The beginning of the journey with Food Specialities Ltd. (Nestle)
It all started in April 1984. There was an advertisement in The Statesman from Food Specialities Limited for recruitment in Sales. In those days Nestle was listed in India as FSL (Food Specialities Limited). If I remember correctly at that time FSL turnover was around INR 150 Crore (2017 Nestle India is 10000 Crore + company!). But even in those days, Nestle in India was a very highly respected company. So, when I saw the advertisement, I just applied. I must be honest here. I was not at all serious about the job when I applied. I had no understanding or idea about the job being offered. I just applied, keeping Nestle in mind.
I had quite a simple and humble background. I had no idea about corporate life before I joined Nestle. Everything was new to me. This gave me an opportunity to learn every day and every moment. Saying it now is easy. But at that point in time, it was a huge challenge as I had to be on my toes always if I had to survive. But the good thing was that I was learning every moment and every day.
When I applied for the job, I was doing my post-graduation in Physics with Electronics as my special paper. No one expected me to join an unknown (to my family) profession like sales!
I had two passions which I had mentioned in the previous blog. I was an Electronics Hobbyist. I was making transistors, audio cassette recorders, amplifiers, and selling those items. I had also applied for brand registration and was on the way to becoming an entrepreneur. I was actively involved in field sports activities, especially Basketball. I represented my state in the Junior Nationals. I played for Jadavpur University, and I was the Captain and BLUE of the University.
My sports activity and captaincy gave me some exposure to Leadership. If you are the captain, you have the authority to do certain activities in the field. But my first lesson in Leadership skills came during the selection process at Nestle.
There were many candidates for the few sales positions advertised and so obviously the selection process was tough. We had gone through several rounds of screening and elimination. One important round was the Group Discussion. As mentioned earlier I had a very humble background, and I didn’t take part in too many debates or group discussions before this. So, I was a bit tense. There were almost 15-20 people around the table, and I still remember the subject we were given to discuss was ‘The drainage system of Calcutta’. By the way, back in 1984, my city was still known as Calcutta and not Kolkata.
To be honest, I didn’t have too much information about the drainage system of the city, and I was wondering what to say. So, I decided to listen carefully to others so that I get some information. As happens in most cases the group discussion became very noisy, and people started almost shouting over each other to take charge of the discussion. At least 4 to 5 people were trying to be the leader and control the group. But no one was able to speak as others were not ready to listen. Since I didn’t have too much information to share, I was keeping quiet and praying that things would settle down and I would be able to listen to what others were saying. We were given 30 minutes to complete the discussions. The observers were waiting with their notepads. More than 10 minutes passed without any way forward for the discussions. Something happened to me, and I tried to draw the attention of the group by saying that if we continue like this all of us will suffer as time is running out. It is better that we give everyone one minute each to share what they wanted to say. I also mentioned that I am okay to speak last (I had no other alternative!). Luckily for me, it worked as everyone realized that this is the only way to share their point of view. I also told the group that no one should interrupt others when they are speaking as the time is short. Other people who were sitting quietly till then also supported me. I was surprised to see that this was working, and I got a lot of confidence from this. The butterflies in my stomach were gone! The responsibility of taking the lead and taking the GD to a conclusion was suddenly resting on me.
When my turn came, I was feeling much more confident and comfortable as by then I had gathered enough information from others on the drainage system of Calcutta. I actually supported some of the points raised by other candidates and openly said that I agreed with them. It was a bit of a surprise for others as till then everyone was trying to prove his own point. I also added a few points from my own experience of the city drainage system.
Of course, I was selected from that group to go to the next round of the selection process and my journey in corporate life began when I walked into Food Specialities Ltd. Calcutta Branch office (in those days it was still Calcutta, and not Kolkata) on the 2nd floor of Mullick House at 7, Hare Street, Calcutta 700001. This was a huge achievement for me.
Later, I realized that I had already learned the first lesson of Leadership during the Group discussion.
1. Listen to others: It's important to listen to others' points of view. We don't need to jump into arguments to establish our own point of view first.
2. Take Initiative: Taking initiative is important. Be it for starting the discussion or be it for breaking a logjam.
3. Always be supportive: It is important to support others' views if it sounds logical. No need to argue for the sake of arguing. One can become a leader by supporting the right cause and the right person
4. Focus on goals: It is important that we always keep in sight the end objective. In this case, the goal was to allow everyone to talk and complete the GD with a conclusion.
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