Live 2 Work, 2 Die - Asia waiting to 'Explode'

‘She ignored sleep so much that the latter embraced her forever.'

This became unfortunately true for Mita, the young copywriter who died after 30 hours of continuous work, with no sleep. A professional working for Young & Rubicam, an ad agency owned by international powerhouse WPP at Jakarta, would often work with no regard for sleep or rest. Her final tweets that later became a chilling countdown to her death are an evidence of her extreme work behavior.

Mita Diran, 24, collapsed to the floor and slipped into a coma last Sunday after weeks of sleeping little and downing energy drinks just to keep going. 

Mita’s case brings back the memories of Karoshi – a term coined in Japan as early as 1980s of a price for prosperity that people are paying with their lives.

Audrey Tsui’s seminal work on the cost of prosperity in Asia stands-out as a study that clearly proves that Mita Diran’s case is not an isolated incident.

The findings clearly indicate that there is something hugely wrong with the way people are juggling their work and lives-

“The rising prosperity of Asia's growing economies has drawn adverse consequences on employee wellness and the work-life balance of many people. Intensified global competition and the expanding wealth gaps in Asia induce stress and create tension. Long working hours, excessive workload, weekend duties, inadequate physical activity and an unhealthy lifestyle are often cited as the key sources of chronic fatigue and work stress. Mounting incidents of occupational illnesses/accidents, and the growing number of Karoshi and suicides among prime-aged working adults further raise concerns regarding individuals' health awareness and corporate effectiveness in employee wellness management.”

Back in India a recent bus accident that killed 45 people on board, the inquiry revealed that accident occurred since the driver was overworked and under slept. During festival season when demand for omnibuses increase in India, drivers often do extra-trips for long distances with little or no break. The recent tragedy was avoidable had the driver not been forced to make three trips between Chennai and Theni, a distance of more than 500km, with just a five-hour break.

Despite these incidents, Asia continues to work in a pressure cooker, waiting to explode any moment.

After all what are we working for? Forget it no one has time to think that… So dump the thought and live to work to die…literally!

The Idiocy and Ignorance of 'Adjustment'

‘Swalpa Adjust Madi’ is a local dictum meaning 'adjust a little please!' Life in this country means making a lot of adjustments. 

The other day state government ran a two page pullout along with the regular newspaper, highlighting and self-praising its achievements. All government departments ran advertisements, each one having a common photograph of the 'leader'. Among this clutter, one ad caught my attention – that of the water works department. The appeal made by the ‘leader’ through this ad was interesting – he appealed to people of the state to stop using shower for bathing and instead use a bucket to save water. On second thoughts, why use even a bucket of water, we can have a pond dug in every locality. All people living in that area can then bathe, wash in that pond itself. Won’t this save even more water? C’mon, swalpa adjust madi!!!

Rainwater harvesting, water recycling that could actually save and conserve water have remained paper plans for countless years and are likely to remain so for another 100 years. But illegal bore well drilling (without concern for ground water table), theft of water remain rampant. Take Bangalore for instance. The city, once upon a time, had enviable share of lakes. Most of these lakes have either dried-up or have become huge drains or have become the dumping ground for 'after-festivities', years of ‘adjustment’ and utter neglect have struck a death knell for these lakes.

Common man is asked to adjust and I think we adjust too much. Extreme tolerance is nothing but ignorance and leads to poor governance.

For the last 11 months there is a water shortage in our apartment due to the fault in the bore well and irregular supply of corporation water. But our building association asks us to ‘adjust’. The solution lies in getting additional bore well drilled, but in 11 months all our association has managed to do is to get two spots paint-marked on the ground where probably new bore wells can be drilled. Temporary solutions like sourcing water from water suppliers also needs association’s approval. The association is run by three people and they decide the fate of all residents. If proactive people like us raise our concern or even offer to help (for example, to take lead in ordering water tankers) till new bore well are drilled, we are branded as ‘uncooperative’. Rest, who are ‘adjusting’ are the good residents.

Few days back an utterly tragic incident shook me up from within. What makes it even worse is the fact that the tragedy was completely avoidable. Two kids – a boy and a girl aged 7 and 4 years were electrocuted to death by a live electric wire that had snapped from the electric pole and was lying unattended for couple of days. The kids belonged to a laborer couple who had moved in to that area a few days back in search of new work. The electricity department failed to turn-up despite a report. 

After all it takes few days for electricity department to act on the report – they are ‘busy’! Till then residents in that area should have ‘adjusted’.

As per the newspaper reports, the little girl inadvertently stepped on the wire first and in the process of saving his sister, the boy was also electrocuted. The photograph in the newspaper of the mother clinging on the bodies of her dead children, refusing to give them away to be taken for post-mortem and last rites was heart-breaking. The mother, reportedly, did not utter a single word, just held the bodies of her kids refusing them to let go…The laborer couple must have toiled day and night to feed their kids. And now with both their kids dead, what would they live for?

But who has time to think about them or about their dead kids…eventually they will be also asked to ‘adjust’.

Leadership is not about ‘adjusting’ but about innovating,. Creating new ways, new means and new resources; and finding better solutions and not temporary jugaads.

Then expecting a certain set of people in leadership positions to bring about the change is a bad idea, for leadership is a role and not a position. The least you and me can do is to stop ‘adjusting’ and shun tolerance that is equivalent to ignorance.

An engaged society or an engaged organization is one where members are not pestered to ‘adjust’ but called-upon to maximize (resources), invest (in ideas), convert (problems into opportunities) and create (better and innovative solutions).

the gen Y blog

Please check my new blog - http://thegenyblog.blogspot.in/

Gen Y is the next big thing!!! They are ready to enter organizations in big numbers and are the largest growing consumer segment all over the world.

