AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY -A PERSPECTIVE

EMPLOYEE FIRST-KEY TO SUCCESS

Having worked in Marketing Deptt of Automotive & Related Industry for more than 40 years with Small/Big Corporate both Indian & MNCs, I have learnt one key to success and that is " Keep the Interest of your Employee as the First priority "

If the Employee is Happy, Motivated then he works harder, longer and always innovate to keep the Employer happy as well delighted.

Its true at every stage and in every situation as being illustrated as follows: At Home-If the Cook is happy, he/she will prepare good, healthy, tasty food and also serve better, If your Driver is happy, satisfied then he drives better, safer, follows the law and look after the comfort of his employer. At Office- If your employee say a Front line Sales Person is happy, motivated and satisfied with timely remittance of salary, expenses etc then he does not carries his personal worries or tension to work , rather innovate the ways to solve or find the answers to solve the worries of employer because: >A Motivated Employee develop the urge to excel, and perform to realise the Aim &Vision of his Employer. >A Satisfied Employee also develop natural leadership and acts as catalyst for his co-workers to perform better, convince the customers for developing long term loyalty for the Employer company's Product and its Brand.

Now a Days various Business Magazines , and Research Agencies conducts surveys to find the "Best Employer of the Year ", which is solely based on employee feed-backs , some times sponsored which I can not rule out but purpose is to project Good Employer which adds to Cos Image and its employees, their family, friends circle, and now social on-line group etc becomes the spokes persons for the co brand and its product.

Since I have the experience of working with many company's , I also experienced in the early stage of my career that there were some employer who did not pay the salaries/expenses etc in time which resulted into lot of anger /frustration and leads to worries to the extent that these start adversely affecting the company operations. In the event of isolated cases , emergency situations , the satisfied employees came forward to extend their hand of extra cooperation beyond office duties to bail out the company by accepting salary cuts, ensuring lower expenses etc etc.

I also experienced the joy and delight of receiving Double/Triple raise in salaries, much better perks even during the time companies did not perform as planned . it did put lot of pressure to work much harder, perform much better, to pay back as part of gratitude to the employer. Later I realized it was well thought of investments on people by the Promoters & Management which brought long terms gains in terms of retaining the talent to realize the long terms vision/goal.

I therefore strongly recommend all the Enterprises which have a definite vision for a long term growth to adopt the approach of "EMPLOYEE FIRST " A Sure formula for success . To illustrate -Imagine an Auto-Component sales person whose job is to visit garages, small retailers, in villages, sub urban cities day in day out,but does not receive his salary and daily expenses in time, how dissatisfied he will become along with loads of personal worries as how to run his home. This will lead to following 1. Delay in executing the task 2. Carrying the personal worries to job which will adversely affect the work quality 3. Company's Priority may be side lined to own priority to address personal issues 4. He may become a bad Mouth to adversely affect the company's and promoters image 5. May develop bad intentions/shortcuts to make up and overcome financial issues 6. May stop working or work against co's interest to help the competitors.

On the Contrary- if the same employee is satisfied, motivated will lead to following 1. Wll completely concentrate on work as there is no personal worry to look after 2. Will play role of catalyst among the employee and create positive work environment 3. Will put his best in improving his company's product,brand image among customers 4. He will go all out to achieve company's targets and aim for the best. 5. Will become Eye and Ear of the Employer to preempt the business situation . 6. He will become the good resource to suggest proactive steps to counter competition

In conclusion I wish to state that every Employer who has definite growth plan and vision must look after the interests of their employees first and then demand the productive working /results. It is established fact that satisfied employee will do his/her best in realising the vision of employer and achieving the short and long terms goals of company and its promoters.

Think as why corporate like Google, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Toyota, Honda, Bosh etc are ever Growing, enjoying image of offering best Quality products, Image of Best employers....... Believe me all have the most satisfied employees . Lets remember that your competitor can match your technology, product, price , packaging but they can not match the quality of your employee . let this be the real Differential between you and the competitors, if you have to remain or become Number 1.

I feel lets bring in the concept of ROI in Employees like we do while buying the best machines/ technologies and work on ROI.

Select &Hire the Best, Pay the Best, Retain the Best, and then Expect the Best

UKJ