On Management And the Consulting Myth?

Is Management Consultancy a Swindle? So claims an ex-consultant whose book "The Management Myth" is apparently a stinging indictment of MBAs, Management Gurus, B-Schools and Consultancies.

Check some of the thoughts and experiences here:

 Within a few months of the interview in New York, I was suited up and billed out at a rate of about a third of a million pounds per year (only a fraction of which landed in my pocket in those first years). I soon discovered that my lack of a proper business education was no disadvantage on the job, which turned out to be more interesting and enlightening than I expected. I would eventually leave the business in 1999 to work full-time as a writer, but during the previous decade, I would advise French businessmen on how to succeed in Germany; tell Americans what to do in Eastern Europe; show the Spanish how to become more like the Americans.

I eventually came to understand that it is possible to construct a Whale chart for just about any business anywhere. It makes no difference whether the business is inherently good or bad, well-managed or in the hands of chimpanzees.

In its best moments, management consulting is a recognition of the quantitative nature of our reality – of the fact, too easily overlooked by innumerate arts graduates, that a hard look at the numbers can explain much of the structure of the world around us.

Among human beings, it turns out, the perception of expertise, however unfounded, can sometimes be used to good purpose. As the shamans who poison chickens and the soothsayers who read entrails have long demonstrated, sometimes it is more important to build a consensus around a good decision than to make the best possible decision; sometimes it is more useful to believe that a decision is sanctioned by a higher authority than to acknowledge that it rests on mere conjecture; and sometimes it is better to make a truly random choice than to continue to follow the predictable inclinations of one's established prejudices. Consultants, following in the footsteps of their pagan forebears, understand that they must adopt the holy mien of a priestly caste. 

The most important of the all-too-human functions of shaman-consultants is to sanctify and communicate opinion. Like ministers of information, consultants condense the message, smooth out the dissonances, unify the rhetoric, and then repeat and amplify it ad nauseam through the client's rank and file.

When you put forward the fiction that management is an exercise in calculus, you tend to assume that integrity is a cost of doing business rather than its foundation. When you stipulate that management is the province of experts, you lose sight of the fact that organising fruitful co-operation among human beings is principally a matter of building trust. And you forget the most elemental truth of political philosophy, that in any system that does not have the features of transparency and accountability, no one trusts anyone. 

Seems like one of those books that are in the lines of Consulting Demons and Dangerous Company. And also Mintzberg's book Managers Not MBAs.

I personally agree that Management is a craft not a science. It is context dependent and unlike an MBBS/MD/CA/CFA does not involve "knowing stuff" and doing it.

Five things social media taught me about HR

I started my career in HR in 1999, and I started blogging in 2002 - so in my mind both of these are linked in some way.

In my career in moved from KM to e-learning, to Training to a HR Generalist stint and then to HR Consulting - and parallel to this I was discovering more and more tools as they got invented and went out of fashion - from Yahoo Groups to Ryze to Linkedin to Orkut to Facebook to Twitter.

Looking back at my career and social media journey over the last decade I thought I'd point down my thoughts on what social media taught me that an MBA in HR did not (or maybe I didn't pay attention to it)

1. People have a lot more in common than their differences. Social media gives amplification to the basic desire of human beings - to connect and to express. Some people like to express more and some like to connect more. Giving them tools and work that meet that need is the key.
2. Conversation is key, if you want to persuade someone - influence someone, you have to talk to them. Sometimes, conversing is hard, with the volume of connections we all have, hence the prioritisation and knowledge of whom you have to convince-is imperative.
3. Learning happens by doing and sharing - We all learn in different ways but the key to learning something in today's ever-changing world, is to "learn in practice". Learning Officers need to understand that simulations would be key to actual learning and not "classroom" or even "e-learning" in the way it exists today.
4. Keep connected to innovators and the Average Joe. Hanging out with social media types one can get lost between the excitement for the next shiny new thing. Not hang out with the experimenters and you might miss the next big trend. HR people have a similar dilemma, focus on the high performers or the average performers. They are as different as chalk and cheese. The answer is "both"
5. Give to receive. Social media is the epitome of the giving it away thinking. Giving away ideas, thoughts, links. Telling people "here's how that other guy/website/community can be useful for you" makes them come back to you and drives your influence up, ironically. It's time for managers and HR people to admit that sometimes they don't have all the answers, and to know who the experts are and send queries to them. That would build better trust.

What has social media taught you?

The shape of the Hyper-Linked Organization?

At 2020 Social one of the things we believe is that we are a our own petri-dish. We experiment with technology and processes to convert ourselves into the kind of organization we think is suitable to be called social.

So not only do we have a blog, a Facebook page, a twitter account, a twitter list showcasing all our tweets - we've also now started a wiki to focus on building a repository of social media successes in India - and will invite participation from like minded folks soon.

