Plan to Execute it Right !

Plan to Execute it Right !

‘Planning is bringing the future into the present so that we could have a better tomorrow’.

April is a crucial month for many a companies to religiously revisit their business plans of last year and dwell on how to conduct business in the current year. Few companies use this annual ritual to create a path to growth and exploring windows of opportunities. Few companies discuss what failed last year and what to buttress in the following years. Success of the business plans largely rests on the 3 Ps of a company: People, Process and Products/Services. Most plans fail because of two reasons. Firstly, not identifying the right resources who would own and implement the plan. Secondly, not eliminating the bottlenecks that inhibit change. These failures occur because of “core rigidity, sticking to older ways and means of doing things even when the purpose and environment has changed.  The major culprit causing this is the planning process itself.

In many companies the ideas flow from top, they are never questioned because of fear and rebuke. Another major cause is the subjective evaluation of performances and outcomes.  Many companies carry senior resources on their roles who have neither the energy nor the commitment.  Inability to control Smart Alec, Yes men, who like to be part of all strategy making but no responsibility is another jaundice that affects the low performing companies. Alignment of resources to the objectives and strategies of the plan is essential to achieve success. Make necessary business changes to derive desired benefits.  Implement Process changes to bring in agility, clear ownership and reduction of waste. Cut down information latency, bring in continuous flow of information and efficiency in the activities of the organization. A good implementation strategy is breaking the plan into small buckets and to ensure the change is sustained. Finally, no plan works if there are no reinforcement mechanisms. Measure, control and direct to create an impact and achieve success with the desired change!

Pratibha Sharma

Sr. Asst Consultant (Strategy and Finance)

Culture as an “attention crutch”. Is it worth the risk?

Culture as an “attention crutch”. Is it worth the risk?

Companies these days are trying very hard to stand out in the marketing world. Many marketing professionals seem to believe that any attention is good, even if it is a negative one. Marketing professionals deploy obnoxious, culturally repugnant and some base crass presentation to catch the attention worm. A scheme most marketers falter pursuing this strategy is when they attempt culturally centred themes. Humans are culturally rooted animals. People knowingly or unknowingly imbibe cultural traits. It is not just the tradition or principles that they follow, it is very much immersed in their psyche and sentiments. While a commercial portraying a culturally inappropriate content may catch eye balls, it may not help ring the cash bells.

The recent 7UP advertisement stirred a lot of controversy. Keralites and many purists of Indian traditional dance were hurt by the way a Kathakali (classical dance form of the region) artiste was used to cart a aerated bottled drink. Moreover, the Kathakali costume adorned was the costume that depicts Lord Krishna.  Many consumers are so angry that they want to boycott 7UP or even Pepsi for that sake. Thank god, Japan the land of rising sun is not in our neighbourhood. Many of the Japanese would not have liked a Geisha shaking a leg for a Bollywood item number.

Why has this ad hurt the sentiments and considered culturally insensitive.

First of all, Kathakali is not a street dance like  the Amir Khan or Prabhudeva’s pelvic gyrations. It is a tradition art form, depicting the story of Lord Krishna. It is performed by dancers who have undergone years of training in appropriate facial expressions and hand gestures. The dance accompanied by soothing music, singing, percussion, dialogues and narrations is performed only in temples, palaces or houses of nobles and aristocrats.

The creative team behind the ad neither had elementary education in culture or had a sense of appreciation for diversity. The team used a debauched version to peddle their ware.

Marketing managers need to evaluate the risks and rewards. Empirical evidences indicate that while brands may have earned short term “attention”, the companies had to abandon these products. For instance, Lisa Blue Swimwear faced heavy protest from the Hindu community for printing Indian goddess Lakshmi on their swimwear range. The Australian company had to halt all productions and call back their swimwear that had been showcased on the ramp at Rosemount Australian Fashion Week in Sydney. Another example is that of Nike’s Ad in China that showed an American basketball player defeating a Kung Fu master, a pair of dragons and two traditional dressed Chinese women, all in a bad taste.  Thankfully, the Chinese government banned it as they felt this ad insulted their culture and national dignity.

Creativity should not kill cultural instincts and likewise don’t let cultural insensitivity sham your brand image. You don’t want to be there always trying to pace things out. Its better to be on the safer side. Next time you pen an ad, first ask yourself “hey will I hurt someone” if the answer is “no” go ahead. But if the answer is “yes” or “may be”, then just put your pen down for a while and rethink your entire work. Coz if you ask me I would say “Its not a risk worth taking”.

Deevika.AP

Junior Consultant (Marketing)

Career break, a passe: time to reinvent, reinvigorate!

A decade or two ago, the probability of women considering their career as just an option was significant. Those were the days when the ‘salary’ and ‘responsibility’ components topped the list. Fascinatingly, an ‘interesting job’ and having a ‘great career’ and ‘work-life balance’ were not really on the radar then.

