The 8:30am Manager – Part 2

“Rudra, what are you doing to meet the shortfall?”

Krishna Rao’s brow furrowed, as he piercingly looked at his deputy.

“Sir, I see us selling not more than 520 vehicles this month; that is going to be eighteen percent below our target.”

Rudra’s professional experience of twenty one years, with stints across product development and sales, was weathering a tumultuous time in the company, and an unusually contracting market in the zone.

Silence descended between two seasoned men, who shared deep mutual respect.

“Premjit, can you come to the meeting room?”

“Yes Sir, in 15 minutes?”

“Sure”

“Rudra, I don’t think Vinit has his heart in the job. I see him in office far too often, and his leave requests are only going up.”

“Sir, I wanted to share with you that Vinit is going through a divorce; he did not want me to share with you, but things have reached a point where you should know.”

Krishna Rao picked his glass of water, and took a small gulp.

“How bad is it?”

“I don’t think, they are looking to reconcile.”

Vinit joined two years ago from a consumer durable company, and had adapted well to a new city and a new industry; his wife did not join him to this new city.

It was seven months back, Vinit walked up to Rudra one evening and informed to resign.

Rudra talked him out of resignation; Vinit could not talk his wife out of divorce.

There was a knock on the door.

“Hi Premjit, come in.”

“Good morning Sir.”

“Rudra, great to see you; so someone finally showed you our office address!”

Premjit Chatterjee, head of Asset Finance, did not anticipate the mood in the room, nor did he realise that his blitheful swipe served as antidote to the men in the room.

Krishna Rao grinned; Rudra offered Premjit a seat by his side, as a smile returned to his worried face.

“Dada, tea?”

The men munched the Good Day biscuits served with tea; the orange cream biscuits soaked moisture.

Krishna Rao poured into the sales report again.

“Premjit, how is our Keonjhar and Jajpur portfolio performing?”

Both the districts were core mining belts, and a major driver for growing commercial vehicle sales in the zone.

“Sir, there is a sharp reduction in mining output over last three months; there is further reduction expected due to monsoons and water entering open-cast mines. Due to higher supply of tipper trucks, freight rates have fallen almost by twenty percent, and if the trend continues, transporters may go into red after paying for EMI and operating costs. I would recommend we go slow on new vehicle financing, else we will see increasing write-downs.”

Rudra could not hide his consternation at the verbosity.

“Premjit Da, should we stop business with that outlook?”

Before the discussion could boil over, Krishna Rao cleared his throat and reminded the anxious men that on their able shoulders the business and their teams depended.

“Rudra, Premjit - let’s have a team dinner on Friday; Arpit, the new management trainee, has joined. Let’s welcome him, and he will get to meet the team.”

“Excellent idea Sir, the team badly needs a break.”

After Rudra left the meeting room, Krishna Rao turned to Premjit.

“I want you to launch by tomorrow afternoon, a finance scheme with an extended repayment period for all heavy and light truck models that are not deployed in mining belts. This offer is towards existing customers with good repayment record, and to new customers who are making more than twenty five percent down payment. This intimation has to be with all dealerships by evening tomorrow, and I need a confirmation from you by 6pm that it has been done.”

The sullen sky had darkened; evening lights from nearby buildings fell on the watery potholes.

From the broken drainage pipe on the terrace, droplets of water fell on the cement ground with a rhythmic consistency.

“Good morning, Sameer Babu”

“Hi Arpit, very good morning to you; too early to office young man.”

“Rudra and I could not meet properly, so he wanted to catch up.”

“Very well, have a great day.”

Rudra was at his desk, immersed in the morning newspaper.

“Good morning, Sir."

“Hi Arpit, good morning. Meet Vinit and Sukant, your colleagues; I think you guys have met yesterday.”

When Arpit had completed filling his forms, Sameer Babu took him around the office and finished a round of informal introductions.

“Sukant will be your go-to partner, to help you understand our vehicle models, sales process, reports and our dealer sales teams.”

Sukant did not like the unsolicited delegation; being in zonal office for five years now, he had been assigned new recruits and interns for training assistance, besides accepting additional responsibilities on Vinit’s behalf.

In Vinit, Sukant found a friend, almost a younger brother.

“Guys, we are having a dinner on Friday evening; please keep yourself free.”

“Those who can’t make it, may please inform Krishna Rao, personally.”

Rudra helped himself a smile.

The team dinner laced with generous servings of whiskey and rum, in the open terrace restaurant was Arpit’s best evening, after he joined the Zonal Office. Rudra raised a toast, introducing Arpit to the group, and wished him a successful career. Premjit Da regaled the gathering with his experiences with painful customers and difficult bosses; Vinit and Sukant laughed the loudest, while their glasses emptied into their bruised souls.

Arpit saw Krishna Rao holding his glass of whiskey, with an arm around Sameer Babu talking to his office assistant.

The evening was succour for the tired; hope for the disheartened.

Arpit joined Rudra for a first round tour of his assigned districts; met dealership owners, sales managers and the sales representatives.

On his second trip to a remote district, Rudra dropped him at the dealership and moved on with Vinit; he was asked to collect dealer sales report, a daily report filed by each field sales staff in a register.

Two months passed; Arpit spent most time at the dealerships, on tour.

“Arpit, you have to return to Zonal Office tomorrow.”

Rudra’s voice over the phone was persistent.

“Sir, the sales reports are not ready.”

“Don’t bother, take the evening train and be there in office by 9am; the Regional Head is visiting tomorrow and Krishna Rao wants everybody in office.”

Arpit was surprised with the urgency; his waitlisted train ticket did not get confirmed.

He sat the night with another waitlisted co-passenger on the lower side-berth.

“Are you gentlemen running a Zonal Office or, a circus?”

The room was dead silent; Arpit joined ten minutes late as his train got delayed; Rudra repeatedly and impatiently kept checking with him to make sure he reaches office by 9am.

Tapas Mallick, Regional Head, was blistering.

“Don’t tell me about mining issues, competition discounts, monsoon; every state has issues and you are hired to deal with them.”

“We cannot miss the sales target, that is an order from HO; we have to report a strong quarter.”

“Krishna Rao, your team better gets it straight and right, else they will be looking for jobs next month.”

Arpit saw Krishna Rao stoic and reticent, while the team looked battered; the silence in the room was chilling.

Tapas Mallick left by 4pm to catch his early evening flight; the office was empty by 5:30pm in a usually busy day.

Krishna Rao sat at his desk; Tapas Mallick had spent an hour with him before he left for airport.

“Padma, I will be late tonight.”

As he hung up, his eyes looked at the heavily marked paper that Tapas Mallick had left on his table, with two names circled again, and again.

Rudra

Arpit

(End of Part 2. Finale next)