He spoke to my father for sometime, sitting in my father's room and left.
After Kumaresan had left, my father called me and said, "It seems that Kumaresan had been doing some business. He has closed the business now, after incurring losses. Now, he is searching for a job. See whether you can offer him any job in your firm."
I have been running a small business. Since I had to be out most of the time for meeting the customers and carrying out other tasks, I had been thinking of appointing an office manager to look after my office. I told my father that I would consider offering that post to Kumaresan.
As directed by my father, Kumaresan came to my office to meet me.
"Why did you wind up your business?" I asked him.
"Because I was incurring losses" said Kumaresan, tersely.
"What was the reason for the losses?"
"It was competition that wrecked my business. Fierce competition forced me to reduce the selling price of my product. My competitors also weaned away some good customers from me. Both these factors, working together, pushed my business to losses."
After speaking to Kumaresan for a while, I concluded that he had the capacity to manage my office. I felt that his business experience would also be useful to my business.
"Kumaresan! My firm is quite small. I can't afford to pay you a high salary. If you get a better job elsewhere, you may leave this job any time, I won't feel bad about your leaving my firm, for better prospects."
I mentioned the salary I could offer.
"It is ok. I don't have high expectations" said Kumaresan.
Two months passed, since Kumaresan had joined my firm. It appeared that he was managing the office well.
Once, when I met one of my customers, he told me, "The new manager appointed by you is behaving in a cavalier manner. Two days back, I called up your office, placed an order for your product and requested him to despatch the goods immediately, since we had an urgent requirement. He said, 'We can't do things to meet your urgency. We will be able to send the goods only tomorrow.' So, I purchased the product from one of your competitors. In the past, your people had been despatching the product immediately, if we wanted it urgently. I know about you. That is why I am sharing my experience with you. If your manager adopts this attitude with other customers, they will stop doing business with you."
I sensed his anger and regret and profusely apologized to him, saying, "Sir, I apologize to you for what has happened. I will ensure that such an incident doesn't occur in future. I am grateful to you for your magnanimity and support."
On returning to my office, I called Kumaresan to my cabin and asked him about the incident reported by the customer.
"He calls me at five o' clock in the evening and asks me to despatch the goods immediately! How can I arrange for a despatch towards the close of the office hours? That is why I told him that I could send the goods only the next day" replied Kumaresan, nonchalantly.
With great difficulty, I controlled the anger that surged in me and told him, "Kumaresan! We can run our business successfully, only if we satisfy the needs of the customers. I now understand why your customers had left you and went to your competitors. But you had still not comprehended the reason for that. If you had, you would have changed yourself. I gave you this responsibility, because you being my cousin, I wanted to help you. But, it was my blunder to have given you this responsibility, without understanding your nature. Don't come to the office hereafter. I will try to get you a job as an assistant in some other firm, using my contacts. You may also look for a suitable job. I will pay you the salary for the next two months, till you get some other job."
Acting After Due Consideration
paNbu aRindhu ARRAk kadai.
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