George Menezes

There are various ways in which a person can get recruited to a job. I clearly remember a young Sardar who came to see me with a hockey stick in his hands.
He said he had read of the exploits of the Hoechst Pharmaceuticals hockey team which had moved in three years from 4th division to the 1st division of the Bombay Hockey league.

“He was an excellent player” he said. Could he play for our team?” You have to be an employee of our Company” I said with a laugh. “I don’t mind being an employee of your Company” he said seriously

We took him on board in the packing department.

I look back today at my own recruitment into the Indian Air Force in 1950 and later in 1962 into Hoechst Pharmaceuticals.

The Air Force recruiting was intimidating. Six guys wearing blue uniforms, gold stripes on their shoulders and medals on their chests.

“Why do you want to join the Indian Air Force?” someone asked me. In a moment of temporary insanity, which I have experienced often in my life, I said “You have such wonderful funerals, the national flag over your coffin, “bugles playing the Last Post”

“You have to be dead for that” said the Presiding Officer. “I don’t mind” I said
“No more questions. Come aboard” they said unanimously.

1962 was another matter altogether. I was a Squadron Leader returning with my wife on an Italian steam ship after a four year posting with the Indian Embassy in Paris.
On the ten day journey we shared a table with Karl Schutz and his charming and elegant wife. They were very nice people and we got along like Frankfurter sausages and sauerkraut with a jugful of apple wine.

Karl was returning to his job in Mumbai as chief of the Hoechst Pharmaceuticals factory in Bombay after a holiday in Germany. He loved India and Bombay and the hard working and skilled Indians working in his factory.

On the last day of our sea voyage the Captain had organised a Fancy dress Ball.
Thecla and I dressed up in Chinese clothes and held a long string between us on which we hung some underwear and the words “McMahon line”. It was the time of the Indo Chinese War and as everybody knew, the McMahon line was the artificially drawn line on the map between India and China.

We were delighted when Thecla and I were declared the winners and the captain came to our table to hand over the prize. “Very clever, topical and creative” he said.

Much to the embarrassment of his tall and gentle wife Karl Schutz shouted and jumped around as if he himself was the winner. “If you are ever looking for a job please call me” he said, handing over his visiting card.

Three months later having resigned from the Indian Air Force forfeiting all my benefits which come only if you complete 20 years of service and finding that industry considered a Squadron Leader only fit for a Security job, I knocked at Karl Schutz’s Factory door.

He gave me a German handshake and appointed me as “Administrative Officer” of a state of the art factory that employed around 300 men and women at that time.

Karl as head of a very productive factory run with typical German efficiency was different from the man I knew on board the ship. Most of the Managers feared him.
It was said that when he walked into the Analytical Laboratory you could hear the sounds of broken glassware, chemists used to drop flasks from their trembling hands. He was a hard task master but he had a high regard for justice and merit and led by example.

Even when he arrived from an official visit to Germany at 3 in the morning he was at the factory at 8am sharp.

I had my first problem with him when he asked me to get rid of a self appointed godman who was squatting on a large plot owned by Hoechst behind the factory earmarked for staff quarters. He had buried a statue of a Hindu deity and claimed it had been there for centuries.

“I want him out by tomorrow” he said. “You must be in possession of your Air Force pistol. Use it if necessary”

I went back to my cabin, rang up the Mulund Police station and went out to meet the Inspector in charge. I told him my predicament. “Don’t lay a finger on him. Don’t take the law in your own hands. I will register your complaint and deal with the matter” he said.

I reported this to Karl Schutz in the presence of an architect who was sitting in his office. Karl turned red and called his Secretary and asked for some medication. He then stood up and called me a coward. “Either the godman goes or you go” he said

I suddenly knew what I had to do. “Give me the order in writing, Mr. Schutz” I said and I will carry it out” He calmed down and asked me to see him later.

Meanwhile the architect had spread the word around that the factory that they would get a new Administrative Officer.

The next meeting with Karl was a strange experience. He offered me a cup of tea and said. “I am canceling your probationary period. Your services are confirmed
from today. You are not a coward. If fact, unlike most of my Managers, you have guts. Most Germans appreciate subordinates who stand up to them and challenge them to think differently”

Karl Schutz passed away a few days ago. I owe him everything I am today. When he hired me he took a big risk. Between him, his deputy much loved Johannes Schmidt and his successor, the exemplary leader Dr Hans Wagner they encouraged me to obtain my Post Graduate Diploma in Management, sent me for a three month German language course in a beautiful school outside Frankfurt, helped me to acquire a second hand Volkswagen and later learn the nitty gritty of Psychological testing at their enormous factory that owned the harbour and railway station and the town of Hoechst. Some years later they gave me paid leave and fees-reimbursement to attend an Intensive Lab in Human Behaviour at the National Training Laboratory at Bethel, Maine, USA

Above all I learnt the values of hard work, discipline, fairness and justice and integrity.

When I retired as Director of Human Resources after 24 years of service Business magazines hailed Hoechst for its values and for not having a single day of work stoppage in a quarter century.

Karl Schutz and his successors must take credit for their encouragement of strong internal trade Unions and their ability to share power.