New blogs on my blogroll

I came across some great new blogs that I've added to my blogroll. This post is just to point you all out to them

• Rakesh Khurana of HBS who wrote the "Irrational quest for charismatic CEOs" and set a cat amongst the leadership training pigeons :-)
• jack/zen has some great posts on organizations, and some on zen too!
• Terrence has a series on Organizational Development that I highly recommend to all the HR overlords who visit my humble blog.
• Regina Miller runs a HR blog on BNET that has some high quality posts

Hope that whets your appetite if you find the writing here a bit dull ! :-))

The infinite variety....

According to this Fast Company article, you can get consultants on almost anything ! From compost to Satanism !

This painstaking research was done by the magazine's Consultant Debunking Unit. Don't also miss the Frog metaphor story for Change Management !

CotC at the slacker manager

The CotC for 30th May is up at the Slacker Manager's blog. Some of the truly best business /organizational/ economic posts from around the blogosphere at one place ! Go ahead, feed your brain ! And yes, best of luck Bren ! Congrats !

Blogging getting focus of Indian MSM

Rashmi Bansal has written an article on blogging in the latest issue of Businessworld. This is the third article on blogging in the MSM after India Today and one article written by Peter Griffin in Man's World.

Rashmi's article is however more corporate focussed and she tries to evangelise the corporate world to take up blogging. The examples used are the usual one , Robert Scoble ("chief humanizing officer"). But she does better by telling the readers that even Tom Peters blogs (ok its a team blog). Of course, to readers it might still seem to say "So what" and Rashmi does take Wipro to task for its dull and dry blog. Of course, people who visit that site might not get the whole philosophy of blogging. It would just look like a different website. And they'll go away scratching their heads wondering what the fuss is all about. The ironies of a blog is that the difference can only be experienced when you write one and then use tools like PubSub or bloglines to find that you have triggered a conversation. The power then hits home.

Which businesses will blog the most?

I believe that businesses that rely on 'expertise' and 'brain power' like professional services firms will be the first to take up blogging. The ones that need to connect to a global pool of people and that can show their expertise merely by commenting. Firms like the tompeters company will benefit the most from blogging. Their customers would have access to their thoughts every written post.


In India the issue with corporate blogging lies in the following reasons:

1. Traditionally we've had most organizations that are closed to even internal questioning. Though a lot has changed over the last 15-20 years, yet the majority of Indian companies continue to be mired in the old mindset. Case in point, I dropped in to one of my previous firms, it does innovation consulting and training for organizations. And we got chatting and I told them, "you know, you should start a blog"...and I was greeted by two blank faces. Now these are the folks telling corporate India to start thinking afresh and break away from the past, and they didn't know what a blog was. Then I launched into how they can publish their thoughts comments, build a community of innovation thinkers, utilize RSS , and more ...when I realized that I had lost them. One had gone back to reading emails and the other was staring at me trying to understand what I was saying. Then I took a deep breath and said "tom peters blogs" "he does?" "yep, go check out www.tompeters.com " and I left.

2. The language issue and the bandwidth issue: Two issues compound together to make it a greater issue. Ordinary folks who speak and read English fluently although high in number are still a small fraction of India's population. Of these the one's who are on the net and technically savvy are a small part. Most of these folks use the internet primarily for email. Awareness of what is a blog is itself low. However blogs in local languages would alleviate some issues, but losing out the opportunity to connect to readers in different parts of the country. Growth in broadband would surely help in encouraging users to move from reasearching and emailing to actively engaging on blogs. The difference in blogs (and other social software tools like wikis, bulletin boards, chat) and the rest of the net (static websites and stuff on them) is they encourage the reader to move from a consumer focus to a participant focus.

3. The third danger I foresee is that blogging becomes a fad and everyone jumps into it without a clear understanding of its powers or having the end clarity in their minds. As I posted on Naked Conversations the rhetoric is getting stale..one has heard so much about change management , about technologies that will change the way we work that maybe we need to take another argument...tell them that blogging is a tool, but the change is really that one they need to make from a centralized communication medium to a many-to-many conversation, that open honest communication is too important a thing to leave to marketing and corporate communication and PR groups . That is the real challenge for organizations... or else they well embrace the tool, but not the mindset and then they will blame the bloggers, for hyping this new tool !

