Very very long time

since I have been here. Things have changed a lot all around. I am sure things would have been different for all of you too and wish them to be on your positive side.

There is a lot of buzz turning around of the financial turmoil. Economies are not shrinking anymore, if not expanding. Protectionist restriction threads by governments are loosening one-by-one. And the general sentiment says: look there, it’s bright sunshine.
Charmed??

As for a manager, team is just looking into their world right here, right now. With all their frustrations of last two years, asking them to hold back for that dawn to hit, is getting on to a little too much. There are questions, not easy to answer or may be no answer to some of them.

Managers are out and leaders come in here. Don’t ask me, look at wiki for the difference between the two. Teams are looking for  directions from their leaders. Someone who can cheer them up with a smile. I know they are not kids anymore but…..………. everybody needs mentoring. Industry is looking up to its leaders who can mentor teams to think positive, work positive, lead them out of the past frustrations and make them ready for the cycle that is looking upward.
Who can be that change, that leader to make this change happen. Are they different from us? No they are among us. The human breed has always come back when pushed to wall and it is no different this time either. I have seen a couple of them around me, working hard, upping the tempo in team and all that with a smile. Three cheers to them and to all of you ready to bounce back with a vengeance. 

Quality Vs. Existence

Continuing from the last discussion, what should the CEO do to break the circle?

Is it that easy a way out to contain the costs and compromise the quality. Specially in this world when consumers are used to specific standards. There is nothing left as being called the brand loyalty. None of today’s customer is going to stay with the product/ service if it goes down on quality, doesn’t matter how long it has been his favorite. So, quality is not the matter to discuss for containment. Cannot ever think of going down on quality. Where to look for the profits? Where to cut the corners and save margins? And today, the question is not big profits but survival. Need to give high quality product but market is shrinking, weak market sentiments are making the fight to survive bit tougher.

We are back to the question. What can Somerset CEO do to stop loss of its customers?

Suspend new sales. Contain the team even with the already lost customer, cut costs on overheads and not on quality impacting service assets. Deliver high to the customers with unique value and retain them. Somerset CEO does exactly the same and easily survived thru tough times to see the high glory by adding high value customers on its list.

If it is any indicator, we need to contain the team and continue providing quality output to existing customers thru the lean phase. it adds strength to the thought process.

Another real life story is hitting my thoughts at this time: 
A retail chain, facing the heat of times since last 8 months. Management tried hard to keep the chain going thru the phase but slowly they ran out of control and had to close down 40% of their store locations. Market scenarios reflected into the balance sheet and liabilities went above the level of justification. It was decided to put the business on block. Nobody was expecting a high valuation but a takeover bid was always expected. A sorry state: nobody turned to buy or invest into the ailing chain that was supposed to be a piece of cake not too long ago. With a big heart, decision was made to liquidate the assets. The better option: put the current stock on liquidation sale.

And buyers were back on the stores, picking up the stuff, fully utilizing the liquidation prices. Do you know: the chain survived to continue the existing stores.

They are not going to open any new store for now or not making any new investments, employees agreed to support the management with no hikes, ready to give extra hours. And guess what, the chain is out of red with its limited resources, limited assets and contained liabilities. 

Team management in recession

It is been 2 weeks since we last interacted. It was quite busy weeks but it was not straight away the project delivery work that kept me occupied all thru. The team management – more of people management is the flavor of this month.

Problem: The same – recession and project delays. A couple of projects are put on hold. Team is on bench. Nobody is feeling secure in terms of job and senior management is not divulging on future plans. Though nobody is given that famous pink slips, rumors are buzzing around.

And to add woes (at-least for me), in these times couple of best performers got a new job offer and submitted resignation. Easy way out – let them go, reduce team size (cost cutting). Should I?

I went thru a study about an organization (say Somerset):

Somerset, during last recession period, lost one of its key customers due to payment upholding. As soon as the word spread, CEO asked for customer replacement and/ or cost cutting. As during that period, attaining a new customer was a little tough, things moved to Plan B – some pink slips issued & costs contained to make up for the lost customer. BUT, it resulted in loss of quality of the output and the major impact, Somerset, in next 3 weeks lost 2 more customers on poor quality reasons. CEO turned back to say the same – customer replacement/ cost cutting.

It is the vicious circle. What one can do to break it? Think over it and we will continue discussion…..

Recession & a Manager’s Self-confidence

Thinking about the series of events happened in 2008 that lead to the current state of turmoil all across the economy. Banks went down left, right and center. The other day, it was an estimated layoff of more than 71000 people across different sectors and across the globe in one day. The insecurity around, can make any manger loose his self-confidence, let alone his capability to lead and motivate his team. Even if one is doing it  very successfully since his first breath in this world.

