OFFICE PRODUCTIVITY - PROJECT ASH

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).

30 May 1985

To:

Dy. Gen. Manager (Powai)

Mgr. (Facilities Planning)

Mgr. (Computer Centre)

Mgr. (Materials Control Dept.)

OFFICE PRODUCTIVITY  - PROJECT ASH

Please  remember that   "changes   in  hardware"   must  be accompanied by "changes in Attitudes".

Now that DLP/UVR have approved  EPABX, we must get thoroughly ready to release our Foreign  Purchase Orders (and local ones too)  on  the  very  day  we  receive  capital  sanction  for 1985-86. It must   be   simultaneous   with the   annual appropriation (i.e. 1st quarter) - even that is late !

And we must make the same presentation (DLP/UVR) to

ð Monthly Management Meeting             )      Overcoming

ð L&T Officers & Sup. Assn.                         )      resistance

ð Other Managers                                      )      to change

ð Powai level Productivity Comm.          )      in technology

ð Works Committee                                   )      involving employees

between NOW and October 1985.  This is a MUST.

H.C. PAREKH

POWAI LEVEL PRODUCTIVITY MEETING

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).

May 19, 1985

To:

All Production Managers       

      

 

POWAI LEVEL PRODUCTIVITY MEETING

 

We shall have one in May, soon after Bonus negotiations are over.

 

In the meantime, I would request you to

 

Up-date your charts

(Yesterday I saw some prepared by KC-in    multi-colours - which do look

better and seemed less  cluttered-up to improve "focusing" and interest).

 

Hold your own  unit-level meetings within  next 15  days, if you did not have one in last 4 weeks.

 

H.C.PAREKH

CHANGING ORGANIZATION-CULTURE-THE INDIAN STYLE

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).

2 May 1985

To:

Dear Colleague 

CHANGING ORGANIZATION-CULTURE-THE INDIAN STYLE

Last week I sent you an  article which gave an account of the efforts  of   the  Japanese  giant   -  NTT  to   change  its organization-culture to  suit  its   metamorphosis  from  a "public-sector" monopoly to a "private-sector" competitor.

Desire to alter the culture of one’s organization is however not a  "monopoly" of  the Japanese!  - nor  a prerogative  of giants !  So,  I am not surprised  that such an  experiment is under  way  right  at  our  door-steps,  at  RHL  (Richardson Hindustan Limited - the makers of Vicks Vaporub).

Whether   one  wants   to  agree   or   disagree  with   S.K. Bhattacharya  (for saying,  "RHL is  almost unique  in Indian corporate  history in  that  it  has taken  up  the  issue of cultural  change  as a  company  project),  the  fact remains undeniable   that   there   is   so  much   "freshness"   and "innovation" in whatever RHL is  attempting.

As  I  read  the   enclosed  article  again  and   again,  it re-inforced  my   personal   belief  that   "right  attitude" (whether on  part of a  manager, supervisor  or a  worker) is not  something  you  can  "buy"  at  the  corner  .drug-store. Paying our employees high wages and  salaries and bonuses and perks  is  not  a magic wand  which  you  wave  and  presto, employee-alienation    gets    instantly    converted    into employee-involvement.!

Any change  and especially  change involving  "attitudes", is bound  to be  a slow-process,  full  of ups  and downs.   And although I have no  quarrel with the people who  say that the change  must  start at  the  "top"   (and presumably  proceed downwards ?  ), I wish to  remind these people that  in space there  is no such thing  as "top and  bottom" or  "upward and downward".'  Can we learn  to disassociate "need  for change" from  the hierarchy and  the organization  structure  and the status  and  the designations  and so  on  and so  forth  and simply  begin with ourselves (wherever  we happen to  be) and radiate whatever happens to be our surroundings ?

Would anyone of you  like to visit RHL  - to pick up some  of their radiation ?

H. C. PAREKH