Network Days

DSR and OCA

2011-02-23T23:24:00.000+04:00

The Daily Sales Report was a tool that was extremely inefficiently used except perhaps by certain managers in the system like K Ravishankar or G Prithviraj and there could be a few more. I remember Prithwish Bose of Guwahati and Kolkata quite good at it. The tool was more for the manager to assess his market situation but unfortunately it was used by them to control and antagonize the sales persons. It was like those traits of few managers who would shunt out the sales guys at 9.15 in the morning when the market place had not opened up. Imagine you sitting in your office having to encounter a sales guy trying to sell something you apparently do not need first thing in the morning.

So, what did the sales guys do? In Delhi they were the tea shops in and around Ashoka Estate while in Mumbai there was ample opportunity in Poonam Estate to disappear and not encounter the wrath of the Sales Manager. The Lam team in Mumbai was famous for the disappearing act. When wanted in Worli they would be found in Tulsiani Chambers and vice versa. This was even truer when a Head Office Marketing or Sales Person visited the Branch. They were like auditors trying to find flaws and make their assumptions and presumptions and report them back to HQ. No wonder the BSMs and RSMs and RMs had a love hate relationship with them.

Coming back to the topic of the DSR the first one that I encountered had a few columns wherein you had to put in the name of the person, the organization name and details, some sort of an assessment of the prospect in terms of coldness and warmness (somewhat like sex appeal) and of course the type of call. I leave it to your imagination what you would decipher when a salesperson would write something like this. A typical row that perhaps Llewellyn D’souza of Bombay office would write in his DSR was as follows: Vandana, Secy to MD, Blue Films Ltd, Grant Road, Warm, 2, FU. The FU would mean Follow Up so that you do not think otherwise. I had banned that phrase later from usage because it meant nothing except the slang. It sort of ridiculed the manager I thought!!

Head Office marketing of course had to be innovative what with a couple on new recruit SMTs inducted. So a new DSR was created. This one had 12 rows assuming that a typical day of a sales person would consist of 12 calls. There were 9-10 different types of calls and the prospect could be at a different stage in the selling life cycle. I think there were 12 stages and Collection of Money was definitely not one of them. No wonder Network had landed up with a huge outstanding where much later Navin Kumar started focusing on the same without much success and it required a Devesh Nayel and Subhas Guha to get in some sort of discipline.

So this DSR was a key document that could have been effectively used but then that was too complicated for Network managers to analyze (after all everybody is not G Prithviraj who took his job of training his people more seriously than HR!!). So there was this Hot/Warm/Cold analysis with time dimensions and what have you. So it were those private diaries of Sales people that would have the true stories of what was going on in their territories and not the bunch of lies written in DSRs that used to even go to HQ for analysis(sic!).

During our ISO days even the Customer Engineers had to fill up detailed reports where they had to write in even when they perhaps visited the facilities for natural biological reasons.

The OCA was another document that was a dream of the Sales person to be able to fill up on a daily basis. In the days of the 300 series that was not possible but later in the Canon days especially at Mumbai the sales guys were filling them by the dozens on a daily basis. Order Confirmation Advice was the full form and later when we had computers and systems to record these forms underwent an overhaul.

Debashis Bannerjee at Head office was responsible those days in terms of collating executing these OCAs and later in the years to come it was S. Mohan and Krishan Kapoor. The latter is of course now managing Ultra Sound Scanners at Medison. So this OCA was the single most important document as far as the salespersons existence was concerned. The number of them defined his life in terms of incentives or promotions. In later years we had even developed a system of paying incentives automatically with his salary. I also remember that one of the top sales guys (P Bansil) even received a negative salary in a particular month due to collection clauses.

A few members have talked about empty boxes being produced and supplied. So during year ends there were people in Head Office filling up false OCAs with details from Sales Person’s Hot prospect lists!! I salute the finance and accounts guys in Head Office who had to finally manage all these out of order proceedings.

(f)AXED

2010-11-03T13:13:00.005+04:00

HCL was the group and Network was a group company. We knew that Network could not get sell any of the products that HCL sold through its other group companies. The “Office Automation” space was getting restricted and Network started looking out. Strategic Consultants were brought in and a few of our HEADS went on foreign sojourns to Exhibitions and Fairs to select relevant products. People even started research on unconnected areas like BIO-TECH. It was then that they realized that Medical Diagnostics was perhaps an area worth looking and within a year we had two tie ups. The first one was with Picker and the other with Medison of Korea, for MRIs and UltraSound Machines respectively.

The market was good and it was novel concept of having a slow moving high value product combined with a potentially faster moving item. What we also knew that was that the Maintenance Revenue earned through the Office Automation was business was being diverted to these new businesses leaving the OA population to start thinking about migration to the new avatar – Telecom.

That was the time when OA business needed a push. The push came in different ways. The first one was in terms of attacking a different market segment and the second one was about picking a new product to sell.

The margins on service contracts were good and we were getting cash rich with the multiple year schemes. This made us greedy and quality started to fall since fair investments were not being done on the maintenance infrastructure. You had the medical business team coming in at higher salaries and suddenly the traditional OA people felt left out. The revered marketing team of Network had no more ideas left for Electronic typewriters or the likes.

It was depressing all right for the OA group when our Connection resulted in a spark idea of Network getting into Facsimile Machines(FAX). The product was gaining popularity and was largely sold by small time traders. Faxes were mostly used in STD booths or retail business centers. Organized companies were still in the process of shifting from traditional teleprinters and telexes to these machines. The market as such had to grow since if you own a fax machine you cannot necessarily use it unless your counterpart on the other side has one!

The other concept of selling Typewriters through dealers were already put in place albeit with their own sets of problems of unclear territories, poor quality of machines, lack of training and support, etc. But we were chugging along and then came the fax for both the selling arms. Direct Sales and the dealer community were both excited with the product but did not know how to counter the small time sellers and the grey market.

Himanshu Kapania the product manager for fax had created this elaborate paper on fax but that was not useful for the field. For some reason, sales training sort of fell onto my head too and I started creating the training material on faxes. We were basically losing deals all over the country and stocks were piling up at head office.

That was the scenario when we created thsi elaborate schedule of travesring the length and breadth of the country, visiting all locations and taking sessions with the sales people on usage of the machine, the technical points that was required for selling and of course handling competition. It was a price sensitive market and we had to tread carefully in terms of deiscounts or promotions.

The fax honeymoon lasted for a file, newer models were introduced but now the organisation itself was plagued with cancer. The Cancer hads started earlier in terms of over confidence at the top. Irrelevant dreams supported by "YES" men and women at the top and of course there was the arrogance of a brother who wanted to be larger than the group!!

Telecom was the new sunrise sector and scores of people left the organisation. The management of Network went into a downward spiral and just could not recover from market presuures and more of course from internal group pressures.

It does pain to write about the downfall about an enterprise that had managed to give a lot. It gave a lot to the market, its employees and general society. Would like to talk about that in the next episode!!

The Indigenous Era - 1990-92

2010-10-31T21:23:00.007+04:00

DJFM is where Network Salespeople suddenly saw Incentives as the main source of money. The trend was changing unlike the past where the focus was on the quality of sale. The thrill in the past was on how to convince customers and crack deals and minds. We were now at the peak of our product life cycle. Customers needed the machines, We were supplying them in an extreme competitive environment and incentive was the driver. Margins were shrinking. Network and its competitors were paying more attention to deals rather than products. Personal Computers were slowly and steadily creeping in to the business space and it was perhaps time for the Network think tank to innovate on survival strategies.

It was a classic normal curve where we were making merry of our existence on the peak. In the meantime I was personally getting sick of Kolkata Office with the atmosphere. People were leaving and I sensed a bit of downfall for that place, socially that is.

Then one fine day WKH informed me that I was needed at Delhi for two weeks. As usual, he was not clear in his communication and I finally reached Delhi where Sunil Kishore gave me the dope. I was to act as the Host/Trainer/Interface or in Army Terms - a Subedar Major for the new cadets(management trainees) that were to join that year. I spent about two weeks in Head Office preparing myself with the Course Material, arranging Guest Lectures if required and so on and so forth.

It was a 7 day program where we were holed up in Sofitel Surya in Friends Colony(Now Best Western I think) and I had a gruelling schedule ahead with the guys and gals. I am still trying to search and get connected to them but so far have not been able to accomplish my target. Anyway, we had a great time and think it was a productive 7 days given that I was from the "field" and could bring in life experiences rather than theoretical ones. This program while I am sure helped the participants, it also helped me in terms of Training techniques and my own improvement.

Then came the news that I was to be posted at Pune. So I was still maintaining the record of being in different locations every year so far with Network. Pune was a great city to be in for a young couple. The weather, the surroundings, the picinic and short visits and the people in Pune Office were all a delight. Our machines were selling and more than talking about capabilities we were on this dicsount binge. The market had degenerated to be so and Network was trying to get some value out of it though its Letracomp. The Letracomp was a glorified Electronic Typewriter with some added Fonts and minute adjustements so that it could serve the printer's market in terms of publishing. It could not survive the onslaight of DTP and it had to die rather prematurely.

The Typerwiters were still going great guns but then margins were less. So a major strategic shift happened in Network. Overnight our Service Engineers were turned into salesmen. They were now primarily judged in terms of Service Contracts they could win for the machines. They were 2 years, 3 years, 5 years schemes and a lot of customers did fall for it only to realise their folly later.(Will cover that in later posts).

My Pune stint was for a year and I landed up in Head office in charge of Sales Control reporting to S.Guha. Head Ofiice I realised was far removed from on the ground relaities especially with the people who never worked in our branches. I figured that unlike when Network started off our schemes or promotions were customer focused albeit push strategies but now we were changing over to our own priorities. So stocks, profit targets(nothing derogatory if based on market needs) were the key drivers. We also had a most sort of whimsical production plan exercise month after month.

We were also reeling from the after shocks of our indigenous electronic typewriters in terms of more service calls, not enough resources, service engineers spending time on sales calls, faulty spare parts, local repairs leading to more faults, etc. We were now on the post maturity stage on the Product lIfe cycle.

Network then started looking at the Russian Market. Nishat Khan was the spearheader(incidentally he stood for Parliamentary Elections from Park Street, Kolkata and lost his deposit) and was in that country eating bread for about 2-3 years. Along with him was our dear friend BALA. The russian machines did sell but then again sales forecasts were wrong and we had plenty of these machines to be converted and sold in the domestic market.

One year had passed and again it was time for a change of role. Head office had this New Installtion Group(NIG) led by the efficeint and competent Devesh Nayel who was now transferred to Finance and I took over his responsibilities too. So it was sales control, Distribution, NIG and Collections that I was spending time on.

Devesh under Subhas Guha had brought about a radical change in our "Collection" thought process. There were major outstandings and sales people were often not bothered with recoveries. DN and his team scrupulously got about clearing out this major mess and frankly speaking it was always the Governemnt and LAM guys who were the worst offenders.

In this scheme of things my earlier learnings of corporate sins were polished a bit further. Blank boxes being transported out of Duty paid godowns in order to have inflated sales figures were one of them. Trucks vanishing into thin air to accomodate stock shortfalls and insurance claims(that never fructified obviously).

Head office work was a bit different from branches. The Daily Sales Report was an important adrenalin rush tool for the management. This entailed daily telephone calls to all branches to report their sales and collection figures, etc. Then we had the finance figures on the same subject and like in most corporates all over the world they never matched. So we did reconcile the differences every day. And so on and so forth, as Murphy says, that unimportant apparently creative work fills up the void. So we were busy all right!!

The bad report use to go later in the day. The actual sales day book was actually negative, what with all the over invoicing being done during the year and quarter ends. HCL Group - ishtyle!!!

PCs as mentioned earlier were becoming popular and prices were crashing every month. PCL our closest comptetitor closed shop for tyerwiters and started focusing on Computers. Network was at cross roads. They started looking out for "other ventures". Talk about that and myself next time.

DJFM 89

2010-03-21T16:10:00.008+04:00

The last night of Srinagar positively created chaos in the minds of the sales guys. It was postive chaos!! The incentive scheme that was quite different in nature had created the excitement. For every sale there were points to be earned and there werr variations depending upon models and quantities. Based on the points there were attractive prizes on offer and I remember the bumper was a Red Maruti 800 or atleast that's what the brochure depicted.

While "Networker" was a new word that was coined depicting all and sundry belonging to Network, in the conference almost everything that we did had this underlining mindset of us being a Networker. Actually the concept started a few months back with some other regional conferences but then Network with its innovative ways even capitalised the concept to woo in people through India Today Pull Outs (Recruitment Ads).

The incentive scheme ran from December 88 to Mar 89 and that's the reason for coining the term DJFM 89. The incentive schemes of Network were heavily bent on sales rather than completion of the sale. Many, in fact most salespeople did take advantage of this and I am sure in many ways I was also party to the this whole concept of somehow making that money.

We reached Howrah statiion in the morning and as usual the team that was extremely cohesive just dispersed in different directions. Some had their family members with vehicles awaiting them while others had to wait in the queue for a cab. I had this simple solution of taking a Mini Bus direct from Howrah to Salt Lake at my door step. I did't really give a damn about people thinking that the manager was travelling a bus. Who cared! The 3 day journey on the floor of a slow train in 3rd class sleeper was humbling enough. Networkers after all!

