Dear Friends ,
It felt good to read Jairam's observations re the book
Item# 5 needs correction :
I was never a DIRECTOR in L&T and the incidence did not
relate to my son !
Warm Regards,
Hemen Parekh
(M)=91 – 98,67,55,08,08
From: Gurudatt
Kundapurkar [mailto:kundapurkar@yahoo.com]
Sent: Sunday, September 04, 2016 8:40 AM
To: Jairam K. Khambadkone
Cc: Hemen Parekh; John Monteiro; Haridas Shenoy; KR Iyer; Larry Neeff - L&T; Jayant Jeste; Girish Handigol
Subject: Re: Feedback On L & T Book:
Sent: Sunday, September 04, 2016 8:40 AM
To: Jairam K. Khambadkone
Cc: Hemen Parekh; John Monteiro; Haridas Shenoy; KR Iyer; Larry Neeff - L&T; Jayant Jeste; Girish Handigol
Subject: Re: Feedback On L & T Book:
Dear Jairam
My reverential bow to you on
many counts :
_/ your sincere and prompt
response to my request
_/ your objective and critical
appreciation of the contents of the book, including what ought to have been
included
_/ your own precise memories
associated with L&T
_/ your specific
suggestions as value addition to any future edition of L&Tites' memoirs.
How I wish more such erudite
feedback is received also from other veterans like you, among the readers of
this unique book.
I am taking the liberty of
cc'ing this stream of emails to significant others who contributed in bringing
out one of its kind memoirs. Let me, here and now, profusely thank you, on
behalf of all of them, for your time, observations and suggestions, that too in
record time.
Warm regards and best wishes
to you and your dear ones = Gurudatt
On Sunday, September 4, 2016 6:01
AM, Jairam K. Khambadkone <jk.khambadkone@yahoo.com>
wrote:
Dear
Gurudatt,
I just completed reading the book on 03.09.2016 at about 5.00 pm. My heartiest congratulations to you and your team for compiling all these remembrances from various employees, in spite of all these have occurred over the past 25 to 50+ years.
The best part of the book I liked was about two instances:
- The first one being of your Chairman Holck Larsen travelling in an ambulance from home to Madh Factory on a Sunday, as other vehicles would have taken time to arrive from Versova and a person at that top level never bothered about his position to travel in a rickety ambulance.
- The second one was regarding your initiative of translating the Company's "Vision & Mission Statement" in Sanskrit, that too bearing all costs on your own and reading out the to the top Management in a Conference - Firstly in English para wise and then the translation in Sanskrit in the form of a Shloka, which impressed every one. It is highly creditable for you, that the same was later adopted by the Top Management as "L & T Anthem".
There cannot be any better honour for you than this, especially at the fag end of your career and it can be considered as your Parting Gift to L & T. Well deserved honour Gurudatt. (Gurudatt - I would be keen to listen to the recording of the same if it is available).
Having delved on these two important instances, I will now go to other areas and my observations and comments (which are a bit more in details) are as follows:
1. Overall, the book is well designed in the form of chapters for different Business Areas of Group I to Group III.
2. I have found that most of the instances given are mainly pertaining to inter-personal relations between colleagues, their superiors and how they were bonded with each others and how they have helped each others. Such occurrences are common, when employees work together for a reasonably long period of time in any other Company of repute as well.
At the same time, compared to the size of the Organisation and except for a few instances, there are hardly a few experiences shared in the Manufacturing and other areas, for which a reference is made later.
3. It was nice to read how the Company has helped the employees in cases of emergencies. The experience about Charlie and his health problems was notable and how the employees and Company helped him to get back to normal.
Similarly, giving employment to wives of the employees who lost their lives was also notable.
4. From S. P. Goel's experience, it was nice to read - how the Top Man has never influenced the employees, in employing specific candidates, though referred by him only. It showed that the importance was on "merit" and not necessarily on the referrals. This is really good and may not be necessarily happening in all Organisations.
5. Similar experience was observed when the Director H. C. Parekh's son was employed by the Company and since as per the Company's procedure, H. C. Parekh resigned from the post of Director - since the requirement was that no relative of a Director can be employed by the Company.
6. Another instance was regarding the Corporate Governance. How Holck Larsen sent a cheque of Rs.74000.00 for his car repairs - after he was designated as Chairman Emeritus and not in any Corporate Executive position any more.
