Continued from http://livethylife6.blogspot.com/.
Mr. Zaidi continued to assure me of my promotion to the position of Director Marketing. I was to perform my duties as well as those of Director Marketing. The only assistant that I had also left and joined Mr. Ahmed for a higher position, although I had got him promoted earlier to retain him in the company. So, I was left all alone at Head Office. I put in the best that I could to meet the demands of the time especially in the wake of almost daily rumours from ABCL to demoralize the trade and the staff in Chloride.
In May 1986, Mr. Zaidi unexpectedly nominated Mr. Mahmood Jan, Director Works to hold the additional charge of Director Marketing. I was on tour to Lahore having a meeting with the trade when the news broke in. On my return to Karachi, I protested to Mr. Zaidi. He consoled me by saying that Mr. Mahmood Jan will be promoted as his deputy and elevated to replace him on his retirement and that I will then be promoted as Director Marketing. He also said that Mr. Jan needed exposure to marketing and that will benefit me for better understanding with him when he was promoted. In the same breadth, he said he could send back Mr. Jan to Works if need be.
Mr. Zaidi also redesignated me as Marketing Manager with the promise of revising my salary and perks on next appraisal in April. In the organizational chart, Mr. Ahmed was also designated as Marketing Manager and an alternate director on the Board. By doing so, Mr. Zaidi created the impression in the organization that I had been promoted. On the contrary, as I realized later, he just tried to buy time to enable Mr. Jan to fully comprehend sales and marketing functions for I never received the promised salary and perks. Mr. Jan was an engineer by profession and did not have exposure to sales and marketing in his entire career.
Mr. Zaidi had already crossed the retirement age in 1984 and was working on two-year extension. It was, therefore, understandable that Mr. Mahmood Jan will have a fair chance of becoming the new Managing Director for his only competitor Mr. Ahmed had already left the company. The Director Finance was on the verge of retirement.
While Mr. Jan was holding the dual charge of Works and Marketing, his friend Mr. Arshad Shehzada from a sugar factory was hired as Director Works. Just after six months or so of the transfer of Mr. Jan as Director Marketing, his resignation was announced and he was replaced with Mr. Umer Farooq as Controller Marketing hired from outside the battery industry. He had no sales and marketing experience. All his life, he dealt with only one customer for selling transformers. Again, it was me who had to carry the workload of managing the sales and marketing functions. After nine months, he was fired.
Although Mr. Umer Farooq was compensated with six months salary and perks for nine months of service, he blew whistle on Mr. Zaidi and wrote one letter after another to the trade and institutional customers as well as the staff levelling serious allegations against Mr. Zaidi. Mr. Zaidi retaliated by having a public notice along with his photo published in the newspapers announcing his removal from service.
After the departure of Mr. Umer Farooq, I again stepped in to work as departmental head and marketing manager until Mr. Homi Sanjana was brought in as Director Marketing after a gap of several months. Mr. Sanjana had worked in AGS but his knowledge and experience was outdated and confined to desk work. During his tenure at Chloride, he paid frequent visits to the branches and distributors but often refrained from visiting the trade, OEMs and govt institutions. He was forced to find a job elsewhere when Mr. Zaidi resorted to writing terse memos expressing his dissatisfaction with his performance. The company had continued to grow in sales and profits while Mr. Sanjana was there but Mr. Zaidi knew it was me and not Mr. Sanjana who was turning in the results. After Mr. Sanjana's exit, I again assumed both the roles of departmental head and marketing manager.
In the second half of 1986, Chloride England had made up its mind to sell off their majority shareholding in Chloride Pakistan but it was kept confidential at the time. The sell off process lasted till 1987 when it was finally announced that Mr. Jivraj, a real estate investor and hotelier in London had purchased the Chloride's majority shares. It was Mr. Jivraj's first experience of entering manufacturing industry. He designated Mr. Zaidi as the chairman and managing director of Exide Pakistan Ltd. (previously Chloride Pakistan Ltd).
