Logical String

Hands-off or Hands-on

noreply@blogger.com (Mayank Krishna) — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 10:54:00 +0000

Being a hands-off manager in an organization with predominantly hands-on management culture can be a frustrating experience at times. Surprising as it may seem, even in this age of knowledge worker, rampant micro management and repulsion for anything hands-off or true empowerment is prevalent in many organizations. For old timers it may not mean much as they have been living under the shadow of micro management for most of their professional career, but for the younger generation this hands-on approach is a bit uncomfortable.

The biggest problem with hands-on approach is that it prevents development of people. Instead of mentoring and coaching, a better part of the manager's time is spent in criticizing and judging people. Empowerment takes a back seat and command and control becomes a norm.

People become mere implementer of ideas they don't own. This often results in poor quality of output. People engagement suffers. They don't feel like partners in creating something bigger and better. Instead, they feel like running errands for their managers. All these work like creativity killers in the organization and act as major hindrance in an organization's quest to reach its true potential.

Isn't it time for shunning hands-on management in favour of hands-off management? Ingraining hands-off management culture in an organization's DNA would go a long way in –

Developing people through mentorship and coaching.
Increasing creative problem solving throughout the organization.
Speedier and more effective planning and execution through empowerment.
Spreading new ideas.
Developing a learning organization.
Decline of organizational politics.
Attracting and retaining talent.

Tempted To Hire Additional Manpower?

noreply@blogger.com (Mayank Krishna) — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 15:35:00 +0000

Hiring additional manpower is a necessity in any growing organization. But often additional manpower is brought for all the wrong reasons. Instead of helping manage growth they turn out to be veils for protecting mediocrity. This is something to be wary about while taking decision to hire additional manpower. Very often optimization of the existing manpower would ensure that no immediate need for additional manpower is felt.

Always remember that quick-fix never works! Following are some of the situations (quick-fix temptations) which are not reasons for hiring additional manpower:

Having talented manpower but inability to get optimal use of them.

Incompetent manpower requiring additional hands.

Wrong person at the wrong place bringing in overall ineffectiveness.

Trying to find solutions for a business problem through additional manpower when the root cause is something else.

When should you bring additional manpower? Following situations may be the apt reason for hiring additional manpower

To manage growth and expansion in a rapidly growing (>40% growth) business.

If the existing manpower is over-burdened with genuine workload. A quick check would be to understand whether the current demand on existing manpower requires 120% of their energy. It is said that 100% effectiveness comes when someone's work demands 120% of his time (attributed to Azim Premji in the book GO KISS THE WORLD by Subroto Bagchi)

Changing business environment requiring additional skill set/ experience.

The next time you are thinking about hiring some additional manpower or creating some new profiles, ponder over the situations and try to figure out why exactly you want additional manpower. A little honest thinking would go a long way in maintaining the health of the business along with optimal use of all the resources.

Free Telephony In India - An Idea

noreply@blogger.com (Mayank Krishna) — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 18:23:00 +0000

"Why do we need to pay for making phone calls?" This was the question that came to my mind while I was glancing at my phone bill. Why the phone calls can't be completely free, I thought. Well, it is indeed possible, at least in India!

Telephone tariff has significantly come down. Rs. 1 per minute call charge is routine. The question is how to make it completely free – no call charges; no rentals.

The key to free telephony is advertisement revenue. This is one area which most of the telecom service providers have ignored till now. The blind focus on increasing ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) has hardly bore fruits. A paradigm shift and rechristening of ARPU as Advertising Revenue Per User may open a goldmine.

It will work on these lines. The more a telecom consumer talks, the more advertising she hears (fixed number of seconds per minute of talk time), and the more money an advertiser pays to the telecom service provider.

Here are some of the options to generate advertising revenue sufficient enough to make telephony free.

Caller tunes to turn into 10 second advertisement. When someone makes a call, instead to hearing some song, he gets to hear an AD till the time the recipient receives the call.

When the call gets started, first 10 seconds of every minute are advertising time. Balance 50 seconds are talk time. Advertising and talk time cycle continues till the time call ends.

Every SMS that is sent has a footer advertisement of 25 characters.

At the end of every call, the caller and the receiver receive an advertising SMS.

Balance inquiry SMS has a footer having a 25 character advertisement.

Will consumers mind being exposed to so much advertisement?
Every sane individual knows that there is no such thing as free lunch. When a consumer is not being charged a penny to talk endlessly, she has to give something back. In this case, this something is 10 seconds to hear annoying advertisements for every 50 seconds of her talk time. Any rational human being like me would accept this fact of life even if she gets annoyed by the frequent intrusion of advertisement. We all are habituated of hearing rubbish all the time – at home, office, street, TV and where not. Does it make a big difference if we are forced to hear 1 minute of advertisement for 5 minute of free talk on phone? In India, only a fool will let pass this opportunity for free unlimited telephony! In any case, those who don't want to listen to the advertisement can always opt for the paid telephony option.

Will telecom provider find enough advertisers for profitable operation?
Of course yes. There are two compelling reasons for advertisers to opt for this new advertising medium. First, there can't be more apt medium for highly targeted advertisement. Telecom providers maintain excellent database of their customers which includes personal details. In any case, when offering free telephony, telecom service providers can always ask for more personal information from their customers to help the companies find right target audience for advertisement exposure. Second, it's a medium where the consumer can't shift channels to ignore advertisement. They are forced to hear it all, actively or passively, as they are still on line with the other person. These two reasons will not only fetch advertisement revenue for telecom service providers but will also help them in asking for a premium over other advertising mediums.

