Posts Tagged Ideas
The Bane of Sytems / Processes
I came across this picture in one of the forwarded messages in my inbox and it reminded me of situations employees find themselves in so often.
To me, this picture depicts situations where companies burden themselves and their employees with cumbersome processes / tools for simple tasks. Don’t all of us agree that many of the organizations we work with have a little too much of systems / processes and tools? 10 forms for joining the organization, 20 for leaving. And between those two, a multitude of unwieldy processes to follow, forms to fill and redundant tools to use. We could do a lot with simplification - minimalistic organization structure design, minimalistic processes etc. But, how to make this a reality?
Add comment November 12, 2008
Service Charge Built Into Your Restaurant Bill in Singapore - No More, Please!!
I have been in Singapore for close to three months now. It’s a nice place to live, work, eat and travel and that is enough to make me stay here. But, the thing that fascinates me the most about the place is the “design of incentives and disincentives.” Once you start noticing the minute details about how they have built the nation and systems, you feel amazed at the power of incentives. There is an incentive here for all the “right” behaviours and disincentives for all the “wrong” ones. Let me pick up some common examples. Singapore, for most parts of the 20th century, was a dirty country. To discourage littering, the government enacted heavy fines and followed it up with superb enforcement. Fines for littering can be as high as $5000 and repeat offenders might be sent for “behaviour - correction” activities like cleaning of public parks! I know it sounds like an overbearing idea, but it has worked for the country. And then, there is the much-admired Electronic Road Pricing system and taxes on automobiles, which disincentivizes people to own cars and drive downtown during peak hours. The pricing of parking lots, roads and cars themselves, coupled with a super efficient public transport system, incentivizes people to take public transport instead of driving around, adding to the congestion and polluting the environment. There could even be an incentive for taking early morning trains to town and easing off the peak hours. Every action or inaction has a price to it. Since it needs talented people for the economy, there are incentives to take up Permanent Residence in the country and enjoy several benefits. There are strong disincentives for smoking as it is a major cause of health problems and puts a burden on government spends. Heavy taxes make cigarettes quite expensive and there is no way you can legally get cigarettes from other countries without paying the hefty duties.
While I frantically look for such incentives, I have been disappointed with one particular system - the system of service charge or tipping at restaurants. Most eating places have the service charge of 10% included in the bill. Tipping is discouraged in most eateries and even prohibited at the airport and other places. Now, I eat out a lot and try many restaurants and whenever I fork out the dollars, I expect reasonable service. But, I find that missing in so many of these places. Having a fixed, pre-determined service charge could act as a disincentive for providing great customer service and lead to complacency or indifference in the minds of the men and women who work in these restaurants. They are effectively guaranteed the tip, irrespective of how they treat the customers! I simply fail to understand this in a place like Singapore, which goes all out to encourage the right behaviours.
Here is the link to a nice read (slightly dated) on this topic http://www.singaporeangle.com/2006/11/service-charges-replace-with-tipping.html
1 comment November 11, 2008
Managing Differently in Challenging Times
As everybody talks feverishly about the world economy slipping into a recession and people draw numerous parallels between previous depressions and the current situation, I thought about putting down 5 broad management principles that we can adopt and do things differently this time around:
- In most downturns, managers typically tend to narrow their focus on operational efficiency and cost-optimization alone. A better way to manage will be to be “ambi-dexterous” and maintain focus on both topline and bottomline.
- In most cases, downturns have trigerred the tendency to source talent from low-cost talent pools with a view to minimize costs and at the same time ensuring ‘adequate’ staffing. Instead, organizations should be looking at tapping diverse talent pools to build up a diverse work-force which ideates using different perspectives. This enriches the problem-solving processes with alternative thinking. Some cues can be found in the Creative Class.
- Most downturns are accompanied with a free-fall of the “axe” or downsizing. Instead, forward-looking leaders need to focus their existing people assets on most “high-yield” activities and maximize gains.
- Economic slowdowns tend to create a general environment of gloom and employee morale takes a big hit. It is critical to keep employees motivated and engaged during these trying times. And, who is better placed to drive engagement than the “people managers”. From “employee engagement” being a HR responsibility, leaders need to ask their managers to be accountable for employee engagement.