Gen Y is also the most misunderstood generation. This blog attempts to present the real Gen Y, with an objective to understand them better and engage them better.

Socialists Fail to Bell the 'Fat Cat'

On Nov. 24^th Switzerland held a referendum on a proposal by David Roth, the president of Switzerland's Young Socialists and the referendum's leading sponsor. 

The proposal was to limit the pay of the top executives by a ratio of 1:12, that in other words means that the CEO’s pay cannot be more than 12 times of that of the lowest paid worker in the company.

The voters rejected the proposal comprehensively. The votes against were roughly 65%. At a time when Obama is bent on turning America into socialist and make entitlements a way of life, thankfully Europe or at least certain sections of Europe is rejecting the socialists theory that makes people believe that ‘someone’ else can take care of them better than they themselves; and that 'someone' is better than they themselves when it comes to decisions or choices that affect their lives.

As absurd as this proposal and the reasons behind this proposal may have been, the development still assumes a lot of significance both for Europe and  for the rest of the world. The ground-breaking referendum assumes significance as such proposal if accepted will not only have a ripple effect on everyone’s compensation and potential to earn (when you have a ratio for the CEO, you have some ratios for everyone in the (ladder), it would have seriously hampered performance, crimped competitiveness and damaged the economy.

The 1:12 or a move to cap "fat cat" pay is like going to a class and saying that the best a student can do in the class is only going to be ‘x’ times better than the others and not what he/she can possibly achieve. The possibility of providing equal opportunities to perform is acceptable; but the problem with socialists is that they try to assure equal outcomes to everyone.

That’s penalizing the ones who go the ‘extra’ mile, who try that ‘extra’ bit more and who out-perform others to rise and lead; and rewarding ‘mediocrity’.

Roth appeared less gracious even in defeat as he reportedly blamed ‘scare tactics’ by the companies to impress upon their employees to vote ‘against’. It is hard to imagine that in a country-wide referendum and in secret ballot system, employees would vote with fear than with their own judgement. Anyways people have chosen their ‘right’ over Roth’s accused ‘wrong'.

Time for Rot-h and his likes to take a walk, may be with their cats.

'Bank on Women' OR Bank for Women

What could have been more ironic then on the day first All-Women Bank was announced in India, a woman bank manager was attacked in an unguarded ATM in Bangalore by a miscreant man for money that left her paralyzed and critical. Just couple of days later, a woman journalist has accused a media honcho of sexually assaulting her in a hotel in Goa. The woman and her family have also reportedly received threats for the accusation that she has made against the media bigwig, reportedly by his henchmen. Another couple of days pass and 93 school girls are sexually assaulted in a moving train in Bihar. Their ‘fault’ was to ask to protest the occupation of their reserved seats in the GangaDamodar Express by a large group of men claiming to be examinees of the railway recruitment exam. Their teachers were beaten-up and the girls were sexually harassed for more than four hours. No co-passengers came to their rescue.

Can the All-Women Bank really change the fate of girls and women in this country? Can it really empower them? Can it help them to get their due?

All talks about women empowerment and equality currently seems mostly limited to political circles (plain rhetoric), intellectual circles (lackluster research) or social circles (page 3 stories). If there has been any change in the state of women or in the participation of women then the credit goes to these women who have excelled at home or outside home.

Last week two of our students came to interview me on the reasons for existence of glass-ceiling in organizations that prevents women from reaching top echelons of the leadership, thereby restricting their talent and capability. The students were doing this as a part of a project given to them by a colleague of mine.

Do such glass ceilings exist? A whole lot of statistics and ‘lived experiences’ would tell you that the women have often found the ‘stairs’ suddenly disappearing in their organization in their quest for summit.

Causative? Undoubtedly this is a Cultural issue.

The smallest and most basic element of any society is a family. While some of us may have been lucky to come from beautiful families, most families suffer from a Cultural dys-functionality. Man of the house rules the roost. He takes all major decisions and all financial decisions, almost. The house runs on his commands. His moods decide the mood of the house; he smiles, everyone smiles, he frowns, none dare speak and if he frets then everyone ducks in the ‘trenches’. Often the lady of the house is reduced to a mere ‘worker’ and is dehumanized’.

If the house has both boy and a girl, then the boy always gets preferential treatment. The boy is treated like a ‘Prince’ pampered and spoiled and the girl is made to the chores of the house.

Take this incident for instance - It is not uncommon to find people running and crossing busy roads in India with complete disregard to safety. The other day I witnessed a mother running across a busy road with two of her children, a boy and a girl. And guess what, she was holding the hand of the boy and the girl was all by herself running behind her mother. The mother was not even looking whether her daughter was making it or not.  Heart breaking to me!!!

But this discussion is not about families. All this is to underline something deeper that runs across our families to societies and to organizations – the Culture. Culturally we refuse to treat another woman as equal or many a times even a human. Men do maximum damage, but since it is a cultural issue that is why even some women fall into this trap and treat the other woman with less dignity.

Harassment of women, violence against women or glass-ceilings in organization are all by-products of this Culture. The same people, who populate the families, populate the society and the organizations too.

What is the solution?

German government is reportedly pushing for 30 per cent quota for women in supervisory boards in all German companies. The move has been opposed by major companies like Volkswagen, BMW, Daimler, Opel since it will lead to major upheaval of their management.

So is Quota a solution in India too? Reserve a fixed per cent of leadership positions of women in organizations?

Quota always contradicts merit. And leadership positions should go to the most deserving and not to the one because of his/her gender.

Then what’s the solution?

