WIN at Work - Leadership Lessons from the Streets

Loyalty is not just about Dogs!

2009-09-28T03:45:00.000-07:00

I often find myself reviewing job description documents that our Human Resources routes my way. I also discuss with our hiring managers regarding the customer facing and the back office roles that they propose that will enable us to execute our organizational and revenue goals. We do this as a part of our Workforce Planning process. I also get into brief conversations with prospective employees who come to interview with us. In all these situations a point of discussion is what are the key qualities that will make the new hire tick?

As you would expect, the flavors of the response are varied. The MBA types will call out education, communication, integrity, conceptual skills, leadership, intellect, analytics, execution et al. Others will categorize honesty, hard work, relationships, knowledge, quality of work as key attributes for success.

All these assumptions are true and why not? Possessing these skills requires tremendous resolve, focus and discipline. These make up the professional’s arsenal that will take the owner a long way! However, what is the quality that plays an equally crucial role, if not more … an attribute that all organizations look forward to in the employees and test them on it over time? Nobody, (even the glib talker!) gets away talking through this – the proof lies in the actions of the employee and takes time to judge! I do not want to leave you hanging there but let us look at this from another perspective. The greatest professional & individual successes within organizations, Gates, Jobs, Buffet, Grove, Iacocca, Ellison, Welch have happened after these individuals focused their attention and effort on one single company over many years. Granted that some happened to be the promoters of the organizations that they worked for! Still it is undeniable that they worked hard, demonstrated commitment and passion, earned the loyalty and trust of the employees within the organization and progressively earned their stripes. Conversely, the organizations also recognized the capability of these individuals, the sincerity of their intent and progressively entrusted them with more authority and responsibility knowing well that these individuals had the capability to carry the accountability that comes along with it! And boy, did they and some of them are even doing so today…

The missing attribute for success I am talking about is ‘Loyalty’, a quality not discussed or probed much in most interview sessions. You cannot talk someone into believing that you are a loyalist. You have to demonstrate it with solid proof points and do it over time! Not just in fair weather, that’s easy but when the going gets tough, the adversities run high and when the organization needs believers! That is when true loyalty shows up and believe you me, there are people looking out and checking in to see who are the ones demonstrating this trait and sticking with the company!

In fact this is so not just at the corporation’s level, even within departments, workgroups and functional teams. Loyalty is an attribute that does not go unnoticed. It never should! It does not really matter how capable, experienced, influential or connected an individual is. Any demonstration of lack in loyalty will certainly not be an ingredient that will propel professional growth and success! Take this as a thumb rule in small family run businesses to global multinational corporations. Many organizations will state this in their manifesto, many will not … instead they will bracket the skill as ‘ability to align with the corporation’, ‘be committed to the corporate culture’ etc. the verbal flavors are many but the expectation is the same!

Put yourself in the shoes of the ‘power be it’ within the organization, most of who have risen to their high offices after having contributed to the development of the organization over the years! When they are ready to look around to hand over the mantle to someone to lead the organization in the next leg of the race and take it to the next level of success, what competency will they seek in the individual after all the ‘ticket to entry’ qualities have been checked out? They will without doubt seek out for their trust in the individual’s ability of carrying out the mission as closely as possible to what they would have done themselves! An individual who while shouldering the responsibilities of the organization will also keep an ear out for the recommendations and suggestions of the ‘old guard’! An individual who gives the confidence that he will honor the past legacy and preserve the building blocks on which the organization was built while driving the next level of growth and ensure that the bank is not broken!

Any career guidance session that I speak in is always laced with ample discussions about ‘patience and commitment’ towards the organization. If your job is a downright drag and you are gaining nothing from it then move on! Go someplace which will serve your career and your personal growth better. Else, patience is your best friend as you progress through your organization. Remember to demonstrate loyalty to your team, region, function, supervisor and the company at large in every instance along with demonstration of your capability in the role you play. Be assured that people are watching you and the rewards will come when the time is right!

Let me give you the bad news first!

2009-09-20T03:39:00.000-07:00

I am fairly liberal and open to providing my opinion about how I view situations, circumstances, opinions and propositions and how I respond to them to anyone who genuinely seeks it! Life has seen me in different circumstances at work and play - good, bad, memorable, rewarding and downright ugly! Some, I have responded to well while others have been not much to write home about. Irrespective of the outcome, I have tried hard to learn from them, to reflect upon them and to promise myself to deal with them better if I were to face them again in the future, especially the not so rosy ones!

No one is in doubt that we live in a complex world, a complex society within very complex relationships. People I know, that is me included, fervently believe that by sharing our collective successes and the hard knocks that we have taken, will benefit others and save them time, pain recovery and missed opportunities! So we venture out and ‘seemingly’ sermonize when solicited!
Look at the flip side though! Just try expressing your views in any forum … everything we say or write is examined and inspected under a microscope! The more visible you are the deeper the inspection! In a world were bad news and negativity sells more than the good stuff, I am not even a bit surprised! Then there is the human ego that internally belittles the individual himself if he agrees to another’s opinion without punching one or more holes in it and then heroically filling that hole with another view that reflects his intellect to the audience around! The more ‘knowledgeable the circle the more sensitive you need to be with your every statement else the arrows will come hurtling down on you!

Having debated with myself on my position regarding this going forward, I have chosen to stay my course and continue to voice my learning for people to benefit from. There have been a few downsides even ‘debacles’, but the upside where people appreciate, joyfully receive and even benefit from these shared learning purely outweigh the not so memorable outcomes. Most importantly, doing this gives me joy which I think I deserve, more so if it makes the other person happy as well! I have just learnt to build some caution and tact in my style instead of the good ol’ cavalier run!

I have also learnt to be absolutely candid! To give a balanced view and to put my point of view purely as my opinion – merely my perspective, not the absolute truth! But see, when people seek my opinion, it is because they expect me to know! Well since I am but a mere mortal, far removed from a Da Vinci or a Nostradamus, I do not know it all nor have I ever seen the future! I candidly say so upfront and sometimes see their faces fall – naturally so but it sets me up with them on the right foot and sets their expectations exactly where it should be. I also set the tone at the onset that anything I say is my opinion, my finding, my perspective. Purely put together on the basis of my experiences which are in no way complete nor are they absolute references to the subject. It is for the individual to take it, rephrase it, re- orient it and use it as she deems fit.

Finally, I have learnt to dwell on balance! People who approach me want to hear me say all the bright and positive things about what they want to talk to me about. See this is how the mind works! Your mind expects to seek out agreement and reinforce what it already knows from others. Especially those individuals they have confidence in and categorize as ‘knowledgable’ in the area that they need advice. I have learnt to be more useful by going exactly against that current. I try and talk about all the things that I do not expect the individual to have thought about regarding that proposition. I give them the bad news first – not exactly what they want to hear but heck, at least I am giving them an alternate perspective rather than echoing their inner thoughts and just making them happily biased! The good news is already in there, the bad news helps these folks objectively weigh in on the pros and cons before deciding whether the option is worth pursuing! I like the honesty of this approach and also the fact that it indemnifies me from any backlashes about ‘Deb did not tell me so when he spoke about this…’ when undesired results occasionally but predictably show up, very contrary to some people’s expectations!

You have read the driver’s manual – now take the keys and drive the car!

2009-08-28T17:48:00.000-07:00

It is an early week of a wet August in 2009 as I board a flight to Manila. As the Singapore Airline flight taxies down the rain soaked Ninoy Aquino International airport’s tarmac, I look around into the gathering dusk at the hazy silhouette of the adequately lit airport terminal – nothing much has changed since the ten years I have been travelling to this country! As I disembark, I literally zip thru immigration and customs, I thank my lucky stars that it is early week or is it that the efficiency of the airport has just got better! I had to find out. Frankly, I have had my trysts with destiny while trudging through the crowd at this airport during previous visits and they have indeed been a challenge! My last visit was a year ago - I half expectedly start peering out of the window of the hotel car that whisks me from the kerbside lounge as I am chauffeured down the well lit streets by a chauffer whose infectious exuberance that characterizes every Filipino has thankfully not altered one bit!

Manila did surprise me! The streets are cleaner, the traffic more orderly and as I discovered in the two days I spent there - a tremendous focus on urbanization, infrastructure development and employment. Singapore has always been an influence on the ASEAN. A visit to the Fort Bonifacio, an office, entertainment and residential district a stone’s throw from Makati Manila is a great example of this influence. I was at the Fort to meet a business contact ten years ago and all there was at that time was rolling, dusty & barren land left behind by an army garrison! What I see today is a spanking metropolis, tree lined boulevards, commercial and residential city scrapers with glittering glass facades and enough dining & wining options to keep a social animal spoilt for choice and occupied for a year! The place does reflect the orderliness, completeness and structure of a very modern metropolis! Well done Philippines!

During the couple days in Manila, my agenda was peppered with speaking assignments with customers and business partners and in getting seduced by the lucrative infrastructure development opportunities that the country presents that our organization with its technology can address. I took the time to meet some business associates who I have learned to trust as friends over the ten years that I have known them. It is great to be humbled by their progress and more importantly it was great to see them and share a drink or a meal with them and take a moment to talk about the nostalgic past and the exciting future. Absolutely fantastic!

Manuel Bobiles, Chairman & CEO of NetConnect Technologies (not the real names to retain privacy), a leading network system integrator is a man I have known and respected for long. Manuel came to Philippines years ago as a student, started NetConnect and grew it over the years into a multi million dollar technology corporation. One of the corner stones of Manuel and his organization’s progress is the way the organization hires, trains, grooms and evolves employees while preparing them to take on the challenges and opportunities that the ‘ever changing’ contemporary world presents. What Manuel does within his organization is also a subject very close to my heart!

I have been lately preaching the need to bring our workforce up to speed on workplace readiness and leadership development. I do believe that this is the single largest impediment that we face as a society to tackle the challenges that an increasingly complex workplace is incessantly throwing at us! As I travel around and ask any business leader what their primary challenge at work is, they do not blink an eyelash before saying – ‘people’. Well Asia has no problem with ‘quantity’ – it is the ‘quality’ that is the major concern! I am not downplaying the credentials or the capabilities of our educational institutions – there are many good ones and a few outstanding establishments in Asia. It is just that there is a very large divide between the environment that the typical Asian educational institution provides that an average student grows up in and the ‘work world’ environment that they face the first day they start at work. While the specialized tertiary institutes arm the employee with the hard skills to pursue the careers that they seek, the real gaps are in the soft skills department. Unfortunately, these soft skills or the lack of it within the new employees become glaringly visible as they start work and get them off on the wrong foot in the workplace. Many never recover from this less than desirable start while others pick up some steam as they go along but never attain their full potential!

The trick to get the best out of the people we hire is to choose the ones with the best hard skills needed for the roles that they are hired for - academic accomplishment and documented grades are good measures of these skills. In addition to these ‘hard’ attributes look out for at least some soft skills. Attitude, passion and communication are some that I rate very highly. I will double down and take on an outsider with unproven skill set in my team as long as they come with a ‘first class’ attitude – trust me, everything else builds from there. I have seen many a relative ‘outsider’ make it big despite multiple shortcomings riding on that priceless attribute – their Attitude! On the contrary show me one single achiever with a lousy attitude towards her trade and I will show you polar ice caps in the midst of sub terrain Sahara!

Besides practicing the concept within my own organization, I am recommending the business leadership community to spend time and effort in getting their people workplace ready as quickly as possible and reduce their time to productivity! The exercise routine that is needed to accomplish this is split into two logical parts. One, provide every employee with an opportunity to master the soft skills that they need to excel in their chosen profession. These could be interpersonal skills, operating in a crisis, managing and delivering on expectations, communicating upward, leveraging executives, goal setting – you know there are many! I prefer an analysis on the individual based on feedback from the supervisor, coworkers and the individual herself to determine the areas that need the most development rather than taking very broad swipes and not optimally utilizing the limited time outside of the job function that the employee will normally have to hone these skills! This analysis can be followed by a courseware routine – instruction set, group activities followed by an evaluation process to determine sequential progress. The courseware and its implementation can be developed and implemented within the organization (not the best choice unless you have the breadth, total commitment and the bandwidth to do so) or help from external providers with first class content and delivery consultants can be solicited. This done, most organizations stop at this stage and conclude that they have done a great job. Hardly!

Analysis and follow up development exercises may be great buildup activities to skill building but it is like taking a budding driver thru a well documented driving manual and then throwing the car keys at them and expecting them to drive effortlessly on the rain soaked streets of Manila! Hardly the right expectation! The missing link that most organizations overlook is a stint of ‘Mentorship’. Having an experienced campaigner who has all the battle scars sitting next to the newly minted, instruction manual trained rookie driver, showing the tricks while pointing out the pitfalls seems to me what makes the real difference and effectively closes out the learning process for life. The more sincere the mentor and the mutual engagement he drives with the student, more complete the education and the skill development of the student. Mentorship is not about a single session or even one involving days and weeks – it is an ongoing commitment that the student and the teacher need to sign off on to be able to see real results – fabulously fulfilling!

Manuel and his leadership team at NetConnect are committed to the development of the people they hire. They take away elementary employee concerns around healthcare for the employee and his family, basic amenities of life, small interest free loans for life’s little joys etc. Employees free of these little concerns and consumed by the care that the organization showers on them show up for work with absolute commitment towards their roles and responsibilities. What follows is high quality projects and services for NetConnect’s customers that naturally leads to revenue and profitability! An incredible formula! As we slug our last drinks for the night, Manuel does emphasize that asking his people to read a manual and drive a car would never deliver the results that his team is producing if it was not for the ‘mentors’ in his executive team who are jumping in the car besides the drivers and passionately sharing and helping elevate the ‘young turks’ to the next level!

I am hoping that more Asian organizations are doing something similar. If so our businesses and the people within will very soon start to look as slick as the glittering business districts of Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore or even Fort Bonifacio!
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Asking for that raise is fantastic, but are you worth it?

2009-08-07T04:07:00.000-07:00

Getting ahead at work and taking home more money than you did the year before is all good and I see people these days very focused at this and rightly so! Other than fulfilling the material desires that today’s world presents and even using the money for philanthropic work that some are involved in, I totally understand the financial pressure that today’s cost of living presents in every cosmopolitan city. All this needs money!
So how do you go about making more money? I see, hear and read about employees being very proactive in seeking that ‘raise’ very passionately. They mostly do so without a proper plan that justifies their intent. Supervisors at work are often confronted with these demands and often do not know how to respond to them creating employee dissatisfaction and often a dip in workplace productivity. Then there is the other type of employee who will suffer in silence, they come to work every day with that miserable feeling that they are worth more than what they get paid. I have tried to understand the mindset of the people who do so – very often they are unable to articulate why they deserve more money! Many are gripped by fear at the thought of doing so and being rejected. For others, the environment, culture or norms within does not allow them to do so! Naturally, this affects their performance as they keep reaching out for their next employer even if the new job pays just a little bit more that what they currently make. They are willing to bail out and leave behind everything that they have worked for and accomplished within their current employment over the years for a few dollars more! None of this is desirable for either the employee and the employer and there must be a way to fix this .. but how?

Firstly, compensation is a topic that I do not believe needs to be approached emotionally – neither by the employee nor by the employer. Today’s businesses can use very sophisticated third party developed compensation models that classify the employee by skill type (i.e. sales, technical, marketing, administration et al), skill level (i.e. years of relevant experience), work impact bands (low, medium, high) and location of employment (i.e. country, cost of living index). These published industry standard models should be the tool that should be used to logically determine the targeted compensation for any employee and should help provide consequential guidelines for other compensation components like stock options and restricted stock units. The publishers of these models do ongoing market research and regularly update the data. Organizations and hiring managers should use this data with confidence during workforce planning, budgeting and determining employee compensations. There might still be some factors outside of this model that a supervisor might want or need to consider in determining the final outcome, but this should be more peripheral than core.

Now let us take a look at the employee, and let us get real here … if you really want to determine how your organization or even your industry rates you – just look at your paycheck, period! You have attained your paycheck specifically because of the skills and attributes that you have built over the years. Your paycheck is not higher than what it is today, not because it cannot be but because you do not posses the skills or attributes that are needed to get you there! Identify these skills, practice and perfect them with commitment and I can assure you that you will see your compensation curve zoom! So understand this very clearly, your compensation is a ‘scorecard’ – it shows your standing in your profession relative to others. There are many different causes that lead to this ‘score’. Successful professionals do not spend time and emotions on the ‘score’ other than using it to set their next goal – they focus, plan and implement their efforts around the ‘causes’ that they have previously identified that leads them to their new targeted ‘score’ – be it position or compensation!

Now, while it is absolutely fantastic to look at your paycheck then target what it needs to be in the near future and work at building the missing pieces that will take you there – greed is the biggest derailer to this process! I have seen instances where employees come across and even get considered for opportunities that are either well above their capabilities or get considered for a position that matches their skill but pays far more than what they are worth! See, both these situations are career traps that you should look out for and avoid at all costs!

The first situation happens where individuals go through an imperfect recruitment process (not uncommon at all!) or have internal influencers within the organization whereby they are found suitable for a position that they are incapable to fill. This inadequacy becomes visible very quickly and the consequences are never pleasant! In today’s connected world news travels faster than you will imagine and in the least, the credibility and integrity of people who become victims of this circumstance gets deeply dented. The second situation is more common and this is how it unfolds. An organization might be a new player in a specific market segment and might be in an urgent need to hire someone with the skill to help them go in. The easiest way in is to lure an employee from a competitor whose skill matches the new business need – a higher than market offer usually follows to get this person in quickly. The organization sees this as a short term tactical move, but to the employee the impact could be long term! The business priorities that led to the hiring of this individual at a premium sometimes stays and at other times tapers off! The employee who is hired might sometimes do well or gets moved to another position but sometimes stays and stagnates in the position which is not anymore a priority in the company! Many of these situations then lead to a termination as the position becomes redundant leaving the employee without a job but with a life style that cannot be funded by what the market is willing to pay him! What a tragedy … many a career has been destroyed by this unnecessary greed of seeking something that you are not worthy of! Some of these unfortunate victims are forced to take job openings that come along but are not able to cope with a reduction in compensation even though they try hard! The employee starts work at the new organization disillusioned, demotivated and disgruntled from day one. From there on his future in this new role is a self fulfilling prophecy!

I am forever a big fan of ambition and enterprise in all humans to reach for greater heights and larger achievements. While setting your sights high and running towards your goals, just be wary and constantly watchful of the small rocks and pot holes strewn along the way! Some of them will be very well camouflaged! Just make sure that you do not stumble and trip on any of them and kiss your bigger dreams goodbye!

Is Changing a Habit even Worth It??

