If you were to go by the recent diktats of the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board then all motorist should go easy on honking while driving on Bangalore roads. This is to ease the levels of noise pollution in the city. Noble thought except if the state pollution board would take into cognizance that honking saves lives on Indian roads.
India has the highest number of deaths due to road accidents every year, in the world. The latest world-wide statistics released by International Road Federation (IRF) reveal that 1,19,860 people are killed in road accidents every year in India. Besides, India suffers a staggering hit of Rs.1 lakh crore ($20 billion) every year due to road accidents. The chaos that you see on Indian roads is unimaginable, even in cities like Bangalore. There are no lanes and if there are lanes there is no lane discipline. Lane cutting, overtaking is often aggressive and threatening. All sorts of vehicles would be zipping past you from all possible directions and the only resort that you have to deter or discourage an aggressive defaulter is blowing your horn. Added to this there are ones who take a lazy stroll on busy roads, blissfully unaware of the approaching vehicles and confidently sure that the drivers and their brakes are efficient enough to save them. Such idiots can only be warned and awakened by honking. Agreed that there are drivers who honk unnecessarily too but then you shall always have some people with poor road behaviour. They can best be ignored. However, some noise pollution is better than hundreds and thousands dying on roads.
The sources of noise pollution are not only the motor horns, industrial noise, construction noise, social nuisance like blaring loudspeakers are no less offenders. When I used to live in North, I remember that especially during winter season, loud speakers would blare relentless throughout the nights at full volume because of the Jagrans, kirtans, political events or marriages. The devotion and celebrations were done with complete public apathy and without any remorse of causing inconvenience to other people in the locality, especially to kids, elders and sick. There was no way to protest and if one did then he/she was sure to face a barrage of crowd hooliganism and public outrage. Can pollution boards stop such hegemonic public nuisance?
The attempt is not to justify honking or the noise created by the same but just to convey that the root cause (poor traffic management) should be not be ignored and nor the usefulness of honking in such scenarios should be overlooked. Next you may know is that you are fined for honking and you think twice before blowing a horn. As a result you are left unarmed and naked in front of the burgeoning monster traffic!
Issues can’t be raised in silos. And if done so, they cause little engagement with the stakeholders.
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
The Hill Resort
Those of my regular readers who may be wondering the relatively long gap between my last post and this one, I was on vacation. A last minute planned vacation always turns out to be more sour than sweet. I learnt this lesson the hard way this time. This was supposed to be a family reunion vacation. So on Thursday morning, I & my family and my brother & his family along with our parents left in our respective cars for Vythri in the Waynad district of Kerala. A timely call from a close friend helped us avoid heading into a big mess that day; as Kerala was on strike because of the hike in Petrol prices on Thursday and we were warned sufficiently in time of possible road blockages and danger. We returned home after travelling for good 40 kilometers. Our holiday finally started on Friday. The drive was cool and enjoyable. But our disappointment and sort of misery started when we reached the resort.
No, no wait! First we reached the resort office which was at a base of a hill. We were told that we cannot take our cars to the resort as it is on the top of a hill and the roads are bad. We had not been told about this when we booked the resort. Anyways we and our luggage were stuffed into two Willis jeeps and take on a very rough 2.5 kilometer uphill drive upto the resort. My old parents and the kids (my 6 year old son Arnab and my 5 months old nephew Ayan) had particularly horrid time. Anyways we reached the resort somehow. We had been promised 2 deluxe cottages and 1 bamboo cottage. Instead of the bamboo cottage they gave us a tree house and when we complained then they told us that is what they meant by bamboo cottage. After freshening-up a bit when we went for lunch we found that the approach steps of the restaurant very steep and further up the hill. This was very inconvenient for my mom whose knees are not in the best of shape. We had been told nothing like this when we had done the enquiry before the booking and the videos on the website hardly conveyed such hardships. We hardly had energy left after the lunch so we decided to idle around in the resort itself and keep sightseeing for the next day. The next day sightseeing was nothing spectacular and was just about ok.
Overall the trip was average except that we had a good family reunion of sorts and enjoyed the drive and some natural beauty of the place. Vythri as a place turned out to be ordinary and the C-hill resort did not quite turn-out to be what we had been promised or what we had expected. However, one thing which stood-out in terms of the resort was the kind of employees that they had and the kind of service they provided. Their people were very cooperative, patiently listened to all our complaints and accommodated most of our requests. For instance, the next day they changed us in to a proper cottage from the dreadful tree house, where insects always gave us an impression that we had encroached their place. Besides, they were very hospitable and served with a smile. This smoothened the rough edges otherwise to a large extent and made our stay in the resort better.
