Hi Friends,

Even as I launch this today ( my 80th Birthday ), I realize that there is yet so much to say and do. There is just no time to look back, no time to wonder,"Will anyone read these pages?"

With regards,
Hemen Parekh
27 June 2013

Now as I approach my 90th birthday ( 27 June 2023 ) , I invite you to visit my Digital Avatar ( www.hemenparekh.ai ) – and continue chatting with me , even when I am no more here physically

Monday 5 May 1986

PARITICIPATIVE MANAGEMENT

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).

5 May 1986

To:

I WOULD LIKE TO ASK GINO


Participative Management

TRW is a  big American Company.  In  Lawrence City (Kansas)  it has a  factory - Lawrence  Cable Division  (LCD).  It has only 130 employees - and no Union.TRW-LCD's General Manager is Gino T. Strippoli. Some day, I would like to visit Lawrence - for two reasons  :

( i)  I spent 2 years in Lawrence - some 30 years ago - doing my post-graduation in engineering.  I would  like to see if the place has changed!

(ii)     I would like to ask Gino,

How have  you managed  to  get your  employees to  -"train new  members, appraise their  performance and recommend who should get raises (increments)?"

If you wish  to find out more  about how hundreds of  Ginos in America  are  getting  their   employees  involved  in  taking "managerial  decisions"   (and  freeing  themselves   to  take "entrepreneural decisions"), I recommend you read the book,
"Working Smarter".

The  enclosed  chapter  "When Workers  Manage  Themselves"  is meant to arouse your curiosity!

And although,  we may  not be  quite ready  as yet to  let the employees  at L&T  decide their  own  annual bonus  (-  I mean 'ex-gratia')  I do  not  see much  of  an  option  to employee participation,  in  hundreds  of  day-to-day  shop-floor  (and office-floor) decisions.

On the other  hand, shall one practice  employee-participation for lack of an option?  Or should it become an act-of-faith?

H.C. PAREKH