What it means for advertising industry?
It's a sweet-n-sour deal for them. On one hand it will open a new source of revenue; on the other hand it will demand high level of creativity and out-of-the-box thinking to survive in this medium. In this new medium, only 10-second ads are possible to ensure that the operation runs with least glitches. So telling all stories for all brands in 10 seconds flat would be the norm making the whole process extremely demanding.

A caveat for telecom service providers
This free telephony would result in quantum jump in talk time volume leading to acute network congestion. So strengthening of telecom infrastructure to cope multiplication of call volume is a necessity. Without extraordinary infrastructure, the concept of free telephony cannot take-off.

Isn't the idea of free telephony in India an idea that can change the world of millions? I feel it is. Will someone say, "What an idea sir jee?"

One Story; Multiple Brands

noreply@blogger.com (Mayank Krishna) — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 17:21:00 +0000

Everyday while driving to work, I get to see huge billboards advertising products and services on the road side. Today, a thought crossed my mind. Isn't the space too big for a brand? Annual lease for such billboards run in lakhs of rupees. Isn't it possible to have more than one brand in one hoarding in such a way that there is one story about two or three brands and not separate stories? It sounds absurd and blasphemous but may be there is some value in this madness.

Why the idea can work?
In a cluttered world, more than anything else brands get noticed by the simple yet engaging story they tell. It is all about the story your brand can tell, with or without the spoken words, in the few seconds of attention a consumer grants to open an opportunity window.

Unlike products stories are not physical. Stories are a communication medium; a kind of bridge between message sender and message receiver. They are all about integration of thoughts and ideas in a coherent way that conveys the intended message. Due to this nature of story, it is very much possible to weave one story on two or more brands without diluting the essence of any of the brands involved. It's all about right synchronization of the story and the participating brands.

The key to such experimentation is the degree of maturity level of respective marketing team and their advertising agency. The higher the level of maturity in understanding their own brand, better their expectation from one another in their marriage on billboards!

How it can work?
For this to become a reality, advertising agencies will have to show guts to experiment. It will not only take a high degree of creativity to execute a campaign but also persuasive powers to bring all the stakeholders together to solemnize the marriage of brands on the billboard. The problem is easier to solve if the advertising agency is common to all brands involved. If different agencies are involved it will become a tough nut to crack and will require a high level of collaboration and check on creative ego!

Absurd as it may sound, my gut feeling says that it can work, not only in outdoor media but, may be, in electronic and print media also if some out-of-the-box thinkers indulge in out-of-the-box creativity. Any takers?

Leadership Mantra

noreply@blogger.com (Mayank Krishna) — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 14:40:00 +0000

"Leadership is action not position."

Noticed this beautiful quote on the wall of a multiplex in Mumbai. It succinctly sums up the essence of leadership.

Very often people complain that they were unable to bring about change because they didn't have the authority or the position to execute. Perhaps this is the biggest excuse for avoiding action. The truth is that anyone, irrespective of position and authority, can practice leadership. Leadership is all about action and action is neither big nor small. True leadership is about taking action for what one feels is right. It starts with self and gradually influences the surrounding. It's like an expanding circle, starting from the center (you) and gradually moving outward to increase the circle of influence to lead more and more people to desired action.

Mahatma Gandhi once said, "Be the change you want to see in the world." Great leadership always starts with personal leadership - action guided by a vision. Every action creates a ripple of change. More the action, the more ripples of change are formed to influence larger and larger mass of people. But everything starts with an action just like a long journey starts with a single step.

Even if you are a nobody, you must act. Embrace action to lead yourself to your vision. Sooner than later, the world will follow you. Lead the world by leading yourself through action.

Activity Based Performance Appraisal

noreply@blogger.com (Mayank Krishna) — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 15:48:00 +0000

In a typical corporate environment, one has to get things done through interaction with a number of people from various internal departments. Though your work depends on contributions from multiple heads, only a few directly report to you and many don't even indirectly report to you. Sometimes situations become tricky when pleading, badgering, threatening, cajoling, praying, etc. don't seem to work. The only respite in such situations is escalating the matter higher up with possible onset of another set of problems like departmental blame game resulting in even more friction in intra-department working relationship. Is there a way out from this dilemma?

Take an example of a Brand Manager. He has to interact with various internal departments like sales, R&D, finance, packaging, and purchase over which he has hardly any direct or indirect control. Yet the poor guy is expected to get things done (after all he is the CEO of his brand) by playing hard-ball or soft-ball with all these agencies. Sometimes things move smoothly while many times too much heat gets generated from friction. Personal egos emerge and personal agendas come. Yet, like Titan, he is expected to slaughter all obstacles. This poor guy's life would be much easier if the people he regularly interacts with have some proportion of their performance appraisal based on how they help this brand manager achieve his goal. What I am talking about is - Activity Based Performance Appraisal (ABPA). Wow, it seems I have coined something fancy and hopefully useful!

So, what happens in Activity Based Performance Appraisal? Let's see using the same Brand Manager example. For the sake of illustration, let's assume that six people are in play – Brand Manager, Packaging Development guy, R&D guy, Finance guy, Purchase guy, and sales guy. Typically, a brand manager would be handling one brand while guys from packaging development, R&D, Finance, Purchase, and Sales would be working on many brands (say, 5 brands).

