Amul bags yet another award for quality

TNN Nov 20, 2001, 01.58am IST vadodara: after making waves with its low- ri!ed i""as, am#l has now $agged the restigio#s $% winning the &$est of all& ra'iv gandhi national (#alit% award, whi!h is !onsidered e(#ivalent of the mal!olm $al$ridge national (#alit% award of the #s and the e#ro ean (#alit% award. the award re!ognises a!hievements of an organisation in terms of e)!ellen!e in $#siness res#lts, $#siness ro!esses, !#stomer satisfa!tion as well as so!ietal and environmental im a!t. the award was re!eived $% g#'arat !o-o erative milk marketing federation *g!mmf+ managing dire!tor $m v%as at new delhi re!entl%. g!mmf, the a e) marketing $od% of $rands like am#l, sagar and dhara, is a !o-o erative federation of more than two million milk rod#!ers of g#'arat and it is toda% the nation&s largest food !om an% with an ann#al t#rnover e)!eeding rs 2,00 !rore. a!!ording to am#l offi!ials, looking the emerging trends of li$eralisation and the im a!t that wto will have, the g!mmf roa!tivel% em$arked # on total (#alit% management *t(m+ as a !hange management initiative to strengthen all its f#n!tional ro!esses to effe!tivel% !om$at emerging !om etition. it #ndertook a n#m$er of t(m initiatives like kai"en, ho#se-kee ing, small gro# a!tivities, hoshin kanri * oli!% develo ment+ a!ross the organisation. am#l also e)tended its t(m invites to its $#siness artners, $e it the farmerrod#!er in the village or a wholesale distri$#tor in a metro town. offi!ials feel that t(m initiatives taken si) %ears ago have made the organisation effi!ient $e it in la#n!h of $rands or im lementing er s or e) anding its distri$#tion network.

Leadership Experiments at AMUL

Historical Background of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) Kheda district of Gujarat, well-known also as Charutar Pradesh, is a delta between two perennial rivers, Mahi and Sabarmati, consistently receiving good rains. nhabitants of this region are widely believed to be among the most enterprising and hard working community in Gujarat. Since milk was produced in abundance in this region, the !ritish Government had given monopoly rights to "olson #airy to collect milk from Kheda district and supply to Mumbai and to the !ritish $rmy. %or many years, "olson used this monopoly right to its great commercial advantage, and paid e&tremely low prices to milk producers, especially during the winter months when milk production would be much higher. 'he milk producers were agitated due to this e&ploitation. (hen they went to complain to Sardar )allabh !hai "atel about this patently unfair treatment, he advised them to organi*e themselves into a cooperative which would procure, process, and market milk and milk products. f successful, their cooperative could remove the middlemen so that the major part of the consumer+s rupee could be passed on to the milk producer. Sardar "atel sent Morarji #esai to organi*e the milk cooperatives. Morarji #esai, in turn, entrusted the job to 'ribhuvandas Kishibhai "atel to lead this cooperative movement. 'ribhuvandas became the founder of the $mul ,ooperative movement. -e hired )erghese Kurien as the Manager.

'he Kaira #istrict ,ooperative Milk "roducers. /nion 0td. 1K,M"/02, $nand was registered in 3456. 'he /nion established the brand name 7$mul+ in 3488. !y 3465, $mul had emerged not only as a well-known brand for milk and milk products like butter, but also as a successful development model. n 3468, the then "rime Minister, 0al !ahadur Shastri saw the potential and created the 9ational #airy #evelopment !oard 19##!2 and asked #r. )erghese Kurien, to replicate the model on a nationwide level, as he had successfully done with $mul since 3454. (ith more $mul-like cooperatives coming up in Gujarat, in 34:5, the Gujarat ,ooperative Milk Marketing %ederation 1G,MM%2 was founded to provide an over-arching umbrella organi*ation for the milk cooperatives. #r Kurien successfully led the G,MM% and 9##! for many years. Sustained and focused efforts resulted in a high level of professionalism in the procurement, processing, and marketing of milk and milk products, moderni*ation of the ndian dairy industry, and raising it to the global standards. n later years, farmer leaders visiting $mul would often re;uest #r )erghese Kurien, the then ,hairman of the G,MM%, to identify a professional of his calibre to lead their cooperatives in their areas. n response, #r Kurien would say, <There are many Institutes to produce a Kurien, but there is none to produce a Tribhuvandas. You give me a Tribhuvandas and I will give you a Kurien.= 'ribhuvandas, a respected freedom fighter, was well-known for his ability to organi*e farmers of that region and to keep them together. 'he above ;uip by Kurien implied that though there were schools to produce managers but the real challenge was to develop ;uality leadership among the farmers. was not clear about the meaning of leadership > (ho is a leader and how can leadership be developed? #oes developing leadership mean putting in position of authority a few trusted and competent individuals who would share their vision with people and guide them to move in that particular direction? @r, is it possible to develop a large base of leaders > people who can enable others to solve their problems themselves, especially in rural ndia? 'hese thoughts would make me restless and would wonder where and how to look for answers. I was unclear and my search for convincing answers continued. Several years later, when took over as the Managing #irector of the G,MM% to my good fortune, #r Kurien was the founder ,hairman of G,MM%. -e allowed me a lot of space and freedom, so that could dare to e&periment towards some new models of leadership, and evolve some possible answers to my ;uestions about the meaning and role of leadership. share below a few such e&periments with regard to self leadership development. cannot claim to have obtained great success or final answers to my ;uestions. n fact, there were some failures along with limited success. !ut feel that nonetheless my learnings are worth sharing. Self Leadership and Learning: !e" pproach and So#e $%peri#ents

