A Drastic Change from 1988 till date: Reflecting on Personal and Professional Journey

A drastic change from 1988 to date:

My thought goes way back to 1988 when I was awarded the Gold Medal:

When I was just 27 years old and appeared in my Post Graduate Course in Marketing and Sales Management (PGDMSM) by attending the evening management college in Ludhiana, covering this under Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan-which was then a renowned institute offering such a course. Those days, the MBA was not being conferred in most of the management colleges, as is happening still with some of the prestigious management institutes, having the lead role nowadays. The joyful news was that I had secured 70.50% marks cumulative in all the subjects and was adjudged topper. I remember those days around 34 years back; it was considered a very great achievement, and I was awarded the Gold Medal by the then Vice Chancellor-Prof. G S Randhawa of the Guru Nanak Dev University of Amritsar.

The beauty is that I was working in a pharma company where I was supposed to work before 3.00 PM every day and after 3.00 PM there was no permission in Punjab for the pharmaceutical companies to work in the field. The rest of the day used to be a substantial burden for a young person like me, who was working hundreds of kilometers away from his native state of J&K. My friends had joined the clubs and some of them used to spend their time doing some trading on the Ludhiana Stock Exchange. Whereas I was not liking to spend my time like that. So, I joined the evening Management college and spend four hours from 5.00 PM till 9.00 PM on the weekdays uninterrupted.

That time was serene and sluggish compared to the present digital takeover.

When I recollect- as compared to present times when the net and digital takeover is there-we lived in a far old, serene, sluggish, and backward times-where even for a call I had to go to my landlord’s drawing-room to pick up the landline phone and attending to the same.

Man’s dependence on the net has made him lackadaisical:

One very important factor which is quite visible nowadays is the digital revolution. Today a person is self-engrossed so much that he hardly bothers with the other things which need to be attended to on priority. He is updated, but I feel he has adversely affected his creative abilities to be nurtured further. Because his dependence on the net has gone so much that he hardly thinks of other helping hands. His memory may be sharp, but his dependence on the net, especially the information sources, has made him too lackadaisical.

My different career stages from the year 1988 up till my retirement:

Let me first finish with my life happenings-I continued as the Medical Representative with my company at Ludhiana for around nine long years and later, after getting married in 1989, I was transferred to Delhi on request in October 1990. After serving for several sales years, I was finally in 1996 (after 14 long years) promoted to Regional Manager with Amritsar HQ. Remained there till 2000 and came back to Delhi-where my family was living alone for those four long years. In 2003 got promoted to Zonal Manager’s post and after four more years in 2007, got further higher responsibilities as the Sales Manager for almost eleven states including North without UP. In the history of my company “Himalaya”, I was the only Sales Manager, perhaps with the longest tenure of almost 12 years, working in two SBUs with the SM’s post. Finally, in April 2019, I was promoted to the post of National Sales Manager-which was no doubt a real feather in my cap. Therefore, in a nutshell, from a humble beginning as a Medical Representative, my career graph took me to the National Sales Manager’s level in almost four decades when I retired in October 2019.

We believed in sticking to one job and strengthening our position, whereas the new generation believes in job-hopping:

Why I am recounting my career- the simple reason is the drastic change of times and even the drastic change in the new generations’ approach towards their careers. Importantly, we were with this bent of mind that a small plant grows strong at one place only and there only it strengthens its stem and becomes an enormous tree with a strong trunk-whereas nowadays people don’t believe this ideology or this sort of thinking process. They simply try to grab the best possible coming their way as the robust job. They don’t have this feeling that at one place they could grow strong enough with passaging time. I think they are right in their thinking too-again the reason is the level of opportunities coming their way and the question of sticking to one organization and imbibing its value system is not possible when you are yearning to rise with a meteoric approach and we must not forget the saying of survival of the fittest-which is like a Hercules Dragon hovering around them. These young boys and girls, during their learning phases, when they are in their MBAs or other such studies, have also been fighting out the challenges they have been facing in the external/outer atmosphere. Their process of placements also defines the caliber with which they would place themselves and follow their respective career suites.

The modern workforce seeks the best opportunities available and engages in job-hopping to rise quickly in their careers. The prevailing mindset revolves around the idea that growth and success can be achieved by seizing favorable prospects. The ever-increasing opportunities and the competitive environment contribute to this change in perspective, making it challenging for individuals to adhere to a single organization and its value system.

I grew along with the growth of my company-which went from less than Rs.50 crores in the Eighties to present Rs.3000 crores:

Mail from the Chairman after my retirement.

In my case, although I rendered my best possible services to my organization, which simultaneously rose to the level it has attained today. I remember that year 1982, “Himalaya” had not even crossed the Rs.50 crore sales mark when I joined the company but when I got retired on 31st Oct’2019, the same company had crossed Rs.3000 crores sales mark-which was a big matter of pride for me as a Himalayan. My chairperson-Mr. M. Manal (Himalaya) wrote me a personal letter at the time of my retirement that he was proud of me since I was according to him the real “Warrior” who contributed to building the strong walls of Himalaya over the years and I too in reciprocation feel highly elated and express my heartfelt gratitude towards that great man. The expression of my chairperson was the best gift that I got as a “Retirement gift” and I would cherish it in the times to come. The reason for that-I was recognized by him amongst such an enormous force of people in the thousands-which he is presently handling.

Imagine the present generation to stick to the company even for half my tenure of 38 years:

Compare with nowadays generation-where, they might not even think of spending even half of my service tenure of 38 years with a single company but yes, they would like to take “jump-overs” from one organization to another with “Job hopping” and would yearn to be at the top within a short span of time. My son, after finishing his MBA from Hyderabad and getting the top merit- honor, till now, has already changed three organizations and is serving comparatively in a better position as per his career approach. If you ask me how has he done -I would say he has done 100% correct as per the market need and scenario and befitted himself in the present day niche-accordingly & accurately.

I was not really satisfied at the time of my retirement.

When I think of my satisfaction levels while being in the job at different levels and rendering my services to the organization, I would express my dissatisfaction when I could have given more and better for the same organization. But it is situational and depends on the people handling the resources. Also, to what extent do they think they could extract the best out of me and my experience?

No regrets after the retirement because best of times are yet to come in the rest of my life:

I feel I could have done and rendered much more for Himalaya during my tenure, and even if my services extended-maybe I could have contributed to a bigger extent-but that is where the knack of the people at the helm to extract the maximum out of my long expertise-demonstrate their caliber. No regrets.

In the end, I would like to conclude that “my thought” on the drastic change- has been true to the happenings during the course from 1988 till date and gives a sumptuous view of the total roundabout changes occurring during this time-phase.

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