Management Musings

Pritam was late in reaching office one day. He knew that he was in for a difficult conversation with his Manager, who had insisted that he be there on time. Of course, he knew that he was late for a crucial meeting with a customer. He was already 15 minutes late and he was the key presenter in the session. But, he had had to drop his wife off en route to the office and later realized that he had forgotten his phone at home. Returning to his home and getting stuck in traffic - one thing lead to another and he was in this situation yet again in his professional life. Srinivas was getting impatient. He was having to stall for time with the customer, who was understandably anxious to get started. He had messaged and called Pritam multiple times in an attempt to ensure that he would be in the office for a 10:30 a.m. call. All of this seemed to be to no avail. Brain cells were dying with the stress building up. Srinivas was relatively new to the role of a Manager and was already beginni...

One of the latest tirades from Donald Trump was against Lebron James.  I have been thinking of his style of functioning and that of the "traditional" style of leadership. All the books that I have read on leaders, all the leaders that I have seen, are more or less, role models. At the very least, they offer words of wisdom and speak what I like to call, "The Universal Truth". Take Barack Obama - I am no expert on his policies or the impact that he had on the economy of the United States or that of the world. I was always impressed with the way he carried himself and the way that he spoke. His handling of particularly volatile situations seemed to always be in a calm and measured method. Mr. Trump, on the other hand, comes across as very petty, impetuous and pusillanimous. Trump is the President of the United States of America. Arguably, one of the most prominent jobs in the world and definitely a job that is not easy. There, we have a person who is cheap enough ...

Having been part of a mid-size Multi National Company for the past many years now, I have had the incredible opportunity to grow and understand the decision making of the leaders within the organization. More and more, I have come to appreciate the dynamics that go into taking key decisions and how they eventually impact the direction that the company takes. We have had many different CEOs over the years - at least 4 that I can think of right away. Each and every one of them has had a distinct style and method of execution and decision making. As part of the R&D org, most of the changes over the years have been through the offices of different leaders of the Business Units, Engineering heads and now obscure titles that were created at the time for different reasons. It is quite telling that change has been the one constant factor over time. It probably reflects on the overall revenue and stock price of the company, which have both remained largely flat over the years. There has ...

Many companies have a lofty vision which all boil down to a single point - "Change the world"! It is very much like all Hollywood potboilers that "Save the world!" How many of them succeed in doing this? To be fair, many of them do. Apple, Microsoft, Google, Facebook and Amazon are four that come to mind right away. Each and every one of them has done their bit, earning their respective CEO's fame and renown for their exemplary vision and drive to succeed. Of course, my list of companies is skewed towards the technology world, but I would argue that the major transformation in the world in the past 20 years has been because of technology.  I read somewhere, that one has to be the change that one wishes to see in the world. Very true. So how does a leader transform his or her team if he is only taking care of changing himself? First up, of course, lead by example. If you are embodying the change and the vision that you have for success, then you can inspire th...

Over the past few years, the Indian government has made various attempts at divesting its stake in enterprises that have been a drain on the exchequer. Every time that this issue is brought up, the socialist India awakens, hoots loudly about how the poor and the labor would be adversely affected by the sale of the public enterprise. A recent article in the Economist on a global trend of poorly performing state owned companies is quite telling in its assessment. While the article only touches upon the performance of the banks in India in comparison with other enterprises across the world, there are any number of examples of Government owned companies struggling to remain relevant in an increasingly fast paced and competitive landscape. The social demographics in India dictated that those who were educated to be a Doctor or Engineer in the 60s, 70s and the 80s would invariably look for opportunities only in the Government sector. It is this trend that got my father into one of the fe...

Recently, I was navigating a particularly pothole riddled road in Bangalore. We get many of those in the city, but this was new territory for me as the locality I was in was the first time that I was there. It being night time and the visibility being poor, I had to slow right down every few feet to ensure that the ride was not more jarring than it already was. While negotiating a particularly deep pot hole, I found that there was traffic overtaking me from the right and the left. The drivers seemed to be able to find a smooth patch of road where all I could find were ditches and speed bumps all along. They were experienced drivers - experienced in driving on this stretch of the road. I pride myself on being smart with finding these "good" stretches on roads that I am familiar with. For example, there is this stretch on one of the roads that I visit regularly - the lane closer to the divider is similar to the moon's surface from close range. The farther lane is like wh...

