Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw - 2

“Soldiering with Dignity” is a memoir written by Lt. Gen. Depinder Singh who was Military Assistant to Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw during the latter’s tenure as Chief of Army Staff (COAS). The persona of Sam Mankshaw himself is so great that his portrayal had to be interesting and worth a read.

After becoming the COAS (and also throughout his earlier career), Sam earnestly worked for the welfare of the soldiers. He worked, mainly, on two broad fronts. First one was to improve the situation, mindset of the officers and the soldiers; in his own words, “to instill Dignity”. He set out to achieve his task through many ways.

Back then, even the senior officers weren’t assured of their job because the rules were based on seniority. This means that there were chances that even a brave and capable officer would retire at the age of 47 – 48. The government was skeptical about paying out pensions for premature retirement and also, would not encourage doing so due to the training costs borne by the government. Sam convinced the government why it is important to revise the pay and pension structure for the soldiers and officers. He would argue even for the dress allowance, separation allowance. And these were completely just because the bureaucrats couldn’t understand the situation in which the soldiers fight for the nation and what they get in turn. Sam also paid attention to the construction of Army quarters and other military localities. He made sure that they are comfortable, equipped with all the essential amenities. This was just to facilitate living of the families of the soldiers when they are too far to take care of their loved ones.

Additionally, he took a keen interest in handling the issues related with postings and leaves for the soldiers. There were many instances where a soldier or an officer would have a request for leave or a particular posting due to personal reasons. Sam paid personal attention to see to it that only genuine requests are granted. Of course, it wasn’t a bed of roses. Some accused him of nepotism and favoritism. An anonymous person wrote a letter against a recent posting of the Director Weapons and Equipment. The reply was classic Sam and I can’t help but quote it here, ‘The Oxford Dictionary defines “Nepotism”, as ‘undue favouritism to relations”. Maj. Gen. X is a caste Hindu and I am equally high born Parsi. Therefore, there is no religious relationship. The General Officer is 50 years old and I am 58. Therefore, although I was a precocious child, best medical opinion would rule out paternity in this case. Unfortunately, I have not much scope for nepotism: it is almost too frustrating. The only competent officer from community is already the professional head of the army.”! Never again was any such complaint received from that quarter!

Talk about dignity and self respect, he asked the soldiers not to call any civilian by “Sir”. Of course, he demanded due respect and politeness but there is only one civilian – the Supreme Commander President of India who should be called “Sir”.

In another such instance, a combined meeting of bureaucrats and army officers was arranged to discuss some issues. When the meeting was about to start, a state secretary named Harish Sarin asked a colonel, “Hey, you there, Open the window” As the officer was about to get up, Sam’s voice boomed as he entered the room in his usual brisk pace “Sit Down” Sam turned to Sarin and said,” Don’t you ever call any of my officers by “you there” or any such thing! He is a colonel and deserves to be called by his rank, if you do not know him by name.” Sarin and all the other bureaucrats must have learnt their lesson.

He was the one who redesigned the Army uniforms and started the custom of putting name tags on them.

And there are so many such incidences clearly showing how Sam really was particular about things that matter to the Self respect and the dignity of the soldiers.

Secondly, he worked on regrouping and reorganizing the Army. New posts were created so that more young men can be attracted to join Army and the vacancy created by premature retirements could be compensated. He asked his fellow officers to campaign in the schools and colleges for the opportunities Army offers to the soldiers and how dignified Army life is. He also encouraged joint courses with JNU and other institutes so that the army officers can be technically sound and could think of making career even after retiring from Army.

Considering the constant threat faced by India from its neighboring countries, he stressed the point to equip and organize the various commands of Army.

In less than 2 years after becoming COAS, Sam was put to test as the issue of refugees from East Pakistan started becoming a thorn in the side for India. Even after this issue was brought to West Pakistan’s notice continually, no concrete action was taken by them. The situation was getting explosive day by day. The Indian government was facing pressure from the public for waging a war on Pakistan. In early 1971, Indira Gandhi arranged a meeting of the senior military officers and the cabinet to explore the possibility of the war and status of our preparation. Sam’s was the only voice against waging a war so soon. He argued that the army is not prepared for an all out offensive and by the time it will, the monsoon would start. So the best possible time would be after October as Army would be well armed and additionally, there wouldn’t be much threat from the Chinese as the winter would block their passes and routes. In spite of all the opposition from other cabinet members, Gandhi considered Sam’s advice and the wheels were set into motion for a planned preparation targeted for October. *

As usual, Sam was keen to know about each and every battalion, where it is posted, why it is required there and what they are supposed to do in case of attack. He carefully planned the details of all the strategic deployments and worked on getting the logistics and supply in place. He kept the intelligence on their toes so that latest information about the enemy is conveyed immediately to the Indian Army. Mukti Bahini – the rebels fighting against the East Pakistan authorities – had backing from India and that, too, was Sam’s suggestion.

It took 2 months for Sam to put his own Army in place. He was also the Chairman of Committee of Chiefs of Staff, comprising CoSes of all the 3 armed forces. And in spite of being the leader amongst the group, he made sure that he shares a good rapport with other CoSes and give them due respect and enough space to come up with their own inline strategy.

