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Subrat SaurabhAuthor of Kuch Woh Pal
Shiv, the central character of the novel, is faced with a difficult business situation in the factory which he manages, alongwith a technical counterpart. A sudden strike by workers union has brought the production and sales activities to almost nil. It is an illegal strike, but there is no time to approach the courts for relief. Every day's loss of production means loss of 100 crore Rupees for the factory. But the loss for the customers who are dependent on his factory is much more. If the strike continues for more than 2 weeks, the customers may abandon his factory and go to competitors to buy their needs.
The irony is that Shiv has faced such a strike situation before with totally contrasting results. In one case, in another business unit, he had achieved success in breaking the strike resulting in long-term growth. In another case one year before in this very factory, the plant managemet was forced to take a different approach to avoid the strike. Will he be forced to buy peace with the union and give away more freebies, or will he be allowed to break the strike and make way for long-term peace and growth? The culture of MNC is such that the management has to be seen as benevolent to workers. At the same time, the factory management has to achieve business results of sales and profits as per business plan targets. How Shiv and his colleagues devise a strategy, convince the top boss and execute it with speed, efficiency and effect, is the crux of this story.
Subbu Hegde
Subbu Hegde lives in Bengaluru, India. He worked in an MNC for over two decades and retired at a fairly senior level. He started as a ‘bean counter’ but moved to ‘general management’ role as part of his career progression and headed business units of the MNC in the latter part of his career. While working he developed an urge to ‘give back to society’ and after retirement started a ‘non-profit’ company for skill development. He continues to manage this company providing training and creating livelihood for hundreds of poor school and college dropouts every year.