Adal was returning home after a long day at work. He was tired. He had had a conversation with his Manager that had left him emotionally and mentally drained. The discussion had centered around the annual compensation increase that was being given to him. It had gone on for a long time and he had ended up feeling undervalued in the organization. Once again, he had been overlooked for a key promotion that he had been working hard towards and he had been denied as the company policy had changed and promotions were few and hard to come by in this scenario. Adal was left feeling demotivated although the Manager was honest and praised the work that he was putting in. At the end of the day, the cost of living in a big city was always on the increase and he was looking forward to investing in a new house for his family. With this minimal increase, his dreams would always be out of his reach, at least for the next year. Adal was already earning more than his father, who had retired recent...

As a child, the Amar Chitra Katha was a major source of Hindu mythological stories. The stories often dealt with the kings and queens of the years gone by, part mythological and part historical. Now, the kings, being kings, would order things done and voila! there it would be. One such story narrated the happenings - the king would only have to shout, "Who is there?!" and there would be a few courtiers, soldiers that would come running to receive his orders. Nowadays, if I were to shout "Who is there?!" at home, I would hear back: "What is wrong with you? Who else will be here?" Indication enough that I am best off doing what ever task there was to be done, by myself. Move to the office, shouting "Who is there?!" whenever a task needs to be done urgently will return inquisitive looks from all within ear shot. Of course, the source of enormous levity at dinner table conversations at all the employees' homes would be an appreciable side ef...

Sebastian Vettel has won the 9th Grand Prix in a row this year. A feat that has been accomplished for the first time in the history of Formula 1. He also won 13 races over the course of the season - what a driver! When Michael Schumacher was winning all his championships not more than 15 years ago, it was thought unlikely that anyone could ever match those feats. Vettel has now won 3 World Championships in 3 consecutive years, the youngest ever triple World Champion. Of course, it is not just his accomplishment - it would be pre-mature to assume that were the case. The real story is that of the team - Red Bull Racing. Christian Horner is the Team Principal and to him must go the lion's share of the credit for creating a winning environment in the team. Anyone in the sport, in any sport, will vouch for the difficulty involved in creating and sustaining a winning culture. Sports makes it somewhat easier to define a winning culture since the results are there for anyone to see. A s...

I wake up in the morning, the start of a new day. Unknown to me, at some time during the night, the day has changed . I have adapted to this change subconsciously - I knew  this change  was going to happen. Monday would turn into Tuesday and I at some level in my mind, I have accounted for my approach to this day. However, certain tasks during my day undergo a change . I find that there is no electricity in the morning - I will not have hot water for a bath. Oops! I have to change my system to brace for the cold water on a chilly morning in Bengaluru. Leaving for work later, I find that the road near a traffic signal has been dug up for repairs. I have to change  my route again to be able to reach the office. I have adapted to these little   differences in my daily routine, sure. How could I adopt to bigger changes  happening around me all the time? There are changes  in the government. I don't feel the effect of that change  immediately, but surely...

Ensuring that the product we build meets the high standards expected by customers is an ever lasting goal for every product that has ever been designed and sold. Shipping a product on time with quality is a goal that becomes challenging one way or another. There is pressure from the customers, market place, stakeholders, etc. at all times that clouds decision making at key moments when the product comes close to delivery. For example, the cook who has to rush into the next house (customer awaits) can allocate only one hour for cooking at the current house (customer). Some dishes can take longer to cook. Regardless, short cuts are found - the gas is turned on high, the vegetables are cut in large pieces and eventually, the food is not cooked completely as time perceived by him/ her runs out. Quality of the food becomes a casualty in the face of pressure of timely delivery. The same principle applies to the contractors entrusted to deliver quality roads. Quality metrics exist but li...

