Once upon a time there was a king and one day into his court walked in a man who was almost blind and looked quite frail. He wanted an audience with the king and as the king was in a good mood he relented. He asked the king
“Lord will you give me a job in your court?”
The king was flabbergasted. He asked him,
“What is that you have that makes you worthy of my court?”
‘My lord I can touch anything and anybody and judge its worth”
“Ha! I don’t need anybody’s help to make such judgements. I am the king and I know what to do. But I am in a good mood today and I am allowing you to stay in the barracks. You can have rice and lentils every day.”
After that, the king just forgot about the whole incident. Our blind friend was not asked for any advice. Days went by. One day a merchant came to the king’s court. He had a magnificent horse to sell. The horse looked royal and trotted with majesty. The king couldn’t take his eyes off and was willing to pay anything to buy it. Then the minister reminded the king.
“Let us ask the blind man what he thinks.”
The blind man was summoned. He touched the horse. Then he commented.
“Lord, this horse is majestic. But he has a major flaw. Take him for a long ride. He won’t last”
The horse was taken for a long ride and the blind man was proved right. The King was happy. He ordered that the blind man be treated to a feast.
Time went by. Then one day a jeweller came to the king’s court. He had some exquisite jewellery. The king was almost ready to pay the ridiculous price the trader demanded. However, the minister again suggested that the blind man be called.
He came, touched and commented.
“Look at this angle, you can notice a blemish”.
Again the King saved lots of money. He ordered that the blind man be treated to a great meal again.
Then the king had a wild thought. He turned to the blind man and asked.
“Touch me and tell me what my worth is”
“I don’t need to touch you Lord. You are son of a cook”
“What nonsense!!!” The king roared. “Don’t you know I am the king?”
“ Yes my lord, I know you are the king”
The king called him into his anteroom and confided.
“Yes, I am really the son the cook at the queen mother’s father’s court. I was adopted by the king when the king lost his son. But then how did you know? It was a well kept secret”
“Don’t feel offended my lord. Your actions revealed your worth. When I first came and offered my services, you could not even appreciate what I could do for you. Then it was just your whim that you agreed to call me for opinion when the horse trader and the jeweller visited you; that too on the advice of the minister. I saved you lot of money. But what you offered me in return was more food!”
“You never could recognise what difference my skills could make to your life. You are so full of yourself. Your response showed lack of depth in your thinking and vision; you had to be the son of the cook. Even though you have reached the position of a king, you have not managed to shake out your insecurities and rise up in your stature to match your position. In your heart you are still the son of a cook.” (आप तो बावर्ची के बेटे हो l आपकी औकात इतनी ही है )
This is a story narrated by one of my friends. Learning from the story?
We may often come across actions that are totally irrational, irresponsible or just plain stupid. Action by people who have not matured in their thinking, their vision, their ability to appreciate the way the world around them is changing, the way the business and governance is being transformed and the way the customer expectations are metamorphosing.
What are our options?
i) Tolerate them; They may not mean any harm; it is just that they are not capable of anything better. Don’t fret! Learn to deal with these bozos. There are lots of them around. This learning may be critical for a healthy heart and a sane mind.
ii) Contain them: When we have to assign people to critical positions, spend some effort to assess whether they are capable to assume the responsibility. Great cooks don’t make great kings.
iii) Work around them: Sometime they may become big stumbling blocks. Rational discussions won’t cut ice with them. You have to have strategies to work around them.
Do read “Hitchhiker’s guide to corporate galaxy Part 1 and Part 2 for survival kit.
“Just like swine disdains pearls and asses prefer thistles, so is eloquence wasted upon the ignorant and culture unavailing to the uncouth” Unknown
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
India Gets a CIO – Part II
Soon after the advent of computer, many progressive companies started to use it to improve their data tracking and transaction processing. To begin with, only a few innovative companies took the lead. However, in the last couple of decades we have witnessed a wider proliferation and it is still expanding.
Most of the companies followed a predictable path. At first PCs were installed at the desks of the “Big Man” who often did not know how to use it. One of his trusted assistants made use of the computer in some limited fashion; often as a substitute for typewriters. Then some computer savvy youngsters who joined the company convinced their bosses to introduce computers in their functional areas. Often it was some readymade accounting software or some bespoke applications developed by a small software development company run by a friend. Then a Manager (earlier called the EDP manger now called VP (systems)) joined the firm bringing more sophistication in the hardware and software used.
