IMR JAN 2013 - Indira Institutes

Seth Consultantsat the other locations. Imagine – 'WE' aregoing to offer that product / service and thisrelates to services offered only here ok? Ontop of it the other locations don't haveexperts in this area. And now, all these otherfellows will tell us what to do? They don'thave to implement it so they can make anyfunny suggestions and we have toimplement it and face the music? This isreally ridiculous.V: Oh, you think that is bad? Wait till you hearmy story. Like in your case, some proposalfinally found its way to the DCEO's table. So Icall him up. He says that he is busy and to callnext week. So I call again the following weekand the week after and then the week afterthat! Finally, he says that he will get back tome. Now I am stuck. And at least in your caseeveryone knows the situation. Mydepartment thinks that I, as the DepartmentHead, am not doing anything and I get a badname.Y: Yes, yes, and if you try to tell anyone allthey say is that the bosses are busy people soit is up to the businesses, project people,departments and teams to follow up and getthings done. But do they understand thatthis is all in addition to our normal schedule?I cannot leave everything and go sit outsidehis office. Then top management will saythat I am never available in my office!L: There are so many things we can do. Butthese top managers keep going on the sametrack. I thought that new products andservices should be offered because there is amarket demand/requirement, becausecustomers recognize the value propositionand are willing to pay a good price. But, wehave no discretion over pricing. Everythingis decided on a company wide basis. I don'tunderstand; if customers believe that someservices are worth more then why can't wegive them what they want and charge for thefull value?V: Don't worry, it is not only you. We also had aterrible fight in the meeting about ourproposal. In the past we offered someproducts and services, but we really didn'thave much expertise in those areas. Now oneof our specialists suggested that we should getout of those and instead offer the servicesdemanded by our customers. You knowwhenever there is any interaction they(customers) mention that it would be nice ifwe offered the full set of services they use. Butin the meeting the argument went round andround. People kept arguing that we had builtup expertise in many products and services sothey should be offered because SPCL has thecapabilities.L: Wait a minute I am a bit lost. First you saidthat you didn't have capabilities, now you saythat SPCL has the capabilities. So which one isit?Y: On paper we have some capabilities. But inpractice the quality is very poor. Some peoplebelieve that we have the capabilities. He(indicating Y) and I don't. That is anotherstory.V: Ultimately, it comes to the same thing. Dowe offer those service and products becausewe have capabilities (or think we havecapabilities) to provide them or do wedetermine which service and products themarket wants and develop the capabilitiesrequired to ensure that we can provide them?IL: (to Y) V seems to be in bad mood?Y: There he is. Let us ask him directly.Y: (to V) What happened?V: (Fuming) Don't ask. Do you rememberthose new billing regulations?Y: Sort of. Why?V: (Looking around carefully before starting)78 Indira Management Review - Jan 2013