On Being INVALUABLE and DISPENSABLE --- (MN2M)

(MN2M = My Notes To Myself)

Every employee must continually try to become INVALUABLE in his sphere of work.   He must draw his career path, and work towards it consciously.  Review progress every quarter.   Well, he may have to modify his career-path at times as per work/industry/economy dynamics.  

Unless a person turns invaluable, his Reporting Authority may not notice him (especially in large organisations).

Among other things, a Reporting Authority must surely provide the needed support to his direct reports to make them invaluable.    He would thus facilitate their continual growth.

A Reporting Authority must also ensure to make all his INVALUABLE direct reports ‘DISPENSABLE’.   That is, develop second-level for all critical/important positions.   Thus, he would be de-risking attrition of even invaluable resources by having an able successor readily available.

If a person while trying to become invaluable, also develops his second-level, then he is a ‘leader’ material.   Organisations must have a system to notice such leaders, and facilitate their further growth/development.

Jaikishan (30th Oct 2011)

A Non-Technical CEO in Infrastructure Organisation?

A good number of Infrastructure companies in India are based out of Andhra Pradesh.   Most of their promoters started business as small contractors, and over a period of time as they grew in size, they converted into Pvt Ltd or Public Ltd companies.    The opinion expressed here pertains to such companies based out of Andhra Pradesh, in particular; and to all such companies in other Indian states, in general.

The general belief among the Directors/Promoters of Infrastructure companies (including the company where I work, www.vishwainfra.in) is that its CEO has to be a TECHNICALLY qualified person.  I have heard this opinion umpteen times in various discussions where the stress on the ‘technical’ aspect is emphatically made, explicitly or implicitly. 

I too believed in this general opinion until a couple of years ago.   Recently, I did articulate my opinion in a discussion with a Director that the ‘technical qualification’ should not be among the non-negotiable qualification criteria in CEO selection.   I also quoted few successful and big names in our industry where the CEOs are non-technical persons.   My purpose was to convince my directors to consider non-technical professionals also when they scout for the CEO position.

Last week,  I read the book  “Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance”  authored by  Louis Gerstner Jr, who was the Chairman-CEO of IBM from 1993 to 2002.   IBM was heading towards a collapse when he took over as CEO in 1993.   He was asked by the Board of Directors to  ‘save the company’.   Over a period of nine years, he successfully turned around the company.  And, in 2002, he relinquished the CEO position to Mr Sam Palmisano.    The book is about how he turned around that huge organization.   A wonderful book.   I would unhesitatingly recommend all managers and leaders to read it.

Mr Louis Gerstner was an outsider in IBM; I mean, he had not served in IBM before he took up the CEO’s position.  His was a lateral placement.   After graduating from Harward, he joined McKinsey and worked there for almost a decade.    At the age of 35, he joined American Express and served there for almost a decade.   And, in 1993, he joined IBM as its Chairman and CEO.  He had a successful career in all these reputed organisations.

But why am I talking about Louis Gerstner in this blog?   I have a reason.  He was NOT tech/IT savvy person but he headed one of the largest and oldest IT organisations in USA.    Not only he took over the reins of IBM during difficult times, but also successfully turned around the organization.

Louis Gerstner’s story further cemented my belief that a CEO need not necessarily be a tech savvy person in an Infrastructure organization.  Hence, his reference here.   Well, a CEO has to understand the business processes, its revenue model and the industry dynamics.

Jaikishan

23^rd Oct 2011

Tip#01 for Sustaining Growth in Organisation. (MN2M)

(MN2M = My Notes To Myself)

Organisatons must inculcate the culture of  LEARNING and SHARING  information among all its employees to sustain growth and success in today's dynamic market.

This cannot be achieved just by issuing a circular or mentioning it in a meeting. It has to be preached and practiced continually by every Reporting Authority (from the Chairman to the lowest Supervisor).

It has to be a top-down approach. When the employees start sharing information/ideas/experiences/opinions with their superiors and peers, one can say that the 'learning and sharing culture' is taking shape. And, the management must continually ensure to sustain that culture.

Jaikishan (19th May 2011)

MN2M: Simple Tips for a Satisfactory Career

Let me share a few simple and general tips that would be applicable to all of us, no matter where we work:

Tip#01: Be sincere – always and everywhere.

Tip#02: Do our duty as best as we could. And, align with other colleagues towards seamless working.

Tip#03: Be self-motivated. Don't expect others to motivate us because human beings are, per se, selfish.

Tip#04: Have tolerance to withstand demotivating or demoralising or unpleasant experiences that we will face in our official arena. (Such experiences are necessary in our career; it's God way of preparing us for tougher times, such that we can sail through them easily when they surface.)

Tip#05: Always update our knowledge such that we remain relevant with the times. Only performers will survive in today's competitive world. Years-of-experience is no relevance; eventually, only performance matters. Past performances are history; we have been paid for it. We must consistently better our performance.

Tip#06: Remember that happiness, peace, respect … have nothing to do with our wealth, official status, car, …. We must define our work-life-balance and accordingly, define our content-level (i.e. satisfaction in life). This will differ from individual to individual, even among brothers.

Tip#07: Develop our level-2 always. It is also necessary for our growth to the next stage.

Tip#08: And, finally, never ever let EGO get into our head. We must consciously check it on a daily basis.

I believe that following these simple tips will help us lead a happy and satisfied life. Eventually, when we leave this world, we carry none of the material things or bank balances.