McKinsey on a recruitment drive in India

Leading consulting firm McKinsey & Co. is looking to increase its employee numbers in India and other Asian countries, reports Top-Consultant

McKinsey & Company is to increase its staff in Asia by 30 percent and plans to add more than 700 people in the region in the next two years, Reuters has reported.

According to the firm’s Asia-Pacific chairman, Dominic Barton, McKinsey is focusing its recruitment efforts in Japan, China and India, although it is also adding employees in South Korea and Southeast Asia.

Barton said McKinsey will add more than 350 people in the region this year and that next year the hiring will reach similar levels. He added that this represents year-on-year growth of about 30 percent, the level at which McKinsey had been growing regionally.

To further develop local talent, the firm has set up a program mainly focused on hiring Chinese students, giving them 6 months of English training and then sending them on 2-year stints in Frankfurt and New York. The program has about 40 consultants in Frankfurt and 15 in New York, Barton said.

The do it yourself economy, and the long tail of supply

Picked this up from Dane's blog:

Fortune:

But a number of factors are coming together to empower amateurs in a way never before possible, blurring the lines between those who make and those who take. Unlike the dot-com fortune hunters of the late 1990s, these do-it-yourselfers aren't deluding themselves with oversized visions of what they might achieve. Instead, they're simply finding a way—in this mass-produced, Wal-Mart world—to take power back, prove that they can make the products that they want to consume, have fun doing so, and, just maybe, make a few dollars. "What's happened is a tremendous change in awareness," says Eric von Hippel, a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management and author of the recent Democratizing Innovation. "Conventional wisdom is so strong [in business] about find-a-need-and-fill-it: 'We're the manufacturers; we design products; we ask users what they need; we do it.' That has begun to crack."

This is really exciting stuff. From the age of the guilds we have travelled the route of large organizations to free agents and now virtual organizations. These businesses would also move the chain to finally own the brand and leverage the long tail through technology. I've been thinking. Most of the thoughts about the long tail is about the selling to the niches addressed by google and blogs. Although Chris Andersen has talked about the long tail applied to suppliers (the ebay example).

The example closer home is ITC's e-choupals, and eliminating the middleman. This is the power of technology when applied to the the long tail of supply ! Businessworld has a story on how the supply of agriculture goods is being overhauled.

(bad blog post Gautam, two thoughts in one post...not done...!)

This is a little off topic....but...anyways

My BSchool alumni in Bangalore are meeting for our annual summer bash (with the rains here it doesn't feel like summer !) tomorrow.

So this post is for any XLer who's in Bangalore tomorrow evening. The schedule for other cities in India is here.

You're invited !

I'll be back to normal posting level on Sunday (as soon as I get the hangover over with ;-)!)

Note: posts on my Linkblog

There are a lot of posts that are totally mind-blowing these days. So much so, that they trigger deep reflection and not immediate comments.

To see what's making me think take a look at my linkblog.

Oh my god !

I've made it in life ! Page 3 here I come !

(or at least, the blog version of it !)

Blogebrity has listed me as one of the C-list bloggers !

Hmm...I wonder why they did that ;-)) ?

Update: Now I know! Blogebrity is a blog taking part in the Contagious Media showdown and happily using megalomaniac bloggers (like yours truly!) to increase their ranking on the showdown ! Awesome insight into human blog behavior (hmm, I wonder if that is a new science on the horizon, called psyblology [from psyche-blog-logy]?) I am sure KM and social software makers have this knowledge...would they like to share it...? I wonder why they don't...?

Ad campigns in the media

I'd posted earlier on the coming media battles in India in the near future. Rashmi Bansal, Gargi and Charu have been discussing it on their blogs about how everybody finds the "ad campaigns" (they are in quotes because they profess to be campaigns are end up usually empty slogan cam-pains !)

My take...a slogan is very open to interpretation specially if context is not clear…a generic slogan does not connect with any demographic group…and as brands try to be cool, by acting cool, they only show themselves as inept…most of them seem to be saying the same asinine things, selling the same stuff…so much so when you run into an unbranded soap at the retail shop, you choose it because its cheaper…thats why the Wal Marts and Dells are the biggest organizations today…they have realised that brands that deliver what they promise (lower cost than anybody else) are better than brands that overpromise and don’t deliver (in the mind of the customer!)

