Sorry folks , I can't say happy with the toll of the Tsunami strike rising in India, to cross 15,000 people mainly in Tamil Nadu (see the XL Bangalore blog for more details if you want to help!) and totally over 100,000 and rising...
Best wishes to all of you to fulfill your dreams...
And a moment of silence for people who lost theirs...
Dec 31, 2004
Dec 22, 2004
Role of Trust
I know that I've started quoting Robert Scoble a lot recently, and that's not because he's an A-lister. I don't quote David Weinberger or Joi Ito so often , do I.
It's because in the plethora of techie (or is it techy?)/geeky posts, Scoble occasionally posts a gem for people like me...
Check this out, I am sure that us HR folks, KM folks, training & learning folks have to make this and topics like these mandatory reading !
By the way, here's what I've earlier mused about trust in organizations.
It's people like Scoble and others who are giving collaboration and trust a different meaning. I mean, where else can you even experience something like this ?
It's because in the plethora of techie (or is it techy?)/geeky posts, Scoble occasionally posts a gem for people like me...
Check this out, I am sure that us HR folks, KM folks, training & learning folks have to make this and topics like these mandatory reading !
Interesting paper is now on microsoft.com: The Future Role of Trust in Work.
"It argues that outdated command and control management culture is causing managers to misuse technology, over-scrutinising worker performance. This means employees are reacting to communication from employers rather than interacting with customers - therefore ultimately damaging UK productivity."
By the way, here's what I've earlier mused about trust in organizations.
It's people like Scoble and others who are giving collaboration and trust a different meaning. I mean, where else can you even experience something like this ?
The Challenges for Training & Learning
If there is one part of HR that seems constantly under question for its “ROI” potential, credibility or plain effectiveness it is what is usually known as “Training” – or in the new world as “Learning”, “Management Development” etc.
The reasons for the questions are not difficult to spot.
Training is the only group in HR that actually spends hard cash externally, as opposed to Recruitment or Compensation and Benefits that spend it as salaries. Once people see rupees flowing out of the organizational kitty, they are quick to question the ‘effectiveness’ of these trainings.
The training folks in organizations, haven’t actually covered themselves in laurels when it comes to their work.
The reasons for these are varied. Here is my diagnosis of the reasons:
Training is usually organized as a monolithic sub-function within HR and is junior staffed. This usually means a fresh graduate gets the fancy title of “training asst manager” or some such designation and becomes a gopher for meeting various training requests.
Why a training is being asked for?
What skills/competency gaps will it fill?
What is the follow up program for that training ?
Questions like these are scarcely asked.
Metrics used to measure training are usually uni-dimensional. Lacking either content expertise or process expertise, the training dept/person is measured by the HR head on factors like :
Number of training programs conducted
Satisfaction ratings
Number of people trained
Number of training days conducted per employee etc
Budget variations to plan
With the result, that the training department/person essentially is trying to meet these metrics. As you might have noticed none of these metrics even talk about linkage of training to business needs or outcomes. Any wonder why training fails to link up strategically.
Different groups need to own different parts of training. Content expertise for example resides in the various groups. The training group needs to turn facilitator and help these groups discover their own knowledge and learnings. The role that training needs to play is less of ‘content provider’ and more of standard settings and inculcating similar language across various organizational silos.
Training also needs to engage with various groups to help them to share learnings that are localized, across the organizations.
At a horizontal level, training needs to work with business and identify developmental areas of various levels to meet current and emerging business needs.
By doing that training will need to do a role that even HR is struggling in most organizations. i.e. linking to strategic business needs. That can happen best when training is led by someone who has been in business or can demonstrate in depth understanding.
The path for Training to become strategic
To uncover the way to become strategic training groups need to start doing the following:
Ask questions : Most training people are so ‘task focused’ that they do not seem to be able to ask “why am I doing this?” “How will this impact my firm’s bottomline?” If they do not think about ROI, others will think it for them
Think numbers : Training professionals need to think about a new set of metrics that focus more on effectiveness and less on efficiency. They have to rise from Kirkpatrick’s level 1 to level 3 and 4.
Realise that learning is more than training: Let’s face it. Face to face, classroom training probably accounts for less than 30% of what a person actually learns in an organization. Trainers, have to start thinking how factors like supervisor and management support will help in learning, how they will help in applying concepts learnt to increase workplace productivity. Attending training programs should not be the end, increasing workplace productivity should be
Involve line managers: Training professionals should involve line managers to actually be responsible for their employees trainings and where possible they should actually conduct the training themselves. Outsourcing training might help in the short term, but does not pass organizational culture along.
Transparency: People who are getting trained need to understand the larger context of where the training fits in with organizational strategy. Their managers and training professionals need to paint the whole picture to help them understand and communicate it to them.
New skills: Trainers themselves should pick up new skills like business and financial skills and not be just event managers. They need to understand the linkages between knowledge, learning and performance to figure out how they can add value to the organization.
What do you think?
The reasons for the questions are not difficult to spot.
Training is the only group in HR that actually spends hard cash externally, as opposed to Recruitment or Compensation and Benefits that spend it as salaries. Once people see rupees flowing out of the organizational kitty, they are quick to question the ‘effectiveness’ of these trainings.
The training folks in organizations, haven’t actually covered themselves in laurels when it comes to their work.
The reasons for these are varied. Here is my diagnosis of the reasons:
Training is usually organized as a monolithic sub-function within HR and is junior staffed. This usually means a fresh graduate gets the fancy title of “training asst manager” or some such designation and becomes a gopher for meeting various training requests.
Why a training is being asked for?
What skills/competency gaps will it fill?
What is the follow up program for that training ?
Questions like these are scarcely asked.
Metrics used to measure training are usually uni-dimensional. Lacking either content expertise or process expertise, the training dept/person is measured by the HR head on factors like :
Number of training programs conducted
Satisfaction ratings
Number of people trained
Number of training days conducted per employee etc
Budget variations to plan
With the result, that the training department/person essentially is trying to meet these metrics. As you might have noticed none of these metrics even talk about linkage of training to business needs or outcomes. Any wonder why training fails to link up strategically.
Different groups need to own different parts of training. Content expertise for example resides in the various groups. The training group needs to turn facilitator and help these groups discover their own knowledge and learnings. The role that training needs to play is less of ‘content provider’ and more of standard settings and inculcating similar language across various organizational silos.
Training also needs to engage with various groups to help them to share learnings that are localized, across the organizations.
At a horizontal level, training needs to work with business and identify developmental areas of various levels to meet current and emerging business needs.
By doing that training will need to do a role that even HR is struggling in most organizations. i.e. linking to strategic business needs. That can happen best when training is led by someone who has been in business or can demonstrate in depth understanding.
The path for Training to become strategic
To uncover the way to become strategic training groups need to start doing the following:
Ask questions : Most training people are so ‘task focused’ that they do not seem to be able to ask “why am I doing this?” “How will this impact my firm’s bottomline?” If they do not think about ROI, others will think it for them
Think numbers : Training professionals need to think about a new set of metrics that focus more on effectiveness and less on efficiency. They have to rise from Kirkpatrick’s level 1 to level 3 and 4.
Realise that learning is more than training: Let’s face it. Face to face, classroom training probably accounts for less than 30% of what a person actually learns in an organization. Trainers, have to start thinking how factors like supervisor and management support will help in learning, how they will help in applying concepts learnt to increase workplace productivity. Attending training programs should not be the end, increasing workplace productivity should be
Involve line managers: Training professionals should involve line managers to actually be responsible for their employees trainings and where possible they should actually conduct the training themselves. Outsourcing training might help in the short term, but does not pass organizational culture along.
Transparency: People who are getting trained need to understand the larger context of where the training fits in with organizational strategy. Their managers and training professionals need to paint the whole picture to help them understand and communicate it to them.
New skills: Trainers themselves should pick up new skills like business and financial skills and not be just event managers. They need to understand the linkages between knowledge, learning and performance to figure out how they can add value to the organization.
What do you think?
Dec 21, 2004
The Employment Guarantee Act ?
JobSeeker's Revenge asks whether India's 100 days of employment guarantee is a good idea...
what do you think?
what do you think?