Solution is no different from the problem. Even in cultures like ours’ companies can create an organizational culture that ensures women do not drop out at middle-level positions. Take ICICI Bank for instance. They have made it possible for women employees to also choose responsibilities what they want to do; they have made it a taboo in organization for anyone to say that he does not want to work with someone or does not want someone in the team just because that person happens to be a woman. The women employees also get vacation during the exam months of their kids, but largely, in the interview of Mr. K. Ramkumar, ED atICICI Bank (published in Business Line, a business daily), seemed to suggest that the bank is trying to create a organizational culture that breaks bias and glass ceilings against women.

Organizations may not get compete success, but by creating such cultures within themselves they can still insulate the larger culture to a large extent. It is only by creation of such cultures that it can possibly change attitudes and pre-dispositions of people towards women.

Certain section of societies and families can also do so as well by creating a micro-culture that is different from the larger culture. That is why some communities and families are better. 

Engaging women is a not a charity but a recognition to an equally good talent pool that is needed and is indispensable.

All-Women bank is welcome but we need to bank on women more to bring about a real change.

The Burger, Ginger and Hair Story

Documenting experiences of mine and of others whom I know has been one of the best ways to introspect and gather insight about organizations and their culture. Engagement is always an outcome to the same, often a preceding one to other outcomes like efficiency, productivity, performance, OCB, commitment and contribution.

Out of all experiences that we have, our experiences as customer are the one that perhaps takes us closest to a company.  I attempt to summarize a few recent ones, some my own and some of my close acquaintances that have interesting perspectives –

Are Policies more important than the stakeholder?

Customer loyalty has increasingly become a rarity in the age of competition and plentifulness of choice. Hence each company tries to buy that loyalty in some or the way - one of the easiest ways being the ‘Membership Card’. One of my friend hold a membership card for a unisex beauty salon chain called 'Naturals'. On her recent visit she was told that this card will expire soon. She remembered that she had paid Rs. 500/- when this card was issued to her last year. And now when the card expires she would again have to pay Rs. 500/- again to renew her card. 

She was puzzled and asked why would a membership card expire and why would she have to pay again to renew. The front-office lady, without even looking at her,  replied to her that this was the company –policy. When my friend protested, she was told that she had saved enough on the services that she had availed from naturals because of this card, so she should not be protesting. My friend very rightfully suggested back that as much the card had got her some nominal discounts of the services availed by her, 'Naturals' had also got assured business all through this period and she did not go to any other salon. 

The front-office lady had no reply for this and feeling defeated in the argument she said with a lot disenchantment that my friend was the first customer to be protesting against this policy. My friend asked her whether they would do anything with the feedback. The lady told her that one customer’s feedback will not change anything. They would only consider a feedback if few hundred customers complained. She also told my friend very clearly that she could nothing about because this was her ‘company’s policy’. My friend left the salon vowing never to be back.

Interpretations: There are two inferences that can be drawn from the experience of my friend:

1. For naturals policy that they have framed is more important than the customer.

2. There is no value of the individual. The individual will be sacrificed on the altar of collectivism. C.K. Prahlad’s n=1 formula whereby he suggested to treat each customer as an individual, fails to make any sense in companies like 'Naturals'.

Hindsight Wisdom: How many times have you experienced something similar where an employee has expressed his/her helplessness despite the fact that he/she seems to understand & appreciate your logic? Policies that a company frames cannot be set in stone. This is not to suggest that things got to be laissez-faire but enough flexibility has to be kept to be able to modify or change a policy that does nothing to serve the stakeholder’s interest, be it be customer or an employee. 

Mc Delivery – Burger or Disillusionment?

McDonalds has always been one of my favourite brands, not only because they are pioneer in fast food retail chaining but also because of the fact that experience in their stores has always been top-notch. In fact in one of my previous posts, titled ‘Some balloons fly…’ I had written about one such experience. But recently McDonald’s home delvery service left me disillusioned. 

McDonalds started home delivery sometime back. Recently during a kids party I tried to call their centralized home delivery number that takes the home delivery order. The usual address, contact details etc. were taken down, that took some time. After which the lady told me which McDonalds outlet was closest to my location. I was on phone all this long and after few minutes the lady on the other side tells me that the number of the outlet closest to my location was busy and I should hang-up and call the centralized number again. I was puzzled and asked her that couldn't I just hold for a while because if I hung-up and called the centralized home delivery number again, I may have to go again through a long process before I can reach this stage. The lady told me that she could not do anything and I will have to hang-up. 

On my repeated request that I was having a kid party starting in my home in few minutes and I had depended on McDonald’s home delivery menu for the snacks, she was kind enough to give me the mobile number of the closest outlet and asked me to call directly. I hung-up and called on the number given by the lady and guess what comes from the other end – a pre-recorded voice, that tells me that this number is temporarily out-of-order. 

I was stranded! 

The customer care lady had been successful in deflecting me out of her way by giving me a number that is out-of-order!!!

I felt cheated...

Immediately I picked-up the Pizza Hut home delivery menu and ordered for Pizzas instead. In the next 20 minutes I had the pizzas and coke delivered. The party was salvaged. Thanks to Pizza Hut! As far as McDonalds home delivery menu is considered, that can do better in a garbage bag.

Interpretation: 

1. Home delivery was never the forte of McDonalds but having started this service, home delivery seems to be last on their priority.

2. The home delivery order receiving executives have not been chosen as carefully by McDonald as it chooses the buns, potatoes and other ingredients for its 'assembled' Mc Burger. The people taking the customer requests are least empathetic about customer needs.

Hindsight Wisdom: There is no use offering a service if you do not mean it. Often a company customer or employee helpline is more a decorative showpiece than a real support service. It’s better not to have them in the first place. 

Something is better than Nothing, but Nothing is better than Non-sense!

Should you forget the humble bread when you have a sumptuous buffet?