Before we finally left and while paying our bills, I told the owner of the place about the inconveniences that we faced but made it a point to tell her about our appreciation for her people that she had employed in the resort.
Good engaged employees can many a times turn an ordinary place into a better place; however the converse is not true i.e. a good place with poor employees shall always make the experiences of the customer very ordinary. Hopefully the resort shall capitalize on its strength and improve on its infrastructure and transparency in deals to improve customer experiences in future.
No, no wait! First we reached the resort office which was at a base of a hill. We were told that we cannot take our cars to the resort as it is on the top of a hill and the roads are bad. We had not been told about this when we booked the resort. Anyways we and our luggage were stuffed into two Willis jeeps and take on a very rough 2.5 kilometer uphill drive upto the resort. My old parents and the kids (my 6 year old son Arnab and my 5 months old nephew Ayan) had particularly horrid time. Anyways we reached the resort somehow. We had been promised 2 deluxe cottages and 1 bamboo cottage. Instead of the bamboo cottage they gave us a tree house and when we complained then they told us that is what they meant by bamboo cottage. After freshening-up a bit when we went for lunch we found that the approach steps of the restaurant very steep and further up the hill. This was very inconvenient for my mom whose knees are not in the best of shape. We had been told nothing like this when we had done the enquiry before the booking and the videos on the website hardly conveyed such hardships. We hardly had energy left after the lunch so we decided to idle around in the resort itself and keep sightseeing for the next day. The next day sightseeing was nothing spectacular and was just about ok.
Overall the trip was average except that we had a good family reunion of sorts and enjoyed the drive and some natural beauty of the place. Vythri as a place turned out to be ordinary and the C-hill resort did not quite turn-out to be what we had been promised or what we had expected. However, one thing which stood-out in terms of the resort was the kind of employees that they had and the kind of service they provided. Their people were very cooperative, patiently listened to all our complaints and accommodated most of our requests. For instance, the next day they changed us in to a proper cottage from the dreadful tree house, where insects always gave us an impression that we had encroached their place. Besides, they were very hospitable and served with a smile. This smoothened the rough edges otherwise to a large extent and made our stay in the resort better.
Before we finally left and while paying our bills, I told the owner of the place about the inconveniences that we faced but made it a point to tell her about our appreciation for her people that she had employed in the resort.
Good engaged employees can many a times turn an ordinary place into a better place; however the converse is not true i.e. a good place with poor employees shall always make the experiences of the customer very ordinary. Hopefully the resort shall capitalize on its strength and improve on its infrastructure and transparency in deals to improve customer experiences in future.
Saturday, May 19, 2012
IPL= Indian Pathetic League
IPL has turned from Indian Premier League to Indian Pathetic League. Shah Rukh Khan’s brawl with the employees and officials of Wankhande Stadium has come as a dampener. I have always admired Shah Rukh for his intelligence and for his spontaneity. It would be difficult to comment on who was right and who was wrong on my part since I was neither there nor I have first-hand source to any information. And hence it is difficult to ascertain whether it was a case of rich kids breaching rules with disdain or a doting father protecting his daughter, but definitely Shah Rukh’s behavior is unbecoming and street ordinary.
If this was not enough, then Luke Pomersbach of RCB has been accused for molesting an American women in New Delhi during a after match party. Again it is difficult to conclude on my part whether the incident and allegations are true or untrue. But will a lady accuse someone in a public gathering, where evidence is vast & plenty, without any cognizance of the same? I doubt.
In both these cases, I wish to refrain from passing judgement. That time and courts shall tell. However, both have put the tournament and the organizers of IPL into shame. This is in addition to the match-fixing sting.
Celeb status comes with a sense of responsibility. Wisdom and restrain should hold their sway over anything else. So many kids for whom the likes of Shah Rukh or Luke may be heroes would be terribly confused, disappointed and disengaged.
Similarly leaders and outperformers, who enjoy celebrity status in organizations, in organizations must be careful for their reactions and behavior. They may be silently idolized by many and in one shot all that could fizzle away. The result is extremely disengaging and disenchanting.
This is not to suggest inaction or indifference but being dignified in face of turbulence.
