Can't Be Done!

It's late in the evening.
I am heath conscious, my kids are not.
Kids win.
We walk into a KFC outlet in Bangalore.
No serpentine queue! (Yes there are fast food joints in Bangalore that are near empty on Weekends!)
One kid wants the regular crunchy chicken and the other hot wings.
So I ask the person at the counter to give me a regular bucket that contains both.
No! Can't be done.
Why?
He doesn't know. Just can't be done. Company policy I suppose.
I try to offer logic: "The price of a regular bucket of both varieties is the same. So just mix them up. You don't lose anything." - water on duck's back.
Finally I settled for one; Hot Wings can wait for another day - if I return, that is.
Copious number of management books are churned out from the press in USA and Europe. I am not surprised.
Why?
Because with this kind of front-end service, these companies will need lot more education.

Stimulating Creativity

Some management studies surprise me no end. Take this study on How To Stimulate Creativity? for instance. "Go live abroad", it says. Immersing yourself in local experiences for a prolonged period helps stimulate creativity. People who are bi-lingual or tri-lingual are found to be more creative in the study.

I have no doubt it does. Different inputs fire different neurons in your brain. variety of experiences help trigger creative juices. You do not have to live abroad for that. Just do things differently.

Do you drive to your office everyday? Do you take the same route? Try a different one. Or go to office in a bus for a month. Or better still pedal to office.

Do you love thrillers? Go to your local bookshop or the library and pick up a genre that you would never think of reading.

You can't stand classical music? Listen to Carnatic / Hindustani / Wsetern classical for a month. Oh! You are already into classical music? Listen to Jazz then.

Learn a new language on your own.

You do not have to go live abroad to become creative. You can create your own different environment at home. And I promise you, each of my suggestions given above will increase your creativity. It is the new experience and the ability to weave the new experiences into your daily life that makes one creative.

And if creativity was linked to number of languages, then all Indians would be overflowing with creativity. Any educated Indian would know at least 3 languages, if not more.

Wait a minute! Perhaps, we Indians are really very creative.

Good Manager, Bad Manager, Good Economist, Bad Economist

Any book that has the following statement is worth reading:

The bad economist sees only what immediately strikes the eye; the good economist also looks beyond. The bad economist sees only the direct consequence of a proposed course; the good economist looks also at the longer and indirect consequences. The bad economist sees only what effect of a given policy has been or will be on one particular group; the good economist inquires also what the effect of the policy will be on all groups.

For a second I thought this was one of the many post-meltdown books that are flooding the markets today. (All those who could not predict it are now explaining it, funny!) But no. Economics In One Lesson: The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics by Henry Hazlitt was first published in 1946 that is not a typo - it is 1946) and then updated in 1962.

Actually, if I were a plagiarist I could replace the word 'economist' by 'manager' and publish a sure shot best seller. This is how ...

The bad manager sees only what immediately strikes the eye; the good manager also looks beyond. The bad manager sees only the direct consequence of a proposed course; the good manager looks also at the longer and indirect consequences. The bad manager sees only what effect of a given decision has been or will be on one particular group; the good manager inquires also what the effect of the decision will be on all groups.

Hmmm.... May be I will learn a lot about management by reading this gem of a book on economics.

Knee-jerk reaction to recession is not an accomplishment

India's biggest software house, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), is believed to be avoiding travel to reduce costs. Instead video conferences, telephonic conversations and web casting will be used to discuss matters. This should minimize travel requirements.

Questions:

1. Does it require a recession to cut costs?
2. Isn't a company obliged to cut costs and pass it on the benefits to the customers or employees?
3. Who were the people who authorized travel when a telephone call was sufficient?

Ahh! The answer to the last is all too obvious. I do not know how this process works at TCS. But I know for certain that most of these travels are undertaken by the executives themselves. The top management sitting at Headquarters are not bothered as long as targets are met.

You see, when things are hunky-dory, it takes top management of exception foresight to insist on stretch targets. Cost cutting is seen as retro-step. I can bet on my fledgling blogging career (!) that internal auditors at TCS must have raised objections but the executives must have shot these down insisting that such business travels are essential.