Even at this stage the computerisation was patchy and driven independently by functional / regional satraps with divergent hardware, operating systems and databases. Very often the transfer/ resignation of the individual who was the driving force of this localised computerisation lead to a quick degeneration. Then the VP(systems) with the support of CFO attempted some integration. This integration was limited to some budgetary control, supervision and common procurement strategy.
Eventually the organisation got a CIO who helped the senior manger to see IT as a strategic tool and help the organisation to develop an IT foundation and a framework that would help to bring about a business transformation.
Today, we see many companies at various stages of this transition. But many of the progressive companies have already reached the highest level of sophistication that is described above.
The IT enabled Governance (ITeG) is still in its early stage. It was not so far away when we could observe the PCs in a typical government department placed at the boss’s cabin with secretary using this as a word processor. Those days are gone. But we still have a long way ahead. Even when a catalytic role is played by some central authorities, it is often limited to budgetary control by purse holders with limited appreciation of the larger role of technology enablement. This is akin to what happens in the corporate sector when the controller (Finance and Administration) is in the driver’s seat as far as computerisation is concerned
The top echelons of both the legislature and administration appear to have caught on to the significant role IT can play and the need to have technology visioning rather than technology administration. The establishment of Technology Advisory Group for Unique Projects (TAGUP) is a welcome move in this direction and a strong message.
I believe that the limited set of critical projects brought under the purview of TAGUP is quite significant from the governance perspective. GST implementation and Tax Information Network (TIN) on revenue side and Expenditure Information Network (EIN) on the expenditure side complemented with UID (which can play a critical role in streamlining the outreach to needy) can be a game changer transformation in governance.
This can help to evolve a nationwide strategy for ITeG and develop a framework for managing ITeG Projects with respect to people, process and technology.
History of technology is replete with advances that first met wide opposition, later found acceptance and finally were widely regarded as having being inevitable all along!!- unknown
Most of the companies followed a predictable path. At first PCs were installed at the desks of the “Big Man” who often did not know how to use it. One of his trusted assistants made use of the computer in some limited fashion; often as a substitute for typewriters. Then some computer savvy youngsters who joined the company convinced their bosses to introduce computers in their functional areas. Often it was some readymade accounting software or some bespoke applications developed by a small software development company run by a friend. Then a Manager (earlier called the EDP manger now called VP (systems)) joined the firm bringing more sophistication in the hardware and software used.
Even at this stage the computerisation was patchy and driven independently by functional / regional satraps with divergent hardware, operating systems and databases. Very often the transfer/ resignation of the individual who was the driving force of this localised computerisation lead to a quick degeneration. Then the VP(systems) with the support of CFO attempted some integration. This integration was limited to some budgetary control, supervision and common procurement strategy.
Eventually the organisation got a CIO who helped the senior manger to see IT as a strategic tool and help the organisation to develop an IT foundation and a framework that would help to bring about a business transformation.
Today, we see many companies at various stages of this transition. But many of the progressive companies have already reached the highest level of sophistication that is described above.
The IT enabled Governance (ITeG) is still in its early stage. It was not so far away when we could observe the PCs in a typical government department placed at the boss’s cabin with secretary using this as a word processor. Those days are gone. But we still have a long way ahead. Even when a catalytic role is played by some central authorities, it is often limited to budgetary control by purse holders with limited appreciation of the larger role of technology enablement. This is akin to what happens in the corporate sector when the controller (Finance and Administration) is in the driver’s seat as far as computerisation is concerned
The top echelons of both the legislature and administration appear to have caught on to the significant role IT can play and the need to have technology visioning rather than technology administration. The establishment of Technology Advisory Group for Unique Projects (TAGUP) is a welcome move in this direction and a strong message.
I believe that the limited set of critical projects brought under the purview of TAGUP is quite significant from the governance perspective. GST implementation and Tax Information Network (TIN) on revenue side and Expenditure Information Network (EIN) on the expenditure side complemented with UID (which can play a critical role in streamlining the outreach to needy) can be a game changer transformation in governance.