Ginger hotels from one of the most revered business groups in India – The Tatas has been such a let-down, much contrary to the expectations. A friend of mine called one of their hotel numbers to make a booking. After the initial  receptionist talk, his call was transferred to the reservation desk. The booking details were discussed and the tariff was agreeable to my friend. The dates he was looking for the booking were the peak rate dates considering it being Christmas and New year week. The only hitch, Ginger wanted the customer to pay the entire tariff for the two rooms that my friend wished to book in advance to confirm the booking. Additionally he was told that there would be no cancellation or refund since it was the peak season. 

My friend communicated to the reservation executive his definite intention to visit and also the fact that he had chosen Ginger based on his previous good experience. He also requested he be given the option to get his booking confirmed by paying 50% of the tariff at least or given some option of cancelling the booking in the eventuality of a unavoidable exigency considering that he was travelling with his family that included kids and an elderly couple. 

The reservation executive promised to discuss the request with his senior and arrange a call back by 4 p.m. the same day. The day ended, no call came from Ginger. Late in the evening, my friend called the hotel again and he was told that a call would be arranged the next day. The next day came and when no call came even by noon, my friend decided to call again. This time a new person took the call. When my friend searched for the reservation executive with whom he had talked the day before, he was told that there was no person by this name working in the organization. 

How is it possible?, thought my friend. 

Anyways he again had the entire conversation. This time he was told a tariff that was higher than the tariff that was told to him the previous day. How could the tariff change in a day? ‘Peak Season Sir’ – is what the executive told him. By this time my friend was exasperated. He again inquired for the person with whom he had conversation the previous day. After much confusion, it came to light that the previous day he had conversation with a reservation executive from the centralized reservation desk in Mumbai whereas the next day his call had been transferred to the reservation desk in that particular hotel (Ginger has many hotels across different locations). 

My friend then requested that his call be transferred to the centralized reservation desk. Once that was done, a lady on the other side greeted. It was still not the same executive but thankfully that lady confirmed that an executive by the name my friend told her actually worked at Ginger. She again listened to the entire story and my friend repeated his requests. The lady again told him that this was not possible as this was the peak season and they were getting many customers. My friend told her the promise that the 'elusive executive' had made to him – of checking back with his seniors and calling him back! He also wondered that will the hotel treat its loyal set of customers, who chose the hotel in every season, in such a way, simply because they were assured of more ‘rush’. The lady executive again promised to check with the senior and call back. And guess what, the call did not come…

Interpretation:

1. No one cares at Ginger (at least that was what my friend inferred).

2. Ginger like many other local hotels was busy cashing the season rush and does not remember or value it’s all-season patrons.

Hindsight Wisdom: Tata, a revered business house in India stands for ‘trust’. The trust in this case had been ripped-off by the reservation desk. Trust gone, means everything gone. Plus, the fact that companies fail to recognize their value customers and become oblivious of their needs at times when the going is good, reflects a cultural mindset. In difficult times, this set only bails you out! 

When it comes to employees is the company counting on the headcount or value heads depends on whether they have a ‘platform’ approach, where trains come and leave, or a ‘bank’ approach where people come and trust to leave their ‘valuables’ with an intention to come back and a belief that when they come back they will find the same intact and appreciated.

Engagement Touch Points

Absence from work is considered as temporary avoidance of work, more so when people avail sick leaves when they are not actually unwell or visiting a doctor. A recent survey by a job site Careerbuilder.com reveals that more than a third of employees become imaginative when it comes to cooking-up an excuse for taking a sick leave. The resultant impact is in the form of replacement costs, overtime costs, productivity losses, all of that adds up to something like 35 per cent of an employer’s base payroll.

Shocking? And it hits the employers hard! But who takes the blame. 

Another recent study strategic consultant Gallup shows that by a whopping 91 per cent of Indian employees are not psychologically committed to their organisations or are not as productive as they can be. Gallup in its latest annual report titled State of Global Workplace has revealed this startling finding that effectively means that 91 per cent Indian employees are either ‘not engaged’ or ‘actively disengaged’ at their workplace. Lower engagement not just affects productivity, but also the potential for innovation. However, the biggest worry comes in the wake of high proportion of ‘disruptors’ — the 31 per cent of employees who are actively disengaged. According to the report, “these employees are not just unhappy, but busy acting out their unhappiness and undermining their engaged co-workers’ accomplishments”.

Put two and two together, manufactured sick leave excuses should not come not as a surprise. All that is popular is not a common practice. Engagement is one of them.

At the CMO roundtable organized at Bangalore on 25^th October, 2013, by Paul Writer and Ma Foi Analytics and Research, brought together some talented marketers in this country under one roof. The cool and comfortable confines of the five star location did not in any way lessen the heat generated by the discussion done with the same passion and fervour with which these marketers competed in the Indian market space. 

Some excellent perspectives were shared in the round table conference that hold some interesting lessons in engagement. I attempt to conceptualize the discussion, without necessarily intellectualizing the same. My objective is to draw the crux of the discussion and present a practical insight into engagement. 

Managing engagement touch points becomes primal to engaging the stakeholders. Every time a brand comes in touch with a customer, employee or a channel partner, it is defined as a touch point. Aggregate of such interaction goes on to define a brand.

Managing engagement touch points would include:

1. Discovering Engagement Touch points: Tube Hotels, a hotel chain in South-East Asia found out that customer, out of all the facilities and services in the hotel, valued their bed, the television in their rooms and the shower in their bathrooms the most. They made sure that these three aspects in every room were of the highest standards and although rest of the facilities were just about ok or average, the customer satisfaction of this hotel was very high.

Apollo Hospitals gets patients from 100+ countries. Along with ensuring that patient gets best medical attention, Apollo also ensures that the patient’s’ attendant gets adequate care, is looked after well, often ensuring that they get their native cuisines in their food.

