Recently I was talking to a friend who heads Marketing for a Financial firm. She asked me "So how much time do you spend in telecons?"
I was surprised and said that I hardly did so. I use the phone primarily to text or to only set up appointments. The actual conversation is almost all of the time face to face.
The reason is that face to face conversation is the richest mode to exchanging information. And while I am a big evangelist of virtual communities and social networking and communication, for some kind of interactions, like building a rapport with a client there is no substitute for direct face to face communication.
So this friend tells me "I am on a telecon with my boss in Singapore first thing in the morning and I end the day with a call with our US office - the call starts at 7 pm and ends around 8.30 pm!"
She goes on "And sometimes during the day, we have to have video conference with other efolks in India, so we go from our office in Colaba (where we don't have videoconferencing facility) to Andheri (where we do). However due to bandwidth problems only five people can be on the video-con. So everytime the 6th person tries to join - one of the people in the conversation actually is pushed out!"
"You know, I think this consensus driven - lets-all-arrive-at-an-agreement mindset is to blame for so many telecons in official work! My husband and I have two different landlines at home for our respective conference calls. I just wish we didn't get invited to all these useless telecons and videocons - and people made their decisions and informed us."
As a guy who believes in collaboration and that people should have a say in the decisions that affect them and their work, this comment took me by surprise. However, it stands to reason if overdone - this approach intrudes and encroaches into a person's family time - she would react this way.
What do you think? How can organizations help people to be collaborative and yet not inflect these issues?
Dec 30, 2008
Dec 29, 2008
Influence and Power
The blogosphere has been a-buzz the last weekend on popularity and influence.
A Prof of mine actually used to take an elective in my MBA which was earlier called Power, Influence and Politics which was later renamed to the more politically correct Leadership, Influence and Power.
These three terms are closely related. One builds power which is not linked to formal positions of authority and positions by being of service to others. What one leader can offer by way of service can differ, from tangible benefits to a higher level of identity and aspirations - which typically gets called Charismatic Leadership. However what we are actually talking about is Servant Leadership.
In the age of Social Media, where your readers and attention is a finite resource, you have to add something to what they know, feel and understand in each and every post. One cannot be a leader in social media unless one recognises that. That is why Scoble is right when he says:
A Prof of mine actually used to take an elective in my MBA which was earlier called Power, Influence and Politics which was later renamed to the more politically correct Leadership, Influence and Power.
These three terms are closely related. One builds power which is not linked to formal positions of authority and positions by being of service to others. What one leader can offer by way of service can differ, from tangible benefits to a higher level of identity and aspirations - which typically gets called Charismatic Leadership. However what we are actually talking about is Servant Leadership.
In the age of Social Media, where your readers and attention is a finite resource, you have to add something to what they know, feel and understand in each and every post. One cannot be a leader in social media unless one recognises that. That is why Scoble is right when he says:
Here’s why I’ve been saying for the past year that it is far more important who you follow than who follows you: if you follow people just to get followers you’ll end up being overworked, deep in information overload, and superficial to boot. You won’t have a philosophy. It +will+ show. You might be able to fool most of the idiots most of the time, but eventually they’ll see the difference between the “collect follower” types and the “surround yourself with smart people” types like Tim O’Reilly or Jay Rosen.
I can smell the “follow me” types a million miles away, can’t you?
One crowd is off the rails in idiot land, the other is building something of lasting value.
Which one do we want to incent? The “follow me” idiots? Or the “try to get smarter” crowd?
I know I’m swimming upstream, but I want to get smarter. Screw the page views. Screw the business models. They all are lame anyway. I want better friends. Better content. Better news. Better ideas. That means I need to find better people to be part of my social network. Idiots be damned.
Dec 28, 2008
Don't become the expert
Earlier somewhere on this blog (in a post that mysteriously vanished!) I asked people as part of a 8 step process for career success, to become an 'expert'.
However, the truth is expertise sits uneasily on my shoulders. I shudder when people describe me as any kind of expert. Even more than I shudder when someone (you know who you are!) describes me as a "Thought Leader".
This post is essentially a reminder to myself, as 2008 draws to a close to understand that the time of the expert is a fleeting one.
Most experts predicted the Indian Premier League to be a modest success.
Most experts probably didn't ever think in 2007 that the US could have a black president.
Most experts were betting on a burgeoning global economy and growing stock markets in India and elsewhere.
Most experts thought that a firm that is a century old won't vanish in 2008 and that Toyota would continue to make operating profits in all quarters and that an entire industry won't vanish.
Don't become an expert. Stay a student, prepared to unlearn and learn and relearn. That is the key to relevance.
P.S. Realised that my friend Gaurav had posted something similar :-)
However, the truth is expertise sits uneasily on my shoulders. I shudder when people describe me as any kind of expert. Even more than I shudder when someone (you know who you are!) describes me as a "Thought Leader".
This post is essentially a reminder to myself, as 2008 draws to a close to understand that the time of the expert is a fleeting one.
Most experts predicted the Indian Premier League to be a modest success.
Most experts probably didn't ever think in 2007 that the US could have a black president.
Most experts were betting on a burgeoning global economy and growing stock markets in India and elsewhere.
Most experts thought that a firm that is a century old won't vanish in 2008 and that Toyota would continue to make operating profits in all quarters and that an entire industry won't vanish.
Don't become an expert. Stay a student, prepared to unlearn and learn and relearn. That is the key to relevance.
P.S. Realised that my friend Gaurav had posted something similar :-)
Dec 25, 2008
2008's last Carnival of HR
Whew! What a fast paced year it has been!
The year's last Carnival of HR is already up!
Peggy Andrews at The Career Encouragement - where posts vary from the implications of the economic crisis (special mention to Jon Ingham's post for us HR folks inHuman vs. Financial Capital?), to leadership issues ( special food for thought Wally Bock asks "what is leadership at it's core?" in Leaders Eat Last) then there's HR Bytes on Gartner Stresses on Employer Branding and Social Networking which focusses on my two favorite issues - Employment Branding and Social Networking, together!
Oh, by the way, I am hosting 2009's first Carnival of HR on 7th January. So if you have any interesting HR related posts, let me know about it by sending its URL, a synopsis and post it to i@gautamghosh.net !
The year's last Carnival of HR is already up!
Peggy Andrews at The Career Encouragement - where posts vary from the implications of the economic crisis (special mention to Jon Ingham's post for us HR folks inHuman vs. Financial Capital?), to leadership issues ( special food for thought Wally Bock asks "what is leadership at it's core?" in Leaders Eat Last) then there's HR Bytes on Gartner Stresses on Employer Branding and Social Networking which focusses on my two favorite issues - Employment Branding and Social Networking, together!
Oh, by the way, I am hosting 2009's first Carnival of HR on 7th January. So if you have any interesting HR related posts, let me know about it by sending its URL, a synopsis and post it to i@gautamghosh.net !
Booz Allen Hamilton's free ebook Capturing The People Advantage
Here's a nice Christmas gift to HR (and others too!) professionals! You can get a free PDF ebook Capturing The People Advantage: Thought Leaders on Human Capital by authors at Booz & Company and Booz Allen Hamilton.
You can download it at http://www.strategy-business.com/HCreader
You can download it at http://www.strategy-business.com/HCreader
[Clicking on the button will require you to enter an email id and some data about yourself. The link with the download instructions will be sent to that email id.]
The authors (Richard Rawlinson, a partner with Booz & Company based in London. Walter McFarland is a vice president with Booz Allen Hamilton based in Herndon, Virginia. Laird Post is a principal with Booz & Company based in San Francisco.) interviewed leading HR executives and academic experts in the United States, Europe and the Middle East and Asia to find the latest innovative people strategies in such areas as metrics capabilities, flexibility, “market segmentation” strategies for managing human capital, attracting and retaining talent through employer branding, future talent acquisition strategies, and leadership development and learning programs.