A few of the office members looked at us with jealous eyes and I reckon the eyes popped even more when the looked at the incentive schemes. The sales guys were the stars of the show after all while the support and administration could only fiddle their thumbs.

The typcial target meetings were done with and everybody was more or less charged up. There were these habitual liars in my sales team and surprisingly the incentive call even motivated them enough to make genuine sales calls. Prospective list of prospects were made and called on and orders started trickling in. The canpaigns in the newspapers helped our cause and enquiries, in an otherwise dull Kolkata market, did start to flow in. In all this the never ending debate of Govt vs LAM (the glorified national team created for covering Govt and Public Sector Corps) started for enquiries received. That was some fun. Hoodwinking the LAM team that is in their own game. Recently I watched the movie Rocket Singh, and beyond doubt it brought back a lot of memories!!

Coming from Hyderabad and Mumbai office to Kolkata was of course a sea chnage in terms of office culture. The offc was divided into three. The Air Force guys, The SKJ people and independents like me who became another group by default. False Conveyance bills, chemist bills showing anti biotics against toothpaste and so on and so forth was the order of the day. It was you could say a kingdom of sorts and you needed to be the King's own in order to do well. But we survived and all this came to an end when WKH joined. But then we could not fathom whether the new era was for better or worse. On hind sight looks like it was the seond situation!!

Now we had these Monday meetings explained in my blog earlier and we also learnt that Chicken Curry and Chapati was the best lunch in the world. Take it or leave it. We left it at that.

DJFM89 was on. Sales were good. Not much of sales convincing was required. Prices were good. But something was missing. Excuse me asked the customer, "Where the F...K is my machine? You Delhi companies. Taken in money in advance. 3 months passed. No machine. Who is your RM". Saar, he is never available. He is always what we say in Bong - URU URU. Flying Flying!!

It was the same situation all over the country. Money collected in advance from o2C clients. And LOIs collected from Government!! But since we indegenised so much, I guess the supply chain had choked. Also there started a dip in sales. Murmurs started that reached Delhi i no time. Network think tank were not idle. The situation was sensitive and could mean dangerous and as usual competition were already reacting to these news and managed to even convert some orders.

So what was the prescription of Network think tank. Call all the Managers all over the country to Delhi for a picnic at the Factory!! We all landed up in Delhi and were put in the Govt sponsored Lodi Hotel in Qutub Institutional Area very near the Head Office. We were hoarded into couple of buses and taken to the factory where we were shown some new auto soldering machines for PCBs and then taken to the assembly where we finally SAW that machines were REALLY getting assembled. Nobody told us that they wer still having some software bugs. At the end of fixing line there was a big presentation ceremony of a Typewriter carton being presented to one of the King's XI from Delhi!! We were all very thrilled. We were conquered. We were convinced. Now we would all go back to our respective offfices with photographs to prove that machines would now come in no time. They did eventually. But let me tell you that the typewriter box that was made ready at NOIDA had only thermocol in it!!! We were serious Sales CONsultants!

The PICNIC AT NOIDA -

(I am the first guy standing on the right, while Ashim Dasgupta is at the other end)

(In this one from Left -DP Chaudhuri(LAM), Inderjit Singh(Chandigarh), Prithwish Bose, Myself)

The Cover UP captured for posterity.

The Sales Picked up. People started seriously calculating incentives. March was a pressure cooker. Orders, Follow Ups, Tension, WKH, Competition, HO Calls, etc etc etc. We were nearing the end. The end of DJFM89 I mean. In the meantime a Guwahati sales person started making unknown trips to Kolkata to meet a Kolkata Senorita(thankfully not in my team).

I did have a girl in my team. But she was hardly a girl. She was always in this shirts and trousers with tie, riding a bike on Kolkata streets and used to speak like a tomboy and was in backslapping terms with most of the other guys. Not me though. I was the Manager you see!!

But then we had gone to Sikkim on tour and Sharmishtha(that was her name) casually asked the recepotion for one double room. I was so thankful that she did not ask for a queen bed!! I had to clarify...No err...we need two rooms . That was a serious surprise for her. That was she. I wonder where is the girl now, would love to renew contacts!!

Srinagar - A prelude to DJFM89

2010-03-11T10:18:00.006+04:00

I am always fond of five star hotel breakfasts, and I like it when I am perhaps one of the first ones to start sampling the food on display. The new trays of undisturbed food is a turn on for me and thats a sort of fetish you could say. The scrambled eggs were perfect and along with them the soft croissants was a perfect combination to start the day. Slowly the restaurant started filling up with people from all over the country wearing the doled out Blue Network Pullovers. The conversations in different tables were either about the long haul journey or about what the day had in store for us. The Head Office Marketing Teams and some other Seniors perhaps were suffering from their own tension of making sure that the program was a success. After all its all about hype and the sales team needed the injection.

We were all shunted into the audi and after the mandatory speeches we were told that the new machines that would be introduced were kept in a separate hall. Before that we were explained about the new range coming up. A lot of parts in the machines were locally sourced now. The bilingual features were more prominent and now available in the 14" segment too. We were also explained the logic behind the numbering of each machine. Now instead of three digits we would have four and iun case of bilibguals 5. For example a 1252 would mean a 14" carriage machine with 5 Line Backlit display with a memory of 16Kb. When you add a H to that, it would mean with bilingual capability too.

Some us were quickly trying to master the logic of the machine numbers, while others were gorging on the sumptuous menu of features and already making plans of beating PCL and Godrej. Whatever the feelings, we were all united and focused and excited about the immediate future.

Before we came in for the conference the sole job in the field we had was ensuring that customers do not cancel orders. Given that many customers do pay up advances, it was a tough call. When we saw the machines the honest opinion was ofcourse pretty mixed. Suddenly we could see the difference between imported vs indigenous stuff. The quality of the plastics, the feeling of the keys. Surely the environment was compelling us to decrease prices and increase features...as Russel Peters says - Somebody will get hurt. So here I guess it was the quality of the parts that went in.

For a moment we forgot all that and got busy learning the machines. Different classrooms, many teachers and a lot of students all eagerly using their fingers and brains to figure out these new animals. Back Lit Puke Green displays, keys that would go in and not come out (Tactile Feedback theories went out of the window), we were getting used to the bright future. Price was the only driver and I was a kind of weary of what might be in store for us. Maybe Production had made friends with Service to ensure that we earn a lot on Maintenance. As managers we were huddled into some other rooms and dished out Targets and very attractive incentive schemes. The quarter was named DJFM 89 and it was a pretty historic one.

Calcutta Office in any case compared to a Delhi or Mumbai is low profile and given the typical condascending attitude of Northerners regarding work in West Bengal, it was these smaller offices making friends together while the bigger offices were quite busy with themselves!! I knew it, since I was myself part of Mumbai earlier!! Plus SKJ was too protective about his own people from Cal and that was surely an obstacle for some in terms of mixing with others. Thankfully, I was not part of his scheme of things and was saved from such ordeals.

The food was good and the weather was excellent and lunch breaks were welcome. We trained on the machines and were ready for demonstrations armed with pitches against competition. Prices were extremely competitive. So sales would surely happen, but I was a bit circumspect about deliveries given some insider information I had from my friends in the Factory!!

A week went by just like that. The evenings wer full of booze and meat and some suspicious encounters too by opposite genders. From Cal office one of the "couples" even got married later. I understand that she is no more having left the world on her own will!!

This was also a time when the Cal Office guards were changing. SKJ was transferred to Head Office to look after Consumables(Ribbons, DWs, etc) while Wg Cdr Hazra(WCH) of Central Zone fame took charge of Calcutta Office. Later he used to be called Monday Uncle by one of our colleagues sons since that's the day when in the evening he used to keep us all occupied with booze in New Kenilworth Hotel for strategic(sic) discussions which were pure waste of time!!

One of the evenings at Centaur I also met Subhas Guha who had just about joined Network to look after new projects - Letracomp being one of them. Letracomp was a hyped typewriter that could sort of meet printers needs on elementary composition, I met Mr. Guha under entirely different circumstances in Network later in life.

The conference was coming to an end and while we had all come in style the return was chaotic post Delhi. The flight from Srinagar to Delhi was cool and from the airport I took some of my colleagues to my sister's apartment in Green Park for a freshen up. We were given to understand that our journey to Kolkata would be in Third Class Sleeper in the worst train possible from Old Delhi station. From the train I saw WCH coming to distribute some blankets. Me and DP(a colleague) went in search of some coke that would be required for the cocktails. Jai Sri Rum!!! I did not have a berth on my name and so made my bed in the space between the two lower bunks. It was chaotic and there was no excuse. In the midst of these chaos the seniors vanished and we were fending for ourselves. No problem surely, we were the pride of the company - sales guys!!!

The 36 hourrs journey was fun. We sang a lot and I remember these daily passenger college girls who played antakshari with us. In fact I thought Prodipto had a good inclination towards one of them.

DJFM 89...Here we come!!!

Srinagar Dec 1989

2009-12-17T14:23:00.000+04:00

Srinagar as a tourist spot was definitely exciting. There was also an unspoken awe about it given the Indo-Pak relationships and it’s perennial effect on the people of Jammu and Kashmir. We were not really influenced by the same. We were looking forward to some good time and given the conferences I had attended earlier, I was keen to see the excitement that would be created.

Our Rajdhani Express reached New Delhi station in the morning and we hired a few cabs for transporting ourselves to the airport. On reaching the airport we were given to understand that the flight was in the afternoon and the whole Network India team was to travel on one flight. This was pure case of excitement taking over safety and perhaps the Business Continuity Plans that we implement these days. By God’s grace nothing did happen but why take such a risk putting ALL your important Golden Geese in one aircraft!!

The wait was long and tedious and the Delhi airport was not a terribly exciting place to be. We saw groups coming in like waves from different parts of the country depending upon the train timings. By midday I reckon we were full house and the airport had taken up a look of a Network Railway station!!

Some of the Head Office powerful personalities along with their regional stooges were already clamouring window seats since they wanted to have a dekko of the Himalayas. There were some debates about as to which side of the aircraft was a better proposition and while the Delhi gang and Bombay gangs made major progress in garnering seats for poorer cousins like Kolkata and Bhubaneshwar or Guwahati it was a pure matter of luck!! Our Kolkata office stalwarts of course had left us high and dry to fend for ourselves. It had to be. There were not enough girls in our team!!

There was also a clamour for the Executive Class seats versus the bathroom classes and we did find later on that the stooges had captured a bulk of the former. They always do!!

The aircraft was one of those A-300s and except a few there were only Networkers occupying the seats. The flight was on time and it was quiet when the plane took off. Once the seat belt signs were switched off it became a social melee. People got up from seats and met one another for general banter while others in coveted window seats on the right waiting to catch a glimpse of the snow clad mountains!! Inevitably, a few minutes later the captain announced that Mount Everest could be seen and immediately majority of the pax all huddled onto the right side of the aircraft to enjoy the sight. The commander perhaps did not anticipate this and to steady the aircraft we were promptly told to get back to our respective seats and the seat belts signs were once again on. In order to avoid risk, the signs were on throughout the flight.

Srinagar was cold when we deplaned and it was announced that we board the waiting buses while our luggage would reach the hotel directly. It was all a secret as to which hotel and what were the plans.

The buses left as a convoy and we dissected the city of Srinagar and reached near the DAL Lake where we de-boarded.

The ride to Centaur Hotel on the other side of the lake in a Shikara was fantastic and it was all kudos to the arrangement committee. The serene waters of the lake reflecting the shikara and our faces was quite opposite of the excited feelings we had about the conference.. While the journey was good I was a trifle disappointed with the extremely dirty water of the lake. The underbody was full of intersecting weeds and I would not dare touch the water!!

The other shore was ready to welcome us with bindis(a colour mark applied on the forehead) and diyas(Indian earthen ware candle) and the sound of drums and that was a thoughtful exercise. The next freebie was the Pullover that lasted me quite a few number of years!!

We were allotted our respective rooms and though we were tired, we were anticiaptiong the good barbecue dinner that was to follow. So far so good, but what turned out was historical in its own way!!!

I Dn Calcutta Mail - 1988

2009-10-13T19:20:00.001+04:00

That’s the train I had booked myself into and I had booked First Class since I had a lot of luggage and I was entitled to it when compared to a Gitanjali Express 2nd AC!! The farewell was super and then on the final day I left Mumbai for good. Thankfully there was no body to see me off at the Station and I had a quiet exit from Victoria Terminus!!

Mumbai was not off my mind atleast for some time and the train journey was long and time consuming. I had boarded the train on an evening Day1 to reach Howrah on the morning of Day 3.

It was time to reflect and remember. After K Ravishankar left Mumbai office it was getting different. Sanjiv Sarin had taken over and I thought we got along well. A new Area Sales Manager joined in Worli office and I reckon the team was being enhanced. Nobody touched my office and I was quite happy with myself and my separate team.
The hierarchy in Mumbai office was also being enhanced and by the time I was counting my days in Mumbai they had inducted Rajeev Lal who was in charge of total sales. I had handed over to one Kumar who later on left and started his own office automation company (Jayanti Bus Machines).