If this was not enough, then Luke Pomersbach of RCB has been accused for molesting an American women in New Delhi during a after match party. Again it is difficult to conclude on my part whether the incident and allegations are true or untrue. But will a lady accuse someone in a public gathering, where evidence is vast & plenty, without any cognizance of the same? I doubt.
In both these cases, I wish to refrain from passing judgement. That time and courts shall tell. However, both have put the tournament and the organizers of IPL into shame. This is in addition to the match-fixing sting.
Celeb status comes with a sense of responsibility. Wisdom and restrain should hold their sway over anything else. So many kids for whom the likes of Shah Rukh or Luke may be heroes would be terribly confused, disappointed and disengaged.
Similarly leaders and outperformers, who enjoy celebrity status in organizations, in organizations must be careful for their reactions and behavior. They may be silently idolized by many and in one shot all that could fizzle away. The result is extremely disengaging and disenchanting.
This is not to suggest inaction or indifference but being dignified in face of turbulence.
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Coconuts and Balloons
Daylight robbery of bank vehicle carrying cash in Bangalore few days back was a shocker. Few armed men stopped the Chevrolet Travera car and looted Rs. 1.85 Crore cold cash. Interestingly the CMS vehicle had an armed security guard. A newspaper report indicates that the only prior experience that the guard had of shooting was that of coconuts and balloons in his village. He claimed that the security agency only gave him oral instructions on how to use a firearm and he never received an actual training of using a firearm. Funny? Not really, a statistics shows that most security guards are poorly trained. According to the Private Security Agencies (Regulation) Act, 2005, it is mandatory for private guards to undergo at least 160 hours of training before being posted on duty and undertake an additional five days of training annually. But most agencies fulfill the norms on paper by doing training as a formality.
However this is not only true in the case of security guards. People employed in high stake jobs are also many times poorly trained. In 2011 three women in Florida lost their lives at the hands of ill-trained cosmetic surgeons from a lidocaine (painkiller) overdose administered during liposuction.
In yet another incident, in 2009 Airbus A330 of Air France flying through high altitude thunderstorm dropped down and crashed killing 228 passengers. The investigations by French investigators reportedly revealed that the captain of the plane was taking rest when the aircraft began to fall and the co-pilots had received no high altitude training for the unreliable IAS (indicated air speed). The investigations report concluded as ‘The situation was salvageable’. Can’t get more unfortunate than this!
In 2009 another air crash was nearly averted after the crew aboard US Airways Flight 1549 acted heroically after birds hit their plane over New York. However the pilots had not been trained on soft water landing in case of an emergency and hence the the plane hit the water three times harder than it should have while doing the emergency landing. This caused immense damage to the aircraft causing the water to pour-in. The evacuation was chaotic and problematic as a result. The 155 people on-bad had a close shave.
It is shocking how organizations cut corners & discount training and as a result short-change their stakeholders. External engagement with customers, investors, community at large is directly dependent upon the internal engagement that an organization builds with its employees. Investing in competency development of employees engages the employee by improving his job performance and charting a career path for him. On the other hand this leads to better customer service, better customer retention, better organizational performance, better returns to investors which is engaging and enduring.
However this is not only true in the case of security guards. People employed in high stake jobs are also many times poorly trained. In 2011 three women in Florida lost their lives at the hands of ill-trained cosmetic surgeons from a lidocaine (painkiller) overdose administered during liposuction.
In yet another incident, in 2009 Airbus A330 of Air France flying through high altitude thunderstorm dropped down and crashed killing 228 passengers. The investigations by French investigators reportedly revealed that the captain of the plane was taking rest when the aircraft began to fall and the co-pilots had received no high altitude training for the unreliable IAS (indicated air speed). The investigations report concluded as ‘The situation was salvageable’. Can’t get more unfortunate than this!
In 2009 another air crash was nearly averted after the crew aboard US Airways Flight 1549 acted heroically after birds hit their plane over New York. However the pilots had not been trained on soft water landing in case of an emergency and hence the the plane hit the water three times harder than it should have while doing the emergency landing. This caused immense damage to the aircraft causing the water to pour-in. The evacuation was chaotic and problematic as a result. The 155 people on-bad had a close shave.