How can expanding multinationals train thousands of poorly educated citizens in India and China into a highly skilled workforce? What should an organization do when a government controlled monopoly is transformed at the stroke of a pen into a public company in one of the world’s most competitive industries? And how can a company adapt to a merger if not one of the company’s 20,000 employees has the same job? These are just some of the questions addressed Capturing The People Advantage.
Hope you enjoy it! I have downloaded it too and will share my thoughts soon :D
The authors (Richard Rawlinson, a partner with Booz & Company based in London. Walter McFarland is a vice president with Booz Allen Hamilton based in Herndon, Virginia. Laird Post is a principal with Booz & Company based in San Francisco.) interviewed leading HR executives and academic experts in the United States, Europe and the Middle East and Asia to find the latest innovative people strategies in such areas as metrics capabilities, flexibility, “market segmentation” strategies for managing human capital, attracting and retaining talent through employer branding, future talent acquisition strategies, and leadership development and learning programs.
How can expanding multinationals train thousands of poorly educated citizens in India and China into a highly skilled workforce? What should an organization do when a government controlled monopoly is transformed at the stroke of a pen into a public company in one of the world’s most competitive industries? And how can a company adapt to a merger if not one of the company’s 20,000 employees has the same job? These are just some of the questions addressed Capturing The People Advantage.
Hope you enjoy it! I have downloaded it too and will share my thoughts soon :D
Dec 22, 2008
Monday Humor - Consulting Case Interview Spoof
For those of you who might be interested in giving a consulting interview in the near future, here's an interesting spoof on what really happens ;-)
Dec 21, 2008
Innovative Job Search
Gaurav posts the interesting example of an Investment Banker in NYC and how he found another job
Gaurav asks me if Indian i-bankers can use such creativity.
Well creativity certainly pays, but in these cases only for the first guy. Being the first Mumbai banker might pay off, but you'd have to be really looking for a non-banking career to get a job offer. Something tells me such whacky ideas won't be appreciated in the Indian banking community.
Joshua Persky, the out-of-work banker who grabbed headlines this summer by standing on New York’s Park Avenue, handing out résumés to passers-by and wearing a sandwich board that said, “Experienced M.I.T. Grad for Hire,” has finally landed a job
Gaurav asks me if Indian i-bankers can use such creativity.
Well creativity certainly pays, but in these cases only for the first guy. Being the first Mumbai banker might pay off, but you'd have to be really looking for a non-banking career to get a job offer. Something tells me such whacky ideas won't be appreciated in the Indian banking community.
Dec 14, 2008
Getting this blog to you
If you are reading this blog on the web you might want to check out
1. Reading it on a web based RSS reader (like Google Reader . You can share interesting posts with your friends too, like I share mine here)
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To do so add this URL to your feed reader http://feedproxy.google.com/GautamGhosh
You can also read this blog via an email subscription by signing up your email here:
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Am thankful that you choose to read this blog!
1. Reading it on a web based RSS reader (like Google Reader . You can share interesting posts with your friends too, like I share mine here)
2. Read it on a desktop RSS aggregator like FeedDemon.
3. Some email programs like Yahoo! Mail, Outlook 2007, Thunderbird also enable you to get the RSS feed along with your mails.
To do so add this URL to your feed reader http://feedproxy.google.com/GautamGhosh
You can also read this blog via an email subscription by signing up your email here:
http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=GautamGhosh&loc=en_US
Am thankful that you choose to read this blog!
Re-imagining HR
Laurie first blogged about Blowing Up HR , and now Frank at the KnowHR blog has posted 10 tenets of the New HR.
I totally agree with both of them and here's what I think HR should be doing to doing its job better.
1. Recognise that the administrative, boring, non-value added part of the job won't go away. Get specialists, within the organization or from outside to do that. Or automate it.If you are a small business, maybe you can join other SMEs and find one large contractor to handle that piece. Yes, that would mean letting go of customised reports etc. But if it's non value added, then why have it at all?
2. Get a business guy/girl to lead HR. Ideally someone who's in line to be the CEO. Not just some loser whose career is headed for the dead end. Should have been a great people manager. She/He'll add business perspective to HR. Focus on the activities that will add dollar (and rupee) value to the business. And you in HR, you should move to a business function. Try marketing and sales. Understand how difficult it is to bring in money into the organization. Or try operations. That'll make you understand how difficult it is to produce and deliver whatever you produce or provide. You'll be a better HR professional for that.
3. Get your head around to the core competitive value of your business. What makes it better than your competitors? And how is this core competitive value going to evolve in the near and long term? Then get your HR processes to support both these all the way. For example, if your company's competitive value is creative product/services and will remain the competitive differentiator then as a HR organization you should know how to attract, retain, develop the most creative talent than your competitors. Also look at behaviors/processes that hinder creativity and kill them (the processes, not creativity!)
4. Get a strong team. You can't make a difference to the business by putting a weak scaffolding. HR needs to have a strong structure and support the business fundamentals. That won't happen by putting one junior HR generalist for 500 employees and giving an IT HR infrastructure. That'll mean giving senior HR resources to support business units.
Are you ready to re-imagine HR?
I totally agree with both of them and here's what I think HR should be doing to doing its job better.
1. Recognise that the administrative, boring, non-value added part of the job won't go away. Get specialists, within the organization or from outside to do that. Or automate it.If you are a small business, maybe you can join other SMEs and find one large contractor to handle that piece. Yes, that would mean letting go of customised reports etc. But if it's non value added, then why have it at all?
2. Get a business guy/girl to lead HR. Ideally someone who's in line to be the CEO. Not just some loser whose career is headed for the dead end. Should have been a great people manager. She/He'll add business perspective to HR. Focus on the activities that will add dollar (and rupee) value to the business. And you in HR, you should move to a business function. Try marketing and sales. Understand how difficult it is to bring in money into the organization. Or try operations. That'll make you understand how difficult it is to produce and deliver whatever you produce or provide. You'll be a better HR professional for that.
3. Get your head around to the core competitive value of your business. What makes it better than your competitors? And how is this core competitive value going to evolve in the near and long term? Then get your HR processes to support both these all the way. For example, if your company's competitive value is creative product/services and will remain the competitive differentiator then as a HR organization you should know how to attract, retain, develop the most creative talent than your competitors. Also look at behaviors/processes that hinder creativity and kill them (the processes, not creativity!)
4. Get a strong team. You can't make a difference to the business by putting a weak scaffolding. HR needs to have a strong structure and support the business fundamentals. That won't happen by putting one junior HR generalist for 500 employees and giving an IT HR infrastructure. That'll mean giving senior HR resources to support business units.
Are you ready to re-imagine HR?
Dec 10, 2008
Indian Hiring Outlook Weak But Better Relatively
According to the Manpower Employment Outlook Survey :
So while the recession/downturn is having an effect, India is still the place to be. At least in Asia Pacific. Of course, these opportunities are not across sectors. Retailing, Construction and Real Estate will not be hiring in the same numbers. Generic BPOs will also be affected, but specific KPOs and LPOs would continue to thrive and even grow.
My good friend and Executive Search Consultant AK Menon has a detailed analysis of job openings in India on his blog post. And you can add this blog ,which his firm maintains, of great job openings - to your RSS reader.
The survey data reveals that employers with the most active first-quarter hiring plans globally -- despite generally weaker hiring patterns -- are reported in Peru, India, Costa Rica, Canada, Romania, Colombia, South Africa, Australia, Poland, the United States and China.
On the other hand, employers in Singapore, Ireland, Spain and Italy reported the least optimistic hiring forecasts. Only employers in Canada, the United States and Switzerland are reporting improved Net Employment Outlooks from three months ago.