@ur society has numerous problems and most people look up to the government or others to take the lead in finding a solution. Most people who provide such services or solutions e pect to be compensated for their effort through ade!uate payment of dues . Aarely would anyone do anything meaningful out of self-motivation. @rgani*ations try to solve their problems by creating positions of authority and placing their preferred employees in those positions that would have the responsibility to solve organi*ational problems. 'his often ends up building a bureaucratic structure with select people in positions of power who may initially be very upbeat about the prospects, but their response and enthusiasm towards solving organi*ational problems often slows down with the passage of time. &eveloping 'ogether an genda for Change and Skills to chieve (t wanted to evolve a new approach towards leadership in milk cooperatives. put up a small team of young field workers 1officers2 to conduct a research in villages to identify a few important issuesBproblems that farmers wanted to solve. Such officers were trained in change management and also in the process of designing solutions to a problem.

@ur design team researched and designed solutions, created training materials, and trained a battery of about 3,CCC field workers who in turn carried out training across thousands of chairpersons, secretaries, and committee members of the village cooperatives and also a large number of milk producers in 3C,CCC villages on select problems and their solutions. %armers were encouraged to come forward and take charge of their problems themselves. 'he success of the first awareness programme with regard to .what and why we need to change. and later on the initiatives like .,lean Milk "roduction., .-ousekeeping. and . nstallation of Duality System S@ 4CCC. in village cooperative societies gave a lot of confidence to the design team and also to the participants.

Building )ision Mission Strateg* at the )illage Cooperative Level t was then decided to conduct a )ision Mission Strategy 1)MS2 (orkshop for all the village dairy cooperatives with the e&pectation that the milk producers themselves would arrive at a vision for their dairy cooperatives, the goals of the cooperatives and the strategy they would follow to achieve their goals. n a typical )MS workshop, the design teams presented factual data with analysis and described the current issues and challenges. %or e&ample, water is the main raw material for milk production. t is, therefore, very important to have an assured perennial availability of good ;uality water, have a system and facilities for proper storage and distribution of water, and develop practices to ensure that enough water is available to the cattle. 'he issues debated in the workshop included ;uestions likeE f water is the key to increased milk production, then what are the gaps and what action should be taken by the Management ,ommittee and members on their own without waiting for e&ternal inducement to fill the gaps? 'he goals and action plans are discussed, debated, and documented. Ffforts were made to understand the current situation with regard to pressing issues such as cattle breed and its management, disease and its management, feed and fodder production, membership strength and its enhancement, human resource issues and procuring and use of technology such as installation of bulk milk coolers, automated milk testing machines, computers, etc. t was found that once the two-day )MS workshop was attended by GCC plus milk producers of the village with the Management ,ommittee members, their decisions and goals were aligned with the implementation schedule, which was then put up on the notice board of the office of the cooperative. 'he progress was regularly reviewed during !oard meetings. Such workshops were conducted in about :,6CC villages between GCC6 and GC3C and are being continued till date. It is my belief that those villages where members too" charge and implemented such vital goals are bound to throw up farmer leaders who have done something on their own for common good without the politicians# or $overnment#s inducements. (#proving +ualit* at the )illage Cooperative Level %ive years ago farmers were not even fully aware of how liberali*ation and globali*ation would impact them. 'hey did not understand the importance of creating green cover through tree plantation for their villages. 'hey did not reali*e the importance of cleanliness for their main business of milk collection, processing, and marketing. 'hey did not know how to put Duality Systems in place in )illage Society by having S@ 4CCC or why they needed to install state-ofthe-art automatic bulk milk coolers and automatic milk testing and weighing machines. $wareness of these issues among the villagers was brought out by involving them. 'he ,hairpersons and Management ,ommittee members of the village dairy cooperatives were encouraged to take a lead and make every member aware of the key concerns, and motivate them to participate on their own. 'hus the ,hairman and nine Managing ,ommittee members provided leadership to the cooperative in this area. 'he same team would lead a discussion of

