impress my client.”

Then he was ready to make his interim presentation of findings and recommendations to the executive director in charge of the entire factory operations. The executive director was a veteran of the organization.

He met the executive director and told him, “I have some very startling and disturbing facts to share with you in the matters of certain extraordinary activities being carried out by many of your employees which are of extraneous nature in relation to their specified duties and responsibilities within the organization.”

The executive director retorted, “What do you mean by that? Can you put it to me in simpler and direct terms?”

The consultant answered, “What I mean to say is that many of your employees secretly run their private businesses within the factory premises. Not only the workers but even the managers are patronizing these activities. The organization is losing a large number of man hours because of this apart from the indiscipline it has brought inside the factory. You may like to take a serious view of it. I have some very specific recommendations for tackling this problem. I will like to present them to you now.”

The executive director himself had been the beneficiary of these extraneous activities of his various employees. And every time he used those services, he had felt relieved, relaxed and comfortable. And he thought quickly to himself, “Come to think of it, has all of this behavior of my employees adversely affected the bottom line of my company? Certainly not.” So, he had a hearty laugh within his own mind. That could not have been seen by the consultant.

Apparently, the executive director was composed and in a pensive mood said, “Skip that for now. Do you have any other things to share with me? Then please go on with the rest of your presentation. I will be more interested in them.”

The consultant remained puzzled and stunned over the super cool behavior and reactions of the executive director on the revelations which he had just made and which he thought were like bomb shells.

For “out of box thinking” articles by Shyam Bhatawdekar, refer: (Out of Box Ideas) http://wow-idea.blogspot.com/

Read other blogs and knols of Shyam Bhatawdekar at: (Home Page for Writings of Shyam Bhatawdekar) http://writings-of-shyam.blogspot.com/

Here is your chance of buying the book "Sensitive Stories of Corporate World (Management Case Studies)"(at price slashed by around 50% till end December 2011):

For owning your copy/copies of the book, visit the following Amazon.com sites:

For eBook format: http://www.amazon.com/Sensitive-Stories-Corporate-Management-ebook/dp/B004KABBMM/ref=sr_1_1_title_1_kin?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324017641&sr=1-1

For book in print form: http://www.amazon.com/Sensitive-Stories-Corporate-Management-Studies/dp/1456585150/ref=sr_1_1_title_0_main?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324017641&sr=1-1

The Perfect Recruit

The print of the first 46 case studies/management anecdotes in book format is now available at a price. Send your order for the number of copies of the print to prodcons@prodcons.com

For everything you wanted to know on building leadership and management, refer Shyam Bhatawdekar’s website: http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com/

(Also, refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/)
Keshav Tharur was quite upbeat this morning. He was humming and whistling the tunes of his favorite songs all the morning and was utterly jubilant. This did not go un-noticed by his wife.

For past few weeks Tharur was quite downtrodden and downcast. His wife had noticed that also. So, she was a quite surprised at the dramatic change of mood of her husband. His wife knew about why her husband was upset for the past few weeks. Keshav Tharur had told the reason himself to his wife. Wife was quite an understanding type of woman. She appreciated Keshav Tharur’s view point in getting upset after his recent transfer from his original department to the new department. It was a matter of loss of identity and substantial earnings for her husband. While she was not particularly concerned about the possible loss of identity of her husband, she surely did worry about the loss of earnings.

It was not a case of transfer from one department of the factory to other department on demotion resulting in loss of salary or designation or grade. But, after Tharur was transferred from civil engineering department of the biggest factory of High Tech Specialty Products Limited (HTPSL) to its internal audit department, he was quite worried whether it would adversely affect his established practice of palmistry and horoscope reading. His clients for palmistry and horoscope consultations ranged from the workers and supervisors to middle and senior managers of the HTPSL’s biggest factory employing more than 10,000 employees. And he used to carry out this practice from his cubicle (his office) in the factory. With 10,000 employees in the factory, he had a very large captive client base. And he was doing it for nearly more than fifteen years now.

Tharur was a well qualified civil engineer and had pretty good experience in palmistry and horoscope reading and much less in civil engineering. Now, you will definitely ask a question, “If Tharur is a well qualified civil engineer, how come he has more experience in anything other than civil engineering and particularly in something like palmistry and horoscopes that has no connection with civil engineering?” For that we will have to trace back the history.

Tharur was recruited in the company from a fairly reputed engineering college campus through a campus recruitment procedure. On his curriculum vitae, Tharur had proclaimed his grasp over palmistry and horoscopes in the “hobbies and interest” section of his bio-data form.

The chairman of the recruitment committee and head of the civil engineering department of the largest unit of HTPSL, Shankit Sarma was a god fearing man and used to take every step of his personal, family and professional life based on the predictions based on palmistry and horoscopes. For that, he was constantly in touch of a palmist here and a horoscope specialist there and that was a quite a drain on his pocket since these professional palmists and horoscope experts would charge pretty good amount as their professional fees.

When he read on the resume of Keshav Tharur that he was quite adept at palmistry and horoscopes, it injected a kind of respect in the heart of Shankit Sarma towards this boy Tharur. He manipulated in his mind, “If Keshav Tharur was worth his salt in palmistry and horoscopes, I will recruit him and that will save me the trouble of going to other palmists and horoscope readers and more than that I will save the drain of lots of money that I spend in hiring them. Tharur will be at my beck and call being my assistant and I will not have to pay him (after all salary paid by HTPSL to Tharur will be quite decent).”

Other than Shankit Sarma, the recruitment committee consisted of one technical expert and one HR expert, both junior to Shankit Sarma in status. Shankit Sarma had almost decided to select Tharur and since he was senior to the other two members of the interview committee, he was confident of bulldozing them in case they objected to the selection of Keshav Tharur on technical grounds. But before all that he wanted to be sure of the expertise of Tharur in palmistry and horoscopes and so he asked the engineering college’s placement office to send Tharur to his room in the guesthouse of the college where he was staying. He thought that he would not get a chance to ask many questions pertaining to palmistry and horoscopes during the interview in presence of his two junior colleagues- it would not look nice.