- Finally, like most situations in life, we tend to take a short term view in times of a slowdown. From a short-term focus on protecting margins and pleasing the stock markets as much as possible, leaders and managers need to take a long term view towards balanced and sustainable growth. We need to remember that equity, as an asset class, has a tendency to trend upwards. So, we just need to be doing the right things and in due time, value will be realized.
1 comment October 21, 2008
Maximizing Employee ROI
“There are probably as many stereotypes about today’s workforce as there are workers. Consider two of the most enduring: Employees are cubicle-bound clock-watchers, getting by doing the minimum possible. Or, at the other end of the spectrum, employees are ambitious “free agents,” loyal to themselves and their careers, but not to their employers.”
- Towers Perrin Global Workforce Study
I personally feel that employees, in general, should be very willing to go the extra mile, if they have got the right “deal”. Before falling prey to such stereotypes about employees being ‘clock-watchers’, it will be prudent to ask oneself if we have done enough to incentivize the right behviours - behaviours that maximize individual and group performance. HR and line managers need to work together to maximize “employee ROI”. Isn’t it intuitive? A typical employee spends almost 8-10 hours in office. She definitely wants to maximize her ‘returns’ from the time and effort she puts in. Employees are eager to invest more of themselves to help organizations succeed - and will do so if they see the personal ROI. Now, the key task cut out for HR executives and managers is to structure this “deal”.
The study has also identified critical drivers (at a global level) for attracting and retaining talent.
Top 5 Attraction Drivers:
- Competitive base pay
- Career advancement opportunities
- Challenging role
- Convenient work location
- Flexible schedule
Top 5 Retention Drivers:
- Company reputation
- Satisfaction with the organization’s ‘people’ decisions
- Relationship with supervisor
- Clear understanding of career path within the company
- Work-life balance
Of course, the drivers and components of the ‘deal’ will vary across cultures, industries and has to be seen in the light of market realities. But, such inputs can go a long way in optimizing the Employee Value Proposition using a scientific and realistic approach.
Do share your thoughts on maximizing employee ROI.
Add comment September 17, 2008
iPhone - Smart Enough?
Alright, I finally managed to buy myself (and my wife) the mighty phone - the iPhone. It was a long wait, but Singtel and my ABN AMRO credit card worked hard to get me the much-awaited phone.
Much has already been written about the capabilities & quirks of the phone - whether its the elegant multi-touch screen or the lag-free user interface or the average 3G performance or the restrictions imposed by the ‘closed’ operating system. I quite like the phone. But, given that I use mobile phones extensively for much more than making calls, I do feel that the iPhone needs to grow up - just a little bit:
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My basic expectation from a smartphone is ability to multi-task. For the uninitiated - simply put I must be able to listen to music, browse the web, view a spreadsheet and chat via IM at the same time. I loved my Nokia E series devices for this. Unfortunately, the iPhone just can’t do it! You can work on one application at a time.
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Secondly, to customize a phone so that one is able to ‘power-use’ it, there has to be a lot of applications available. Sure, we have the Apps Store from Apple, and some of the apps are great, but the I didn’t find the assortment complete.
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Again, a smartphone without VoIP capabilities is difficult to digest for me. Sadly, it is not possible to talk to people over Gtalk / Skype etc. at the moment. Hoping that Fring comes up with something soon.
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Finally, I still share the gripes of so many other iPhone owners about the usual things - no SMS forwarding, no Video recording (despite being Youtube capable), no Business Cards, average PIM capabilities etc.
Really hope that we get around some of these in the not-so-far future.
Update: I am quite unhappy with the battery performance even after the 2.0.2 update. I am just getting about 2 hours on 3g data connection and about 3 hours on EDGE. To put things into perspective, my nokia E51 could be on EDGE on push mail all day on a single charge!
1 comment September 1, 2008
The Managerial Rub-Off Effect
I have been musing about the “managerial rub-off effect” for a long time. Essentially, the hypothesis is that if you have a great manager, it would have a positive rub-off on you, and you would manage your team well in turn. What it means is sub-cultures get easily created within an organization by managers and there could be positive and negative aspects to it based on how managers manage. Here is a simple matrix to explain what I am talking about:
Optimized: Managers who have great bosses create high levels of engagement within their teams
Concern: Managers who do not have great bosses, in turn are not able to create high levels of engagement with their teams
Striving: Talented in terms of people management - these managers create highly engaged teams, despite not having great bosses.
