Story of our time........

"To-day do I bake, to-morrow I brew,
The day after that the queen's child comes in;
And oh! I am glad that nobody knew
That the name I am called is Rumpelstiltskin!"

I have no idea, how many of you have read the Brothers Grimm, who about a couple of century's ago, went around Europe collecting stories and then published them.

Of the many stories that I read as a kid, Rumpelstiltskin, has the greatest recall. The name is striking and the characterization of the villain is brilliant.I was afraid, reading the name.The point is how simple it was in the days of yore. Good and evil clearly defined and the forces of evil once identified would be destroyed!The good would live happily ever after.

Cut to the present. The complexities are mind boggling!The good can be evil and vice versa......

The 'good' IT czar is suddenly found to have siphoned off crores of Rupees and short changed his innocent share holders, while the villainous mining Baron, donates a crown worth crores of Rupees to one of India's most famous shrines.

You suddenly find that your sporting icon, has been quietly cheating on his family on the side. Moral turpitude.

Lets go back to Rumpelstiltskin.........here is the caboodle:

A miller lies about the capabilities of his daughter to the king. She can spin gold out of straw ( done today as well, as you inflate your CV ). The daughter cannot deliver and to escape punishment, makes a deal with Rumpelstiltskin ( an evil dwarf ). The evil Rumpelstiltskin, keeps his side of the promise and delivers,but the young pretty girl, now a queen, uses her resources to dump Rumpelstiltskin, now that she is in a happy situation.The dwarf is banished for ever and the queen lives happily ever after.Who was the villan, the dwarf or the queen? Or was it the intent?

I guess the story is a reflection of our times. Many shades to a personality.Maybe a fairy tale, but for me a lesson in management.

As a kid, I cheered the story.I rejoiced at the young girl thwarting the goblin. Today, older and wiser, I'm not sure, mate.........complex, you bet!

Food for thought!

A couple of days ago, I had the most exhilarating, ride to the southern suburb of Koramanagala, here in Bangalore, on the pillion of a friends bike.After transacting, the business, that we were there for, feeling ravenously hungry, I scouted around for a bite, and not finding anything appropriate, settled for a packet of Haldiram's Moong Dal.

Post quenching the fires in my belly, while attempting to dispose, the wrapper, the name Haldiram struck a chord.Why? Read on & you shall comprehend!

Haldiram Bhujiawala proprietor Prabhu Shankar Agarwal was sentenced to life imprisonment along with four others by a fast track court for conspiring to kill a tea stall owner, whose shop came in the way of a food plaza he was building, a few days ago.

Agarwal, owner of the multi-crore food and confectionery chain, which has outlets in many cities and also in London and elsewhere, had failed to persuade tea stall owner Satyanarayan Sharma in Burrabazar area of Kolkata to move out as the shop would spoil the facade of the food plaza he was constructing.

His hired goons who threatened the tea stall owner & had then raided the shop looking for Satyanarayan, but not finding him, shot his nephew Pramod Sharma, injuring him seriously on March 30, 2005. These acts followed attempts to reason with Sharma and as this cut no ice, Agarwal tried to buy him off.Sharma would not budge.
The rather bizarre behavior displayed by Agarwal, is not uncommon & in Psychological parlance termed as 'Escalation of Commitment'.

An example.......After a heated and aggressive bidding war, Robert Campeau ended up buying Bloomingdale's for an estimated 600 million dollars more than it was worth. The Wall Street Journal noted that "we're not dealing in price anymore but egos". Campeau was forced to declare bankruptcy soon afterwards.

Escalation of commitment, is a phenomenon where decision making turns seemingly irrational piggybacking on rational decisions, because you do not want to cut your losses & admit that you were wrong in the first place.The phenomenon of escalation can be described in the following fashion. First, a decision-maker performs a choice under conditions of uncertainty. Later, the decision-maker learns that another course of action is more advantageous (this different course may be as simple as the termination of the original project). At this stage the decision-maker has an option of altering the original decision. Having received the negative feedback, however, the decision-maker escalates the original commitment, thus becoming "locked in the losing course of action" (Staw, 1981).