However, even with evolution in the concept of women in career, women in leadership, they have not been independent of many factors that may affect their professional lives. Their career depends on many variables- Marriage, having a child, responsibility for dependents, migration, further studies are a few of them. These reasons also lead to women taking a break from their professional lives.

Just like there is an option for women to take up courses from open universities, where the year in which they have completed graduation, doesn’t matter; corporate organizations must make an attempt to identify and hire potential women professionals who have taken a break due to various personal reasons.

Having been in an organisation which runs a program for women who have taken a break from their professional lives (Returning falcons), and an organisation which not only employs but encourages and grows women professionals, I have personally witnessed what women professionals go through. In fact, the psyche of these women itself is something that one must look up to. The sense of wanting to exceed expectations, a drive to rapidly move up the ladder, wanting to grab the most of their career is higher in women who have returned after a gap.

With the focus on career making its way into these women’s life, it has also changed their expectations. Women look out for opportunities where they can grow, where they feel their presence is vital and is valued. The very nature of questions like this underscores the thought that being a woman with a background like this is a liability to the organization.

Today, corporates are trying hard not to lose out such professionals. Flexibility is the key solution. With options such as working from home, flexible timings and cab facilities, the typical problems women face in opposition to their male counterparts is significantly blurred, this giving women a fair advantage. But, are these enough? How can organisations help in growing women professionals towards achieving their goals? How can organisations make it a win-win situation?

Having said that, organisations must contemplate on what they must do to identify, attract and employ such dedicated individuals.

Keeping in mind the requirements of women returners, the HR department in the organisations need to have their policies and goals modified to highlight the space in which women can perform their best. Creating a naturally collaborative environment, designing training sessions that are highly modified to the requirements of these individuals may be few answers. Questions pertaining to how a mother cum professional will cope up with the work environment, would they have still retained their skills, confidence, and ability to take work pressure, what to expect from them need to be answered before they are brought on board.

We have witnessed importance of a woman’s career changing drastically over the past few years. The corporate space as a gender equalizer is reason enough for the women workforce to put in that extra something and do their jobs better. While stereotypical gender role play still exists, there is a steady equalization gradually taking hold at a base level. This is a great place to be, to observe the changing dynamics between genders in a work environment.

On women’s day, we take time out to introspect and comment on the changing equations in the corporate arena. Are you an organisation which employs women with career break? Are you an individual who has gone through that phase? Make your opinions heard and share your experiences with us.

-Amrita Rao

Break free from Nasscom was easy, what next for iSpirit?

It was interesting to see the knot finally cut.  Couple of product companies have announced formation of iSpirit as a flat organization with central focus to promote software products.  This was expected to happen because of both structural and organizational reasons. In the initial days, under the able stewardship of Dewang Mehta with the right clout from large IT players it gained in establishing two important aspects for any community organization. First it diligently brought communication benefit to its members in informing the clients across the globe about Indian software industry and helped in building the India story.  Members gained their visibility to tap international markets and ADR’s, and networks to bring Prime Ministers and Kings to their campuses.   More significant contribution made by NASSCOM was to successfully argue and obtain from successive governments (both state and central) incentives for asset creation, and tax benefits for its members.  Over years NASCCOM had come to represent large a large boys club, especially of software services. To its credit, NASSCOM did make efforts to create sub-platforms for various segments of the IT industry, viz., Engineering Service or Products Forum. Many product companies despite having built successful revenue models found the central platform regrettably inadequate in addressing issues related to setting aside in e-governance or defence issues or continuation of section 10 (a) and 10 (b) tax advantages. While in spurts these organizations legitimized their existence through annual events and policy papers, the need for continuity in focus and articulation was woefully missing.

 

So with the inevitable happened what would be the expectation from the new platform?.  How can it address the issues domestic product companies challenges and assist them from their growth?.  Any community organization has to bring legitimacy, transparency and institutional rent seeking benefits to its members. Legitimacy can encompass emerging as the de facto platform to speak for the product companies, and create events and road shows to promote local product companies. Presence of academic institutions do lend some sheen of legacy to the group, more efforts would be required to broad base the acceptance across different interest groups including policy makers, technical institutions including IITs, software product companies and media. More conscientious efforts should be made to present the local gyan and products to the world. If world recognizes the high quality of innovations from India and rejoices the creativity by terming it jugaad, all efforts must be made to showcase the fine quality minds, applications and resource balancing behind the Jugaad. Annual product forum road shows did little to build India’s product hegemony like what TED did. Community organizations can sustain their founding zeal and mission realized only if transparency is maintained in choosing who run it, how effectively they run and how they seek inputs to run better. iSpirit with its flat organizational structure and less of “Delhi-centric” syndrome shall benefit the product ecosystem. The acid test would be how effectively the product playgrounds: Bangalore, Pune, Chennai would integrate and own the movement. On the institutional rent seeking the agency must promote and  ensure  market making opportunities such as  1) seek mandate for “set aside” in government projects (both defence and e-governance),  2) export promotion (push domestic products in EXIM bank and other instruments for bilateral trade and grants), and 3) preferential investment (from CGSTME, INSPIRE and other loan and grant mechanisms).  All these are the very activities which many in the forum believe as a benchmark model to pursue Israel Association of Electronics and Software Industries (IAESI). Finally, as Martin Luther King summed up..”Everything that is done in the world is done by hope”.