the benefits of the .,old ,hain !uilding+ 1installing bulk milk coolers2 and convince members to go for it and run it efficiently. $gain, they would discuss with members the meaning and advantages of getting S@-4CCC certification, audit, and rectification for their village milk cooperative, and convince them to bring clean milk, remove shoes as they entered the cooperative society building, and not smoke or eat gut"a on the premises. ,lose involvement of farmers would make them feel proud if their cooperative received the S@4CCC certification. 'he farmers felt embarrassed and ashamed in case the certification was suspended for deviations. $s a result of these efforts, all the village dairy cooperatives are today S@-4CCC certified. Hou can ask any ,hairman or Management ,ommittee member of a milk cooperative the meaning of S@ and its advantages, and you will get aninformed and convincing reply. Fven a casual conversation with an ordinary milk producer will impress you with the e&tent to which the members value their certification and the care they take to maintain the e&pected standards. n the last five years, thousands of bulk milk coolers and automatic milk collection systems have been installed all over Gujarat. 'he increasing competition due to liberali*ation and impact of ('@ led to the reali*ation that doing business would be e tremely competitive and that a focus on Total %uality Management &T%M' would be very important . $nd therefore, as a uni;ue measure, several 'DM initiatives were e&tended to our business partners whether it was the farmer producer in the village or a wholesale distributor in a metro town or its most sophisticated production unit. $ number of 'DM initiatives which ran successfully across the organi*ation included Kai(en, -ousekeeping, Small Group $ctivities, and )oshin Kanri 1"olicy #evelopment2. t was believed that these initiatives would create a culture of transparency, openness, and leadership in the organi*ation. Going Green: (nvolving Far#ers Sometime in GCC6, started dabbling with the problem of the need for green cover in our villages. believed that if ndia had to become Green, the forest departments cannot do so singlehandedly I the farmers have to be involved. *unning the +$reen India# campaign on television, and actually turning India +$reen# are two different propositions . strongly feel that our greatest asset is our people resources at the grass roots and they need to be engaged in the right direction, including for the green initiative. t was felt that there was a need to sensiti*e farmers about global warming. Moreover, the tree cover is fundamental for good rains as rains enhance ground water level, which is a pre-re;uisite for $nimal -usbandry and #airying. Milk "roducers of Gujarat have understood that tree plantation is essential for #airy #evelopment and it is an important measure to check climate change and global warming. wanted awareness and involvement of farmers in greening Gujarat. hence asked the #esign 'eam to devise a programme for inspiring and involving milk producers to plant one sapling each on $ugust 38, GCC6 between 4.JC and 3C.JC on an e&perimental basis. $s a first step, we set up the target to plant at least G million trees. 'he #esign 'eam consisting of 8C procurement officers from different milk unions and 3,CCC trainers worked on the idea. 'he trainers conducted programmes in villages and encouraged farmers to take up the idea.. $ll ,hairpersons, Management ,ommittee members, Secretaries of village cooperatives were involved at the planning and preparation stage. 'he design team developed an $ctivity plan and methodology for conducting tree plantation. 'hey identified village level coordinators and arranged tree plantation awareness programmes. Aoles and responsibilities were assigned to each member. 'he #istrict %orest @fficers and the government authorities were contacted for obtaining the plan. 'he tree plantation awareness was cascaded to all villagers so that they could collect re;uirement of tree saplings. 0ogistics were worked out for delivery of saplings at least three days prior to the ndependence #ay. @n the day of the tree plantation 138th $ugust2, after the milk collection and flag hoisting ceremony, saplings were

