tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31539625107173428272024-03-13T21:01:13.632-07:00FJB's Management LessonsFJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13857856361460718074noreply@blogger.comBlogger27125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3153962510717342827.post-83661899021953656832023-02-22T20:05:00.002-08:002023-02-22T20:05:33.809-08:00Technical differences between 4G and 5G networks<p> Learned the following points today from ChatGPT</p><p><b>1. Speed: </b>5G is designed to be much faster than 4G. While 4G networks have theoretical download speeds of up to 100Mbps, 5G networks can deliver download speeds of up to 20Gbps.</p><p><b>2. Latency:</b> 5G has much lower latency than 4G. Latency is the time it takes for data to travel between devices. 5G networks have latency as low as 1 millisecond, while 4G networks typically have a latency of around 30-50 milliseconds.</p><p><b>3. Frequency bands:</b> 5G uses higher frequency bands than 4G. This allows for faster data transfer rates and more capacity, but it also means that 5G signals have a shorter range and are more easily blocked by obstacles like buildings and trees.</p><p><b>4. Network architecture:</b> 5G networks are designed to be more flexible and scalable than 4G networks. 5G networks use a cloud-based architecture that allows for easier network upgrades and greater network agility.</p><p><b>5. Spectrum efficiency:</b> 5G is more spectrum efficient than 4G, which means that it can transmit more data using less bandwidth. This is important because there is a limited amount of radio spectrum available, and 5G will need to share that spectrum with other wireless technologies.</p><p><b>6. Multi-connectivity:</b> 5G offers better multi-connectivity than 4G. This means that 5G devices can be connected to multiple networks at the same time, such as 5G, 4G, Wi-Fi, and even satellite networks.</p><p><b>7. Network slicing:</b> 5G introduces a new concept called network slicing, which allows network operators to create virtual networks that are optimized for specific use cases, such as smart cities, autonomous vehicles, and industrial IoT.</p>FJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13857856361460718074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3153962510717342827.post-1230569451676915852023-02-21T11:40:00.000-08:002023-02-21T11:40:13.519-08:00Cracking through the tough times<p>Blog prompt by: FJB </p><p>Blog written by: ChatGPT</p><p><span style="background-color: #f7f7f8; color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; white-space: pre-wrap;">As the saying goes, tough times never last, but tough people do. The corporate world is no exception to this rule. The recent economic downturns, global pandemics, and other crises have put many businesses on the brink of collapse. However, there are always opportunities to survive and even thrive during tough times. In this blog, we'll explore some practical tips for corporate readers on how to survive in tough times.</span></p><ol style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: #f7f7f8; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; counter-reset: item 0; display: flex; flex-direction: column; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 1.25em 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1rem; white-space: pre-wrap;"><li style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0.375em;"><b>Stay positive and motivated</b></li></ol><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: #f7f7f8; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; margin: 1.25em 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The first step to surviving tough times is to maintain a positive attitude. It is natural to feel overwhelmed, stressed, or anxious in difficult situations. However, it is important to focus on the positives and keep motivated. As a leader, it is essential to inspire your team and keep them motivated. Share positive news, celebrate small wins, and keep your team informed of your progress.</p><ol start="2" style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: #f7f7f8; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; counter-reset: item 0; display: flex; flex-direction: column; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 1.25em 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1rem; white-space: pre-wrap;"><li style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0.375em;"><b>Review and adjust your business strategy</b></li></ol><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: #f7f7f8; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; margin: 1.25em 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;">In times of crisis, it is important to revisit your business strategy and adjust it to the new circumstances. Analyze your strengths and weaknesses, identify new opportunities, and focus on your core competencies. Consider diversifying your business or exploring new markets or products. Be prepared to make difficult decisions and implement changes quickly.</p><ol start="3" style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: #f7f7f8; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; counter-reset: item 0; display: flex; flex-direction: column; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 1.25em 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1rem; white-space: pre-wrap;"><li style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0.375em;"><b>Cut costs and optimize your resources</b></li></ol><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: #f7f7f8; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; margin: 1.25em 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tough times call for tough decisions. To survive, businesses must review their expenses and cut costs wherever possible. Look for areas where you can reduce expenses, renegotiate contracts, or consolidate operations. Focus on optimizing your resources, including your employees, technology, and processes. Consider outsourcing or using freelancers to reduce labor costs.</p><ol start="4" style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: #f7f7f8; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; counter-reset: item 0; display: flex; flex-direction: column; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 1.25em 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1rem; white-space: pre-wrap;"><li style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0.375em;"><b>Communicate with stakeholders</b></li></ol><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: #f7f7f8; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; margin: 1.25em 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;">During tough times, it is essential to maintain good communication with your stakeholders, including your customers, suppliers, and investors. Be transparent about your situation, share your plans, and keep them informed of your progress. Show empathy and understanding towards their concerns, and be open to feedback and suggestions. Building strong relationships with your stakeholders can help you weather the storm and emerge stronger.</p><ol start="5" style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: #f7f7f8; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; counter-reset: item 0; display: flex; flex-direction: column; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 1.25em 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1rem; white-space: pre-wrap;"><li style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0.375em;"><b>Stay agile and flexible</b></li></ol><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: #f7f7f8; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; margin: 1.25em 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Finally, one of the most important ways to survive in tough times is to stay agile and flexible. Be prepared to adapt to changing circumstances, pivot your business model, and embrace new technologies. Stay informed of industry trends, monitor your competition, and be ready to seize new opportunities when they arise.</p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: #f7f7f8; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; margin: 1.25em 0px 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;">In conclusion, surviving in tough times requires resilience, creativity, and hard work. By staying positive and motivated, reviewing your business strategy, cutting costs, communicating with stakeholders, and staying agile and flexible, you can navigate through difficult times and emerge stronger. Remember, tough times never last, but tough people do.</p>FJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13857856361460718074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3153962510717342827.post-38422710466369287752021-10-04T18:18:00.001-07:002021-10-04T18:18:06.384-07:00Just Be Yourself<p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"> "We were just discussing in the staff room, and we all feel inspired by you!" said the IIM-A professor in my one to one interaction with him at the end of the Management Development course I was attending.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">I was flabbergasted. I was at the premier management institute in India and here to be inspired by the greats. Why were they saying they were inspired by me? As he went on to enunciate what he meant, I realized that all you have to do to inspire people around you is just be yourself.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">One incident that stuck in his mind was how I returned to the hostel one day at 5.30 am and met him while he was on his morning walk. He was convinced I would not make it to the 8.30 am class that day, but did not say anything. Yet, there I was at 8.30, after a short power nap in my room, on the front bench, keeping my eyes open and participating in the class. For me, it was nothing out of the usual. It was the month of Ramadan and that was a night long prayer session that I had attended in the last week of the holy month. Something I had been doing all my life, ever since I can remember.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">That made me realize that you do not have to do super human feats to inspire people. The only thing you need to do is just be yourself. Your daily routine, your work ethics, your philosophy of life, which you consider as an ordinary thing, may be something inspirational for someone else. Just be there for people. That is sometimes enough.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">This is also a great step towards self acceptance. We all have some flaws, but it is important to focus on the positive things we do. That is most likely what we also project to people around us. You don't need to be perfect. Just being real is enough. If we are true to ourselves, that itself could be a shining light for someone.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">When approached for advice, we may even feel internally - am I qualified to advise someone on this? What is important is maybe just to listen to people. It is possible that all they needed to come to a decision was to verbalize the problem and options.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">You might be surprised at the difference you make doing regular things. Just showing up consistently to your various routines makes the world go around with better vibes than it would have without you.</span></p>FJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13857856361460718074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3153962510717342827.post-78924461824665350172016-02-26T23:01:00.001-08:002016-02-26T23:01:50.844-08:00The difference between 'Giving Up' and 'Letting Go'<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #232629; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32px;">The pursuit of goals often blinds us to all else happening around us. It is like driving down a highway at max speed where your line of vision is restricted to just the lane markers going by. Such unsustainable effort in one direction will only lead to a burn out or a crash. </span><br />
<span style="color: #232629; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32px;">How do you 'clean up' your old goals, desires, passions and what is the difference between 'Giving Up' and 'Letting Go'?</span><br />