 

T R Madan Mohan

 

 

SMB companies’ journey to next level: what should they focus on HR

SMB companies across the globe are major contributors to the national GDP, employment and often innovation. Most of them may be family led business where the culture, process and the directions the company takes depend upon the founders and the family. Unlike the large behemoths that employ employees to address strategy and efficiency or hire consultants to advice and implement the change, many of these companies adopt Do-it-Ourselves (DIO) approach.  Their organizational process may be mostly informal and largely centralized in few hands. The result, many SMB have lack an approach to build next level leaders, engage employees more gainfully, derive the insights of process and templates that allow them to discriminate the grain from others.

Our experience of consulting to the SMB, we believe the three levers the company must focus on HR front whenever they are adopt a major business model change or business transformation. Firstly, ensure formalization of process. Focus on formalizing the areas of hiring, performance measurement, training & development, rewards and celebrations. Process orientation on these areas helps the company to get a life-cycle window of insight on employees.   Formalization of these areas removes subjective assessments and their impact (sometimes irrevocably damaging and costly).  Supervisor bias, non-standard metrics for comparison and incomplete process effects can all be eliminated by focusing on these areas.

Another dimension SMB companies must focus is on decentralization and leadership management.  Decentralization not only helps in transferring of power to lower management levels where delegation of activities takes place, but more importantly unclogs the non-value added activities form key resources.  From an employee side this allows them to traverse the path of do-improve-innovate cycle so that their learning becomes meaningful and applied. Secondly, the leadership competencies develop from more structured areas to unstructured complex areas over time so that the employee can gainfully assimilate the learning and imbibe leadership capabilities. From an organization side, decentralization helps in senior management provided with time to invest on strategic affairs. While attempting decentralization, organizations must keep their eyes open for elimination of redundancy, multiple reporting structures that add more confusion and too long span of control with poor visibility on the last node. Finally as the adage goes, the attempt should be to keep HR grounded in reality and simplicity.

-Amrita Rao & Sheethal V.V

Seven financial levers for Build to sell (BTS) or Build to Grow (BTG) Companies

In fast paced industries such as IT, Biotechnology etc. companies can be broadly classified into two primary groups: Build to sell (BTS) and Build to Grow (BTG). BTS companies are driven by the dictum “build fast” and “maximize valuation”. BTG companies are more focused on “Profitable, multi-year sustainability”.  With these fundamental guiding principles defining their behavior the finance function within the organization must pursue appropriate shades of levers to reach the end goals.  For both BTG and BTS companies the financial value drivers are: Profitability (P), Costs (C ), Capital Structure (CS), Investment (I), Capacity(CP) and Intangibles (includes goodwill and Patents and trademarks).

Profitability: Profitability is the primary goal of all business ventures. Companies built to sell must focus on profit maximization, expansion of customer base and specializing in the existing product and in a wide market. The profit to sales ratio when compared to historical results and industry averages need to favourable signifying efficient management of revenue and costs. For, BTG companies the focus should be more than make profits. The major consideration should be increase in the market share, investment in R & D and best quality resources thereby enhancing the quality of the product and constant innovation in products to become a reliable and long term player in the market. Companies can use the surplus cash for growth strategies, such as investing in research and development, expanding capacity and exploring new geographic markets.  The focus is therefore on creating long term growth and sustainability for the organisation.

 Cost:  Cost containment strategies are widely adopted to ensure organisations meet their financial targets.  BTS companies must incur expenditures that have an immediate impact on the revenues and financial performance of the company. The reduction in operating cost of a company is a good indicator to the buyer on the efficient utilization of resources and management of activities. BTG companies would incur expenditures on items creating an impact over a period of time like bringing in good quality resources, research and development and expenditures required for future growth. The financial and operational aspects of growth must be balanced during expansion of business. Cost control would be on items which do not have a lasting impact and does not match the intended outcome.