ITC’s food division was taken by surprise when a customer from Gujarat asked them which of their food products did not contain onion or garlic. After some effort, the customer query was answered but it exposed a hitherto unexplored touch point. Gujarat a predominantly vegetarian state would have many such consumers who will be sensitive to presence of even onion and garlic in the food products. Some other northern states of India had similar consumer population. ITC food division thereafter began to specifically label the packages of their vegetarian products as having ‘no onion, no garlic’. The appeal that it created among consumer segment was huge.

ITC also found similar engagement touch point when it came to wheat flour. Traditional customers in India were used to buying wheat, drying it in sun and then taking it to a local mill to grind the wheat into flour. The whole process not only used to be tedious & cumbersome for the customer but because of inconsistency of the quality of wheat available in the open market, the quality of flour also used to fluctuate. ITC kept this fact in mind and created a brand called ‘Aashirwad’ that promised hassle free readymade flour and ITC ensured that the high quality of the flour was consistent.

Flipkart introduced COD (Cash-On-Delivery) and ‘30-Days Return’ policies understanding customer sensibilities. Many customers want to pay only after they have received the product. The customers also wish to have the flexibility to return the product if they are not happy with the same, once they start using it.

1. Different Individuals, Different Touch Points: As much discovering engagement touch points is important, generalizing such touch points when consumer base is heterogeneous is not a good idea. 

One of the senior marketers in the roundtable who earlier had stint in Club Mahindra shared an interesting fact. Club Mahindra a family holiday destination resort generally gets families in its resorts. A typical family comprising of ‘father’, ‘mother’ and kids has different needs and hence different touch points. While the ‘father’ wants a lazy holiday, preferring no connectivity of any kind with the outside world, if possible; the ‘mother’ wants a more active holiday with yoga, exercise, etc. Young kids are hyperactive during holidays and want to run around and have as much fun as possible. Contrary to this the teenage kids want Wi- Fi connectivity and just need a cosy corner for themselves with their gadgets. Understanding these different touch points and addressing them becomes significant in engaging the entire family.

A 100 year old jewellery chain C. Krishniah Chetty & Sons gets broadly two kind of footfalls in their retail stores – 70% of its sales comes from repeat purchases and hence from old timers and more loyal set of customers; while the rest 30% of its sales comes from new customers walking-in the stores. The former set of customers are looking for long-term value and usually purchase in bulk, while the latter are the new-age fashion conscious customers who are looking for trendy designs and are essentially deal driven. The new-age customers’ churn-out rate is high, not because any love is lost, but since they love to wander about and shop more randomly. Both sets of customers have different expectations and hence different engagement touch points. The challenge is always in terms of translating owner’s passion into frontline sales to deliver better experience and drive engagement.

1. Dynamic Touch Points: The engagement touch points are not always static. ITC continuously experiments with its biscuits and creamy range of biscuits to bring-in new flavours and tastes to its very demanding set of consumers – the kids, whose tastes and choices keep changing very fast.

The dynamic nature of the touch points can also be looked from the perspective of speed with which a brand delivers on the engagement touch points. Take Club Mahindra for instance, they have installed touch screen kiosks in their resorts to gather feedback from their customers on a continuous basis and make correction or amends, if required, before the customer leaves the resort, rather than waiting for him/her to arrive next time. They understand that the ‘next-time’ may simply be too late.

Discovering, understanding and delivering on these engagement touch points becomes primal to engaging customers. However, it is pertinent to note that such engagement may not be possible without engaging the ‘internal customers’ or the employees. 

Internal Engagement

Similar to the external customer, discovering engagement touch points for the employees is equally important. These engagement touch points could be essentially functional or psychological, that may be discovered in pre-employment stage, On-boarding stage or during the employment stage. The functional variables may include job content, infrastructure, technology-in-use, compensation etc. While the psychological variables may include Psychological Support, Organizational Culture, Leadership, Respect, Psychological Job Fit, Growth & Development, Recognition & Reward, Involvement & Influence etc. Having said these employees cannot be generalized into a homogeneous set. They are also individuals and hence their individual touch points for engagement may equally vary. C.K. Prahlad’s n=1 formula whereby he treated each customer as a unique entity with unique set of needs & expectations holds true for employees as well. And finally, the engagement touch points for a particular employee may not remain consistent over a period of time. Understanding this dynamic nature of the touch points is no less important.

To conclude, it will be only fair to say that managing engagement touch points becomes critical in ensuring both external and internal engagement.

This article - 'Engagement Touch Points' was originally published at Paul Writer's Website. The link to the article is -http://paulwriter.com/articles/item/1043-cmo-roundtable-customer-engagement

Sachin Tendulkar, 4 Employee Types and Engagement

Sachin Tendulkar will go down in the annals of cricketing and sporting history as one of the greatest that has ever played this game. He had his own share of controversies, humongous public expectations and pressures; and of late everyone had been worried when Sachin would retire. Much to the comfort of those predicting and wishing his retirement, Sachin is finally signing-off and hopefully he does so, on a ‘high’. There has been a lot of unfair criticism of Sachin that he is delaying his retirement. How long a player wants to play is purely his/her decision; as much it is the selectors’ discretion to select or not select that player in the team. It is the selector’s job to see that a player earns his place in the team by the virtue of his non-substitutable merit rather than any other factor.  Sachin’s eagerness and desire to play this game at the highest level for about a quarter of a century was driven by his passion for the game of cricket rather than any other motive, and even if there was one it could have been nipped by the selectors. If they failed, do not blame Sachin.

