MY BOSSES IN DORR-OLIVER - Part 1 (TRK)

( BOSSES WHO MOULDED MY CHARACTER AND CAREER )

Regular readers of this Adda will no doubt recall that I started my working career as a Sub Junior engineer in the Environmental Engg. Division of Dorr-Oliver in Bombay, in early 1979 at a princely salary of Rs. 750 per month.  The Company provided free bus transport from Kurla to Andheri ( both in Bombay) and of course free lunch in the canteen room for the cattle class run by a colourful character by name Shetty : Officers of a higher cadre were entitled to eat in the Executive Lunch Room as an added perquisite. Apart from the amenities mentioned above, we were also entitled to free tea service once in the morning and once again in the afternoon brought up to the second floor cubicle I occupied by “Chhotu” a diminutive server boy.  The tea was poured out in small glass tumblers from his huge Aluminum kettle.  At times, when clients came calling, we were permitted to order the same tea to be brought in a teapot, and this time served in classy cups and saucers : We knew how to treat customers like Kings even in those days.

Be that as it may, this article is really about my bosses in Dorr Oliver who shaped my career, my thinking, my temperament and indeed my character and my future, during my brief sojourn in that Company : I owe them and the Company a deep debt of gratitude, for what they have made me today.

The hierarchy of my bosses reads thus :

R Natarajan         : Asst. Manager – Environmental Division  ( Call sign -  RN )

K Narasimhan      : Divisional Manager  - I cannot put a finger on his exact portfolio. I discovered later that he was an uncle of mine, not very distantly related  ( KN )

P S Prabhu          : Marketing Manager – in Charge of all Marketing activities ( in D-O Parlance Marketing included everything from design, sales, engineering, execution Followup, Commissioning of plants, if called upon to do so :Hence the Top Dog Tag to marketing engineers in the Company ( PSP)

K P Mohandas Rao : Marketing Director ( KPMR)

T R Krishna Rao     : Managing Director  ( TRK )

A “Rogues Gallery” type Notice of the bosses appears in a Dorr- Oliver House Magazine issue of 1983 on pg. 8.  Use the link :

http://www.dorroliveralumni.org/DO%20History/DO-Tell%20Scans/Stamford/1983%20-%20Sales%20Communicator%20Fall.pdf

(the Editor evidently used Natarajan’s photo from his Application Form from the early Fifties : Natarajan had no Son ! )

I shall now proceed to reverse the order in the descriptions that follow, one Boss at a time, and the one indelible impression in my mind left by each one of these Gentlemen.

T R KRISHNA RAO

TRK, as he was universally known, was a distinguished Alumnus of the venerable National Institute of Engineering ( NIE) in Mysore,  graduating with Physics, Chemistry, and later in Civil Engg. from that Institution.  Later went on to Iowa State to get his MS degree, and joined Dorr-Oliver immediately thereafter.  These are gleanings from a D-O House magazine of 1958.

TRK was the General Manager of Hindustan Dorr-Oliver in 1979 when I walked in to their Head Office in Andheri, Bombay, and presented my papers for a job in the Environmental Engineering Division. I had got past the lower rungs in the recruitment/ interview process and the final hurdle had to be crossed in TRK’s Chamber.

It was a great big hall, fit enough for a Banquet, and absolutely bare, save for a great big table, behind which sat TRK, on a leather upholstered swivel chair.  The table was equally devoid of any trappings of a man at work, except for a small round contraption which looked to be of polished Mahogany, with a gleaming brass needle on top : that was all I could register in my mind, in the state of nervousness I was in when facing the great man for the first time.

TRK quickly put me at ease, reassuring me with a gentle smile that he had no role to play in the interview process : But yes – he only held veto power on any prospective recruit.  Without further ado, I joined as a Sub Junior Engineer in H D-O in February 1979.

Over the next three years, I came to know TRK a little better.  Extremely soft spoken, his manner suave, he was a Gentleman to the core, with his ever smiling demeanor.  But underneath all this was the iron fist in a velvet glove, which he displayed on several occasions in ruthless fashion.  Whenever I had a difference of opinion on technical matters with Natarajan my immediate Boss, we would trek to TRK’s chamber for his counsel, since he was the one with the Environmental background, and had the last word.

It was during these meetings that I got to get a closer look at that Mahogany doodad on TRK’s table, cryptically labelled “Executive Decision Maker”.  It was in fact a simple directional compass.  But in place of the customary N-E-S-W, was marked YES-NO-YES-NO in the four quadrants.   And, with just a flick of his finger, the fate of any debate would be sealed.

Ever since my discovery of TRK’s decision making style, I have been an avid reader of the daily horoscope in the Newspapers, especially on days when an argument with Natarajan had to be settled.

Dr. Ananth S Kodavasal                                                              June 18, 2011

Footote :

I am glad TRK did not use his decision maker tool to exercise his Veto power over my appointment in Dorr- Oliver : Or may be he did !  He taught me, just as Eckenfelder did, to Keep things simple !