Forex Advertising Agency Soluciones centralizadas de publicidad Forex: los anunciantes pueden seleccionar, comparar y comprar anuncios en un solo lugar, mientras que FXaa se encarga de todas las comunicaciones y preparativos. Los editores que poseen buenos sitios web útiles de Forex, pueden listar su inventario publicitario con nosotros y aumentar sus propias ventas. Trabajamos con sitios web de alta calidad, lo que garantiza la calidad de la audiencia objetivo que alcanzan. Los anuncios de Forex colocados en dichos sitios web funcionan con la máxima eficiencia. Todo el inventario de publicidad disponible se puede ver de forma instantánea. Apoyamos un modelo abierto, permitiendo que los Anunciantes y Editores se comuniquen libremente entre sí y también usen nuestra ayuda. Hay una transparencia absoluta en la gestión y la creación de campañas publicitarias. Construir relaciones, en lugar de contar contratos Su meta es nuestra meta. Nuestro éxito se mide por el número de clientes que regresan, en lugar de contratos firmados. SINIVASHAN IYER revela cómo Otis entrena a sus ingenieros en Habilidades de escritura de negocios. Más de 3,00,000 ingenieros egresan de varias instituciones técnicas en la India cada año. Sólo un tercio de estos ingenieros tienen habilidades aptas para el empleo. Los restantes dos tercios ingenieros tienen que ser reciclados por la organización para satisfacer sus requisitos únicos. La escasez de buenos ingenieros obliga a las empresas a contratar a los ingenieros sólo con conocimientos técnicos. Las destrezas blandas como la comunicación oral, las habilidades de escritura, las habilidades de presentación y las competencias interpersonales a menudo están comprometidas para llenar vacantes con urgencia. La comunicación es eficaz sólo cuando hay un flujo significativo de ideas. Al escribir informes, la mayoría de los ingenieros presentan varios hechos e ideas sin ordenarlos coherentemente en el orden de importancia relativa o secuencia lógica. Otro error común es usar frases largas que contienen muchas ideas sueltas. Otis Elevator Company (India) Limited es una subsidiaria de United Technologies Corporation, el mayor fabricante mundial de ascensores, escaleras mecánicas, pasarelas móviles y otros sistemas de movimiento de personas. Otis ha sido una marca de confianza por más de 150 años. La compañía cree en entrenar a sus ingenieros y gerentes en habilidades de la escritura del negocio. El objetivo de los talleres de Redacción de Habilidades de Redacción son proporcionar a los participantes con las herramientas necesarias para escribir especificaciones efectivas, informes, cartas, contratos y otra documentación requerida en sus situaciones de trabajo cotidiano. Los talleres giran en torno al tema de que el aprendizaje es mejor cuando hay diversión. Comienza con un crucigrama. Los participantes mismos descubren el esquema del taller y los conceptos claves al romper el crucigrama. 8216Essential Grammar8217 se enseña a través de ejercicios competitivos en lugar de a través de diapositivas power point. La idea es impartir aprendizaje a través de la diversión y el acercamiento. Los participantes se agrupan en equipos y los puntos se otorgan para las respuestas correctas. Los conceptos de escritura de cartas a saber. Concisión, claridad y la actitud de T se imparten a través de estudios de caso. Los equipos deliberan intensamente sobre cada concepto. Esto es seguido por una sesión detallada sobre formatos de carta y diseño. La vieja escuela de escritura de negocios era el enfoque escolástico. Se consideró elegante para ser verboso, vago y pomposo. Incluso hoy en día, varios altos directivos evitar ser específico, probablemente porque le 8216ties down8217. Utilizan mucha madera muerta incluyendo palabras y frases superfluas. El lenguaje es florido y lleno de adjetivos inexactos y sustantivos abstractos. Se pide a los participantes de los talleres de Habilidades de Escritura Empresarial que apliquen el Principio KISS en sus cartas e informes. KISS es un acrónimo de Keep It Short and Sweet. El entrenador ofrece consejos útiles a los participantes sobre cómo transmitir sus pensamientos a través de frases simples pero sin ambigüedad. Existe una tendencia entre los ingenieros a utilizar jergas técnicas y acrónimos extensivamente. Lo utilizan incluso mientras se comunican con clientes internos y externos que don8217t tienen un fondo técnico. En la mayoría de los casos, los ingenieros no definen las jergas en sus cartas e informes. Una sesión detallada en 8216Avoiding Jargons8217 destaca cómo palabras simples pueden ser sustituidas por jergas complejas. Por ejemplo, 8216per diem8217 puede ser sustituido por 8216daily8217. Una buena carta necesita atraer la atención del lector en las dos primeras líneas. Debe ser redactado de tal manera que conserva el interés del lector. Se debe crear un deseo en el lector para reservar una orden o hacer un pago. Finalmente, las líneas finales deben convencer al lector para que tome las medidas necesarias. Se toman cartas de muestra de los participantes antes del taller. Estos forman parte del material de aprendizaje. Se pide a los participantes que vuelvan a redactar estas cartas en sólo 7 minutos durante el taller. El entrenamiento práctico se imparte para mejorar las letras. Los participantes también reciben plantillas para futuras consultas. La mayoría de las cartas de las ventas terminan con 8216Si necesita más aclaraciones, por favor no dude en contactar al abajo firmante.8217 El entrenador señala que las cartas deben comenzar con el propósito 8217 y deben terminar invariablemente con 8216 el propósito8217. Explica que si pedimos aclaraciones, eso es lo que obtendremos. Él sugiere que las cartas de las ventas terminen con 8216we esperamos su valioso order8217. El entrenador también proporciona las directrices para escribir cartas de contrato. Un contrato que está escrito en un lenguaje sencillo y comprensible puede ser fácilmente aplicado en un tribunal de justicia que uno, que está redactado con una complejidad indebida. Dado que la escritura del contrato tiene ramificaciones legales, se sugiere que los ingenieros tomen la ayuda de su departamento legal. Se dedica una sesión especial a la redacción de informes. Se explica el significado de los informes de estado, informes de progreso, informes de crisis de proyectos y informes de finalización del proyecto. Cada uno de estos informes tiene diferentes requisitos de estilo individual. Por ejemplo, al escribir un informe de estado, uno no debe volver atrás y discutir los eventos más de un mes antes de la fecha de redacción del informe. Del mismo modo un informe de situación no debe hablar de los planes para el próximo año. Sin embargo, puede incluir puntos de acción específicos para el próximo mes. La mayoría de los directores de proyectos deben preparar informes de progreso semanales, quincenales, mensuales, trimestrales y anuales. Los participantes son entrenados sobre cómo presentar los parámetros clave a través de gráficos circulares, diagramas de barras y líneas. También se enfatiza la importancia de elevar las Banderas Rojas en el tiempo. Todos los gerentes e ingenieros de proyecto esperan que las cosas salgan bien y no haya crisis durante la vida del proyecto. Sin embargo, las situaciones de crisis ocurren y requieren un informe especial de la crisis del proyecto. Este informe debe definir la crisis, lo serio que es y su impacto en la finalización con éxito del proyecto. También debe incluir las soluciones propuestas y los recursos adicionales en términos de tiempo y dinero requerido, en su caso. El Informe de Terminación del Proyecto proporciona una descripción histórica detallada del proyecto desde su inicio hasta su finalización. Este informe es bastante largo y puede dividirse en subsecciones más pequeñas. El Gerente de Proyecto debe asignar cada sub-sección a los diferentes miembros del equipo involucrados en el proyecto basado en su experiencia práctica y experiencia técnica. Finalmente, el Gerente de Proyecto organiza y edita estas sub-secciones en un informe final con todo incluido. El Informe de Finalización del Proyecto asume una doble significación. Es una historia de proyecto para el registro y referencia futura. También es un documento técnico que ayuda en la gestión del conocimiento y en afrontar problemas similares en proyectos futuros. Los participantes son entrenados específicamente en las etiquetas de correo electrónico. A través de un concurso y una lluvia de ideas colectiva, los ingenieros aprenden cómo la elección de las palabras apt presta un tono adecuado al correo electrónico. El entrenador explica cómo el correo electrónico difiere de las cartas. Por ejemplo, la longitud del correo electrónico no debe ser más de tres párrafos. Se explica la delgada línea que separa a 8216business-like8217 y 8216curt8217. La necesidad del sujeto correcto, las salutaciones, el cierre complementario son intensamente debatidas. El retorno de la inversión (ROI) en el taller de capacitación se mide en los dos primeros niveles del modelo de Kirk Patrick8217s. Se obtiene una retroalimentación inmediata sobre la calidad de la entrega del entrenador, la naturaleza interactiva del taller y la utilidad del material de aprendizaje. La transferencia del aprendizaje también se mide mediante evaluaciones por aprendizaje y posaprendizaje. Este artículo de Srinivashan Iyer fue publicado en la edición de junio de 2008 de Construction World Magazine. SRINIVASHAN IYER explica cómo ganar el acuerdo no es el único objetivo de las negociaciones. Él explica el arte de crear escenarios de ganar-ganar. Si usted está comprando o vendiendo o hablando de metas con sus superiores o subordinados, la verdad es que siempre están negociando. La mayoría de los gerentes creen que la negociación es un deporte competitivo. Se trata de obtener más de la otra parte. Por lo tanto, recurren a juegos de poder agresivo mientras negocian. Según mí, este es un enfoque a corto plazo. Puede ganar la batalla pero no la guerra. Usted puede ganar el trato pero pierde a su cliente o vendedor. La negociación tampoco se trata de comprometer. Si una parte ofrece el precio de Rs.10 lakh y la otra parte da la oferta de contador de Rs.5 lakh y ambos comienzan a pedir y dar concesiones, no es la negociación. La negociación, según mí, es sobre la colaboración. Es un ejercicio donde ambas partes dan un poco y reciben un poco. Es un arte de fusionar los intereses de ambas partes y lograr un resultado equilibrado que satisfaga las necesidades de ambas partes. Para la mayoría de los ejecutivos y gerentes, la negociación es un arte que dominan a través de la prueba y el error. Ellos aprenden sus lecciones cometiendo errores. Las organizaciones pierden mucho tiempo y dinero en el enfoque de ensayo y error de las negociaciones. Es en el mejor interés de las organizaciones para entrenar a sus ejecutivos en las habilidades de negociación a principios de su carrera. Algunas de las empresas que regularmente realizan talleres de negociación para sus empleados incluyen Ion Exchange, Rediffusion y Merck. El taller de Habilidades de Negociación es una mezcla de los principios conceptuales y las etapas de la negociación y sus estrategias apropiadas, habilidades y tácticas para la negociación. Los gerentes participantes entienden el valor de invertir en la planificación y la preparación antes de negociar y también aprenden cómo poner en práctica las habilidades aprendidas en el taller con confianza en sus negociaciones comerciales cotidianas. Uno de los aspectos más destacados del taller es cómo leer el lenguaje corporal y tratar eficazmente con los clientes internos y externos difíciles. La sesión sobre los pasos esenciales del proceso de negociación se centra en la necesidad de tener una estrategia flexible mientras se negocia. Durante la sesión, el entrenador muestra a los participantes cómo establecer los mejores y peores resultados e identifica 8216 puntos de fisuras 8217 posibles mientras se negocia un acuerdo. Se pide a todos los participantes que compartan una gran negociación y una negociación que no fue muy buena. El entrenador utiliza estos como casos de estudio para explicar el arte de la negociación y los estilos y técnicas. Toda una sesión está dedicada a las negociaciones de proveedores. Los estudios de caso y los juegos de roles se utilizan para resaltar cómo comienzan las negociaciones cuando la primera persona en la organización intercambia información con el vendedor. Los gerentes participantes aprenden cómo ganan o pierden poder de negociación con los vendedores con cada interacción que tiene éxito. Se pide a los participantes que transmitan sus preferencias a los proveedores en lugar de sus necesidades. Los juegos de roles se usan para resaltar cómo usar la presión y el tiempo para la ventaja de uno. Esta sesión se sigue con una sesión sobre cómo negociar de manera efectiva con clientes potenciales. A los participantes se les dan escenarios y se les pide que negocien. El entrenador analiza sus estilos de negociación y les da consejos sobre cómo planificar mejor, investigar intensamente, escuchar de manera agresiva y construir una relación. Una de las etapas clave de las negociaciones es cuando ambas partes atraviesan un punto muerto. Los gerentes participantes aprenden a romper el callejón sin salida, eludir la ruptura de las negociaciones y conducir el acuerdo. A menudo los participantes preguntan al entrenador por qué a veces ganan el trato, pero aún así no están contentos con él. El entrenador luego explica 8216The winner8217s curse8217. Él explica, a través de estudios de casos, cómo uno debe hacer su tarea de antemano y cuidadosamente decidir qué y cómo pedir en las negociaciones. Él explica que la maldición del ganador es 8216cuando obtienes lo que quieres y luego descubres que no es lo que realmente querías8217. Una sesión completa se dedica a negociar por teléfono 8217. En ausencia de interacciones cara a cara, el lenguaje corporal y las señales no verbales, la negociación por teléfono es más difícil que las negociaciones uno a uno. Los ejercicios estructurados se usan para enseñar a los participantes cómo utilizar la voz en la ventaja, cuando y cuando no escoger el teléfono, cómo tomar notas y escuchar agresivamente. Los negociadores de Ace utilizan varios juegos de poder durante la negociación. Estos incluyen agresión, largas pausas, preguntas burlonas, poniéndose un manto de racionalidad, adoptando una división y conquistando el estilo de negociación y actuando también mudos. Los juegos de roles y las inversiones de roles se usan para enseñar a los participantes sobre cómo jugar juegos de poder y cómo contrarrestar los juegos de poder. Los participantes aprenden que el dinero no es el único aspecto de la negociación. Una de las monedas sutiles en la negociación es 8216Time8217. Cada negociación lleva tiempo lejos de otras actividades. El partido que pasa más tiempo siempre termina apurado para cerrar la negociación. Otra moneda importante en la negociación es 8216Ego8217. El coche conduce abajo el mensaje que usted puede caminar lejos con el reparto mejor, pero se cerciora de que la otra parte se aleje con el ego8217 más grande. Oportunidad perdida reconocimiento, poder, amor y respeto son unas pocas monedas de negociación que se discuten en profundidad durante el taller. Los participantes aprenden que la mayoría de los acuerdos exitosos no son el resultado de intensas negociaciones sino una buena construcción de la relación. Los ejercicios de construcción de rapport se usan para enseñar a los participantes sobre cómo poner a la otra parte en la facilidad durante la negociación Ejercicios específicos sobre el perfil psico de la otra parte y los patrones de toma de decisiones se utilizan en esta sesión. Por último, la negociación se trata de saber cuánto conceder y cuándo alejarse de un acuerdo. Esta sesión es muy apreciada por los participantes. Los participantes comparten la forma en que habían hecho ciertos tratos negativos en el pasado sólo porque sentían que, dado que han invertido mucho tiempo y esfuerzo en la negociación, tenían que cerrar el trato siempre. El entrenador también destaca que es importante no empujar a la otra parte a la pared. Él explica cómo las discusiones acaloradas, el aumento en el tono, los ataques personalizados, las interrupciones y el nerviosismo son signos de que la otra parte está cerca de alejarse del trato. Explica a los participantes cómo reconocer estos signos y cerrar los acuerdos en el mejor precio aceptable para ambas partes, creando así un escenario de ganar-ganar. Puede haber situaciones en que, a pesar de hacerlo mejor, no se llegue a un acuerdo entre las partes negociadoras. El taller se enfoca en cómo desarrollar planes alternativos y encontrar las mejores alternativas a un acuerdo negociado. Además de las negociaciones comerciales, los talleres para los CEOs, el equipo directivo superior y los Jefes de Negocio incluyen sesiones sobre la aplicación de las habilidades de negociación en las entrevistas. Una sesión intensiva se dedica a utilizar las habilidades de negociación de manera efectiva en la fijación de objetivos, películas de vídeo seguidas de discusiones de grupo se utilizan para resaltar cómo negociar, mientras que la realización de evaluaciones de rendimiento y cómo emocionalmente entrenador miembros del equipo one8217s. Este artículo de Srinivashan Iyer fue publicado en la edición de mayo de 2009 de Construction World Magazine. 3. Cuéntame una historia Quién no ama una historia maravillosa Todos hemos crecido en historias narradas por nuestros abuelos o hemos leído las fábulas de Aesop8217s y Amar Chitra Katha. ¿Alguna vez has pensado que las historias podrían ser un poderoso medio para la transformación organizacional? Por qué las historias de historias de tocar nuestro corazón e influye en nuestras mentes. Una historia bien narrada lleva a la audiencia a través de un viaje visual y alimenta su imaginación. La característica más importante de una historia es que es una manera divertida de aprender. Si su gente puede identificarse con los personajes de la historia, puede estar seguro de que nunca se perderá la lección. The Future Group 8217s Big Bazaar emplea freshers semi-calificados en sus tiendas minoristas. La mayoría de sus tiendas se encuentran en los suburbios y ciudades más pequeñas. Kishore Biyani y su equipo de RR. HH. estaban desconcertados sobre cómo llegar a estos jóvenes empleados, que no tienen experiencia previa sino que tienen un enorme potencial y grandes sueños, hasta que contrataron a un mitólogo Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik como Chief Belief Officer. En lugar de presentaciones en PowerPoint y talleres en el aula, Big Bazaar usa historias para llevar a casa conceptos de administración complejos de trabajo en equipo, liderazgo, orientación al rendimiento y enfoque al cliente. Devdutt ha desarrollado un nuevo léxico basado en la mitología y Bollywood. Por ejemplo, un empleado que es alto en rendimiento, pero baja en la integridad se denomina como un Duryodhana. Biyani tiene un sueño para hacer al por menor una religión en la India. Según él, 8220Retail es nuestra religión. Los clientes son nuestros dioses. Las tiendas son nuestros templos.8221 Un ateo confeso de la línea de la frontera, Biyani ha utilizado efectivamente las habilidades de Devdutt8217s para inculcar en las mentes de su gente que los clientes son Bhagvans (dioses). Cada gerente de la tienda de Big Bazaar es designado como Kartha, jefe de una familia hindú indivisa (HUF). A través de historias que se centran en el karma (deber) y Vyavahar (comportamiento), la organización hace un esfuerzo estructurado para orientar al gerente que todos los empleados de su tienda son sus Bhagvans internos. Su actuación se califica en cómo él toma el cuidado de su gente y los motiva para contribuir su mejor. Big Bazaar no es el único que se da cuenta del poder de las historias. No es apenas un empleado de Reliance Industries que no conoce la historia de cómo Muhtsh Ambani le pidió a Dhirubhai que acamparan en Jamnagar para construir la refinería más grande de India8217s en tiempo récord. Esta historia tiene valiosas lecciones sobre la creencia, el compromiso, la determinación y la actitud de nunca decir morir, que es sinónimo de dependencia. There8217s una foto de JRD Tata en el escritorio de cada gerente superior en la Casa de Bombay. Los cuadros en la pared narran cómo el grupo de Tata fue pionero en la revolución industrial en la India. La comunicación interna y externa del Grupo Tata también está estratégicamente diseñada para transmitir la historia de la asociación de Tatas con el crecimiento industrial del país y cómo el Grupo representa la confianza y los valores. ¿Puede un ingeniero fresco que se une a una de las fábricas de una gran organización aspiran a ser un jefe de negocio un día ¿Pueden las personas que no son promotores convertirse en CEO de la organización NTPC y LampT tienen muchas historias de éxito de los empleados que han ascendido la escalera corporativa a la Los más altos niveles de gestión sobre la base de su mero mérito. Y estas organizaciones constantemente narrar estas historias a sus empleados, así como a los clientes y accionistas para reforzar el mensaje de que son grandes lugares para trabajar. La mejor manera de entrenar a la gente es a través de historias y estudios de casos. Los cuentos de Akbar y Birbal, Chanakya, Vikram y Betaal y la filosofía de Gandhi tienen un inmenso potencial que puede aprovecharse para proporcionar alimento para el pensamiento y dar mensajes sutiles pero persuasivos para la introspección. Jack Welch se dio cuenta del potencial de un buen cuento y salpicó sus conversaciones con su gente en General Electric con anécdotas. Sólo por el poder de las analogías, transformó a un gigante con un estilo burocrático de funcionamiento en una organización ágil y dinámica. El cambio es amenazante. Es difícil para las personas salir de sus zonas de confort, superar sus aprensiones y adaptarse al cambio. No se puede imponer el cambio a la gente. Es necesario darles una razón convincente para cambiar. Una historia que es utilizada por organizaciones de todo el mundo para inspirar a su gente a adaptarse proactivamente al cambio es Spencer Johnson8217s 8216Quién mudó mi Cheese8217 8216El Fish8217 de Stephen Lundin muestra cómo crear un lugar de trabajo amable y divertido a través de la historia de un gerente que se inspira en la energía Y la vivacidad del famoso mercado de pescado Pike Place y experimenta su cultura para transformar su lugar de trabajo triste. Recomiendo encarecidamente el uso de libros como estos en talleres de capacitación. Eureka Forbes es una organización que regularmente tiene sesiones de historia para sus empleados. Se les pide a los empleados que lean un libro y compartan sus lecciones con sus colegas. Si una organización cree en las historias o no, los empleados discuten historias sobre la organización y sus líderes alrededor de la máquina expendedora y sobre las mesas de café. Las vid y los rumores son una parte integral de la dinámica de la oficina. Cuanto más tratas de frenarlos, más se vuelven populares. La