India declared a war on Pakistan on 3rd December, 1971 when Pakistan first attacked our airbases. How India thrashed Pakistan and forced it to surrender, making way for a free Bangladesh is a known history. Except a couple of incidents, the war was fought and won according to the plan. As promised by Sam, the war was over in 2 weeks! As a Chief of Staff and a great contributor to this win, he could have personally attended the Surrender ceremony but he asked Maj. Gen. Jagjit Singh Arora **, the then Commander in Chief of the Eastern Command, who himself played a major role, to sign the papers of the surrender as a reward for his painstaking efforts.

Sam was awarded Padma Vibhushan in 1972 and was conferred the rank of Field Marshal in 1973. ***

After a distinguished career spanning 40 years in Army, Sam “relinquished” his post of Chief of Army Staff for Maj. Gen. Bewoor – the then Commander in Chief of Southern Command. ****

He finally settled in a town named Coonoor along with his wife, daughters and grandchildren. Even at age 91, his photos still show his flamboyant and upright personality.

Sam always stood by his fellow men. He would go to any length to reach the people working at the lowermost rank. In a party, Sam was upstairs. He refused to come down to greet a few senior people, excusing himself for his broken leg. But then, he quickly sneaked out of the party, hobbled down the staircase to meet the sentry waiting down. Cracking a joke with him and slapping a pat on his back, he again hobbled upstairs. He could be always found talking to his subordinates, listening to their grievances and concerns. At times, the men were shy or afraid of expressing themselves and would tell him that they have no problem. Sam would promptly put an arm around his shoulder and say,” Sweetheart, if I have so many problems, how come you do not have even a single! Come on…speak up” No wonder, every soldier knew him. And it was one such servant in the Gorkha Regiment who knew him by the name “Sam Bahadur”!

Of course, it was not all kisses always. There were kicks, too. A division deployed in Nagaland was paying more attention to its own well being than to its duty. An infuriated Sam sent a box of bangles to the commanding officer with a note “Ask your men to wear them.” The division got its lesson and things soon became better. Sam was then again prompt to send another note “Send those bangles back, you don’t need them now”. I guess, the lessons are quite clear.

So many incidences portraying the larger – than – life personality and leadership qualities of this great National Hero of our times! It is simply impossible for me to capture all of them in a mere page or two!

And the image that still remains in my eyes is that of Sam striding upright and confident in his starched attractive uniform, inadvertently making others marching along with him look small…

Regards,
Abhishek


*: Apparently, the buzz around that time was that Manekshaw would soon take over the Government. He, in deed, was popular and in a position to carry out a successful coup. But Manekshaw believed in Democracy and never thought of doing so.

**: Maj. Gen. Jagjit Singh Arora made Gen. A. K. Niazi of Pakistan sign the surrender papers. Gen. Arora died recently. If I’m not mistaken, Niazi surrendered his revolver to Arora and it was stolen from the museum. If the theft news is true, it is really shameful for us.

***: Sam pointed out the wrong usage of the word “Honorary” in the earlier draft which was conferred on Field Marshal Cariappa and got it omitted.
****: Field Marshals never retire from Army. They “relinquish” their active post.

Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw - 1

The Human history is filled with wars. Wars – where everything is considered fair – is a game of power, tactics and leadership as much as is a game of weapons. Similar to the big corporations, these wars are considered to be good lessons of Management and Leadership.

These wars have given the world a lot of great warrior leaders, right from Alexander, Julius Caesar, to Napoleon, to Admiral Nelson, to Shivaji Maharaj and the list goes on…They only underscored that fact that what a good General can do with his leadership skills becomes much more important than the weapons, during the war. When things would go out – of – control, these leaders could motivate their men to give their best for the nation.

The post Independence era saw rising of one such great General who rose to become the Army Chief and later on the First Field Marshal of India.* He is S.H.F.J (Sam Hormusji Framji Jamshedji) “Sam” Manekshaw. Sam had played an instrumental role in defeating Pakistan convincingly in 1971’s war, freeing Bangladesh in the process.

Born in Amritsar on 3rd April 1914 to a Parsi couple, Sam was fifth amongst four boys and two girls. He had his schooling in Amritsar and at Nainital's famous Sherwood College. It would have been quite appropriate if Sam would have followed his two brothers to England to pursue higher studies – medicine to be specific. But then, his Doctor father saw him too young to go on his own in a foreign country. **

Sam then decided to join Indian Army. I guess, that was one of the best things that could happen to the Indian Army.

Joining the first batch of 40 cadets at Indian Military Academy (IMA), Dehra Dun on 1st October 1932, Sam passed out of the IMA in December 1934 and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the British Indian Army.

During World War II, he was leading a counter-offensive against the invading Japanese Army in Burma. On a fateful day of 22nd February 1942, as he charged forward with his men, a Japanese soldier suddenly emerged from the bushes and fired at him, wounding him seriously in the stomach. Fortunately, Major General D.T. Cowan spotted Manekshaw holding on to life and was aware of his valour in face of stiff resistance from the Japanese. Fearing the worst, Major General Cowan quickly pinned his own Military Cross ribbon on to Manekshaw saying, "A dead person cannot be awarded a Military Cross."! In spite of 7 bullets piercing through his stomach, Sam survived!

