Reschedule Your Wedding Date

Niranjan, the number two in the department was jubilant today after a long time.

He was almost 35 and practically gave up the thought of ever finding a suitable match in marriage. Despite working hard to get married, he was a failure and ultimately, decided to live and die a bachelor.

It was sheer stroke of luck that finally some girl found him suitable for a husband and this morning he got such a note of confirmation from her. His joys knew no bounds. He distributed sweets to all and sundry, including his departmental head Swamy.

Swamy used to report to a person nicknamed "Terror", the real name Tara Singh. Tara Singh "Terror" was a senior manager in the management setup and was the boss of several departments of the organization including that of Swamy's. He was from the old school of "X theory of management". He believed that if he started the day by shouting at around 10% of the people reporting to him, all the other people in all the departments also got the right message and the work in the company went on with smooth efficiency. He could then relax in his cabin and perform some religious prayers in the first one hour of the start of the office. He was quite a religious person and was fond of saying his prayers in the confines of his office. But, all in all, he was a terror to his subordinates because he always communicated with them only by shouting at them from time to time.

Niranjan dismissed all his fears about his boss's boss in the heat of the joy of fixing up of his marriage. While on the other days he would contemplate a hundred times prior to knocking at the door of "Terror's" cabin only to finally walk away from it, today he did no such thing. He straight away entered the den of Tara Singh and gave him the good news. He even told him the date of his wedding and simultaneously invited him and his family to attend the wedding.

Tara Singh, being an X theory manager used to patronize his subordinates at such delicate moments and win their hearts. He congratulated Niranjan sumptuously, offered him a cup of tea and assured him about his presence with his wife at his wedding reception by noting down the date of the wedding in his appointment diary. Thus, the date totally sank in the head of Tara Singh- he had a great memory for such details.

Then, things were forgotten for a while till the day Swamy entered the cabin of "Terror" to beg for his vacation. He spoke up hesitatingly, "Sir, I have some urgent personal work to attend to and will be away for a week in the second week of December. I want your authorization for the vacation".

Tara Singh "Terror" roared, "How can you two senior guys remain absent from the work at the same time? I understand that Niranjan is also planning leave around the same time (He was remembering the wedding date of Niranjan absolutely clearly). You know my policy. At a time, on one single day, only one person can take leave between two of you. Now please don't waste my time. Talk to Niranjan and settle your dates of vacation accordingly." Swamy had no courage to argue with his boss- he was highly scared of him.

Swamy, highly disappointed, walked up to his office and called Niranjan to his cabin. Swamy was pressed with some really urgent personal work around the dates Niranjan was to get married and he wanted to manipulate Niranjan but he won't know how to do it. He was giving it a lot of thought.

In the mean time Niranjan already seated himself in front of Swamy. He asked, "Why have you called me?"

Swamy said, "Niranjan, I have an urgent piece of personal work in the second week of December. You will have to look after the department as usual in my absence." Niranjan reminded Swamy of his impending marriage that was to take place in the second week in December. To which Swamy reminded the policy of "Terror" to Niranjan that both of them just could not go on vacation at the same time.

Then, he seriously proposed to Niranjan this way, "Niranjan, my personal work is like a life and death issue. I have to take the vacation and there is no other alternative but to attend to it in second week of December. You have not distributed your wedding invitation cards as yet. I suggest that you better reschedule your marriage, fix some other date."

Related Books

1. "Sensitive Stories of Corporate World" (available from Amazon, get it online as a paperback or an eBook)

Read many more management anecdotes/management case studies in the eminent author Shyam Bhatawdekar's best selling book "Sensitive Stories of Corporate World" available online from Amazon as an eBook as well as a printed book.

2. "Sensitive Stories of Corporate World (Volume 2)" (available from Amazon, get it online as a paperback or an eBook)

Read many more management anecdotes/management case studies in the eminent author Shyam Bhatawdekar's best selling book "Sensitive Stories of Corporate World (Volume 2)" available online from Amazon as an eBook as well as a printed book.