As I finally managed to dispose the 'Moong Dal' wrapper, I wistfully thought- What if our friend Agarwal, had heard about escalation of commitment? In the managers world, it is imperative that we understand, EOC.

Banzai!

It’s clear by looking at the demographics of Japan’s population that diversity initiatives aren’t just a "nice to have" for Japanese companies. They are a strategy for survival. Right now we in India can bask in the refuge of knowing that we have the largest number of youth, waiting to take up jobs. ( Whether they are employable is yet another story )
Twenty-two percent of the population in Japan is over the age of 65, according to the Central Intelligence Agency’s World Fact Book. At the same time, Japan’s birthrate is only eight births per 1,000 people. "Companies don’t have anyone to replace the workers who are retiring," says Jan Combopiano, vice president and chief knowledge officer at Catalyst, a New York-based nonprofit that focuses on workplace diversity issues. "What many of them are trying to do is make up for decades of not having women in the workforce.” Also, as Nissan has noticed, women in recent years have become a dominant force as consumers, Combopiano says.
While Japanese companies have gotten support from the government, which has declared gender equity as a goal for all employers in the country, the main challenges these firms face is changing the culture of their organizations, as well as addressing the Japanese culture of being very high on the Power Distance Index. Most Japanese men feel that a woman’s position is at home. Despite laws supporting gender equity, Japan still is a male-dominated culture. To address this, companies need to approach diversity initiatives as they would any type of change management program. Internal training needs to be part of these initiatives so that managers and employees throughout the organization understand why diversity is important and how it links to the company’s business results. And it’s not just the male managers who need the training, she says. Women employees often need help understanding their opportunities throughout the organization, since this is a new way of thinking for many of them, she says.
Unfortunately, to really get women employees understanding the potential for their careers at the company, firms need to have more female role models in top positions and this is really an issue after years of women facing the proverbial glass ceiling in terms of top managerial positions.
According to a 2007 white paper issued by the Japanese government, female managers make up only 10 percent of all managers at Japanese companies.The lack of role models means there are a lot of women who don’t see any possibility for them to be managers.
Japanese organizations are also facing the brunt of a generation of change, where, the younger generation, does not display the same sense of organization loyalty that their fathers did. Indeed job hopping is quite a common Japanese trait these days, compounding the issue. Japan has to choose between the devil & deep blue sea. Their untainted culture or business survival! As the situation worsens are we going to hear the battle cry- 'Banzai' from the Japs....................

Are you a Protean!

If you ever thought that management was a project,then I'm afraid you are mistaken. Management is one long road with little or no time to stop and rest on your oars. A good story to substantiate this is Homer's Odyssey.I'm amazed as to why history is not taught as a course in management, because we can laern a good deal from folk who preceeded us.But then that's not what holds my attention right now.

Post the pillage of Troy the victorious Greeks, would have probably heaved a sigh of relief, and look forward to returning home. Not the case for Hercules. The heroes of the 'Iliad'- rebellious Achilles, brave Hector and the bossy Menelaus are all gone and the Odyssey is the story of Hercules and his labors.

This short blog is not a piece on Greek history but on one of the characters of the Odyssey- Proteus. Proteus, supposedly son of Poseidon was a sea god. He was special because he could tell the future but avoided doing so by changing shape and form. He was versatile and quick. He bought time, in decision making and eventually made a commitment only when captured.

Plato, Euthyphro 15d (trans. Fowler) (Greek philosopher C4Th B.C.) :
"[Plato uses Proteus as a metaphor for the reluctant speaker :]

Like Proteus, you must be held until you speak."

Plato, Ion 541e (trans. Lamb) :
"[Plato uses Proteus as a metaphor for the twisting arguments of a debate :]

You are a perfect Proteus in the way you take on every kind of shape, twisting about this way and that, until at last you elude my grasp."