On the other side of the seriousness spectrum we have started a Fun page where we publicly talk on the lighter side of life at 2020 Social

Internally we are driving online collaboration using three tools, Google Apps for mail, document sharing and calendering - Socialtext for internal conversations and collaboration on a wiki - and Basecamp for project management.

As social media enthusiasts we have noticed that internally even we need to see a business/behavioral benefit to using a tool - and we understand that more traditional businesses would need to see it more.

One of the way to showcase this is look for external cases where ROI has been calculated - but we believe that using the tools showcases a greater commitment and a better story for any client.

What do you think?

If you're in the advisory business how many times do you apply your advice on yourself?

(Cross posted at the 2020 Social Blog)

For HR to survive HR has to be redundant

The Human Resources group within any organization is in a confusing situation often. With the exceptions of some organizations most other organizations demand a lot of accountability from their HR groups without giving them corresponding responsibility.

While organizations make statements about "people being their most important assets" the reality is that HR cannot control most of the decisions that cause people to leave organizations.

Yes I have blogged earlier that some of the skills Human Resources professionals need to build need to be around facilitation. I stick to that stand. I'll add to say that HR people need to work to actively give up control over what ever they do. Hand over that control to line manager.  Empower them. Technology makes it easy to help them recruit and train and compensate their employees. Applicant Tracking Systems, and external tools like Linkedin do a great job to find talent (whether contractor or employee)

Until managers do not do it without handholding by the Human Resources group - they would never appreciate what needs to be done.

As it is, most low end Administrative work as well as high end consulting work is outsourced to external providers.

HR people need to move away to build skill sets to coach and train business leaders. Apart from that there is really no need for them to do anything else.

Tiger Woods and the Halo Effect

Ever since I started following the Tiger Woods saga - I am amazed how much people suffer from the Halo Effect  (book review of the book by the same name here)

Flickr image courtesy  Melissa_Blonde

HR professionals and Hiring Managers are taught about the Halo Effect - a psychological shortcut that causes human beings to infer good things about a person based on a single area of achievement.

So Tiger Woods is an exceptional golfer - however we humans cannot really segregate performance into specific buckets which leads us to make the judgement based on his excellence around other aspects of his personality.

And then when the veneer of excellence around the other aspects of the person gets damaged - we are left with "flawed geniuses".

The only issue is that our assumptions of "perfect geniuses" is a myth - formed by the inability of our brains to understand that performance can be nuanced and that the famed CEO/ Manager/ Sportsman/ Celebrity may be great in what he/she does - but not in other aspects.

In the business world it gets played out a little differently, usually performance (because it is long term - and not easily attributable in certain professions) is attributed from how a person behaves with other people. And when data comes in - it clashes with the perception of the person and we end up demonising them - similar to how we are reacting to Tiger's shenanigans now.

P.S. On a different note - here's a great post by Antonio chronicling time line of how Accenture reacted to the story (after all its website featured Tiger - and it urged people to "Go on. Be a Tiger" in 2006) - and how it should have reacted more in real time to the social media backlash against Tiger.

75 Business Blogs in 2009

I agree I haven't lavished much attention on this blog (apart from getting a domain name) so ending the year by being listed in the 75 Best Business Blogs of 2009 by Businesspundit.com was a clear surprise.

And of course, being listed as one of 2 HR blogs - the other being the ever highly recommended Evil HR Lady - does feel good :-)

Do take a look at the list of the blogs - you'd never guess what all niches people blog in business from Financial Meltdown to Venture Capital to Baby Boomer to Economy issues, there's a blog for every audience.

There's another blog from India listed there - WATblog

Movie Review: Rocket Singh- Salesman of the Year

I know - I really don't do movie reviews on this blog (and this one doesn't count as one) but I do really want to point you guys to go see Rocket Singh - Salesman of the Year.

It has to be Hindi cinema's first movie that is all about corporate life and building a business.

The story itself is straightforward, HS Bedi (Ranbir Kapoor) scrapes through his BCom exams - and knows that entering the hallowed portals of high end B School is beyond his capabilities.

However he does have a talent for persuading people - so he lands up getting a job as a Sales Trainee with Computer parts seller AYS. AYS is owned and run by the corrupt Mr. Puri who does not hesistate to bribe Purchase Managers to sell his computers.

Poor Bedi blows the whistle about a client who demands a bribe - and is promptly banned from going to sell. His colleagues get their sales targets increased and hate him.

Hurt and angry, Bedi subverts the official way of doing business and launches his own stealth startup called "Rocket Sales Corp" recruiting the Receptionist, the Office Peon, The Service Engineer and finally the Sales Manager too.

The story never meanders from this path - and there are no typical Bollywood dances or songs - and even the love interest is dispensed early with.