7. When I read about the Shortage Meetings ( as mentioned by PRS Pillai, HR Shenoy and Suresh Gandhi) - I remembered my younger days of Crompton Greaves, when we also used to have similar production meetings daily and these points were discussed. I was a part of these meetings regularly, since my career also mostly in PPC and Materials functions. This was during my career in CGL from 1965 to 1983.
8. Girish Trivedi's experience of his shoe sole being left in the Meeting Room during the promotion interview was hilarious.
9. Two instances of handling IR issues would indicate real professionalism in the area ( Holck Larsen meeting workmen and settling bonus issue within 24 hours and avoiding strike arising out of disciplinary action against a Union Leader by A. M. Deshmukh ).
10. Most important areas which are totally missing in this book are as follows:
- L & T being a core manufacturing company, there are no instances of how productivity is improved in certain departments or cost savings done or wastage reduced - resulting in improved bottom lines. There are 2-3 instances which have been written. But I would have expected it to be much more for a core manufacturing company. ( There are only a few instances of Flame Proof Castings development by H. T. Mehta or Team work during a problem on Imported Finzer Machine by Arun Patkar or Manufacturing excellence through Hanover Fair with input by A. Y. Divekar or Import Substitution by Noshir Kapadia etc ).
- There are hardly any experiences shared from Sales and Marketing Teams from any of the Business Groups.
- There are no experiences shared on your Finance or Accounting function, which also happens to be an important area for a Company of this size.
- If some one had shared their experiences about how Government Agencies were handled, it would have added to the knowledge of your junior employees or even outsiders. How the tricky situations like demanding money by Govt/Municipality/Customs/Excise etc are handled would have been of interest.
11. I was totally disappointed mainly on two major areas which are as follows:
- In the recent past say in last 10 to 15 years or so, the perception of public (repeat I am saying only the perception of public) based on News Paper reports or what we read in Economic Times or Business Magazines etc - that such high growth and diversification of the Company is due to drive and efforts of the present CMD, Mr. A. M. Naik ( though few names like Holck Larsen, N. M. Desai, Subramanyan, H. C. Parekh etc have appeared frequently ). It is surprising that not one person has even mentioned the name of A. M. Naik in any of the chapters and how he has handled different situations and it gives an obvious impression that this person is ignored. It is only my observation please and I may be wrong as well.
- Second point is that in the place where the Multi-storied Powai Switchgear Plant was located for years (I used to see every morning and evening when I used to drive via Powai when I was working with J & J, Mulund) has been demolished a few years ago, for the purposes of more lucrative residential apartments. There were no emotions expressed even by a single employee in this book for demolishing the prestigious factory, though Switchgear is the main business unit of L & T. This was highly surprising to me.
12. K. K. Sheth's experience of multiple retirements reminded me of fag end of my career as well in Bangalore. I retired officially in November 2003, when I turned 60. I was asked to continue for 1 more year and retired again in November 2004 and then came back to Mumbai.
During my morning walk on Marine Drive one day, I met our Managing Director and he asked to me to work on Consultancy Basis from Mumbai. This kept on extending with assignments after assignments - Warehouse Outsourcing, SAP Implementation Core Team Member, Cost Reduction for factories etc. I joined again the factory Corporate Office in Dehradun to head Supply Chain Management & Logistics etc and finally retired in April 2011 at the age of 68. Very similar to K. K. Sheth. It was in the form of a nostalgia for me.
13. From the names of your employees, I remember having met Mr. Kanthan or Mr. Ratnam if I mistake not. He used to come to Crompton Greaves for some FHP Motors Inspection for Petrol Pump. Name appears to be familiar."Similarly I knew V. G. Pethe who was in Crompton Greaves for 4-5 years and then joined L & T.
14. Whilst on the subject of L & T, I just remembered my learnings many years ago. I was working with Crompton Greaves and I was sponsored for a 3 Week residential programme on PPC at NITIE, Powai and if I mistake not, it was in 1975 or 1976, when I was just 32 years old. As a part of our training, a factory visit was planned at L & T's Powai Switchgear Plant. There were two very interesting concepts were picked up by me called :
- First was POUS (Point of Usage Store) for which a layout of stores is made in such way that materials required at different stages of assembly line are stored in a smaller store near the point of usage. With this, the movement of materials is minimised. This was not possible to be implemented in our factory since there were space constraints.