And Shankit Sarma was privately and confidentially interviewing Keshav Tharur in his room that evening on palmistry and horoscopes. During the course of the interview, Tharur took the palm of Sarma in his hand and asked Sarma to keep silence. Tharur had brought with him a magnifying glass which he used to read Sarma’s palm. Then examining his palm from various angles and after brooding over it for a considerable period (during which Sarma got very anxious), Tharur gave a broad smile.

Sarma was quite jittery. He said, “Tell me Tharur, what you saw in my palm? Is it something that I should worry about?”

Tharur felt that he had an upper hand over Sarma in this interview, “No sir. Nothing to worry about at all. It says that you will recruit a bright engineer as your assistant shortly and you will get a promotion soon. However, the two events seem to reflect on each other. Sir, please do inform me about your promotion as soon as you get it so that I will get some confidence in my prediction capabilities.”

Shankit Sarma was pleased with himself as well as with Keshav Tharur.

Next day the interview committee interviewed several candidates from the engineering college campus who could answer the technical questions far better than Keshav Tharur. But Sarma was sure that he must recruit Keshav Tharur since his own promotion depended on it- after all Tharur had predicted that. As per the prediction made by Tharur, the two events were interdependent- only if he recruited Tharur, he had a chance of getting promoted. And also, he wanted a palmist and horoscope consultant on 24 X 7 basis free of cost.

Sarma’s two junior colleagues in the interview committee showed some initial resistance in the selection of Keshav Tharur but finally yielded to Shankit Sarma. They thought, “After all its Sarma’s funeral if he wanted to select a duffer like Keshav Tharur. How does it matter to us?”

Sarma selected Tharur provisionally to satisfy his other interview committee members because of their initial objections. He thought that he should not be seen as favoring some particular person. However, his real reason for the selection to be kept as provisional was different and only known to himself. He thought to himself, “I would firm up Tharur’s selection only if his prediction about my promotion comes true.”

And as luck would have it, the much awaited promotion came to Sarma (Sarma had missed this promotion on last two occasions). Sarma’s respect for the boy Tharur took a high jump and he signed Tharur’s appointment letter.

Since then, Tharur has been using his cubicle (his office) in the biggest factory of HTPSL to practice palmistry and horoscopes with a prospective captive client base of more than 10,000 people.

Initially Sarma used Tharur’s expertise of predictions based on palmistry and horoscopes solely for himself and his family members but soon he thought of favoring his two immediate bosses (for obvious reasons). He mentioned to them about the Tharur’s gifted talent in palmistry and horoscopes and then they invited Tharur through Sarma to their cabins from time to time for palm and horoscope reading and consultations.

And all of us are aware that word of mouth publicity spreads like wild fire. In a very secretive manner, the numbers of managers consulting Tharur went up astronomically. Sarma took a lot of credit for this phenomenon. People who knew about Tharur being Sarma’s find, were grateful to him to install a palmist and horoscope consultant within the very premises of the organization who charged very reasonable consultation fee. And this whole business was conducted during the office hours. They did not have to use their personal and private time for this.

A few weeks ago, Shankit Sarma retired from the services of the company. A new boss, Prashna Prakhar took over. He was a no nonsense boss, a hard task master and a rationalist. He was intelligent and soon found that Keshav Tharur was the most popular person among many of the top bosses of the organization though he was almost a zero in civil engineering work. He hardly found Tharur on his seat in the cubicle. Most of the time he was on his prediction consultation rounds throughout the factory. If at all he was found on his seat in his cubicle, he was always consulting with one of his clients.

For quite a few days, Prashna Prakhar just could not make out as to what to do with Keshav Tharur. Keshav Tharur was not only not doing anything worthwhile for his department; he had even spoiled the work discipline of the entire department. Other members of civil engineering department had started whiling away their time too taking clue from the honorary treatment Keshav Tharur was enjoying in the organization for doing nothing. Prashna Prakhar wanted to get rid of Keshav Tharur from his department.

And the right occasion came up. The internal audit department wanted to speedily fill up a position of an experienced civil engineering expert who could perform pre-audit of all the construction activities of the company. Lots of scams were uncovered lately by the external auditors of the company in the construction activities undertaken in the organization and so, they had recommended a tight internal control by way of having an internal civil engineering auditor to prevent such scams in the future.

Due to embargo in recruitment from external sources, it was necessary to find out an able person to fill up this position from internal resources. The civil engineering department was the obvious hunting ground. Prashna Prakhar wasted not even a day and recommended Keshav Tharur’s name. Since Tharur was in the good books of many of the important senior members of the factory’s local management team (due to excellent palmistry and horoscope services provided by him), they seconded Prashna Prakhar’s recommendation for Keshav Tharur’s transfer to the internal audit department on promotion.

Though it is a normal sentiment of ordinary human beings to rejoice over a promotion in the organization, Keshav Tharur proved to be an exception. He did not look at the promotion part seriously but he looked at the transfer part seriously and became very sad. He was getting transferred on promotion to a department called internal audit department which was outside the ambit of the factory’s local management. This department was called the head office department or corporate department and its head of the department used to report directly to the CEO of the company in the corporate office. And these gentlemen and ladies of the corporate departments were least aware of the exciting talents of Keshav Tharur. Plus, his existing clients in the factory would be very apprehensive in contacting a corporate official, that too from the internal audit department for consultations in palmistry and horoscope reading. Thus the whole clientele of Keshav Tharur crumbled right in front of him due to this transfer and equally bad, he lost his total identity.

And after being barely a week in the new head office department, yesterday evening, he got a call from the private confidential secretary of the CEO of the company. Tharur was quite nervous to start with as he listened to the voice of the confidential secretary of the CEO over the phone. After all, private confidential secretaries are almost treated on par with the CEOs in most of the companies.

She said, “Is that Tharur I am speaking with?”

Tharur said, “Yes madam.”

She said, “I understand that you have recently been appointed as the civil engineering auditor. The boss (CEO) will like to brief you personally. As you are aware, you are now holding a critical position and you should not let down the boss in front of the external auditors. So come prepared. I am telling your head of the department to depute you to the corporate office for a couple of days. It will be your first official visit to the corporate office.”

Tharur said, “OK madam, I will be there.” And before he could complete his sentence the phone connection was snap cut from the other end.

