Taj Mahal and Sikandara at Agra

This weekend I took the family to Agra. On the way to the hotel we stopped at Sikandara. My wife had never heard of Sikandara. When I told her that it was the tomb of one of India's greatest ever ruler, Akbar she was stunned.

 

In our view the Sikandara tomb, even though beautiful, blends with the Indian and Persian architectural structures and is built in the familiar red sandstone style.

Of course, Agra is well known for the beauty of the Taj Mahal, which stands out from almost all architectural landmarks of the world. It's white and built with marble.

Look how beautiful it looks - almost invisible in the fog and then as if it really is appearing out of nothingness

 

  

  

The point of this blog post?

Well apart from the excuse to put up some pretty pictures :-) It really boils down to being remarkable in your own way - even if you are building a tomb to your queen - and by adding a passion to stand out of the ordinariness of others.

PwC acquires ECS

In the din of PwC's Satyam troubles, this news kind of slipped under the radar. In a bid to match up with E&Y and KPMG's large ops and HR consulting practices, PwC's India advisory services arm has acquired ECS (earlier known as Eicher Consulting Services)

Ashwani Puri, executive director and India leader for Advisory practice, said “This acquisition sits very nicely with our strategy of providing brand-defining consulting services to our clients. ECS will help us accelerate the execution of our plans to build a strong, outcomes-focused, multi-disciplinary consulting business. ECS strong capabilities in lean management including lean manufacturing and lean services, Six Sigma, cost reduction and people & change management, are very relevant in the current business environment and as Indian businesses transform and globalise more rapidly. With this acquisition, we are now even better placed to globally service clients of the PwC network of firms.” The acquisition will add five partners and over 100 consultants, besides valuable intellectual property and key client relationships.

What needs to be seen is whether KPMG and E&Y will quake in their boots on this news. But PwC has reason to rejoice - if ECS's HR consulting capabilities gets transferred to it without much pain. The more interesting aspect would be to see if ECS's vision of transferring competence to clients would be maintained :-)

Talent Management and Development Consulting

Here's an approach we tried when called on to do an OD consulting assignment for a client, and by all accounts it's been a stupendous success so far.

It's an approach we use called E Power 7, to implement OD initiatives.

Lifestreaming in the organization

Remember Twitter (that I blogged about earlier) or even things like Facebook news feeds and status messages? They along with other services (like Friendfeed or Plaxo) do something called lifestreaming. Actually not really lifestreaming (because they only capture what you want them to capture) but this post by JP made me wonder about how lifestreaming would impact the future of CVs and appraisals. As he says:

As the cost of such data acquisition drops, and as the cost of storing such data drops as well, the possibilities are tremendous. From an enterprise perspective, what the report represents is a part of the future of two things: CVs and appraisals. Nick’s work reminds us that you can now tell a story about what you did in ways you could never have done before. As with anything else, there are opportunities to game the “system”, but that is not what I want to concentrate on.

Because feedback loops of this sort are valuable as learning tools. As I learn more about what I really did with my time, I learn more about what I would like to change in that context; the feedback loop of “actuals” helps me do that. As I learn more about what I liked and what I disliked, I learn more about how I can keep doing the things I like doing; collaborative filtering helps me do that. As I learn more about what others perceive as things I did well and did badly, I learn more about how I can improve my strengths as well as my weaknesses; the feedback loop of “reviews” helps me do that.

In the past, whether it was a CV or a “performance review” or an “appraisal”, what went into the report was very subjective, very biased. As a result people didn’t like sharing the information with others. When the data is collected independently and objectively, this unwillingness to share goes away.

However, while the opportunities are tremendous, I personally don't think something would take off in organizations, unless the appraisal process loses much of the negative energy and linkage to pay that it's saddled with. But I totally buy into the idea of feedback loops and helping people learn and be inducted. The other question is, it might take away the mystique from certain roles and jobs, but overall that's a much better thing!

How can Consultants Leverage the web

It's no secret that visibility and the ability to be found (what can we call it, "findability"?) on the internet will slowly become the make or break aspect of professional services providers to find work and sell services. Consultants of course, are also part of this industry?

