Shashi Patel. Managing Director of Polydor of India, Managing Director of the Film Center, Bombay, which processes 50 million feet of colour film a year, 90% of all colour film used in India, managing director of several other companies manufacturing cameras and photographic equipment—Patel has been described as typical of younger Indian management today. With his head office in Bombay and branches in Madras, Delhi and Calcutta and trained in business administration in the University of Michigan, he has had an eye firmly fixed on increasing his empire. In 1969 he went to Europe five times enlisting technical know-how and capital. He thought nothing of a weekend trip from there to the United States. Anything to further business—anything, that is, except a concern for the 750 men on his payroll. Those who tried to collect for charity in Bombay had strong words to say about Shaslii Patel. Then in December 1969 began a story which has already given hope to thousands of new way in Indian business and would surely interest Jyoti Basu. Anything to Declare? was in Bombay. The Patels were among those asked if they accepted accommodating the cast. They invited a young American girl to stay in their home. As she left she invited the Patels to visit Asia Plateau, Panchgani. Mildly interested and more keen on MEN WITH STEEL AND VISION FILLED 35 a holiday in a pleasant hill station the Bombay couple ac cepted. "It was a chance to get away from a bad dream," says Patel. "Two hundred men were going on strike. The matter was before the courts. We had been losing money for four years. I was thinking of selling the company." One evening the Patels watched a play called The Forgotten Factor written by British playwright Alan Thomhill. This industrial drama depicted a violent clash between an employer and his workers. It indicated with considerable force where management needs to be different. "Maybe the trouble is with me, not with the workers," Pate! said to himself. He listened to the meetings in the following days. He heard men from different countries appeal to India for help. "The thing that impressed me at Panchgani was what people from Canada, England, France and many nations felt India could do for the world. I as an Indian had never felt that." Michael Henderson: "From India with Hope"