Again, fighting in the then Burma, he got wounded again and was sent back to India.

With the end of the war, he was sent to Indo – China to rehabilitate Japanese PoWs. In 1946, he was sent to Australia to give lectures on Military warfare for about 6 months. ***

Soon, India got independence from the British rule. The subsequent unfortunate partition forced India into her first war against Pakistan. Manekshaw showed great acumen for planning and administration while handling the issues related to partition in 1947, and later put to use his battle skills during the 1947-48 Jammu & Kashmir Operations.

In 1959, Sam was posted as the commandant of the Defense Services Staff College. There, his outspoken frankness got him into trouble with the then defense minister, V K Krishna Menon, and his protégé of the time, the late Lieutenant General B M Kaul. A court of inquiry was ordered against him but he could manage a narrow escape.

The year 1962 saw the most humiliating defeat for the proud Indian Army. India was worst hit in the North East Frontier Agency (Now Arunachal Pradesh). Ironically, Lt. Gen. B.M. Kaul was commanding the 4th Corps in NEFA. The deteriorating situation soon forced the Indian Government to call back Kaul and replace him with Sam. There was a lot of anxiety amongst the soldiers. And Sam was given the tough job to breath life in the lost soldiers.

The day when he took over the charges from Lt. Gen. Kaul, Sam was to address the officer staff. He entered the room with his usual jaunty step, looked as if he were meeting each eye trained on him and said, ‘Gentleman, I have arrived! There will be no more withdrawals in 4 Corps, Thank you;' and walked out. But the charisma that surrounds the man had preceded him and soldier and officer alike knew the 'chosen one' had arrived and henceforth all would be well.

In 1963, he became the Army Commander of the Western Command. Soon after, the then Defense Minister Yashwantrao Chavan asked him which, Sam thinks, is the most strategically critical command in the Indian Army. Given the constant threat from China, a fuming unrest in East Pakistan and increasing insurgency in the North Eastern states, Sam told him that the Eastern Command was the toughest of all the commands. Chavan promptly made him the Commander in Chief of the Eastern Command – the Second top rank in the Army.

Proving the Government’s faith in him, Sam handled the tricky problem of insurgency in Nagaland very well. For this great work, he was honoured with Padma Bhushan in 1968.

The greatest honour soon came his way when he succeeded the then Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Kumarmangalam, to become the 8th COAS of India on 7th June, 1969.

Manekshaw is a formidable combination of prodigious capacity of work, fascinating charisma and charm, irreverence towards Red Tape, a keen eye on detail and above all a shrewd, sympathetic ability to lead and manage. Behind those hefty mustaches and piercing eyes were a caring heart and a witty brain. He stood against his superiors in unjust conditions and loved his subordinates, caring for them always.

Watch this space tomorrow to know more about his tenure as COAS, the contribution he made in winning the 1971 War and the qualities that made him a beloved War hero “Sam Bahadur” and more than that a popular Leader.

Regards,
Abhishek

*: There are only 2 persons who are ranked as Field Marshal for India so far, the other being General Kariappa.

**: Handsome and charismatic Sam always left women around him mesmerized by his charm. When asked “If he would have gone abroad to study Medicine, which doctor he would have preferred to be?”, he promptly replied “Gynecologist”!

***: In one such lecture, he talked proudly about the Indian Army. A Veteran Australian stood up and said,” Colonel, I appreciate what you’ve said about the Indian Army but we Australians are no less, in fact we are very proud of ourselves and our ancestors” Pat came the reply from Sam,” So you should be, you were selected by the finest judges in England!”

Reference: Sam Manekshaw: Soldiering with Dignity by Maj. Gen. Depinder Singh – his Military Assistant.

Gillette

During the Great Depression, Iacocca’s father once told him that even if people have absolutely no job to do or they have no buying power left, they would, in any case, need to eat for survival. And when all the other industries were failing, they opened a successful restaurant. Like hunger, there are some things nature has gifted to human beings that you really can’t help. They just keep growing. Beard is one of these “ever growing” things! (May be that’s why Kishore Kumar named one of his movies “Badhati ka Naam Daadhi”J)

In the modern days, a clean shaved face is considered a symbol of masculinity and sobriety. So, almost every morning, shaving becomes a scheduled task for most of the men around the world. And if there’s one man they would be unknowingly thankful to for making shaving easier and safer, it’s King Gillette.

King Camp Gillette was born on January 5, 1855 in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. His father George Walcott Gillette was a post master, editor and had tried his luck at many other professions. When King was 4 years old, the whole family moved to Chicago where his father set up a hardware shop. However, in 1871, the Great Fire in Chicago destroyed their business and King, aged 17, was soon working as a salesman to support his family. While traveling all around the country, he happened to meet and work with William Painter who had invented the Crown Cork Bottle Cap. Working in Painter’s “Crown Cork and Seal” company, King came to know about the business of this first disposable item. With a dream to become a successful businessman, Gillette had tried his hand at stuffs like Water Valve and Electric Cable. He had secured the patent for them as well. But things didn’t quite work for him. Moreover, he lost $19000 in a futile attempt to produce carbonated water. Losing this big a sum was a major setback for him. Then, Painter advised a dreamy King to invent something like Bottle Cork that is disposable, something that assures great sales and repeated customers. King questioned him how many things there could be that are disposable except for pins, needles and other such stuff!