- The second was known as Two Bin System especially for C Category Items. Each item of hardware or any other low value and high consumption items, were stored in two different bins - next to each other and the smaller bin was considered as a safety stock. Once an item gets issued from the second smaller bin, a trigger was supposed to go to Purchase Department, who will arrange to replenish the stock by the end of the same day - since all these were considered as off the shelf items in the market or with the dealers. With this, too many checks and cross checks could be eliminated. This was during the time, when there were no Computers and entire system was being operated through Kardex System. This was implemented by me in CGL - with the only difference being that the smaller bin was in the form of a Cloth Bag kept in the same bin of every particular item. This continued till I left CGL in 1983.
Thought of sharing this with you.
With this, I hope you have got the feedback on the Book from me and hope it will be useful to your Core Team of facilitators of this book.
Thanks and regards,
Jairam Khambadkone
Sent from my iPhone
I just completed reading the book on 03.09.2016 at about 5.00 pm. My heartiest congratulations to you and your team for compiling all these remembrances from various employees, in spite of all these have occurred over the past 25 to 50+ years.
The best part of the book I liked was about two instances:
- The first one being of your Chairman Holck Larsen travelling in an ambulance from home to Madh Factory on a Sunday, as other vehicles would have taken time to arrive from Versova and a person at that top level never bothered about his position to travel in a rickety ambulance.
- The second one was regarding your initiative of translating the Company's "Vision & Mission Statement" in Sanskrit, that too bearing all costs on your own and reading out the to the top Management in a Conference - Firstly in English para wise and then the translation in Sanskrit in the form of a Shloka, which impressed every one. It is highly creditable for you, that the same was later adopted by the Top Management as "L & T Anthem".
There cannot be any better honour for you than this, especially at the fag end of your career and it can be considered as your Parting Gift to L & T. Well deserved honour Gurudatt. (Gurudatt - I would be keen to listen to the recording of the same if it is available).
Having delved on these two important instances, I will now go to other areas and my observations and comments (which are a bit more in details) are as follows:
1. Overall, the book is well designed in the form of chapters for different Business Areas of Group I to Group III.
2. I have found that most of the instances given are mainly pertaining to inter-personal relations between colleagues, their superiors and how they were bonded with each others and how they have helped each others. Such occurrences are common, when employees work together for a reasonably long period of time in any other Company of repute as well.
At the same time, compared to the size of the Organisation and except for a few instances, there are hardly a few experiences shared in the Manufacturing and other areas, for which a reference is made later.
3. It was nice to read how the Company has helped the employees in cases of emergencies. The experience about Charlie and his health problems was notable and how the employees and Company helped him to get back to normal.
Similarly, giving employment to wives of the employees who lost their lives was also notable.
4. From S. P. Goel's experience, it was nice to read - how the Top Man has never influenced the employees, in employing specific candidates, though referred by him only. It showed that the importance was on "merit" and not necessarily on the referrals. This is really good and may not be necessarily happening in all Organisations.
5. Similar experience was observed when the Director H. C. Parekh's son was employed by the Company and since as per the Company's procedure, H. C. Parekh resigned from the post of Director - since the requirement was that no relative of a Director can be employed by the Company.
6. Another instance was regarding the Corporate Governance. How Holck Larsen sent a cheque of Rs.74000.00 for his car repairs - after he was designated as Chairman Emeritus and not in any Corporate Executive position any more.
7. When I read about the Shortage Meetings ( as mentioned by PRS Pillai, HR Shenoy and Suresh Gandhi) - I remembered my younger days of Crompton Greaves, when we also used to have similar production meetings daily and these points were discussed. I was a part of these meetings regularly, since my career also mostly in PPC and Materials functions. This was during my career in CGL from 1965 to 1983.
8. Girish Trivedi's experience of his shoe sole being left in the Meeting Room during the promotion interview was hilarious.
9. Two instances of handling IR issues would indicate real professionalism in the area ( Holck Larsen meeting workmen and settling bonus issue within 24 hours and avoiding strike arising out of disciplinary action against a Union Leader by A. M. Deshmukh ).