Sub-optimal: Despite having a great boss, these managers are not able to pass on the “rub-off” effect to their teams. Possible talent issues, poor selection of teams, need for coaching?
In one of my drill-downs into employee data, I found that in almost 65-70% of the cases there is a direct linkage between how a manager is managed and how he manages. This clearly indicates the power of managers to create sub-cultures within organizations (with positive or negative weaves). This makes a strong case for senior managers to lead by example when it comes to people management and thus, foster a productive and engaged workplace.
1 comment June 2, 2008
Employee Engagement: What Soft Issues Mean for Hard Numbers?
Scene in the boardroom of a typical company:
HR Head: “We are proposing an Employee Engagement survey to be done in the company. It will give us insights about what people feel within the company. It might give us a handle on the attrition situation as well and we will know which specific areas to focus on.”
Executive I: “Well, that means money. We are tight on the budgets because of the market situation. We need to be focusing on getting more business. All I want from you is to make the employees more productive. We need to squeeze the last drops out of the system.”
Executive II: “But, I think doing a survey is not such a bad idea after all. Our competitors mention that XYZ firm does an employee survey for them in their pitch presentations. If we employ a reputed consulting firm, it would be nice to have their name in our official marketing materials.”
HR Head: “Yes, true. Moreover, employees too will feel a sense of being heard. After the survey, we will take focused action to change things.”
Executive I: “I remember clearly that we did do an employee survey about 6-7 years back. What did we do with it? Did the HR take any action based on the findings? It’s a useless waste of money. Fluff stuff.”
HR Head: “No, but this time it is going to be different…”
Sounds familiar. I think so. Many a times hard-nosed business executives miss the point of employee surveys. If the right metrics are used, flawless execution is achieved and there is executive intent to do something about it, employee engagement could unlock a lot of value for companies. Organizations focused on achieving sustainable organic growth can leverage the emotional economy - the power of human emotions - to build a large base of engaged employees and drive business outcomes.
Many organizations think of all this as a “process” which should be done once in a year or a “nice-to-do”, so that they can talk about it at various forums. Often surveys are done and the reports are shoved off in some cabinet and comfortably forgotten about. But, senior executives are missing the big picture. Employee Engagement is critical to business performance. Think this is all “fluff-stuff”? Think twice before jumping off to a conclusion. Take a look at some masked slides I created based on real data:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/3071101/Employee-Engagement-Impact-on-Business-Outcomes
This clearly shows how improvements achieved on employee engagement levels as a result of focused actions and Organization Development interventions can yield better business performance. For instance, in the presentation, business centers which improved their engagement levels, improve their sales figure by almost twice more than centers which had a decline in engagement levels. Think of potential upsides on business measures that you can have, if the variance in engagement is reduced and engagement levels rise up.
Top executives need to get off the rhetorical “We are all about our people - our people make us what we are” and show more strategic intent towards their people. When all the process engineering is done, all the money is pumped into capacity-additions and every process is being monitored by six-sigma black belts, and you still want some more juice - you know where you should be looking at - your people.
Take a hard look at the soft numbers!!
P.S. - It’s important to note here that “employee engagement” has been defined differently by leading experts. When I refer to employee engagement, I am specifically talking about engagement levels with one’s manager or workgroup. It is there where bonds with a company are formed or broken. And don’t we know that there is no such thing as corporate culture; there are as many cultures within a company as there are managers. Each manager, with his own style, creates sub-cultures which impact the lives of employees.
1 comment May 24, 2008
What I Want from Google
Google is becoming an increasingly integral part of our lives. At first, it was pure-play search and targeted ads, then came along a whole bunch of communication services like Gmail, Gtalk, Orkut, Blogger etc.. We got Youtube, Picasa, Desktop Search, Reader etc.Then, they started offering hosted services like Docs, Google Apps etc. Finally, as the mobile web took off, they got busy in bringing Google services on mobile devices. I personally spend lot of time using the Google Mobile App and the Google Mobile webpage. As Google continues to touch our lives in more and more ways, I really feel they could do a bit more for us consumers, so that we stay hooked (and click on more ads!!). Here’s a short wishlist:
- First things first - let’s talk about Gmail - the killer email service that gave Yahoo and Hotmail the jitters of their lives. Now, Google provides its Gmail users complete access through POP3 / IMAP, so that they can access their mails from a desktop client like Outlook or from mobile devices. They also have a neat application for mobile phones, that brings the real Gmail experience on the small screen. But, this application misses something which is the “in-thing” today - push email or the ability to fetch email as soon as it arrives, without having to manually check mails. I think this should be an important addition to the product.
