ROY BROWN was a different man at home when he invited the management for a company dinner. He listened quietly to his wife Carol.
She was slim, while he was slightly overweight. He was a gentle figure, and Carol would call him Munchy.
She did not seem to mind his long hours at work while she gave home tuition to their young son Alexander.
In the office, he aimed to improve productivity. I had considered some changes and potential gains for the plantations.
He managed to borrow Damian Chok, an accountant from Lever Brothers Kuala Lumpur, a sister company, to work with me on the figures.
Damian was a young man who blushed easily and could work long hours.
It was a time of high cocoa prices and we considered planting cocoa between the rows of oil palm. We calculated the figures that showed some gains.
Patchouli could grow in the young replanted areas and be sold to perfume distillers at a premium.
Damian did not agree, but he drafted the business plan and created the spreadsheet.
His face would turn red as he adjusted the figures when I was too optimistic.
However, when we reported back Brown dismissed our work.
“The returns are low. Don’t look for new crops. You can get more from the oil palm. I read that the tonnes per hectare can increase if you provide enough fertiliser and apply it correctly. Manual application is not efficient. A machine on a tractor can do the work faster. You can avoid the rainy season and complete your program.
“But prepare the paths for the tractors. I will approve the extra costs. Get the best spreader and train your driver. I will come to see when you are ready.”
He did come and the tractor was there with the driver, including the contractor for manual application from the past.
The contractor was squatting, watching the tractor tear along the row, leaving a cloud of fertiliser. In no time, the area was covered. He stood up and left.
Roy looked at his receding figure.
“He knows that we will not need his workers. Now prepare the tractor paths on the slopes as well.”
He came up with the next step.
“The plants need water. Our rainfall is high, but we have some dry periods. Retain the water by digging trenches on the slopes. Block the drains with planks to save the water. In the wet months, you can remove the planks.”
He went on relentlessly.
“I don’t know about oil palm, but you can get our agronomist to help you identify the ones that produce no fruit and remove them. Each palm is a bank account. If it does not give you cash, take it out.”
But the biggest challenge was harvesting as we were short of men with the skill to hold up the pole, get the sickle in place on a bunch stalk and cut at an angle so that the blade could slice through it.
“I know that each harvester works with his wife and he helps her collect the loose fruit. He stacks the fronds and then leads the buffalo pulling the bunches to the roadside.
“Now, tell him to focus only on his skill at harvesting and cutting more bunches. Get the wives together to do the rest of the work. And I have to tell you that the buffaloes must go. I know you all are attached to them, but they get tired by midday. Now we have mini-tractors. Buy them. We will call them iron buffaloes. Train drivers to operate them.
“But this change will not work unless you make the workers understand. You will need to brief the managers. They, in turn, will brief the next level down. The headmen will brief the workers. But you must be present to ensure they convey the message the way you want. Adjust the rates as you go on so that the harvesters will earn more money with the new method.”
Naturally, I found the toughest part was the briefing. The supervisors were easier to persuade, and they, in turn, could convince the headmen. The headmen found it hardest to explain to the workers, who sat stony-faced. For the final word, the headmen had to tell the room: “At the end of the month, you will take home more money.”
We called in the union leaders, even at the regional level, and briefed them.
In the end, they accepted the plan because they wanted to see more pay for the members even though the numbers might be reduced.
It was a stressful period. The list grew longer as Roy brought up more ideas.
“With fewer workers, you can tear down those empty houses. Plant the site with palms. Add the income to your projection. You will have savings on overheads such as medical bills, lighting and water supply. Include those savings too.”
In the mill, modifications were ongoing, with steel blades cutting through fruit bunches so the steam could fully cook the bunches in the sterilisers.
This would allow more oil to be extracted in the next stage, which was the press.
In the kernel section, a machine was installed to tease out bits of kernel from the broken shell and fibre, adding to the kernel available for sale.
All the managers had to show results. Even so, it was hard to complain.
Roy was there whenever he was needed. He was a calm presence in his office, ready to listen and most likely work out an answer that you had not thought of before.
He was the last to leave each day and he worked on weekends.
I had my weekends and enjoyed Saturday afternoons with my son Anwar.
At our house on the slope above the road to Kluang, we had tea on the lawn shaded from the sun.
He was still too young to go to school, unlike Fazal and Maria, but he had children’s books that I would read to him, or he would run outside the house, climbing the slopes at the back under the young durian trees, using ropes and pretending he was a mountaineer.
I didn’t know where he got the energy from. I could spend all my days like this.
On Monday morning, I was back into the fray, perhaps with added tasks that had joined the list in Roy Brown’s notebook.
It was clear that I could not work as hard as he did or think as deeply as he could.
I understood why Thomas sent him. I thought that Roy was also a man in a hurry.
He wanted to ensure the future of the company, raise its performance, and then head back to England.
I did not then know that I would leave for England before him.
The writer has extensive experience in the management of oil palm plantations.
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