<span style="color: #232629; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 32px;">Read the complete blog on </span><span style="color: #232629; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 32px;">https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/difference-between-giving-up-letting-go-fakhruddin-bandukwala?trk=pulse_spock-articles</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #232629; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 32px;"><br /></span></span></div>
FJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13857856361460718074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3153962510717342827.post-32592810417150041882016-02-16T06:49:00.000-08:002016-02-16T06:49:37.233-08:00Learning Win-Win from a waiter in Thailand<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I was in Bangkok for a business meeting with a European client on the sidelines of a conference. We met in the lobby of the five star hotel. This was more than a decade back and smoking bans in public places were not yet ubiquitous. The client fished out a cigarette and as the waiter was serving us coffee, he asked as a formality, "Can I smoke?". <br />
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Read what happens next on my linked in post - <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/learning-win-win-from-waiter-thailand-fakhruddin-bandukwala?trk=mp-author-card">https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/learning-win-win-from-waiter-thailand-fakhruddin-bandukwala?trk=mp-author-card</a><br />
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FJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13857856361460718074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3153962510717342827.post-17736082003283695842016-02-05T21:51:00.002-08:002016-02-16T06:32:40.775-08:00Changing mind-set for Agility using Scrum<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Adopting agility and scrum in IT projects is more about changing mind-sets. The practices and processes will follow. If your organization is moving from waterfall to scrum you will mostly find the Project Managers are renamed to Scrum Masters and work carries on as usual. This renaming is not enough. <br />
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Read the complete blog on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/changing-mind-set-agility-using-scrum-fakhruddin-bandukwala?trk=hp-feed-article-title-like">https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/changing-mind-set-agility-using-scrum-fakhruddin-bandukwala?trk=hp-feed-article-title-like</a><br />
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FJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13857856361460718074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3153962510717342827.post-73647226943544941962014-01-02T01:48:00.001-08:002016-02-16T06:30:54.042-08:00Move over Big Data - LCD is here<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
So, LCD is an acronym for Little Connected Data. I have been fascinated by the perception changes caused by connecting little bits of data. The uncovering of these new meanings in little data can lead to huge insights in customer behavior in a local, social, online or offline setting. Something which Big Data endeavors to reproduce by looking in a similar manner at huge amounts of data.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijuoDsNlMb9opMGV-glne22euaKpsoPKuuLciFWZ192JSPTPdyxVAxhYsEdl3dBNbhWv2FR_ZFRwuD5BdJJbvV7hGXZZqSIYKQkRqhzceWdYI1mLrEUjlorR3neD5QFtVIe0JBJNU-HRY/s1600/lcd1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Little Connected Data" border="0" height="287" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijuoDsNlMb9opMGV-glne22euaKpsoPKuuLciFWZ192JSPTPdyxVAxhYsEdl3dBNbhWv2FR_ZFRwuD5BdJJbvV7hGXZZqSIYKQkRqhzceWdYI1mLrEUjlorR3neD5QFtVIe0JBJNU-HRY/s400/lcd1.jpg" title="Big Data" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Big Data or Little Connected Data?</td></tr>
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Read the complete blog on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/move-over-big-data-lcd-here-fakhruddin-bandukwala?published=t">https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/move-over-big-data-lcd-here-fakhruddin-bandukwala?published=t</a><br />
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FJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13857856361460718074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3153962510717342827.post-72139982793889328772013-09-20T22:51:00.000-07:002013-09-30T07:30:17.095-07:00The utility of consensus<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
When teams choose to work together they need to commit to the betterment of the team leading in consequence to a betterment of their individual situations. This commitment towards the best interests of the team is what leads to teamwork and is a key element for achieving consensus.<br />
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Earlier I had written about situations where it is <a href="http://fjb-mgmt-class.blogspot.in/2012/02/futility-of-consensus.html" target="_blank">futile to seek consensus</a>. When it is necessary to take some quick, hard decisions, a tough leader (think Welch, Jobs etc.) has no business building consensus. But tough times don't last and crisis is not an everyday phenomenon. If it is, then it is better to take a hard close look at your business model and dynamics.<br />
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In Business As Usual times it is far more advantageous to actively build consensus as part of your leadership strategy. While in the previous article we saw a study of <a href="http://fjb-mgmt-class.blogspot.in/2012/02/futility-of-consensus.html" target="_blank">futility of consensus</a>, let us examine here the utility of consensus.<br />
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<li><b>Write your own lottery ticket</b> - When your team decides what they want to do, instead of being told what to do, they have a personal stake in the outcome. As a leader your job is to lay out the larger vision, while letting the team carve out the mission for themselves. <a href="http://blogs.hbr.org/2012/04/increase-your-teams-motivation/" target="_blank">Writing your own lottery ticket</a> was an experiment performed in studying human behavior. In this experiment, half the room was given printed lottery tickets while half the room was given blank papers and asked to write their own random six digits to make up a lottery. Before drawing the results, the researchers tried to buy back the lottery tickets by bidding for them. Guess what? The people who had written their own numbers were more reluctant (five times more reluctant as per <a href="http://blogs.hbr.org/2012/04/increase-your-teams-motivation/" target="_blank">the research</a>) to part with their tickets, even though they had exactly the same probability of winning the jackpot as those who had been given printed numbers. </li>
<li><b>A convinced team is a committed team</b> - Even where the leaders like Jobs or Welch were seen to be autocratic in their approach, they had a larger than life reputation preceding them, which made teams want to tag along with their decisions. This conviction of the team in your abilities cannot always be presumed by all leaders. A bad year or a failed business decision is likely to erode your dictatorial powers pretty quickly. We had Groupon CEO Andrew Mason stepping down on the back of a ruining financial quarter and plunging share prices. In his open letter to employees he says "... <span style="background-color: white; color: #4e5860; font-family: 'FF Tisa'; font-style: italic; line-height: 28.15px;">My biggest regrets are the moments that I let a lack of data override my intuition on what’s best for our customers."</span> That says it all, doesn't it?</li>
<li><b><i>Et tu Brutus!</i></b> - You may be able to pull rank on your team and get them to agree to certain decisions. You cannot make them deliver the success you envisioned if you had the super human capabilities of carrying out all the actions themselves. An unwilling team led into a battle they are not sure they will win, or even want to win, will either desert the ranks or find ways of sheltering themselves by simply going through the motions. It is far better to have the team solidly behind your ideas by listening to them and adapting the plans to what the team feels is the best way to achieve success. That buy in from the team, while costly in terms of timelines and compromises to the original goal, is what will guarantee a do or die attitude to achieving the goals the team has set for themselves. </li>
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One of the pitfalls to avoid is <i>faux-consensus</i>. This is a false feeling of consensus based on team's sign offs on paper while in reality, doubts still linger. Often leaders will get teams into a room and lay out the <i>'what'</i> they want to achieve and ask the team to come with <i>'how'</i> they will achieve it. Larger teams often are broken into cross functional groups and asked to brainstorm on the <i>'how'</i>. What emerges is a purely academic exercise with no clear ownership or buy in for the action items assigned to this team.<br />
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What is necessary is for the team to first deliberate on the <i>'what'</i> agree on a common imperative they all feel is worth achieving. If this goal can be signed off by the team with commitments of timeline and individual ownership towards goal breakdown items, the <i>'how'</i> can be left to the teams to work out over time as they proceed working on the goal.<br />
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It is to be noted that majority agreement is not consensus. Consensus is when everyone agrees to the common goal. This means arriving at a solution where diverse views and agendas have been addressed everyone feels there is something for him in the end result. Such a result is indeed likely to be robust and may turn out to be far better than the original idea.<br />
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FJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13857856361460718074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3153962510717342827.post-70309826296684043212013-07-23T23:25:00.000-07:002013-09-30T07:30:30.369-07:00An Agile Journey<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I will be speaking at the <a href="http://scrumgatheringindia.in/speakers/" target="_blank">Scrum Gathering India</a> in Pune this Friday - 26th June 2013, about the components of a successful agile journey based on my experiences in Agile and Scrum. It will be exciting to address this gathering after two years of conducting Agile and Scrum Fundamental classroom training and hope to bring forth a view from the accomplishments of scrum projects executed.<br />
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My session is part of the 'Scrum Accomplished - Inspire 3' track from 1230 to 1330.<br />
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The discussion will cover Agile Maturity Models assessing readiness of organizations to be agile, the various metrics and more interestingly the non-metrics used to get a view of where we are and where we want to be on the agile journey.<br />
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How to select projects for scrum at various stages of the journey and finding the secret sauce for successful scrum forms part of the agenda. This is topped up with a discussion around the Scrum values and how we can relate to them in our quest.</div>
FJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13857856361460718074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3153962510717342827.post-40831369738603644562013-07-14T18:44:00.000-07:002018-05-19T14:27:41.410-07:00Have you the courage of your convictions?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Having the courage of your convictions .... <em>(def.) saying or doing what (you think) is right even when others disagree</em><br />
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We set out on our goals and missions with great ideas and visions. Few of us end up reaching our destination as we end up being waylaid by naysayers, distractors and obstacles. Having the courage of our convictions is what leads us through. The ingredients necessary to build this courage is passion, determination and perseverance.<br />