2009-07-26T22:29:00.000-07:00

It is the summer of 2003 and I am standing on the kerb of the Newark International Airport with my brother–in-law puffing furiously on the last inch of my cigarette. I feel like my life depends on it before boarding my nine hour ‘non-smoking’ flight to Amsterdam en route to Singapore. It has been a hell of a busy week that started in California and then took me to the east coast. We decided to wind down over the weekend and drove out to Atlantic City to roll some dice and throw some cards and hope to hit some 21s. Then again, what is a downtime without a few vodka martinis and some greasy junk that often ends up being called ‘food’. So there I was, loaded with greasy meat, alcohol, nicotine and sleep deprivation barely making it to the airport on time, feeling more drained than rejuvenated! Security check was announced and we hugged and said our goodbyes. I vividly remember my cigarette butt still clasped between my fingers as I did so – then as I turned towards the trash bin and flicked my cigarette into it like I had done a thousand times prior, the haze suddenly cleared! “Let this be my last cigarette” – just like that, clear and loud!
I rushed through immigration and security and boarded the plane. I was so tired that I dozed off even before the seat belt signs came on! Daylight finally shone through my lids as the airplane thudded on the tarmac at Amsterdam. Guess what, the first thought that blazed in was –‘gosh I quit smoking’ – a swell of emotional pain followed soon … the pain of parting with a 24 year old habit is never an easy one! I slept through the Amsterdam stopover and most of the next 14 hours into Singapore. By the time I woke up again, most of the fatigue had washed away, my mind had cleared and I was able to reflect on what I had done more objectively. By the time we landed in Singapore, I was getting very comfortable with my decision and almost had a plan to deal with it and make it happen!

For years, like many before me I gave up smoking many times only to pick it up again. Smoking did not do me any good at sports, my clothes and hair must have borne the tobacco ‘stink’ that I knew was not pleasant for any non-smoker close to me, it was not good for my health and most importantly would leave me feeling embarrassed and awkward when my daughter (seven years old then) asked me pointed questions about when I would quit and I did not have a confident answer that would satisfy her! All that changed in a nano-second … that moment in time when all the past thoughts, awareness, questions, everything in my sub-conscious mind snow balled into a critical mass that made me take a decision to change it all! I write this in such great detail because it is indeed one of the most impactful and fulfilling decisions I have taken in my life - it impacted my life in more ways than one! It also taught me how to successfully make massive changes in life that initially looks too monstrous to overcome.

We live in a changing world where change has been universally touted as the ‘only constant’! Easier said than done really! Change requires resolve, courage, determination and massive actions. While I see many people resisting change (which by the way I do not endorse), what is more alarming is to see people or even organizations ‘overdoing the change bit’. They do not clearly understand the reasons that require the change and often let their emotions run wild, pushing for changes purely on emotional grounds! The actions that will drive the planned change needs solid commitment and commitments need resources (time and money that are both finite) to bring the right results. If the expectation about results is improperly set or if the results do not show due to poor or inadequate execution the ‘change exercise’ often does more damage than good!

All I am asking of you is to pick your battles (read ‘Changes’) wisely! If you think there are things you need to change in yourself - list and prioritize them. Be absolutely certain why you need to change in each of these aspects? Where are you falling behind in your life by holding on to these habits and how you will benefit if you let them go? What will your net gain through this transformation be and how it will impact the people around you? Your findings need to be pretty dramatic to consider the change seriously!

Once this is done, talk to someone you trust, friend, family, whoever you feel comfortable with. Someone who will candidly tell you who you are rather than make up things to make you feel happy. Seek their opinion on your list and how you have stacked them. Very often we are over critical on ourselves; many of us are out to find too many faults that really are not there. Talking to others smoothen this criticality out while identifying other new areas that might not even be visible to us. During these ‘tell me about me’ sessions, be aware that all you need is their opinion only. The final list will be for YOU to decide – do not let others do this for you!

I ask for selectivity because as I have said earlier, successful change will need incredible commitment and massive actions. Being able to manage this is never easy as you go through the following stages -

Commit to dramatically transform a deep rooted behavior rather than progressively replacing it. I firmly believed that my kerb side cigarette would be the last cigarette I would smoke. I did not decide to slow down on my daily intake and progressively wean myself off like many do – I just stopped!

Next, build walls around the change related actions so that initial hardships do not make the resolve wobbly. I would at every opportunity speak to everyone around me about how rapidly comfortable I was getting without a cigarette and how I was absolutely convinced that I would never have to get back to it. I also placed some wagers with the naysayers. Every time I spoke those words, I strengthened my resolve and strengthened the wall around the change that I was driving!

Finally, supplement your change related actions with other parallel actions that are empowering. These actions should support and reflect in a positive light the change that you are implementing. I revved up my gym work, improved my eating habits and felt my energy levels soar! I felt calmer and started to relate better with people around me. My confidence sky-rocketed with the awareness of the fact that I had accomplished quite easily what others struggle to do in their entire lifetime etc etc.

Honestly, I chanced upon this opportunity to change and learned a very valuable process from it. Try these steps I laid out – this is no rocket science and can be accomplished. If the desire exists, voila you will see the magic unfold!

It has been six years since that afternoon at the Newark Airport and I have not smoked since! More importantly, I have not felt the urge either ….. well, not that much! The human mind and intent is indeed more powerful than what we normally give it credit for. Use this amazing force wisely!

Who Bombed my Company - Preparing for the Inevitable!

2009-07-20T05:29:00.000-07:00

Some years ago I started my ‘stock market investment’ initiative as a part of my Investment Portfolio. The ‘analyst’ in me demanded that I learn the game from the masters before putting in my hard earned money. I picked up a Warren Buffet book at the airport on my next business trip and read it from cover to cover understanding most of Mr. Buffet’s philosophy if not all! As my awareness grew, I learnt of Benjamin Graham (the man Buffet attributes his financial market education to) and his famous narrative - The Intelligent Advisor
(Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Intelligent_Investor).

These masters taught me the fundamentals of value investing and the art of profiting from market follies and disruptions rather than by participating in it! How to identify and buy into ‘value’ companies and invest in them for the long haul. How to stay away from speculating in organizations and businesses I was not familiar with irrespective of how lucrative their valuation and potential seemed to be! Many other anecdotes and advise that I have come to understand and appreciate. I actually followed up by reviewing Berkshire Hathaway’s famed Letter to the Shareholders that Mr. Buffet writes every year. (http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/letters.html). I also got insight into the Mr. Buffet’s own stock picks and other well regarded recommendations and then feeling fairly well ‘covered’ I put in my money in the market. Despite this attention, all my famed and well researched ‘blue chips’ are significantly down today!!! Mr. Buffet and Berkshire were not spared either! In the 2008 Letter to Shareholders he wrote – “Our decrease in net worth during 2008 was $11.5 billion, which reduced the per-share book value of both our Class A and Class B stock by 9.6%. Over the last 44 years book value has grown from $19 to $70,530, a rate of 20.3% compounded annually. As the year progressed, a series of life-threatening problems within many of the world’s great financial institutions was unveiled. This led to a dysfunctional credit market that in important respects soon turned non-functional. The watchword throughout the country became the creed I saw on restaurant walls when I was young: “In God we trust; all others pay cash.”
While I trust in God, Mr. Graham and Mr. Buffet like the rest of the investor planet, I begin to wonder why these famed organizations that I trusted my money with are actually failing to perform as the financial markets go sour and what other established and upcoming organizations can learn from them! Once you think about it …there is plenty!

All organizations are destined to face ‘market disruptions’, ‘conflicting and negative internal forces’ at some stage of their evolution that will force them to take dramatic measures to survive and hold on to their positions of leadership. When this situation is coupled with a larger macro economic slowdown that we are in the middle of now, the impact obviously is further amplified! Unlike what is usually the norm, I do not blame the management team for the organization’s fall though this is easiest to do! The lackluster results are hardly because of a single wrong strategy that the leadership has implemented or a specific move of the competitor that the leaders failed to see. Rather, the root cause often is a sum of many different reasons – inability to see a prominent market shift early enough (normally called a ‘disruption), unwillingness to change the way of doing things, inability of hiring the right skills into the company and surprisingly the inability to see an emerging competitor who leverages the disruption and changes the game for the incumbent market leader!

Lets be realistic though, this is a natural consequence and will happen to every organization – not just once, but many times in the history of the organization. It will happen despite the skill, diligence and track record of the management team – no exceptions! The forces that make these happen are far more diabolical than the people who are impacted by it! So the end game is not about prevention but about how to respond to these circumstances.

Very often I see organizations and their leadership going straight in with knee jerk reflexes trying hard to do things that make them look good in the short term to their boards and shareholders. Sometimes they do not really have a choice either, as the larger forces start to lean on them! However, given the choice here is my pick of pointed actions by the leadership team when the going gets really tough…

Stay the course, show that you know what you are doing – Demonstration of confidence is critical in troubled times. It is natural for the leadership team to be concerned and worried but they need to be able to face their troops, stakeholders and customers with demonstrated confidence. Demonstrate ability to face the situation however bad it might be and lead through the crisis riding on the plan that they have built with their leadership teams! While doing so they can be vocal about what is unknown to them – taking this position does not weaken them, on the contrary, this makes them more credible and human!

Ensure complete consensus amongst the leadership team; commit to consistent & extensive communication, both internal and external – A classic fall out of a crisis is a flurry of misguided activities by executives who make a valiant attempt to demonstrate that they are doing ‘something’. These actions are not products of collaboration, consensus and in many instances are conflicting and counter productive. Hard times call for complete consensus amongst the leadership. Resources are usually scarce in today’s competitive environment, more so in troubled time. It is absolutely ridiculous to squander this rare asset due to irresponsible and unsynchronized planning by management. Once leadership gets around the table and determines a common set of actions, consistent and regular internal and external communication is a must – over-communicate rather than go soft on it! Communication gives people the belief that things are progressing and will hopefully be in control, positive data if available, heightens this optimism!

Focus on your customers more than ever before – Customers either make or break organizations. During the tough times, it is great to have your customers along with you. Do not just be happy satisfying them, wow them off their shoes! Knowing the situation that your organization is, they will admire your gesture even more than they did during the sweet times!

Focus on the areas of strength, in parallel fix your gaps – As I have mentioned earlier, it is common for crisis to bring in a flurry of activities that are neither properly orchestrated nor necessarily good for the organization. The leadership team has to agree on some key areas to focus the limited resources on and they better be areas of visible strength! These done, use the ‘downturn’ to let the bottom open out – discard wrong products, processes and people! Fix the engine that will propel the organization forward. This is as a good an opportunity as any that will come along!

Find every opportunity to differentiate – Leadership in revenue, margins and share has to be driven by differentiation. In today’s world of readily available information, it is hard to do anything that someone else has not already done or is not in the process of doing. Yet, a Yahoo happened despite an Alta Vista, a Google happened despite an Yahoo and an ipod despite a whole array of portable mp3 players that preceded it. You get the plot – great examples of differentiation and value creation. Do it better, faster, cheaper and easier than anything anybody has ever done before and you have a chance to win! Differentiation comes out of innovation and innovation is a product of attitude! Good times or bad, this attitude and commitment at every level of the organization is an absolute must for any organization to turn the corner. If you are in any doubt, ask a certain company in Cupertino and they will clarify your doubts!

I am confident Mr Buffet’s handpicked stocks (and the organizations that stand behind them) are staffed by executives who share my beliefs in one way or the other and are actually implementing them! I feel this way, not only in protection of my investments but the millions who are dependent on how these organizations will do, going forward. If they do, Mr. Buffet’s next letter to the Berkshire’s shareholders will be a lot more optimistic!

Criticism is for the ‘Fortunate’ – so use it wisely!

2009-07-14T00:40:00.000-07:00

Criticism is for the ‘Fortunate’ – so use it wisely! Everyone, everywhere normally view ‘Criticism’ with unhappiness, concern, disdain and even negativity! Criticism is best done without and usually makes people visibly uncomfortable – not only those who face it but even those who happen to be around when it is doled out, especially in Asian circles!

I am currently enjoying being a judge the MBA Challenge – an online reality show in Singapore and part of my role is to put up contestants for elimination by ‘online voting’. In course of doing so, all the three judges are verbally and visibly critical on the contestants with the objective of either showing them the ropes that they need to learn to survive in the show or to make it very clear to the viewers, why some of the contestants should be eliminated.

In several instances, I feel we are too harsh to these contestants, but then I have second thoughts! I recall my growing up years .. I was the only son, the only brother and the youngest member in a nuclear family and always had my way! Never did anyone at home see or judge me and my actions critically! Seemed great at that time and I did not mind a bit nor do I blame my dear ones who lavished that treatment on me. As I grew up and came in close contact of the outside world, I started to see the disadvantage of my privileged childhood! I could not face up and cope with anything ‘even faintly not-so-good’ that was spoken about me. It was not that I was dumb enough not to realize that I was not ‘right’ in everything that I said nor that I was not the ‘best’ at everything I did – but it was very difficult to accept, leave alone digest the reality!

As I worked my way through primary and tertiary education and then through my work life, I met, worked with and learned from highly talented individuals who I was fortunate enough to associate with. I learned about work and life, about people and relationships. All this learning has shaped my career and what I have attained over the years. I am happy that as I progressed, I was more willing and agreeable about stepping outside my comfort zone of ‘personal perfection’ & seeking feedback from these people who saw me from up close and were thankfully willing to be critical about personal and work attributes that I needed to work on – many of these were indeed true and I knew about them if not acknowledge them! These corrections (some, if not all) molded me and made me more adequate in addressing today’s challenges at home, work and play!

Along the way, I learnt that any criticism is a gift really! It is advice that enables an individual to visualize a shortcoming that others see, which might or might not be immediately visible to him or even if visible, he might be in denial for different reasons. Whether this observation is considered valid or what the individual does with it, is absolutely personal – but atleast it presents a choice. Being aware of an area of weakness is halfway to resolving it! If you are not even aware of a shortcoming – how are you going to eliminate it?? So the next time you are criticized, view it as a free feedback routine – no one knows you better than yourself. You have the absolute and ultimate authority to determine whether you will accept this feedback or reject it. If you do determine that the recommendation is one that improves your current standing then by all means accept it and take massive action to implement it. Strengthen yourself and thank the outside world and the individual for presenting you with this ‘gift’!

I have also seen people who accept criticism in the right spirit and then some who go overboard and often overdo the personal transformation bit! While being ‘closed’ to acceptance of feedback is not a desirable position, acts of dramatic acceptance are not recommended as well! Look, we all have individual character traits. Depending on age and circumstances, many of these traits are fairly deep rooted. These traits represent us, make us what we are and help us to be accepted by our family, friends and co-workers despite our imperfections! Trying to change these is not only difficult but not desirable as well! When people try to overdo this, the changes that follow might work for a while but will definitely not be sustainable!

So here is the balancing act that I will recommend. Be self aware – be a firm judge of your strengths and perceived areas of improvement. Be prepared to actively solicit feedback from people who know you well and will judge you without bias! While feedback on ‘Strengths’ are welcome and pleasing to the ear, lean more on determining areas and traits that need more development. Find every opportunity to eliminate (to whatever extent possible) your weaknesses and strengthen your strengths! Be open to criticism – even if some of these are unfairly directed at you, use them wisely, not emotionally! Whether you accept or do anything with these is totally upto you, consequentially if you choose to do nothing is also upto you. Your attitude and actions will determine where you go from where you are today!

Leadership Models – What is relevant today?

2009-07-07T17:42:00.000-07:00

Leadership Models – What is relevant today?

I had to go ‘off-line’ from this blog for about 6 months or so! While I felt guilty every day for being away, I was busy doing something very meaningful at Brocade. After stamping our leadership in the Fibre Channel based Storage Area Network (SAN) space for 12 years we at Brocade needed to expand our total addressable market beyond the datacenter into the broader Ethernet LAN/WAN space. On 22 December we completed the acquisition of Foundry Networks for $2.5Billion, a staggering sum in the difficult money market of today! Having made such a big bet, it is critical for us to ensure that the integration between the two organizations concludes satisfactorily and communicates comfort and confidence to the customer and partners that enables us to bring our end goal (revenue and non-revenue) behind this acquisition to fruition! Pleased to say that things are on track and I am happy as a leader with the progress we have made. Enough said … for more details, please visit http://www.brocade.com/

Starting June, I am also playing ‘Judge’ at the MBA Challenge – Asia’s First Online Reality Show (use this search string on the Facebook search field) i.e. aired EXCLUSIVELY over the WEB with 2 MBA seats worth $25,000 up for grabs (http://www.mbachallenge.tv/). This is the first season of MBA Challenge and from the interest that is quite visible, I am quite certain subsequent seasons are in the offing! The organizers are already putting plans to export the show beyond Singapore. The elimination process has commenced and we are down to the ‘last 8’. The contestants are young, energetic and bubbling with ideas, energy and perspective – very eager to learn. It’s a pleasure and joy to be amongst these young folks and my interesting co-judges. I do confess that I come out of each session (definitely not a walk in the park!) having learnt more than what I have contributed besides having a lot of fun! Go take a look at the website and you will know what I mean! Better still vote for the remaining contestants and aim to compete in the next season if you are one of those who are after an MBA!

In one of the episodes of the MBA Challenge (The Active Channel biz plan – Episode 3), the judges me included came down on the contestants hard for not demonstrating ‘leadership’ in a group situation which goes without saying, is a key attribute of a business leader and for what an MBA stands for. Leadership need not just be linked to a position – a person does not need to be a designated team leader to demonstrate leadership qualities. Leadership can be demonstrated by an individual contributor as well. This core trait shows up because of some specific skills – subject matter expertise, communication skills or just the innate ability of an individual to get people in the team to participate, collaborate and contribute irrespective of their competencies. While doing so a ‘leader’ demonstrates the ability to guide the discussion to its intended conclusion rather than have everyone rambling on endlessly!

Talking about rambling endlessly brings me to the common sight of certain people hogging air-time and not really communicating meaningful substance. Their belief is in equating visibility to importance. This is hardly so! The audience in every possible forum is intelligent and educated to decipher substance from baloney! In today’s connected world, where news travels fast the results can be catastrophic!

In some of the elimination related discussions and deliberations at the show and the Facebook entries, I chanced upon selfless leadership – the ‘servant-leader’ model. The willingness of the leader to set aside personal needs and wants in seeking the greatest good for others, in accomplishing through others rather than seeking personal wins. I have also read about beliefs where the model ‘super leader’ is expected to know where he needs to go and how to get there! They should then be able to communicate with and convince their teams with adequate passion and conviction. Both these concepts could be real and there could be individuals who successfully live out these roles. However like in other instances, I will advise reader discretion and will recommend that these concepts be viewed in the right perspective keeping ‘real world’ workplaces, businesses and circumstances in mind!

The real world has an incredible scarcity of leaders who ‘do-not’ have any personal ‘needs and wants’. These need not be financial or even material! I just find it hard to perceive a leader being successful in leading a team across the line without any personal skin in the game at all! On the contrary, I would call it a risk in hiring or nominating a leader who has no motivation of a personal gain at all and is purely ‘serving’ the team by leading them! To me the servant leader is a relevant philosophy with a specific place in the leadership doctrine but not wholly relevant on a practical plane at least in today’s world gone crazy!

