Author: Sanjeev Roy

takecharge.pdftakecharge.pdf

The Survey
I intend to run a survey at various times through this year to get a sense of how business and HR heads are viewing their business.  The results of the first survey are in and point clearly towards the biggest task of leadership this year.
First a quick look at the key findings:
1.    Over 60% expect to grow between 10-15% this year. This is in comparison to 30-35% growth of last year.
2.    80% of respondents’ faith in their revenue estimation does not extend beyond a quarter.
3.    Managing uncertainty was the biggest challenge for management as seen by 87%.
4.    90% of the respondents believed that the leadership was not yet ready to face the new set of challenges.
This is not happening
Every morning’s paper is bringing in more depressing news of shrinking top lines, evaporating bottom lines and fewer shoppers. At the same time we also read about higher sales of cars, big ‘sales’, lower interest rates..

Key Issue for Leadership

How do you run a business successfully when the environment is not growth friendly?

It is by now a truism that you have to move from a panic ridden or otherwise ‘reactive’ state to one that is more positive and a ‘take charge’ attitude. This is primarily a mindset issue. And it is a mindset issue of the leadership team. Being in a ‘Take Charge’ frame of mind helps in objectively looking at business goals, look for opportunities to eliminate waste, add revenue, change beliefs and mindsets within the organisations and so on.

There are mountains of information and acquired knowledge available on the subject at a click of the mouse – what is not so readily available is the means of getting people to actually believe and start implementing some of the ‘best practices’.

We have designed a programme for exactly this purpose.

Whats more, putting our money where our mouth is, BullzI’s results promise is backed by an offer of not accepting any fees if the client does not get the promised value from the progamme. This is putting into practice the principle of ‘value’ that we believe is even more critical in these times.

Do read the document ‘takecharge.pdf’ and give us your feedback.

As always we are keen to hear your point of view to improve the offering and even more keen to start a discussion for your organisation.

My 8-yr-old son is the Champion of CP – Class Participation. This is marked by a strong desire to have a say in every topic that is discussed and ask lots of questions. He practices regularly at home and especially with his father. You are beginning to get the picture? He has a question for everything and sometimes an opinion on the answers as well. Being a politically correct and modern father, I patiently give him answers to the best of my ability. Sometimes, however he asks THE QUESTION. This is defined as a question that is so penetrating and insightful in its enquiry that it reveals an essential truth. Want to talk to you about one such “THE QUESTION”.

We were climbing up from Chandigarh to a place called Thanedar, which is at an altitude of about 8000ft. As is the nature of travel in mountains, you climb up and come down and climb up again, all the time going higher and higher as you cross various levels of the undulating terrain. CP Champion wanted to know why we were going down when we had to go up and wouldn’t it be just better to simply go up all the time to reach where we wanted to?

Hmmm…what do you think? ‘Is it nobler in the mind to suffer the jolts and bumps of an up and down road or simply take the shortest flight to everywhere?’ If you were travelling to high altitudes you need to acclimatize and the best way is to get there slowly. So, the higher you wish to go, the better it is for you to pace yourself and not fly in straight. It is also good to pause in your journey, drink a little water, grab a snack, enjoy the view, and breathe deeply. Gives you perspective.

I can’t help thinking that 2008 has been a year just like that. We have crossed the high mountain passes of the 20k+sensex, 9% GDP, 30% salary increases, 100% escalation in property value and are now descending fast into a valley. Grab this little respite from the climb and delight in what the valley has to offer. Of course it is a time to introspect and build our strengths anew on flat, level ground. A time to relish the fruits that grow here – the lower interest rates, cheaper products, great buy possibilities in the share market, all of that.

And let us keep the faith. For as we cross this valley, our time well spent, we will be climbing again, higher and higher…have a wonderful Christmas and a great 2009. I am planning to do the same.

“Rejoice rejoice

You have no choice

But to carry on

Carry on

Love is coming

Love is coming to us all” – CSNY

I woke up late, really late this Sunday after a party we had at home. It went on late, lots of laughter, music and next morning the house was still reverberating with the positive energy of the previous evening. As I groggily lifted the paper I was pleasantly hit with some good news – the Indian navy had freed a ship captured by pirates and 23 of the brigands were in custody. Felt good, real good.

Have you noticed the flood of good news and happy tidings that have been flowing in for the last few days?

