Indian Ethos & Values for Management

Student Name: Pankaj Singh Tomar

Roll Number: 42424
Professor: Dr. Poornima Tapas
Topic: Organization Ethos

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Q1 What is the Ethos of your organization? How do you experience it in your day-to-day work?

Following are the core values of Maruti Suzuki India Limited

 Customer Obsession
 Openness and Learning
 Networking and Partnership
 Fast, Flexible First mover
 Innovation & Creativity

Customer Obsession means constantly listening to customers to improve and enhance the customer
experience. Customer obsession needs a complete shift in the way a business thinks about customer
relationships, while customer service is merely a function of operating a business.

Now a day’s customer satisfaction is one of the key goals in all organizations whether small, medium and
large. In service sector it is very important because customer satisfaction is probably the main “key” to a
successful business, recognition and retention of customers because service processes more or less involve
the customer. Maruti Suzuki always find means and ways to bring more delight to customer experience.
Customer Obsession is one of the most important value which one can find in the employees of Maruti
Suzuki India Limited. It’s a culture which has being nurtured from so many years and this is the only reason
that Maruti Suzuki is the number 1 passenger vehicle company in India. Customer satisfaction is the value
which can not be compromised at any cost as it really takes lot of hard work and dedication to build a
relationship with customers. A small mistake can wipe out the decades of efforts and hard work.
Polices of Maruti Suzuki India Limited are formed by always keeping the customer benefits in the mind.

Maruti Suzuki India Limited believes in open work culture and promote a learning atmosphere to all the
employees. An organization with a learning culture inspires continuous learning and believes that systems
influence each other. Since continuous learning uplifts an individual as a worker and as a person, it opens
prospects for the establishment to transform for the better future. A learning culture increase efficiency,
productivity and profit. It helps in increasing employee satisfaction which will help in increasing customer
satisfaction. Learning to be effective in an organization, the knowledge that is invigorated must be related to
the business. More so, individuals in an organization should be working collectively rather than learning
individually. Shared knowledge allows establishments to increase their staff faster and solve problems more
proficiently. An organization which has openness and learning culture are seen to have low attrition rate and
higher employee satisfaction more satisfaction result in more productivity, these cultures are not built in a
day or two these are hard work of decades.

Networking and partnership are about creating long lifelong relationships which are beyond business.
This value help in creating an atmosphere of trust and care. When an individual or an organization enters into
a partnership it not only enters for business but it creates a relationship which need to be honored at all costs.
When a business partner become the part of the Maruti Suzuki India Limited company treats him like a
family member and not as a business partner. This gesture of company develops lot of faith on the
organization and motivates the business partner to devote himself for the betterment of the society and the
company.

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Maruti Suzuki India Limited is always the first mover in the passenger vehicle segment. Its easy to become
number 1 but takes lots of effort to retain that position. This value develops a competitive spirit among the
employee and channel partners. It inspires and motivates many individuals to outperform. Values which keep
you motivated are the pillars of success for an organization. Maruti Suzuki India Limited believes in
adopting and changing things with time, this flexible approach helps in dealing with difficult times.
Although no advantage lasts forever, firms that succeed in building durable first-mover advantages tend to
dominate their product categories for many years, from a market's infancy until well into its maturity.
There is always a chance of failure in the fast and first mover approach but this failure provides stepping
stone to the path of success. It’s the leadership who motivates the teams in the organization to take the first
step without thinking about failures. These values develop an individual’s confidence on organization and on
the tasks assigned to him. This value of fast and first mover demands lot of dedication and efforts from and
individual as this is the only key to success in this highly competitive world. When a project becomes
successful it gives immense satisfaction to the team who is behind the project and this also motivates other
teams to perform better.
Fast and First mover value is an expensive affair as R&D is expensive. Educating a new market is expensive.
Navigating unknown regulatory & legal territories is expensive. Setting up production for a new product at
scale is expensive. When you’re doing something new, you’re bound to make mistakes and you need a strong
leadership how supports you in this endeavor as these mistakes are part of the process.

As competition increases the pace of change also accelerates, innovation and creativity have become vital
factors of organizational performance and long-term survival.
The generation of novel concepts to exploit should not be the exclusive role of senior management or
research and development teams. Organizations need to harness the collective knowledge, ideas and
experience from all levels and all functions of the organization. For creativity and innovation to thrive,
however, the organizational culture must support it. 
Leaders must involve in the right behaviors and the right structure and support mechanisms must be in place.
Leaders denote and reinforce the organization’s culture and serve as an example for others to follow. The
way in which leaders handle mistakes will determine whether employees feel safe to act creatively or
innovatively. When mistakes are ignored, covered up, or used to punish people, it sends a message that
making mistakes is not ok.  Leaders need to treat mistakes and failures as a learning opportunity and create
opportunities to openly discuss and learn from mistakes. 
Risk-taking and experimentation are essential to innovation. If excessive controls are put in place to prevent
employees trying new things, it will inhibit risk taking and consequently, creativity and innovation.  This
doesn’t mean that leaders should allow their employees to take silly risks – risk taking should be well
thought through – but they must accept that all innovation carries the risk of failure and allow employees to
experiment.
It is essential for the generation of new ideas that employees feel they are safe to propose new ideas and
solutions without being judged or criticized. It is also essential that ideas can be openly discussed and
debated, and a range of possible solutions explored.  A good leader creates an environment in which opinions
are shared and disagreements are handled constructively - promoting creativity and innovation.
Employee empowerment is positively related to the level of creativity and innovation in an organization and
Maruti Suzuki India Limited is firm believer of the same

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Q2 What are the Ethical considerations/standards practices followed in your organization? Mention
any ethical dilemma that the management of your organization has faced and how did they cross it?
Was there any compromise made, willingly or unwillingly? 