Other Related Reading

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 of Shyam Bhatawdekar at: (Home Page for Writings of Shyam Bhatawdekar) http://writings-of-shyam.blogspot.com

How Can An Airline Goof So Much?

It's no fib; this is a true story but unbelievable.

I was flying from Kolkata to Delhi. The aircraft took off and was well high up in the sky. The "fasten your seat belt" sign was switched off by the pilot and initial discipline that is usually imposed on the travelers during the take off activity, was lifted. The passengers started adjusting themselves in a more relaxed environment now. Some pushed back their seats, others started pulling out the in-flight magazines from the front pockets and still others started dozing off and so on. Usually, I do no such things in the aircraft; I am on guard normally to notice any abnormalities that might be taking place in the cabin. In a way, I am a bit of an observant.

In this process of my observations, I found that all of a sudden a passenger sitting around three rows ahead of me got up from his seat a bit over-excitedly. He appeared very nervous. Clumsily he opened the overhead baggage locker and started pulling out his luggage. And with the other hand he was making a gesture to the air hostess to stop the aircraft with a half shout. The words were not coming out from his mouth because of his nervousness. He was finding it hard to speak out.

Then, I became more keen to find out as to what was to happen next. The person sitting next to this gentleman asked, "What's the matter? Why are you taking out your luggage and what is it that you are requesting the air hostess to stop the aircraft in mid air?"

The nervous gentleman told, "When I asked you as to when will this aircraft reach Mumbai, you told me that this aircraft is going to Delhi and not Mumbai. Then I realized that I had boarded a wrong aircraft. I have the ticket with me to go to Mumbai and I have to go to Mumbai and not Delhi. I am obviously in the wrong aircraft."

His neighbor then called the air hostess and asked for a drink of water for the other person to calm him down. The air hostess- quite a young lady, in the mean time, had heard the half cry of the person to stop the aircraft in mid air. Now that she knew the whole matter, she just couldn't control and burst out into a giggle. That made our nervous gentleman more nervous and he asked her to summon the chief stewardess. The young air hostess briefed the chief stewardess before she came for the rescue.

She assured, "There is no problem. There is a connecting flight from Delhi to Mumbai and as soon as we land in Delhi, we will put you into the Mumbai bound aircraft at no extra cost. Just relax and don't worry at all." She offered him another glass of water.

Till date I am not able to imagine and understand as to how that miracle took place. Despite so many checks and scrutinies at different stages of ticket checking-in, security checks and boarding check-ups, how could the passenger board a wrong aircraft and also found out an empty seat in the aircraft as if it was meant for him.

Be careful in your future travel expeditions. Don't entirely depend on the airlines' check-in processes. Keep your senses open to board the correct flight.

Related Books

1. "Sensitive Stories of Corporate World" (available from Amazon, get it online as a paperback or an eBook)

Read many more management anecdotes/management case studies in the eminent author Shyam Bhatawdekar's best selling book "Sensitive Stories of Corporate World" available online from Amazon as an eBook as well as a printed book.

2. "Sensitive Stories of Corporate World (Volume 2)" (available from Amazon, get it online as a paperback or an eBook)

Read many more management anecdotes/management case studies in the eminent author Shyam Bhatawdekar's best selling book "Sensitive Stories of Corporate World (Volume 2)" available online from Amazon as an eBook as well as a printed book.

Other Related Reading

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 of Shyam Bhatawdekar at: (Home Page for Writings of Shyam Bhatawdekar) http://writings-of-shyam.blogspot.com

They Can Behave Like Kids

There is a child in every grown-up. And therefore, grown-ups can behave like kids when it suits them.

It's no different with very senior managers in the corporate world. They too can and do act like kids.

This story is about the two such grown-up and very senior managers of a large corporation; both vying for the top slot in the yet to be commissioned new manufacturing facility. For its own reasons, the company had appointed two top managers; one project manager to commission the project and the other, a manufacturing manager to set up the systems and then to run the facility on a regular basis (perhaps with the idea that the project manager would shift to another expansion site after commissioning this one, though it was not made very clear by the corporate office). The project completion time was estimated at around two years. The story relates to the early days of the project.