Next, the leader who knows where to go and how to get there… concept wise okay but I question how realistic this is in today’s context?? At work I mostly face management challenges that are mostly multi dimensional in nature. Solving or even addressing these situations by a ‘generalist’ leader or one with a single core skill is virtually impossible! Yes, the leader should be able to set directions towards a ‘landing zone’ in terms of outcome expectations but can hardly do every thing else to take the team to the desired outcome by himself!

Good leader’s build their teams with great people! When faced with a situation, they get these smart guys who ‘get it’ & posses different core competencies and expertise around a table, define the situation, the end goal and then pretend to be the dumbest person in the room! Almost without exceptions, the leader asks great questions, solicits involvement and opinions from everyone on the table (the broader the skills mix the more rounded the discussion & the cumulative opinion) and ensures that the discussion stays on track. These leaders are great at timing their own entry and exit from the group discussion. They do not hog air time, prefer to be great listeners instead! In almost every instance they demonstrate immaculate timing in closing the meeting. They successfully consolidate, summarize and direct the actions that evolve from the ‘session’ that will likely address the required end goal. So you see – the savvy leader of today did not exactly know where to go and definitely did not know how to get there, but leveraged his team members to determine the possible answers.

Leadership when the Chips are Down!

2009-01-05T22:04:00.000-08:00

The economic abyss that we are all in will eventually level off just like the 18 recessions and the 3 depressions that have come and gone in the last 100 years!! It will take some time though! As organizations face persistent uncertainty and the necessity to adapt to rapidly fluctuating fiscal and monetary situations, leaders are facing some truly exciting time to demonstrate their core abilities or the lack of it!!! Organizations that are used to regular home runs will also not be spared not to mention the big names which have already sunk in the dark choppy waters in 2008!.
This ‘negative’ shift in paradigm will impact employees, customer loyalty, security, budgets and everyday organizational decisions. As strange as it may sound, it is far easier to find leaders who know how to cope with success rather than those who can cope with success AND failure alike and still triumph!! Knowing how to lead during these extended times of uncertainty can help organizations maintain their leadership advantage, weather the immediate storms, and emerge stronger in the process.

Make ‘Caring’ People Decisions

Downturns normally herald missed revenue, margin and productivity goals. As organizations review their performance and ability to perform given these circumstances, leaders are often tempted to scale down or eliminate employees and employee development initiatives.
While this may be necessary (not that I absolutely subscribe to them outside of sheer practicality), utmost care must be taken to communicate and implement the decision in a way that will still reinforce the organization’s commitment to its workforce. If done poorly, it may seem like a “panic attack” to the workforce and create a self-reinforcing cycle that loosens the bonds of loyalty across the business.
Poor or un-weighed decisions at this stage can very adversely impact immediate priorities and have larger long term ramifications that the immediate gratifications that these actions were intended to serve not to mention the dent to the organization’s credo that these actions often deliver.
It is crucial to bear in mind that these dark clouds will ultimately go away – the way in which the organizations and its leaders have dealt with this period will largely determine how strongly the organization shines when the sun comes out!!!

Lead Well in Tough Times

As I have repeatedly said, leadership is about rallying people behind shared vision, mission, and goals through awareness, collaboration, accountability and empowerment. It is about connecting human action with specific objectives and aligning people and groups to work together toward those ends.
In the midst of circumstances that spell fear, uncertainty and doubt leaders are responsible to ensure calmness while providing clear guidance and directions to the teams that they lead. They are responsible for keeping the team focused on its immediate short-medium, term objectives while making them aware of the changing circumstances which might need them to re-evaluate the mode of attaining the goals that they seek and flag any associated risks.
The leader’s ability to generate a collective feeling of existence and accomplishment within the team is crucial!

Align Talent base to Business Strategy

Organizations need to strengthen the link between its business strategy and its talent pools. The commander of the ship needs to consider: are short-term commitments vulnerable due to lack of talent to help achieve core strategies? Are the right people in the critical roles, how are they being retained?
Leaders need to focus their teams to address the short-mid term exigencies. The status quo questioned, reviewed while a new set of behaviors need to be cultured, monitored, and reinforced. All of this is best done through collaboration rather than a autocratic mandate. Collaboration drives broader buy-in, larger ownership and better execution
The resurrection might call for attainment of multiple targets. This will demand a sense of balance. People will need to be explained the ‘Why’ and encouraged to find ways to determine how their goals can be connected without the need for a binary choice. Most leader5s and teams struggle with this balance. While there is no perfect solution, but the desire to question status quo, adopting a change in how things are while aiming for the best possible solution for the current situation sounds pretty darn good to me!
If a restructure or a reduction in force is absolutely needed, set progressive expectations and ensure that the remaining workforce is re-engaged. Cutbacks create a sense of helplessness in the organization. Leaders need to acknowledge the associated pain and frustration and ask teams what they believe are the top priorities at this time. Effective leaders will always take steps to ensure that the newly created groups become effective teams in the new setting and do not just consider themselves as “survivors.”

Treat your Employees and Customers right

Know your people very well! Tough times (as goes the adage) bring out the best in many people. High-potential staffers and teams may be ready to step up sooner than expected. This is a time to help people learn from experience, to let the capable ones soar! This is the time to share the best practices that demonstrate the depth of the talent already on board!
Ensure that top performers are retained at all cost. Besides providing the results, they are also capable of setting and driving the right attitude, mood and tone across the whole organization. Get closer to these people and show your ‘love and support’ for what they are doing.
Take customer loyalty very seriously! Don’t just respond to customer expectations; find out proactive ways to anticipate what the customer wants as the environment, industry and markets change. Make these changes faster than anyone else. Accelerate the implementation by leveraging technology. Reinvent the depth and breadth of relationship with top customers before your competitor does it!

Overdo the Communication bit

There is a reason why we have two ears and one mouth. Spend twice the time listening rather than talking. By the way do not do both at the same time! These times require leaders to listen to their teams and provide them the right guidance, advice, directions or inspiration. Leaders need to use every tool in the bag to accomplish this.
Communicate business challenges, the gaps and the associated risks with absolute candor. It is crucial to communicate even when there is nothing to communicate. This helps employees realize that communication channels have stayed open.
Create timely forums to host collaborative discussions regarding the organization your company wants to be in say three years from now and what needs to be done right now to attain that. An exercise of this nature helps disperse hope, a sense of belonging and a shared future within the employees. Use these forums to share demonstrated best practices regarding employee collaboration, customer satisfaction, employee driven initiatives, skills development, workplace and work force efficiencies etc.
State the key takeaways, the individual accountabilities and the follow up actions. Rally support for the initiative. Ask people what assistance they need to deliver what is expected of them.

Set a GPS for the Future

An organization becomes what its people and the leaders guide it to be. When there is proper alignment between the business strategy that the organization wants to drive and the internal or outsourced
Talent that it has access to, when the organization and its leaders relate well to employees and customers and when the leader practices honest, clear and open communication, the organizations can take on uncertain circumstances, weather the macro economic storms and consequently create a brighter and fundamentally stronger future as the dust begins to settle!t.

Organizational IQ

2008-12-15T03:46:00.000-08:00

What is your organization's IQ (intelligence quotient) ? By this I do not mean how smart it is, but how aware it is and how it operates in its own, unique environment. Do customers find it easy or difficult to do business with your organization? What type of feedback does your company receive from its business partners? What about you? Do you find it easy to get things done within your organization or does everything simply seem more difficult than it needs to be?

The concept¹ of organizational IQ traces back to research work done at Stanford University and is defined as a measure of how organizations assimilate information and put together their decision and information architectures. Much like a personal psychological IQ, an organizational IQ relates to how an organization can take in information, process it, makes decisions based upon that and then put those decisions into action. However, a company therefore regarded as smart or dominant in their particular market segment does not necessarily have a high organizational IQ.

I once worked for a small start-up that focused on optical character recognition technology based scanners. Their one and only product scanned typed paper pages, converted the words into text streams that were then fed into word processing software or databases. The productivity savings for law firms, hospitals, government agencies and just about anyone who had to re-type a lot of paper documents into computer systems was significant and made the product very successful. The company had a gifted technical leader and generally the core technology of the firm was considered leading edge at the time I joined them. The management style of this company, however, was very centralized and a bit parochial. People outside of the headquarters location were treated as “doers” (e.g. go get the order, go do the repair) rather than as team members. It was surprising, even after factoring in that it was a start-up, that the product marketing manager was also the marketing communications manager and the events manager and the technical publications manager. Even if she had wanted to, she didn’t have enough time left in her schedule to seek out any input from the field or to review what we voluntarily chose to send her. There was little to no collaboration between HQ and the field. The executive team rarely met with customers, analysts or the trade media, as they were more concerned with the engineering road map. Most of their external relationships went no further than a few professors at the renowned engineering university that the chief technology officer had graduated from.

These factors led to a near absence of being in touch with what the market wanted and market shift in packaging of OCR scanners that would soon have a large impact on our business. Two competitors introduced smaller desktop scanners with the ability to easily support more type styles at a lower price, as they standardized their scanning engines on commodity PC class chip sets. All at once, we had competitive offerings that were more easily connected to the rapidly growing base of PCs being adopted for the first time by customers, while also being less expensive and more versatile than our company’s product. To make matters worse, our company failed to react to the new competition, refusing to supply the field sales and SE personnel with competitive analyses for these new products or to suggest selling strategies designed to protect our market share until we could respond. The engineering leadership of the firm even dismissed the competitive desktop models as a “passing fad”. In the end, my employer lost significant market share and ran out of cash before they were able to bring a new product to market. They subsequently went out of business.

In this situation, the company had no functioning process in place to ensure sufficient awareness of external information such as changing market preferences, the shift of word processing from mini-computers to desktop PCs and threatening competitive movements. Having external information awareness is a critical element of an organization’s IQ. A company cannot possibly expect to be able to react to changing events if they do not know that events are indeed changing. Yet, we see numerous examples of companies with stove-piped or blocked communication channels lose growth momentum and market share – or sometimes go out of business altogether – because their internal structure, process or culture prevented them from seeing “the big picture” in their market.

In addition to external information awareness, it is critical for an organization to then disseminate or share that information. Information has no value unless it is shared with the people who need it. Many of us have encountered at least one person in our careers that initially seemed to be the smart “go-to” person that knew everything. Unfortunately these people sometimes turn out to be information hoarders that hurt the organization more by holding back useful knowledge instead of proactively sharing it with others that could benefit from it. I worked with an IT manager many years ago that was the proverbial “keeper of the keys” in terms of any knowledge about IT systems, processes, operations, forthcoming IT initiatives, etc. He bathed in the glory of being the only one who knew what was going on with our IT systems. Finding out the most basic information about scheduled down times, desktop rollouts, application fixes and even printer network path names was difficult. As a result, line managers invested time and budget into systems that were inexplicably taken offline or retired, costs were duplicated when the field offices bought low-value assets like laptops not knowing the IT manager had a room full of them that he had told no one about. As the company grew (I sometimes wondered how!) the “drag effect” he created became intolerable and his behaviour was called into question and he was eventually fired. The region I worked in, however, had a lot of catching up to do as compared to the other international regions where the IT leadership had been open, sharing and highly collaborative at both a strategic planning and tactical execution level to help drive the business forward.

Assuming an organization does have external information awareness and also shares the information that it gathers, it still needs to be able to process that information to make meaningful and effective decisions to run the business. The decision architecture of a company has a lot to do with its culture. Organizational culture will often determine whether decision-making authority or empowerment is highly centralized, entrusted to the people with the best first-hand knowledge to make the decisions or whether it lands somewhere between these two scenarios. An effective decision architecture allows people who have the relevant information to act on it without having to waste time relaying information up and down the hierarchy². If executive management is involved in deciding tactical issues such as product names, launch dates, where the 100% Club trip will be held and the like, then they are not doing their jobs. Their primary role is to develop a vision and strategy for the company and to develop the organization’s overall ability to execute to that plan. Micromanaging disempowers people and eventually leads to a breakdown in accountability within middle management and their teams and devalues the roles of people who really ought to be making those decisions. In many cases, good people leave under these conditions. Companies with poor decision making structures and practices tend to then suffer from not only attrition and the costs that go with it, but also an inability to react quickly to changing market conditions. As the second half of 2008 has shown us, things can change rapidly – very rapidly.

If an organization is able to remain aware of what is happening externally, share that information with all relevant team members and then make decisions efficiently, then they are likely to be in a position to focus on their core business objectives. Without any of the preceding three conditions being achieved, focusing becomes difficult as an organization struggles with incomplete information, the inability to collaborate across teams and uncertainty over who should make decisions in reaction to changes or better yet, in anticipation of them. With the conditions set for increased organizational focus, it becomes easier for teams to prioritize, to avoid distractions driven by process ambiguity and to become more decisive in the face of changing market conditions.

The final principle of organizational IQ is continuous innovation. The ability to constantly examine and reinvent products, services and processes is a hallmark of successful companies. McDonald’s expansion into breakfast foods, Nike’s success in expanding their market share with teens, tweens and Generation Y consumers through their “design-your-own shoe” NikeID offering and Toyota’s similar “design-your-own-car” Scion product line are examples of established companies that seek to listen to the market and reinvent themselves. These types of companies tend to proactively disrupt their established markets to either expand them or reinvigorate growth and profitability within them.

A company that is able to orchestrate external information awareness, information sharing, effective decision making , organizational focus and continuous innovation is likely to achieve a high organizational IQ. Research studies at Stanford University³ have shown that organizational IQ is a key success factor for businesses. This research, which studied hundreds of companies during the 1980s and 1990s showed that organizations which exhibited high organizational IQ had higher, sustained growth rates than those who did not. Many of the firms which were measured to have low organizational IQ and did nothing about it went out of business or were eventually acquired by stronger companies.

Clearly, all of us would like to work in an environment where there is high organizational IQ. Organizations with these characteristics tend to be market leaders that succeed in reinvesting in their operations and people, thereby creating broader career opportunities for their team members. All of us have an opportunity to contribute to the five principles of external information awareness, information sharing, decision-making, focus and continuous innovation. We can approach this through shaping the culture of our organizations and through building and using systems and processes that help to facilitate it. A lot of it starts with basic communication skills....becoming an effective listener and then sharing information in a collaborative sense to make the team more effective. Unlike an individual’s psychological IQ, which experts say can only be increased to a limited extent in adulthood, an organizational IQ can be increased to a great extent and more quickly. As you think about your own employer, or perhaps a prospective one, assessing and contributing to their organizational IQ is perhaps one of the greatest opportunities you will have with them. Doing your own assessment of your organization’s IQ, or perhaps leading one with your team, is a good place to start.

¹ = Haim Mendelson and Johannes Ziegler in their book Survival of the Smartest

² = Ibid

³ = Ibid

This blog is posted by: Dennis Rose

WYSIWYG – The Art of Perfect Execution!

2008-11-30T23:36:00.000-08:00

Those of you who like me saw the early days of the Personal Computer age would recollect the phrase WYSIWYG (“What You See Is What You Get”) - when the computer monitor screen started supporting serious graphics display capabilities. When the image on the monitor was close enough to the quality of the printout that the printer spewed out when you hit the print button! Wow! Still considered a milestone in the history of personal computing!

Technically speaking ‘WYSIWYG’ actually symbolizes all innovations, inventions, progressions and discoveries that have radically impacted our world, our civilization, our lives and everything it holds! It also represents an intrinsic character that every successful individual represents. It is called the power of Visualization – What you SEE is What you GET!

From Rosa Parks to Martin Luther King to Barrack Obama is an incredible journey that was based on rights, equality, freedom and change. It started with someone visualizing about what the world ought to be rather than accept it as it is – a small step was taken. Over the years the vision broadened taking into its fold other aspirations, hopes and dreams of many more people. The visual grew in scale and the impact feeding off the millions of people whose lives it touched finally peaked on an early November day when history was rewritten as America elected its new President!

I enjoy many sports and do so because participating or even just watching top class sportspeople fires me up physically and emotionally! I have often read and observed these greats – seen them focus on the incredible power of Visualization. I have seen what their coaches take them through as they help them stay relevant in the highest levels of the game!

Whether it is golf, tennis or other categories (especially individual sports), watch the intense gaze of these top pros between strokes, as they go though their motions or during a game break. Their eyes are focused but the gaze seems to be far away – looking at nothing, totally insulated from whatever surrounds them! They are actually mentally playing out their next moves on a high res mental video screen over and over! Seeing exactly what they are going to do next, soaking in it, visualizing it – then they take every conscious thought off their minds and execute that mental video! Sure enough the result is quite close to what they visualized if not better! I have tried this myself when playing and depending on my preparedness and commitment, I sometimes do get the result!

Why sometimes? Why not always? The key to successful visual results is “Preparedness”. Quite obvious, right? Trust me, I have come across many instances where I have seen trained professionals going out into execution mode without adequate preparedness … now that does not work, regardless of your caliber!

So, here is how I see the buildup whether at the workplace or in the playing field. Dare to dream in the area of your interest and set some personal goals that you are totally committed to (the more audacious, the better as long as they are practical). Next, know the rules of the game (a.k.a the Standard Operating Procedure within organizations), employee handbooks and functional operating guidelines are the normal sources – check! This is crucial but most people ignore it or do not spend enough time on. Being an absolute master of the rules will allow you to take advantage of the rules or lack of it while being fully aware of the downside.

Next totally absorb the Core Base skills required to be successful in the position that you are in and then seek out the Incremental Skills that will make a difference to your performance in – this is where you start to get ahead of the pack. While the Core Skills are usually documented and relatively easy to build, the Incremental Skills are not! Reason why most people are quite weak in this department! Seeking internal and external mentors, wide networking and constant referencing – a healthy reading habit is a wonderful tool are some options available to you. Most often I have noticed that top performers are very comfortable in discussing and expressing their views in topics way outside of their principal areas of competency! On the contrary the average player is quite limited even in what should be supposedly their zone of competency.

Follow this with very hard work (no shortcuts here!) regardless of your talent and thoroughly practice the skills you have acquired. Pitch it in every conceivable situation and see how you do, socializing this learning with like minded friends, colleagues and family is one way to get it done. I can literally hear you say – “Easily said … where is the time or the opportunity?” Totally agree, but you need to make both available if you win at this game!

The Power of Visualization will only work when your inner self is totally confident that you can faultlessly deliver what you have learnt. The only way to make this possible is when you physically repeat the action over and over again – be it presenting to a customer, writing a document, driving a golf ball down the fairway or executing a slick cross court volley. Relentless practice will make your mind and body absolutely rehearsed and comfortable in delivering the desired outcome. Practicing over and over will also convince your inner being that you can do it! It gives the power to the mind to play the video of perfect execution picking up pieces from the hard work it saw you do while you were building and rehearsing the skill.

What unfolds next is brilliant – you are there preparing to do what you are supposed to, eyes (customers, colleagues, friends, adversaries) watching you. You know your stuff and are fully prepared with countless hours of learning and practice. Now play the mental video .. visualize the end result clearly – you have delivered a brilliant performance, everyone is blown away by what you have done, profusely congratulating or applauding you... Next, take every other restraining thought off your head and execute. You have done it…..