While I do not subscribe to the evasive tactics of Proteus, I do like his ability to change shape and appearance at will. Drawing a parallel with our world today, I think managers should draw a leaf from his book and develop the ability to adapt to and change depending upon the situation.

One area where managers falter regularly is in their Cultural Intelligence. Like other forms of intelligence, CI is fundamental to success in a globalized world. Stories of deals that have failed due to a lack of cultural sensitivity abound but we still refuse to learn that culture and cultural practices are various and different across the world.

In my last organization, we had a gent from a pacific Island. The guy was very polite, but behaved strangely- avoided eye contact, sat before he was offered a seat & generally did not shake hands. He was summarily labelled as uncouth.

Was this the truth................. no!

In his part of the world, you avoided eye contact with a person you respected and did not appear bigger than a superior so he sat uninvited.

Culture can be complicated and you need a high Culture Quotient, to avoid pitfalls in a world that is increasingly turning flat.More importantly a high CQ would preclude us from being judgemental.

Proteus, or as Homer called him, 'The Old Man of the Sea' would be a great example in cultural adaptability!

Not all employees have equal value.......

A while ago a young friend of mine told me that she was petrified of facing interviews and selection processes.I was taken aback because this particular girl has a wonderful presence, a calm demeanour, is very articulate and to top it has a wonderful smile ! ( the strengths far outweigh the weaknessess )We are generally ( except for narcissists ) are our worst critics and my advise is to look at your strengths while managing your weaknesses and not to get bogged down by what we are not endowed with.

This is a debate which has gone back and forth for quite a while and as far as I'm concerned the truly successful ( not necessarily rich ) are those who leverage their strenghts, not those who keep trying to buttress their weaknesses.

Continuing in the same vein, I'm amazed at many an organization's inability to recognize its best people and work with them.Most organization's generally ponder upon their laggards and furiously debate as to either how they may be improved or jettisoned, even while ignoring their best performers ( who are expected to perform anyway).This to me is inherently flawed, because most high performers look for constant feedback and appreciation.

It would be prudent for organization's to identify their best people and closely monitor the loads that they carry.You do not want them to go up in flames and burn out or look for other pastures, as the job market for high performers is very competitive and alluring.

As a manager you do not want to be left holding the can and your under performers while the better ones have moved on. It is fundamental that you 're recruit' your top performers at regular intervals, by incentivizing them, not necessarily with money but by recognizing them and showing them that you care.

As a manager show your high performer that you value him/her. Many a time a pat on the back and an informal thank you will have the job done.Ignoring your best talent is done at your own peril because remember, your competitor is just around the corner waiting to snare your numero uno employee.

The 'Hawthorne Studies' are an example of this phenomenon. Just by creating a special group scientists found that employee productivity went up and sustained itself.

Hiring great employees is one part of the story, keeping folk motivated and gung ho is the tougher act to follow........

The High Mach..................