As usual when hierarchy increases things become formal and Mumbai was no different. Sanjiv's secretary (I am not recollecting her name) was made in charge of hounding people on reports and stuff. Nariman Point was regular but sometimes logistics would create issues but I given the person I was, did not give a damn to her bossing around. Sashi an ASM in Worli used to get seriously affected by her antics!! There were newer people joining every day and later on when I communicated with Eunice and Rahil and Siddika and Jennifer and Mohan and Apoorva and so many more, things were not the same. They never are!!

Back in train while glimpses of history were floating by, I was also excited by the fact that I was about to get married, I was going home and I could meet my girl close distance rather than long!

My cousin had come to the station and finally I reached home and it just felt heavenly to get back to some Mom cooked food and my own surroundings that I was away from for about five years.

Network Kolkata was situated in one of the better buildings of Kolkata in Camac Street. The office was on two floors with the Sushil Joshi the RM and paternal figure occupying the 6th floor posh office while all the others were shoved into a big hall in the 10th floor. There were again three teams in Kolkata. The erstwhile LAM that was being headed by one DP Chowdhury with a Civil Engineering Architecture work background while the other two sales teams based on Geography were to be managed by Prithvish (ex Guwahati office) and myself. Prithvish was my roommates at the institute and I did not foresee any issues just like I did not have any with Rachna in Mumbai!!

The colourful lot of Kolkata office had disappeared by the time I came in. The service team was headed by one Asit Pal who had literally risen from the ranks, he earlier being an Petty Officer in the Indian Navy. The office was quite well knit and guys were cool to get along with.

There was a Regional Sales Manager named Sujoy Ghosh whose only agenda in life was good English, manners and etiquettes, women and porn movies!!! Sales was perhaps the last in his agenda. Whatever it was, we got along fine and it was a case of mutual non interference as far as our professional duties were concerned!!

Sushil Joshi had these preconceived and pre worked out rules on whom he liked or disliked. So it was a sort of whims and fancies organization where personal feelings overtook and influenced personal calls whenever they had to be taken. He was old fashioned in his own way, the Saturday Club of Calcutta culture and a lazy British life. He was from the Army all right but quite different from a lot I had seen! He had this fantastic sense of humour and everything he uttered in the office had to be double analysed for hidden meanings.

The first day in office where I was introduced to the team, he mentioned to the others that I would be shortly showing my Mumbai sparks and they better be careful. I did figure out that it was perhaps a dialogue to let "me" know that how careful I needed to be and not them.

Days passed and a month passed quickly and we got busy with our work lives. I had a team that had a gentleman named Raja Sen. One of the funniest guys you could along with he was a shirker of the first order. Fraud sales calls, fraud outstation tours, et al, it was a nightmare to manage him. He unfortunately became a mental case later and needed serious psychiatric help. Prithvish however had no love lost for him. After leaving Network they both had partnered a business that was quite a heartburn for Prithvish!!

Kolkata market was a different ball game altogether. Decisions were slower, people did not want to part with money, and a lot of times the so called sales pitches on image and print quality did not work, especially with SME clients. For the marwaris it was absolutely different and they were tough price negotiators.

The Government sector was corrupt and and so was the Armed Forces. So much later when Amit Raha of the Lam team was trying to sell machines to Fort William with a "deal", my father-in-law asked me name of the pesrons. Needless to say, I denied him the benefit. He was part of Bengal Area too.

The typewriter sales were going though a churn along with Network too. Network had invested a lot in these machines for printers named Letracomp that really bombed in the market. Keeping separate Lam teams were not worth its while and they were disintegrating too. The market was getting extremely price sensitive as machines were now flowing down the value chain. The higher value machines were being sold only to high worth customers.

These happened later. But before that in Feb I was to be get married. My marriage was held at Fort William Service Officers Club and it was quite grand though I landed up with a major headache. My leave was approved but as it happened the office called me later to validate whether I was joining back on time. They perhaps had no idea of the loyalty that some of us had developed and how such questions could just uproot the concepts instilled. But that was Kolkata office and its management!! This was perhaps also a start of personal conflicts that I had with Network.

I enjoyed my stint in Kolkata in spite of SJ's deep down intolerance where finally he wanted to give full control to his protégé. Sujoy left the organization and we were going through a churn. The team, at our levels was still closely knit and we did go out for Weekend outings, etc. We got invited to each other's houses and there were a number of marriages too Kaushik, Prithvish, Pradipto - they all got married.

The think tanks tanks in Network Delhi were obviously concerned about the market conditions that I talked about earlier. Cost reduction in all counts had become imminent and therefore Utpal Bharali and team at Network R&D needed to churn out something new. We already had bilingual machines. Now the question was to penetrate the market and also kill competition and basically add on to the revenue and profit totals.

As one would have it a Sales Conference was announced and we knew that something exciting would be coming our way, given the history of the past conferences. The conference venue was unannounced. Locally we found that machine supplies were dwindling and customer orders were not getting delivered. Managers were called to Delhi for special meetings on Collections since traditionally Network was weak in collections. For such situations the culprits were mainly the LAM team and there was a lot to be cleaned up in the later years.

In November 1988, the conference was announced. Srinagar was the venue. While new machines were surely destined to come, there were rumors about changes in Kolkata office too. For better or for worse only time would tell.

In my team in Kolkata I had this girl named Sharnistha. She was a tomboy in her own way always in trousers and shirts and driving a bike on the streets of Kolkata. Once when we visited Gangtok, Sikkim we reached the hotel and she walked up to the reception and asked for "a" room. I had to intervene for two rooms and she would understand why!! Whoof!!

There were many other interesting characters. One of the Service Engineers I was impressed with was William Wu. He was the highest AMC earner and the best CE in town. There were a few ex-Airforce guys who used to patiently wait for the monthly salary and had no motivation to gear up!! Asit Pal I guess had a tough time managing the show.

November 88 just passed handling customer complaints on deliveries and then it was again time to board the train. This time we were booked in the Rajdhani Express in Spondylosis Compartment(Chair Cars). There were people from our Guwahati office to Jayanta and others. One of them had a roaring affair with one of the Kolkata girls. We will talk about that in the next episode. Srinagar!! Here we come!!

William Marked US - Hyderabad 1986-87

2009-10-13T19:13:00.003+04:00

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 (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nCUuhxf00z8/SmtP-EMXNSI/AAAAAAAAAK0/YSlcr_jkvjk/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!!

Loss of Innocence - Mumbai 1986

2009-10-08T13:13:00.003+04:00

Everybody would have their own preferences but the best territories to work in Mumbai would be perhaps the Nariman Point or Fort Area. The potential is immense and the area would keep anybody busy without time to think. I liked both these territories personally because of the ambience, the food and of course the color!! The skirt and jeans regiment was a common sight unlike Delhi where it was mostly churidars!!!

And then when I shifted to Bandra I was in the thick and thin of Sandras!!

Llewellyn D Souza used to be an interesting character in my team. He is the sort of guy who would say that he liked cold beer but could’nt drink it chilled!! Basically a lot of “b.………g” of the first order was his way of life. But then who cared as long as he got orders. He had this uncanny knack of making fast friends with the opposite sex quickly and efficiently and since they were mostly secretaries going goo-goo-ga-ga over him, the order for a typewriter from that office was naturally for network. We did not have to depend on elaborate marketing and sales pitches for the sale. Competition was taken care of, prices were taken care of and features(ahem!!) were taken care of too!!

The best part is that sometimes he would try to set me up for situations with some of the good looking ones. Well, the prude(!!) I am, these were just professional hazards that I took on my stride!!!

From a business point of view, even from this there was one learning that I always wanted to instill among teams and this is not true just for sales. Relationship building is the key and that works in all aspects of our professional life.

When I landed up in Mumbai the first time, there was this support executive named Laxmi in Worli Office. She was a charmer in her own way and she used to regularly invite the office colleagues to her home for some puja or the other. A couple of times when I did go, I found that almost all of the Mumbai office bachelors were conspicuous visitors! I of course remember my first day straight from station landing up in office with all my luggage(!!) and she greeting me “Good Morning” and me replying “What’s so good about the morning?” A kick ass reply that definitely proved how big an ass I was!!

So while we had a colourful outside the network team was no less. Nalini our office secretary resigned and Rahil came in her place. Suddenly Tulsiani Chanbers Office used to get overcrowded and finally I had to put an embargo and that too especially on the erstwhile LAM team talked about earlier.

The sales lot were overall good but we had some unique characters too. I don’t know where they are today but one of them I know is Keith Rowe. From very humble beginnings he has worked his way hard and is now a renowned People Provider in Delhi. There are some dubious rumours about his working style but who cares.

As BV Rao in his comments talked about the motivation triggers of different sales persons, saying money was the major motivation would sound too clichéd. Who after all did not want the money? But it was the general enthusiasm in everything that we did in cohesion was the key!! Our planning, our team meetings our camaraderie, it was a full time holistic genuine effort that lead us. There were the dreaded sales reports all right but over time K Ravishankar visits to Nariman Point office reduced and that was a good indicator.

Typically. people at Head Offices thrive on rumours and that’s especially for organizations where the major actions are in the regions and branches!! So when K Ravishankar left Network for a job in the Middle East, somebody had the gall to ask me about whether I was having problems with him. This was when the new incumbent took charge of Mumbai office and even Rachna was asked the same question. Head Office perhaps thought that Mumbai needed to produce more that it did not!! R. Kannan our Godfather had left too!! So we now knew the source of rumours that emanated from Mumbai itself (basically some disgruntled members of our special team that I have talked about earlier) and they were all against KRS!!! Pitiful is the only word that could be used!!

It was about a year now that Canon machines were being sold and now we slowly figured out the problems that started hovering on us. The Printer carriages were giving away….all those high funda magnetic fields were throwing up I guess. Parts were in short supply so our Service Engineers started playing around with customer machines. Get a machine, cannibalise and use the parts for another. PCBs that earlier used to get repaired at NOIDA factory now would undergo torture from hand held soldering machines on work desks worse than a municipal classroom!! But that was that, and after all India is all about making do…top to bottom!!

The organization was growing, newer people from Delhi coming for visits. The old hats were leaving at HO or were being removed!! New marketing concepts, new pitches things were changing fast. Arvind Wable left for the advertising world and we had Deepak Maira coming in with his newer thrust on the basic 400 that nobody wanted to buy!! Later on he was instrumental for one of the unique machines produced by Network but that’s too early for us to delve in, at least right now.

I remember walking the streets of Fort with Deepak making cold calls and creating some projects while getting rejected in others. I gathered that he just wanted to get a feel of the market at ground level, because given visits being organized by the regional office, visitors would be taken only to “nice” places!!

Mumbai office went through some major changes. KRS left and Sanjiv Sarin(now CEO of Medison India and also big time advisor to Nucleus Software) took up the mantle. They were staying at the Ashiana Building in near Mount Mary’s Church in Bandra a stone’s throw from Almeida Park where I was parked. So just like when KRS was here there were many a times when I used to get called for these self invited dinners to relish Poonam’s cooking(that’s an oxymoron but that was how it was!!)! Mohan George was nearby too and many a Sunday morning was all about beer, fishing and irritating Usha. Bachelors can get on your nerves and I was one!!

The travel to office from Bandra for me was easy. Take an auto rickshaw or walk down to the station. Take a typical 8:13 or 8:23 train from Bandra and then take a share cab from Churchgate Station to Nariman Point. Sanjeev or for that matter KRS had to take this BEST bus to the main road and then change buses for Worli. I remember one day asking Sanjiv about cars and he said that things are in the pipeline. Next year Network launched its well-known car schemes that were available at a steal for the employees.

I had four flat mates in the Bandra Apartment and after coming back from office it was on very few evenings that we stayed at home. The other three had bikes while I was the pillion rider. We used to paint the town red right from Colaba to say Madh Islands. The famous Bombay dancing bars, the best street food, the best beaches, we covered them all!! And of course some good parties here and there were there in the agenda too. I miss those days, they absolutely rollicking and the nights were quite a sharp contrast to our otherwise staid day time existence.

This was also a time when BV Rao came in from Hyderabad Office. To reminisce our days we went to Hyderabad for a weekend and met up with most of the people and that included Markos Williams too!! I will perhaps talk about Markos Williams in a separate entry!!

My father was not doing too well with his health in Kolkata and I requested for a transfer. Sanjiv dangled the carrot in front of me but I had to go. I also wanted to get married and my girl was already in my life! So one fine morning in Dec 86 I left Mumbai and I was given a first call farewell from Mumbai office that I cherished. Mumbai is the place where I became a major!!

I met Chaitali however earlier in May earlier when I had gone away to Kolkata since I had caught Chicken Pox. I had more hair then and though there were spots on my face, I took the flight with sunglasses and a covered face!! The previous day AKD had treated us to a fabulous dinner at the Oberoi’s Polynesian Restaurant but next day was when I was falling sick!! In fact reviews were going on while I slept off on three chairs in the PC room!!