Early 1991, Mr. Jivraj appointed Mr. Bachal Kazi, Director Operations, Reckitt & Colman, as Deputy Managing Director of Exide Pakistan to succeed Mr. Zaidi who was already 67 years old. Mr. Zaidi was reportedly shocked as he was neither consulted nor informed of the new appointee before his one-month joining time. Mr. Zaidi, nevertheless, had one month to strengthen his position vis-a-vis his new deputy. Without consulting Mr. Kazi, Mr. Zaidi transferred Product Manager Industrial who happened to be the son-in-law of his cousin, as Acting Director Works. The poor fellow had never worked in Works in his entire career. Mr. Arshad Shehzada, who was Director Works, with virtually no experience of sales or marketing, was transferred as Director Marketing. Mr. Alvi who was Manager Accounts was made Acting Director Finance.
For me, it was now the breaking point. I had suffered enough and could not bear the blunt. I did not know that Mr. Kazi had been appointed. I resigned and left the company without a job in hand.
During the earlier years from 1982-1986 before Mr. Ahmed left the company, I was the first person from within the industry to organize raids on the suppliers of illegally imported foreign brands, risking my own life, to control the flow of those brands which had been adversely affecting the domestic battery industry in general and Chloride in particular. I also wrote strongly-worded letters to the heads of the government institutions who were buying those illegally imported foreign brands to refrain them from doing so.
The head of a law enforcement agency served a notice on Chloride asking for my apology for writing him such a letter and threatened to take the case to a summary military court. It was the period of martial law of General M. Zia-ul-Haq.
I was sent a message by one of the leading suppliers of foreign batteries whose shop had been raided, through my distributor in his town, that I should never come to his city again. However, I did go to his city just after 3 months to address our annual dealers convention.
I also sent representations to the Central Board of Revenue to provide protection to the domestic battery industry. I visited the government officials in Quetta (Balochistan) where bulk of the foreign brands were coming in from across the borders and supplied to other parts of the country, to persuade them to control the flow. This was something which no other battery manufacturer did nor the departmental head or the Managing Director of Chloride did it.
It was me who introduced the concept of holding annual dealers convention in 1983 to tell the trade about the performance of the company, reward dealers who performed well and entertained the entire trade to dinner and presented them gifts in each major city of the country.
It was me who revamped the budgeting and planning process by obtaining pertinent data from different sources to assess the market size, market share of domestic brands, foreign brands and replattals, set the future objectives and prepare action plans to achieve those objectives. When the first such document was discussed with Mr. Andrew Cameron, Dy Chairman of Overseas Division of Chloride England, on his visit to Pakistan, his first remark was "it is an excellent document." We had already sent him an advance copy before his visit.
I was the first in the battery industry to obtain the figures of motor vehicles registered and on-road in each district in each category such as passenger cars, buses, trucks, tractors etc. through the courtesy of Dr. Sadiq who was director general of Federal Bureau of Statistics. On the basis of these statistics, we revised the estimates of market size and sales targets in the territory of each branch and main dealer.
I took the initiative to call the first Main Dealers Conference to share information about the market conditions, market size and market potential and devise ways and means to tap the market potential.
I enlarged the distribution network by increasing the number of main dealers (distributors) from 11 to 43 within a couple of years, starting from 1983. The existing main dealers did not have enough finances and market reach to meet the growing market demand.
I played a major role in the launching of batteries in polypropylene containers starting from 1985 and faced the market challenges when the product miserably failed and claims shot up and also contained the damage done to the brand Exide.
During 1986-91, after the departure of Mr. S. I. Ahmed, I did many things that demanded a lot of brain work and leg work. (1) Many innovations were made in the product range such as (a) introduction of new battery types separately for each segment of cars of 800-999cc, 1000-1299cc and 1300-1600cc substituting NS40 that was being used for all the three segments (b) launching low maintenance batteries for the first time in Pakistan (c) creating, developing and launching a new low-price brand in NS40 range called Hi-Power to compete with the foreign brands. It became an instant success and we had to restrict its supplies to prevent it from taking share of Exide NS40.
Mr. Zaidi continued to assure me of my promotion to the position of Director Marketing. I was to perform my duties as well as those of Director Marketing. The only assistant that I had also left and joined Mr. Ahmed for a higher position, although I had got him promoted earlier to retain him in the company. So, I was left all alone at Head Office. I put in the best that I could to meet the demands of the time especially in the wake of almost daily rumours from ABCL to demoralize the trade and the staff in Chloride.
