No Laughing Matter

t was singularly fitting that a fast-changing company like Godrej should have named its house magazine CHANGE. Discerning readers may have noticed in the published interviews with our divisional heads, that they refer again and again to the changes in their respective divisions and never tire of claiming that change is a stimulus to them. Similarly, the Home Base section provides, issue after issue, a detailed record of changes (improvements) in Godrej products, the renovations in Godrej showrooms, Godrej dealings with branches and dealers, and their multiplying export points.

Change is constant, as it is all-pervading. Who would have thought that laughter, a sign of happiness, would be transformed into a prescription for good health, that the first Sunday of May would be celebrated every year as World Laughter Day, and that laughter would be institutionalised and registered as the Laughter Club National Headquarters? American journalist Norman Cousins wrote a book titled Anatomy Of An Illness to describe how he laughed his way out of an incurable disease of the spine. Dr. Lee S. Berk of Loma Linda University, California, did considerable research to establish that laughter reduces hormone levels and has a positive impact on the immune system. “Art Of Living”, published in this issue gives detailed, scientifically-based instructions on how you can laugh your way to good health.

Another interesting article in this issue, “Fruitful Encounter”, describes how the great industrialist Jamsetji Tata found in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the advice and help he needed to fulfil his long-cherished dream of founding a steel industry in India. It was in Pittsburgh that Tata encountered the man he had been seeking — Julian Kennedy, one of the foremost metallurgical engineers in the world. Kennedy in turn recommended Charles Page Perin and his associate C.M. Weld as best qualified to undertake the basic geological work required for steel manufacture. Tata promptly took both the experts into his employ and sent them forthwith to India.

What are the criteria of managerial excellence? In a lecture delivered at a general meeting of the Madras Management Association, N. Sankar, Chairman of the Sanmar Group, laid down three — the critical need for a relevant organisation/performance culture, the phenomenon of variable reforms to all stakeholders, and business ethics and corporate governance. The lecture, reproduced in this issue, makes the important point that management is required not only by industries but equally by hospitals, educational institutions, NGOs operating in rural India, the service sector and so on…