I joined corporate life during the TQM era and was constantly fed this going phrase “Walk the talk”. Most organizations at that time started competing on who was a better TQM organization and the best TQM benchmark practices started getting created. One of the important benchmark practice was to treat all employees equally and provide certain classless benefits.
In my organization we had a common lunch room where everybody ate the same food from CEO to the worker. We would highlight that as the biggest achievement of TQM. The second biggest was providing open parking slots to people where there were no reservations for anybody including the CEO. This was very big as every manager in the company was provided a car.
Lets take the lunch situation, everything else was common, except that while others would pick up the plates and spoons on their own, Vice President and above were provided an extra benefit of a person standing there who will pick up the plate for them and hand it over with a spoon and a PAPER NAPKIN.
Lets look at parking. One day a few people in my office who saw my car parked at a spot came up and warned me that I had parked my vehicle at Mr VP’s reserved parking slot and there is going to be serious repercussions. I did not believe this. Within 15 mins I was dragged out of an important meeting, given serious lecture by the admin department about parking in the reserved slot and made to remove my car that very moment. This is where TQM took over, within 15 mins Mr VP called me personally and apologized for the behaviour of the admin department. I was impressed as this was walk the talk, till people around told me this was a drama which had been enacted many times. After about 4 months I decided to test this and parked my car at the same slot. Within 15 mins admin called, gave lecture, I removed car and within another 15 mins Mr VP called to apologize. I could only laugh.
The situation became more funny when Mr VP was quoted in all TQM sessions and was projected as the father of the TQM movement in our company. No doubt TQM died a natural death.
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
Sunday, June 05, 2005
Why outsource
I was once in an outsourcing discussion with a client we were pitching to. The client wanted us to outsource their HR activities but was requesting us to take the processes as is and then also give them a significant cost reduction. My question was how. If we were to take same processes and same service levels, then we would have to deploy the same number of people and use the same technology being used and if that was the case, the cost incurred by us would be the same as what the client was incurring. From where will we get the cost reduction.
This got me thinking about the motive most clients have around outsourcing and why it ends up not giving the requisite benefit that it should. During conversations with a few clients the feel I got is that clients wanted to download their problems onto someone else, who can be blamed, other than ofcource show cost reduction. Due to this the situation never improved for most organization, infact it worsened as now there was another inefficient process of handover between the organization and the service provider.
To me the basic reasons why any organization should be outsourcing is for the following reasons :
- To get better service levels
- To reduce corporate time spend on routine non-core transactional activities
- To streamline processes for better efficiencies and continuous improvement on processes
Cost reduction is an outcome which will accrue automatically if the other three objectives are met. First and foremost we should be looking at improved service levels. More so with respect to the HR processes as we are talking about processes which impact our so called most important resource – people.
For service providers there is a need to ensure that their clients can get higher levels of service to justify the outsourcing decision. Also there is a need to work with the client to streamline the handover process to ensure that there are no additional inefficiencies that get built in at that stage.
Another significant change required for an outsourcing deal to work is for the client to treat the service provider as a partner, an extension of its own organization, similarly for the service provider to think of itself as an extension of the client organization. This will ensure that both the organizations are working towards the same cause of providing higher service levels to its ultimate customer, the employees.
This got me thinking about the motive most clients have around outsourcing and why it ends up not giving the requisite benefit that it should. During conversations with a few clients the feel I got is that clients wanted to download their problems onto someone else, who can be blamed, other than ofcource show cost reduction. Due to this the situation never improved for most organization, infact it worsened as now there was another inefficient process of handover between the organization and the service provider.
To me the basic reasons why any organization should be outsourcing is for the following reasons :
- To get better service levels
- To reduce corporate time spend on routine non-core transactional activities
- To streamline processes for better efficiencies and continuous improvement on processes
Cost reduction is an outcome which will accrue automatically if the other three objectives are met. First and foremost we should be looking at improved service levels. More so with respect to the HR processes as we are talking about processes which impact our so called most important resource – people.
For service providers there is a need to ensure that their clients can get higher levels of service to justify the outsourcing decision. Also there is a need to work with the client to streamline the handover process to ensure that there are no additional inefficiencies that get built in at that stage.
