Few days back in our office, all the mugs & cups were replaced by funny looking. All people had their eyebrows raised, accept few most felt embarrassing even to get their coffee, soup or tea in those cheap looking most basic glasses on their tables. Buzz came up that its cost cutting, though it was most absurd reason still it was readily accepted, coz 'cost cutting' is topping everybody's mind in these times of recession.
While we all were making fun, murmuring this issue of glass & stuff, a mail from 'Mr. Kishore Biyani' (first generation enterprenuer & CEO of future group), came & it went like this.......
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Dear Colleagues
In the last couple of weeks all our offices have started serving coffee or tea in glasses. Some have enthusiastically taken to the idea. And some are indifferent to it.
The most common question is, is this a cost-cutting measure? It isn’t. All of us know that we have much bigger battles to fight to keep costs down. Moving over from cups and saucers to glasses wouldn’t really make any substantial savings. Therefore, introducing glasses is not a cost cutting measure.
So what made us introduce this custom of serving tea or coffee in glasses? Let me share my personal experience. At my office, all guests and that includes visiting CEOs, foreign partners, business associates, financial partners, everyone is being served their drink in these glasses. And to them, it is an immediate way for me to communicate what our company stands for – our basic values of simplicity and humility and being in touch with our roots, being in touch with the common man.
Drinking coffee or tea from a glass vessel is one of the most enduring and common practices across our country. Irrespective of class or background, everyone has had coffee or tea from a glass – either regularly or every once in a while. It is how the majority of Indians prefer to have their favorite beverage. And by introducing it in our offices, we follow this simple and common practice that is so popular in our country.
So what benefit does it bring to us as an organization? By using a glass to drink our tea or coffee, it builds within us a sense of humility and simplicity. It reconnects us with the vast majority of our countrymen and strengthens us with our roots, our customers. By doing so, with our guests and visitors in our office, it reiterates our values, assures them of our touch with the reality and encourages them to follow this custom.
This is a symbolic gesture. Symbols help convey ideas, emotions and values far more comprehensively than words ever can. Introducing a culture or symbol may not have tangible or logical benefits. Gandhiji’s charkha didn’t result in the closure of British textile mills. Nor did everyone in India start wearing khadi. But the charkha conveyed humility, honesty and simplicity. It established an immediate connect with the life of a vast majority of Indians. And in the process it united an extremely diverse nation, behind a symbol and ahead of a common goal.
For each of us, this new custom of drinking our tea or coffee from a glass is a change. Unless we change, we cannot grow. Unless we grow, we can never fulfill our potential. But as we grow it is important to stay anchored to our roots. And one simple way of doing that is by drinking from the glass that that does not distinguish between the haves and the have-nots in India .
Rewrite Rules, Retain Values
Kishore Biyani
Karta – Future Group
Now what can anyone say???? Some laughed on themselves, some laughed on others, few were spellbound. But I personaly was amazed by the thought that someone attached 'cost cutting' with this trivial issue & the word spread like epidemic!! Tahts power of office Rumours :) for you