This can help to evolve a nationwide strategy for ITeG and develop a framework for managing ITeG Projects with respect to people, process and technology.
History of technology is replete with advances that first met wide opposition, later found acceptance and finally were widely regarded as having being inevitable all along!!- unknown
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Service with a smile
Sometime ago I was travelling to Delhi from Mumbai. As I had a meeting early on a Monday Morning, I decided to take the evening flight on Sunday even though it conflicted with my Sunday siesta and dinner with family. I was to take a 5.30 pm Kingfisher. Being a disciplined person, I was at the counter one hour before and I was informed that the flight was going to be delayed.
Unlike the normal practice, the airline had not sent any SMS intimation of the delay and I was really upset. I wanted to shout but kept quiet as I had learned to accept such callous behaviour from most of the service providers here.
The girl at the counter (I think her name was Chaitali) asked me to wait for a minute and went off somewhere. Within a minute she came running and told me that she has tied up with Air India and had got me a seat on the flight that was scheduled to leave immediately. She took my bag and ran to the Air India counter, finished the formalities, and helped me board the flight. I could reach Delhi in time to spend some time with my mother before she slept.
Compare this with the experience I had in January on one of my return flight from Delhi on Jet airways. That was the day when there was a terrible fog. We boarded the flight which was already one and a half hour late and had to wait inside the plane for another about three hours. Then they decided to cancel the flight and we were asked to deplane. We asked them what arrangements were made and no crew member could give us any guidance.
We reached the terminal. There was such chaos. No boards, no announcements and a long queue to reach the few operating counters. I waited for an hour and could get no assistance. One of my friends who was travelling on the same flight arranged for a car and a hotel booking with the help of his local office. The next day I got no SMS/ telephone update on what to do and I could not get anybody on the phone either. I decided to land up at the airport in the afternoon and finally managed to get a seat in a flight that took off in the evening at seven. I reached home 24 hours late of which 14 hours were spent in the plane/ airport. (Apparently, the Kingfisher flight that was supposed to take off with the Jet airways flight was also cancelled; but managed to take off late at night on the same day.
In both these cases the disruption of service was outside the control of the airline. But the response of both airlines (at least the officers who handled the situation) was different. Although such disruptions are very rare, in airlines business, these are situation that can be anticipated and planned for.
Jet airways could have made a difference by just being helpful. They could have made arrangement to provide the instruction by the crew in the plane. The announcement could have been as simple as (i) Those who have a place to stay in Delhi may leave their contact number at the counter and go home and if any of them needed help to get a cab they could contact the ground staff at a special counter and (ii) those who had no place to stay in Delhi could contact ground staff to get help for overnight accommodation. They should have just arranged two special counters to handle these at the terminal and there would have been no crowd shouting. The next day, depending on the weather, they could have arranged to call those who left the contact number and update them on when they could travel.
In the first case Kingfisher had enabled a junior officer to take an exceptional decision and had motivated her to take pride in taking such decisions. (I hope it was not just a one-off decision by the ground hostess who felt sympathy for my distress or who was impressed by my handsome face:- )) I believe such empowerment and encouragement (may be incentivising) would go a long way in improving the service delivery.
Very often many service providers do fail miserably in such nuances of customer service. At best their focus is limited to delivering the functionalities that they have charged for and service quality is often seen as a favour being extended. The more the monopoly power of the service provider, the worse is the service quality.
One way all of us can contribute is to demand for service quality and be bold to protest when it is screwed-up.
Customers don’t expect you to be perfect. They do expect you to fix things when they go wrong.DONALD PORTER. Courtesy http://www.customerservicepoint.com
Note: I have used two anecdotal experiences that I had to make a point. This does not mean that the experiences I had with Jet and Kingfisher necessarily represent their customer service practices.
Unlike the normal practice, the airline had not sent any SMS intimation of the delay and I was really upset. I wanted to shout but kept quiet as I had learned to accept such callous behaviour from most of the service providers here.
The girl at the counter (I think her name was Chaitali) asked me to wait for a minute and went off somewhere. Within a minute she came running and told me that she has tied up with Air India and had got me a seat on the flight that was scheduled to leave immediately. She took my bag and ran to the Air India counter, finished the formalities, and helped me board the flight. I could reach Delhi in time to spend some time with my mother before she slept.