In May 1986, Mr. Zaidi unexpectedly nominated Mr. Mahmood Jan, Director Works to hold the additional charge of Director Marketing. I was on tour to Lahore having a meeting with the trade when the news broke in. On my return to Karachi, I protested to Mr. Zaidi. He consoled me by saying that Mr. Mahmood Jan will be promoted as his deputy and elevated to replace him on his retirement and that I will then be promoted as Director Marketing. He also said that Mr. Jan needed exposure to marketing and that will benefit me for better understanding with him when he was promoted. In the same breadth, he said he could send back Mr. Jan to Works if need be.
Mr. Zaidi also redesignated me as Marketing Manager with the promise of revising my salary and perks on next appraisal in April. In the organizational chart, Mr. Ahmed was also designated as Marketing Manager and an alternate director on the Board. By doing so, Mr. Zaidi created the impression in the organization that I had been promoted. On the contrary, as I realized later, he just tried to buy time to enable Mr. Jan to fully comprehend sales and marketing functions for I never received the promised salary and perks. Mr. Jan was an engineer by profession and did not have exposure to sales and marketing in his entire career.
Mr. Zaidi had already crossed the retirement age in 1984 and was working on two-year extension. It was, therefore, understandable that Mr. Mahmood Jan will have a fair chance of becoming the new Managing Director for his only competitor Mr. Ahmed had already left the company. The Director Finance was on the verge of retirement.
While Mr. Jan was holding the dual charge of Works and Marketing, his friend Mr. Arshad Shehzada from a sugar factory was hired as Director Works. Just after six months or so of the transfer of Mr. Jan as Director Marketing, his resignation was announced and he was replaced with Mr. Umer Farooq as Controller Marketing hired from outside the battery industry. He had no sales and marketing experience. All his life, he dealt with only one customer for selling transformers. Again, it was me who had to carry the workload of managing the sales and marketing functions. After nine months, he was fired.
Although Mr. Umer Farooq was compensated with six months salary and perks for nine months of service, he blew whistle on Mr. Zaidi and wrote one letter after another to the trade and institutional customers as well as the staff levelling serious allegations against Mr. Zaidi. Mr. Zaidi retaliated by having a public notice along with his photo published in the newspapers announcing his removal from service.
After the departure of Mr. Umer Farooq, I again stepped in to work as departmental head and marketing manager until Mr. Homi Sanjana was brought in as Director Marketing after a gap of several months. Mr. Sanjana had worked in AGS but his knowledge and experience was outdated and confined to desk work. During his tenure at Chloride, he paid frequent visits to the branches and distributors but often refrained from visiting the trade, OEMs and govt institutions. He was forced to find a job elsewhere when Mr. Zaidi resorted to writing terse memos expressing his dissatisfaction with his performance. The company had continued to grow in sales and profits while Mr. Sanjana was there but Mr. Zaidi knew it was me and not Mr. Sanjana who was turning in the results. After Mr. Sanjana's exit, I again assumed both the roles of departmental head and marketing manager.
In the second half of 1986, Chloride England had made up its mind to sell off their majority shareholding in Chloride Pakistan but it was kept confidential at the time. The sell off process lasted till 1987 when it was finally announced that Mr. Jivraj, a real estate investor and hotelier in London had purchased the Chloride's majority shares. It was Mr. Jivraj's first experience of entering manufacturing industry. He designated Mr. Zaidi as the chairman and managing director of Exide Pakistan Ltd. (previously Chloride Pakistan Ltd).
Early 1991, Mr. Jivraj appointed Mr. Bachal Kazi, Director Operations, Reckitt & Colman, as Deputy Managing Director of Exide Pakistan to succeed Mr. Zaidi who was already 67 years old. Mr. Zaidi was reportedly shocked as he was neither consulted nor informed of the new appointee before his one-month joining time. Mr. Zaidi, nevertheless, had one month to strengthen his position vis-a-vis his new deputy. Without consulting Mr. Kazi, Mr. Zaidi transferred Product Manager Industrial who happened to be the son-in-law of his cousin, as Acting Director Works. The poor fellow had never worked in Works in his entire career. Mr. Arshad Shehzada, who was Director Works, with virtually no experience of sales or marketing, was transferred as Director Marketing. Mr. Alvi who was Manager Accounts was made Acting Director Finance.
