It was indeed a meeting of sorts when the students of Delhi University’s Faculty of Management Sciences interacted with the Managing Director of the Maruti Udyog Limited, Jagdish Khattar.
As part of the promotion of BBC World programme’s Back to the Floor, Khattar shared with students his experience of
returning to the shop floor and working with the workers and experiencing their day-to-day difficulties and finding a solution to them.
“When I joined the Maruti Suzuki, a Japanese counterpart introduced me to the three G’s that they follow — Gamba, Ganza and Genzu. Translated in English these stand for — go to the spot, see the problem and take realistic action based on the problem,” explained Khattar.
Following a half an hour screening of Back to the Floor , capturing a day’s experience of Khattar at the shop floor in a factory at Gurgaon, the MD was faced with flood of questions from the students.
Ranging from the troubles he faced as the Managing Director to his stand on the use of Japanese technology for Indian cars.
Asked if he felt the need of developing an in-built Research and Development team he said, “Development is a time-taking process. When we reach that stage you won’t have to ask me to have my own team.The Japanese will never understand why Indians need an air-conditioner in a Maruti 800.”
{{/usCountry}}Asked if he felt the need of developing an in-built Research and Development team he said, “Development is a time-taking process. When we reach that stage you won’t have to ask me to have my own team.The Japanese will never understand why Indians need an air-conditioner in a Maruti 800.”
{{/usCountry}}He emphasised on the need for senior officials to go to the field and understand the problems being faced that affect productivity.
Quoting Peter Drucker, Khattar said, “Military commanders do not rely on the report from the field, they go and look.”