Story No.9 : Mystery of the Missing Cars !

This is a story I had heard a long time ago, and happened in one of the world’s leading Automobile companies. They had a system whereby once a year, the Board of Directors would allot time to some of the most promising innovations that could be implemented in the future. This was a very prestigious opportunity and many employees would be trying very hard to ensure that their ideas/ suggestions are presented before the Board.

One such employee had a suggestion about quick-dry paint technology, which he felt would revolutionize the manufacturing process. But in spite of his best efforts, he could not convince his Manager about the utility of his idea and so finally on the day of the Board meeting, his suggestion was not short-listed for presentation to the Directors.

On that day, all the Directors arrived in HO eager to listen to the ideas. During the previous years, many path-breaking ideas and innovations had happened during this annual exercise and so there was excitement all around. Auto industry being highly competitive, any new idea or innovation would give the company an edge over the competitors.

As was the practice, all the Management Team Members came to the meeting driving their own cars. After parking their cars in the parking lot, they went to the meeting hall to listen to the presentations.

It was a day well spent, and as there were many presentations, the meeting ended only late in the evening. The Top Management Team was happy because they could get many fresh ideas for future implementation. There were talking and joking with each other and reached the parking lot.

To their surprise, they could not find their cars! Each Director was moving from one end of the parking area to the other, trying to identify where they had parked their car in the morning. There was a lot of confusion. Someone was sure that there was car which looked like his car, but it was of a different colour. Many Directors checked the registration number of the car and found it was theirs, but the colour of the car had changed!

Just then, our employee, whose idea of quick-dry paint was not accepted arrived at the scene. He apologised to all and told them that all the cars were exactly in the same spot where they had parked in the morning, only the cars had been painted in a new colour!

Everybody was astonished. In those days, painting a car was a very difficult, laborious and time-taking process and nobody could believe that within a short time, from morning to the evening, their cars could be painted and that too ?in the parking lot itself! And the quality of the paint was also amazing.

While some amount of anger was there, many were having a good laugh at the most practical joke that they had encountered in their business life! Needless to say, the quick-dry paint technology was immediately taken up for implementation.

One important lesson from the story is that many times it is not enough to simply have an idea. It has to be sold to the Management in a proper manner for implementation. Organisations are complex and always the right thing may not happen automatically. Managers need to be influencing and sell or market their ideas. You need to have confidence in your ability and be persistent in your approach.

For senior management, the lesson is to accommodate as many ideas as possible, for you never know which idea you have missed due to bureaucracy or organisational politics. “SKIP MEETINGS”, where Top Management interacts directly with front line employees is a well-known practice to ensure better communication flow across all levels of the organisation.

Thankyou for spending time reading the story. Please do not forget to give your views on this. We will again meet next week.

#SaturdayStories