Evening Interaction with a Chairman from Hotel Industry

The monthly meeting of NIPM for the month of August was held in Hotel Ramanashree. Richmond Circle, Bangalore and the speaker was the Chairman of the Ramanashree group of hotels, Mr Shadakshari. In a way it was an interesting proposition as it is not often that we get to listen to leaders from the hotel industry.The challenges and priorities of the said industry could be totally different from that of manufacturing or for that matter, IT. Even as he started out, the speaker made it clear that all that he would be doing is share experiences from his life. "Do not expect theories from my talk, that is something you are already familiar with, being professionals in the industry". 

The first Ramanashree hotel was started on 28th January 1991 and presently there are four hotels in the Group. Mr Shadakshari stated that one thing that came out clearly from his experience was that it is not easy to predict human nature.As for example you cannot predict that a person from a poor economic background is likely to be dishonest or that a more educated person is likely to be honest.He shared real life experiences to drive home the point.

About a decade back, an employee, let's call him Ram,working as a house keeper in the Group's Mysore Road hotel, requested for a loan of Rs 25000/to meet expenses of his mother's treatment.The company policy at that time did not allow it. The employee was earning only Rs 3500/ per month.The amount requested was too many times more than his earnings.After deliberations, he was offered Rs 10000/ which he refused.

A week later there was a call from the GM of the hotel. He informed Mr Shadakshari that a guest who was a foreigner had left his wallet containing over a Lakh of Rupees, passport and other important documents in the hotel room and forgotten to take them while checking out. Ram had  promptly deposited everything to the hotel authorities for returning to the customer.The customer was overjoyed and wanted to reward Ram with Rs 25000/ but he was refusing to accept it. Based on the discussions over the phone, initially Ram was advised to accept the money as it was given willingly from a place of gratitude, straight from the heart. But Ram was clear in his mind- "No one can purchase my honesty" he said. "If it was for money, I could have kept the entire one lakh of rupees..". The GM advised the customer to give the amount to Ram as a loan which was not acceptable to him. Finally, the customer was convinced to give the amount as a loan to Ram.This time the offer was accepted and the loan repaid with interest.

Now, the other incident when the son of a manager working in Bangalore was diagnosed with a hole in his heart.The child underwent an operation at Jayadeva institute of cardiovascular sciences and research, a reputed Government funded hospital in Bangalore.Post operation, the patient was required to take medicines worth Rs 2000/ per month.In this connection a meeting was held to see if any assistance could be given and it was decided to pay the sum of Rs 2000/ additionally to the employee for a period of 18 months to tide over the crisis. Months later, management received a letter informing that the child of the manager had expired a year ago but  he was continuing to draw the additional sum towards treatment. When confronted, the manager admitted that his son had expired but felt that it was okay to to continue to receive the additional sum in view of his loyal service for many years.When he was asked to pay back the excess amount drawn, he resigned from the company.   

 Mr Shadakshari then revealed that he enjoyed visiting and talking to young children in schools. The one question that he regularly asked them was "What do you want to become in life?". At a Government school in Yelahanka, when this question was asked, he got the usual answers that could come from young innocent minds.A boy said he would like to be a 'Bus conductor'- He can travel everyday to the city and have a bag full of money on his shoulders.( He believed that the money is for him to take!). Other responses included wanting to become a police inspector or a cricketer like Sachin Tendulkar. One girl however, said she wanted to become a doctor. When asked "Why?" she replied, "I want to cure cancer. My father a mason, died of cancer last year and recently my mother also died of the same disease and I am now in an orphanage. I don't want any child to be an orphan."

Cut to a few years later in 2011, when the speaker was visiting the Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology, he was in conversation with a lively young woman. After some time she said "Sir, do you remember you visited our school many years ago and asked questions on our dreams in life? Today, I am working here as a research assistant and doing research on breast cancer, something close to my heart."   Mr Shadakshari said that he was stunned and yet happy to hear this. He underscored the importance of dreams and actively pursuing them for success in life.

