People at Work & Play

Millions of words have been spoken and written about the Tata Nano. The much awaited Rs. 100,000 car. This was exhibited for the first time in the Auto Expo a few days ago. What about the team behind this achievement?

I am delighted that media and his organization have given due credit to 37 year old Girish Wagh and his team at Tata Motors. I am pleased that Tata Motors have given Girish Wagh the exposure to talk to the press and appear on many TV channels, because it was primarily his team’s efforts that led to the Tata Nano.

When he first joined Tata Motors 16 years ago, Girish Wagh had no idea he would one day head the company’s now-legendary Rs 1-lakh car project. Although he was part of the Indica vendor development team in 1997, Wagh was actually reluctant to get into full-scale product design with the Ace.

He remembers how Tata Motors MD Ravi Kant hand-picked him for the job and convinced him that it was as important as the work he was doing with the company’s excellence group. That was December 2000. The Ace rolled out in May 2005 and almost singlehandedly helped beat a recession in the commercial vehicle space. Impressed by his ability to deliver under tight deadlines, chairman Ratan Tata and Ravi Kant decided to move Wagh to the small car project in August that year.

Girish is a mechanical engineer from the Maharashtra Institute of Technology , Pune with post-grad. in manufacturing from SP Jain Institute of Management, Mumbai.

Girish’s story is typical of many bright young Indians. Given the right environment and support they can turn in excellent performance. I am sure his example will be a motivating factor for many young engineers .

A very simple principle, yet so often forgotten.

Mohan, a young engineer told me that he was very upset with his boss. I could sense that something about his relationship with his boss had not gone right. “I am waiting for a chance when he has to come to me for something. I will show him then” he said. His sulking typifying the hurt he felt from within.

From subsequent conversation I realized Mohan was upset because his boss had yelled at him in front of 3 others. “I agree. That’s not good” I said “But when did this happen?” He glared as he recalled the incident. “2 years ago” he said darkly. Obviously the memory still rankled.

Some time later, he mentioned another point that had hurt him even more. “I understand that my boss has much more experience than me” he said ” I have much to learn from him. He could have called me separately and scolded me- if he had to. What I felt worse was that, of all people, he yelled at me in front of those two fellows - Naresh and Ram”

To him the last straw was being scolded in front of two others whom he felt were not as good as him.

I am sure his boss may not remember this incident at all. He is blissfully unaware of the adverse impact on this person.

A few weeks later, I met Mohan and made some general enquiries about his work. “ Did you say anything to my boss?” he asked. “ No, why?” I asked.

” I thought you may have told him something” he said. “ He called me yesterday to his cabin and actually said I had done a good job. The team was struggling with a problem. I came out with a solution that worked. I am really happy” he beamed.

Here we go again, I thought to myself. The boss had missed this one too. Here was an excellent opportunity to praise the young engineer in front of the team. To make it known that such behaviours were appreciated. That such ideas were welcomed. Instead he had praised him privately.

You might argue that praising in private is better than not praising at all ! I would agree. But think, how much more pleased the young engineer, (or you or me for that matter) would have felt had the boss praised in front of the entire team.

Simply stated: Praise in public! Criticize in Private !!

You can subscribe to the A-Step-A-Day series using RSS at http://bprao.wordpress.com/category/a-step-a-day/feed