“Gardan”- On the block

As has happened many times in the past, this time now even CEO of Mahindra Lifespaces Developers Limited could not keep her promise and deadline given by her for completion of club house, has gone dead. We were very very optimistic before meeting CEO of Mahindra Lifespaces Developers Limited on 30^th July 2010, but all those hopes and optimism are seriously eroded.  By not doing any effort towards making sure that CEO’s  reputation is not sullied by broken promises, we now have really come to know that concepts of OPERATIONAL SPEED and STRATEGIC SPEED do not appeal to the management of Mahindra Lifespaces Developers Limited.  

Forget about speed, the recurrent demonstration of insensitivity, uncaring attitude towards erosion of MAHINDRA brand value has percolated soo deep down in the nerves of the management that when confronted by residents during meeting with site team on 30^th October 2010, they again extended the deadline of completion of club house by another two months. This kind of work culture on display from MAHINDRA brand name!!. Sooo DISGUSTING and FRUSTRATING!!! Isn’t it ?

When questioned by residents- what if deadline of 30^th January is not met? – we got an unbelievable response from representative of management of Mahindra Lifespaces Developers Limited. And that response was – “Meri gardan le lena” (Take my neck).  What a response!!!!  Instead of feeling apologetic about recurring delays to customers and residents of MAHINDRA EMINENTE complex, someone offers “gardan”!!!! Is it not another example of monumental naivety? Obviously this response infuriated everyone present in the meeting.

We have paid through our nose for buying our dream homes and associated infrastructure within promised time frame. We are not interested in anybody’s gardan, what we care about is value for money.   If CEO had demanded someone’s gardan everytime deadline went dead, by now we would not have reached this stage that CEO has to feel embarrassed about monumental lapses of her team. Now when offer of gardan is still valid, CEO must make it very clear that if 30^th January deadline is flouted- heads and gardans will roll. Time for CEO to send serious message across.

Uff!! We are at loss to understand the enterprise model and operating philosophy of Mahindra Lifespaces Developers Limited.

On one hand Mahindra Group proudly states that some of the core values which drives MAHINDRA group, are:

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Customer First

We exist and prosper only because of the customer. We will respond to the changing needs and expectations of our customers speedily, courteously and effectively.

Quality Focus

Quality is the key to delivering value for money to our customers. We will make quality a driving value in our work, in our products and in our interactions with others. We will do it 'First Time Right'.

…………… Through our actions, we will nurture fairness, trust and transparency.

These values are the compass that will guide our actions, both personal and corporate.

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Yes right- you are obviously going to prosper if you give promises to customers, show rosy dream extract money and then don’t deliver on those promises. Please give one example where Mahindra Lifespaces Developers Limited has responded speedily, effectively. Courteously yes upto certain extent.

Anybody reading the posts in this blog and seeing the pictures, can easily make out that how miserably the project managers have deviated from core values of MAHINDRA group. One of the statements caught my attention – “We will do it ’First Time Right’” – really?!! So many times my bathroom has been repaired, so many times full commode has been changed, so many times shower panels have been changed, so many times….not in one house but in many.

Wasteful expenditure on Water body with no water inside and on the contrary water logging everywhere else on the podium, water leaking through podium concrete to stilt parking area, are few such examples of not doing it right first time. There are many such examples.

Anybody who has bought the apartment in MAHINDRA EMINENTE project by MAHINDRA LIFESPACES DEVELOPERS LIMITED, can tell you how far cry from reality are these lofty values so proudly displayed by MAHINDRA group.

Are the mission statement and core values only noble-sounding phrases engraved on a plaque to hang in the company lobby? Surely, Anand Mahindra and CEO must be talking a lot about mission and values, but the end result is more of hot air than real action. The company will reach nowhere near its full potential if all that is guiding it is a list of pleasant platitudes hanging on the lobby wall.

How many these bhaus and Ninnis have ever read those mission statements or values and feel connected with that, or these lofty sounding statements are meant to adorn the walls to impress the corporate auditor.

Take the time.

Spend the energy.

Make those mission statements and core values real.

Also, you may like to read following blogposts

1.     Nudge Baliye

2.     Powwow with CEO of MahindraLifespaces Developers Limited.

3.     Duds behind Deadlines.

      4.   Deadline is dead again

Nudge Baliye

Almost three months have passed by since July 2010, but there has been no progress on almost all the issues discussed during powwow with CEO. Prominent among them is - Whimsical alteration of the project layout giving it a completely different look from what was originally shown to customers.

Remember that glass show case in Mahindra Eminente sales office enclosing –

- colourful fancy looking towers with lush greenery and water bodies,

- birds fluttering their wings around bird bath,

- high-end SUVs standing in parking lot with Mahindra logo proudly on display.

It was not a marketing campaign but marketing pornography, which excited every customer so much that they hardly thought before parting with hard earned money.

