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Article
It's nothing new by Pramod Batra
Let us take some examples from our history to think about how
attitudes can affect your relationship with your boss. Hanumanjee and
Rama, Birbal and Akbar. You have to decide what you want to be -
Hanumanjee or Birbal. Hanumanjee type managers can work only with one
boss. Birbal -type managers can work with any boss. Considering that
in today's times, our relationships are rather transient (except with
our parents and children), we have to learn from the great Birbal (his
real name was Mahesh Das).
Akbar and Birbal shared a wonderful relationship. Birbal was highly
talented, well - mannered, cultured and he had a 'thinking' attitude.
His attitude was that he could be fired any day. He was also aware
that tomorrow's job depended upon today's performance and not that of
yesterday. Akbar used to ask 'stupid' questions, and Birbal had the
wit and patience to request a day, a week, or a month to come back
with the answer-the attitude of suspended conclusion. A very wise
thing to do. I also do it.
Here is an Akbar and Birbal story which illustrates a good use of
talent, in contrast to the story of my talented friend who got fired
because of his Rajputani moustache! This story is from Ford and
Iacocca, a modern-day Akbar's Birbal! Henry Ford was a very good man
who became president of Ford Motor Co. at the age of 28 after the
unexpected death of his father. (Incidentally, his 78 year old
grandmother threatened to leave Henry Ford Sr. if her grandson was not
given the presidency. So much for professionalism in the U.S.A!) The
young Henry
Ford did the best thing he could. Fully aware of his talents, capacity
and relative lack of experience, he hired the famous 'whizkids', a
group of Air Force statistical control experts that included Mr.
Robert McNamara. The rest is history. Ford not only survived, but came
out on top.
After three decades of a successful career, Iacocca fought with Ford
in the 1980s and Ford fired him. Why? Maybe Iacocca was not a good
Birbal. Iacocca was naturally very annoyed and wanted to "get even"
with Ford. However, Iacocca's wife wisely suggested that her husband
should "beat" Ford in the marketplace. And the rest of that story is
Iacocca, the book which sold 60,00,000 copies! He not only revived
Chrysler, but also the Statue of Liberty, and changed the entire
concept of management around the world.
Speaking of attitudes, it is worthwhile to repeat the Bata story in
brief. It's a classic we can all identify with. Bata sent their MBA -
type salesman to India in 1909. After a few days, he sent back the
report that 'poor Indians won't wear our expensive shoes'! The sales
manager's gut feeling told him to send someone else, whose general
knowledge was poor but whose knowledge of shoes and persistence was
high. After six days on the ground, the salesman reported that poor
Indians don't wear shoes, but would need millions of shoes because of
dusty and hot conditions! Again, a question of having or developing
the right attitude.
Here's another classic along the same lines. In 1973, the Ford tractor
was priced at Rs. 18,000 while others were selling at Rs. 10,000 to
13,000. Naturally, it was very difficult to sell, and the "can't"
mentality people started painting a gloomy picture, arguing that the
Ford plant should be closed. The "can" people, however, started
selling the benefits of Ford tractors and not the price. In 1996, the
plant was making 15,000 tractors and even at the selling price of Rs.
2,60,000 they couldn't make enough tractors to meet the demand.
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