BLURRED VISION: GRATITUDE: Letters from a Grandfather to his Future Generations. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Hello Folks…

Breaking News:

Our younger grandson, Harkirat Singh has graduated from Upper Canada College and got admission to Queens University in Kingston. Congratulations Hark! Well done, son.

So we were talking of the Swedish connection. There was another Swedish connection that I had a lot to do with: Electrolux. Facit Asia was partly owned by Facit AB of Sweden. Facit got bought up by Electrolux, who then came in as partners of Forbes in Facit Asia. E’lux were keen to introduce their Home-care products into the Indian market.

The business environment of the 1980s would appear very strange to most of you who have cut your teeth on the ‘Reforms’ in the Indian Economy in the last two decades. In the days of Socialism, to be Large was a sin. To be owned by ‘foreigners’ was a bigger sin. If a Company had managed to be large, or had managed to be partly owned by foreigners, then forget further growth or diversification. Forbes Group, by virtue of ownership by the Tata Group bore the full brunt of the restrictive laws. Some of the Group Companies were partly owned by foreign entities and they bore the full brunt of the FERA laws. Thus growth n diversification was restricted in most of the Companies of the Group.

It was a testimony to the Group Management’s vigour that within these restrictions, they continued to grow and modernize. When I arrived, FFC were putting up new Engineering factory n a Ceramic Factory in Aurangabad. Gokak Mills was investing in Modernization of Spinning machines and adding modern weaving machines. Facit Asia had just built a modern Typewriter assembly plant. But this was not enough for the vision of the Group Management. Therefore, to supplement these in-house efforts, the group took the route of associating itself with niche small-scale units, selling their products or getting contract manufacture thru them. In later years, when the laws permitted, some of these were converted into subsidiaries.

Khandwala spied an opportunity in the defunct Samuel Osborne India Ltd. This was a sick unit partly owned by a foreign company. The Group bought out the local owners, assumed their outstanding debt and arranged for Electrolux to buy out the foreign company. Viola, Electrolux had a pipeline into the Indian market. The company was renamed Eureka Forbes Ltd and was positioned to market E’lux Vacuum Cleaners in India. Facit Asia set up a factory in the ‘backward’ area of Hosur to manufacture these Vacuum Cleaners.

Electrolux had also bought a water purifier designed by a maverick ‘scientist’, who later on proved to be a fake artist. This water purifier, Aquaguard was positioned as another product to be sold thru EFL. A small scale unit in Hyderabad was found, willing to manufacture these. They needed management skills. Therefore we located Mr. SS Rao, an industrial engineer who had left the Engineering Division to be hired by the Aquaguard small scale unit. In course of time he moved to head the Vacuum Cleaner factory and in good time Facit Asia itself after Gosta Rundberg Retired.

Now E’Lux are a great Company and a pioneer in the field of ‘direct selling’ i.e. door to door selling. They brought out in Nemie Josiah to introduce the art of direct selling. Nemie was a true missionary out of South Africa. He did a good job of teaching the art to the Indian youngsters.

In view of the fact that EFL was going to be a manpower heavy company, Khandwala was good enough to nominate me to its board of directors. A tenet of direct selling was payment-by-results. They believed that most of the compensation of the Salesman should come from Commission. This in a country where salesmen were used to a fixed salary and a bit of gravy by way of sales commission. The new system took some pain n time to take root. Since there was no full time management in EFL, I had a lot to do with that Company…so much so that at one board meeting, Chairman said: I am managing EFL with my Personnel Manager.

Later on Akhil Marfatia was recruited as Joint President. Of course Nemie did not leave much elbow room for him. Akhil was advised to learn the direct selling model best he could. Akhil had come from Johnson n Johnson. He had just lost his wife to cancer. After joining, EFL, he married Bharti.

In view of my preoccupation with the Overseas Operations, and then Eureka Forbes, Management thought it fit to add to the HO Team at a senior level. I introduced DR SS Rajadhyaksha and he was duly recruited to take care of the Industrial Relations functions. We met all his conditions: 5 day week, office in town, GM designation. We went further and vacated our apartment in his favour. This enabled him to marry Nirmala and settle down. It was God’s way of squaring Kaka’s account with Raja. It turned out to be a blessing to all parties. He was a veteran IR man and therefore I was able to download most of that function to him. He took over the complete Personnel function from me, after I moved to Goodlass and retired as a full board member. We are still very much in touch with each other.

With Raja’s joining, I moved to the NE corner office on the newly renovated 3^rd floor. Jay n Madhu also had their offices there. Whilst on the ground floor, Mr. CT Ghadhiali and other accountants held the adjoining office. There were times when sparks flew with them. Compliance, Accounts n Audit don’t always run parallel to employee relations point of view. Therefore respect for our respective roles, and personal friendship prevailed. We had also moved into Campbell House, where Mr. CT Ghadhiali and another colleague resided. So we were neighbours at home n at office. Unfortunately, soon after we repatriated from Viet Nam, Mr Ghadhiali passed away. They have two sons: Pankaj n Shailesh.

There was a great deal of camaraderie among the seniors in Forbes Group. After lunch we would gather in the Accountants bull pen. In course of time, Mr. Madan got a small dining room made on one of the rear landings. We seniors would eat our tifins there and indulge in light hearted conversations. On Fridays, there would be roasted chana n sengdana to go around. That was some institution.

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Photo Gallery follows.

Pls pardon any caption errors.

But do please point out the errors