única manera de acabar con esto es documentar las historias positivas de éxito de la organización y compartirlas a través de boletines y direcciones formales de los líderes. ¿Recuerdas el Círculo de Calidad y el Esquema de Sugerencias que lanzaste con gran fanfarria sólo para ver morir lentamente en los próximos meses Todo lo que necesitas es una buena historia para sostener estas iniciativas. Las reuniones del Círculo de Calidad deben ser celebradas religiosamente y se debe animar a los trabajadores y ejecutivos a compartir sus logros y mejoras en kaizen. La organización también debe mostrar buenas sugerencias. Debe compartir la historia en los tablones de anuncios, a través de intranet y por medio de boletines. Reconocer a las personas que dieron buenas sugerencias que han beneficiado a la organización y pedirles que compartan su historia motiva públicamente a otros a seguir su ejemplo. Su sitio web habla de su organización, su historia, visión, misión, valores y así sucesivamente. Pero solo estás contando tu cuento. Estas declaraciones del cliché no motivan a sus clientes a hacer negocios con usted. Tampoco hacen grandes imágenes, fondos y animaciones. Trate de añadir algunas historias de éxito de cómo ayudó a sus clientes a resolver sus problemas y lograr sus objetivos. Temporada de su sitio web con algunos testimonios de clientes. Y verá que sus teléfonos comienzan a zumbar con las investigaciones y los negocios comienza a verter a través de su sitio web. Cada organización tiene una historia que contar. De hecho, cada organización puede tener muchas historias que contar. Éstos pueden ser historias de éxito de alto rendimiento, anécdotas de cómo usted deleitó a clientes, estudios de caso de innovaciones, compromiso con la responsabilidad social y así sucesivamente. Si se canalizan adecuadamente, estas historias pueden motivar a la gente, inculcar orgullo y pertenencia en ellos, inculcar los valores correctos y provocar la modificación del comportamiento. Es hora de ahondar en los reinos de su historia corporativa y desenterrar historias que tienen el poder de influir e inspirar a las personas que importan a su negocio. Este artículo de Srinivashan Iyer fue publicado en la edición de octubre de 2009 de Construction World Magazine. SRINIVASHAN IYER impresiona por la necesidad de una política estructurada y científica de contratación. No todos los gerentes están capacitados en técnicas de selección científica. La mayoría de los gerentes perfeccionan el arte del reclutamiento mediante ensayo y error. Cada organización tiene dos opciones. Se puede contratar fácil y manejar duro o invertir tiempo amp dinero para obtener las personas adecuadas a bordo de la organización. Weizmann Ltd. es una organización que ha puesto en marcha un proceso estructurado para la Selección de Selección de Reclutamiento. Weizmann Forex Ltd es parte de la Rs 7,5 millones de Weizmann Grupo que tiene intereses comerciales en la fabricación y exportación de textiles, generación de energía eólica y hídrica, Transferencia de dinero internacional y gestión de la riqueza. La compañía tiene su oficina registrada en Mumbai y oficina corporativa en Bengaluru con una red de 90 localizaciones repartidas por toda la India. Por qué la política de selección Esta política proporciona los principios rectores para la contratación y selección de personal. Estos procedimientos se aplican a la contratación y selección de todo el personal y están diseñados para proporcionar un marco claro y simple para la contratación eficaz con la máxima flexibilidad para satisfacer las necesidades de la empresa. Weizmann está comprometida con el reclutamiento, selección, soporte y retención de personal de alta calidad que fortalece su capacidad para alcanzar los objetivos estratégicos y organizacionales. El reclutamiento y selección de personal es un ejercicio estratégico clave en Weizmann y forma parte integral del Plan Estratégico de la Organización. El reclutamiento y la selección para el empleo por la compañía se basa en mérito. Se guía por principios que promueven la práctica justa y equitativa y mejorar la capacidad de la empresa para atraer a los mejores candidatos posibles. A la hora de decidir sobre el candidato a la función, se consideran los siguientes parámetros: Las habilidades de la persona, aptitud, habilidades, calificaciones, conocimientos, experiencias, logros, cualidades personales y potencial y los deberes y responsabilidades y requisitos asociados de la posición. Basado en mis 17 años de experiencia en consultoría, siento que hay tres fases clave para el proceso de selección y reclutamiento. Estos son Pre-reclutamiento, selección de amplificadores de reclutamiento y post-selección. La política de reclutamiento de Weizmann8217s se ha desarrollado específicamente alrededor de estas fases para mejorar la confiabilidad y la efectividad del proceso de reclutamiento. El Manual de Políticas de Contratación de Weizmann enumera claramente todas y cada una de las actividades de las tres fases anteriores y también indica el plazo por el cual debe completarse. Por ejemplo, la etapa previa a la contratación debe completarse dentro de dos semanas. El análisis de las necesidades empresariales, las restricciones presupuestarias y el plan de mano de obra del departamento en la etapa previa a la contratación se realizan con un balance adecuado. Es obligatorio que cada gerente haga una requisición de mano de obra antes de que pueda iniciar el proceso de reclutamiento para su departamento. El departamento de recursos humanos no considera ninguna solicitud de mano de obra que no se complementa con una solicitud. Lo que me gusta de este proceso es que la contratación en Weizmann es ahora más planeada y no es una reacción espontánea a las exigencias de los negocios. Los perfiles de trabajo se elaboran para cada posición antes de que el reclutamiento comience. Los Directores de Línea, con prácticamente nulo conocimiento y experiencia en RR. HH., ahora son capaces de informar adecuadamente al HR sobre sus requerimientos, gracias a los perfiles de trabajo. El Gerente de Recursos Humanos usa los perfiles de trabajo para dar una descripción precisa a las agencias de colocación sobre el puesto vacante y los conocimientos, habilidades y actitudes necesarias para el rol. Perfiles de trabajo también ayudan a la empresa en las colocaciones en el campus y anuncios en los periódicos. La fase de reclutamiento no sigue automáticamente la fase previa a la contratación. No todas las posiciones se llenan externamente. La preferencia se da primero para llenar los puestos vacantes internamente a través de una política estructurada de re-despliegue y transferencia interna. Otro aspecto significativo de la política de reclutamiento de Weizmann8217s es el 8216 plan de contingencia8217. Todo gestor debe elaborar un plan de contingencia para gestionar la actividad operacional en caso de que no se disponga de un candidato adecuado. Este plan debe ser desarrollado antes de la actividad de reclutamiento. El Manual de Políticas de Contratación establece directrices claras para la composición del panel de selección, sus funciones, cómo elaborar normas para la evaluación de los candidatos y cómo resolver las diferencias entre el panel de selección. Weizmann opera en varios estados del país y tiene numerosas sucursales en la mayoría de los pueblos y ciudades de la India. Por lo tanto la contratación es en gran parte local. Esto requiere una considerable descentralización de la contratación y la selección. Los controles de referencia son críticos. El Manual de Políticas de Reclutamiento describe cómo realizar controles efectivos de referencias. Las plantillas y listas de verificación proporcionadas en el manual ayudan a los gerentes a hacer las preguntas correctas durante las comprobaciones de referencia y minimizar la posibilidad de información errónea de los candidatos. Weizmann sigue el modelo basado en la competencia 8216Behavioral Event Interviewing8217. Aunque la entrevista conductual es más lenta que las técnicas de entrevista tradicionales, es un mejor predictor del éxito final de una persona en el trabajo. Las entrevistas conductuales se basan en la premisa de que el comportamiento pasado predice el comportamiento futuro. Este proceso integral utiliza preguntas cuidadosamente estructuradas y profundas para recopilar y evaluar información sobre la experiencia y las habilidades de los candidatos. Esta técnica ayuda a predecir el rendimiento del empleado y reducir la subjetividad al hacer una selección. El Manual de Políticas de Reclutamiento define los seis pasos para desarrollar la Entrevista de Eventos de Comportamiento y describe las técnicas de sondeo y evaluación de candidatos. Weizmann también utiliza 8216 pruebas de trabajo8217. En las simulaciones de comportamiento, se llega a observar los comportamientos reales, o en algunos casos, el resultado de ese comportamiento. El desempeño de un candidato en una prueba de trabajo o evaluación hace posible que la empresa compare al candidato con los estándares de desempeño acordados. La 8216post selection8217 fase del Manual se dedica a consejos sobre cómo hacer una buena oferta y la comunicación con los candidatos después de la entrevista. El Manual va más allá de la contratación y la selección de proporcionar directrices eficaces para la inducción y la orientación de los nuevos candidatos. El Manual de Políticas de Contratación de Weizmann Ltd. es de aproximadamente 40 páginas. It8217s bastante exhaustivo e incluye directrices, plantillas y listos de listas listos para usar. He destacado sólo los aspectos clave en este artículo. Weizmann es un ejemplo para que otras compañías emulen. Todo lo que se necesita es la creencia de que la diferencia de vanguardia en el negocio de today8217s para las organizaciones a nivel mundial no es el proceso o la tecnología, sino la gente adecuada. Esta creencia complementada por un ojo para los detalles es lo que puede resultar en la política de contratación estructurada, científica y objetiva. Este artículo de Srinivashan Iyer fue publicado en la edición de junio de 2009 de Construction World Magazine. 5. Estrategias para la ventaja competitiva El banco estatal de la India, el banco premier del nation8217s, está en la encrucijada. Sus ingresos son crores por delante de su competidor más cercano. Pero su cuota de mercado se ha reducido en los últimos años debido a la agresiva competencia de nuevos jugadores. SBI se estableció con el objetivo de ser el banquero de la nación. Su mandato era alcanzar la extensión y la anchura de la nación. No es fácil superar las desventajas inherentes de ser el mayor banco del sector público, especialmente cuando se trata de competir en condiciones de guerra con los bancos privados. ¿Cómo compartir con su gente que su liderazgo de mercado está en juego ¿Cómo convencerlos de que los tiempos están cambiando y que necesitan para sacudirse de su complacencia El Círculo de Bombay de SBI incluye Maharashtra y Goa y es uno de los ingresos más altos grosser en el país. However, the industrial disputes in the last few years took away considerable time of the senior management. This led to business development taking a backseat. Narayanan Raja knew he had an uphill task when he took over as Chief General Manager of the Mumbai Circle. But he needed to deliver results. The twin objective that Raja set for himself was to arrest the decline in business and regain the market share. He lost no time in communicating to everyone down the line that the Circle wasn8217t experiencing any growth despite good profits. He told his rank and file that a shrinking market share doesn8217t augur well for the Bank and the people. I feel this was a bold yet smart move since awareness is the prime mover of attitudinal change. It8217s also true that bringing about radical change is extremely difficult in public sector. And Raja did well to bring about a quiet transformation. Employees need to accept change and also become change agents. Change cannot be unstructured. The tone was set at the Conclave of the top management of the Bank by the Chairman of SBI. The need for change was cascaded down to the CGMs, GMs and DGMs. It is important to note here that every DGM of SBI is responsible for 200 branches. His portfolio is equal to the CEO of a small bank. The Chairman himself addressed all AGMs. In his circle, Raja has initiated a structured intervention named as 8216Parivartan8217. It is an inclusive programme that carries messages from the Chairman and other stake holders of the bank including the members of the Officers8217 Association and the Staff Union. Today the junior most clerk realizes that it is as much his responsibility to develop the business as is the responsibility of the Branch Manager. Raja feels that employees have a vested interest in the growth of the bank since they would draw pension even 20 years after retirement. His initiatives have ensured that they own up their responsibility. To his credit, Raja rewarded the star performers with incentives. This unprecedented step in the history of the Circle motivated other employees too. A massive exercise of Business Process Re-engineering was initiated under the umbrella of 8216Project BPR8217. The Project BPR has four major objectives. The first is to increase customer satisfaction and convenience. Another objective is to free up the time of the branch and the Branch Manager to focus on sales and marketing. The third objective is aimed at improving the credit quality and turnaround time. Finally it focuses on the need to simplify processes for its employees. The change brought out by the BPR exercise is visible when one enters the SBI Branch in any city. The 8216Grahak Mitra8217 welcomes customers with a 8216Welcome Kit8217 and answers their basic queries. Transaction processing has moved out of the branches to 8216back office factories8217. The new spacious design of the branches gives the customers a feel of an airport lounge. Comfortable seats, piped music and state-of-the-art e-banking infrastructure have minimized the hassles of waiting in serpentine queues. All the frontline employees were also imparted hospitality training in handling peek hour rush and managing critical incidents. The message is out that SBI is changing for the better. Raja felt that there was a need to motivate his customers to adopt the alternate banking options like ATM amp Internet Banking. This would de-congest the branches. Accordingly, customers with 8216plain vanilla transactions8217 viz. cash withdrawals were motivated to use the ATMs. Every customer who withdrew cash only from the bank8217s ATMs was given an incentive. Raja has also initiated plans to move all the transaction queries to a call centre. All the above changes were in the urban sector. Raja now focused on the rural sector especially micro credit. The Mumbai Circle followed a planned strategy of lending only to Self Help Groups in villages. This meant that recoveries were better since individual members were bound by the code of conduct of SHG and peer pressure. The success of this move can be gauged by the fact that 82 of all SHGs in Maharashtra borrow only from SBI while the national share of the bank is 47. I feel that the SHG Business Model is better than collateral lending since each SHG consists of 50 borrowers. It also builds the social image of the bank. The publicity wing of the Circle has launched a folk troop which gives performances in villages. Awareness about rural banking and micro finance is created through the powerful media of folk music. Other initiatives like Individual Rural Volunteer Scheme and EDP Training to SHG Members are also paying good dividends. In a significant move, the Circle engaged 14 Business Facilitators in Baramati District for sourcing business. The success has motivated Raja and his team to rope in more Business Correspondents, Business Facilitators and Alliance Partners. Raja8217s experiment is a case study for organizations that want to usher in change. I find it interesting that he chose to work on both inside-out and outside-in strategy models simultaneously. On the one hand he brought about a 8216change in the belief systems and attitudes of his employees8217 while he also successfully developed a 8216change in the perception and experience of his customers8217. This article of Srinivashan Iyer was published in September 2007 edition of Construction World Magazine. SRINIVASHAN IYER explains how 5S principles are important for continuous improvement of an organisation. Excellence whether a national endeavour, a company movement or a personal goal comes from never ending pursuit of improvement. Continuous improvements are possible only when an organisation embarks on a structured journey of excellence. The foundation of excellence lies in good house-keeping. The US 6.7 billion Mahindra Group is among the top 10 industrial houses in India. Mahindra amp Mahindra Ltd. the flagship company of the group entered the field of Power Generation in 2001. Today, MampM engines under the brand name Mahindra Powerol are powering Diesel Generating sets from 5kVA to 140 kVA. Mahindra Powerol organised a one-day workshop on 5S for its employees and channel partners at Delhi recently. The objective of the 5S workshop was to understand the five 8216S8217 principles and able to adopt the habits of good housekeeping as a important tool for continuous improvement. The workshop focussed on having visual order, organization, cleanliness and standardization. What does 5S stand for 5S stands for the Japanese words Seiri, Seiton, Seiso, Seiketsu and Shitsuke. These mean Segregation, Arrangement, Cleanliness, Maintenance of standards and Discipline. Each concept was explained with the help of a case study followed by a brainstorming session. The trainer shared the best practices of other organisations and the group debated how these practices can be adopted in their own work settings. Participants learnt that the first step in good housekeeping is Seiri. Sorting is the first step in making a work area tidy. It makes it easier to find the things you need and frees up additional space. The Principle involved is Sort In 8211 Sort Out. The emphasis in this session was on segregating necessary from unnecessary items and eliminating the unnecessary items. The team participated in structured exercises on how to sort, how to identify what you need and how to discard what is not necessary. Materials, tools, equipment and supplies that are not frequently used should be moved to a separate, common storage area. Items that are not used should be discarded. Avoid keeping things around just because they might be used, someday. These were the key lessons of the Seiri session. Participants also learnt how to create Area Maps and use Red Tags. Seiton is about setting things in order. It8217s based on the principle of 8217A place for everything amp everything in its place8217 Participants learnt how to effectively use lines, labels amp signage to clearly demarcate locations, equipments, bins amp containers. They also learnt how to clearly depict fire extinguishers and exit ways through standard symbols and visual instructions. The third step in 5S is Seiso. The emphasis is on 8216Shine8217. The principle involved is 8216cleaning with meaning8217 Cleaning methods should address questions like what is being cleaned, where is it being cleaned, how is it being cleaned, who will clean amp when will it be done. The cleaning schedule should include walls, floor, roof and every part of the work area. In this session, participants learnt that abnormalities like loose wires, leakages must be tagged promptly. The trainer also focused on techniques to identify and prevent equipment damages such as leaks, breakage and misalignment. The workshop then moved to the advanced concept of Seiketsu, which is about 8216Standardization8217. The trainer emphasised that the workplace must have display of required standards. Some of the tools explained in depth were Area map. Audit sheets and work instructions. This was followed by tips on 8216Do8217s amp Don8217ts8217 in the workplace. The team then got into an elaborate exercise of preparing history cards for equipments, safety check lists, production performance graphs, quality performance graphs, planned maintenance records and improvement tracking graphs. Seiketsu helps an organisation to convey the concepts of responsibility and ownership effectively to all employees. The most critical step of 5S is the last step Shitsuke. Shitsuke is about 8216sustaining the 5S movement in the organisation8217. I personally feel that, in the absence of Shitsuke, the workshop would end up as a 8216Wow8217 experience and 5S in the organisation will die a natural death in due course of time. Shitsuke demands that all employees be trained in observing Standard Operating Procedures amp Red Tag Procedures. It8217s also important that process owners carry out Daily Audit and that teams meet once a week. Shitsuke ensures that everyone involved has a high sense of commitment to practise 5S vigorously, train and re-train and share success stories. I would also suggest instituting a rolling trophy to the best 5S team in the organisation. This would result in improving the morale and commitment of all the employees in the organisation. The second half of the workshop was dedicated to project work. The Group was divided into different teams and each team was assigned a specific work area of the Mahindra Powerol plant. By putting the 5S principles into practice, the teams were surprised at the amount of space released. It also dawned on the team that the time for searching tools. items and files can be drastically reduced. Participants came up with their own list of benefits of 5S which included reduction in downtime, reduction in accidents, less rework and better machine life. The most visible impact was the potential of generating additional revenue through the sale of the unwanted items. 5S is a fundamental but systematic approach for productivity, quality and safety improvement in all types of businesses. Today, even municipal corporations are getting their staff trained in 58217S8217 as they realize immense benefits of it. The principles underlying a Five S program at first appear to be simple, obvious common sense. And they are. But until the advent of Five S programs, many businesses ignored these basic principles. Business Groups like Mahindra that are committed to quality also have a 5S Vision and a 5S Pledge. Good housekeeping checklist and audit are practised in spirit. I would go a step further in recommending that all organisations should do competitive benchmarking of their 5S systems and practises with other organisations in the industry. Housekeeping as a topic should be included in every training programme across the organisation. This article of Srinivashan Iyer was published in February 2009 edition of Construction World Magazine. 