A fond farewell to Mr. C.P.Appa Rao, Dy. B.S.M.

Glaxo Pharma AP Teams Bidding Adieu to Mr. C.P. Appa Rao, Deputy Branch Sales Manager on his retirement

Seen from L to R - Bottom Row: P. Narasimham, V. Ch. Soma Raju, R. N. Raghavan, K. Prabhakar

Sitting: C. Jagadisan, Dy. B. S. M., Mrs. C.P.Appa Rao, Mr. C.P. Appa Rao, D.R. Nathan, B.S.M., V. C. Mahendra

Standing: Row 1: D. Rama Mohana Rao, K. Ramgopal, S. Ramani, K.N.Chandrasekharan, V. Rajamani (A.S.E.), K. V. Radhakrishna, K. Venkateswarlu, K. Nageswara Rao, N. G.Krishna, V. Ramprasad, U. Narayanadas

Standing: Last Row: M.P.Prabhakara Rao, R. Sequiera, A. Parthasarathi (A.S.E.), V. Satyanarayana, N. Muralidhara Reddy (A.S.E.), K. Bapiraju (A.S.E.), Ch. Seetharamaiah (A.S.E.), M. Narasimham, B.K.Rao, V. Subramanyam, K. Aravamudu, Dr. R. Suresh
Photo Contributed by K. Aravamudu
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Can someone date this picture? Mr. Appa Rao retired circa 1980.  

A Glaxo Pharma Annual Conference Of 1970 @ Ooty

A file photo of Glaxo Pharma Annual Conference of 1970 @ Ooty.
Photo Contributed by K. Aravamudu

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How many of the participants in the photo can you recognise? 
Your replies will be thankfully acknowledged.

All your mails

Replies received:

Hey this idea was also shared by me, we did start  few ideas to meet and meet somewhere at a convenient place and may be meet for a day or two and have great time, with only pure fun, no bragging, but it fizzled out, but it brought few lost contacts back, but somehow now we must work out something. I am willing to take the charge, your ideas and suggestions are welcome.

I am forwarding this mail to many GLXOINDIANs who are not in this list, Cheer up we all will meet, act fast let not the age be seen. - Girish Patel

Sure seems a great idea! - Jairam S. Narayan

Wow! Just going through the names brings back faded memories. Good idea to try & meet up once in a while & hope it materializes. Cheers! - Aman Khanna

P.S.: Dear All, Kindly replace my email address with, aman65ind@yahoo.co.in Regards. Aman Khanna

Hi Folks, It is indeed a splendid idea of we all meeting together for a re-union. I fully support your idea. Let us all put our heads together, we will start may be initially with a few members but I am confident that later on we will have a large crowd. So friends think aloud, and come up with your thoughts. CHEERS - Surendra R. Shetty

This is certainly a good idea to meet. Pl mark all mails addressed to me to another e-mail ID: ramarao.jagannath@gmail.com We will keep in touch. Regards. – R. Jagannath

A great idea! With age & time a no of people would have moved forward in life.  Let’s plan something as we go along. Look forward to hear from all. Let's stay connected! – Deepak Chhabra

Hi to everyone who know me and to those who not me, let us know each other. - Uday Dastane

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GLAXOINDIAN’s message:

Dear Friends,

As you all know we have started GLAXOINDIAN as a platform for meeting colleagues, present and past, reminisce about good times and bad, and generally stay in touch with each other.

The initial enthusiasm, with which it was mooted by a few people and started, petered out and, may we say it has been languishing for months (in fact, years) for want of content. We have had 21 posts in 2010, 3 in 2011 and 1 in 2012. 

As we look forward there are a few options:

1. Forget about the whole thing and let it remain in limbo forever - or even kill it. 

2. Contribute shared experiences, lessons, photos, successes and news. We are sure each one of you has at least a few memorable experiences, personal successes, or funny incidents which you would like to share with your colleagues. 

However, a word of caution: please try to avoid sending stories like "How I converted Dr. Padmavathi to Becadexamin" unless there is an 'out of the ordinary' angle to it. 

3. Hand it over to a new set of editors. If anyone or more of you is/are willing to take it over and run it as a common platform, you are welcome to do so. 