The speaker also related an incident that had occurred during his visit to JC College of Engineering, Mysore to participate in a three day program on "Software for Success." During the program as is his wont, Mr Shadakshari had mentioned his favourite quote- “Suicide is a permanent solution for a temporary problem. “At the end of the program a girl came up to him and said “Sir, by your talk today you have touched my life in a big way and forever. All through, I have been a rank student, recently I failed in a subject. I was witness to seeing my brother committing suicide; saw his hanging body. I have been so depressed that I had decided to go his way. But today listening to your talk, I have changed my mind and decided to face life squarely. The speaker said that it is moments like these that give a real meaning to one’s life when you are able to make a positive influence on another.

Mr Shadakshari finally shared an anecdote involving our former President and scientist Dr Abdul Kalam. The speaker was present at a function in which Dr Kalam interacted with medical students. We all know that Dr Kalam has adorned many roles including that of a teacher. One  of the students asked a question “Sir, if you were to be reborn, who would you wish to be reborn as? “. The speaker threw the question to us and asked us to speculate as to what could have been the answer of the people’s President. None of us were anywhere near what Dr Kalam had replied to the student. He had said “I would like to be a good human being. If I am a good human being, I will be a good whatever other role.” All our efforts throughout life are for becoming a good human being. 

Continuing on a similar vein, he discussed the conversation between a husband and wife to highlight the importance of appreciation and living life in the present:

Husband:  If I were to die tomorrow what kind of funeral would you arrange for me?

Wife       : Dear, I would arrange for a rosewood coffin, especially designed epitaph, beautiful wreaths and the best preacher to speak about your good qualities...

Husband  : You are prepared to do  all this and spend around Rs 8 lakhs when I am gone. Why not give me a rose bud when I am alive?

The speaker  then turned to the student members in the audience and asked them "On how many occasions or days have you told your mother "Amma today the food was superb? He asked the other  members whether they told their spouses frequently  "I love you dear? " We tend to take those close to us for granted and fail to acknowledge and appreciate their contribution.

In the question and answer session that followed Mr Shadakshari was asked what prompted him to venture in to the business? He replied "I like hotel food but hate paying bills.As the owner I can eat to my heart's content without the problem of bill." Approaching the question more seriously, the speaker said that he was an electrical engineer working for Bajaj Electricals. His  frequent  visits to the Delhi office on Mansingh road,  drew his attention to the building next door that of  The Taj Mansingh Hotel.The seed was put in the mind and heart around that time to be owner of a quality hotel. Later an opportunity came for acquiring a property in Bangalore and start the hotel. It takes about 5 to 6 years to stabilize and earn profits.

To another question as to the challenges of dealing with people with reference to the hotel industry, the speaker said  it was important for you to meet your customers directly. The employees have to be treated as  human beings  with love and respect . They are the ones directly connected to the guests and their approach can be crucial for the success of your organization.

The entire talk of Mr Shadakshari was laced with humour, often leaving the audience in splits and it was a treat to listen to him.  

     

Assertiveness Vs Playing Safe

As children life can be carefree. Even if incidents occur that are seemingly harsh, a child does not recognize it as such and goes about life, accepting it as it comes. It is much later as he or she moves in to adulthood that the problems of taking decisions are encountered. The choice is often between taking unpleasant decisions and closing your eyes to a problem and pretending it does not exist.

The acid test is bound to come your way when you start working in a corporate or for that matter, in  any organization. I started my career as a management trainee in the oldest steel plant in the country located at Bhadravati, a small town 250 Kms from Bangalore.After about six months of general shop floor exposure, we were posted for 'on the job' training. I was posted to labour welfare department to take care of accident compensation and rehabilitation of employees meeting with accidents. The big umbrella of Labour welfare was huge with canteen, company run schools, sports etc also coming under the department.

One of the employees attached to the department was Ramesha ( not his real name ) whose designated job was "Messenger". The job requirement was supposedly  distribution of mail from the department to other departments spread over a few acres and bringing  back the correspondence addressed to our department. However, in real terms he hardly did any work in the public sector scenario, having acquired for himself a reputation of being  a 'Dada' or goon.He was in to politics and was active in the youth Congress.

Few days in to my joining the department, Ramesha came and told me that the 'Yuvaka Sangha', an association of youngsters in the township was organizing Ganesha celebrations in a big way and sought my contribution to the collection fund. He said I should give atleast Rs 500/ (Converted to today's rates) and after some hesitation I agreed. Later when we were having lunch in the canteen I casually mentioned to friends about the Ganesha celebrations. They asked me how much I had given and when I told them the amount committed by me, they laughed and said that I had been taken for a ride. "A contribution of Rs 50/ would have been more than enough. Anyway, he is a toughie and has talked you in to this. Now you have no other go" they said.