- Gtalk was “love at first sight” for me. The neat, simple interface was a great relief from that of Yahoo Messenger. I got hooked. And then I wanted it on my mobile phone as well. Apparently, Google does offer a Gtalk client for Blackberry phones, but not for others. What sin has Symbian or Windows Mobile committed? I agree that there are tons of companies offering Gtalk clients like Talkonaut, EQO, Nimbuzz, Fring, Morange etc., but I really don’t feel very comfortable keying in my password on these applications. After all, I use my Gmail for receiving statements from my bank account.
- Google has a wonderful collection of essential softwares which it bundles and offers as Google Pack. Can we have something like that for mobile devices? A single download that offers essential communications, productivity, entertainment and security tools.
- And, how about a Google Mobile Suite - a collection of apps that provide close to full-blown (with all the limitations of mobile devices) experience of all Google services.
- Currently Google allows its mobile users to access Google Docs on their devices. But, users can just view their documents and not edit them. There are so many smartphones out there in the market which suffer from the same handicap - their devices come installed with Office-like software that enables them to view, but not edit documents. How about Google removing this handicap and getting more eyeballs on Google Docs!
- Google acquired Jaiku, a micro-blogging service, sometime back. Google - can you please give us some information on what are you doing with this? Twitter and other micro-blogging platforms are going to eat you for breakfast. It would be great to have a Google micro-blogging platform which is well integrated with Gtalk, Gmail, Orkut, Reader etc.
- Finally, I know you have a great SMS search service. India has one of the largest number of mobile users in the world and SMS as a service is quite cheap. People do not hesitate to pay premium charges for SMS to vote for their Indian Idols or participate in a game show. I am sure that Google’s SMS service can take off in a big way. Most mobile users in India still don’t use GPRS/Internet on their phones, so SMS can play a big role in bridging the information divide. But, there are two stumbling blocks - awareness and localization. How many people know of this service? A miniscule proportion. First of all, Google should popularize the SMS-based search service. In doing so, they need to push mobile operators as well, since they pocket the lion’s share of the SMS revenues. Secondly, if they succeed in providing the service in local languages, the potential simply doubles or maybe even more. Instead of going to ITC’s E-Choupal centers to get weather information or commodity prices, farmers would get the information in their fields, in their palms, whenever they want. That’s going to be huge!
Dear Google, a little more is all we want!!
3 comments May 17, 2008
The Economics of Incentives
As per economics, an incentive is any factor that provides a motive for a particular course of action. It is simply a means to encourage people to do more of good things and less of bad things. Incentives can be remunerative, moral, coercive, social etc.
I have recently been reflecting on how different countries digest incentives or disincentives. India, of course, has a law or rule (on paper), for just about everything. There are penalties for smoking in trains/airports, fine for jumping a traffic signal, underage driving etc. More often than not, we feel that these rules are not implemented properly. The other side of this is that citizens do not adhere to these rules. The simple explanation is that of inadequate incentives/disincentives. Fine for caught smoking in a train - Rs.100 (who cares!). Fine for jumping a signal - maybe Rs.50….and so on. Low value of penalties coupled with weak implementation - leads to very low probability of an average citizen feeling encouraged to adhere to the law.
Move on to Singapore & Dubai, and you find very high disincentives attached with the ‘wrong’ things. Smoking inside an MRT station - fine S$20000!! Jumping a signal in Dubai - something like AED 2000! You make the disincentive so penalizing that an average citizen doesn’t break the rules + put in healthy levels of implementation.
Let’s go West for a change and you find that the USA, where most incentives/disincentives of these kinds have become moral incentives. Smoking in a prohibited area, jumping a traffic signal etc. have moral connotations (atleast in the sane hours of the day!). On a recent trip, I didn’t see sign-boards informing people about the penalties associated with such an act; instead the sign-board just said - no smoking. Cross-roads had surveillance cameras, but nothing to inform people about the rules. It appears that punitive incentives have been internalized to a large extent in that country.