I was on to Kolkata and as luck would have it most of the colours in Kolkata had either left or turned grey. I was excited though since it was hometown and that was that!!

Cannons from Canon - 1986 (Mumbai)

2009-10-07T14:51:00.002+04:00

Mumbai had not changed. But the Networkers returning from Agra were a changed lot. Brimming with excitement, the train journey was all about the 411s and the 511s. While new orders were fine, discussions were on how to convert the Hermes machines to the new Canon ones.

The Canon Machines gave us some new perspectives about Typewriters. Now the daisy wheels were plastic compared to the earlier steel. So the sales pitches had to change where now we would go and say that the new world wheels are easy to handle and you don’t have to bother about individual petals bending and stuff. We were all turncoats for our own advantage!! The printer carriage was something unique. It was as they say noiseless, wireless, using magnetic fields and therefore no parts were touching while movement. It was all about magnetic levitation just like those trial French Trains and it was all sounding serious high funda stuff!! The price of course was attractive and now you had a typewriter at 9995/-(INR)!!

New machines, new consumables, new typestyles(fonts) and new energy combined gave us that push to attack the market with vengeance. There were these full-page advertisements and all analysis were concentrating on enquiries - Nos received, covered, converted, etc etc. Calls from Mumbai Chief, Head Office and even AKD were galore and I thank my stars that there were no mobile phones then. Life would have been pretty miserable, answering calls rather than actually working!!

So orders were pouring in and I remember PCL sales guys almost in tow of our sales guys to try and figure what the hell was happening. So every evening I used to take these orders with advance cheques and OCAs (Order Confirmation Advice) to the Worli Reg Office and dump them in front of Ravishankar K. After that it was all about playing Digger with Mohan George on the office PC. I remember even Sudhir Sethi (Shalini Sethi’s classmate hubby- now a big cat) coming and playing with us.

The Worli office was still under renovation and was a mess. Another thing I hated about that office was the lunch supply. The sight of the insipid Dal Rice and papad that was a favourite of many was my biggest sorepoint!! So it was a great occasion when Open House opened up nearby. The Tardeo Chinese Carts were good too. But all these were nothing to beat the variety of South Mumbai. The Ballard Estate Irani Restaurant, the Stadium Restaurant beside Churchgate, Sundance Café beside Eros and so many more were all institutions and that where all the sales people would congregate to share information.

In terms of sales we also noticed that now we had started penetrating organizations. Earlier while MDs would use ETs, we now found the machines were reaching down in the organizational hierarchy. So there came the case of analyzing organizations into Major Accounts depending upon their size and network. We started realizing that sales pitches, and the type of salespeople for such accounts would need to be different and therefore came in all sorts of restructuring, different types of incentive schemes and reviewing procedures. The senior managers were also learning and that was apparent in the types of questions that would get asked. It was the start of the golden era after all where we started getting orders in bulk from various customers. The value per machine of course had gone down but we started making money on consumables.

In the meantime even Godrej came into the market with their so-called indigenous machines. While they were cheaper in price, to our advantage they were definitely not good enough in terms of technology, looks and ease of use. We could counter almost everything that they did except for the consumables prices.

When that dawned upon Network our marketing team swung into action to figure out cheaper alternatives. Now Network started sourcing large spools of carbon-coated sheets that needed to be cut into size for our “ET Ribbon Cassettes and then sold at a cheaper price. We had this extra work in terms of refilling old cassettes but then it was the requirement of the day. We knew that some tall guy named Mohor Sen was involved in managing this ribbon cutting plant (sic) at NOIDA factory premises.

Days were passing by quickly and installations were increasing manifolds. That put pressure on our service personnel and the teams needed to expand. That’s when YKC (chacha) was also figuring out in his brain on how to make money out this channel. Service Contract Revenue Targets started getting discussed seriously in forums. Though quarterly reviews were still heavily oriented towards hardware sales the timeshare of regional heads towards the subsidiary channels were increasing with passage of time.

My office territory was South Mumbai and those familiar with the city would understand when I say that it started off from the southern most tip that is Navy Nagar up to almost Tardeo. You could say that the cream of Mumbai was in this territory and that would mean additional pressure on the team. To cover every nook and corner off congested almost ghettos like Fort or Kalbadevi was not an easy task and required a lot of self- motivation. There were days of frustration in terms of not finding the reasonable prospects or perhaps losses. But then overall it was rosy most of the time and thank god to our people, the machines and the backup support we got from Service!!

Bombay House is an important landmark in Fort and you would be surprised at the various companies that exist in that same building. One could spend a whole day in just one building. I had divided my team accordingly in terms of aptitude and thoughts in terms of territories that were based not on geography but on types of accounts in spite of stiff pressure from the higher ups. If LAM could happen for a city, I fathomed that even I could have my own LAM!!! My own time was rather spent on meeting the higher ups in an organization while others would do a lot of on site pre sales and image building.

I remember Alex Jacob a Saudi returned highly motivated Keralite spending money from his own pocket and giving demonstrations all over town. Leaving ethics aside, I did reimburse him a lot of times by claiming those conveyance bills myself. As long as we were winning the end game, I really did not care!!

I was residing at Dadar East those days in a lane that could be defined as the worlds most congested road. There were no vehicles on that lane but when I would peak down from the balcony it were only the heads that were visible and no tar!! Thankfully this torture did not last for long and I shifted to Bandra. That was when the entertainment started!!

400, 500, AGRA - 1986

2009-09-30T13:03:00.006+04:00

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!!

Precursor to the Golden Era - Mumbai Part 2 - 1986

2009-09-22T12:48:00.004+04:00

Network had grown in the last two years and there were a lot of additions all over India and Head Office at Delhi. A few stalwarts from Head Office was the cool Arvind Wable our Marketing Chief. Rajeev Khanna with his impressive voice and stature was a favourite of many. Chacha with his genuine behavior was always a pleasure. Mr. Dang was the MD so I understood his keeping distance from us but I guess he had managed a good team at the helm. R.Kannan our Sales Chief was our God but I guess he was on his way to carve out a different future for himself outside Network. Asheem Dasgupta the cool dude and Manufacturing Head was the calm but perfect person to talk to!! There were more and off and on names would be cropping up depending on my brain sparks!!! I will always remember Nandlal ji from the factory and wonder where is he now!!

So Agra was to have all these people and I was as usual waiting for the Kolkata Office contingent since the Bong Girls were there? My friend Prithvish would also be coming!!

There were about 30-40 people supposed to travel from Mumbai and due to logistics we were booked in one of the worst trains possible. It was the Dadar Amritsar express that would straight take us to Agra in the middle of the night. It was a bit of chaos since a few of us did not have reservation in AC 2 Tier and they had to be booked 3 Tier Non AC!! I pity them and something like that cannot ever be undone and erased from the memory. You could spew your salesperson –should-bear-it-all logic all day long but I am not going to accept the same!! To make some sort of amends we used to bring one or two guys into AC 2 Tier by rotation. We became quite adept at the same and in the 2^nd night we made sure all of them in AC comfort!!

We had the typical gambling and unlawful liquor consumption. The girls were there too and being a manager(!!) one had to be ensure that nobody’s behavior was compromised!. Mohan George was a good partner in generally looking after people while K Ravishankar absolutely behaved like the King which meant that he just enjoyed and did no work, at least in the train!!

Our train reached Bhopal when the GT express from Chennai also happened to chug in. We heard that Sumathi Gurumurthy’s gold chain was snatched in one of the stations!! There was no time, and off we went in our different trains, only to catch up later on the details!

Our train reached Agra and there Rajiv Khanna’s pet Kapil Chawla was waiting at the station to greet the team. We were shunted into couple of buses and taken to Mughal Sheraton an Aga Khan Proze winner for Architecture. It was a sprawling hotel and we were shown to our rooms – three in a room. Joydeep and Anil Bedi were my room mates and I remember Eunice Coutinho and two other girls in the room beside us!!. We were informed that breakfast was at 0700 while the sessions would start off at 0900!!

It was a total surprise package and the next day was the start of what I call the Golden Era of Network that lasted approximately 5 years!! (Refer http://networkdays.blogspot.com/2009/06/network-years-classified.html).

Discovering Myself in Mumbai - 1986 - Part 1

2009-09-21T14:28:00.001+04:00

Mumbai then Bombay was a big City. I had been to Mumbai once earlier for a job interview when I flew from Kolkata. That was an experience to remember since the right engine of the aircraft had caught fire midway. This time I was travelling by train from Hyderabad to Bombay and perhaps you would have glanced through the farewell pictures posted earlier in the blog.
So as such Mumbai was an unknown destination to me and while I was excited there was bit of uneasiness too. Tapesh Sinha, a friend from Kolkata was already in Mumbai and he was staying in these bachelor’s temporary stay at YMCA Bombay Central. The tragedy was that he was being ousted out and he was in a quandary on finding a staying place. And then I too arrived and with all my luggage went straight to Network Worli Office. I dumped all my luggage in the store and then both of us went to this place somewhere near Byculla where they allow you to stay for just seven days. It was a dorm and I knew that we had to find something quickly.

Network Mumbai was run by K. Ravishankar who was earlier the chief of Hyderabad Office. On my first meet with him he came across as a no nonsense person and straightaway started talking about sales calls, targets and my favorite sales reports. In Mumbai we had two offices and I was supposed to handle the Nariman Point office along with a team of expert Mumbai sales people!! The other sales office was at Worli and was being handled Rachna Atre. I knew that we were now getting into a bit of professional rivalry if not between me and Rachna, definitely between the two teams!!

My team was introduced to me. There was Anil Bedi brother of Rakesh Bedi(Boillywood Comedian), Joydeep (son of GOC-in-C, Army Western Command), Constantine Rodriguez(perhaps stays in Mira Road now), Alex Jacob(the small bearded Saudi returned ferocious Malayali) and there was Nalini our office secretary whose husband was in Air India. So that was neat I thought and the day next reached Nariman Point, Tulsiani Chambers and was greeted with flowers!! I was being briefed on the accounts we had and basically the sales agenda. K Ravishankar was there too supervising all the interactions. The territories were explained and so were reporting expectations. Basically I was all set to go.

In the evenings myself and Taoesh were back house hunting and it was quite difficult I must say since nobody was willing to rent out to bachelors. We wanted to stay together and therefore the PG format would not work since most of such acco were for singles Our seven days quickly ran out and we were on the streets, literally. The office came to our rescue!! I used to work and then in the evening we used to lock up the premises and then I would meet up my friend somewhere. The keys were with me and we would return to office, and sleep on the tables. The office had an attached bath and in the morning we would get ready. We used to go out for breakfast and I used to return back to office fresh as if have come from somewhere else. Nobody knew that we were spending our nights in that very premises in a comfortable air conditioned environment!!
This honeymoon did not go on for long and finally we found something in Dadar East and that was a relief!! It was Parsi family and our wants of having an independent entrance was solved too. The approach road of course would qualify for the one of the most crowded roads in Mumbai and I was not too happy about it. Beggars could not be choosers though.

Coming back to office, I started going out for calls with my guys. The market was absolutely different in terms of response, demands, negotiations and decision making. It was all upfront. If the customer liked the machine, there was hardly any delay in decision making. When I landed up cpmpetition was again the PCL FX 653 which was tryly a blank beauty compared to our bulky stuff. We still managed to push in ours and we were winning most of the time too. The factors in our favpur was our reputation and after sales and of course pure feature count. But to some discerning customers we were losing out on aesthetics, space and price!!

Then came the news that we were going to have a sales conference in Agra. We were to get a completely new range of machines and we started preparing for the same. At that point of time Network introduce a new team named LAM (Large accounts team) and Balbir Bahl was put in charge of the same reporting directly to Rajeev Khanna at Head office. I always had a conflict with this idea in the sense that we could have ourselves handled the same and especially since I had a government account background. Thankfully the private sector was not into the LAM scheme and thank God for that since the Mumbai private sector contributed more than this new teams’s domain. So when there was this talk of the TATAs being put under LAM, I freaked out and resisted and succeeded too. I was growing up too and learning the nuances of office politics in whatever form!! Ravishankar supported me and Rachna for obvious reasons and we proved ourselves better than the arrogant LAM team!!

The Sales Conference was to be held at Mughal Sheraton, and the whole Mumbai Team was to travel by train. That was the time I was also getting friendly with Mohan George our Customer Service Manager. His wife and Aunt were staying at Bandra and so was K. Ravishankar.
The reservations were done. We had recruited some new sales people like Ambrose Tellis, Aloysius D’ Souza, Llewellyn and others!! We were anticipating in earnest and then the day arrived!! Next time it would be all about Agra and more.

Daisy Wheeling and Dealing in Vizag!!! 1985-86

2009-09-17T19:22:00.003+04:00

The Godavari Express is a daily overnight train from Secunderabad to Vizag and vice versa. The journey is comfortable and I found a few passengers all ready and prepared to go straight to work from the station. There was some breakfast in the train in the form of cold insipid idli and vadas but we were not complaining. The hotel was reasonably comfortable and my first introduction to a person was a gentleman named Chinna Rao. He happened to be Rakjumar’s fixed and favourite Auto Rickshaw Driver and little did I know as to how important a role he would play during my stint in this place.