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Courage, or the lack of it, is built and demonstrated in small, daily actions. There is no need for a big show of 'Joan of Arc'-ish behavior to display courage. Believing in what is right as per you and staying on the course to see it happen takes a lot of small steps.<br />
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The courage of your convictions is very personal to 'you' and hence is uniquely interpreted by each one differently. The added emphasis with parenthesis above is meant to focus on 'what you think' is right. There is no one definition of what is right and what is wrong. One man's meat is another man's poison. Hence one's belief of right and wrong depends completely on their own moral upbringing, childhood experiences and environmental circumstances of tolerance and justice.<br />
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I am not advocating sticking to one's dogmatic beliefs and not tempering our views of right and wrong as our experiences mature. Our beliefs and thoughts are dynamic and our actions would be remodeled as we uncover new experiences and beliefs.<br />
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Speaking is one of the biggest fears people face. Speaking up - even more so. People think they are avoiding trouble by falling in line. We are only inviting greater problems by not speaking up at the appropriate time. If what we are doing does not fit in with the core values of who we are, then this inner conflict will surface in some form or other.<br />
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Having done the right thing would rather put us at peace with ourselves first, put a sense of purpose in what we are doing and make us succeed in much larger proportions.<br />
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FJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13857856361460718074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3153962510717342827.post-11269401560716722212013-03-08T01:49:00.000-08:002013-03-08T01:51:04.284-08:00Hard Work, Smart work, Inspired Work - Part II<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
In <a href="http://fjb-mgmt-class.blogspot.in/2013/03/hard-work-smart-work-inspired-work-part.html">Part I</a> of this article we examined the characteristics of Hard work and Smart work. Let us take a look at how to up the ante and level up to inspired work.<br />
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A great quote I found in <a href="http://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/the-8-qualities-of-remarkable-employees.html">Jeff Haden's article</a> says "Great employees follow process. Remarkable employees find ways of making those processes better, not because they are expected to, but because they just can't help it."</div>
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While hard work and smart work have their measures of productivity, is it really possible to accurately measure the hours that went into creating a vision or idea? Inspirational works of art, music, drama seem to come into being as though by sheer magical. The aura and influence that truly inspirational ideas create are indeed described in terms like 'out of this world'. However, there is much truth behind Edison's words and these geniuses and inspired masters indeed are often toiling away and burning the candle at both ends before revealing the fruits of their labor onto a mesmerized world. There would be tons of reading and calculations which would have gone into creating the Eureka moment. What sets the genius apart from the hard worker and smart worker which enables him to perform inspired work? </div>
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<a href="http://scrum.jeffsutherland.com/">Jeff Sutherland</a> states in his <a href="http://scrum.jeffsutherland.com/2013/02/work-less-get-more-done.html">blog</a> that one can actually be more productive by working less! He quotes a Florida State University study which found that our bodies work in short sprints of 90 minutes. The study concluded from observing "elite musicians, artists and chess players that the best performers typically practice in uninterrupted sessions that last no more than 90 minutes. They begin in the morning, take breaks in between sessions, and rarely work more than four and half hours in any given day." </div>
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Applied to the work place, this can be used to maximize productivity, creativity and innovation. In any typical day, whether you spend 8 hours at office or 16 hours, your actual productive hours will be rarely more than 5-6 hours when you get some work done. Point to note here is that checking your mails, attending calls, planning your holiday, catching up on your reading and filing reports to your boss does not count as work, just because you do it at your office desk. Work is what adds value to the organization in achieving its key goals. After removing these non-work activities if you still find yourself doing 5-6 hours of 'work work' in a day, you are a truly remarkable gem and a rarity indeed.</div>
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For those engaged in thought leadership or creative or strategic fields, the 90 minute sprint makes great sense. I find it effective to file away this category of work into my subconscious (and of course my notepad :)) and let it mull over while I get going with the routine. When the time comes, I find a lot of ideas accumulated on the subject and one just needs to sort them out, find the logical order and communicate them in a comprehensible manner. This can be often be achieved in the less than 90 minute sprint. On the contrary, working long hours on deadlines constantly, leads to sub-optimal work produced. We end up ignoring the mind's state of alertness or fatigue and relentlessly keep going against a dead end. The shorter sprint also brings focus in your work. The curse of creativity is that there are always too many ideas floating around your mind and you don't know which one to work on. The short period forces you to focus on what you can do now and here and this way you accomplish more with less. </div>
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This series of the blog was written in less than 90 minute work periods. :)</div>
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FJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13857856361460718074noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3153962510717342827.post-54564163211444393482013-03-03T01:59:00.002-08:002013-03-03T01:59:49.125-08:00Hard Work, Smart Work, Inspired Work - Part I<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">One will find hard work and smart work very prevalent in most organizations. There will be cases indeed where smart work will replace hard work, thus bringing in productivity, efficiency and all the gains of not doing unnecessary and non-value add tasks.
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Hard work does not distinguish the value of the work. It is mostly concerned with the volume of work. If something needs doing, it will be done by sheer brute force, if need be. Manual labour, data entry, accounting and audit related record keeping are instances where hard work thrives and is rewarded. Hard work recognizes heroics of individual persistence. You will find energetic hard workers jump in to help their over-whelmed colleagues regardless of their role. Motivation for hard workers can be external or internal. Carrot and stick routines of motivation work best when one intends to extract hard work. Qualities that are appreciated in hard workers are punctuality, reliability, stamina for slogging into late hours. Vision or direction is usually left to managers and supervisors while work is left to workers. This leads to a thriving command and control structure. Edison's quote - "Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety nine percent perspiration" is often the guiding mantra for hard workers. Edison indeed practiced what he preached, working more than 20 hours a day on his inventions, his 1093 patents a testimony to his efforts.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">There is a different school of thought on the other hand that tends to side with Oscar Wilde who said "Hard work is the refuge of people who have nothing to do". It is a well established fact that work expands to fill the time available. Time can also be replaced with resources including finances available as can be seen from the spend of many governments who are able to boost economic activity by pumping quantum heaps of monetary instruments into the system.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Smart work starts with prioritizing and time management. Important tasks are actively sought while trying to minimize urgent tasks. Smart work seeks out inefficient processes and continuously tweaks them to weed out non-value add steps. Automation is often the simplest of strategies for doing work smartly, but it doesn't stop at that. There is a recognition that all automation is not smart and even automated processes can stimulate hard work syndrome. Creativity and flexibility are the hall marks of smart work. Motivation for smart work comes from the feeling of satisfaction in making something better than it was. Smart work aligns itself to the organization's goals. People in this category are eager to learn, asking questions and challenging the status quo. Organizations where smart work thrives generally have flat hierarchies and open cultures which encourage not just following the process but questioning the process as well. Risk taking is generally higher and it is considered ok to fail sometimes in the quest for smarter solutions. Work life balance is also an important consideration and the goal is to ensure getting more benefits out of less efforts. Thus instead of a hard working 16 hours, a smart output of 8 hours is considered to have generated higher value for the organization.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>... To be concluded in Part II (Inspired Work)</b></span></div>
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FJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13857856361460718074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3153962510717342827.post-57623489704121376202013-01-24T01:19:00.001-08:002016-02-26T23:48:58.258-08:00Gamification of the workplace<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: black; display: inline; float: none; letter-spacing: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Social apps and games are today omnipresent and you can see people engaged in one or the other of these activities while traveling, waiting at airports or generally filling up their free time. Some <a href="http://www.facebook.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">facebook</a> updates even show people climbing various levels or achieving new powers when they are supposed to be at work. :) The levels of engagement that gaming is able to generate got me thinking on how to harness the same levels of energy and engagement and apply it in work scenarios. I pondered on a few attributes which enables the gaming industry to keep people occupied for long hours on end. </span><br />
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Read more on my linked in blog - <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/gamification-workplace-fakhruddin-bandukwala">https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/gamification-workplace-fakhruddin-bandukwala</a> about how the concepts of the gaming industry can be applied to the workplace.<br />
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Introducing these concepts into the workplace would of course have impacts on <a href="http://fjb-mgmt-class.blogspot.in/2011/02/redundancy-of-hierarchies.html" target="_blank">hierarchies</a> and <a href="http://fjb-mgmt-class.blogspot.in/2011/03/new-wave-business-process.html" target="_blank">processes</a>.<br />
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Is it possible to apply these principles to lead to a 'gamification' of the workplace leading to an enhanced sense of ownership and higher engagement levels? Would love to hear your feedback.</div>
