Motivational

Dream Big….Drive Ahead……

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Source:::: “THE HINDU”….A success story of a business man without an university degree for a management profession qualification…..

Natarajan.

Michael Boneham, president and managing director of Ford India, began his successful journey as a village school teacher

University degrees and top grades might be great points to have in one’s resume. But do you really need them for most of the things you want to do in life?

Michael Boneham, president and managing director, Ford India, is neither an engineer nor an MBA, considered to be prerequisites for such a post. He is one who relies more on his dreams, his instincts and intuitions. No wonder then that he left the village school in Australia, where he was teaching, and took off on a backpacking trip to Europe.

“I went away for eight months. When I came back, I thought I needed a new challenge. I could have gone back to teaching, but that wasn’t going to be for me for the rest of my life,” says Boneham.

That was when Boneham chanced upon an advertisement. “It was from Ford, an HR position for an assembly plant in Sydney. I applied and was surprised to get the job. I always had an interest in cars and also studied HR for some years. So it was not that I had no background,” he says with a smile.

Boneham got an opportunity to move into manufacturing. “This was something unusual in Ford for someone to move into manufacturing from HR. Again it was all about focussing on leading and managing the people.”

For the 27 years and a little more that Boneham has been with Ford he has been responsible for purchase, manufacture, and management operations till he moved into this post four years ago. “Well, I think leadership is all about interacting with people and being able to be passionate about what you’re doing. It is to bring people with you and being clear on what you want as a leader.”

In his present position Boneham believes that he needs to be just a businessman who understands what drives a business. He confesses that most of his learning was on the job. “University is important. But the experience of the 27 plus years cannot be undermined. You get to see how leaders perform, you watch the things that really catch you and put them into your own tool kit. This can be done only by experience and on the job. Degrees are important. An MBA is important and you can have the best one in the world, but if you don’t deliver and perform in the work place that degree is not worth it”

Another aspect that Boneham has realised is that people need to keep minds open to new possibilities. “Young people should not be narrow in their dreams about what they can do. They should be open to new possibilities that will open new doors.”

Tracking the highpoints in his career with the automotive company, the Aussie points to some important decisions he was part of. “Supervising the manufacture of the third generation of the iconic Range Rover when Ford took over Land Rover from BMW was very exciting. I was plant manager for the Michigan factory that rolled out the latest generation of Mustangs, the great vehicle.”

The Indian challenge

Coming to India and doing what the company has done so far, Boneham thinks was another challenge. “Ford was not a big player in India; we were an interesting niche player. Then we found a way to deliver Figo in a segment where more than 70 per cent of all car sales happen. It was not easy.”

Boneham also oversees the company’s community efforts in India. ‘Operation Goodwill,’ as the programme is called, focuses on enabling sustainable development and improving educational infrastructure. The company has already invested 125,000 dollars in the project that aims to develop skills among rural women, improving educational infrastructure, basic sanitation and hygiene, and enabling higher learning outcomes in schools at villages. The company is also the highest voluntary blood donor in the industrial segment for the past ten years.

“This Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative has been part of what Ford is all about globally. Henry Ford said that a business that just makes money is poor business. We try to follow that in CSR. We believe it is our obligation to give back, particularly in the communities where we have operations,” rounded off Boneham.

Keywords: Michael Boneham, Ford India

A STORY OF PERSEVERENCE , DEDICATION AND AMBITION….

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SOURCE::::: UNKNOWN,…
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‘Finger Licking’ ….a Good Story…

This Story is Special because it’s an Example
of how Perseverance, Dedication, and Ambition
along with Hard Work ,with a bit of Luck, can
Create Success; regardless of Ones Age.

