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While sipping the hot coffee, the very taste of the aroma rich coffee took me back in thoughts about my time spent in Prospect Engineering Works at Vasai.The very word culture brought back the thought of the Culture at Prospect Engineering Works(PEW).
The Company started its small scale operations way back in 1968 by Mr Anant Apte ,who till today is very connected with the staff members of the Company. I have seen him coming to the factory and unlike many Chairman does not make himself comfortable in very confines of an air-conditioned Conference room but he makes it a point to visit the shop-floor and see the operations in general and meet the workmen in specific. It was amazing to see him remember the workmen by their first name in the same stride asking them as to what the rejection rate and what improvements have they thought of bringing down the rejection rate .It spoke volumes about his belief in each and every workman and empowered them with the opportunity of doing something better every day for the product JOLLY.
Every Company has different culture and so at Prospect Engineering Works the first thing I observed was a SMILE that I got from every employee who passed by !!.The Smile of the employee greeted many of us warmly and with a special feeling. This feeling spread positivity around emphasizing the need human resources are assets of the company.
Mr Ashish Apte, Managing Partner joined the company in the year 2002 with his modern concepts of manufacturing technology and management, to follow the same path of Mr. Anant Apte. His fresh approach and outlook of the operations within the company helped the company to evolve even further. He believed in constantly keeping oneself updated with the latest trends in the market to stay at par with the ever-changing needs of the customers. So in line with his ideology and belief, PEW family had a flat organization where there is no (or very few) levels of management in between staff and executives making it easy for everyone to interact ,take critical decisions without a bureaucratic approach.
The takeaway from this kind of setup was culturally Employees feel their voices can be heard when they are not pushed under layers of management. This level of freedom and empowerment creates confident employees and improves morale.
Recruitment and Hiring of employees is done preferably through references and emphasis is given on what the culture of PEW is, and fitting into that culture is the most important thing managers look for when hiring. This promotes the culture and happy employees, which ultimately leads to happy customers.
The senior team has managed to communicate its goals and vision to employees in a way that makes them a part of a unified team. The experience has been quite refreshing when the Company and Employee handhold each other to achieve the set targets of the Company with Confidence and determination. PEW also gives employees “liberty and freedom” to go that extra mile to make customers happy, empowering them to do what they need to do to meet the vision.
Employees who are convinced of a Company’s goal are employees who are excited to be part of a larger purpose and are not afraid of taking calculated risks and go that extra mile to achieve the impossible.
The Company has a culture of accepting new ideas, thoughts and good manufacturing practices in line with the Industry standards and has been able to take the old and new ideologies together to achieve a concoction of ideology that makes the Company take proactive steps in light of any market eventuality and spring back to normalcy within minutes. This agility and flexibility in the operations of the Company has been a fundamental backbone and the very essence of the Culture that has sown, nurtured over the years by the promoters and this has enabled Prospect Engineering Works to establish itself as a prominent Clamps manufacturer in India and overseas.
On a Monday morning in August 2019,with a cup of hot steaming Coffee in hand ,was looking towards the pending work that I had put aside to be completed once I was a little free!!!