10. Most important areas which are totally missing in this book are as follows:
- L & T being a core manufacturing company, there are no instances of how productivity is improved in certain departments or cost savings done or wastage reduced - resulting in improved bottom lines. There are 2-3 instances which have been written. But I would have expected it to be much more for a core manufacturing company. ( There are only a few instances of Flame Proof Castings development by H. T. Mehta or Team work during a problem on Imported Finzer Machine by Arun Patkar or Manufacturing excellence through Hanover Fair with input by A. Y. Divekar or Import Substitution by Noshir Kapadia etc ).
- There are hardly any experiences shared from Sales and Marketing Teams from any of the Business Groups.
- There are no experiences shared on your Finance or Accounting function, which also happens to be an important area for a Company of this size.
- If some one had shared their experiences about how Government Agencies were handled, it would have added to the knowledge of your junior employees or even outsiders. How the tricky situations like demanding money by Govt/Municipality/Customs/Excise etc are handled would have been of interest.
11. I was totally disappointed mainly on two major areas which are as follows:
- In the recent past say in last 10 to 15 years or so, the perception of public (repeat I am saying only the perception of public) based on News Paper reports or what we read in Economic Times or Business Magazines etc - that such high growth and diversification of the Company is due to drive and efforts of the present CMD, Mr. A. M. Naik ( though few names like Holck Larsen, N. M. Desai, Subramanyan, H. C. Parekh etc have appeared frequently ). It is surprising that not one person has even mentioned the name of A. M. Naik in any of the chapters and how he has handled different situations and it gives an obvious impression that this person is ignored. It is only my observation please and I may be wrong as well.
- Second point is that in the place where the Multi-storied Powai Switchgear Plant was located for years (I used to see every morning and evening when I used to drive via Powai when I was working with J & J, Mulund) has been demolished a few years ago, for the purposes of more lucrative residential apartments. There were no emotions expressed even by a single employee in this book for demolishing the prestigious factory, though Switchgear is the main business unit of L & T. This was highly surprising to me.
12. K. K. Sheth's experience of multiple retirements reminded me of fag end of my career as well in Bangalore. I retired officially in November 2003, when I turned 60. I was asked to continue for 1 more year and retired again in November 2004 and then came back to Mumbai.
During my morning walk on Marine Drive one day, I met our Managing Director and he asked to me to work on Consultancy Basis from Mumbai. This kept on extending with assignments after assignments - Warehouse Outsourcing, SAP Implementation Core Team Member, Cost Reduction for factories etc. I joined again the factory Corporate Office in Dehradun to head Supply Chain Management & Logistics etc and finally retired in April 2011 at the age of 68. Very similar to K. K. Sheth. It was in the form of a nostalgia for me.
13. From the names of your employees, I remember having met Mr. Kanthan or Mr. Ratnam if I mistake not. He used to come to Crompton Greaves for some FHP Motors Inspection for Petrol Pump. Name appears to be familiar."Similarly I knew V. G. Pethe who was in Crompton Greaves for 4-5 years and then joined L & T.
14. Whilst on the subject of L & T, I just remembered my learnings many years ago. I was working with Crompton Greaves and I was sponsored for a 3 Week residential programme on PPC at NITIE, Powai and if I mistake not, it was in 1975 or 1976, when I was just 32 years old. As a part of our training, a factory visit was planned at L & T's Powai Switchgear Plant. There were two very interesting concepts were picked up by me called :
- First was POUS (Point of Usage Store) for which a layout of stores is made in such way that materials required at different stages of assembly line are stored in a smaller store near the point of usage. With this, the movement of materials is minimised. This was not possible to be implemented in our factory since there were space constraints.
- The second was known as Two Bin System especially for C Category Items. Each item of hardware or any other low value and high consumption items, were stored in two different bins - next to each other and the smaller bin was considered as a safety stock. Once an item gets issued from the second smaller bin, a trigger was supposed to go to Purchase Department, who will arrange to replenish the stock by the end of the same day - since all these were considered as off the shelf items in the market or with the dealers. With this, too many checks and cross checks could be eliminated. This was during the time, when there were no Computers and entire system was being operated through Kardex System. This was implemented by me in CGL - with the only difference being that the smaller bin was in the form of a Cloth Bag kept in the same bin of every particular item. This continued till I left CGL in 1983.
Thought of sharing this with you.
With this, I hope you have got the feedback on the Book from me and hope it will be useful to your Core Team of facilitators of this book.
Thanks and regards,
Jairam Khambadkone
Sent from my iPhone
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