Another significant change required for an outsourcing deal to work is for the client to treat the service provider as a partner, an extension of its own organization, similarly for the service provider to think of itself as an extension of the client organization. This will ensure that both the organizations are working towards the same cause of providing higher service levels to its ultimate customer, the employees.
Sunday, May 08, 2005
Bulla! Kii jaana main kaun hoon ?
Last week was hectic for me and hence I missed out on writing. During the two weeks got to listen to the latest Rabbi song "Bulla! Kii jaana main kaun hoon". This got me thinking a bit and I started thinking more around what do I do as an HR consultant ? Let me trace back a few years for a context.
Having brought up in a Marwari family in Calcutta, the only higher education we knew about was Chartered Accountancy. Most people in my immediate family would drop off after college and join their family business or pursue CA and start their own practice. When I got a call from a management college (XLRI, Jamshedpur)there were a lot of questions about why I was not pursuing CA. The only solace was that one could get away by saying MBA is better than CA.
During one of the breaks on my trip back home, one relative asked me what was it that I was learning and I confidently said Human Resources, then was asked what would I do when I qualify in HR, I was dumbfounded. Based on what I was learning in OB and PM I tried imagining what I would be doing when I join an organisation but completely failed to find an appropriate response. My safeguard was to tell everyone I am doing an MBA and will become a manager, this helped me sail through embarassing questions about what my education would lead me to.
Then landed up in my first job where I was Manpower Development Executive. Most of my cousins and friends from college easily got away by saying I have my own business, I am an accountant, I am a forex trader, I am a soap seller etc etc. I had to get into major explanation about how company had to assess manpower needs and then identify possible availability options and build a pipeline of talent and so on and so forth. Imagin saying all this in Hindi or Bangla. I am sure my parent hoped I was working in an oil company and helping setup an oil pipeline for them, they had never heard of a talent pipeline.
Social outings became very taxing when I took up HR consulting as my chosen career. Imagin being asked "Kahan kaam karte ho (where do you work)?" Hewitt. "Company kya banati hai (What does the company make)?" Kuch banati nahi hai hum HR Consultant hai(We don't make anything we are HR consultants). This is a time when HR consulting was synonymous with recruiting. The reaction immediately would be "Achcha aadmi supply karte ho (You supply men)?". Thank God, in India we are not very sensitive about gender equalities, else this could be a very embarassing moment.
No No I am not a recruiters I do HR consulting. "Achcha to kaam kya karte ho (So what do you do)?".
In these moments how I wish I had become a chartered accountant and not have to explain what I do. Of late I have started giving simple explanation that Main logon ki seva karta hoon (I am a social worker) and pray that people will not ask me Kaise (HOW)?.
Which leaves me wondering most of the time "Bulla ! Kii jaana main kya karta hoon". Any thoughts anyone.....?
Having brought up in a Marwari family in Calcutta, the only higher education we knew about was Chartered Accountancy. Most people in my immediate family would drop off after college and join their family business or pursue CA and start their own practice. When I got a call from a management college (XLRI, Jamshedpur)there were a lot of questions about why I was not pursuing CA. The only solace was that one could get away by saying MBA is better than CA.
During one of the breaks on my trip back home, one relative asked me what was it that I was learning and I confidently said Human Resources, then was asked what would I do when I qualify in HR, I was dumbfounded. Based on what I was learning in OB and PM I tried imagining what I would be doing when I join an organisation but completely failed to find an appropriate response. My safeguard was to tell everyone I am doing an MBA and will become a manager, this helped me sail through embarassing questions about what my education would lead me to.
Then landed up in my first job where I was Manpower Development Executive. Most of my cousins and friends from college easily got away by saying I have my own business, I am an accountant, I am a forex trader, I am a soap seller etc etc. I had to get into major explanation about how company had to assess manpower needs and then identify possible availability options and build a pipeline of talent and so on and so forth. Imagin saying all this in Hindi or Bangla. I am sure my parent hoped I was working in an oil company and helping setup an oil pipeline for them, they had never heard of a talent pipeline.