7. Total Employee Involvement 8211 Simple Innovative Pra There are two major challenges for a company that grows from a startup to a big giant. The first challenge is to attract the best talent when the company is small and cannot afford to pay exorbitant pay packets. The bigger challenge however is in retaining the open culture and bringing about total employee involvement as the company grows big. The challenge is even more if the company happens to be a dotcom company. Mandaveli, a suburb of Chennai, is a quiet residential zone. The one structure that stands out is TVH Beliciaa Towers with its glass faade. The 10th floor of the Tower houses the BharatMatrimony Group. The scenario was quite different in 2000. This was the year when the dotcom bubble burst across the globe and no investor was willing to touch a dotcom company even with a bargepole. However, J. Murugavel a software engineer quit his cushy job in Singapore and setup a matrimony portal in Chennai in a 200 sq. ft. office. Attracting the best talent is a challenge for small organizations. Most small organizations are caught in a vicious cycle. You can8217t get good hands as you can8217t pay better. And raw hands may be a compromise that may prove dear in the long run. Murugavel knew pretty well that he could not afford software engineers from premier engineering institutions. He roped in 5 fresh MCAs. One of them was a gold medalist. She had some good job offers in hand. How did he convince her to join his team Muruga, as he is fondly called by his team members, recalls that he had to sell his vision of the future with the team. His dream was to create the largest matrimony portal of the country. We are small today, but we will grow big soon is what he told them. In his own words, 8220The Company is like a field. You sow the seeds, grow your talent and reap the benefits8221. He prepared them for the challenges to come and inspired them to seize the opportunities for growth. Grow they did and how. The flagship portal of the Group, BharatMatrimony, is today the most preferred matrimony service provider in India. It has 2300 affiliates and has a global presence. The company has its operations in USA, Dubai, Canada and UK besides India. With 9 million members, BharatMatrimony features in the Limca Book of Records. Did the employees grow with the Group For Muruga, an organization is all about people. He believes that if everyone in the organization grows, the organization will also grow. Of the first five people who came on board, only one has moved on. The other four have grown with the company. One of them today heads the Technology Division, while another heads the Oracle Division. Muruga strongly believes that an employee should always feel that he has learnt more from the organization than what he has contributed to the organization. It is this belief that has allowed an office assistant to groom into a manager and now as head of a business unit. Ironically, while a visionary leader inspires the group to achieve the impossible, the achievement of the vision itself demotivates the team members. Members of the NASA team that landed on the moon went through severe depression as they did not have any further challenges. How does Muruga motivate his team now that their portal is the most preferred matrimony portal of the country For Muruga, one goal post leads to another. It8217s about dreaming big and keeping the passion for innovation alive. Innovation is not new to the Group. The Group has been listed as one of the top 100 IT innovators of the country by NASSCOM. Today BharatMatrimony is not only about matrimony. It has diversified into several areas. Other portals of the group include the job portalClickJobs, IndiaList, the portal for classifieds, the automobile portal IndiaAutomobile and the property and real estate portal, IndiaProperty. Being small has its own advantages. The team is like a well-knit family. Each member knows the family of other team members. They stand by each other in testing times 8211 both professionally and personally. There is a strong bond between the team members and a sense of pride in achieving the milestones. However, every small company dreams to be big someday. But companies pay a heavy price for their growth. The old members no longer find easy access to the core management. They are no longer privy to the vision and strategies of the promoters. They miss the nimbleness of the organization and the speed of execution as the small family morphs into a gigantic elephant. For the new inductees, getting to meet the CEO is next to impossible. They are like drops in an ocean. This is true of many IT companies in India. Infosys is one classic example of a company groping with the challenges of motivating a sea of workforce. Today, the BharatMatrimony Group is no longer small. It has an employee strength of 700 people. It has established 71 offline matrimony centers across the country for those who are not internet savvy. The Group plans to launch 300 such centres in India and abroad. Do the employees still have a strong belongingness with the Group The Group has retained its open culture even today. It does not have a strict organizational structure and believes in open floating teams. This provides an environment for its employees to share information and grow in their career. Above all, Muruga as the CEO is easily accessible to all his team members. Monetary incentives do have a role to play. However, to motivate employees in the long run, you need to think beyond just doling out money. The Group recognizes the need of programmers to work on challenging technologies. It provides them an environment to do so. Transition from one department to another and even one portal to another is encouraged. The fourth Friday of every month is reserved for open house meetings. These meetings provide a platform for team members to share the achievements of their departments with others. They also share on the technology they work and update themselves with each other8217s technologies. There are many other companies in India that start a monthly open house meeting. It starts with a big bang and soon tapers off. How has the Group managed to keep the initiative afloat For one, Nirmala, the HR Head at BharatMatrimony believes in these meetings. But it8217s Muruga8217s passion and commitment towards these meetings that is infectious. It motivates others too. What differentiates the BharatMatrimony Group from other organizations is that it encourages the employees to address the gathering. Every employee who speaks on a subject is given a cash award of Rs.1000. The CEO himself addresses the team and shares with them his experience at various national and international forums and what he has learnt from the books that he reads. In one such open house meeting, the uneducated carpenter of the Group who has designed all its offices was invited to speak. The carpenter knows only Tamil but has traveled the length and breadth of the country for work. For Muruga, he is an icon of initiative, courage and risk - taking. The carpenter8217s success story inspired the programmers to go beyond their comfort zone. At the centre of the office, stands the Pillar of Appreciation. Employees write an appreciation for their fellow team members who have helped them to do a good job. Departments also use it to highlight their achievements. Yet another billboard features the thought for the day. Other employee bonding initiatives include celebration of the cultural day, annual day and picnic every year. Employees who have put in long years of service are facilitated on the annual day. There are awards for best employee of the month and best performer of the year. The Group also gives interest free loans to employees who require financial aid. Once in a while, the entire organization goes out for a movie together. Yet another unique but simple initiative has sent a strong message to the employees that the management of the organization cares for its people. The Group launched a 8216No smoking8217 campaign six months ago. Employees who quit smoking are given cash awards. The initiative is paying good dividends. Four chain smokers in the sales and marketing department have quit smoking. Today, organizations are struggling to fight the internet surfing menace. Employees use official time and money to surf websites. Being a portal itself, how does the Group grope with this issue It has accepted it as an essential need of software developers and come out with an innovative idea to not only address the problem but to use it creatively. The 3 rd Saturday of every month is observed across the organization as the Web Day. Employees give presentations to the organization on the findings of their internet research. The presentations cover scanning of the environment, scenario mapping, competitor analysis and SWOT analysis of business prospects for the organization. Inspite of the best people policies, people do leave an organization and the BharatMatrimony Group is no exception. Over the years quite a few female employees have left due to marriage and several others for better prospects. The average employee retention period in the Group is 2.5 years. Though it8217s too low in comparison with organizations like L amp T, Johnson amp Johnson etc. it8217s pretty good for a dotcom company. The Group respects the need and aspirations of the individuals to grow in their career. In keeping with the belief that people who leave the organization should be the best ambassadors of the organization, the Group keeps in touch with all its former employees. BharatMatrimony Group has proven that simple homegrown employee involvement practices do work if implemented with a strong commitment. Hasta aquí todo bien. What the Group needs now is to retain the strengths of its informal practices and also look at a structured approach to employee grooming and development. Employees who were star performers in the past may stagnate as they reach their zenith of functional expertise. Again, developing a programme using the latest technology is one competency and getting things done through others and leading a team is a different ball game. There is a need to implement a structured training calendar to groom employees in functional and behavioural skills. It8217s also true that while most successful organizations groom their leaders internally, sourcing professionals from other organizations brings in out-of-the-box thinking. A good blend of internal stalwarts and external professionals is the perfect recipe for success. This article of Srinivashan Iyer was published in 00 edition of Construction World Magazine. 8. Beyond Profits. Building a respectable organisation There are organisations and organisations. Some are built with the sole purpose of making money. While profits are important, making profits the sole parameter for judging the success of the organization can be suicidal. When profits govern all the decision-making in the organisation, the strategies are short-term and it leads to chaotic functioning of the organisation. It is also the reason why many successful organisations are not necessarily respected organisations that people love to associated with as employees, customers or vendors. Mission, vision and values strengthen the corporate identity, promote cohesion within the organisation and define a clear organizational path. Every organization has a vision or picture of what it desires for its future, whether foggy or crystal clear. The current mission of the organization or the purpose for its existence is also understood in general terms. The values of the organization manifest in daily decision making, and the norms or relationship guidelines which informally define how people interact with each other and customers. But are these vague and unspoken understandings enough to fuel your long term success Every organization has a choice. You can allow these fundamental underpinnings of your organization to develop on their own, each individual acting in a self-defined vacuum. Or, you can invest the time to proactively define them to best serve members of the organization and its customers. Bhailal Amin General Hospital (BAGH) is the largest and oldest hospital in Baroda, owned and managed by the Alembic Group. This 160 bedded multi-specialty amp tertiary care hospital has 6 Operation Theatres amp 4 Intensive Care Units, all under one roof. Known for its trauma care, this ISO 9001:2000 certified hospital attracts patients beyond Baroda from cities and towns of Gujarat, MP, Maharashtra and Rajasthan. Established in 1964, the hospital had two mottos: to provide 8216Patient care beyond compare8217 and to be a 8216Home away from home8217. The rapid growth of the healthcare sector coupled with increased patients awareness and expectations, has resulted in emergence of new state-of-the-art hospitals across the country and increased tie-up with health insurance providers. And Baroda is no exception. Hence the trustees of BAGH felt it necessary to revisit their priorities and draw up a new Mission, Vision and Values statement. They realized that while past strategies and practices were relevant for those times, there is a need for an 8216image makeover8217 of the organisation to remain competitive. Another key driver of the Mission, Vision and Values exercise was the need to inculcate belongingness and pride in the employees and align them to a common purpose. Vision, Mission and Values are the governing ideas behind any enterprise. These ideas answer three critical questions: What Why and How Vision answers the question 8216What we want to be8217 It paints the picture of the future we seek to create. The vision cannot be defined in isolation. It has to flow from the mission of the organization. Mission is the purpose of the organization. It answers the question 8216Why do we exist8217 It is therefore a short definition of the entity and enlist the key elements that will drive the success of the organisation. Values answer the question 8216How do we want to act, consistent with our mission, along the path toward achieving our vision8217 Values are corner stones of individuals and collective behaviours of the organisation. The Values statement of the organisation therefore is the guide to the individual and organizational behaviour that everyone in the organisation, from board room to shop floor, must consistently exhibit in order to realize mission and vision. Vision, Mission and Values together answer the question: 8216What do we believe in8217 The vision, mission and values cannot be decided by the promoters and a few senior managers of the organisation. Every member of the organisation has to own it and imbibe its spirit in their behaviour. Unless this happens, vision, mission and values will remain mere decorative artifacts that adorn the walls and cubicles of an organisation. BAGH employs over 500 people including doctors, paramedical staff, administrative officers and unionized workforce. Intensive workshops were organized for 125 participants, a representative sample drawn from the pool of all the cadres in the organisation. Employees participated in games, exercises and creative skits as they discussed, debated and brainstormed to draw up the new vision, mission and values for the hospital. The Mission of BAGH as summed up by the employees is 8216 To provide quality medical care that answers the needs of patients and their families from the diverse communities we serve8230. daily8217. While carving the mission, the BAGH team realized that addressing the needs of the patient8217s family members is quite different from treating the patient8217s ailment successfully. Hence it was felt by all employees that they need to engage the families of the patients rather than focusing on the patients alone. The vision of BAGH as evolved during the workshops was as follows: We will be a leading and respected multi-specialty and tertiary care hospital in the region We will earn the loyalty of our patients by being the hospital that delivers patient-focused excellence and continuously improving service levels Our endeavour will be to enhance predictability of treatment costs We will be the hospital of choice for our full-time and visiting doctors by providing excellent infrastructure and work environment. Our performance will meet benchmarked stakeholders values. There are many stakeholders in a hospital and the hospital has to meet the expectations of all. These stakeholders include the trustees, the patients and their families, the doctors, the employees and the vendors. The vision of BAGH embraces all stakeholders into the purpose of the organisation. The employees also came up with the key values that define the organisation and the way of life at BAGH. These were Service, Integrity, Accountability, Respect, Teamwork and Safety. I personally feel that values have to manifest in the attitude and behaviour of the employees of an organisation. During the workshops, the employees of BAGH came up with various ways of how they could 8216live these values8217. What is interesting is the BAGH family came up with Value Statements, which encompasses the values and the appropriate behaviours for each value rather than mere listing of values. For the Mission, Vision and Values to be successful, the spirit of these statements have to be imbibed by everyone in the organisation. Communication workshops were organized across the organisation where the CEO and the Medical Director addressed the employees and explained every facet of vision, mission and values. Every employee was provided with a personal copy of the Mission, Vision and Value statement, a pocket-sized 8216Questions amp Answers8217 booklet and a DVD of the mission, vision and values film. The defining of the vision, mission and values is not the end. It is the beginning of a New Beginning. The journey starts now. The management of BAGH has to design interventions to align all its systems and processes around its vision, mission and values. It has to reward behaviours in alignment with the same and take action against those who do not abide by the mission, vision and values. 9. Insulating against Project Cost overruns SRINIVASHAN IYER explains how it pays to orient your project managers in project cost management If you thought controlling project costs is simply about being efficient during the project, think again. Sound financial management of projects and achieving a better bottom-line is more than just being efficient. Companies like Voltas, Ion Exchange, Thermax, TCE Consulting Engineers and LampT regularly coach their project managers on how to estimate and manage project costs. How does the company benefit These companies save significant money by preventing project overruns, which is manifold the investment in coaching the employees. The workshops on project costs begin with orienting the managers with an in-depth understanding of the main drivers of project costs. It moves on to aligning the project spending plans with the overall business strategy. How to make optimum use of the project resources effectively and efficiently and how to track the return on investment are other key workshop focus areas. Machinery and equipment costs in infrastructure projects and system establishment costs in IT projects are the heavy baseline costs. You cannot do away with these costs as they are required to stay in the business. All you can do is grin and bear it. However, since baseline costs constitute a major chunk of the project costs managers need to exercise their discretion judiciously while deciding on such investments. The workshops focus on techniques on controlling baseline costs. The best antidote is to manage the project assets effectively and ensure that you practice good resource management. But you can go beyond resource management and re-negotiate vendor contracts. It pays to sit with your vendors and understand the cost break-up and also re-examine the service level agreements. Reining baseline costs helps you improve the project bottom-line and minimize the opportunity loss. How does one go about estimating costs Let8217s face it. Most project overruns boil down to poor project scoping. If your project costs estimate is at best a guesstimate, you are way off the mark. Bottom-up estimation is a detailed pricing technique which involves working out the cost estimates for various project elements and then summing it up into the project total costs. Though this method is laborious and requires considerable time, it is popularly used in bidding for projects where there is a clear understanding of the project scope. Most project managers would agree that it is not practically possible always to assimilate all the data needed for bottom-up project estimation. Hence, project managers also need to be coached on the rules of thumb while adopting the top-down approach. Coaching on the top-down approach cannot be complete without lessons on how to work-out a order of magnitude or 8216ballpark8217 estimate, analogous estimates based on previous project experience and parametric estimates based on statistical projections of historical data. What do you do when you have budget constraints and you need to fit your project costs within the budget These workshops advise managers to first have a re-think on the project and it8217s feasibility given the cost constraints. It may so happen that you may need to adjust the project scope to make the project viable. The design-to-cost approach and working backwards from the fixed budget through an intense process of prioritizing the costs are some techniques that help in working out a project scope that can fit into a pre-decided project costs envelope. Project costs risks need to be factored in. These provide for uncertainties and contingencies like changes in project scope at future date, technical snags, price escalations in material and labour costs, opportunity loss of unused assets and the inevitable 8216circumstances beyond control8217. Project managers need to understand how to mitigate the project risks and factor in markups to minimize project costs. You have won half the battle if you estimate the project costs well. However the proof of the pudding is in effectively completing the project within the costs. Despite your best planning efforts, you can still face problems that can lead your project estimations astray. Hence, it8217s quite important to have a project team meeting immediately after the completion of the project. The purpose of this meeting is discuss threadbare as to what went right and what went wrong and what factors led to these. Some of the focus areas you would like to delve into may include possibilities of re-mobilization, decline in productivity, overtime costs, improper equipment scheduling, rentals on unused tools and equipments or simple errors of omission like failure to check invoices and deliveries and accounting errors. What do you do when your project exceeds its budget due to additional request by clients which were not originally in the scope of work What if the client frequently fails to fulfill his part of agreed commitments Project managers need to be oriented on the nuances of Field Orders and Change Orders. Project costs control workshops have a strong message for the project managers 8211 if your costs are spiraling, go back to the basics. It8217s important to work