In the words of his teammate and counterpart for long, Sourav (Dada) Ganguly, Sachin stands-out in the entire cricketing history because of the ‘way he played this game’. No one can deny this fact. When Sachin stepped-out yesterday in the historic Eden gardens, one could see the same enthusiasm and child-like eagerness to play as one had seen when he made his debut as a young teenager. Few have also questioned whether Sachin played for himself rather than for the team, but leaving this argument aside, one thing that has always been unquestionable has been his passion for the game.

On similar lines, engagement of an individual employee could be categorized as Engagement to the Profession (that he/she practices) and Engagement to the organization (where he/she is employed). Those who are engaged to the profession are intrinsically motivated and self-driven. They do have to be told or directed. Organization must ensure that no worry, either on professional or on personal front, ever engulfs them. These types of employees will then just go on do their jobs and making meaningful contributions.  On the contrary those employees whose engagement to the profession is not very high, have to told more, directed more, supervised and guided more.

When we do the classical two-by-two (refer diagram below), four employee types are generated:

Type A: Their engagement to both the profession they are currently practicing and as well as to their current organization, are both low. They are likely to ‘switch’ not only their current organization but also choose a different profession altogether. They are the poor job-fit and poor enterprise-fit people. Trying to retain them doesn’t seem to be a very bright idea. However if they seem to be very good prospects then a role change may be the right thing to contemplate. A change of vertical within the same group may also be considered.

Type B: Their engagement to their current organization is high and in all likelihood this is a more functional engagement rather than a psychological engagement. This is well exhibited by the fact that they do not practice a profession because they are passionate about it, rather they do it because they are good at it. Functional variables at work and rationale engagement works far more than emotional engagement with ‘Type B'. At a later stage, they are likely to choose a second career for themselves.

Type C: They are the darlings for any organization where they are employed. They are engaged to their profession and hence are self-driven and intrinsically motivated, very passionate about what they do and the organization where they work also seems to have done things right on its part. ‘Type C’ are high potentials with high chances of retention. I could have as well called the ‘Type C’ as type S or ‘Sachin Type’.  ‘Type C’ are real assets for any organization. Focusing on ‘Type C’ and do everything possible to keep their engagement levels high is pertinent.

Type D: Engaged to the profession but not to the organization. Recently Gallup in its annual report has stated means that 91 per cent Indian employees are either ‘not engaged’ or ‘actively disengaged’ at their workplace. Out of that the 31 per cent of employees who are actively disengaged are not only unhappy but they also undermine the achievements of the engaged workers. ‘Type D’ is very likely to ‘switch’ their current organizations, very soon. Organizations need to immediately get into diagnosis phase for the ‘Type D’, if it values their presence.

Professionals Can Wait...!!

'A little less than two years after it brought in professionals from outside the family to head the editorial and business wings of the company, Kasturi & Sons Limited (KSL), the publishers of The Hindu daily, carried out drastic changes on Monday in the leadership structure by bringing in family members at the helm of affairs and easing out the editor and the company's CEO.

The KSL board of directors appointed N Ravi as the editor-in-chief of The Hindu, replacingSiddharth Varadarajan, who took over from N Ram in January last year. N Ram will now be the chairman of the board, and Malini Parthasarathy, who left the paper as its executive editor in 2011 and now heads The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy, is back as The Hindu editor.

Monday's board meeting also decided to abolish the post of CEO, which was held by Arun Anant since it was created around the last revamp. Anant's new role is yet to be defined.

In what appears a sharp indictment of Varadarajan and Anant, a statement signed by N Ram (who had brought in these two), said: "The decision to make deep-going changes was made chiefly on the ground that there were recurrent violations and defiance of the framework of the institution's longstanding values on the business side, and recurrent violations and defiance of 'Living Our Values', the mandatory Code of Editorial Values applicable to The Hindu." He added that the effort was to restore employee morale, good industrial relations, and the trust of the newspaper's readers.

Varadarajan, who was redesignated as the contributing editor and senior columnist, has submitted his resignation. Asked about alleged violations of policy under his stewardship, he told TOI, "If indeed policies or editorial values were flouted, the solution would have been to get another professional editor. The fact that the owners have come back into editorial itself provides the answer to your question."

He added, "Of course, there were occasional instances of editorialising that slipped in, just as they did when Mr Ram or Mr Ravi edited The Hindu earlier. But I fear this is merely an excuse to reverse the earlier decision to professionalise the newspaper."

Asked if the board was unhappy with his periodic absence from the newspaper's headquarters, Chennai, he said, "As editor, the lion's share of my time was spent in Chennai, where I put in 12-hour days; except for two brief holidays in Kerala and Sri Lanka, any travel was almost exclusively linked to my job as editor of a national paper which has more than a dozen editions. Even then, there was not a single Chennai edition front page that I did not personally decide on, even when I was out of the country."

When contacted, Arun Anant declined to comment on the development.

Ravi, the current editor-in-chief, had resigned as the paper's editor in July 2011, along with other family members Malini Parthasarathy and Nirmala Lakshman, who was the joint editor, after Ram insisted on "separation of ownership from management on the editorial as well as the business side." Varadarajan took over as editor on January 10, 2012 after Ram, who held the post for eight years. That marked the conclusion of a series of debates within the family since 2009, starting with the appointment of N Balaji as the managing director of Kasturi & Sons.

On April 20, 2011, about three months before his exit, Ravi, in a bitter letter to The Hindu employees, said Ram and some of the directors at the meeting of the board two days earlier had sought to remove him and appoint Siddharth Varadarajan. He called it a "shocking display of bad faith that has left me deeply anguished" and that they were entering "the second, and what might turn out to be a prolonged, phase of conflict and turbulence in the institution."