And it is no secret that Google dominates the access to how we find content on the internet. So "How can Consultants Leverage the Web" can also be called "How can Consultants build visibility on Google?"

Fortunatelty Google itself has made a page of how professional services folks like Consultants can submit their content on it. Go ahead read all of it!

Google can get your content in front of people—free
We've found that professional services firms often have some of the content below. Click each content type to learn how you can use Google's services to promote your content.

Website: Make sure your website is included in Google Web Search and is easily accessible to Google.
Business Information: Make sure your firm's locations are up-to-date on Google's location-based services.
Gadgets: Build mini-applications to deliver the latest news and information to your clients' desktops and the sites they visit.
Blogs: Give your business a voice, and let your customers know what's going on right now.
RSS: Instantly notify your clients and prospective clients as soon as you update your website.
Authoritative Information: Share your professional knowledge, collaborate with your community and get credit for what you know.

Of course, Knol really hasn't taken off to be the wikipedia killer that Google wanted it to be [for example, you can check my Knols here]

Also check earlier posts on Business Blogging:

• Blogging for Consultants 
• ROI of Blogging and Twitter 
• How Small Businesses Can Leverage the Web 
• Selling Consulting Services
  

Consulting in the downturn

Consulting is one of those professions that seemingly can benefit from both the boom times as well as the slowdown.

Of course that does not mean that ALL kinds of consultants can realign their service offerings to the changed economic scenario - but if well thought out, it is of course true that management and leaders would try to get advice on what to spend on and where to focus one's energies when the resources and the opportunities are limited.

Kennedy's Consultants News says, referring primarily to the US markets:

But there are some consulting opportunities despite the weak US economy. These include environmental sustainability/compliance initiatives that contribute to clients’ bottom lines and reputations, flexible Enterprise 2.0 and SaaS/Cloud solutions that reduce IT investments, as well as cost-cutting ITO and BPO arrangements. Not surprisingly, clients also are showing interest in the areas of restructuring, turnaround, and financial risk consulting, and client verticals creating a steady flow of projects include healthcare, education, and energy/utilities. And prospects appear strong for public sector work, especially once the Obama-driven efficiency agenda and economic stimulus programs begin to kick in at federal, state, and local levels.

So there you are, if you're a consultant, try and highlight areas where you can increase efficiencies and profitability, and reduce costs.

That would be a great ROI for your clients, and selling point for your services.

Guard your Job during Recession

Recession or economic slowdown is the time when organizations get a lot more strict with low performance/no-performance. Here are some ways you can stop yourself from getting axed during this recession.

1. Contribute more than what is expected of you. Usually, what you are doing would be an input into someone else's job. Try to learn what is done by them. Then add that, so that helps in the other person save some time and also be more productive. If you can do a part of your boss' work that would be even better. 
2. However if you follow 1 for your boss, ensure that your boss gets the credit - and don't undermine his/her authority or make him/her feel insecure.
   
3. Whatever your role is, do something that helps the organization to build business. So even if you are an internal IT person in a company selling Medical Insurance - can you get contacts from Hospitals that would make the business stronger?
4. If you can't do 3 then you need to know people who can do that for your firm. Keep working that rolodex and get your organization access to people. 
5. What if you don't know such a large diverse group of people? Build your network.
6. If you can't do the above but are good in written communication - and your company does not have an online presence maybe you can talk to the marketing and Corporate Communications folks to start your firm's social media initiative. Don't expect to get paid for it additionally. However, if that happens look at it as a bonus!
7. If none of the above then try to be as creative in your current role - being an innovator and getting more out of less is a great skill in an employee whether it is in recession or during boom times.
8. Keep learning, honing and developing your skills. If your organization trains you, great - else take the self study route.
9. Remember the 5 skills for Career Success. Don't mess up on that front too!
   

Hope you ride the recession rather than it running you over!