Capital structure: A company’s proportion of short term and long term debts are considered when evaluating the capital structure of a company. The debt equity ratio is an indicator of the company’s internal and external liabilities. It reflects the financial position of the company as it is a measure of the financial leverage.  BTS companies should thrive to showcase good profit margins to attract buyers and maintain less long term obligations and improved liquidity positions. BTG need to make strategic decisions in maintaining favourable debt equity to ensure long term sustainability.

Asset Investments: BTS firms must focus to invest on creating a value for the company and a predictable future. Any investments on assets that are yielding substantial short term returns is favourable and to signal liquidity maintain favourable current asset ratios.

BTG invest in assets based on the expectation that this investment, which is intended to last a long time, will result in continuous positive income. These organizations concentrate more on the Asset Turnover Ratio. This reflects the management philosophy of owning the resources and being less vulnerable to increase in costs and volatility in the market in the long term.

Goodwill: A business acquires goodwill through best practises, customer service, innovation and good governance. BTS strive in creating a value for the company which is associated with loyal customers, brand, continuous innovation and trust in the market. More emphasis is on creating a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) which would provide a competitive advantage and define the business. When the company is sold, the buyer pays a notable amount on the goodwill earned by the company. BTG not only focus on offering best customer experience, but also on the quality of the products, long term relationships with customers and pricing fairness. The companies build goodwill over a period of time and penetrate gradually to establish a strong foothold in the market.

Patents and Trademarks: Corporate valuation relies greatly on a company’s intellectual assets such as patents. Business enterprises perceive patent portfolios as a demonstration of high level of expertise and specialization within the company. Patents also provide licensing opportunities. BTS focus on creating patents for their organizations as it increases the overall corporate value. BTG focus on constant innovation and believe in consistently improving the product/services. Patents are a part of the growth agenda, but the prime focus is on defending the products and markets from poaching, and creating a competitive advantage for the company. BTG companies create patents to exclude the competitors from exploiting the right to make/sell, more from a technology protection perspective than enhancing the value of the firm. They end up investing in related patents and standards to cover their technological grounds.

Capacity Utilization:   A firm’s productive capacity is the total output it can produce within a given time period. BTS the focus would be showcasing themselves as a company utilizing near 100% capacity. This would indicate the buyers that the organization has enough work on hand and the cost per unit is also minimised wherein there is optimum utilization of resources. The firm is assumed to be using all of its fixed assets effectively; therefore the profits should be high. Two approaches that could increase capacity utilization could be by reducing the factors of production employed or move into smaller premises/ cut down investment on facilities. For BTG, the focus is to efficiently utilise the resources and capacity expansion to facilitate future demands and cope up with new orders. Firms in expanding markets may expect to have low utilisation while they build their sales and establish themselves in the market.

Finally, as novelist Nora Roberts says…”Know what you want, and work to get it!!!”

-Pratibha Sharma

9 Sutras to write a damn good content!

Good Content is like honey and its taste lingers even after it has been drank.  A blog, new posting in communities or a newsletter, all are media vehicles.  A great brand not just focuses on form (ads on TV and other media) but also on the substance of the content (what is said, how said, etc).  While there are heated arguments on when does a blog becomes a blog and not a note or white paper, there is an anonymous agreement on what good content is.

Based on my barb with fellow content worshippers and less than tolerant critiques, here are few criteria that define what a good content is.

1. Focus: What is the central message of the article? Have you stuck to it?
2. Relevance: Is each sentence at a right place. Does it connect and flow from previous and lead to the next logically. Only flow makes a reader stay.
3. Character: what is the story all about? Is this an informed Yuppie or a sober professorial lecture or a high pitch shrill of joy? Character of the content can vary form Inform, compare, referential to endorsement.
4. Personality: What is the personality of the content? Does it have some black shades somewhere? Is there a shade of grey? Nothing like a taciturn arguments that can bowl a googly at the reader to wake him up. Humor, Negotiate and argue with the reader. Indian classical dancers employ Navaras (9 emotions) to aptly engage their audience. So should you.
5. Provoke and ignite responses: A good content not only engages the readers but must also elicit responses.
6. Beauty in simplicity: Clarity comes easily with simplicity. Hence, use simple words which results in an effortless reading. Use terms/words which are widely understood, do not expect your reader to reach out to Encyclopedia to understand what on earth you wanted to say.
7. 15 words rule: Short, simple and 15 words sentences read always better. Mend this long walk habit of 2-3 lines. Your readers interest gets lost in the highway. And finally,
8. Write in your own way. Do not labor hard to write like some senile academician to sound intelligent and informative. Avoid aping the 40 year old Bollywood star pumping iron to look  like a college kid. Remember, authenticity and experience sharing in your inimitable style would always succeed in long run.
9. Proof read, do a Spell and Grammar Check before any of the content goes online. Remember, good grammar may not grab attention but a bad grammar definitely does!

-Amrita Rao