Becoming the largest supplier of silk in India and in doing so creating new jobs: that is the dream of Fabric Plus in Guwahati, Assam. Women on Wings is working closely with the management team at Fabric Plus to realize this dream. Since the start of the partnership in 2009, 7,900 jobs have already been created. In order to generate even more jobs, a new organizational structure was established. Recently, expert Ronald van het Hof and Tanveen Ratti, Women on Wings consultant in Delhi, worked with Dilip Barooah and J. Roy, board members at Fabric Plus.
Dilip: “After a long and productive discussion, we arrived at a model in which ‘ownership’ was decentralized. Rather than one large organization, we split the company into two business units: Yarns and Fabrics. We will implement this structure in 2012 and 2013. The great thing about the model is that we are able to really work on realizing the dream.” The teams worked on a clear strategy for the coming years in terms of products, markets and customers. Fabric Plus currently employs 9,000 women directly and indirectly and is working together with Women on Wings to generate a 30% increase in this figure in 2012.
Ronald: “We spent a great deal of time looking at the results from the past year, the lessons that have been learned since then, and we established a budget for the year starting on April 1st 2012. An export approach has been established that ensures a better balance between turnover and costs. This has to be the primary concern for the year 2012-13”. J. Roy: “We presented the total overview of turnover and organization to the management team. The great thing was that everyone really understood that there could be a breakthrough to a fluid working organization with clear responsibilities. It’s great to see that new energy was created.”
