Many of us have watched the movie Rocket Sing but how many of us have seen Rocket Singh really happening. I am sure not many. Here is the story which I had a chance to see unfolding in front of my own eyes. I thought for a long time if I should use real names or fictitious names, then I decided to keep some names real and some fictitious. Many of the people involved in this episode do not have access to blogging hence I decided to use some of the real names and other fictitious. So the story begins like this-
There is a company in southern part of country named Holy Company (Holy Co.) This Holy Co has interests in agriculture related businesses. It was founded by Britishers and then sold to Indians around 1980. Being a proud company having a legacy of more than 150 years behind it it is very proud company which has its legacy. There have been good managers in the company and good planners and thinker (still there are some). But Holy Co. being Holy Co. it has different aura which you will not find in many companies in this world. SO good managers of Holy company thought about going for forward integration in late 1980s and early 1990s and they launched their products in the consumer market. Holy Co had deep pockets (which might or might not be the case today) and they thought that this money will help them a lot in the future. Anyway they had strong production base and were selling their products in the market as commodity. However after this planning of forward integration dynamics changed little bit. They understood that they they need to invest in the forward integration and its returns will be immense in the future. Moreover being the agriculture based company they understood the importance of forward integration.
Holy Co. was pioneer in lot many things in this country and it was very dynamic company. Its competitors also followed the suit this time again as everybody knew that Holy Co. always take right decision. In fact the companies like Tata and Unilevers left the basic field of operations where Holy Co. operated. But they also had the strategic reason. Soon Holy Co. established its brands in the market and started doing well. This time new venture of Holy Co. was not as successful as the ventures in the past. Company had an alternative marlet and thats it (they could not sustain the momentum which I can not explain). Soon Holy Co. saw its competitors moving ahead and beating the Holy Co. in its own market. There came a stage when everybody in the market knew brands of Holy Co. but nobody was getting these brands. Marketing was not the forte of Holy Co.
So after twenty years of operations in the market Holy Co. really thought very deeply. Its new leader was a visionary and he understood the importance of forward integration. However by this time folks in Holy Co. thought that they can not succeed in this business. These were the people who always knew how to be respected and they did not have any idea of services that are to be rendered to the customers at large. Moreover Holy Co. was very caring for its folks (employees), provided them all kinds of facilities. So in this new scenario when new leader took the reign of Holy Co. he started turning around the company. revenues grew profits grew. This particular business of branded product was doubled by leader under his direct care within two years. Although he was having a lot of resistance but he moved ahead and proved almost everybody wrong. When the business volume reached a certain level he thought of hiring a good marketing person to lead this division.
Sorry folks I have given a long background but that was necessary to understand the events that will unfold now. Here story of our Rocket Singh start-
So our villain is Malik (yes in this case Rocket Singh is villain). Lets call him Rocket Singh only. Now in the new marketing team that this leader hired for take off was lead by a dynamic guy (who had his own ideas) named Rajaji. Rajaji had won some trophies in the past and he started his career at very low level but because if his convincing power he moved up the ranks and joined Holy Co. as business head. he was able to convince all his new team of his expansion plans. But soon problems started arising as old folks of Holy Co. were not used to this kind of working style. In Holy Co. over the period of time it became more important that for how many years you have taken ride on company (yes ride because in this particular department sales were happening because of brands and holy company was selling at lowest rates in the market) rather than what are your abilities in the market. In fact top people were masters of manipulations. In past they had got rid of all the bossed who asked them to work by bringing down the sales temporarily and deliberately. As soon as boss will go they will take it to normal level but that normal level was not sufficient for the Holy Co. with present team. In fact this time around situation was totally different. Rajaji had the backing of leader. Rajaji moved quickly and first he closed all the brands that were loss making (As their sales was very low). Immediately folks brought down the sales saying that all sales happen because of these brands only. But Rajaji had a good assistant in role of marketing manager Mr DP. Mr DP quickly analysed the data and proved that these brands were having very low volume. When the design of folks did not work this time they planned something different and did a Rocket Singh (launch own product). Actually these people had started believing that sales is happening because of these people and they can sell anything they want (which of course was not the case). Hence they went in stepwise manner.
First step was planning the duplicate brand to be launched in the market. Which of course they planned easily as they were taKinG care of entire operations before Rajaji entered the scene. They had the blessing of some top people as well who were motivation behind it all (Otherwise folks were actually coward). By Decebler 2009 Rajaji had launched two brands with full fanfare but without the support from folks (who were more interested in failure of whatever Rajaji do) and absence of financial support that was required both these brands failed. Now folked started saying it very openly that Rajaji do not know anything. Meanwhile they were planning their duplicate brands.
Now for launching of the product you need some sort of financial support. This was generated with the help of money these people had diverted from market schemes to their some distributor friends and have taken out of system by corrupt means. This is another story. Actually these folks never worked in the market. They were more and more dependent on their dealers. Dealers made good money by not passing on the schemes to market. But folks were not fools they knew it all. They were hand in gloves with folks. So whenever any scheme will be announced from company they will call dealer on phone and tell him that we will get this scheme for you but give our share for which dealer will agree immediately. So in total these people thought that they will be able to launch new duplicate brand in the market and make it success.
Then there were some dealers who were honest. So when they will ask for goods to be sold in their areas, folks will tell them that goods are stocked out and company is going to close soon, yes!!!!!! they told this. Our Rocket Singh was in-charge of largest territory and final contact for dealers and he had created good image for himself in head office so nobody questioned him and everybody started believing that Rajaji was at fault.
Now as I said earlier they told market that company is going to close, so managed this as well. They made all the people amongst the folks resign. First people who were honest and loyal to company were thrown out by taking the name of Rajaji. Then rest of the group resigned en-masse. Rajaji also thought that these were not good people and its better he got rid of them in one go, so he will now be able to get better team. By this time apart from Rocket Singh everybody was gone. And Rocket Singh was sticking around so that all the information come to him and he can plan next moves. Which actually paid off for Rocket Singh. As Rajaji started building his new team, he will ask new members to report to Rocket Singh. But Rocket Singh will make them leave the organization within one or two weeks all in the name of Rajaji. In this market reference work a lot and before joining any company people ask through their friends about the company. By this time Rocket Singh had managed to malign the image of company to the extent that nobody will join even after being selected. Now in fact Rocket Singh was happier as he could find good excuse for his poor performance behind the fact that there was no field staff left.