For me, it was now the breaking point. I had suffered enough and could not bear the blunt. I did not know that Mr. Kazi had been appointed. I resigned and left the company without a job in hand.
During the earlier years from 1982-1986 before Mr. Ahmed left the company, I was the first person from within the industry to organize raids on the suppliers of illegally imported foreign brands, risking my own life, to control the flow of those brands which had been adversely affecting the domestic battery industry in general and Chloride in particular. I also wrote strongly-worded letters to the heads of the government institutions who were buying those illegally imported foreign brands to refrain them from doing so.
The head of a law enforcement agency served a notice on Chloride asking for my apology for writing him such a letter and threatened to take the case to a summary military court. It was the period of martial law of General M. Zia-ul-Haq.
I was sent a message by one of the leading suppliers of foreign batteries whose shop had been raided, through my distributor in his town, that I should never come to his city again. However, I did go to his city just after 3 months to address our annual dealers convention.
I also sent representations to the Central Board of Revenue to provide protection to the domestic battery industry. I visited the government officials in Quetta (Balochistan) where bulk of the foreign brands were coming in from across the borders and supplied to other parts of the country, to persuade them to control the flow. This was something which no other battery manufacturer did nor the departmental head or the Managing Director of Chloride did it.
It was me who introduced the concept of holding annual dealers convention in 1983 to tell the trade about the performance of the company, reward dealers who performed well and entertained the entire trade to dinner and presented them gifts in each major city of the country.
It was me who revamped the budgeting and planning process by obtaining pertinent data from different sources to assess the market size, market share of domestic brands, foreign brands and replattals, set the future objectives and prepare action plans to achieve those objectives. When the first such document was discussed with Mr. Andrew Cameron, Dy Chairman of Overseas Division of Chloride England, on his visit to Pakistan, his first remark was "it is an excellent document." We had already sent him an advance copy before his visit.
I was the first in the battery industry to obtain the figures of motor vehicles registered and on-road in each district in each category such as passenger cars, buses, trucks, tractors etc. through the courtesy of Dr. Sadiq who was director general of Federal Bureau of Statistics. On the basis of these statistics, we revised the estimates of market size and sales targets in the territory of each branch and main dealer.
I took the initiative to call the first Main Dealers Conference to share information about the market conditions, market size and market potential and devise ways and means to tap the market potential.
I enlarged the distribution network by increasing the number of main dealers (distributors) from 11 to 43 within a couple of years, starting from 1983. The existing main dealers did not have enough finances and market reach to meet the growing market demand.
I played a major role in the launching of batteries in polypropylene containers starting from 1985 and faced the market challenges when the product miserably failed and claims shot up and also contained the damage done to the brand Exide.
During 1986-91, after the departure of Mr. S. I. Ahmed, I did many things that demanded a lot of brain work and leg work. (1) Many innovations were made in the product range such as (a) introduction of new battery types separately for each segment of cars of 800-999cc, 1000-1299cc and 1300-1600cc substituting NS40 that was being used for all the three segments (b) launching low maintenance batteries for the first time in Pakistan (c) creating, developing and launching a new low-price brand in NS40 range called Hi-Power to compete with the foreign brands. It became an instant success and we had to restrict its supplies to prevent it from taking share of Exide NS40.
(2) the distribution network was enlarged and strengthened to the full advantage of Exide and (3) the sales and marketing department was reorganized to make it more effective. Supervisors became officers and officers became managers in the department after having served the company for decades. Mr. S. I. Ahmed also suffered from the same perception as Mr. Zaidi, not to have a successor.
(4) For the first time in the history of the company, a full-scale advertising campaign at promoting Exide on national basis was launched during my tenure (5) I continued to hold dealers conventions year after year that I had initiated for the first time in Chloride in 1983 to forge and foster relationship between the trade and the company.
Now a few glimpses of the end results accruing to the company. Company's sales were Rs. 129.151 million in the year 1982-83 reaching Rs. 181.971 in 1986-87 (41% in 4 years) and Rs. 346.863 in 1990-91 (91% in 4 years) and profit before taxation (PBT) Rs. 29.201 million in the year 1982-83 reaching Rs. 30.632 million in 1986-87 (4% in 4 years) and Rs. 54.144 million in 1990-91 (77% in 4 years) during the troubled years of 1986-1991 when three departmental heads Mr. Mahmood Jan, Mr. Umer Farooq and Mr. Homi Sanjana were made to quit but I did not let the sales and profits go down despite what Mr. Zaidi had been doing to me all these years. It was out of my sheer commitment to my company and its shareholders, employees and dealers who depended upon the company for their earnings.