In this example of Activity Based Performance Appraisal (ABPA), 50% performance appraisal of the Brand Manager would be done by the guys from packaging development, R&D, finance, purchase, and sales while the balance 50% would be appraised by his immediate boss. Similarly, 50% of performance appraisal of guys from packaging development, R&D, finance, purchase, and sales would be decided by various Brand Managers for whose brands they work in the ratio of time spent on each brand while balance 50% of performance appraisal would be done by their immediate supervisors based on quality of their work related to their technical area.

Of course this is just an idea. For making it work, it would need company specific judgement and refinement. But once implemented, Activity Based Performance Appraisal (ABPA) would ensure that no one takes the other for granted. Things would move smoothly and lesser degree of follow-up would be required to get things done. Democracy will come to organizations!

Nuggets of Management Wisdom #20

noreply@blogger.com (Mayank Krishna) — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 12:56:00 +0000

A battle is never won with good Generals and mediocre troops.

Some companies suffer from a deadly corporate mentality that espouses the belief that if you appoint a few good Generals, you can sail smoothly even if you don't give much care to your troops on ground zero. But the question is – is it possible to win a battle with well fed Generals sitting in teak paneled offices while under-fed and mediocre troops fight it out?

Generals can use their experience to give direction, but it is the entire troop that executes the strategy by using their brain and brawn. The quality of execution of a strategy not only depends on how good the strategy is but also on the quality of the troop that will execute it. A troop that is sharp, agile, motivated, well-fed, and empowered to think and act on its feet is bound to execute much better than a troop that is mediocre, under-fed, demotivated, and disempowered.

The truth is very simple. For superior performance, you have to keep the strength, motivation, and empowerment well distributed across your organization. Any intention to concentrate them at one point at the expense of other points is bound to spell disaster sooner than later. A healthy body is one which has all the parts of the body working together in a well synchronized manner. If any part of human body ails, performance of the whole suffers.

Nuggets of Management Wisdom #19

noreply@blogger.com (Mayank Krishna) — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 15:52:00 +0000

Don't promote the culture of "confirmation bias" if you want your organization to achieve greatness.

Time and again I have noticed that a large number of people in organizations suffer from "confirmation bias", a deadly corporate disease that attracts you to people who think in the same patterns as you do, while repels you from people who don't think at the same wavelengths as you do.

This is a serious problem. Ideas always blossom amid diversity of thought and action. If the diversity is discouraged, staleness sets in any organization and one finds oneself gasping for fresh air in such an environment. In current times, when world is always in a flux and operating environments of organizations are extremely dynamic; innovation and execution come at a premium. Innovation is something that realizes its full potential only when divergent minds meet and collaborate to shape it up. So is the case with flawless execution; multiple hands of many a thought collaborate to execute an idea to action. When you exhibit "confirmation bias", you stifle the flowering of ideas and innovation in your organization as there is always an "inside-out view" in play without any "outside-in view" to spice up the things and let the creative juices flow in search of an out-of-the-box solution.

One major offshoot of the "confirmation bias" disease in any organization is that it repels talented people away from the organization. In a culture that promotes "confirmation bias", it is very difficult, perhaps impossible, to attract and retail talented people. Talented people tend to question the status quo and often look away from routine way of solving problems. They tend to ask difficult questions and challenge others, even their superiors. This threatens comfort zones of people who are deeply rooted in the culture of "confirmation bias" and prompts them to alienate, ignore, or even punish those who think differently. As a result, talented people tend to move away from an environment that punishes them to think differently.

In the end, it is the organization that suffers. In the absence of an internal environment to fuel fresh, innovative, and divergent thinking, it keeps doing same thing again and again till it is done to death by the ever changing external environment.

New Product Development

noreply@blogger.com (Mayank Krishna) — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 17:22:00 +0000

New product development is always a tricky business. A certain degree of uncertainty is intrinsic to the process. Some new products click while many fail. Yet, despite the uncertainty and risk, chances of success can be improved to a large extent with some commonsense.

I am often surprised to see that again and again new products fail in market not because of lack of resources to market it or the product's attributes and features, but due to marketer's inability to understand the consumer and her need - obvious or hidden. The problem starts with marketer's myopic thinking. The culprit is 'company centric' view of a consumer. This 'company centric' view of consumer comes in various flavours, all equally lethal for company's health and well being. Below are some samples:

Marketers try to make a product that they feel is best for the consumer and then go and try to sell it to them. Most of the time this approach fails because how a marketer views the needs of a consumer is often vastly different from how a consumer views her needs!

Marketers get a brain wave for a new product idea. They develop the product after investing lots of money and resources. Once the product is ready, they start searching for consumers who could buy it. It's like shooting arrows in a blind allay in the wild hope of hitting the bull's eye. Seldom have they succeeded.

Marketer sees a product at some far away land and feels that the product seems so nice. He comes with a sample and hands it over to his R&D people to develop a similar product for his market in his country. Once the product is ready, he starts searching for consumers to sell it and then finds that the overall market for the product is so low that there is no business sense to launch the product.

Successful product development has few basic features apart from the luck factor. From what I have observed in my career so far, great and hugely successful products are built around following pillars;

They are backward engineered from consumer. Hence, when developed they have a ready or at least, a latent market to tap.

They are simple from consumer's point of view and satisfy her needs in a simple way sans complication and at a price and experience that gives her maximum utility value and satisfaction.

They have a 'consumer centric' DNA.