It is shocking how organizations cut corners & discount training and as a result short-change their stakeholders. External engagement with customers, investors, community at large is directly dependent upon the internal engagement that an organization builds with its employees. Investing in competency development of employees engages the employee by improving his job performance and charting a career path for him. On the other hand this leads to better customer service, better customer retention, better organizational performance, better returns to investors which is engaging and enduring.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Collective Folly
Who do you like more – a conformist or a non-conformist? Dictionary defines conformist as – ‘A person who uncritically or habitually conforms to the customs, rules, or styles of a group’. And the one who doesn’t is obviously the non-conformist.
Recently one of my friends got scorned from her close relatives because she chose to be a non-conformist. She chose the welfare and safety of her family over social norms and guidelines. She chose to be brave, question what was wrong and unacceptable and not accept a system that was lacked logic and character. In the end, faced with indifference, she chose to step-away with her family for their good, causing no harm to other ‘conforming’ relatives. Despite this she was disparaged and accused of insulting her relatives & causing embarrassment to them. Her only fault was that she chose to question and not comply with the ‘herd’. She chose to be a ‘non-conformist’. Yet I hail her courage. She is my heroine.
Our society likes conformists for they cause little discomfort, even if the comfort thus derived is self-destructing.
It was on September 15, 2008 that Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy. A more than 100 year old firm, with a huge reputation in the market, collapsed and with $639 billion in assets and $619 billion in debt, Lehman's bankruptcy filing was the largest in history, as its assets far surpassed those of previous bankrupt giants such as WorldCom and Enron. Lehman was the fourth-largest U.S. investment bank at the time of its collapse, with 25,000 employees worldwide.
What led to the collapse of this giant? Lehman was perhaps one of the biggest victims of the US subprime crisis. However its failure is mainly attributed to gross miscalculations done in terms of acquisitions and policy overlook that caused this colossal collapse. Lehman was let down by its own people and their deeds. The decision to massage the bottom-line without looking at sustainable growth cost the firm dearly. Lehman had the reputation to attract and pockets to afford the best talents from all over the world. Yet it failed! All the knowledge, skill and experience could not be of any use! The question is why? Was it greed? Was it shortsightedness? Or was it a mad-rush to push profits? May be all of these… But more than anything it was perhaps the ‘conformist’ approach. Despite the fact that it had the best talent in its fold, the crème-de-la-crème working for it, probably the conformist approach failed them as a unit. No one disagreed with what was wrong or may be the ones who did their voices were quelled by the ones for whom conforming was the norm.
‘Collective Folly’ originates from a conformist approach. The inability or reluctance to question accepted reality or norm often leads to doom. Would organization like to have more ‘conformist’ employees? Do ‘conformist’ make good employees? Would you like to have conformist as your manager or supervisor?
The conformist ‘Yes’ men and women may be excellent in compliance but lack ingenuity & creativity. Organizations populated by such people would in all probability lack innovation and wither in the face of real competition.
The right to question and differ is at the heart of innovation and engagement. Conformists’ mental models are most damaging for societies & organizations. Unfortunately, however our society likes them and promotes them.
Thursday, May 10, 2012
'Jeans is not in our Genes'
A state government has directed its employees to desist from wearing jeans and t-shirt at work. The subject line of the circular reportedly read: "To wear decent clothes in office", which virtually means that Jeans and t-shirt are considered indecent! This directive targeted mostly at the government’s field staff wants the ladies to wear sari or salwar-kameez and men to wear pant-shirt. Those who fail to comply have been warned with serious consequences. It is not incidental that most of the field staff are women but what is really surprising is that the ministry and the government department that issued the directive are all headed by women in this case.
The circular reportedly states: "It has been observed that some officers/officials come to office in jeans/T-shirts/Western dresses which sometimes not only look odd but are also in contravention of government rules."
Oh! So the problem is with western dresses, then why not ask men to wear dhoti-kurta or kurta-pyjama instead of pant-shirt. After all pant-shirt did not originate in India! I sometimes wonder which archaic eras are some of us still living in where we ban attire simply because it did not originate in India. Then why use your car, washing machine, fridge, tabs, laptops, mobile phones, computers etc? After all majority of these product-brands that we currently use are not Indian brands!
Besides how blatantly do we encroach upon individual liberty? We shall not let people let decide what they should wear even!
That does not mean I am taking away the appropriateness of attire according to the place or occasion but that’s not the issue. Here, an attire has been prohibited because some people think that it is not decent since it is an western wear. How wise is that?
Poor state government employees! They can’t even voice their grouse because reportedly most of them are contractual staff. May be they took a leaf out of a community banning girls from wearing jeans or using mobile phones, recently!