out baseline plan with clearly defined project standards, milestones, costs forecast, procurement strategies and project success indicators. It8217s also important to closely monitor critical project resources viz. people, equipments and methods. Periodical review and analysis in the execution phase is highly critical. It is important to monitor the progress vs. the plan. Are the actual costs in-line with the projected trends and productivity forecasts If the actual project costs have over shot the budget, you may need to re-visit and maybe re-forecast the cost estimate schedule and even the project scope. It is common in projects that the project scope itself changes and your reference baselines do not count anymore. It is important that every time this happens, you need to change your baseline plan. Project managers also learn the earned value technique of monitoring on-going projects. Earned Value Analysis (EVA) and cost management tools like Net Present Value, Internal Rate of Return, Payback Period and Cost Benefit Ratio help to plan and manage the project cash flow. Plotting the Actual Cost of Work Performed (ACWP), comparing it with the Budgeted Costs of Work Schedule (BCWS) and initiating timely corrective actions are other key focus areas of the workshop. Project managers also learn that the Estimate At Completion (EAC) is only constant in a moving project. If you want your project cost estimate to be more than a guesstimate and you are tired of frequent profit killing cost shocks, it8217s time you coach your project managers on the art and science of project cost control. Even the best of workshops may not prepare a project manager for the reality bumps of project cost management. However, orienting your project managers in project cost management can prevent your projects from chocking to death due to cost overruns. If speaking in front of your colleagues gives you 8216butterflies in the stomach8217 and a 8216lump in the throat8217, you are not alone. Thousands of executives and managers across the globe have a phobia of public speaking and presentation. Why orient your executives and managers on presentation skills Simple It impacts your revenues. Organizations like Pentair Water India Pvt. Ltd. Schiller Health Care India Pvt. Ltd. and Pentagon Systems amp Services Ltd. ensure that their Product Specialists, Sales Managers and Country Managers make good presentations to woo their domestic and international customers. Tenders call for presentation acumen and negotiation skills. One of India8217s oldest and largest civil engineering contracting major B. E.Billimoria amp Co. Limited equips its engineers and planning managers on how to make persuasive presentations to bag lucrative deals. It8217s not just your sales team that can benefit from presentation skills. Every manager needs to present to his own team and his internal customers within the organization. RampD teams have to work closely with the production, sales and marketing teams within the organization. They also need to make presentations to the core management on how the various research projects are progressing. However, in most organizations, the RampD team is rarely coached on how to make effective presentations. Bucking the trend, organizations like Indofil Chemicals Company, Anchrome Laboratories and Sandoz ensure that their Research Scientists effectively present their unique selling propositions of their product to the sales and marketing team and the technical nuances of the pilot testing and commercialization of the project to the production team. Ideally a presentation skills workshop is an one day or a two day workshop. The objectives of the workshop are to build confidence and conviction in the participants to make effective presentations. Anxiety management and overcoming the presentation phobia requires a therapeutic approach. The workshop also focuses on making the participants aware of the strength and areas of development. The success of the workshop depends on the extent to which it is highly interactive, participative and experiential. If conducted in an enthusiastic, warm and inspiring atmosphere, every participant gets an opportunity to do a mock presentation. The facilitator gives valuable feedback to every participant on the content and delivery style of his presentation. Presentation skills coaching is imparted through role plays, videos and simulated exercises. Most managers are concerned about 8216How to Present8217 For me, what goes into the presentation is more important than the actual moments of presentation. The preparation and structuring of the presentation is the recipe and how one presents is only the seasoning. Audience analysis is the first and foremost step towards an effective presentation. Good presenters take the time and effort to understand their audience and their unique needs well in advance before the D-day. As a psychologist, I can vouch that the root cause of public speaking anxiety is due to not knowing enough about the audience, their demographics, their interest and understanding of the subject of presentation and their expectations from the presentation. Some of the common signs of presentation anxiety are breathlessness, jelly-legs, trembling hands, going blank, excessive perspiration and dry mouth. The underlying fears are 8216What if I become numb when I go on stage8217, 8216I may sound boring8217, 8216People will laugh at me8217 and 8216I will forget my next point8217. The anti door for these fears is to remember that you are what you are. Don8217t try to ape someone else8217s presentation style. If you are not boring in your real life, there is simply no reason why you should be a boring speaker. If you have the ability to make people laugh, it8217s an asset. Share a laugh with your audience early on in the first few seconds of your presentation and you have the meeting out of your hands. Come on don8217t worry that you would be nervous. It8217s your presentation and people expect you to be nervous. The anxiety to perform up to the expectations of the audience is common among experienced presenters too. It only shows that you want to do your best in front of others. Well begun is half done. However, the proof of the pudding lies in a power packed delivery. The opening, the body and the closing of the presentation should be well structured. Stage management, eye contact, voice modulation, postures and body language are the various elements that make an impactful presentation. Have you ever been subjected to a technically perfect presentation by a powerful presenter who is master of the art and yet the presentation didn8217t connect with you It may probably be due to his obsession with power point. Rather than connecting with the audience, many presenters are obsessed with the background, font and customization of the slides. True, power point presentation leaves a strong visual impact on your audience. But the power of the presentation is not in the Power point. It is on you. Use visual aids like flipchart, white board, projectors and power point slide shows sparingly. They are just aids to your presentation and should be used only to highlight your key points. The simple rule of presentation which is often not violated by presenters is: Talk to your audience and not to your visual aid. It8217s important that the presenter looks at the audience at least 80 of the duration of the presentation. You also need to have a backup plan in case there is a technical snag. Rapport with the audience is the key to a successful presentation. Rapport is the ability to connect with your audience and establishing a common bond with them. 8216You appeal8217 is very important in all presentations. Whatever your subject, try to involve the audience by asking questions and more importantly answering their questions. The more questions your audience ask, it only shows that they are more interested in your presentation. It is important to answer questions briefly and to the point and keep your cool if a questioner disagrees with you. Presentation is more a science than an art. Great presenters are not born. It is practice that makes them perfect. Organizations not only need to coach their managers on presentation skills but also provide them ample opportunity to hone their skills both in internal meetings and external platforms like seminars and conferences. The one department that constantly interfaces with every employee in the organization is the Human Resources Department. Though HR managers prepare the training calendar for the organization and ensure that every employee receives adequate training, they themselves rarely participate in training workshops. Organizations like Burckhardt Compression, TAM India and even our good old Bombay Stock Exchange are now focused on how their HR executives and managers present their ideas to the senior management and business heads in the organization. If you think it8217s just the private sector that is concerned about how their managers present themselves, think again. Public sector giant Maharashtra State Electricity Board sponsors their executives and managers regularly for public programmes on presentation skills. Even internal trainers of the organization, who are supposed to be good in presentation, regularly need innovative ideas to pepper their presentations. Reliance Industries and MTNL ensure that their six sigma, safety and IT trainers are abreast of the latest presentation techniques and styles. This article of Srinivashan Iyer was published in July 2009 edition of Construction World Magazine. SRINIVASHAN IYER reveals how AIMIL coached its managers on assessing the performance and charting a structured development plan for each subordinate. Performance appraisal is a formal assessment by the manager of the quantitative and qualitative aspects of job performance of his subordinate. Yet, for most employees, it8217s a painful process. Why do employees dread appraisals It8217s because expectations and outcomes are not clear and criticism is used more often than praise. Again, most bosses aren8217t prepared and are defensive when challenged by subordinates. Arvind Verma, CEO of Delhi based AIMIL decided to take the pain out of the appraisals and make it more meaningful to both the appraisees and the appraisers. AIMIL was incorporated in 1932 by a British entrepreneur as Associated Instruments Manufacturers India Limited along with companies under the AIM banner in Singapore, Burma, Malaysia and South Asia. Today, AIMIL manufactures state-of-the-art instruments for civil engineering, telecom, pharmaceutical, atomic energy and defence services. The company also makes reinforced earth and soil structures and has ventured into consultancy in civil engineering areas. March is a busy month for most organizations and it8217s difficult to pull out your senior management team, especially the Business Development team, for a coaching workshop. But Verma did just that. With appraisals scheduled for April, he knew it was top priority if he had to retain the best talent of his organization. The managers were explained that there is more to appraisals than just assessment. Rather than pointing out the lacunas of the employee, appraisers should focus on putting the employee at ease and making him feel valued. A good performance appraisal should not only let the employee know how well he is performing but should also chart a plan of action for the future. The twin objectives of appraisals are assessment and development. Ideally, 40 of the appraisal time should be spent on reviewing past performance and the rest 60 should focus on charting a personal development plan for the employee. The discussion moved to the effective process of setting goals and targets. The managers were explained that goals need to flow from the responsibilities defined in the employee8217s job description. The Goals should be SMART. SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound. Again, corporate objectives should be cascaded into divisional, departmental and team goals. This was followed by a detailed analysis of the performance management system by the managers. Theperformance criterias, competencies, performance standards, rating scales were intensely debated. The managers soon realized that each had a different viewpoint and there was a need for a structured organization-wide approach to performance management. The trainer then guided the team towards evolving an objective approach and also shared the best practices of leading Indian and multinational companies. How should one prepare for the appraisals What documents should one gather These were some of the questions of the managers. They were asked to have a copy of the employee8217s job description and performance standards, goals set from the last appraisal, work rules and procedures and the previous performance appraisal. Other documents that can make an effective appraisal are letters of appreciation or complaints about the employee from customers and co-workers. Most importantly managers were asked to obtain a copy of the employee8217s self-appraisal in advance A few managers questioned whether an employee can effectively judge his own performance and how much weightage should be given to the same. The trainer explained that self appraisal gives the opportunity to the employee to explain his views about the rates, standards or goals, rating scale, internal and external environment and causes attributable to his performance. It secures the buy-in of the employee to the appraisal process and paves the way for an effective dialogue during the appraisal. Through a psychology based simulated exercise, managers were made aware of the bias that can affect their judgement of their subordinates. One such instance is the Halo Effect which is the tendency to rate someone high or low in all categories because he or she is high or low in one or two areas. Some managers follow a Central Tendency and assess almost everyone as average. Recency Bias sets in when managers assess an employee on his recent achievements or failures ignoring the performance track record of the entire period. To stay clear of bias, managers were advised to maintain a Critical Incident Diary. Case studies and role plays were used as a media to drive home the cardinal principles of conducting effective performance appraisals. Managers were asked to follow the 90/10 Rule wherein the appraiser should speak for only 10 during the appraisal. His role is to welcome the employee and probe the employee to explain the basis for his self appraisal. He has to listen effectively for 90 of the time allowing the employee to speak. The manager has to refrain from interrupting and passing judgements. The focus of the appraisal should be on performance results and behaviors. He should keep the appraisal open to employee input and ask the employee for ideas about how to resolve problems. More time should be spent on the future and not on the past. Both the manager and the employee should work together to set goals, expectations and standards for the next appraisal. The manager should then discuss developmental needs and training plans with the employee. Finally he has to summarize the session and end on a positive note. It was also impressed upon the participating managers that annual appraisals are at best a post mortem. If done quarterly, employees can raise the red flags in time and corrective action can be taken by mangers. Globally, quite a few companies have monthly appraisals. A key idea that emanated from the workshop was that managers should not restrict themselves to periodical appraisals. Regular coaching and counseling on an on-going basis is the need of the hour. The trainer emphasized that raising the performance is more important than just appraising the performance. The workshop was well appreciated by the managers and all the managers agreed that it will change the way they appraise their team this April. Spurred by the success of the workshop, Verma now intends to organize similar training to coach his employees in the 10 branch offices across India. AIMIL now needs to go beyond performance appraisals and revisit its performance management system. The holistic approach would be to first map the expectations of all the appraisers and the appraisees through a survey. An audit of the current performance management systems, policies, manuals and practices would highlight the gaps. The Performance Management System should then be benchmarked with other leading companies in the industry. It8217s also necessary that the expectation survey and audit of the performance management systems should be an annual exercise to continuously improve the system. This article of Srinivashan Iyer was published in April 2009 edition of Power Stream Magazine. 12. Corporate Social Responsibility SRINIVASHAN IYER makes a case for CSR and shows how Excel Industries has successfully integrated it into its business operations. Today, the success of a company is no longer judged solely on its financial performance. Investors, consumers and employees are now concerned about how corporate behaviour affects social, political, and natural environments. This pressure from stakeholders has led companies to adopt a triple bottom line or sustainable approach and focus on social and environmental success besides financial success. Corporate Social Responsibility is about aligning business operations with social values. It extends beyond statutory compliance. Today, stakeholders expect companies to practise good human rights, business ethics, corporate governance and environmental policies. They want companies to contribute positively towards improving the quality of life for employees and their families as well as for the local community and society at large. Since its inception in 1941, Excel Industries Limited has been a pioneer in the area of crop protection chemicals for the Industry as well as the farming community. Today it has successfully leveraged its strengths to emerge as a leader in a range of specialty and performance chemicals. Its Environment and Biotech division focus on solid waste management and develop a range of Bio-pesticides. The Shroffs of Excel have always played a stellar role in sustainable management of urban environment and sustainable agriculture in rural areas. What makes companies go beyond the legal obligations and assume wider responsibilities What are the drivers for CSR The first step towards CSR is for companies to acknowledge that sustainable competitive advantage requires companies to be economically viable, environmentally sound and socially responsible. Ashwinbhai grew up in an environment where the national interest and pride came first before business. He recalls how these values were instilled in him by his father C. C Shroff who founded Excel amp his uncle K. C.Shroff even as he visited Excel as a school-going kid. He learnt to plant trees, respect fellow employees He recollects that his grandmother used to live in the factory premises. She was an active member of the Ramkrishna Mission and believed that the first duty is to serve fellow human beings. When she saw that the company didn8217t have a canteen, she started a 8216family kitchen8217 for her family and the extended family of employees of Excel. Mobilizing corporate commitment for CSR calls for a socially responsible culture across the company. CSR needs to be reflected in the mission, vision and values of the company. It needs to reflected in its decision-making process and business actions. As an organisation, Excel believes in investing in Human Capital. For most employees at Excel, it8217s the first job and the only company that they have worked in. The employee is groomed in a 8216Family work culture8217 through mentoring and structured challenges. The two principal tenets of CSR are accountability and transparency. An infrastructure company may take up the cause of educating the children of its migrant labourers. A software company may gift computers to schools or enhance computer literacy in rural areas. A chemical company may plant trees in its environment and thus curb pollution of the environment. Quite a few responsible companies have a story to tell that sets it apart. It is important for every company to find its story and to tell it. Globally, companies are also expected to disclose and communicate their policies and practices that impact employees, communities, and the environment. However, most Indian companies are not sensitised to this issue and need to be more transparent in their corporate CSR communications. In the global economy, only companies that are responsive to the demands of all of their stakeholders will be better positioned to achieve profitability and sustainable business growth. 