Power of discretion.........

A large factory was being constructed in a remote area in India. A grave problem arose during the construction of the plant. A really heavy machine had to be placed at the bottom of a deep pit built in the plant, but the weight of the machine posed a challenge.

The machine arrived at the site, but, how to we get it the 30 feet deep pit, wondered all the engineers and executives.

If not installed properly, both the foundation and the machine could get damaged.

Cranes that could lift very heavy weights were not available in this remote village and the ones available could probably lift the machine, but to safely place it down the pit was beyond their capacity.

Finally, the company officials relented, and issued a tender to find a solution to this problem. As a result, a lot of people sent their offers to fit this machine in the pit. They thought that they would call for a crane and get the machine installed.

Majority of the people had bid around 10 to 15 lakh rupees to complete the work. Meanwhile, words about this problem had spread across the village. An enterprising village farmer approached the company and asked just one question...."if the machine gets drenched in water, will there be any problem?"

The company replied that "it will not make any difference to the machine."

After that, he also filled the tender.

When all the offers were seen and compared, it was learnt that the villager had asked for only 5 lakh rupees for completing the work. So obviously, the job of setting up the machine was given to him.

The farmer however refused to share how he would do this work, and only said that he had the skills and the right team to do it.

He just asked the company to tell him the date and time on which to do this work.

The day finally arrived. Every employee, manager, even the boss of the company and everyone around was very curious to know how that man would do this work! He had not even done any preparation on the site.

Well, on the decided time, a lot of trucks started reaching that site. All those trucks were loaded with ice slabs, and they were all being placed into the pit.

When the pit was completely filled with ice, they moved the machine and placed it atop the ice slabs. After this, a portable water pump was switched on and a pipe was inserted in the pit so that the water could be taken out. The ice melted, the water kept pouring out, and the machine started going down.

The work was completed within 4-5 hours and the total cost came to less than Rs. 1 lakh. The machine fit perfectly and the farmer made a profit of more than Rs.4 lakhs.

Finding a simple solution to the problem is an art, which depends on the person's prudence, cleverness and practical understanding.

Simple solutions to even the most difficult problems can be found with the power of discretion..................