Moment of Truth…MNCs and I…. 3 November 2007

(more than 300 words)… Part 2 of 2 parts

I don’t wait to make a call at 830 am to confirm my appointment half-an-hour later. It does not make any sense as the driving time from my office to their premises is about two hours.

First hurdle is the Security. `Sorry, visitors are allowed inside only after 10 am’. I explain that I have specifically been called by the Big Man at 9 am sharp. After a long telephonic conversation with his boss, the guard finally relents.

After completing all the Security formalities, I reach the Reception Desk at 845 am and make telephonic contact with my man. He promises to `come soon’. And he does arrive `soon’ to meet me at 11 am with both hands full – one is holding a cup of coffee and the other a cellphone.

He is courteous enough to ask me help myself with a cup of coffee from the free vending machine nearby and some biscuits while he shouts some instructions on his cellphone.

He makes himself comfortable in the sofa and sits cross-legged to show his authority.

`For what item have you quoted ? Show me the quotation’. He does not have with him the quotation submitted by me. He casually looks at it. `Have you discussed this with Ramesh?’. `Which Ramesh’, I ask.

`Oh, you don’t know Ramesh? He is the head of our laboratory. First meet him and come to me.,Okay? So saying, he vanishes.

`Ramesh has gone to US (or Japan). He will be back next week’, this is Reception lady informing me.

I am tired and hungry. I leave the premises.

On my way back I meet the owners of two small scale industries and collect some purchase orders and advance money.

When the moments of truth arrived, these MNCs, to me, became the Most Nuisance Companies.

Now that I have left my business, I am keenly looking forward to meeting those Big Men somewhere so that I can give them my piece a mind and square up with them.

S. Gopal …keying in is better than idling

Moment of Truth…MNCs and I…. 2 November 2007

(more than 500 words) – Part 1 of 2 parts

Having run a marketing business for about 18 years, I have interacted with more than a thousand companies, in and around Bangalore. My most pleasant dealings have been with small industries and the worst ones with the Multi National Companies (MNCs).

While these MNCs were owned by the Japanese or the Americans, my contacts there were always with persons with native skin (like mine). These would typically be middle-level managers in their late twenties or early thirties with an MTech or an MBA degree. They would either be working in the purchasing department or be the `end-users’ (those who would be using the products offered by us).

While I have had occasions to meet some good people (more as an exception rather than as a rule), most of them would fit in the descriptions and situations described below.

• First and foremost is their arrogance ( as different from self-confidence): `Do you know whom you are talking to? We are a Fortune 500 company with an annual turnover of US Dollar XXXX billion’.
• `Just listen to what I am saying. Don’t tell me about your product. I want an item exactly like the one I have seen in Kobe (or Detroit)’.
• `I want the quotation in the next half-an-hour’.
• If queried about when they would decide the purchase: `Just submit the offer and leave the rest to us’`
• After six months: `Don’t keep on following up. We have so many things to do. Your item is not our priority. I have sent your quotation to Tokyo (or Los Angeles)’.
• Suddenly one day after a year: `Come to my office in the next half-an-hour for negotiations. No, I don’t care that you are 30 kilometers away; I don’t want to listen to your traffic problem. If you don’t come now, I will place order on your competitor’.
• The scene when I somehow reach their premises:
  • Writing the name in the register, explaining where I have come from (and the reasons for my visit) to the un-friendly (some times even intimidating) security guards (after all they are protecting foreign property!), collecting the visitor’s pass, and in some cases adorning the safety helmet and safety goggles, takes a cool (?) half-an-hour.
  • Walking inside and contacting the Receptionist takes another half-an-hour.
  • `What is purpose of your visit? Do you have an appointment?’ this is from the Receptionist.
  • `Please wait. He is in a meeting. I can’t say when he will be free’. In some companies the sofas are comfortable, air-conditioning perfect, and the magazines the latest editions. In certain others, you have to just keep standing under `normal temperature and pressure’.
    
  • After one hour: `I can’t remind him. He will get annoyed’
  • After three hours: `You are waiting for me? Oh. yeah, yeah, I called you isn’t?. Now I am going to Customs department. Come and meet me sharp 9 am tomorrow. Call me at 830 am to confirm the appointment’

….continued in the next edition of Penumbra

S. .Gopal
…keying in is better than idling