What that beautiful show case didn’t display was :

- water leaking through the podium in stilt parking area on top of high-end SUVs,

- stray dogs raising the leg over shiny alloy wheels of fancy cars of residents,

- pet dogs watering the plants and pet owners proudly holding on to the leash and waiting while pedigree  pet  pees, poos and farts on the walking track.

- water leaking from the pipes in pipe ducts,

- untraceable stink all around in various pipe ducts.

- Water-logging every where in the podium all because of improper slope, which makes it impossible to walk on that jogging track/ walking track whatever you call it,

- Wiper guy wiping away the water to nearest hole in the podium concrete, every time after it has rained kittens and puppies,

- Water body full of dirty water and nobody having a clue about maintaining it.

- Mosquitoes with salivary glands on the overdrive rushing to relish their blood meal. By the time mosquito decides to burp and fly off it has already injected enough of dengue or malarial parasites in the blood stream of unsuspecting health conscious walker/jogger. Instead of hoping to shed some cholesterol at the end of his/her walk, jogger lands up in nearest Kapadia Hospital battling with dengue or malarial parasite.

- Withering plants

- Snoring security men.

- Rats hogging ladoos.

- Cats guarding the cars from onslaught of rats.

- Incomplete club house.

- Firefighting equipments in disarray.

And after much frustration with local managers of the project, residents demanded meeting with CEO of Mahindra Lifespaces Developers Limited, expecting some clarity of thoughts true to the position. But what we got to hear were usual parroting , buck passing and some half-hearted promises. Three months thereafter when residents wrote to management of Mahindra Lifespaces Developers Limited, demanding an audience to thrash out the issues and monitor the progress , nobody cares to respond for full two days. Then CEO demonstrated the courtesy by sending a reminder to Commodore to “do the needful”. 

Dear Madame CEO, It seems so strange that for two days nobody from Mahindra Lifespaces Developers Limited cares to respond to emails from residents and finally CEO has to give a nudge, poke, tickle, or prod someone to get up and do the needful. Till that time nobody feels the need to do the full, leave aside everyone doing the fullest automatically without any intervention from CEO’s office. Getting an audience with CEO or Mahindra Eminente project team seems more difficult than getting an audience with the Pope.

Believe it or not, but during one of the follow up meetings at project site, after residents' much touted meeting with CEO, so called crisis handlers, or floor managers as they are called in lobbying parlance, made a big O from their mouth and said- Awwwwe, we forgot to follow up about the fate of the water body with our phoren designer of Bhaucha Dhakka (water body) inside Mahindra-Eminente Complex.

Isn't it unbelievable that CEO promises something to the customers and then the staff down below FORGETS !!!!! to follow up? Unless CEO wants us to believe that project managers have her blessings to go deliberately slow?

Is it not the time that leader and visionary within CEO takes the cue from seasonal festive spirit and tickles the nose of this giant kumbhkaran team , so that they stop producing the crap , get up from the commode, open the door, come out of the confines of air conditioned cabins, let the whiff of fresh air find its way to nose cave, and reboot their cognitive machinery to produce some awe inspiring results instead of just opening the big mouth and saying AWWWWE! we made gaffe! and then burst into guffaw.

May we respectfully request for CEO’s more serious intervention, than just a simple nudge to commodore.

With the kind of monumental naivety on display in every piece of work, Mahindra Eminente is no longer a simple residential project but Residential Monument by Mahindra Lifespaces Developers Limited.

We are aghast to see that this kind of shoddy work culture is the molecular ingredient which constitutes the DNA of Mahindra Group genome.

I was reading a quote from Google CEO Eric Schmidt – “Ubiquity first, revenues later – If you can build a sustainable eyeball business, you can always find clever ways to monetize them”.

But, looks like, the brief from CEO of MAHINDRA Lifespaces Developers Limited to marketing department is – “Revenues first Ubiquity later. If you can find clever ways of monetizing , you can sustain your position within the company”. No wonder Mahindra Eminente monument catches the eyeballs, but the eyeballs dilated in disbelief about the anesthetic apathy of the project team towards the aesthetics of the complex.

Grievances and outburst by customers must not be brushed aside as juvenile spat. Redressal of these outbursts require much serious level of intervention from CEO than just a simple nudge to commodore.

Lets hope we don’t have to see anymore the amusing spectacle of “Nudge Baliye”- where CEO nudges commodore, commodore nudges Karkhanis, Karkhanis nudges Vivek, Vivek nudges Nilesh, Nilesh nudges Pataole, Pataole nudges Laxmi Singh and Laxmi Singh nudges NINNI, and now I am wondering whom Ninni will nudge? Anybody with answer……..?

By the way, we don’t care whom Ninni will nudge. We just hope that some shubh-muhurat comes and CEO succeeds in making this monumental team to budge so that CEO can proudly showcase this project as another feather in her cap not a blot on the glorious past.

Enough of “Nudge Baliye” lets watch KBC.

Also, you may like to read:

Powwow with CEO of Mahindra Lifespaces Developers Limited.

Waterbody or water khadda? – Take your pick!

Monsoon Nuisance