Middle Management and Visibility to the Top

Middle management and visibility to the top

M moved to the company's Mumbai office in 1971, and got married thereafter. His wife

worked as a copywriter in the advertising industry. In Mumbai, M reported to the head of the

spare parts group, who got additional responsibility for ancillary development. In a business

environment where managerial and cost accounting talent was scarce, domestic ancillary supplier

firms lacked the expertise to build robust production costing models. M quickly found himself

engaged in mentoring these suppliers on systems, processes and practices. He learnt from such

interactions what to avoid, when one ran a business. M also started appreciating the typical

stresses faced by an entrepreneur.

"Seizing an opportunity is great, but a stroke of luck is always helpful" said M when

speaking about his next phase of growth at this firm. He had been designated as the secretary of

the Price Panel, which determined the price-volume mix for the forthcoming year. While other

members of this panel were from senior management, M was the hands-on manager. He had

developed a price chart comparing the cost curves of different supplier firms and was involved in

supplier negotiations.

He believed that his educational background (specifically IIM) and his assignment on the

Price Panel - which was extremely sensitive to the business - had helped him earn the trust of

senior management at the firm.

His work on the Price Panel had been noticed by a senior executive at the firm. In an

unexpected turn of events, this executive was subsequently promoted as the CEO, when the

incumbent passed away due to a brief illness. M immediately moved to work at the firm's head

office and became the secretary of the price panel. This gave M an opportunity to engage with

chief executives of a number of suppliers and deepened his understanding of how entrepreneurs

operated. This would help hugely in his days as an entrepreneur on planning, decision making

and execution.

In 1976, M and his wife decided to move out of Mumbai, since