Train 18 series 28…leadership for a metamorphosis

Even as the cacophony surrounding Train 18 was picking up, thanks to odd presentations by ICF officers in various forums and the buzz being built up by the media, I  was awarded the certificate of excellence for transformational initiatives at ICF by the Minister of Railways in April 2018. While many of my colleagues felt that it was a befitting recognition of the humongous work done at ICF, there were others who attributed it to my closeness to Ashwani Lohani, the then Chairman Railway Board. One way or the other, It hardly mattered to me as one is used to awards and shields being decided on whims and fancies in railways. What I did know was that Lohani indeed decided on this award overruling others in Board who wanted to scuttle it; Lohani, in any case, is built in a leader’s mould which is always exuberant in words of recognition for one of his team. I must also mention Satish Kumar, the then Principal executive Director/Transformation in the Board who was doing a great job in taking up issues, one by one, to ease out the formidable maze of red tape that was inhibiting delivery on Indian Railways; he was the one who built a strong impeccable case for ICF.   

Which brings me once again to the subject of metamorphosis in ICF, something which was already acknowledged by so many within and outside ICF. These changes were closely linked, whether intentionally or not, with making of Train 18. I have talked about some of these previously but before I go back to the nitty-gritty of Train 18, I must protract some more on these changes. These changes are the why, what and how of my story. Many of these whats and hows are interchangeable, making it difficult to say whether the hows led to the whats or vice versa. I will try to make it simple and simply narrate it matter-of-factly.

As a leader you have to judge your men. There can be no gospel here. To each his own. But how did I go about it? 

Insan  nahin   wo  jo   gunahgaar   nahin   hai,

Wo kaun sa gulshan hai jahan khar nahin hai**

**One who is guilty of no misdeed at all is indeed not human, where would you find a garden which has no thorns?

Honesty, integrity and probity! Big words but in our practical world, particularly in government, do we have that exemplar leader? One who has never misused official machinery, let alone enjoying any consideration of any kind from any one with whom he or she has official dealing? One who does not go beyond accepting occasional hospitality? Or let’s say, one who stops short of accepting direct monetary benefits but has no qualms in accepting illegal gratification as gifts? Or one who goes about his work with complete honesty but having done so does not mind getting compensated for it by the beneficiary? Or the absolute government official who attaches a price tag to every official work that he does or does not do, as the case may be? I can go on and on and also build convenient rational around all these types. 

To put the issue in perspective, in my entire service life of close to forty years, I came across only three completely honest officers; officers who would just not budge from the straight path. Officers of the type who, if use of official car was not allowed for going to office, would ride a bicycle to work. Officers who would not do any personal work when on duty to another town. Officers who would never use an underling for any personal work. Absolute sticklers. It was their conviction and they handled it to the last word. Let’s give it to them; they are the only ones who have the right to wear their honesty on their sleeve. 

What about the rest? Everyone devises his or her own limits of convenience and conscience and may pretend to be more honest than those lower down in the value-chain of honesty. It is actually a game of mere purport without much benefit to the organization; whether the ‘price tag’ fellow flourishes more or less than the ‘only hospitality’ fellow does not mean much to the organization. What matters much more is which one delivers more and better. Yes! As a leader I would rather have a more dishonest doer than a less dishonest shirker. Only one caveat. There has to be some limit. If someone’s dishonesty is telling adversely on the reputation, culture and the delivery, one cannot keep one’s eyes closed to that. And leaders must have a way to determine that informally. Am I contradicting myself? No. A leader must determine if a rascal is masquerading as a doer, he must meet his nemesis and his downfall must be advertized as an example. 

Consider this. A recently retired member of the Board tried wearing his honesty on his sleeve; his only contribution was to go on a transfer drive, posting officers here and there against their will and nothing else to show for in policy or execution. This same worthy was actually handing over invoices and vouchers for home furnishing and other goodies as he was close to retirement. Let us not waste time on suchlike as their number, unfortunately is legion on IR.