The reporting relationship was quite hazy and both these managers reported in parallel to the chief boss in the corporate office. Corporate office was situated geographically in a far away distant city from the one where the new manufacturing unit was being set up. Therefore, on a day-to-day basis, the project manager and manufacturing manager would run the local setup as they pleased. Both were very overzealous to prove their superiority in the organization's hierarchy in their own ways.

Slowly, they built up their own followers in the organization to show their power position. These two managers would try to avoid each other as much as possible. They would communicate through their respective subordinates most of the time.

The manufacturing manager had a habit of reaching the factory site earlier than the project manager. He would then park his car in the first slot of parking and that happened to be right in front of the project manager's cabin. The project manager did not like it at all. As per his thinking, he was number one in the organization and the number one parking slot where the manufacturing manager was in habit of parking the car was supposed to be his parking slot. On top of it, it was also right in front of his cabin and had more parking space. And with these sets of logic, he should be parking his car there and the manufacturing manager should park his car in other parking slots.

On the other hand, as per manufacturing manager's thinking, he was number one in the organization and he had a right over the parking slot number one. Parking slot number one was bigger in space and it being number one parking slot, had to go to the person who was number one in the organization.

It is to be noted that the parking slots were not allotted to any one specifically till then.

Both used to discuss these things with their respective subordinates and the subordinates of one camp used to discuss with the subordinates of the other camp. In a way, both the managers and both the camps knew all.

Yet, the stalemate continued. The manufacturing manager would reach the factory earlier than the project manager and park his car in the parking slot which the project manager thought belonged to him rightfully.

So finally, project manager being in-charge of everything that goes with the project construction and commissioning, asked his subordinates to formally allot the parking slots by painting the name and designation of the people on the floor space of each parking slot. On parking slot number one which was also in front of his office, he got his name and designation painted on its floor space. Parking slot number two was allotted to the manufacturing manager. The gossip about this allotment reached the ears of the manufacturing manager too.

The next morning he drove to the factory an hour before his usual time and deliberately parked his car in parking slot number one. He was in no mood to be dictated by the project manager. He went first to the factory and he was number one and he had all the rights to park his car in the bigger parking slot number one. The project manager also started from his home earlier than the normal time to press his claim on the parking slot number one which was now legitimately allotted to him. But he was shocked to find that manufacturing manager had already reached the factory site and had parked his car disregarding the official allotment.

He was furious. He went to his cabin and ordered his administrative manager to puncture the tyres of the the manufacturing manager's car. He instructed him to do it secretly so that nobody would know about it.

Then everyone at the factory site was busy throughout the day. As usual, the entire staff went home by the buses at the close of the working hours in the evening. Only project manager and his administrative manager were waiting in the cabin and watching the parking slots. As soon as the manufacturing manager walked towards his car and started inspecting the flat tyres, the project manager along with his administrative manager walked past him, got into the car, looked meaningfully in the eyes of the manufacturing manager and drove away.

The manufacturing manager was left alone in the evening at the factory site inspecting his car's flat tyres.

Related Books

1. "Sensitive Stories of Corporate World" (available from Amazon, get it online as a paperback or an eBook)

Read many more management anecdotes/management case studies in the eminent author Shyam Bhatawdekar's best selling book "Sensitive Stories of Corporate World" available online from Amazon as an eBook as well as a printed book.

2. "Sensitive Stories of Corporate World (Volume 2)" (available from Amazon, get it online as a paperback or an eBook)

Read many more management anecdotes/management case studies in the eminent author Shyam Bhatawdekar's best selling book "Sensitive Stories of Corporate World (Volume 2)" available online from Amazon as an eBook as well as a printed book.