Dec 20, 2004
Why should the Bazee.com CEO be jailed?
Rajesh Jain says that arresting Avnish Bajaj the CEO of Bazee.com is an asinine decision by the Delhi police. And as he quotes a friend saying:
"the municipal commissioners may need to be arrested for allowing pornographic videos and material on sold on the pavement, since the responsibility for the pavement is with the municipal corporation." !
I agree! The sooner the authorities ramp up our cyberlaws the better ! Maybe someone needs to educate the police and the babus about how the internet works. Compare this decision to the speedy decision of a US court that a competitor can buy your brand name as a keyword in Google's adwords programme. Revolutionary !
"the municipal commissioners may need to be arrested for allowing pornographic videos and material on sold on the pavement, since the responsibility for the pavement is with the municipal corporation." !
I agree! The sooner the authorities ramp up our cyberlaws the better ! Maybe someone needs to educate the police and the babus about how the internet works. Compare this decision to the speedy decision of a US court that a competitor can buy your brand name as a keyword in Google's adwords programme. Revolutionary !
TCS Tops Hewitt’s Best Employer Study
Indian companies, instead of MNC’s, have occupied the first three places in this year’s ‘Best Employers Study’ by Hewitt. Leading the way is Tata Consultancy Services, with Bharti Televentures at second place and National Thermal Power Corporation at third. Proctor and Gamble and Glaxo Smithkline Consumer being the fourth and fifth in the category of top five best employers in 2004. Ms. Smita Anand, Hewitt’s India head of consulting added “More importantly, the best employers are focusing on leadership development and are positioned to build a strong leadership pipeline”. Also to participate in the study were the blue-collar workers who suggested introducing a new category ‘Best Managed Workforce’ this year. The 5 companies with best-managed workforces were-Godrej Consumer Products, IFFCO, Parry Confectionery, The Leela Palace Kempinski and Jubilant Organosys. This year, Mr.Sunil Bharti Mittal of Bharti Televentures has been elected ‘Best People CEO’ while Proctor and Gamble has won ‘the most admired HR department’.
Source: 11-12-04 Business Standard Delhi Edition
Compiled by www.naukri.com
Source: 11-12-04 Business Standard Delhi Edition
Compiled by www.naukri.com
PeopleSoft employee wants to get his coworkers jobs
Scoble blogs about David Sohigian who works at PeopleSoft.
Anybody have any idea how the takeover will impact Oracle employees?
Daivd Sohigian blogs about PeopleSoft's takeover by Oracle.Since I don't know any Peoplesoft employees yet, I'm merely passing along David and Scoble's message. Best of luck folks.
David Sohigian is
looking for ways to find PeopleSoft's employees new jobs. (He estimates that
3,000 to 6,000 of his coworkers will lose their jobs in the next few
months).
This is great blogging. I wanna help him and his coworkers out.
Got any jobs for PeopleSoft'ers? Get in touch with David. Better yet, post any
open jobs on your blog and link to David's blog. He'll see your link in
Technorati. So will I.
PeopleSoft employees: David is collecting resumes of
his coworkers so that as he works with hiring directors he can help you get
noticed.
Personally, you should go even one better. Don't look desperate
(I've been there, it's tough to do, but it looks better if you just play up your
strengths). Instead, just link to David's blog and say "I'm a PeopleSoft
employee and here's my resume." David will build an RSS search for "PeopleSoft
employee" and will make sure that the hiring groups he's in touch with sees all
the bloggers that also have a resume linked on their weblog.
Anybody have any idea how the takeover will impact Oracle employees?
Dec 17, 2004
Creating Accountability and Commitment
Peter Block's training firm Designed Learning has a very interesting item on it's site (registration required)
Pretty powerful and self evident truths that we know hold true in our "other" lives...so why not in organizational life?
Summary of the Six Conversations that Build Accountability and Commitment
These six conversations are founded on a sincere belief that all change and transformation is linguistic in nature. That focusing on people's potential, and their best nature is much better than solving problems of the past or people's deficits. And that by having these conversations, we can create a community that helps organizations succeed beyond average performance.
The Invitation Conversation- Transformation occurs through choice, not mandate. Invitation is the call to create an alternative future. The leadership task is to name the debate, issue the invitation, and invest in those who choose to show up. Those who accept the call will bring the next circle of people into the conversation.
The Possibility Conversation is one that focuses
on what we want our future to be as opposed to problem solving the past. This is
based on an understanding that living systems are really propelled to the force
of the future. The possibility conversation frees people to innovate, challenge
the status quo, and create new futures that make a difference.
The leadership task is to postpone problem solving and stay focused
on possibility until it is spoken with resonance and passion
The Ownership Conversation is one that focuses on whose organization or task is this? The conversation begins with the question, “how have I contributed to creating the current reality?” Confusion, blame and waiting for someone else to change are a defense against ownership and personal power.
The leadership task is to confront people with their freedom.
The Dissent Conversation is allowing people the space to say "no". If we cannot say "no" then our "yes" has no meaning.
The leadership task is to surface doubts and dissent without having
an answer to every question.
The Commitment Conversation is about individuals making promises to their peers about their contribution to the success of the whole organization. It is centered in two questions: What promise am I willing to make to this enterprise? And, what is the price I am willing to pay for the success of the whole effort? It is a promise for the sake of a larger purpose, not for the sake of personal return.
The leadership task is to reject lip service and demand either authentic commitment or ask people to say no and pass. We need the commitment of much fewer people than we thought to create the future we have in mind.
The Sixth Conversation is Around Gifts. What are the gifts and assets we bring to the enterprise? Rather than focus on our deficiencies and weaknesses, which will most likely not go away, let us build on the gifts we bring and capitalize on those.
The leadership task is to bring the gifts of those on the margin
into the center.
Pretty powerful and self evident truths that we know hold true in our "other" lives...so why not in organizational life?
Delloite's plans for India
Top Consultant.com reports on Delloite's expansion plans in India.
In his first visit to the sub-continent as Global CEO, Parrett said, "India is a priority market for Deloitte globally. The local investment here is a testament to this. Clients of Deloitte's member firms are increasingly strengthening their Indian operations and with strong economic growth (predicted at 7%) India is a strategic market for Deloitte. "
The local investment in India is likely to be in excess of US$50 million over a five to six year period in line with expected GDP growth. This is comparable with the investment in China, considering foreign direct investment in India is one tenth of that of China. "What is important is that Deloitte's local member firms have been operating in India for about 100 years and are well established. The investment in the coming years will not disappear in bricks and mortar, but will build world-class capabilities — our people and the infrastructure to support them. In our business it is all about people, Mr Parrett said.
I know that Delloite has a big outsourcing group based out of Hyderabad doing SAP support for global teams. I wonder how much of the investment is top-line focussed (adding to increased billings in India vs. bottom line - outsourcing?)
In his first visit to the sub-continent as Global CEO, Parrett said, "India is a priority market for Deloitte globally. The local investment here is a testament to this. Clients of Deloitte's member firms are increasingly strengthening their Indian operations and with strong economic growth (predicted at 7%) India is a strategic market for Deloitte. "
The local investment in India is likely to be in excess of US$50 million over a five to six year period in line with expected GDP growth. This is comparable with the investment in China, considering foreign direct investment in India is one tenth of that of China. "What is important is that Deloitte's local member firms have been operating in India for about 100 years and are well established. The investment in the coming years will not disappear in bricks and mortar, but will build world-class capabilities — our people and the infrastructure to support them. In our business it is all about people, Mr Parrett said.
I know that Delloite has a big outsourcing group based out of Hyderabad doing SAP support for global teams. I wonder how much of the investment is top-line focussed (adding to increased billings in India vs. bottom line - outsourcing?)
Business week's top 10 books for 2004
And no.1 in the list is The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki (now I really want to read it!) and there are two written by Indians (oh ok, People of Indian Origin ;-))
At number 3 is The Future of Competition by C.K. Prahalad and Venkat Ramaswamy
followed by In Defense of Globalization by Jagdish Bhagwati which is at number 4.