Advertising without branding and branding without strategy and strategy without execution is no good and eventually shows you to be a liar….as Seth Godin says…"All marketers are liars" ! Seth's contention is that marketing is not about slogans or snazzy ads...its about telling stories. But when the stories do not inspire belief (and thats because they are not backed up by facts, we distrust them). Read this post titled The placebo Affect

On patterns

I've always believed that recognizing patterns is the key to growth in life. And being in HR, behavioral patterns are always up for analyzing. (In fact patterns replicate not just in human beings but in nature also...but that's another story)

So it was a delight to read this post by James Durbin on Recruiting.com on what makes him a great recruiter.

How can I say this? Because recruiting is an art, not a science. I do a lot of my own recruiting, and contrary to the praise I get about my "knowledge" of the tech industry from clients and candidates, I actually have very little technical knowledge. On any given subject, with study, I have maybe 5% of what is needed to do the job. So how do I discern who can do the job and who is blowing smoke?
Patterns. I recognize patterns in the way that people write resumes and e-mails. I recognize patterns in how they leave messages, who they call, what questions, they ask, and how they explain what they do. After scrutinizing tens of thousands of resumes, thousands of candidates, calling on a thousand businesses, walking into 300 of them, and working with over 100 clients, I see the Matrix.
This is what good recruiters do. They listen to managers and candidates all day talking about personal and professional issues that affect how they do their job. The best ones have a way of describing what they do that is specific, tailored to the task at hand, and avoids vague phrases that are meant to convince the listener that expertise is in the room.
Competent people sound the same. There is a similarity in the programmer telling me how she built a thin-client Java application in a Websphere environment and the mechanic telling me how he rebuilt the engine of a 1968 Ford Mustang. Understanding this and applying it to the job search is the only key I've found to consistent recruiting excellence.
When you learn to listen, and you add a couple thousand people to the mix, you'll learn that we are often all the same - differentiated by what we do, but strangely similar in how we talk about it.

I think it's a profound post...and shows you that Jim really passionately lives his job ! Which is the most important thing ....as opposed to loving the job.

The rush to hire independent directors

Indian capital market regulator SEBI has warned that companies not complying with the rules of having independent directors of at least 50 percent of the Board of Directors would face stiff penalties.

According to estimates the numbers would touch 25,000 ! And time is running out. SEBI has said that the deadline that was extended to 31st December would not be extended again.

Seems like this ruling has led to a scramble and should ensure happy times for the Institute of Directors who have launched training classes called Masterclass for Directors where aspiring Directors would be taught 10 modules over six days covering areas like duties of directors, corporate governance, innovation, corporate transformation, CSR, HR, Balanced Scorecard and Six Sigma for only Rs. 35,000 !! IOD has also launched what seems like a headhunting/recruitment organization to meet the demand which they say is around 16,000 .

Other headhunting organizations also seem ready to make a killing. What needs to be seen is whether the energy this drive takes up impacts India Inc by taking its mind off from strategy or execution.

Bill Ives' book on business blogging is out

Bill Ives and Amanda Watlington have announced the availability of their book, Business Blogs: A Practical Guide. As Bill says:

the book draws on the experience of busy, successful people from all walks of life that have used blogs to build their businesses, connect with professional colleagues, try out new ideas and create communities of interest. This new book is presented in two parts.
The first is a 220 page guidebook that covers the “what” and “how” of blogging in clear, accessible language. The second part includes 290 pages of interview notes drawing on the blogging experiences of 70 bloggers. It includes both “A-list” bloggers who have built broad readership and individuals who have intentionally built small, select but highly interconnected communities with whom they exchange information via the Web. The volume includes over 700 links and 100 illustrations.
In developing the book, we talked with ten or more bloggers in each of five groups; small businesses, individual consultants, non-profit organizations, individuals in large organizations, and blog tool and service providers. This was great fun and a useful learning experience for us. We asked each blogger such questions as: when and why did you start blogging? How has it met your objectives? Have your objectives evolved? What have been the challenges you faced and how did you overcome them? How do you benefit from other blogs. What are your favorites and why? What advice do you have for other bloggers?