Well, the revelation of his life was soon to come on an 1895 morning while shaving. The irritation and may be a few cuts here and there must have made him wonder what if if I could come up with a safety razor that is disposable. The idea occupied his mind for coming few days. He asked for help from some MIT metallurgists but they turned him down thinking that it is impossible to produce a thin blade with sharp edge at a profitable price.

Finally 6 years later, a MIT graduate William Emery Nickerson came up with a blade Gillette had dreamed of. After making some modifications in the design, Gillette patented his product and started “American Safety Razor Company” in September, 1901 along with Nickerson. The company's name was changed in July 1902 to “Gillette Safety Razor Company”. However, actual production started in 1903 because it was very difficult to handle thin steel and sharpen it. The first year of 1903, saw a sales of 51 razor and 168 blades only! Gillette thought that this attempt is also a big failure. But the sales for next year: 90000 razors and 123, 000 blades made him stay in the business. He was also awarded the patent for Razor and Blade in 1904. By 1908, they had established manufacturing facilities in the United States, Canada, England, France and Germany. To make a brand for blades, Gillette started aggressive advertising. In 1910, a popular Baseball player named Wagner appeared in the Gillette advertisement. The tradition still continues…

Like Coca Cola, Gillette too faced problems with the imitators. Looking at the great market blades offered, lots of other companies tried to take away a bit of the pie. Imitations of the patented safety razor emerged and forced Gillette to pursue lengthy battles at court. In many cases, Gillette resolved the dispute by buying up ‘the imitator’!

World War I offered more opportunities for Gillette to grow as US Government equipped all the armed forces with Gillette safety razors, making 3 million razors and 32 million blades in circulation.

The company, thus, grown with productline including not only blades but also shaving creams, After Shave lotions and other shaving related stuff.

Associating Gillette with maleness, the company branded its products aggressively on radios and TVs, making it a global company. Gillette acquired several other companies in the personal care sector and expanded into other categories as well. Duracell, the battery brand, for instance, is part of the Gillette Empire and so is Braun, Oral – B. The Design of the patented Razor

On 1st October, 2005, Proctor and Gamble bought the Gillette Company (trading symbol G) for a staggering $57 Billion, making P & G the biggest personal care and household products company.

Even when Gillette himself was the founder Chairman of a global company like Gillette, he was a staunch anti – capitalist. According to him, Capitalism is the most unjust system in the world. It is the sole reason for poverty, illiteracy, misery and crimes. Money, to him, is the evil root of all. However, he advocated monopoly of big corporations, at the same time.

He was also a utopian socialist. He had published a book “The Human Drift” in 1894 advocating that all industry should be taken over by a single corporation owned by the public, and that everyone in the US should live in a giant city called “Metropolis” powered by the Niagara Falls. This city would have 25 storied buildings and anyone who wishes to stay in this city would have to work without any salary for 5 years! He had offered $1 Million salary for the then US President Teddy Roosevelt to become the president of this “Gillette World”. But Roosevelt, thankfully, turned it down. A later book, “World Corporation” (1910), was a prospectus for a company set up to create this vision. His last book, “The People's Corporation” was written with Upton Sinclair.

Retiring from the active business, Gillette spent next few years traveling around the country with his wife Atlanta. He handed over the company’s controls to his friend John Joyce who didn’t pay much attention to Gillette’s anti – capitalist philosophy and focused on new and improved blades and their branding. He introduced the famous Track – II blades having two blades for a smoother shave. The company invested a lot on the “Sensor” blades and how shaving can be made more comfortable. It took 5 years and $150 Million to invent Sensor blades. All the money was proved worth to invest as 240 Million Sensors sold in the first year itself!

And as fate would have it, the creator of so much wealth, the King of his “Gillette World” – King Gillette died in an almost bankrupt condition in 1932, as the Gillette stocks plummeted drastically during the Great Depression…

I know, by now, you must be wondering about the ups and downs Gillette saw in his life and the games Destiny played with him… And reflectively, your hand would have surely reached your chin rubbing it… And if it’s a bit rough there, it’s time to have a good shave with Gillette… Well, that’s “the Best a man can get”!

Japanese Management – 2

In the earlier Gyan, I had promised to write about the fallacies of Japanese Management, but some time later. But then, there were many queries and feedback asking for more information on this topic. So I’m just giving it a try.

As said earlier, the books published in 1981 named “The Art of Japanese Management” by Athos and Pascale and “Theory Z” penned by William Ouchi became overnight success and the American business pundits were forced to turn their attention to Japan and give due credit to Deming and Juran for the work they did.

But the other faction of Management gurus was no behind in bashing the Japanese Management Techniques. Soon, a flurry of Anti – Japanese Management books started flooding the market.