Even before Tharur could settle down, the telephone rang again. He lifted the receiver. It was the personal confidential secretary again. This time she was reasonably polite and sweet, “Hey Tharur, I understand from a friend of mine working in the factory site that you are a palmist and a horoscope reader. So when you come here for the meeting with the boss (CEO), please bring along with you all your horoscope charts and your lap top with the necessary horoscope software. I have recommended your name to the boss who was looking out for a horoscope specialist in the city. He is getting his daughter married and he wants to match her horoscope with the possible bride groom. I told him that you are the new recruit in the audit department and you are pretty good at horoscope matching etc and that you have already made an impression on the factory’s managers. Boss was happy and expressed that a known devil from inside the company is always better than outsider particularly for such a critical business. So come prepared to spend an extra day with the boss. And promise, you will not let me down in the eyes of the boss. And you must keep some time aside to read my palm too, but free of any charge- I am already telling you.”

And before Tharur could complete his sentence, “Thank you madam, I will not let you down and I will……..”, the other side snap cut the telephone connection.

So, this morning Keshav Tharur was humming and whistling the tunes of his favorite songs not for no reason. He had a solid reason. He was once again reinstated on his prestigious seat of power; no less than the CEO of the company had sponsored him. He did not tell about it to his wife yet. He decided to surprise his wife with this great news after the mission was completed successfully and he was home from his corporate office sojourn.

For “out of box thinking” articles by Shyam Bhatawdekar, refer: (Out of Box Ideas) http://wow-idea.blogspot.com/

Read other blogs and knols of Shyam Bhatawdekar at: (Home Page for Writings of Shyam Bhatawdekar) http://writings-of-shyam.blogspot.com/

Here is your chance of buying the book "Sensitive Stories of Corporate World (Management Case Studies)"(at price slashed by around 50% till end December 2011):

For owning your copy/copies of the book, visit the following Amazon.com sites:

For eBook format: http://www.amazon.com/Sensitive-Stories-Corporate-Management-ebook/dp/B004KABBMM/ref=sr_1_1_title_1_kin?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324017641&sr=1-1

For book in print form: http://www.amazon.com/Sensitive-Stories-Corporate-Management-Studies/dp/1456585150/ref=sr_1_1_title_0_main?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324017641&sr=1-1

How to Win the Title “Business and Industry Icon of the Decade”?

The print of the first 46 case studies/management anecdotes in book format is now available at a price. Send your order for the number of copies of the print to prodcons@prodcons.com

For everything you wanted to know on building leadership and management, refer Shyam Bhatawdekar’s website: http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com/

(Also, refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/)
With the help of Lalu Chaplus, Tivra Utkarsh, the rapidly rising industrialist, had scaled great heights in the business and industrial world.

But it was public knowledge that Lalu Chaplus used to use all the possible unconventional methods bordering on unethical or even illegal practices and they were mainly responsible of his boss Tivra Utkarsh’s phenomenal rise. However, it had been quite impossible for anyone to prove that Lalu Chaplus (and so, Tivra Utkarsh) were using really any unethical or illegal practices. Tivra Utkarsh’s company Soaring Heights had hired the top notch law pundits to make sure to utilize the grey areas of the law so that the methods adopted by Lalu Chaplus always fell into these grey areas and could not be proven as unethical or illegal. And in turn, they brought maximum gains for the company the easy way and in turn to Tivra Utkarsh (and so, to Lalu Chaplus) without being caught by the laws of the land.

The execution was always done by Lalu Chaplus and Tivra Utkarsh was always kept in the background by Lalu. Lalu always made sure that his boss was well protected from the law and projected as Mr Clean. So Utkarsh depended on Lalu fully. This way Lalu became the right hand as well as the left hand man of the industrialist Tivra Utkarsh for which he was being compensated more than sumptuously. Also due to this kind of proximity with the top most boss, Lalu became one of the most feared top level executives and all the people in the organization had to obey him if they wanted to safeguard their jobs. They dared not question the righteousness or otherwise of the diktats of Lalu. His orders were the last words in the company.
Despite becoming stinking rich, Tivra Utkarsh could not get the respectability either within the industry, business and political circles or with the general public. Lalu Chaplus assisted him in buying the respectability he craved for by some means or the other but so far the efforts had dismally failed. So while Tivra Utkarsh amassed tons of money, he just could not buy or earn the respect of the society.

Then one fine morning, an announcement of Business Universe- a prestigious world class business magazine attracted the attention of Lalu Chaplus. In essence, it read like this, “Business Universe wishes to choose the business and industry icon of the decade based on the public opinion of the entire world’s population. Each person can cast only one vote. Multiple entries by one voter will become invalid. The candidate receiving the highest number of votes will be chosen as the business and industry icon of the decade.” He brought this news item to the notice of Tivra Utkarsh.

On request of Lalu Chaplus, that evening Tivra Utkarsh and Lalu Chaplus had a secret meeting in the confidential sound proof home office of Utkarsh.

Utkarsh asked Lalu, “What was the meaning of showing the announcement of Business Universe magazine?”

Lalu replied, “Mr Utkarsh, today you are one of the top twenty richest people and businessmen on the earth. I wish to see you emerge as the business and industry icon of the decade. So far we have wasted our efforts to win the hearts of the people around us by adopting many means but that did not work. Now, if a highly reputed and serious magazine like Business Universe declares you as the business and industry icon of the decade which you definitely deserve, the whole world will start looking at you that way. You will get tremendous respectability in every strata of society overnight. The magazine Business Universe has great reputation not only among the people connected with industry and business but in the human society as a whole and people take everything published in the magazine as truth and very seriously whatsoever worth that might be.”

Utkarsh interrupted Lalu, “But Lalu, that’s next to impossible. So many industrialists and businessmen of the world who are already more established and more known by the people will always take away the title. It’s absurd. Come on, let us forget it.”

But Lalu was insistent, “Mr Utkarsh, please leave it to me. The greatest satisfaction in my life will be to see you getting installed at the top of the world. And I shall do anything for that. Just leave it to me and don’t ask me questions. Hope, you have always believed in my capabilities and approaches. Believe in me this time too. Do not ask me anything about it till you get crowned as the business and industry icon of the world for the decade.”

Tivra Utkarsh raised his hands in defeat and said, “OK Lalu, I cannot argue with you. I have to give in as I always do where you are concerned. Make sure not to get me into any trouble and then do anything that pleases you. Good luck.”