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FJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13857856361460718074noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3153962510717342827.post-48244736204419838802012-09-15T11:33:00.002-07:002016-09-15T16:03:49.225-07:00Next Wave Strategy for Indian IT Industry<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";">I felt honoured to be a part of the panel discussions on Indian IT Industry at Communique 12 organized by Symbiosis in Pune. <a href="http://www.sitm.ac.in/International_tele_seminar_Communique.asp"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">http://www.sitm.ac.in/International_tele_seminar_Communique.asp</span></a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";">The viewpoints put forth by me covered how Indian IT can move towards a product based model as opposed to a people based revenue model, challenges to Innovation and opportunities for diversification.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><strong>Moving towards a Product oriented model</strong></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial";">We can take some lessons from what made the services model such a huge success for Indian IT Industry</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial";">It was no doubt a perfect example of private initiative backed by government policy which made IT in India a priority sector</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial";">IT in India is engaged in the services model by design since the IT policy in the mid-1980s stressed on Electronics and Software as a solution for unemployment</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">That policy definitely succeeded as we see the number of people in India today employed in this sector with education institutes churning out almost 400k candidates in the market every year</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">There are indeed IT companies in US one example which comes to mind which generate $700 mn revenues with less than 50 people</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">This model may not be suitable for India. It may be great for one or two companies but in the larger national interest of serving the lowest of the low, the utility of this model in really helping India raises more questions than it answers.</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"></span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">Putting the social aspects aside, let us see how do we make this model work for moving to a product based model</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial";">There are several challenges which <span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">have prevented this model from being adopted so far</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial";">We are often found lacking in India in </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">terms of facilities and infrastructure required to encourage product based model</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">It is indeed easier for me, sitting here in India, to register a company in Delaware US and get a server procured and installed in a US data center rather than India</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"></span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">Existing product expertise is sitting on foreign shores. Indian IT has excelled in the routine, but when it comes to core product architecture issues we need to depend on outside expertise</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial";">N<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">o doubt Indian IT has resourceful manpower. This manpower is dedicated and career oriented and has a focus on self development.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">But this mindset may not augur well for innovation and product creation. To innovate you need a maverick and not a career climber</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">From a policy point of view, we need to encourage this product expertise to come and reside in India. Existing product innovators among organizations should feel encouraged to set up India based Product Innovation and Development Centers. Mind you, not just Offshore Development Centers where you hire code jockeys while retaining the architecture skill set in home country but Product Innovation and Development Centers where product is created from the ground up in India</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">In order to get the government think tank on the job of how to make India a home for Product Innovation and Development, they must be made to see what is in it for India. Industry need to go back with the answer on how does becoming a product development center instead of a services based industry which generates employment for millions, really favor India?</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">This thinking about Indian interests has to become foremost for Indian IT industry which can then result in directional changes in policy to make product based model a success as the services based model has done.</span></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><strong>Innovation</strong></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial";">We touched upon the manpower resourcefulness and mindsets required for innovation.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial";">For innovation to succeed there has to be a tolerance for failure (1/3000 ideas are successful)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial";">India is a nation in a hurry. We are playing catch up with the rest of the world. We feel that 40 years of socialism has left us behind. What we are seeing happening in society today is an acknowledgement of the existence of a better way of life and an awakening and a revolution of the masses towards the need for a better life.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial";">In this social milieu of speed and change, we have to see where innovation fits in. Innovation cannot exist by itself. Innovation has to fulfill a need. Innovation is made successful not by the innovator but by the users.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial";">For organization be innovative, we have to realize that innovative organizations are made up of innovative individuals. </span><span style="font-family: "arial";">While the organization can provide a platform for individuals to innovate, it can also result in shackles for innovation.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial";">Organizational innovation programs are often linked to corporate imperatives plans, markets for growth. There is limited scope for a philanthropic approach to innovation within organizations.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial";">Individuals can also be organized. Individuals can be agile. Individuals can be innovative. Most innovation comes out of garages rather than corporate R&D labs.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial";">What organizations can do is provide a platform for innovation. They cannot attempt to control innovation and can perhaps channelize innovation by setting up the right environment, posing the right questions, encouraging risk taking thus empowering the innovators.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial";">Organizations can ENABLE while leaving it to individuals to ENACT</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial";">Organizations also need to think in terms of what are the right measures for innovation - investment and resources spent or ideas nurtured, patents filed.</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: "arial";"><strong>Diversification and geographical growth</strong></span><br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="font-family: "arial";">I will acknowledge the work of Prof Rupa Chanda from IIM-B for the next section where I pick up three themes for diversification, very roundly covered in her article - US protectionism - An opportunity in disguise? <a href="http://www.iimb.ernet.in/newsletter/issues/97">http://www.iimb.ernet.in/newsletter/issues/97</a></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial";">The need for diversification comes from saturation of existing markets, economic slowdown and protectionist measures adopted by countries. The situation described for the US applies as well for any other countries adopting such measures</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial";"><strong>Market diversification</strong></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial";">Indian IT industry is largely an exports based country and there is a definite need for diversification, competitiveness and exploring new areas of growth.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial";">Indian domestic market is largely ignored, even though Indian economy is seeing comfortable levels of growth as compared to other markets.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial";">Foreign investment in India is on the rise because of the opportunities here in India. What about Indian IT investment in India? The investment here has to be for market creation and market growth. Margins similar to those earned for exports cannot be a key focus in Indian markets.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial";"><strong>Local presence in target markets</strong></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial";">Local employment creation in the markets that IT industry operates in should be made a key priority. For </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">sure, countries where Indian IT industry is seeking to create a market would welcome them if they are seen to be solving unemployment problems of those markets.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial";">As contributors to the local economy, the industry will also gain in lobbying strength</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial";"><strong>Government support in foreign policy</strong></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial";">Government can help in creating a safe environment for Indian IT industry and Indian professionals in the markets they operate in.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial";">There is a need for engaging with these countries at diplomatic levels to ease the entry of Indian IT industry and preempt any protectionist views.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial";">Just like in the success of services model, private and government initiative and partnership can go a long way in influencing and investing in bi-lateral and multi-lateral commercial agreements</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "arial";">Lastly the focus of industry can be turned towards Nation Building within India - there are indeed opportunities in e-governance, e-auctions, e-learning which can be explored towards achieving the goals of sustenance, growth and national benefit.</span></li>
</ul>
</div>
FJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13857856361460718074noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3153962510717342827.post-81674452326425628092012-04-14T19:52:00.002-07:002012-04-14T19:53:58.411-07:00What does the customer do?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<b><i>Outward looking organizations</i></b><br />
Implementation of processes including completely internal facing process are ultimately to serve our customer. To achieve this end goal of serving end customers, the process has to in some way enhance efficiency or result in productivity, which would enable the organization to serve the customer better. Today the customer also expects a quicker turn around time on services. There is a pressure on prices and margins in almost every competitive industry, hence these efficiency and productivity gains are also expected to result in better pricing points for the customer. <i>Faster, better, cheaper anyone?</i><br />
<br />
<b><i>Is this enough?</i></b><br />
So, organizations have traditionally been 'outward looking' in setting themselves up in terms of people, process and system. However, is it sufficient to be termed outward looking? Should we not also be concerned about what kind of outside view are we tuned towards? The direction of this outward looking view or the fine-tuning of how well acquainted we are with our customers needs should be of prime interest.<br />
<br />
What we are saying here is that while we did have an outside-in view in the organization's activities, we had been designing these processes, systems and structures thinking '<i>what do we want to do for our customer</i>' rather than '<i>what does the customer want to do (period)</i>'.<br />
<br />