New product development requires simplicity. It needs to put the consumer at the center of the gravity and then develop itself around the consumer. This is perhaps the only way I know to develop great products that are loved by consumers and are commercial success.

In the world of marketing, only those products end up with consumers which start with consumers.

Fighting Attrition - An Idea

noreply@blogger.com (Mayank Krishna) — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 14:09:00 +0000

Human nature is such that it gets stimulated most through steady flow of rewards even though they may be small. They key is frequency rather than magnitude of reward. I was just wondering whether this fundamental human nature can be exploited to tackle the menace of attrition in organizations.

We have appraisal system that may be quarterly, half-yearly, or annual affair. Bulk of the reward comes annually through promotion, raise, trips, bonus, etc. Even though many companies give rewards half-yearly, the proportion of these is extremely low in the total reward universe.

I have a simple question - can't we divide the annual reward package into many smaller parts to give at regular interval to employees and associates? This would not put significant additional burden on the organization but will definitely play a psychological trump card to engage employees. And even the additional burden would turn out to be much less than the cost of attrition.

The biggest advantage of this reward mechanism would be its role as a motivation accelerator. Frequent rewards in various monetary and non-monetary forms can help in effective engagement while keeping the morale of employees high. These small but frequent rewards would act as a validation of their capabilities and talent. These would force them to think that they are valuable for the organizations and their contributions matter in the well being of the organization.

I feel it's worth experimentation.

The New Marketing Agenda

noreply@blogger.com (Mayank Krishna) — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 15:57:00 +0000

We have always been trained to hard-sell to customers through various marketing vehicles. This worked well in the old economy. But the big question is - will it work in web 2.0 world? I predict it will not. In the last 10 years, world has witnessed a shift from scattered islands of civilization to a highly sophisticated network of seamless human interaction. Suddenly, we are finding ourselves at the center of the universe with ability to tap into endless choices and resources. In this networked era, hard-sell sounds like a pre-historic concept. When the reach of customer was limited and choices few, hard-sell made sense. But with endless options to choose from and virtually entire universe to tap into, hard-sell makes no sense at all. Everyone is hard-selling and creating noise resulting in a cacophony which only irritates customers.

In this changed equation between customers and marketers, the rule of hard-sell is giving way to the rule of being found. The essence of this rule is to strive to generate that 'aha' moment we feel when we discover something amazing. The new marketing challenge is how to play the game of treasure hunt and help customers discover products and services and let them feel the 'aha' moment more often.

There are four factors driving this shift to the concept of findability.

Suspicious customers
Today's customer is suspicious. She thinks that all marketers are liars. From the time she wakes to the time she sleeps, she is bombarded with sales pitch to buy something. Naturally, not everything she is pitched with is good for her. Some may be good and some totally harmful. How can she trust? How can she decide? Suspicion, as a result, is at the highest level and every sales pitch is viewed with utter distrust. The problem is that the confidence level of customers in products or marketers is at its lowest ebb. The only way to engage such a customer, who is high on distrust and low on confidence, is to help her find what is best for her without active sales pitch or hard-sell.

Miracle of network
World has become a highly connected network, thanks to the internet. An average customer has access to information across culture and geography which her forefathers could not have even dreamt of. Network has jettisoned her to a world of plentitude where she may not like 99.9% of what she encounters. But 0.1% is something that can fill her with a sense of joy and satisfaction that only she can feel and understand. And, this joy of discovering that 0.1% is hardly related to satisfaction of her basic need. It is something higher. Her ecstasy is because of the satisfaction derived from her ability to serendipitously discover a fish, she could relate with, from a vast ocean. It’s a joy of discovery; no less than the joy of discovery Euclid felt in the bathtub which made him run on the street shouting "Eureka, eureka."

Virtual neighbour
Customers may love their neighbour or hate them but they indeed hear them. Since ages neighbours have played a role of adviser and influencer in purchase decision, apart from being the agents of "neighbour's envy, owner's pride" syndrome. Earlier, neighbour was a localized phenomenon confined to surrounding households. But now, thanks to the power of network, concept of neighbour has acquired a global status. Today, we have 'virtual neighbours'. These days customers find the neighbourly advice on internet all too often in the form of recommendations, user feedback, rants, blogs, discussion boards, groups, forums, et al. The challenge before marketers is to find ways to use the 'virtual neighbour' syndrome to their advantage.

I am what I am
Every customer is part of a larger group yet she is also an individual. The individual aspect is increasingly making its presence felt in decision making. It doesn't mean the end of mass production or mass marketing rather it means a new challenge for marketers to include individuality to mass marketing campaign. It's like designing a marketing program to appeal to the masses yet emanate some subtle individualistic theme with which the customer can connect. Here, the essence of the brand remains same though how an individual customer experiences it may be different. It's like conveying "there is something for everyone to relate to."

In light of the above, the new challenge before a marketer is to devise ways in which his brand can get discovered by the customers and in such circumstances that they feel an 'aha' moment and emotionally relate to it.

Building an "architecture of discovery" can be the solution to this challenge. But that is going to be the subject of another blogpost.

Nuggets of Management Wisdom #18

noreply@blogger.com (Mayank Krishna) — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 18:08:00 +0000

Skepticism, if used diligently, can bridge the chasm between unrealistic expectations and realistic possibilities.

The world of business is not perfect. In fact, it is not supposed to be perfect. It is perhaps a collage of contradictions. Every situation is grasped differently by different individuals. Some see amazing potential in an idea, while others trash it. In such a scenario, the real challenge before a leader or a manager is to how to bridge the chasm between two extreme ends to marry optimism with reality.

