Last Updated (Tuesday, 30 November 1999 00:00)
QMI advocates a better worker-manager rappon
ECONOMY & BUSINESS |
19-07-1991 |
QMI advocates a better worker-manager rappon
AN OPEN-DOOR POLICY
Could the “Kacho” and the “Kaicho” be reconciled in the Indian context? These exotic terms are the quintessence of Japanese managerial style: the “Kacho” or the foreman is the pivotal figure in any plant and lines of communication between him and the “Kaicho” or the foreman is the pivotal figure in any plant and lines of communication between him and the “kaicho” or the chairman are untrammeled. It is with such a motive that chairman of UK-based Quality Management International (QMI) Madhav Mehra has extended his organization to India. “A whiff of Japanese open-door corporate function should enliven and enlighten the Indian manager,” says Mehra.
QMI focuses on the concept of total quality management (TQM) . It is a way of managing which believes in people and in customer needs. A customer need not merely be someone who comes to a shop to buy something. Anyone within the corporate framework who receives an output is the customer. “Everyone is a service giver and a service receiver” goes the QMI mantra. Companies are increasingly realizing that their financial performances are directly related to the perceived quality of their products and the service that go with it: that high service companies have a return on sales several times greater than low service companies. Complementing production with customer servicing has become sacrosanct for companies the world over.
“Unfortunately in India, managers are yet to step down from their pedestal.” Quips Mehra. “There’s a feeling that it is infra-dig: they fail to realize that spotlight has moved from the manicured manager to the humble worker and that this burra-sahib attitude will be their undoing.” He cites the example of Honda, where the boardroom is open to the workers and the directors are easily accessible. It all leads to a feeling of camaraderie, thereby motivating the workers to do their best.
A key issue . QMI emphasizes on MBWA or management by walking around. This results in an easy exchange of ideas between the management and the workers, since the former becomes more accessible. In fact, accessibility is one of the key issues that figure in the QMI ideologue. Accessibility in India, it claims, is just on paper and is seldom translated into action. Even if it is by the time the worker has mediated past the secretaries and negotiated the maze of corridors that lead to the chairman’s office, he is too overwhelmed to discuss his problems across the table.
A feature which is indicative of the QMI outlook is the disdainful attitude towards words such as “management” or “managing”. Such words, with their attendant images of the cop, the referee and the dispassionate analyst, ought to be discarded as they throw up visions of subordination and control. QMI advocates a change form tough mindedness to tenderness; from concern with hard data and balance sheets to concern for soft stuff like values, vision and integrity. Sound financial controls are essential, they admit. Without them, any company would fail. But does not sell financial control; one sells a quality service or a product. To sell that product well, the management must take the workers and the subordinate staff into its fold.
“Innovation is another facet which ought to be polished.” Feels Mehra. It distinguishes one company from another. Innovative ideas need not necessarily stem from the company’s R&D department. It can even come form labourers, provided such ideas are encouraged and readily accepted. The best of today’s managers have a deep respect and understanding for their people. This leads them to demand that each person be an innovative contributor. The example of Ren Macpherson, the former chairman of Dana, is quoted: he evaluated those who held event the most mundane of jobs solely on the basis of how innovatively he or she contributed to that job.
Mehra, however, does admit that there are companies that restore his faith in the Indian corporate sector. He mentions Russi Mody and his fabled style of functioning; how every worker of Tisco is made to feel a part of it; also Maruti Udyog and how it has borrowed a leaf from the Japanese style of management. Unfortunately, such instances are few and far between. Even though QMI offers no instant solutions, it does promise to shake the burro-sahib to the core of his swivel-chair. And going by Mehra’s optimism, one could hope to see, may be in the near future, the gin and tonic sipping “saab” having instead, a nimbu-pani” with his underlings.
Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites
