Business in Society ‘MGMT 4709’ Tale of two Stories Part 1
A) What did u do ? What was the Impact ?
I use to work as business development and Administrative executive in India in a firm name ‘Lodha Group of Builders’, a company well known for constructing residential houses. I use to enjoy my work thoroughly. I had many friends with whom I use to hangout after office hours. Also I had many opportunities to explore. I was directly engaged with clients and getting the administration work done. But there were some clichés and loopholes that arised while I was working.
I was working on a project named ‘Lodha Belmondo’. It was a big project of Lodha group. It is among the ongoing projects of Lodha Group. Project consisted of more than 200 crores Rupees. All major commercial banks were supporting the project and were granting loans at cheaper rate of interest. The project offered well designed 1BHK, 2BHK, 3BHK and 4BHK apartments at very competitive and affordable prices. It brought together the finest privileges of life, offering a luxury living experience without par. Project was started in July 2012 and the possession was due in March 2014, 40% of houses were booked by the 7 month of the project. Due to environmental and other management issues the project was delayed and the possession was to be handed over in 2015. Clients were kept completely unaware about the crises. In 2014, clients expecting possession were agitated due delay in possession. We as customer care executives were suppose to give false information to the customers regarding the possession that it will be handed over in next 2 to 3 months where as in actual possession was due in in year 2015.
This issue of lying to customers conflicted with my personal values and ethics. I am a very humble and honest person and I don’t like cheating people. I thought of giving up on my job and staying at home. I could not face the customers and my day would end up in frustration. In the meeting with our team leader I thought of talking about this phenomenon. I made myself strong enough to talk about it. In the meeting of 30 people including managers and team leaders while our team was talking about the project, I spoke exactly on how I was feeling. I also convinced the managers on how this problem was going to spoil the goodwill of the company.
My manager made it a point to escalate this issue to the higher authority, as all the sole decisions were made by them.
B) What motivated me to speak up and act ?
My major reason for taking up this issue was my conscience. The fact of lying to people regarding the possession conflicted with my ethics and certain rules of life. I was bought up in a very conservative family. My dad always taught me to be honest and diligent in all walks of life. I was doing something that was never my motto in life. In some or the other way I felt disregarded to myself. Every morning I would get up with a thought of lying to people. I felt I was committing some biggest crime. This situation made me frustrated.
Somewhere in the corner of the picture I felt bad for those innocent people who were being misleaded by us. I felt as if I was the main cause of their anger. I imagined myself in their position and realized how hard it would be to sustain the fact. Sometimes people would even abuse us over the phone. Keeping all these issues in mind I decided to speak up. I don’t know what and how others were feeling but to me this was a major conflict of issues I ever faced in my entire life.
C) How satisfied I am ? How would I like to have responded ?
Management came out with the decision of solving the issue by just hiring few more executives to handle customers with which I was not much satisfied with. Hiring more peopIe was not even required to solve the problem, a good practical approach was the real remedy. I was