Whatever…talk about systematic disengagement…do we need a better case?
The circular reportedly states: "It has been observed that some officers/officials come to office in jeans/T-shirts/Western dresses which sometimes not only look odd but are also in contravention of government rules."
Oh! So the problem is with western dresses, then why not ask men to wear dhoti-kurta or kurta-pyjama instead of pant-shirt. After all pant-shirt did not originate in India! I sometimes wonder which archaic eras are some of us still living in where we ban attire simply because it did not originate in India. Then why use your car, washing machine, fridge, tabs, laptops, mobile phones, computers etc? After all majority of these product-brands that we currently use are not Indian brands!
Besides how blatantly do we encroach upon individual liberty? We shall not let people let decide what they should wear even!
That does not mean I am taking away the appropriateness of attire according to the place or occasion but that’s not the issue. Here, an attire has been prohibited because some people think that it is not decent since it is an western wear. How wise is that?
Poor state government employees! They can’t even voice their grouse because reportedly most of them are contractual staff. May be they took a leaf out of a community banning girls from wearing jeans or using mobile phones, recently!
Whatever…talk about systematic disengagement…do we need a better case?
Saturday, May 5, 2012
S(KILL) SALES
Mathew joined Pioneer Animal Pharma Ltd. recently as a Veterinary Sales Executive. Mathew, along with 20 other new recruits were sent for a month long training program at the company’s Bangalore factory office. The sprawling campus of the Bangalore factory was quite impressive. The Factory premises also resided the training facility. Mathew and other trainees were lodged in a three star hotel in Bangalore city at the cost of the company. The transport and boarding was also at company’s expenses. The trainees would report every day morning at the factory training facility. After finishing their breakfast, they would be taken to a nice air-conditioned training room and taken through multiple sessions, mostly on product and technical knowledge. From the second day onwards they started to have a test on previous day’s learning. The test would be objective in nature and designed purely to test the conceptual skills of the trainees. Mathew’s ability to grasp the product and technical knowledge was very good and he constantly scored highest amongst the group of trainees. This was first job for Mathew after his graduation and he worked very hard in remembering the product formulations, technical aspects like amino acids, salts etc. On the penultimate day of the training, the trainees were told about ‘detailing’. Detailing is basically the way in which the sales guy makes a presentation in front of the doctor and is considered to be important in the entire pharma-sales process. The trainees were first given a demonstration by the training manager. This was followed by an in-house simulation, where one of the training manager posed as a doctor and one by one all the trainees rehearsed the act of ‘detailing’. Mathew did not feel much challenge in the same. On the last day of the training Mathew received an award from the Vice-President of the firm for scoring highest aggregate marks in their month-long daily tests based on the training content. Mathew was told that his name would also be published in the quarterly pull-out of the company. Mathew was thrilled & excited and was raring to go on the field.
Mathew was posted in a small, dusty town in the northern part of the country called Bulandshahr. Bulandshahr is famous for its dairy farms. The milk produced here is mainly exported to Delhi, Punjab and Rajasthan. The major dairy farms in Bulandshahr are Parag, Param, Gopaljee, Madhusudan, Rama and Balka Dairy. Mathew found a place to live-in and found the first few days in his job very chaotic. The scene here was so different from the air-conditioned confines of the training room. Managing the route was a challenge in itself. Each route was of minimum 50 kilometers which meant that he had to commute an average of 100 kilometers everyday on his two-wheeler on broken rural roads. The veterinary doctors were very difficult to approach but veterinary sales being overtly a prescription market, he hardly had a choice. Over a period of time he also learnt that in many villages instead of the veterinary doctor, it was the local self-proclaimed animal doctor who ruled the roost. Contacting them and convincing them was even more difficult. His ‘detailing folders and detailing techniques hardly worked on them. Most village chemists were very rugged and hardly polite. Dealing with them was not easy. At times he would have to wait for long hours at a dairy farm or a poultry farm. He did not know on such occasions whether to wait or proceed for the next call. His clients and dealers would have strange demands at times that he never knew how to deal with. At times they even conflicted his ethical principles. Bulandshahr being a dairy rich town had lot of demand of medicines for the cattle. Mathew would many times talk about all the medicines rather than specifically understand the customer needs, much to the frustration of the doctor or other clients. Mathew wondered why he was not told about all this during the training program.