Social outings became very taxing when I took up HR consulting as my chosen career. Imagin being asked "Kahan kaam karte ho (where do you work)?" Hewitt. "Company kya banati hai (What does the company make)?" Kuch banati nahi hai hum HR Consultant hai(We don't make anything we are HR consultants). This is a time when HR consulting was synonymous with recruiting. The reaction immediately would be "Achcha aadmi supply karte ho (You supply men)?". Thank God, in India we are not very sensitive about gender equalities, else this could be a very embarassing moment.
No No I am not a recruiters I do HR consulting. "Achcha to kaam kya karte ho (So what do you do)?".
In these moments how I wish I had become a chartered accountant and not have to explain what I do. Of late I have started giving simple explanation that Main logon ki seva karta hoon (I am a social worker) and pray that people will not ask me Kaise (HOW)?.
Which leaves me wondering most of the time "Bulla ! Kii jaana main kya karta hoon". Any thoughts anyone.....?
Wednesday, May 04, 2005
Fringe Benefit Tax
I am not an economist so probably don't understand the logic of having Fringe Benefit Tax the way it has been planned. I have heard numerous interviews now of various Finance functionaries and the Finance Minister himself and have yet not got convinced of the need.
The last argument given is that it only adds a max of 1% to 1.5% additional tax to all organisations, so they should not complain about it.
My understanding why this tax has come into being is to generate revenue for the Government's expenditure. So the corporates have to pay this money this way or the other.
To me a simple solution staring at me is that the corporate rate of taxation be made 31.5% instead of 30 and do away with the FBT. This is equivalent to what the corporate would in any case pay to the Government and will cover the fringe benefits that are provided by various employers. I am sure most corporates would be happier paying the additional tax in lieu of FBT. And just to make the Government happy we can call the additional tax as the Fringe Benefit Cess (just to cater to the emotional attachment the finance ministry has to the term Fringe benefits).
But then I guess you would have to be a brilliant economist to ignore such simple logical solution. Lets raise a toast to simplifying our tax structure with an official tag line of "Nothing simple about it".........
The last argument given is that it only adds a max of 1% to 1.5% additional tax to all organisations, so they should not complain about it.
My understanding why this tax has come into being is to generate revenue for the Government's expenditure. So the corporates have to pay this money this way or the other.
To me a simple solution staring at me is that the corporate rate of taxation be made 31.5% instead of 30 and do away with the FBT. This is equivalent to what the corporate would in any case pay to the Government and will cover the fringe benefits that are provided by various employers. I am sure most corporates would be happier paying the additional tax in lieu of FBT. And just to make the Government happy we can call the additional tax as the Fringe Benefit Cess (just to cater to the emotional attachment the finance ministry has to the term Fringe benefits).
But then I guess you would have to be a brilliant economist to ignore such simple logical solution. Lets raise a toast to simplifying our tax structure with an official tag line of "Nothing simple about it".........
Monday, May 02, 2005
Kya Consultant hai hum...
I have been in this situation many times in the past and faced with it as close as day before yesterday. Let me put this as a transcript of the conversation between a consultant and a client.
Client : We need to have an objective, fair and transparent performance evaluation system.
Consultant : For that you would have to set quantifiable or measureable targets for people in the organisation and then measure performance against those
Client : But we cannot do this, its difficult to set such targets for our organisation or people. (The reasons could be anything)
Consultant : Hundreds of companies are doing this so should not be a big problem for you.
Client : You do not understand our company is in a very unique situation and its impossible to do something like this.
Consultant : There are many tools which are available to help you do this, lets use tool XX
Client : So how many companies have used this tool in the past and successfully
Here is where I want to tell them about this circular reference error that you get in excel. First you tell me what applies to others doesn't apply to you as you are unique. Then to apply anything to your organisation you first want to know who else has done it. Make up your mind.
I am told there is a new book in the market House of lies - How management consultants steal your watch and then tell you the time. Haven't read it as yet and am sure there are enuf crazy stories about bad consulting there like the other books in the market on the same subject.
