Turnaround Babus

One day when I returned home, I found a piece of paper fixed on my door. I was ready for surprises. But it turned out to be a notice from a post man that he had brought a speed-post and as the door was locked, now I had to collect it from the designated post office within five days. I thanked the postman for his concern; otherwise he could have just returned it back.

When I went to collect the post at my nearby post office, I was asked to collect it from another PO at some distance from the place, and that too before 10 AM.

Two days after, I went there, and found to my surprise that there was a queue of around 7 people waiting to receive their registered/speed posts. The recipient needed to show our picture ID cards in order to receive. The lady at the counter was as expected slow. And then, another woman complained that the postman never made a second round to deliver; he just left the notice when he found the door locked. There I realized the problem: As the government departments are fighting hard to improve profitability, or to become profitable at all, should they do that at the sake of poorer service to the public?

Imagine how many times we shall need to make rounds of post offices just because our main door was closed for the few hours in which the postman came? Or about the person in whose name the letter has come is out of town for some time? Should government departments be making profits? Yes. But should they adopt quick-fixes in order to make profits? Think about the courier guy who will call you up if he doesn't find your house. On the other hand, the post offices don't offer any comparable service. This is true for all government departments trying to turn around. Shouldn't they focus on improving efficiency and making some real changes in their work process and culture? Think about the railways which, in order to become profitable, fixes an extra side berth, reserves large quota for RAC and tatkal, or increases cancellation charges. Why should the railway tickets booked via the internet be costing more than those booked at their counters? I am using my computer, paying via my card, taking print of my ticket on my own printer, and thus saving the railways time, manpower and money. But in return, I am charged more than the guys who make queues at the reservation counters, fill up requisition slips, argue with the booking clerks and fight at their mundane fancies. As one of our professors says: by automating the wrong processes, you will end up doing the wrong things more efficiently!

Customers don’t forgive

I was late and in a hurry. I had to create recovery CDs for my laptop, which I had been procrastinating for a long time. I stepped in the neighbour general store and asked for a blank DVD. “How much is it?” I heard “90”! I asked him to say again. Now he says “only 20”. I took two pieces and went out. But then I came to realise that the first time he had said “19”, but seeing that I couldn’t hear him, he had asked the round figure of 20 the next time. I made a mental note that I would avoid this shop in the future.

One of the ways the market has developed has resulted in un-forgiving customers. Taking a short term approach can be fatal to businesses. The opportunity cost of losing a customer is very much higher than acquiring a new customer from competition. But even then some shoppers do that mistake. And the worst thing is that they are not reading our blogs to realise this :). They will learn it a hard way...

Every man is a story

One of our professors shared his life story with us in bits and pieces. Connecting them gives us a glimpse of ups and downs on the way to a success story called India.

Born in a small town, he went to a school where the medium of instruction was the regional language. Every morning, he walked up to the school carrying two things inviting curiosity of his classmates: his half-pants which had a distinctive flared cuffs/ends and a bag in which he used to carry notebooks in the morning and household items / vegetables on the way back to home…

And then one day he found himself admitted to an English medium school in a city. Life was challenging, as he couldn’t even speak either of Hindi and English! When he had to borrow a pen from a colleague, he used to utter, “Tumhara pen, mujhe pen” :) Finding an interesting ‘item’ in their classroom, the students made him a popular punch bag. Ridicules were naïve; but then they used to call him by a name that was insulting. And he didn’t even understand its meaning! One day when he asked what the word meant, they replied, “You are such a ‘good boy’, so we call you that with love”. The teasing got more innovative day by day. Until one day, when he called it quits: in his own way.

As he was having his lunch, some boys threw dust into it and he couldn’t take it any more… He being physically much stronger beat the blues out of the ‘bad boys’. From that day onwards, whenever someone created troubles for him, he would wait for him outside the campus and make sure to send him off on shoulders rather than on legs. This way, he survived his school days…

Seasons changed, birds reached home, and time flew like clouds. He passed his engineering and joined an automobile company. Then he did his post graduate degree in management and rejoined the industry. By this time he had got to understand a market gap and started his own business by procuring parts and selling them at higher margins. Very quick by any standards, he had all that his parents would wish him to possess. But his punishing work hours and passion for ‘more’ resulted in him having some undesired ailments and one day he vomited blood. Having survived and now convinced by parents to stick to a ‘comfortable’ job, he came to teaching as a profession. At the same time he offered his consulting services to the industry. Today, he also owns a medium scale industry with turnover in crores. And then the next: he has adopted a village near his native place and has set a target to build a school; a hospital and the entire infrastructure that is needed there to make their life comfortable and safe…

Until there is mutual trust, respect and love between elders and the younger generations, our India will remain our India.

The Tata Finance episode

The American financial sector is in the turmoil. From Bear Sterns to developments with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the crisis unfolded and took companies like AIG and Lehman Brothers in the grip. Coveted institutions which took generations to reach the enviable positions were down in some months. It is all in the newspapers these days. Somewhere somehow someone made mistakes which reached the US to these conditions.

Do you think Tatas did a mistake by deciding to set up the Nano plant in West Bengal? Do you hold the CEO of the bankrupt US finance major Lehman Brothers guilty? Did George W. Bush do a mistake by invading Iraq? Any question, that can be answered in ‘yes’ or ‘no’ need not be asked. Bad decisions and mistakes happen; so do frauds. One person’s gain may be the whole system’s loss.

Every event has far reaching repercussions, both positive and negative. The only thing that matters is – how you deal with them and how you let the event affect you. This small case is a very important one, because such cases set examples for years to come.

Frauds happen – deal with them

What does a corporate house do when the managing director of one of its companies commits a fraud? Does it try to put a lid on the affairs or does it make an all out effort to ensure that the stakeholders suffer no losses? When Tata Finance was engulfed in a financial mess, the Tata Group took the latter approach. Before the fraud could be detected by the regulators, it was the Tata Group’s self disclosure that opened the matter up.

Rather than sweep the issue under the carpet, Tatas decided on a two-pronged course of action. First, the interests of the small depositors who had placed their trust in the Tata name had to be protected. Second, an open and objective enquiry would be conducted to bring the culprits to book.

Tata Sons and Tata Industries made available to Tata Finance cash and corporate guarantees amounting to Rs 615 crores. Not many industries would have put hundreds of crores into a company that was sinking and that too without being sure that any of it could be recovered.

Despite the promptness with which the Tatas moved, the public perception of the Group and the Tata brand was affected initially. But it was the right thing to do, and the Tatas did what was required to be done.

Ref.: Tata Review