And I (ahem!) am one of them ;-) I mean, a blogger with whom Bill conducted a e-mail interview. I can't wait to read the book to see what other bloggers have said to those questions !!

How not to recruit...a case study !

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is the richest cricket body (but they don't have a web site :-( !) so much so that the Sri Lankan cricket board has deferred its coach selection process till India gets its coach !

And they haven't advertised the job ! Talk about lack of transparency ! And 4 people are already shortlisted and meeting with the selection committee to whom they will give a presentation!

Hellooo?

Shouldn't the committee be asking questions?

Do they have a written job description and competencies required for the job?

Maybe they should ask Kiwi John Wright to help them out.

My reviews at Amazon

I thought I'd share this link with you all. It's a list of reviews that I have done on (mostly) business books at Amazon.com .

Would love to hear what you all think.

What is Carly upto?

Apparently you can get her as a speaker for hire !

She's represented by The Washington Speakers Bureau.

Wonder who will take her services? And how much would they pay?

Time for HR to embrace branding?

BrandXpress blog points to a PersonnelToday.com article that says "An exclusive survey of 1,889 Personnel Today readers with responsibility for recruitment reveals that 95% of respondents believe employer branding is ‘important’, with 80% saying that it will become even more so. And yet only 25% of those surveyed have responsibility for employer branding."

Somewhere I think the need is for a cross functional approach to branding that is usually missed by the Marketing silos. Anybody who comes into contact with any part of the organization undergoes some kind of experience which impacts the person's perception of the brand. So not just HR, but functions like procurement/supply chain, finance all have to get brand-ed !

Recruitment specially has to work very closely with Marketing and Corporate Communications to show that the message is uniform across the functions. HR also has to ensure that in the not-so-attractive cases like termination or voluntary attrition, these employees are future ambassadors of the organization.

Branding is too important to be left to the marketers anymore!

Tech stars as rock stars?

Over the last couple of weeks I've been thinking about this ad that I hear on the FM radio on my cellphone when I drive to work (go figure !!) ...it advertises a tech conference by Sun in India. That's today and tomorrow.

The interesting bit about the ad is that it uses the rock show format to introduce the speakers to the audience.

Let me explain since I don't think it's available as a podcast.

There's music like drums rolling and the voice says " Jeff Jackson, father of Java, boss of Gosling", and then there's lead guitar music and the voice announces "Simon Ritter on the lead, supported by Matt Thompson , guru of .."

You get the idea, I hope.

And the ad ends with "The gods of tech are going to be there, will you?"

What I found interesting was the format , drawing parallels of technology and rock music. As an organization Sun seems to want its executives be seen as "cool and rock-star like" ...which is an interesting development. Traditionally organizations like downplayed individual achievements publicly except for the entrepreneur's (Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Micheal Dell). I wonder why is Sun taking this track? Do they want to be seen as a "cool place" where "cool people" work? Or is it about drawing a parallel between two interests of tech crowds, "cutting edge tech and cutting edge music"...

What do you think?

The scourge of specialization?

I resonated fairly highly with this post of Dave Pollard where he starts by touching the negative points of this age of specialization.

We live in an age of specialization, where we are encouraged to narrow our
interests and our activities, to focus and limit ourselves to doing things at
which we are very competent. So parts of our brain get a lot of exercise and
other parts very little. What's worse, this can actually narrow our comfort
zone, the range of things we enjoy doing or thinking about and are competent in.
Many of our cultural activities and artefacts: political debates, win/lose
competitions, hierarchies, laws, religions, 'best practices', systematization,
uniforms, and monolithic architecture and design -- all tend to reinforce 'one
right answer' thinking that discourages and ultimately excludes and prevents us
from thinking differently. Even the mental exercises we do as we get older are
designed to stem the loss of analytical skills and memory rather than broadening
our thinking or our thinking ability.

I agree, I have spent the last 6 years in the training/learning/OD/HRD (that's a lot of labels!!) and I can already sense it happening. (So what am I doing about it? Relax..wait for news ..watch this space)

What can one do to offset this? I call it building up one's "peripheral vision" and it helps me when I facilitate a learning discussion too, by linking examples and stories and giving it more than a "office-context" !

Dave has 12 ways listed in his detailed blog post about it. Go ahead , read them all.