13. Participative Management SRINIVASHAN IYER explains how participative management pays in the long term . Management is the art of getting things done. And you can get people to do what you want them to do by either tracking the whip or making them love and enjoy what they do. Welcome to participative management where every employee contributes to the achievement of the organizational goals and also has a say on how the organization goes about achieving its results. What is participative management It is an inclusive style of management that creates an environment in the organization that is conducive for employees to enhance their performance and positively impact the bottom-line. Employees are empowered to take decisions and resolve the operational bottlenecks. Lafarge is one organisation where participative management is encouraged. The organization works on the principles of Participation, Efficiency and Example. The organisation that pioneered participative management in India is Tata Steel. The first labour association in India was formed in Tata Steel in 1920. The Tata Workers Union is formed in 1937 and the company was the first to recognize the collective bargaining. The strong commitment of the management in encouraging a responsible trade union has ensured that the company enjoys 80 years of interrupted industrial peace. Tata Steel has a unique consultative system of three-tier participative management. The company has Joint Departmental Council, Joint Works Council and Joint Council of Consultative Management. Worker representatives chair these councils one year and the management representatives chair it the alternate year. How do you create a culture of participative management in an organization The first premise for participative management is a compelling mission and vision. Why it is that Aggressiveness and meticulous planning is a way of life at Reliance. Why it is that in the Tata Group, trust and ethics rule while inclusiveness and sharing of wealth is the culture at Infosys . Participative management starts with the leader. The leader has to shout his vision from the rooftop. That8217s not enough. He has to talk about it in the conference room, in the canteen and around the vending machine. If you think that8217s going too far, let me tell you that your job as a leader is all about inspiring a shared vision. If you have clearly stated values that are practiced across the organisation and a work culture that is positive and contagious, you have an environment that is conducive for participative management to thrive on. Employees can then align their personal vision, mission, values and goals with those of the organization. Ever wondered why new joinees at Glaxo, NTPC and Johnson amp Johnson dream of retiring from these organizations Thanks to a well-strucured induction, when a new member joins these organizations, he is indoctrinated thoroughly about why the organisation has been formed and what it seeks to achieve. Induction is not a mundane process. It8217s the most important ritual in cultural assimilation. Vaccinate your organization against the 8220That8217s not how we do things here8221 virus. It8217s one thing to define 8216how things are done here8217 and it8217s very different when you hear 8220That8217s not how we do things here8221. Look out for these words. They carry a dangerous virus that can kill your organisation. Unfortunately, this virus in most cases originates from senior members of the organisation. They have been with the organisation for long and are comfortable doing things in a set fashion. When a new member comes up with an innovative idea, he8217s mocked and warned 8220That8217s not how we do things here8221. It8217s good to have a well mapped action plan. But the organization needs to be open to new ideas and risk-taking. It is the innovation of the employees that has made IBM and HCL one of the most respected organizations in the world. The secret behind Nokia 8217s success is a highly engaged work force based on the organization8217s participative management philosophy of 821660 acceptance, 100 commitment8217. Nokia8217s Executive Board invites suggestions from all its employees on how to improve the firm8217s products, processes and even the business model. All ideas submitted may not be approved by the board. Only 60 ideas are accepted. However, the very fact that ideas of employees are invited, accepted, debated and implemented upon shows the 100 commitment of the organisation in tapping the creative potential of its people. Participative management is at the soul of all initiatives at SSI. The organisation involves all its employees in decisions that concern them. When it comes to hiring right people, the organisation encourages employees to refer to their friends and offers referral bonuses of up to 72 of the gross monthly salary of the selected person to the employee who refers him. Employees also have a say in identifying their training needs. The company has constituted a technical training working group from among its employees. Does participative management amount to doing away with hierarchy, management control and following a laissez faire policy that allows employees to do whatever they want There is definitely a hierarchy but not a dominant one that breeds bureaucracy. The role of management is to define the strategy and to assign clear roles and responsibilities. Once people know what is expected of them, they are free to figure out ways to deliver the results. In fact, at Birlasoft employees are empowered to define their own work profiles. The company encourages a participative work culture rather than a hierarchical one. Open communication meets are a norm in the organisation and every second Friday of the month is the training day. What stops people from venturing into unchartered territories is the fear of the unknown and the 8216herd mentality8217. If the 8216herd8217 is powerful, new members who don8217t fit in their 8216scheme of things8217 will be isolated deliberately so that they are frustrated and leave the organisation. And this could spell doom for your organization. Leave alone great work teams, if you don8217t curb the 8216herd mentality8217 you won8217t even have a unified team in your organisation. A wave of change is sweeping Godrej. It is not just the logo that is undergone a transformation. The traditional philosophy of achieving end result has now been replaced by a focus on the processes that lead to these end results. There is a realization that it8217s breakthroughs and innovations that contribute to value creation. Authority and responsibility has shifted from the individual to the team to foster a team spirit. The management style has changed from delegating work to participative management. How does participative management benefit an organization It creates an engaged work force that is productive and committed in achieving the organizational goals. People are motivated to give their best to the organization, go beyond their job descriptions and help each other and work as a team. Way back in 2003, V H Ron, Chairman and Managing Director of Electronics Corporation of India Ltd. (ECIL) scripted a turnaround of the organisation through participative management. From incurring heavy losses from 1997-1999, the company achieved a record turnover of Rs.1005 crore for the year 2002-03 and a net profit of Rs.150 crore. Participative management can work wonders. SRINIVASHAN IYER throws light on how a leading Business Group redesigned its organizational structure. Getting your organization design right is the starting point of getting your business operating more effectively. Organizational design encompasses much more than simply the structure. Organization design is the process of aligning an organization8217s structure with its mission. This means looking at the complex relationship between tasks, workflow, responsibility and authority, and making sure these all support the objectives of the business. A leading Business Group with interests in colour stones, diamonds, fine studded jewellery and significant footprints in infrastructure and hospitality businesses recently revisited its organizational structure. The Group roped in a consulting firm to develop the organizational design. The Business Group had an India business and an overseas business. The growth needs of both businesses were different. Though the Indian business was a separate entity, every change in its organization structure would have resulted in significant ramifications on the overseas business too. Hence it was decided to delink both the businesses and follow separate organizational design models. For most managers, structure follows strategy. However, I personally feel this is not true. Structure is the strategy in as much as it can facilitate or impede the strategy to achieve the organizational objectives. Organizational design cannot be independent of the climate in the organization. Hence the culture, values and working environment in the organization were studied and given due importance while designing the organizational structure. Each manager in the Group was interviewed. Are the accountabilities clearly defined Is each manager adding value Are there compressions or role overlaps Are there gaps such that a senior manager is micro-managing a frontline employee These were some of the issues considered by the consultants. It8217s not about whether you should centralize or decentralize the control. Organizational design is about striking a fine balance between the business need for control, centralization and decentralization. While doing so, it8217s necessary to consider the extent of formalization of policies and procedures in the organization. The consultants also studied the extent and configuration of hierarchy levels in the existing structure and the degree to which organizational processes were standardized. Since the size of the organization was relatively large and business was geographically dispersed, the divisional organizational model was adopted. This model facilitates decisions making, accountability and co-ordination. The functional structure was adopted within the divisions since the organization had limited products, locations, customers and operated under a stable environment. This unique mix of organizational models has helped the organization to push accountability for value as close to the point where value is actually created or destroyed. All business decisions of the Group are taken by the family comprising of the patriarch of the family who acts as the Chairman and his two sons who independently manage their respective businesses as Directors. However, the family was not represented in the existing organizational structure. Hence, a Family Council was put in place in the new organizational structure to spearhead the business. My consulting experience with leading business groups indicates that having a family council in place also helps in business continuity, inducting professional managers in the business without diluting the family control. The existing organizational structure did not have a clear division between managers who have responsibilities only with one company and the managers who held Group responsibilities. Hence it was felt that a Group Executive Board should be formed, which should be a distinct entity than individual companies. This, I feel, is a significant initiative as the Group Executive Board will bring in greater emphasis on strategic decisions and building new businesses. The Group Executive Board included global managers who had the aptitude, knowledge and skill to understand global business needs, form global strategies and guide the functional managers of each of the businesses. It included the Global Finance Head, the Group Chief People Officer, the Global Supply Chain Head and the Global Marketing Head. The new organizational structure brought about greater role clarity and eliminated overlaps. It also reduced the levels of hierarchy and brought about greater flexibility in decision making. The ultimate control in the new structure now rests with the Family Council. The Group Executive Board reports to the Family Council and has an advisory role with respect to both the Directors. The spans of control of the Directors were quite large and included both strategic and operational reportees. This diluted their role and took away their valuable time. Hence, in order to build a scalable business model, positions of Divisional Heads were created in both the businesses with direct reporting to their respective Directors. The Divisional Heads were designated as Country Heads. These included the President Manufacturing Division, the President Trading Division, the Chief Financial Officer and the Chief People8217s Officer. The new structure requires the Divisional Heads to functionally report and take guidance from the Group Executive Board. The new organizational structure includes new positions and upgradation of positions. However, the job profile of all the positions needs to be written for the new organizational structure to be effective. Many positions are vacant currently. These can be filled up by promoting internal candidates or sourcing external candidates. Once the job profiles are written, the competencies viz the knowledge, skill and attitude needed for the job profiles need to be mapped for each positions. It is also necessary to evaluate the present incumbents of the positions and the prospective internal candidates for the new position against the identified competencies. This will give the competency gaps for each manager in the company. Based on the gaps, training needs can be identified and employee grooming can be organized. The job profiling, competency mapping and the competency gap assessments may also necessitate changing certain roles and sourcing external candidates for a few positions. Once the organizational structure is crystallized, the business goals will also need to be cascaded into team and individual goals. The Business Group now needs to come up with well-defined performance metrics to measure the effectiveness of the new organization structure in meeting its business objectives. This article of Srinivashan Iyer was published in November 2008 edition of Construction World Magazine. SRINIVASHAN IYER explains the benefits of HR outsourcing and how Weizmann Forex Ltd. makes the best of it. Mention outsourcing and it8217s IT that comes to mind. However, organizations world over are increasingly relying on HR outsourcing. When Wezmann Forex Limited felt the need to have well-designed HR systems, policies and procedures, its Managing Director B. S. Shetty opted to rope in a leading HR consulting firm. Weizmann Forex Limited is a part of the Rs 7.5 billion Weizmann Group that has business interests in textiles manufacturing and exports, wind and hydro power generation, money changing, international money transfer and wealth management. The company has its registered office in Mumbai and corporate office in Bangalore with a network of 90 locations spread all over India. HR outsourcing, as is generally understood in India, is transactional outsourcing. Transactional outsourcing is hiving of the mundane daily activities like payroll processing, surveys, benefits administration, benchmark study and statutory compliance to an outside agency. These are services that fall at the lowest end of the value chain. However offloading transactions out of the company to the consulting firm8217s office involves concerns about safety, security and confidentiality of the data. Shetty analyzed that his current team of HR executives could do the same in-house effectively. He therefore insisted that the consulting firm depute a senior HR professional as a retainer on-site. The retainer is on the payrolls of the consulting firm but reports administratively to Shetty. World over, HR outsourcing is more of a strategic outsourcing. Strategic HR outsourcing involves designing effective strategies and systems to attract, retain and groom the key talent of the organization. There are very few HR consulting firms in India who offer holistic HR services in terms of both strategic and transactional HR outsourcing. Shetty and the core management team of Weizmann chalked out their outsourcing needs clearly and engaged the services of a partner who had the expertise and the infrastructure to meet both their strategic and transactional needs. The consulting firm first conducted an organizational diagnostic survey. It had one-on-one discussions with Shetty and his core team at Weizmann Forex Ltd. It also met Chetan Mehra, the Managing Director of Weizmann Group and D. G. Siraj, the Vice Chairman of the Weizmann Group. Once the expectations of the key people were captured, the middle managers were administered a poll. The expectations mapping exercise was followed by a detailed study of the structure, systems and policies of the HR department. This study was the basis for defining the scope of work for the outsourcing services. Weizmann Forex started with just four branches. The company today has more than 800 employees spread over around 200 branches in India. From mere Western Union money transfer activities to global travel cards, selling insurance, mutual funds and wealth management, the company offers a wide spectrum of services. The business model of Weizmann was highly transactional in nature initially. Understandably so, the Human Resources department was mostly into transactional support, administrative work and benefits management. As the job profiles became more complex, Weizmann roped in senior professionals from banking and financial sector. Though there was an understanding about responsibilities, there was a need to clearly capture the roles, responsibilities, activities and the internal customer relationships in well structured job descriptions. The scope of the HR outsourcing services includes job description, mapping the competencies required for the positions and identifying the competency gaps in the current position holders. Attracting and retaining talent is a challenge for most organizations. Weizmann is no exception. Hence Shetty has outsourced recruitment, induction and performance appraisal to the HR consulting firm. The firm is responsible for preparing a recruitment manual that lays down the policies and procedures for recruitment. It will also coach the senior and middle managers of the organization on how to conduct effective interviews. Induction of new employees at Weizmann will now be done in a structured and scientific manner as laid down in the induction manual designed by the HR consulting firm. The consulting firm has been asked to capture the organizational and individual needs in terms of performance management. It will then study the current performance management system and benchmark the same vis--vis the needs. Revamping the performance management system, redesigning the performance appraisal forms, coaching the managers on goal setting and how to effectively conduct performance appraisals falls under the gamut of HR outsourcing service of the consulting firm. An audit of the effectiveness of the HR services will also be independently conducted by the firm at the end of the year. Designing systems is fine. But how do we ensure that the systems are implemented effectively That8217s the role of the retainer. He will work closely with the business heads to recruit the right candidates. Ensuring that the new employees are properly inducted into the organization is also his role. He will also identify the training needs and prepare the training calendar. His job profile also includes ensuring adherence by employees to the disciplinary norms, coordinating performance appraisals and conducting exit interviews. In order to ensure the confidentiality, both the Consulting Firm and its Retainer have signed a non-disclosure agreement. What if the company is not happy with the services of the Retainer Alternatively, what if the retainer wants to quit the job The agreement provides that the consulting firm has to provide a free replacement within 15 working days. Most organizations can survive without a great HR department focusing only on the operational and cost aspects of HR. The HR function is more amorphous in these companies than the other departments and the impact is felt not in the short term but in the achievement of the organization8217s long term vision and mission. HR outsourcing at Weizmann was more a strategic intervention than an operational imperative. The expectations of CEOs from HR is now not restricted to delivering high quality, fast, accurate and cost effective services. What is needed today are not the transaction processors but Chief People Officers. It makes business sense to engage the experts in this field. Strategic HR outsourcing does not mean loss of control on the part of the CEO. In fact, Shetty is today more in control of the HR function at Weizmann. It8217s only that he has a strategic partner who works with him closely to meet the people needs of his organization for today, tomorrow and years to come. This article of Srinivashan Iyer was published in August 2008 edition of Construction World Magazine. Srinivashan Iyer reveals how it pays to coach your managers on interviewing skills. Besides the cost of finding a replacement yet again, poor hiring also involves intangible losses in terms of poor productivity, lost customers and reduced profit margins. Companies can save a lot by just utilizing proper interviewing and selection techniques. The Chennai-based TVS Electronics did just that. TVS Electronics is a part of the 90-year-old TVS Group. Business Heads at TVS Electronics are actively involved in interviewing along with the Human Resources Division. Involving the line managers in interviewing is good but in the absence of interviewing skills coaching, each individual may have his own style. Hiring decisions would also be based on gut feeling and trial and error approaches. To fully exploit the emerging business opportunities the company has structured itself into focused Business Groups, each vertically focused yet interdependent8211 Products amp Solutions, Contract Manufacturing Services and Contract Customer Services. The job profile, skill sets and the hiring needs of each of these Business Groups varies significantly. TVS Electronics started as an IT peripherals manufacturer and has today transformed itself into an IT Transaction Solution provider and Business Process Outsourcing partner. The business has become more complex and so have the need for skilled people. However the organization found that its managers adopted traditional interviewing techniques and also that some of the interview questions were stereotyped. Today, the candidates are more prepared than the interviewers. They give more interviews than the number of interviews taken by an interviewer in a year. Job sites coach people on the common interview questions and how to answer them. The management felt the need to orient its managers in Behavioral Interviewing techniques. True to its credo Productivity through Intelligence, the TVS Electronics has over the years made significant investments in organizational development, in creating a transparent and entrepreneurship driven culture, with a vibrant team of people. In line with the same, the company organized an intensive coaching on interviewing skills for all the managers, including the core management team. The Team from TVS Electronics included senior managers from Enterprise amp Government Business, Retail Division, Distribution, HR, Marketing, Quality, Business Development, Transaction Products, Customer Support and the Solutions Business. The Executive VP. M Somasundaram, himself underwent the coaching along with his senior colleagues. TVS E Servicetec amp TVS Investments sent its senior management team. The delegation from TVS E Technologies also included the President amp COO P Parthasarathy, Executive Vice President S Prasad and the Business Heads of the Auto and Construction amp Industrial Machinery Divisions. For a company of its size, TVS Electronics has the highest percentage of engineers. And hiring engineers involves conducting interviews and even finalizing candidates over telephone. Hence one of the prime objectives of the programme was Resume screening. Most resumes look flawless on paper but the authenticity of the facts are questionable. There are also professional resume writers who write great resumes for a nominal professional fee. The managers learnt how to read the fine print, look out for career plateaus and career gaps, identify key competencies and conduct reference checks. The brainstorming sessions focused on how to probe for multiple shifts in career and qualification gaps. Often interviewers like to start the interview and wing it according to their gut feeling. However effective interviewing is more a science than an art. We need to move beyond gut feeling and first impressions. First impressions are deceiving. The effectiveness of the interview depends on the pre-interview preparation. The first step towards a structured interviewing process is to prepare the job description. The job description should include the position, the reporting pattern, authorities, responsibilities and also the customers, both internal amp external. Once the job description is ready, we need to map the competencies and behaviors needed to be successful at that job. The next step is to prepare two or three probing questions for each of the skills, competencies and behaviors identified. All the managers of TVS Electronics learnt how to create job profiles, identify threshold and differentiating competencies and how to probe for the same. Behavioral interviews assess past behavior and use it as a tool to predict future behavior. The emphasis is on probing questions that assess the candidate8217s competencies and situational application of the same effectively. The interviewer asks the candidate about a situation that called for some action by the candidate. He probes deeper into the actions taken specifically by the applicant, what lead to the actions, the results of the actions taken and what was learned from the experience. These questions elicit specific details about the who, when, where, what, why and how of the applicants experience. The managers mastered the art of Behavioral interviewing through simulated role-plays and mock interviews. The interviews by the managers during the programme were recorded on a camcorder and re-played with expert guidance and interview tips by the coach. Probing skills, listening skills, how to rely more on open-ended rather than close-ended questions were some of the key lessons. It8217s also important that we k eep good notes during the interview. While evaluating the candidate on each of the listed competencies, we need to rank the candidate on parameters of not demonstrated, partially demonstrated and strongly demonstrated. The managers learnt how to make the post-interview assessment sheet. Some the questions asked by interviewers, especially to female candidates like 8216Are you married8217 and 8216Do you have children8217 may be legally wrong. The managers were coached on how to avoid discriminatory and binding contract statements. Finally, Interviewing is today more than finding the right candidate. It8217s an opportunity for Employer Branding. This was impressed upon all the managers of TVS Electronics. The small niceties of asking for tea, welcome handshake, adhering to the interviewing schedule and prompt re-imbursement of travel claims go a long way in enriching the interview experience of the candidate. And the interview is the first official brush of the candidate with the company. It gives the candidate a first hand feel of the culture, the people and the values of the organization. A structured pre-meditated message about the organization and its unique features as an employer will help to attract the right talent. This is especially true for campus placements. A candidate may or may not get selected but if he walks away with a good impression of the organization, he may talk to his family and friends. The focus of interviews should be two-fold: to hire the right candidate and to transform the other candidates into brand ambassadors of the organization. This article of Srinivashan Iyer was published in April 2008 edition of Construction World Magazine. 