Other Related Reading

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 of Shyam Bhatawdekar at: (Home Page for Writings of Shyam Bhatawdekar) http://writings-of-shyam.blogspot.com

Boss Saved His Job

It is a well known fact that there is power politics in most of the companies at higher levels of management. The companies may appear to be run well or not so well to the outsiders, but there is always politics inside. It wasn't any different in one of the largest and reputed companies my friend was working for.

In this company's production facility, the production chief had requisitioned for a large chunk of additional manpower for one of his departments. Production was picking up at a good rate and to meet the targets of production, as per him, he needed to position all of the requisitioned manpower immediately. He mentioned that he was already a bit too late in getting the manpower. He wanted the sanction of the manpower almost on yesterday basis.

The system of authorizing extra manpower stipulated that it be studied by company's industrial engineering department. Industrial engineering department would make a detailed study on the need for additional manpower and estimate the required number of extra men over a time line.

My friend was in-charge of industrial engineering department and he used to report to the chief of staff departments of the company. His boss was at a senior management level. His boss's hierarchical level and the level of the chief of production were the same.

And there was always a constant power struggle between the two chiefs. It was fairly well known to almost everyone in the company; even the bosses in the corporate office knew it. Sometimes the corporate bosses would use it as leverage to meet their objectives- the notorious divide and rule policy.

My friend is a thorough professional and very competent. He did a good job of studying the manpower additionally requested by the chief of production. However, as per his estimate, the number of men required immediately would be significantly less than what was projected by the chief of production for immediate placement.

Accordingly, a quick report was made by my friend with minimum paper work justifying the number of extra men estimated by him though they were much less than what were asked for. He handed it to his boss who in turn, sent a copy of it to the chief of production and a copy to HR department for initiating an immediate recruitment action so that the things were not delayed.

When the report was read by the chief of production, he flared up. He thought, "How can they challenge my figures on manpower? What do they know about production and how to meet the targets?".

He had some score to settle with the chief of staff departments and this was the best time. He rang his corporate boss and told that the chief of staff department was not cooperating with him and despite his best judgment on the number of extra men needed, he was being given just about one third of what he had asked for. He added that he won't be responsible for not meeting the production targets. He also mentioned that he was sick of the incompetency of the staff departments of the company- they sit in cabins and twiddle their thumbs.

Corporate boss was jittery. He had the final responsibility to the board of directors and share holders of the company. He came down rushing to the factory site office. The chief of production almost bulldozed his corporate boss in authorizing a negotiated number of extra men which were pretty close to what he had in mind though not exactly the same number that he had requisitioned. He beamed with satisfaction and urged his boss to do a detailed investigation on the incompetency of the chief of staff departments.

The corporate boss had a long meeting with the chief of staff departments. At the end of all the discussions, the corporate boss was not much satisfied with the number of men that were calculated. He told that knowing the level of production expected, the production department deserved far more men as per his own experience and hunch. He indicated to the chief of staff departments, "The chief of production cannot function and fulfil his commitments in the environment of constant non-cooperation from you. It has been now going on for a long time and every time the corporate office has to intervene to resolve the conflicts."

The hint coming from the super corporate boss was understood by the chief of staff departments and he walked out of the cabin down cast and dejected, almost ready to put in his papers (of resignation).

He slowly walked up to my friend's cabin and told about how the corporate boss had authorized far more manpower than my friend had estimated. He said, "You seem to have made some mistake. Can I see your detailed calculations?"

My friend handed him the file where he had made detailed calculation and he also gave him a two page "aide-memoire" prepared by him. My friend was always in a habit of preparing such "aide-memoires" particularly when he smelt rat. The chief of staff departments went through them and as he finished reading the stuff, there was a broad smile and satisfaction on his face.