distributed to members from milk cooperative societies. 'he members took oath to protect the saplings and accept the responsibility for successfully growing them into trees. 'he actual sapling plantation was carried out by members at their identified places like in their farm, home, common plot of villages, schools, etc. 'he ,hairman and M#s of Milk ,ooperatives also participated in the sapling plantation activity. ,n -ugust ./, 011/, the 2esign team reported that ..3 million saplings had been planted on the Independence 2ay4'his achievement was celebrated and it was decided to speed up the process and inspire farmers to plant three saplings each. $ccordingly, on $ugust 38, GCC:, during the flag hoisting ceremony held in the village dairy cooperative offices, saplings were distributed to all members in 3J,CCC villages. 'he farmers were advised to keep three pits ready in advance. !etween 4.JC and 3C.JC am, 8.8 million saplings were planted voluntarily. 'he farmers were given a choice to select the type of saplings and their choices were procured by the village cooperatives. $n evaluation showed a survival rate of more than 58 per cent over the ne&t five months. 'his initiative was further intensified to plant saplings at the rate of five per farmer and including fruit trees like mango, chikoo, etc. n the years GCC4 and GC3C, about K.K million trees were planted each year. 5etween 0116 and 0117, out of a total of .8./ million saplings planted, 3.9 million survived, indicating a survival rate of 8: per cent. The initiative has subse!uently got rooted in the dairy cooperative model. 'his initiative of farmers has been recogni*ed nationally and internationally. n fact, G,MM% has won Srishti+s G-,ube 1GJ - Good Green Governance2 $ward GC3C in the Service ,ategory for the fourth consecutive time. 'he < #ul Green= movement has also been recogni*ed and selected for the award of the best environment initiative in the <sustainability category= by the nternational #airy %ederation. n all the above cases, young leaders in their early thirties came forward to drive the change management processes. 'hey helped in convincing other members, carrying them along with their movement, and implementing significant initiatives by sacrificing their time and in the process learning the most valuable lessons of leadership through e&perimentation. My belief, that the leadership that gets built through self-learning practices is not party- or politics-driven and therefore does not need government props, has been strengthened. t will sustain over the years even without e&ternal support. @nce a person has e&perienced the ability to move people to move towards a common agenda, he will surely recogni*e its power.

Conducting Self Leadership ,rogra##es at the )illage Level once attended a transformational spiritual leadership workshop conducted by a leading spiritual organi*ation. felt that it was of no use if only was charged with what had learnt. $ll the !oard members and others must undergo a similar programme to be able to transform the way we all lived and worked. felt only such transformation could sustain the success of G,MM% in the coming years. (ith the help of the leaders of the organi*ation organi*ed a short programme for the !oard members. Subse;uent meetings with the head of the organi*ation led to the design of a 5-day programme on self-leadership. 'he purpose was to e&pose all of the village cooperative members to principles and practice of self management and meditation. 'he workshop was e&pected to infuse discipline, self-management, and leadership skills in the participants while teaching them the values of life, and urging them to not treat selling of milk as a pure commercial act. Many such programmes were conducted from344: to GCC4. Fven today feel happy when go to visit the milk cooperatives. find a large number of members embodying the values discussed in the programme. -utco#e of the $%peri#ents

(hen 3C,CCC ,hairpersons, and their 4C,CCC Managing ,ommittee members come forward and lead milk producers to implement these changes, handle the difficult process of managing change themselves, overcome the difficulties, e&perience the successful and not-so-successful results they encounter, this gives them a rare and invaluable e&perience in leadership and emboldens them to take higher level of initiatives. -opefully, through these and similar other initiatives, the villagers get a chance to .manage change. directly. 'he people who work with involvement and e&traordinary drive emerge and get accepted as milk producers+ leaders. Many of the present leaders 1,ooperative ,hairpersons and Management ,ommittee members of village milk cooperatives2 are very young and eager to learn and grow. 'hanks to the various initiatives, there has not been a leadership vacuum as the old members moved on. believe that some of the initiatives gave the opportunity to thousands of youth to e&perience and e&ercise leadership and thus helped to churn and bring the cream on the top. !y sharing these e&periences, wish to urge others to e&amine and look at alternative ways of developing leadership. tried some uni;ue e&periments and feel that if they can be continuously refined and consistently implemented, we may throw up a different breed of leadership, not only in the villages but also in the country. hope that at least a few of those village cooperative members who have e&perienced these initiatives or have participated through self-initiative and drive will emerge as good leaders sooner or later. am fully convinced that we have to pursue the path of grooming young leaders relentlessly.

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