Skepticism may be the answer to this challenge. Skepticism, as in philosophy, is based on the principle that "there is no such thing as certainty in human knowledge." The word is derived from Greek verb "skeptomai" which means "to look carefully, to reflect."

Generally, skepticism in business is taken with a negative connotation. But, I feel, this should change and skepticism should be used as tool for "reality check" of an idea or situation. Every idea or a situation, seemingly however breath-taking or absurd, should be subjected to a series of harsh questioning. Only upon passing this trial by fire questioning session, should an idea be approved or rejected. This is not to see any idea or a situation as suspicious; but to see it as a hypothesis and test its validity by trying to prove it wrong by all means of logic and questioning. A great idea in all likelihood would survive the grind while many a hollow idea, though brilliant sounding, will perish.

Of course, this is not a full-proof way of assessing the potential of an idea or a situation. Mistakes will still happen. Nevertheless, the success rate of striking gold and avoiding future disappointment would be higher with the help of diligent skepticism.

Cutting A Long Story Short...

noreply@blogger.com (Mayank Krishna) — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 16:15:00 +0000

As a marketer, I want the biggest bang for my bucks. With tight budgets and astronomical expectations, every penny counts. In such a scenario, when advertising agencies come up with 80 seconds and 120 seconds creatives, it becomes tough not to lose cool.

Advertising is a business of story-telling in as few words (I must add seconds also) as possible. If it takes longer and longer (both words and time) for an agency to tell a story, they definitely are not masters of their art. In current scenario, I am slowly coming to a conclusion that if an agency can't tell a story in 20 seconds flat, they are either too lazy or too dumb!

Average attention span of a consumer is declining at the rate of speed of light. With a stressful life at every step, who has the time to concentrate for long on advertisement of a biscuit, or hair oil, or soap? If something doesn't grasp her attention in first 5 seconds she changes channel. Similarly, if something doesn't tell its story quickly (20 seconds) she changes channel. Patience to watch irritating and long commercials is not the cup of tea of current consumer. To grab her attention, you need to be a master in the art of quickie. Else she will become trigger happy and kill all your investments in production and airtime.

An off-shoot of this rapidly declining attention span is the growing importance of frequency. It is not that reach is not important; but with a disinterested consumer, the only way to get some attention from her is to bombard your advertisements on her as many times as you can without irritating her too much. In the current scenario, I feel that one can trade-off reach with frequency to some extent but trading off frequency with reach would be catastrophic. And the best bet to increase frequency is to have short and sweet creatives to get the most mileage from the spending on commercial time. By reducing length of advertisement from 80 seconds to 20 seconds, one can increase the frequency by 4 times (assuming everything else as constant)!

Isn't it time for our advertising gurus to don their thinking hats and set a 20 seconds limit on their creative works? If they could tell the brand story in 20 seconds, it would be true reflection of their creative brilliance. The end result would be a win-win situation for both the brand and the consumer!

Surviving in Times of Massive Change

noreply@blogger.com (Mayank Krishna) — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 14:37:00 +0000

"In times of massive change, it is the learner who will inherit the earth, while the learned stay foolishly tied to a world that no longer exists." - Eric Hoffer

This is one thought on which every executive must ponder upon, particularly those who are on the wrong side of age. This is a very relevant thought for the present times when almost everything in business, technology, and society is undergoing massive change. Unfortunately, many of the experienced people fail to recognize these massive changes and how these changes, many a time, make their vast experience and learning meaningless.

By failing to adapt to the new realities, they keep themselves and their organization stuck in the past. When things demand radically different way of managing things, these learned people keep on applying the old tricks and tactics that may have worked in the past but have become pre-historic in context to present and future. More often than not things never seem to work. Instead of making any progress, things seem to move backward.

In these times, only those survive who see themselves as life-long learner and continue learning new things to tame present and future. Those who think they have had enough learning, fail all along.

The key to survival and growth is to cultivate LFA, the acronym coined by me which means "Learning Focused Attitude."

Nuggets of Management Wisdom #17

noreply@blogger.com (Mayank Krishna) — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 17:34:00 +0000

Rate of growth up the corporate hierarchy is directly proportional to the rate of growth of one's skills at critical questioning.

Visualize this scenario: I go to my boss fully prepared. After hearing me he asks a few questions, some of which I never thought existed, and I and my plans are floored. I think my boss is very smart. After an hour, I accompany my boss to the cabin of his boss to discuss a proposal. My super boss asks a few questions to my boss, some of which he never thought existed, and he squirms in his chair. I guess he must be feeling the same way I felt when his questions floored me!

This was one of the corporate eureka moments that I sometimes hit upon. Someone is your boss because he can ask better questions than you. Corollary, if you want to step into your boss' shoes, consciously upgrade your skills at critical questioning.

Of course, critical questioning has a lot to do with experience. But at the same time, I have noticed that skills at critical questioning can be remarkably improved by consciously asking "why" again and again. "Why" is perhaps one of the most powerful words of management but often quite underestimated and underutilized.

If you want to rapidly move up the corporate ladder, you should sharpen your skills at asking incisive and unexpected questions. Your best friend in this endeavour would be the power of "why". Never accept anything as perfect. There is always some scope for improvement and value addition. Consciously ask "why" all the time and you would be surprised to see yourself on the fast track.