Mathew story could be the story of any guy working in pharma sales. The competencies of a sales person in pharma sales are developed and polished by the companies through sales training programs. But many times, there is gap between what a sales person demonstrates and what is desired from the person on-the-field. We call this ‘competency-gap’. What do you think went wrong with training in Mathew’s case?
Mr. Kawaljit Singh Chadha, Director Von Remedies, Himachal Pradesh (India) feels that for a pharma sales person the basic knowledge of medicines and salts used in formulations is very important. But along with this knowledge, he should be very good in his ability to convince the doctor, who is key in pharma sales. He should have good marketing skills that should combine ethical sales. A good pharma sales person must be able to build a good team and should have leadership skills. Mr. Chadha also opined that companies must have a combination of classroom and field-based training. The classroom training would help them to gain good product and technical knowledge; on the other hand the field exposure would help them to understand the practical realties and problems on the field – like many times getting an appointment from the doctor in itself is a challenge.
Mr. Rajesh Roy feels that competencies in a pharma sales person can be developed only through a combination of classroom and on-the-field training. The classroom training prepares a person in terms of his product-knowledge, etiquettes & mannerisms; whereas the field training helps him to understand practical situations and how deal with them. One doctor may give 30 minutes time to a sales person while another doctor may give only 3 minutes. How does the sales person deal with both these doctors effectively can only be learnt on the field. A lot of learning is actually experiential.
According to Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, Training, coaching and development of sales reps is one of the key area to be addressed to improve the effectiveness of the sales force, that can be achieved only through upfront training for sales managers and reps.
Going back to Mathew’s case the training program that he received scored excellently on developing product and technical knowledge but lacked from providing the trainees an experience of the field and various issues one confronts in the field. A competency-based approach to pharma sales, with a combination of classroom and field training to develop such competencies, would help companies to nurture more and more successful sales people in the organization , contributing to both the individual & organizational benefit.
The last time I heard Mathew had left the company and was contemplating what his future course of actions would be. as for the comopany, they had lost on a good potential and the cost of hiring & training Mathew, besides ofcourse now having to incure re-hiring and re-training cost for the new candidate.
Mathew was posted in a small, dusty town in the northern part of the country called Bulandshahr. Bulandshahr is famous for its dairy farms. The milk produced here is mainly exported to Delhi, Punjab and Rajasthan. The major dairy farms in Bulandshahr are Parag, Param, Gopaljee, Madhusudan, Rama and Balka Dairy. Mathew found a place to live-in and found the first few days in his job very chaotic. The scene here was so different from the air-conditioned confines of the training room. Managing the route was a challenge in itself. Each route was of minimum 50 kilometers which meant that he had to commute an average of 100 kilometers everyday on his two-wheeler on broken rural roads. The veterinary doctors were very difficult to approach but veterinary sales being overtly a prescription market, he hardly had a choice. Over a period of time he also learnt that in many villages instead of the veterinary doctor, it was the local self-proclaimed animal doctor who ruled the roost. Contacting them and convincing them was even more difficult. His ‘detailing folders and detailing techniques hardly worked on them. Most village chemists were very rugged and hardly polite. Dealing with them was not easy. At times he would have to wait for long hours at a dairy farm or a poultry farm. He did not know on such occasions whether to wait or proceed for the next call. His clients and dealers would have strange demands at times that he never knew how to deal with. At times they even conflicted his ethical principles. Bulandshahr being a dairy rich town had lot of demand of medicines for the cattle. Mathew would many times talk about all the medicines rather than specifically understand the customer needs, much to the frustration of the doctor or other clients. Mathew wondered why he was not told about all this during the training program.
Mathew story could be the story of any guy working in pharma sales. The competencies of a sales person in pharma sales are developed and polished by the companies through sales training programs. But many times, there is gap between what a sales person demonstrates and what is desired from the person on-the-field. We call this ‘competency-gap’. What do you think went wrong with training in Mathew’s case?
Mr. Kawaljit Singh Chadha, Director Von Remedies, Himachal Pradesh (India) feels that for a pharma sales person the basic knowledge of medicines and salts used in formulations is very important. But along with this knowledge, he should be very good in his ability to convince the doctor, who is key in pharma sales. He should have good marketing skills that should combine ethical sales. A good pharma sales person must be able to build a good team and should have leadership skills. Mr. Chadha also opined that companies must have a combination of classroom and field-based training. The classroom training would help them to gain good product and technical knowledge; on the other hand the field exposure would help them to understand the practical realties and problems on the field – like many times getting an appointment from the doctor in itself is a challenge.