I had agreed to give the money and it was my own decision. But listening to the comments of friends, I began to feel uneasy - "What if this person demanded similar amounts on many occasions in the future and see me as a 'soft target' ?". I decided that at the time of giving the money to Ramesha, I would tell him that this was a one off case and that I would not be able to give such sums in future." Although my friends warned me that by doing so, I would be playing with fire, I decided to go ahead with my decision to talk to him. 

However, when I spoke to Ramesha, I realized that I had taken on more than I had bargained for. He threw the currency note at me "Who do you think you are? You think we are beggars? You are living in the executive hostel, isn't it? Let us see... ". For the next two to three weeks, life was kind of a hell as Ramesha would abuse me in the open office in the local language (I was not conversant in Kannada at that point of time). He would say loudly not to me directly but as if to others in general "You know this 'fatty', hardly few months old in the company,  had the insolence to talk to me insultingly. He .........  " I thanked God that I did not understand most of his rant but one thing that was loud and clear was that I was being abused.

When it was about three days to go before the Ganesha evening function, I took courage and approached Ramesha. I told him that that I had no intention of hurting his feelings and that since I had on my own decided to give him the money, I wanted him to have it. He grudgingly accepted the contribution and a day later gave me an invitation to the Ganesh Utsav function.On the card, the name 'Abid Hussain' was written which was struck out and my name written. I took the card and told him that I would certainly participate.

On the evening of the D day, I visited the township to see the stage and surroundings lit up magnificently with very good sound systems.It was impressive considering that this was the year 1982 and we were in a small town of Bhadravati. When Ramesha saw me there was surprise on his face.He clearly had not expected me to come. The programs of the evening were very entertaining and satisfying. The next day when I met Ramesha, I told him that I was impressed with the arrangements and the quality of the program. He was very happy to hear that and his face lit up. After that I did not have any problem with Ramesha throughout my career in the company. It is another matter that a few years later he overreached himself, physically assaulted a manager in the township and had to pay for it with loss of his job. 

There are other instances; but in view of the need to keep the blog crisp, I am restricting the sharing to this experience. Every day, as professionals we face many situations where we have to take decisions and exhibit assertiveness if necessary. But often we are content to compromise, make peace with bullies ( who could be bosses, subordinates, peers, external contacts) and allow them to take advantage. Those who see us as weak, come back again and again to  persuade us to break rules ,make compromises or please them against our interests or interests of the organization. Hence the importance of choosing wisely  between assertiveness and playing safe each time, every time.. ...      
 

Best HR Practices: The 3M Story

Recent times have been a bonanza of sorts as both NIPM and NHRD, professional bodies of HR, in their monthly evening meetings have been arranging talks on “best practices”. The pleasure for me has been twofold in the sense, I not only get to attend and become aware of the best practices but also have the pleasure of writing about them in my blog for the benefit of readers. After the “best practice” stories from Ingersoll and GE, I was eagerly looking forward to listen to the 3M story on 14^th July (the first meeting organized by the new team of NIPM under the chairmanship of Mr T. Ashoka) at the Chancery Pavilion, Bangalore. The D day finally arrived and the speaker was Mr Maclean.S. Raphael, Executive Director, Human Resources, 3M India and Srilanka.

The speaker started his talk giving an outline about 3M as a global company. While many of us know about the ‘Post it’ sticky notes, it was a revelation that 3M has over 55,000 products and still counting. It has five businesses that include industrial consumables, health care, safety & graphics, electronics & energy and operates from over 70 countries and employs more than 88,000 employees.