The truth in many cases also is that the client nearly always has a watch and does not want to see the time or believe the time shown in their watches and thats where we consultants make a living. I have been in a situation where a summer trainee presented a brilliant report to my organisation on what we should be doing, but we junked it. The report got presented by a consultant next year, and the same report, as our summer trainee joined that company from campus. My organisation went ga-ga about the recommendations and wanted to implement it immediately. I guess, many of us moved to consulting after facing similar situations in our organisations.
95% of the time (I have no way to scientifically prove this) the solution to all problems posed to the consultants probably lies in very obvious commonsensical solutions. I have been guilty of suggesting those obvious solutions to clients because there is nothing else and in many cases being told "Oh so how did you add value, we already knew this". The urge to find complex solutions to simple problems always leads organisations to push consultants to come up with something out of the world and the consultant has to hide behind jargons to make simple solutions sound interesting and unimplementable which client would not have thought of.
I have always faced this request, we want to be the best employers so tell us how. I have always said we would have to do certain unique things that would differentiate you as an employer from what others are offering and we would have to find things which make sense in your context. To everything that you want the client to do, they ask, so who else has done it.
I guess they are confused about whether they want to be the best employer or the best follower of best employer practices.
So all you consultants out there, don't lose heart. We have enuf number of potential clients who will give us their watch and ask us the time and then ask us to find out what is the time in other people's watches as well, just to be sure.........
Client : We need to have an objective, fair and transparent performance evaluation system.
Consultant : For that you would have to set quantifiable or measureable targets for people in the organisation and then measure performance against those
Client : But we cannot do this, its difficult to set such targets for our organisation or people. (The reasons could be anything)
Consultant : Hundreds of companies are doing this so should not be a big problem for you.
Client : You do not understand our company is in a very unique situation and its impossible to do something like this.
Consultant : There are many tools which are available to help you do this, lets use tool XX
Client : So how many companies have used this tool in the past and successfully
Here is where I want to tell them about this circular reference error that you get in excel. First you tell me what applies to others doesn't apply to you as you are unique. Then to apply anything to your organisation you first want to know who else has done it. Make up your mind.
I am told there is a new book in the market House of lies - How management consultants steal your watch and then tell you the time. Haven't read it as yet and am sure there are enuf crazy stories about bad consulting there like the other books in the market on the same subject.
The truth in many cases also is that the client nearly always has a watch and does not want to see the time or believe the time shown in their watches and thats where we consultants make a living. I have been in a situation where a summer trainee presented a brilliant report to my organisation on what we should be doing, but we junked it. The report got presented by a consultant next year, and the same report, as our summer trainee joined that company from campus. My organisation went ga-ga about the recommendations and wanted to implement it immediately. I guess, many of us moved to consulting after facing similar situations in our organisations.
95% of the time (I have no way to scientifically prove this) the solution to all problems posed to the consultants probably lies in very obvious commonsensical solutions. I have been guilty of suggesting those obvious solutions to clients because there is nothing else and in many cases being told "Oh so how did you add value, we already knew this". The urge to find complex solutions to simple problems always leads organisations to push consultants to come up with something out of the world and the consultant has to hide behind jargons to make simple solutions sound interesting and unimplementable which client would not have thought of.
I have always faced this request, we want to be the best employers so tell us how. I have always said we would have to do certain unique things that would differentiate you as an employer from what others are offering and we would have to find things which make sense in your context. To everything that you want the client to do, they ask, so who else has done it.
I guess they are confused about whether they want to be the best employer or the best follower of best employer practices.
So all you consultants out there, don't lose heart. We have enuf number of potential clients who will give us their watch and ask us the time and then ask us to find out what is the time in other people's watches as well, just to be sure.........
Saturday, April 23, 2005
Career Management lessons from a fresher
I recently had the opportunity to meet a bright, young, talented, visionary fresher, who came to meet me to discuss his career strategy. I felt confident of handling him because of my experience as a consultant and a human resource professional till he started explaining his situation and started asking questions. I felt like such a loser.
His story. Having acquired a degree in Management he joined an organisation and quit within the orientation period as got an offer from a better brandname. Now he wanted help in understanding within what timeframe he should plan to move from this organisation ? Would one year be a decent time?
