Excellence in the Face of Adversity

During times of adversity, when survival becomes the mantra, excellence would seem to be a far-fetched concept. After all if someone is getting drowned in a river, the first reaction would be to somehow violently move one's arms and try to reach the riverside. In that situation explaining about "how to swim better?" would seem to be an unwelcome idea.

However, if one looks at the whole situation by taking a step backwards, one would realize that had excellence been there, the whole situation would not have transpired. If one doesn't know the basics of swimming one should not try to swim in a river knowing fully well that one could get into a swift current or a whirlpool. Not taking an action is as much a part of excellence as taking an appropriate action is.

Excellence is about doing things which are within reach, realistically speaking, of one's competencies and at the same time constantly improving upon the competencies (to the extent it makes sense - both at the personal level and in the business world).

Knowing what is the right level of excellence in a given situation is an art. It is quite an important aspect of excellence as excellence always comes at a cost.

The Path of Excellence Goes through Religion

Religion can be considered to be a set of beliefs, rituals and behaviors which take us closer to the supreme being (God).

Understanding the true meaning associated with the beliefs, rituals and behaviors that religion offers is the first step towards God.

Religion is not a destination but merely a path towards the ultimate communion with God.

Religion plays an important role in our lives in the following ways:

• Religion connects us to all the three - our self being, other beings and the supreme being
• Religion offers answers to even those 'whys' which science is unable to answer
• Religion makes our existence look insignificant and significant at the same time. Insignificant since we are just like others in many ways and significant since we are unlike others in many ways
• Religion gives us a broader perspective about the dual nature of life - birth and death, success and failure, light and darkness.

The concept of excellence in personal life is quite akin to religion.

Excellence in not a destination but merely a path towards the ultimate goal of a fruitful and fulfilling life. As a matter of fact, the path to excellence in personal life goes through religion.

Achieving and sustaining personal excellence is assured if it includes religion as the primary mechanism to guide all the thoughts and actions in personal life.

Personal excellence based on religion makes a fruitful and fulfilling life both the means to an end and also the end in itself.

Six Sigma Approach to Living Life

Seen without all the Statistical Tools and Techniques? that Six Sigma is commonly known for, Six Sigma also offers a wonderful philosophy for life.

The Six Sigma approach to living life is based on the simple premise - one should set a "measurable" goal and "systematically" work towards achieving that and when one thinks one has achieved that, "measure and ascertain" the extent of goal achievement (or non-achievement as the case may be).

Working with realistic goals is of course essential to stay motivated. At the same time, to feel the sense of achievement, one should also set "stretch goals". Setting an easy goal due to fear of failure should be avoided. One who has seen failures tends to enjoy successes at a higher level of consciousness.

Managing Personal Finances

Money is essential to survive and to excel. "Money makes the world go around", as is rightly said.

Managing personal finances or Managing Money is important for personal excellence. Some of the ideas that would be helpful in achieving excellence by better management of personal finances are:

* Maintain a contingency fund equivalent to 6 to 9 months of your monthly expenses in a saving account. You will earn less interest but this amount will be highly liquid for use

* Better still get a premium account opened where the minimum balance is higher but which earns a higher interest. And of course don't consider the minimum balance amount to be a part of the contingency fund

* Save regularly by spending less than what one earns

* Get and remain adequately insured - life insurance, health insurance, home loan insurance, etc.

* Pay the credit card bills in full and by the due date

* Pay all bills by the due date to avoid late payment surcharge

* Pay bills online wherever possible - traveling for bill payment is always costlier

* Create a corpus of savings for post-retirement life - once one reaches a certain age income through employment will generally vanish

* And lastly adopt a frugal lifestyle to the extent possible

Meditation for Mental Calmness

A very important aspect of Personal Excellence is related to the mind. What happens to us may not be under our control always but how we choose to react to a given situation is always within our control.

Control over one's action is essential for survival and success in life and depends to a large extent on the degree of mental calmness one possesses. Mental calmness is an asset worth developing. Retaining mental calmness especially in adverse situations is an important life skill.

Meditation is an excellent method to develop mental calmness. Meditation helps develop control over our five senses and keeps the big picture crystal clear. Focus on the big picture is a key element of meditation as it keeps one tied to the ultimate reality.

Excellence in Personal Life

All of us are constantly striving to "be" better than what we already "are". In fact, each one of us is unhappy with merely being what we "are".

Pursuit of becoming "better" is surely a must as "a rolling stone gathers no moss". At the same time, one should not miss enjoying the journey while on-the-way towards a destination assuming that happiness exists only at the destination. Nothing can be farther from the truth as each destination is nothing but on-the-way towards yet another destination.

Excellence in personal life is bounded by the above premise. What you "are" (on-the-way) is as important as what you want to "be" (a destination, but on-the-way towards yet another destination).

Being content with what one has already earned while striving to earn more and more is a good working philosophy for life. But earning more does not get translated into a better life - after all, the more one has the less it appears to be!

