Disclaimer: Views are my own and does not reflect on a
particular individual or organisation
I am still a newbie in the corporate space, well I have just
spent half decade post my MBA (not from the double ”I”s). So I am not an expert
by a long shot.
But over the last 5 years I have attended my fair share of –
Company communication meetings, All India leadership meetings, Strategic
workshops, you name it I have attended it including meetings with the Board of
Directors. How many times have I heard we want to be or aspire to
be “Google” or/and “Apple – well if I
was paid a rupee every time I heard this I would have bought an Apple Iphone 6
or a Nexus 6. As they say in hindi “chalo choddo” (let it be). As a young MBA, I was inspired and encouraged when I heard
it for the first few times. Today after 5 years, I smile when the next CXO,
Country lead, Business lead, Director tells me that they want to be the next
Apple or Google.
Let me clarify my opinion on Apple and Google.
Steve Jobs built the world’s most valued brand, Bill Gates
created a tool that has powered the world’s economic growth and Larry Page
built a tool that has become a ubiquitous part of our lives.
So I thought let me look at the future, say 10 years down the
line, if I had to tell my stakeholders that "we want to be “Apple” or “Google”" what should I do to ensure they don’t smile as I do today. Are these brands
built on individuals? Are these icons the only power core that these
organisations have? The answer is both yes and no. Yes, these incredibly
talented individuals were the tipping point. But the phenomenon that these
brands are today is because of what values, process and systems they have put in place. Not only have they built those processes they have ensured
implementation. Does that mean these icons are Gods and these organisations are
heavenly? No, they have their share of flaws. Employees, Partners and Customers Service have been integral
part of their strategies.
Employees: If you count the hours a knowledge worker will
spend at his or her desk then you will only get standardise output where the
deviation will be in an acceptable range. All these brands were built on
innovation – the next big idea. Did every innovative product make a billion
dollars? Nope. Did they stop because they failed a few times? Did they hide
those stories and fire those people – I am sure they did it once in a while.
But they shared their experience and celebrated valiant attempts. When most senior
leaders shout about innovation in India there is a high probability that their
HR manuals talk about hours, days of working, non-flexible working and multiple
penalty clauses. You want innovation build a culture that supports innovation.
You want 8 hrs then forget innovation. How many times have you been to an
organisation wide meeting and we have discussed failures in a positive way, how
many individuals in your extended network have received recognition for hard work
in a failed attempt and how many leaders are ready to accept that the decisions
they took were incorrect? As leaders you need to trust the people you hire or
fire them. If you do not trust the abilities of your own team you are destined
for failure. The team will be demotivated and the end outcome will be no value
addition for the organisation and the customer. Let people feel that they can
make mistakes and not be penalised for everything. Does that mean you have no
rules or no systems – certainly not, you need to customise these based on the required
output.
Partners: If you want to grow you need to take your
partners along. If you want to deliver quality you need to distribute profits
fairly. This is something that is non-existent in India. There are very few
stories like Sona steering and Maruti, Tata’s and their suppliers. We work with partners where we need support -
knowledge, reach, resources, etc. Do we always trust our partners? How many times have partnerships been treated as transactions? Time
and again you will read these haloed brands failing because they did not have
the right partners/suppliers. Do we have a partner management, engagement and enhancement
strategy in place? Is knowledge and information shared? In my experience we do
these in our high level meetings write 20 page strategy docs and when the
relationship manager comes up with an initiative we say buzz off. We need to
translate these words into action. We all have brand champions we need partner
champions.
Customer Service: An alien concept in our market place. Such
a beautiful coincidence once while travelling through rural north India I heard
someone pronounce customer as “Kasthamar” so I extended it in India if you are a
customer you are supposed to Kasth kar ke mar (put all your efforts in vain).
We sell a few million smart phones a month and we have dysfunctional service
centres. Once we get the cheque we have no time
for you. Dear leaders if your team is servicing a customer that has no repeat
business planned in the current fiscal don’t shout at them, encourage them. The
service quality of these aspiring brands is not even close to their icons.
Again we create a spread sheet calculate utilization and average call time –
not percentage resolution or experience. It’s about how do we utilise the least
paid employee in a setup and nothing else. If I can’t service the individual or
organisation that has already paid then what am I going to do for other
stakeholders?
My brand bestest is the new disease in the market. In 90% of my
meetings I hear self-declared brand value. Your brand is worth nothing if the person
sitting opposite to you does not care for it. Brands that matter don’t talk
about their power or value – other people do. Let the world say it out loud you are a great brand because
you treat your people well, you value your partners and the you take very good
care of your customers.
I am sure some of these things creep in due to systemic
pressures. But that does not mean everything that I have talked about is only
possible in the Utopia scenario. Some of these can be implemented from Monday
morning all it needs is one committed leader and one supportive follower.
Let’s get REAL. If we run like a poultry farm we will only
produce eggs.