Growing Marketer Customer Disconnect

noreply@blogger.com (Mayank Krishna) — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 17:46:00 +0000

Two weeks ago, I was at a dealer relationship meeting. After the usual stuff of entertainment, the dealers were updated on latest happenings in the company and how they were going to make the company achieve greater heights in coming years. Though I could feel that they were least interested in that and more inclined to know what gifts and prizes were there for them. Post that, latest TV advertisements were shown to the esteemed audience and to everyone's surprise, majority of dealers couldn't understand the latest TV ad that was getting critical review across creative circles!! To get the Ad entry into their brain, Head of Marketing had to explain the Ad which meant rendering a laymen's version of some universal concepts of science. Whew!

This led me to think -

Are we, marketers and our better halves (advertising agencies), getting away from realities of life?
Are we making advertisements to justify our own grand views of the world and customers instead of telling a story to build brand and increase sales?
In the name of creativity, are we forgetting our target audience?

A cursory look at the current breed of advertisements would tell the truth. The fact is that 80% of the advertisements doing the rounds on TV are useless as far as their primary role of story telling to sell a brand is concerned. Some are so bad that I wonder whether the brand manager and advertising agency worked on the advertisements in their sleep. And then they call them clutter breaking commercials!!

Seeing the current crop of advertisements on TV, I often wonder whether our advertising is progressing or regressing.

Whatever may be the case, one thing is certain that we are seeing a spurt in population of what I call "apartment managers", the special breed of managers who see world in terms of the apartment complex they live in! The result is increasing myopic vision about customers. The end result is often - an advertisement or a marketing campaign that validates perceptions of our own little world but is far away from the realities of larger world.

Isn't it time for the brand managers and advertising people to spend more time meeting customers, understand their way of thinking and doing things, and walk for a while in their shoes to get an inner glimpse of their lives? Doing this instead of plotting marketing and advertising strategy to fit their "apartment view of world" would bear more fruits and would bring the marketer much closer to his customers.

By the way, any guesses about what proportion of Indian population must be aware of gravitational force of earth?

On A Lighter Note...

noreply@blogger.com (Mayank Krishna) — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 18:23:00 +0000

Recently, after repeated exposure to the romantic advertisement of Pond's Age Miracle, I was wondering why no men's organization is coming forward to take up the cause of men. Well, may be because there is not even one men's welfare organization. But this advertisement is a cause big enough to form some organizations meant for raising causes for men. Well, don't get confused. Here I come directly to the point.

Sometime back fairness cream advertisements created a lot of fury. Things were said like it promoted discrimination. Some pointed to the projection of dark skinned ladies in bad light. And to add fuel to fire a lot many women's welfare organizations (ya there are indeed lot many such organizations in every nook and corner of India) took to streets burning what not. The universal judgment was - thrash the company making such advertisements and tag them anti-women and insensitive folks.

On the same note, does it not appear that the Pond's Age Miracle advertisement is insensitive to men? It portrays men as cruel creatures who don't take good care of their wife when their wife starts ageing and wrinkles start appearing on face. They regain their caring and loving nature only after their wives start using anti-wrinkle cream to bring back their youth. How crass, isn't it? I almost shouted, "Sue HLL…oops HUL. These folks are playing with the sentiments of caring married males." Alas! Not a single men's welfare organization is there to take up this noble cause of exposing the insensitive folks at HLL…sorry, HUL.

Now I can understand why men are in such a sorry state universally.

Process: Enslaver or Liberator?

noreply@blogger.com (Mayank Krishna) — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 17:03:00 +0000

Well-designed processes are an integral part of an efficient and effective organization. But just having processes is not enough. Many a time, the processes are there but are flawed thereby crippling the organization. The key lies in having well-designed processes that enhance the quality of output in the organization.

The problem arises when processes become the end rather than means to an end. For ensuring the smooth running of organization with absolute effectiveness, it is vital that processes play an enabling role and act like a catalyst. Simplicity is another key aspect of good processes. But more often than not, we encounter processes that are complex and disabling in nature. Instead of simplifying things and increasing efficiency and effectiveness, they complicate things to the extent of achieving the exact opposite of their objective.

One of the reasons that I have noticed for processes turning into disabling agents is the desire of managers to over-simplify things to control everything. But inadvertently, the over-simplification leads to over-complication. Breaking matter into atomic units is not simple yet it is a simplification procedure. Similarly, in an organization over simplification leads to complexity. In reality, it is foolhardy to try to simplify everything to its basic unit. Not only it is impractical, but it is a sure shot sign of disaster. Running an organization is not based on a mathematical formula where two plus two is always 4! And one should not try to develop a mathematical formula to run an organization because running an organization is a combination of reason, emotion, and judgment. Due to the inherent nature of organization, there will always be certain degree of uncertainty and complexity. Beyond a point, all efforts towards simplification will lead to more complexity. So, it is important to know when to stop.

I feel the key to designing enabling and simple processes is to understand that processes are not meant to control things; rather they are tools to help organizations achieve their objectives effectively. Once there is this understanding, the desire to over-simplify things would give way to designing processes to align them with business objectives and people element. And that would liberate organizations to spread their wings and fly!

How To Kill A Great Organizational Initiative?

noreply@blogger.com (Mayank Krishna) — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 11:45:00 +0000

Very simple!

Make a two-page long office circular glorifying the idea…

Then send it to everyone either through email or hard copy…

Sit back and relax expecting people to follow each and every word of the circular as heavenly wisdom.