I had to ask him why would he want to do that was he not happy in the current organisation. His point of view was that if he stayed with an organisation for too long his employability will go down. Hence a need to constantly move.
I was reminded of my struggling days in Mumbai, when we had to move house every 11 months as the landlords wouldn't sign a longer deal. Cut to present and I suddenly realised the significance of his comment on my career, I have been in the same job for more than 8 years, by his logic I was finished. I felt cheated that my teachers never taught me career management, the way they were teaching the freshers.
I had never thought about my career so seriously till date, not atleast using project management tools by plotting timelines around my each company stint. I have fought my career dilemma with these simple principles to guide my decisions :
Am I learning new things : I have always asked this question to myself whenever faced with the question of should I quit now. When faced with situations where I was not, I started looking for a new role in the organisation and luckily found new learning opportunities within the same organisation.
Do I fit in well here : I have always believed that all organisations are after all organisations, which have issues which organisations face. Each one has a unique characteristic and kind of similar and unique problems. Will I end up facing the same problems in the new organisation that I face here which would force me to move again. If I find this organisation to fit in with my profiles and I am getting learning opportunities then why bother.
Why do I want to quit : This is the final test which has, for me, three reasons which are top of mind money, boredom with familiar work and don't agree with what others are saying or doing. On serious thought have never been able to justify to myself of the need to move because of these reasons.
Well maybe I am wrong, I am becoming a frog in the well and not taking sufficient risks and probably there are better things outside. But hey, do I care I am liking it here and finding enough challenges here. Probably also at fault is the conservative upbringing and ofcource lack of proper career management education when I was in college.
The learning for me is that there is a huge untapped business potential around benchmarking and comparing people's career around number of jobs hopped and number of years spent in the same job. This can provide useful career management guidelines to all visionary career planners.
Someday when I decide to go out on my own, thats what I am going to do, are you listening all you VCs.
His story. Having acquired a degree in Management he joined an organisation and quit within the orientation period as got an offer from a better brandname. Now he wanted help in understanding within what timeframe he should plan to move from this organisation ? Would one year be a decent time?
I had to ask him why would he want to do that was he not happy in the current organisation. His point of view was that if he stayed with an organisation for too long his employability will go down. Hence a need to constantly move.
I was reminded of my struggling days in Mumbai, when we had to move house every 11 months as the landlords wouldn't sign a longer deal. Cut to present and I suddenly realised the significance of his comment on my career, I have been in the same job for more than 8 years, by his logic I was finished. I felt cheated that my teachers never taught me career management, the way they were teaching the freshers.
I had never thought about my career so seriously till date, not atleast using project management tools by plotting timelines around my each company stint. I have fought my career dilemma with these simple principles to guide my decisions :
Am I learning new things : I have always asked this question to myself whenever faced with the question of should I quit now. When faced with situations where I was not, I started looking for a new role in the organisation and luckily found new learning opportunities within the same organisation.
Do I fit in well here : I have always believed that all organisations are after all organisations, which have issues which organisations face. Each one has a unique characteristic and kind of similar and unique problems. Will I end up facing the same problems in the new organisation that I face here which would force me to move again. If I find this organisation to fit in with my profiles and I am getting learning opportunities then why bother.
Why do I want to quit : This is the final test which has, for me, three reasons which are top of mind money, boredom with familiar work and don't agree with what others are saying or doing. On serious thought have never been able to justify to myself of the need to move because of these reasons.
Well maybe I am wrong, I am becoming a frog in the well and not taking sufficient risks and probably there are better things outside. But hey, do I care I am liking it here and finding enough challenges here. Probably also at fault is the conservative upbringing and ofcource lack of proper career management education when I was in college.
The learning for me is that there is a huge untapped business potential around benchmarking and comparing people's career around number of jobs hopped and number of years spent in the same job. This can provide useful career management guidelines to all visionary career planners.
Someday when I decide to go out on my own, thats what I am going to do, are you listening all you VCs.
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
First Simple Thought
When you have lots to say but nobody who listens to you --- Just BLOG. It can't be more simple than this
Sanjay
Sanjay
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