Mr. Rajesh Roy feels that competencies in a pharma sales person can be developed only through a combination of classroom and on-the-field training. The classroom training prepares a person in terms of his product-knowledge, etiquettes & mannerisms; whereas the field training helps him to understand practical situations and how deal with them. One doctor may give 30 minutes time to a sales person while another doctor may give only 3 minutes. How does the sales person deal with both these doctors effectively can only be learnt on the field. A lot of learning is actually experiential.
According to Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, Training, coaching and development of sales reps is one of the key area to be addressed to improve the effectiveness of the sales force, that can be achieved only through upfront training for sales managers and reps.
Going back to Mathew’s case the training program that he received scored excellently on developing product and technical knowledge but lacked from providing the trainees an experience of the field and various issues one confronts in the field. A competency-based approach to pharma sales, with a combination of classroom and field training to develop such competencies, would help companies to nurture more and more successful sales people in the organization , contributing to both the individual & organizational benefit.
The last time I heard Mathew had left the company and was contemplating what his future course of actions would be. as for the comopany, they had lost on a good potential and the cost of hiring & training Mathew, besides ofcourse now having to incure re-hiring and re-training cost for the new candidate.
Friday, May 4, 2012
Wah! Taj
On November 26, 2008, when terrorists struck the Taj Mahal Palace in Mumbai, as they did simultaneously at various other locations in the city, something extraordinary happened amidst a severe hostage crisis that lasted two nights and three days. Apparently none of the hotel employees fled the scene and put the safety of the guests before their own. Waiters, room cleaners, busboys who knew the various exit routes from the hotel, guided the guests to safety, kitchen employees formed a human shield to protect the guests, evacuated telephone operators came back to the hotel to help the guests; these are only handful stories of extraordinary courage displayed by the ordinary employees of the hotel, many losing their lives in the process. The general manager of the hotel Kang who lost his whole family in the attack, was reportedly the last man to leave the hotel much after the seize was over.
What prompted these ordinary men and women to risk their lives and respond in such a unique manner to a sudden crisis? No organization rules were binding upon them in such a scenario nor would anyone have blamed them if they had chosen to save their lives. After all it was an extreme situation! Yet they chose to stay and take care of their guests. When Rohit Deshpande published this as a case in HBR he underlined deep seated HR philosophy of the company behind such a response which even the manger s of the company found difficult to explain. No one should be surprised that Taj Hotels feature very highly in Gallup’s engagement rankings, globally.
This incident however showed the unimaginable benefits and importance of good people management. The potential returns shall continue to surprise both the scholar and the practitioner.
What prompted these ordinary men and women to risk their lives and respond in such a unique manner to a sudden crisis? No organization rules were binding upon them in such a scenario nor would anyone have blamed them if they had chosen to save their lives. After all it was an extreme situation! Yet they chose to stay and take care of their guests. When Rohit Deshpande published this as a case in HBR he underlined deep seated HR philosophy of the company behind such a response which even the manger s of the company found difficult to explain. No one should be surprised that Taj Hotels feature very highly in Gallup’s engagement rankings, globally.
This incident however showed the unimaginable benefits and importance of good people management. The potential returns shall continue to surprise both the scholar and the practitioner.
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
The 'Call-Center Syndrome'
A day back I received a call from a local charity doing work for the under-privileged kids. They had called me on several other occasions before and I had been unable to speak to them at length. Given my interest in the same, this time I took the call with more seriousness. I told the lady on the other side of the phone that I would like to do something for the charity, as much my not-so-deep pockets would allow me to do, but may be on a later date. Hence I told her that whenever I would; be in a position to part with some contribution, I shall contact the charity. I asked for a contact and he gave me the name and number of a person. She hung over the call by telling me whom I was talking to and thasnked me for my time. Another 30 minutes went by and I was in my office busy with my work. Suddenly my phone rang again. I generally never miss my calls and despite being busy took the call. Voila…there was the same lady representing the same charity and making the same request as she would make to a fresh contact. Since the duration between two calls was so less, hence I not only remembered the name of the lady (that she told me before she hung the phone) but also almost unmistakably remembered her voice. I listened to her for a few seconds before interrupting her. I reminded her about our conversation half-an-hour back and how I had noted down the details and the contact and that I had tolf her that I would contact the charity on my own. She realized her mistake and started to profusely apologizer for her mistake. I tried telling her that I did not intend to exact an apology from her but that someone in the organization must keep a track of the conversations and must not make blind cold calls. This would in turn irritate even the genuine donors and may do the charity more harm than good. However my short lecture seemed much wasted on the lady who was going ion apologizing. Anyways I gave up…! The lady must be from one of those call centers who have been given targets that based on the number of calls made per day rather on the richness of those calls. So she was in a mad-spree like other to make as many calls per day. This is what I call the typical ‘Call-Centre Syndrome’.
