Book Review - About Mr Jadeja of Jyoti CNC Automation Ltd, Gujarat

The story of  Mr Parakram Jadeja, founder of  Jyoti CNC Automation Ltd, Gujarat  ( www.jyoti.co.in ) is quite inspiring.   From Rs 7.0 crore turnover in 2003, they achieved a turnover of Rs 1000 crore in March 2011 through organic and inorganic growth.

Starts a Turning Workshop (Lathe machine jobwork) in 1985 after his 12^th standard.   In 2003, he happened to attend a programme on  ‘Vision Exercise’ ,  and realised the significance of having a ‘vision and mission’ for the company.   

After that programme, he and his team  spent some time every day to introspect and brainstorm on the ‘vision and mission’; and such sessions went on for about 8 or 9 months.    And, they finally zeroed in on their vision and mission.  At that time, they also decided to become  Rs 1000 crore company.   And, they achieved it in 2011.

TAKE ME HOME by Rashmi Bansal has a chapter on Mr Parakram Jadega.   Bought the e-book  on Flipkart for just Rs 19.   The book contains many success stories of people like Mr Jadeja.  

Just started reading the book.   Could not delay posting this information after reading about Mr Jadeja.  Bye, for now.

Jaikishan

15th Feb 2015

Book Review --- God's Own Office by James Joseph

James Joseph’s book   “God’s  Own  Office”  is his true story.   He had relocated himself to his hometown in Kerala and worked remotely from there (even when in Microsoft); the book is about that journey.   He is now the founder of  www.jackfruit365.com  .   He had worked for over twenty years in  Europe, North America and India for reputed firms like 3M, Ford and Microsoft.   His last position was   ‘Director – Executive Engagement’  in  Microsoft.   He is the recipient many excellence awards including the ‘Circle of Excellence Award’ (the highest award at Microsoft) which he bagged while working remotely from his home in Kerala.   He has dedicated one chapter wherein he has shared more than 20 practical tips to make ‘remote-working’  successful and productive too.   It’s a small book containing less than 200 pages.  Penguin Publication.  Costs Rs 399.00.  Recommended read. 

Jaikishan

2nd Jan 2015

Why Good Projects Fail? (Nadim Matta and Ronald in HBR)

Excerpts & Gist from the article by Nadim and Ronald publishied in the Harward Business Review on Managing Projects.  The book is available at all leading book stores in Hyderabad.  Jotted these notes for my consumption as well as to prod the interested reader(s) to buy the book.


According to the authors, there are three types of risks in a project, namely:

a.  Execution Risks
b.  White Space Risks, and
c.  Integration Risks.

Most Project Managers take into consideration the Execution Risks but neglect the other two. 

Execution Risks are those risks that can be identified in advance.

White Space Risks are those that cannot be identified in advance; they surface during project execution.

Integration Risks. When more teams work on a project, the end product/result of such Project requires integration of the end-results of each team.  The risks related to integration of such works are termed as 'Integration Risks'.

A solution to address all these risks is to break-up the project into mini-projects & work on them.  These are referred as 'Rapid Results Initiatives' (RRIs).

RRIs can be upto 100 days duration with key results defined.   The lessons-of-experience from each of those RRIs are considered in the subsequent RRIs. Thus, the risks are substantially mitigated and addressed properly.

For example, if a project is to establish a pipeline network is 50 locations in a city, then in the RRI two or three locations would be taken up by different teams & the work is planned and executed.  During the execution, various problems would surface which would be the lessons-of-experience.

The subsequent RRIs would obviously be well managed than the earlier ones.  And, finally, the entire project gets executed as well as integrated duly managing/mitigating the various risks in its course.

Jaikishan
3rd Oct 2014

 

Do We Have a “Joe” In Us? (Marshall Goldsmith)

Marshall Goldsmith is a Change Management consultant.   He has worked with more than 100 CEOs, CFOs, COOs, Directors, … and their management teams so far in preparing them to the future challenges of their respective organization.    He also authored the best-seller  “What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There” which my HR Dept  had recommended few weeks ago to buy.   The book is available at all leading book stores.

