Synopsis: Communication For Productivity
Letters written to some 7500 Workers / Managers /
Union Leaders, following a period of strike / Go slow / Murders (1979 -
1987), at Mumbai factory of Larsen & Toubro Ltd. This direct / open /
honest communication led to a remarkable atmosphere of trust between
Workers and Management, which, in turn, increased productivity at 3% per year
(ave).
|
28 Feb 1986
To:
Dear Friends
FLOGGING A DYING HORSE
The
correct idiom is "flogging a dead horse" but there is every possiblity
that the horse (Scooters India) is dead by now.
This is
because the enclosed article about SIL is almost
18 months old.
And as of
Dec. 31, 1985, we have
such 93,282 dying (or dead?)
horses in our country.
These are known as "sick units". What I
do not know is whether the above mentioned figure includes
public-sector (Govt. owned) sick-units or not.
Most of these are sick in fact
VERY SICK. if
you wish to know how "sick", here are some "temperature-readings".
No.
|
Govt. unit
|
Loss in
last 3 years (Rs. CRORES)
|
1.
|
Engineering
Projects India Ltd. (epi)
|
90.0
|
2.
|
Hindustan
Steelworks Const. Ltd. (HSCL)
|
67.0
|
3.
|
Cycle
Corporation of India Ltd. (CCIL)
|
8.8
|
4.
|
Scooters
India Ltd. (SIL)
|
50.0
|
5.
|
Tanneries
& Footwear Corp. of India Ltd. (TAFCO)
|
53.0
|
I understand
that
the Govt. is
planning to wind-up (close-down) the first
3 units and merge the
remaining 2 units with some successful public or private sector company.
From
the "Dying Horse" article,
we find that neither Bajaj nor HMT
wants to even touch Scooters India!
And no wonder I A similar company in America would perhaps employ 500 persons whereas Scooters India has
employed 3500 persons'. Reminds me of Bombay Municipality! if BMC can sack
(terminate/retrench) half of
its employees, productivity would go up FOUR TIMES! (If you do not believe me, next time stop and count
the number of persons pretending to
dig a hole for a faulty telephone cable !).
How long
before some of us muster enough courage to ask
"Am I
my brother's keeper?"