As
a student of social history, I have for long been advocating the need for
documentation and archiving, especially in the context of Indian businesses
which have witnessed a complete transformation in their environment.
With
nearly half a century of research experience, I am acutely aware of the paucity
of archival materials that can be used as evidence for writing biographies and
corporate histories. Hence, I take every opportunity to persuade business
organisations, as well as NGOs, to preserve documents that would authenticate
future historical writing.
Often,
organisations and people unthinkingly discard correspondence, files and even
photographs. This has become more rampant now as physical space (real estate)
has become more expensive or because no one has the time to sift through and
organise old stuff. History is not a priority; future planning is. Also, with
changes in technology for communications having undergone a metamorphosis, much
of the exchange of information and views is no longer by way of letters; it is being
done on the telephone or on emails – media that can be easily obliterated. This
aspect of technology had affected ‘collective memory’ negatively. And people
have, so far, not started using digital technology as extensively as they
should (or could), to preserve the past.
Hence,
when I got an opportunity, in 2007, to initiate the process of creating oral
history records for a family business, I took up the project eagerly – as much
out of my belief in the need for building up such resources as for the
demonstrative effect it might have on other corporates.
Forbes
Marshall was a 61-year-old business, in 2007, and offered ‘ideal material’ for
creation of oral history records (OHRs). The company began with trading,
ventured into import-substitution manufacturing and now operates at the
frontiers of technology. Fortunately, the promoters as well as many members of
the old team were still available for being interviewed and their memories were
not covered by the mists of time.
What Is an OHR
For
those who may not be familiar, oral history collects
memories and personal commentaries of historical significance through recorded
interviews. An oral history interview generally comprises a well-prepared
interviewer questioning the selected person and recording the exchange in audio
or video format. Recordings of the interview are transcribed, summarised, or
indexed and then placed in a library or archives. These interviews may be used
for research or excerpted in a publication, radio or video documentary, museum
exhibition, dramatisation or other form of public presentation. An OHR does not
include random taping, nor does it refer to recorded speeches, personal diaries
on tape, or other sound recordings that lack the dialogue between interviewer
and interviewee.
The
project commenced in October 2008. Over the next two years, I did 53
interviews; running into 2,687 minutes (nearly 45 hours) of audio recordings,
that take up some 1,241MB of digital storage space. These were submitted on
seven CDROMs along with printed copies of the transcripts as well as the soft
copies (as Word files which were converted into pdf documents) for ease of
access. These run into nearly 700 pages; organised chronologically by the date
of the interview.
At
the stage that I undertook this project, the technology for recording,
transcribing, and even organising the ‘data’ with keywords and indexing it into
searchable databases, was not what it is today. So the transcriptions were done
manually! Today, software is available to do it all.
Anticipating
the difficulty that future users might face in going through such voluminous
data, at the beginning of each transcript, I provided keywords and concepts
that could be searched on the Word/pdf files. I also gave the cross-reference
details of the duration of audio recording and the transcript on each page of
the printed document. This was to facilitate the user to go to the exact minute,
or second, of the recorded interview for, say, an audio clip for a voice-over
in a film, rather than having to listen to the entire recording. Users working
towards creating publishable documents and wanting to pick up an entire quote
from the ORH would not need to word-process from the recording; these could be
just copy-pasted.
Objective of the Project
My
concept note for the project mentioned:
“The exercise could result in stories, anecdotes, case-studies and other
kinds of documentation that can be then shared within the organisation as well
as with the outside audiences, as the case may require or permit.”
How I Went about It
I
began with recording the memories of some of the oldest ‘associates’ of FM –
promoters, directors, employees, consultants, bankers, technologists, etc, to record
their memories of the growth/development of the company from its earliest
times. This involved the following activities:
- Identifying the persons
to be interviewed and preparing their bio-sketch from HR records; this
enabled me to contextualise the OHR and obtain focused information.
- Doing the audio-recorded
interviews – sometimes multiple -- depending on the time available from
the person and the ‘information-richness’ of the interviewee.
- Transcribing the recordings,
extracting the knowledge content of the interview, and preparing a
detailed index for each interview.
- Extracting embedded
knowledge.
- Creating a separate database /catalogue of these tapes/CDs with detailed content index – which could be managed by the company’s library.
My
responsibility ended with the penultimate point above. Since then, FM has
created another series of OHRs which have also been used for writing the
history of the company. The history has now been published as a book titled: A Different Business: The Forbes Marshall
Story.
That
the project achieved its objective – of “result(ing) in stories, anecdotes,
case-studies and other kinds of documentation that can be then shared within
the organisation as well as with the outside audiences” – is amply visible in
the many, many quotes from the OHRs in the book.
