I still remember the first day of the production vividly. Months of hard work fructified and culminated into one day - exploring and finding our way into the unknown territory of textiles & decor, decoding eco-friendly fabrics - linen, hemp & lyocell, meeting suppliers, visiting stitching factories, finalizing packaging material - all started taking shape.
It was 14th Jan 2020 when we decided to go ahead with the production. We reached the factory way before anyone arrived, I guess we were too excited to start the production.
In sync with our tradition, it’s auspicious to start any work by taking blessings from the almighty, so we did a small Puja in the factory, which is done by bowing ours heads to the deities and breaking a coconut on the floor where work is to commence followed by distributing the coconut pulp as prasadam along with sweets.
Simplest of things can mean so much in new beginnings. I remember cutting open the first seal of the beautiful linen which was then laid on the longest table that one would ever see.
The thought of transforming this natural linen fabric into timeless pieces adorning millions of homes gave us a sense of purpose.
The first fabric being cut was the White European Flax Linen for our tablecloth, table runners and dinner napkins. It was placed on the roller rod, and pulled over the long table used for cutting endless yarns of cloth. The feeling was so special and totally overwhelming given the journey behind and dream of what lay ahead!
But even the most emotional beginnings, when fit into a business situation do not move forward without its share of slow downs & hiccups backed by critical decision making that define the course of the company even before it starts. And on the very first day of production we faced a situation which tested us on - profit and convenience vs quality and customer.
We had printed our Care and Gratitude labels in cream colour thinking mostly of the natural linen colour and not realising how it will look on white or lighter pastel shades - a classic beginners mistake! We felt that against the pure white linen the cream label wasn’t looking the prettiest.The label that costs nothing more than $0.02 Cents had suddenly put us up against a very tough business decision.
‘Not looking the prettiest’ was a subjective call. Was it big enough to stop production and make everyone wait for days before we can reprint the new labels and receive them or go on for a couple of days for something that a customer might not even take notice of? Stopping production would have meant losing the entire committed cost of all the people in the factory, daily associated costs as these are costs that we had to bear till labels arrived. Or take a decision of going ahead with the production and fixing the problem on the go.
We took the decision of stopping the production till we received the new labels. Our printer was supportive and assured of the delivery in 2 days which would have normally taken up to 7-10 days.
So here we were with the cost of two days down even before completing our first product! But as a team we were clear that quality and customer will always come first. On this day we decided that nothing will leave the factory of D’Moksha Homes until we are 100% satisfied with the quality. Even 99.99% was not good enough and a financial loss was no comparison to the customer delight that we want to offer.
The order for the new white labels were placed and a decision was made to reconvene after two days.
And this was how our first day of production went by. When we reminisced about the day as we put our heads down to sleep at night we felt proud that we had the courage to take the right decision when it mattered and the high emotions of the first day production could not come in the way of the customer experience we wish to create with D’Moksha Homes!
We are very glad that we were put up against a small yet critical test on the first day of production. With all the energy and pent up enthusiasm of the entire team to start production, it could have been a very challenging decision but with the belief that if there’s clarity of thought and a defined purpose at hand, no decision is a tough one to make. Customer Delight is why we exist and the rest was a smooth sail. Having passed that test on day one along with the entire team, we are all sure that if ever up against a similar challenge (which was a few dozen times in our first production cycle itself) there will remain resolute on which path to choose.
D’Moksha Homes is poised for a long journey before it can get close to what we dream to make it and each such decision will be one of the building blocks for the same.
Share and comment below.