Pay Increments in 2009

I get quoted in the latest issue of Outlook Money on the same subject. The article is by Anagh Pal:

"With reduced budgets, companies can do two things—spread it across the board, or use a disproportionate amount for those they want to retain," says Gautam Ghosh, consultant, Vyaktitva, a performance support consultancy.
Most organisations may go for the latter, but, interestingly, performance-based increments will be spread across levels and may favour juniors.

Finding time to give performance feedback

One of the most mentioned excuses when I am delivering a program on performance or competency assessement - and say that a manager should be meeting all their employees frequently (at least on a monthly basis) to give feedback on their performance - is that "all employees? Monthly? We don't have the time to do that!"

If that is what you say too - then you're doing your employees -and yourself- a disservice.

As a manager the most important part of the role is leading people. Take a look at this CCL research on leadership, for example[pdf file] that shows that the most important skill for leadership is people related.

If that is the case - and reflect on the best managers you have worked with - people management and feedback sessions are not just nice to do, but critical

They need to be given as much priority as budgeting meetings or strategic planning meetings.

The sad part is that while people pay lip service to this - they willingly compromise on the time and effort people management takes.

It shows that while in words it is said, when it comes to deeds people don't really believe it.

No wonder that most people don't trust their managers - and this distrustful behavior gives rise to a vicious spiral - which shows no signs of being broken.

Or as a colleague used to say to me - "Not finding time to do something is an euphemism for saying - I don't think it's worth jacks**t to do that"

Ironic

Prof. Krishna Palepu of Harvard Business School who was in the news recently (and might be again) specializes in a very relevant area of business studies.

From his faculty page from HBS, emphasis added by me:

In the area of corporate governance, Professor Palepu's work focuses on how to make corporate boards more effective, and on improving corporate disclosure. Professor Palepu teaches these topics in several HBS executive education programs aimed at members of corporate boards: "Making Corporate Boards More Effective," "Audit Committees in a New Era of Governance," and "Compensation Committees: New Challenges, New Solutions."  He also co-led Harvard Business School's Corporate Governance, Leadership, and Values initiative, launched in response to the recent wave of corporate scandals and governance failures.

Meh.

Knowledge Work Equals Lower Satisfaction?

Thought provoking article in the Mint by Jared Sandberg.

We've all thought that the ability to create ideas and knowledge work is the ultimate form of work, but this article questions whether that ability truly gives us satisfaction. I personally think it can't be generalised to all kinds of people. There are some people who might get more satisfaction with intangible outputs.

“Not only is work harder to measure, but it’s also harder to define success,” says Homa Bahrami, a senior lecturer in organizational behaviour and industrial relations at University of California Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. “The work is intangible or invisible, and a lot of work gets done in teams so it’s difficult to pinpoint individual productivity.”

She says information-age employees measure their accomplishment in net worth, company reputation, networks of relationships, and the products and services they’re associated with— elements that are more perceived and subjective than that field of corn, which either is or isn’t ploughed.

Companies should create meaningful short-term goals. Instead, “managers create all sorts of surrogate metrics that they can measure, like PowerPoint slide counts and progress charts,” says consultant Tim Horan. “The person doing the landscaping has a better sense of accomplishment.”

Jon Williams once worked in an auto-claims department where the number of new-claim calls, which could take half an hour, were tallied with the same weight as brief reminder calls to customers. Even so, his greatest sense of achievement was transforming an initially angry and frustrated customer into someone who was satisfied and even laughing. “That wasn’t measured at all,” he says.

The difficulty of putting your finger on what you’ve accomplished gives employees pangs. James Ault recently visited a municipal park where he worked in maintenance while in college. He saw the same signs he painted, the same electrical job he wired, and the same trees he planted 35 years ago. Now, he works on state energy policy, where he spends countless hours debating policy issues.

“I’ve said to my wife on multiple occasions, ‘It would be nice to be an electrician’,” he says. “You can take pride in what you’ve accomplished.”

At closing time, work doesn’t seem completed, just temporarily abandoned. 

How can we make knowledge work more meaningful ?

