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Escorts moves the office away from its sales guys [India Business] [Times of India](Times of India Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) CHENNAI: From Dilbert comic strips to coffee-break jokes, the man from headquarters, cocooned in his corner-room world view, is a popular corporate stereotype. Now one company is trying to break that mould by doing away with the HQ office. As part of a latest management innovation, tractor and automotive company Escorts is doing away with its offices. The idea, said top executives, is to ensure that sales, marketing and production teams stay close to the customer instead of sitting in their office. In fact according to the new rules, executives would need to book an office in advance on HQ visits the way they book a guest house or hotel room! "At Escorts in a few months from today, many offices are going to be taken away, especially those of the sales and marketing teams as they need to be with their customers and not sit at their offices," said Nikhil Nanda, MD, Escorts Ltd. "When they head back to the head office and need a table and a chair, they would need to book an office room, just the way they would book a hotel room. Similarly all production-related offices will be moved to near our production and assembly lines. Moving these offices away from cabins to production floors in formats of workstation will ensure smother coordination and break all hierarchy." The new, away-from-HQ format, he said, will make line management teams more nimble and customer-focussed. "In today's world, we need to build agility in our work culture and bring decision-making at a good speed and in the right way," said Nanda. "We at Escorts are engineering ourselves to be young and dynamic to do what it takes to be effective. We are embedding our strategic values, which are Innovation, Customer Centricity, Excellence and Agility in all our mannerisms. This decision is one of many that we shall take to achieve a culture which shall bring an executive to do his job the "Escorts way"! Nor is this new innovation restricted to line teams alone. Even top management will follow the same principle. "I have had a meeting with my top team wherein all my CEOs and other senior officers have welcomed this move and have promised to be ambassadors of these principles," said Nanda. (c) 2014 Bennett, Coleman & Company Limited [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] |