It was clear right from the initial stage of the presentation that 3M attaches a lot of importance to R&D. It invests 5.5% of its sales every year for R&D and has 46 technology platforms at present. The innovation focus includes product, technology, culture, market spaces and HR innovation. At the outset Maclean clarified that the best practices in his company is not so much about the “What” but more on the “How”. In other words, the focus is more on the manner it is executed than the idea itself which many may feel that they already have in some form in their companies. He said that if a more than a century old, company has managed to remain current and robust, it is on account of the principles laid down by one of the earliest leaders Mr William. McKnight who was Chairman of the company from 1949 to 1966 and continued as honorary chairman of the board until 1972. His cardinal yet simple principles for day to day working included the following:

• · Mistakes will be made; don’t condemn bona fide mistakes

•     Do not micro manage

•     Delegate

3M has been operating in India since 27 years with the corporate office in UB city, Bangalore, five manufacturing units and R&D centres at Electronic city, Bangalore and in Gurgaon. There are car care centres all over the country. The ‘Best HR practices” touch all aspects of an employee's life viz. Joining, communication, engagement/ retention, ER/IR, development, recognition and career.

The speaker touched upon and shared information on the following practices during the course of his talk

.

1) Campus Connect Program- INF Challenge (Young Innovators Challenge award) 2016

This program was introduced in India in collaboration with CII on the lines of 3 M’s global Young Scientist Challenge aimed at enhancing scientific exploration, innovation and communication across the country. Students of top-notch educational institutions such as XLRI, IIM, IIFT, TAPMI, SP Jain, NMIMS and BIM, Trichy participated. The students interested in the challenge are required to prepare 3 minute videos showcasing their ideas and initiative. Maclean informed that over 3000 students participated in the challenge which in itself played a big role in projecting the image of the company as a preferred employer. The contestants were initially shortlisted to 16 for the India challenge and 2 were selected for the international challenge held in St.Paul Minnesota. One of them from XLRI was eventually selected as the Winner in St.Paul !  

The speaker said that the stupendous success of the program has given them the confidence to leverage this initiative in future for a stronger campus connect and hiring program.

2)    Communication

Many companies have communication exercises; what sets 3M apart, is the way it is implemented. To begin with 3M also has Open House forums through the year which are attended by all employees. This was however found to be losing its effectiveness. Hence a project team was formed to work on the subject. The team spoke to a large cross section of employees and came up with a proposal incorporating various suggestions. The proposal was presented to the leadership team who gave the nod although they were initially apprehensive about increasing the duration of the exercise from 45 minutes to one and half hours.

While in the previous format, hardly one or two persons spoke after the formal presentation, the new initiative was structured in a manner that encouraged informality, which increased participation tremendously and became a very interactive and engaging session, which employees looked forward to.

3)    “Between Us” box 

 

This box is similar to the traditional ‘Suggestion box’. However, what makes the difference is that the company shares the questions and responds back with their clarifications, actions etc. in an extremely transparent manner which has captured the attention of the employees.

4) Connecting with Stories

Stories are powerful; they have better recalls and help build values, competencies and attitude. Stories connected with the company, both internal and external are shared with the employees. In this regard, Maclean related an inspiring story involving a 3M’s Relationship Manager for the Bajaj account.

One day, early in the morning a frantic call was received from the factory of the customer informing that they had received two batches of the right decals, instead of a left and right decal batch. Due to this despatch error from 3M ‘s Plant in Electronic City, Bangalore, the production of 1600 bikes would come to a standstill. This Key A/c Manager used his presence of mind and resourceful nature to come with a plan wherein through  some engineering creativity he culled out the left decal from a right decal. This helped 3M tide over and avert a major crisis. The outcome of this initiative was that the Customer was so delighted with the Play to win response from 3M’s Key A/c Manager, that their share on the Bajaj account eventually increased from around 60% to 100%. Such stories told and retold can inspire many more employees to be enthused and take initiative.

5)   HRUDAY- Connect with internal customers of HR

 

The speaker then spoke of an  initiative- HRUDAY; a half day connect which  I found very interesting and innovative. Under this activity, employees working in other departments are exposed to the HR processes through fun and games. There is an informal atmosphere with food stalls and other fun activities. At the end of the program, the participants are able to explain all HR processes easily and effortlessly.

6)   HR Outreach

 

There is a general grouse amongst out station employees that the Corporate office employees get a larger share of the various training and mind space of the HR team.  ‘HR outreach’ came as a response to such feedback under which once in a quarter, HR representatives visit various locations and interact with the employees there, providing them an opportunity to exchange ideas and vent their grievances if any.