At number 3 is The Future of Competition by C.K. Prahalad and Venkat Ramaswamy
followed by In Defense of Globalization by Jagdish Bhagwati which is at number 4.
Dr. Shukla co-edits a book!
OK. I didn't know where to post this.
So am finally posting this here.
My favourite prof/teacher/guru/mentor Dr. Madhukar Shukla is involved with a book again ! This time he's working with Indian HR legends Dr. Uma Jain and Dr. Udai Pareek and it's called "Developing Leadership for the Global Era: HRD Perspectives and Intitiatives" (published by McMillan India, 2004).
This is his third book, the earlier two being Understanding Organizations printed by Prentice Hall of India (1996) and Competing Through Knowledge :Building Learning Organization, by Response Books(Sage), 1997.
So am finally posting this here.
My favourite prof/teacher/guru/mentor Dr. Madhukar Shukla is involved with a book again ! This time he's working with Indian HR legends Dr. Uma Jain and Dr. Udai Pareek and it's called "Developing Leadership for the Global Era: HRD Perspectives and Intitiatives" (published by McMillan India, 2004).
This is his third book, the earlier two being Understanding Organizations printed by Prentice Hall of India (1996) and Competing Through Knowledge :Building Learning Organization, by Response Books(Sage), 1997.
Tom gives out his annual MVP awards...
And the winners are:
In Biz : Cirque du Soleil , London Drugs, Friedman Billings Ramsey, Commerce Bank
In CEOs: Our Indian Infosys "Cheif Mentor" Narayan Murthy and Dennis Littky.
In Idea: he talks about Lovemarks, the insight of Kevin Roberts CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi.
In Transformational tool: Of course, it's Blogging!
In Cool: iPod , but of course !
read the whole list here.
In Biz : Cirque du Soleil , London Drugs, Friedman Billings Ramsey, Commerce Bank
In CEOs: Our Indian Infosys "Cheif Mentor" Narayan Murthy and Dennis Littky.
In Idea: he talks about Lovemarks, the insight of Kevin Roberts CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi.
In Transformational tool: Of course, it's Blogging!
In Cool: iPod , but of course !
read the whole list here.
Creating a culture for Knowledge and Learning
FC Now has an interesting summary of P. Arun Prasad's (a Ph.D. candidate at the Indian Institute of Technology's Department of Management Studies in Chennai) paper presented at ICCS 2004 co-authored with Dr. T.J. Kamalanabhan. It explores the human resource practices that lead to a learning driven culture in the workplace. Creating that culture, Prasad argues, is how companies can maintain a sustained competitive advantage in their market. Read the summary at the FC Now page here. It's mainly theoretical, and I wish I could access the whole paper online somewhere !
Dec 16, 2004
ECS wakes up to the South
ECS Ltd opens Chennai office :
Chennai, Dec 8 :
Chennai, Dec 8 :
Management consultant firm ECS Ltd, a joint venture between the Eicher group and US-based Strategic Decisions Group, today announced the launch of its `full-service office' in Chennai. ECS will offer focused services in the key areas of strategy, operations, HR & change management, supply chain & full-value spend, and banking & financial services, its top officials told a news conference here." The South is probably the fastest growing region in the Indian economy. Our Chennai office shall serve as a gateway to help us extend further our Southern reach by locating consultants closer to the customers," said Ravi Bhamidipati, CEO of ECS Ltd. ECS Ltd already has offices in Mumbai, New Delhi and Bangalore. PTI
Dec 10, 2004
Universal complaints...
Jim Stroud points to The Last Word article on the 7 Univeral complaints of workers who are waiting for the "real" job :
· There's no job security here
· I don't trust management
· There's too much work to do
· The pay is too low
· Communication is poor
· I don't have enough balance in my life
· I feel under appreciated
To that I'd add a eighth one:
· I don't have "real" friends here!
· There's no job security here
· I don't trust management
· There's too much work to do
· The pay is too low
· Communication is poor
· I don't have enough balance in my life
· I feel under appreciated
To that I'd add a eighth one:
· I don't have "real" friends here!
Dec 9, 2004
HR people are preferable to ...
....the finance-accounting-economics school-of-passionless-management!
Hey, I'm not saying this...Tom Peters is...!
Well technically what he's saying is this !
Hey, I'm not saying this...Tom Peters is...!
Well technically what he's saying is this !
Managing creative people
From Business2Blog
We are all trying to get more out of creative people and most of us go
abou it the wrong way. Here is a list of some of the
misconceptions of managing creatives and the recent research that
may set you straight.
Dec 8, 2004
DIKW and its origins
KM practitioners might be interested in the origin of the Data, Information, Knowledge and Wisdom (DIKW) hierarchy...commonly known as "Knowledge Hierarchy"
Well, Nikhil Sharma says that the origin might well be decades even before we thought.
Well, Nikhil Sharma says that the origin might well be decades even before we thought.
Interestingly the first ever mention of the hierarchy came from neither
the KM field, nor the Information Science domain, but in poetry. In his Futurist
article, Cleveland cites T.S. Eliot as the person who suggested the hierarchy in
the first place- calling it "the T.S. Eliot hierarchy". The poet T.S. Eliot was
the first to mention the "information hierarchy" without even calling it by that
name. In 1934 Eliot wrote in "The Rock"[3]:
Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
This is the first vague mention of the hierarchy that was expanded by Cleveland, and later by others to add a layer of "Data".
Dec 3, 2004
Paradox of India's growth - Not enough jobs!
From Fireaxe's Blog:
India's booming IT and software sector employs about 2 million.
people. But R. Nagaraj, an economist at Bombay's Indira Gandhi
Institute for Development Research, notes that is a fraction of the
country's work force of 400 million."These jobs are concentrated in few
pockets like Bangalore, Hyderabad and Gurgaon where they are very visible and
these young boys and girls get fairly high paying jobs, but these are only small
specks in the ocean of unemployed people in towns and villages," he said. "If
you go to smaller towns, you find that educated young people do not find
adequate jobs."With one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, it may
seem odd that India is struggling with high unemployment. That is India's
paradox, say economists. Its economy is growing fast, but not fast
enough to hand out jobs to 10 million people who enter the work force each year. And there is a huge backlog of people who lost jobs in recent
years and have yet to find new ones.The official unemployment rate is
about 8 percent of the working population. Economists, however,
say the real rate is much higher, because millions of people
have given up looking for jobs or have never registered as unemployed.
Dec 2, 2004
Future skill sets needed for Indian industry
The Businessworld issue (registration required) also points to the talents and skills companies will most fight over. So if you are still graduating from college you can figure out what to do.
According to the article skills most in demand would be:
1. Analytics (for BPO, Banking and Insurance industries)
2. Scientific Research & Development (for Pharma and Biotech)
3. Sourcing, supply chain and merchandising (for retail , FDI in which might explode growth!)
4. Trainers (for BPO, retail and insurance) - That sounds good news to moi !
5. Global Mergers & Acquisitions and Process integration specialists as Indian manufacturing goes out global for growth.
Of course the inddustries driving these growths would be IT, ITES, Pharma, Biotech, Banking , Insurance , Retail and Manufacturing.
Good times ahead in the new year !
According to the article skills most in demand would be:
1. Analytics (for BPO, Banking and Insurance industries)
2. Scientific Research & Development (for Pharma and Biotech)
3. Sourcing, supply chain and merchandising (for retail , FDI in which might explode growth!)
4. Trainers (for BPO, retail and insurance) - That sounds good news to moi !
5. Global Mergers & Acquisitions and Process integration specialists as Indian manufacturing goes out global for growth.
Of course the inddustries driving these growths would be IT, ITES, Pharma, Biotech, Banking , Insurance , Retail and Manufacturing.
Good times ahead in the new year !
Best employers and Great Places to Work
As I blogged earlier, this year will see three "best employer" lists in India for all the job seekers to choose from. Two of those results are out and it's a great time to compare the lists.
For some reason, the BT-TNS-Mercer list looked at only Indian employers. There were no MNCs on this list . Was that intentional? I have no idea.