Professional dishonesty, which hides behind convenient rules and regulations or which finds recourse in indecision or procrastination to avoid committing to a rightful but risky path is perhaps worse than simple dishonesty. Those who are seemingly honest but can be professionally dishonest without a qualm can do greater damage. A leader must identify such members of the team and deal with them suitably and demonstrably.

So much for the conundrum of handling the integrity and probity issues.

Let us look at the rise in production and reduction in manpower at ICF, culminating with a phenomenal 3262 coaches manufactured in 2018-19, with productivity per man increasing by more than three times in a period of twelve years or so, with the last three years showing a drastic reduction. We had actually planned to turn out nearly 3350 coaches in the year and were actually well on way to achieving this based on annualized projections but let us leave it at that; even 3262 coaches in one year is not a mean accomplishment.

This stupendous achievement was not the result of any magic; it was rather simple. First, a firm belief in Jane Austen’s saying that too many cooks spoil the broth. Retention of only core activity with ICF staff, as far as feasible and taking the outsourcing route for the rest was made our central HR objective. Periodic training of ICF staff and making efforts to improve their level of commitment was given paramount importance such as to achieve what I said earlier, “Har shaḳh pe gul hi gul hain to, husn-e-gulistan kya hoga.” 

What role did infrastructural improvements played as all these phenomenal improvements in production played out? Very very significant. In a coach factory, the first thing you need to improve production is berthing for shells and coaches as well a system of extracting the shells and coaches from bays and dispatching them onwards to  avoid any congestion. Such a congestion can cripple the movement of work. 

Civil engineers play a very important role in running of railways. Whatever be the task or operation, it’s rare that one can do it without active support and involvement of Civil engineering department. In a Production Unit, their role is somewhat diminished but it’s still very significant. There is a way to deal with Civil engineers; if they are sure of the estimates for works getting through and payments to contractors after completion of a work would be done as due, they can work wonders. The rise of ICF to become one of the biggest coach factories in the world, export of world-class coaches to Sri Lanka and making of new models, particularly Train 18 and it’s sisters, owes a lot to Civil and allied Electrical works that were taken up since October 2016.

As the expectations grew in terms of number of coaches produced, our job was to propose augmentation of infrastructure commensurate with the new requirement. Usually, there is a big gap in the two and the infrastructure does not expand fast enough and consequently the performance is far short. We were very quick in this game. During my tenure, we periodically proposed three major works costing nearly Rs 500 crores each and took them close to completion. The ordering of contracts is usually something which takes nearly 18 months on IR; the steps being, proposal, sanction by Board, preparation of detailed estimate, calling of bids and finalizing the tender. We inverted the process to some extent, keeping Board informed, in this order: proposal, preparation of detailed estimate, calling of bids sanction by Board and finalizing the tender. This meant that pending formal sanction from Board, we were ready with our contract procedures and could actually place LoA of large contracts within a couple of months of this sanction.  

When I joined ICF in August 2016, within days of my joining the then PCME, LC Trivedi put up a file for acceptance of tender of a value of nearly Rs 500 crores for the infrastructural improvements to switch over completely to Stainless steel coaches and requested me to accept it immediately. The file was pending for nine months! Yes, nine months. I called him and asked him as to how did he expect me to accept a case within days when ICF was laying eggs on it for the last nine months. He simply told me to go through it as much as I wished but the bottom line was that if he was the GM, and if indeed he had to enhance the production significantly, he would not delay it by a day and simply accept what the tender committee had put up. I accepted the file then and there and gave it to him. This was in August 2016 and the contractor worked effectively to take it completion by late 2018 itself. Two more cases were decided in a similar fashion and good progress was already on at ICF by the time I left, lifting the infrastructural capacity at ICF from around 1800 to 3600 coaches per year; with some more tweaking in shifts and working pattern, the facilities in ICF today are actually good enough for manufacture of 4000 coaches per year.