Job prospects are decidedly less optimistic in the Asia Pacific region, with employers in all eight countries and territories surveyed reporting weaker hiring plans compared to the previous quarter and one year ago.
Although they are weaker quarter-over-quarter, the most favorable job prospects in the region are still found in India, Australia and China. The slowest hiring activity is expected in Singapore and Taiwan, where negative hiring expectations are reported.
So while the recession/downturn is having an effect, India is still the place to be. At least in Asia Pacific. Of course, these opportunities are not across sectors. Retailing, Construction and Real Estate will not be hiring in the same numbers. Generic BPOs will also be affected, but specific KPOs and LPOs would continue to thrive and even grow.
My good friend and Executive Search Consultant AK Menon has a detailed analysis of job openings in India on his blog post. And you can add this blog ,which his firm maintains, of great job openings - to your RSS reader.
Flaws in Exit Process
A friend posted this on Linkedin:
Find your next job at JobSearchUSA.
What are the flaws in an Exit Process- voluntary and involuntary seperation. What should be in-corporated to ensure a smooth 'exit' and a pleasant seperation for the employee. You'll could also share instances if you please.
This is to help us all stream line our exit policies, create a more cost and time effective process and make a brand building impact.This is what I answered:
I guess the flaws can be addressed before the separation process. If the reasons are because of performance has the person been given enough time and support to increase his performance level?
If it is a behavioral issue what feedback has his manager and HR leader given. Has enough opportunity been given to him to turn it around?
If the above two have been followed the nitty gritty of the exit process needs to be followed so that the separation happens in a decent and mature way. The exiting person should not be made to feel guilty of leaving the organization (where it is voluntary) or victimised (where it is involuntary)
Find your next job at JobSearchUSA.
Employer Employee Relations in Indian IT industry
IT Entrepreneur Abhishek Rungta posts on his blog
This is what I commented on his post:
And suddenly, the situation has taken a u-turn. Companies are laying off their "talent bank" for which they fought so ferociously. The guy who walks out of office today is not sure, if his job is here to stay when he reaches office the next day. The morale is at all time low. Employees are finding it difficult to trust an employer. The question is - "Will he sack me today?"
This is an environment of extremes and uncertainty. This is an environment of relationship without trust. And, this is going to worsen with every cycle on up-and-down.
So, Who is to be blame? And more importantly, how this cycle can be broken? OR, Can this be at all checked?
In my opinion,
This environment is a result of a number of social-commercial factors, like:
Employee side:
Desire for overnight riches and i-want-to-retire-young mindset
Career objective not properly defined. (Corollary: Objective=money)
Peer pressure. Comparison of lifestyle. Increase in jealousy.
Spending more than the earning!
Gaining experience without gaining competence (i.e. 12 years of experience looked like 1 year of real experience repeated 12 times over! - which eventually remains 1 year of experience)
Employer Side:
Inexperienced and poor management
Unavailability of proper HR professionals (Hint: NOT those people who think HR = headhunting)
Treating employees as commodities
Not sticking to the basics
Lack of strategic insight into one’s business
Currently, the problem is in a virtuous cycle, and it is difficult to break it, since it is not based on a tangible outcome. It is purely based on emotions! And, if this cycle is not broken soon, it will intensify and re-occur more frequently.
This is what I commented on his post:
The two big issues that need to be resolved are:
1. What is the business leaders’ expectations from HR? If it is just recruitment, then they will always equate HR with headhunting and only hire such HR people. In some ways NASSCOM and other industry body should raise awareness on how IT leaders can leverage HR for better value.
2. Often smaller niche firms have a junior HR exec/manager who cannot advise/coach senior business leaders on people processes and issues, and also cannot push back on business decisions that might impact people aspects. Such firms might need to engage a senior HR consultant to act as a de facto HR leader for direction and strategising.
World of Workcraft : Mid Week Smile Time
What happens when a group of Dragon Slayers go to office?
The World of Warcraft meets The Office :-) in the World of Workcraft! (hat-tip Jason Calacanis)
The World of Warcraft meets The Office :-) in the World of Workcraft! (hat-tip Jason Calacanis)
Watch more video games and play free games at WeGame.
Dec 7, 2008
Join this blog's Google FriendConnect network
Now you can join this blog as a member with either your Google, Yahoo or OpenID account !Click on Join this site.
Dec 3, 2008
Links in the Feed
Hi, if you subscribe to the feed of this blog you'll also get an update of the URLs I am adding in the social bookmarking tool Delicious.
If you don't know what social bookmarking is read about Delicious here
You can subscribe to the feed via email using this form
If you don't know what social bookmarking is read about Delicious here
You can subscribe to the feed via email using this form
Nov 30, 2008
Mumbai Attacks
The last three days have been a period of turmoil. I don't consider myself an emotional person (my MBTI profile is INTP , in case you want to know) but watching the Mumbai attacks unfold has been gut wrenching and heart-breaking.
In addition my mind has been trying to make sense of all this. And failing.
Then I remember that the human mind yearns for a simple solution, one explanation that explains everything. A simple formula to arrive at a definitive conclusion. In both personal as well as organizational and social issues.
We wish we could connect the dots and arrive at the root cause.
That's a fallacy. There is not one root cause. There are many. There is no linear connection. There are webs of complexity.
Which is not to say that solutions are impossible. Solutions are sometimes very visible and everybody knows what should be done. But it's the implementation that's fraught with danger.
As citizens of Mumbai and of India it's our duty to lead. Not just to vote and choose leaders. Each of us have to lead - be an example of the behavior we seek from others. To begin with what we can do. And then have the integrity to demand that behavior from others.
So what's the change you would like to see from this world? Can you be that change?
In addition my mind has been trying to make sense of all this. And failing.
Then I remember that the human mind yearns for a simple solution, one explanation that explains everything. A simple formula to arrive at a definitive conclusion. In both personal as well as organizational and social issues.
We wish we could connect the dots and arrive at the root cause.
That's a fallacy. There is not one root cause. There are many. There is no linear connection. There are webs of complexity.
Which is not to say that solutions are impossible. Solutions are sometimes very visible and everybody knows what should be done. But it's the implementation that's fraught with danger.
As citizens of Mumbai and of India it's our duty to lead. Not just to vote and choose leaders. Each of us have to lead - be an example of the behavior we seek from others. To begin with what we can do. And then have the integrity to demand that behavior from others.
So what's the change you would like to see from this world? Can you be that change?
Nov 28, 2008
Mumbai Terror Attack
Too shocked to blog anything today. Ever since I saw the news about the terror attacks in Mumbai, I haven’t had the sense or the inclination to blog.
Here’s a list of my Tweets about the terror attack in Mumbai throughout the day.
We've recovered and bounced back after terror attacks so frequently that I don't even feel like saying about Mumbai's spirit. I just hope and pray that the outrage and anger is channelised constructively !
May you be safe.
Nov 26, 2008
Introducing White Spaces
Good news folks!
The new name of this blog is "White Spaces"
White Space, in an organizational context, in my view, is the space outside the boxes in the organizational chart. The focus is on recognizing that we need not be 'boxed' in by our roles, but that we can be much more than that.
Wikipedia also tells me of there are many meanings of White Space
So there folks, as I reflect this blog is also the White Space in my life. It doesn't fit into my other roles, traditionally of being a Consultant/Father/Spouse/Son - but something my passion for organizational theory, HR and writing has created.
Tell me how you like it :-)
The new name of this blog is "White Spaces"
White Space, in an organizational context, in my view, is the space outside the boxes in the organizational chart. The focus is on recognizing that we need not be 'boxed' in by our roles, but that we can be much more than that.
