Alphonsos or Papayas?
Everyone in the factory was excited. The latest gossip was that the Chairman of their group companies was visiting their factory for the first time and that too, along with his wife. When there is smoke, there must be fire. The local management soon officially confirmed the grapevine.
In a feudal and family setup, the top positions of a corporation are always kept within the family. They are passed on from generation to generation automatically. Though the days of kings and queens are long gone, these dynastic rulers are literally treated like kings and queens till date by their subjects (employees) in their organizations. The subjects believe that if they can please their king and queen, they would get benefited. The king and queen will notice their acts of pleasing them and will shower baksheesh upon them.
In anticipation of all of this, all and sundry of the factory got into the top gear to make appropriate preparations to welcome Mr and Mrs Chairman. Particularly, the top most two managers of the unit were more busy than everyone else. Both, Bartantia and Lalkhera took up the job of pleasing Mr and Mrs Chairman as their crusade.
The employees of the factory unit were divided into two camps- the Bartantia camp and the Lalkhera camp. The members of each camp had total loyalty to their respective leaders. The two leaders competed very well particularly on such occasions.
Among other things, Bartantia and Lalkhera were concentrating more on planning their strategy for the ceremonial lunch that was to be staged for the king and the queen. They believed in the well known cliche that route to reach any one's heart and mind was through the stomach- so a great lunch was important. Each one was guiding his own camp accordingly. While details for each course of the lunch was being worked out to the last detail, the decision on the selection of the main fruit dish was yet to be taken.
The two camps soon contacted the other 26 group companies, separately, in order to find out the favorite fruits of Mr Chairman and Mrs Chairman. Ultimately, after lots of data collection and lots of data processing, Bartantia camp came to the conclusion that the super bosses liked the top most variety of the mangoes called Alphonso. They reported their findings and recommendation of Alphonso mango to their boss Bartantia. Simultaneously, Lalkhera camp, after detailed investigations, recommended that the king and queen liked the seedless variety of papayas. Lalkhera's prior knowledge about the choice fruit of Chairman and his wife thus got confirmed.
In fact, in anticipation of such an opportunity some day in future, Lalkhera had already planted the papaya trees almost an year ago in the factory canteen (among other departments, he was also in charge of factory's canteen and horticulture) and now the same papaya trees were giving the seedless papayas. In a way, he was a step ahead of Bartantia. Bartantia, on the other hand, would have to work hard to locate the Alphonsos since it was not the mango season. He would have to hunt for this variety of high quality mangoes and will have to get them from Mumbai at exorbitant price. Well, price won't be any issue at all when the party was meant for the king and the queen but the search would require efforts.
The final menu was compiled in collaboration of the two camps. The terms and conditions of feeding the super guests were drawn up. It was decided that each course would be introduced to the guests by either Bartantia or Lalkhera depending on who had thought of it and for which he would take the credit of selecting the course and getting it properly cooked by the chief chef under his personal guidance. That way both Bartantia and Lalkhera will get equal praise, particularly from Mrs Chairman- that always matters more under this kind of situations.
Finally, the day dawned and Mr and Mrs Chairman did arrive in the factory unit. And finally, it was also the ceremonial lunch time. Only senior executives were invited for the lunch.
Everything went off very well as per the blue print. The last course was fruits. The head waiter of the canteen brought two dishes full with the fruits and placed them in front of the Chairman and his wife. Bartantia sang songs in praise of the Alphonsos and narrated in details as to how he could get them all the way from Mumbai after lots of search though it wasn't the mango season. Simultaneously, Lalkhera sang songs of the seedless papayas that he had particularly planted in the factory since he knew that they were the favorite fruits of Mr and Mrs Chairman.
Mr and Mrs Chairman picked up a few pieces of cut fruits from each of the two dishes. Almost at the same time both quipped, "Bartantia, why, your Alphonsos are tasting like papayas?" They had finished their lunch and got up from their seats. Everyone else, including Bartantia and Lalkhera also had to conclude their lunch.
As all of them were walking out of the dining hall after the lunch, Bartantia stayed back only for a moment, picked up one piece of fruit from each dish, tasted it and to him too both the pieces tasted like papaya. He wondered, "Then, what happened to the Alphonsos?"
And then, he knew the trick Lalkhera had played on him by instructing his canteen's head waiter not to serve the Alphonsos at all. He also saw and heard Mr and Mrs Chairman profusely thanking Lalkhera for the delicious lunch he had organized, particularly their favorite seedless papayas. They even shook hands with Lalkhera. Bartantia was a mere onlooker.