I must mention my first meeting with the Hon’ble Minister of Railways, Sri Piyush Goyal when he visited Chennai for the first time after taking over in September 2017. He heard the presentation I made on ICF and was generally appreciative; however, when I grandly declared that ICF would cross 2500 coaches in 17-18 merely four years after being stuck in the range of only 1500 coaches for years and that we were well on way to reach 3000 coaches in 18-19, he asked me, “why not 3000 this year and 6000 next year?”. Had he said 4000, I would have argued. But the number he threw at us was almost unfathomable to me. But then, as usual, the bard came to me for help, whispering in my ears, these famous lines from The Hidden hand, “With caution judge of probability. Things deemed unlikely, e’en impossible, experience oft hath proved to be true.” So I kept taking notes and in the end said, “Sir, we will, from this day, start to work towards what you desire but there is something we need”. I continued, “Three things. First, there is an infrastructural work of nearly Rs 500 crores proposed to Board and in the routine, this sanction would be received only by next April. If we get an indication that this was accepted in principle, I would go ahead with calling bids.” “Done”, the MR said, “next”? I was astounded but managed to carry on, “There is a phase lag between budget and ordering. While I have to order today for next year, the base on which I do it is based on this year’s expenditure. In a scenario requiring rapid growth, this would not work. So please free me of this budget business; arranging finances for rolling stock is mainly through Indian Railways Finance corporation (IRFC) and this is not difficult for you. And I assure you that the cost per coach would actually go down as the economies of scale…”. “You don’t teach me economies of scale and costing, I am a chartered accountant”, he cut me short, “Done’’. This was unprecedented stuff. I went ahead, “Please free me of the regulations of RDSO approvals for some important sub-assemblies for a limited period.  As it is I am ordering equipment on non-approved sources to keep the production going and this makes me liable to some stupid Vigilance action. I need it to be regularized.” The MR said, “OK, I understand but let me see”. 

So there we were getting the first taste of this Tathastu (I do not know how to translate or annotate this Sanskrit phrase so I will go with some rephrasing, equating it with biblical "So let it be written, so let it be done."  The first two requests were ratified by Board members within days and as for the third, it was more as a regularization and its approval did not bother me that much; I do not know how many other GMs made good use of his this Tathastu component of the minister’s persona but ICF certainly benefitted a great deal. 

In spite of the phenomenal growth in production our staff strength had depleted significantly in the spirit of Har shaḳh pe gul hi gul (only flowers all around). From a strength of nearly 12000 men in early 2016, we were down to approximately 10300 by end of the current year. What did the unions have to say about all this? Well, obviously they kept bringing it up. My answer to them was simple, “You and I are here to look after the men and women who work in ICF.  It’s nobody’s case that they be made to work more than the hours they are used to already. So, primarily, it’s your job to make sure that these people are well looked after in the factory and in the colony. Why should you worry about fresh recruitment? We have no say in that as recruitment is done centrally by IR through a transparent system and if for some time we stop or curtail the intake drastically, what exactly do you lose? Bring me any problem that the existing workers and face and we would address it strongly with your help.” I do not know how much it sunk in or whether they felt bamboozled by my logic, what I do know is that I meant every word of what I said. 

“Of thinking too precisely on th' event, a thought which, quarter'd, hath but one part wisdom and ever three parts coward”, says Hamlet during his familiar bouts of indecision, in this case, just before a battle. He thinks he'd been thinking too much; thinks that thinking is only one part wise to three parts cowardly. At times, managers need not think too much and there is nothing wrong in following your gut feeling. One can soon learn whether it usually worked or not; if it did not, one can abandon his actions based on less thought and more common sense. My gut feeling in sending this message on reducing man power repeatedly to unions was actually based on the confidence which was rooted in the goodness of the unprecedented measures we had taken to make our staff happy.  

Making basic and clean facilities to staff in the shop and colonies is not a welfare measure, it is a requirement. Years of neglect had left the infrastructure crumbling. Staff had also got used to dilapidated condition of work places and their homes. Once when I was in a work place where some important supervisors and staff had a seating place, I saw six ugly broken chairs, all of different variety. I picked up these chairs one by one and started throwing them outside as the officials present looked on in bewilderment. “Get new modular furniture for your section within a week”, I shouted. While I heard a chorus of “Yes sir”, one of the supervisors asked me, “Me, sir?”. Decades of decay had made him oblivious of the provisions which empowered him to move cases to replace his own work furniture.