Sharing an excerpt from Marshall’s writing.

Marshall once had to coach a CFO who burned through his people and their feelings like wildfire.  We will call him  “JOE”.   Joe had led the organization to the very peak of financial success, and still he was about to be fired.  The firm’s leaders, who had promoted him to board status because of his great success, finally had a chance to bear witness to his horrible behaviour.  They, like the rest of the organization, were suddenly in a position to feel firsthand the wrath of  ‘Joe’.  

The firm engaged Marshall to coach Joe.  Marshall told Joe “You are already making millions a year.  I can’t help you make more money.  But, let’s talk about your ego.  How do you treat people at home?”

Joe told Marshall that he was  sweet and loving at home. 

Marshall called his wife (from Joe’s office) with the speaker  ON.   Joe’s wife laughed when Marshall told her how Joe thought he was at home.  Joe’s children’s response was similar.

Joe had a wake up call with that little phone interaction.   Not only had his board hired a coach to help him to change; his family also wanted him to change.

Joe decided then and there to change.  The reason he decided to change was not for money; it had nothing to do with the company.  It had to do with his sons.  He wanted to change because in twenty years, if his sons received similar feedback, he would be ashamed. 

Within a year, Joe was treating people much better.  In a couple of years,  Joe successfully changed his behaviour.  

The moral of the story?  ANYBODY  CAN  CHANGE, BUT  THEY  HAVE  TO  WANT  TO  CHANGE. 

One can find references to many such instances in Marshall’s book.   We recommend interested readers to buy a copy.  It costs around Rs 300.00 and is available at all leading bookstores.

Joe was the victim of the negative aspect of success  viz  complacency, ego, arrogance, ….    But, Joe was fortunate that his firm engaged  Marshall Goldsmith to bring-in the desired change in Joe.   Not all are fortunate like Joe.

So, the best alternative for us is to sincerely introspect each year, “Do We Have a Joe In Us?”.  

Jaikishan
28th April 2013

Book Review: “EMPLOYEES FIRST, CUSTOMERS SECOND” by Vineet Nayar, CEO, HCL Technologies. Foreword by C.K. Prahalad. Cost INR 595.00.

When Vineet Nayar became CEO of HCLT (HCL Technologies) in 2005, HCLT was already among the top five IT Services companies based in India with 30,000 employees, operations in 18 countries, about 30 percent CAGR (during the past five years then), ….

But, HCLT was growing more slowly than its competitors then. And, therefore ran the obvious risk (in future in their domain). To address this challenge, Vineet Nayar and his team, embarked upon various initiatives which transformed HCLT by 2009 into what they wanted HCLT to be.

“Employees First, Customer Second” is a narration of Vineet Nayar on the various initiatives that they tried during that period in transforming HCLT into what it is today. It’s a firsthand account of a contemporary CEO and is an interesting read. Contains just about 190 pages printed with 1.5 line-spacing.

Though the book is not a treatise on the initiatives taken at HCLT, Vineet believes that those initiatives could be replicated in any organization, in any part of the world, irrespective of the market conditions, size of organization, type of industry, …. Of course, the flavor of the initiatives will have to be slightly changed to suit an organization.

HCLT has been able to perform better, increase their topline and bottomline substantially even during the recent recession, contain attrition to acceptable levels, had performing employees (who had left earlier) returning to HCLT, ….

Details on the concepts can also be viewed at www.employeesfirst.com The site has links to Twitter and YouTube on the concept, speeches, ….

Vineet intended to provoke a thought and discussion on the concepts through his book. The tweets and the YouTube contents testifies that Vineet has achieved it.

Jaikishan
www.twitter.com/rjaikishan
rjaikishan.blogspot.comwww.linkedin.com/in/rjaikishan

Book Review: “The HP Way” by David Packard

Like most first generation entrepreneurs, Hewlett-Packard (HP) was started in 1938 by two enterprising engineers of Stanford University --- Mr Bill Hewlett and Mr David Packard with less than US$ 600.00 investment. Today, HP has more than 650 offices and plants in over 120 countries.