    “Young Colonel Sanders”
When Colonel Harland Sanders retired at the age
of sixty-five, he had little to show for himself,
except an old Caddie Roadster, a Hundred and
five Dollars Monthly Pension Check and a
Recipe for Chicken.
Knowing he couldn’t Live on his Pension, he took
his Chicken Recipe in Hand, got behind the Wheel
of his Van and set out to make his Fortune.
His First Plan was to Sell his Chicken Recipe to
Restaurant Owners, who would in turn give him
a Residual for every Piece of Chicken they Sold-
Five Cents per Chicken. The First Restaurateur
he called on turned him down.
So did the Second.
So did the Third.
In fact, the First One Thousand and Eight Sales Calls
Colonel Sanders made ended in Rejection. Still, he
continued to Call on Owners as he travelled across
the U.S.A., Sleeping in his Van to save Money.
Prospect Number One Thousand and Nine gave him
his first “Yes.”
After Two Years of making Daily Sales, he had Signed
up a total of Five Restaurants. Still the Colonel pressed
on, knowing that he had a great Chicken Recipe and
that Someday the Idea would Catch on.
Naturally, you may know how the Story Ends. The idea
did Catch on. By 1963, the Colonel had Six Hundred
Restaurants across the Country selling his Secret
Recipe of Kentucky Fried Chicken
(with Eleven Herbs and Spices).
In 1964, he was bought out by the future Kentucky
Governor, John Brown. Even though the sale made
him a Multi-Millionaire, he continued to represent
and Promote Kentucky Fried Chicken until his death
in 1990.
KFC logo.svg
Colonel Sanders’ Story teaches an Important Lesson –
it’s never Too Late to Decide to never Give Up. Earlier
in his Life, the Colonel was Involved in other Business
Ventures but they weren’t Successful. He had a Gas
Station in the Thirties, a Restaurant in the Forties
and he gave up on both of them.
However, at the age of sixty-five, Harland Sanders
decided his Chicken Idea was the Right Idea and
he refused to give up, even in spite of repeated
Rejections.
He knew that if he kept on Knocking on Doors,
Eventually someone would say “YES.”
KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) is now a Global
Chain of Fried Chicken Fast Food Restaurants…
with Millions of Ardent Fans for Finger Licking
Good Chicken Recipes…Worldwide.. :)

Old Col.Sanders, died at the age of 90 in Dec, 1980!!

THE HANDS THAT SHAPE THE WORLD…..UNSUNG HEROES….

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SOURCE:::: ARTICLE BY BISWANATH GOSH..IN THE SUNDAY DIARY COLUMN OF “THE HINDU”…ON 12 AUG 2012…THE AUTHOR HIGHLIGHTS THE ROLE OF THE UNSUNG HEROES IN INFRASTUCTURE BULDING OF ANY PROJECT….VERY TRUE …MUST READ…

Natarajan

I often wonder what a labourer feels when he looks at a palatial house he has helped build: he would have had a free run of the property while it was under construction; but once consecrated, the same house becomes totally out of bounds for him.

Mahatma Gandhi used pencils until they wore down to stubs. When someone once asked him why he held on to a pencil until he could barely grip it instead of sharpening a new one, he replied: “To respect the labour that went into the making of the pencil.” The reply sufficiently explains why Gandhi is called the Mahatma.

How often do we pause to think that the articles we buy at will and discard on a whim are actually products of labour? Who knows if the man who crafted your pencil came to the factory that day leaving behind an ailing wife or child at home, and yet you chuck the pencil into the bin before it reaches half its length?

Ditto for things we cannot discard on a whim. For example, the houses we live in. They stand on the blood and sweat of the faceless labourer who himself lives in pathetic conditions. I often wonder what a labourer feels when he looks at a palatial house he has helped build: he would have had a free run of the property while it was under construction; but once consecrated, the same house becomes totally out of bounds for him. Does he feel emotional about it, or does he understand?

The other day, I was having tea, with a colleague, at the roadside chaiwallah outside office, when about half a dozen metro rail workers, wearing helmets and fluorescent jackets, happened to pass by. The colleague, who writes about metro rail, accosted them — this was two days after a crane crashed at the site near Pachaiyappa’s College and killed one worker — to find if metro rail had resumed work which had been suspended after the accident.

Since the workers spoke better Bengali than Hindi, my colleague summoned me. They told me that work had been suspended only at the accident site, while for them — posted on Mount Road — it was life as usual. I began to ask more questions, but suddenly found myself facing a barrage of questions — from them.

“Kothai bari?” — Where’s your house?

“Kon gram?” — Which village?

“Ekhane ki koren?” — What do you do here?

Their worn-out faces were shining with such happiness at having found a fellow Bengali in faraway Chennai that I didn’t have the heart to tell them that I never lived in Bengal. I gave them the name of my native town — Murshidabad — even the name of the village. This only widened their smiles and they began giving the names of their own villages. They wanted to chat on, but I had a deadline to meet.

This meeting must have been their biggest distraction of the day — distraction from the drudgery they are resigned to, that too in a city where no one speaks their language, no one pauses to enquire about their well-being or their families, no one cares for them. They are paid their wages, and their employers expect them to be grateful for that. They make news when they die, and only in death do they enjoy the luxury of travelling in an aircraft (the body of the labourer killed at the Pachaiyappa’s site was flown to Kolkata).

In less than two years, Chennai will have plush trains running underground and travel time within the city will be drastically shortened. Chennai Metro Rail Limited, or CMRL, will be the toast of the town. How many will know that the ‘M’ and ‘L’ in the acronym actually stand for migrant labourers?

Keywords: Chennai Metro Rail, Sunday Diary column, migrant labourers, working conditions