Following are the ethical considerations/standards practices followed by Maruti Suzuki India Limited

HONESTY, INTEGRITY & ETHICAL CONDUCT

All employees shall act in accordance with the highest standards of integrity, honesty, fairness and ethical
conduct while working for the Company as well when representing the Company. Honest conduct means
conduct that is free from fraud or deception. Integrity & ethical conduct includes ethical handling of actual or
apparent conflicts of interest between personal and professional relationships
Senior Management Personnel should promote ethical behavior and take steps to ensure that the Company
promotes ethical behavior and also encourages employees to freely report violations of laws, rules,
regulations or the Company's Code of Conduct to the appropriate personnel.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

Employees must avoid and promptly disclose to the Company potential conflicts of interest regarding any
matters concerning the Company (including its subsidiaries & joint ventures). A conflict of interest exists
where the interests or benefits of employee conflict with the interests or benefits of the Company.

BUSINESS INTEREST

If any employee is considering investing in any customer, supplier, developer or competitor of the Company,
he or she must first take care to ensure that these investments do not compromise on their responsibilities to
the Company. Several factors are involved in determining whether a conflict exists, including the size and
nature of the investment; the employee ability to influence the Company’s decisions; his access to
confidential information of the Company and the nature of the relationship between the Company and the
other Company or person.

RELATED PARTY TRANSACTION

An employee or any of his relatives/associates should not derive any undue personal benefit or advantage by
virtue of his position or relationship with the Company. As a general rule, employee should avoid conducting
Company business with a relative, or with a business in which a relative is associated in any significant role.
Any dealings with a related party must be conducted in such a way that no preferential treatment is given and
adequate disclosures are made as required by law and as per the applicable policies of the Company.

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES

Employee should not exploit for their own benefit, opportunities that are discovered through the use of
Corporate property, information or position unless the opportunity is disclosed fully in writing to the
Company’s Board of Directors and the Board of Directors authorizes the said Senior Management Personnel
to pursue such opportunity. Further, the employee must refrain from using the Company's property or
information for personal gain.

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GIFTS

Employee shall not offer, give or receive gifts from persons or entities dealing with the Company, where any
such gift is perceived as intended directly or indirectly, to influence any business decision. Employee of the
Company shall not accept or permit any member of his family or any other person acting on his behalf to
accept any gift from Vendor, Dealer, Contractor, Suppliers and anyone having business dealings with the
Company. The gift shall also include free boarding, transport, lodging or other service or any other pecuniary
advantage when provided by any person other than a near relative or a personal friend having no official
dealings with the employee.
Employee should also avoid acceptance of lavish or frequent hospitality from any individual or firm having
official dealings with the Company.

CONFIDENTIALITY

Employee must maintain the confidentiality of sensitive information (that is not in public domain) relating to
the Company which comes to their knowledge in the course of the discharge of their functions and any other
confidential information about the Company that comes to them, from whatever source, except when such
disclosure is authorized or legally mandated. No employee shall provide any confidential or sensitive
information either formally or informally, to the press or any other publicity media, unless specifically
authorized to do so.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY & ANTI HARASSMENT

Maruti is committed to a policy of equal employment opportunity so as to assure that there shall be no
discrimination or harassment against an employee or applicant on the grounds of race, color, religion, sex,
age, marital status, disability, national origin, or any other factor made unlawful by applicable laws and
regulations. This policy relates to all phases of employment including recruitment, hiring, placement,
promotion, transfer, compensation, benefits, training, educational, social and recreational programs and the
use of Company facilities. Sexual harassment or exploitation is specifically prohibited

INSIDER TRADING

An employee and his immediate family shall not derive any benefit or assist others to derive any benefit from
the access to and possession of information about the company, which is not in the public domain and thus
constitutes insider information. All the employees are required to comply with the Company’s Code of
Conduct on prevention of Insider trading.

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Mention any ethical dilemma that the management of your organization has faced and how did they
cross it? Was there any compromise made, willingly or unwillingly? 

Recently Maruti announced a recall whose cost is around 700 crores. Few fire incidences have happened in
few vehicles with any loss of life. As the cost of this recall is very costly and only 3 cases reported with fire
incidences. Identifying the part and the vendor which need to be replaced was a mammoth task which require
lot of efforts from the field team. Maruti being a customer centric company and follow high ethical code of
conduct decided to replace the part in all the manufactured vehicles of a particular period without seeing the
cost of the replacement.
Management decide that cost of life is more valuable than few crores and they deiced when not a single
causality had happed in the fire incidences.
Plan was made and instructions are passed to the field team necessary resources are mobilized and it was
clearly told that this task is of utmost importance and need to be completed within 30 days.
Management even stopped the production which incurred huge losses in that month due supply the necessary
part for the recall.
This was the biggest recall in the history of Maruti in terms of cost. The recall was completed within a month
as field teams worked day and night to complete this recall.

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