Seminar on Managing for Excellence

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.