What has worked with me are:

Meeting up with people who are not like me, not professionals, not corporate creatures...and discovering that there are other platforms on which we can engage, and even have our ideas match. Like yesterday I met a six sigma statistician and found that the DMAIC model is almost a replica of the consulting engagement lifecycle. One of the best ways to meet people is to go for training/conventions that are of a non-professional nature. You never know who you'll connect with!

Reading. I am a book junkie, and even the proliferation of information on the net can't match the pleasure of holding a book and reading. The last book to get me really excited was Genome, and before that Desmond Morris' Bodywatching. And yes, they add to one's understanding of humans that Organizational and Industrial Psychology can never match.

Read blogs outside your domain. Again a great source for insights into cultures, thoughts and fields different from your own.

Move. Move out of your comfort zones. Growth never happens without pain. As someone said "Change is inevitable, growth is not" !

Training the Guns at WB/IMF

Dr. Madhukar Shukla has a flurry of blog posts as he takes on conventional economists and talks about the unintended consequences of IMF/WB loans/debts for third world countries.

He also posts about Argentina's "Museum of foreign debt" !

Go ahead...be provoked !

Knowing my readers

Blogging has been a little like opening the Johari window for me, although at a different level. After almost a year of blogging (when my blogging was more of a Personal KM effort) I discovered Technorati and it was a shock, to discover who was linking to me. Knowing that I had even a couple of readers actually modified the kinds of posts I was writing. Currently I have 75 blogs linking to me 89 times. Technorati actually discards post links after 7 days, so majorly it consists of blogroll links.

And then, I discovered the joys of RSS, and bloglines. It gave me a little more picture about who was reading the blog, and that modified the postings accordingly. Currently I have 63 people reading the rss feeds through bloglines...and I wonder who read it through other aggregators...? Blog pundits what are the tools that would tell you who reads you ? (considering that blogger does not support trackback yet !)

So my posts are currently on these areas:

1. Knowledge Management
2. HR areas
3. Indian business scenario
4. Soapbox - my views on all and sundry

What else would you want me to write about?

I am not making any commitments, but just thought I would do this dipstick check so that you can give me some feedback....feel free to email me or use the comments section of this post !

Another thought: I notice I don't get too many comments...why? What do I have to do to get comments? ;-)

Do you know what your Human Capital is worth?

Infosys says that it does. Using the Lev and Schwartz model it has come to the conclusion that its total Human Capital is worth $ 6.4 billion. The report expands that:

The 36,750 employees of India’s second largest software exporter have been
valued at Rs 28,334 crore (US $6.4 billion), while its software professionals
numbering 34,747 are valued at Rs 26,550 crore. The remaining 2,003 supporting
staff have been valued at Rs 1,784 crore, Infosys said in its 2004-05 annual
report filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission

What do B Schools look for in students?

Govindraj Ethiraj lets us on to some B School interviewing secrets.
If you are preparing for a B School interview or plan to give the CAT-XAT-MAT next year, bookmark this page.

What he does not tell is which B School is he talking about. I have a strong hunch it is Jamnalal Bajaj (by gut feel... no apparent reason), but if you feel it is Welingkar (he mentions it once in the post) or SP Jain, then let me know why...

And if you actually gave the interview which had Ethiraj on the interview panel, then do let us know what kind of questions he asked ;-)

For those of you who missed the CAT bus...

here is proof that performance does matter !

Ok, I thought about it too when I read the magazine, but Rashmi blogged it first (why am I sulking? ;-))) So I can be lazy and just link to her, and quote her:

we all know this at some level - that in the end it's we as individuals who are responsible for our career graphs - regardless of which institute we graduate from. But I'd just like to highlight this point, because I often meet young people who tried for IIMs, didn't make it and are now studying elsewhere. And feeling terrible about it. I want to say to all of you that 10 years from now it's really not going to matter. Although you may use it as an excuse to explain why you aren't doing as well as X, Y or Z.

For the readers who are not from India, replace IIM with "Sloan, Stanford etc" !

The CoTC this week

Todds is hosting this week's Carnival of the Capitalists at A penny for.... My entry on Training has made it to his Leadership FAQ as Is Employee Training Worth The Money You Spend? :-)

Infosys - The Dell of the consulting world?

Wired magazine has named Infy as the 9th company in their annual Wired 40.