Finally this is being mailed to those colleagues whose e-mail addresses are available with us. May we request you to pass on the message to others? Please send us the e-mail addresses of others whom you know - those you do not find in the 'To field' above. 

Looking forward to hearing from you...

Yours

A modern management seminar!

You'll find here all there is to learn from modern management wisdom. Follow its simple steps to ascend the management ladder. Not since Parkinson has management wisdom been imparted in such succinct and easy to follow form. It is not the usual ‘how to succeed’ stuff which requires you to be “a little more intelligent, a little more hardworking, a little more painstaking” to succeed. As Parkinson said, if you were all that you would not require a guide to succeed. So here’s to success and ascendance to the top!

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As always, Subbu barged in crying ‘Guruji, I need your help! I have to make a presentation at our annual sales conference next week. The boss wants me to make a presentation about how I plan to double my sales in the coming year. Top management will be there and if I goof up, it will be outer darkness for me.’ ‘No problem’, I said. ‘I have just returned from a management seminar myself and acquired all the wisdom there was in it………  

In the post lunch session, a Senior Vice President has been droning on for over half an hour. Half the participants were dozing from the exhaustion of overnight travel and the effects of a sumptuous lunch. He was saying, “we live in a 24/7 world.” Yeah, at least I do. In fact 24 hours in a day are not enough for me even to browse through the torrent of communications I receive. I receive mails from my boss, his boss and the head office. EDP (electronic data processing department for the uninitiated) sends me enough paper to drown in. Lest I forgot its existence, ‘HR’ sends me communications. In the olden days it was ‘Personnel’; now ‘Human resources’ has a nice ring to it. The only thing I could make out of ‘HR’ was it regularly denies me the type of increments I feel I deserve. I receive circulars from ‘Logistics’ (in the days of yore it was called ‘Distribution’). I also receive communications from ‘Corporate Communications’. In the olden days the function of CC was mainly to produce the monthly in-house magazine and occasionally liaise with the press if there was a need. There were no pink papers and businesses did not make it often to the media. Now CC has a larger role. It is to see big-boss’ mug-shot appears in the newspapers at least once a month and he makes it to the television at least once in a quarter for his fifteen seconds of fame. The rest of the time CC throws its weight around and takes it out on minions like us.

…“We must leverage our core competences for greater customer focus.” A colleague who was sitting next to me whispered, ‘oh yeah, his core competence is in placating the boss and flattering his wife. Leverage, certainly he does. Last weekend he was out playing golf with him. His wife was quite unhappy; nowadays he spends his Sunday mornings at his boss’ residence you know.’ The last part jerked me out of my reverie. So my colleague was a regular visitor at our boss’ residence. How remiss of me? Haven’t I lost my customer focus?

…“in order to take on competition, we will have to look for synergy within, benchmark our efforts with the best practices in the industry and think out of the box. Let us ask ourselves if we are able to achieve a strategic fit; if not we should revisit our game plan. I call upon you ladies and gentlemen, let us become more proactive.” Yes, be at the boss’ side throughout the seminar and bring him coffee and cookies during breaks. Carry a pack of his brand of cigarettes. It comes in handy when he runs out of his pack, which to be sure he often does.

…“let us empower our team members” (for some inexplicable reason, in modern management parlance, the word ‘subordinate’ is taboo; so ‘team members’ it is.) “We need to change our mindsets and expeditiously look for a paradigm shift; let us think win-win.” Yeah, for sure! We do all the donkey’s work and you promote your favourite acolyte. He wins and you win because you get promoted!

…“As you all know the competition is breathing down on our necks. If we are serious about outpacing it, we will have to fast-track in enhancing our knowledge base. Let us come out of the loop and provide value-added service to our customers, for it is a result-driven world.”

...“don’t forget, the truth is at the end of the day, it is the bottom line that counts.” Yes Sir, we are looking forward to the end of the day. The bottom line is, that at the end of the day there would be dinner and drinks. Bosses would be around, so the party would begin on a cautious note but after a couple of rounds the lions within would come out.

… “Good Luck folks, God go with you, till we touch base again!”

