Naik, AGM Materials, is fuming and fretting. He bumped into Kamath, GM Materials, threw the resignation letter on his table, shouted and walked out of the room swiftly.
Naik has reason for his sudden outburst. He has been driven to the wall.
Perhaps, details of the story will tell the reasons for Naik’s bile and why he put in his papers, barely four months after he took up his present assignment.
The year was 1995 when Naik quit the prestigious SAIL plant at Vishakapatnam. As a manager materials, Naik enjoyed powers—he could even place an order for materials worth Rs 25 lakh. He needed nobody’s prior approval.
Naik joined a pulp-making plant located at Harihar in Kanataka, as AGM Materials. The plant is a part of the multi-product and multiplantconglomerate owned by a prestigious business house in India. Obviously, perks, designation and reputation of the conglomerate lured Naik away from the public sector steel monolith.
When he joined the eucalyptus pulp making company, little did Naik realise that he needed prior approval to place an order for materials worth Rs 12 lakh. He had presumed that he had the authority to place an order by himself worth half the amount of what he used to do at the mega steel maker. He placed the order, materials arrived, were received, accepted and used up in the plant.
Trouble started when the bill for Rs 12 lakh came from the vendor. The accounts department withheld payment for the reason that the bill was not endorsed by Kamath. Kamath refused to sign on the bill as his approval was not taken by Naik before placing the order.
Naik felt fumigated and cheated. A brief encounter with Kamath only aggravated the problem. Naik was curtly told that he should have known company rules before venturing. Naik decided to quit.

Questions
1. Does the company have an orientation programme? If yes, how effective is it?
2. If you were Naik what would have you done?