I had a much contrasting but pleasant experience with another company though. I was looking for a property and called-up a reputed builder group. I had dialed the sales number given on their website and a lady answered the call. I told her about my requirements and she listened patiently. Thereafter she asked me if I had ever contacted them before. I could not remember doing that and told her so. She must have checked her database and informed me that I had contacted the builder group about 18 months back as well and at that time she had put me across to a marketing personnel called Mr. XYZ. I apologized for my short memory and thanked her for the information. She further asked me whether I would like to be put across to the same marketing personnel. I readily agreed. One thing I can tell you for sure that my trust on the real estate group increased significantly because of this initial experience. I thought in my head that a group that could keep track of past conversation with customers, for even those deals that did not materialize, for future reference should be diligent enough in its other dealings as well.
The moral of the two stories in simple and straightforward – Mindlessly bombarding the customer with calls and information shall not necessarily result in more sales and building of brand equity. The companies need to be more diligent in the way they contact customers, keeps track of the conversation and manages not data but knowledge to leverage its interests.
The same holds true when it comes to internal customers or employees as well. The companies must understand that the various channels through which it communicates to the employee, that may include the HR, supervisor, senior managers etc. must become more diligent in communication and keep track of conversations that happen during those interactions, if they really want such exercise to contribute to growth in employee trust and employer brand equity. For example there is a company that has open houses every Wednesday but most employee see it as a wasteful publicity, off-records. Such perceptions have grown because they seldom see any of the concerns shared by them in such open houses being addressed, or any of the promises made by the senior management materialize, later on.
How many times have you felt that the ideas that you shared with your lead, or the suggestions that you made, or the concerns that you raised with your supervisor were heard but little concrete did you see happening later? How many of you felt that next time you spoke to the same person, he/she could not remember the last conversation that you had with him/her, even after you gave clues and reminders? Well, if this is happening too many times then you should know that to your organization is suffering from the same ‘Call Center Syndrome’. Much of that communication is wasteful and disengaging.
I had a much contrasting but pleasant experience with another company though. I was looking for a property and called-up a reputed builder group. I had dialed the sales number given on their website and a lady answered the call. I told her about my requirements and she listened patiently. Thereafter she asked me if I had ever contacted them before. I could not remember doing that and told her so. She must have checked her database and informed me that I had contacted the builder group about 18 months back as well and at that time she had put me across to a marketing personnel called Mr. XYZ. I apologized for my short memory and thanked her for the information. She further asked me whether I would like to be put across to the same marketing personnel. I readily agreed. One thing I can tell you for sure that my trust on the real estate group increased significantly because of this initial experience. I thought in my head that a group that could keep track of past conversation with customers, for even those deals that did not materialize, for future reference should be diligent enough in its other dealings as well.
The moral of the two stories in simple and straightforward – Mindlessly bombarding the customer with calls and information shall not necessarily result in more sales and building of brand equity. The companies need to be more diligent in the way they contact customers, keeps track of the conversation and manages not data but knowledge to leverage its interests.
The same holds true when it comes to internal customers or employees as well. The companies must understand that the various channels through which it communicates to the employee, that may include the HR, supervisor, senior managers etc. must become more diligent in communication and keep track of conversations that happen during those interactions, if they really want such exercise to contribute to growth in employee trust and employer brand equity. For example there is a company that has open houses every Wednesday but most employee see it as a wasteful publicity, off-records. Such perceptions have grown because they seldom see any of the concerns shared by them in such open houses being addressed, or any of the promises made by the senior management materialize, later on.
How many times have you felt that the ideas that you shared with your lead, or the suggestions that you made, or the concerns that you raised with your supervisor were heard but little concrete did you see happening later? How many of you felt that next time you spoke to the same person, he/she could not remember the last conversation that you had with him/her, even after you gave clues and reminders? Well, if this is happening too many times then you should know that to your organization is suffering from the same ‘Call Center Syndrome’. Much of that communication is wasteful and disengaging.
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