But these were their results:
Rank : Company
1 : Sasken
2 : Infosys
3 : Thermax
4: HCL Comnet
5 : HDFC
6 : NTPC
7 : Dr Reddy's
8 : Satyam
9 : Patni Computer
10: Hughes Software
Whereas the BW-GT top 10 are :
1. FedEx Corporation
2. Texas Instruments
3. National Thermal Power Corporation
4. Computer Sciences Corporation
5. MindTree Consulting
6. Sasken Communication Technologies
7. Godrej Consumer Products
8. Intel Technologies India
9. Sapient Corporation
10. Honeywell Technology Solutions Lab
As we can see the important difference is that MNCs make up half of the BW-GT list. The other striking point in both the list is Public Sector Unit NTPC making it to number 6 and number 3. That means it's a great employer . Of course, same is true of Sasken the communication company! Those two are the only companies to be in the top 10 of BOTH the lists.
Let's see what the Hewitt-CNBC TV18 survey throws up!
For some reason, the BT-TNS-Mercer list looked at only Indian employers. There were no MNCs on this list . Was that intentional? I have no idea.
But these were their results:
Rank : Company
1 : Sasken
2 : Infosys
3 : Thermax
4: HCL Comnet
5 : HDFC
6 : NTPC
7 : Dr Reddy's
8 : Satyam
9 : Patni Computer
10: Hughes Software
Whereas the BW-GT top 10 are :
1. FedEx Corporation
2. Texas Instruments
3. National Thermal Power Corporation
4. Computer Sciences Corporation
5. MindTree Consulting
6. Sasken Communication Technologies
7. Godrej Consumer Products
8. Intel Technologies India
9. Sapient Corporation
10. Honeywell Technology Solutions Lab
As we can see the important difference is that MNCs make up half of the BW-GT list. The other striking point in both the list is Public Sector Unit NTPC making it to number 6 and number 3. That means it's a great employer . Of course, same is true of Sasken the communication company! Those two are the only companies to be in the top 10 of BOTH the lists.
Let's see what the Hewitt-CNBC TV18 survey throws up!
Dec 1, 2004
Management is dead (or dying?)
Tom Peters quotes the book The End of Management :
"Managers are the dinosaurs of our modern organizational ecology. The
Age of Management is finally coming to a close. The need for overseers,
surrogate parents, scolds, monitors, functionaries, disciplinarians,
bureaucrats, and lone implementers is over, while the need for visionaries,
leaders, coordinators, coaches, mentors, facilitators, and conflict resolvers is
steadily increasing, pressing itself upon us. ... Nearly unnoticed, a far-reaching organizational transformation has already begun, based on the idea that management as a system fails to open the heart or free the spirit. This
revolution is attempting to turn inflexible, autocratic, static, coercive
bureaucracies into agile, evolving, democratic, collaborative, self-managing
webs of association.”
Blogger for hire
Jeremy of Ensight offers his Blogging skills for hire on eBay. And another interesting post of his on "Why Should companies buy bloggers". I've finally added him to the my blogroll also.
On one's ideal career...
Ian Christie, coach, ex-Monster.com Director, Executive Search Consultant, and career expert, in his Being Bold blog has this insightful piece:
(many people have an ) assumption or feeling that there is one right
answer. One magic profession, that if it could be identified, would be the
solution to everything. So, in the absence of finding the "right answer," people
stay put. But, while they stay put, life goes on.
In my experience, some, and only some people, have a specific thing that they "find" and in which they can be happy for the rest of their lives. Some people know. Some people analyze their way to the answer. A surprising number of people stumble upon the answer.
This may be you, but if you don't know now, you should accept that fact that
there might not be just one perfect profession for you.
Hari's Bake Shop
Here's a plug for a friend from college Hari Nayak.
Why? Because he's a friend and a damn good chef ! Don't miss the recipe section, people who like to cook. And don't think it's just a bakery, he caters to parties and you can rent a chef too !
Yum I wish I was there in the US to sample what's Hari cooking now!
Why? Because he's a friend and a damn good chef ! Don't miss the recipe section, people who like to cook. And don't think it's just a bakery, he caters to parties and you can rent a chef too !
Yum I wish I was there in the US to sample what's Hari cooking now!
Nov 30, 2004
The Global Knowledge Review
My deadline for an article which I committed to David Gurteen is coming closer. I'm still wondering what I should write for the Global Knowledge Review.
Any suggestions?
What would you like to read about if you were getting the GKR?
Any suggestions?
What would you like to read about if you were getting the GKR?
CEO recruitment
Picked this up from Om Malik's blog:
Attention headhunters : If all corporations take Rice University’s advise, then you all will be looking for new gigs. In a recent study they found that that despite a sharp increase in the “number of CEOs at U.S. companies have been recruited from outside those firms, a new study suggests that boards of directors should look inside their
organizations before filling this critical position.” Love the name of the study
by Yan (Anthea) Zhang of Rice University’s Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of
Management and Nandini Rajagopalan of the University of Southern California — When The Known Devil is Better Than an Unknown God: An Empirical
Study of the Antecedents and Consequences of Relay CEO Successions
FDI in retail, aviation in India
Sujan has an informed post about Foreign Direct Investment in the Indian Retail sector.
Another FDI debate that got stirred up was the announcement by Richard Branson that he would like to invest in his personal capacity in some Indian domestic carrier in the vicinity of 25-49%. Wonder how the government would interpret that ?
Oh oh, they said they are OK with it !
Another FDI debate that got stirred up was the announcement by Richard Branson that he would like to invest in his personal capacity in some Indian domestic carrier in the vicinity of 25-49%. Wonder how the government would interpret that ?
Oh oh, they said they are OK with it !
A humorous look at the Reliance imbroglio
OK, a lot of investors might feel that the Ambani feud is no laughing matter, but BombayType has this hilarious look at the "bhailog-ka-locha" :-)!
Nov 29, 2004
What they don't teach you....
at XLRI
After Gautam Sinha (94PMIR), and E Abraham (78PMIR), this one is from Ronald Sequeira - VP & Head of Human Resources, Tata Power - of 84PMIR batch from Business Standard (Nov 23, 2004):
From the XLRI alumni Blog
After Gautam Sinha (94PMIR), and E Abraham (78PMIR), this one is from Ronald Sequeira - VP & Head of Human Resources, Tata Power - of 84PMIR batch from Business Standard (Nov 23, 2004):
If you ever want to see several happy people in one place, visit any leading
B-school campus just after the placement season is over. What a sybaritic
feeling. A business school stamp behind your name and a dream job ahead of you.
The B-school grad has learnt all that is there to learn. Could it get any
better?
From the XLRI alumni Blog
Nov 25, 2004
Branding, Social software and The Long Tail
what am I talking about. Well I picked this up from Robert Scoble's blog. Scoble discusses a conversation he's had with Young & Rubicom's David Thorpe. As Scoble says:
Not really an original idea right? We all have heard variations of these thoughts, the creative edge is where new ideas come from, etc etc.
But what is different is what Scoble goes on to say about Blogging and branding and conversations , that really made me sit up. Just an "evil geek" he isn't :-)
Imagine that. A tech company saying that they don't grok wikis! Weird!
So, remember that, you marketer who thinks for the long-term. Watch and listen to the long tail. Next decade's biggest new idea could come from there. Leave next quarter and next months sales figures to the branding and sales guy. You do R&D and listen to the innovators and experimenters.
Anyone know if I can get a "I'm a long tailer" sticker from somewhere?
I shared with him that "the long tail" is where the next few big companies will come from. In fact, Microsoft and Apple and Google all came from the long tail. Remember 1976? Only a handful of people were into personal computers. A few small user's groups. A few hobby magazines.
That's a lot like where podcasting is today, no? Or even blogging. About 10 million blogs exist right now, right?
So, if you wanna figure out what is coming in the future, you must build relationships with the long tail. You must figure out ways to see things happening in the long tail before anyone else.
Finally, those who pay attention to the long tail will build strong brands, profitable
companies, and strong organizations.
Latest success story to come out of the long tail? Google.
Think about it, Google didn't pay attention to the 80% of the market. They paid attention to the weirdos at the end of the tail. The folks who really used search a LOT.
Not really an original idea right? We all have heard variations of these thoughts, the creative edge is where new ideas come from, etc etc.