I quote:

The caricature of the Indian outsourcing industry as a voracious monster bent on devouring US jobs isn't just oversimplified, it's obsolete. Case in point: Infosys. The Indian coding shop, which garnered $1.1 billion in sales last year, is hiring 500 employees for Infosys Consulting, a $20 million foray into high-end IT advice based in - guess again - Fremont, California. Dirt-cheap outsourcing plus strategic guidance makes for a powerful combination - and one that moves jobs back to the US.
Challenge: Beware the rest of Asia. In the low-cost sweepstakes, China is to India as India is to Western economies.
Opportunity: Do to bloated US consultancies what Dell did to the PC industry.

On the same theme read Tom Rodenhauser's article on the same issue.

The Infosys idea is simple enough: marry a select group of posh partner-types from name-brand firms with an enormous, low-cost delivery backend. It wants to build a
consulting pyramid without the massive -- and expensive- middle section.

Infosys wants to combat this by flipping the model. Rather than populating its consultancy with scads of eager MBAs and six-figure types who look good in suits -- and are billed at 4x salary - the Indian company will conduct its analysis and development for pennies on the dollar. Selling, thought leadership and relationships will remain with the multi-national stars.
In theory, the concept wins high praise from cost-conscious buyers with demanding
expctations. But will consulting mimic the airline industry? And will Infosys be the first in a wave of "budget-conscious" consultants who seek to deliver high value at relatively modest prices?

Today's mega-consultancies face the same situation found in virtually every other industry -- clients expect first-class service at value prices.Infosys believes the only way to address the problem is by building a new model. It certainly challenges conventional wisdom.
And it also begs the question: would consultants fly business class if clients
refused to pay the bill?

Oh and it's not Infosys, even Wipro seems to be making quiet steps in that direction !

FBT - Not directed at big businesses?

One of my friends has a theory.

The theory goes something like this.

Finance Minister P.Chidambaram's Fringe Benefit Tax (which kicked up a huge controversy) is not actually aimed at small, medium or even large businesses.

He actually has the tax gun trained on the huge number of free lance consultants and professionals who have so far been using tax loopholes to sometimes not pay any tax ! They have been doing that by claiming personal expenses as business expenses and showing overall losses !

Now, I wonder if that is true!

Defining Knowledge as Competence

Recently on the Act-KM egroup there was a passionate discussion on "What is knowledge?"

And I chose to define it on the basis of Competence.

It's the fourth level of competence building, when "unconscious competence"
takes place, and it is possible when one passes throughthe stages of unconcious
incompetence (no data , no information) , to conscious incompetence (I now know
what I don't know) to conscious competence (learning in a social context, with a
coach or mentor) from which it moves to unconcious competence (my body &
mind both "know" now)

Check here for more.

This is because I have been profoundly influenced by Peter Senge's thoughts on learning:

For Peter Senge, real learning gets to the heart of what it is to be human.
We become able to re-create ourselves. This applies to both individuals and
organizations. Thus, for a ‘learning organization it is not enough to survive.
‘”Survival learning” or what is more often termed “adaptive learning” is important – indeed it is necessary. But for a learning organization, “adaptive learning” must be joined by “generative learning”, learning that enhances our capacity to create’ (Senge 1990:14).

And also Nonaka's thoughts on Knowledge Creation

"The creation of knowledge is not simply a compilation of facts but a
uniquely human process that cannot be reduced or easily replicated."

Success for MNCs in India

The McKinsey Quarterly says:

Multinational companies are often successful precisely because they can
replicate products and processes and even market-entry strategies across
multiple markets. In India, however, that approach can bring disappointing
results.

The multinationals with the most success in India are those that
tailor their products and practices to the idiosyncrasies of this market—even
when that means starting from scratch.

HR Outsourcing awards

HRO Today Magazine and the Human Resources Outsourcing Association(R) announced recipients of the annual HRO Industry Awards, which were presented on April 12, 2005 in New York City.