In 1981 itself, an author named Gibney published a book condemning Theory Z and blaming Ouchi of making false promises. In 1982 another author Bruce Brigs declared Theory Z “idiotic” and “dangerous”. According to him, Japanese Management has nothing to do with the amazing success Japanese companies have achieved and should not be attributed for it. It’s because of the workers who worked day in day out, without complaining against the management that these companies could turn things around.

His book and opinions were soon followed by one more author named Sullivan who criticized those Americans who think that implementing Japanese Management techniques in America would make them successful as well. He pointed out the qualities of Japanese people like obedience, paternal attitude and rigidity in following procedure that made these companies give good results. Implementing the same techniques as they are in a free country like America would not be advisable. The concept of “Life long Employment” preached by Japanese Management only makes the employee uncompetitive as he is assured of a job without taking any responsibility and risk.

In 1984, Sethi, Namiki and Swanson coauthored “The False Promise of the Japanese Miracle”. In this book, they extended the same views Sullivan had stated in his book. The principles of Japanese Management are the result of their culture and work ethics. Things like “Collective Responsibility” can work only in a country like Japan and not in US. Implementing these principles in US, without any thought and customization, would not only be a failure but a disaster. In Japan, the government and the companies share good relations. Government funds the ailing businesses to bring them back on track. In turn, these companies, too, provide necessary funding to the political parties. The upper echelon of these companies is called Zakai. Zakai is very influential and governs major decisions pertaining to policies and industries, to suit themselves, even when they are against the common man’s interest.

In Japan, the women are always suppressed and can work only on non – strategic posts of Secretary or Receptionist, etc, unlike US. The authors reiterated the significant part Japanese culture plays in their business and asked not to copy the principles of Japanese Management blindly.

The debate over Japanese Management can’t be complete without taking note of a Japanese thought leader: Kenechi Ohmae. Born in 1943 in Kyushu and educated in Waseda University, Ohmae doesn’t quite like to be called Japanese. Instead, he prefers “World Citizen”.

After graduating from Tokyo Institute of Technology, he went on to pursue Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering in MIT. The credentials of Ohmae do not end here. In 1972, he started working at the Tokyo office of McKinsey and later rose to become a partner over a span of 23 years. He co-founded McKinsey's strategic management practice in Japan and Asia-Pacific. He also served as an advisor to Japanese President Nakasone. He had made an unsuccessful attempt to start a political party in Japan. Apart from doing all this, he has penned more than 140 books; amongst them are bestsellers like “Triad Power”, “The Mind of the Strategist”, “The Borderless World”, “Beyond National Borders” and “The End of the Nation State”. No wonder he is hailed by the titles like “The Only Japanese Management Guru” and “Mr. Strategy”

And well, if he wouldn’t have succeeded in becoming a Management Guru, he surely would have made a career as a Flute player. His flute is good enough to captivate a concert! A multi faceted personality, I must say!

In his books, Ohmae criticizes the principles of Japanese Management. He proved the fallacy prevailing about the Japanese Management that every decision is taken from bottoms up, involving all the layers of the organization or that Japanese companies do long term planning.

But at the same time, in his book “Mind of the Strategist”, he explains how Analysis and Synthesis play an important role in decision making at any Japanese company. Generally, more stress is given on finding out the important factors and the relation linking them. The methods are based more on intuition and lateral thinking than on logical thinking and statistics. The decision makers are logical and at the same time, creative.

Although, I haven’t read them, the crux of his other books “Triad Power”, “Borderless World” and “Beyond National Borders” is a portrayal of a combined market comprising of US, Europe and Japan, having a single currency and sharing economical and political power. According to him, any company that aspires to be globally successful must achieve success in these three markets. Today, the rich countries are outsourcing their business to the Third World countries in search of cheap labour. But according to Ohmae, the trend would soon change once the automation would replace the human labour. And hence, he advises not to rely on Third World Countries for labor. He also stresses on Globalization and the role to be played by the government in Globalization. No company, today, can afford to neglect globalization and should continuously improve and invent new techniques to stay competitive.

In spite of all the opposition from these Management Gurus, American companies made trips after trips to Japan to learn their techniques. On the lines of “Deming Prize” in Japan, America introduced “Baldridge” prize for quality. American companies started implementing Total Quality Management. Motorola declared that their profit increased by $3.2 Billion over 1987 – 1992 because of TQM and Six Sigma!

The decades of 80’s and 90’s taught Americans everything that was there to learn from Japanese companies. American economy also was doing exceedingly well. At the same time, Japanese economy was going through a sluggish period. The trend of Japanese companies buying American companies had reversed. Ford bought a 24.5% stake in Mazda that rose to 33% later. GM made a joint venture with Toyota and learnt their management techniques.