Compare this with the experience I had in January on one of my return flight from Delhi on Jet airways. That was the day when there was a terrible fog. We boarded the flight which was already one and a half hour late and had to wait inside the plane for another about three hours. Then they decided to cancel the flight and we were asked to deplane. We asked them what arrangements were made and no crew member could give us any guidance.
We reached the terminal. There was such chaos. No boards, no announcements and a long queue to reach the few operating counters. I waited for an hour and could get no assistance. One of my friends who was travelling on the same flight arranged for a car and a hotel booking with the help of his local office. The next day I got no SMS/ telephone update on what to do and I could not get anybody on the phone either. I decided to land up at the airport in the afternoon and finally managed to get a seat in a flight that took off in the evening at seven. I reached home 24 hours late of which 14 hours were spent in the plane/ airport. (Apparently, the Kingfisher flight that was supposed to take off with the Jet airways flight was also cancelled; but managed to take off late at night on the same day.
In both these cases the disruption of service was outside the control of the airline. But the response of both airlines (at least the officers who handled the situation) was different. Although such disruptions are very rare, in airlines business, these are situation that can be anticipated and planned for.
Jet airways could have made a difference by just being helpful. They could have made arrangement to provide the instruction by the crew in the plane. The announcement could have been as simple as (i) Those who have a place to stay in Delhi may leave their contact number at the counter and go home and if any of them needed help to get a cab they could contact the ground staff at a special counter and (ii) those who had no place to stay in Delhi could contact ground staff to get help for overnight accommodation. They should have just arranged two special counters to handle these at the terminal and there would have been no crowd shouting. The next day, depending on the weather, they could have arranged to call those who left the contact number and update them on when they could travel.
In the first case Kingfisher had enabled a junior officer to take an exceptional decision and had motivated her to take pride in taking such decisions. (I hope it was not just a one-off decision by the ground hostess who felt sympathy for my distress or who was impressed by my handsome face:- )) I believe such empowerment and encouragement (may be incentivising) would go a long way in improving the service delivery.
Very often many service providers do fail miserably in such nuances of customer service. At best their focus is limited to delivering the functionalities that they have charged for and service quality is often seen as a favour being extended. The more the monopoly power of the service provider, the worse is the service quality.
One way all of us can contribute is to demand for service quality and be bold to protest when it is screwed-up.
Customers don’t expect you to be perfect. They do expect you to fix things when they go wrong.DONALD PORTER. Courtesy http://www.customerservicepoint.com
Note: I have used two anecdotal experiences that I had to make a point. This does not mean that the experiences I had with Jet and Kingfisher necessarily represent their customer service practices.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
“Barbarians at the gate”
‘Barbarians at the gate’ is a book by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar. It tells the story of the largest Leveraged Buyout in the late eighties. I liked the book and the title. It triggered some thoughts about barbarians, at or inside the gate of institutions, who may eventually zap the life and vigour of these organizations and turn them to zombies. The whole train of thought got triggered when I was reading "Too big to fail" a book by Andrew Ross Sorkin which is the ball-by-ball account of the recent mayhem in the Wall Street that spilled to all the Main Streets in the world. This book has been described as the heir to "Barbarians at the Gate" by Financial Times.
Organisations succeed and grow when they are built and/or headed by visionaries who can dream up or recognize processes, products, technologies or services that make sense and also have the ability to implement and scale these dreams. But if the organisations don’t have a process to ensure that there is a culture and succession plan that will ensure that they continue to bring to the helm such visionary leaders, gamesters and bureaucrats will rise up to fill the vacuum. Then the organisational decay sets in.
It is easy to recognise this decay when it has already manifested in the form of dissatisfied customers, loss in market share, dropping profitability and so on. However the seed of such decay could have kicked-in even when apparently everything is hunky-dory. And it is very difficult to recognize it then. Some of the early symptoms that go unnoticed till it is very late are discussed here.
Form gets priority over substance
One of the early weaknesses that can be observed with these brain dead captains is the focus on ‘process for process sake’ instead of the processes being used as a tool to manage and grow the business. The bean counters, corporate secretaries and legal eagles who have very little appreciation of the nuances of business take over.
The atmosphere so created, stifles innovation and initiative, business leaders leave and clerks and paper pushers rule the roost.
