Nellaiappan’s Column-3: “Rotten Onion Concept”

One rotten onion can spoil an entire sack of onions. That’s why vendors when they store onions in bulk, carefully search for rotten onions or ‘about to go rotten’ onions, hand pick and separate them from the lot. Thereby the good onions are saved. Here is some thing for us to learn.

In every organization and institution a few such rotten onions always exist along with efficient and loyal lot. If allowed, they could spoil the entire team. The first step in team-building in my opinion is to identify such rotten onions and isolate them from the main stream.

Presence of rotten onions may be due to the climate prevailing inside the organization such as nepotism, lack of growth potential for the individuals, monotony of work, lack of role for individuals in decision making and so on.

We cannot fire them just like that for non-performance. Mending or sending comes only after isolating and putting them in less important or less sensitive area. On the pretext of humanitarian considerations, one need not tolerate disobedience or poor performance. It is contagious.

But there is a major difference between rotten onions and the troublesome people. Most of the members can be mended and made efficient whereas the rotten onions cannot.

I should tell you how I handled a trouble maker in one of my earlier assignments. There the trouble was in the form of a senior operator. He was very talkative and that was the problem. He was one among the ten in the synthetic section of that chemical manufacturing unit. Moreover they were coming in shifts.

As the production was done in batches, the work distribution was not uniform throughout the shift. The work was not continuous for all the 8 hours and different for all the ten at any given point of time.

Our operator was good in mimicry and mono acting and used to start some thing interesting during the shift in a loud voice which made all the workmen to surround him and it invariably ended with some quarrel among them. Ultimately it resulted in loss of productivity.

When I became the synthetic section in-charge the first thing I did was transferring him to extraction section where he has to work alone. He was protesting it at the beginning but there was no option for him.

Slowly he settled in his new work and to everybody’s surprise, he started suggesting modifications in material handling and operational simplification because of his creativeness and loneliness. He became one of our best operators and I recommended a promotion for him. That made us to search for untapped potential within the company.

Every successful Business Corporate injects new blood into their organization to sustain speed and growth. There the reverse of the rotten onion concept has to be applied. Protecting the new young ones from the clutches of the existing old timers is the issue there.

After going through this article my wife said, “Now I understand why they have given you a cabin in your office. I think your management is already aware of this rotten onion concept.”

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Nellaiappan’s Column-2: “Cost Reduction”

The most commonly misunderstood concept, in my opinion, but widely used in corporate circles, is “cost reduction”. Other euphemisms/ synonyms for cost reduction are austerity measures, retrenchment, golden handshake, trimming and ETOC (every thing on contract).

I have found all these things extremely counter-productive. Cost reduction is definitely not stopping some expenses, curtailing few facilities extended, rationing some entertainment and disowning some responsibilities. It cannot be at the cost of values and ethics.

In one company I know, at the pretext of austerity measures they stopped the daily morning and evening tea to all contract employees. The explanation given was that it was the duty of the contractor and not the company’s. The saving arithmetic was 70 people x 2 times x 365 days x 3 rupees. But the feelings of the 70 people with flesh and blood were completely ignored. There were visible repercussions and the damage caused was heavy, but it was not tangible for the costing department.

The admin people to their credit, allowed all Air Conditioners in the company only two hour operation per day to save money on electricity. The problem was not more of physical but the very idea irritated most of the employees and that became a hot topic for quite some time.

People were making fun out of these austerity measures and have even gone to the extent of recommending half-pant and shirt uniforms for employees, instead of full shirt and pant. One accountant seriously asked why Rs.500 per month was given to a priest for performing weekly ‘puja’ in company premises and suggested to perform the same by one of the company employees.

One important inference from all the above is an amenity once given if stopped suddenly will have adverse effects and more often that not will be counter-productive. For saving hundreds, you may be losing thousands. Further, it affects the morale of the employees, disturbs their sense of belonging and the grudge they carry in their minds is bound to affect productivity and performance.

One of the unit heads declared in the company’s group meeting that he was ready to retrench 15 employees with immediate effect and with a nod from the top and it was implemented at once. Selected 15 People with 15 to 20 years of experience in the company were asked to leave with short notice. The after-effects of the above incident were a great blow to the management. 50 % of the employees – all good people left the organization without or with short notice. Only employees who had no option remained.

It is proof that such measures could send wrong signals to the other employees like the company is in trouble or the same thing could happen to them in future. So they conclude it is better to leave the sinking ship.