Then Lalu got into severe action.

He called an emergency meeting of all the heads of I.T. (information technology) departments and administrative chiefs of all the 31 companies of Soaring Heights spread in 9 countries in 4 continents.

Everyone attended the meeting setting aside all the other important pieces of work. Most important work for all of them was to obey the super bosses like Tivra Utkarsh and Lalu Chaplus.

Lalu Chaplus chaired the meeting (Tivra Utkarsh absented himself as a grand strategy). Lalu instructed all the I.T. managers and administrative managers to listen to him with utmost care and attention and not to interrupt him till he finished.

He addressed the meeting by saying, “This is a top secret confidential project of the highest importance to our group. It will be in the interest of you all to make this project a sure shot success. The project is to make sure that the group emerges as the most respected business group in the entire world. For this, first your super leader Mr Tivra Utkarsh should be seen and accepted by the world as the most respected industry and business leader. The famous industry and business magazine Business Universe has organized worldwide contest to choose the business and industry icon of the decade. Who else deserves this title but our super boss? Now, you guys tighten up your belt and start off with what I instruct you. Set up hundreds of kiosks and offices all over various cities and towns of various countries in all the four continents. Equip these kiosks and offices with large numbers of the latest computers and internet connections and the software. Staff them with people who are computer literates on three shifts basis. These temporary employees will cast their votes by using computers and internet in favor of our boss day in and day out under different names without stoppage of even a minute. Hand over these kiosks and offices to our various contractors who will take the responsibility of owning them and supervising their operations.”

Then Lalu Chaplus paused, looked at the attendees of the meeting and was satisfied to see on their faces a weird quizzical look. Then he continued, “As per the magazine Business Universe’s recent announcement the magazine wishes to choose the business and industry icon of the decade based on the public opinion of the entire world’s population. Each person can cast only one vote. Multiple entries by one voter will become invalid. The candidate receiving the highest number of votes will be chosen as the business and industry icon of the decade. So your job is to install all these offices and kiosks within next one week, staff them with employees, hand them over to the contractors and train the contractors on how to conduct the entire operation. The most important thing is that the magazine or their computer software should never suspect that the votes in favor of Mr Tivra Utkarsh are being cast by the same people repeatedly and that the entire operation is being masterminded and managed by us or by the companies of our group Soaring Heights.”

Then he wanted to dismiss the meeting. But one I.T. manager gathered courage to speak out, “But how’s that possible? Such repeated clicks by the same people again and again can be easily caught in the computer system since each such entry leaves a trace behind and we might be caught.”

Lalu was very angry at this I.T. manager’s question which he thought was quite stupid. He rebuked, “Well, any fool understands that. That’s why you have been called to think of all the means to make this whole thing look very genuine and well above any suspicion. And we are paying you the fat salaries to work out whatsoever it requires to achieve it. Write suitable software and do any other damn thing to make sure that the entire plan of ours is finally 100% successful in choosing Mr Tivra Utkarsh as the world icon of business and industry of the decade. The whole thing should look natural. Now get started without wasting a single second.”

Not a single I.T. manager and administrative manager wanted to get fired. No one questioned or talked about the ethical side of this project. They got busy discussing the working details of the entire project. Once they chalked out everything to its finest points, they returned to their respective offices in various group companies of various countries of the four continents.

The contest to select the world icon of business and industry of the decade took place as scheduled by the magazine Business universe.

The results of the poll were declared recently.

And right now the celebrations are on and are being telecast live all over the world and millions of people are watching on their television sets. Business Universe has organized a gala party at a seven star luxury hotel to felicitate Tivra Utkarsh as the world business and industry icon of the decade. A few thousand dignitaries are present in the party and Tivra Utkarsh is the center of attraction and the star of the evening.

It is understood that Tivra Utkarsh got the maximum votes of the public and he beat the runner up (who is one of the most respected and most known business wizard in the world) by around twelve million votes.

All the contestants are still scratching their heads to wonder as to what tricks Tivra Utkarsh played on them that they were unable to conceive and apply to win the crown.

For “out of box thinking” articles by Shyam Bhatawdekar, refer: (Out of Box Ideas) http://wow-idea.blogspot.com/

Read other blogs and knols of Shyam Bhatawdekar at: (Home Page for Writings of Shyam Bhatawdekar) http://writings-of-shyam.blogspot.com/

Here is your chance of buying the book "Sensitive Stories of Corporate World (Management Case Studies)"(at price slashed by around 50% till end December 2011):

For owning your copy/copies of the book, visit the following Amazon.com sites:

For eBook format: http://www.amazon.com/Sensitive-Stories-Corporate-Management-ebook/dp/B004KABBMM/ref=sr_1_1_title_1_kin?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324017641&sr=1-1

For book in print form: http://www.amazon.com/Sensitive-Stories-Corporate-Management-Studies/dp/1456585150/ref=sr_1_1_title_0_main?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324017641&sr=1-1

Profit in Taking the Blame

The print of the first 46 case studies/management anecdotes in book format is now available at a price. Send your order for the number of copies of the print to prodcons@prodcons.com

For everything you wanted to know on building leadership and management, refer Shyam Bhatawdekar’s website: http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com/

(Also, refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/)
Funeral of Hoshiyar Sinh became a big affair- beyond anyone’s imagination. He had died while in office of the biggest unit of the conglomerate called Brite Corporation International Limited. Brite Corporation International Limited was still like a family owned organization despite its phenomenal growth and size. When Hoshiyar Sinh died, he held the position of the president of the unit of Brite Corporation and also held an additional responsibility of the department of corporate affairs of the head quarters of the company. The chairman of the company Dhanichand Boman and his son Ajinkya Boman who was the managing director of the company decided to join the funeral procession of Hoshiyar Sinh.

This was seen quite a departure from the usual protocol. And that’s what made funeral of Hoshiyar Sinh a big affair. Normally the family members who promoted and literally owned the company never attended the funeral of any professional employee of the company howsoever highly placed the dead person might have been in the company. Now, Dhanichand Boman and his son Ajinkya Boman who were the senior most members of Boman family- the promoters of the company, were themselves attending the funeral of Hoshiyar Sinh and it was absolutely unusual. Hoshiyar Sinh was a professional manager and had no relationship with Boman family. Therefore, everyone in the company was astonished.

