( Contributor : hcp )
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Year was , may be , 1960 or 61
G Ramkrishna ( GR ) was my boss
I was sitting with GR , in his cabin , discussing some production issues
In walked , Mr S K Toubro , unannounced
Out of courtesy , I started standing up
SKT just waved to me to sit down , as he pulled up a chair for himself
After inquiring how production was shaping up , he suddenly turned to me and said :
" Parekh ,
In Switchgear factory , do we have any engineers having no work ? "
I was nonplussed , puzzled , lost to grasp the meaning !
I said :
" Sir , absolutely not .
How is that possible ? Every engineer is neck-deep in work "
The , he quietly said :
" We should always have some engineers with no work - that is , with no boss-defined jobs
Their only duty should be to roam around the factory and the offices , observing what exactly our employees are doing - and how
And figure out what is ' wrong ' with the way they are doing their work
Then come up with ideas / suggestions , on how those work-processes can be improved to do a better / faster job
And then go ahead and implement their own ideas / suggestions
We must have such freelancers who are always looking for ways to do more work for less effort "
This was years before " Productivity Improvement " became a popular management jargon !
And years before Google introduced for its engineers , that now famous ,
" 20 percent " rule ,
under which , every employee of Google is free to set aside 20 % of his working hours , to pursue any project he can think up , without boss's knowledge !
Soren Toubro was a visionary of an extra-ordinary stature !
Incidentally , he was the only person among our Directors , who responded to my wedding invitation
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
13 Dec 2015
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Year was , may be , 1960 or 61
G Ramkrishna ( GR ) was my boss
I was sitting with GR , in his cabin , discussing some production issues
In walked , Mr S K Toubro , unannounced
Out of courtesy , I started standing up
SKT just waved to me to sit down , as he pulled up a chair for himself
After inquiring how production was shaping up , he suddenly turned to me and said :
" Parekh ,
In Switchgear factory , do we have any engineers having no work ? "
I was nonplussed , puzzled , lost to grasp the meaning !
I said :
" Sir , absolutely not .
How is that possible ? Every engineer is neck-deep in work "
The , he quietly said :
" We should always have some engineers with no work - that is , with no boss-defined jobs
Their only duty should be to roam around the factory and the offices , observing what exactly our employees are doing - and how
And figure out what is ' wrong ' with the way they are doing their work
Then come up with ideas / suggestions , on how those work-processes can be improved to do a better / faster job
And then go ahead and implement their own ideas / suggestions
We must have such freelancers who are always looking for ways to do more work for less effort "
This was years before " Productivity Improvement " became a popular management jargon !
And years before Google introduced for its engineers , that now famous ,
" 20 percent " rule ,
under which , every employee of Google is free to set aside 20 % of his working hours , to pursue any project he can think up , without boss's knowledge !
Soren Toubro was a visionary of an extra-ordinary stature !
Incidentally , he was the only person among our Directors , who responded to my wedding invitation
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
13 Dec 2015
No comments:
Post a Comment