400, 500, AGRA - 1986

The Taj Mahal was, is and always will be an attraction to Indians and people all over the world and when you are in Agra that’s the topic you would want to talk about. For this motley group of company executives however it was not Mumtaz but Canon that was occupying the mind space.

Well, as usual somehow rumours from “decent” sources do turn out to be true and we somewhat knew that our new range of machines would be from the East. Therefore the breakfast conversation in every table was all about what to anticipate. Given Arvind Wable at the helm of affairs and he being the MC, we were expecting some Magic.

Waking up in a luxurious bed that early was not everybody’s cup of tea but there we were sharp at 7.30 to devour the Sheraton Breakfast layout. The hungry mob piled up their plates and I know of many a “vegan” trying out swine meat for the first time, and declaring their long-term affiliation for the same!! I of course given my fancy for 5 star breakfasts spend a lot of time and that too circulating from table to table. I of course had this advantage of knowing people from different offices unlike many others and therefore there was a lot of catching up to do!!

The senior managers were of course going through this excruciating pain of knowing about what’s coming up and not being able to share at the risk of perhaps being hounded out of the premises by Rajiv Khanna and company. Some of them of course had no option but to actually blurt out bits and pieces of information, that sounded a bit like Chinese History!!. Then we knew for sure that the Magic Show was being organized well!!

The clock struck 9 and all of us were huddled into Dewan-I-Khas and we were seated for the show to start. The first was the brochure that came out of the magician’s hat. It was an Accordion Flat Folded brochure with all the 7 models (3 on one side and 4 on the other) and opened up like as you guessed - like an accordion!!! From far we could not actually make out the looks but then suddenly the stage was lit and we could the see the full range. The neon rays reflecting on the off white machines were a pleasure to watch and perhaps some of us were already planning an onslaught against the PCL stuff.

There were two sizes of machines in terms of platen width – 14 inches and 17 inches with variations in terms of display and memory capacity. The range was ensuring that were getting into penetrating the market, increase volumes and perhaps this was also a start where both small or big enterprises could now aspire for better quality typed communication for that final benefit of image enhancement. Later in life another dimension would get added to our marketing strategy but surely this was not the time. We were still in a status and quality attribute push.

The training programs were elaborate and exhaustive, while the seniors were kicking ass over individual office targets in some isolated meeting rooms. I was in the former group and thankfully so!!

The evenings were better with a bit of relaxation though some of our Delhi HO nitwit (the definition I like given in this link - http://nitwit.urbanup.com/544937) seniors were trying hard to behave as jail wardens. It was easy to handle those maneuvers and we did venture out to do a bit of unofficial sight seeing. From the Hotel one could see the Taj only from a particular balcony and one of the nights it was full moon that treated us to the brilliance!!

It was all about how to operate these new machines, the concept of “CODE”(like our CNTRL keys that has been de-glorified by the Mouse, Sticks and Scratching Pads!!!), the segments to sell and all that and more. The LAM teams having their own separate discussions (obviously!!!) and we having our own!! The divides had started. We had our own Major Accounts and the lists were used I guess to fix some targets. The negotiations were hard and there was as usual extra pressure on Mumbai for obvious reasons….big market and all that at the cost of perhaps lesser attention to other smaller (?) offices.

The story of target setting that used to go around would be known to one a many but would be worth recounting. It went like this. One fine morning the Managing Director dreams that he needs to push 6000 machines into the market in the next 6-8 months. So he calls in his General Manager and asks him to plan for 8000, The GM calls for a RM meeting and expects them to plan for 10000. The RMs come back and expects the Area Managers to plan for 12000 with individual pinning of figures for SEs. At the end of the period the average SE gets in 6000(composite of course). But that’s only 50% of ‘his” target and therefore gets a solid KITA!! The MD of course books himself a FC seat in Swiss Air!!

On the 3rd day, early morning at six, we gathered for our official walkathon to the Taj and back. It was quite a contingent and was enjoyable. It was a young company, with young people all walking with a young dream in their mind. The dream was simple. Get that machine into every nook and corner and kill PCL’s happiness!!

Departing is always a sad moment and this time we were to take a bus to Mathura to board the Paschim Express to Mumbai. We were on time but due to traffic accident on the highway we were delayed. There was tension in the air since the probability of missing the train was becoming rather high. The bus had to cross an over bridge (bang on top of the tracks) before we could reach the station. We could see the train waiting and we quickly planned our steps. Ambrose and myself ran into the platform and jumped aboard the first compartment and got into the washroom and waited to pull the chain if the train starts moving. We had to finally!! The whole contingent with our luggage both suitcases and some human beings were to be literally brought in. We were one our way but this time the journey was shorter since it was a faster train. The gambling team was back in action, while some were catching up on lost sleep.
I was thinking of the good byes that one wanted to say but could not. But more than that I was thinking of my first team session on the next working day!! There was a lot of excitement in the air, we were all primed and it was Ready and Get Set. The GO was about to be fired!!

I was also thinking about all the older team mates that I met. The Hyderabad office people like GP, Rajkumar, LB, Ravikumar, Krishnaveni, Vivekananda and others were all there. Our Kolkata office was as usual colourful but were under the strict supervision of Sushil Joshi and Asit Pal. Not that we did not manage a bit of flirty conversations here and there!!

It was a good conference and exciting one and one could see that the organisation was growing. It was getting difficult to remember all names and as usual the Marketing Team at HO pulled off a great show!!