Haegwan Kim asks Dadhich, “you’ve already told me that your goal is always what you can achieve, right? So then, can you tell me how you set the goal?
HM: You see, I set a very practical goal. I set a workable goal. Like in the beginning of this year, we decided as to INR100 should be our target. Alright. Now once we decide INR100, we were at INR60 a year, so we’ve got to increase INR40. Now if you have to increase INR40, you must plan in your mind to increase INR60 so that even if there is a slippage, you still achieve INR100.
Alright, so what I do is, while planning stage, I plan a little extra. While achieving stage, I don’t rush myself. I will achieve. So we divide it then, you know? We have a direct sales. We have a sale through dealers. We have sale independents.
Likewise, there are various segments. So when you divide those segments, you see an normally reinforce your success. You see, if you reinforce your failures, you are bound to land up in failures only, so you must reinforce your success. Wherever you are getting success, move slightly more, push slightly more. You’ll get more success.
Success is something which multiplies. It does not add up, it always multiplies. Success story is something which always multiplies.
HK: Can you give your definition of success?
HM: I believe success is what you want and what you get. You want something, like I want INR100, alright, now getting INR100 is success, right? Getting INR90 is not a success. Now if you are to get INR100, you have to work for INR120. Alright? So your effort should be much more effort and planning rather than an addiction. It is a plan which succeeds. It is not the effort which succeeds. It is a plan which succeeds. If you plan well, you will achieve well. But if you don’t plan well, you will not achieve.
HK: Your basic criteria to be successful was being happy, wasn’t it?
HM: Happy, yes. Happiness I will tell you, if you remain happy, if you keep your environment happy, if you keep your team happy, your efficiency is much more. Only a happy team can have a good efficiency. If you are morose, if you are depressed, if you have other worries on your mind, you can’t give the output which I really expect from you. So happiness you’ve got to keep in you, in your friends, in your environment, in your team; entire team has to be happy. And only happy people can have better efficiency.
HK: So the happiness is the matter of efficiency.
HM: Happiness is efficiency. And happiness does not come from worldly things. Happiness is a state of mind. I give you a good gift, you’ll be happy, it is not sure. Alright, but if I give you a smile, I’ll do also a smile, that is happiness. Alright? Have a look at your heart. For happiness, you’ve got to touch each other’s heart. For happiness, I have to share your mind.
HK: That’s very interesting.
HM: Happiness does not come by mere lip service, it comes from within.
HK: I was impressed by your background as first like doing an engineer, and then doing mentoring armies and then doing the business as a manager, what did you learn from your total career?
HM: With engineering, I learnt how to apply working principles in life. From mentoring, I understood what is comradeship, what is being together, what is being friend in arms. That I learnt; brotherhood; happy, good social life; bonding. And uprightness. When I came to business out here, I learnt the philosophy or turnover, philosophy of producing better and better and quality products. What sells is quality. What sells in market is quality. If you maintain quality, people are ready to pay. If you maintain your time schedule, people are ready to pay. So this is what I learned in business out here.
HK: Are they connected one another?
HM: If you are a good person, you will emit good vibes and there will be goodness around you always. Everything falls in place. My plans don’t fail. They don’t fail. I try and maintain good vibes all around. Secondly, I try and plan well ahead. When I make a plan, I plan well ahead. I plan for next five years, next ten years. Go slowly on the plans. Try and take cooperation from everyone. It’s a collective situation. So that is the way I plan.
HK: You say that you had to apply your working principles into real life as an engineer. Can you talk about your working principles?
HM: Be true to yourself. Don’t cheat yourself. You can cheat everybody in the world; you can’t cheat yourself. So when you’re planning a thing, be sure you’re not fooling yourself. Alright? So when you’re planning something, be sure what you’re doing is right. If you’re not right, take advice from people. There are consultants available. There are market leaders available. There is no harm in asking. There is no harm in seeking knowledge from anywhere. Alright? But don’t try and cheat yourself. If a process requires three days, it requires three days. Give three days to it. Don’t try and make it two and a half.
But you can optimise other things. You can optimise on resources. You can optimise on labour. You can optimise on other things. But in the entire plan that you make, don’t cheat yourself. Don’t cheat your own mind. Sometimes you will try and convince yourself, oh, I will manage it. No, it’s not like that. When you plan it, make a plan, put it on a pencil, put it on paper, go step by step whatever is aimed at, whatever is the planning phase. Do it that way.
But it’s the people which give the result, not me. In fact, I will tell you, I’m a very small element of the entire workforce. So it is the entire team.
HK: How do you make that great team?
HM: It is to obtain their wilful cooperation from everywhere, and I will tell you, if you genuinely think good of others, like if you’re in trouble, I would like to help you in whatever way I can; if you are in need, I would like to help you; but you know, once I do this, naturally, your attitude towards would be also okay.
HK: Of course.
HM: Right? So people reciprocate with you. So whatever I do to others, others do to me. If I do good to others, others will do good to me. That is the philosophy. You will get what you deserve.
HK: Interesting. As a final question, can you tell me your advice to be successful in general sense?
HM: You see, at various points of time, various things have decided the course of young, junior people. At some point of time, people thought having money is being successful. Today, it is not so. Today, even someone has got a lot of money, but it does not mean that he is successful.
In times to come, people with good virtues in life would be regarded as being successful. You take Mahatma Gandhi, he was a very simple man. He did not own lots of worldly possessions. He had in fact nothing much with him. But then he could lead India to freedom. Alright? What are the basic principles? Honestly, truthfulness, and insight. These two/three things he had, and he could lead India to freedom. India became independent. Even the British Empire, which was so powerful, with all its weapons and with all its weapons of mass destruction, it failed in front of Mahatma Gandhi. Mahatma Gandhi was a man half naked, with a stick in hand… have you seen his photograph?
HK: Yes, sure.
HM: He was a elderly person, barely could walk. But he could stand in front of that British Empire. Why? Because he was truthful. He was full of truthful life, and in service, not harming anybody; not killing anybody, in no sense. Tomorrow, in times to come, the same kind of principles will have values in life. Honestly will be a very big word too in life. He was very honest man; he has many achievements though.
Prime Minister Singh says, a very honest person. We may be having all other ministers cheats, but the Prime Minister is a very honest person. Likewise, these virtues will have a lot of values. Value system will also see a change in times to come. You’ll find that in times to come it will evolve and there is something in the world which keeps working and these things will get evolved. Tomorrow, a man with a lot of money will not be considered a rich man. Even money may be considered as a bad virtue. It may happen. But what will be considered good is honestly, truthfulness.
Haegwan Kim is a writer who was born in Osaka, Japan in 1989 and grew up near Tokyo where went to a Korean school for 12 years.