As compared to Chloride's performance, the next major domestic manufacturer Atlas Battery Ltd., (AGS brand) had sales Rs. 127.989 million and accumulated losses of Rs. 15.976 in the year 1991 and the third major domestic manufacturer Automotive Battery Co. Ltd. (FB brand) had sales of Rs. 110.868 million and accumulated losses of Rs. 65.448 in the year 1991. Atlas Battery Ltd had been in operation since 1969 and ABCL since 1987. I left the company in 1991.
All these figures of Chloride/Exide, Atlas Battery and Automotive Battery are based on their published Annual Reports.
I always believed in structural changes in preference to patchwork or adhoc decisions. Adhoc decisions and patchwork are necessary at times to provide relief for a short time but the real solution lies in the structural or fundamental or basic changes, by whatever name these are called.
I have had the worst experience of so-called professional management of Mr.Zaidi. He was least interested in the wellbeing of anybody except himself. He manipulated and changed every situation to his advantage. During the years 1986-1991, Mr. Zaidi did everything within his means to force me out. He thought I could be a contender for his position at any time. He gave me the minimum salary increases inspite of the fact that I was the one who was running the department all these years. If the departmental heads who came in after the departure of Mr. Ahmed were fit for the job, then they would not have been sent home.
If we take the calendar rather than fiscal years of the company, we have had five departmentals from Mr. Ahmed to Mr. Arshad Shahzada from 1986-1991. I remained sane and sensible to continue to perform to the best of my abilities all these years which greatly benefited the company as well as Mr. Zaidi who continued to get extension in his service year after year to the detriment of my interest.
I did everything possible to let the company grow in sales and profits at a fast pace and made it almost impossible for ABCL, headed by the former Director Marketing of Exide, Mr. S. I. Ahmed, to cause a dent to Exide. Ultimately, ABCLwas sold out to Exide Pakistan Ltd in 1991/92 with heavy accumulated losses and liabilities and wiped out share capital.
Around the middle of 1991, Mr. Jivraj sold off his majority shareholding in Exide Pakistan to Mr. Arif Hashwani. Since Mr. Arif Hashwani was new to the battery industry, he retained Mr. Zaidi as Advisor. Mr. Bachal Kazi stayed on to complete his two-year contract with the company. In the meantime, Mr. Zaidi made another move and moved over to Pakistan Accumulators Pvt Ltd, the manufacturers of Volta brand, in Hattar (NWFP) as Chief Executive. Mr. Arif Hashwani feared that Mr. Zaidi's association with PAL might damage Exide. So, he ultimately hired back Mr. Zaidi as Managing Director. Mr. Zaidi thus continued to remain associated with the company till the age of 78. He did not resign; he was asked to leave. When he left the company, there was not a SINGLE soul to bid him farewell.
My experiences at Chloride/Exide changed my own perception of professional management in Pakistan especially when I compared the situation with the one in the previous company Plasticrafters Ltd. We often tend to despise owner-managed companies calling them 'Seth' (capitalist) companies and prefer to work for multinational companies. I think such a perception needs to be defined by the conditions in the 'Seth' managed and professional-managed company. All 'Seth' may not have the same management style and all contractual chief executives of multinational companies may not have the same management style. Neither perception can be generalized.
Almighty Allah (God) has been extra-ordinarily kind to me all my life. The ensuing period of 1991-1996 brought many miracles to me and my family. Next episode on http://livethylife8.blogspot.com/
Now a few glimpses of the end results accruing to the company. Company's sales were Rs. 129.151 million in the year 1982-83 reaching Rs. 181.971 in 1986-87 (41% in 4 years) and Rs. 346.863 in 1990-91 (91% in 4 years) and profit before taxation (PBT) Rs. 29.201 million in the year 1982-83 reaching Rs. 30.632 million in 1986-87 (4% in 4 years) and Rs. 54.144 million in 1990-91 (77% in 4 years) during the troubled years of 1986-1991 when three departmental heads Mr. Mahmood Jan, Mr. Umer Farooq and Mr. Homi Sanjana were made to quit but I did not let the sales and profits go down despite what Mr. Zaidi had been doing to me all these years. It was out of my sheer commitment to my company and its shareholders, employees and dealers who depended upon the company for their earnings.