The book, “The HP Way” was written by David Packard (in 1995) on how Mr Hewlett and he had built the HP organization since 1938. The company practices all aspects of management that management consultants and management books speak of.

All first generation entrepreneurs (especially) will be able to relate many instances which HP had gone through in their initial growing years, and relive those moments. Well non-entrepreneurs can also enjoy reading the book. “The HP Way” can also give insight to the actions that all organizations have to take constantly as they keep growing.

“The HP Way” is a small book of less than 200 pages. Since Mr Packard has narrated the story like diary notings, one can complete the book fast.

The book is available at all leading bookstores.

Jaikishan (16th Nov 2009)

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE

Excerpts from 'Effective CEO' published by ICFAI press. Price INR 95.00

Emotional Intelligence is an imperative behaviourial attribute expected in great leaders. Great leaders invariably score high on emotional intelligence.

Without Emotional Intelligence, a person can have the best training in the world, an incisive, analytical mind and an endless supply of smart ideas but he still won't make a great leader.

Emotional Intelligence has a genetic component but it can definitely be learnt.

The five components of Emotional Intelligence are: (1) Self-awareness, (2) Self-regulation, (3) Motivation, (4) Empathy and (5) Social Skills.

(1) Self-awareness means having a deep understanding of one's emotions, strengths, weaknesses, needs, and drives. People with strong self-awareness are neither unduly critical nor unrealistically optimistic. They are honest with themselves and with others. They have the ability to assess themselves realistically. They speak accurately and openly about their emotions and the impact they have on their work. They are comfortable talking about their limitations and strengths, and they are receptive to constructive criticism. Self-aware people also tend to be self-confident. But they do not overstretch themselves. They know when to ask for help.

(2) Self-regulation helps a leader to control his feelings. When exposed to bad moods, they find ways to control them and even to channel them in useful ways. Self-regulated people are able to create an environment of trust and fairness where politics and infighting are sharply reduced and productivity is high. It helps to attract Talented people and to retain them. Self-regulation also improves organisation climate. When the boss is calm, staff below him also control their tempers.

Leaders regularly review their personal SWOT and plan corrective actions.

People in control of their emotions tend to cope with change better. When a change program is announced, they do not panic; instead they postpone judgement, seek out information with an open mind, listen to executives and understand the new program.

(3) Motivation. Emotionally Intelligent leaders are great motivators. They seek out creative challenges, love to learn, take pride in a job well done, are restless with status quo, ….
Such people have very high levels of commitment to the organisation due to their love for the job.

(4) Empathy means thoughtfully considering the feelings of employees along with other factors in the process of making intelligent decisions.

The increasing use of teams by organisations has made empathy a valuable attribute. For a team to be effective, the leader must be able to understand the viewpoints of the members.
Retaining and developing talented people also needs empathy.

(5) Social skills. Leaders must score high on social skills. Prentice has put it, "The leader's unique achievement is a human and social one which stems from his understanding of his fellow workers and the relationship of their individual goals to the group goal that he must carry out."
The essence of social skills is friendliness with a purpose. It is about moving people in the desired direction.

Socially skilled people build a wide circle of acquaintances, and have the ability to find common ground with people of all kinds. They have a knack for building rapport. They understand that nothing important gets done alone, and they have a network in place when the time for action comes.

Goleman, Boyatziz, and McKee recommend a five-step process to cultivate emotionally intelligent behaviours.

(1) Who do I want to be?
That is about imaging the "ideal self" and coming to terms with the "real self".

(2) Who am I now?
How people see us compared to the desired 'ideal self'.

(3) How do I get from here to there?
Once we know who we want to be and have compared it with how people see us, we need to devise an action plan.

(4) How do I make change stick?
That is, to break the old neural habits, we need to practise change (new behaviour) until it becomes automatic.

(5) Who can help me?
To identify who can be counted upon to give a honest feedback (about us).

xxx --- Emotional Intelligence --- xxx

Book Review : “THE 59 MINUTE GUIDE TO SUCCESS”

by Arindam Chaudhuri of Indian Institute of Planning Management (IIPM).
(2009 Edition. www.vikaspublishing.com Price: INR 150.00)

This is a book for everybody. The author deals with the principles of success without any management theories. The written content in the book runs into just 59 small pages with 1.5 line-spacing, and each page could be completed in one minute. That’s the reasoning behind the book’s title.