Not <i>'what the customer wants us to do'</i>. Not <i>'what the customer wants to do with our products and services'</i>. Not even <i>'what the cutomer wants to do on our e-biz site'</i>. No No and yet again an emphatic No. <br />
<br />
Just plain and simple <b><i>'what does the customer want to do (period)'</i></b>.<br />
<br />
In order to discover what the customer wants to do, we have to, of course, study - what does the customer do? It has to become our business to know the customer's business. And I am talking both B2B as well as B2C here.<br />
As an airline I have to think, as a individual or corporate customer, when planning to go from point A to point B, what would be the expectation in terms of safety, comfort and convenience. What experiences would I value most? This goes beyond the ease of ticketing and check-ins.<br />
As an electronics retailer, I would need to think beyond how do I serve the individual and corporate customer better in terms of ordering, delivery, billing. I need to go into the territory of why the customer is buying what he is buying. What will she do with this device? Am I helping the customer make the right choice best suited for his needs?<br />
<br />
<b><i>Any examples or comments that spring to mind?</i></b><br />
<b><i><br /></i></b></div>FJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13857856361460718074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3153962510717342827.post-7687213434069366062012-02-24T05:18:00.000-08:002012-02-24T05:22:28.921-08:00Futility of consensus<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Trying to achieve consensus in corporate decision making is often somewhat like Waiting for Godot. Consensus by default means a group has together decided to take certain actions. This often gets translated as 'organization policy' or 'management decision' and thus it is difficult to find an owner responsible for the same. Often people seem to seek consensus when they are not confident enough to take decisions on their own. It is also an effective tool for delaying certain decisions.<br />
<br />
Building consensus takes huge efforts, time and patience. There are conflicting interests to navigate and people's knowledge levels and skills are sometimes questionable to take a call on the issue at hand. If you are in a competitive, cut-throat industry and need quick go-to-market timelines to survive, forget about achieving this by consensus. In such a scenario it is always better to have a firm owner who is empowered enough to take decisions and assume responsibility of such decisions.<br />
<br />
Instances abound in the corporate world where organizations have tried dual leadership models, possibly to reduce risks. What gets reduced is the speed and agility with which organizations can respond to change. A recent example which comes to mind is Wipro - <a href="http://news.in.msn.com/business/article.aspx?cp-documentid=4825457">http://news.in.msn.com/business/article.aspx?cp-documentid=4825457</a>, where this model failed. Infosys on the other hand shows a different approach where joint founders got a shot at the top position in turns, with varying degrees of success and acceptance.<br />
<br />
In my view looking for consensus becomes futile in these situations -<br />
<ul>
<li>Conflicting or Vested Interests</li>
<li>Missing Big Picture</li>
<li>Lack of Clarity of Vision across Organization</li>
<li>Seeking Opportunity to Negotiate Self-Interest (you scratch my back I will scratch yours)</li>
<li>Multiple Strong Dictatorial Views</li>
<li>No Party Willing to Give Ground</li>
<li>Attitude of 'Not My Turf'</li>
<li>Oppose for the Sake of Opposition</li>
</ul>
When looking for approaches and methods of building consensus, I found several articles propagating the advantages of consensus and how to make consensus work. So here's a view from my side to say there is no consensus on the utility of consensus. :)</div>FJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13857856361460718074noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3153962510717342827.post-8476068987879703482011-09-08T10:04:00.000-07:002011-09-08T10:04:36.453-07:00Project Management Approach to Nation Building<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">This week in Bangalore at the PMI National Conference 2011, I had the pleasure of hearing India's former President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam on the topic of Project Management Approach to Nation Building. A truly inspirational speech which exhorted the audience of mostly project managers to be leaders and create leaders in the task of nation building. Dr Kalam recounted his experiences in ISRO and DRDO around project management.<br />
<br />
The question I had formulated to ask the eminent speaker and which was expressed in most of the questions from the rest of the audience was to solicit his views on tackling corruption - one of the big obstacles to nation building which has been brought under the spotlight very harshly in recent times.<br />
In his replies, Dr Kalam beseeched parents and teachers to instill in their children a value system which prevents the very thought of corruption as a normal way of life. This would lead to a revolution of truth with the youth brigade leading the charge and which questions their elders and seniors when and where they see a wrong practice - be it in their homes itself.<br />
<br />
He also pointed to the initiatives in e-governance which he had started while he was President of India, and pointed out the transparency and accountability this inherently brings in public dealings. <br />
Another very powerful concept that Dr Kalam elaborated was creating a Brand of Integrity around oneself which then permeates to the environment around one and starts increasing the Circle of Integrity. He explained how due to this brand of integrity which he himself followed and promoted, in his 40 years of experience in dealing with public funds as well as dealings with government officials and people's representatives, no one ever asked him to do anything wrong. That is the value which his Brand of Integrity confers on him and his work.<br />
<br />
Dr Kalam asked us to take a pledge to work with integrity and suceed with integrity. He also pointed out the importance of managing failures better than managing success.<br />
<br />
A few key take-aways from his speech on project management for nation building -<br />
- What worked yesteday is not going to work in today's changing, tumultous and volatile times. The focus has indeed shifted from <br />
<ul style="text-align: left;"><li>availability of resources to availability of knowledge, </li>
<li>hierarchy to synergy, </li>
<li>command to facilitation, </li>
<li>order to empower and </li>
<li>seniority or authority to creativity</li>
</ul>My earlier blog postings on a similar topic is listed here for relevance. <a href="http://fjb-mgmt-class.blogspot.com/2011/02/redundancy-of-hierarchies.html"><span style="color: #00997f;">The redundancy of hierarchies</span></a><br />
</div>FJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13857856361460718074noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3153962510717342827.post-29366860732113085322011-07-14T03:56:00.000-07:002011-07-14T03:56:42.027-07:00You Are The Traffic<div style="text-align: justify;">There is a sign on a busy stretch of highway in Luton which says "You are not stuck in traffic. You are the traffic." Really makes one think. Many have been the times when we have been wistful about ideal scenarios and how we wish things were better around us. What we probably do not realise is how much we contribute to the problem itself.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">If we are not engaged in working towards making things better, then definitely we are making things worse. If we do not provide the solution we are a part of the problem. My exhortation to you today is -</div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><strong>STOP WHINING! START WINNING!!</strong></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">Look around you in your work environment and I am sure you will be able to make a list of 10 processes which hinder your work in some way or the other, making you inefficient or making you spend family time at work or making you put in heroic efforts. And as I have noted earlier in my trilogy on <a href="http://fjb-mgmt-class.blogspot.com/2011/04/new-wave-business-process-part-iii.html">The Elusive Business Process</a>, heroic efforts are a sure shot indication that things are being run in an ad hoc manner.</div><br />
Here are a few tips on how to identify what is not working in your organisation -<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">1. <u><strong>Hours spent in escalation calls and on e-mail </strong></u>- If your employees are spending most of their time handling e-mail, it is a sure shot indication of processes which do not work. Any transaction which cannot be handled by the process, lands up in the inbox. The amount of time your team spends on e-mail will be directly proportional to the time you as a manager will spend on handling escalation calls and mails.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">If you are encouraging completion of transactions on e-mail, you are contributing to the problem. A transaction handled on the e-mail, while resulting in temporary instant gratification, does not solve the problem permanently. Primarily the information and the solution remains confined to the few people involved in the mail. And reply-all does not solve the problem either.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">2. <strong><u>Innovation in routine transactions</u></strong> - Innovation is good. But we do not want all our employees to start innovating in their daily routine chores. That is supposed to be run blind-folded and only taken up for process improvement or SLA impprovements. Routine can even be questioned as to whether it is indeed adding any value to the company. But once established as a required value-add task, it should not have to be perforce improvised upon to get anything done around here.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">3. <strong><u>Personal interactions and rapport get things done</u></strong> - Another clear indication that process is not working. All good behaviours in themselves but as tools to get work done, it indicates your organisation will not survive the next round of exodus. This also leads to processes which get enforced for few people and get bypassed for few others who have a good rapport. </div><div style="text-align: justify;">4. <strong><u>Lack of workflows and automation</u></strong> - Lack of software or existence of software which does not have workflows is another factor leading to things that do not work. Basically this leads to a breakdown of information flow across functions that are supposed to deliver the goods or the as a whole to the customer. Either it does not work fast enough or it does not send the right information to the right functions at the right time. The key requirements to make the organisation work as one unit are integration, communication and empowerment. </div><div style="text-align: justify;">5. <strong><u>Process for the sake of process</u></strong> - If anybody ever tells you that you need to do particular steps because a) managements says so b) SOX says so c) we have always done it this way, be assured that 9 times out of 10, you have come across a non-value add process. Question Why and question it five times before blindly following such processes. </div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><strong>Processes exist to enable business and not to hinder it.</strong></div>FJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13857856361460718074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3153962510717342827.post-32588271275409804032011-05-15T11:21:00.000-07:002011-05-15T11:21:11.390-07:00World Telecommunications and Information Society Day 2011<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">We will be celebrating World Telecommunications and Information Society Day on 17th May 2011. At this point, let us look at the history of Telecommunications and look at some trends as to what the future portends.<br />
<br />
That technology would tend towards obsolescence was pretty clear even in the 18th century. Soon after the semaphore towers went live, there emerged electrical telegraphy, which was over-shadowed by wireless telegraphy. All in a span of 40 years from 1792 onwards. Less than a century from this date, a wireless telephone call was demonstrated. Albeit, the scientific concept of this wireless call via modulated lightbeams was later used in fiber optic networks.<br />