I am doing the same here, visualizing that you will have benefited from the perspective of this post. I am sure you have!

Art of Tequila @ Work and Play: Lick – Slam – Suck!

2008-11-30T23:28:00.000-08:00

Without wanting to sound too presumptuous, I think most people slam Tequila as a symbolic tool to celebrate success, demonstrate machismo (or the female version of the act – whatever its called) and even as a means to get that quick ‘headiness’ prior to heading for the dance floor!

Even at the workplace the same pattern follows. Folks, very often high achievers start at new organizations or in new roles within their current organization, slam down a snifter of high adrenaline and head out to the dance floor without looking out for oncoming traffic. Casualties are commonplace! Read on and I will show you how the Art of Tequila showed me an important trail to Workplace and Leadership success!

Mid November, I was in the midst of this 2000 mile road trip up the California coast with a couple of pals – we call it the “Wild Hoggers’ Drive”. Midway, we chanced upon this Mexican cantina nestled within the gorgeous rolling hills of Carmel (for the Clint Eastwood fans, he was the mayor of this city (Population: 45,000) for a while, and also sits on the board of the Pebble Beach Golf facility not too far away.

Baja Cantina. 7166 Carmel Valley Road. Carmel. CA 93923
http://www.bajacantinacarmel.com/index.html
(Manager: Ian Penniman. Look him up if you are there, he is quite a character!)

Besides gorging on the fantastic Mexican fare of succulent meats on the sizzler, freshly toasted tortillas, gorgeous burritos and enchiladas and my personal favorite, the Chimichanga, I actually got an impromptu lesson on the art of Tequila appreciation. So here goes…

Tequila according to the Wiki…
Tequila is an agave-based spirit made in the area surrounding Tequila, 65 kilometres in the northwest of Guadalajara and in the highlands (Los Altos) of the western Mexican state of Jalisco. Tequila is most often made at a 38–40% alcohol content (76–80 proof), but there are more potent types of tequila produced with 43–46% alcohol content (86–92 proof). It is a common misconception that tequila is fermented from cactus. Agaves and cacti are unrelated. The Aztec had previously made a fermented beverage from the agave plant, which they called Octli. When the Spanish conquistadors ran out of their own brandy, they began to distill this agave drink to produce North America's first indigenous distilled spirit. The tequila that is popular today was first mass-produced in the early 1800s in Guadalajara, Mexico.
There are two basic categories of tequila: Mixtos and 100% Agave. Mixtos use up to 49% of other sugars in the fermentation process, with Agave taking up the remainder. Agave sugar is fructose-based, and is easier for the human body to break down. Mixtos use both glucose and fructose sugars.
With 100% agave tequila, Tequila Blanco is harsher with the bold flavors of the distilled agave up front, while Reposado and Añejo are smoother, subtler, and more complex. As with other spirits that are aged in casks, tequila takes on the flavors of the wood, while the harshness of the alcohol mellows.

A Dummy’s Guide to Drinking the Potion @ Play and Work
Play First….
Where it comes from, Mexico, tequila is drunk straight, without salt and lime. In the most popular style of consumption, a single shot of tequila is often served with salt and a slice of lime, called "tequila cruda" and follows the "Lick-Slam-Suck" routine. The drinker moistens the back of their hand below the index finger (usually by licking) and pours on the salt. The salt is then licked off the hand, the tequila is then slammed down the throat and the fruit slice is quickly sucked. It is common for groups of drinkers to do this simultaneously. The salt lessens the "burn" of the tequila and the sour lime fruit balances and enhances the flavor. DO NOT DO THIS if you are drinking higher-quality categories though, 100% agave tequila with salt and lime is likely to remove much of the flavor.
When served neat (without any additional ingredients), tequila is most often served in a narrow shot glass called a caballito ("Little Horse" in Spanish). The margarita glass, rimmed with salt, sugar, or plain, is a staple for the entire tequila/fruit mixed drink genre, including the margarita itself.
Tequila – Meal Combination
Tequila is commonly bottled in three to five categories:
Tequila Blanco ("white") or Tequila Plata ("silver") or Tequila Oro (“gold) – white spirit, un-aged and bottled or stored immediately after distillation, or aged less than two months in oak barrels. Jose Cuervo (the brand that you have most likely consumed) is a good example and the one that is mostly popular with you – usually consumed as a cocktail or a pre dinner drink
Tequila Reposado ("rested") – aged a minimum of two months, but less than a year in oak barrels. Usually served with Mains. I tried out the Cabo Wabo from Sammy Hagar’s (of Van Halen fame) distillery and actually fancied it more than his music!. http://www.cabowabo.com/
Tequila Añejo ("aged" or "vintage") and Extra añejo ("extra aged" or "ultra aged") – aged between 1-3 years in oak barrels. This is a post dinner ‘cognac’ category fare . My restaurant host strongly recommended Don Julio 1942 (Premium vatted – 5 years from a numbered bottle. No less!) to titillate my taste buds and give me that warm settling post meal feeling which it did incredibly well! http://www.tequila.net/tequila_reviews/anejos/don_julio_1942_anejo.html

Now about Work…
Work-life is not any different. As you get into a new organization or a new role…
· Measure up the environment first and understand the moving pieces, the priorities, the influencers and the personalities. Do not rush to the proverbial “dance floor” first. Instead determine the areas where you can immediately add value, seek buy-in from the primary stakeholders – be comfortable in your base and then ‘execute’ – similar to the process of downing the Tequila Blanco! Make sure that you “lick the salt” to prepare the environment and level off the intensity of the new actions and changes that you will likely enforce. Next “slam” it in and get into the execution mode with total commitment and intensity – if change is involved it needs to be introduced quickly, gradual change are fraught with risks. Finally “suck” in the results of your execution (like the sour lime you are meant to suck after downing the potion) to balance the outcome and enhance the flavor of the results. Constant communication with the rest of the team and candid feedback on what is working, what is not and what adjustments to the plan are being made and why are great flavor enhancers.

· As you cement your initial wins and move to the next hierarchical levels, your strategy should be more in line with the Tequila Reposado. You are more seasoned and so are your actions – you start to build longer term plans, a very strong team, determine what you need to delegate and what cannot happen if you do not do it. All this while watching the near term executions that you have delegated to the next level, like a hawk – no misses here! As your successes line up, broaden up your stakeholder support. You are the primary conduit for your group to the rest of the organization – add value at both ends.

· The next level is the Tequila Anejo – you have now attained ‘vintage’ status in your role – you develop the longer term strategy for your unit that will eventually impact the broader organization, you grow your people into bigger positions with broader responsibilities and mandatorily build succession plans at all levels. You start planning your move to the next level while being fully committed in leaving you unit better than when you took it on!
Other Tequila Trivia:
· There are over 100 distilleries making over six hundred brands of tequila in Mexico
· Over 2,000 Tequila brand names have been registered. Due to this, each bottle of tequila contains a serial number depicting which distillery the tequila was brewed and bottled in. Since there are only so many distilleries, multiple brands of tequila come from the same place.
· A one-liter bottle of limited-edition premium tequila was sold for $225,000 in July 2006 in Tequila, Jalisco, by the company Tequila Ley 925. The bottle is a two-kilo display of platinum and gold. The manufacturer has received the Certificate from Guinness World Records for the most expensive bottle of liquor ever sold.
· In 2008, Mexican scientists discovered a method to transform 80-proof (40% alcohol) tequila into diamonds. This process requires heating the tequila to over 800 degrees C (1,400 degrees F) to vaporize the tequila. The tequila particles are then cooled and settled upon steel or silicon trays in an even, pure layer and you have them … diamonds!
· Mel Gibson's anti-Semitic outburst when arrested for drunk driving was attributed to tequila consumption.
· Sammy Hagar, rock star (singer of the bar anthem "Mas Tequila") and owner of Cabo Wabo Tequila described tequila's stigma as, "the stuff that you go, 'I will never drink that as long as I live,' and you have gotten sick in college on rot-gut tequila." This image of tequila as the instigator of particularly egregious intoxication and hangovers is pervasive.
· In music, singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette wrote an ode to tequila entitled "On The Tequila" for the Flavors of Entanglement sessions, and says tequila has helped her balance things out in her life.
· In the United States, National Tequila Day is July 24.
Wonderful education and as always my pleasure to share this with you budding Tequila connoisseurs! Enough said … Viva La Mexico!

The End Game of Leadership – Who owns it?

2008-11-03T00:59:00.000-08:00

I was chatting with a friend recently who is treading a new path through a set of interesting initiatives, challenging the conventions of ‘How things can be?’ rather than ‘How things are’.
· I was chatting with a friend recently who is treading a new path through a set of interesting initiatives, challenging the conventions of ‘How things can be?’ rather than ‘How things are’. One thought led to another and he gave me his belief on how he views the actions of a leader to evolve

· He says, that the leader is responsible for defining the vision. In doing so he challenges conventions, thinks outside of the box, morphs past success ‘methodologies’ to suit the present circumstances and most of all, knows how to dream!

· Defining the vision is quite easy, what follows is way difficult …. structuring and articulating the vision! Giving it shape and spell it out in words that are understood by all involved. Every successful vision ever put into action has had a very common thread .. simplicity! If a vision starts off by being hard to understand, the articulation, the planning and the implementation that will follow will be hard to understand as well. The result, you guessed it right .. hard to understand!!!

· Articulation of the vision calls for ‘empathy’ – seeking other people’s perspective, their views, their circumstances and their relevance to the vision. Irrespective of the skills and abilities of the leader, he or she does not know it all! Even if she does, her thoughts & experience represent her ‘nuclear’ perspective based on her personality and her surroundings.

· I have seen good leaders consider the result of their contribution (and the efficacy of their vision) by ‘impact’ and ‘scale’ they deliver to their team’s results over the long term. ‘Impact’ created by examining and consolidating as many variable attributes to a vision in a logical manner as possible and ‘Scale’ created by broadening of the scope of the vision so that the vision touches as large a macrocosm as possible over extended time periods.

· Next comes implementation and execution and this is where my friend laid out a very different view that he subscribes to – and I see his point. He believes that very often leaders spend too little time in conceiving the vision and articulating it. They are way to keen to get into executing the vision!! Eager to close off the campaign, roll out the score card on the table as quickly as possible and start congratulating all involved. In the process they garner short term tactical results and fail to milk the ‘Impact’ and ‘Scale’ of the vision.

· Instead how would it be if the leader patiently carves the vision, articulates it expertly to his team making it as simple as possible. He then empathizes with and openly solicits his people’s feedback selectively but ensuring that as many conceivable variables are covered. The leader then constructs the unique nuances that are identified through the ‘empathy & feedback’ process into the fabric of the vision, making it optimal, powerful and relevant.

· Every member of his team now understands the vision, knows that it has been examined and tested as robustly as practical, believes in it and supports it from their mental core. The leader then steps away and watches his team (led by the next tier leaders) drive the execution rather than leading the execution himself! He takes in the bigger picture, stays on top of the results and makes modifications and tweaks where needed

· So why will the leader be confident that his team will pull it off? It is because he himself believes in the vision, he believes in the process through which the vision was crafted and he believes in his people. He believes that by trusting the implementation to them, the true impact and scale of the vision will be realized!

· What about the people? They trust their leader’s ability, his candor, his fairness, credibility and integrity. In the back of their minds, they know that there is an outside chance that their leader’s and their own collective wisdom might prove incorrect and the desired results might fall thru. These thoughts are however far out weighed by the belief that the direction their leader has shown will deliver the desired results on a sustainable basis and represents their collective best interest. They execute in earnest and most often good results follow…

· It is not surprising that good leaders without fail attribute the success of a campaign to their teams while carrying the heat of failure on their able shoulders…

Networking – Getting it Right!

2008-10-26T01:33:00.000-07:00

Metcalf’s Law (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metcalf) fascinates me. It states that the value of a telecommunications network is proportional to the square of the number of connected users of the system (n²).

Metcalf’s Law (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metcalf) fascinates me. It states that the value of a telecommunications network is proportional to the square of the number of connected users of the system (n²). Attributed to Robert Metcalfe in regard to Ethernet, (geek speak for a common form of computer network) Metcalfe’s law characterizes many of the network effects of communication technologies and networks such as the Internet, social networking, and the World Wide Web. Boy, are these networks powerful!!!!!
The concept, expectation and impact of networking have changed dramatically as the world and the means for networking have evolved. From an individual engagement involving two people that serves mutual needs – the networking scope has scaled to involve communities seeking similar goals and aspirations. These ubiquitous networks deliver different levels of efficiency and are being used to extract varied levels of value. The evolution of supportive, easy to use technology has played a big role here!
I do not associate Networking with financial gains alone. I have seen friends closely associated with the church, healthcare and other humanitarian pursuits where networking (or Support Groups) get people with similar psychological and physical challenges together to bond, share and support each other. These are incredible efforts and underline the selflessness of the people who organize these groups and invest their time to help others.
With Networking becoming a core skill in every individual’s profit and non-profit go to market model, differentiation in how you network is crucial. So here are 10 tips that I have picked up from my time at work – I am not the Oracle from the mountains, these are lessons that I have either triumphed or suffered for…

Understand who you are? Analyze your strengths and weaknesses – no one is perfect! Then place your best foot forward judging the circumstances of the engagement.
Treat people with respect and grace in every instance irrespective of the level of your familiarity. An unassuming exterior often sheaths very capable personalities within
Assume a longer term goal from the relationship – do not focus on instant gratifications. Just like you would be forming an opinion about the individual you are dealing with so would the other. Let the engagement evolve rather than force it..
Keep every relationship ‘alive’ even after the immediate objective is served. Many a great opportunity of a larger mutual leverage is lost because the people involved took a short term perspective of the relation
Make an impact on people when you meet them, especially for the first time at gatherings – they should remember you even after you have moved on! Appropriate compliments, graciousness, eye contact, intelligent questions or observations and great listening skills will be your check list., ‘Charisma’ by the way is often overrated!
Make a conscious effort to make people comfortable in your presence – refer to the checklist above. Watch out for a shifting gaze, a nervous laugh or extended silence from the other person as tell tale signs of discomfort!
Be a fabulous listener – there is a reason why you have two ears and one mouth (boy, do most of us struggle!). A superior listener gathers far more from a conversation than someone with an over eagerness to speak. Besides, good listening skills add balance to an engagement and provides an even keel for a conversation
Absorb the other person’s point of view and ask intelligent questions during your interaction, be it in person or electronic (emails, social networking sites etc)
Refer people you know to other people you know – if you promote others, they will promote you. Keep compatibility and common interest in mind though while facilitating these introductions
Come out of each engagement making the other person feeling generally optimistic, more self aware and possibly knowledgeable than before they met you

I look forward to all of you building valuable, fulfilling, engaging and incredibly rewarding networks in every sphere of your lives..

First Among Equals: Effort or Attainment

2008-10-24T02:28:00.000-07:00

I have mentioned this in one of my previous posts … I do not cease to be impressed by the kids these days. They are intuitive, articulate and down right smart!

. My 12 year daughter and I are out on our scouting/hiking trail over the weekend, the Singapore sun was beating down on us but fortunately the breeze was holding – so it was okay! Before she could get into one of her teen tantrums on ‘how the weather sucks’, I decided to engage her in conversation. She loves a spirited chat and I reckoned it was the best way to keep her mind off the heat!

. “What is more important, effort or attainment?”, she blurted out. She went on to say that her projects in school were being graded on those two parameters. I chided her on what she thought was more important and she said, “effort definitely. If the effort is in place, attainment will follow.” What better way to set expectations with the term results due just round the corner!

. I reasoned with her but did finally agree that in a learning environment, I would rate ‘effort’ higher than the immediate ‘attainment’ at least in the very short term. Very often institutions of learning are too focused on grades rather than the actual learning process. This makes the whole process very mechanical and sadly exposes students to developing that behavior I absolutely dread in the workplace – “doing without understanding why they are doing what they are doing”! (See my other post on this topic). Consequently, I also agree that with the right level of effort, intellect and disciplined application, attainment is bound to eventually show up.

. In my career, I have faced similar dilemma while judging employee productivity, performance and development. I have seen many ways in which performance is mapped and measured. While the usual ratings – Top, Strong, Solid, Needs Development & Manage Out or derivatives of these are quite common, I have in instances used a broader framework in judging employees within these categories i.e. the ‘What’ and the ‘How’.

. The ‘What’ actually alludes to the ‘Attainment’ while the ‘How’ alludes to the ‘Effort’ that my daughter was talking about. Usually the Top and the Manage Out categories are ‘absolute categories’ while the other three intermediate categories have a ‘What’ and ‘How’ flavor i.e. we rate the individual’s performance with an emphasis on ‘What’ results he achieved and ‘How’ the result was achieved.

. In a typical workplace, What and How are both crucial but considering the fact that the primary goal of the business is to generate shareholder value – the What (Attainment) shows up as the first among equals!

. Before we get too ahead of ourselves, the How (Effort or the right kind of Effort) is not far behind! Results at any cost where the How defies the prevailing strictures and governance is definitely a no-no with definite longer term ramifications. We are all seeing plenty of these instances in the midst of the current financial crisis!!!

. So we rounded off the conversation unanimously agreeing that school might be a better place for learning and experimentation where ‘Effort’ deserves a slight advantage. Workplace on the other hand is far more exacting, demanding and impatient. Experimentation is fine and even encouraged in some places but needs to be maturely managed so that it is not at the expense of ‘Attainment’ of overall expected financial or operational results!

. As she flirted with another topic I just wanted to have a last word on the school before my daughter could forcibly move me on – ‘Just ensure that your grades show up good! ‘Effort’ wins when you are in a class session, but ‘Attainment’ sure comes tops on exam day – I am learning fast on how to set my expectations clear with this smart kid walking beside me – she gave me a quizzed look, but I bet she knows what I meant. Never too late!

Step by Step: How the Financial System’s Coffin was Nailed!

2008-10-16T02:11:00.000-07:00

In my conversations with people these days many quiz themselves on how a financial crisis of this dimension was conceived in the first place …. So here’s my attempt to piece the disaster together. I am not an economist by training, but will nonetheless try and build a layman’s model of what led to this doomsday!
. In my conversations with people these days many quiz themselves on how a financial crisis of this dimension was conceived in the first place …. So here’s my attempt to piece the disaster together. I am not an economist by training, but will nonetheless try and build a layman’s model of what led to this doomsday!

. Like any terminal illness, all this did not happen in a day, a week, month or even a year. Years of neglect, greed & improper governance were the root of the crisis. Lets take a peek…

. The financial world at the turn of the twenty first century created radically different trends with Asia generating massive surplus riding on the macroeconomic waves in China & India. The US on the other hand faced current account deficits despite being preceded by a Clinton era where the President actually turned around a deficit laden economy and balanced the budget before his term was over

. Despite the dodgy financial fundamentals in the US, the Bush government’s foreign policy was built around massive spending – a significant portion of which was linked to defense expenditure incurred in Afghanistan & Iraq

. Instead of Americans paying this bill, foreign borrowings (presumably the surplus from China) funded the spend while taxes were cut and interest rates were kept low at home– a surplus of cheap money was built for general consumption, falling into the hands of people, many of who did not know how to use it wisely!