And why am I upset about this? Because by making a big hoo-haa about the measures TCS is taking to fight slow down, it is actually admitting that there is a lot of scope for cost cutting thereby confining Indian software industry to compete on costs for ever.

To all those managers / executives I have this humble request. Please do not announce knee-jerk reactions as accomplishments. Please do these within the four walls of your company. These are not achievements. You should have done this long ago.

Yes, if someday you do a 'Nano' shout from the roof top.

So? and Why?

Imagine ...

"Your team is not following the process."
"So?"
"This will cause problems?"
"Why?"
"If the process is not followed there will be a non-conformity."
"So?"
"This is not good."
"Why?"
"This shows that the product has not met the process."
"So?"
"What so? Process has been laid after a long thought process. If the process is followed we are assured of a working product."
"Why?"
"Because then you would have met the specifications."
"You mean to say, the processes are infallible. And that they cannot be changed. And that the product will not be of high standard if the processes are not followed."
"No. But the processes are there for a reason."
"So?"
"Arrrrggggh..."
"Isn't it time to revisit the processes? Maybe they are dated."

Ok now imagine this ...

"I need to something different?"
"Why?"
"I am stagnating."
"So?"
"I need to break out."
"Why?"
"I need to make a difference?"
"So?"
"What so? To make a mark in this world, I need to do something remarkable."
"Why?"
"Because ... because ..."
"Have you introspected enough? Or are you swayed by every new book you read?"

See how effective 'so?' and 'why?' could be. It peels away the bluster to reveal the essential. Try it. I guarantee you success.

The Best Business Parable Ever?

I must confess this has never happened to me before. Perhaps it is because it is an easy read. Or perhaps the message touched me somewhere deep inside or despite being a parable I could not guess the ending. Whatever be the reason, this is the first time I read the book in one go and immediately after finished started reading it once more. Read my review of The Go-Giver.
Of all the management parables I have read so far this must be the best and ranks, at least in my list, with The Goal, in terms of impact. Just so that I internalize the message (hopefully), I wrote down the 5 Laws of Stratospheric Success on a piece of paper. Slowly. Very slowly.

Picture courtesy: Daniel Wildman

5 Must Read Business Management Books

Why am I publishing this list ... because it is winter vacations for the kids. And if you haven't read these yet, now is your time to catch up. 5 should be sufficient for a short winter break.

1. Managing For Results by Peter Drucker. The mother of all Management Books. A book can be written for every paragraph of Managing for Results and I suspect many are.

2. The Goal by Eliyahu Goldratt. A business novel that will teach you a new way of thinking. I like to read this novel again and again and again.

3. The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization by Peter Senge. Welcome to Systems Theory. Learn why time is an essential factor in any causal system. Application of its principles will turn your life and organization around.

4. Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne. A remarkable book, in my mind, only because the units of analysis are events and not companies. And also because CEO's in India use the term Blue Ocean Strategy to describe all their strategy.

5. Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths And Total Nonsense by Jeffery Pfeffer & Robery I. Sutton. Read this book last. You might not want to read any other management book ever after.

Note: The photograph used belongs to Zsuzsanna Kilián. Please see her galleryfor more such photographs.

Vikram Pandit Under Fire

With Citibank sinking into quagmire, Vikram Pandit's leadership qualities are being questioned. He is believed to be a technocrat not fit to lead people ... his strong point is analysis not leadership ... doesn't take tough decisions ... and all the usual crap that nasty people reserve for people at the top.

But then can you blame people from pointing fingers at him. The Indian press lauded him when he took over as the CEO. But he has not delivered. No major decision has been taken so far that has inspired the Wall Street. He lost out Wachovia to Well Fargo. And now his job is on line.

But is he really to blame. Let us turn to my favourite management book: Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths And Total Nonsense by Pfeffer and Sutton. In an very interesting titled chapter, 'Are Great Leaders in Control of Their Companies?', the say:

"Even the most powerful executives have little influence over macroeconomic trends, the price of international currency and oil, wars and terrorism, organizational history, and the weather. That is why although stock prices sometimes dramatically in the short term when a CEO is fired or hired, there are seldom long-term effects on market value.