But one employee named Tariq Doshi- an old employee of the unit was not at all surprised. While majority of the employees were new and young in this unit and almost every one of the old employees had either retired or died, Tariq Doshi had been with the company for past more than thirty years. He had joined the company when the company had just started and had just about one small manufacturing unit. At that time he was working in company’s head quarters. After the company grew and had launched this second and the biggest unit of the company he was transferred. He claimed to have seen the entire history of the ups and ups of the company. And he also knew a few inner secrets. And one of them was the reason why Dhanichand Boman and his son Ajinkya Boman had attended Hoshiyar Sinh’s funeral.

When Tariq Doshi returned to his home after attending the funeral, he was in a very pensive mood. It did not go un-noticed by his wife. She coaxed him to release his tension by sharing his worries with her. And Tariq Doshi finally shared with his wife that one secret that was disturbing him throughout the day and even during the past many years.

He said to his wife, “I have been carrying a huge burden on my mind all these years. But with the death of Hoshiyar Sinh, I can share it with someone and unburden myself so that when the death comes to me, I can die peacefully. But, please keep this to yourself and only if you promise to do so, I will tell you, otherwise not.”

His wife was very worried about her husband particularly after listening to what her husband had just told her. So she assured him, “I promise not to divulge a word of what you are about to tell me. But do tell me everything so that you are free of your worries.”

Then Tariq Doshi narrated the following story to his wife:

Dhanichand Boman was a highly ambitious person despite the fact that he could not go past the primary school education because of the dire poverty of his father. He needed to work and earn money. So he left studying at school. Since he was educated only till primary school, it was impossible for him to get any decent employment other than that of a menial laborer. A few times he suffered utter humiliation while on the job. And when he could not bear any more humiliation, he decided to start his own business howsoever small it might be. He thought, “After all in my own business I would be my own master and will save myself of any humiliation from any Tom, Dick and Harry.”

He also thought, “I will get more opportunities for business in a city rather than in my own village. So I must shift to a big city.” So, he shifted to the nearest city from his village along with his wife, his small son Ajinkya and Hoshiyar Sinh- his best friend in the village. Hoshiyar Sinh was also a drop out of the primary school just like Dhanichand.

After going to the city, Dhanichand tried his hand at many types of small businesses using his native wisdom. He knew how to count money and how to count the profits. He also took risks; he had nothing to lose since he was already at the bottom most levels of life. And yes, Dhanichand was a very hard working man and soon he also learnt the street smartness while doing many odd businesses. With this kind of combination of his traits, he met with success in every business he took up. It took him some ten to twelve years before he could save enough money. On the strength of the saved money, he borrowed more money and built up his first unit- a small manufacturing unit.

Soon his first unit made him a mini industrialist in his own right. He thought of becoming a bigger industrialist and soon he expanded the operations and his products became very popular with the customers. He soon developed the brand name and listed his company as a limited company. The share value of the stocks of his company in the share market was progressively going up.

On the home front too Dhanichand was quite successful. With the new found wealth, he was providing his son and his wife all the comforts of life. He enrolled his son Ajinkya in city’s most reputed school and then in the most reputed college. He pampered his son like nobody’s business. Now, his son was almost getting ready to join his business. And one fine morning Ajinkya Boman was installed as the managing director of the company.

Hoshiyar Sinh, Dhanichand’s friend from the village who accompanied him to the city proved to be great help to him in his various businesses. Hoshiyar Sinh was like his man Friday. He was there everywhere with Dhanichand, doing all kinds of odd jobs for him. However, as Dhanichand started flourishing in his business he started keeping distance from Hoshiyar Sinh. Though he still used him for all the odd jobs, his friendship became lukewarm. Hoshiyar Sinh sensed this change. While Dhanichand started becoming richer and richer and prided himself as the chairman of the company, Hoshiyar Singh was given just about a decent salary without any particular title in the company. Hoshiyar Sinh felt hurt by this treatment.

And then that incident took place that catapulted Hoshiyar Sinh’s life and the lives of Dhanichand and Ajinkya topsy-turvy. I know it because I was the only eye witness to the entire happening. I was watching through the peephole of the room where the incident took place.

It took place in Ajinkya Boman’s cabin. Since I had joined the company at its inception, the Bomans knew me quite well and I had an easy access to their offices. So, for some official work I had gone to Ajinkya Boman’s office. When I reached the door of the cabin of Ajinkya Boman, I heard heated exchange of words between some people inside the cabin. My curiosity got aroused and I looked through the peephole.

The overdose of pampering of Ajinkya by his father Dhanichand had made him a spoilt brat. In the process, Ajinkya had become an angry young man- he was short tempered and shouted and insulted the employees for their small little mistakes. He used to throw the files or anything that was handy at them in the rage of anger. He was a poor listener and non-tolerant of people in general.

Knowing this weakness of his son, Dhanichand had deputed his mature friend Hoshiyar Sinh as his son’s assistant like a private secretary to him. But Ajinkya would not spare Hoshiyar Sinh also. Getting insults from Ajinkya and feeling distanced from Dhanichand, Hoshiyar Sinh was a very unhappy man.

Yes, coming back to what I saw through the peephole. I saw Ajinkya shouting at an employee, “Your irresponsible actions have resulted in loss by millions to the company, do you understand? You must die in shame.”

The employee being shouted upon protested, “Sir, you cannot blame me. You only instructed me to do what I did.”

Ajinkya got wild on him, “Hey, you liar. Don’t say that again. I can even kill you for that.”

And then Ajinkya was groping to search something that he wanted to throw at the employee. He did not realize that what came in his hand was a knife and he threw it at the employee with great force. It hit the employee at some delicate part of the body and the employee fell down and soon breathed his last.

That startled Ajinkya and Hoshiyar Sinh and me. Then I heard the voice of Hoshiyar Sinh.