. Stock, securities and real estate flourished and equity that was generated through asset appreciation related gains were reinvested in more of the same instruments and used for other forms of consumption, may of them needless (also called conspicuous consumption)

. The evolution of the ‘Free Market Economy’ in the US also radically changed innocuous financial instruments which I believe was built during the Clinton era to increase home ownership and labeled Collaterized Debt Obligations (CDO) into vicious financial tornadoes which coupled with sub prime mortgages extensive financial leverage practices and risk tolerance by established financial instruments broke the proverbial camel’s back in many places!!

. In parallel the excessive import related deficit of the current administration quickly eroded all the budget surplus benefits that the Clinton administration drove – the US dollar faced downward pressure and suddenly creditors both domestic and foreign had better options to route their funds

. Federal reserve had no choice whatsoever but to raise interest rates (despite a slowing economy) as the dollar fell and commodity prices rose driving an inflationary climate progressively

. As Interest rates rose, some of the sub prime mortgagees began to realize that the interest rate rise had suddenly turned their mortgage payments unaffordable. The snowball began small but grew rapidly and soon led to situations where lenders started revaluing the risk which in turn led to de-leveraging of assets!

. Large scale divesture of risky assets followed in increasingly illiquid markets while at the same time radical fall in asset valuations dramatically impacted balance sheets of very prominent establishments. The establishments had no choice but to raise capital till the money market ran dry as paranoia ran high amongst investors!!!

. Thus is the story so far as banks stop trusting each other and inter bank lending virtually stops – interest rate cuts do not help as the cash level in bank vaults continue to stay low (as the banks stop lending to each other) affecting both the individual and the corporation alike!

. The US administration has heeded the internal advisory and has stayed out of any direct involvement way too long – by the time Paulson, Bernanke and his cronies got involved it was too late! The bail-out plan that was prescribed by the Presidential decree was mired with conflicting opinions of why the common tax payer should bear the brunt of a trillion dollar rescue package needed to fix the greed and misdeeds of a section who have amassed massive wealth and are running scot free, still ‘very rich’!

. The financial community internally and externally lost all confidence – investment withdrawals and redemptions followed, causing the breakdown of financial systems worldwide and complete pandemonium!

. While the US government’s corrective policies have had scant impact with even the US arranged meeting of the G7 nations, the European Union’s follow up actions of injecting cash into their banking system and guaranteeing credit facilities have set the bank collaboration going freeing up the financial system and setting the world markets on an upswing!

. Still a long way to go before the tremors subside but any buck in the trend is welcome. Borrowing the lessons of greed (see my other Post), I hope the world will learn and end up being a better place going forward as we painfully navigate through the quagmire that is our own creation!

Greed is Good …. The Parable from Wall Street!

2008-10-10T02:36:00.000-07:00

It was in my freshman undergraduate year that I watched Oliver Stone’s ‘Wall Street’ and was thoroughly impressed by the ‘style’ of the ‘Street’ not to mention Michael Douglas’ Gordon Gekko character that personifies the summary and celebration of free market capitalism (“I am not talking about the regular Wall Street stiff, flying first class and being comfortable, I am talking liquid! Rich enough to own your own jet, rich enough not to waste time. 50, a 100 million a year.. a player!)

. The movie closes with Gekko ending up in prison but not before very successfully hammering down ‘Greed’ as a ‘Virtue’ for the continued innovation and evolution of mankind and human spirit! I hear that a sequel might be in the works with Gekko (now a free man!) emerging in today’s financial hotspot … Shanghai, China!

. Lets ponder on Greed though – I want to do this because of the potentially negative label that the word carries stemming from the seven deadly sins! I tend to some what agree with Gordon Gekko’s summation. The manifestation of Greed emerges from the individual’s perspective of the word. Every achievement of any proportion arises out of greed … greed drives desire, leading to focused actions, which leads to results. Greed therefore leads to actual results that benefit an individual, a group, community, nation or mankind depending on the intensity of the action!

. The scale and the benefit that the ‘greed’ led action drives defines the nature of ‘greed’ and is possibly what Gordon Gekko was alluding to when he labelled it as ‘Good’. From Aristotle, Archimedes, Gandhi, Luther King, Edison, Gates, Jobs to even Mr. Buffet, there is an incredible internal motivation to build innovative ‘models’ in tech, human rights, government and finance followed by superior execution that provides ‘ incremental value’ to millions of people over decades – much more than initially perceived

. So what is that ‘internal motivation’ that led these individuals to do what they did? Controversial as it may sound, seems like it was ‘Greed’ (as in ‘an intense desire with a perceivable outcome’) for accomplishing their objective that gave meaning to their lives and defined their destinies. In the process they positively touched generations around the world. This greed (whilst not totally ‘Selfless’) does not seem bitter rather it sounds ‘Good’ to most of us!

. On the other hand as the world today reels under the largest financial catastrophe of our lifetime, I question were ‘Greed’ sits in the equation. The Sub prime mortgages, the collateralized debt obligations and the leveraged positions that are breaking the largest financial institutions were not meant to be what they finally evolved into! So who and what led that evolution … well it is the other form of ‘Greed’ … the stuff that sent Gekko behind bars!

. So how is this form of greed different? Well, it still drives massive benefits but specifically to an individual or a small group of individuals at the expense of a much larger majority! “While Richard Fuld of Lehman was pleading with Secy. Paulson for Federal rescue, Lehman was recommending to its compensation committee four days before bankruptcy filing that three departing execs should receive more than 20 million in “special payments” (Straits Time Singapore, 8 Oct 08). Another example of how this industry squandered on executive compensation at the expense of the hapless shareholders and the tax payer in general who has to contribute to the 700 billion bailout package to save the US economy

. I fervently hope that we will see collaboration between the government, regulators and the industry worldwide to tidy over this mess as quickly as possible with not too severe global impact! (I am the eternal optimist). I am also quite certain that in the aftermath of this debacle more stringent governance measures will be implemented as the pendulum shifts to the other extreme! Massive changes in work processes will be implemented and workflow will get more complicated and long drawn … learning from our mistakes is laudable, all good stuff!

. The ultimate test however will be TIME and the human nature … so we are back to ‘Greed’. Greed will drive humanity again into taking little chances, small shifts from the dictum in the name of innovation and value creation to drive the economy and the industry! Government, regulators and the industry will all be drawn into the party till we are hit by another tidal wave … the cycle will be complete!

. Good or bad, ‘Greed’ will live on and we will have to learn to deal with the Gordon Gekko…..

F1 Singapore 2008 – Super Race, Super Show!

2008-09-29T03:02:00.000-07:00

The inaugural F1 night race has placed Singapore on the map as a world class location for high visibility global events! The practice runs, the qualifying round for the pole position and the grand finale were executed with the obvious finesse that is associated with any F1 event. The infrastructure was almost equally flawless in supporting the event in its first year in front of 130,000 on site audience and 500 million television viewers worldwide! Fantastic!

. Local outfits had the opportunity of doing brisk business & enjoyed brand visibility despite a rather gloomy macro economic environment. Congratulations go out to Singtel & everybody else associated with hosting the event! Following all the kudos, Singapore has to continue to seek excellence by taking pages from city circuit venues like Monaco, who have hosted similar races for more than 79 years.

. As a spectator at the event, I felt inadequacies in transportation, extended road blocks, seating coordination & food outlets while the drivers had to contend with bumpy road surfaces and soaring track temperatures! Mental notes need to be taken to fix these next year!

. Singapore & all of us also have many a lesson to learn from the races themselves. Team Ferrari’s debacle after taking 2 out of the 3 positions from the Pole in the finals - then getting totally knocked out in the final run! Lessons like team co-ordination & collaboration or the lack of it can ruin the best laid plans as Ferrari experienced during Filipe Masa’s fatal pit stop.

. Also a lesson that ‘Hope’ is a winner’s best friend from a despairing Alonso who stood with virtually no chance after the qualifiers but then eventually won the race on Sunday driving with grit & hope. A lesson that Winning is not necessarily brought about by excelling individually but also by seizing the opportunities created by the opponents’ shortcomings as experienced by Alonso who started off by virtually trailing the entire lineup.

. All in all an excellent demonstration of speed, discipline & collaboration and also the pitfalls and failures that so characterize us as human beings. Big win for Singapore and a big win for the human innovation and spirit!

. As the season wraps up with the final race in Brazil, I salute Louis Hamilton, the 2008 F1 Champion for his single minded focus, dedication and ability to act at the right time in the right way that saw him screech into the ultimate winner slot by securing a position in the first five at Sau Paolo in front of a bewildered Masa who did everything right in the final race and his legions of loyal Brazilian fans!

.

Why put ANY effort when you do not know the WHY?

2008-09-26T02:44:00.000-07:00

Kids are smart these days. I cannot make my daughters do ANYTHING unless they know WHY they need to do it and WHAT they will gain if they do so?

. I do not blame them because there is a perfectly good reason why they ask these questions. No task or initiative that consumes time and energy should really be done unless the people involved know the ‘Why’ (the reason why they need to spend time doing the task) and the ‘What’ (the foreseeable outcome of the task).

. Sounds like a no brainer.. right? Any doubts, check with the first kid you meet on your way home! However skeptical you are, there is always a Why & What to everything. What matters is - Do you look for it?

. Go to any workplace teeming with intellectual capital and see how many Why? & What? are traded across the work floor. Candidly speaking, hardly!

. Most employees go about doing their tasks because they are told to do so. Naturally this leads to at best mediocre passion, energy, creativity, innovation which finally leads to (you guessed it right..!) mediocre results .. what else?

. The individuals toiling away all day have no clue regarding consequential impact of their effort on the final result, have no interest in recommending improvements, suggesting new ideas and no avenue to taking pride in the final result that crowns their effort. And all this because they did not bother to ask the Why & What .. does this sound like a serious compromise of impact or what??

. I have tried asking the cause of this apparent lack of inquisitiveness – fear, lack of preparedness, embarrassment, doubt and even stress are some of the candid responses I get. Map these attributes with those linked to non-performance within individuals and teams & your make a startling discovery … they match!

. I take pride in practicing & encouraging everyone in my direct and extended teams to NOT do anything unless they understand WHY they are doing it & WHAT outcomes they are doing the task. Once they do, they are on a natural high to achieve the expected outcome. I see many of them adopting this attribute and actually practicing on me..

. Not that I mind at all … leadership skills in an individual or a group environment always requires the ability to seek and explain the Why & What in every situation whether it is demanded or notI wish my daughters were more forgiving though…

Do One, Two, Three things at a time ... Really!

2008-09-22T02:50:00.000-07:00

I often think multi-tasking or high bandwidth multi communication processing is over hyped, over rated and frankly unnecessary! I have seen no dearth of sub-ordinates, peers and even superiors speak about these qualities as a part of their professional skill in glowing terms but still do not seem to make much headway with it!

. I do believe that the sophisticated organ that we call the brain is very capable of processing an amazing number of instruction sets and also the fact that we hardly utilize the capacity of this organ. But be aware though that getting things done in the real world is not just about the brain!

. Long ‘Must Do’ to-do lists that individuals draw up for parallel attention without any clue regarding the commitment and effort involved in accomplishing them also concern me

. In my professional life, I often come across two extreme mental faculties amongst people while most of us fall somewhere in between – Type One, mostly is in eternal awe with their daily routines, in what they need to do, unable to prioritize between the tasks in hand or do not have the information or possible skills to tackle the task they have been handed!

. Even if they can prioritize tasks they have problems communicating where they need assistance & from what kind of skill set. The other set, Type Two set are the supremely confident (the high bandwidth multi tasking types) for whom doing one or two things is way below their intellectual zone and highly demeaning. They are in an eternal rush to take one more than others and complete it quicker than the others. Both types actually end up taking on more than they can chew or what is needed to be chewed and suffer from the consequences – lower quality of work and demonstrating stress symptoms even without realizing!

. The pains associated with Type One are more apparent - confusion, doubt, fear & frustration in not being able to complete the task as required! Consequently, the pains associated with Type Two though more discrete still make the individual and the organization vulnerable.

. The Type Two does not function alone like any one else, they have to interact and succeed with others around them and as they ascend the leadership ranks the leverage and dependence on others increases. Even if they individually can focus and handle multiple tasks on their own, their quality of external communication and their ability to interact and deal with different people and the roles that those people play deteriorates as they take on more tasks.

. Also the people that the Type Two deal with (assuming that they too are carrying the same task) may not necessarily be able to operate in the same multi-tasking mode that the Type Two’s can. The resultant collaborative work quality usually suffers!

. So instead of taking on big bites how about this – irrespective of the mental category you are in, take two or three tasks at a time based on the priority. Then plan to complete each of them within a pre set time period. If you cannot prioritize the tasks or have doubts regarding the time you need to allocate for completion, seek advise from your Supervisor (Do not Suffer in Silence – see related post).

. Handle these two or three tasks with focus, diligence and collaboration. Seek ‘Quality’ all the way. Not just yours but the quality amongst your co-workers as well. Get a high quality job done!

. As you focus on these two or three tasks, you have automatically prioritized them with a time allotment, you now think more clearly because you are attending to these tasks alone and you are working them towards completion either individually or with your team

. As one or more of these prioritized tasks that you are working on gets done, replace them with the next task on the basis of priority from your to-do list and so on. Do this and see how things work …. I will take Quality anytime in lieu of Quantity!

. So what happens when you hit the wall with a task that you do not seem to be making any progress with? Well as soon as you hit the time that you allotted for the task or even prior, judge the priority of the task compared to the tasks still pending. Based on your conclusion either slot the task further down your priority list to be attended to later or if it is immediately crucial then research the task more, socialize with your team members, think about possible alternate options & seek guidance from your supervisor.

. I missed out mentioning honest expectation setting in the midst of all this. As you handle your two to three things and other tasks show up simultaneously with near time delivery expectations – determine its priority in line with what you have in your plate or your current queue. If you have tasks further down the queue that have an equal or a higher priority, then do not be afraid to set the right expectations for a delayed delivery, prior to taking the task – people will respect you for that.

. However, if there is any way in which a new task with a high level of urgency can be prioritized based on the circumstances, then by all means do so. Make sure that the beneficiary is aware of what you have done for him. Adds on as a favor in you ‘frequent flyer’ miles bank

Matrix Organization Reporting Lines - Why Suffer in Silence??

2008-09-20T03:13:00.000-07:00

Today’s organization has become diverse and complex even compared to what it was five years ago. Multiple business units, product lines, functional groups and territories require separate reporting lines to ensure that the required checks and balances are in place. These checks and balances then ensure that the objectives and goals of each of the constituencies are met.

. Organization structure wise this means the need to create multiple reporting lines within an operating unit or what is loosely termed the ‘matrix-organization’

. Individually this means that a particular position might be required to report into two supervisors – one via a ‘Solid-line’ and to the other via a ‘Dotted line’. The primary difference between the two is that the Solid Line Manager is responsible for investing on the headcount, the operation expenses related to the headcount and has a larger say in defining the goals of the position, the performance evaluation and the development of the individual. The Dotted Line Manager provides functional or knowledge cover, aligns the other critical functional groups to the individual and helps the individual generally succeed in the role

. I have often noted within the organizations that I have worked for (all of which implemented the matrix organization) that positions which fall within these environments are more aligned to the supervisor that the position interacts with on a more frequent basis irrespective of the nature of the reporting lines. This observation obviously assumes that the leader is capable, well respected and adds value to the sub-ordinate

. Enough on the reporting models, what does this mean to the individuals. Well, I have realized that the work life for the individual with two or more reporting lines is not rosy at all. Especially so if the two managers are not aligned in the goals and priorities related to the position. Even if they thankfully are aligned, it does not mean that the directions provided to the sub-ordinate are precise. Very often one expects the other to make these essential communication and both end up not doing it.

. The employee on the other hand fails to realize the priorities associated with his role, is confused regarding the measurements of her success and does not know who to reach out to seek guidance or advise when needed

. If you are ever in this situation ….. STOP! Bear in mind that YOU and only you are accountable for your success or the lack of it! No one understands you or your problems better than YOU! No one wants to fix your problems more than YOU .. so who needs to make the first move when you are faced with this confusion amongst ranks .. of course YOU!

. In our periodic Organizational boot-camp events, I get the opportunity to address our new hires as a part of the New Hire induction process. Its great to meet these folks and admire their passion for the organization that they have just joined and the roles that they have begun to play … super! What I always tell these enthusiastic lots is Never Suffer in Silence and Never Do Anything Without Understanding Why You Are Doing What You are Doing (more about the second one in a separate post)

. So how do you stop suffering in silence? Well, start off by defining exactly what you need clarity on and/or what area you exactly seek assistance for? Poorly defining what assistance or guidance you need leads to your supervisor questioning whether ‘you need help with the solution or are you a part of the problem?’

. Then communicate it frankly. Be honest in your approach – do not claim to know stuff that you do not know! And make sure that you are heard … your supervisor may have other priorities but remember what you owe to yourself. So make sure that you are heard!

. Assuming that this goes well and your supervisor hears you and then provides you with the needed recommendation and guidance. Make sure that you have understood him. Do not be embarrassed to ask questions and clarifications at this stage (many unfortunately do!).
As a leader, I am far more willing to re-clarify and re-explain till people are sure that they understand. Once they confirm that they do understand, I expect them to do so, right? What disappoints most supervisors is when people say they understand (when they do not) and go off and make the same mistakes that they would have without the guidance!!! Defeats the entire purpose and effort behind the coaching.

. Once you are successfully past this stage commence implementation. Keep your supervisor informed and seek inspection, guidance or just check notes on the progress on a periodic basis The frequency and intensity of this step depends on the complexity of the task.

. Finally on the successful completion of the task, inform the supervisor and thank him for his advice and guidance (again, many forget to do this)! Your supervisor will definitely be more accommodative to guide you the next time around!

Goal Setting - Does Stakeholder Participation make sense?

2008-09-17T03:23:00.000-07:00

Like most people in my job description, things begin to really hot up as the year end approaches … the feeling of accomplishment in the past year, the excitement of the coming year, the rum laden fruit cakes and the wine and chocolate hampers that do the circuit to be shared with friends and family .. the year end is a simply wonderful time for all!

. Closing the year with all business revenue, margin, share, productivity and utilization goals accomplished is always a must do. However the intellect focused on closing the quarter and the year is constantly bombarded by the incessant flow of data requests for setting the goal for the next year

. In my early days as a people manager, I would be grossly offended by this ‘distraction’ related to next year planning when closing the financial year seemed like the most important thing on the planet to me. Over the years I admittedly wizened up as I began to appreciate the ‘other’ activity

. As we approach the year end we are typically in quarter four – i.e. three quarters have come and gone by and unfortunately the results will not change. Even the fourth quarter is mostly done and depending the nature of your position and your business you might have minor to meager influence on the final results at that point

. The following year on the other hand lies ahead like the proverbial ‘fresh sheet of snow’. You can (based on your position) at least partly determine what your individual, team or organization’s footprint will look like on that brand new surface. Does that not warrant some time, reflection and attention… easy choice, right?