Are great leaders High Mach's? Is it a personality trait that successful leaders require?
Machiavellianism is, "the employment of cunning and duplicity in statecraft or in general conduct", deriving from the Italian Renaissance diplomat and writer Niccolò Machiavelli, who wrote Il Principe (The Prince) and other works.
Machiavellian and variants became very popular in the late 16th century in English.The word has a similar use in modern psychology. Machiavelli, according to the popular view, although this is disputed at least in part by most Machiavelli scholars, held that people were by nature untrustworthy, malevolent and self-serving, and thus those in power could only maintain their position through exploitative and deceitful actions.
Strangely, one person, who came closest to Machiavelli's definition was a woman. She grew up in a palace filled with intrigue & deceit, where defeat was death. Cleopatra, the much vilified Egyptian queen, known for her legendary beauty was the epitome of brains and courage. She used her great skills to keep her kingdom of Egypt independent, amidst great political uncertainty and a rampant Rome.She married two of the most powerful Romans of the time- Julius Cesar & Mark Antony. When she was ordered to meet Mark Antony at 'Tarsus', she skilfully manipulated him to come aboard her skiff on the Nile. Imagine doing this to the most powerful man in the world, at the time! Her skillful maneuvering was the order of the day, till it all fell apart at the Battle of Actium where, she & Mark Antony were defeated in a Naval engagement, off Greece, by Octavian Cesar.
It's easy to dismiss the Machiavellian approach to running organisations in today's kinder, gentler world of new age, team-based management. Many believe ( privately ) that leaders can accomplish their goals only by being tough, manipulative, dictatorial, or paternalistic as the situation requires. Take this example of the manipulative and paternalistic style of management. ( It works & then it does not ) When Henry Ford set up his first plant, he was generous in providing for free schools, hospitals and subsidised food for his workers - something unheard of at that time. The "labour welfare" measures were then termed revolutionary and progressive, but Ford's approach was essentially Machiavellian (manipulative) in nature. His purpose was that his workers should have more disposable income so that they could turn out to be potential and captive buyers of the cars he produced. This met with some success. But to Ford's and the industry's utter surprise, the Ford workers one day went on strike as they found their owner was trying to be too much of a "paternalistic" manager by trying to control their lives through diktats such as one which said no worker's children could study in any other school but the one he had set up.
Why did Machiavelli recommend that a prince (read the CEO in the present context) must be ready to be cruel and devious? He himself gives the answer: in the long run, this is often kinder than to expose citizens (staffers in an organisation) to the turmoil let loose by a weak ruler. Even the worst of Machiavelli's critics should find nothing wrong with these arguments. After all, expediency is the name of the game in effective management.
His colleagues often derided one of the greatest business leaders of all times - GE's Jack Welch - as a modern-day Machiavelli. Listen to the Machiavellian ring in Welch's own words in 1982: "Managements that hang on to weakness for whatever reason - tradition, sentiment, goodness or their own weakness - won't be around in 1990". That explains Welch's vow to fix, close or sell any business that could not achieve market leadership. That meant layoffs - big ones - and by the end of 1982, GE squeezed out 35,000 employees, almost 9 per cent of the 1980 total.
Simple arithmetic done by Noel M Tichy and Stratford Sherman in their famous book Control your destiny or someone else will suggests why Welch took this step. "In 1982, GE's net income was $1.8 billion. Imagine that GE had not already terminated 35,000 employees. Their average salary and benefits of a little over $25,000 per person would have increased GE's pretax expenses by nearly $900 million". But while adopting this seemingly "cruel" style of management advocated by Machiavelli, Welch didn't forget the thinker's advocacy of a "human" face. Welch believed the victims of layoffs deserved compassionate treatment - not only generous financial settlements, but humane consideration of their feelings. He personally answered letters of complaint from laid-off employees, and directly intervened in cases of injustice that came to his attention. Executives who mismanaged the downsizing felt his wrath.
The past and present Machiavellis were only practising a dictum that has now become an all-too-familiar phrase in India: Labour reforms with a human face.
From Cleopatra to Jack Welch, we see a generous dose of Machiavellianism, coloring their personality! Are all of us to be High Machs? That's a choice that you have to make. Cleopatra committed suicide after Actium & Welch has been known to have had unsuccessful relationships at home.............

The International Manager.......

I'm just through with a course on International Human Resource Management. The course went wonderfully well & I had a lot of fun. My course starts with a case on the ship 'Tampa' and her obstinate Captain Rinan. Right up my street,and the case brilliantly deals with many aspects and challenges that an international manager would face.The Captain has to grapple with a whole lot of Afghan refugees on board his craft who turn increasingly mutinuous as days go by and no country is ready to give them refuge.

A great challenge for MNC's is how do you deal with a workforce at a subsidiary and keep them motivated and raring to go.?

