Just the other day I was having a casual chat with our HR Head over the issue of Business Ethics and the relevance of the ancient concept of ‘dharma’ in modern day businesses. He happened to mention about a small Indian Company located in Belgaum in Karnataka known as Polyhydron. Frankly, I had heard about the company for the first time, but what he told me after that struck a deep chord in me and thereafter I did a lot of looking up and reading on the company and the unique system of unparalleled (at least in India) business ethics followed by it. This whole article is about this business unit which can be described as a symbol of honesty and ethical practices- a true "Business Ashrama".
The company had modest beginnings in 1987 when the Late Suresh Hundre, established this unit and was its CMD until his demise in 2013. In his own words he envisioned the company to be “a place for grooming karmayogis based on an experiment of integrating spirituality with business which produces excellent results.”
The comprehensive Vision Statement of the company says: “We will create an island of excellence through focus on customer, employee-empowerment and continuous improvement. Polyhydron will nurture an ethically managed organisation. We will not exploit our customers, suppliers, government, society and nature”.
The company does conduct routine business activities like manufacturing, marketing, finance, HR etc. but with a refreshing difference. Be it any field of activity, the emphasis is on honesty, ethics and empowerment to the true sense of the words. In manufacturing, a worker on the shop-floor can reject a material if not found up to the mark and he is the final authority. While marketing their products no attractive concessions or discounts are offered to the customers and the stress is on quality and value for money. In FY 1995-96, the company’s turnover touched Rs.5.75 crores without offering any discounts and the company paid complete corporate tax of Rs.1.5 crores. The emphasis is not to save or steal tax and a tax consultant who offers to devise methods to ‘save’ tax is not welcome. The company rather takes pride in paying higher tax every year as the same is a true sign of their growth and continuous improvement.
I believe there is a sign board at the entrance of the company which says “We do not pay bribes”. There are numerous tales of Government Officials and Inspectors who were refused bribes and were asked to be absolutely forthcoming about their observations as the company decided to take the observations as a free critique and improve shortcomings rather than take them otherwise. This underlying policy in words of Late Mr Hundre is “Honesty is not the best policy. It is the only policy. We are honest, we are transparent and we do not pay any bribe.”
Management of the unit is simple. It is based on “mutual trust” and in the unit there are only two layers i.e. the management and the workers- there are no supervisory staff. All the employees are expected to be honest and follow ethical practices. Everybody in the organisation knows the figures of net profit, material cost, labor cost, tax paid to the government, excise paid, payments made to the suppliers etc. Even outsiders like government officials and customers have access to this information. Anybody in the organisation can challenge any voucher! There are no “debtors’ no “creditors”. Obviously there are no bad or doubtful debts. Suppliers are paid the moment the material is accepted and customers pay immediately on delivery.
This concept of “Business Ashrama’ and complete empowerment is unique as is the method by which Polyhydron distributes gains. The wealth created is first calculated and then 30% is shared with employees, 5% with shareholders, 1% with society and balance 64% remains in the business for growth. (of course, this is all after the payment of corporate tax as per existing rules)
With industries and corporations world-wide facing the problems of frauds, trust deficit and mismanagement, Polyhydron undoubtedly is an example of “Value-based Management” and a role model to the world in this ancient yet novel concept of spiritual management.
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