Attended a seminar on ‘Managing for
Excellence’ conducted under the aegis of Indian Institution of Industrial
Engineering (IIIE) at Ernakulam on Sep 11, 2015 at The Renai. Shri. George
Sleeba, who was the chairman of the Kerala Chapter of IIIE was an active
presence on the venue and made the welcome speech. The national president of
the organization, Shri. Bhaskar M Bhandarkar, delivered the presidential
address. Though rather portly, he had a long service in the Navy and served in
the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka. Dr. J Latha, Vice Chancellor of
the Cochin University of Science & Technology formally inaugurated the
seminar. Dr. M Ayyappan, CMD of HLL Life Care, made a thought-provoking keynote
address. The inaugural session began 15 minutes late at 9.45 am, but came to a
close at 11.45 am.
The inaugural session was followed by
presentations from Shri. C Balagopal, founder managing director of Terumo
Penpol Pvt Ltd, Thiruvananthapuram, said to be the world’s largest producer of
blood bags and other healthcare products. He resigned from IAS after 6 years of
service in 1983 and founded the company which is the first one of its nature in
India. His presentation included stills from the factory floor which appeared
to be of world class. He stressed the need for maintaining a thoroughly clean
atmosphere on the floor. It is strange that most people in the audience,
including me, have not heard of this company before, even though it is said to
be employing about a thousand people.
After a delightful lunch, the afternoon
session was handled by Shri. Rajesh Arakkal, GM of FCI OEN Connectors, who had
bagged the first prize in the productivity contest conducted by IIIE. A
presentation on the productivity measures implemented in the company was
delivered by three of its officers, in a rather dramatic style. However, the
content was too detailed and text-oriented to be of any use to the delegates. It
is heartening to note that this company too is a renowned one in the
international arena. They make connectors for electronic circuits, which help
to interchange signals from one board to another. Ensuring a trouble free path
for electrical signals is not a mean job and the company has certainly
dedicated considerable resources for achieving this.
The atmosphere was a solemn one, in
which the vice chancellor arrived with the escort of a uniformed security
guard. Though normal for a z- or y-category politician, this looked rather odd
for an academician, who was also a learned professor in civil engineering. The
function began with a 3-minute long theme song of the organization which was rather
modern and somewhat pleasing to hear, but lacked any relevance to the
organization or the function. Why the audience have to stand up while the theme
song is playing is beyond my comprehension! Bhandarkar, the national chairman,
made the point that excellence is not a corollary of knowledge with an example
from the Ramayana. Even though Ravana was a very learned man, we associate
excellence only with Ram. Knowledge has to be dedicated to the service of the
society in order for it to excel. On a lighter note, he sounded like
Thikkurissi, a former actor of Malayalam cinema. Dr. Latha stressed the need to
think differently, in order to excel. She mentioned George Sleeba, who is the
former CMD of FACT, who proposed the idea of gypsum boards in the construction
industry to her way back. Even though construction panels were not in the
direct line of products of FACT, he thought about alternate ways of using a
waste material, which is a sign of excellence. She also warned that different
thinking need not always lead to excellence, citing the example of Lehman
Brothers, the investment bank which failed in 2008 to herald the era of
recession in the US.
Ayyappan reiterated the need for
personal excellence in the pursuit of management excellence. He was very
emphatic on the requirement of good personal relations, even with the company’s
competitors! One should be confident of oneself and impart knowledge to others.
The most relevant message delivered by him was an exhortation to get out of the
comfort zones in the quest to excel. If you are very comfortable with what you
do, chances are that you would stick on to it for an indefinite period of time
without any incentive to improvise. Balagopal’s address was replete with
anecdotes of his company’s build up of strict quality measures. Throughout the
speech, he was praising the Japanese for their strict adherence to quality
procedures like Kaizen. The Japanese brought standardization to absurd levels,
as he mentioned the case of a Japanese consultant. This man observed that four
operators in the company had been doing a procedure in four different ways,
even though they were meticulously following the standard operating procedure. The
Japanese guy was insisting that everyone should do it in the same way and
eventually won his way! This evokes memories of rank automation in a process in
which the Japanese treat the operator as just another cog in the wheel. His
creativity and personality is no bother to them and in all probability, they
would fail to appreciate the message of Charlie Chaplin’s famous movie ‘Modern Times’. As long as the operators
were following the SOP, what role this Japanese automaton has, to change their
working chores? Frequent references to terms like Kaizen and Gamba were rather
pompous. The Japanese don’t value individuality and they are also said to be
very weak in conveying bad news.
Balagopal was in fact, enthusiastic
about the labour situation in Kerala, comparing the ethos of the workforce to
that of Americans. He casually disregarded interference from labour unions and
mentioned the power scenario in Kerala to be far more advantageous to the
industry than that of Tamil Nadu. This is clearly misleading and perhaps sheds
some light on his political leaning. His proved to be a lone voice in singing
the praise of labour unions in Kerala whereas the entire state is fed up with
the militant and violent trade unionism rampant across Kerala’s industries.
Balagopal’s opinion appeared to be politically correct, but insincere.
Most of the delegates were very young,
having at the most 5 – 10 years of post-qualification experience. Among them, I
felt like sticking out like a sore thumb with the crushing weight of 20 years like
a millstone around my neck! Probably, it is conferences like these that help
you realize that you have aged a lot. At the same time, Balagopal’s enthusiasm
was contagious, even though he was respectfully aged.
