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Sushma Gupta worked
as the Assistant Manager (AM) of Operations for Mega Shopping Arena (MSA). MSA,
a popular store, sold everything from food, clothes, and shoes to stationery,
furniture, household items, electronics, and toys. The store advertised itself
as a one-stop shop where the customer could find everything he or she needed.
Sushma was happy that she was working with such a reputed, well-established
store.
Sushma loved her job and had worked hard to get to the position of AM.
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Her life revolved around her work, so much so that
she had to be forced to take leave or a vacation. Her seniors were happy
with her work, and Sushma was looking forward to the performance
appraisals in March.
She was sure that she would be promoted. She had excelled at her work in
the four years she had been at the store, and she felt that she
definitely deserved to become Manager.
In March, as she had expected, Sushma was promoted and made Manager. Her
job profile now was different - she was no longer required to do the
day-to-day administrative tasks that she had been doing till then.
Neither was she required to deal with customers. Her new role involved
managing the supply chain, and taking care of the advertising and
marketing plans of the store.
In her new role, Sushma had a team of four AMs, who were each required
to present a daily report to her at the end of each day. The AMs were
required to handle the administrative duties, including dealing with
counter staff, as well as to handle customer complaints.
However, Sushma being the perfectionist that she was, insisted on taking
all the decisions herself, even when they had to be made at the AM
level. Because of this, the AMs did not have a sense of ownership. They
shied away from taking decisions, leaving them to Sushma, besides asking
for her guidance even on small issues.
One day, Sonal Kapoor, a regular customer, came to return a pair of
wrinkle-free trousers that she had bought a week earlier. Mrs. Kapoor, a
member of the store's loyalty program, was quite upset because the
trousers had shrunk in just one wash, and she wished to return them.
She produced the original bill, and asked for a full refund, pointing to
the notice hung on the wall which clearly stated the store's return
policy of giving full refund if the customer returned the product within
a week along with the original bill.
At this point, Sushma was not in office, as she was attending an off-site meeting. Rajeev, the AM handling the matter, refused to take a decision as he was not sure how to ascertain the number of days from the day of purchase
- whether he should include the day of purchase or not! He asked Mrs. Kapoor to come back the next day to meet Sushma. Mrs. Kapoor first tried to argue and then said she would agree to an exchange.
However, Rajeev refused to commit himself and kept asking her to meet Sushma. An irritated Mrs. Kapoor then raised her voice, drawing the attention of other shoppers.
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