We were chauffeured to Saptagiri Steels a renowned Building Material Supplier with a modern outlook and were introduced to the owner and his brother. They also happened to be some sort of a reseller for ours. It was a three-storied building and the terrace was converted to an office that was let out to Network. The office had a table and two chairs and a phone and lots of space for us to install a billiards board!!

The agenda for the day was tight since Rajkumar wanted to introduce the main clients of the region to me. The first visit was to Vizag Steel Plan which was about 30-40 kilometers from town and Chinna Rao was in full form with his Telugu accented Hindi while Rajkumar with his Hyderabadi intonation. I was the silent audience with minor interjections and questions here and there.

The Steel Plant complex was under construction and once we reached the gate, the main road led us into tributaries of muddy roads with all sorts of cranes, fork lift trucks and heavy duty load trucks roaming up and down. The factory was almost under completion and we finally reached the office complex. The first stop was at the Finance Section since we needed to collect some payments that were outstanding (the outstanding story is a historic one in Network that I would delve in a later blog). Rajkumar explained the GARN system to me, and if I meet you in person I would be able to narrate a hilarious adult anecdote associated with it.

Later on visited a few other persons of concern in different departments and then went on to our other sojourns to the various naval establishments. The day was over quickly while in evening we went over to Hotel Dolphin for a beer and I had one of the best Fish Mayo ever served in a restaurant. It was fresh Bhekti and it was absolutely slurp, slurp!! The vegetarians please do pardon me for my indulgence which is of course mutual!!

The next day was again spent visiting some other leads and in the evening we were back on our way to Secunderabad. I was to come back to Vizag, bag and baggage the following week and I learnt that KVS would also be relocated to Vizag for looking after the increasing support needs.

Thanks to Chinna Rao, I had fixed up my accommodation in the previous trip. Chinna was there at the station to receive me and off we went to Siripuram where this house was located. It had a restaurant downstairs, so I knew that food was not a thing to be worried about. Later I fixed a monthly scheme with the guys that worked effective for both parties.

My routine was quite unique in the sense that I had to wake early morning at about 4.30 or so daily since the water supply was at that time and I needed to store my requirements. In continuation I also finished with my morning jobs and was ready for office by 6 AM!! I went off to sleep again and Chinna Rao would come and wake me up for breakfast and then we would go off to office. KVS had taken up some other place and he had his two-wheeler. We would quickly plan our day and get on with our visits. The late afternoons were typically reserved for administrative jobs like accounting and stuff since we had consumables and spares to handle and invoice.

Chinna Rao while being my constant chauffeur was also used by us as our delivery person. So there were times when we used to plan visits where while I make my calls in a particular establishment, he would go and deliver consumables and take necessary signatures on invoices or go and collect payments, etc. While in office he was also our office boy in terms of getting tea and stuff. The arrangement was productive and useful and we also developed a relationship with the guy. There were times when he would take me to places on holidays and I have even been to his house to meet his family.

While in Secunderabad I did not encounter corruption as such but Vizag did introduce to me the murkier side of Government deals. I would not say that it was very rampant but it did start off with minor variations.

Eastern Naval Command was an untapped establishment and I was delighted when I got through with an appointment with Nadkarni the then GOC-in-C who later on went on to become the Chief of Navy. He was pretty impressed with our equipment but his budget was only for a Network 102 (Hermes vintage). The inclination was towards a 316 and how they managed the same was always a good story for me. They bought a 102 and used it for a couple of months and given that background they requisitioned for 2 more. The best part was that these machines were not being used by the GOC’s office. They were all given to other subordinate officers.

Nadkarni after all wanted the 316. Then one fine morning I was summoned and his secretary Venugopal had this proposition. It was proposed that on paper they would place orders for consumables worth a 316 value (about 37000 INR in 1985) and I needed to supply them a machine instead. Needless to say, this was done. There were four invoices and subsequently four payments were made by the CDA (Central Defence Accounts). Believe me, when I say that R.Kannan summoned me to Delhi for explaining these transactions to Audit!! But then I had got used to the ways of Network and nobody was complaining!!

The executives in the Government sector had unique ideas on how to get things that they really wanted. So I was not surprised when Naval Science and Technological laboratory bought an Oscilloscope for me. The name of the equipment sold by me was Instrument 332!! I am sure the latter did not have a lens for sure.

Eastern Naval Command was my biggest reference point. I managed to get this Pass organized for me so that I could enter any naval establishment without problems even during mock war exercises. The whole of Navy knew that if I was to be contacted a call to the C-in-C’s office was the ideal number!! So when Piyush of PCL one day came to the Command Office I blatantly told him that he should not waste his productive time in the Navy.

The attachment with Navy grew beyond professional the arena and I started mixing around with Officers at the clubs and started getting home invitations. As a bachelor what more could I want? Except of course that most of them were young officers and therefore there were no issues who I could get friendly with!!!

The life in Vizag was of course somewhat monotonous, and after some time it got on my nerves. It was all like a routine. There were some sojourns of course to Koraput for the HAL and INDAL accounts but that was that. As usual it was always a pleasure to visit them since their behavior and attitude was as if I was doing a favour by allowing them to use our machines!

This stint also created this opportunity of visiting KVS’s house in a village near Rajahmundry and that was a pleasure. Hyderabad is only one part of Andhra and I am grateful to both KVS and LB (stayed with him in his house at Vijaywada) for allowing me to experience other places. The experience of such visits was absolutely different than from when I would go on official visits, except of course my official trips to the jungles of South Orissa visiting NALCO or otherwise.

The sea in Vizag was an important part of my evenings. A casual walk down to the beach on a moonlit night was beautiful as usual. Me and my later on room partner(Anand Sharma – later joined Network HR) were almost regular visitors. There were a couple of friends from Hindustan Petroleum and that was our group for movies and stuff,

Then one day Prithviraj called me and said that Mumbai beckoned me and I needed to be there as early as possible. It was almost a year and I was absolutely excited. Mumbai was an extremely important phase in terms of me learning sales and relationships. Yeh hai Mumbai nagariya, tu dekh babua!!! But that’s due next!!

Stabilising our Interfaces - 1985

2009-09-09T11:35:00.004+04:00

The RS232C must be meaning something but we did not really care for the elongated form. We wanted to see what the hell was it all about since the PCL 653 apparently had a parallel port and our machines did not. So RS232C was the answer. We were told that Serial Ports(RS232C) are better of than Parallel ports in some way or the other which I am sure could be taken with a pinch of salt given the application we were talking about, but we sincerely believed in what was being bull dozed into our minds and that was that.
I think it was SV Prasad and Santosh Das from R&D who had come down to give us the dope on this small additional box that would work as the middleware (pardon me, current computer folks) between the typewriter and the clients PC.

The best part is that worked and to our enjoyment we could see that Wordstar commands were producing printouts on the electronic typewriter. In some ways this was also a bit of a beginning to the end…but the end was to come years later!!

However my first sale of a RS232C Interface box along with a machine was not for a PC to be hooked up. I had gone for this demonstration to CMC where the local R&D whizkid wanted to see if we could connect our thingy to his PDP-100!! He also wanted to see whether he could use the ET as a terminal for both input and output and ….my eyes popped when this fellow was jumping up and down with joy when he was keying in a command and the printouts were coming out. I showed a demo on the 332 but he finally bought a 102.which was OK with me. You see a parallel port (PCL) could never work as a input system too…and that was a clincher!! I did not go back to check how were they utilizing our machine there…but looks like for the time being then,,,it was allright.

So then came up these orders for separate interface boxes as well as typewriters along with boxes, though I could assure you that Chacha(YKC) had a lot of heart burn with these interfaces later on in life!!

Then came another innovation from the same stable in terms of Voltage stabilizers. I know for sure that some of the pieces did destabilize the power supply but over and all it was quite a seller and that was the first time when YKC saw himself seriously as a profut center. That Service Contracts later on pulled the organization was a great achievement in any case…but the beginning was important.

So we puny sales people, at least were increasingly getting dependent on our engineers for repeat business and new leads. We were sending less time on prospecting and more time on converting and that for sure was a boon to the organization.

In the middle of this one day GP told me that I had to leave Hyderabad and settle down in Vizag to start the office there. All this while Rajkumar used to visit Vizag and apparently the top honchos thought that let us send this rookie to fend for himself. So my first trip was with Rajkumar in AC 2 Tier Compartment of Godavari Express from Sec’bad station. A biryani from Alpha and then the train started at about 9 PM in the night. Next day morning was the start of another eventful period. All about this trip and later in the next episode. Till then … ADIEU!!

A party, a farewell and a Villain of the piece!!!

2009-07-25T22:29:00.007+04:00

Ride to Results and Realisations - 1984 By Ravi(RSS)

2009-06-17T16:01:00.008+04:00

The ride to Rajendra Nagar from office was long. From the office lane we used to turn left and take the Rastrapathi Road straight down to the Tank Bund. Leaving behind the Boat Club on the right the journey on the Bund was refreshing with the cool air from the water front caressing the face while other vehicles zoomed up and down beside our Auto. The steady hands of Narasimha maneuvered the vehicle through the mean streets of Hyderabad and we finally crossed the Musi River and that’s almost seemed like a major achievement. The first stop was the National Police Academy and since my Dad was an IPS it was always a pleasure to visit. There was a museum there and I did make it a point to spend some time there. On the way to Rajendra Nagar there was also this biscuit factory. The calls never yielded any results but a cup of tea with freshly baked biscuits was a good break for the weary traveler especially on the way back to office.

On the highway we needed to take a right turn to visit these Institutions like the National Institute of Rural Development and also the National Academy of Agricultural Research Management. Sunita had opened the doors for us in the former but then I reaped a harvest from there. Additionally all the references worked wonders in the various other agricultural research institutes that spawned the area. It was like theory that you have understood coming alive in your own personal experiences and that’s the best thing that could happen to you. The theory of managing customer relationships is what I am talking about. Selling was a breeze. Get a name, give a reference or two, drop in some names, give a perfect demo, make a value proposition, and that’s about it. The order was for Network in each case.

NAARM was a different ball game. This was a new institute, no relationships with NIRD or the other local institutions. My first call was a tentative one to the secretary. I could not elicit any excitement in him or that’s what I thought. On my second random call I noticed the vehicle of the local Xerox representative (Sanjay or Sanjiv I don’t remember) parked outside. Then I noticed that he was having an extremely illuminated conversation with the same secretary and he had brought his machine too. I sensed trouble. I kept waiting at the reception. The Director was not in office and he happened to just arrive. Given my training, I straightaway approached and introduced myself and also made a modified General Benefit Statement that included some big personality names of Hyderabad too!! He was responsive and asked me more questions and that was good for me.

I was engaging him and that’s a positive I thought. The net result was that he asked for a joint demonstration the next day. I had managed to accomplish two things. Firstly, I had spoken to the Director direct creating some sort of a rapport and secondly, I had stalled Xerox at least for a day. I also knew that I had to win the secretary. The demonstration next day was scheduled at 3 PM.

LBR ran me through on how to counter Xerox point by point that evening. I also practiced the normal tricks and sort of created a script for myself. We also discussed possible client questions and responses. Then I landed up at NAARM at 1.30 PM! I had this ‘’secretary agenda” in my mind. People are after all curious. So when I set up my machine in the designated place in the open lobby, I discovered people coming up and asking questions. Even Mr. Secretary was curious and though I could feel his proximity to Xerox I did not talk about my competitor even once. I also made another important discovery. I managed to find out that they were in the market for 3 machines (my Daily Call Report forecast was for one). I met those other users too and by the time it was 2.30 PM I had almost convinced those other guys!!

The Xerox guy came and he was the first. Our product was more expensive but it could do more and I could see that relationship was the only key. The Director was impressed with both and said he will await an evaluation. There was a crowd of 30 watching us. I knew that I had covered more people in that organization and it was only Mr. Secretary who was perhaps on the wrong side. After a point one could only hope for the best, since the actions were done. The whole scenario was a tough exercise on me. (Located an image of a Xerox Memorywriter that we were fighting against).

Rajiv Khanna had come down to Secunderabad to disburse back log incentives. I was not in the picture since these were pertaining to a period before I joined, but all the same money was/is money. In the morning with his as usual booming voice he announced that he wanted some orders that day itself ( I reckon it was month ending). I was in a bitter mood that day and had genuinely planned not going anywhere and I had declared my intent to GP earlier as soon as I had come in. In any case I was not anticipating anything specifically to happen that day. Pressure was still on, when Seshagiri once again came to my rescue. The Rice Institute had sent a registered mail with an order for a 332. I felt relieved in terms of salvaging my prestige. Then it was a double whammy in the afternoon. I received a call from NAARM. The administration officer asked me to collect an order for 3 pieces of 316s with a whole lot of consumables and daisy wheels. My chauffeur Narasimha was missing and I could not find an auto. I hired a car and was back in office with the order by 5.30 PM!! That was some event, getting four machines in one day!! I did not declare this and it was LB who broke the news to GP.