Wikipedia also tells me of there are many meanings of White Space
White space (visual arts), or negative space, the portions of a page left unmarked
Whitespace (computer science), characters used to represent white space in text
Whitespace (programming language), an esoteric programming language whose syntax consists only of spaces, tabs and newlines
White space (education), term used since 2007 in the Singapore Education System to denote time reserved for teachers' personal reflection and planning.
White Spaces Coalition, a group of technology companies aiming to deliver broadband internet access via unused analog television frequencies
White Space (business), the part of a market or segment that is available to a business or entity for new sales or customers
White Space (Process improvement and management), the area between the boxes in an organizational map, often an area where no one is responsible.
In telecommunications, white space refers to unused frequencies in the radio portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.
So there folks, as I reflect this blog is also the White Space in my life. It doesn't fit into my other roles, traditionally of being a Consultant/Father/Spouse/Son - but something my passion for organizational theory, HR and writing has created.
Tell me how you like it :-)
Need a new blog name
Ok, I grew tired of the name "Gautam Ghosh - Management Consultant" and I want you to suggest me a good catchy name for the blog.
Until that time the placeholder would be "Individual and Organizational Performance" (as someone said, descriptive but hardly exciting :) )
Until that time the placeholder would be "Individual and Organizational Performance" (as someone said, descriptive but hardly exciting :) )
Nov 24, 2008
After the Bailout change the Culture
I totally agree with Bob Sutton's post. For things to change drastically at large organizations, everything might need to be changed, specially, culture and the other things that keep that culture glued in, processes and structure. Throwing money is not going to change anything!
My original post argued that one reason that leaders at GM were so
clueless is that power dynamics in meetings (and other interactions)
are deeply dysfunctional, with the highest status person in the group
doing all the talking and none of the listening, regardless who has the
most expertise in the room. As a result, it seems to be a system
designed to preserve the status of those at the top rather than to get
the best information to the right people at the right time. This
conclusion resulted from observations (often measuring talking time)
during meetings I have attended at GM over the past 30 years for
diverse reasons.
Nov 23, 2008
Steps to transform HR to HR2.0
So there I was talking to some of my friends, who are HR professionals, who always look at me at bewilderment when the topic turns towards social media and networking.
One of them shook his head and said "Why do you even bother? How is it going to help anyone in HR?"
The conversation meandered along. I tried explaining the Cluetrain manifesto , the Long Tail , the Wisdom of the Crowds , Swarm Intelligence and Emergence , the move from Control to Collaboration and Transparency.
However I realised looking at their glazed expressions that they were not really listening or understanding, probably because I wasn't presenting in a coherent manner.
So here's my steps of what an organization should do, to transform their HR to HR2.0 - for all my friends :-)
One of them shook his head and said "Why do you even bother? How is it going to help anyone in HR?"
The conversation meandered along. I tried explaining the Cluetrain manifesto , the Long Tail , the Wisdom of the Crowds , Swarm Intelligence and Emergence , the move from Control to Collaboration and Transparency.
However I realised looking at their glazed expressions that they were not really listening or understanding, probably because I wasn't presenting in a coherent manner.
So here's my steps of what an organization should do, to transform their HR to HR2.0 - for all my friends :-)
- Employment Branding and Recruiting - Get onto Facebook, Orkut , Linkedin, discover if there are any communities about your firm, alumni groups, or your products. Identify 2-3 tech savvy young recruiters and encourage them to start or join conversations. Encourage them to also start communities of joining employees and keep in touch with them.Of course there is lots of material about how to find candidates using social networks and blogging. The other thing is to get your recruiters (like Microsoft , Accenture and Oracle ) and also your employees to blog. The third option would be to get some of your HR communications folks to blog.
- Employee Engagement and Communication - Having internal blogs and wikis to brainstorm and facilitating conversations is one of the ways you can get employees spread across various countries to connect and share knowledge. For example, I "met" people like Stan and Bruce online internally in an organization. And we've never met offline. Some more ideas would be to use Yammer , and enterprise wide Twitter tool. Suitable for large as well as micro-sized environments. Would be great to connect employees who normally would not come in touch with each other. Might help in tearing down organizational silos too.
- Learning and Development - Learning in the digital age (as JSB says ) is going to be a lot different that your parent's 'training classroom'. Organizations have experimented with virtual classrooms, blended learning and virtual worlds too. However I would vote for people learning through serendipity by connections and content they make via blogging and wikis. And using by using collaborative simulations as close and real as possible. At the very basic level, using YouTube or an internal site to share and rate videos and commenting on them would be a great way for people to pick up conceptual knowledge.
- Defining Processes and Policies - Using internal and external social media, to have employees co-create and have a say about processes and policies being designed for them would be an incredibly powerful way to have organizational democracy. Any organization actually doing something on that front?
These are my thoughts right now on HR2.0. Let the conversation begin!
Nov 20, 2008
Offer letter revoking
Anurag posted a Facebook note with a real story:
Dr. Shukla linked to a story about something similar in Videocon's business.
Today I was talking to a HR head of a BPO firm today about the incident and he shared that while the economy was booming people had no qualms about accepting an offer letter, negotiating equity stakes, meeting their prospective teams, only to text on Saturday and say "I am not able to join because of [substitute with lame excuse]"
According to the HR guy this used to happen not just with the entry level people, but also with CXO levels. These senior guys actually picked up the trick from lower level employees. The thing is called "shopping" - having an accepted offer to negotiate a higher salary and role at a competitor.
Whatever be the case, either in the case of an economic boom or slowdown ... both actions of taking others for granted and breaking commitments cannot be condoned.
Wake up - employees and employers - you're doing your own credibility a disservice by acting so opportunistically.
Have the courage to take a decision and to stick to it.
There's always something a little better, seemingly, around the corner. It's a mirage. Here and now is the only truth. Have the courage to recognise that.
So there is this guy who till last week was looking forward to join [well known company] as Sr VP of HR . Wooed to the extent {name of Promoter} sent people to his home to ensure there is an "emotional connect" even before the guy joins. All was fine till he got a letter last week withdrawing the offer. No one spoke to him , no compensation whatsoever and the poor fellow is looking for a job at the age of 48 in this economy. So this is the story of what is happening with one of NSE50 companies. [Well known company] shares are trading at 15% of their January highs !!
Dr. Shukla linked to a story about something similar in Videocon's business.
Today I was talking to a HR head of a BPO firm today about the incident and he shared that while the economy was booming people had no qualms about accepting an offer letter, negotiating equity stakes, meeting their prospective teams, only to text on Saturday and say "I am not able to join because of [substitute with lame excuse]"
According to the HR guy this used to happen not just with the entry level people, but also with CXO levels. These senior guys actually picked up the trick from lower level employees. The thing is called "shopping" - having an accepted offer to negotiate a higher salary and role at a competitor.
Whatever be the case, either in the case of an economic boom or slowdown ... both actions of taking others for granted and breaking commitments cannot be condoned.
Wake up - employees and employers - you're doing your own credibility a disservice by acting so opportunistically.
Have the courage to take a decision and to stick to it.
There's always something a little better, seemingly, around the corner. It's a mirage. Here and now is the only truth. Have the courage to recognise that.
Nov 18, 2008
Lower Salaries in the Developed world
Thank you Mathew Hayden, for calling us 'third world'. As Sudhanshu blogs , things are getting quite bad in the 'first world' and 'second world'
From what I read, it looks like that at least for now, there is a lot of pressure to regulate salary. How come such a socialist attitude in the bastions of capitalism? One reason is that government money is being pumped into their financial institutions, and with that comes pressure to rein in the galloping pay packets.
Wall Street Journal reports that “More countries move to curb executive pay, at companies with and without government rescues.
AUSTRALIA: Prime minister seeking executive-pay rules for finance firms to discourage excessive risk-taking; he will then propose the rules to the international community.
FRANCE: Business leaders adopted code of conduct that prevents 'golden parachute' exit payments for failed executives.