  Recently, I had the opportunity to listen to the a podcast on Management tools that stressed on building professional relationships. Those words have stuck with me - how well does it describe the relationship between colleagues at the office?! Professional relationships are what every Manager seeks to build between himself and his team and between other peers and colleagues at the work place. Indeed, every professional in any field of work would do well to build a relationship that is built on trust and honesty with other professionals.   Trust is the cornerstone that any relation is built upon and it is trust that every team member looks for in his/ her Manager or leader. The belief that he/ she will look out for their best interests and for that of the team needs to be inculcated and this can only happen over time. Once the trust has been built, nurturing it and maintaining it becomes as important as building it. The faith and belief will need to be reinforced via actio...

I had the opportunity to be part of an event recently that got me thinking in multiple dimensions. One of the most interesting of these dimensions was one about self management. There are volumes written about how leaders should be, could be and are. There are books on managing projects and leading teams. I'm not sure how many of these place enough importance on self management. In a public setting, when meeting with a whole bunch of strangers for the first time and working together as a team, who you are as a person stands out. The difference between the work environment and the new public setting could not be starker because the reputation or title that precedes you at the work place is missing in the public forum. In such situations, the way that one carries oneself becomes a true reflection of who you are as a person and in many ways, is representative of your position in society. It is truly fascinating to encounter people that are so much in control of their emotions and...

Recently, I had the opportunity to reflect on a question on career investment. Do Managers do enough in terms of investing in the careers of their team members? Often, employees are unclear on what they are looking to achieve in their careers. While this may simply be put down as a lack of ambition, it is undeniably important for the leader to inculcate a sense of self worth where it is lacking and encourage his team to think about themselves. Now, each person is different and the classic mistake that one can easily make is to apply the same paint to every idol, so to speak. With career planning, it is simply not "one size fits all". Very often, in India especially, we have kids in middle class families choosing between only Engineering or Medical streams of education in college. The main reason that this happens is because the previous generation (parents) have seen that these two fields are the most secure and "safe" for their kids in the future. The mindset ca...

Gamification, as explained in some detail here (https://class.coursera.org/gamification-002/class/index), is about applying game elements to business contexts. There are numerous game-like elements that have been applied to various websites and business models that have been widely successful. One popular example is FourSqaure.com, as quoted by the professor in the course mentioned above. FourSquare gives away all kinds of badges to the users of the website for achievements as varied as checking into a restaurant or location some X number of times, for logging in Y number of times, etc. That is an example of Badges, which is a game element, being employed for the specific purpose of engaging people and making it a habit for the users to log in to foursquare and report their specific location. Now that is an example of gamification as deployed in a very commercial sense. Although I am not immediately aware of the business model for FourSquare, vis-a-vis their revenue generation model...

During a course on Gamification that I have been attending recently, the professor talks about different kinds of motivation - extrinsic and intrinsic. I found the classification of the motivation to be very insightful and structured. Extrinsic motivation is when we are motivated by external factors, such as rewards, a feeling of social obligation, if you will or even when you are forced to do something although you don't quite believe in the task. Intrinsic motivation is when one feels good doing a task by himself/ herself only because he/ she likes it. Of course, the best kind of motivation is intrinsic. If we were to have a team that is full of folks like Anil Kumble in cricket or Lebron James in basketball, then it is safe to assume that that team would be the most efficient and excellent team in whatever task they do. Both the stars in their respective sports are known to be very hard working and appear to be intrinsically motivated to be the best that they can be in their ...

There are many facets to good public speaking that are applicable to a good Manager's abilities. One of the basic tenets of public speaking is that no matter how much you read about it, the only way to make it work is to get your hands dirty by actually indulging in the activity. We often hear the reasoning - no good in reading about swimming unless one actually gets into the water! The same theory would apply to Management. No matter how much we read about it, plan for the way that one would want to implement their strategy and read numerous books on it, it is only when one is thrown into the pool of Management does one learn how to ride the tide! Public speaking calls for the speaker to focus on what he/ she is talking about and not bother too much about the impression that looks or the surroundings are having on the listeners' mind. Stage fright is best conquered when the mind focusses on the subject rather than on worries about whether the self is attired as per "ex...