OB Topic: Learning Case: The learning voyages

For Raghunath Mashelkar, currently the Director General of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), it has been long and tedious learning voyage. Having lost his father at the age of six, Mashelkar worked on a casual basis in shops, providing sundry help. His barely literate mother, Anjanitai Mashelkar, brought up her son with great courage and determination. The hunger for education was planted in him by her. She drove Mashelkar forward at decisive moments in his life, when he could have easily succumbed to the overwhelming odds and given up. Mashelkar and his mother lived in a one room tenement in a chawl in Deshmukh Galli, Khetwadi in Mumbais Girgaum area. Young Mashelkar was a consistent topper in his Marathi-school. When he needed Rs 21 as entrance fee to enter senior school, Anjanitai borrowed it from a friend who, like her, was doing odd jobs in nearby households. Mashelkar recalls, When we had weekly tests in schools on Saturdays, we had to carry our own answer paper, which cost three paise. One had to always wonder where that money would come from the next week. For this reason he almost gave up his studies at the eleventh standard. Just then the Gomanthak Maratha Samaj came to his assistance with a modest scholarship. Unable to have either privacy or space in the chawl, Mashelkar studied for his Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examination under the streetlights at Chowpatty, just as Bal Gangadhar Tilak had done. His excellent grades led well-wishers to offer him the Rs 200 needed for college admission. He was also selected by the Sir Dorab Tata Trust for their prestigious scholarship. When he finished his bachelors in chemistry with flying colours and wanted to take up a job to ease the financial situation at home, his mother asked him a simple question: What is the next degree in this subject? Mashelkar thus started and completed one of the fastest ever doctorates in chemical engineering. After his PhD, his mother encouraged him to go abroad and excel in his chose field. There followed an illustrious career at the University of Salford, U.K., where he established a first-rate group in polymer engineering and carried out pioneering work in the field. The desire to climb the educational ladder was nursed by the barely literate

Anjanitai. He says, I owe it all to the supreme sacrifice and vision of my mother who, by doing odd jobs, nurtured me and motivated me to keep studying. Mashelkar recalls that when someone asked his mother why she wanted her son to get educated, she simply said, If he had not been educated, he would have been forced to do menial jobs, like I was. I did not want that to happen.

Case: He always did the best

Sudheer Tilloo(53), group chief executive, DGP Hinoday now has a turnover of Rs 123 crore and 1200 employees compared to Rs 1.6 crore and 140 employees in 1980, when Sudheer joined the company, then known as Morris Electronics Ltd. This confidence-inspiring wizard is a picture of innocence and pleasantness in a slight frame. It was Tilloos struggle with himself to excel as a manger that led him to spot opportunities. His fathers exhortation: Polish shoes but ensure that they shine well. In other words, Do whatever, but do your best sowed the seeds of his search for growth and excellence. His father, a self-made man, had established himself as the best lawyer in Mandleslhwar district, Madhya Pradesh. Sudheers father passed on to his son his respect for valued-based learning and his drive to be the best; while his mothers loving care and fortitude in looking after Sudheers mentally retarded brother taught him to handle adversity with calm and patience. Having decided to do something different instead of following in his fathers footsteps, Sudheer took his first step in that direction by graduating from BITS, Pilani in 1963. He went on to do his masters from the University of Wisconsin and then worked in a couple of American companies for a year. He came home and joined Siemens India as a project engineer two years later. Sudheer kept learning. He subscribed to the Harvard Business Review, which provided him with major inputs in general management approaches and strategies. After spending six years in exports, he felt the need for some managerial exposure; so he joined Automatic Electric in Mumbai, a small company making industrial panel instruments, as a manger. His one-year stint there bought him in close cnstact with the mercurial engineer proprietor M G Bhat, from whom he learnt to learn and get results. Sudhers big break came in 1980 when he joined the Piramal Group as project manager for diversification. That year group chairman Dilip Piramal bought over the then Morris Electronics Ltd, Pune, from the pioneering American scientist who had started it in 1963. Sudheer

moved to Pune and assumed office as executive assistant to the chairman. The impact of a world-class organization and the opportunity to practice general management on the Morris Electronics turf opened up a challenging career path for Sudheer. He instinctively knew that technology induction had to be his first anchor for building Morris Electronics. The learning and practicing voyage had begun. In his search for appropriate technology, Sudheer turned to big corporations in specific domains of expertise. He activated earlier contacts that had been forged when he was with Siemens, which led him to the office of Hitachi Metals in Tokyo. During his first visit to Japan he met general manager MR. Kanayama. The first task was to gin his confidence. Sudheer informed him: India has enormous iron oxide stocks. If you were to convert it into quality oxide for ferrites. There was silence. Sudheer sensed that Japanese had a problem: How to trust and Indian whom he was meeting for the first time? Conceptually Sudheer knew what was in it for them. He said: The Indian market will grow. With your support we will become number one. Sudheer invited Hitahci Metals to visit India to do a feasibility study, and offered to pick up the tab. The proposition was a confidence-building measure. It laid he foundation of a commercially viable relationship that turned out to be durable. Japanese Gurus and Indian Shishya Sudheer won the trust and friendship of Mr Kanayama. He treated the Hitachi Metals chairman, Mr Matsumo, with appropriate reverence. In his first meeting, he took on the role of a shishya in front of a guru learning the secrets of becoming a manager. He reports the conversation verbatim: Sudheer: What is working schedule? Matsume: I get up at 6 oclock in the morning and sleep at 11 at night. History and music are my hobbies. Sudheer: What is the best way to develop managers? Matsumo: On the job. Sudheer: What are Indias strengths and weakness? Matsumo: Population size and people are its strength as well as weakness. Sudheer: What is your goal for Hitachi Metals? Matsumo: To make it a global organization. Sudheer: How would you do it? Matsumo: By catching growth where it happens. Let local people manage. Such encounters are culturally welcomed and traditionally respected by the Japanese. The process helped Sudheer sell himself first, rather

than sell his company or make appeals for selling the technology. In fact, as he puts it, I developed the craze to become the product of what I was doing. You can become as good as your guru. If you take a second-rate teacher, you become second-rate; whereas if you take an excellent one, you are bound to become superb. I created few such guru-shishya relationships between me and a few of Hitachis executives over the years. In other words, I created my own gurukul and thereby learnt a lot. In the process, Sudheer developed a formidable reputation in the course reputation in the course of the 50 visits he made to Japan from 1982 onwards. DGP Hinoday Industries Ltd is a joint venture Between Hitachi Metals and Dilip Piramals Rs 800 crore DGP group, of which the VIP brand of luggage is the flagship. Sudheer explains: Since Hitachi was not allowed to lend its name to joint ventures, we chose Hinoday which means sunrise. With the connotation of suryoday, it also sounds suitably Indian. Morris Electronics was thus rechristened Hinoday in 1996. Questions 1. Which theory of learning, you have studied in this chapter, better explains Tilloos learning? 2. Tilloos struggle with himself to excel as a manager that led him to spot opportunities. Substantiate this statement with the help of reinforcement schedules described in this chapter.