Hi Friends,

Even as I launch this today ( my 80th Birthday ), I realize that there is yet so much to say and do. There is just no time to look back, no time to wonder,"Will anyone read these pages?"

With regards,
Hemen Parekh
27 June 2013

Now as I approach my 90th birthday ( 27 June 2023 ) , I invite you to visit my Digital Avatar ( www.hemenparekh.ai ) – and continue chatting with me , even when I am no more here physically

Wednesday 1 April 1970

ORGANIZATION PLAN

Organization planning begins with two questions -

1     What is our present organization structure and personnel
inventory?

2     Anticipating our products and services of the future,what sort of organization and what talents will enable us to manage our 'business most efficiently in the years ahead?

It is with these two questions in mind that the organization charts that follow have been prepared.

To attain a 20% ,rate of growth and reach a sales volume of Rs.44 crores by 1981, it soon becomes apparent that Switchgear Division, before long, must assume all functional responsibilities under a Divisional Manager, who will directly report and be responsible to the Board of Directors. An organization of the kind pictured cannot arrive tomorrow. It must be here by 1970 if the challenge of the 70s is to be faced boldly. The demands made on such a management team will be tremendously complex.

Of the two essential, assets, management is by far the more significant. With a highly talented team organized so that each member can make maximum use of his ability, most companies quickly arrive at a' position enabling them to obtain the working capital they need.

Even before we can get down to organizing, the unresolved questions are-

Wherefrom to recruit and how to retain these highly "talented men?

Will such large scale executive recruitment from outside upset the balance of the existing organization?

Even when we had time, recruitment remained a painstak­ingly slow process fraught with frustrations and uncertainty of the choice made.

Now we are a people in great hurry with little time on our hands. At the same time we want to be very sure that we have the right kind of people in the right positions. The stakes are so high that we have to be very right in all our moves.

The foregoing suggests that we cannot depend on a large ­scale recruitment of talents from outside but we must necessarily develop these from within. An organization chart as it might appear in 1970, supplemented by job specifications of every posi­tion shown thereon, would be our best guide to the type of talents will require.

Here then again we have a concrete basis for

-   to train whom?

-   to train for what? 

LIST OF TOPICS

MANAGEMENT


  • Analyzing organization effectiveness
  • Audi ting
  • Budgeting
  • Business Law
  • Data processing
  • Decision making - simulation Financial planning and forecasting
  • Human relations
  • Job evaluation
  • Performance appraisal coaching
  • Product planning
  • Selection and assessment of personnel
  • Understanding individual and group behavior in work situations (industrial psychology)
  • Value analysis
  • Supervisory training

ENGINEERING SCIENCES

  • Engineering materials
  • Engineering economics
  • Engineering analysis
  • Computer programming
  • Information data processing
  • Electronics
  • Heat transfer
  • Construction materials


ENGINEERING ANALYSIS, DESIGN AND SYSTEMS

  • Automation
  • Instrument measurement, process control
  • PERT
  • Production Management·
  • Systems engineering
  • Work simplification and measurement

BASIC SCIENCES

  • Calculus - review
  • Differential equations
  • Mathematics - review
  • Modern algebra
  • Modern analysis
  • Numerical analysis
  • Probability and statistics
  • Physics - review
  • Statistical inference

COMMUNICATIONS

  • Business letter writing
  • Composition and rhetoric
  • Conference leadership
  • Effective communication
  • Engineering graphics
  • Exposition narrative writing

COMMUNICATIONS - contd

  • Interviewing skills
  • Listening skills
  • Oral presentation of statistical and technical papers
  • Public speaking
  • Rapid reading
  • Technical report writing

SPECIAL PROGRMAS

  • Aeronautical and space engineering technology
  • Air conditioning and refrigeration technology
  • Chemical technology
  • Chemical engineering technology
  • Drafting and design technology
  • Electrical and electronic technology
  • General engineering technology
  • Instrumentation and control technology
  • Maintenance technology
  • Nuclear engineering technology
  • Production technology
  • Solid State technology
  • Surveying technology
  • Computer technology 



AEROSPACE INDUSTRIES ASSOCIATION (AlA) SURVEY

The accelerating pace of civilian and military developments has resulted in an ever increasing demand for a higher level of technical and managerial capability in the manufacturing engineering complex. This demand is becoming more difficult to meet as time goes on, and the industry feels that unless concrete steps are taken immediately, the time is not far distant, if indeed it is hot already here, when it will be unable to maintain the pace set by the rapidly advancing state of the art.

