CorporateCoach eNewsletter
Issue No. 38, 8th December 2003
CONTENTS
- Editorial: Where do we go from here?
- Case study: Polyhydron: business ashrama
1. Editorial: Where do we go from here?
 My
friend and past client Jeff Betzoldt was worried about what people would say
at his funeral.
We had rented a house at the Colorado ski resort, Aspen, and were spending
a few days with the rest of Jeff's staff team considering the future of the
company. When we were not mountain biking down black ski slopes, or walking
in the forests, we did some real work like considering our own personal aspirations
as the foundation for a forthcoming management retreat to develop a vision and
mission.
I was reminded of this by Karl George's list in last week's newsletter.
I had asked the team three standard questions: -
- What would you do if you knew you were going to die in six months time?
- What would you do if you received a million dollars?
- What would you like people to say about you at your funeral?
These questions are designed to help you identify what you really wish to do
with your life. Are you in the right profession/employment? Are you devoting
your time to the things that really matter to you?
Jeff had been particularly struck by this last one and kept referring back
to it at further meetings.
Previously Jeff had promoted two managers who, after a period, had asked to
be returned to their original management roles. Rather than being concerned
about the 'failure' of their promotions, Jeff commented on how lucky they were.
"At least they have discovered what they don't want to do."
We sometimes hear people say that you never hear anyone on their deathbed
saying "I wish I had spent more time at the office." Maybe. I am concerned
that people should not say on their deathbed "I wish I had discovered
earlier in my life that I could have had a much more enjoyable/fulfilling/worthwhile
career!"
For me the most difficult question is the first. What would you do if you discovered
that you were going to die in six months? I enjoy what I do, I enjoy the people
I meet. And I think that what I do is both important and fulfilling. So why
would I want to do anything different?
Does that suggest that I have no other aspirations, nothing that I would like
to do, nowhere I would like to go, nothing left to achieve? No. But these things
would be in the context of the rest of my life. Things that I could not only
enjoy in the moment, but enjoy looking back on. What would be the point if all
would be over shortly afterwards?
But then, perhaps in reality I might not go into the office so often, might
get around to going to more concerts or the theatre. There is the purpose of
the question. If you are tempted to set new year resolutions in a few weeks,
make sure that you know what you want to do – and this time, ensure you
achieve it!
Donald Rumsfeld has been criticised for claiming that the problem is that we
don't know what we don't know. He referred to "The unknown unknowns - the
ones we don't know that we don't know." He is quite right that this is
the category that tend to be the difficult ones. This is one of the categories
that we, as outside consultants, focus on with clients – whether it be
in scenario
planning or facilitation.
We experience our own careers through our own experience of our own careers.
How then can we evaluate alternatives that we are unaware of?
We have many readers in India and I am always pleased to hear from them. This
week we publish an article by Dr S G Bapat about a business in India that takes
a different approach. It provides an opportunity to put our own experience into
a different perspective.
USEFUL LINKS:
REMINDER:
Have you tried the Imperial plc managing people in-tray
exercise yet?
Test yourself or your team on its ability to deal with people aspects of line
management.
Participants play the role of Brian Harris, the new office manager in the Manchester
office of Imperial plc. They are confronted with a set of unexpected and complex
people management problems, more information than they can cope with, an impossible
deadline and an unfamiliar political climate. In other words just a normal day.
Introductory price still only £25.00.
2. Case study: Polyhydron: Business Ashrama
Dr S G Bapat
Today, I propose to tell you a story of a business unit which can be described
as symbol of Honesty. YES. I am talking about the company: Polyhydron
located at Hubli near Belgaum in Karnatak State, India,
Mr. Suresh Hundre, CMD, established this unit in 1987 and with two decades
of experience of observing ethical practices developed into “Business
Ashrama” on 4th July 2002. (Samadhi day of Swami Vivekanand). According
to Mr. Suresh Hundre: “It is a place for grooming karmayogies based on
an experiment of integrating spirituality with business which produces excellent
results.”
If you read the vision statement of Polyhydron it says: “We will create
an island of excellence through focus on customer, employee-empowerment and
continuous improvement.” I am sure, you must be feeling - “words,
words and words.” Let me explain to you that Mr. Hundre and his colleagues
follow not only in words but also in spirit their mission statement which reads
as “Polyhydron will nurture an ethically managed organisation. We will
not exploit our customers, suppliers, government,
society and nature” Frankly, as a teacher of management, I have yet to
find a more comprehensive mission statement than this one.
If you visit the Ashrama, you will experience the spiritual ambience – dhyan
mandir for meditation, water ponds, fish, royal swans and a lot of greenery.
Polyhydron is in the manufacturing of mobile hydraulic press, way back from
1987-88. Till then the equipment was imported from USA. Obviously from India’s
point of view, precious foreign exchange has been saved by the Unit.
It conducts usual business activities like manufacturing, marketing, finance,
HR etc. but in a unique way. For example; in manufacturing, there is such an
open-ness that a worker on the shop-floor can reject the material and - believe
me - he is the final authority. As regards marketing no attractive concessions
or discounts are offered to the customers. At this stage, some figures will
make my point clear. For example; in 1995-96, the company turnover touched Rs.5.75
crores without offering any discounts and company proudly paid corporate tax
to the tune of Rs.1.5 crores. Incidentally, Mr Hundre does not welcome any consultant
in his office who may like to offer advice on how to reduce the tax burden!