. The Planning exercise for the following year usually has a Quantitative (revenue, margin, share, opex etc.) and a Qualitative (initiatives, go to market, coverage gaps, partnerships, resources, skills and infrastructure) component – make no mistake, both are equally crucial! Most organizations focus unduly on the Quantitative element while the smart outfits get the operating teams to focus on the Quantitative planning and goals to determine the ‘What’ while the Qualitative planning provides the ‘How’.

. It is unfortunate and alarming that most organizations spend very little time planning and more specifically socializing the next year goals with the broader set of people who are expected to deliver those goals

. That said, it is within every leader’s prerogative to socialize Quantitative and Qualitative objectives for the following year with some relevant people within her team after familiarizing them thoroughly with the overall organizational strategy framework.

. Socializing goals bottom-up leads to three specific values – firstly, it creates a sense of belonging, individual value and pride within the team, a feeling that their judgment and opinion matters in the organizational context; second, it brings up feedback and outlook from the trenches which lead to creation of potentially new initiatives, strategies and mindset to tackle the upcoming annual objectives; thirdly, planning Quantitative goals provides an avenue to do the necessary check and balance to determine whether the Quantitative goal is within the practical ‘zone’ and can be attained with a stretch

. In setting Quantitative goals, I have always preached a bottom-up and a top-down approach. A bottom up approach is fair because it provides the downstream participation and perspective based on several influencing factors. Both are welcome in considering and determining what goals need to be set, which needless to say needs to be top-down

. While seeking bottom-up feedback, it is crucial that the right set of expectations are set with the contributors – think like a shareholder of the company, size the opportunity correctly – if the final results differ significantly from your outlook you obviously will not look good, be aware that the Quantitative goals that you will be ultimately expected to work on will be determined with the consideration of many data-points including the ones you provide. The goals therefore might differ significantly from your recommendation. The right expectations upfront allow people to go through the exercise with the right mindset and prevent any potential heart burn downstream

. Try these out and see how you go. All I am preaching is commitment for ‘involvement with reason’ in lieu of ‘coercion’, ‘collaboration’ in lieu of ‘conflict’ and ‘participation’ in lieu of ‘alienation‘ in every stage of the next year Planning process ….. whatever the state of quarter four may be!!!!!

Driving Organization Vision – Keep Visors & Shades on!!

2008-09-13T02:03:00.000-07:00

Organization, department and even team Visions are hugely instrumental in providing guidance and momentum, even passion and excitement to operating teams!
A Vision can range from a GRAND organization wide shift to a FOCUSED department initiative for revenue growth, expense optimization or new business development. The principle of unfolding the Vision will be the same - the scale will vary
If many chefs in a kitchen or many surgeons in a surgery concern you – then you get a good feel of what too many Visionaries or Visions can be for a smaller team or even for an organization
Ability to conceive and build a Vision is a specific capability, not a general skill and does not even need to be one! Translating the Vision into specific short term measurable goals and actions, then laying out the implementation path is another competency. Thereafter, leading and participating in the implementation of the Vision & delivering predictable results is the third mutually exclusive competency
I have realistically seen these skills demonstrated by three very different profiles of people. However, I have seen exceptional circumstances within small groups where the same individual demonstrates two or all of these three competencies
I am laying this out upfront because for the successful implementation of a Vision all these 3 roles need to be understood, differentiated and used. Related ownerships and accountabilities need to be set for each of the roles – do this and see the Vision unfold into real world results!
The Vision is conceived by the proverbial "Visionary" (lets call this individual or group A), normally the head of the operating group - this is a very 'macro view' that lays out the broad based direction the leader(s) wishes the group to take based on individual or collective judgment. The 'Vision' at this stage is usually skeletal, possibly over simplified and can be usually understood by a selective few who are either closely associated with the working and thinking process of the leader(s) or involved with the core functions of the group (lets call them Team B).
It is very risky to spill this 'unbaked' Vision outside of Team B. The unbaked Vision can very likely send wrong signals to the rest of the fraternity, de-focus people from their immediate job functions or simply confuse them regarding the relationship of the new Vision to their current way of doing things. So do ensure that the broader team has their visors and shades on at this time
Having people with competencies around "translating the Vision into specific short term measurable objectives and laying out the implementation path" come in handy at this time. This is usually contributed by Team B. Team B articulates the "Why?" behind the Vision and provides meat to the initial skeletal structure. They also lay down short term goals and metrics that will be implemented by usually more than one functional group. While doing this, Team B should explain the rational of each goal and metrics in a manner that the downstream teams will understand. They also prepare plans and methodologies on how these function specific goals and metrics will be sold to the downstream functional leaders first who will then communicate this to their teams (Team C).
This stage requires over-communication between A and B as well as B and C-Team Leaders as the Vision starts to settle in. New Visions also introduce ‘change’ that Team C members normally resist – the intensity for resistance grows as you go down the hierarchy. Complement this by reinforced top down communication, document & broadcast best practices demonstrated by the early adopters while highlighting & rewarding the early wins or proof points. In parallel also take in feedback from rank and file, especially on ‘what is NOT working’. These often prove more valuable than they apparently seem and ensure that the vision gets further fine-tuned to deal with the real world!
The ‘Rolling out the Vision’ to Team C Plan also includes relating the new activities that emerge out of the implementation of the Vision to the current roles, responsibilities and compensation of those involved. If changes are needed, this is the time to do so rather than leave it till later
Very often the Vision does not have a bearing on Team C's immediate objectives - this can be a potential melting point that needs diplomacy, communication skills, tact and most importantly courage from Team B and Team C leaders to help align. Exceptions regarding compensation (where absolutely needed) should be considered for specific pivotal roles who are critical for the success of the implementation especially within Team C
Once Team C has bought into the Vision, implementation commences. Team B and Team C leaders need to be very vigilant during this phase and ensure that the goal completion and related metrics are on track – constant feedback to leadership and the participants is recommended. More importantly, they should continually do the checks and balances to ensure that A's Vision or Team B's implementation path are realistic and achievable based on feedback from the trenches. I recommend periodic, structured communication between teams A, B, C to accomplish this
Often adjustments and modifications early in the implementation process based on internal, adjustment or even competitive circumstances results in a more impactful realization of the Vision. Conversely, I have seen many an implementation turn lackluster because the teams did not consider changing external circumstances while implementing the Vision that was originally conceived in a different time and place
Assuming the implementation is going fine, constant periodic feedback to the team is still recommended till the goals that the Vision aspired start showing (the Vision might be more of a continuum). At this time the leader ought to announce the accomplishment of the immediate goal to everyone involved, lay out the learning and formally conclude the (shorter term) exercise. Do not forget to celebrate success thereafter and reward or recognize the high achievers
For longer term organizational level Visions – short to mid term goal-setting, performance measurement, feedback, adjustment of the Vision, communication of progress and reinforcement of the Vision to all involved are crucial ingredients that keep the Vision alive and fired up!
Try this out in your own roles but make sure that the people are wearing the right visors and shades based on their roles as the Vision unfolds…..
I got some feedback regarding opportunities for Team C to contribute to corporate vision. My answer ... ABSOLUTELY! I see many organizations reaching out and rewarding people at every level for creating and contributing to innovation and new initiatives within the organization. I support and applaud such practices.

Making TeamWork Work!

2008-09-10T09:25:00.000-07:00

Organizational productivity starts to crawl and competitive advantage goes out of the window if organizations fail to accomplish 'Teamwork' or more appropriately 'Cross-functional Teamwork'. Building effective teams is hardly a walk in the park for most business leaders and operational managers!
The way around is to determine the kind of team-work methodology the organization currently practices that does not measure up, seek alternate methodologies & models needed to perform optimally, then re-start the process.
Be aware of some basic guidelines though …Get the team mentally prepared to work together – different people need different levels of preparation to do this. Some even need specific handholding and assurances to be able to work with others
Teams and teamwork go through several stages of evolution before beginning to function cohesively. Guidance, counseling and open communication is key in these stages
Next, do ensure that the team has a ‘What’ and a ‘Why’ of their goals clearly defined – people (especially individual achievers) do not necessarily enjoy being in a group situation of compromise and consensus unless there is a clear understanding of the goals and the reasoning (read individual benefits) behind the goal
Right after laying down the broad objectives, do ensure a precise team objective with quantifiable and measurable outcomes. Ideally, its best to set milestones along the path of the ‘What’ so that the team can measure progress and success as granularly as possible and make changes as appropriate along the way
That said, leaders should not rush to assess team performance too early in the cycle – it generally preferable to let the unit mature before any assessment on the productivity of the team is done
It is natural for teams to experience ‘teething problems’ as they come together – I begin to worry if all team members continually put on their game face and pretend that all is well and overtly anxious to demonstrate how well things are working
Different teams need different levels of hand-holding and guidance depending on the team’s composition and the complexity of the task
Leaders need to be able to determine which teams need guidance and which ones need to be left alone.
Quantifiable goals and metrics that I mentioned earlier facilitate the process and serve as tools for teams to determine if they need guidance or need to modify and adjust their strategy
Successful teams leverage individual strengths and competencies while merging these competencies across a broader ‘team fabric’ that lends a larger value to the combined competencies than the sum of individual parts.
Finally, do not forget to encourage the team to celebrate success when the mission is accomplished! Celebrating leaves pleasant memories for the team members to feed on even when they have disbanded! It also creates a strong foundation of future engagement amongst two or more members should a suitable opportunity present itself!

Ten ways to drive a successful Teambuilding Exercise

1. The nature of the initiative determines the character of the team that is being built.
2. The event should include variety in content.
3. Watch the agenda. Link the activities in the exercise as close to the work life circumstances
and instances as possible. People are smart & seek personal wins – they tune off if the task
is irrelevant to their actual roles and responsibilities
4. Planned milestones should be preset, quantifiable and measureable. They should be
reviewed with diligence on pre set dates
5. Stay clear of conflicts – maximum alignment is key! Conflicts though healthy (if managed
appropriately) still delay the processes and prevent alignment
6. Frequent team meals are welcome – a team that eats together; stays together!
7. Build in ‘recall’ – humorous conversations, quips & actions with funny tasks and
challenging, innovative outcomes make the session memorable and impactful
8. Introduce multiple instructors – beside livening up content, they bring a more balanced and
varied perspective.
9. Relate the exercise that you are conducting with the big bad world outside – make sure that
the team understands the relevance
10. Don’t expect the event to fix everything! Treat this as a good start for better things to come

Celebrating Success – A Way of Life!

2008-09-08T07:42:00.000-07:00

I am a huge believer in celebrating success – celebrating accomplishments. After all what is the point of succeeding if we do not have the time, inclination or opportunity to take a moment to celebrate it!
I love doing it and its rubbed onto my wife and daughters where the whole family finds every opportunity to celebrate accomplishments. After all, these celebrations give a meaning to the hard work that goes in towards achieving virtually anything – nothing worth doing is really easy
Celebrations also set the platform to launch the next target accomplishment. Its very much like trekking up a mountain peak despite all the adversities. Would it not be wonderful to stand on the pinnacle for a while and enjoy the beautiful sights all around that the summit provides you – soak it in .. after all you have earned it. View it, feel exhilarated by it and then set out for the next goal which will provide you with greater accomplishment and a nicer view.
In my field sales days I spent years in a software company where the ritual of celebration was taken very seriously. As a rep walked in with a purchase order, he would ring a cow-bell that was suspended in the office lobby – brilliant stroke. All of us reps would ring the bell with joy and pride as we held our purchase orders while everyone around would cheer! This not only made our days but created a deep desire for accomplishment and recognition.
I have seen smart organizations use celebration of success as a classical non-monetary tool for employee motivation and retention of top talent. Keeping great people is not about just paying them big bucks – simple acknowledgement of people’s efforts and accomplishment goes a long way… The flip side is quite predictable!
My daughters are growing up very aware that their parents not only love them unconditionally but have a lot of pride and respect for all their successes and accomplishments however insignificant they may seem. This is shaping their character, attitude and their bonding with their parents. Employees within organizations are no different.

Malaysia 2008 - The 'Caring' Budget

2008-09-05T02:19:00.000-07:00

Malaysia has unnecessarily pulled the brakes on its economic progress further through its political inadequacies within a prevailing global macro economic slow-down. Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi himself labelled the latest budget a “caring budget”, with most of the policies meant to address the immediate problems faced by Malaysians especially the impact of spiraling inflation on the price of food and fuel! These accommodating measures have also created a perspective among critics that the budget is angled towards a favorable election, though hopefully it does have a placating effect on the populace - which translates to a more stable socio-political environment for businesses to prosper.

As Malaysia tries to expand its business influence in the region, the government also recognises that the country’s ability to continually grow its pool of diverse skilled workers along with strong fiscal incentives will play a critical role in attracting foreign direct investment. This understanding is reflected in the budget with substantial government spend allocated for training and education and the incorporation of the Knowledge Workers Development Institute. In terms of fiscal measures, the Government has also several tax exemptions for businesses while hiring and investing in Malaysia and will also lower corporate tax to 25% in 2009. These definite steps taken to address inflation, education & business viability will hopefully support the country’s progress within the prevailing circumstances.

Standing Tall while “Cold-Calling”

2008-09-04T14:51:00.000-07:00

I often hear people grudging cold calling. Its human nature … nothing out of the ordinary!!! Every human seeks comfort within the ’known’. Venturing out into the unknown & speaking to a stranger with a high probability of being rejected is brave enough! Leave alone making a positive impression, getting his attention, then influencing the person and actually selling something – wow!
Cold calling is NOT easy and lets be frank, I have not met many people who have raved about how much they ENJOY cold calling! Meet new people – absolutely yes, meet them and sell them something – not many takers!
After all the whining settles down lets get the baseline right – cold calling is a must & every successful sales person goes through the grind as they build their turf and throughout their tenure they set aside some time for cold calling.
Irrespective of how rich your pipeline or account list is, it is wise to protect your territory against tangible and intangible risks. The best way to do it is by GROWING it – I cannot think of any other better way than constant cold calling
Now that I have smudged you with the reality, let me also give you some good news! Cold calling actually becomes easier (& even challenging and fun) as you gain in experience and have some wins under your belt. The quicker you learn the skills & garner the wins the quicker the fun begins – so its good to pick up the tips!
Start with the premise that it is okay to be fearful of doing something! Going ahead despite the fear is what bravery is all about!
The basic human fear that comes into play is the fear of rejection. Plan your effort in such a way that you stay clear of rejection as much as possible
Do your home work – choose your target prospect profile based on all available data regarding the typical customer of your product or service. Seek advice & guidance as needed
Identify prospects who can be introduced to you by an existing customer – this will make things a little easier
Learn your stuff. You should be able to articulate your offering well enough to earn your prospect’s attention and subsequently his trust & respect. This will help cement a relationship & will make the journey ahead easier
Make your prospect comfortable – drive a dialog instead of a monolog. Get to know the person – the likes & dislikes, current challenges, goals, personal wins, concerns/risks, needs. The more you know, the stronger your position will be
Be sensitive to your prospect’s time or the lack of it. He should want to meet you again – not get rid of you
Do not spill your entire value proposition in the first meeting – keep some goodies for subsequent encounters
Work towards building him a solution that addresses his problems rather than trying to sell him a product
If through your interaction you determine that the prospect genuinely does not have a need for what you have to offer at the time you approach him – acknowledge it, let him know and walk away. Stay in touch and be assured that you will be contacted when the time is right
These are the cold calling beliefs that shaped me – not that I specifically loved doing it, but nevertheless I did it, very seldom got rejected and built long term relationships that serve me even today.
Knowing how to deal with the unknown, turning virtual strangers into trusting customers and friends slowly grows on you! It gets to the point where it begins to actually tickle you & challenge you. All the while helping you build the strong platform of self confidence on which your successful professional career will stand!
Stuff we try to avoid are not all that bad after all!

Oops! We have Solved the “Wrong” Problem!

2008-09-04T14:46:00.000-07:00

We have become very efficient in living in a world filled with instant gratification where every external stimulus deserves an immediate (almost in a nanosecond) response!!!
Just look around and see people with their cell phones, blackberries, in discussion sessions – eager to speak, to respond, almost itching to do so..
I have myself been in sessions where I have coached people to ‘listen between the lines’ and understand others perspective before responding. Its amazing to observe how people instead of ‘listening’ are actually mentally rehearsing their own lines while someone else is talking, just waiting for the other person to conclude
Some of the North Asian cultures encouraged ‘thinking’ followed by a consensus based response – contemporary business cultures are unfortunately erasing these great habits!
I have come across many situations where talented, result oriented individuals and groups get together to study a situation and define the underlying problem. Being a part of the instant gratification ‘culture’ & faced with tight deadlines, they often define the problem, well … ‘wrongly’!!!
They then set about in full steam to solve the ‘wrong’ problem and do a good job at it! All the while there is a lot of visible activity, the reporting hierarchies are happy with the development & in some instances the individuals are also rewarded or publicly recognized
Strangely though when the initial euphoria settles – the desired results are not visible. Some of the ‘participants’ then own up and confess that they expected better results while some try and sweep the data under the carpet & forget about it…
The crux here is the value of the ‘thinking exercise’, be it individual or collaborative. The proverbial sharpening of the axe before beginning to chop down the tree
An imperfect situation that needs to be fixed absolutely demands the time for thinking and analyzing to determine what is causing the imperfection – the problem itself. Often what meets the eye and seems like the obvious cause is not it!
Matrix organizations & formation of cross functional groups presents opportunities for gathering varied perspectives on the same set of circumstances & data.
If you are a team member leverage these varied views, contribute yours and encourage the team to take a balanced view based on the consolidated set of opinions.
If you are a leader and do not necessarily want to make a consensus based decision, ask questions, challenge individual views and take holistic view of the surrounding circumstances or data to define the problem before commencing the “fix”
While it is mostly a drag to dwell long on the problem instead of setting out in light speed to solve it – you will serve yourself, your team and your organization well in terms of time, effort & investment by choosing to define the problem better

Fix the 'End Goal' within the Strategy First!

