[Originally published on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/office-diaries-new-years-gifts-huge-humiliation-dr-a-k-srivastava/
Some 16 years back, I retired after 34 years of service. During my career, after spending about a quarter of professional-life in Research & Development, I opted to be transferred to the Business Development wing. Here, I headed business operations of a division which was a pioneer in development of indigenous know-how and production and marketing of a group of eight speciality-chemicals called catalysts and other chemicals which were widely used in the Industry. I will be describing real-life situations and what lessons future managers may learn.
Every organization has a typical working culture, ethos and conventions, which are typical to the industry, its financial strength, situation, place and times. This is the 6th article in the series. See others at:
Not giving up till the last (Nov 18, 2020)
Excess of everything is bad (Nov 24, 2020)
What all is written in the equipment-manuals, take it with a pinch of Salt ! (December 4, 2020)
The Need for Common Sense (Dec 14, 2020)
When an Analogy with Marriage Ceremony Saviaged the Day ( Dec 27, 2020).
When I was still in service, I was also responsible for close liaising with the different departments of the Govt. of India, industry associations, professional bodies etc. It was over and above my normal duties to develop new businesses in domestic and foreign markets, marketing, sales promotion, organizing seminars and conferences, generating new enquiries, tendering, coordinating with production-plants for pre-scheduled dispatches, follow-up for timely and due payments, trouble-shootings and other after sales-services.
With an aim to develop close cordial relations with the concerned and decision making authorities in industry, old and future customers, different ministries / departments of the Government, it was quite normal those days to offer gifts on the occasions of festivals and New Years.The type, quality, value of the gifts normally depended on the status and authority of the individuals and closeness to be developed with them keeping in view future needs and assignments. It varied from normal glitzy Greeting cards, diaries and fancy calendars to costly Gold biscuits of different denominations. Many people still remember the famous annual calendars of Vijay Mallya's Kingfisher Airlines. The dairies normally contained good details of the company's hierarchy starting from Chairman, members of the board of directors to the heads of regional and other departmental heads and senior functionaries of different departments, location wise and their contact details - Name and designation of the officer, Landline numbers, Fax Nos, Telex Nos. (in those days, mobile phones were yet to arrive). It was also a part of protocol to visit the person, greet him / her in person, hand-over the gift. As many senior Indian administrative and other officers were very rank- conscious, the givers and takers were almost of the same rank / authority.
Since in those days, I was part of the middle- ladder of the hierarchy, I was normally connected with my counterparts, the persons who were instrumental in giving a good sound report / recommendations on our proposals to their decision making seniors - like departmental heads, Secretary to the Govt. etc. I would normally meet Under Secretaries, Technical Advisors, Directors and seldom with Joint Secretaries, while my bosses would mostly meet with Directors, Joint / Additional and Secretaries.
I remember that in those times of famous Indian bureaucratic red-tape, in one year, our company’s New Year’s gift set had a fancy ‘ touring-kit ‘ containing shaving sets, cream, razors, scissor, nail-trimmer etc., in a nicely appointed in a synthetic leather pouch. One of our directors, who was a baptized turbaned Sikh Khalsa, took upon himself to distribute the gifts that year to all senior officers of Directorate General of Technical Development (DGTD), Planning Commission and our administrative Chemical and Fertilizer Ministry.
So, after the list was made of the senior officers whom the gifts were to be distributed by the Director, gifts were packed nicely and distribution started. The Director took one of his aids as a helper in handling the gifts during formal distribution. Later, we came to know of two occasions that caused great embarrassment to him and to the companys: (a) when he personally met a Joint Secretary level officer (I shall not take his name) in DGTD, in Ministry of Industry and gifted him the pouch of shaving-kit, who was also a keshdhari Sardar Ji, and (b) also a lady Director in the Department of Fertilizers. The recipients not only had no use of the touring kit but also it was considered socially inappropriate to offer one. Simply put, the gift giver and the supporting infrastructure that year should have been more planned because there was no new information that suddenly emerged before the design and execution of the gifting process.
One should always ponder with most care and caution before putting the right foot ahead as sometimes, in spite of best intentions, things may go wrong.