But what is different is what Scoble goes on to say about Blogging and branding and conversations , that really made me sit up. Just an "evil geek" he isn't :-)
I told David that blogs are only the tip of the iceberg. Blogs are only the
part of the word-of-mouth networks that we can see. So, for every blog that
talks about something, there are probably 100,000 conversations that we can't
see. Blogs just give us a fuzzy picture of what really is being discussed
person-to-person in IM, email, on the phone, or over turkey dinner tomorrow at
Thanksgiving.
They don't understand bloggers who celebrate audiences of hundreds of
people. They don't understand Google, who built a search engine for the
hard-core-searcher (they are still trying to react to Google's vision six years
later).
They don't grok wikis. After all, only the geeks are using wikis
today, right? (You and I know they are wrong, but selling the long tail is
tough).
Imagine that. A tech company saying that they don't grok wikis! Weird!
So, remember that, you marketer who thinks for the long-term. Watch and listen to the long tail. Next decade's biggest new idea could come from there. Leave next quarter and next months sales figures to the branding and sales guy. You do R&D and listen to the innovators and experimenters.
Anyone know if I can get a "I'm a long tailer" sticker from somewhere?
The Reliance ownership tussle
Sometimes, I think that the Indian business climate hasn't really improved from the days before liberalisation.
Imagine, an entrepreneur creates India's biggest private organization from rags to riches with nothing apart from street smart savvy and the ability to raise money for mega projects. Dhirubhai Ambani becomes the icon for the primary investor in India and vitalises the Bombay Stock Exchange. Reliance starts off in the textile industry, integrating backwards into Polymers, then Petrochemicals. It discovers its strength as the ability to project manage huge projects and the ability to raise money cheap. It even sought to takeover construction company L&T to further reduce time and cost of its projects. Then it moved into areas like Oil & gas and Telecom bringing it's same strengths to reduce cost and think big. Dhirubhai passes away and the mantle falls on his two sons.
Mukesh, the chosen heir, hardworking, organization man.
Anil, the younger son, flamboyant, glamourous, the external communicator and the financial brain.
Reliance's moves into new economy areas like Broadband, Telecom etc areMukesh's pet projects. Anil moves into the background making media appearances.
And last week, when a reporter asked Mukesh on percieved differences between the brothers, Mukesh said "There are ownership issues, but they are in the private realm"
Helllooo?
Private realm?
With a comment like that did Mukesh really believe that it could remain private? Or was he pushing the envelope ? We will never know. What followed was a classic case of what not to do in crisis management.
The markets reacted with the Reliance Industries shares nosediving.
It was public news that Dhirubhai had not left any will. So the laws of the Hindu Undivided Family take over, and the matriarch Kokila Ben called for a family meeting of the two brothers and their two sisters to sort out the tangle.
After that Mukesh sent off an e-mail to all the employees saying in effect "I'm the boss"
As of now Anil Ambani has not made a public statement , but apparently the brothers are consulting their lawyers.
Looking at this as a student of Organizational Behavior this seems like a classic case of the first revolution from Griener's model. An organization that was largely entrepreneur driven and where the ownership and management control were focussed into the family (who were often ranked as THE most powerful people in India) had to unravel sooner or later. What took people by surprise is the timing.
Where is the group headed now? Mukesh might have the money, but Anil has more powerful friends (like Amitabh Bachchan, Amar Singh) and he is a Rajya Sabha politician also. I personally do not think this will go to the courts. Both the brothers stand to lose a lot of wealth as values will erode soon in such a case. Anil, being the more canny strategist would probably ensure a settlement like (as a Biz journalist pointed on TV yesterday) "The Line of Control" !
Imagine, an entrepreneur creates India's biggest private organization from rags to riches with nothing apart from street smart savvy and the ability to raise money for mega projects. Dhirubhai Ambani becomes the icon for the primary investor in India and vitalises the Bombay Stock Exchange. Reliance starts off in the textile industry, integrating backwards into Polymers, then Petrochemicals. It discovers its strength as the ability to project manage huge projects and the ability to raise money cheap. It even sought to takeover construction company L&T to further reduce time and cost of its projects. Then it moved into areas like Oil & gas and Telecom bringing it's same strengths to reduce cost and think big. Dhirubhai passes away and the mantle falls on his two sons.
Mukesh, the chosen heir, hardworking, organization man.
Anil, the younger son, flamboyant, glamourous, the external communicator and the financial brain.
Reliance's moves into new economy areas like Broadband, Telecom etc areMukesh's pet projects. Anil moves into the background making media appearances.
And last week, when a reporter asked Mukesh on percieved differences between the brothers, Mukesh said "There are ownership issues, but they are in the private realm"
Helllooo?
Private realm?
With a comment like that did Mukesh really believe that it could remain private? Or was he pushing the envelope ? We will never know. What followed was a classic case of what not to do in crisis management.
The markets reacted with the Reliance Industries shares nosediving.
It was public news that Dhirubhai had not left any will. So the laws of the Hindu Undivided Family take over, and the matriarch Kokila Ben called for a family meeting of the two brothers and their two sisters to sort out the tangle.
After that Mukesh sent off an e-mail to all the employees saying in effect "I'm the boss"
As of now Anil Ambani has not made a public statement , but apparently the brothers are consulting their lawyers.
Looking at this as a student of Organizational Behavior this seems like a classic case of the first revolution from Griener's model. An organization that was largely entrepreneur driven and where the ownership and management control were focussed into the family (who were often ranked as THE most powerful people in India) had to unravel sooner or later. What took people by surprise is the timing.
Where is the group headed now? Mukesh might have the money, but Anil has more powerful friends (like Amitabh Bachchan, Amar Singh) and he is a Rajya Sabha politician also. I personally do not think this will go to the courts. Both the brothers stand to lose a lot of wealth as values will erode soon in such a case. Anil, being the more canny strategist would probably ensure a settlement like (as a Biz journalist pointed on TV yesterday) "The Line of Control" !
Nov 19, 2004
marketing and product blogs - the question of 'staff' functions
Crossroads Dispatches by Evelyn Rodrigues links to my comment on Marc's new blog where he sought feedback.
But it is an interesting question, are Marketers making life 'too complicated' for themselves ? Are HR people? Are Finance people? Do we in the "staff" functions like to make our work like rocket science to feel that we are "adding value" to the organization?
If you see the six trends that are seen to be impacting HR (from Deepa's Jigyasa Consulting blog) I am sure they can be addressed if one thinks of them as "business challenges" rather than HR challenges.
Don't get me wrong, I am not saying HR is "common sense". It is not. There is a science and art to it. Group dynamics and motivation theory is not common sense. It is common sense when it applies to me, individually, but sensing undercurrents and diagnosing group issues comes only with lots of practice and lots of empathy.
But it is an interesting question, are Marketers making life 'too complicated' for themselves ? Are HR people? Are Finance people? Do we in the "staff" functions like to make our work like rocket science to feel that we are "adding value" to the organization?
If you see the six trends that are seen to be impacting HR (from Deepa's Jigyasa Consulting blog) I am sure they can be addressed if one thinks of them as "business challenges" rather than HR challenges.
Don't get me wrong, I am not saying HR is "common sense". It is not. There is a science and art to it. Group dynamics and motivation theory is not common sense. It is common sense when it applies to me, individually, but sensing undercurrents and diagnosing group issues comes only with lots of practice and lots of empathy.
Attention grabbing CVs
Robert Scoble was referred this CV by JY. And this is doing the rounds in Microsoft, and therefore, might prove the adage that attention grabbing CVs can actually make a difference...even if they take ages to load !
Who would have thought that CVs can be like a little movie. And no, don't start paying animation developers to make such CVs for yourself. You see, most resume software packages do not read Flash (any exceptions?), and lots don't read even images or pdfs!
Who would have thought that CVs can be like a little movie. And no, don't start paying animation developers to make such CVs for yourself. You see, most resume software packages do not read Flash (any exceptions?), and lots don't read even images or pdfs!
Nov 17, 2004
Ingrid addresses the House of Lords on Globalization!