GERMANY: Compensation for top executives at banks tapping government bailout funds capped at €500,000; bonuses, stock options and severance barred.
NETHERLANDS: Top executives of ING Groep NV agreed to give up 2008 bonuses and limit severance if dismissed in exchange for government financial injection.
SWEDEN: Participating banks in proposed bailout must agree with government to limit compensation for 'key executives.'
SWITZERLAND: UBS AG agreed as part of recapitalization to use international best practices for executive pay and government monitoring.
U.S.: Limits on corporate-tax deductions on executive pay and 'golden parachutes.' Firms also must recover awards based on inaccurate results and bar incentives for 'unnecessary and excessive risks.'
U.K.: Government is taking board seats at two big banks, permitting more oversight of pay practices; regulator wants investment banks to drop pay practices that may have encouraged risk-taking.”
I am praying that the Indian government does not get into the act. With their usual ham-handed approach they are sure to get it wrong and drive out talent from Indian industry.
NPA Asia Pac Conference
AK Menon attends the NPA Asia Pac conference it in Manila and comes away with some insights:
We had close to 50 recruiters from across different parts of Asia Pac-and a handful from the US- and needless to say-the discussions were rather sombre- considering that the 'sky seemed to be falling' almost everywhere!!
( I must confess there was quite a sense of relief in most of us. You know the kind of feeling- when as soon as the power goes off in our house..we rush to the balcony to see if our neighbours have light? And the kind of consolation..that aha-we aren't the only one affected..and so things would soon be normal :-)!!)
And so-there was a very conscious effort, from us recruiters too,.. to understand the drivers of economy in our regions- figure out one could leverage on some of the trends- as also with some global migration of professionals!
Needless to say-all the media everywhere has been crying out..layoffs, pink slips, cuts in spending, bail out, ....and economists predicting more gloom and doom for periods ranging from 2 quarters to 2 years!! Perhaps the silver lining in all darkness-is the hope for a miracle?
Exchanging notes- there was one distinct trend-most governments across the world-without exception, are indeed taking a lot of action to address it ...and see what best can be done to improve the confidence of the average citizen. It is always darkest before dawn,la??
Calling HR professionals in NCR
The National Capital Region in India is a name for the conurbation or metropolitan area which encompasses the entire National Capital Territory of Delhi as well as urban areas ringing it in neighbouring states of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.
So if you are a HR professional who works out of this region, you can join the NCR HR group on HR professionals or the NCR HR professionals group on Facebook . The FB group has about 30 people already as members.
Hopefully these would be forum (fora?) for HR professionals to meet offline and connect in person. The end objective is that all of us learn and develop professional from other fellow professionals.
Nov 16, 2008
Layoff triggers murder
At a Silicon Valley semiconductor firm SiPort a man laid off recently from his job shot and killed three formerco-workers at an office park on Friday. Two of the 3 killed were the company's CEO Sid Agrawal and Brian Pugh the VP of operations.
This is really sad news.
While most employees can deal with layoffs in a mature way (provided the organization has been fair and transparent) they still go through the cycle of Surprise, Anger, Rejection before finally Accepting the bad news. Yes, it's known as the SARA model.
As a manager or HR professional you have to realise that sometimes an employee if not supported to go through the normal cycle, he/she can suppress the emotions and erupt in a totally different and unpredictable way.
This is really sad news.
While most employees can deal with layoffs in a mature way (provided the organization has been fair and transparent) they still go through the cycle of Surprise, Anger, Rejection before finally Accepting the bad news. Yes, it's known as the SARA model.
As a manager or HR professional you have to realise that sometimes an employee if not supported to go through the normal cycle, he/she can suppress the emotions and erupt in a totally different and unpredictable way.
Nov 12, 2008
Strategic Training and Evaluation
Am attending this four day training program and the interesting part is that there are training managers and trainers from different organizations who are going through it.
A discussion that emerged today was about training becoming more and more strategic. A model stated that as training moves from mere administration to management, the evaluation screen becomes more and more. From training management one can move up to strategic HR - and the trick for training professionals then becomes to actually think outside their box and look at non-classroom development.
When more and more investment starts to happen in training, with senior leaders spending time getting trained the organization wants to see 'effectiveness of training'
Of course there are the 4 levels of Kirkpatrick's evaluation that goes from
Learning for the day: A trainer has to get out of his/her comfort zones and also to give up control. Hence moving towards facilitation and becoming a facilitator of learning is going to be key to success for learning and development professionals.
How many are ready for that?
It's so much easier to arrange an off the shelf training program that the business thinks it needs. Isn't it?
A discussion that emerged today was about training becoming more and more strategic. A model stated that as training moves from mere administration to management, the evaluation screen becomes more and more. From training management one can move up to strategic HR - and the trick for training professionals then becomes to actually think outside their box and look at non-classroom development.
When more and more investment starts to happen in training, with senior leaders spending time getting trained the organization wants to see 'effectiveness of training'
Of course there are the 4 levels of Kirkpatrick's evaluation that goes from
- Reaction
- Knowledge
- Behavior
- Organizational Impact
Learning for the day: A trainer has to get out of his/her comfort zones and also to give up control. Hence moving towards facilitation and becoming a facilitator of learning is going to be key to success for learning and development professionals.
How many are ready for that?
It's so much easier to arrange an off the shelf training program that the business thinks it needs. Isn't it?
Nov 10, 2008
Behavioral Event Interviewing
Chris posts about how a manager was getting an interviewing process all wrong. He mentions a lot of important points that managers should keep in mind.
As he suggests, it's great to get candidates to open up and talk a lot in the interview. Ideally as a manager you should not be taking up more than 20% of the total 'airtime' of the interview.
Use comfortable body language to make the interviewee comfortable. Maintain good eye contact. If the interviewee seems tense or nervous, offer a glass of water.
You need to get to know what all a job applicant has done - and his inner drive and motivation. One of the better forms of interviewing is the Behavioral Event Interviewing method. Research has proven that BEI is a better predictor of future performance than the traditional 'hypothetical/situational' interview.
Of course, it is most useful when there are competency models that help you to gauge what you should be assessing a person for. Without that it'll be like driving on a road to nowhere.
So what is a Behavioral Event Interview?
It's an interview that focuses on a critical event in the past where a candidate has been successful and attempts to find out what exactly he/she did/thought/felt through that process. The interviewer needs to isolate such events clearly and then probe deeper and in detail. These behaviors are the visible part of the competencies that one is assessing for.
BEI is not easy to do. And is much tougher to conduct than a regular interview. And needs lots of coaching and practice to be effective.
Need help? Call me :-)
As he suggests, it's great to get candidates to open up and talk a lot in the interview. Ideally as a manager you should not be taking up more than 20% of the total 'airtime' of the interview.
Use comfortable body language to make the interviewee comfortable. Maintain good eye contact. If the interviewee seems tense or nervous, offer a glass of water.
You need to get to know what all a job applicant has done - and his inner drive and motivation. One of the better forms of interviewing is the Behavioral Event Interviewing method. Research has proven that BEI is a better predictor of future performance than the traditional 'hypothetical/situational' interview.
Of course, it is most useful when there are competency models that help you to gauge what you should be assessing a person for. Without that it'll be like driving on a road to nowhere.
So what is a Behavioral Event Interview?
It's an interview that focuses on a critical event in the past where a candidate has been successful and attempts to find out what exactly he/she did/thought/felt through that process. The interviewer needs to isolate such events clearly and then probe deeper and in detail. These behaviors are the visible part of the competencies that one is assessing for.
BEI is not easy to do. And is much tougher to conduct than a regular interview. And needs lots of coaching and practice to be effective.