Well, it may sound funny (or may be not) but I know this is one reason why many great organizational ideas fail as soon as they start their execution phase. The missing link is COMMUNICATION TO KEEP AN IDEA FRESH IN THE MIND OF PEOPLE so that they keep thinking about it.

A worthy example worth sharing. Once upon a time (not in ancient time but just a year back) CEO of a company had a brilliant flash of idea one day to bring in more energy into his people and increase the productivity of the organization. So he invented a grand concept based on the concept of hemoglobin, transporter of oxygen to our body cells. He called his concept "xyz-globin" where xyz were the initials of the company name. He even detailed what it signified and how to bring it into action. He urged everyone to increase their "xyz-globin" so that it reflects in the work. And he dashed the 2-page circular to only his top team asking them to follow it and spread it down the order. The Holy Grail coming from a CEO doesn't go unread. So it was read in all due respect. A few smiles also followed. And in a matter of few hours it got buried in the piles of paper. One year has passed and the concept, which I must admit was nothing less than brilliant, has long been buried far away from public psyche. As a memento it finds an honourable mention in some manuals that are seldom read or used. Peace!

Why this brilliant idea capable of challenging people to push their limits and deliver their best failed in its mission? Because it was not communicated effectively by the leader to the extent that it set the fire in his peoples' belly.

Had I been in this CEO's shoes, I would have used a completely different technique to drive home the point. Instead of sending them circular, I would have gathered them informally in some corner and explained the concept of "xyz-globin" through a story that was fun and engaging. And then I would have followed it up by everyday randomly asking various people about their "xyz-globin" level. I would have gone to the extent of looking into the eyes of an upbeat and cheerful looking manager and enthusiastically saying, "Man, seems like you are high on 'xyz-globin' today." Or, going to a manager who looked downcast or sleepy and tell him, "Buddy, guess your 'xyz-globin' level is drastically down today. Perk yourself up man." And if the CEO does all these, can his men be far behind. Within a few months this would have caught a wild fire where people would have been asking one another about level of "xyz-globin" resulting in fun-filled energized and engaged workplace that delivered best quality of work.

Well, that can wait till I become the CEO. Amen!

Now coming to the role of communication in execution of an idea or plan, there is only one rule I know that works. EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION IS THE BRIDGE THAT LINKS GREAT IDEAS TO GREAT EXECUTION. It is naïve to think that if you give a road map to people they will just follow it as it is. They will not unless you ensure that it climbs to the same level of priority as it is on your priority ranking. People have hundred things on their mind; the thing that attracts them the most will occupy their attention and energy. Here, communication plays the vital part in ensuring that people get attracted to what you expect them to do and they remain attracted to it till the job is done. A seasoned manager once summed it nicely, "Logon ko hilana dulana padta hai" (people need to be shaken and stirred to action)

Future of Brand and Branding

noreply@blogger.com (Mayank Krishna) — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 17:32:00 +0000

It's fashionable these days to tell the whole world that brand and branding are going to be dead soon! From academicians to retail managers to activists, all are busy writing epitaph for brand and branding. Well, I don't think that a day will ever come in future when brand and branding become irrelevant. Brand and branding are, perhaps, universal things that have been there since time immemorial (think about Picasso signing his painting, shepherds marking their livestock, and in ancient time potters putting special mark to identify the creator). It is equally certain that brand and branding will remain relevant as long as civilization exists on this planet. The reason is simple: Brand is something intrinsically connected with identity, and identity is something that will always remain relevant as long as there are human beings!

The question whether brand will be relevant or not is not important for the simple reason that probability of brand becoming extinct is too remote. The intelligent question to ask is how brand and branding will evolve in future and what challenges marketers will face.

Suppose you are one eligible guy looking for your life partner. There are 10 gorgeous girls willing to marry you. All are equally qualified as per your expectations. All are breathtakingly beautiful. All can talk well. All can say hello to you with a perfect smile. All are charming. Now young man, whom will you marry under the constraints of Indian Law which allows you to have only one wife. In all likelihood you will scratch your head and curse Indian Law regarding marriage! But since your mom is watching you with stern eyes, you know you have to decide fast.

So you start talking to them individually and carefully observe subtle details that convey a lot of things about personality. The way she smiles, the way she laughs at your silly jokes, the way her eyes twinkle when you say something, the way she blushes, the way she responds to your questions, the way she interrupts you, the way she giggles, the way she shows care and affection for you, the way she tests you, and the list can go on. There can be 'n' different clues to read based on which you can take a decision and decide the girl with whom you want to grow old.

Branding in future will be no different. A large number of products will have equal physical characteristics. They will have equal quality. They will have equal properties. They will all satisfy basic needs equally well. They will all have equally appealing external communication. In short, extreme commoditization will become a norm. Yet, a few of them will stand out and entice customers to start a relationship with them; not because of their physical or intellectual beauty but because of their subtle interaction with the customers that give enough cues to them to think that it is one brand they want to grow old with.

The key to branding in future will be multi-dimensional interaction with the customers at every possible touch points in customer's life. Branding will have to evolve into a combination of logical, emotional, and experiential curry that not only tastes exotic and out-of-this-world but is realistic and healthy too. Branding in future will be all about simultaneously activating the head, heart, and all the senses of the customers. And that's the challenge marketers will face in future.