Well, doesn't happen too frequently that someone you (virtually!) know gets a chance to address the House of Lords in the United Kingdom !
Well, that's what Ingrid Srinath , CEO of CRY (child relief and you) did recently and you can find the internet version here at the CRY site. In the presentation Ingrid covers the other side of globalization and builds awareness of the 'collateral damage'(or discrimination by design) that globalization gives rise to, especially in a developing economy like India with its huge 'leagacy' issues of centuries old biases. Of course, Ingrid focusses on issues like child education and mortality but the message is telling. She attacks the governments apathy and its "lies, damned lies and statistics" that obfuscate more than they clarify. One of the most poignant parts of the presentation is when Asma Shiekh's story is personalised here. I got a lump in my throat reading those slides.
So what do you think about Globalization now?
Well, that's what Ingrid Srinath , CEO of CRY (child relief and you) did recently and you can find the internet version here at the CRY site. In the presentation Ingrid covers the other side of globalization and builds awareness of the 'collateral damage'(or discrimination by design) that globalization gives rise to, especially in a developing economy like India with its huge 'leagacy' issues of centuries old biases. Of course, Ingrid focusses on issues like child education and mortality but the message is telling. She attacks the governments apathy and its "lies, damned lies and statistics" that obfuscate more than they clarify. One of the most poignant parts of the presentation is when Asma Shiekh's story is personalised here. I got a lump in my throat reading those slides.
So what do you think about Globalization now?
Nov 9, 2004
For training professionals...
Check out these posts from Donald Clark's blog on how CLO Dashboard puts learning executives on the driver's seat, and another one on the various definitions of e-learning and finding the most suitable one.
Nov 8, 2004
Pesticide or Coke/Pepsi - The sequel
After the controversy of pesticides in Coke/Pepsi a couple of years ago...the story has returned in a new form. Madhukar blogs about a BBC report that chronicles how farmers in North India are using Coke/Pepsi as a cheaper alternative to pesticides !
For farmers in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh it is cheaper than pesticides and gets the job done just as well. The product? Pepsi or Coca-Cola.
Agricultural scientists give them some backing - they say the high sugar content
of the drinks can make them effective in combating pests. Unsurprisingly, Pepsi
and Coca-Cola strongly disagree, saying there is nothing in the drinks that can
be used in pest control.
Oak Hill, General Atlantic take 60% stake in GE BPO
From Rediff Biz:
The golden question is, will GE plan to sell off the remaining 40% stake also? If so, who else will bid for it? And how will GE 'dis-engage' its management control from GECIS?
The other interesting point was that GE valued GECIS at $ 1 billion, and so does that mean the deal was overvalued?
Interesting times ahead !
Oak Hill Capital Partners, a $1.6-billion private equity firm and General
Atlantic have agreed to pay about $500 million for 60 per cent of General
Electric's business-processing operations in India, sources close to the deal
said.
GE Capital Services is the leader in offshoring services to India. Set
up in 1997, the company employs over 12,000 people in eight sites in India in
four cities. It has five centres -- one each at Gurgaon, Bangalore and Jaipur --
and two in Hyderabad.
The golden question is, will GE plan to sell off the remaining 40% stake also? If so, who else will bid for it? And how will GE 'dis-engage' its management control from GECIS?
The other interesting point was that GE valued GECIS at $ 1 billion, and so does that mean the deal was overvalued?
Interesting times ahead !
Nov 5, 2004
Reverse Offshoring?
Interesting Fast Company article on US citizens working for Indian IT organizations. It would be a cultural challenge for these people to move from American organizations with their emphasis on individual performance to move to group performance norms of Indian organizations. I also wonder how they reconcile the endless debating tendency of their Indian colleagues with their own propensity for action and execution...
Best Consulting employers in the US
Consultants are rarely short of advice for others, but do they practice what they preach when it comes to creating healthy work cultures at their own organizations? Consulting Magazine's annual Best Firms to Work For survey of thousands of consultants found several firms that were earning high praise from their toughest critics:
their own employees.
"The next big battle in the war for talent, has begun and these firms are now on the frontlines," says Consulting Magazine Editor in Chief Jack Sweeney.
"The professional lives of consultants can only improve, as these top firmsdemonstrate that people remain the ultimate competitive advantage."
their own employees.
"The next big battle in the war for talent, has begun and these firms are now on the frontlines," says Consulting Magazine Editor in Chief Jack Sweeney.
"The professional lives of consultants can only improve, as these top firmsdemonstrate that people remain the ultimate competitive advantage."
CONSULTING MAGAZINE'S 10 BEST CONSULTING FIRMS TO WORK FOR
Bain & Company
McKinsey & Company
Boston Consulting Group
Booz Allen Hamilton
Kurt Salmon Associates
Pittiglio Rabin Todd and McGrath
Sapient Corp.
Milliman USA
Mercer Management Consulting
DiamondCluster International
Besides highlighting the cultural strengths of different leading firms, Consulting Magazine's Best Consulting Firms to Work For survey makes visible the difficult demands of a consulting career.
"Consulting firms traditionally demanded that employees completely sacrifice their personal lives for their work," says Sweeney. "Consultants tell us there is still much room for improvement, and we like to believe the magazine's Best Firms survey is helping curtail such sacrifices."
For the rankings, Consulting Magazine surveyed more than 4,000 U.S.-based consultants at 32 firms. Firms were scored by their employees' responses to questions in six equally-weighted categories: Leadership, Compensation & Benefits, Culture, On the Job, Work/Life, and Career Development.
Nov 2, 2004
KM - The organizational ghetto?
dave pollard has an interesting post, and yeah I was nodding too :-). Read the full post here:
An excerpt:
An excerpt:
At a KM conference last year, I somewhat timidly suggested to the audience
that KM has become the organizational ghetto for the most creative minds in
business. I explained that almost everyone I knew in senior positions in KM was
brighter and more inventive than their peers, and had self-selected or been
hand-picked by management to lead their organizations' KM programs for that
reason. There was a belief in the dot-com '90s that knowledge was the critical
strategic asset of business, and the gateway to innovation. KM was going to make
a difference, and allow people enamoured with creativity and change to lead that
change.A decade later, most people left in KM are disillusioned. The culture of
big business has shifted sharply back right, and cost reduction, not innovation,
is Job One. There has not been much to show for all that promise and creative
ambition. But those in KM should not blame themselves. They were unwittingly set
up for disappointment. Executives don't know what to do with creative thinkers,
and putting them into KM was, at least in hindsight, a perfect way to
'institutionalize' them, keep them visible as innovation role models but
marginalize them so they don't actually do anything, or spend much of the
company's money. They are the corporation's lip service to diversity and
creativity. The problem is, unless they want a life as starving artists or
starving writers, they really have no place to go. They're trapped in this
creative ghetto.
Oct 29, 2004
Managing the Gamer Generation
From the Harvard Business School Working Knowledge series:
They are different from you and me, this generation born after 1970. They grew up with a finger on the keyboard and an ear to the cell phone, and in a world where the forces of globalization have broken down national barriers like no time in history.
And right now this group is moving up in the business ranks, becoming managers, partners, and eventually CEOs.
Chances are you manage employees from this generation, and it's not far-fetched
to believe you may yourself be managed by them before you check out of your
career.
If the book Got Game: How the Gamer Generation is Reshaping Business Forever is correct, the "gamer generation" will make very different kinds of employees and managers.
Actually, say authors John C. Beck and Mitchell Wade, gamers will make great workers and great employees. They know how to work in teams, are creative problem solvers, and believe that nothing is impossible. But managers need to know what makes this new generation tick in order to manage them effectively.
The nature of the creative organization
From my posting to the ISTT egroup:
Organizations can be creative in two ways...! maybe three!
One, consider the case of a traditional Indian licence rajconglomerate that seeks to be 'creative/innovative' in the new age...It's better off trying to replicate the 'skunkworks' analogy and isolate the creative group (with high business outcomes) from theexisting culture and help them flourish ...! Lots of organizations have tried this approach and succeeded like Indian automobile manufactures .
This is the structural solution...easy to do...but the cons come inthe integration part...the 'skunkworks' will never truly be 'a part of the bigger organization'...always be considered the 'geeks' amongst the 'suits'.