The author used ‘DIAMOND’ as a metaphor for ‘HUMAN BEINGS’. A diamond is graded on four parameters viz. its Carat, its Cut, its Colour and its Clarity. He drew an analogy between these parameters and the qualities of a successful person, as follows:

Carat:
Passion (P1)
Positive Energy (P2)

Cut:
Performance (P3)
Perseverence (P4)

Colour:
Personality (P5)
People Skills (P6)

Clarity:
Perspective (P7)
Principles (P8)
Patriotism (P9)

When a person acquires these nine principles and applies it in his life, he can discover the DIAMOND in him. That’s the gist of the book.

A brief note on the nine principles are listed below. But, do read the book for the excellent examples used and to enjoy Arindam’s lucid writing style.

Passion. The most important quality a person must have. All other principles basically support this quality.

Positive Energy is referred to the enthusiasm and the motivation. This has two sources --- external and internal. External is when someone motivates us; that’s easy. It’s the internal energy (read ‘self motivation’) in a person that matters most.

Performance. No plan or dream or … is fruitful unless we ‘ACT’ on it. Here, the author dwells on the ‘DO IT NOW’ quality in successful people.

Perseverance refers to the quality of resilience. Never give up when we fail. The only people who never fail are those who never try, says the author.

Personality is more important than technical expertise in a leader, says the author. The ‘LAW’ of personality building is important to note. Eg: Dr Prannoy Roy, Rajdeep Sardesai, … of NDTV, Amitabh Bachchan, ….

‘LAW’ stands for ‘Looks, Action and Words’ . ‘Looks’ refers to the first impression that we give of ourselves to others. The way we present ourselves.

‘Action’ refers to our body language. The way we gesticulate while speaking. The eye contact, the mannerisms, the walk, the gesture, the poise, … all go into this aspect.

‘Word’ stands for what we speak. The clarity, tone, depth, choice of words, knowledge, content, maturity, … in our conversation or speech.

People skills. To be a team-member as well as a team-leader. ‘The job of the leader is not to create followers. It is to create more leaders. Fearlessly.”, quotes the author. That quality in a person wherein his subordinates, his peers as well as his superiors accept him and are comfortable with him. Indeed, a very important quality that a leader must have.

Perspective. To have a broad Vision. For example, “A PC on every desk in every home” propelled Microsoft in the right direction for many years. Similarly, the reasoning behind the Infosys team’s decision in 1990 (after nine years of toiling hard) to ‘not to sell their company’ (when they got an offer of US$ 1 million to sell Infosys) exemplifies their broad perspective.

Principles and ethics in successful persons. The Karma theory. That, the Journey is the Reward. To be known like J.R.D. TATA; not like the Rajus’ of SATYAM or the ENRON top men.

Patriotism. The final P that makes the human diamond perfect. The number one selling car or mobile or Cola or designer wear in China are manufactured in China; not from the West.

The foreword to ‘The 59 Minute Guide To Success’ is by Shah Rukh Khan, the Superstar (who belonged to a lower-middle class family).

The nine principles stated above are explained lucidly with appropriate examples in the book. It is a good buy.

Few quotes the author used in his book are:
‘Success occurs twice in life: Once in your mind and once in reality.”
‘Sustained Sincerity: The two most important words that make an achiever.”
‘Failure is not when you don’t reach your goals. It is when you don’t have any goal to reach’.
‘The only people who never fail are those who never try.’
‘The result of your journey is not the reward. The journey is the reward.’
‘There has never been a great leader without a great personality’.
‘The job of the leader is not to create followers. It is to create more leaders. Fearlessly.’
‘In trying times, never stop trying.’

References:
Log on to the author’s blog arindamchaudhuri.blogspot.com to read his weekly thoughts.