Need help? Call me :-)
Nov 9, 2008
Negative Rumors
Hello Gautam,
I have been following your blog since over a year now which has helped me immensely in managing the human resources for a small firm of about 100 people.Now, the business is 3 years old and is going through a major change (new services,new clients, projects being pulled out etc.).So obviously the core group is getting kind of insecure,and a few of the influential lot( who've been around for the longest ) are spreading false rumors about the company.Moreover, it's them who we look up to for getting through this phase.My boss (who also happens to be the COO) seems to be oblivious to this and when talked to believes in Theory Y.
Am in a fix as to how to handle such employees? We definitely can't terminate them on such grounds. It's a small company and in such times every negative comment would be harmful in sustaining a calmer and trustworthy work environment as earlier.
Looking forward to your guidance.
Blog post by Sudhanshu on the same problem.
I have been following your blog since over a year now which has helped me immensely in managing the human resources for a small firm of about 100 people.Now, the business is 3 years old and is going through a major change (new services,new clients, projects being pulled out etc.).So obviously the core group is getting kind of insecure,and a few of the influential lot( who've been around for the longest ) are spreading false rumors about the company.Moreover, it's them who we look up to for getting through this phase.My boss (who also happens to be the COO) seems to be oblivious to this and when talked to believes in Theory Y.
Am in a fix as to how to handle such employees? We definitely can't terminate them on such grounds. It's a small company and in such times every negative comment would be harmful in sustaining a calmer and trustworthy work environment as earlier.
Looking forward to your guidance.
It can be such a pain. The people you need to rally the rest, end up making the most problems.
You've mentioned that the business is going through major changes. You also mentioned that the core group are spreading false rumors.
I would ordinarily expect that any major change initiative would have co-opted this group for their seniority and influence. Obviously that has not been done, either because they are going to be 'inflicted' with change or are going to be left behind.
The rumors they are spreading are being fuelled by their fear. Your COO needs to have a conversation with them. Tell him as a a HR person that the workplace is getting affected by these negativities. If he really believes in Theory Y then he would take their views into account.
Roles and People
Steve blogs about the way in most organizations people objectify based on role titles and not focusing on the people actually holding the roles.
While this might not seem be be worth considering, Steve does raise a very interesting point.
One treats others as one treats oneself. And vice versa. Objectifying yourself is the worst thing you could do to yourself. Do you really want to tie your self image to an external anchor that gets decided by others and is tangible only in a visiting card?
Yes we HR people spend lots of time comparing job titles across organizations and job descriptions. That's because organizations like to ensure that people feel equity with others. However, don't let comparative equity be the only way you derive self meaning.
While this might not seem be be worth considering, Steve does raise a very interesting point.
The worst part: it makes the person an object. Once we do that, we no longer see them as someone with the same kinds of needs, wants, frailties, talents, and humanity as ourselvesThere's another drawback of thinking about roles and titles only. One can start to do it about oneself too. Therein lies the big problem.
One treats others as one treats oneself. And vice versa. Objectifying yourself is the worst thing you could do to yourself. Do you really want to tie your self image to an external anchor that gets decided by others and is tangible only in a visiting card?
Yes we HR people spend lots of time comparing job titles across organizations and job descriptions. That's because organizations like to ensure that people feel equity with others. However, don't let comparative equity be the only way you derive self meaning.
Nov 4, 2008
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi on Creativity, fulfillment and Flow
An amazing talk by the foremost psychologist of positive experiences on how creative people work on flow.
HR person to be laid off
Got this email from a reader. What would you suggest to her?
Dear Sir
Hope you are doing great.
I have been a regular reader of your blog and find your posts quite interesting and informative.
Just felt like taking your advice on an issue bogging me since 2 months...
I am an MBA pass-out of 2008 batch, have been working in a Corporate HR role with one of the large Indian Group's company that is on the verge of winding-up and thus had to put down my papers.
As the job market is extremely bad, specially for a fresher in the field of HR....I have not been able to get a decent job since last two months and the market situation is getting worse with each day.. If you could kindly provide your valuable suggestions regarding:
1) Are there any good certifications/ short term courses for freshers to further build-up on my knowledge of HR and polish my resume?
2) Will working on a short term project/ assignment for an organization be worthwhile?
3) Should I take-up any job coming my way from a lesser known brand compromising on profile and compensation?
4) How far does a foreign language help an HR professional?
Being a novice in this field, your guidance will help me take informed and wise career decision.
Here's what I replied back.
Dear Sir
Hope you are doing great.
I have been a regular reader of your blog and find your posts quite interesting and informative.
Just felt like taking your advice on an issue bogging me since 2 months...
I am an MBA pass-out of 2008 batch, have been working in a Corporate HR role with one of the large Indian Group's company that is on the verge of winding-up and thus had to put down my papers.
As the job market is extremely bad, specially for a fresher in the field of HR....I have not been able to get a decent job since last two months and the market situation is getting worse with each day.. If you could kindly provide your valuable suggestions regarding:
1) Are there any good certifications/ short term courses for freshers to further build-up on my knowledge of HR and polish my resume?
2) Will working on a short term project/ assignment for an organization be worthwhile?
3) Should I take-up any job coming my way from a lesser known brand compromising on profile and compensation?
4) How far does a foreign language help an HR professional?
Being a novice in this field, your guidance will help me take informed and wise career decision.
Here's what I replied back.
apologies for the late reply - I was travelling on Diwali
Am sorry to hear that your division is winding up and therefore you need to look for another role.
My advice to you would be to find a HR role with any industry right now. You might have to take a salary cut or move locations, do that.
There are short term HR courses, but doing them after a full time MBA does not really make sense.
A short term project might be very interesting. But ensure that it offers adequate learning opportunity. Finding such organizations might be difficult. Talk to your MBA professors, since they might also be doing consulting for organizations, if they can use your efforts to support their own consulting assignments.
As far as foreign language matters, it would help only in certain specific cases, like you planning to emigrate into a non-English speaking country. I know a friend who moved to Hong Kong for personal reasons and couldn't find any HR roles there as they all needed some Cantonese/Mandarin skills.
warm regards,
Nov 3, 2008
HR salaries in India
Anurag of HR Next has compiled a rough but ready reckoner of HR salaries. So if you are a HR professional wondering how the market pays your peers here is the lowdown on his site.
Some interesting data:
Note: Salaries in Indian Rupees. I lakh rupees is equal to US $ 2076 based on current exchange rates.
So median salaries according to Anurag for HR Heads would be US $ 135,000 p.a. approximately
Some interesting data:
Top dog : Heads HR for large MNCs , or group HR Head for large Indian business groups with over 10000 employees = Base salary ranges between 70-110 lakhs + variable pay +ESOPs. In Bombay - company flat upto 2000 sqft in South Bombay or Pali Hill likely. Is of batches 1985 or earlier maybe additional and is not costed.
Head HR : Large organisations but Category B or below brands or organisations that position compensation at median or less. Overall CTC not likely to exceed 100 lakhs with median of around 65 lakhs. 1980-1992 batch.
1995-1998 batch : Median salary - 35 lakhs ; range is between 25 to 48 lakhs . These are typically functional heads like C&B Head, OD head or HR Heads for a large division in an organisation handing around 2000+ employees
2) 1999-2001 batches : Median salary - 26 lakhs ; range is 18 to 42 lakhs. Most likely data points between 26-32 lakhs for the 1999-00 batches.
3) 2002-2003 batches : Median salary - 16 lakhs : range is 12- 26 lakhs. Most likely data points are between 16 and 20 lakhs.
4) 2004-2005 batches : Median salary - 12 lakhs : range is 8 lakhs to 20 lakhs
Note: Salaries in Indian Rupees. I lakh rupees is equal to US $ 2076 based on current exchange rates.