MANUFACTURING ENGINEERING COURSE

Industry Preferences  
                  
Manufacturing processes         Engineering Metallurgy                 
Machine tool performance       manufacturing analysis                 
Electrical circuits and control Statistical analysis                  
Technical report writing          Production control                       
Fluid mechanics and hydraulics Machine design
Production tool design            Management and supervision
Engineering mechanics           Personnel relations
Dynamics and Kinematics        Tooling standards
Strength of materials             Composition
Manufacturing research problem Engineering
Industrial cost accounting        Electronics
Stresses in machine elements Speech
Production planning         Basic economics
Motion and time study            Computer programming
Automation programming & controls
Thermodynamics                   Plant layout & material handling
Differential equations 

TRAINING PROGRAM

Having answered the questions
-      To train whom?
-      To train for what?

we must turn our attention to,

To train how?
To train when?

The answers to these, then, will make up the complete program. Let us attempt to answer,

To train when?

If training and self development are perpetual, it is obvious that the training will have to be 'on' the job as well as 'off' the job.

without exception, all supervisors like to think that they spend a good deal of their time on training their assis­tants. In reality most of us are trying to impress our subordi­nates by telling them how efficiently we would have handled a particular job, which the subordinate has got all messed up! The man is obviously not 'getting trained on-the-job' even though he may be listening.

The few who are trying to do an honest job of training are all too unfamiliar with the training techniques and the achievements are non-coherent. Besides no line supervisor can tackle the total training job single-handed. Today's training needs encompass a vast number of widely varying disciplines which no single person can be expert in.
This one person to another person approach then has very limited usefulness and cannot be the answer.

And then, as already stated earlier, very few people can be expected to read books at home and train themselves on a 'do-it-yourself' basis.

The answer is,

When and how do we then train people?

We must have a full-fledged training school at Powai. A self-contained building having

-      a central library of books and films
-      an auditorium
-      10/15 lecture rooms.

The building must be equipped with all sorts of teaching aids. And then we must breathe soul into this edifice by recruiting a few full-time and a few part time professors. The part-time lecturers can be had from

1     the VJTI
2     The Engineering College, Andheri
3     NITIE
4     The BPC
5     The Jamanlal Bajaj Institute of Management
6     The Central Labour Institute
7     The Indian Institute of Technology, Powai
8     Professional Consultants such as
a     BEAM
B     IBCON
C     BEACONS
D     Personnel and Productivity Services
E     The British Institute
F     ALMECO

The efforts of the faculty can and must be supplemented by each one of our managers and departmental heads (all of whom are experts in some or other field) delivering one lecture every week.

Since the training is an investment in future by the company as well as by the employee concerned~, the time for training must be shared by both in equal proportions. This would mean that if an employee is required to spend a total of 6 hours/week attending lectures, 3 hours of these would be on· the company's time i.e. during his normal working hours and the remaining three hours when he is off-duty. This would mean that a large percentage of the total number of lectures would have to be arranged after 4 pm as also on Saturday afternoons.

The training program initially will have to be voluntary. After 2/3 years of successful operation, a certain amount of indirect pressure can be brought to bear upon the employees. This can be done. by introduction of ' Qualification Bars' in salaries and promotion to higher grades, for persons not having successfully completed a specified training course.

In the preceding chapter we discussed two types of training needs

- for technical subjects
-for business management techniques

Appendix A gives a comprehensive list of topics which meets both types of training needs. Appendix B gives a typical management Training Program. Appendix C furnishes data regarding different curricula.

with some modifications, a training program to suit )cal needs can be quickly drawn up.

The Top Management is then requested

-      to recognize the need for and accept the urgency of a Management Development Program.

-      to issue instructions- to our Training Office to prepare and- submit for MGM approval, a detailed proposal of capital investment and recurring expenditure.