So, these countries represent the continuum through which incentives are designed, implemented, redesigned, re-implemented and finally yield the desired outcomes.
3 comments September 20, 2007
Monster on the Roads of Kolkata!
Kolkata definitely has bad traffic, like most Indian cities. I visit the city every few months and realize that it keeps getting worse.
I wondered how this can be taken care and came upon an idea – kill the monster taxis! Most other Indian cities extensively use auto-rickshaws as a part of their transport systems. Moreover, autos substitute taxis.
How can autos make life better? A quick back-of-the-envelope calculation (figures may vary a little depending on vehicle models) –
Taxi (The great Indian Ambassador)
Length = 4325mm
Width = 1622mm
Area = 7 sq. meters
Auto (Bajaj)
Length = 2625mm
Width = 1300m
Area = 3.41 sq. meters
West Bengals’s road density stands roughly at 105km of roads per 100 sq. km. and Kolkata’a area of 1036sq. km., Kolkata has about 1100 sq. km of roads. If we start using auto-rickshaws instead of the over 30000 taxis plying on the roads of the city, we can easily free up about 107700 sq. meters of road space! That doesn’t look like a huge number, but it surely can provide some relief. Moreover, consumers too benefit from the move in terms of fares. Today, taxi fares are upwards of Rs.10 per km in the city. Compare this with an average Rs.7 that auto-rickshaws in major Indian cities charge for a kilometer of travel. I am sure there are other benefits too – autos definitely cause less pollution, noise and are more efficient than the monster Ambassadors. Is anyone listening?
Add comment July 29, 2006
The Economics of Trust
Hair-cutting shops are a ubiquity in India. You can find small barber shops in every residential area – big or small, posh or simple. Equipped with a basic infrastructure and facilities, they chop your hair for anywhere between Rs.10-30. You also have the option of going to highly stylish, upmarket hair salons. Though they are less in number and located in major residential/commercial areas, they come with all the frills one could ask for. Nicely done interiors, lighting, contemporary furniture. They are unisexual and boast of having the best hair stylists on their rolls. By the way, they typically cost about Rs.200-1000 for a hair-cut. Infact, the upper ceiling on price can extend further north.
I realize that these ‘upmarket’ salons do enjoy the patronage of their clientele. Their customers are loyal and their demand can be said to be fairly inelastic in relation to the price. I happened to visit one such store sometime back, looking for a fancy hairdo. I came out satisfied, the spikes looked cool. I was lighter by Rs.300 though. Three weeks later, I realized it was time to trim my hair again. Of course, the local barber wouldn’t be able to do this kind of fancy art with his scissors, I thought. I went to the salon and, there went another 300 bucks. I thought this couldn’t go on…I would end up spending a large sum on my silly hair every month. After walking out of the salon, I rushed to the local barber shop in my neighborhood and told him to take a close look at my hair. I said I would come to him from next month for the same style. He said, “No problem, saar!” Since then, I regularly visit him and get my hair in shape for Rs.30. I found this amazing. The local barber probably has almost the same kind of skills as the barber in the upmarket salon, yet commands nothing in terms of a premium.
I thought thorough this and realized that hair is a very ‘sensitive’ part of our outward appearance. Every now and then, you notice people setting their hair right with their hands. It needs to be perfect and is not supposed to be messed up with. The modern salons score over the local barber shops in one crucial area – trust. People trust these salons, their staff. They feel that they are more professional, knowledgeable and dexterous. And, trust wins them the premium.
Taking this analogy further, I feel that the ‘economics of trust’ applies to every single brand. Perhaps, it is one of the most important building blocks of a brand. Just take a look around and you realize that great brands like Dettol, Vicks, Colgate etc. have an element of trust in their branding activites. Trust is even more relevant in the B2B space, where transaction values are large and so are the expectations. Infosys is not going to win contracts if their customers don’t have faith in their manpower and execution capability. Thousands of investors would not invest in Reliance Petroleum IPO if they didn’t trust Reliance Industries. After all, why put in money on a petrochemical plant that exists only in plans and paper. Moreover, the brand equity created by trust is more long-lasting and less prone to erosion, in contrast to tactical gimmicks and below-the-belt activities.
4 comments July 18, 2006