The employee turnover was very high and as a measure to retain the employees the management increased the remuneration package to all its employees. But it was too late and most of the good people had already left the organization. Many people realized their own potential only then, and got good placements. The inferior lot who remained in the organization was rewarded with revision for their inability to move out of the organization.

To fill up the gap created by the resignation of good employees, the company recruited many new ones with high starting pay.

Many public limited companies announced golden handshake to get rid of inefficient employees. Contrary to the expectations, all good employees availed the opportunity and thus weakened further the system in existence.

The feeling of oneness and the family concept is lost in letting work on contract basis. Contract workers always carry a grudge against the company and its employees and at the very first opportunity they ditch both.

There is no compromise in the cost of safety and environment. Any compromise in these two will be detrimental in the long run.

The real cost reduction comes from increased productivity and innovative process changes and modifications. Savings by all other methods are very marginal and if overdone will become counter productive. Here one should remember Parato’s 80-20 principle.

No doubt a saving is a saving however small it may be. But one act of improved productivity will excel hundred such trivial savings all put together. Leaders always look for big leap. Being a leader I hope you will also vouch my statement.

Nellaiappan’s Column-1: “Subordinate Development”

Nellaiappan

We all know that in any organization every one is important, but no one is indispensable. Mere knowing this concept is not sufficient. Bosses should spell out to every one, working under them that they are very important. On the other hand, every one should be replaceable. It is good for the organization as well as for the individuals. 

 

If someone is not replaceable, then he cannot be promoted. To become replaceable, one should train his team well and also a second-line who can replace him. Hence subordinate development is very important for one’s own development.

But, in practice, people are very reluctant to develop their subordinates. Personal likes and dislikes, lack of confidence in the subordinates, lack of self- confidence, fear of losing importance and lack of expertise are few of the many reasons for doing so.

I had the opportunity of working under different bosses in different institutions in my 25 years career span. In one of those units I was very close to the boss. He gave me full freedom and delegated almost everything to me. Here I should remind you the universal concept: “you can implement successfully any new idea as long as you don’t care who gets the credit”

We mutually exploited each other. I was very happy because of the opportunity but he never recommended a promotion for me. I became very powerful down the stream but the top people of the hierarchy-driven organization were not even aware of my existence.

In another place, the situation was diametrically opposite. There the boss never consulted me for any thing but had given me freedom to operate within the department. There was no second-line for him and he never conducted any combined meeting for the department heads. His style was one to one interaction.

I was disappointed and unhappy there. I lost my importance. I was concentrating in my limited sphere. When he got me a promotion I was surprised. But still he never had any one as his second-line.

Both these bosses were personally very good and finally I was not happy with both of them. Only long service and hard work brought them to their level and they had only entry-level qualification without any academic track record.

I found that people who become bosses by their hard work and prolonged service in the same organization in general, are very reluctant to teach their subordinate what they learnt the hard way.

They always have an aversion for their qualified subordinates. They always play their cards closer to their chest and leave the subordinates starve for information and guidance.

They are hard-core loyalists, but still they cause heavy damage to the organization out of ignorance. One side, they could not climb further in the career ladder and on the other side, remained a concrete wall in the way of their subordinates. They are always very comfortable with unqualified and under- qualified subordinates.

Such people are more loyal to individuals than to the organization and they also expect their subordinates to be so.

It is very hard for an assistant manager to get promotion from a manager, whereas, there is every possibility for an assistant manager reporting to a general manager to get promoted to manager at the first instant. This is because most of the bosses want to keep a big gap between them and their second-line.

In my career, only once my immediate boss recommended me to his position. We both got promoted that year. The secret is “give your garlands to your subordinates so that you will get more garlands”.

“What will happen if I happen to be away from the organization for a month?”- When I once asked my second-line his immediate reply was “no doubt we will miss you, sir. But that will not affect the organization any way, because you have trained us like that”. Suppose you go on one month leave what will happen- I tossed the next question. “The answer is the same” was his reply. Then be prepared to go for a one month training program I said.

Your leave should be long enough for your boss to feel how much he missed you, and not too long for the boss to find out how best he managed without you- said my second-line. That reminds me that you have not returned my book “Management Thoughts” by Pramod Batra I said.

I did recommend him for a one-month all-expenses-paid technical training program conducted by a prestigious institute at the country’s capital.

When I narrated my discussion with my second line to my wife that night, she banged an immediate question. “Have you asked him, what will happen if he happens to be away from his house for a month?”