William Marked US - Hyderabad 1986-87

A deviation from the flow but this is a much promised one.

Just about a month before I was destined to leave Vizag, a new Area Sales Manager joined Hyderabad Office. I guess there were some disappointments there since now teams were getting divided and as usual change without proper communication brings about a lack of confidence amongst people. I was away from all of this but also in it because of my inherent relationship with Hyderabad office.

The gentlemen who joined was one Markos Williams. The only claim to fame he had was all that he bragged about - his connection with Jagdish Tytler (how that helped Network that is still unclear to me but I guess he managed to impress some seniors at Delhi with his glib talk). We also came to know in due course that he was a major contract supplier to ICRISAT (an UN organization based at Hyderabad that had one of the most corrupt Purchase Departments you could find). He was a major high society animal in terms of private parties and such things. All these information were made available to us by him and we really did not have to do any research as such.

The guy was a lanky fellow as you can see in the picture (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkgqRls9G0-xYm79Ab3uJYtCxKxjkK6eQUoN5RTjQbRj-alE3jk34Ky0BhNOENrCIYL14TiopDrMTMQpanVPblAJJxwPGUxMu7hnu7tRWO3v170y4UQ-QB9KsKrzuJk_wC0MjKQ5wwBNc/s1600-h/img049.jpg) and to begin with the Network Higher Ups was quite intimate with him. He was part of the Agra conference and while other managers were perhaps giving a lot of time to his team he was of course roaming around with the people at the helm like RK and so and so forth from Head Office. Surely his dubious and debatable background and charisma was working on them!!.

My interaction with him was limited, officially none while social etiqueete wise at a minimum level. His wife use to land up at Hyderabad office and I remember teaching her some games like Pacman and stuff on the PC. The office bachelors including me were of course a bit hee-ho-hum about her since she was pretty attractive in her own way!!

So this gentleman basically started taking control over most staff in the office unofficially too. Mind torture games with people who did not tow his line started and I know of situations where office people were beaten up by hired thugs. His private business with ICRISAT and others were still on and he even started using Network infrastructure in terms of Telexes, International calls and any other means at hand.

I once visited ICRISAT with him and more than Network business, we were basically talking about wire fences that he was contracted to supply.

So the saga continued and the atmosphere in Hyderabad office started to deteriorate. Employees were being hassled including their family lives. I left Vizag and an engineer named Srinivas was put in charge of Vizag. He was absolute in cahoots with Markos and consumables for sale started disappearing from stocks.

News travel and perhaps one fine day the blinkers that were put on by some HO blokes were taken off. GP was in New Delhi too and he for sure could not mentally tolerate the affairs.

So some of them came down to Hyderabad one day and that was the end of Markos Williams. The departure was not without threats and such but Network finally prevailed. In my later stints at Head Office I have seen how people at the helm also need disciples at the lower level in order to thrive but this one was a case where everything had gone wrong and it took time for HO to exactly differentiate the good from the evil and that was entirely due to their own doing!!

Once from Mumbai myself and BVR had traveled to Hyderabad to visit old friends and I remember visiting Markos's house too. At that point of time MW was in full control of Network and he was the King of Hyd office. The news of our visit was relayed instantly by him to RK, Now you could imagine how close he was with powers at Delhi and how insecure he was that he had to report even a social Hi-Hello!!

In Banks we deal with PEPs(Politically exposed Persons) with extreme care, caution and they carry their own risks. I reckon even the professionally run establishments in any business should also have their own teams working behind investigating PEPS in terms of referral checks for appointments or business dealings or even employee relationships!!