To interact with him on facebook, log on to www.facebook.com/pages/Arindam-Chaudhuri/76429890015

To invite the author or his team for inspiring sessions in your organization, call +91 9811270918 or e-mail to chanda.mehra@planmanconsulting.com

Other Books of Arindam Chaudhuri:
Planning India
Count Your Chickens Before They Hatch
The Great Indian Dream (Co-Author).

Jaikishan
23rd Jan 2010

Book Review: DHIRUBHAISM by A.G.Krishnamurthy

(Source: Excerpts from the Leadership Essential Series brought out by McGraw-Hill Education titled “Dhirubhaism” and authored by A. G. Krishnamurthy of Mudra). Please buy the book. It is very inspiring & motivating.

Dhirubhai Ambani was born on 28th Dec 1932. Son of a school teacher in a remote village Chorwad in Gujarat.

After completing matriculation, leaves for Aden at the age of 17 to work at A. Besse & Co.

Nine years later, returns to India and sets up Reliance Commercial Corporation, a trading venture. Trades in spices, and then into yarn.In 1966, begins textile manufacturing. From textile manufacturing, he takes up yarn, polyester, petrochemicals, oil & gas, oil exploration, … over a period of time.

Bhagwad Gita states, ‘The actions of a great man are an inspiration for others. Whatever he does becomes a standard for others to follow’. Dhirubhai’s life exemplified this.

His corporate philosophy was: Think big. Think differently. Think fast. Think ahead. Aim for the best. Ideas are no one’s monopoly. He believed that limitations were only in the mind.He used to tell his team always, ‘it is difficult but not impossible’.He used to tell his team, ‘dream with your eyes open’.
A vision has to be within reach, not in the air. It has to be achievable.

He was an arm-around-the-shoulder leader.He was always inviting people into sharing their thoughts and ideas, rather than shutting them out. If he learnt that there was value in their point of view, he would instantly embrace it, discarding his own, without any feelings of remorse.

This was one of his great qualities which most people find difficult to practice.‘We must learn to trust. For several centuries, Indians have been brainwashed to distrust other Indians. This saps national energy. Distrust kills initiative. Distrust compels people to maneuver and manipulate.

Trust and transparency stimulates entrepreneurship.’He had a tremendous capacity to learn. He has very sharp instincts too, which were no doubt backed by years of reading, studying market trends, careful listening and his own honed capacity to forecast, ….

At any given time, he was more familiar with the ins and outs of a project than most of his team. Even though he ventured into areas he had no prior experience in, he was pretty confident of his ability to learn.Once he was confident about his homework, he would venture out boldly, into completely unknown terrain with nothing short of, than the daring of an explorer.

He believed in the unusual theory of providing supply to create demand.He believed in speed and efficiency. He was constantly and swiftly upgrading technology, coming up with innovative schemes to raise money from the markets, ploughing it back into his plants and increasing capacities, … all at the same time.

Believed that a bad product will not only scare away all his clients and customers, it will actually drive them to his competitors. And, if it happens, one is signing one’s death warrant, businesswise. But on the other hand, a good product is like one’s personal ambassador who will forge long-lasting relationships with one’s clients and customers.

‘If you work with determination and with perfection, success will follow’.

‘Money, is the value of your product. It is not and can never be a product on its own’ (except for RBI, may be).

‘Give your team a proper environment. Motivate them. Extend them the support they need. Each one of them has infinite source of energy. They will deliver. Bet on your people.’

Orbit Theory of Dhirubhai. ‘Growth has not limit in Reliance. I keep revising my vision. Only when you dream it, you can do it’.

‘Hope is the most powerful weapon. Pursue your goals even in the face of difficulties and convert adversities into opportunities. Don’t give up; courage is my conviction’.

His advice to young entrepreneurs was not to accept defeat in the face of odds. To challenge negative forces with hope, self-confidence and conviction. He believed that ambition and initiative will ultimately triumph. The success of the young entrepreneurs will be the key to India’s transformation in the new millennium.

PS: The ‘foreword’ and the ‘preface’ are also worth reading.Dhirubhaism --- by A. G. Krishnamurthy – Apr07