I will not go into the nitty-gritty. The budget of ICF is the biggest among all PUs of IR and there were innumerable ways to get new furniture, work benches and lockers. Gradually comfortable modular furniture, supervisors’ work stations and work benches were replaced all over the factories and offices.

There are enough buildings on every unit of IR. Many rooms, and even halls, are gradually turned into a store of godown of some kind but these are basically dumps masquerading as a place of storage. My principle has been to simply get existing rooms cleared and renovated and never build any new buildings unless required in a new project. I put a ban on proposing any new building. It was favourite sport of mine to find a room in the existing building itself whenever someone asked for a room. The drill usually was to stand in front of a locked room, till the key was brought reluctantly by the concerned supervisor and the dump exposed; at times, one would find a room even the officer in charge of the area was not aware of. I must name one Nagesh, a smart Deputy Chief Mechanical Engineer, whom I engaged to spy for me and discover such ‘storage’ rooms and he did this admirably; with his effort and later everyone’s involvement, unproductive usage of built up spaces was eliminated in ICF.

With the help of the Civil and Electrical guys, we were able to renovate more than fifty rooms and halls in the factory and offices. We could commission nearly thirty dedicated locker rooms only by doing some low-cost works like whitewashing, flooring and replacement of wash basins, doors & windows etc., without laying a single new brick. The goodwill this simple act generated was enormous. Looking back, I can remember acquiring some eight thousand new lockers and thousands of modular seating arrangements and work benches. 

The face of the two factories was totally changed and let me summarize some notable works, which may appear to be simple and logical but took a lot of doing by the team of Civil & Electrical engineers, Store Depot officers and the shop officers responsible for upkeep of the factory premises. 

·   The factories were freed of bare earth places, it was done up with concreting, inter-connected, paving, grass, plants or a small jungle.

• The practice of bunging scrap wherever one wanted was gradually banned; we expanded the scrap years and freed the factory space of any scrap
• Haphazard stacking of materials was stopped; proper stacking of materials at nominated places or gantries was
• All covered spaces on shop floor was reorganized with epoxy pathways
• Bold signages were provided at all work places
• Many Staff facilitation centres were opened in the factories which obviated any need for them to visit offices
• Lighting was improved by switching to LED lights on 100% basis
• A large number of green spots were commissioned near work places
• Outdoor gymnasiums and Acupressure parks were developed in both the factories
• Cable and pipe extensions were provided in an organized way to undo a system which had these scattered all over the shop floor.
• Manual carriage of materials in hand trolleys was totally banned and battery-rickshaws were added to the fleet Listers and Fork lifts
• Toilet were renovated and complaints in this area reduced drastically
• Drinking water facilities were improved greatly by providing a large number of RO plants 

Another area in which we spent funds liberally was the staff colonies. There is some archaic provision that fencing could be provided for all staff quarters on cost sharing basis. If IR is committed to providing good housing for its staff, how can we stipulate that fencing, a basic need for privacy, be done only on cost sharing basis? We had to circumvent this stupidity. Fortunately, we had some positive-thinking Finance officers in ICF and we spent crores providing simple Galvalume sheets as fencing for all quarters; it changed the aesthetic outlook of the colonies a great deal.

A lot was done towards facilities for sports, social interaction and physical rejuvenation of our staff and their families which I will cover further before closing this series. Some senior officers kept telling me that I was spending railway money beyond what the provisions permitted and this is something that would be visited by the Audit some day. I did not agree at all. I knew that there was no such limit on spending as long as it was done for a good purpose. Since I had already earned the reputation of pandering to the staff, it was better that I reject the apprehension without any doubts and continue to spend more in areas which had seen decades of neglect and let history judge me. 

Consider this from a sonnet of the bard:

Tis better to be vile than vile esteemed, When not to be receives reproach of being, And the just pleasure lost, which is so deemed Not by our feeling, but by others' seeing.

If I am already thought to be bad, if what I am doing is judged vile not by my feeling but by the way others see things and if I know what I am doing is right, then it is better to be vile than vile esteemed, that is, it is better to actually be bad than to be merely thought bad.

(to be continued…)