(part of an infinite stories’ series)
I started my first role as a Category buyer for car seats at Maruti Suzuki India Limited. It was considered a complex category because it involved multiple components/materials such as fabric, sheet metal, seat pads, plastic frame, sub-assemblies (sliding, reclining)
In the early months, my then manager used to send me to visit all suppliers to learn the business including tier-2/3; some contracts were directly managed by us
1 day I scheduled a visit to a tier 2 supplier, and the plant head & I did introductions. Post intros, he laughed and said ‘madam kaha loha, metal k handle mei aa gayi, ye Mardon ka kaam hai’ [Madam, how did you land up in the metal & steel business? It’s a male business]
I smiled and replied ‘yeah, I know but now that I am here would you mind a walkthrough of your factory? The plant was full of inefficiencies – poor tooling, the load of rejections, unsafe machines, and waste…
I made my notes, dug up last year’s cost sheets, and estimated savings if the plant would be run well. I gave this target to tier 1 for cost reduction
6 months later, the same plant requested a meeting ‘aapke sath ek meeting kar sakte kya, thoda ghaata chal ra hai, kuchh guide kariye…zyada maal aapko hi jata hai’ [Madam, can we review cost assumptions together and what shifts we can make; my business is turning unviable…you are my largest customer?]
…smiling I said ‘yes, this time let’s talk business’…6 months and we made significant shifts towards a much more viable, more sustainable (and more auto clients)
Many times we just think that we have the right to judge the abilities of others without even an effort to understand (which may incur huge costs too…for the 6 months of making shifts the supplier had to bear the costs of inefficiencies to stay in the business which equaled to a few crores)
Don’t let others define you. Bring your best version of your abilities forward, every single time!
And share it around with your friends/network, particularly who are trying to thrive in unconventional fields (by any measure)