I went to the fuel station and said ‘full tank’ with glee. Have you looked at the price of air tickets? Can’t be sure but they seem to be cheaper. My wife and me have this dream of buying a small house on the beach. Friend has been calling from Goa for the last couple of months saying, “buy NOW, it is cheaper” and I have been hedging. Another EMI at these high interest rates in these times of uncertain earnings? As of yesterday I believe it may just be possible, interest rates have taken a steep southward journey for small loans. Every day I am getting these fabulous discount SMSes from Dominoes and the morning paper came with a flyer that had unbelievable holiday options at incredible prices!

On other fronts, politics seems to have acquired a temporary veneer of sobriety, there was a ‘unanimous’ decision taken by our Lok Sabha, Kasab is singing like a canary and even the stock market is looking up!

The biggest casualty of the last few months has been our BELIEF in a better tomorrow and our CONFIDENCE in making it happen. Suddenly things went out of our hands.  And we began doubting everything about our success story, our ‘fundamentals’, our systems and our own individual abilities to make a better tomorrow. We have become over cautious, risk averse, insecure hoarders. Those of us in jobs don’t know if we will keep them and if so for how long. No increments seem to be the general expectation and so we all hold back, save.

Unfortunately this is just the way the downward spiral starts and then we will have a real recession on our hands. So is there something we can do as individuals?

Yes, yes yes. Look around you. Big wheels have already been set in motion by the big wheels in government to make life better for all of us. That is what all the good news is about. So even if you don’t get an increment, you can still do all that you were doing because everything is beginning to get a lot cheaper. Why don’t you look to buy a car now – they have never been cheaper? Take that holiday Don’t worry, no one will take your job. Plan it properly.

Throw a party. Call all your friends and have a blast. If you find the cost of alcohol steep, make it a BYOB. No one will mind. It will just make it possible for everyone else to loosen up when it is their turn.

To keep those big wheels turning it needs the power of our little wheels to spin faster and faster. Let’s not lose the faith so soon. There are lots of opportunities waiting around every corner. Let’s believe in a better tomorrow, this passing cloud was just there to remind us of what a fortunate time we are living in.

There is a bunch of chaps who have grown up in these times, who BELIEVE. They picked themselves up when they got beaten in the first round and mercilessly, ruthlessly annihilated great opponents – am talking about our cricket team. Did you hear Sehwag speak? He knew, he always believed and we won! Yet again!

I am sure tomorrow is going to be even better than today, just look for signs in the right place and make some of the good news yourself.

With over 20 years of experience in the services sector spanning Hospitality, Aviation and Business Process Outsourcing, Ajit Menon is currently the President for Organizational Development of the Mudra Group.

He is responsible for the growth and development of the Group’s talent. With a current strength of about 3000 people, the task by itself is not easy.

Mudra recently won the prestigious award for ‘Continuous Innovation in HR strategy at work’ at the World HRD Congress.

Ajit is a Bachelor in Physics from Calicut University and a Masters in Business Management from Washington University.

He loves to play guitar, watch spy movies and is a world history buff. Based in Mumbai, Ajit lives with his wife Geetha and daughter Anushka.

What made you give up a ‘C’ suite position in the BPO industry and move to advertising?
I started my career in aviation because my parents wanted me to do engineering, I did my hotel management and my M B A and worked in 5 star super deluxe hotels because I wanted to be with people and work for them, I got carried away with the money, fame and power and climbed up the corporate ladder as Sr. VP, COO etc of BPO companies. When I finally sat down and did some introspection I realized that I was doing all these for others or other reasons and not for myself. Deep down I wanted to make a difference in people’s lives and I knew I can achieve it only by being in an industry which has the reputation of “zero” HR and people practices and build it from there.

You are Head of HR but your designation says President – OD can you explain what is the difference?
HR (human resources or in human resources) to me was always a laid back support department which documented the MD’s policies, recruited people as per instructions, gossiped during those long break fast, lunch, tea breaks with other support departments, did a 9-6 job and went home.

Mudra has a people department called LLC- Leadership,Learning and Change. We are not a support department. We are strategic partners to the business head and are equally responsible for the business success or failure. Our salaries depend on the success of the organization. Just as how a business head is responsible for delivering top line for his company, we are responsible for delivering the bottom line with him/her by ensuring that we have the right human capital for the job in right numbers with the right leadership, knowledge and business acumen. In short the business head invests money for the business and we invest people.

How have you interpreted your role in Mudra? Can you talk to us about some of the key initiatives that the LLC Group has taken?
My role is to partner the MD. I sit on the Mudra board and am also the director on board five other companies affiliated to Mudra . I assist the MD in meeting the vision of the organization by driving the people to deliver on the company mission. This covers a huge span of work and is not just limited to HR hygiene (which is 0.5% of the LLC work).