17. Hearty Welcome SRINIVASHAN IYER explains how Themis Laboratories Pvt. Ltd. Inculcates belongingness and pride in new employees through a well-structured induction policy. Starting a new job is a demanding and stressful experience. Apart from the obvious challenge of tackling new tasks, there is also the need to become accustomed to a new organization, a new working environment, new colleagues and possibly a new living environment. The purpose of induction is to support new employees during this period and help them become fully integrated into the Company as quickly and easily as possible. Induction has benefits for all involved in the process. Employees who settle quickly into their new job will become productive and efficient at an early stage and in turn will experience feelings of worth and satisfaction. Induction is also an essential part of the employer8217s obligations to ensure a safe, healthy and enjoyable work place. It is an opportunity for both partners in the selection process to confirm or review their decision to work together. Finally, an effective induction reduces costs associated with repeated recruitment, training and staff turnover. The core management of Themis Laboratories Pvt. Ltd. recognizes the importance of attracting and retaining skilled and motivated people. It ensures that new employees receive a planned and professional welcome. Themis is a privately owned company incorporated in 1985, with its HQ in Mumbai. The company develops oral controlled release amp modified release formulations. It has a world class oral solid dosage form manufacturing facility at Ambernath with a capacity to manufacture 30 million capsules and 50 million tablets per month. While most companies have an induction process, it is perceived as a HR responsibility. At Themis, inculcating a sense of belongingness and pride in new employees is a strategic initiative. Mr. Janak Shah, Managing Director and Mrs. Maya Shah, Executive Director discovered that each of their managers had their own individual beliefs of induction and how it should be done. They not only decided to seek professional help in preparing an induction manual but work closely with the HR team to ensure that every employee of Themis receives a well-structured induction. An ideal Induction Manual should ensure new employees are welcomed into the Company in a consistent and professional manner. It should provide an overview of the organization and enable the new employee to see where they fit in to the big picture. Themis8217 Induction Manual outlines the procedures and guidelines for managers and employees to follow during the induction process. All managers and employees are expected to adhere to these procedures. Relevant formal training necessary to assist in the induction process is also provided. The HR Department has issued a detailed checklist to all the line managers. It8217s the responsibility of every line manager to ensure effective monitoring of the induction process, particularly in the first three months. Any problems encountered by new employees must be dealt with promptly. When should the induction process start Recruitment is not complete until the individual is effective in the job and has adopted the values of the organization. Induction should start during the recruitment process and should certainly cover the period between acceptance and the employee becoming effective in the new role. It is important for both external and internal recruits 8211 both have things they need to know if they are to contribute effectively. The induction process at Themis meets the above criterias. How long should the induction be Rather than a mere one day introduction, induction should be planned and paced over several days or weeks, marking the beginning of the new employee8217s personal and professional development within the organization and allowing the employees to integrate into the organization. According to Mr. Naresh Shah, President Global Marketing amp HR at Themis, one if its key stated objectives is to be an organization with individuals who are innovative, creative and good team players. In line with this objective, the HR at Themis sees a new employee on the first day of employment to carry out the necessary personnel and administrative arrangements. The Induction Kit at Themis includes the employee welcome letter, personal information form, the employee8217s job description, the employee handbook, the corporate induction schedule and the corporate induction learning material. An induction can never be effective if it is driven by HR without the support of the line managers. At Themis, it is the immediate manager8217s responsibility to ensure that an induction programme is implemented for every new employee who joins the team. HR sends out a corporate mailer informing everyone in the company about the new joinees. However, the Managers, in whose department the new employee joins, send a detailed mail to their team members informing them about the new member in the team. The socialization of a new employee is a critical part of the induction and can reflect in the employee8217s satisfaction in their new working environment. Managers arrange a departmental meeting on the first day of the new employee to formally introduce him/her to the team. Arrangements are also made for the new employee to visit other departments with which he/she needs to work closely in the course of their duties. The Company holds corporate induction sessions that all new employeesare required to attend. Sessions are held monthly and include all relevant information about Themis. the organizational chart, its products and facilities. New employees are coached on organizational sensitivity and grooming and business etiquette. Besides responsibility orientation and support goals, new members of the Themis family learn how to be an effective brand ambassador of Themis. In addition to the corporate induction, new members of the Themis family also undergo a local induction that is specific to their area of work. They are explained as to how their job fits into the structure of the department. Managers agree personal objectives with the new employee. The objectives are reviewed regularly through the first three months and revised to more long-term objectives at the end of this period. Managers also ensure that the employee understands how his/her performance will be appraised and how it is linked to pay. Training specific to the job is also an important part of induction. You don8217t have to be a large organization to initiate a structured induction process. Themis is a Rs.120 crore company that aims to become a Rs. 500 crore company by the year 2013. The induction manual and process of Themis is a benchmark for small and large organizations to emulate. This article of Srinivashan Iyer was published in July 2008 edition of Construction World Magazine. SRINIVASHAN IYER explains the need for a good sales forecast and also outlines the roadmap of how to make it happen. How good is your forecast Many a times it is not close to the mark. Have you ever had a situation where your forecast was way off the mark when compared to the actual I bet you have. But then the name of the game is forecasting. Whether it8217s the turnover, inventory requirements or customer demand, companies invest time and resources in estimating the future through predictive techniques. Why forecast Simply because it helps organisations to cut costs and boost their bottom line. The most popular quantitative techniques that can help you in making good forecasts are correlation and regression analysis, time series projections and the market buildup approach. You can also use the market factor index method or the chain ratio method. It all starts with the sales forecast. A good sales forecast yields a strong cash flow, helps you to make better buying decisions and determine the expected return on investment accurately. Past sales performance is an indicator of the future. However, while making the sales forecast you also need to take into account the industry norms and the business environment. Customer preferences do change frequently and you need to factor them while making your sales forecast. Is your business subject to seasonal fluctuations Then it is just fair that you provide for the same while making the forecast. While most companies do take into account the above factors, some of the parameters that can cause havoc in your forecast are unexpected inventory shortages, working capital problems and the uncertainty of success of new product lines. Before you roll up your sleeves and get into the grueling process of making your sales forecast, you need to introspect on a few vital aspects. Am I making the forecast for individual product segments or on the lines of market segmentations Or should I look at forecasting for independent strategic business units What should be the horizon of my forecast This is an interesting aspect that has undergone a sea change in the last few years. Before the global downturn, organisations used to forecast for a minimum of three to five years. In the last two years, sales forecasting has seen a paradigm shift. The global uncertainty, the vagaries of highly fluctuating demand and the struggle for survival forced companies to live quarter by quarter. You may also wish to consider how frequently you may need to review your forecast. Ideally, companies look at quarterly reviews. I would rather advocate monthly reviews. This ritual helps you to step on the accelerator or put on the brakes as necessary. All these techniques are great if you are in business for more than donkey8217s years. But how do you forecast your revenues if you are a startup The bad news is: One out of every three new business startups never survive beyond the first three years. And 90 percent of these failures are attributable to bad sales forecasts that are based on gut feeling and wish lists rather than the hard facts and ground realities. The good news is you can survive the first three years and many more if you just take time to analyze a few vital indicators that can help you to predict the success of your new venture. 183 How many competitors already exist in your business space 183 How successful have they been in satisfying the customer needs 183 How big is the customer population Is it growing, stagnant or shrinking 183 What are the prospects for synergetic diversification of your business besides the initial product offering To put is simply, if there is no past sales for you to look at, you need to look elsewhere. You need to look at the revenues and bottom lines of your competitors. If they have healthy financials and are bullish on future prospects, it8217s a strong indicator that you have good business out there. Don your analytical hat and delve deep into the location of their business units and offices and their lean and busy business periods. Look at their product lines and quality of their offerings. Is it the best or can you do better The way they have positioned their goods and services, their promotional strategies and pricing can give you an inkling of who you are up against. It can also trigger innovative ideas and unchartered territories that can help you rake in the moolah. Then it comes to your organizational capabilities, your entrepreneurial skills and the financial muscle to invest and bet your money on long term. True, sales forecasting is a number game. But it is not a game of numbers. If just putting numbers in your forecast can make them appear on profitability statements too, businesses would have become successes overnight. The harsh truth is that your sales forecast will not actually happen unless your people make them happen. If your people don8217t believe in your forecast, the chances are they would not give their best shot at achieving the targets. Impose your targets on them and you have a perfect recipe for failure. The best way to build a sales forecast that your people believe in is to adopt a bottom-up approach. Let them set their targets and then stretch these targets. But while doing so, give them a clear road map of how the additional numbers can be achieved. And yes, communicate clearly to them that they can always count on your support. A shared vision yields great results. How much time do your people spend talking to customers daily Insist that they ask your customers regularly about how satisfied are they with your goods and services and what else you can do to provide them value for money. A continuous dialogue with your customers and a dedicated effort to find solutions to their problems are the only ways to keep your forecast on track. As it happens with any forecast, there could be times when you achieve the targets and more. And there could be times when your best of efforts could still fall short. When you achieve what you had planned, don8217t forget to celebrate your success. As a CEO Coach, I have found time and again that a team that celebrates its small successes achieves big success in the long run. What do you do when your team puts in its best but still can8217t achieve the planned targets It is time for soul searching and looking for the real answers. There is no failure, only feedback. A lesson well learnt improves the chances of the team of making better forecast and achieving them. A word of caution: while soul-searching, ensure that you fix the problem and not the blame. Achievements should be rewarded but it is also important to recognize the efforts. Happy forecasting and wish you healthy bottomlines 19. Employer Branding Srinivashan Iyer reveals how Eureka Forbes has successfully retained its employees and instilled pride in them through Employer Branding. What is Employer Branding It is your brand image that defines who you are as an employer. It conveys your total value proposition of your culture, systems, attitudes and employee relationships. In a recent global study, 49 candidates indicated that the company8217s brand image largely influenced their decision to apply for a job in an organization. This is one of the prime reasons why companies are concerned about Employer Branding. Other advantages include transforming your present employees into your brand ambassadors, fostering your ability to maintain market share and maximize profitability. A Shapoorji Pallonji Group company, Eureka Forbes Ltd. (EFL), is a pioneer and a leader in water purification systems, vacuum cleaners and air purifiers. How is it different from other companies It is Asias largest direct selling organisation with 5500-strong direct sales force spread over 450 cities of India. Of these, only 100 are direct offices of EFL. Given the magnitude of the operations, it8217s difficult to forge belongingness in employees, leave alone Employer Branding. The Eureka Forbes brand statement is bipartite Employee Value Proposition (EVP). This brand has been honed over the years by Mr. A V Suresh, President - Direct Sales and his team. What I find unique about EFL is, its culture is warm, transparent and yet performance driven. It rests on the pillars of earning, learning, pride and fun and also the successful internal manifestation of 8216Your Friend for Life8217 mantra. This mantra is backed by values of caring, sharing, respect and trust. I can see a stark resemblance of EFLs EVP to Abraham Maslow8217s Theory of Needs. According to Maslow the primary needs of an employee are security and social affiliation. Then come the self-esteem and self-actualization needs. By providing medical assistance and employing spouses of deceased employees, EFL shows that it cares for its people. The sharing tenet caters to the social affiliation needs of the employees. EFL8217s knowledge management portal, 8216 Euro Share8217 and its book of best practices are a few manifestations of the sharing tenet. By forming 8216 Dream Teams 8217 and Grooming Talent from within, EFL caters to the security and esteem needs through its trust tenet. The tenet of respect is aimed at boosting the self-esteem of the employees. Earning is encouraged through performance-linked incentives. Employees take pride in being honored by membership of elite 8216Club Hundred8217, 8216Living Legends8217. Euro Idol8217 and 8216 Euro Biographics8217 . Besides the social events and get-togethers common in every organisation, EFL has 8216High-fliers Club8217 . I also found that the company8217s concept of having an annual 8216Fun Calendar8217 innovative. Three key elements of Employer Branding are the personality, the promise and the message. Personality is about defining who you are as an employer, what you stand for and your values and vision. The promise is your unique, differentiating employment proposition to the target audience. Finally, the message includes the most compelling core messages communicated to your employees through various pre-meditated forums. What you need is a twin strategy. You need to have the best people policies and more importantly your employees have to perceive them as the best policies in the industry. The first is Human Relations and the later is Public Relations. EFL has a focused employer branding strategy. Most companies have an in 8211house magazine. What differentiates EFL is that, its quarterly house magazine is packaged as 8216Euro Champ8217 . True to its name, the magazine gives more space to the achievements of the Euro Champs viz. the direct sales force than to the top echelons of management. The company has an anthem 8211 8216Euro Anthem8217 which is played and sung at all meetings and events. Goals are collectively worked out every 5 years and reviewed annually. These are known as 8216Euro Dreams8217. Similarly, 8216Our Guiding Light8217 is a compilation of the company8217s beliefs and values. The corporate brochure is branded as 8216Transformation through Relationships8217 . The Employee Handbook goes under the name of 8216Welcome to the World of Growth8217 . EFL also has an inspiring audio-visual 8211 8216The Indomitable Spirit of the Euro Champs8217 8211 on the Eureka Forbes ethos. Training is also branded differently. The company8217s induction training program is packaged as 8216My First Week8217 . And the refresher training program for frontline employees is marketed as 8216 Making of a Euro Champ8217 . The annual managers8217 summit is 8216Smart8217 and regional summit are 8216Regional Smart8217 . The company has its own knowledge management portal in 8216Euro Share8217 . Finally, the 8216Hall of Friendship8217 is the company8217s archive tracing its history and achievements. How do you retain and inspire your high-fliers who have an insatiable craving for self-actualization In my experience this is the key talent whose vacuum is difficult to fill in. EFL8217s tenet of learning addresses this concern very well. EFL has its own academy of learning. Besides, it has several leadership development centers. An Employer Branding exercise can be targeted at prospective employees or it could be aimed at the current set of employees. While the former aims at enhancing the share in the potential recruits and packaging the company as a preferred organisation to work with, the latter is about treating your employees as your first customers and making them your best ambassadors. What I find disturbing is that, many companies focus more on branding rather than dedicating their efforts in building relationships. Though advertisements, in-house magazines, websites and knowledge management portals can enhance the corporate image, the essence of employer branding is the experience and perception of the employees which is communicated by them through their behaviour. Creating a brand is just the first step. Maintaining the reputation as a best employer and constantly reinforcing the branding requires sincere and continuous effort. EFL was adjudged among the top 25 best employers for India for the year 2007. This is the third consecutive study where EFL has made it to the list of best employers in India. And it has jumped from the 18 th to the 4 th position this year. Being a best employer, according to me, is all about making employees feel connected to the business by transparently communicating the organizational goals and aligning people with the business through effective performance management development and aggressive career development. EFL is a case study for others to emulate. This article of Srinivashan Iyer was published in January 2008 edition of Construction World Magazine. 