My personal take is that once employees get to see how their actions will have an impact deriving satisfaction would be better. However, that becomes tougher to do as employees get farther and farther from the end product. Or in functions that are 'support' to the final production process. Like HR.

The other idea is to build a component of creating something tangible in every role. When we design a leanring program we build it so that different people can learn according to their preferred learning styles.
Can we build a way so that people can get the satisfaction according to what satisfies them? Something on the lines of Job Sculpting or building in Career Anchors in each role/career ladders?

How about Alternate Career Paths? Or not?

Saytam Scandal: A lesson in doing one's role

I was on the road today meeting probable clients and talking on the phone with colleagues and friends, when I was browsing the net on my mobile.

Was stunned to read that Satyam Chairman Ramalinga Raju had resigned following his admission of massive accounting fraud over the years.

Satyam was the place I joined after my MBA from 1999 to 2002 , and I have really fond memories of the people I worked along with in their training group. However over the last fortnight the organization has been going through a massive crisis of investor confidence and the confessions of the ex-CEO has effective pulled the curtains on the organization's status as one of India's top 5 IT outsourcing firms.

As people are discovering - it is not merely the fact that firms have directors (who are seen as independent) and external auditors (in this case, PricewaterhouseCoopers) but that they really live up to their roles.

I am no expert in corporate governance, but honestly how can you brush such a massive corporate fraud under the carpet and have supposedly "independent" parties assess and advise you?

And how come there were no whistleblowers from within Satyam's Internal Audit and Finance team? A conspiracy of silence?

Something stinks - and Satyam (which means truth) has been lying about it a long time now.

News: $1 billion of our cash doesn't exist
Huge Blow to Indian Tech
Satyam fraud may catch Maytas cos. in its vortex

From the blogs
Voices from Twitter

2009's first Carnival of HR!

Namaste and welcome to the new year's first Carnival of HR!

We've had some great entries for the Carnival, which proves that bloggers might go easy on blogging during the vacations, but the quality of their posts stays the same :-)

Without further ado let's jump straight to the thought provoking posts that talent bloggers from across the world have been posting about :-)

• Mark at Inlexion Point has some predictions for HR for 2009, drawing on the Chinese zodic sign of the Ox!
• Wally Bock at the Three Star Leadership blog focuses on a topical issue - drawing attention to the layoff survivors - and what organizations and HR groups should do to help them.
• Picking up the thread Rick at Flip Chart Fairy Tales (love that name!) asks if HR professionals are ready for the recession.While Rick's data looks at the UK - the lessons are relevant for all HR professionals in economies (like India and US) where we focused on 'development and recruitment' thanks to the earlier 'war for talent'.
• Moving on to Leadership, Nina wonders whether some leaders have leadership pheromones. What do you think? I think those pheromones reside in the behaviors that leaders exhibit and I guess Nina means that too :)
• Chris Young at the Maximize Possibility Blog reminds leaders that succession planning is a fiduciary responsibility. Whether it is Apple's Steve Jobs, or the top leaders of Unilever India caught in the terrorist attack in Mumbai, succession planning as Chris mentions is their responsibility to the shareholders.
• Dan McCarthy at the Great Leadership blog looks back at Best Leadership and Management Development books of 2008. Great list there, and reminds us that we should all take time out to read everyday!
• Continuing with the Leadership theme Denise at Team Doc shares how to fix problems on the leadership team.
  
• Anna at the Engaging Brand reminds us that creating new ideas should be what we do everyday.
• On the other hand, HR Minion would rather call them Goals than Resolutions because it adds structure, are attainable and have steps to achieve them. 
  
• Paul Hebert from the Fistful of Talent blog reminds us that to build organizational culture it's important to sweat the small stuff.
• Alice at the Taleo Blog reminds us that talent pools are no longer be constrained geographically, so is your firm ready to look at hiring people at a global level?
• Amit Avasthi at HR Bytes looks at Talent Management across a group of companies (a conglomerate) and the issues of different HR processes, systems that might impede standardisation.
• Ann Bares at Compensation Force recommends Variable Pay as the best way to build partnership between the organization and its employees, if it is done right. And she has the answer how it can be done right!
• And continuing with the compensation theme Abhishek Mittal has ideas for a benefits market within an organization. Interesting!
  
