Yesterday, I had a lunch in the Taj hotel in Chennai (Madras) and enjoyed fresh Mackerel wrapped in banana leaves. What a dish! If I would enjoy half of my time here as I enjoyed this meal, I would run to the local ministry of internal affairs and apply for an Indian passport. You have to redefine your definition of good food after leaving this country.
India is one of the countries where hotels prove to you that they still know how to do certain things other than charging high prices. Cooking is one instance. Service with good intentions is another one. And I’m putting a lot of emphasis on the good intentions because their disorganization skills will drive you crazy. In principle, people are good hearted here and willing to do on a regular basis many of the things that we forgot in the West.
The Taj is owned by the largest company in India. They have over 10 hotels in India, all of which are very impressive, expensive and designed with good taste. In Mumbai (Bombay) you will have to pay $500 per day for a basic room in their flag ship hotel. Then you step outside to the beach that is only 100 yards away from the hotel’s entrance and see all the poverty. There are so many stark contrasts in this country.
My lunch is finished and now back to work.
One of my biggest problem that I have since the beginning is achieving a low breakeven analysis but very high fixed cost per product. One way is to reduce expenses, but since they are low already the other factor of this equation forces me to increase number of kilos per month. This is a known factor but we don’t know how to do it and this is why I’m here again only 2 months after my last visit.
In order to succeed this time I decided to conduct the micromanagement myself. Which means I must approve all the daily schedules, assign the tasks to the production employees as well as to my managers, supervising the execution of the tasks and applications on an hourly basis, collect data during lunch time instead of only by the end of the day, trying to understand the reasons for running late (due to employee performance or bad production planning due to error in collecting and analyzing previous data), reading and analyzing reports and preparing new instructions and Correction Plans (CP is the most popular term in my factory). Then I have to change and update the drafts of the company’s business/strategic plan which results in changing the business model.
All the time I feel that I am getting closer to what I envision and expected this company to be. Then I remember that India is one of those rare places where you may find yourself getting closer while you are actually drifting away from your point of destination.
In order to prepare mentally, to withstand the amazingly high humidity (85%-90% humidity and 105 F-115 F temperature), I decided to come to the office with a very simple and light T-shirt, shorts and sandals. 3 hours into the work day, I was outside of my cool office, at the administrative section when my 11:00 AM meeting showed up only 50 minutes late. I approached him together with my loyal assistant, Ganesan (One of the Indian Gods). I asked the guy for his name and he replied to Ganesan while completely ignoring me. It seems like my clothes are so poor he decided that I’m just another production employee. I forgot that in the south of India people will judge other people by the way they dress.
End of day I return to my hotel. And no it is not the Taj. I have a meeting with my new Yoga instructor. Yoga is one of the most accurate and detailed systems that I know for “personal growth”. One day I asked my managers if they practice Yoga and then noticed some hesitation among them until Ganesan, who has been my loyal employee since day one in India, had the courage to tell me “No sir.” with a smile on his face “Only foreigners are doing Yoga in India”.