In today’s global economy, managers often supervise staffers who work thousands of miles away. But how?
Managing employees who work in the same office is challenging enough. But in today’s global economy, it’s often necessary to work with and for people thousands of miles away. E-mail and teleconferences are helpful, but they’re only tools; they can’t guarantee that you won’t misunderstand, offend, inconvenience or otherwise annoy co-workers and clients overseas.

So how can an executive keep a global workforce motivated and avoid slipping up at the same time? And is it possible to do it without working literally around the clock?

Some tips:

1. Use time zones to your advantage
Many companies take advantage of time-zone differences and cheaper labor to maintain around-the-clock workflow. But it takes constant communication.


2. Gather the team
For the past 11 years, Boston Consulting’s Sirkin and his 15-person leadership team have gathered twice a year, in Chicago and Paris, to talk business and, just as important, to build personal relationships.

it cost money but builds camaraderie.

3. Be sensitive to cultural differences

In 1998, Erin Peterson, now based in Lincolnshire as global head of talent acquisition for Hewitt Associates Inc., relocated to Germany for three years to lead a Western European recruiting team for another company. Faced with a large task, and unaware of the region’s hierarchical culture, she took a collaborative approach.

"I told the group that I didn’t have all the answers and that we’d figure it out together," she recalls. A Swiss colleague pulled her aside and told her that if she didn’t have all the answers, she wouldn’t be the boss. Peterson quickly changed her tone.

4. Provide meaningful opportunities
Software maker SPSS Inc. uses teams at its Chicago headquarters and in China to develop its flagship statistics software. When the U.S. workday ends, China takes over testing and customer support.

What makes it work?

"Our China team is doing true R&D work, not piecemeal projects," says Richard Holada, who is senior vice president of technology and oversees 400 employees in seven countries. "We want everyone to have a sense of ownership and accomplishment."

5. Recognize talent worldwide
Experts say the companies doing the best job of retaining top talent are looking beyond traditional boundaries for leadership.

Hewitt recently promoted its first global leader based in India.


6. Keep employees motivated
Like all things global, cultural preferences vary when it comes to motivating employees. In the U.S., people generally like to be recognized individually for their successes, while Europeans tend to reward teams for a job well done. Working in Germany, Hewitt’s Peterson singled out an employee for praise. "It was not welcome," she says.

But she finds her recruiting team in India responds well to a combination of both styles.

She uses regular monthly conference calls to praise the group and encourages individuals to share best practices.

7. Videoconferencing is your friend
While e-mail is a constant link, Smart of Bermuda-based Accenture says it’s critical to find the right mix of communications channels. She is based in Chicago, but the consulting giant has leaders in Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and beyond.

Smart likes to see people when communicating, so she relies on videoconferencing technology in the office and a webcam on her home computer.

The internation manager has a job which is tough and challenging.It needs total engagement and involvement.

Tough guys & Bullies!

A chance meeting amongst a few colleagues, a while back got us discussing, persons that we mutually knew and that if we considered them tough.

One of my colleagues said that, a particular gentleman was tough, because he terrorized those who were beholden to him in one way or the other. He also had an aggressive streak, more so with people, who were not aggressive themselves! I naturally disagreed and called the gent a bully!

As far as I'm concerned if you are tough, stand up to the power's to be and not harass your subordinates.Unfortunately we associate toughness to aggression and make a mockery of both. Some of the toughest people that I've known have been the most docile and come through trying times or incidents intact, while the aggressive ones have scurried for cover.

A great example would be Gandhi, who was both mentally and physically tough, as the South Africans and Brits found out. Was he an aggressive man ? No, he wasn't.

Good leaders are psychologically tough people and during a staffing process you want people who will stand the test of time & and not run for cover at the first sign of trouble.

One of my question's during an interview is 'What was the most difficult moment of your life and how did you overcome it?'

What gets my goat is when bullies, are called tough and begin to believe that they are tough because they get away by harassing hapless, helpless folk.

In the workplace it is fundamental to delineate the bullies and call their bluff........As a manager it is one job that you will have to do with toughness....