Bureaucracy - An Unnecessary Evil

noreply@blogger.com (Mayank Krishna) — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 19:11:00 +0000

Bureaucracy is one of the greatest evils in organizations. Often the roots of bureaucracy are in the process of continuous addition of layers in the organization which inadvertently leads to duplication of work. Layering is a natural process in a growing organization. But at the same time it is the breeding ground for bureaucracy that may ultimately become a growth choking agent. Hence, it becomes a paramount responsibility of senior managers to consciously and frequently delayer the organization by purposefully identifying and culling layers where duplication of work happens without any significant value addition.

An example – I have often seen request for routine approvals landing on a senior manager's table with signature of atleast five different managers who had already reviewed it. I don't understand what kind of value addition the sixth manager is going to do! I firmly believe that if anything meant for approval is moving beyond two levels from the level of origin it's a sure sign of bureaucratic mismanagement. Even two levels is extreme in my scheme of things and comes with a caveat that not less than 90% of approvals must get closed at the level of immediate boss and only 10% should move to the super boss level for closure. But if it takes more than two levels to close an approval request, either you don't have right people to make right decision at various levels or you have simply created multiple layers to duplicate work without any real value addition.

The biggest problem with this addition of layers is that it slows things down to an absolutely uncomfortable level. An offshoot of this phenomenon is hanging decisions for further analysis and discussion. And the loop seldom gets closed in a reasonable time. It's true that taking decisions quickly means a slightly higher probability of committing mistakes. But I feel this slightly higher probability of making a wrong decision is preferable to frequently slowing down the organization by indecision. The speed and action orientation of faster decisions more than compensates for occasional wrong decisions. Also, those who are successful never feared making mistakes!

So what you, as a manager, must do. First, keep questioning every layer of your organization by constantly asking ‘do we really need this layer?’ Second, don’t shy away from de-layering if any layer is not adding any real value or if a layer becomes redundant by streamlining the process at some other layer(s). Third, prevent duplication of work by insisting on doing it right at the first point itself through delegation of proper authority and accountability. Fourth, focus on enhancing the quality of people and processes, the two most powerful weapons to fight bureaucracy.

To sum up, if you want to keep your organization agile and free from bureaucracy, do everything you can to make it lean, mean, and empowered.

Leader

noreply@blogger.com (Mayank Krishna) — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 17:16:00 +0000

"A leader is best when people barely know that he exists; not so good when people obey and acclaim him; worst when they despise him"

- Lao-tzu, ancient Chinese philosopher

Nuggets of Management Wisdom #16

noreply@blogger.com (Mayank Krishna) — Sat, 26 May 2007 04:45:00 +0000

Buying time is an old tactic. Never let your people delay things by buying time every now and then on one pretext or the other.

Working with senior management is pure delight at times as you get to learn wisdom gathered over years of experience in classic one-liners. A few days back, a President, with over 30 years of management experience, reprimanded a senior manager, who was asking for more time than necessary to implement a new initiative, by saying "buying time is an old tactic."

Later, when I pondered over this, I realized that we often avoid doing certain things that are beyond our comfort levels. And we do it in the politically correct way of "buying time". Procrastination is a bad habit and "buying time syndrome" only legitimates it. But this does no good to anyone. It only results in inordinate delay in getting things done and situations spiraling out of control.

So the lesson to be learnt is simple: First, don't buy time yourself. Second, don't allow others to buy time. Corollary of the lesson is – Just Do It!

Nuggets of Management Wisdom #15

noreply@blogger.com (Mayank Krishna) — Thu, 17 May 2007 17:50:00 +0000

Leadership is all about inspiration, persuasion, trust, fairness, and transformation of ordinary to extra-ordinary.

Leadership can at times seem very simple yet at other times abstract. I often ask myself – what makes great leaders? Having observed some remarkable leaders in my life and also having read about many great leaders, I feel that despite the difference in leadership style there is a common thread running in between the methods and madness of all great leaders.

All great leaders inspire people to action, they have amazing powers to persuade people, they have immense trust in their people, they are fair when dealing with their people, and they are driven by a desire to transform anything ordinary to extraordinary.

I feel anyone can become a great leader if one practices to live these five virtues of great leadership everyday of one’s life.

Armchair Strategists

noreply@blogger.com (Mayank Krishna) — Sun, 13 May 2007 06:33:00 +0000

There is a unique species in corporate world. Its name is “Armchair Strategists”. These are frequently found at higher levels of corporate hierarchy. Their specialty is that they tend to think that they know everything that’s happening around even without venturing out of their cozy and spacious offices! So confident they are of their ability to read things without venturing out that they keep imposing upon others decisions that reinforce their grand views about everything. It’s another matter that what they think is often wrong and way apart from reality. The reason is simple – unless you roll up your sleeves and go out and poke your ears and eyes around, reality is not bound to enter your head, however experienced you may be!

There is a Chinese proverb that goes like “Hearing a hundred times is not as good as seeing once.” This is attributed to a veteran Chinese general, Zhou Chongguo, who, when asked by Emperor Xuandi about the number of troops he would require to defeat the invasion from the North, replied –

“Hearing a hundred times is not as good as seeing once. Warfare is not a matter of guesswork. I will have to go to the front to see for myself how the land lies before I can formulate my strategy.”

Perhaps, our “armchair strategists” from the corporate world need a lesson from General Zhou Chongguo on the importance of moving out of their cozy offices to visit their markets and talk to their customers more often so that they can see what is happening around and not rely solely on their experience or what their people tell them about what is happening around.