Japan had, thus, was left with not much to give to the World of Management. Japan itself was plagued with increasing bureaucracy, inefficiency, prolonged decision making process and ill effects of Life long employment; add to that the undue stress on continuous improvement (Kaizen)

As stated at the end of the earlier Gyan, Japanese companies could not invent and cash on the new upcoming opportunities like Mobile Phones and computer, where the US Companies had already got a big head start. Of course, this does not mean that Kaizen is ineffective. But somewhere it restricted the companies to improve on the existing processes and products only and provided less scope for research and development of new concepts. Japanese companies thus lost major breakthroughs. In view of the globalization, Japanese themselves started pointing fingers at the principles of Japanese Management, e.g. The collective decision making process was criticized by prominent Japanese like Yoharo Kobayashi of Fuji Xerox; Japanese banks adopted “Up or Out” strategy i.e. either you thrive in spite of the competition or you have no place in the organization. In short, Japanese again traced back American steps to “Hire and Fire” policy!

Well, in spite of all the debate, shortcomings, fallacies, criticism about Japanese Management, I can’t help but repeat the way I ended the earlier Gyan: Japanese Management has still given a lot to the World of Management …

The Japanese Management - 1

Japan – the land of the rising Sun. This small bunch of islands had always been under constant threat of volcano, earthquake and subsequent tsunamis; add to that the lack of natural resources and minerals. But post World War II era saw the mesmerizing rise of this country.

Well, a few centuries back, Japan was a closely guarded secret for the West. But as Japan started opening up its avenues for the westerners, the latter came to know about a lot of things that took them by surprise about the potential this small country held. By the turn of the century, the decisive win of Japan over Russia in 1905 clearly sent out signals to the West to take them seriously. As described in earlier Gyans, Japanese companies were making significant industrial progress, following the footsteps of their American counterparts. But with the World War II clouds gathering over Japan, the success of Japanese companies was soon to get eclipsed as they were forced to convert their factories to fulfill the country’s wartime needs. Subsequent destruction of Japan and iron clawed controls of US regime only made sure that the conditions would be as hostile and hopeless as possible for the industries to blossom. Japanese goods had a really bad reputation in the market. So much so that, in his famous song “Mera Joota hai Japani”, Raj Kapoor is shown wearing a torn shoe!

But in spite of all the odds, Japan sprang back to life in such a way that it can only be compared with that of Phoenix. It quickly surpassed the developed countries. Their economy was growing at a rate of 10% during 70’s. Even when the Japanese economy went through a major crisis in the 90’s, its GDP was 80% of that of US, in 1995! Giving US companies doses of their own medicine, Japanese companies made them run for their money. The whole of US industry pundits were divided into two clear sides: One who admired everything about Japan and the other who hated them equally! This hatred was expressed time and again so much so that in a movie “Rising Sun”, the Japanese Managers are shown devilish!

Well, whatever may be the consequences of the Japanese rising and downfall, the small country has contributed a lot to the world of Management.

It all started with a couple of neglected stars: W. Edwards Deming and Joseph M. Juran. I am running short of space and time to write in depth about Deming and Juran here. But, in short, these two can be attributed to think first about the quality. According to Deming, whenever we do an action, there is a “process” involved. If the process is faulty, the end product would obviously be faulty. The Management itself is largely responsible for the defects and should be held by the neck rather than the workers. It was he who introduced the concept of Total Quality Management. In essence, Quality is not a one time activity but a continuous process.

As fate would have it, no one in US listened to their words of wisdom and they were well forgotten. It was General McArthur who invited Deming and Juran to Japan to pull the Japanese industry from the shabby conditions they were in. Throughout the 1950 to 1970, through endless speeches and consulting, Deming – Juran explained the importance of quality to Japanese engineers and entrepreneurs. The efforts were soon to bear fruits.

In 1980, NBC ran a program named “If Japan can, why can’t we?” in view of Japan’s surprising progress. It was only then that America recalled their forgotten heroes. Soon, invitations and felicitations flowed in for Deming – Juran back in their home country. The circle was thus complete.

The year 1981 saw two books becoming bestsellers – William Ouchi’s “Thoery Z” (about which I had briefly talked in an earlier Gyan” ) and “The Art of Japanese Management” by Pascale and Athos. Even though, the subjects of these books were essentially different, they shared a common thread – Praise for Japanese Management. This started a flurry of American Managers making rounds of Toyota factories. On a lighter note, these managers were heard saying, “Let’s go for the Toyota pilgrimage”! The flow had changed its direction from Japan to US to the other way round.

Apart from the great work done by Deming and Juran, there were inherent differences between American way of doing business and that of Japanese. Even though, early Japanese managers made trips to US to learn about their industries, they made sure that they customize the processes learnt to suit the Japanese culture.

The basic difference between a Japanese and a US company is their hiring policy. In US where you are handed a pink slip the moment your performance goes down or the management doesn’t find a place to fit you in the system, in Japan Life time Employment is almost guaranteed, unless you don’t really mess up with your career. The Japanese companies are very careful while recruiting people because for them, it is a life time deal compared to the “Hire and Fire” policy of the US companies. In Japan, a lot of effort goes in training the newly recruited people so that they become good enough in all the major aspects of the business. As Akio Morita of Sony puts it, it’s like building a wall using stones of different shapes. If you want to build a new wall of different size and shape, you don’t need to throw all these stones away. All you need to do is to just rearrange them to suit your needs. Precisely, that’s what the Japanese companies do. For the all-round development of employees, they are frequently shifted from department to department, making sure that the job doesn’t get monotonous that way.