<br />
Thus the 19th century was a century of the telephone and telegraph. Of course there were doubting thomases and all these experiments were sometimes dismissed as new fangled thoughts and impractical inventions. There is an apocryphal story of President Rutherford praising the telephone as an amazing invention but doubting who would want to use one anyway!<br />
<br />
Further work in the early part of the 20th century saw voices being transmitted from one corner of the globe to the other. There was also the curious matter of pictures being beamed into people's homes which saw the birth of the modern entertainment industry. The two wars in the first half of this century gave an impetus to communications research. Most of the technology we use today finds a seed of an idea in the military research done at this time.<br />
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From the 1940s onward we see the rise of computing power and the introduction of networking within twenty years. The latter part of the twentieth century upto the 80s sees a consolidation and growth in computing and networking. From this point on every decade has seen us taking several steps forward in technological advancements.<br />
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The '80s belonged to the popularisation of computing power while the 90s saw widespread adoption of the the internet. While the technological heart skipped a beat at the turn of the century, fearing the apocalypse of Y2K, it quickly recovered to see the first decade of the 21st century lead to an almost endemic growth of mobile and social networking.<br />
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<strong>What next?</strong><br />
Now that we have moved eons beyond the initial incredulity of voices and pictures being transmitted from one place to another, and have succeeded in making the internet mobile, it does beg the question - what next?<br />
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Let us look at some of the trends we see taking hold in this second decade. The mobile workplace is definitely here to stay and e-mail has been pretty tough to dislodge so far despite the various waves of alternate communications. Digital means of doing business can still be said to be emerging and could be the next big thing. Cloud is definitely the toast of the town at the moment. History shows us that successful inventions need to catch the popular imagination to survive. History also tells us that new technology is more often than not built from innovations on top of previous technology. The Internet became widespread by using the old telephone and television networks.<br />
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Hence, I dare to predict that this decade will belong to networked business communication in pretty much the same way social networking took the first decade by storm. Organisations will become more and more virtual and we should soon see the establishment of an entire office infrastructure on the cloud. Especially as the digital generation starts entering the workforce, every bit of paper and physical transaction will be questioned for efficiency and productivity.<br />
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What would be interesting to watch is the socio-economic impact of these new developments. Would the big corporations be early movers and monopolize the virtual space or would this lead to the emergence of challenger organisations who would be much more nimble and open to such an idea? Would rural business take a lead over urban given that the economies of distance and opportunity would make it far more advantageous for them to be ravenous adapters to new technology?</div>FJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13857856361460718074noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3153962510717342827.post-8398574436999933312011-04-17T20:03:00.000-07:002011-04-22T23:16:49.943-07:00The New Wave Business Process - Part III : The Elusive Business Process<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Wiki defines the term 'business process' as a set of related, structured activities which lead to a service or a product being produced and delivered to customers. What this implies is that if you can define your business goals and list down the activities in various functions needed to achieve these goals, you should then be able to set a sequence to this list, which becomes your business process.<br />
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Business is definitely run 100% on process. What matters is what is the maturity level of the business process in your organization. After all even ad-hoc collaboration leads to following a process which delivers products and services. However, ad-hoc process will not be scalable or repeatable. If we want to deliver consistent reliable service to customers, then business process maturity has to be ensured.<br />
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In order to take steps forward in the right direction, we need to first realize where we are. In your organisation, if you see great customer appreciation for individual efforts, personal interactions help save the day, and your team is motivated to ensure no problem is insurmountable in meeting deadlines, then you are in trouble as far as process maturity is concerned. These are all symptoms of an ad-hoc process organization.<br />
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What you need to do at this stage is take a hard look at the structures in your organization, study process documentation (in all likelihood - none), and embark on a study of process frameworks best suited to your business environment and industry sector. Such an entity is likely to go through organizational re-structuring, documentation of existing ad-hoc process, adoption of frameworks and trying to super-impose ad-hoc processes to standard frameworks.<br />
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In order to reach Managed processes, such an entity would be well advised to set up a central process analysis team comprising of a cross functional selection of senior managers. This forum should be empowered with top management sponsorship and review. Individual heroism should take a second seat to the goal of creating a managed process entity.<br />
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This forum should strive to build / modify the organization structure aligned to processes. This will lead to internal service units being created which so far as possible are the owners of specific deliverables within the entire process and which in turn defining TAT and SLA for each other. This would also result in providing role clarity to employees on what exactly they are supposed to deliver to the organization.<br />
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The hallmark of a managed process entity would be existence of disciplined organizational units which own and deliver specific tasks with desired quality and within specified timelines. At this stage the organization should see repeatable practices, customer appreciation for consistency and reliability of the organization as opposed to appreciation for individual heroism earlier.<br />
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By now the organization would be demonstrating process definition in every work unit. Each work unit is now stabilizing their process. It is possible to get data out of every process step to measure and improve on bottlenecks. The next step would be to standardize the processes across work units and ensure seamless interaction among various functions. Only at this stage would BPR or Six Sigma programs yield benefits for the organization. If such exercises are attempted on an immature organization, the programs will not be well appreciated and by the time we reach this stage a fatigue would have set in amongst the resoruces which will make it all the more difficult to progress beyond this stage.<br />
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Thus it is very important to calibrate the process maturity journey of the organization to avoid mis-steps and over-reaching one's goals. While we are moving processes to managed and stabilized stages, it is also important to realize the potential of automation in bringing about productivity gains. Automation will help little in ad-hoc processes and will in fact be counter productive as one goes on spending endlessly on automating new ad hoc processes continuously. Once work units agree upon standardized processes, automation can be brought in to define, perform, monitor, measure and report on processes which can be then taken up for further improvement based on observations.<br />
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These further improvements are most likely to come in the form of end to end integration projects being taken up within the organization. By this time, industry best practices would have been instituitionalized and functions will even start improvising on industry best practices. This should neither be surprising or disturbing. After all industry best practice is defined as those practices which work best for us.<br />
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Beyond this, each organization will need to find its own unique path to reach repeatable and innovating stages of process maturity. At repeatable stage the aim will be to reduce process output variances, empowered functions will take corrective action or improvement steps on their process area, since they know the larger model and are in sync with the larger picture of the organization. Organizational capability measures will be more in focus rather than function wise capabilities.<br />
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For an organization to be recognized as an innovative process organization, there should be demonstrated sponsorship of innovation projects, proactive improvement programs for achieving organizational goals. Often what is seen is that leadership teams attempt to execute projects at innovation maturity levels which may be in keeping with their thought process maturity, but fails to recognise the maturity levels of the organizations that they head. This is a major pitfall to be avoided. Leaders need to ensure that they nurture the maturity level of their organizations, rather than operate at innovating levels and assuming their organization will play catch up.</div>FJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13857856361460718074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3153962510717342827.post-59559275815193800342011-03-19T04:18:00.000-07:002011-03-19T04:18:52.101-07:00The New Wave Business Process - Part II : 'App'lied Business Theory<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">A conversation I was having with a senior strategist and a vendor conference which I attended this week triggered some further thought process on handling the new wave business processes. So I decided to elaborate on my initial concept in the previous blog - <a href="http://fjb-mgmt-class.blogspot.com/2011/03/new-wave-business-process.html">http://fjb-mgmt-class.blogspot.com/2011/03/new-wave-business-process.html</a> - about network linked business capability and online collaboration leading to commercial transactions.<br />
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Let us look at some of the changes we are seeing around us -<br />
- Proliferation of apps<br />
- Requirement of information <br />
- Need to collaborate and communicate<br />
- Remote and mobile access to apps and information for collaboration and communication<br />
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All of this points to a scenario where business operates more and more in a distributed manner and not from central locations. This also breaks down the traditional central chain of command and leads to empowerment at local levels for taking decisions and executing transactions. The challenge for leadership will be - how to ensure order in this chaos and channelize synergies across these disparate events which make for completion of a business transaction.<br />