Business strategy gets driven by corporate secretaries.
Structuring and restructuring of companyto consolidate power and meet private agenda of the management becomes the priority. Sometimes this gets driven by the unholy alliance of some shareholders and the management who then works towards maximizing their self interest. The interests of the organisation, its people, customers and its shareholders at large get compromised. It can become a vicious cycle with both the management and the interested shareholders believing that what they do is for the good of the company.
The people become pawns.
People instead of being utilised as resources that drive the business and who are to be nurtured, become pawns to be shuffled around on private whims and fancies of management.
People are controlled with their weaknesses, follies, mistakes and insecurities and not enabled and encouraged. Then they fail to earn loyalty from the ranks.
“I, me, myself”
The top managers spend lots of time in office to push their private agendas and priorities ranging from managing their finances for activities of their clubs, children’s projects, their admission etc. The priorities of the organisation gets back seat.
This acts as a downer for the working class. Listen to the gossips at the water cooler and we can judge the respect the top managers command.
Moral decay
In this stage of degeneration, decisions are driven by greed;private bonus and benefits get to have priority even at the cost of long term survival. It is this moral decay that drove Wall Street to develop products and deals that turned toxic for the whole financial markets around the world. Enron, WorldCom, Satyam, Arthur Anderson, Lehman, AIG episodes are monuments of this moral decay in the recent history. Many more are around; it is just that they have not been caught.
Some organisations don’t recognise these early warnings and act upon them, and that is one of the reasons why the corporate longevity is not so high.
"I searched the whole world for a bad mind, never found one
Looked into myself, found the worst of all" - Unknown
Organisations succeed and grow when they are built and/or headed by visionaries who can dream up or recognize processes, products, technologies or services that make sense and also have the ability to implement and scale these dreams. But if the organisations don’t have a process to ensure that there is a culture and succession plan that will ensure that they continue to bring to the helm such visionary leaders, gamesters and bureaucrats will rise up to fill the vacuum. Then the organisational decay sets in.
It is easy to recognise this decay when it has already manifested in the form of dissatisfied customers, loss in market share, dropping profitability and so on. However the seed of such decay could have kicked-in even when apparently everything is hunky-dory. And it is very difficult to recognize it then. Some of the early symptoms that go unnoticed till it is very late are discussed here.
Form gets priority over substance
One of the early weaknesses that can be observed with these brain dead captains is the focus on ‘process for process sake’ instead of the processes being used as a tool to manage and grow the business. The bean counters, corporate secretaries and legal eagles who have very little appreciation of the nuances of business take over.
The atmosphere so created, stifles innovation and initiative, business leaders leave and clerks and paper pushers rule the roost.
Business strategy gets driven by corporate secretaries.
Structuring and restructuring of companyto consolidate power and meet private agenda of the management becomes the priority. Sometimes this gets driven by the unholy alliance of some shareholders and the management who then works towards maximizing their self interest. The interests of the organisation, its people, customers and its shareholders at large get compromised. It can become a vicious cycle with both the management and the interested shareholders believing that what they do is for the good of the company.
The people become pawns.
People instead of being utilised as resources that drive the business and who are to be nurtured, become pawns to be shuffled around on private whims and fancies of management.
People are controlled with their weaknesses, follies, mistakes and insecurities and not enabled and encouraged. Then they fail to earn loyalty from the ranks.
“I, me, myself”
The top managers spend lots of time in office to push their private agendas and priorities ranging from managing their finances for activities of their clubs, children’s projects, their admission etc. The priorities of the organisation gets back seat.
This acts as a downer for the working class. Listen to the gossips at the water cooler and we can judge the respect the top managers command.
Moral decay
In this stage of degeneration, decisions are driven by greed;private bonus and benefits get to have priority even at the cost of long term survival. It is this moral decay that drove Wall Street to develop products and deals that turned toxic for the whole financial markets around the world. Enron, WorldCom, Satyam, Arthur Anderson, Lehman, AIG episodes are monuments of this moral decay in the recent history. Many more are around; it is just that they have not been caught.
Some organisations don’t recognise these early warnings and act upon them, and that is one of the reasons why the corporate longevity is not so high.
"I searched the whole world for a bad mind, never found one
Looked into myself, found the worst of all" - Unknown
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