Hoshiyar Sinh took the lead and said, “Ajinkya, just sit down. Don’t move. Let us sort this thing out with a cool mind. First of all I am the only witness to this bloody affair. I can ruin your and your father’s life just the way you have ruined mine by neglecting me and insulting me. You guys have become rich by my support and hard work at all the odd jobs that your father and you could not have done. But what did I get in return- a meager salary and no designation. Now is the time to strike a deal. I am used to all the odd jobs and I will do this last one too. But on my terms and conditions. You guys are going to launch the new unit in the near future, your big manufacturing second unit. You must make me the whole sole in charge of that unit as its president after I come out of the jail. I am willing to take the blame of what happened in this room. You will be a witness in the court proceedings to say that it was an accident in the self defence. To save ourselves from the insane employee who wanted to hurt us, I intervened and by sheer accident the knife went through the body of the employee causing him instant death. For that I will get the jail sentence of not more than couple of years. After I am released from the jail, you and your father will install me as the president of the new unit with all the powers bestowed in me. If you agree, I will call the police and surrender myself and you and your father will make sure that the best lawyer is recruited to handle the case and I get the minimum sentence. If you do not agree with this proposal of mine, I will still call the police and charge you with the murder.”

And then the rest we know. Hoshiyar Sinh made sure that he became the president of the biggest unit of the company. Many more units were added to the company later on but Hoshiyar Sinh took care to see that his unit remained the biggest and he had a say in the corporate affairs of the company by becoming head of corporate affairs department in the head quarters in addition to becoming the president of the biggest unit.

His death took away with him the secret that Dhanichand and Ajinkya think only Hoshiyar Sinh knew. So, Dhanichand and Ajinkya wanted to be sure that Hoshiyar Sinh really got cremated in front of their eyes along with that secret and that’s why they attended the funeral of Hoshiyar Sinh.

For “out of box thinking” articles by Shyam Bhatawdekar, refer: (Out of Box Ideas) http://wow-idea.blogspot.com/

Read other blogs and knols of Shyam Bhatawdekar at: (Home Page for Writings of Shyam Bhatawdekar) http://writings-of-shyam.blogspot.com/

Here is your chance of buying the book "Sensitive Stories of Corporate World (Management Case Studies)"(at price slashed by around 50% till end December 2011):

For owning your copy/copies of the book, visit the following Amazon.com sites:

For eBook format: http://www.amazon.com/Sensitive-Stories-Corporate-Management-ebook/dp/B004KABBMM/ref=sr_1_1_title_1_kin?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324017641&sr=1-1

For book in print form: http://www.amazon.com/Sensitive-Stories-Corporate-Management-Studies/dp/1456585150/ref=sr_1_1_title_0_main?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324017641&sr=1-1

 

What Is the Limit?

The print of the first 46 case studies/management anecdotes in book format is now available at a price. Send your order for the number of copies of the print to prodcons@prodcons.com

For everything you wanted to know on building leadership and management, refer Shyam Bhatawdekar’s website: http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com/

(Also, refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/)
Ambalal Patel owned a moderate size business. He had approached his middle age and yet had not struck gold. His only ambition in life was to make money and that too lots of money and that too quickly. He was supplier of a few materials that were required in the chemical industry. He was struggling hard for past fifteen years but till date did not get a good break in his business.

Then one evening while he was attending a social get together, he met one of his old friends after several years. They celebrated their meeting. They had drinks together and started catching up with the events of intervening period. When both of them consumed a good amount of hard liquor, they started talking more intimately and about the secrets of business.

In the process of this exchange, Ambalal Patel opened up his heart and shared with his friend about his disappointment in not doing the kind of big business that would bring him enormous money. He said, “Despite my best efforts I am not getting any sizable order for supply of my materials. For some reason or the other, the competing suppliers walk away with the plum orders from my clients and I am left high and dry.”

On the other hand, his friend declared, “I was also struggling for a good number of years like you. But now I am very successful after painful initial twelve years. I have earned more money in just past two years- much more than what I could not earn even in the first twelve years of business”.

When Ambalal Patel got curious to know the secrets of his sudden success, his friend assigned it to joining Regent Club whose members mostly consisted of corporate executives and businessmen. He advised boastfully like a big brother, “Ambalal, you must have the right contacts. Regent Club is the answer.” Then after blurting out this much involuntarily in his intoxicated state, he stopped this topic here itself and turned to other gossips. He soon realized that he was making mistake by giving out his secrets of business to Ambalal Patel on the platter. Possibly, Ambalal Patel might become his competitor if he knew more about his business secrets. And he would not like it.

However, Ambalal Patel was quick to retain in his memory the name Regent Club. Next morning, past last night’s hangover, Ambalal Patel developed a terrific craving to visit Regent Club that brought money to his friend. He wanted to explore the possibilities for himself by knowing more about the club.

He met the manager of Regent Club. Ambalal asked him, “Is the membership in the club open? And if yes, what will be the membership fee?”

Manager gave him all the information of the club and also emphasized, “Mr Patel, people like you and many corporate managers primarily are the constituent members of the club.” Then, he gave the details of one time entry fee and other annual fees of the club.

Ambalal Patel was shocked to hear the astronomical fees of the club. He mumbled, “I say, the fees are too steep, far higher than many other clubs of the city. Its an unaffordable expenditure even for a businessman like me.”

To which the manager replied, “Mr Patel, do not call this as expenditure. Call it investment instead. You will recover the entire fee of the club in just about an year or little over the year and after that, its all profit. This is not my version; this is the version of the members of this club. I hear many of them say so from time to time. I understand from them that the club provides an excellent meeting point to develop business and social networks.”

Ambalal Patel remembered what his friend had mentioned the previous evening. This Regent Club was responsible for his sudden prosperity. Ambalal Patel did not wish to waste a minute; he was in a real hurry to make lots of money. He joined the club by taking loan from his bank and giving the membership fees to Regent Club.

To start with, Ambalal was not quite comfortable with the secretive environment of the club. But soon he got introduced to a senior purchasing executive of a fairly big chemical company. The senior purchasing manager’s name was Partho Dey. They struck chords with each other since both were having one thing in common in a big way. Both had insatiable capacity to hold the drinks. Soon they became company to each other, though most of the time Ambalal paid the bills for their drinks and dinner. He remembered the club manager’s words, “Mr Patel, perceive this expenditure as an investment.”

And soon it worked. Ambalal Patel found an occasion to offer to supply to Partho Dey’s company. When one day, during their drinking time conversation, Partho mentioned that his company was looking out for a reliable source to buy a particular type of chemical material, Ambalal Patel spoke without wasting a minute, “Sir, why do you have to search for a source? The source is sitting right in front of you. I am in the business of supplying the very material you mentioned. I am capable of supplying any amount of it regularly and with 100% reliability.” Partho Dey nodded. Patel thought that to be a good sign. He worked out in his mind, “If Partho Dey places this order on me, it would mean a huge order in terms of volumes and money. And that’s what I need at this point of time.”

