Inspired by an
article written by Mrs. Sudha Murthy; the original piece attached with at the
end.
Do you know what some people do when
they see so many companies spending millions in the ‘brand building’
advertisements? They just laugh. They laugh because there are companies, though
few, which are able to create such an incredible image for themselves that they
don’t need any
advertisement. Their name is their advertisement.
The mon(K)ey minded
Both at the beginning and at the end,
nothing we do is just for money. If profit-making is the sole interest of
some company, I doubt it is in the wrong business. Then everyone should run F-1
races and every company should own a soccer club. There is something beyond
money. Business is indeed business, but there is no compelling reason to bury
your soul under the carpet (or corporate!). The worst thing about the race is
that it is not a ‘nice’ race, but a ‘mice’ Race, and if you start
comparing yourselves with the other rats who are ‘also running’, you end
up becoming one of them. The message is that making an altogether different
image for your company really counts. And to be 100% sure, that image should be
of a helping ally, not of a raging bully; of a garden, not of a mountain; of a
sea, not of a busy bee; of a home, not of a sulking dome; simply put, of
someone who contributes to the society, not contradicts from the
society.
Can’t say ‘tata’ to
TATA and the infinity approaches Infosys
Some companies like Tata Group
companies and Infosys Technologies have created a niche for themselves in this
regard. The impressions of Tatas have entered our bloods, as we have been ‘born
and brought-up’ looking up to them. Some other Indian companies
also put emphasis on ‘ethics’ and ‘human touch’ and this brand image pays them
in multiple ways. But the hard world of business respects only the profit
generating firms and one shall make a mockery of self, if one talks about ‘creating
value’ and ‘affecting lives’ while the company bleeds financially. I believe
the marriage of ‘a humanitarian face’ and ‘generation of
economic value’ is a block buster
combination in any market on the globe.
Proud to be ‘We the
people’
The attached article will leave your
heart swelling. See, how proud we all Indians become whenever another Indian
does good. I wish more Indian companies can actually do as much to
attain the ranks of Tata and Infosys.
I(a)mpossible?
The article is also a moral booster for
the ladies. No one can stop them, if they choose not to stop. We fall, we get
up; we again fall, we try to get up. Though the world is not as fair as ‘fair
and lovely’, in the marathon of life, endurance, perseverance and attitude
are the things that count. Whatsoever is the extent of globalization,
successful and down-to-earth ‘Indian’ ladies like Mrs. Sudha Murthy will
continue to touch the Indian heart and inspire the Indian minds. There are some
messages which are beyond the bands of noises and beyond the valleys of
silences to be calmed down. I suggest you should take a printout of the
attached document and make all your daughters, sisters or friends go through
and grasp it well.
- Rahul
***
A Humble Story
It was probably the April of 1974. Bangalore was
getting warm and gulmohars were blooming at the IISc campus. I was the only
girl in my postgraduate department and was staying at the ladies’ hostel. Other
girls were pursuing research in different departments of Science.
I was looking forward to going abroad
to complete a doctorate in computer science. I had been offered scholarships
from Universities in the US. I had not thought of taking up a job in India.
One day, while on the way to my hostel
from our lecture-hall complex, I saw an advertisement on the notice board. It
was a standard job-requirement notice from the famous automobile company Telco
(now Tata Motors). It stated that the company required young, bright engineers,
hardworking and with an excellent academic background, etc.
At the bottom was a small line: “Lady
candidates need not apply.”
I read it and was very upset. For the
first time in my life I was up against gender discrimination.
Though I was not keen on taking up the
job, I saw it as a challenge. I had done extremely well in academics,
better than most of my male peers. Little did I know then that in real life
academic excellence is not enough to be successful.
After reading the notice I went fuming
to my room. I decided to inform the topmost person in Telco’s management about
the injustice the company was perpetrating. I got a postcard and started to
write,
but there was a problem: I did not know
who headed Telco.
I thought it must be one of the Tatas.
I knew JRD Tata was the head of the Tata Group; I had seen his pictures in
newspapers (actually, Sumant Moolgaokar was the company’s chairman then). I
took the card, addressed it to JRD and started writing. To this day I remember
clearly what I wrote.
“The great Tatas have always been
pioneers. They are the people who started the basic infrastructure industries
in India, such as iron and steel, chemicals, textiles and locomotives.
They have cared for higher education in India since 1900 and they
were responsible for the establishment of the Indian Institute of Science.
Fortunately, I study there. But I am surprised how a company such as Telco is
discriminating on the basis of gender.”
I posted the letter and forgot about
it. Less than 10 days later, I received a telegram stating that I had to appear
for an interview at Telco’s Pune facility at the company’s expense. I was taken
aback by the telegram. My hostel mate told me I should use the opportunity to
go to Pune free of cost and buy them the famous Pune saris for cheap! I
collected Rs 30 each from everyone who wanted a sari. When I look back, I
Feel like laughing at the reasons for
my going, but back then they seemed good enough to make the trip.
It was my first visit to Pune and I
immediately fell in love with the city. To this day it remains dear to me. I
feel as much at home in Pune as I do in Hubli, my hometown. The place changed
my life in so many ways. As directed, I went to Telco’s Pimpri office for the
interview.
There were six people on the panel and
I realised then that this was serious business.
“This is the girl who wrote to JRD,” I
heard somebody whisper as soon as I entered the room. By then I knew for sure
that I would not get the job. The realisation abolished all fear from my mind,
so I was rather cool while the interview was being conducted.
Even before the interview started, I
reckoned the panel was biased, so I told them, rather impolitely, “I hope this
is only a technical interview.”