There were bad days too. Especially the day I lost my first order to PCL. It was Omni Computers, a small software company specializing in CAD/CAM. It was pure price that was under consideration and I lost in spite of our equipment being superior. I also realized that whether you like it or not being cheap also is an attribute that appeals to a class of consumer. It’s not their fault, it’s about how quickly you realize and move on with life and other prospects, of course after giving a solid fight! Time and Timing is of essence here.

Getting appointments were not easy. The bosses were never a problem. It was the secretary that was cold. So later it was all about first all about building relationships with the secretaries of the world and where Electronic Typewriters were not perhaps the main topic of discussion. Instead it was about the weather, the movies, and then inching towards his/her industry and type of work. References would immensely help and thank God for them. Rakjumar and his team in any case had made a lot of forays by selling Dictation Systems and therefore one needed to mine the data and go ahead. Then it was all about what we did best. Massaging Egos!!

Pinning down people with time was difficult. Years back my nephew, when small, used to ask me a simple question. Mama he would ask, “’Do you want to play carom (a board game) in this room or the drawing room?” I did answer back and we always played in the relevant room. Similarly the idea is to always provide an alternative to the responder. This takes away the focus from the actual commitment that you are running after to something more concrete. It also provides the responder some alternatives to work with instead of being restrictive in his mind (basically avoiding a YES/NO situation). For example, I would ask. “Would you be free for a demonstration at 3.00 PM on Tuesday or 11 AM on Thursday?” Or in a different situation: “Would you like the machine with a standard Madeleine PS Wheel or additionally two three more styles?” This sort of questioning would give you answers, lead customers to commit unknowingly and was the best way to prevent YES/NO environments. Selling after all is a lot of gray. These were typically close ended questions. There were open ended questions too. That I reserve for another day, the discussion on questioning that is.

The best part of selling for Network was that we were absolutely convinced about the capabilities it had, the benefits it provided and the back up support we had. This was a killer and no way was competition going to overtake us (in the majority of cases that is). We were tigers, with pride emanating out of our ears. I even remember disassociating with HCL (the parent group company) since they were rather renowned about their terrible after sales support and we did it convincingly and to our advantage.

Then one day one of the clients asked us whether we could hook up our typewriters to computers, we knew that PCL was behind this since their machine has a parallel port that could be used as plug and play straightaway. We also knew that Network R&D was working on this facility. I had heard about C3PO and R2D2 but those were robots in Star Wars!! So when RS23C was introduced we were called to Bangalore for a training program and it was again days of circumspect speculation as to what was in store.

There were a few enquiries and there were some places where we stalled completion too. Bangalore was therefore of major importance to us, but to me it was more exciting since I had never been to the place before!!

It was again First Class Compartments in a train that stopped at too many places that we had to board from Hyderabad station. We were a larger team and that meant more chaos in everything that we did. Baggage handling, ticket handling, food ordering; it was about all of us and how enjoyable it was!! Bangalore Station was nothing special. As usual we took cabs and reached our Hotel. The sessions were to be in the same hotel. That where we saw RS232C!!

Delhi 1984 - By Ravi(RSS)

2009-06-08T19:08:00.003+04:00

The title of this piece sounds ominous because of November but I am here talking about July. From the busy New Delhi Station we were escorted into Black Yellow Taxis. The most amazing part of a Delhi Taxi is the meter. The digits in the counter change like a gas station meter and that scares you to your innermost core. I would perhaps be mentally at peace in an auto. Once we crossed the Connaught Place area it was the well maintained avenues of Janpath, Akber Road and Panchsheel that greeted us. Finally we reached Taj Palace situated on a road bearing the name of a famous leader and that was common with our own Secunderabad office address. It was Sardar Patel Road, and mind you the commonality though did not make any difference to our now tired but excited, anxious but circumspect state of mind.

We were two in a room and LB was my partner. The first thing I did to create a bit of hullabaloo was to drop the keys through that gap of the elevator compartment and the floor. Though cursed by my partner not outwardly though I maintained my calm!! The security had to arrive, new keys issued and so on and so forth. We had to get ready quickly and this was not what we wanted as a start!!

The huge lobby and the expanse had perhaps mesmerized me, but once we reached the room I was quick to try out the different switches and knobs to ensure that they produced as intended. Whether there was want or not, the Indian Five Star Customer had to ensure his money’s worth though in this case it was not hurting his wallet.

It was Cleopatra on TV. Despite the weariness of the travel, I became glued to Elizabeth Taylor and dispatched LB to the washroom through some clever manipulative guile. The time finally arrived post breakfast and we took our seats in Durbar the largest Hall in the hotel.

They were all unknown faces in there and we chickens nimble footedly went over to our designated seats and occupied them. The podium was laid out with typical grandeur and the honchos finally arrived. Both sides of the podium had a few tables covered with something that we did not care about and all our eyes were glued onto the stage. Rajiv Khanna with his impressive and inspiring voice was the MC and the proceedings started. I don’t really remember too much about the speeches that were all about past glory but I remember Sunita’s contribution from Hyderabad being singled out by AKD (Anil Dang, MD).

After the speeches of glory, there was a brief coffee break and we the shy Hyderabadis huddled together. After the break, it was about some talk on new products by the ultra suave Arvind Wable and a flash of lightning and the new products were unveiled. It was the launch of the Network 332, 316, 102 and 100. These machines had changed the face of governments and corporates on paper!!!

PS. There was one lady with the old fashioned name of Madeliene who started the revolution in terms of being the favourite daisy wheel that was part of the free kit!!

This was still not the ending; and then we had lunch. I was looking for a few blokes and a girl, since we had joined together, in the melee and did find them. The discussion amongst people was mostly about past exploits, in terms of sales and achievements. For me, I could only listen since I was not preceded with any reputed events. We were still coming to terms with the grandeur, the occasion, the launch and the future to follow. More than we going around, it was other seniors that were coming and eliciting some response.

The afternoon was devoted to learning about the typewriters and that followed into the evening with Rajiv Khanna taking the role of an Indian Military Academy Subedar Major keeping us cadets always on the toes and on guard!! The bosses were perhaps having their own sessions on Targets where the figures fluctuated like stock exchanges. Finally we had to accept, that Delhi calculations prevailed.
In the evening, GP also let me know that there was going to be a Demo competition and I had to represent Hyderabad. I was a miserable failure in that but that made me treble my efforts when I was in Hyderabad. Myself and LB, I remember had learnt every possible nuance of the machines and hoped that an opportunity came later to take on the so called stalwarts of other regions. I could prove that when in Mumbai much later.

The Calcutta Office was led by the grey haired Sushil Joshi with always a mischievous and dismissive smile. His humour mixed with sarcasm and wit was humbling!! Then there were the girls from Kolkata and in spite of my natural Bong affinity and best efforts I could not make any headway. Though, we did hear about side infatuation affairs from other office groups about people.

One of the days we were also given a big handout of who were our target customers and which features would be useful for the different segments. We had to stuff these in our memory along with everything else. Our pricing was unique. There used to be a base price and there used to a Technical Service Charges that was almost 40% of the total price!! Later on I came to know of the logic and perhaps its better that I do not elaborate on the philosophy of the same or I might start up a separate debate thread on Indian Corporate Behavior.

On a particular evening it was announced that the full gang had to land up in Studio One a discotheque in the sister Taj Mahal Hotel on Ashoka Road. That was the first time for me in a Disco and what was amazing in there was the sound and effects. The damper was of course the Guy to Gal ratio at a pathetic 95:5. The novelty therefore wore me down very fast and I was keen to go back and perhaps relax with the Summer Olympic Highlights!!

The week was hectic, fun and did manage to get to know a few people but our small team could not match up with the raunchy and loud Delhi or Mumbai Teams. What we could match up was in knowledge, brimming confidence and a wish to go and get those customers on our side.

So that was Delhi or hardly it. From a station, to a hotel and then back to a station was the best exposure we had of life. The station this time was different. So were the train and the class!! It was the Dakshin Express starting on the night of Day 1 and reaching Hyderabad in the morning of Day 3. So we had two nights in first class compartments and were one of the most relaxing, lazy journeys I have ever made. Sleeping, Reading, Cards and of course the Old Monk was there for company. GP was not a part of the entourage and we were like this group of let loose prisoners making merry.

In Delhi I met up with Balbir from Mumbai, Kapil Chawla from the Govt Team of Delhi, and a few others. I remember Sunil Gupta, Sumathi, Vimla, and many more from other offices. I was in touch with some but perhaps I have to renew the lines of communication with them and so many more. Each of them would surely have something to talk about that would make up the rich history.

The conference was a confidence booster and I personally knew that one had to quickly now take advantage of the momentum created. I had to learn to make better sales calls and of course demo and negotiate.
My third order was from Nagarjuna Finance and between you and me that was a breeze. The buyer in question was a senior at college and it was just a question of a demo, a quote and the order with a 100% advance. The tough periods came later.

Evening after evening, me and LB worked on the machines. Every feature, every aspect of the typewriter was ripped open by us. This would include lessons from the engineers on solenoids and pulley technology. Hammer alignments, carriage alignments, fuse changes I promise you we knew it all. Dayanidhi and KVS taught me how to clean machines.(This served me good later). LB used to donate style, Ravikumar used to come up with challenges and Rajkumar would come up with out of the box thoughts. We were thriving as a team and though chaotic we were delving in Buyer Behavior, Customer Relationships, Prospect Building, Training Methodology, Territory Planning, Enquiry Handling – Voice and Face to Face, To me anything we do today, perhaps we would find some analogy that we could draw upon from those Network Days.

My first call ever was at Hyderabad Lamps. I was calmly shown the door by the Admin Manager. Now back from Delhi and prepped, revenge was the order of the day. The office was in proximity and Seshagiri our office boy (man) was friendly with the Security Guard there. I found out through him the name of the secretary to the MD. Next day I called up Hyderabad Lamps and asked for Rose!! The confidence in my voice quality made the operator direct my call straight to her. I started with a negative statement about me not being a salesperson but this researcher on typing practices and through in some YWCA and other appealing words. I was granted a session and I took the 316 along. The machine was left in the Auto in the safe custody of Narasimha and off I went. Rose was about 50 (that was a baffling revelation) but I went into all the problems she had with manuals. I also found about some quirks about the MD. I offered her a no obligation demo and was quick to display of all our tricks in the arsenal. Then I offered her that the next two letters for the day be typed on the 316 and sent in for signatures. The letters did not come out but it was Rose who was called in.

The 316 was taken in and I just had to show a formatted automatic table for a board presentation. Needless to mention, the verdict was positive and I was in awe when the price was not questioned. I went back happily, The order was of course signed by the Administrative Officer!!

COME TO TAJ - By BV RAO (YEAR 1986)

2009-06-08T13:35:00.000+04:00

1986

This was year of the Canon launch when a new batch of SMT’s was created at Hotel Vikram. The week that was, called for staying back in the hotel - in spite of me being a local resident. The story continued the same way as Ravi and here I was May 5th 1986 in Hyderabad. Soon after the arrival of my train at Secunderabad I left my luggage at my aunt’s places and walked into a lane off the SP road in Hyderabad and there sat an Asm called Marcos Williams. It was exciting to get introduced to a bunch of old and new sales guys a bunch of trainers a consumable team of 2 guys and a bunch of engineers. All were a great support since they came in handy after the sale was made.

The last few Hermes machines were up for sale. I think the consumables continued to sell for many more years. The prices of those daisy wheels in the 90's were sold at 3000/- plus rupees in packs of 2/3 at Mumbai which was as good as buying a new ETW.

Canon launch at Taj was quiet an experience and I am sure many have enough of those stories to share. By the time the launch was to take place the ASM had exited. Ed sales R Kannan and Gurgeet had called on Markos at a local hotel away from the office .

Prithvi had moved out of the Hyd office but was still a sounding board for advice and action for this species called Markos. Raj Kumar had gone on a sabbatical to Xlri and had returned to Hyd may be he was to join some days later after the canon launch.

Our team to Agra was lead by RR Pai who I believe had a fall in the bathroom and the bath tub came in his way to send him back to Hyderabad with white protective armour of plaster of paris.

The exciting team I mentioned about was LB, Ravi, Saketh, Yusuf, Kalavati, and Vandana who was on her way out since marriage was on the cards. Venkatesh Prasad, DB, Raju - I miss a few names too.

Agra and its Taj and all that we learnt about the new series with categories of machines called the 400 and the 500 series closed with high adrenalin pumping in our veins. Pcl was not yet a threat but it was looming large as a strong force that had these cute small light weight machines and was spreading wings. We had a Marketing Head in a Wable and his team who created a blue book of all machines in the market place and taught us positioning our machines. This was radar of many features and the first lessons on consultative selling and the great balanced machine selling was learnt.

Wow!!! Those lessons still look valid and can be still used with teams of today in spite of the internet.

My impressions and my start at network

The Black Book - By Ravi(RSS) Year 1984

2009-06-06T21:02:00.001+04:00

We all know of Red Books, Blue Books, Yellow Pages, White Papers and so on and so forth. In Network we had The Black Book. The Black Book was basically a plastic laminated black folder with some sheets inside. It contained an article on Social Justice which I am pretty sure nobody ever read and the question of Network paying royalty for the same perhaps did not arise. This article was typed in Cubic Mini PS (Cubic was the Font style, Mini because of the size and PS would mean Proportional Spacing). I will surely explain what these meant, but that's later.