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Working remotely is indeed supported by the emergence of technologies which support distributed collaboration. Concepts like cloud computing have matured to a level where they have business acceptance leading towards a critical mass needed to support the next stage of growth. The adoption of cloud computing opens up the business to tackle the challenges and opportunities of the future.<br />
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Now let us examine how these changes will affect the way people work. First the definition of work will undergo a change. Neither organisations will be willing to commit to fixed number of resources which is akin to sunk cost on a recurring basis, nor will resources be content to dedicate their efforts to one organisation. With that goes the concept of working hours (does it exist nowadays anyway?) as resources are supposed to perform tasks on demand. Whoever has the right skills at the time when the demand for a task to be performed comes up, gets to do the work.<br />
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What this means is that people, process and technology gets replaced with skills, capability, connectivity. Strong processes and technology support would simply be the hygiene factors which will enable this new way of working. We are getting comfortable with apps for our social requirements. Wouldn't it be great to have an app to submit your expenses? While you are on your business trip, you make your expenses through your mobile pay app and get a choice to charge it to your expenses which hits your organisations accounts payable. <br />
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Now taking this thought process to the next level - how about doing your entire business online? You no longer need concrete buildings full of people to do business. What this needs is an online infrastructure which replicates your steel and concrete structure and allows collaboration amongst your resources, partners, stakeholders, customers instantaneously. With this level of automation being built on the cloud, the organisation can hire resources online, allocate work as per skills and monitor work reports online. This concept can already be seen at work in the freelance community. If we put this in a online structure it results in a virtual organisation being created. Organisations would have administrators of such virtual departments playing the role of HODs. <br />
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When you have multiple such organisations created online and communicating with each other, you have online collaborating leading to commercial transactions. Procurement in Org A could then collaborate with Sales in Org B using an app similar to maybe Google Wave. Negotiations are conducted and recorded online resulting in issuance of a PO. This gets sent to resources in the sellers delivery organisation and the resources with the right skills and closest to the buyer get to deliver the products or services so procured. <br />
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If this concept is detailed out, it leads to huge benefits in productivity and costs. The ease of doing business also results in higher growth. Resources get benefited by getting the best value out of utilising their skills, doing what they do best. </div>FJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13857856361460718074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3153962510717342827.post-13123810098532473902011-03-13T04:08:00.000-07:002011-03-13T04:12:59.091-07:00The New Wave Business Process<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Though this post focuses on a particular industry event, I am sure the process concerns raised here resonate across other sectors as well and are just as relevant.<br />
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I was at the TM Forum (<span class="subheading"><span class="large_subheading">TM Forum is the world’s leading industry <span class="large_subheading">consortium</span> focused on improving business effectiveness for communications Service Providers.</span>) </span>Regional Spotlight in Delhi the previous week. One of the participants brought up the top three priorities for business as -<br />
- New products<br />
- Growth<br />
- Improving Processes<br />
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This means post-recession communications service providers are clearly expecting and looking to ride the new wave of growth. At the same time there is a cautious approach to handling this growth by re-using existing infrastructure and improving current processes.<br />
However, this was a CIO view and I would have liked to see more business process owners from operators at this forum participating and gearing up for the changes and improvements required to handle the next wave. (TM Forum's eTOM is the common business process architecture adopted by telecom operators globally.)<br />
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Now for improving the business processes, there will be dependence on IT to deliver automation projects that support the process changes or help make existing processes more efficient. No doubt IT will play an important role in process efficiency, but can only act as a catalyst. The initiator of this exercise has to be the process owner who has to have complete clarity on the future roadmap of the organization, the challenges current practices are likely to face in the future and the changes which are required to be brought about to stay current and releavant.<br />
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Additionally, newer technologies will change the way we do business. We already have seen the changes in the way we interact with each other in the last five years. These changes have already started seeping into formal interactions and business communication. These changes will further percolate into the business transactions themselves as we see businesses recognize and adopt the power of cloud computing. I am currently conceptualizing a network linked business capability which enables businesses to collaborate online and possibly enter into binding transactions online. You could essentially run your entire business on the cloud. Just imagine the power unleashed by this concept of anytime, anywhere enabling business capability.<br />
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The kind of capabilities I am envisaging here changes the way we set up organizational structures, the way we hire and maintain our workforce, the way we interact within the organization, the way we define the tasks essential to carry on business, the way we engage with external stakeholders, in essense everything we call as 'doing business'. Businesses will have to go for a deep introspection and respect none of the currently established practices as valid in the future.<br />
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This essentially means the current ways of doing business will just not be good enough to tackle the new wave of growth which will have its own demands of quicker than before delivery, better than ever products and lower than ever costs. In essence this calls for not only looking afresh at business process re-engineering, but also changes the way we look at and perform BPR itself.</div>FJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13857856361460718074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3153962510717342827.post-8995198038450930142011-03-08T04:37:00.000-08:002011-03-10T06:59:46.646-08:00Attitude matters<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">There was an old ad which used to go "It's not size that matters. It's the attitude." It is as much true for organizations as it is for individuals. <br />
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This is one factor which allows you to rise above circumstances, background, hierarchies and make a mark for yourself. It has both positive and negative connotations. Keeping with the spirit of this blog we focus on the positives.<br />
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Having a positive attitude and approach means half the job is already tackled. When somebody tells you something cannot be done, just delve into the issue and bring out the real motivations for the behavior. You can easily categorise such a negative response into the following reasons -<br />
<em>Skill set issue </em>- The person does not know how to approach the task and get it done. Can we provide a training or a SOP which will mitigate the negative and turn it into a 'can do' situation?<br />
<em>Intention </em>- This is where attitude steps in. It can be a case of 'I do not want to do this' due to a variety of reasons. I am too senior, too junior, not the right person, why can't someone else do this. All of these can be attributed to an intention of not doing the task. You can easily identify this person does not want to give his 100% to the job.<br />
<em>Values and Ethics </em>- A positive spin to the Intention aspect will be if the task being asked of you goes against the grain of your values. Again a strong attitude is required to put your foot down and point out the wrongs of doing such a task. Today in most organisations there are governance bodies which can be approached in such conflict situations.<br />
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In evaluating the above points, we touched upon a couple of important aspects. The desire or intention to serve the organisation's goals and a can do attitude which allows us to give our 100% to the job.<br />
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In whatever we do in our personal or professional lives, I have seen those people succeed who have a desire to serve the larger interests. Such people bring with themselves a sincerity of purpose and are able to percolate their values into the environment. Thing start to fall into place with such people around. With such an attitude, you win the respect, appreciation and affection of all you touch.<br />
These people do not come to their jobs just to make a living, they are there with a vision, a purpose, a desire to achieve and leave the place in a better shape than they found it.<br />
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Here's a quote to describe the motivation behind such an attitude - " I don't know if I will succeed in this, but I know for sure I would have failed if I had not attempted it."<br />
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Another question to ask oneself is - do I give my 100% to what I set out to do? I tried my best is not good enough. If the result is not as per expectations, then somewhere that 100% was definitely missing. Another try, another approach is definitely called for. You cannot quit after having 'tried your best'. You have to keep at it, not till your boss is satisfied with the output, not till your customer is satisfied with the output, but till your inner self is satisfied with the output and you are convinced you could not have delivered better. That is called giving your 100%.<br />
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Keep in check the trait of taking each day and just getting done with it to wriggle out at the end having put in less than what satisfies you. Success is not a stroke of luck or a bolt from the blue. It is a choice which is in our hands and is carved out of the so many mundane tasks that define our character and approach and attitude. We have this choice and we exercise this choice every day for every task that we encounter. The number of right choices we make defines our attitude for success.<br />
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Another thought here is that the only attitude we can control and change is our own. We cannot lay down how people will behave or how the wind will blow. All we can decide is how we will take it and make the best out of it.<br />
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I will end this article with an oft-repeated story of three people cutting stones and on being asked as to what they were doing, one replies "I am cutting stones", the other replies "I am earning my wages" while the last one replies "I am building a temple where people will find succour". Attitude Matters.</div>FJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13857856361460718074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3153962510717342827.post-2381133976292002692011-02-26T23:09:00.000-08:002011-02-26T23:09:01.044-08:00The redundancy of hierarchies<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">When I joined the corporate world, I was introduced to a set hierarchy, a job description and a SOP for getting things done. All very good tools to get going and knowing what to do, when and with whom. I also found people getting bogged down only within the boundaries defined by these tools. If we fail to recognise and utilise them as the tools they are meant to be and start using them as boundaries beyond which we cannot perform, that is where mediocricity starts seeping in our performance and output.<br />