7)   HR Business Acceleration

The HR role in general in India has metamorphosed from Welfare Officer a few decades ago to HR Business Partner today. The aspirations of those in the field also soared from becoming a business partner to contributing as member of the board of directors.

At 3M, the focus has been on accelerating the role of HR as a business partner. Towards this objective, best HR practices are not only developed but the same is showcased as an achievement to garner business. This also involves handholding other companies to imbibe and assimilate the ‘best HR practices’. Recently, HR participated in the 3M Tech Day organized by Anand group and highlighted the strength of 3M through  its people policies and practices to the Business leaders of the Anand group. Maclean revealed that as part of the HR Business Acceleration process, he also participates in the account receivables process from delinquent Customers, by using his negotiation skills effectively.  

8)  High Potential Employees Development Initiative – “XChange”

        A very interesting and novel idea for developing HiPo employees was shared by the speaker wherein a collaborative initiative, that included apart from 3M, other prominent corporates like SAP, Bosch, Café Coffee Day, Titan, Mind Tree, Biocon and Amazon. They have formed a training consortium and have pooled in domain experts from the participating companies, along with Industry and Academic experts as faculty. Participants include HiPos with 10-15 years of experience across Business & functions.

Five competencies are identified and each Company owns/ co owns a competency for delivery with two days of learning every month for a 4 to 5 month period. Two batches have completed their training and the Participants unanimously have stated that “this is the best learning experience” that they have ever had in their careers.

9)  Leadership Edge- A mentoring & Coaching Initiative

Maclean shared the background and the trigger for developing this program. Basically, this was an initiative to help the Company give back to high performing / succession candidate employees and support them in their careers through  an intense, focused, external Coaching program. 

The feedback received from the coaches after the successful completion of the program was very interesting and revealing: -

(i)  Most organizations are not proactive; in fact, they come to us at the last minute

(ii) The participants are simply referred to us. We do not get the opportunity to interact with the HR  Head and Senior management team before the program, as was done in the 3M program

(iii) Usually, the participants come in to the program with a negative mindset since they feel they have been sent to the program as they are 'not good enough'.

(iv) The fact that 3M had already identified the areas of improvement, helped the process of coaching and enhanced its effectiveness.
( You may like to read my experience of total delight and excitement when such support is given to a trainer while rolling out training programs effectively-  https://hrdian.blogspot.in/2017/08/one-of-kind-training-program.html )

10) Retention of Critical Employees

The speaker explained that 'Heat map action' is utilized for identifying the critical employees. All the employees are put through the filter. ( A heat map is a two dimensional representation of data in which values are represented by colours. A simple heat map provides an immediate visual summary of information. More elaborate heat maps allow the viewer to understand complex data sets). Once the critical employees are identified, various programs are organized for them.

11)  ER & IR 

3M India Ltd has five manufacturing units in the country with the corporate office in UB city, Bangalore. The five units include the two units located at Pondy and Pimpri that were acquired by the company, meaning there are differences in culture, structures and compensation between the units.

To address the issues pertaining to employee relations, the ER climate survey is taken as an important tool. All the employee life cycle touch points right from 'hiring' (tabs drilled down to micro detail) are identified. They are fleshed to ensure total coverage in that area. The survey by an international 3M Assessor helped identify the gaps and action plan is drawn up and implemented. The needle in terms of efficacy of People practices and programs  has moved considerably in the last six years. 

Based on the ER assessment survey, all grievances are mapped, tracked and resolved. The plant engagement calendar monitors the activities that need to happen month on month. Meetings are also organized systematically that include daily tier meeting, supervisor-crew and other meetings. The employee development programs include Kaizan projects, open house, 5 S, rewards & recognition programs.

To a question during the question time, the speaker explained the multi nodal CSR activities undertaken by the company. This was in the areas of ‘Recognising and encouraging Young Innovators”, Women Skill enhancement”, Science education for underprivileged children” and “Leadership development through CSR projects for Diversity employees 

 At the beginning of his talk, Maclean had modestly declared that there may not be a lot of 'newness' in the "Best Practices" of his company and that the distinguishing factor was the seriousness and the manner of its implementation. Yet, as I left the venue I felt happy and satisfied that I came to know of quite a few innovative initiatives, that other companies would do well to imbibe and emulate for success and harmony in an increasingly competitive business environment.