Making a Difference at Modicare

IT WAS thought till recently that only new-economy IT companies were into innovative and spaced out practices that boosted productivity and ensured total retention. Samir Modi at Modicare has injected into his company a new drug that seems to be doing that body corporate a power of good. A new-generation S&M Consumer-goods Company seems to be pioneering practices that are as amusing as they are effective.

Influenced by Richard Branson's flamboyance and success with Virgin Atlantic Airlines, Samir endorses a more casual and open work culture. The underlying grand design he has crafted is based on the principle that a healthy work environment and high levels of motivation are essential for the success of any organisation.

HR practices at Modicare include the scrapping of attendance sheets and time clocks to ensure that people are on time. It is felt that people will come on time only when they want to rather than if they were compelled to. It's all about freedom that generates motivation.

To add to the desire of employees to not miss a moment of office- time, Modi has instituted a practice of dressing up as zanily as possible to make the term Friday dressing take on a whole new meaning. Sometimes he makes an appearance as a paan-chomping Kishore Kumar conducting the Friday Anthakshari or sometimes as Lawrence of Arabia, complete with gown Keffieh and Tarboosh. The object? Relaxed employees make motivated and productive employees!

This however could be grouped under the general heading of window-dressing if it were not for the fact that other elements of personnel management like good working conditions, security, democratic style of supervision, responsibility, recognition and performance-based advancement are also important features of the Modicare system

The day's hard work is usually topped with a communion of mind and soul. Employees are encouraged to involve themselves with Yoga. Cricket matches, both inter- and intra-departmental provide a non work-related competitive platform while a weekend at Manesar helps to reinforce team spirit. Grooming sessions by Samantha Kochchar provides a boost to self-esteem and the way to a healthy and fulfilling lifestyle.

Festivals are fun times at Modicare, to the extent of exciting games of Flash at deepawali, and Modi himself as a very fit Santa ho-ho-ho-ing away with his bag of gifts making his rounds, albeit without reindeer and sleigh! New employees are inducted through a welcome party that makes settling in a cinch, reducing adjustment time to nil. Spontaneous singing sessions that happen with virtually belting out the Modicare song testify to the enthusiasm of the employees, especially since the orchestra is conducted with questionable competence by the company's jovial but musically challenged Managing Director! The main point is that the objective is enjoyment and there can be no gainsaying that the objective is achieved!

With the company credo that exhorts employees to `Make a Difference' it is not uncommon to see people happy helping each other at work, with Modi himself rewarding those who have done an exemplary job of helping a colleague over and above doing his own duty.

Some of the Friday activities may appear, at first glance, to be almost juvenile; but it is probably the very childishness of them that rob such initiatives of ingenuousness and guile.

Mango leather sampling and Corn-on-the-cob parties vie for attention with sessions of Biryani and ice-cream orgies or pizza pleasuramas where Modi himself scoops out tubs of Baskin Robbins for the delectation of his people. Approachability is the watchword and the hierarchy is as flat as it can get without disintegrating into anarchy. The idea is an open work environment.

Modicare takes these practices a step further, by encouraging his distributors to "make a difference" too. To motivate them, the highest performing ones are heighed off twice a year to exotic locations like Thailand, Malaysia, Australia and South Africa.

A thoughtful touch during these trips is permitting them to call home and send gifts home. A touch, that does a great deal to build up a very strong feeling of bonding with the company.

While the objective of any company must be to see encouraging bottom lines, and to generate profits for its shareholders; at Modicare, people matter and their levels of motivation account for a great deal in the achievement of that goal.

Such practices encourage and generate a spontaneous burst of innovative enthusiasm making work fun and targets so much easier to achieve.

ABHIMANYU ACHARYA

abhi.hyd@cnkonline.com