(Source: Hindu reinstates family members at helm of affairs, The Times of India, Oct. 22, 2013)

The New Generation Army

Violent clash between the Army soldiers and officers at Merrut cannot be ignored as an one-off incident. Neither should it be read as an impending mutiny. But definitely the times are changing and Indian army seems to be a ‘generation’ behind!

The Incident

The incident happened during a inter-company boxing match. One version says that a solider tried his best but lost a friendly boxing match. One of the officers confronts him after the match, publicly ridicules him and thrashes him. The soldier does not take the insult lying down and retaliates. A prolonged physical clash ensues between soldiers and officers. The ugly incident leaves army red-faced and embarrassed.

As expected a committee has been set-up to inquire into the incident. And in all possibility the erring soldiers and officers will be reprimanded and punished. But will that really put an end to what seems to be a systemic issue brewing inside the organization. 

This is not the first ofsuch incident in recent times. In the last two years this is the fourth suchincident where soldiers have given back a fist for a fist. Although the top brass of the Army have come down heavily against such errants and have handed them exemplary punishments, the question is will that suffice. The repetition of such incidents, nevertheless, indicate that the problem may be lying elsewhere. 

Gen Y Soldiers

Gen Y is populating the Indian Army, like many other organizations in big numbers. If reports are to be believed then the new age soldiers are not only better educated but also more aspirational. This also confirms research literature on Gen Y. A more educated, aspirational and high on self-esteem Gen Y soldier may be expecting more respect from their officers.

In fact research literature indicates that Gen Y employees do not accept authority by the virtue of organizational hierarchy. They accept authority by example and for a limited time-frame. In other words, the superior gets respect not for his position but for the exemplary performance that he/she puts forth. The respect lasts as long as the such behaviour of the superior lasts. In the coming years, as more Gen Yers will enter the Indian Army, managing this new generation soldiers will be a challenge.

Structure and Leadership

Officers and soldiers are not only differentiated by rank but also by class within the organization. A clear class system seems to be prevail within the organization and treatment is not equal for the soldiers. A highly hierarchical structure ensures that soldiers at the bottom of the pyramid are only supposed to listen and follow. The power is highly centralized at the top. 

Culture

A rigid culture of command and control is highlight of the army. The same has been followed since the British Raj and this is perhaps one of the very few institutions that has been untouched by changes in past 65 odd years of Indian independence.

Control Systems

Carrot and stick in the all practical sense, the latter being used in both letter and spirit for managing the soldiers, as is evident from the recent incidents.

Such organizational structure, culture and control systems seem totally incompatible with the new generation inducts in the Indian Army. Organizations all over the world are experiencing the phenomena of multi-generations at work. The increasing tension between Gen X bosses and Gen Y employees is not only the problem of the Army but of many organizations around the world. The organizations that are able to recognize the fact are trying to decipher Gen Y and in the process trying to find out newer and better ways to manage and engage them. The others are blissfully unaware and completely in dark.

A seminal work highlighting the need to change the organizational design of the Indian Army was recently done as a Manekshaw Paper titled ‘Staff System in the Indian Army, Time for Change’ by P.K. Mallick, Centre for Land Warfare Studies, New Delhi (2011), and published by Knowledge World, KW Publishers Pvt Ltd, New Delhi. (article link).

There are enough indicators to show that the Indian army's ability to attract quality officers has declined sharply following the globalization of the Indian economy. Another seminal paper titled ‘The Indian Army Officers’ Crisis’ by Indian journalist and scholar, Dinesh Kumar, in the an issue of the academic journal, South Asia (vol. 33, no. 3, December 2010) is a must read to know the shrinking talent pool for the Indian Army. (article link)

Perhaps it’s time for Army to recognize the new generation at work and re-design a new internally strong  and united army.

Only a 'Fit' is a Hit!

A formula one driver may be one of the smartest drivers on the circuit but he may fail miserably driving on an Indian Road and vice-versa.

Formula one track is of a certain quality, rules are set; maneuvering and speed remain key skills. On any Indian road, rules are meant to be broken, chaos is the only order and you need a lot of luck to survive the potholes, monster trucks, erring cabbies and scavenging animals, especially cows, freewheeling on the roads.

Talent Management is also similar. A 'Star' in one context may fail miserably in another context. The key factor is that of 'Fit'. Marc Effron, author of the book 'One Page Talent Management' (Harvard Publishing Press), in his key note address, in HT HR Summit (25th Sept. 2013, Bangalore, India) beautifully portrayed this concept of Talent-fit with the organizational strategy and environment.

Different capabilities are required in different environments that determine the ‘fit’. The success of organizations is highly dependent on their ability to find the ‘talent-fit’ or rather the talent that is the right fit.

'One page Talent Management' is all about ability of a company to write the talent specifications in a clear concise manner so as to define ‘fit’ in its context. 

Talent Engagement depends a lot on whether the right talent-fit is found by the company or not.

A Star-Talent brought-in a company whose environment & context poorly match with his competencies would do no good to the fortunes of the company, frustrate the star talent and leave him disengaged. Vice-versa, if the talent is brought-in the company based on his/her fitment with the context and the environment, would not only be the right choice for the company but it would also lead to effective engagement of the talent with the company.

So do not just follow the 'Star', follow the 'fit', for only a Fit is a Hit!

Will a 'Singapore' work In India?

What happens when most of the employees receive outstanding ranking (9 or 10 out of 10) from their supervisors?

What happens when these ranking are given without even a face-to-face meeting between the appraise and the appraiser?

What happens when most employees feel that Performance Appraisal (PAR) system is neither fair nor objective?

What happens when despite high performance ratings received by the employees, their department’s performance shows decline?

It’s enough indication that something is fundamentally flawed in the system or the system itself is flawed. That’s what the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has come to a conclusion regarding the PAR of the Civil Service officers under various ministries. All the above symptoms discussed above were visible.