Those who have studied the investment impact contend that the replacement of a corporate boss is often like that of a baseball team manager: after a knee-jerk sense of relief comes a realization that it won't do much good if the new guy has to lead the same bunch of bums whose losing streak got the previous manager axed."

Take your call.

Note: Do you want to read more about my views on leadership. You need to visit my other blog.

Any One Can Write A Book On Management

You don't believe me -- read on. My first book on Management (brief sketch)

White Water Rafting & Management
-------------------------------------

White Water Rafting can teach us valuable lessons in management and leadership. Like everything in life valuable lessons can be accrued [editor (me): need to use impact words] while having fun [editor: note the deliberate attempt to generalise].

As an adventure sport White Water Rafting is unparalleled [editor: always use superlatives without actually using words like the best, greatest, etc.] It emphasises a oneness [editor: Zen, anyone!] of the mind and the body and at the same time inculcates team spirit.

But what is not apparent [editor: to anyone but yours truly] is that White Water Rafting holds within itself valuable leadership lessons.

[editor: The lessons will then be broken down in sections and the go like this]

1. The importance of preparation
1.a Defining goals to the team or how to survive the rapids without any major damage
1.b Explaining risks and mitigation action or how the most dangerous object is the paddle
1.c Training or how to tie the life jacket, hold the paddle and stay in the raft

2. On the Spot Leadership
2.a Team SWOT or how to assess the team's strength and weaknesses
2.b Team Effectiveness or how to utilize strength and compensate weakness

3. Execution
3.a Keep watching or how to look out for rocks and rapids
3.b Quick action or how not to respond at the last moment
3.c Gliding Past or how to use minimum strength for maximum effectiveness
3.d Precise Communication or how to "get down, hold on"

4. Team Work
Finally it is all team work.

5. Chill! [editor: also use lingo to identify with the riff-raff]
5.a Get away from it all.
5.b Recharge your batteries
5.c Mother nature has lots to offer

[editor: the middle pages will have photographs of the author river rafting]

There you have it. A management best seller (cross your fingers) in 5 acts.

Many years ago, shortly after returning from my White Water Rafting trip, I had delivered a mandatory management lecture to the managers of a company and the boss was suitably impressed.

And all I spent was 15 minutes of undivided attention to extract something out of my expedition.

Any body can write a book on management - certainly easier than fiction. The point is can any body write a good one?

Note: The picture used here belongs to Svilen Mushkatov. To see more of his pictures please visit his gallery.

If I had to read only one book on management

If I were constrained to read one, and only one, book on management then I would unhesitatingly pick up - no, not The Goal! not even near - Managing For Results by Peter Drucker.

Managing For Results is needle sharp focused. Each sentence can launch a 100 books on management. One you have read Managing For Results every other management book reads like a corollary to the thesis presented by Drucker.

Just to give you the flavour of this book, I have reproduced a few gems that are present in the first chapter itself:
1) Neither results nor resources exist inside the business. Both exist outside.
2) Results are obtained by exploiting opportunities, not by solving problems (because of this sentence alone I have eliminated the word "problem" from my vocabulary)
3) Economic results are earned only by leadership, not by mere competence.

And all that in 1964.

The Goal

I first picked up The Goal when I was browsing through my company library about 15 years ago or so.
I had never heard of a 'management novel'.
Wasn't sure what to expect but the concept seemed interesting.
When I finished reading I was blown away.
This was it!
The only way to make anything stick was through a story.
I bet all of us remember many stories that we heard in our childhood.
Since then I must have read The Goal - first by borrowing the same book from the library multiple times and then by actually buying the book when I left the company - at least 15 times, if not more. One may not agree with the Theory of Constraints and denounce it as not very practical in all situations, one cannot deny that the books contain some gems. In any case Goldratt claims huge success using TOC. See here. And it all started with The Goal.
It is a story of a manager trying to save his job and marriage and manages to both (what else do you expect!) using the good old Socratic principles.
I followed up this book with The Critical Chain and It's Not Luck(sold in India as Goal II - shows the impact of the original one). The sequel and The Critical Chain do not leave the same kind of impact as The Goal does. But they are still worth a read.