For everything you wanted to know on building leadership and management, refer Shyam Bhatawdekar’s website: http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com/In a feudal and family setup, the top positions of a corporation are always kept within the family. They are passed on from generation to generation automatically. Though the days of kings and queens are long gone, these dynastic rulers are literally treated like kings and queens till date by their subjects (employees) in their organizations. The subjects believe that if they can please their king and queen, they would get benefited. The king and queen will notice their acts of pleasing them and will shower baksheesh upon them.
In anticipation of all of this, all and sundry of the factory got into the top gear to make appropriate preparations to welcome Mr and Mrs Chairman. Particularly, the top most two managers of the unit were more busy than everyone else. Both, Bartantia and Lalkhera took up the job of pleasing Mr and Mrs Chairman as their crusade.
The employees of the factory unit were divided into two camps- the Bartantia camp and the Lalkhera camp. The members of each camp had total loyalty to their respective leaders. The two leaders competed very well particularly on such occasions.
Among other things, Bartantia and Lalkhera were concentrating more on planning their strategy for the ceremonial lunch that was to be staged for the king and the queen. They believed in the well known cliche that route to reach any one's heart and mind was through the stomach- so a great lunch was important. Each one was guiding his own camp accordingly. While details for each course of the lunch was being worked out to the last detail, the decision on the selection of the main fruit dish was yet to be taken.
The two camps soon contacted the other 26 group companies, separately, in order to find out the favorite fruits of Mr Chairman and Mrs Chairman. Ultimately, after lots of data collection and lots of data processing, Bartantia camp came to the conclusion that the super bosses liked the top most variety of the mangoes called Alphonso. They reported their findings and recommendation of Alphonso mango to their boss Bartantia. Simultaneously, Lalkhera camp, after detailed investigations, recommended that the king and queen liked the seedless variety of papayas. Lalkhera's prior knowledge about the choice fruit of Chairman and his wife thus got confirmed.
In fact, in anticipation of such an opportunity some day in future, Lalkhera had already planted the papaya trees almost an year ago in the factory canteen (among other departments, he was also in charge of factory's canteen and horticulture) and now the same papaya trees were giving the seedless papayas. In a way, he was a step ahead of Bartantia. Bartantia, on the other hand, would have to work hard to locate the Alphonsos since it was not the mango season. He would have to hunt for this variety of high quality mangoes and will have to get them from Mumbai at exorbitant price. Well, price won't be any issue at all when the party was meant for the king and the queen but the search would require efforts.
The final menu was compiled in collaboration of the two camps. The terms and conditions of feeding the super guests were drawn up. It was decided that each course would be introduced to the guests by either Bartantia or Lalkhera depending on who had thought of it and for which he would take the credit of selecting the course and getting it properly cooked by the chief chef under his personal guidance. That way both Bartantia and Lalkhera will get equal praise, particularly from Mrs Chairman- that always matters more under this kind of situations.
Finally, the day dawned and Mr and Mrs Chairman did arrive in the factory unit. And finally, it was also the ceremonial lunch time. Only senior executives were invited for the lunch.
Everything went off very well as per the blue print. The last course was fruits. The head waiter of the canteen brought two dishes full with the fruits and placed them in front of the Chairman and his wife. Bartantia sang songs in praise of the Alphonsos and narrated in details as to how he could get them all the way from Mumbai after lots of search though it wasn't the mango season. Simultaneously, Lalkhera sang songs of the seedless papayas that he had particularly planted in the factory since he knew that they were the favorite fruits of Mr and Mrs Chairman.
Mr and Mrs Chairman picked up a few pieces of cut fruits from each of the two dishes. Almost at the same time both quipped, "Bartantia, why, your Alphonsos are tasting like papayas?" They had finished their lunch and got up from their seats. Everyone else, including Bartantia and Lalkhera also had to conclude their lunch.
As all of them were walking out of the dining hall after the lunch, Bartantia stayed back only for a moment, picked up one piece of fruit from each dish, tasted it and to him too both the pieces tasted like papaya. He wondered, "Then, what happened to the Alphonsos?"
And then, he knew the trick Lalkhera had played on him by instructing his canteen's head waiter not to serve the Alphonsos at all. He also saw and heard Mr and Mrs Chairman profusely thanking Lalkhera for the delicious lunch he had organized, particularly their favorite seedless papayas. They even shook hands with Lalkhera. Bartantia was a mere onlooker.
The stories being published on these pages here are available in the form of a book: eBook version titled "Funny (and Not So Funny Short Stories" from Nuubuu http://nbuu.co/1 and Printed book from Amazon.
(Also, refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/)
For “out of box thinking” articles by Shyam Bhatawdekar, refer: (Out of Box Ideas) http://wow-idea.blogspot.com/
Read other blogs of Shyam Bhatawdekar at: (Home Page for Writings of Shyam Bhatawdekar) http://writings-of-shyam.blogspot.com/
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