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Every end is a new beginning
My planting story ends on a very happy note which always brings great happiness to my heart. After spending three years in Ambadi, I decided to quit planting and seek my fortune elsewhere. One year later in 1994, I launched by consulting company, Yawar Baig & Associates, in Bangalore and have never looked back. Planting…
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AMM-HSS – Turnaround story
I set some ground rules. I told them that if they identified a problem, I also wanted them to think it through and suggest a solution that we could apply. I didn’t want them to become ‘professional protestors’. I wanted them to become problem solvers. Whatever problem they mentioned would be their problem and who…
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Building Winning Teams
My greatest gains in Ambadi were to do with conceptualizing learnings, about the importance of mentoring to empower frontline staff to take decisions and ownership. The results that we achieved had directly to do with our success in both areas. We took a group of discordant individuals and built them into a highly synchronized team…
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The Flood and its Aftermath
That is where the beauty of the Hindustan Ambassador internal cabin design was such a help. The Ambassador has no frills. Unlike modern cars which have a whole console between the driver’s and passenger’s seat over which it is simply impossible to climb, in the Ambassador there is a straight-backed, non-reclining bench seat in the…
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As you sow, so you reap
In my entire career as a general manager, it is a matter of pride for me that I did not give a single paisa as a bribe to any union leader to get what I wanted. I always stood on principle and was able to win every single matter that went for arbitration simply based…
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Ambadi, the turn-around strategy
When you are working in a high conflict environment a particularly important strategy is to proactively reduce the issues on which conflict may happen. The fewer the conflicting issues, the easier your role in resolving them. Remember, the key is to do this proactively without being asked. The more issues you resolve unilaterally, the more…
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Leadership is content independent
I stressed in my Staff meeting that if my Staff did what I asked them to do wholeheartedly, I would take responsibility for any failures. I learnt from experience that when you have a team that is skilled, but not motivated and afraid, then you as the leader need to be able to take the…
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Manners make the man & woman
As was the custom of the plantations when anyone got married and returned with his wife, there was a round of parties to meet the couple. So also, in our case and since I was the Secretary of the Anamallai Club, I had more than my fair share of friends and so we had a…
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If it can’t make you cry, it can’t make you work
Fear of failure has many respectable names: Consolidation of gains, Stability, Creating Permanence and so on. What is forgotten is that life is about change and positive change is growth. That growth is not looking in with a satisfied glow at what exists, but always to seek what might be. And that all growth is…
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Grass Hills, Anamallais
I used to go to Grass Hills as often as I could with my two companions, the Raman brothers. They were cousins and had the same name. We would leave my motorcycle in the garage of the Assistant Manager of Akkamalai Estate – it didn’t matter if you knew the person or not. It was…