And eventually most of them will leave and the business would have lost the lessons they had learnt...unless the business tries to take on the culture.
That's when we go to approach two .
Approach two is to embed creative thinking into the organization, have dedicated champions who understand benefits...strive and keep at it ...and nine times out of ten this won't succeed...and the companies will have obits written about them..But for the one in ten who succeeds, well you can be sure that HBR will write a case study !And approach three ?Well you can begin a creative company to start with ! Jokes apart, when I read Edgar Schein's views on Organizational Innovation, it made me a little sad :-( From the Businessworld site:
MIT's Edgar Schein has very strong views on organisational culture. He believes business theory has got it all wrong - it is impossibleto transform an innovative company into a business-driven one."A culture of innovation doesn't scale up. As a company grows, it must either find a way to break away small units which continue to innovate, or abandon innovation as a strategic priority. Also,different organisations with different cultures are needed at different stages in the evolution of a market. Current business theories are too locked in making a mature corporation in a maturemarket not only economically effective, but innovative as well. That may be just as difficult as making an innovative company economically effective. In a developing market based on new technologies, you may need more organisations like Digital, many of which will not survive,but will create an industry. Thus, playing their role as innovators.I am not sure that companies can avoid getting into such a culturetrap. Business books always have a solution for everything. I am trying to be a bit more pragmatic. Some problems don't have an easy resolution. Companies do die. Wang could not make this transition. Neither could Polaroid. It is not something which you can necessarily fix unless the entrepreneur is able to see it and chooses to abandon some of his original values. But you cannot say he should see it -some do, some don't. It is very easy for us to say what theentrepreneur should or shouldn't do. But it is very difficult to predict if they, in fact, will do it."
Organizations can be creative in two ways...! maybe three!
One, consider the case of a traditional Indian licence rajconglomerate that seeks to be 'creative/innovative' in the new age...It's better off trying to replicate the 'skunkworks' analogy and isolate the creative group (with high business outcomes) from theexisting culture and help them flourish ...! Lots of organizations have tried this approach and succeeded like Indian automobile manufactures .
This is the structural solution...easy to do...but the cons come inthe integration part...the 'skunkworks' will never truly be 'a part of the bigger organization'...always be considered the 'geeks' amongst the 'suits'.
And eventually most of them will leave and the business would have lost the lessons they had learnt...unless the business tries to take on the culture.
That's when we go to approach two .
Approach two is to embed creative thinking into the organization, have dedicated champions who understand benefits...strive and keep at it ...and nine times out of ten this won't succeed...and the companies will have obits written about them..But for the one in ten who succeeds, well you can be sure that HBR will write a case study !And approach three ?Well you can begin a creative company to start with ! Jokes apart, when I read Edgar Schein's views on Organizational Innovation, it made me a little sad :-( From the Businessworld site:
MIT's Edgar Schein has very strong views on organisational culture. He believes business theory has got it all wrong - it is impossibleto transform an innovative company into a business-driven one."A culture of innovation doesn't scale up. As a company grows, it must either find a way to break away small units which continue to innovate, or abandon innovation as a strategic priority. Also,different organisations with different cultures are needed at different stages in the evolution of a market. Current business theories are too locked in making a mature corporation in a maturemarket not only economically effective, but innovative as well. That may be just as difficult as making an innovative company economically effective. In a developing market based on new technologies, you may need more organisations like Digital, many of which will not survive,but will create an industry. Thus, playing their role as innovators.I am not sure that companies can avoid getting into such a culturetrap. Business books always have a solution for everything. I am trying to be a bit more pragmatic. Some problems don't have an easy resolution. Companies do die. Wang could not make this transition. Neither could Polaroid. It is not something which you can necessarily fix unless the entrepreneur is able to see it and chooses to abandon some of his original values. But you cannot say he should see it -some do, some don't. It is very easy for us to say what theentrepreneur should or shouldn't do. But it is very difficult to predict if they, in fact, will do it."
Communication factors and future organizational structure
From Fortune: (yeah, it's a little old !)
Get ready to choose your own boss.
MIT visionary Tom Malone sees big changes coming to the workplace.
Malone sees a parallel between the evolution of human society and the evolution of business. "For millenia," he says, "all human societieswere organized as small, autonomous, egalitarian groups called bands.Then we saw the rise of bigger and bigger, more centralized societies called kingdoms. Only in the last 200 years have we seen the rise on a large scale of the third way of organizing human society-democracy." Each of those stages, Malone says, can be explained by a change in a single factor--the cost of communication. In his view,writing is what enabled hierarchically organized kingdoms to arise.Printing led to democracy.
Likewise, he says, "until a couple hundred years ago businesses were still organized like bands. It was only when new communications technologies like telegraph and telephone and even the Xerox machine made communication cheap enough to coordinate larger groups of people that we saw the rise of the centralized corporation--the kingdoms ofthe business world." I like the way this guy thinks. So where are we now? It's the revolution, he says. "Near the end ofthe 20th century, it became possible for the first time to exchangethe detailed kind of information necessary to coordinate a businesson a very large scale even as lots of individuals made decisions for themselves. When communications costs fall it becomes possible forvastly more people to be well-enough informed to make decisions instead of just following orders from their uniquely well-informedsuperiors."For most of our lives, Malone says, "the big message of business history was that getting bigger and more centralized was the way yousucceed. But now you can have both the economic benefits of bigness and the human benefits of smallness."
He's really talking about a new era of empowerment, and how companies and workers will inevitably have to adapt to these new realities inorder to thrive."When people are making decisions for themselves a lot of other good things happen," he continues. "People are often more motivated,creative, flexible, and just plain happier."This is by no means the death-knell for big companies and their managers, but it may be a test. Malone thinks adapting to this inevitable decentralized decision-making may be hard, but he posits four different ways companies will be organized in the future. First are what he calls "loose hierarchies," organizations that still have managers but in which a lot of decision-making is delegated to lower-level workers. The open-source software-development model embodies an extreme form of this, he says. Second, he expects to see the rise of literal democracy atwork, "where employees actually vote on who their managers will be."As appealing as this sounds, you might think it far-fetched. Don't.As an example of how it can work, he cites fabric-maker W.L. Gore,where managers have to recruit employees for a project. "If you don'tget any employees you aren't a manager," he explains. Another radical example is Brazilian conglomerate Semco, where workers decide ontheir own where, when, and on what projects they will work. To get ajob at Semco, you have to be interviewed by the people who will be working for you.
Get ready to choose your own boss.
MIT visionary Tom Malone sees big changes coming to the workplace.
Malone sees a parallel between the evolution of human society and the evolution of business. "For millenia," he says, "all human societieswere organized as small, autonomous, egalitarian groups called bands.Then we saw the rise of bigger and bigger, more centralized societies called kingdoms. Only in the last 200 years have we seen the rise on a large scale of the third way of organizing human society-democracy." Each of those stages, Malone says, can be explained by a change in a single factor--the cost of communication. In his view,writing is what enabled hierarchically organized kingdoms to arise.Printing led to democracy.
Likewise, he says, "until a couple hundred years ago businesses were still organized like bands. It was only when new communications technologies like telegraph and telephone and even the Xerox machine made communication cheap enough to coordinate larger groups of people that we saw the rise of the centralized corporation--the kingdoms ofthe business world." I like the way this guy thinks. So where are we now? It's the revolution, he says. "Near the end ofthe 20th century, it became possible for the first time to exchangethe detailed kind of information necessary to coordinate a businesson a very large scale even as lots of individuals made decisions for themselves. When communications costs fall it becomes possible forvastly more people to be well-enough informed to make decisions instead of just following orders from their uniquely well-informedsuperiors."For most of our lives, Malone says, "the big message of business history was that getting bigger and more centralized was the way yousucceed. But now you can have both the economic benefits of bigness and the human benefits of smallness."