The Solution

DoPT suggest embracing a Singaporean model that is stated to be far more fair and rigorous.  The proposed system will hold the supervisors more accountable for the ratings that they give to the rates and necessitates them to support their ratings with evidences. The proposed system also recognizes the fact that promotions are not only a outcome of past performance but also dependent on the Current Estimated Potential (CEP) or simply the officers’ expected performance in the higher role. The CEP will allow accelerated promotions to deserving officers and links the pace of promotions to an estimation of the highest level of work an offence can competently handle before his retirement and considers the official's intellectual qualities, result orientation and leadership qualities for appraisal.

The Hitch

The diagnosis of a faulty PAR by DoPT is correct. The solution suggested based on Singapore model is also a noble thought. The suggestion however fails to recognize that the success of any initiative, such as these, require ‘design’ interventions. The highly politicized environment, bureaucratic set-up and a deep-set culture of entitlement could come as a major roadblock to the new PAR.

Research has proven more than once that such one-of measures do not work. Copying ‘best-practices’ from successful organizations and imposing them on another organization, assuming that it will be solution to all the ills that plague it, is nothing more than wishful thinking. They are cosmetic reliefs that do not last long. The true face will come out sooner or later as the problems will persist.

When the 'Dog' wags its Tail...

Two interesting research finding on Stress at Workplace -

The first study pertains to a recent research study done by Michael Ford¹, family-supportive workplaces and the influence of supervisors -- good or bad -- on employee health.

While work scored above everything when it came to the biggest stressor in life, Supervisors at workplace were found to have maximum contribution to the same. A bad and an abusive supervisor can add a great deal of stress in an employee’s life.

This stress for sure spills over to personal life and has negative impact on marriage, kids, food choices, lifestyle, health hazards like obesity and cardiovascular diseases. It can even hamper the lives of the family members.

A supervisor who simply listens to the employees and can provide emotional support to them at times of need is a huge support at workplace but also a rarity.

Another research done by Prof. Randolph Barker² and his five member research team at Virginia Commonwealth University’s business school found that letting employees bring their dogs at workplace substantially reduces their stress and also makes them feel more satisfied about their work. Dogs may be a great buffer to the impact of workplace stress and can inspire greater personal interactions among employees.

I never knew ‘Dogs’ could have such an impact on stress-levels at workplace.

Dogs are no simple creatures. Take dog’s waging tail for instance. Dogs wag their tail to communicate strong emotions like agitation, annoyance, displeasure or happiness. A person gets bitten by a dog when he makes mistakes in interpreting the waging tail. 

So make no mistake, there is a science to a dog’s tail especially when it wags! Love or hate, follow the Dog!!!

1.     Prof. Michael Ford is an assistant professor of psychology at the University at Albany-State University of New York, and his research was funded by U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and presented in a Conference on ‘Work, Stress and Health 2013: Protecting and Promoting Total Worker Health’ ( May 16-19, 2013, Los Angeles).

2.     Prof. Barker’s research was published in the International Journal of Workplace health Management in 2012.

Teach your sons to respect Women!

How much is too much? Sexual violence against women goes unabated. The recent Mumbai rape of a photo journalist, gang-rape of a ladyconstable at the hands of dacoits in Jharkhand are stark reminders that nothing has changed since the Nirbhaya’s case in Delhi. And rape is not the only kind of sexual violence that women face in our country. Another growing menace is acid attacks. The BBC documentary below is nerve-racking as it shows the acid attack victims and their unimaginable sufferings. Most of such attacks have happened against young women who refuse the advances of unsolicited males.

Why had India seen a spurt in cases of sexual violence in India? What’s behind this growing brutality? Is there anything wrong with the men and boys in our country? There is everything wrong in the way they are brought-up in our society. We seldom teach our sons to be respectful of girls and women. And most of them see how mothers and sisters are treated in the household. There is scant respect for them and they are subject to humiliation, many a times physical violence and treated as second-class citizens in the same household. These boys grow-up and do the same to their girlfriends and wives.

In an average Indian household that has a son and a daughter; differential treatments are meted to both of them. Although it is the men who institutionalize these differential treatments at home, surprisingly many a times such treatments are meted out by the women themselves. A friend of mine narrated to me of an incident that he witnessed while travelling in a train. A family of four - husband, wife and their two kids (one son and one daughter), almost of the same age, were his co-passengers. The mother was after the son to make him eat his lunch while the boy did his tantrums. She begged her son to eat, affectionately fed him and it took a long time for her to make her son eat. All this while, the daughter quietly sat in a corner of a berth, finished her meals on her own and then kept reading a book. After the lunch was over, the lady made her son to lay on one of the berths, put him to sleep and then wrapped a blanked on him to keep him warm. After the mother went off to sleep, the daughter got up and wrapped a blanket around her mother and then quietly retired in her berth. This is the reality of how daughters are treated in most Indian households, although outliers are there but in extreme minority.

Till we teach our sons how to treat women, to respect women, our society will keep producing scoundrels who will treat women as objects of desire and as foot mats, and then lecture them that they should wear better clothes or should beg respectful treatment from men if they want lesser subjugation.

Organizations are also mini-societies that draw its elements from the larger society. Respectful treatment of women is first and most basic pre-requisite of creating an equal opportunity place in terms of gender parity. Everything else like women friendly policies, considering women for leadership roles etc. comes later. Because if one is not taught how to treat women with respect then everything else will remain just dried ink on the paper that will have no flow or relevance.

Kudos!!

Blog mentioned on the website of a Lausanne, (Switzerland) based content-curation firm on their website.

Link: http://paper.li/KudosNow/1327957289