The key initiatives are.

• To make all (people related) routine hygiene jobs automated through Technology. In short, employees do not have to approach LLC for salary issues, leave issues, PF, Gratuity, Superannuation issues, reimbursement issues, transport issues, confirmations, joining formalities, bank issues, income tax issues, growth chart issues etc. All these are automated and available on the employees desk tops. With a click of the button all their queries are attended to either immediately or latest within 24 hours.
• LLC concentrates purely on business planning and strategy with the unit head. They plan the breed of people needed for specific jobs with the unit head, source them internally or externally, train them and deliver them as high productive resources.
• LLC ensures that the business wage cost % ages do not rise beyond prescribed bench marks (bench marks are decided by LLC and unit head based on profitability).
• LLC will help the unit deliver through its people by creating leadership and training them to thrive in change.

The common belief is that HR has never really succeeded in advertising and that it is only about recruitments and pushing paper. Your comments.
It is this belief that has led HR to remain an underdog all these years. I refused to accept this belief and we are living our dream right now. We got awarded the best in “continuous innovation in HR strategy” by the world HRD Congress last year. Now people are waking up to the reality that if not for people and a people department they would not be in business in the first place. This recession will make everyone run to the HR heads for solutions.

Pratap Bose was the CEO of Ogilvy. How has his recruitment fitted into the overall scheme of Mudra’s strategy?
The Mudra vision is to be the best “media plural communications group” in the country and our mission is to “give creative solutions to our clients – be it internal or external”. This requires complete integration of all services within Mudra , be it main line or specialized services like digital, DM, media etc. As this was the overall plan, the LLC strategy was to have a specific breed of people at the senior level who would make drive the mission. Hence we identified a couple of Eds from within and also acquired a few seniors from outside to complete the loop. Now that the talent acquisition strategy is done with, the strategy to integrate operations is well on its way.

The market is abuzz with talk about fantastic increments and how Mudra paid the lost incentives to the group that joined from Ogilvy. At a time when businesses are looking at cutting costs can you explain why you have gone in the opposite direction?
Mudra does not have the term “cost cutting” in its vocabulary. Since Mudra is not planning for “one year at a time”, but for a minimum of five years at any given point of time, our business approach does not demand knee jerk reactions like cutting costs in situations like the present market conditions. Our aim is to acquire good talent at affordable costs, groom them and retain them. If our performing employees are not happy personally, then it affects their delivery. We ensure (whether they are from within or if we are acquiring) that all employees have a good personal life so that they concentrate on their work when they are at work. Bad times are not permanent- just like good times. Our job is to ensure that our performers do not get affect with the market upheavals.

This is the time to remove excess flab & additional bench strengths, encourage people to go on study leaves where in they know that when they come back they have a secure job. Basically improving the effectiveness of delivery.

Mudra has some internal captions

1. Do not cut costs – Control them
2. Do not be just efficient – Be effective.
3. Practice makes permanent.
4. Work life balance is a must – Work first to build your life.

Like everyone else in our country I have gone through the process of fear, anxiety, sadness, frustration and rage. I wanted to throttle all those glib talking politicians. The urge to give our PM a good hard shake to get him to stop mouthing clichés was very strong I wanted to hear something different and new from someone in our political leadership.

Now that I am out of the rage phase and in a calmer contemplative mood, I am beginning to see the Mumbai failure as endemic of all that is wrong about us as a nation.  It is not just about our inability to face terrorist attacks – it is our inability to function properly as a nation.  When we sit down to discuss what needs to be done, we find that we have to address fundamental issues.

I am therefore beginning to see this as an opportunity really. If we can seize the moment and drive big changes, we will be able to tackle most of our other problems as well.

Nothing Short of an Overhaul will do

The list of things being spoken about that need to change is enormous.  Here is a selected list gleaned from hours of TV, reams of print and years of living through it all.