This book was the proof of the hope that we tried to generate among VIPs and CEOs that would enhance their image. The article had some neatly typed paragraphs with a few tables scattered so that we could explain the nuances of the product in terms of Bold, Italics, Justification, Word Wrap and all such tough technical stuff! This is the book we used day in and day out and not the brochure to explain our products.

In my first call I had doled out a brochure. So did I again in the next and the following one. But after that day, never ever was this phenomenon repeated courtesy the same old Hyderabad analyzing sessions. From then on it was the Black Book and a empty ruled yellow pad that were the major tools In a business call.

Coming back to some technical terms, the other day my daughter came to me and asked the meaning of Justification and Word Wrap. I was absolutely delighted to explain the concepts to her. Justification would mean where the first character in a line is exactly placed on the left margin, the last character is placed exactly on the right margin and the inter-word spaces are adjusted so that the line gives a homogeneous look. Bold and Italics are simple stuff not worth explaining. Word Wrap would occur when the word at the end of the line was too big and did not fit. The intelligence of the machine carried the whole word onto the next line. These were features that made our machines sell, while these days many would not even know the mechanics.

The tough one was Proportional Spacing and I can assure you that even today people may not understand or appreciate the concept. To be simple, proportional spacing is when the inter character space is constant. Characters are of different width for example, a `W' is much wider say, than an `i'. Now if were to type "Witness" as I have you would notice that all the characters are compactly placed and there is no wasted space between them making it pleasing to the eye. Now without Proportional Spacing the same word would look something like this. "Witness"! The intelligence in the machine would advance the carriage depending upon the size of the character and then would print on the paper unlike manual or electric typewriters where the carriage would move forward irrespective of character size! Word Processing Applications follow these same concepts unlike say WordStar those days. Hope you get the idea. Of course you would, since, who else other than a Networker would read these gibberish explanations!

I was in the typewriter business, but lazy that one was, I never even thought of joining a typing class and learn to type properly. Instead all the preliminary efforts were on how to use the first and middle fingers to good use. Within months, of course I could easily take on rookie typists and that was enough for my job. I type the same way even this day and somehow I think the non conformance to regular typing skills is still serving me well.

I joined Hyderabad office in May when the climate is extremely hot and it affects you in the mind too. This was especially true for me, who from childhood had always been used to a humid climate. In this rather depressing state of affairs it was the company of office mates after evening that used to perk me up for the next day. Beer and Chicken 65 was a good combination and I remember some of the Service Engineers were also pretty happy to join up. Finally we three that is LB Raj, KVS and myself took up an unfurnished house in P&T Colony. Veeranna was the landlord. He had two sons who were my cricketing partners on Sunday mornings, Breakfast was a given in their house on most holidays, week after week. The ground floor house was pretty Spartan with one large bedroom and two small ones. LBR and KVS shared the master while I occupied the small single one. First day we bought three camp cots and one of them within two months collapsed due to my weight or posture or both!! It went on to serve me well for a year in that slightly slanted state.

Near office was this Banjara Hotel serving good South Indian food and that was a favourite haunt. The other was of course Taj Mahal with its patent Vegetable Dosa that I have yet to find elsewhere. On the front of this Banjara Hotel was a shop selling customs seized goods and I invested In a small walkman with external speakers. Saturday nights typically my company was Uriah Heep and the stars above. LBR used to vanish every Friday evening to his uncle's in APSEB while KVS would go off to Rajahmundry his hometown.

Monday was always a day where I had to board the crazy Hyderabad buses to reach office since my partner was not around. Monday evening until Thursday was adequately covered by my rides on the pillion of LB's Yezdi. Talking about Hyderabad buses they had this uncanny habit of stopping at some intermediate point and the conductor would ensure that all pax on board had tickets. This was while we were fuming inside in heat and frustration. At office, the breeze from the fan and Seshagiri's tea would calm the tempers down.

Narasimha, who was Prithviraj's favourite auto driver, was my standard chauffeur too. Quite often he was the one to push me about visiting Rajendranagar or ECIL, etc. I am not denying that there used to be work in those parts almost every day but I could understand the income they used to derive out of those journeys and the motivation thereof. However, I think it suited us both and we were fine with it. Enquiries even though were a trickle would come once in a while in the form of telephones or letters and then the Narasimha's (there were a few others, Vijay was one of them) of the world would be useful for us to find the exact address and locations without spending time unnecessarily.

Though officially Network started these Major Account teams and other team splits, in Hyderabad most of our clients were any way large Accounts with the potential of giving us repeat orders. One Govt. Secretary buying would mean going and massaging the ego of the others too. Sunita was very good at it I remember. Similarly in Public Sectors or Institutions, one Director would fall into our "net" and then we would "work" on all his peers. The sheer ego that was involved in buying these machines could be a serious focal point of buyer behavior studies.

Handling these large accounts were always tricky in their own way. The first was of course getting an entry into these large institutions and a lot of them were involved with the Ministry of Defense. So the first task was to somehow make your mark with the Security at the gate so that we are not dependent on internal invitations or pre fixed appointments for entry. Once you are in and security in your pocket, one was a free bird inside to make as many calls as we wanted and at all levels. I remember the GM's(Antenna) secretary in ECIL taking me for complimentary lunches and soft drinks depending upon the time of the day. Later on I could open the fridge myself without asking.

Nuclear Fuel Complex was another favorite free lunch haunt. When clients with need start regularly entertaining a sales consultant does one really need to sell? There were others who were in our good books and vice versa. Isn't that what relationship management is all about? As mentioned earlier, we in Network were living concepts that have been made into theories and people have earned money and still doing so, providing training on the same.

From the beginning we learn that secretaries were to be the major targets for us to sell. So the he or she in an organization was our first target. Competition handling as a concept was mostly at a secretarial level and once you had the lady or gentleman in your pocket there was no stopping us. Any other internal pressures typically from Administration Officers were nullified because the Boss's office had chosen a Network. The user after all is the main client and don't we know that software companies will not get their money released unless UAT (User Acceptance Tests) are satisfactory. As prices of Typewriters fell, the handling of competition became trickier but the basic concept of making sure that the USER is on your side still holds good and that too in any industry.

So after first two months of rigorous sales calls and prospect building exercises we had this Sales Conference in Delhi Taj Palace Hotel. This was my first but for Network it was the second conference. The first one was at the same venue where Network graduated from Dictation Systems and Phones to Swiss made Hermes Toptronic Electronic Typewriter (christened the Network 208). The second conference was to launch some more machines that Prithviraj kept as a secret from us until the last moment. In fact he was not the one who broke the suspense. It was the booming voice of Rajiv Khanna that opened our eyes in front of the grandeur.

I reckon it was in July, 1984 that we were destined to take the Andhra Pradesh Express from Secunderabad station to New Delhi. Early morning the team gathered in front of the AC 2 tier Coach and then boarded the train. I am not sure whether I bothered people with my snoring in the night, but then the whole day was extremely entertaining with cards and rum on the sly. Shortly we crossed Ramagundam one of the hottest place in India boasting of a NTPC Plant and little did I know then that I would have to visit this place more than once later in life.

Egg Curry and Rice in a stainless steel compartmentalized plate was my lunch and dinner. The railway thalis used to be unique. Typically there were six compartments and one of them had the rice. One had the egg curry while there was dal and veg curry too. I could not ever decipher whether they served Curd or Raita since the consistency was rather confusing but all the same it was there and so was some Pickle and Salt. Green Chillies were available on demand. So, the meals were also an event and so were some sessions of astrology. Hands were exchanged and prophecies made and looks like all the positive things have happened to people over the years. The train sped away towards Delhi and sometimes during times of slumber we were all circumspect and excited at the same time about what was in store the next day.

The morning arrived and so did we at New Delhi station. So with GP in command we left for Taj Palace and I was eagerly looking forward to my Five Star stay!! That it turned out to be an unforgettable experience was perhaps expected by some, but for rookie me, it was overwhelming.
At this rate even I am eager to find out as to what would flow out my fingers next but let's keep it for another day.

Hyderabad Days - By Ravi(RSS) Year 1984

2009-06-06T20:44:00.001+04:00

Some of you might remember EK Ramakrishna and BS Giridhar the two guys working with Rajkumar selling Network Phones and Dictation Systems. Ram the short, thinand mean one and Giri his opposite. Well, Ram just gave me a call from Oman the other day. He comes to Dubai often and has promised to meet up(if I stay herethat is, given the circumstances!!). His voice has become heavy and I could not visualize him for a moment and then suddenly the past scenes were all crystal clear.

Giri , I remember once asked me rather humbly and with a lot of surprise as to how as a Bengali we eat fish "every" day. I replied that I do not but as a general idea the concept was correct. But to answer his query I retorted that it's exactly the way he had his curd rice to end the meal day after day, month after month without fail!! End of conversation.

Vandana used to take me along for her demos because perhaps she thought that Iwas a lucky charm. So while I was posted at Vizag, she used to position some of her demos for the days I was on reporting tours to Hyderabad!! Municipal Corp was one of the good clients of her that I remember we got some orders from.I think this was the best part of Hyderabad Network where we used to help each other out not only with demos but actual negotiation calls, analysis of calls(learnt from GP), making proposals, mutual training and almost every other thing. It was true that as the world was experiencing that repeat orders comefrom good relationships with clients, we at Network were actually living those concepts with our Service Engineers getting more leads than us and being finallyinstrumental in selling.

Getting an order was a big thing for us then. The Yezdi of LB used to roar twiceover, the day he got an order. He would walk straight into GP's room ignoring all the other folks filling up our daily reports and looking at him in awe and raw jealousy!! Sunita used to laugh a lot and be generally pleased with her own self and GP always never forgot to call us novices to talk about her influences in the secretariat. Rajkumar of course created a riot. For me, the rookie it was all learning and a lot of hope. Hope for my first order!!

I was a duck for a month even after the 300 Series launch and was quite convinced that the territory provided to me was the pits. Let me tell you the area….Rajendranagar and others as Rajkumar said "the other side of Musi River"!! The ECIL, HCL, NFC belt. RP/SP Road, Tarnaka, SD Road. Well GP surely must havethought that I was a joker to say this was a bad territory!!! Little did I realize that in the months to come this same territory was a serious cause ofenvy…which implied a lot of good for Network and of course yours truly.

Speakingof orders….my first one arrived by post. An order for the first 100 typewriter in Network nationwide from a casually bid tender floated by Andhra DairyDevelopment Board. It did nothing for my ego and nobody even asked me for atreat!! The only respect was perhaps from Seshagiri with a cup of tea. The treat was however reserved for Bhadrachalam Paper Boards.

As mentioned earlier this was the office was just round the corner in SD Road,and they were looking for 3 machines. The MD, ED (F) and ED (M) respectivelywere to be the ones to get them. My first call was with ED (F) Mr. KL Chugh(later ITC Chairman) and the demo was perfect. Given my build, carrying around a300 Series machine was not a big deal for me and so I climbed two floors with the combo (m/c and keyboard) and placed the equipment in the Board Room about 15 minutes before scheduled time and was ready to go.

The Correcting Tape gimmick was to be the first one in the agenda. Anyway, they were visibly impressed and as I entered his cabin, Chugh blatantly asked for a discount. I remember replying him unabashedly that I thought we were in the business of enhancing our client's quality, status and brand and not dishing out discounts. Those words had no effect and he said come back with a discount proposal the next day orelse……. So therefore the negotiations with GP started and then finally we agreed at 2.5%. I was dreading the next day. GP said that he wanted to come for the call since the disc had to be given andthis was an important order for 1.2 lacs in 1984. I was in two minds but convinced GP that he will come for the call but the discount will be offered byme. He agreed.

So off we went and while waiting at the reception Mr. Chugh happened to pass by and smile at me. The call came and we were ushered into hisoffice and I introduced GP as my manager. That whole call….he never spoke to GP. The disc was offered, accepted and the order placed. Once out of the room GP patted my back and that was the best feeling I could ever have.

The tremendous learning that I have always tried to repeat in future was never to take away from the `actual relationship manager' of a client. It's his client and his relationship. GP by agreeing to my concept actually turned my egoistic behavior to a lesson. Every sales person whoever worked with me, I have always tried to instill this thought and the confidence that was built was immense. The second learning was the importance of knowing the decision makers and reaching very near to them. If you have the decision maker in your pocket there is only God between you and competition and as GP taught us to be honest sales people, God was always on our side!!

That day I was on top of the world. I am not sure what came in but I am sure the evening aroma in the office was of Samosas and Hyd special Chilly Fries!! Second and Fourth Saturday's were off but sometimes LB had to come in for this"sideshow" accounts work. So I used to pile on too…spending some time with theET - trying to carry out some tricks and then when it became too boring, put on the AC and have a nice afternoon sleep session to be followed with an evening movie.

Every evening we used to dread this chore. The daily report! It was pure virus that generated fever. You had this pad (your own), the top sheet in white and the duplicate in blue (movie tickets used to be of the same color). The bluepencil carbon used to be inserted in between that made smudge marks on the duplicate sheet, your hands and white shirts. Disgusting!!