The proposal should also include a comprehensive 'Pilot Program' for the switchgear factory staff.

-      to approve the proposal and issue instructions for implementation. Pending construction of a separate building for the training school, use may be made of the existing 3/4 conference rooms as well as the welfare centre at Powai.

-      until such time that satisfactory training facilities

are established at Powai, to issue a directive for an extensive use of the training courses offered by
1          NITIE
2          VJTI
3          Jamanlal Bajaj Institute of Management
4          BPC
5          IIM Ahmedabad
6          IIM Calcutta
7          Administrative Staff College, Hyderabad
8          Management Consultants

The target for such an external training may be made subject to the following constraints:

-      not less than 10 of the salaried staff be sent to attend external courses every year.

-      a minimum of 3 of the departmental salary bill be . budgeted towards such external training~ (For switch­gear factory this is less than 1.5 for 1967-68).

It is, at this point, worthwhile to remember that the amount if not spent , would attract an income-tax rate of 55% on the gross profits.

It is difficult to sum up this report because summing up denotes the end of a discussion and training has no end! 

ASSESSMENT OF TRAINING NEED

The assessment of training needs is the story of three little questions –


1     To train for what
2     To train how
3     To train when

Training is basically a process of changing people. The areas in which people need 'changing' are

1     Knowledge
   Skill or technique
3     Attitude (as reflected in behaviour)

Not necessarily, persons at all levels require all the three types of training. To be most effective, the specific training needs must be assessed for each individual. In practice, however, even if this is done, the training programs themselves cover a group of persons rather than individuals, in consideration of the costs involved.

Earlier we asked a question,

Why train people?

and the brief answer was,

'to meet the challenge of 1970s'.

The specific details of this challenge are -

1     Ever increasing standards of performance are being set by the Management - the standards of sales, costs, profits, return on investment, rejects, inventories, overheads, labour and equipment utilization, absenteeism, labour turnover, etc. etc.
2     New products, new equipment, new facilities will be required to be added continuously.

To meet this challenge not only the number of persons (quantity) required will be higher but the quality of these people will also have to be much higher, in the following areas:

a     Knowledge of their job.
b     Knowledge. of their responsibilities.
c     Ability to divide work i.e. to supervise.
d     Ability to make improvements in the methods of work and to put them into practice.
e     Ability to lead i.e. knowledge of human problems.
f      Ability to discuss the problems of the business, be it individually or at gatherings of employees.

The techniques for determining training needs, listed by the American Society of Training Directors are

1     Observations
2     Management requests
3     Interviews
4     Group conferences
5     Job activity analysis
6     Questionnaire surveys
7     Tests or examinations
8     Merit or performance ratings
9     Personnel records
10    Business and production records
11    Long range organizational planning

The needs as assessed by me have been based on tech­niques 1, 8 and 11.

It is suggested that a further detailed assessment making use of techniques 3, 4 and 7 be made in the course of next 2/3 months. Such an assessment may initially be confined to the following departments -

Production Planning and Control
Quality Control
Plant and Maintenance
Shop Foremen/Stores Personnel

An assessment based on techniques 5, 6 and 9 is already undertaken and under progress.

The assessment vide 'Questionnaire Survey' has been divided. into two main groups, -

1     Training needs in technical subjects (knowledge)
2     Training needs in subjects dealing with 'skills' or  techniques’

When the entire assessment is over, it will be possible to draw up a comprehensive Training Program for the sections mentioned earlier.

A comprehensive program for the Switchgear Division as a whole can be launched only when

-      The Top Management accepts that 'personnel development through formal training' is the only way to keep L&T abreast of the others.

-      The 'Pop Management order a systematic assessment of the training needs of the entire Switchgear Division along the lines discussed above.

-      Upon completion of such an assessment instruct our Training Office to prepare a co-ordinate Training Program.

-      Entrust our line Managers with the responsibility of implementing the Program in their respective sections. It has been universally accepted that training has to be always a 'line' function.

-      The Top Management call for a 'Training Performance Evaluation' report from the line Managers once a year.

The lines along which such a program may be organized are given in the next chapter.