The hierarchy of the Japanese companies is driven by seniority rather than by merit. Even within the ranks of Management, there are grades. Depending upon seniority, the person is put in appropriate grades and ranks. Although the ranks drive the salaries and compensation, thanks to the Job rotation policy, they may not necessarily define the job. Also, as any person, in his early years, is basically a member of the union, he can correlate his experience as a worker once he is promoted to become a manager.

In US, whatever the Boss says, it is taken as the final verdict. In Japan, however, more stress is given on explaining the workers why they are doing what they are doing. A multilayer discussion right from the bottom most people – who are actually going to execute the decision – to the top management happens. This method is called “Ringiseido” As the workers are also involved in the decision making process, they contribute towards the betterment of the process and feel a part of it. Although, this process is time consuming, once the decision is made, the execution is very quick.

Back in US, Toyoda had observed piles after piles of inventory lying and rusting. Learning from that experience, he founded the JIT concept in Japan where the space crunch was always faced. The concept of JIT – Just – in – Time is simple. Whatever parts are required for assembling; only those would be supplied just before starting with the assembly. In Toyota, for example, parts required for the production in next one hour only are stored. Instead of keeping the raw material / subcomponents just lying around – which in turn means locked money – they are moved or ordered from the suppliers as and when needed, reducing wastage of time and money. An interesting note here is: Even Ford implemented JIT in their plants at River Rouge. It became so effective over a period of time that when the miners went on a strike in some other part of the country, the plant at River Rouge stopped its production within next 4 hours!

As can be seen, the success of JIT depends a lot on the suppliers. The manufacturing company needs to have good relationship with the suppliers. Many a times, the manufacturing company itself holds a stake in the supplier company. Such supplier companies are called as “Keiretsu” Managers from the parent company move to the Keiretsu Company in order to maintain bonds with them. Due to such strong bonds with the suppliers, the Japanese companies manage to produce double the cars compared to their American counterparts.

The supplier sends a card along with the material. This card is called as “Kanban” As the stock of materials deplete, the card is sent back to the supplier to indicate that it’s time to replenish the inventory.

As preached by Deming and Juran, quality is maintained at every stage of the process. Even a worker on the shop floor can stop the whole assembly line if he finds some defect. In a company which manufactures a car every minute, this delay would mean millions. But to the Japanese companies, these millions are well spent if they prevent a faulty piece to roll out of the assembly line. This practice is called as “Jidoka”. Every worker tries to improve the quality and the process. This continuous improvement is called as Kaizen and the groups of workers who discuss about the scope of improvement are called as Quality Circles.

A single concept mentioned above is worth writing pages after pages and I have just touched upon them very briefly. I’m sure I’ve missed out on many details like Poka Yoke and other such ideas Japanese Management gifted to the world.

After talking about all the good things, a small note on why it failed at some points.

As mentioned above, the continuous improvement is an integral part of Japanese Management. But while the company is busy improving the existing products only, the development of new concepts and products are neglected. A couple of good examples could be:

1) Japanese companies were trying to improve on the memory storage devices when their competitor Intel moved out of it and got a decisive headstart in Microprocessor manufacturing – a field hardly thought of by Japanese.

2) As Japanese companies continued improving cassette players and related stuff, advent of CDs, MP3 Players and computers took them by surprise.

How Japan became a major power in industry and how US companies retaliated to the Japanese all round attack is all very interesting and enriching. About that some other time some other day, but the fact remains that the Japanese Management did leave its mark on the whole world…

Regards,
Abhishek

The Toyota Way

Discussing Japan, and especially Japanese Management, without taking note of this company is just next to impossible. “Touching the Perfection”, this company is already the second largest car manufacturer in the world and soon heading to replace GM from the No. 1 spot. Surprisingly, what started as a Power and Automatic Loom Works, the company is now known for its quality and engineering in Automobile Industry. Yes, it’s Toyota.

It was Sakichi Toyoda who invented the power loom in 1902 and the automatic loom in 1926. He was the one who established the Toyoda Group of companies. The automatic loom would stop automatically if any of the threads snapped. His invention opened the way for automated loom works where a single operator could handle dozens of looms. Sakichi's invention reduced defects and raised yields, since a loom would not continue producing imperfect fabric and using up thread once a problem occurred. The principle of designing equipment to stop automatically and call attention to problems immediately is crucial to the Toyota Production System.

Even today, the company is still in the Computerized Automatic Looms, electric sewing machines and textile business!

The story of Toyota Motor Corporation began in September 1933 when Toyoda Automatic Loom created a new division especially for the production of automobiles. Kiichiro Toyoda – son of Sakichi Toyoda was heading this division. Soon, the division produced its first Type A Engine in 1934, which was used in the first Model A1 passenger car in May 1935 and the G1 truck in August 1935. Production of the Model AA passenger car started in 1936.