So you had to write one after another the visits that would include the name,orgn & details, no of machines, some sort of prospect classification in terms of Good Bad and Ugly, reason for the visit and future plan. The favorite remarkwritten by most people in that "Reason" column was F.U. In the beginning as a novice I used to wonder why a corporate would teach its sales personnel to be indecent even in record keeping and analysis if at all. Later I deciphered much to my amusement that it was Follow Up. Surely my mind had overworked! A couple of years later I had banned the FU usage in sales reports when in Mumbai. You"had' to write some good meaningful English sentence/s.

Later, our under-over-worked Marketing Department came up with this huge Daily Sales Report with prospect stages and order status and all sorts of funny number combinations. Analysis/paralysis!! To be honest, we used to have this simple Hot Warm Cold classification and that format used to work wonders for us. To top it all there were also these weekly reports that `nobody used to read"but were filled up purely to ensure that you get your claimed allowances settled by Accounts.

The Correction Tape gimmick was an important part of the demo process. You typeout something, possibly the company's name or the MDs name or whatever and then at the end you type some wrong characters. I had this white fluid empty bottle that I used to take out and tell them that this is not to be used anymore. Take off the wrong characters and then take the sheet out of the machine with AutoEject and hand over the paper to the client and let him feel(his/her fingers caressing the sheet) it while you carry on blowing your trumpet.The demo was an important selling tool and I remember sometimes carrying a brand new machine. If they liked it ask them to keep it. No machine was ever returned by the client. This was especially when we went "out of station".

Typically these enquiries came by post and we used to get them in sequence of arrival. So when the L&T Cement Plant in Chandrapur requested for a demo, it was my turn. The Nizammudin Express dropped me early morning at Ballarshah station and L&T had sent a vehicle for me. The plant was about 20 kms away and when we reached the factory gates and once we were in I was whisked away to the GuestHouse in the Executive Family area and asked to relax and freshen up. After sometime I was informed that the Union had gheraoed(a process of making the chief sit in his office chair, while other blokes surround and bombard him/her with their demands) the GM. Nobody was allowed to exit, entry or make telephone calls outside. Thankfully, the TV Tx was a direct INSAT relay system and therefore Iput it to best use.

In the evening I was invited to play badminton and waspampered thoroughly by a couple of families. It was 3 day vacation and nobodycould reach me.On the 3rd afternoon the strike was called off and I was called in!! The demo was for precisely 2 mins. The Correction Gimmick and the format fill up gimmick were the two things I showed (based on my pre-sales research with the secy). The GM was in two minds and I told him (though I felt insecure) that it was a brand new machine and he could use it for 2-3 weeks and it was not a problem. Once I reached office back in HYD I had to answer some major uncomfortable questions but you see you could not banish me to Chandrapur immediately. The next day a call came in from L&T that the order was being posted along with the cheque!!

All my outstation trips were interesting sojourns and I will come up with them.There are people to talk about and incidents. Mr. Markos Williams and his antics come as a flash and I think he earned some fame ( of the wrong kind). I did not care about him; it was the Mrs. that made me fumble. More next time….

The Network Years - Classified

2009-06-06T20:40:00.000+04:00

1979-1982 The Beginning Years
1983-1986 The Silver Years
1986-1991 The Golden Years
1991-1993 The Promising Years
1994 - The Unfortunate Beginning of the end

My Beginnings at Hyderabad - By Ravi(RSS) Year 1984

2009-06-06T20:31:00.004+04:00

Hello again!

Thanks Rajkumar for that welcome note and thanks BV for your comments too.It's just so exciting to remember those days. So here goes a few more lines on self indulgence.

To be honest it was absolute gloom when they announced in Delhi after a sort of semi rigorous Induction program in Vikram Hotel (famous for all the wrong reasons) that I was to go to Hyderabad. That city was never even in my radar and the announcement came in like a bomb being dropped by an extremely low flying aircraft!! So while some went to the coveted Metros, poor soul was given a ticket in the erstwhile AP Express with an advance of 1000 bucks (the voucher being signed by PK Sanghi - then Fin Mgr and now CFO of Nucleus Software). So I land up in Secunderabad station, still confused between HYD'BAD and SEC'BAD. Hyderabad is the main city while Secunderabad is the main station, though the former has its own station!!

I booked myself in this Hotel named Garden just opposite the Garden Restaurant and it was the pits. Those were dreadful nights until three of us shacked up together in a country house in P&T Colony. So now this fresh chicken enters Prithviraj's large cabin(originally supposed tobe a drawing room as per Shanker Rao's plans). He made only a couple of comments. Welcome to Hyderabad and looks like you have gone through an induction program. On an yes from me, he asked me to pick up some brochures and get out and make some calls and come back in the evening. The month of May believe me is hot in Hyd and there I was treading along Rashtrapathi Road without any clue whatsoever as to whom to call on. Then I found this big signboard of Hyderabad Lamps and I entered and found the receptionist. The General Benefit Statement and all those pitches we had learnt had totally vanished by then. I was coolly forwarded like an email to the admin officer who took my brochure and kept it on his shelf, asked me the price which I gleefully announced and within 2 minutes I was back on RP Road looking for my next customer...rather...a tolerant listener.

I met a couple of more uninteresting blokes and went back to office, tired, disgusted and for sure to look up the appointments section next day morning!! But that was only afternoon and the evening had not yet arrived, nor did Prithiviraj. His Red Rajdoot was missing. In the evening the first vehicle I saw was a grey scooter and a gentleman with a grey helmet with missing buckles that was perhaps badgered in World War II. Rajkumar huffed and puffed with his "MayeOyeis" and I wondered in awe. Then came the stylish man with his sunglass and the Yezdi. Little did I know that in days tc come I would be the one to warm that pillion of his mobike. LB Raj walks in, who was in Sales and also doing some sideshow with Prithviraj as far as accounts was concerned.

The balance came in and Prithviraj too was back either from a heavenly HomeLunch or perhaps from a call. The gossip in the office was of course the former,and perhaps I will ask him so next time I meet him. Then came the Hyderabad Office Specials. The one-and-ones with Prithviraj. He had and still must have this immense capacity to capture your attention for hours in terms of monologues but for a lot of us...that was the best take away I ever had from any colleague or superior I have worked with so far. I am sure and know that there are others of my tribe. Rajkumar's exit from inside his room was of course hilarious....and perhaps a Disprin was always handy for him. I am guessing!!

Talking about the one and one, the way GP ripped open the conversations that I had with the clients...his enacting of what I should have spoken or countered with was amazing. No wonder and it's not magic that he has been able to help so many people in their lives and still doing. I was lucky to have him as my firstboss but then you must be wondering who my second boss was. K, Ravishankar, and in Mumbai...and that was a complete turn around. But that's another story that I will surely narrate later.

Selling a typewriter was not easy for sure...and becos of all the help from Krishnaveni and Ravikumar I learnt a lot about that machine. To this day the fastest sentence I can type is .... "All over the world organisations are benefitting from advanced electronic technology" other than my name which is not a sentence. Do you remember that paragraph? It was the opening line of our 300 series brochure!!! And the way we used to do Research and Development on the ET, and we the salesguys were always proud winners over the MSEs, in terms of discovering new ways to do stuff on those machines. Raj is on my side...so no fighting on this one!! Prithviraj liked me too much, so after an year he packed me off to Vizag under pressure from Kannan. I am convinced today that he knew that it would be good for me. Vizag Steel Plant was an acoount being handled by Rajkumar and he came along to introduce me to the client. They were complaining, unhappy with service, payments were stuck and what have you. That we turned it around thankst o KVS and his major time spent there is something to relive.

I will never forget GARN(Goods Accepted or Rejected Note)...the most important document in VSP. How Rajkumar introduced me to that document is an evergreen joke and would only blossom in an face to face session. In Hyderabad, we had Narsimha the AUTO Guy "Made for GP". I also used to use him and even ten years later when I went to Hyd I met up with him and went to his house!! I similarly think about Chinna Rao in Vizag and wonder how and where these people are. Both these guys, were amazing, like family and more. Chinna Rao on holidays used to take me out for sight-seeing and treat me to lunch!!! He also use to work as our delivery boy and keep minor accounts for consumables.

Raman and Sanghi in HO were shell shocked when the questioned me about some signatures on invoices!!!Have you ever sold Paper, Ribbons and Daisy Wheels and instead supplied a Typewriter? Admiral Nadkarni - then GOC-in-C Eastern Command ordered for the former since he did not have a capital asset sanction. Income and ExpenditureAccount was however something he could manage!! Naval Science and Technology ordered for an Instrument 332 and the specifications made GP fall off the chair. The Govt was actually on paper buying an oscilloscope!!

A few days back Sunita Giridhar chirped up and said "Do you remember me"? I did not forget at all. The rides in her Amby to RR LABs and so many others!! LB Raj taking me on the pillion and making sales calls for me to watch and learn. Rajkumar always bringing in a different perpective on client behavior...it was amazing and astounding...that 1000 sq.ft of area in 1-1-156/157 SP Road. Krishnveni's boy friend use to work in Richardson Hindustan I think and she was so coy every evening.I am not able to recollect the lady who was a Secretary before Priya...she used to wear these rajnigandha flowers and then got married to somebody in BHPV...remember visiting her house in Vizag.

And KVS...where is he? I am yet to see a dedicated person like that in whatever he wanted to do. He passed his engineering in front of us inpsite of the pressure. He was from a village near Rajahmundry and he had relations in Tanuku.Thats the time I got first hand knowldege of staying in villages amidst simplicity and pure nature to pamper you. LB Raj in his Yezdi(Found him in Pune years later with the same bike), and KVS with his moped trying to teach me motor cycling..alas in vain.

I remember the receptionist in ECIL letting me know where Xerox and PCL was meeting who and when. In Vizag, if any Naval client wanted to contact me,standing instructions were in place for them to call up the CinC staff officer!!I once told the PCL manager Piyush as he was alighting from his Taxi in Naval Dockyard...that he rather go back to Hyderabad...since Navy will never place an order with him!!! What an ego I used to have!! Thanks to Network!!

As I write this I can feel the joy that I am reliving. Hope you do...and I will perhaps try and continue this ramble...for the sake of me, some of you and Network. Must let you know what the hell I have been up to!!!And BV...u cud call me on +971509575518 and what the heck...I will pick up the phone! Its from Etisalat,,,and in India you could complain to Shankar Bali another of those Networkers I am so fond of!!!

Locating old friends at Hyderabad - By Ravi(RSS) Year 1984

2009-06-06T20:21:00.001+04:00

Finally made some time to go through the list of group members and a few current messages.Saw some verrry familiar names :-) and a few who I am not able to visualise just now.As far as I am concerned...my head now is like Rakesh Gulati's, if you know what I mean. My beard is still there though its become grey...oh I don't have to beapologetic...its white!!! I am still fat, and not much variation there and I still like good food! Just the other day I spoke to Prithviraj in Dubai and the best remembrance of those times was the after office hours analysis of all the sales calls I had made for the day. It's pure stupidity on my part that in spite of being in the UAE for the last 2 years I did not know that he was and is here!

I remember the Vazir Sultan deal where Rajkumar was so upset with Prithviraj on the discount the latter point blank refused. And then I convinced the same Prithviraj for a 2.5% piddly discount for 3 machines to be bought by Bhadrachalam Paperboard just round the corner at SD Road in Hyderabad.I remember how Rajkumar and his wife were like parents to me in Hyderabad and how they took care of me and the other two...LB Raj and Vishwanadham...we used to stay together in P&T Colony. if LB is reading this I went and met Veeranna and family in 1993 after a full gap of 9 years!! Sudhir Rao had taken me back to my memories. I hope they are fine!

Those were the days of Nuclear Fuel Complex, NIRD, ECIL, NPA, NAARM and so on and so forth. Krishnaveni, Raj and Ravikumar teaching me a lot of Typewriting.The security guard of Nuclear Fuel Complex having the same name as mine was a momentous situation because entry was never a problem ever after!!I wonder where is Vandana or Priya for that matter. Seshagiri I will never forget. Vivekananda Aryasri? I remember he bringing Azharuddin to a road show we were having and I had to conduct the demo!! Where is Prashant Unnikrishnan? You must remember Shankar Rao in his vests and lungi coming in to office at will. For people who do not know he was the landlord and off and on financier for Network (delayed salaries, et al).

The World Series at Australia, we watched in his house. Nobody worked for sure that day inspite of Prithviraj believing otherwise or pretending to!! Dayanidhi and Vishwanadham, they tought me how to service a machine. That was useful when I was in Vizag!! Sometimes I wondered whether I was the service engineer and was Vishwandham the sales guy!!And Rajkumar will always remember Chinna Rao. The fav auto driver hand picked by Rajkumar and later on my personal chauffeur.I won't bore you further...there is so much to just talk about. Hope we get to meet fast...and if anybody is visiting Dubai or en route to somewhere else please do call +971 50 9575518 or write to ravisarkar@yahoo.com.

If there is more demand perhaps I will ramble a bit more next time. And if there is none, who cares anyway. You have to tolerate my indulgence!!