Sunday, April 30, 2017

OPPORTUNITY LOST!



Time​ : Late nineties

My Job Function : Head of Semiconductors and Photovoltaics 

 It is a true incident but as this happened about two decades back; this is the best I can recollect.

Apart from the routine activities of production, engineering, purchase, commercial and marketing, we had to be on our toes to find out ways and means to improve efficiency and yield of our ​​products.

​ ​Therefore, any emerging technology having a potential to bring about even small improvement used to attract our immediate attention.

One entrepreneur,​let me call him ​X​, who was into a business of, ​if I remember correctly, supplying polythene / packing materials to some industries,​ approached me with a proposal to introduce me to a technology which could enhance the power rating of ​our ​solar photovoltaic modules by at least 20%.

Naturally, I jumped at it.

But when I prodded him  to provide more details, he avoided me and was missing for a while. Then he appeared again and wanted to extract a promise from me that I should share it with at the most only 2 or 3 colleagues. He demanded to know the amount of compensation for sharing this technology.

​​By then, somehow I had become apprehensive about the whole proposal. So I put my foot down and told him that unless we test his technology ​there cannot be any further discussions.

He reappeared with a specific condition that before he parts with his 'secret' for us to do any testing in our company, we  should sign an MOU ​( Memorandum of Understanding) ​with him with an NDA (Non disclosure agreement)not to divulge the technology to a third party.

Well, fair enough. But then there was a problem. For signing such ​an agreement, even though I was a head,​ I ​was not empowered.  I needed to raise it to Director's level.

Well, to cut a long story short, we did sign an agreement.

Next,​ X​  wanted to know ​the way we measure the power rating of a module. We took him to our test equipment known as Sun Simulator. This is standard test equipment, in which a solar module is exposed to a special lamp whose light 'simulates' sun and the power output is displayed.   
          
He seemed satisfied and told me that he would visit again on ​a particular 'auspicious' day. Well, having come up to this stage,​ in spite of all my misgivings,​I wanted to conclude the matter quickly.

He came.

When he was sure that I was alone​ in my chamber, he took out
an object in a cover and placed it on the table.

"What is it?", I asked.

"This is it", saying this, he opened the cover to reveal a pyramid shaped object.

​ ​"Well?" says a perplexed me.

"This is a pyramid having magical powers.​ If you put this in your Sun Simulator​, you will be able to see module power enhanced by at least 20%." he said with a glowing face.

My face fell. My legs were itching to do something but.....alas.

"Please do try it out and ​then ​call me ​ so that we could work out other details", saying this he left.

​This was becoming too much. I was looking at the object and wondering whether flinging it out of the window will hit someone, when one my colleagues walked in. After listening to the whole story, he insisted to take it to the sun simulator and t​ry it out---- with a foregone conclusion.

​X ​ ​phoned me up ​the next day and whispered confidentially," How much was the increase ​in power, Sir?".

“%$#@&*" I said.

This did not deter him,"  

Sir, it is all a matter of faith. You must have belief in it."    

“I am sad to say that, unfortunately,​ our sun simulator does not possess it “, I blurted out.​

And that was it.