And there are tonnes of career and work related quotes. For example, Mr Puri loves quoting "हर बन्दे में एक ऊपर जाने की quality होती है और एक नीचे जाने की . फरक येही है की वोह कौनसी quality को बढ़ता है" (Everyone has a quality that takes him to the top and another that takes him to the bottom. Where you finally end up depends on which you utilise)

Finally Bedi has the last laugh - and shows that building a business using ethical practices is possible and their are clients who value it and cannot be bought - showcasing the way business is done in India is changing. As he tells Puri in the end "You concentrated on the numbers and didn't care about the relationships - however I learnt that if one focuses on the relationships the numbers will come"

I kid you not, at that point I wanted to get up and clap.

Yessir, this is a landmark film for Indian moviedom. It's going to be a cult film for the corporate crowd :-)

Some people told me that they felt the movie was a bit on the long side, and I agree that some tight editing would have made it even better.

P.S. On another note - I also love the social media integration of the movie- like on Facebook, Twitter and the Blog

P.P.S. Other people have pointed out that even Corporate was a movie based on corporate life. Yes that's true. But while Corporate was about larger than life issues, melodramatic and holier than thou - Rocket Singh is about a protagonist with whom the audience can empathise.

How can firms leverage social technologies for Recruiting

A presentation I put together

Leveraging the Social Web and Building Talent Communities

View more presentations from Gautam Ghosh.

Great HR happens when work is boring

The genesis of this thought was during the launch of Jessie Paul's book No Money Marketing at Delhi. I asked Jessie to talk a bit why Marketing professionals in FMCG companies were guaranteed a seat in the table whereas it might not be the case in other industries - like IT services.

Her response was in a nutshell - "When the goods become commoditised - the responsibility shifts from production to marketing to bring in revenue - and that is why in FMCG companies the marketer calls the shots"

Jessie also quoted Drucker's view that the only two functions of any consequence were Innovation (production) and Marketing.

This got me thinking.

As you probably know Jessie and I have had a few blog posts on HR and Marketing - so I see them as two sides of a coin. One facing externally (Marketing) and one facing internally (HR)

The more I thought about it the production/marketing analogy has an internal component - it is "what kind of work people do"/"what people feel about that work"

And this is my hypothesis - that the more work is commoditised - the more people look at it as "just a job" - the more the HR function needs to be active and is likely to be strategic in the organization.

In organizations where the quality of work is high (think design firms, consulting firms) HR is not strategic - in fact in high end firms like these HR is merely a glorified project allocator.

So the question people in organizations need to ask is - what is the quality of work we do and how do we feel about it?

If the answer is "Great" to both the questions, chances are HR is a glorified paper pusher in your organization. If not, then HR really needs to become more strategic - if it isn't !

Are Brands People too?

Manu posts (as usual) a very thought provoking post on whether brands have a Dunbar number. As he wonders:

if there was a Dunbar number for brands, dictated by the number of people  the brand can connect with- internally as well as externally? There are two things I read recently which added to the thought. One was the idea of the Intention Economy (via Surekha) which “grows around buyers” and is “about markets, not marketing”, and which is builts beyond transactions alone – conversations, reputation, authority, respect all of which are earned by the sellers and buyers.

I agree with Manu's thought here, but with some caveats :-)

The reality is that Dunbar's number is a cognitive feature of people. It shows me the limit of people I can have meaningful relationships with. These are relationships in the true sense of the world, not the "social media" sense of the world.

Even though brands (people on behalf) may engage with people on social networks, and built relationships - these are around the transactions of content, collaboration, conversations.

There is however one exceptional group for whom a brand can have high engagement levels and would be around Dunbar's number. These are the evangelists/advocates of a brand - who are at the pinnacle of the ladder of engagement wrt the brand.

In the Human Capital League

Bloggers are (most of the time) solo practitioners of an evolving form of expression.

However, being solo in a hyperlinked world has little meaning.

Ever since I started blogging - from 2003 - I have discovered bloggers in India and across the world to learn from. We've posted comments - graduated to emailing each other - to carrying on to connect on Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin.

Some of us have started HR micro-communities on Ning, and there are twitter lists too.

And then there are group blogs that aggregate the blog postings of various bloggers in the same area, like Human Capital League.

Here's a little more detail:

Human Capital League, a new online community for workplace management professionals and others interested in the best practices of training and development, employee benefits, recruiting, payroll and the many other people-related functions that keep the wheels of commerce turning smoothly.
If you blog about workplace issues we'd love to have you syndicate your stuff here and become one of our Featured Bloggers (like the nice folks whose posts you'll see below). It's an easy way to get extra readers and promote your expertise with no extra work. (The posting process is automatic once it's set up.) Send me a note if you want to know more or you can click on "Add your Blog" in the navigation bar and do it yourself.

Even if you're not a blogger, you should register and fill out the profile page. That'll allow you to leave comments without moderation, rate posts, promote your business and participate in all of the other community activities.

As some of you might know, I am part of the HRM Today blogging community too. Yeah, multiple memberships is cool!