20. Delegating for Results SRINIVASHAN IYER explains the thin line between managing and micro managing. Your role as a manager is to get work done from your people. Managing involves organizing projects, interfacing with internal and external clients, supervising and coaching the team and problem solving. You would have realized by now that it is easier to do the work yourself than getting it done from others. What do you do when you find that your people are struggling with a problem You can8217t stand and watch. You throw in your hat and steer your team every now and then. That8217s because the ultimate responsibility of doing a flawless work and that too within the deadline is your sole responsibility. Have you ever thought how, by being there for the team whenever they have a problem you are jeopardizing your time and the growth of your people There8217s a thin line between managing and micro-managing. And the earlier you realize it, the better. How do you know that you are micro-managing Simple. If your typical work day is spent more on solving problems of your team and your own work never gets completed, you are probably micro managing. If you have a huge chunk of work on your table while your team is often running out of work, you are micro managing. If you work on weekends while your team enjoys a good work-life balance, you are micro managing. Welcome to the realization. This is the first step towards enlightenment. You are paid to manage and not to micro-manage. You don8217t have to do all the work by yourself. And you won8217t be able to do it either. You need to delegate. Delegation is the art of getting things done. It involves trusting someone to accomplish a work by giving the person the necessary authority and making the person accountable for the results. Managers are not born with delegation skills. They need to be coached on why to delegate, what to delegate, how to delegate and how to monitor the delegated work. Companies like Black amp Veatch, Encube Ethicals, Voltas, Ion Exchange, Merck, RPG Life Sciences, Ceat and Garware regularly coach their managers on delegation skills. Most managers who are addicted to micro-managing have strong justifications for doing so. The most popular reason is 8220 nobody can do it as well as me8221 . These managers are perfectionists, though they hardly admit to be, and are happy doing things themselves. Delegation is about trusting your people and trusting their competence to do the work. If you are constantly hovering over their shoulders and breathing down their neck, you are sending a strong message that you don8217t trust your people and their decisions. If yours is going to be the last word in every decision, your people will feel frustrated and stop taking decisions. 8220 How do I delegate when I don8217t have a second line8221 was a question put to me by a senior manager in a delegation workshop. Well, it is difficult to delegate if you don8217t have a second line. But then, you will never build a second line unless you delegate. Delegation is about investing time to groom your people to take up more challenging tasks. There is also a vested interest in delegation. Unless your people are trained in doing their work, you will never be able to do your work. Unless you develop someone to take up your position, you can never aspire for higher promotions. Delegation is positive when a manager delegates challenging tasks to his team members and thus facilitates their development. Delegation can be a negative experience when managers insist on passing on unpopular tasks to their subordinates. Not all delegation is from the top. I often come across managers who are not assertive enough to get the work done. This results in them doing the work of their team members too. This is what I call a classic case of upward delegation. Some managers do delegate unwillingly. At the first instance of an error of omission or commission by their team member, they immediately take back the work. It is important for us to remember that most people do put in their best while trying to do a job. It8217s not to look good in the eyes of their superior. It is more to do with their pride and sense of achievement. They may not get it right the first time. This doesn8217t mean that they cannot be trusted to do the work. All it means that they need more training and coaching. When an employee doesn8217t achieve the desired result, he knows that he has not come up to your expectations. Highlighting the mistakes and ridiculing the person has an adverse impact on the employee8217s self esteem and may result in his not taking any initiative in the future. It is important therefore for the managers to recognize the efforts of their team members even when these efforts fall short of achieving the desired outcomes. The key to successful delegation lies in effective communication. While delegating, ensure that you explain the following: 183 What is the task 183 Why you are delegating it to the concern person 183 Where does the task fit in the objectives of your team 183 What is the deadline for completion of the job 183 What resources are available for completion of the job 183 What is in it for them I would rate the last point as the most critical. What is in it for me This is the question most employees have while a job is being delegated to them. If a manager can convincingly explain how taking up the new challenge is in the interest of the employee, he secures his buy-in. Once the employee takes the ownership of the job, he will come up with ways to do it well. There are two vital steps to effective delegation. The first step is Show the way . And the second step is Get out of the way. Tell your people what you want but don8217t insist that they do it your way. Once you delegate a job, keep it delegated. The more you delegate, the more you will have time for yourself, your family and your team members. Isn8217t it time you enjoyed a peaceful weekend Happy delegation SRINIVASHAN IYER reveals how MPower worked with the Cargo Service Center management to build High Performing teams. Organizations increasingly rely on teams to get work done. From the boardroom to the shop floor and the market place, it8217s all about the cohesiveness of teams and their alignment towards fulfilling corporate objectives. Yet most teams work at defeating purposes and the team members aren8217t happy working together. This is largely due to autocratic leadership styles, tendency to conform to 8216group think8217, diffusion of responsibility, absence of sense of belongingness and lack of ownership of team goals. Teams can overcome these factors through structured challenges. Out-Bound Training (OBT) is the most effective mode for imparting experiential learning. Kurt Lewin first propounded this approach in 1946. According to him, the three key tenets of the experiential approach to team learning are conversation space, role leadership and team development. Cargo Service Center India Pvt. Ltd. (CSC) was set up in 1994 to provide cargo-handling services to KLM Royal Dutch Airline. Today the company provides air cargo handling, warehousing and air cargo security to several leading airlines. CSC is hardly in the news. It keeps a low profile. And except for a handful of managers amp regional heads, the organization8217s workforce is made up of cargo handlers and supervisors who have grown from the ranks. In the last few years CSC, like any other company, has been through ups and downs - pressure on margins, business uncertainties, sudden change in Govt. policies et al. Radharamanan Panicker, CEO of CSC, wanted to change the mindset and the working culture of his people. We suggested that he try OBT to build high performing teams. Why Outbound Training These camps test the teamwork among the participants through challenging activities. During their endeavor to cope with unforeseen experiences, the latent personality of the team members come to the fore. Some members make an effort to forge bonds with fellow participants and soon the group becomes a team. The first phase of an OBT is the 8216Need Analysis8217. The objective of the camp needs to be clearly mapped. In the absence of a well-defined theme, an OBT could end up as a picnic. This could defeat the very purpose of the camp. Panicker felt that we should focus on breaking the silos, building bonds across all levels and inculcating leadership. It was also decided to reinforce the six core values of CSC i. e. Integrity amp honesty, Trust, Teamwork, Fun, Learning and Excellence. With this purpose, the duration of the camp, the venues and the participant profiles were drawn. Each of the 150 employees of the organization participated in 6 camps of two days each. A resort on the Delhi-Jaipur Highway and another at Matheran was booked. In the second phase of 8216 Program Development8217, the a ctivities amp events were chalked out, the itinerary was drawn and there was an agreed sign-off on the deliverables. The 8216 Delivery8217 phase included administering the activities, facilitation by the trainer, sharing of experiences by the participants and connecting the experiential learning to work situations by the trainer. Spider8217s Web and Obstacle Race were a few team-building games that tested the mettle of the teams in creating amp implementing the strategy amp working together. Leadership games like Marbleo and Blindfolded Square making revealed the leadership qualities and areas of improvement in the leaders. Adventure activities like Rappelling, Overhead Crawl, Jhummaring, and Commando Bridge were all about risk-taking, courage, planning and teamwork. The 8216Delivery8217 phase is critical since seemingly innocuous adventure sports can lead to minor injuries or even major accidents. The outbound activity specialists need to be duly certified for conducting adventure activities. They also need to be well versed in administering first aid. The gadgets have to be state-of-the art and stringent safety measures need to be adhered to. What differentiate a good OBT camp from other similar programmes are the briefing amp the debriefing. Unless the facilitators are trained psychologists who are experts in probing and drawing linkages from their observation of the team to work environment and desired behaviors, the camp wouldn8217t be successful. The OBT camps worked for CSC. Employees revisited why CSC was the most preferred vendor of its customers. There were other players who had better technology and better financial muscle. But what worked for CSC were its values and ethics. Silos were broken, the team spirit was revived and the passion to succeed and prove a point to their competitors was visible in the organization. Neither the long drive from Delhi to the Resort on Jaipur Highway after an early morning flight from Mumbai nor the hectic trek on a Sunday noon to Matheran could keep Panicker from attending the camps. He summed up every camp with a Welch style Workout meeting. He used these forums to spell out his vision and air the apprehensions of his people. Every team member had a right to ask questions and they exercised it pretty well. Panicker answered every question with honest answers. As I witnessed the bond between the CEO and the team, I was amazed by the difference one sincere and determined CEO can make. It8217s follow-up time for CSC now. Most companies that stop with the 8216Delivery8217 phase end up with a wow experience. What is needed is the last but most critical 8216Follow-up8217 phase. The feedback of the participants needs to be assessed to measure the learning from the camp. A proper impact analysis also needs to be conducted after the camp and further reinforcements in terms of training, on-the-job coaching and mentoring need to be structured to gain the best returns from an OBT camp. This article of Srinivashan Iyer was published in February 2008 edition of Construction World Magazine. 22. AN OBJECTIVE ANALYSIS SRINIVASHAN IYER gives an insight on the technique of Management by Objectives (MBO) and how it was successfully implemented at Tenneco Automotive India Pvt. Ltd. The primary goal of companies is profit. However, companies that focus only on profits operate on annual targets. This leads to compromising on long-term objectives, especially growth. The biggest challenge for organizations today is setting the right objectives and aligning all goals in the organization towards achieving these objectives. Management by Objectives (MBO) focuses on the result, not the activity. It is about setting the key organizational objectives and then breaking these down into more specific goals or key results. The aim is to increase organizational performance by aligning goals and subordinate objectives throughout the organization. Here is how Abhaya Shankar, Managing Director and Country Manager of the Hosur based Tenneco Automotive India Pvt. Ltd. steered his organization towards market leadership by practicing MBO. Tenneco Inc originally established its presence in India through a joint venture with Hydraulics Private Limited and later consolidated its position with 100 ownership, paving the path for integration and up-gradation, and for bringing in the necessary investments for the same. The first business objective for Abhaya and his team was holistic integration of the business, systems amp processes of the Indian business with the global operations. The process of integration with Tenneco Europe commenced in January 2006. Abhaya admits that it was an uphill task. He and his team decided to focus on basic processes and controls. While integrating these with the established practices of Tenneco Inc. the objective was to learn more and more from the global operations. Abhaya focused on shop floor practices and financial controls. The challenge was to train the new employees of the organization in these practices. The bigger challenge was to convince the old guards that times are changing and they need to unlearn old ways of doing things. Abhaya admits that the phase of change was very slow initially but once it gained momentum, change happened at a fast pace. For MBO to succeed, it is necessary that the objectives are communicated and cascaded from the boardroom to the shop floor. And every employee of the organization needs to be aware of his/her own role and responsibilities in achieving those aims. I feel the transparent communication and commitment of the core management team were two critical factors that helped Tenneco India to embrace MBO. At Tenneco, objectives are written down for each level of the organization, and individuals are given specific aims and targets. The principle behind this is to ensure that people know what the organization is trying to achieve, what their part of the organization must do to meet those aims, and how, as individuals, they are expected to help. The review mechanism enables leaders to measure the performance of their managers, especially in the key result areas: marketing innovation human organization financial resources physical resources productivity social responsibility and profit requirements. Tenneco is primarily into ride control products such as shock absorbers and struts. The company also makes emission Control products, like exhaust systems and catalytic converters. Abhaya realized that the company8217s products need to meet the requirements of the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM). These OEMs in turn, were the vendors to the automobile majors. The next major challenge was to identify the expectation of the OEMs, especially the global OEMs, who are establishing large production centers in India for manufacture of vehicles for both Indian and global markets. These OEMs required superior design and high quality levels at a low price. Abhaya came up with the idea of an organisational 8216Bubble Chart8217. This chart included specific strategies to cut costs and add more value to customer. One of the strategies was limiting the selling, distribution, administration and engineering costs. Managers were given the mandate to improve the gross margin and revenue targets. The focus was also on reducing interest cost and improving working capital turnover. Strategies are fine but they cannot be achieved in the absence of a clear roadmap. Hence the strategies were cascaded down into measures of effectives and efficiency. These included collecting money fast from the customers, negotiating better terms from the vendors and reducing the inventory costs. Tenneco8217s global growth strategies focuses on introduction of new products and technologies, and improving its presence high growth markets such as India, China, Russia, Thailand and Brazil. This translated into several key objectives for Tenneco India. Abhaya had to strengthen the local engineering capabilities, upgrade their manufacturing facilities to meet global standards and invest heavily in training and improving the skills of his employees as the part of the strategy to acquire market leadership in the region. Abhaya strongly believes that he has a dual advantage of operating from a best-cost country and leveraging its growing volumes for obtaining competitive pricing from suppliers. He and his team are now working with the objective of developing India as the best value manufacturing base for products as well as specialized capital equipments for Tenneco8217s expansion globally. Human Resources function in Tenneco is viewed as a 8216critical8217 business function and hence it is imperative that HR adds value to the business. The HR team at Tenneco is aligned fully to its business and has robust processes both at strategic and operational levels. One striking feature of MBO implementation at Tenneco is solving problems and finding creative solutions through teams. How is the team formed Abhaya ensures that the people who are most affected by the problem and who can influence it the most are on board. The teams are empowered to take operational decisions by themselves. Hence they have evolved into self-managed high performing teams. They need to revert to the organizational hierarchy only for major decisions that affect entire organisation like pumping in investments or changing the product design. MBO demands that managers in the organization need to strike a balance between management and employee empowerment. This calls for decentralization of authority. It8217s all about telling people what is to be done but letting them achieve it their own way. To make the principle work well, people need to be able to develop personally. Abhaya and his team will now need to focus more on decentralized organizational structure. This would mean that Abhaya himself spends considerable time on systems and talent management. Tenneco India needs to equip its managers to master five basic operations viz setting objectives, organizing the group, motivating and communicating, measuring performance and developing people including themselves. This article of Srinivashan Iyer was published in November 2007 edition of Construction World Magazine. 23. A Case For Care SRINIVASHAN IYER explains how internal customer care is an important prelude to external customer satisfaction. Most organizations proclaim fondly that all that they do is driven by their customers. There is an increased emphasis today on customer satisfaction and delight. When we think of customer service, we normally relate it with external customers. They are the ones who pay for our products or services. However, you just cannot satisfy the external customers if you don8217t take care of your internal customers. If the internal customer service is poor, sooner or later, the ripple effect reaches the external customers too. Who is an internal customer According to me, any person or department that depends on some other person or department in the organization to achieve its goals is an internal customer. Thus, the value chain is not complete without the internal customers. Vendors are the first link to the value chain which extends to the various departments of the organization, their internal customers and finally to the external customers. Voltas Limited is one organization that believes in the credo that effective customer care begins at home. The company recently organized workshops on internal customer care for its managers and employees. The workshop encouraged participants to share their experiences of being a customer. As the participants put themselves in the customers place and recounted their good and bad experiences, it provided a sound platform to drive home the principles of good customer service. The principles of good customer service apply to internal service as well. It all begins with understanding the customer. Most departments presume what their internal customers want. Some departments do ask their customers through a yearly feedback. But it is done more as a ritual. The workshop focused on how making assumptions could lead to poor internal customer service. We need to get inside our customers8217 heads and give them what they want versus what we think they want. The easiest way to do this is to ask questions. When was the last time you asked your internal customers if they were happy with you This question triggered a process of self-introspection among the participants. The workshop emphasized on treating internal customers at par with external customers. Just because a person or department is an internal customer doesn8217t mean that we give excuses to delay their work. Participants learnt that taking care of their internal customers allows them in turn to do their job, take care of another internal customer or take care of the external customers. Intensive brainstorming sessions and simulated role plays of actual work settings were effectively used to emphasize how to clearly define what the internal customer expects. Participants were grouped into teams and asked to brainstorm on the expectations of their internal and external customers. The teams also deliberated on how they would be rated by their customers on their past performances and delivering of promises. This exercise led to several insights among the participants. Some of the participants felt that they should start taking regular feedback from customers. A few participants also felt that it is necessary to do more than just fulfilling the needs of the customers. All the participants agreed that if they work on the areas of improvement suggested by their internal customers, it would also help them to achieve their own performance goals and improve the overall customer satisfaction index. Internal customer service can be measured by how well departments in an organization are helping other departments with their service, products or information and thus helping them cater to the external customers well. How the internal customers are cared for within an organization is an indicator of the responsiveness, quality, communication, morale and team work of an organization as a whole. There are organizations where managers of departments dread working on cross functional teams with other departments. There are also organizations where departments regard their internal customers as a nuisance and distraction from their work. The workshop emphasized that it is not a game of one-upmanship between departments. Internal customer care is about working together to create a win-win situation for the whole organization. The key focus of the workshop was to evolve an holistic approach to internal customer satisfaction and service and align strategies, processes and people across departments towards achieving this goal. The workshop emphasized that an internal customer who complains should be valued because unhappy internal customers are a great source of learning for the areas of improvement. The easiest way to build long and loving relationships with internal customers is to let them know that you are open to discussing their problems. Most internal customers want someone who can listen and empathize with them. Automated and standard responses put people off. Hence a personal and caring attitude shows your internal customers that you really care about them and their promises to external customers. The workshop also emphasized that it is ok to say sorry to your internal customers and acknowledge their problems. Being polite to the internal customers, answering their calls within two rings, promptly replying to their queries and going the extra mile to satisfy and exceed their expectations were some core principles taught in the workshop. Internal customer care is extremely important for the employees of the corporate office and support functions like finance and HR. For these functions all the employees of the organization are internal customers. It is important for the finance department to move beyond its control and statutory control paradigms to an attitude of supporting all the line managers through a good MIS. Similarly, the HR has to understand that if it doesn8217t take care of the people in the organization, they would not smilingly serve the external customers. Besides internal customer care training, I personally feel that the bonding between departments can be increased through joint picnics, off-sites and good cross functional induction to new employees. Yet another intervention would be to create project teams consisting of managers from different departments. For example a new product team could include managers from sales, marketing, production, RampD and quality. Job rotation among employees is also an excellent way to build bridges between departments. This article of Srinivashan Iyer was published in January 2009 edition of Construction World Magazine. 