The seminar made me wiser. I knew I have picked up the essence of management ‘Gita’. I gave Subbu a list of twenty five words. I suggested that he sprinkle these words throughout his presentation and presto, he would be a hit with his bosses. Here they are, in alphabetical order: “at the end of the day - benchmark - best practice - bottom line - client focus - core competencies - empowerment - expeditious - fast track - game plan - knowledge base – leverage - mindset - out of the loop - paradigm - proactive - result-driven - revisit - the truth is - think outside the box - touch base - strategic fit - synergy - value-added - win-win.” I told him, ‘don’t forget the most important of them all is “24/7”.’ 

Thank you for 'GLAXOINDIAN'

Dear Sir,

Feel proud to be in gsk.

Even more proud when I recollect the memories of Training Session by our Beloved Mr K Gopal.

I sincerely than the blog editors for creating a platform for us to share our memories-emotion and updates.

Regards,

Anup Mukherjee

Training Manager

GSK Pharmaceuticals Ltd

Not a Glaxo-Indian ASE for sure!

FH

A pharmaceutical company was conducting interviews to select candidates for the posts of Medical Representatives. The company conducts systematically structured interviews and vets candidates’ educational qualifications, communication skills, basic knowledge of human physiology etc. to assess their suitability for the position. 

The interviewing officer called in the first candidate after a break and asked him to narrate an unforgettable experience in his life. The candidate rambled something in pidgin English for less than a minute and stopped. The IO noted ‘Poor’ in the column titled ‘Communication Skill’ in the evaluation sheet.

The IO then asked him to name any three systems of the human body. The candidate remained silent. The IO promptly noted ‘Nil’ in the column titled ‘Technical Skill’ in the evaluation sheet. 

It was then the IO realised that there was something wrong with his carefully structured interview and noticed the column titled ‘Educational Qualifications’ in the evaluation sheet was blank. Cursing himself, he queried the candidate about his educational qualifications. The candidate replied, ‘Intermediate, failed Sir’. 

The IO wondered whether he should be more surprised by the mulishness of the candidate or angered by the carelessness of his own staff for not weeding out the application in the first place. Curbing his anger he patiently explained to the candidate that the minimum educational qualification that the company looks for in candidates for the position of ‘Medical Representative’ was a bachelor’s degree preferably in biological sciences. The candidate’s reply stunned the IO speechless, for here was what he said:

“Sir, I have not come here seeking the post of a Medical Representative. Please give me the post of the fellow who follows Medical Representatives and says ‘Good Morning’ and ‘Thank You’, with folded hands to the doctors.”

Sad demise of V. Seetharaman

C. Jagadisan wrote on 17/2/11:

Dear Friends,                                                                                           

A Sad news, one of our good friends is no more!!

I just received a phone call  at around 4 PM this afternoon from  Mr. V. Seetharaman's daughter Anuradha Kumar from Saligramam, Chennai that our good friend Mr. V. Seetharaman breathed his last on 15th Feb 11 at 5PM. I gather from Anu he has been in and out of the hospital for the last one year

He was indeed a great soul, spreading warmth, love and affection all round....he was a great entertainer too!

May his soul rest in peace!!

Anu's Chennai telephone no.: 044-42048140. Nephew and son-in-law Kumar's mobile no.: +919940612595

Kindly circulate this sad news to other friends who may have known Mr. Seetharaman......His wife and younger daughter are in Anu's place....at Chennai now.

Yours in Sorrow,

CJ

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Sad to learn that Swamiji as we know him is no more. Please convey our condolences to the family.

K. S. Ramanathan

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Sad to learn of the sad demise of our former colleague, V. Seetharaman. Please convey our condolences to the family.

Humayun Dhanrajgir

S M Kanwar

Pravin Majmundar

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V. Seetharaman was associated with Madras Branch for well over 30 plus yrs!! He used  to accompany Dr. RK whenever he came to attend any meeting in the 60's  and early 70's till 72 when Dr. RK retired.....acting as his eyes and  ears.......He used to be ASE, then when Nireshwalia moved to FPD as  BSM, FPD, he became SSPE and later BSM, Allenburys.

K. Gopal