Why was Partho Dey willing to consider Ambalal Patel’s offer? The reason was that Partho Dey was not very happy with his existing supplier since the existing supplier was not meeting the terms and conditions set out by Partho Dey. The existing supplier was not willing to increase the bribe percentage that Partho was demanding now. Partho had raised his expectation of bribe from his current rate of 15% to 25% which the supplier thought was obnoxiously high. He mentioned to Partho that he was willing to stretch up to a cut of maximum of 20%- the going rate with many of the purchase managers of many of the other companies where he was the supplier.

Now Partho Dey was not much worried about losing his current supplier of many years since he had in front of him a new and hungry supplier- Ambalal Patel who, in his assessment, would be more than willing to grab that huge order on the terms and conditions of 25% bribe amount set out by him. He had gathered that Ambalal Patel was in a hurry to become rich overnight. So, he opened up his cards in front of Ambalal Patel and as expected, Patel readily agreed for 25% kick back demanded by Partho.

All of this happened over the sixth peg of whisky in the company of Partho Dey that night; Ambalal Patel got the much needed break. He had finally bagged a very big order from a big chemical company. Silently, he thanked his friend who gave him the tip to join Regent Club. He thanked the club manager for sharing his wisdom with him. He thanked Partho for giving the order at 25% kickback (he calculated quickly that despite this kickback he could still make lots of money for himself). He thanked Regent Club.

He started supplying the material.

An year went by.

During this period Ambalal as well as Partho made lots of money.

Partho and Ambalal also continued maintaining their team spirit over the spirits they consumed together at Regent Club regularly. Of course, Ambalal continued booting the bill.

And one night, after they had several pegs of whisky, Partho opened up his heart. He put up his cards in front of Ambalal, “Ambalal, you will appreciate that the year went by smoothly for you because of me.”

Ambalal nodded in affirmation.

Partho continued, “I wish to further add to your kitty and this time at a very fast rate. You had mentioned to me on several occasions that your main aim in life has been to make huge amounts of money real quickly. Now I wish to help you once more to fulfill that dream of yours. Are you with me?”

Ambalal Patel was like a mouse in front of the cat. He mumbled, “Sir, can I ever dare to go against your wishes? Please tell me what do you have in mind?”

Partho said, “To start with, for the next six months, my cut will be raised to50%. We need more material in the company and so the quantity on order for you will be doubled. After six months we will review and work out suitable terms and conditions. Is that OK with you?”

Ambalal was puzzled. He thought how he could make money if he had to give away 50% of his earnings to Partho. But he did not wish to contradict Partho and annoy him. He remained silent.

Partho watched Ambalal keenly and patronized by saying, “Look, we are onto experimenting a new thing as a part of our association. That will make you very rich in just about six months. You must be wondering how it can happen when you have to shell out your 50%. I will tell you how. In reality, you will not supply the quantity of material on order. You will physically supply only 50% of the ordered material and yet bill the company for the full amount. I have my boys in the stores department trained in taking care of all of this. So don’t you worry at all and just do as I told you. OK?”

Ambalal had become a past master in bribing by now but this new proposal coming from Partho was quite startling for his brains. A shiver of great fear ran through his spine. His mind and heart and conscious (?) were not allowing him to go along with Partho on this.

Partho was an intelligent man. He could sense the legitimate hesitation of Ambalal. He said, “Ambalal, I cannot wait for long but you being my drinking partner, I will give you time to think till tomorrow evening. Give me your consent by tomorrow evening here in the club. Then we will drink to our continued business association. But if you are not willing to be a part of my proposal, do not fear that we will break our drinking association. It will still continue but for the next six months at least, you will not be in a position to be a supplier to my company. You will definitely lose a lot. Also, I cannot guarantee what will happen after six months. I have spotted a new supplier who has just joined our Regent Club and who seems pretty much promising to me. He needs some business urgently. You know that I am willing to help such people.”

Ambalal Patel tossed and turned in his bed the whole night without getting a single wink of much needed sleep. He was still very afraid to say “yes” to Partho’s proposal.

For “out of box thinking” articles by Shyam Bhatawdekar, refer: (Out of Box Ideas) http://wow-idea.blogspot.com/

Read other blogs and knols of Shyam Bhatawdekar at: (Home Page for Writings of Shyam Bhatawdekar) http://writings-of-shyam.blogspot.com/

Here is your chance of buying the book "Sensitive Stories of Corporate World (Management Case Studies)"(at price slashed by around 50% till end December 2011):

For owning your copy/copies of the book, visit the following Amazon.com sites:

For eBook format: http://www.amazon.com/Sensitive-Stories-Corporate-Management-ebook/dp/B004KABBMM/ref=sr_1_1_title_1_kin?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324017641&sr=1-1

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Three Drawer Management

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Victor Benjee got an offer of appointment from Traditions Galore Ltd. The offer was undeniably very attractive in terms of money and position offered. He started contemplating in terms of the change. However he was not very sure whether the change would be a right move in his career growth.

He was quite in friendly terms with his existing boss Jawahar Kurios in his present company Genuine Systemic Ltd. So he could discuss his personal matters with Jawahar Kurios. While generally changing a job is kept quite a secret by almost all the people, Victor found it OK to confide such things in Jawahar. He trusted Jawahar fully in such matters too.

Therefore, one evening when Jawahar was quite free from his work and was resting in his cabin, Victor dropped in.

He asked, “Jawahar, do you have about an hour to spend with me? I wish to discuss something personal. Do you remember that you had given me a good reference while I was applying for a senior position in your previous company Traditions Galore? I want your advice in that connection?”

Jawahar got curious, “Can I congratulate you? I guess they have offered you a job.”

Victor said, “Yes, they have. And the offer is brilliant. I will get some 55% more money than what you give me here. The designation is more appealing and I stand to get a bigger house, car and cabin.”

Jawahar laughed, “Then where is the problem? Jump in.”