Jaikishan
2nd April 2011

How to use TWITTER as a CRM Support Tool

a.1 Open a Twitter account ( www.twitter.com ) dedicated for CRM with an appropriate generic name. Say, "crm.vishwa"

a.2 Go to the 'Settings' within crm.vishwa twitter account, and activate "Protect My Tweets" box. By doing so, only those twitter accounts that are accepted by crm.vishwa can follow the tweets sent from crm.vishwa.

a.3 Competitors, vendors, etc will NOT be able view the tweets received in crm.vishwa account (when we select the protection feature stated above) unless their request to follow crm.vishwa tweets are accepted. (Thus, the desired privacy of the crm.vishwa details is ensured.)

a.4 Click 'Notices' under 'Settings' and select "Email when someone starts following me" as well as "Email when I receive a new direct message". (Thus,whenever a message is received in crm.vishwa twitter account, an email would be sent to the e-mail address indicated in the "Settings" page.)

b.1 Identify a responsible official within the company who shall operate the crm.vishwa twitter account. His e-mail address may be entered in the 'Settings' page.

c.1 Identify the officials within the organisation (say, COO, Marketing Head, Customer Service Head, …) whom (the management decides) should be intimated whenever a CRM related message is received by the company.

c.2 Ask those officials to send a 'follow' request to crm.vishwa from their respective twitter accounts. (Search for 'crm.vishwa' in the 'Who To Follow' tab and click 'Follow +' button. A request for accepting the 'follow' would be sent to 'crm.vishwa' account.)

c.3 Accept the 'follow' requests of the officials from crm.vishwa twitter account. (Only upon accepting will the followers be able to automatically view the "tweets originating from crm.vishwa" in their respective twitter account.)

c.4 Please note that only the tweets sent by crm.vishwa can be seen by the 'followers'. Tweets that come to crm.vishwa cannot be seen by the followers. For your information.

d.1 Any twitter account holder can send a tweet to crm.vishwa account. One cannot stop it. For your information.

e.11 Whenever a message is received in crm.vishwa twitter account, an email would be sent to the e-mail address indicated in the "Settings" page (since appropriate options were selected in the 'Notices' tab). For information.

e.12 The authorised crm.vishwa user must sign-in the twitter account, and tweet the message to the followers. As of now, the 'retweet' option is not available for direct tweets. So, the tweet to be shared (with the followers)has to be typed verbatim; this is a handicap, till a 'retweet' button is made available for forwarding 'direct messages' (ie. tweets addressed to @crm.visha)

e.13 All officials who are allowed to follow crm.vishwa twitter account will get the tweet in their respective twitter accounts, for taking necessary action.

e.2 The tweets that come directly into crm.twitter account cannot be deleted by anyone. Thus, no CRM entry will get unnoticed. It's a desired control.

f.1 We must ensure that no outsider's "follow" request is ever accepted. Hence,we reiterate the need for a responsible person to operate the crm.vishwa twitter account.

f.2 If, by oversight, an outsider's "follow" request was accepted, we can send a direct message to that twitter account holder to stop following our crm.vishwa. (We must continue sending the 'stop following request' everyday till the outsider inactivates the 'follow' button in his twitter account.)

g.1 Share the crm.vishwa twitter address with all stakeholders (viz. customers, vendors, employees, … whom you would like to follow crm.vishwa tweets) such that they can send the tweets pertaining to CRM to this dedicated twitter account. Well, they have to send a request to 'follow' and crm.vishwa has to accept that request.

g.2 Share a tutorial (text as well as video) for their convenience and early adaption to this initiative, if desired. To send a direct tweet to crm.vishwa, one has to first enter "@crm.vishwa" followed by a space and then the tweet content from their respective twitter account.

z Thus, an organisation can also use Twitter as a support tool to CRM initiative. Subscription to twitter is free.

Project Management --- 10 Tips for Project Success

(Source: My colleague, Mr Jayaram, Vice President – Projects, had mailed me this content last week. Posted here with his prior permission, to share the information with others.)

1. Starting out:
Make sure that when you start out your customer defines their requirements in depth. You need to know exactly what it is that must be delivered, to who and when. Make it specific, write it up formally and get them to sign it off. This document will become the basis upon which to measure your success.

2. Customers:
Involve your customers throughout the entire project life cycle. Get them involved in the analysis and planning, as well as execution. You don't have to seek their approval, just keep them informed. The more you involve them, the greater their level of buy-in and the easier it is to manage their expectations.

3. Timeframes:
Keep your delivery timeframes short and realistic. Never agree to lengthy timeframes. Split the project into “mini-projects” if you need to. Keep each mini-project to less than 6 months. This keeps everyone motivated and focused.

4. Milestones:
Break your project timeframe into "Milestones" which are manageable pieces of work. Add delivery deadlines to your milestones and try to deliver on every deadline, no matter what. If you're late, tell your customer about it as early as possible.

5. Communications:
Make sure you keep everyone informed by providing the right information at the right time. Produce Weekly Status Reports and run regular team meetings.

6. Scope:
Only authorize changes to your project scope if there is no impact on the timeline. Get your customers approval to important scope changes first and then get their buy-in to extend the delivery dates if you need to.

7. Quality:
Keep the quality of your deliverables as high as possible. Constantly review quality and never let it slip. Implement “peer reviews” so that team members can review each others deliverables. Then put in place external reviews to ensure that the quality of the solution meets your customer's needs.

8. Issues:
Jump on risks and issues as soon as they are identified. Prioritize and resolve them before they impact on your project. Take pride in keeping risks and issues to a minimum.

9. Deliverables:
As each deliverable is complete, hand it formally over to your customer. Get them to sign an Acceptance Form to say that it meets their expectations. Only then can you mark each deliverable off as 100% complete.

10. Your team:
Great projects are run by great teams. Hire the best people you can afford. Spend the time to find the right people. It will save you time down the track. Remember, good people are easy to motivate. Show them the vision and how they can make it happen. Trust and believe in them. Make them feel valued. They will work wonders.

Jaikishan (13th July 2010)
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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
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