363 week ago — 4 min read
It was 20 years into my corporate career that I started to see Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi as a management icon. I was writing a Job Evaluation report for the Late Ranjan Bannerjee, ex- Director HR of HUL, and a board member of ConsIndia HR Services where I worked as an HR Consultant. I had completed the Job Evaluation Survey at Breach Candy Hospital and now a client was expecting the report. It had been a month of days that stretched into nights. I assumed the difficult part was over and the report should not take more than a couple of days.
Sure enough, my first draft was thrown straight into the dustbin by Mr T. Sengupta, our MD. He said, “No, first you get the objective right then write the report”. So I wrote an objective which went the same way the draft had. I mean how difficult can it be, writing an objective after completing an assignment? Thirty five attempts later TSG, as we used to call him, asked me, “Geet Mala have you read Gandhiji’s Autobiography?” I said I had; I mean which avid reader has not read “My experiments with truth” He said, “No, you have not read it - go read it again.”
Fuming, I left his room but picked up a copy on my way home that night. By the next afternoon, he asked me again whether I had read it. I said yes I had reread it. He asked what I learnt from it and I said the simplicity of his language. He said, “Yes, you have got it. Now go rewrite the objective again.” This time he just made a couple of corrections and passed it.
Then I started writing the report, which gained the admiration not only of the client but also converted Dr. Bannerjee into a fan of my writing. What I true-ly imbibed from the book was:
I am sure every person will have a different take away from Gandhiji’s life. These were mine. I would love to hear yours.
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