So median salaries according to Anurag for HR Heads would be US $ 135,000 p.a. approximately
Nov 2, 2008
Indian firms back in favour
At B-School campuses:
For students in the final year of management, pre-placement offers
begin next week. Those in the first year will start picking companies
to train during summer holidays. The upheavals in global finance have
hurt their optimism, but no one is worried about not getting a job.There will be plenty of jobs on offer, and they are unlikely to come
with salaries lower than last year, students and faculty at several
IIMs and other management institutes told HT.“There used to be a 10-15 per cent annual increase in salary offers.
This year, we expect 2-3 per cent growth, but companies will not reduce
salaries offered,” said Abbasali Gabbula, final year student at S.P.
Jain Management Institute in Mumbai, where pay offers averaged Rs 14
lakhs last year.What could possibly be missing are the six-figure dollar salaries
from global financial firms. For instance, the highest offer made
during last year’s campus hiring at IIM, Calcutta was Rs. 1.36 crore
per annum, from a global investment bank that was not named. Lehman
Brothers topped the chart at XLRI, Jamshedpur, where overseas offers
averaged $90,000 and the highest domestic offer was for Rs. 32 lakh.Such fancy salaries often prevented many homegrown companies from pitching for talent at these institutes.
While the financial turmoil has somewhat dented pay prospects for
management students, “many companies that earlier went back empty
handed would have an opportunity to hire our students,” said Piyush
Sinha, who chairs the placement committee at IIM, Ahmedabad. Students,
who are keen on working overseas, might explore options in Asia, rather
than looking at Europe or the US, he said.
What the article does not state is that there is likely to be a shakeout in the placements of the B Schools outside the top 25. Let's hope the majority of the students get a good future.
Oct 31, 2008
Tom's top 3 strategic imperatives are people related
On his blog uber-guru Tom Peters writes :
I hereby assert that the three most important strategic factors* [*or, at least, three of the tippy tippy topmost important strategic ...] affecting enterprise success are:
(1) Recruiting-evaluating-hiring
(2) The 1st-line supervisor promotion decision
(3) Promotion decisions in general
If my threefold assertion is even close to true [and it is, at the very least, worth examining], are its implications directly reflected in your calendar and business practices in general? If they are not so reflected, what—precisely—are you prepared to do about it?
Being at the receiving end and Layoffs
Prasad reviews Abhijit's book (my review is here ) and looks at the HR lessons from it. I'd like to highlight two:
On a related note today's Corporate Dossier in ET looks at the inability to layoff people in the Indian context, from a legal and cultural angle.
I have found that 'being at the receiving end of HR' (experiencing an HR process as an employee, especially if it is a 'not so pleasant' experience) can be a great eye-opener for an HR professional. This helps one to be more sensitive to the 'human' in 'Human Resources'. While most of us have been employees also (in addition to having been HR professionals) for most part of our careers, we often have this strange tendency to discount our experiences as employees (as internal customers of HR strategies/ processes/ policies) as compared to our experiences as HR professionals (who design/run HR strategies/ processes/ policies).
The last point I want to talk about here is insight that the book provides about the 'increased cost' (human and social cost) of retrenchment in the Indian context. Since there is little or no social security provided by the state, the role of the employer/expectations from the employer in this domain get heightened. I would even say that since the joint family system (that used to provide some sort of insurance/social security) is breaking down, this aspect can become even more significant. Then there is this issue of 'family involvement'. Since many of us still have the tendency to 'get our families involved' in most of the important decisions that we take (like marriage and job!), separation from the job has an impact on the family that goes beyond the economic impact (as it can have impact on dimensions like family pride and even identity!). This also has implications for the 'innovative' employee engagement & employee retention strategies/ initiatives that many organizations are trying out these days - initiatives/strategies that try to 'lock in' the employees by actively involving their families (like parents day, get the families to the office etc.). Yes, these can help in reducing employee attrition/voluntary turnover. However, this would also makeretrenchment/involuntary separation more difficult for the organization and more painful for employees (and their families).
On a related note today's Corporate Dossier in ET looks at the inability to layoff people in the Indian context, from a legal and cultural angle.
In their defence, CEOs dole out a long list of compulsions and arguments. The foremost argument proffered is that of ‘Company is Family’ . Ask Kishore Biyani, chairman, Future Group who almost agrees with Goyal on the latter’s patriarchal approach to leading a business. “Indians tend to be very emotional , and we treat our employees as family. Culturally, we are very different from other countries. In our society , the workforce is treated like the kutumb (family) and the CEO is the karta (a guardian, if you will) of the family. It is his responsibility to maintain the well-being of all employees. If an Indian company is firing people, you can be certain that it’s the very last resort left for the company,” he says.
When posed the same question, Harsh Goenka, chairman of one of the older Indian conglomerates, the RPG Group, puts forth a similar argument. “Traditionally, our mindset doesn’t allow us to downsize, and labour has always been a sensitive subject in this country. Companies have gone sick and died but they have refused to resort to layoffs,” he says. What they don’t realise, he adds, is that the entire workforce suffers instead of a few.
Though there have always been political dimensions to firing people, such pressures have only become more acute lately, as the Jet episode clearly brings out. “Political effects seem to be of a more serious nature since most of our unions are affiliated to political parties. Therefore, the politics takes an upper hand, compared to the business needs,” confesses Niraj Bajaj, chairman of stainless steel products maker Mukand.
No wonder then, companies are often all too careful about managing their financial troubles with socially responsible solutions. For instance , the Tata group, which has actively scaled down its workforce in companies like Tata Motors and Tata Tea, and is of the view that economics doesn’t always win.
Jobs and the India slowdown story
Business Today publishes an interesting survey. Take a look:
On the other hand, blogger and exec search consultant AK Menon posts :
According to the latest BT-TeamLease Employment Outlook Survey (October-December 2008 quarter), the caution visible in the last quarter has turned into a decisive downturn—both in hiring and business sentiment. The Employment Outlook is down 10 index points. Employers are in the wait’n’watch mode. The result: hiring activity is likely to be sluggish in most sectors—IT, infrastructure, retail, FMCG & media, financial services, telecom and manufacturing & engineering. ITES is the only sector that is buoyant, according to the survey. However, this buoyancy has turned into caution after the Wall Street crash because many companies depend on the now sick US financial services companies for major portions of their revenues. The survey, incidentally, was conducted before the crash.
he hiring outlook for cities across the spectrum has taken a beating. The survey puts Job Outlook for Mumbai at 60 index points, down 15 points compared to the previous quarter. Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Delhi see a dip in the fortunes with the cities posting declines of 40, 16 and 10 index points, respectively. Chennai’s bad run also continues with a drop of 10 index points. The only city that has a positive Job Outlook is Hyderabad, which, incidentally, witnessed a drop of 31 index points in business sentiment.
On the other hand, blogger and exec search consultant AK Menon posts :
Rama Bijapurkar's prognosis on consumer spending is a revelation!! Her take: Consumer India is a hydra -headed monster-and consists many demand segments or "mini Indias"and each of them is not as badly hit by the US recession!! The news on the overall consumer demand is better than we think it is!
-there are some 85 million farmers and their families -who have had a good monsoon and crop and recent loan write-offs.
-there are 5-7 million government -and quasi government employee families who are laughing all the way to the bank!
( Both these segments by far out number the 20 million affected by stock market or the 2 million in IT/ITES sectors with shaky jobs and low confidence!!)
-This is probably the first time that the rich are getting hurt more than the poor-but they have the resilience to ride through-especially since most of them are hurting on account of being the most over leveraged!
-And finally- as the top 20% of India accounts for about 43% of consumer spending-the bottom 60% for about 36% -the mass may be safer than the class.
MBAs and the slowdown
Harish the B School prof who blogs at Marketing Practice asked me to write a guest post on his blog for the MBA students who are graduating in a couple of months.
Here's what I wrote, with a marketing twist .
Here's what I wrote, with a marketing twist .