1. At one level it is about centre state relationships and the law -the creation of the Indian FBI has been held up by BJP states in India. The irony is that it was the BJP led NDA that had first proposed the idea and now that they are in opposition at the centre they see it as a turf war. By the way, it would probably have been the same if the roles had been switched.
2. Evolving a national consensus on these issues and project one united face. Hmmm…we are already seeing signs that the current leaders of all political parties are completely incapable of even understanding what this means. We have seen the ads and posters appearing looking to make political gain. The leader of the opposition did not have the time to attend the all-party meet that was called.
3. The police force reforms, autonomy from political interference…sounds like so much idealistic bullcrap because of our 60 years of experience.
4. Expecting the media to do its job properly. Put out well-researched and meaningful pieces on the reality of this challenge and not look to push their own anchor’s point of view or talk irresponsibly.  When you have a mix of only young untrained largely ‘shortcut’ driven journalists and a few experienced almost megalomaniac bunch what do you expect?
5. Behave differently – not jump queues, be patient, be vigilant, not take shortcuts.
6. Introduce more accountability and transparency in governance. Ya ya (yawn!). Haven’t we heard this before?

The point is, there is a huge programme of CHANGE required for us to effectively stand up as a nation that can take this and any other blow on the chin and hit back so hard that no one dares throw another punch at us. Such a massive programme requires a leader/leaders who will envision and drive this change.

The Legacy Effect

The first thing we have to sadly accept is that it cannot be one of the usual suspects. Even if they are well meaning, none of them are truly capable of fighting off the LEGACY effect.

This is the effect that conditions our beliefs and actions in such a way that we are capable of acting and behaving in only one particular paradigm. Here are some examples:

• L.K.Advani is a product of the partition and decades of raising his hand in a Hitler salute dressed in khaki knickers.  Even when he wants to break away from this legacy (remember the Jinnah comments?), he cannot. Can you visualize him as a unifier, representing a view of plurality? How can one expect him to be a harbinger of change?
• Sonia Gandhi, by virtue of belonging to ‘The Family’ has no option but to believe that her children are the ones destined to be the leaders. Serious competitors will somehow never make their way to the top in that party. Change in that system will be a matter of luck, if one of the anointed ones turns out to be a truly great leader with vision.
• The Left is…well the left. All their attempts at taking a right turn have resulted in creating a new left.  Mamata is the new land reformer and voice of the proletariat. The Left have, since then, quickly backtracked.
• The IAS mandarin has always wanted as little change as possible. His is the world of the status quo, by the design of the systems in which he operates.
• We, the ordinary citizens of India are looking to get a little ‘lift’ out of turn, to push ahead in the queue.  That is the only way we know of getting ahead in this country of a billion pushing heaving souls. No one wants to follow the law, except the village idiot.

Guess you have got the point by now.

Is Change on this scale possible?

Within our system and within the pool that we have it is a definite possibility. There are a few examples for us to look at and learn from:

• At a time when the world was only speaking the language of war and aggression, one man in a half dhoti led us to our freedom without throwing a single stone. He took what was an elitist and fragmented movement and brought in the common man as part of the strategy to make it happen. Talk about change!
• We lost our socialism and license raj through the late 80’s and 90’s. We are reading this on our desktops and laptops and our mobile phones because of that change!
• Outside of our country, the whole world changed when the Berlin Wall came down.
• China has affected what is one of the most profound changes that have significantly changed the lot of its countrymen and the dynamics of the world in the 21^st century.

The Change Programme

1. While we wait for the ‘Great Leader’ to emerge, we can make the best of what we have. It is not about high falutin ideals only but also clear actions on specific items. By using media we have to keep our current bunch honest, committed and accountable to this.Let the media decide, as a cartel, that they will not give any footage to any politician speaking the language of divisiveness and will also create forums for those with a change agenda.
2. The best we can hope for is that the current bunch will transition to a newer lot soon. We need to look at the younger lot within the larger parties to find the future leaders. Personally speaking, the only politician who came off looking and sounding good in the last few days was Milind Deora. He was there in the middle being useful and responsible. Also seemed to say the right things and looked believable. There must be others like him elsewhere too.
3. Create 2/3 programmes that will have the maximum change impact and put these young turks in charge. Give them responsibility and make them accountable. Programmes could be around – “homeland security”, “electoral reforms”, “speedier justice”.  Remember Sam Pitroda and the Missions? It worked. You have to look at your cell phone to realize that. The list can be different but the method is the point.
4. These need to be parliament empowered and time bound programmes with defined milestones and objectives.

Add to this list. Debate and tear it apart, please. Pass the thought along if you like it. The passing along of this and other thoughts, in the current environment is what is building up the pressure for the powers that be to recognize that Change is upon them and if they are not part of it, the garbage heap of anonymity is where they will be thrown into.

Some very interesting opinions below that you should read.
Talk is cheap, lives are not
Time to listen to people, Mr PM
We Cannot Handle This
Dear Mr. Terrorist,