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Having worked as an independent programmer before experiencing corporate hierarchies imbued in me a spirit of entrepreneurship and ownership. With this mind-set, I always found it difficult to restrain myself to such self-made boundaries. The ground rules which I set for myself were -<br />
<em>- Never quit thinking for yourself </em><br />
Go through the rules and processes given to you. Each one may be right independently, but may not apply when seen in context with other circumstances. <br />
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<em>- Do not blindly follow the letter, rather apply the spirit behind the rules</em>Is it right for the business? No steps can ever be made for the detriment of the business. However, many people will stubbornly apply the letter of the law in a manner it was never intended to be.<br />
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<em>- Question what does not sound right</em>Just because we have been doing it for years does not mean we will keep doing it tomorrow.<br />
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<em>- Do the right thing</em>If it calls for a change of procedures, however tougher it may be to accomplish, as compared to doing nothing and being on the right side of the rules, go for the change. <br />
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What hierarchies propagate is exactly the opposite. Obey orders, follow the crowd, go with the flow. All very fine for assembly line units and areas where discipline and uniformity are called for to achieve team targets. However when your goals are to achieve an empowered organisation where innovation and creativity are valued, a different approach is required.<br />
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Hierarchies advance the supposition that there are two sets of resources - thinkers and doers. In reality each level has a proportion of think time and do time to invest in order to work effectively. Depending on the role you are playing (as opposed to the level you are in the hierarchy), the ratio of think time and do time you are expected to spend can vary.<br />
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In today's socially networked offices, with informal flows of communication and getting work done gaining more ground, one can no longer depend on hierarchies and coming through 'proper channels' to achieve objectives. When rigid hierarchies are imposed and independent thought is smothered, it leads to group inertia. Committees and forums are sought to be formed to bring about the elusive consensus to move forward. Nobody is willing to move forward till 'everybody' ratifies the action as required. The responsibilities and consequences are deliberated to the minutest detail, in essence killing innovative ideas. No one is willing to define and acccept the risks involved in moving forward, thereby de-facto accepting the risks of not making the move.<br />
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Organizations are still reluctant to change the old power structures and bureaucracies brought in by traditional hierarchies. <br />
In an environment where economic scenarios change every week, no variable is predictable or constant, decisions are needed to be made more and more at the ground level. There is no longer the comfort of getting back to the corporate office for a decision. You would have lost the opportunity in the meantime. The decision makers on the other side of the table want to deal with people who can take the decisions on the table.<br />
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It will take a few mavericks to rock the boat. There is a need for people who take nothing for granted, question everything, shake the status quo and bring in a little bit of constructive turbulence. What is needed now are not departments and hierarchies to take care of funcitons in silos. <br />
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A different approach to setting up structures is to identify the projects and tasks at hand and set up teams which are empowered to perform these tasks with complete ownership, while not losing sight of the organization's goals and objectives. This enables us to harness individual strengths, fix responsibilities for actions and move forward as a single team to achieve common purpose. <br />
</div>FJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13857856361460718074noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3153962510717342827.post-42806898352594816882011-02-19T10:52:00.000-08:002011-02-19T10:53:41.591-08:00Individual and Collective Decision Making<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Having examined the importance of taking ownership of decisions in our work area, let us look at some types of decision making. We will look at both individual decision making and collective decision making.<br />
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<b>Individual Decision Making -</b><br />
As individuals we take decisions all the time. There are many theories on rational and irrational decisions taken by individuals. We seem to be hard-wired towards irrational decision making. Human beings are emotional and emotions lead to irrational decision making. It is application of thought process which leads us towards rational decision making.<br />
Remember we are not equating rational or irrational with right or wrong here. We are only examining whether an application of logic would still hold up the initial choice.<br />
As an example think up an initial list of things you would do if you had a million dollars this instant. Don't deliberate too much. Now go over this list once more thinking over the returns each decision would have given you in a year. Get the point?<br />
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The types of decisions an individual takes can be categorised by the area of influence.<br />
<i>I for I</i><br />
These are decisions that individuals take which affect only themselves. These decisions and actions are mostly taken to satisfy basic needs in Maslow's hierarchy.<br />
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<i>I for YOU</i><br />
This type of decision mostly has the characteristic of a person in a position of authority taking a decision for or regarding someone under his authority. e.g. a Parent choosing a school for his ward, Teacher assigning a reading assignment to student, Supervisor allocating work.<br />
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<i>I for US</i><br />
Decision taken by one individual and conveyed to another but impacting both of them. Like the above category this could be taken by someone in authority as a leadership position often facilitates the authority to take such a decision. Maslow's metaneeds are mostly likely to be encountered at this level.<br />
A deviation from the top-bottom approach could be seen here by the subordinate deciding to dispute or refuse the I for YOU decision, which then transforms it into a I for US discussion.<br />
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<i>I for THEM</i><br />
A detached level of decision making, most likely to see rational thought process applied. This level of decision making can be made only if the individual is in a position of absolute trust or absolute authority. This could be a judge deciding a case, the finance minister deciding taxes to be applied, a consultant deciding the strategy for his client.<br />
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<b>Collective Decision Making -</b><br />
Collective decision making is not the sum total of all individual decisions. This is all about influencing a group of people to agree on a particular action. Preferably we get a larger group of people that agrees on the action than the number of people who disagrees. In the absence of which we get a disruption.<br />
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Collective decision making is not necessarily more rational than individual decision making. Nor does it tend to be right more times than wrong as compared to individual decision making. Rather the opposite usually applies. Think of the politicians we choose to elect as a people.<br />
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It is often quite easy for assertive individuals to get groups of people to agree on their particular perspective. Groups tend to agree quicker when they see their choices already made for them, and the preferred path is perceived to have more pros than cons. This kind of influencing often avoids brainstorming, collection of views or thorough deliberation of options. So beware when you see the next presentation with three choices on what you should do. It only means that ten other choices have not yet been thought of.<br />
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The areas where we are most likely to be asked to get collective decisions made are in the realm of US for US. The participants in such a collective decision making process would most likely be the stakeholders likely to be impacted. <br />
Some factors that make a joint decision difficult to arrive at are -<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Equally strong opposing forces in the group</li>
<li>Conflicting interest of different stakeholders </li>
<li>Unwillingness to yield ground to accomodate other interests</li>
<li>Expression of emotions</li>
<li>Individual prejudices and bias</li>
</ul>Of course all the factors mentioned in the previous post <a href="http://fjb-mgmt-class.blogspot.com/2011/02/taking-ownership-and-responsibility.html">http://fjb-mgmt-class.blogspot.com/2011/02/taking-ownership-and-responsibility.html</a> about not taking ownership apply to the group as much as the individual.<br />
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<strong>Being in the driver's seat</strong><br />
Having known all these facts, how do we drive decisions in group environments that we encounter at work? <br />
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<em>Clarify your intention and objective</em><br />
As long as your goal is seen to be in the interest of the larger community, the greater the chances of swinging the decision in your favor.<br />
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<em>Increase your area of influence</em><br />
The more you collaborate and network, the more likely that the group which is responsible for making the decision is aware of your intentions.<br />
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<em>Pay attention to the presentation - it matters</em><br />
Focus on the positive message and drive home the advantage of taking the decision rather than not taking the decision. Try this - In a project with 90% probability of attaining objectives, talk to one group about the 90% success rate and talk to another group about the 10% failure rate. Guess which group is likely to vote in favor?<br />
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<em>Debate is better than agreement</em><br />
It does not help take better decisions by being aggressive and suppressing dissent. Assertive and open debate is far better than mute acceptance of actions.<br />
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<strong>Individual or Collective?</strong><br />
While considering whether to promote group decisions or individual decisions, the factors to evaluate would be the impact area of the action. If it is going to affect a cross section of people then it is better to achieve consensus to avoid alienation.<br />
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Collective decision making can lead to advantages of brainstorming, fresh ideas, consideration of conflicting views, evaluating all options, identifying risks and bringing diverse skills to the table but it can as easily disintegrate into conflicts, analysis paralysis, risk-aversion, safe and tried path thinking, killing innovation.</div>FJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13857856361460718074noreply@blogger.com2