Oct 30, 2008
Twitterpacks Linkedin Company Buzz and HR Carnival
Hi folks, it's been some time since this blog was updates, as I was out of town on vacation. I was however compulsively checking twitter and facebook via my mobile web. That was when I got a tweet from Hugh Flouch that he found my twitter id from something called Twitterpacks.
Having never heard of Twitterpacks I did a search on Google to find that it's a wiki which tries to answer "If someone were joining Twitter today whom should they follow?"
And some kind soul has added my Twitter URL to the careers pack under the business management section.
Thank you whoever you are :-)
Check out the Life Coaches, Advertising, Marketing and PR folks also listed on the wiki. If you're not on Twitter, you might want to check it out.
In fact, Linkedin has started applications of which one is called company buzz , and enables you to monitor the conversation about your firm on Twitter.
Oh, and you can check out the 29th October Carnival of HR at Dan's Great Leadership blog. Some great posts by the top HR bloggers at one place.
Having never heard of Twitterpacks I did a search on Google to find that it's a wiki which tries to answer "If someone were joining Twitter today whom should they follow?"
And some kind soul has added my Twitter URL to the careers pack under the business management section.
Thank you whoever you are :-)
Check out the Life Coaches, Advertising, Marketing and PR folks also listed on the wiki. If you're not on Twitter, you might want to check it out.
In fact, Linkedin has started applications of which one is called company buzz , and enables you to monitor the conversation about your firm on Twitter.
Oh, and you can check out the 29th October Carnival of HR at Dan's Great Leadership blog. Some great posts by the top HR bloggers at one place.
Oct 22, 2008
Indian moon mission and Time
Most of us look at time as a limited resource, and in that mindset stress over things that we haven't been able to do. BP Rao takes another view , that there's always tomorrow and if you missed an opportunity it's never to late to start on it.
As I see the news about the Indian moon mission those words are really relevant. Who would have thought 10-15 years ago that India would become a handful of nations to send an unmanned mission to the moon - the Chandrayaan.
Because we didn't fret yesterday about lost opportunities of the day before but focused on tomorrow and planned for it.
The bad news is that all of us have something to repent about. The good news is that it’s never too late to repent. You might not be able to do one thing that you missed- but you could quite easily immerse yourself in another which gives you that much joy- provided you give that activity the priority, it deserves.
I guess as you grow older things take on differing degrees of importance. In youth, you would seldom care about your health. With the major focus on work, it was inevitable that you pretty much took good health for granted. Something that you cannot afford to do as you get older. Likewise, for the younger person with less family responsibilities, the ability to take more risks ( be it for a career change or moving to a different environment altogether) is much higher than an older person who has more responsibilities - with less time on his side.
At the end of the day, we live life based on the choices we make and the priorities we assign. There is hope for us yet. Dennis Waitely, whom I admire as a writer,sums it up so well: ” Time is an equal opportunity employer. Each human being has exactly the same number of hours and minutes every day. Rich people can’t buy more hours. Scientists can’t invent new minutes. And you can’t save time to spend it on another day. Even so, time is amazingly fair and forgiving. No matter how much time you have wasted in the past, you still have an entire tomorrow”.
People who live truly fulfilling lives make time for everything that is meaningful to them. This includes work, leisure, health and family. A balanced lifestyle is not based on a mathematical equation. What matters is not the amount of - but the quality of - time you spend on all that’s important to you.
As I see the news about the Indian moon mission those words are really relevant. Who would have thought 10-15 years ago that India would become a handful of nations to send an unmanned mission to the moon - the Chandrayaan.
Because we didn't fret yesterday about lost opportunities of the day before but focused on tomorrow and planned for it.
Oct 21, 2008
Negotiation Importance
It always surprises me when I realise that 'negotiation' is not taught as a skill at any stage in our formal educational life.
What is amazing is that negotiation is a skill that is useful in every sphere of our lives. However, most of us blunder our way through negotiations, due to our inherent self. People who are assertive can negotiate better but their focus remain themselves. People who are non-assertive (like me!) can get swept away when negotiating with an assertive individual and neglecting their own wants and needs.
Negotiation is a skill that is closely tied to one's personality and that is why a formalised education in the processes of negotiation is useful for everyone. It gives people like me an opportunity to claw back into the race. :-) Most of all negotiation is used in every aspect of corporate life...with external customers or vendors, with internal staff and line managers, to get budgets that one wants, to get one's salary or raise or to change one's role. It seems criminal not to develop this skill.
Originally posted in June 2004
What is amazing is that negotiation is a skill that is useful in every sphere of our lives. However, most of us blunder our way through negotiations, due to our inherent self. People who are assertive can negotiate better but their focus remain themselves. People who are non-assertive (like me!) can get swept away when negotiating with an assertive individual and neglecting their own wants and needs.
Negotiation is a skill that is closely tied to one's personality and that is why a formalised education in the processes of negotiation is useful for everyone. It gives people like me an opportunity to claw back into the race. :-) Most of all negotiation is used in every aspect of corporate life...with external customers or vendors, with internal staff and line managers, to get budgets that one wants, to get one's salary or raise or to change one's role. It seems criminal not to develop this skill.
Originally posted in June 2004
Innovation and Creative Organizations
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:
Originally posted October 2004
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."Aculture 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."
Originally posted October 2004
Going Cross functional
A Cross-Functional Team is usually called on when there exists a business problem that requires the combined effort of experts and when it is recognised that the resulting solution would need to span a range of functions.
Increasingly businesses face problems which are not pliable to 'simple' solutions. One factor is that businesses themselves see opportunities not in silos but in systems thinking. So a recruitment ad, is not just a recruitment ad anymore- it is also an opportunity to build the organization's brand ! Therefore it becomes imperative for the recruitment team to link up with the branding/mktg team and the corporate communications team.
In fact, I feel that going forward we will see a whole lot of cross-functional work being done by people.
In HR we already interact with other organizations like corp communications, mktg, IT to deliver our services to the employee. And therefore there are no 'pure' HR people anymore.
The issues with cross-functional teams are that the barriers are built over time. We study in MBA that the functions are 'silos' but the reality does not sink in for a long time. We continue looking at imaginary barriers like 'us' and 'them' and I think that a 'silo-mentality' is the greatest barrier to the success of a cross functional team. Throw in the complexity of people working from across cultures in a globalised world under stringent deadlines - the challenges could not be greater.
As managers and HR people the focus should be on breaking down our artificial barriers and 'turf-protecting' mentality. And telling people that all our actions should be directed so that the customer out there who buys our products and services.
Originally posted in Feb 2004
Increasingly businesses face problems which are not pliable to 'simple' solutions. One factor is that businesses themselves see opportunities not in silos but in systems thinking. So a recruitment ad, is not just a recruitment ad anymore- it is also an opportunity to build the organization's brand ! Therefore it becomes imperative for the recruitment team to link up with the branding/mktg team and the corporate communications team.
In fact, I feel that going forward we will see a whole lot of cross-functional work being done by people.
In HR we already interact with other organizations like corp communications, mktg, IT to deliver our services to the employee. And therefore there are no 'pure' HR people anymore.
The issues with cross-functional teams are that the barriers are built over time. We study in MBA that the functions are 'silos' but the reality does not sink in for a long time. We continue looking at imaginary barriers like 'us' and 'them' and I think that a 'silo-mentality' is the greatest barrier to the success of a cross functional team. Throw in the complexity of people working from across cultures in a globalised world under stringent deadlines - the challenges could not be greater.
As managers and HR people the focus should be on breaking down our artificial barriers and 'turf-protecting' mentality. And telling people that all our actions should be directed so that the customer out there who buys our products and services.
Originally posted in Feb 2004
Some great presentations
Understanding Twitter
And about being a freesoul ..I know Ev, JSB and Howard in this list...
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