You will be surprised that the company’s starting point of planning is
: How can we pay more tax to the Government in the current year as compared
to previous year! To Mr. Suresh Hundre, this is “continuous improvement.”
I remember having read an article in the Harvard
Business Review entitled: “If honesty does not pay, why be honest
in business” (It is a well-intentioned survey based article.) However
in the words of Mr. Hundre, “Honesty is not the best policy. It is the
only policy. We are honest, we are transparent and we do not pay any bribe.”
Management of the unit is simple. It is based on “trust”. Mr. Suresh
Hundre’s Polyhydron is a temple of ethics in an engineering industry.
Ms. Sushama Nirgundkar who wrote an article in the Times of
India, mentions “Mr. Hundre’s role models are Mahatma Gandhi,
Kiran Bedi, Ratan Tata and Narayan Murthy “
It is admirable that in this unit, there are only two layers (in other words
there are no supervisory staff). The atmosphere is of mutual trust. Everybody
in the organisation knows the figures of net profit, material cost, labour cost,
tax paid to the government., excise paid, payments made to the suppliers etc.
Even outsiders like government officials and customers have access to this information.
Anybody in the organisation can challenge any voucher! There are no “debtors’
no “creditors”. Obviously there are no bad or doubtful debts. Suppliers
are paid the moment the material is accepted and customers pay immediately on
delivery.
Employee empowermnent
All the employees are expected to be honest. They will follow ethical practices.
I can give one example here. A few years back, the company was to buy a few
computers. The company paid heavily for software and hardware for the computer
network, buying from the original manufacturers, when pirated versions were
cheaply available in the open market. The price paid was working out to be double.
The company decided to buy half the number of computers and employees agreed
to work in turns and by rotation – even night shift for some might be
thought to be OK. A small incident but noteworthy.
Mr. Suresh Hundre believes in setting a personal example. He does participate
in social activities but it will be after 5 p.m. If he is taking Off, his casual
leave application will be on the notice-board. I was surprised that in one seminar
in Pune on “Value based Management”, he was a faculty, but he was
on “leave” and was not on duty. Forget about charging TA DA for
the company!
Anybody would like that all the world over such units be multiplied. There
are quite a few people in the world who still believe that ‘Good Ethics
is Good Business’. I talked to Mr. Suresh Hundre, CMD. Here is a brief
of the interview:
Question: Do you feel that most of the employees have understood the
concept of employee empowerment?
Suresh: Yes. Most of the employees have understood the concept of Business
Ashrama and they are fully empowered. In fact, a senior faculty member from
Karnatak University’s Management Institute is writing Ph.D. thesis on
Empowerment at Polyhydron.
Question : Mr. Hundre, you may be knowing that Mahatma Gandhi suggested
“trusteeship formula” for distributing the gains as 25% to owners
and shareholders, 25% for additional repayment of loan and interest, 25% to
be divided equally amongst the employees and 25% is to be used for “expansion
of the business in future”. Do you agree with this formula or you have
developed your own.
Suresh: Dr. Bapat, we have our own formula. We first calculate the
wealth created and then we share 30% with employees, 5% with shareholders, 1%
with society and balance 64% remains in the business for growth. (Of course,
this is all after the payment of corporate tax as per existing rules)
Question: Do you feel that almost any business anywhere in the world
can be conducted on the lines of Business Ashrama?
Suresh: My personal feeling is, that, any business can be converted
into an Ashrama provided the head of the organisation is fully convinced about
the concept and he has very strong desire to convert the business into Ashram
and enjoy the benefits.
When various countries are facing the problems of corporate frauds and mismanagement
on very large scale, this is a shining example of “Value-based Management”.
In view of this, one can look forward to India’s contribution not only
in the field of software management but also in spiritual management.
Author: Dr.S.G.Bapat, Management Consultant, can be contacted by e-mail: sg_bapat@indiainfo.com
USEFUL LINKS:
SUGGESTIONS PLEASE: Comments invited on our core
books recommendations
Our books section
includes a list of core recommendations. This list of management
books is our recommendation for the basis of any management or business library.
They are among our favourite books but, more importantly, they cover the range
of fundamental knowledge required in management. There are twelve books included,
and we would like to keep the list short and powerful.
What are your suggestions? Would you add any or exchange any? Please let us
know.
Here is the list as it stands today: -
We aim to make the Brefi Group web site the premier developmental site for
teams and individuals in organisations, so do please send us your suggestions
and requests for further development. And let us know what you think of this newsletter,
and comment on the content.
THIS IS A FREE PUBLICATION! Please SHARE it willingly with a friend or colleague
who could benefit from knowing more about corporate coaching.
Copyright © 2003 all rights reserved.
To SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE to this Newsletter: /newsletter.html
To unsubscribe, go to the address above and enter your e-mail address. If
you use more than one e-mail address, be sure to enter the same one that you
used when you subscribed. If you want to change your e-mail address, then
subscribe with the new address and unsubscribe with the old one.
Brefi Group is a change management organisation that provides corporate coaching,
consultancy, facilitation and training. Be sure to visit the Brefi Group web
site at http://www.brefigroup.co.uk
We hope you enjoyed this issue of CorporateCoach. If you would like
to learn more about how we can work together, then please contact me, Richard
Winfield:
Telephone: 08450 678 222, or +44 (0)121 704 2006 (international)
E-mail: rwinfield@brefigroup.co.uk
|