2008-09-02T13:18:00.000-07:00

Strategy seems to be in everyone’s mind these days .. hey you have to ‘strategize’ to build competitive advantage & drive organizational, team or individual success. Is it not the ultimate differentiator against those who do NOT have a strategy, remember Strategic Management at B-School – so we go blah .. blah .. blah
Seriously speaking, I value strategy for all the above virtues and have used it for attaining leadership positions in many ways myself. That said, I often see strategy taking too much of prominence in time, focus and mindshare where it begins to become a worry. Also remember that for all you may think, your competitors are strategizing too .. against you!
I view strategy as one of the means to attain the end game rather than the highly involved end game itself – this very often happens without you even realizing it!
The end game attainment goals needs to be definite – holistic goals like top-line, bottom-line, share growth or specific goals like market-share, productivity growth etc. Simply put, a metric that delivers incremental value to the organization & provides it with a competitive advantage
Add to that a need for an accurate description of your current status – what is the point of figuring out where you need to go if you are not clear where you stand today
That done, the ‘strategy’ needs to be taken down to all the functional groups that will drive the determined ‘end game’- sales, marketing, finance, operations, manufacturing with commonly agreed sub-goals that will cumulatively drive the overall end game. Disjointed and often contradictory strategies between functional groups have a history of downing many a honest effort - leadership, teamwork & collaboration are keywords here
In my leadership career I have practiced a Plan of Record (POR) Methodology for determining & executing strategy collaborating multiple cross geography teams. The POR glues the teams by - documenting specific focus areas, specific action items related to these focus areas, designated primary owners, associated secondary owners (across cross functional teams), target completion dates, actual completion & comments. Quantify these as much as possible and ensure they capture the What, When, Where, Who & How? Watch out for the devil in the details & you will stay on track
While the POR guides your execution, do not lie back just yet! Milestones along the way are crucial in determining whether the strategy is on track – quantitative milestones embedded in the POR (as recommended above) are very useful in accomplishing this
If the variance between the forecast & actual is significant at consecutive milestones, it is very likely that we have a problem
Socialize within the functional teams involved and do not be afraid to open up the Strategy shell … it is always better to take a step back and fix things rather than continue to make the shortcoming bigger than what it really is
Your methodology and your quantified pre set goals will provide your team with the confidence in driving towards the end game goals. Assuming that you have set the goals right, you are very likely on the track to deliver incremental value & competitive advantage to your organization .. Congratulations!

Leadership lessons from China

2008-09-02T12:56:00.000-07:00

On 8 August, China further stamped its leadership in the international theatre with an incredibly impressive demonstration of its art, history & culture on the one hand and its ability to use cutting edge technology, first class infrastructure and superior execution on the other! I am talking about the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.
A billion people worldwide sat mesmerized by the Greatest Show on Earth! What followed in the days after was finely honed skill, passion & an absolute desire to Win – the result, a record gold medal haul by a country that won its first gold medal in 1984.
Through all of this what shines through is the leadership, national growth & people development cult that flows through the country underlined by the passion & determination to WIN. I am quite certain that its not just about people talent, intensive planning, strategy or the 40 Billion dollars that went down to host the show! Its deeper than that - it is the unified determination, discipline, deligence, belief, collaboration and pride of over a billion people in a vastly spread & diversified land.
Every other nation, society or organization that strives for similar attainments need to mirror the spirit of the Chinese people. Passionately striving & preparing for leadership in everything that mattered - each performance category, in getting their city ready to host the world, in making the sacrifices to ensure that the air was clean despite the criticism that was waged upon them, in displaying the pride of the people regarding their country and culture and in demonstrating the spirit of the games by supporting every participant and providing a flavor to the games that was very, very unique. Very impressive ... Congratulations China!

Regional Leaders – Global outfits

2008-08-21T07:53:00.000-07:00

As the Asian business grows in size, relevance and complexity I see organizations struggling to choose the right profile for the head of the geography position.
The early days of Asian business development could well afford the ‘man from the mother-ship’, who had worked at the Headquarters and was a source of comfort to all within – a person who could be trusted to run the business many thousand miles away
While the corporate comfort associated with this model was obvious, life for the individual (despite the lucrative hardship allowance!) was hardly a privilege. From having to cover a widespread unknown terrain band-aid(ed) by creaky infrastructure that was just about evolving, to struggling with the local business culture that varied radically within the continent itself (not to mention the differences with the west), the social challenges and the local cuisine, seductive but treacherous to the body! Business volumes & expectations were minimal and the Asia presence was largely considered a ‘rounding error’ in the worldwide revenue roll-up. Japan, the second largest economy in the world perhaps was the only exception!
Then came the Asian revolution. Taiwan, Hong Kong & all of South East Asia started the momentum in the early 90s that continued to ramp despite the slow down of 1996 & 2001 and gathered further momentum as China & India joined the fray. Asia and Asian business would never be the same again! Along with this the model for Managing Asia would also need to change big time…
So what does it take to develop and put in place not one but a string of successful regional leaders who successfully take the organization through its different stages of evolution? Do not assume that the profile of the leader who sets up the first beachhead is consistent with the one who builds the team & the run-rate business or the one who drives tier 2 & tier 3 growth initiatives while building a real organization. The skill attributes, personalities and individual competencies of these individuals are very different & they thrive in very different worlds. Once in a while, we do come across individuals who scale through all these levels, possess a different mindset and end up building their destinies very differently than most mortals all the way to the corner office!
An effective Asian leader needs to use the distances and diversities of the geography to his advantage rather than succumb to them! He takes a ‘big picture view’ and determines the unique moving parts, uses them, leverages them (be a great user of Kotler’s 5Ps) and drives competitive advantage, revenue, margin & share for the organization while providing value to customers and partners! Tall order but hardly undoable!
All initiatives have to start & end with people. Leading more than ten nationalities, speaking different languages, subscribing to different religions & business practices does not help! So how does one get this diverse band together??? Building a powerful vision that stands for success, commitment, value & integrity while clearly explaining the ‘Why’ is a great starting point. Communication therefore is key – regional leaders have to be ‘Great’ communicators with strong abilities to feel the business pulse. They need to be able to keep their troops in the geography motivated and on message while being natural marketeers of their geography with credible business acumen and dependable vision of the future to the home office.
Building a strong leadership team is the next big step. Thankfully talent is plentiful but finding the right fit can be tricky within a situation of high demand. A leader with a strong track record and effective local network can put together a productive leadership team by quickly earning the trust and respect of his direct reports based on established credentials & reputation from past positions. He can also delve into past trusting relationships and draw talent into the organization. Good leadership teams not only bring in good quality talent who are familiar with each others work style and are capable of quickly producing results. These early movers also effectively sculpt the reputation and the local culture of the organization – so these guys better be good!
This high quality leadership team consequentially attracts more high quality people. As the team builds the region head needs to ensure that people quality is never compromised. No leader (worth his salt) should be worried about hiring people stronger than them – I understand and appreciate the paradox here. A smart team makes the leader’s position strong and provides the leader with the bandwidth and the platform to further strengthen the geography both externally and internally, especially within the HQ. A weak team leaves the leader scrambling to meet the tactical goals of the business and provides him with minimal options and bandwidth to strategically build the business
Assuming the leader does have the right team in place, it is very easy to stifle top talent if they are not provided a conducive environment to thrive in! I have personally benefited much by following a simple set of procedures with the talented teams that I have been fortunate to lead: establish a common understanding & agreement regarding ‘why we are doing what we are doing’, setting agreed upon goals, determining & providing what is needed to get the job done, setting the right expectation of what latitude is available (you cannot obviously give everything that you are asked for!), provide adequate authority and hold the person hugely accountable for the results. I firmly believe that authority & accountability go hand in hand. One does not work without the other!
A leader while supporting and standing by his team also needs to make the tough calls – be fair and equitable. Good leadership does not necessarily mean getting along with everyone and keeping everybody happy. Very often leaders forget that they are being watched, their every action scrutinized by people within and outside the organization. Self awareness therefore is a major attribute of all leaders – they are very aware of the impact of their behavior & actions on others. I have made many wonderful friends through my career. Some of them are part of my team – I share a honest but unwritten code with them – friendship is friendship and business is business, we never mix the two. This simple rule has paid great dividends over the years and has help deepen both relationships.
Able leaders do not just focus on driving business. These are obvious. They spend time contemplating the Infrastructure that needs to be put into place to sustain & support their growing businesses. Communication skill and internal credibility is key to make his happen. The leader needs to step out of his comfort zone and communicate with non-sales functional groups, market his team’s ideas and garner support for infrastructural investments and support from the headquarter. Failure to do so not only leads to unutilized opportunities but also causes de-motivation and loss of credibility within the team.
I am sure by now you are looking for the shopping list, the attributes of these successful leaders. Well, its common sense really – impressive and sequentially growing contribution to the organizations top and bottom line (this is a ticket to entry to the Hall of Fame), growing faster than competition, the geography and the rest of the organization garners additional respect. The icing involves doing stuff that would not have happened if the leader did not drive it – new market or segment entry, strategic initiatives, conceptualizing and driving new segments, strategic partnerships change the playing field, methodologies that strengthen the organization and people development activities that create a ‘winning’ workforce and a slew of top quality leaders. Do these and you will surely build your legacy where you are. You will look back with pride at what you have left behind when you choose to walk away.

The Anatomy of the ‘Leader’

2008-08-19T03:11:00.000-07:00

Firstly, I believe that everyone has a Leader within and it is the individual’s responsibility to demonstrate that leadership in everyday life.
Leadership does not mean having to lead a group of people – on the contrary, leadership starts within an individual and its manifestation then spreads rapidly and subsequently has the ability to touch thousands, millions & more
We are promoting many people into leadership positions every year. I am very happy for them, especially if they grow from within the company, through the ranks and exemplify their accomplishments and the organization’s trust and people philosophy
I enjoy personally communicating with these newly minted leaders, congratulating them and spending a moment sharing their happiness & celebrating their success. I also communicate to them with all honesty that the expectations from them from here on are very different from the past. Qualities that have brought them thus far are not necessarily the ones that will take them to the next level
I like using the word ‘Leader’ rather than ‘Manager’ – to me the connotations are very different. A Leader is a superset of a Manager. A leader demonstrates all the characteristics of a Manager when needed but the archetypical manager need not be a ‘leader’
In my readings & observing people behaviors I mainly see leaders painting the vision, energizing & inspiring the team, helping them set extended goals & achieving them, personally & professionally growing the team members & generally inspiring everyone with a positive outlook of life and the future. A manager manages the team towards metrics, focused more on the ‘What’ than the ‘How’, largely tactical in approach and mostly uses positional power & coercion to get the work done
While sounding paradoxical, a leader might need to behave like a manager in certain situations. Having the credibility & trust within the team and taking time to clearly explain the ‘Why’ to the team often cushions the behavior
Being a leader is about playing many roles – guide, coach, friend & others. While playing these roles, the leader takes difficult but fair decisions, demonstrates tenderness & firmness, leads by example where needed but allows the spot light to be on the people rather than on himself. He does everything with the interest of the organization, team and the individual in that order.

Hiring “Great” … Hiring “Right”!

2008-08-19T02:34:00.000-07:00

Organization & team success and failures are mostly driven by collective set of people
A leader’s capability mostly starts with the quality of people she can bring into her team and organization
Hiring the right skills and attitudes not only gets the job done while exceeding expectations but also frees up the manager/leader to use her intellectual bandwidth on incremental more impactful matters.
Consequentially, inappropriate skills & people end up being high maintenance, taking up more of their leaders’ time, delaying schedules & lowering the performance of the entire group
General education, skill and awareness levels have grown but is not enough to meet the growth in skill demand – all organizations are competing more than ever before for a relatively small talent pool
Hiring top talent requires the organization to get into the shoes of a prospective employee – differentiation is key! Differentiation can take many forms… offerings that are not common place & may not necessarily be linked to the function – recreation, work-life balance tools, education support, flexible work hours often end up being crucial differentiator between competing offers
Given the supply crunch of top talent, I encourage my team to interview people as a habit not because there is an open req for a position. You will meet people you would like to keep in view. If you are lucky you will come across outstanding talents where it makes sense to ‘create’ a position just to get them in. Never pass over these opportunities..
Leverage your current employees while seeking talent. Its cheaper and more reliable to hire through internal references rather than looking out. Make internal referral bonus attractive financially for the employees and internally market the initiative actively. I have seen many organizations where employees are gloriously unaware of this ‘easy money’ and are not being leveraged enough! If an internal reference leads to hiring, make sure that the employee who referred gets paid on time. Organizational credibility can be built or destroyed depending on how long it takes to respond to its 'reward' commitment
Make a ‘first class’ impression about yourself and your organization the moment you meet the candidate. Most candidate perceptions about organizations and individuals are made in the first 30 seconds following an introduction.
Treat the candidate like you would treat a top customer .. watch the magic of the chemistry unfold
Most hiring managers forget that the interview process is a two-way evaluation & are too intent to ‘interrogate’ the candidate – I do not think this is terribly smart! The best interview results & candidate analysis are obtained when both the people are relaxed and at ease – the environment brings the best out of both the participants. Ideal, is’nt it?
Once you have hired ensure that you have the ‘right’ on-boarding procedure right from the time the employee shows for the first day at work. I have seen and heard of many established organizations with absolutely pathetic on-boarding procedures. Many do not have one at all!! There are many instances of “excited” new hires who turn to mediocrity or worse just because of the way they are treated during the first couple of week at work
Do ensure that the new hire understands the on-boarding, is guided through it by a nominated internal ‘buddy’ and the whole process is reviewed through a 2-way communication at predetermined stages of the journey & right at the end

Mirror Mirror on the Wall … for Organizations & People

2008-08-19T02:21:00.000-07:00

Todays fast paced world requires speedy execution. It is virtually impossible to succeed with a 100% baked plan – the required time to execution will not permit that luxury
Successful individuals & organizations approach an initiative with the end result in mind. The steps to the end result are carefully considered in terms of priority by impact to the end result and each step is then provided an appropriate amount of time & effort based on its priority – this will never be uniform
When the execution trigger is pulled every plan goes in with inherent risks. This is fine and acceptable & has no negative bearing on the planner. It is the checks and balances that the planner subsequently puts in place that determines the quality and class of the planner
Nothing teaches us better than our mistakes and failures, provided we know how to catch them, accept them, "fix" them & ensure they are never repeated while spreading our learning to those around us.
Most people or organizations have not figured out how to leverage their failures .. very unfortunate!
I have seen organizations implement solicited feedback mechanisms from employees on organizational changes, product ideas, customer experiences and used this learning as a huge leverage
I have been involved in processes of sharing best practices. These ideas are free and as long as our egos do not prevent us from ‘not inventing the wheel’ all over again, it makes absolute sense to borrow these ideas, tweak them if needed and implement them in your environment
Please do not be a miser!!! Share your ideas with others & they will do the same with you. As people communicate & collaborate, the overall value grows much faster than a sum of hard thinking individuals. Look at how Metcalf’s law spurred on the entire Computer Networking industry that generates hundreds of billions of dollars every year
I know it is hard for achievers to talk about failures. That said, failures often teach better lessons than successes and should be therefore shared especially within organization. That is one way of building a knowledge based organization that thrives & grows using its collective wisdom in the face of any adversity
A similar rationale applies to individuals as well – My workplace is like a suction pump that just draws me in the moment I start my work day. So I know how difficult this is. I have learnt to deal with it though through some great advice from friends, family and well wishers…
A solo morning walk, meditation, listening to music followed by Journaling (a key skill that I will talk about separately) helps not only to reflect on the previous day, week or month but also enables to plan a micro period like a day or a week, a major initiative or a career action.
Once you have reflected, learned and then planned your actions you know exactly why you are doing what you are doing. Then go ahead and run your day or week with confidence
I always take time out in December & use part of the holiday season dedicated for general downtime and on reflecting on the year gone by while planning for the year ahead. This plan involves my personal, family, intellectual, professional & philanthropic goals. Come 1 Jan, my sight is crystal clear ... I am set to execute my plan

The making of ‘The Independent Professional’

2008-08-19T02:07:00.000-07:00

As the service industry expands the world of opportunities for the independent professional has exploded – mostly in the Financial Services, media, technology and other niche verticals
It is never easy to leave a familiar comfortable professional setup & sail into the unknown world of going solo – change is painful & human nature will always resist it!
What matters is where your heart is – go with your heart, always! Do not start something till you are ‘totally’ committed irrespective of potential rewards, hearsay or advise from friends & family
After listening to your heart – research the field inside out, understand the pitfalls & dependencies, judge your potential abilities & skills and determine if you have what it takes to succeed. In general I see most successful independent professionals as disciplined, focused, self motivated, extremely organized besides being great communicators just as ALL other successful people!
Test the waters first before fully committing yourself. Reality often is not what it seems when viewed from the outside! Doing the right due diligence will save you time, money and lost opportunities. Its best if you do this diligence with other people’s money, work for an organization in a similar capacity before going in on your own
The buck will stop where you stand. The independent professional’s success or failure depends solely on the individual – there is no organizational support. The individual IS the organization
Clients and networks from the past make up the initial prospect base for a new independent professional – not ‘burning your old bridges’ holds a whole new significance
Being an independent professional is about being ‘independent’ – independence in terms of time, effort & earnings. Professional discipline is therefore key! Countless talented independent professionals have gone down because they lacked work ethics & discipline
The commonest barrier to entry in the profession is (not having) a client base. While old networks can help jumpstart the journey, cold-calling (however painful J) is a MUST. No one likes to do it but if you are serious about succeeding, you will need to grind on and spend time cold-calling through out your professional life.
Your addressable market needs to continually grow to enable you to grow your results. Smart usage of web & messaging technologies can help in accomplishing this. Just be aware of the privacy laws!!!
Ability to handle rejections is key to a successful cold-calling process. If you are unable to handle rejections, then do not be in any ‘people’ interface business – go back to my point on determining where your heart is and be honest in judging your ability & desires
Once you have a client, the challenge will be to keep the client for ever. Empathy, sensitivity, knowledge, trust & quality of service are often the primary factors here. Very often providers are more intent in selling what they have in their bags rather than what the customer wants to buy. Understanding customer needs and providing a suitable solution that addresses them sounds like a Sales 101 cliché but is often ignored even by experienced pros
Once you have wow-ed the customer you will begin to generate a revenue flow that will become more predictable & will require lesser effort provided you do not forget your customer retention skills
You will still need to continue to cold call though… growing your customer portfolio is like providing lifeblood to your initiative. As you start to build the right skills and begin to see success, even cold-calling can become fun…

Are fresh grads & young professionals ready for primetime roles?

2008-01-23T02:29:00.000-08:00

2008 looks like a eventful year - the next couple of years will be even more dramatic! Irrespective of the state of the US economy, Asia will likely continue its economic momentum into the foreseeable future. This will mean enhanced demand and expansion in the scale of businesses all over Asia - not just China and India. Industry will increasingly need trained human resources who are ready for the roles they are hired for.

While education institutions are doing their best to churn out "educated" graduates, I see a significant gap between the skills needed for them to be effective in their chosen careers and the skills they possess when they come to work!! I see the absence of a curriculum layer that trains
individuals to be "work-life ready" rather than just armed with a degree. Adequate work-life readiness enables fresh graduates and new entrants to the workforce to get into their grooves quickly, lower stress levels at the workplace and lead to more fulfilling careers that benefit the individual, the employer and the industry at large. A formal or informal work life readiness educational platform will also hone the skills of individuals at different stages of their profession & open up positions for capable and competent individuals who might not be armed with impressive degrees from tier-one institutions to be considered for job openings. This facilitation will become critical as Asia faces a severe "skilled workforce crunch" in the face of incredible demand generated by the economic engines in Asia.

It's hard to determine who owns the responsibility of facilitating this initiative. The government should definitely give it consideration but to kick things off the business world will have to take the lead. After all they will benefit the most...