Victor said, “But I am not sure about the culture of Traditions Galore Ltd. They say that it’s quite different from Genuine Systemic Ltd. One could find it difficult to work in this new company after having worked for a more professional company like Genuine Systemic. Now you have worked for Traditions Galore for quite some years and you have the first hand information about it. Then who could be a better person than you to guide me on this change?”

Jawahar replied, “OK. OK. I will tell you all. But that’s based purely on my observations and experience. I will not tell you whether you should leave Genuine Systemic and join Traditions Galore. That will be strictly your decision. But surely, I will fill you with some data.”

Then Jawahar went on to elaborate, “What you heard is correct. Though it’s huge company by all standards but it is one of those family owned types where family members or their inner circle people have strict controls over all the company activities. In nutshell, Traditions Galore’s Culture is almost opposite of what we do here. For example, our company believes lots in processes and systems where as in Traditions Galore most of the decisions are discretionary. While we have at least some semblance of delegation of power and one can take decisions at different levels, in Traditions Galore the decision making is highly centralized. We are more transparent here but Traditions Galore is full of secrecy. Yet let me hurriedly say that they have their own brand of systems too and they too make huge profits.”

Victor interrupted, “Jawahar, can you give me some examples from your own experience?”

Jawahar said, “OK. I will tell you this one experience and you may get a lot of insight. I had joined Traditions Galore after working for a good length of time in a professional multinational company. This multinational company had everything defined on paper and things went strictly in accordance with those things. For example, if I wanted to buy some material or some equipment, the system was very transparent. If I gave convincing justifications for the purchase, I was sure to get it or the sanctioning authority will seek further clarifications from me. And timeline for this type of decision-making and execution was clearly defined. So it was that simple and straight forward.”

Jawahar took a pause and then continued, “So after joining Traditions Galore, I tried to follow the same system in absence of any systems manual telling me what to do. The CEO of the company had given me a mandate to improve the efficiency of the manufacturing departments by a certain percentage within an year’s period. For achieving this, I needed to induct some specific equipment of the latest technology in the organization. So I made a justification note, attached it to the purchase requisition form and sent it to the CEO. After a week or so, the justification note with the purchase requisition was returned to me via company’s finance department.”

Victor asked, “Why, did not you have an approved budget for it?”

Jawahar replied, “I had made provision for it in my budget but finance people used to revisit the budget provision once more on case to case basis when the actual purchase was about to be made. As per them the budget was just a rough guideline. Now this was quite different from my previous organization. In my previous company once a budget was sanctioned, it became sacrosanct for all purposes. But here the CEO passed on my requisition to finance department without even informing me. It was quite strange for me. I had to spend many hours spread over many days to satisfy finance chief. Finally he signed on the dotted line. After this I sent the whole thing once again to my CEO. I waited for almost two weeks but I did not get any approval of the CEO.”

Victor was surprised, “Then, when did you get the approval?”

Jawahar replied, “I did not get it. Couple of times I reminded him about my requisition but he posed very busy. Then after repeated follow up from me, he asked me to meet him and explain my plans on how I aimed at increasing the plant efficiency with the new equipment. But every time I requested for his time to do so, he made some excuse or the other and kept on postponing our meeting. Then I got fed up. I was already running out of time and being the first year of my employment I could not risk not achieving the mandate given to me. So I worked out some alternate plans without this technologically advanced equipment and somehow started implementing efficiency improvements.

Victor got puzzled, “You mean to say that you stopped sending all of your proposal to your CEO and still worked.”

Jawahar replied, “No, later on I knew the trick of how to get my proposals passed. Somehow with my keen observations I came to know about my CEO’s "Three Drawer System" which in fact was a top secret. Only intelligent people like me could decipher it. I told you earlier that even companies like Traditions Galore have their own brand of systems. My CEO there had a system which I branded as “Three Drawer System”.

Victor mentioned, “Jawahar, can you throw light on this ‘Three Drawer System’ please?”

Jawahar said, “I am coming to that. After getting clearance from finance your proposal goes to CEO. The scrutiny by finance itself is the first step of control on the expenditure proposed by you and wasting a couple of weeks. You have to explain a lot to finance people. Only if you are serious about your plan, you will take pains to convince finance department or else you will give up. So finance tests your patience and your seriousness about your proposal. Then your proposal goes to the CEO. Immediately on receiving the proposal, without even looking at it (forget about reading it), he shoves it into the top drawer of his table. Then as I did in my first encounter, you start reminding him about it. He tells you to meet him and explain the whole thing but for a few weeks or sometimes even for a few months he does not give you any time slot for the meeting. At this stage if you go slow on seeking his appointment, then after a few days he transfers your proposal papers to the second drawer (the middle drawer). Then he waits for you to push him for a meeting with him or convince him to give approval without the meeting. For some reason if you shy away from meeting him or you are incompetent to get his ears and convince him, he transfers your proposal to the third drawer (the bottom most one). In fact, since you have already waited all these days, weeks and months getting nothing, most people may totally give up. However few people still may try hard with him and in such a case the proposal papers may start a reverse journey through the drawers. However if you are not able to achieve this, you papers stay in the third drawer and soon find a way in the waste paper basket or the trash bin.”

Victor was amazed to hear this story, “My god, what an amazing control system! I could have never believed it unless it came from you. So, should I drop the idea of joining them?”

Jawahar said, “Why, are not they offering you 55% more salary; it’s quite high, one cannot ignore it. And what about the lucrative designation and bigger house, car and cabin? If you refuse, your wife and kids will miss all the fun. You already tasted this culture, why not taste the other culture too? Won’t it be fun for you too?”

Victor threw up his hands in desperation, “Jawahar, aren’t you joking? Damn it, I am totally confused.”

For “out of box thinking” articles by Shyam Bhatawdekar, refer: (Out of Box Ideas) http://wow-idea.blogspot.com/

Read other blogs and knols of Shyam Bhatawdekar at: (Home Page for Writings of Shyam Bhatawdekar) http://writings-of-shyam.blogspot.com/

Here is your chance of buying the book "Sensitive Stories of Corporate World (Management Case Studies)"(at price slashed by around 50% till end December 2011):

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For book in print form: http://www.amazon.com/Sensitive-Stories-Corporate-Management-Studies/dp/1456585150/ref=sr_1_1_title_0_main?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324017641&sr=1-1