24. At The Helm SRINIVASHAN IYER shares how a leader can effectively bring about a change The prime difference between managers and leaders is that managers believe in status quo while leaders ride against the storm and bring about a metamorphosis in the organization. This is what happened at Cochin Shipyard too. Cochin Shipyard was conceived of in the year 1969 when a team surveyed various locations in India before selecting Cochin for the launch of the first Greenfield Ship building Yard in the country. It is now a fully owned Government of India company. In the last three decades the company has emerged as a forerunner in the Indian ship building amp ship repair industry. However, growth does not come without pain and challenges. Commodore Jitendran should know it better. Jitendran has been with Cochin Shipyard Ltd for the past six years. He took over as Chairman amp Managing Director in March, 2005. Prior to this, he was Director (Operations) of the organization. A Post Graduate in Naval Architecture from IIT, Kharagpur and St. Petersburg, he is a fellow Member of the Royal Institute of Naval Architects. However, leading for change wasn8217t easy for Jitendran. Cochin Shipyard was a mammoth organization and he had to teach the elephant to dance. The first major challenge before Jitendran was effective utilization of the capacity and available resources. Another prime challenge was to ensure consistent on-schedule delivery of quality ships. Shipbuilding is perceived as a dirty, difficult and dangerous manufacturing procedure. The job involves working at heights. Teams have to work in congested compartments and in huge steel structures using staging. Hence. awareness of safety, health and environment is mandatory. Quality consciousness is a key requirements at all the sites. Jitendran and his HR team realized that if the work has to progress at optimum momentum without any let up, the morale and motivation levels of the teams have to be high. Teambuilding interventions were initiated and the emphasis was on all teams using a disciplined approach and determination to achieve targets. Jitendran believes in empowering people. Each head is empowered to take all decisions with regard to his division. He also enjoys the necessary financial and budgetary powers. The heads of divisions and the managers of large departments are considered as the inner circle at Cochin Shipyard. They are invited to all the core management meetings and are party to all major decisions of the organization. Knowledge Management is valued most at Cochin Shipyard. Jitendran believes in the free flow of information. He is of the firm opinion that knowledge should be shared among team members. Any employee who withholds any information, intentionally or unintentionally, is liable for disciplinary action. Refusing to share knowledge is considered a crime. Thanks to these initiatives, the synergy among the team members has improved considerably at Cochin Shipyard. The teamwork was what helped the organization to carve out a separate division to cater to the needs of offshore oil projects. The Small Ship Division is an important wing of Cochin Shipyard today. Teams worked relentlessly and set several records including launching 5 ships simultaneously on the same day. Today, it8217s a matter of pride for all the employees of the yard that it has bagged several Performance Excellence Awards. The concept of teamwork has been extended by the employees, beyond the organizational boundaries, to forge partnerships with external agencies for capacity enhancement, overseas marketing and in the ship repair business. Technology being the prime driver in a globalized environment, innovation and diversification into new technology areas was also a major cause of concern. Some of the significant initiatives included augmentation of facilities, upgradation of the ship design department, installation of Tribon and CAD/CAM software and adoption of Integrated Hull Outfitting and Painting system of construction. These interventions have enabled the yard to reduce the average time of construction of large ships in the last few years. Jitendran also set for himself and his organization the vision to build the No.1 shipyard in this part of the world and facilitate the emergence of India as a dominant ship building and ship repair centre of the region. During his tenure in Cochin Shipyard, the yard has secured many prestigious global orders for shipbuilding. The organization has also bagged several high value orders in ship repair. More than 25 ships have been delivered in the last 5 years and more than 300 Indian and foreign ships, including oil rigs, were repaired or upgraded. The turnover of the yard has more than quadrupled in the last 4 years and is set to cross the 1000 crores mark this year. The shipyard is also constructing the India8217s first indigenous aircraft carrier, which is all set to be launched in 2010. Cochin Shipyard also trains graduate engineers into marine engineers who later join ships, both Indian and foreign, as 5th Engineers. Hundreds of engineers are trained every year at the yard. Jitendran believes that Cochin Shipyard8217s future lies in its people and he value them the most. According to him, there is a huge untapped knowledge base in the shipyard in various pockets and minds and his role is to try different methods of tapping this resource to find local solutions to almost all problems. Think global but act local is Jitendran8217s mantra of leadership. He believes in promoting healthy competition among divisions within the yard. He and his HR team have rationalized irksome procedures including travel and medical claims. A very vibrant reward and recognition scheme based on performance and execution has created a healthy environment in the yard.. Cochin Shipyard is an organization which recognizes that it is the Shipyard8217s professional, skilled and trained Human Resources that has been propelling it towards achievement of greater heights. The belief in the power of its people can be gauged from the HR Mission. The HR Mission of Cochin Shipyard is to provide a vibrant platform for all those working in the yard to give their best and ensure all round growth both for the individual and organization. The HR policies have been designed to build the right mix of human resources and empower them so as to meet the organizational objectives. This article of Srinivashan Iyer was published in December 2008 edition of Construction World Magazine. 25. Sach Ka Saamna SRINIVASHAN IYER reveals how organisations are using 360 degree feedback to groom their managers and create an open working culture. It8217s usual for managers to rate their subordinates. How about reversing the wheel How about asking your team members how good are you as a manager Constructive feedback is the key to development. But how many of us, especially in India, are ready for a Sach ka Saamna Simply put, 360 degree is a feedback mechanism wherein superiors, peers, subordinates and internal customers observe the behavior of a manager and give their feedback. In a formal appraisal system, most managers do get feedback from their superiors. When it comes to peers, often feedback is in the form of informal opinions aired over the coffee table. What 360 degree does is capture this feedback as a formal written document. If taking a formal feedback from peers is unnerving, asking your juniors to rate you calls for shedding all your inhibitions and ego as a manager. Expectedly so, most managers aren8217t comfortable being rated by their subordinates. However, it8217s an open secret that the most popular topic during lunch is 8216the boss8217. The boss is discussed around the vending machine, in the elevators and corridors and in hushed tones in office cubicles. Whether you like it or not, the favorite pastime of employees is to rate their bosses. 360 degree feedback, also known as full circle feedback or multi-rated feedback, provides structured framework to capture the perceptions of the subordinates about their boss by probing them on selective behaviors of their boss that are important to be aligned with the organizational vision and value. By doing so, 360 degree feedback creates a transparent working culture and reduces the informal grapevines. The moment of truth is the feedback from internal customers. Do managers understand the expectations of internal customers How good they come vis--vis the expectations Can internal customers trust their commitments to meet the deadlines All this and more is revealed through the 8216on-your-face8217 remarks of the customer in the 360 degree feedback. What is in it for the manager Why should he stand trial and go through the grilling experience of knowing the truth 360 degree feedback helps every manager to know his or her strengths and weaknesses. It provides valuable insights about how people perceive the manager and thus becomes the underpinning premise for professional development of the individual. What is in it for the organisation A well rounded objective feedback improves communication, dissolves conflicts, builds teams and creates an open working culture. 360 degree also leads to increased accountability both on the part of manager and the rates that assess him. The customer feedback leads to improvement in the responsiveness, speed, quality and reliability of internal customer service in the organization. The picture is not rosy as it seems. There is also a bad, and even ugly, side of the 360 degree appraisal system. Get the 360 degree feedback right and it will do wonders for your organization and the careers of your managers. But if you don8217t get it right, it will be one of the worst human resource disasters, from which you will take months and even years to recover. Don8217t introduce 360 degree just because your competitors are doing so. An enthusiastic HR manager who is impressed by attending a seminar on 360 degree appraisal or by reading a book cannot drive the change in the organization. You need to assess whether your organization has the culture and the capabilities to initiate and sustain a 360 degree appraisal. Like all change interventions, 360 degree feedback needs the support of the core management. Unless it originates from the board room, it cannot permeate to the cabins and cubicles. If you don8217t have an organizational vision and values, clear job descriptions and well defined competencies, it is better not to introduce 360 degree feedback. Why Because your organization is just not ready for it yet. Well, if you have all the above in place, the next step is to identify the raters. How are the raters chosen The concerned manager chooses his raters and so does the organization. The final list of raters is a mix of both, the criteria being people who interact frequently with the person receiving the feedback. And then you need to firm up the 360 degree criterias and questions relevant to your organization8217s unique needs. Sorry, cut and paste doesn8217t work here. What works wonderfully in one organization may fail miserably in another. It8217s also very important that you coach your people on how to give and receive constructive feedback. Beware of paralysis by analysis. Theconventional appraisal process requires just two people and one form. 360 degree feedback multiplies the number of raters, the organizational time that needs to be invested and the sheer paperwork. But yes, in the end it8217s worth all that and more. Resistance to 360 degree feedback is not uncommon. Maruti Udyog introduced 360 degree feedback for its managers only two years back. As more and more Indian organizations realize the immense potential of organizational transformation through 360 degree feedback, they are experimenting it a wide horizon of areas besides just performance appraisal. It8217s a strategic tool for leadership grooming and cultural transformation at Johnson amp Johnson. The Aditya Birla Group uses it to create a transparent and open work culture where employees can trust each other. At HSBC, 360 degree feedback facilitates employee development, career growth charting and succession planning while 360 degree feedback is a culture building initiative at NIIT. The Tata Group does not limit 360 degree feedback only for assessing the performance of it8217s managers. Even departments are assessed using this tool. Even the managing director8217s personal score card incorporates the 360 degrees appraisalful. The dynamic Tata Business Excellence Model (TBEM) requires all Tata companies to necccessarily have the 360 degree system in their organizations. Despite several organizations successfully using 360 degree feedback as an integrated part of the formal performance appraisal process, the debate on whether it would be worthwhile to delink the 360 degree feedback from decisions that affect incentives and promotions rages on. Maersk India Pvt Ltd. and AppLabs do use the 360 degree feedback extensilely but more as a development tool rather than for formal appraisal. Some of the other prominent organizations that use 360 degree feedback as a developmental tool include Wipro, lTC, Motorola, Smith Kline Beecham, Nokia, Shell (India), Philips, HCL and Star TV. Isn8217t it time you got your people to talk and share constructive feedback When should you start You can start anytime provide you do a reality check of your organizational preparedness and ensure that you get it right the first time. This article of Srinivashan Iyer was published in November 2009 edition of Construction World Magazine. srinivashaniyer. netSRINIVASAN IYER explains the benefits of HR outsourcing and how Weizmann Forex Ltd. makes the best of it. Mention outsourcing and itrsquos IT that comes to mind. However, organizations world over are increasingly relying on HR outsourcing. When Wezmann Forex Limited felt the need to have well-designed HR systems, policies and procedures, its Managing Director B. S. Shetty opted to rope in a leading HR consulting firm. Weizmann Forex Limited is a part of the Rs 7.5 billion Weizmann Group that has business interests in textiles manufacturing and exports, wind and hydro power generation, money changing, international money transfer and wealth management. The company has its registered office in Mumbai and corporate office in Bangalore with a network of 90 locations spread all over India. HR outsourcing, as is generally understood in India, is transactional outsourcing. Transactional outsourcing is hiving of the mundane daily activities like payroll processing, surveys, benefits administration, benchmark study and statutory compliance to an outside agency. These are services that fall at the lowest end of the value chain. However offloading transactions out of the company to the consulting firmrsquos office involves concerns about safety, security and confidentiality of the data. Shetty analyzed that his current team of HR executives could do the same in-house effectively. He therefore insisted that the consulting firm depute a senior HR professional as a retainer on-site. The retainer is on the payrolls of the consulting firm but reports administratively to Shetty. World over, HR outsourcing is more of a strategic outsourcing. Strategic HR outsourcing involves designing effective strategies and systems to attract, retain and groom the key talent of the organization. There are very few HR consulting firms in India who offer holistic HR services in terms of both strategic and transactional HR outsourcing. Shetty and the core management team of Weizmann chalked out their outsourcing needs clearly and engaged the services of a partner who had the expertise and the infrastructure to meet both their strategic and transactional needs. The consulting firm first conducted an organizational diagnostic survey. It had one-on-one discussions with Shetty and his core team at Weizmann Forex Ltd. It also met Chetan Mehra, the Managing Director of Weizmann Group and D. G. Siraj, the Vice Chairman of the Weizmann Group. Once the expectations of the key people were captured, the middle managers were administered a poll. The expectations mapping exercise was followed by a detailed study of the structure, systems and policies of the HR department. This study was the basis for defining the scope of work for the outsourcing services. Weizmann Forex started with just four branches. The company today has more than 800 employees spread over around 200 branches in India. From mere Western Union money transfer activities to global travel cards, selling insurance, mutual funds and wealth management, the company offers a wide spectrum of services. The business model of Weizmann was highly transactional in nature initially. Understandably so, the Human Resources department was mostly into transactional support, administrative work and benefits management. As the job profiles became more complex, Weizmann roped in senior professionals from banking and financial sector. Though there was an understanding about responsibilities, there was a need to clearly capture the roles, responsibilities, activities and the internal customer relationships in well structured job descriptions. The scope of the HR outsourcing services includes job description, mapping the competencies required for the positions and identifying the competency gaps in the current position holders. Attracting and retaining talent is a challenge for most organizations. Weizmann is no exception. Hence Shetty has outsourced recruitment, induction and performance appraisal to the HR consulting firm. The firm is responsible for preparing a recruitment manual that lays down the policies and procedures for recruitment. It will also coach the senior and middle managers of the organization on how to conduct effective interviews. Induction of new employees at Weizmann will now be done in a structured and scientific manner as laid down in the induction manual designed by the HR consulting firm. The consulting firm has been asked to capture the organizational and individual needs in terms of performance management. It will then study the current performance management system and benchmark the same vis-agrave-vis the needs. Revamping the performance management system, redesigning the performance appraisal forms, coaching the managers on goal setting and how to effectively conduct performance appraisals falls under the gamut of HR outsourcing service of the consulting firm. An audit of the effectiveness of the HR services will also be independently conducted by the firm at the end of the year. Designing systems is fine. But how do we ensure that the systems are implemented effectively Thatrsquos the role of the retainer. He will work closely with the business heads to recruit the right candidates. Ensuring that the new employees are properly inducted into the organization is also his role. He will also identify the training needs and prepare the training calendar. His job profile also includes ensuring adherence by employees to the disciplinary norms, coordinating performance appraisals and conducting exit interviews. In order to ensure the confidentiality, both the Consulting Firm and its Retainer have signed a non-disclosure agreement. What if the company is not happy with the services of the Retainer Alternatively, what if the retainer wants to quit the job The agreement provides that the consulting firm has to provide a free replacement within 15 working days. Most organizations can survive without a great HR department focusing only on the operational and cost aspects of HR. The HR function is more amorphous in these companies than the other departments and the impact is felt not in the short term but in the achievement of the organizationrsquos long term vision and mission. HR outsourcing at Weizmann was more a strategic intervention than an operational imperative. The expectations of CEOs from HR is now not restricted to delivering high quality, fast, accurate and cost effective services. What is needed today are not the transaction processors but Chief People Officers. It makes business sense to engage the experts in this field. Strategic HR outsourcing does not mean loss of control on the part of the CEO. In fact, Shetty is today more in control of the HR function at Weizmann. Itrsquos only that he has a strategic partner who works with him closely to meet the people needs of his organization for today, tomorrow and years to come.
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