By 1936, Kiichiro had convinced his father that Automobile Business is the next thing they should jump in. So Sakichi sold the Power loom patents to a British company – Platt for £100,000! The sum was then invested in building Toyota Motor Corporation. The company was named Toyota, instead of Toyoda, because it took 8 strokes to write “Toyota” in Japanese and 8 was considered a lucky number! Jai Numerology! J

Till then, Ford and GM together shared 90% of the market and situation was not so encouraging for any startup to enter the automobile market. Kiichiro made a year long trip to Ford Motor Company and studied their methods in depth. Coming back to Japan, he not only implemented them but got rid of some of the inadequacies in the process and tailored them to suit Japanese industry. Kiichiro had observed piles of parts lying around in the factories in US. In Japan, however, he introduced Just – in – Time concept to reduce the inventory.

But soon, Toyota was asked to stop automobile manufacturing and to convert the factories to produce Trucks and other stuff for the Imperial Army. The urgent need to manufacture trucks made Toyota change designs of the trucks e.g. there would be only one head lamp on the hood instead of 2.

Fortunately for Toyota, the war ended shortly before a scheduled allied bombing on the Toyota factories in Aichi.

Soon after the war ended, Toyota moved back to its business. Commercial passenger car production started in 1947 with the model SA. In 1950 a separate sales company Toyota Motor Sales Co. was established (which lasted until July 1982).

The ending of the world war didn’t quite help Toyota to rise back to its feet because Kiichiro was forced to resign from the company by the Japanese government in 1950. The steering came in the hands of Eiji Toyoda, a nephew of Sakichi Toyoda. He had joined the Toyoda Automatic Loom Works family business after graduating from the University of Tokyo in 1936.

The reorganization forced by the government separated the family businesses and resulted in the resignation of Kiichiro and his entire staff. In the first year as Managing Director, Eiji followed the foot steps of Kiichiro to US to study the American automotive industry. After touring the Ford Motor Company operations, Eiji returned to Japan with a desire to redesign the plants. An important process learned during the trip was the Ford Motor Company suggestion system. Eiji instituted the concept and it is considered to be one of the major building blocks of the Toyota Production System of continuous improvement (Kaizen).

There was one other man who played a pivotal role in Toyota’s success. Taiichi Ohno, considered to be the creator of the Toyota Production System and the Father of the Kanban System, joined the Toyoda Automatic Loom Works after graduating from Nagoya Technical High School in 1932. Early in his career, he expanded upon the JIT concepts developed by Kiichiro Toyoda to reduce waste, and started refining the methodologies to produce components and subassemblies in a timely manner to support the final assembly. Taiichi Ohno made a smooth post war transition from loom works production to car and truck parts production. The war resulted in the leveling of all Toyoda Group Works production facilities, but under the management of Eiji Toyoda, the plants were gradually rebuilt.

In 1957, Toyota entered the US Market with Toyopet Crown. In 1958, only 287 Toyopet Crowns were sold in the U.S. Toyota's first experience in the U.S. market was a sharp contrast to the impressive success it had already achieved in Japan. But after this shaky start, Toyota went on to establish itself slowly but surely in the US market.

The US market was the market of big cars – the Gas Guzzlers as they were called. Compared to these cars, the cars produced by Japanese manufacturers were small in size and fuel efficient. I remember reading somewhere that Japanese like to manufacture cars having rectangular shapes like box. Wagon R could be one such example. Compare this with the stylish, sporty cars sold in US and the early failure of Japanese cars can be reasoned. The oil crisis, however, helped Japanese cars – Toyota mainly, to establish themselves firmly in the Japanese market. Small size, high quality, superior engineering and performance and most importantly affordable price tag made the Japanese cars very popular in US. Even, Iacocca’s autobiography has references of Japanese carmakers and how they made Ford, GM run for their money.

In 1968, Toyota introduced Corolla which became and still is a runaway success. Similarly, Camry introduced in 1983 was another perfect product from Toyota.

Together Eiji and Taiichi went on to build Toyota – a world class automobile manufacturer. Giving dose of its own medicine to Ford, Toyota implemented Ford’s best practices but at the same time made sure that they are customized to Japanese Industry.

Eiji remained the managing director of Toyota from 1950 to 1981 and Chairman from 1981 to 1994. Taiichi rose to become the executive Vice President and is considered Father of the Kanban system.

Today, it manufactures vehicles under the brand names Toyota, Hino, Scion and Lexus, and owns a majority stake in Daihatsu, and 8.7% of Fuji Heavy Industries. In 2005, the company has manufactured 7.5 Million cars that is more than 1 car per minute! At the end of fiscal 2005, Toyota had production bases in 26 overseas countries and regions, a vehicle sales network spanning approximately 170 countries and regions, and more than 260,000 employees worldwide on a consolidated basis. As we all know, Toyota also participates in the F -1 racing.

Apart from being a great company, Toyota has given a lot of new concepts about Management and processes. JIT, Kanban, TQM, Six Sigma, SCM and all the other concepts that are now used by manufacturing companies all over the world are essentially gifts from Toyota!

Watch this space tomorrow to know more about these concepts and Japanese Management.

Regards,
Abhishek

P.S.:
There is a book named “Toyota Way” which I am yet to read. The article is written purely by googling about Toyota.