And the winners are:

-HRO Person of the Year: Glenn Davidson, Accenture HR Services
-HRO Provider of the Year: Hewitt Associates
-HRO Customer Relationship of the Year: Accenture -HR Services/British Telecom
-HRO Customer Relationship - Middle Market: Accenture HR Services/Levi's
-HRO Sourcing Advisor of the Year: Mark Hodges, Equaterra
-HRO Lawyer of the Year: Bill Bierce, Bierce and Kenerson
-HRO Provider Executive of the Year: David Clinton, Accenture HR Services
-HRO Buyer Executive of the Year: Margaret Savage, British Telecom
-HRO Thought Leader of the Year: Joe Vales, Vales Consulting
-HRO Payroll Provider of the Year: Ultimate Software
-HRO Relocation Provider of the Year: Cendant Mobility
-HRO Recruitment Process Outsourcing Provider of the Year: Accolo

Look over my shoulder

Anthony at recruiting.com thinks I should be looking over my shoulder, as he quotes this article in Businessweek about Pakistan trying to give India a run for its money.

Then again, maybe not :-)

Seriously speaking, I think with better political relationships with Pakistan, Indian organizations like Wipro and Infosys and niche players like OfficeTiger have a huge opportunity to do business in Pakistan.

In fact, as this Pakistani journalist thinks:


At the moment it seems the only advantage we have over India is ourrelatively better English accents, a tag line that has been drummed todeath by all parties concerned. But if we are to generate 100,000 agents in the next three to five years, we can't use it as our only trump card. India is set to become the world's largest English-speaking force by the year 2010, and with its accent reduction training centres we'll soon lose that advantage too. The trick is to concentrate on developing long-term strategies.
Another important thing to realise is that we aren't in a technology war with India; we can't be, since they have already won it (emphasis mine-Gautam). So, since you can't beat them, it would be savvy to join them instead. Collaborations will be of benefit to both parties, more so for Pakistan. It's good to see PASHA starting to facilitate this. Three Pakistani IT companies signed up with Indian firms last February when they attended a NASCOMM conference in India. Forging a relationship between the universities of the two countries, with student exchange programes, can achieve even more, and calls for immediate consideration.

Also the claim that the operating costs of a call centre aresignificantly low in Pakistan is not convincing and needs to be backed up by significant cuts in the bandwidth rate. As of now, a 64Kbps connection costs 3325 USD whereas a 2Mbps connection costs around47,400 USD per annum, rates that are quite high if you compare them with the rates in the US. In fact, in a recent change in tariff rates,the Indians have brought down the rates of their 64Kbps down to just 550 USD and 19,400 USD per annum for their 2Mbps connection. In addition, the opening up of broadband licenses will not contribute much to the call centres, if the current restriction that says bandwidth for call centres can only be obtained through PTCL stays in place.

When star performers leave and media battles

You know you are living in office when you don't watch TV, and realise that Rajdeep Sardesai is no longer with NDTV !

I mean, what could it have taken for Prannoy Roy's blue-eyed boy (figuratively speaking:-) he's neither blue-eyed or a boy!) to leave the news media company he helped create to join a niche player like TV18.

Outlook magazine quotes: A website wrote he quit NDTV because he thought he
worked the hardest and yet there were five people who were earning more than
him.

So while money in itself is not a motivator, it also becomes a mirror for one's centrality in the organization. And when one finds that reputation and compensation do not match, it's a vulnerable time for poachers.

Oh and read the rest of the Outlook article, some interesting media battles hotting up. One interesting entity is the Zee promoted Daily News & Analysis (DNA) which is trying to redefine news as people's opinion (why don't they just print the Indian Blogosphere?) See the campaign: Phase I, Phase II, Phase III. They are also on a poaching drive from the Old Lady of Boribunder which is losing heavyweights like sports editor Ayaz Memon to DNA and others! Check more details of the battle here. With HT set to storm TOI's fortress in Mumbai, there's going to be bloodbath on the streets and very high pay packets for journalists and rainmakers!

Holy Smokes!

NYT reports that Time Warner reported the loss of computer backup tapes containing data including the names and Social Security numbers of about 600,000 people.

China, India, and what JSB and Hagel think

From the HBS working knowledge series:

John Hagel III and John Seely Brown:

Perhaps the most striking observation was the deep sense of urgency expressed by
executives in both China and India, shaped by a clear understanding that wage
rate arbitrage is not a sustainable source of advantage. Instead, these
executives are highly focused on rapid incremental innovation, both in terms of
processes and products, and creatively bootstrapping their capabilities wherever
possible. We began to see that these executives are mastering new management
techniques that can be very helpful in building new forms of strategic
advantage.