My friend had written as part of his aide-memoire, "..........while the chief of production has asked for a particular number of men to be added immediately and he thinks that with that manpower he will be able to sail through for next three years, perhaps he is wrong. He does not require that kind of high numbers now immediately for this year's marginally more production but his requirement of extra manpower will go up somewhat in the second year and then rise very steeply in the third year since the production rate would get steeply accelerated around that time. For now, we will immediately release the manpower that would be required to tide over the immediate need as it is an urgency and I realize it and then, I would work out the requirement of extra manpower for the year two and year three in close synchronization of the production figures of those years, giving sufficient allowance for the recruitment and training lead times. My guess, after doing the first rough cut calculation, is that we may have to give to the chief of production far higher number of men than what he actually asked for. And we will definitely do so. He seems to have missed out something some where, looks like ..........."

My friend's boss rushed to the corporate boss's cabin clutching in his one hand the "aide-
memoire" and in the other his resignation papers. My friend's boss and the corporate boss remained together in the cabin for some fifteen minutes. While corporate boss was shredding the resignation letter, my friend's boss walked out of his cabin with a grinning face.

Related Books

1. "Sensitive Stories of Corporate World" (available from Amazon, get it online as a paperback or an eBook)

Read many more management anecdotes/management case studies in the eminent author Shyam Bhatawdekar's best selling book "Sensitive Stories of Corporate World" available online from Amazon as an eBook as well as a printed book.

2. "Sensitive Stories of Corporate World (Volume 2)" (available from Amazon, get it online as a paperback or an eBook)

Read many more management anecdotes/management case studies in the eminent author Shyam Bhatawdekar's best selling book "Sensitive Stories of Corporate World (Volume 2)" available online from Amazon as an eBook as well as a printed book.

Other Related Reading

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 of Shyam Bhatawdekar at: (Home Page for Writings of Shyam Bhatawdekar) http://writings-of-shyam.blogspot.com

Incompetent Engineers

That was my first job after graduating in mechanical engineering.

It was a medium sized company with its factory producing high precision engineering parts on order. Company was closely held private company run by a family. Managing director of the firm was an engineer with long experience. His wife was the other director. She wasn't an engineer. She was an English language professor in a local college.

They had also appointed their nephew Vijay in the firm. He was in charge of production.

The company had bagged a prestigious and large order for manufacture of a high precision part from one of the important clients. Every time, after the batch of these was manufactured and dispatched to the client company, they used to send it back by stamping on them, "Rejected". Vijay was trying his best to manufacture the parts within the precise minute tolerances prescribed on the drawings of the part but for some reason or the other, the demanded standards could not be met.

The company could not bill on the client for this order for a good number of days and it was a drain on company's finances. The managing director was worried and more worried was his wife who used to take enormous interest in the company's affairs and also used to interfere in all the matters, even the technical matters a lot.

In a meeting when this problem of repeated rejection was being discussed, she asked Vijay, "Why Vijay, what is the problem; why our parts are being rejected?". Vijay said, "These are very precise parts." Then he further added in layman's language, knowing that his aunt did not comprehend the engineering technical terms, "And the client has specified very small tolerances on certain dimensions of the part and that's what we are not able to get correctly".

She almost shouted at him in an accusing tone, "You engineers here are all incompetent. When you can't produce the parts with such small tolerances, I don't know how are you going to produce the parts with large tolerances when we get orders for them in future. I don't know how this company is ever going to do well despite all of you bright engineers being around".

Related Books

1. "Sensitive Stories of Corporate World" (available from Amazon, get it online as a paperback or an eBook)

Read many more management anecdotes/management case studies in the eminent author Shyam Bhatawdekar's best selling book "Sensitive Stories of Corporate World" available online from Amazon as an eBook as well as a printed book.

2. "Sensitive Stories of Corporate World (Volume 2)" (available from Amazon, get it online as a paperback or an eBook)

Read many more management anecdotes/management case studies in the eminent author Shyam Bhatawdekar's best selling book "Sensitive Stories of Corporate World (Volume 2)" available online from Amazon as an eBook as well as a printed book.

Other Related Reading

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 of Shyam Bhatawdekar at: (Home Page for Writings of Shyam Bhatawdekar) http://writings-of-shyam.blogspot.com