It is being written and discussed a lot by many management gurus that a manager needs to have a leadership thing. A manager should be able to lead with his words and should transfer his energy into his team. A passion to lead and stand out of the herd with a capacity to make others follow. And one needs confidence in himself to make it all happen. BUT nobody told us how to cope with the situation running thru the days now. When managers themselves are insecure and economy is shattering their confidence day by day as if they are naive, as if last couple of decades have had nothing to do with their performance. Frustration, resignation, helplessness is running thru the blood.

What we, the managers really need to buck ourselves up. How can I motivate myself OR Why do I need to motivate myself?

Don’t read me more here to find any solutions. I am not that Guru who can give you all that gyyan. I don’t have any magic wand or some solution to this question right away.

In my view, the key is our thinking structure, how are we looking at the world around us and our reaction in the form of ideas and attitudes. These mental structures can either block us to move forward or act towards our goals. A familiar example is: a person sees a glass half empty, another sees as half full. Different perspectives……

Recession is a state of a perfect business model where the wheel has started moving down south from its top. Running thru it is as essential as going upwards from the bottom. We need to first understand our own confidence state during this phase without actually worrying “HOW” and “WHY”.

Are you motivated enough to lead your pack through these tough times. Waiting for your responses…..

Management and Corporate Governance

We are celebrating Republic day of India today and corporate India is agog with one name: Satyam.

We were last discussing about business ethics and ended on the hot-point of dinner table discussions today. The impact seems higher on the public thoughts. Every media entity is trying to churn out its own version of events and every person  has its own point to prove how it can impact to Indian business entities now.

The question that is striking me for last few days is: How it moved along for so many years. Years of that big growth where the world was leading to new heights, heights that were making every balance sheet a smiling face. And what is corporate governance. And where were all these things when all this was happening at Satyam.

Corporate governance, as we all know, is a just a set of policies that sets the order for administration of a corporate, decides the processes that direct a business to progress. Was Satyam really out of it. No……………. Yes…………………. No…………………… Can’t say…. Corporate governance exists to ensure the accountability of certain individuals in an organization. BUT, does not enforces itself upon anybody.

It is one’s inner-self that directs and rules a person to follow or not to follow any such accountability. The rat race and greed being inherent to human nature, one tends to go away from the words like ethics. It is the power of being at the highest order and rule others is deep rooted into the mindset of every thinking human. Is it that easy to go away from them.

Put yourself in the position of a corporate honcho, feel the pressures of delivering profits year after year, display even bigger numbers in your balance sheet every year, the race to lead the charts all the way and see the name of organization there on top…. All  those ethics and governance MAY take a backseat.

I do not confirm that all the business houses would go away with it but one way or the other these pressures could impact.

Back to the hotplate: Is Satyam really that big a name to tarnish the image of Indian business.

Any individual or one entity can never represent the whole world; community or the group of people. This world has been thru many disasters earlier also. It would surely move thru it; off course a few hiccups may hit upon. What you say……..

Ethics & Management

It has always been a dilemma for a budding manager to decide whether he is ethically right in performing his duties. What one should do... look at ethics or P & L A/c.

There is no proof that non-ethical managers are more successful. Still at times, one has to decide if one's personal values & morals can be sacrificed for organizational goals.
First, what is ETHICS?

In straight words, it is learning what is right or wrong. And then doing the right thing.
But is it really so straight to know and do "The Right Thing"? I don't think so. It varies form person-to-person and situation-to-situation. One has to go through a lot before deciding ethical ways of life.

Next come Business Ethics…

Again in straight words, it is learning what is right or wrong at workplace AND then doing the right thing at workplace. We don't have any "Ethics Meter" to decide. What is ethical is completely dependent of one's personal morals and situations around him.
I am not deciding and closing the debate here. It cannot be...

A Pro-Business Ethics link is here for you to know more: http://www.managementhelp.org/ethics/ethxgde.htm

The next link contain comments by a senior industry leader onto the above write-up:
http://www.current.org/ethics/ethics0304dodgen.html

I believe It can't be taught what is ethical and weather to be ethical or not.
What you believe? Send comments.

I understand what is running thru your mind. Just mention business ethics and the world will run across one name: Satyam……

Give a thought and will discuss further.

Management...

What is Management?
Seems easy. Is it really that easy to answer this question?

• It is science.
• It is art.
• It is profession.
• It is a group of people who manage.

Or Simply put, management is the controlling power that handles available resources and guide them to achieve a pre-defined goal.
And Managers: everyone. B'coz everyone manages all his available resources to achieve goals of his life. So one way or the other everyone manages.
So what is the difference? Hmm...Usually, if we do whatever we did earlier, we don't achieve what we achieved earlier. We need a to add a dash of doing same thing differently. And that 'DIFFERENTLY' is what managers do.