He's really talking about a new era of empowerment, and how companies and workers will inevitably have to adapt to these new realities inorder to thrive."When people are making decisions for themselves a lot of other good things happen," he continues. "People are often more motivated,creative, flexible, and just plain happier."This is by no means the death-knell for big companies and their managers, but it may be a test. Malone thinks adapting to this inevitable decentralized decision-making may be hard, but he posits four different ways companies will be organized in the future. First are what he calls "loose hierarchies," organizations that still have managers but in which a lot of decision-making is delegated to lower-level workers. The open-source software-development model embodies an extreme form of this, he says. Second, he expects to see the rise of literal democracy atwork, "where employees actually vote on who their managers will be."As appealing as this sounds, you might think it far-fetched. Don't.As an example of how it can work, he cites fabric-maker W.L. Gore,where managers have to recruit employees for a project. "If you don'tget any employees you aren't a manager," he explains. Another radical example is Brazilian conglomerate Semco, where workers decide ontheir own where, when, and on what projects they will work. To get ajob at Semco, you have to be interviewed by the people who will be working for you.
Oct 28, 2004
Simulated enterprises, Reworking Intuition
Interesting approach to turning around a failing enterprise.
About 3 years ago, psychologist Lia DiBello surmounted a business challenge that would have stumped Donald Trump. Armed with an unconventional theory of how people learn, DiBello and her colleagues coaxed some key employees at three financially endangered companies to confront their organizational failures and to devise new, successful operations. What's more, these transformations of workplace thinking and culture unfolded in a matter of just months after DiBello's team ran mere 2-day exercises at each site. The National Science Foundation partially underwrote this effort as part of a larger attempt to encourage research on how learning occurs in organizations.
DiBello, who heads Workforce Transformation Research and Innovation, a private company in San Diego, takes a different instructional approach. She designs fast-paced, stressful simulation exercises in which small groups must assemble products, ship them to customers, and turn a profit, at least as determined by computer software that tracks each mock venture.
In line with psychological positions known as activity theory and situated cognition, DiBello holds that what experienced workers understand about their jobs grows out of their daily goals, such as making products on time or quickly satisfying a few major clients' demands. If a business' goals change, then employees must reorganize what they have come to know intuitively about their jobs, or that company won't succeed.
This type of learning requires a hands-on challenge that mirrors workplace demands and enables employees to tap into their collective knowledge, in DiBello's view.
Three decades of learning research coincide with this approach, says psychologist Lauren Resnick of the University of Pittsburgh. Evidence indicates that what a person already knows about a subject or an activity lays a foundation for new learning and achieving expertise in that area, she adds. Data also show that knowledge is best cultivated through active participation in relevant tasks, not through memorization or drills.
Read more here. So does this approach work only for organizations that are in the do-or-die situation? Would employees rework their intuitive approach if they knew things were just fine with their organizations?
About 3 years ago, psychologist Lia DiBello surmounted a business challenge that would have stumped Donald Trump. Armed with an unconventional theory of how people learn, DiBello and her colleagues coaxed some key employees at three financially endangered companies to confront their organizational failures and to devise new, successful operations. What's more, these transformations of workplace thinking and culture unfolded in a matter of just months after DiBello's team ran mere 2-day exercises at each site. The National Science Foundation partially underwrote this effort as part of a larger attempt to encourage research on how learning occurs in organizations.
DiBello, who heads Workforce Transformation Research and Innovation, a private company in San Diego, takes a different instructional approach. She designs fast-paced, stressful simulation exercises in which small groups must assemble products, ship them to customers, and turn a profit, at least as determined by computer software that tracks each mock venture.
In line with psychological positions known as activity theory and situated cognition, DiBello holds that what experienced workers understand about their jobs grows out of their daily goals, such as making products on time or quickly satisfying a few major clients' demands. If a business' goals change, then employees must reorganize what they have come to know intuitively about their jobs, or that company won't succeed.
This type of learning requires a hands-on challenge that mirrors workplace demands and enables employees to tap into their collective knowledge, in DiBello's view.
Three decades of learning research coincide with this approach, says psychologist Lauren Resnick of the University of Pittsburgh. Evidence indicates that what a person already knows about a subject or an activity lays a foundation for new learning and achieving expertise in that area, she adds. Data also show that knowledge is best cultivated through active participation in relevant tasks, not through memorization or drills.
Read more here. So does this approach work only for organizations that are in the do-or-die situation? Would employees rework their intuitive approach if they knew things were just fine with their organizations?
The Futurist says...
Picked this from the T+D blog, The Futurist has predicted these trends for 2005 (methinks, these are more of the trends of the next decade....with some exceptions)
--Distance learning grows. By 2008, distance learning (including learning via the Internet, email, and other means) will be the primary delivery mechanism in 30 percent of training programs. By 2014, it will be the main method in 30 percent of university courses.
--Telecommuting increases. The number of people in the U.S. who are telecommuting will grow to more than 50 million by 2010 (from 15 million today). That trend will be driven by better communication technologies and companies' search for low-cost labor.
--"Me generation" winds down. More and more people are focusing on spirituality, caring, and time with family over materialism and getting ahead. These people are known as "cultural creatives" and they make up 26 percent of U.S. society now, over 5 percent in the 1960s. (we are seeing something similar in India, with the grrowth of religion/spiritual TV channels!)
--Older workers could help lengthen business day. This demographic tends to wake up early and be more alert in the morning. Early risers could work 6:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and expand business hours of companies. (this one sounds unlikely in India ....what say?)
--Knowledge work will decrease. As farming and manufacturing have dwindled, the growth of information technology could make infotech and service jobs dwindle. By the end of the century, jobs in that sector may comprise only 2 percent of the workforce.
--Skills that can't be automated will be in demand. Employers will put more emphasis on these "hyper-human" skills, including caring, judgment, intuition, ethics, inspiration, friendliness, and imagination. (like Tom Peters says about Richard Florida's new book on the Creative Class)
--Distance learning grows. By 2008, distance learning (including learning via the Internet, email, and other means) will be the primary delivery mechanism in 30 percent of training programs. By 2014, it will be the main method in 30 percent of university courses.
--Telecommuting increases. The number of people in the U.S. who are telecommuting will grow to more than 50 million by 2010 (from 15 million today). That trend will be driven by better communication technologies and companies' search for low-cost labor.
--"Me generation" winds down. More and more people are focusing on spirituality, caring, and time with family over materialism and getting ahead. These people are known as "cultural creatives" and they make up 26 percent of U.S. society now, over 5 percent in the 1960s. (we are seeing something similar in India, with the grrowth of religion/spiritual TV channels!)
--Older workers could help lengthen business day. This demographic tends to wake up early and be more alert in the morning. Early risers could work 6:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and expand business hours of companies. (this one sounds unlikely in India ....what say?)
--Knowledge work will decrease. As farming and manufacturing have dwindled, the growth of information technology could make infotech and service jobs dwindle. By the end of the century, jobs in that sector may comprise only 2 percent of the workforce.
--Skills that can't be automated will be in demand. Employers will put more emphasis on these "hyper-human" skills, including caring, judgment, intuition, ethics, inspiration, friendliness, and imagination. (like Tom Peters says about Richard Florida's new book on the Creative Class)
For fellow Knowledge Management enthusiasts...
...here is a good blog to add to your RSS readers, Nirmala's blog on KM and other stuff (like she says "it’s not just about KM! It’s got a lot of my childish ramblings on a lot of other day-to-day topics as well!"). You can also download Nirmala's perspective on Blogging in an organizational context from the Knowledgeboard site. It's called "Bless the Bloggers" :-)
The way forward for Consulting firms
The Top-Consultant site has an interesting article on how consulting firms are trying to cut costs, increase prroductivity, boost sales and partner with freelancers to remain competitive. One interesting point the article notes is that soon there will be demand for consultants with international skills (as opposed to "exposure", is my guess!) particularly for areas like Central Europe and China.
Oct 26, 2004
Malcolm Gladwell on ChangeThis
I had earlier blogged about Gladwell's thoughts on talent. Now he's released a manifesto on ChangeThis on why talent doesn't matter.
His central theme in the manifesto?
The talent myth assumes that people make organizations smart. More often than not, it’s the other way around.
His central theme in the manifesto?
The talent myth assumes that people make organizations smart. More often than not, it’s the other way around.
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