They were taken aback by my rudeness,
and even today I am ashamed about my attitude. The panel asked me technical
questions and I answered all of them.
Then an elderly gentleman with an
affectionate voice told me, “Do you know why we said lady candidates need not
apply? The reason is that we have never employed any ladies on the shop floor.
This is not a co-ed college; this is a factory. When it comes to academics, you
are a first ranker throughout. We appreciate that, but people like you should
work in research laboratories.”
I was a young girl from small-town
Hubli. My world had been a limited place. I did not know the ways of large
corporate houses and their difficulties, so I answered, “But you must start
somewhere, otherwise no woman will ever be able to work in your factories.”
Finally, after a long interview, I was
told I had been successful. So this was what the future had in store for me.
Never had I thought I would take up a job in Pune. I met a shy young man from
Karnataka there, we became good friends and we got married.
It was only after joining Telco that I
realized who JRD was: the uncrowned king of Indian industry. Now I was scared,
but I did not get to meet him till I was transferred to Bombay. One day I
had to show some reports to Mr Moolgaokar, our chairman, who we all knew as SM.
I was in his office on the first floor of Bombay House (the Tata headquarters)
when, suddenly JRD walked in. That was the first time I saw “appro JRD”. Appro
means “our” in Gujarati. This was the affectionate term by which people at
Bombay House called him.
I was feeling very nervous, remembering
my postcard episode. SM introduced me nicely, “Jeh (that’s what his close
associates called him), this young woman is an engineer and that too a
postgraduate.
She is the first woman to work on the
Telco shop floor.” JRD looked at me. I was praying he would not ask me any
questions about my interview (or the postcard that preceded it). Thankfully, he
didn’t. Instead, he remarked. “It is nice that girls are getting into
engineering in our country. By the way, what is your name?”
“When I joined Telco I was Sudha
Kulkarni, Sir,” I replied. “Now I am Sudha Murthy.” He smiled and kindly smile
and started a discussion with SM. As for me, I almost ran out of the room.
After that I used to see JRD on and
off. He was the Tata Group chairman and I was merely an engineer. There was
nothing that we had in common. I was in awe of him.
One day I was waiting for Murthy, my
husband, to pick me up after office hours. To my surprise I saw JRD standing
next to me. I did not know how to react. Yet again I started worrying about
that postcard. Looking back, I realise JRD had forgotten about it. It must have
been a small incident for him, but not so for me.
“Young lady, why are you here?” he
asked. “Office time is over.”
I said, “Sir, I’m waiting for my
husband to come and pick me up.”
JRD said, “It is getting dark and
there’s no one in the corridor. I’ll wait with you till your husband comes.”
I was quite used to waiting for Murthy,
but having JRD waiting alongside made me extremely uncomfortable.
I was nervous. Out of the corner of my
eye I looked at him. He wore a simple white pant and shirt. He was old, yet his
face was glowing. There wasn’t any air of superiority about him. I was
thinking, “Look at this person. He is a chairman, a well-respected man in our
country and he is waiting for the sake of an ordinary employee.”
Then I saw Murthy and I rushed out. JRD
called and said, “Young lady, tell your husband never to make his wife wait
again.”
In 1982 I had to resign from my job at
Telco. I was reluctant to go, but I really did not have a choice. I was coming
down the steps of Bombay House after wrapping up my final settlement when I saw
JRD coming up. He was absorbed in thought. I wanted to say goodbye to him, so I
stopped. He saw me and paused.
Gently, he said, “So what are you
doing, Mrs Kulkarni?” (That was the way he always addressed me.) “Sir, I am
leaving Telco.”
“Where are you going?” he asked. “Pune,
Sir. My husband is starting a company called Infosys and I’m shifting to Pune.”
“Oh! And what will you do when you are
successful.”
“Sir, I don’t know whether we will be
successful.” “Never start with diffidence,” he advised me. “Always start with
confidence. When you are successful you must give back to society. Society
gives us so much; we must reciprocate. I wish you all the best.”
Then JRD continued walking up the
stairs. I stood there for what seemed like a millennium. That was the last time
I saw him alive. Many years later I met Ratan Tata in the same Bombay House,
occupying the chair JRD once did. I told him of my many sweet memories of
working with Telco. Later, he wrote to me, “It was nice hearing about Jeh from
you. The sad part is that he’s not alive to see you today.”
I consider JRD a great man because,
despite being an extremely busy person, he valued one postcard written
by a young girl seeking justice. He must have received thousands of letters
everyday. He could have thrown mine away, but he didn’t do that. He respected
the intentions of that unknown girl, who had neither influence nor money, and
gave her an opportunity in his company. He did not merely give her a job;
he changed her life and mindset forever.
Close to 50 per cent of the students in
today’s engineering colleges are girls. And there are women on the shop floor
in many industry segments. I see these changes and I think of JRD. If at all
time stops and asks me what I want from life, I would say I wish JRD were alive
today to see how the company we started has grown. He would have enjoyed it
wholeheartedly.
My love and respect for the House of
Tata remains undiminished by the passage of time. I always looked up to JRD. I
saw him as a role model for his simplicity, his generosity, his kindness and
the care he took of
his employees. Those blue eyes always
reminded me of the sky; they had the same vastness and magnificence.
*(Sudha Murthy is a widely published
writer and chairperson of the Infosys Foundation involved in a number of social
development initiatives. Infosys chairman Narayan Murthy is her husband.) *
Article sourced from: Lasting Legacies
(Tata Review- Special Commemorative Issue 2004), brought out by the house of
Tatas to commemorate the 100th birth anniversary of JRD Tata on July 29, 2004.