As compared to Chloride's performance, the next major domestic manufacturer Atlas Battery Ltd., (AGS brand) had sales Rs. 127.989 million and accumulated losses of Rs. 15.976 in the year 1991 and the third major domestic manufacturer Automotive Battery Co. Ltd. (FB brand) had sales of Rs. 110.868 million and accumulated losses of Rs. 65.448 in the year 1991. Atlas Battery Ltd had been in operation since 1969 and ABCL since 1987. I left the company in 1991.
All these figures of Chloride/Exide, Atlas Battery and Automotive Battery are based on their published Annual Reports.
I always believed in structural changes in preference to patchwork or adhoc decisions. Adhoc decisions and patchwork are necessary at times to provide relief for a short time but the real solution lies in the structural or fundamental or basic changes, by whatever name these are called.
I have had the worst experience of so-called professional management of Mr.Zaidi. He was least interested in the wellbeing of anybody except himself. He manipulated and changed every situation to his advantage. During the years 1986-1991, Mr. Zaidi did everything within his means to force me out. He thought I could be a contender for his position at any time. He gave me the minimum salary increases inspite of the fact that I was the one who was running the department all these years. If the departmental heads who came in after the departure of Mr. Ahmed were fit for the job, then they would not have been sent home.
If we take the calendar rather than fiscal years of the company, we have had five departmentals from Mr. Ahmed to Mr. Arshad Shahzada from 1986-1991. I remained sane and sensible to continue to perform to the best of my abilities all these years which greatly benefited the company as well as Mr. Zaidi who continued to get extension in his service year after year to the detriment of my interest.
I did everything possible to let the company grow in sales and profits at a fast pace and made it almost impossible for ABCL, headed by the former Director Marketing of Exide, Mr. S. I. Ahmed, to cause a dent to Exide. Ultimately, ABCLwas sold out to Exide Pakistan Ltd in 1991/92 with heavy accumulated losses and liabilities and wiped out share capital.
Around the middle of 1991, Mr. Jivraj sold off his majority shareholding in Exide Pakistan to Mr. Arif Hashwani. Since Mr. Arif Hashwani was new to the battery industry, he retained Mr. Zaidi as Advisor. Mr. Bachal Kazi stayed on to complete his two-year contract with the company. In the meantime, Mr. Zaidi made another move and moved over to Pakistan Accumulators Pvt Ltd, the manufacturers of Volta brand, in Hattar (NWFP) as Chief Executive. Mr. Arif Hashwani feared that Mr. Zaidi's association with PAL might damage Exide. So, he ultimately hired back Mr. Zaidi as Managing Director. Mr. Zaidi thus continued to remain associated with the company till the age of 78. He did not resign; he was asked to leave. When he left the company, there was not a SINGLE soul to bid him farewell.
My experiences at Chloride/Exide changed my own perception of professional management in Pakistan especially when I compared the situation with the one in the previous company Plasticrafters Ltd. We often tend to despise owner-managed companies calling them 'Seth' (capitalist) companies and prefer to work for multinational companies. I think such a perception needs to be defined by the conditions in the 'Seth' managed and professional-managed company. All 'Seth' may not have the same management style and all contractual chief executives of multinational companies may not have the same management style. Neither perception can be generalized.
Almighty Allah (God) has been extra-ordinarily kind to me all my life. The ensuing period of 1991-1996 brought many miracles to me and my family. Next episode on http://livethylife8.blogspot.com/
Click here to view my views, values and concerns
http://livethylife10.blogspot.com
Topics: Religion & Spiritualism, Life, Community, Global Issues, General Topics, Governance, Judicial Activism, Media, Politics, International Relations and Professional Services
http://livethylife10.blogspot.com
Topics: Religion & Spiritualism, Life, Community, Global Issues, General Topics, Governance, Judicial Activism, Media, Politics, International Relations and Professional Services