Read more about their new book here

Sanjay's blog on HR consulting

Sanjay Lakhotia who's a strategic HR consultant in India with one of the largest US based HR consulting firms, writes in his blog about client expectations

95% of the time (I have no way to scientifically prove this) the solution to all problems posed to the consultants probably lies in very obvious commonsensical solutions. I have been guilty of suggesting those obvious solutions to clients because there is nothing else and in many cases being told "Oh so how did you add value, we already knew this". The urge to find complex solutions to simple problems always leads organisations to push consultants to come up with something out of the world and the consultant has to hide behind jargons to make simple solutions sound interesting and unimplementable which client would not have thought of.I have always faced this request, we want to be the best employers so tell us how. I have always said we would have to do certain unique things that would differentiate you as an employer from what others are offering and we would have to find things which make sense in your context. To everything that you want the client to do, they ask, so who else has done it.
I guess they are confused about whether they want to be the best employer or the best follower of best employer practices.

Sometimes internal HR folks get caught in the same debate with line managers. The short term vs the long term interests. The urge to customize enterprise wide policies to specific business units. Sometimes the best skill to have as a HR professional is to have a Point Of View and the ability to Constructive Confront. Yes we are internal service providers, but additionally and more importantly we are the providers of systems that are long term solutions.

Screening Big Picture Thinkers

Rob at BusinessPundit wonders:

I don't know how to screen applicants for big picture thinking, but I think
a company always needs a few people like that around.

Simple solution Rob, use psychometrics like the Myers Briggs :-) An INTP would be what the good doctors ordered for you :-)). Who or what are INTPs?

INTPs generally have the following traits:
Love theory and abstract ideas
Truth Seekers - they want to understand things by analyzing underlying principles and structures
Value knowledge and competence above all else
Have very high standards for performance, which they apply to themselves
Independent and original, possibly eccentric
Work best alone, and value autonomy
Have no desire to lead or follow
Dislike mundane detail
Not particularly interested in the practical application of their work
Creative and insightful
Future-oriented
Usually brilliant and ingenius
Trust their own insights and opinions above others
Live primarily inside their own minds, and may appear to be detached and uninvolved with other people
INTPs have a special gift with generating and analyzing theories and possibilities to prove or disprove them. They have a great deal of insight and are creative thinkers, which allows them to quickly grasp complex abstract thoughts. They also have exceptional logical and rational reasoning skills, which allows them to thoroughly analyze theories to discover the Truth about them. Since the INTP is driven to seek clarity in the world, we have a happy match of desire and ability in this personality type. INTPs will be happiest in careers which allow them a great deal of autonomy in which they can work primarily alone on developing and analyzing complex theories and abstractions, with the goal of their work being the discovery of a truth, rather than the discovery of a practical application.

No prizes for guessing, I am an INTP too !

Social software

Jack Vinson gives a good roundup of why social software can succeed in KM efforts.

The point of epiphany for me?

In relation to this, there is the recognition that you are not just a contributor OR reader. You are both. Contributors get their ideas by reading what others have to say. And without readers, I doubt that the authors would be able to keep up their passion for the material.

and

There is much less sense of hierarchy in the social world. Anyone can provide feedback or comments to anyone else. In the corporate settings, people tend to be more aware of who is listening and modify what they have to say.

But, as is typical of me, I think of what or who it could include. Sure social software would never capture "tacit knowledge" , the level of competence that is called "Unconcious competence" that is passed on by observation rather than actual coaching. These systems can however point and connect people, so that when they meet face to face they can actually get to level four.

The other issue is that the people who would benefit most from this are people who are open to these systems and have the time, willingness and resources to access such systems. So, people who are not literate in the lingua franca of the net, English, will have their knowledge continued being lost. People who are not very good at expressing by writing like some learners would also lose from sharing and gaining.

"Gautam" on the search engines

My ranking on Google has improved when you search just for "gautam". MSN search still does not show me anywhere on the first page.

But the big surprise is Yahoo search which places this blog on the top slot when someone searchs for "gautam" and my other blog is number two !

Does this mean blog linking will give you more Yahoo search juice than Google juice?