• And Jon Ingham points us to Strategy guru Gary Hamel's thinking on Management 2.0 and implications for HR folks.
•  Rowan from Fortify Your Oasis reminds us that 2009 would not be such an easy year, if you are job hunting (or even hunkering down and working) and I guess we should fortify our own selves and brace towards it :-)
• However Susan Heathfield of About HR reminds us that in turmoil lies opportunity and that we should continue to focus on the important things.
  

How's that to start off some food for thought to start the new year with?
Have a great 2009 people!

Overweight? Air India does not need you

Air India fires "overweight" air hostesses and specifies it's due to safety reasons, reports BBC:

A spokesman for Air India told the BBC that the hostesses were sacked after they were declared "medically unfit" to fly.
"They haven't been flying for two to three years for being exceptionally overweight," spokesman Jitendra Bhargava said.
He said that the women were between 11kg and 32kg overweight and that "all efforts to get them to reduce weight had failed".
Air India said safety was a "prime function" and that "being grossly overweight does have a bearing on reflexes and can impair agility required to perform the emergency functions".
A hostess with Air India, Sheela Joshi, who is not one of the nine dismissed, said those colleagues had received termination letters in the past three to four days.
"They were told there are no vacancies in ground jobs and since you are unable to lose weight, you have been terminated from service," Mrs Joshi told the BBC.
Arvind Sharma, a lawyer for the air hostesses, said he would try to get the dismissals revoked as part of the ongoing appeal in the Supreme Court.

I can't believe that a government carrier is doing this - bet this won't last and the government will have to reinstate them.

Using Twitter to find a Job

Did I tell you that I am a Twitter addict? For those who don't know what in the world is twitter - here's a small description from wikipedia -

Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users' updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length.
Updates are displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends (delivery to everyone being the default). Users can receive updates via the Twitter website, SMS, RSS, or email, or through an application

The Wall Street Journal talks about how twitter is now becoming a source for people to find a job:

Looking for a new job, Alexa Scordato didn't email or call her contacts about possible openings. Instead, she messaged them via the social-networking Web site Twitter.com.
Her brief message: "Hey there! Looking for a Social Media job up in Boston. Are you guys doing any entry level hires?"
Within a week, she had an interview. Within two weeks, she had a job.
The site, which lets users publish supershort updates of what they're doing, is a virtual meeting ground where a range of communities -- from moms to media professionals -- come to converse informally.
It's been criticized as a site for sharing mundane details about everyday activities. But people like 22-year-old Ms. Scordato, who used Twitter to privately message some people she'd met at a conference, show the site can be more than that.
"I would guess that if I had just sent them a long email with my résumé, I might not have gotten a response as fast as I did," says Ms. Scordato, who was hired by Mzinga, a Boston-area company that helps businesses use social technology.

I've noticed there are a lot of recruiters on Twitter - and guess the most useful jobs would be for the people who hang about at twitter mostly - geeks and social media folks. But soon as Twitter gets more and more mainstream - can you ignore twitter - as a network for job hunting or recruiting?

Previous Posts referencing Twitter
Social Media and Organizations
ROI of Blogging and Twitter
Twittering and HR
Yahoo Layoffs and the Twittering Employee
Am on Twitter now

9 New Year Wishes for Managers and HR people for 2009

In 2009 may all of us:

1. Get to know what each of our employees aspires towards.
2. Have regular conversations with each of our customers and clients (use the phone, blogs, twitter or take them out for lunch!)
   
3. Be ready to make remarkable products and deliver exceptional service
4. Refuse to accept mediocrity 
5. Treat people with fairness.
6. Spend good time with family and friends and have a life outside work too
7. Learn a radically new skill (or two!)
8. Not let the economic downturn affect our sense of optimism 
9. Understand that success and happiness depend on you - not on what is given to you.
   

Be happy and content and thanks for sticking with me for so long!