Coping with the rising cost of the Asian workforce .. what do organizations do?

2008-01-23T00:26:00.000-08:00

Employee related cost is not about the compensation and benefits alone. The hidden costs involving training, skills development, intellectual knowledge and associated skills, lead time in understanding internal procedure, costs around development of customer relationships are significant and far exceed visible costs of employing an individual. Add up all of this, then add the talent-cum-value component to it and you begin to realize how expensive it is to lose a valuable member of the team and then replace him/her!

To proactively prevent any of this, I believe in placing strong emphasis on people development within organizations. This not only augments knowledge and skills that help people stay motivated & productive on an ongoing basis while being aligned with the organization’s directions but also grow them as professionals and individuals progressively taking larger challenges & roles. I also value the need for recognition of outstanding achievements and celebration of success. Employees need to be made aware that their efforts have paid off and the organization has the performers on its radar! Any organization that consistently pursues these goals will create a first class workforce & build competitive advantage over its competitors by growing achievers & leaders at all levels much quicker than their competitors.

The flip side of the coin are employees unsuitable for the roles they are employed for. It is a cardinal sin to prolong with these engagements – these hurt both the employee and the organization! Organizational leadership should continually monitor these instances, provide opportunities for improvement and separate the ties (where that is the only option) as early as possible. This saves money, time & productivity for the organization and forces the employee to seek another employment that is more suitable to the personality where the individual might thrive!

Deb’s Endorsements

2008-01-20T06:11:00.000-08:00

"Deb is one of the most knowledgeable persons of the Asia Pacific IT Market I have had the pleasure to work with. Although, I did not report directly to Deb, he was a great coach and mentor to my role in Asia."

Rick Hogan
Co-founder NetSpray
Austin, Texas
Worked with Deb at Brocade

Deb has broad and deep knowledge of the geographic markets he serves and the technology products that his team sells into them. He is also a highly respected leader who maintains a focused but fun working environment. Deb's group is professional, knowledgeable and "team" focused. I thoroughly enjoyed supporting Deb's organization and would be glad to work with him or any member of his team again.” October 21, 2008

Mark Thiele , Founder Data Center Pulse; Director R&D Business Operations, VMwareWorked with Deb at Brocade

“I've known Deb Dutta to be a passionate and motivated leader of sales. He has that rare ability to focus single mindedly on revenue goals and attain difficult sales targets without loosing composure or good will towards fellow team members. He has the gift of relating well to resellers and has created a large network of resellers who would work with him regardless of which technology or product he has to offer..” October 21, 2008

Ravi Prakash , Sr. Product Manager - Data Classification, Network ApplianceWorked with Deb at FTP Software (1997)

Deb Dutta is a very seasoned Asia Pacific executive who has successfully led and implemented multiple successful regional businesses. Over the past decade, he has built the regional business from a start-up situation to a sustainable one with USD300million in annum revenue. Deb is well referenced as a charismatic leader who leads by example and is extremely sharp when it comes to business issues. He is widely sought after for his advices on macro economic/business climate and a solid coach for personal growth & work-life development tips!

In person, Deb comes across as mature, deliberate and amicable executive. With a spirited and extroverted personality, Deb is a lively and interesting conversationalist. He is also very intelligent and constantly exudes drive & passion.

Daniel Soh
Principal CTPartners

In my role, I stay abreast of the macro-economic changes, social changes, and business trends that result from the intersection of these forces. It is necessary to discuss this with someone who can use it to draw useful conclusions. Deb Dutta is the person that I do this with and for more reasons than his position as the Brocade AP/J Regional Vice President. I do this because he has made the commitment to continuing education and leadership training for himself and for others. He is a voracious reader, capable of sensing the changes that are shaping the world acting on them. I believe that the work that Deb is doing will be a major asset to students, professionals and business leaders and would encourage those who share the same commitments to making a brighter future by educating the leaders of tomorrow.

John Bock
Controller, Asia Pacific/Japan
Brocade Communications Systems Inc.

Deb is one business leader who is able to switch seamlessly between being macro in outlook and getting down into the trenches to drive the ground objectives. His up-to-date awareness, understanding and opinions of business trends and tapestry are admirable. Yet from a vantage point, he is able to translate/interpret that macro-economic perspective into what is applicable, practical and realistic at the execution level. Despite his knowledge of the obvious (via available data), he frequently challenges the status quo and encourages out-of-the box resolutions. His mental maturity beyond his years, courage and willingness to impart are amongst the most invaluable leadership characteristics he possesses. A thought leader in every respect, I often feel blessed to be working with a walking “business guru” and “leadership Wikipedia”….

Charlie Foo
Director, Partner Business, Asia Pacific/Japan
Brocade Communications Systems Inc.

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2007-12-15T03:55:00.000-08:00

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Rising Asian rentals are not all that bad!

2007-12-08T03:48:00.000-08:00

Commercial & residential rental spike are affecting business costs and competitiveness within Asian businesses? Is there a way to view this in a positive light?

Rental spikes have caught organizations and operating budgets by surprise especially those who are renewing leases originally set out in the post 9-11 era in a gutted real estate market.
While some regional governments have been kind in providing tax reliefs, organizations will need to go back to time tested business fundamentals to address and prevail in these circumstances. They will need to focus on costs that are within their control & reduce these to counter & soften the impact of rent related cost escalations

On a more optimistic note I see rising rents flagging a robust economy! Overhead costs are up - but so are the opportunities for incremental revenue! Higher expenses can be justified if these expanded expenses generate expanded revenue while keeping the expense to revenue ratio at par with previously prevailing levels. Efficient organizations will take this in as a cost of doing business and get on with accelerating their growth within a buoyant economy.

Non-cash modes for employee motivation and retention

2007-12-02T00:22:00.000-08:00

Experimenting with alternate non-cash modes of employee recognition for motivation and talent retention

At work over these years, I have tried to think beyond financial and productivity metrics when considering compensation changes and employee recognition. While these metrics have been important in maintaining a successful operation, I am very aware of the fact that high-quality, strongly motivated people make or break corporate success. I believe an amicable balance can be achieved through subtle rewards - monetary, such as pay rises, bonuses and one-time cash awards, or otherwise.

Non-monetary rewards can be as impactful if not more if implemented sincerely. Organization leaders have the option of rewarding people through congratulatory notes, mentions at public forums and letting employees sincerely know that their presence and contributions make a difference. I have had no regrets whatsoever in implementing these methods and their impact in creating and maintaining a first-class work force has been very fulfilling for me.

Its not about the money, stupid!

2007-12-01T23:47:00.000-08:00

MONEY may seem like the obvious draw but surprisingly it isn't ! Commitment to continuous learning, a performance metrics based culture where personal growth and related rewards are linked to achievement of quantifiable goals, an environment that promotes risk-taking, where business is run with a broad worldwide outlook rather than an inward focused approach and tight hiring standards that brings in the best talent into the organizations are more powerful drivers.

Top talent also thrives in an environment that provides constant feedback about them from their superiors, subordinates and peers, what they think about their organization and their work environment and how satisfied the customers are with the organization.

Top talent also looks at the organization’s leadership - their vision, bench strength and ability to execute. They also are financially literate, keenly examining the organization's financials. They understand that revenue and margins can be 'dressed-up' - they focus on the parameter that matters the most - an impressive growing CASH FLOW!

Outsourced Projects - Setting expectations upfront

2007-12-01T23:22:00.000-08:00

My belief about successful projects involving multiple parties is all about setting right expectations and great communication. Common expectations need to be set regarding scope, timeline, budget, back-ups & contingency, resources, down-time (if any) et al. Add to that great communication at all times during the life cycle of the project to keep all the stakeholders in sync. Significant skills and track record are needed within providers to ensure consistent results.

Most often, in-house IT executives handling internal IT projects possess the requisite skills but fall short in their end-to-end implementation experience, which leads to wrong expectations, sub-optimal planning, inadequate communication and insufficient resilience which are all detrimental to the success of the project. I have also noticed that leaders in the outsourcing field 'tell' their customers what they need (based on their experience and track record of success in the customer’s industry vertical) unlike the smaller players who will 'ask' what the customer wants, while at the same time also accommodating any specific nuance that the customer needs addressed.

Customers want to talk to domain experts who know their stuff and can 'take charge' to provide advisory services or even hands-on guidance throughout the entire implementation. Honestly speaking, even the customer in many instances does not know what he/she wants at the end of the project.

Expanding business real estate - what is viable?

2007-12-01T23:00:00.000-08:00

Alternative business hubs are an important planning agenda item for the governments of all hot Asian economies. Hong Kong and Singapore have evolved traditional residential quarters like Taikoo Shing & Tampines in recent years into residential, business and recreational destinations. Great infrastructure, glitzy commercial and retail outlets and satellite offices of prominent organizations from financial services, technology and media. These hubs help average out real estate valuations providing alternatives to owners and tenants and drive a more holistic economic development process

What normally makes business districts sought after are location and critical mass of businesses, shopping and entertainment options. In Singapore, this will further intensify as the new premier Shenton Way real estate develops and the integrated resort gets ready.

While building new business hubs might ease the congestion and soaring rentals, they will need to provide suitable alternative value propositions, similar to what the original business district does, to be considered as an alternative. The planning process by Asia’s governments’ will need to take this into consideration and put in suitable plans to drive this successfully.

Organizations need to innovate in Asia

2007-12-01T22:47:00.000-08:00

A culture that encourages Innovation is a key differentiator and a crucial ingredient of every ‘Gold standard’ organisation in any industry.
These organisations have embedded this quality into its core fabric and the organisation's leaders preach and live this quality everyday setting the example for the rest of the employees to follow.
Innovation, besides delivering competitive advantage also contributes towards building employee skills, knowledge, market share, customer base and ultimately shareholder value.
Singapore and regional organizations can benefit significantly by encouraging an innovation led culture in their quest towards attracting high class talent, in scaling their operation and in their ability to compete with brands from global powerhouses.
While it is easy to recognise the virtues of innovation, not all organisations succeed in implementing it.
In addition to management commitment and creation of an innovation-friendly environment, successful organisations introduce monetary and non-monetary rewards for innovators in their ranks and establish a perception were experimentation is encouraged and failures that come out of these experimentations are not looked down upon or penalised.
That said, it takes time to build this platform of commitment and trust. It is not an overnight phenomenon.

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2007-11-07T17:47:00.000-08:00

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Funny Stuff....

2007-11-05T23:38:00.000-08:00

If you have difficulty understanding what gave rise to the current world financial situation (despite reading my blog post), the following should help clear matters...

Once upon a time in a village, a man announced to villagers that he would buy local monkeys for $10 apiece. The villagers seeing there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest and started catching them. The man bought thousands at $10, but, as the supply started to diminish, the villagers slowed their efforts.

So the man then announced that he would buy at $20. This rejuvenated the efforts of the villagers and they were catching monkeys once more. But again the supply diminished, and again people began returning to their farms and their previous, less affluent lives. The offer rate increased to $25 and the supply of monkeys became so little that it was rare to even see a monkey, let alone catch it!

The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now act as buyer, on his behalf. In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers: 'Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at $35 each. When he returns from the city, you can sell them back to him for $50.'

The villagers, seeing an opportunity to squeeze a bit more out of this monkey business dug up their savings and bought back all the monkeys.

They never saw the man or his assistant again; only monkeys ... everywhere!
Welcome to Wall Street!

Management 101
A man in a hot air balloon realized he was lost. He reduced altitude and spotted a woman below. He descended a bit more and shouted, "Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am."

The woman below replied, "You're in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You're between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude.""You must be an engineer," said the balloonist."I am," replied the woman, "How did you know?" "Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is, technically correct, but I've no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is I'm still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help at all. If anything, you've delayed my trip." The woman below responded, "You must be in Senior Management." "I am," replied the balloonist, "but how did you know?" "Well," said the woman, "you don't know where you are or where you're going.

You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise, which you've no idea how to keep, and you expect people beneath you to solve your problems. The fact is you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it's my fault."

Lesson Number One
A crow was sitting on a tree, doing nothing all day. A small rabbit saw the crow, and asked him, "Can I also sit like you and do nothing all day long?"The crow answered: "Sure, why not." So, the rabbit sat on the ground below the crow, and rested. All of a sudden, a fox appeared, jumped on the rabbit and ate it.Management Lesson:To sit and do nothing, you must be sitting very, very high up.

Lesson Number Two
A turkey was chatting with a bull. "I would love to be able to get to the top of that tree," sighed the turkey, "but I haven't got the energy."Well, why don't you nibble on some of my droppings?" replied the bull."They're packed with nutrients." The turkey pecked at a lump of dung and found that it actually gave him enough strength to reach the first branch of the tree.
The next day, after eating some more dung, he reached the second branch. Finally after a fortnight, there he was proudly perched at the top of the tree. Soon he was spotted by a farmer, who promptly shot the turkey out of the tree.

Moral of the Story: Bullshit might get you to the top, but it won't keep you there.

Lesson Number Three
When the body was first made, all the parts wanted to be Boss. The brain said, "I should be Boss because I control the whole body's responses and functions." The feet said, "We should be Boss as we carry the brain about and get him to where he wants to go." The hands said, "We should be the Boss because we do all the work and earn all the money."

And so it went on and on with the heart, the lungs and the eyes until finally the asshole spoke up. All the parts laughed at the idea of the asshole being the Boss. So the asshole went on strike, blocked itself up and refused to work.
Within a short time the eyes became crossed, the hands clenched, the feet twitched, the heart and lungs began to panic and the brain fevered. Eventually they all decided that the asshole should be the Boss, so the motion was passed. All the other parts did all the work while the Boss just sat and passed out the shit!

Moral of the Story: You don't need brains to be a Boss – any asshole will do.

Lesson Number Four
A little bird was flying south for the winter. It was so cold, the bird froze and fell to the ground in a large field. While it was lying there, a cow came by and dropped some dung on it.
As the frozen bird lay there in the pile of cow dung, it began to realize how warm it was. The dung was actually thawing him out! He lay there all warm and happy, and soon began to sing for joy. A passing cat heard the bird singing and came to investigate. Following the sound, the cat discovered the bird under the pile of cow dung, and promptly dug him out and ate him!

Moral of the Story:
1) Not everyone who drops shit on you is your enemy.
2) Not everyone who gets you out of shit is your friend.
3) When you're in deep shit, keep your mouth shut!

Useful Stuff

2007-10-24T10:40:00.000-07:00

Deb’s Note..

A key value I want to bring in through this blog initiative on Leadership Lessons is to debunk the ‘C-Level and Exec Myth’ that most of today’s talented professionals at every level are often overwhelmed with. People who have made to the Exec and C Suites are ordinary human beings with extraordinary passion, energy, ability to energize; they are decisive and they are capable of delivering consistently predictable results. They are also mostly very open to sharing their knowledge and learning with the world!

My objective of introducing my blog readers to Umesh’s work is not to herd you on to a ‘Route to a CEO’ initiative. Rather it is an attempt to give everyone an opportunity to mentally demystify the C-level mindset, thought process, expectations and the results they seek. I am hoping that this understanding will help you in relating to these individuals both in social and business situations that often present themselves with confidence and poise. It will enable you to make these engagements productive and help you progressively enrich yourself from each of these meetings.

I am also confidently looking forward to seeing many of you making it to the C-suites and contributing to Umesh’s future offerings…

Umesh Ramakrishnan - About the Book

I’ll be honest with you. I’m not a big fan of business books. You may think that a statement like that is ironic coming from a person who has just authored one. However, you have to examine the reasons for my disenchantment for this genre – especially books on building leadership skills to get you to the top of an organization.

The primary reason is that most of these books are written by observers of business, not ones that lead organizations and carry the scars of failure on their road to success. Academics, journalists and consultants are bright but their opinion on leadership lack the credibility required to teach lessons to executives eager to make their mark in the corporate world. The publishing graveyard is littered with books on lessons of leadership being taught by people on the sidelines.

Now, there are credible books on leadership written by true leaders of successful organizations – Jack Welch, Lee Iacocca to name a couple. These books are insightful and have obviously been successful. However, my issue with this sub-genre is that the opinions stated in these books are primarily those of one person and therefore lack a holistic view of leadership skills.

Now, to answer the question in the title of this post – This book, although authored by me, brings you directly in touch with dozens of CEOs around the world. The lessons of leadership come to you directly from leaders of companies like Charles Schwab, Lenovo, JC Penney, PepsiCo, Infosys, Aetna, Cadbury-Schweppes, NCR, BT, Singapore Telecom to name a few. As stated by Penguin (the publisher) on the jacket of the book – “There have been many books by CEOs but never a book that pulled together so much great advice from so many top executives who found so many different ways to reach the top of the corporate world.”

As the economy falters, the corporate world will need great leaders to lift it out of this tailspin. More than ever, these lessons of leadership will guide you to the top. There is No Elevator to The Top but these corporate captains will provide a roadmap to get there quickly.

Available at: Amazon B&N

Who is Umesh Ramakrishnan?

Umesh draws on his impressive career as a premier corporate recruiter and vice chairman of CTPartners, one of the world’s leading retained executive search firms. Umesh provides consultation to the boards of directors and chief executives of global corporations. He has recruited members for boards of directors, CEOs, CFOS, COOs, and other senior management positions. Clients regularly engage him to conduct international assignments, leveraging his experience in North and South America, Europe, and Asia.

Before joining CTPartners, Umesh was COO of R&R International and President of R&R Global, an off-shore engineering and applications development firm. Based in Cleveland, Umesh has assumed leadership roles within the firm. A member of the executive committee of the firm and the board of directors of CTPartners, he is one of the leaders responsible for the firm’s global expansion strategy and implementation. Regularly quoted in major industry and national publications, a sought-after speaker, an author and a regular guest on CNBC’s Closing Bell and Power Lunch, Umesh graduated from Bangalore University in India and holds a master’s degree in industrial engineering from the University of Texas. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Children’s Museum of Cleveland.

Umesh Ramakrishnan’s Blog: www.noelevatortothetop.com/

About Deb Dutta

2007-01-20T06:27:00.000-08:00

Deb Dutta is a technology executive with 22 years in MNCs & local start-ups. His contribution in organization transformation, rapid sequential business growth & strategic leadership has generated multi-billion dollar cumulative revenue streams from 17 countries & 18 office locations.

An integral member of impactful executive teams, he has built successful business strategies, go-to-market models & high performance teams from 15 nationalities, directing growth initiatives, M&A and organization optimization delivering revenue, margin & share growth.

Deb since Jan 2004 is Vice President, Asia Pacific for a multi billion dollar networking technology MNC. Having joined the company in 2001, Deb was promoted twice before his current position. Deb and his team have grown the Asia operation of the organizations faster than the market, competition and the rest of the company.

Prior to his current role, Deb led Network Associate’s (McAfee) rapid growth in Asia. He contributes to business, people development & educational forums as a speaker and writer. An avid sports person and a natural competitor, Deb holds an MS in Economics from the Univ of Calcutta & MBA from the Univ of South Australia.

He lives in Singapore with his wife Mousumi & daughters Airashi & Aria.