Yoga for Better Life

Yoga is regarded as a technique that can bring personal happiness in both ways - physical as well as mental.

In today's materialistic world physical comfort is easy to get but mental comfort almost always eludes us. Yoga is really meant for helping us move to a higher level of being through mental relaxation and calmness .

Yoga is surely an important ingredient of the recipe for "cooking" excellence in personal life.

Enterprise Risk Management

Enterprise risks are those that disrupt normal business operations and threaten its continuity. These risks can emanate from within or outside the organization and can assume varied forms and intensity. Some examples of enterprise risks are:

1. Changes in regulatory and statutory environment
2. Changes in business conditions
3. Changes in products and technologies
4. Changes in customer demand
5. Controversies related to regulatory and statutory violations
6. Controversies related to misconduct by executive level employees
7. Mass exodus of talent
8. Poor quality of products and services which impacts the customer demand and hence the revenues
9. Breaches related to confidential business data especially those that put customers and suppliers at risk
10. Loss of customers and market territories

Business organizations need to define and deploy an enterprise risk management framework for taking care of above risks. An effective enterprise risk management is composed of following activities:

• Proactively establish preventive mechanisms and controls to reduce the likelihood of risks impacting business operations and continuity and in case risks materialize then mitigate or lessen their impact
• Aggressively implement plans to address risks when they occur to ensure minimal impact on business operations and continuity

The various industry-recognized models and standards (like ISO 9001, ISO 27001, CMMI, SOX 404, etc.) provide the building blocks for establishing an enterprise risk management system in the organization. They basically ensure preventive mechanisms and controls are established so that the likelihood of risks impacting business operations and continuity is reduced and in case risks do materialize then their impact is mitigated or lessened.

The need of the hour is to take an integrated approach while deploying industry-recognized models and standards (like ISO 9001, ISO 27001, CMMI, SOX 404, etc.). These deployments should be viewed as essential elements of enterprise risk management system which ultimately ensure that normal business operations don't get disrupted and the very continuity of business is not threatened in any way.

Surviving the Markets and Customers

Markets and customers wait for no company. This reality keeps companies grounded to reality. For surviving the markets and customers companies need to reinvent themselves on permanent basis.

The starting point for any survival strategy is to read and understand the mind of markets and customers. This then leads to crafting the overall corporate strategy by the top management team which cascades down till the level of the various line managers. Of course, two way flow of information from top management to line management and back is important to capture the whole story. The back channel of communication is especially important since line management and employees down in the trenches engage with the end-users on a daily basis and would generally know the "ground" reality more than the big guys at the top would know.

The next step is to figure out the budget and resources needed to make the strategy work out. Understanding the associated expenses to play out the strategy and make it a commercial success is an important aspect which leads to setting up the right financing model.

Another important aspect is to consider the skills and competencies needed to make all the pieces work together. This might mean re-training, lay-offs, new hiring and cross-functional resource movements. The human side of this aspect needs to be managed in a sensitive manner and a mature HR policy is must to take care of this.

Last but not the least focus on right execution is crucial for actual success. Every battle is finally won on the battle field and not on the drawing board in the war strategy room or in the minds of the military leadership. Similarly companies need to put in place and use the right execution model in the marketplace.

Why an Organization Fails to Engage its Employees

Organizations generally fail to engage their employees, in the true sense of the word engagement at least. The efforts spent towards increasing employee engagement don't seem to yield into actual returns for an organization. This is what most employees generally think - forget about the fancy HR presentations which may claim otherwise. Why is that so?

Why is Employee Engagement So Important

The whole idea behind engaging employees is to ensure greater business success for the organization. Engaged employees tend to stay beyond the normal working hours, are more motivated and supposedly more productive. Despite an over-emphasis on employee satisfaction measures for higher engagement with the organizational vision and goals, engagement still remains the biggest challenge for the business leaders and the HR folks in any organization.

Organization's Perspective  - Reasons for Employee Engagement Measures to Fail

The primary reason is organizational selfishness. Institutions tend to be self-centered and assume an identity much bigger than the individuals who establish them in the first place. And not only that, institutions tend to downplay and dominate individual aspirations leading to frustrations amongst the individuals who are a part of the institution. Employees are 'hired' and 'fired' as dictated by the organization's business needs.

One would often read about the entire senior management team getting laid off in the wake of an acquisition. Another example of this is the massive lay-offs and job cuts carried out by almost all companies during the great recession of 2008-2009. Interestingly many of such companies reported higher profit margins and awarded huge bonus and swanky cars to the so-called 'top performers' and its 'visionary and effective' leadership which steered it successfully through the liquidity storm which had engulfed the world economy.

Employee's Perspective - Reasons for Employees Not to Feel Engaged

In light of above, employees can't be anything but selfish in respect of their individual vision and goals. For most employees, working with an organization is incidental to making a successful career. And successful career means everything - money, material comfort, good lifestyle for the family, respectable position in the social pecking order, etc. Whether the organization succeeds or fails is important to the extent it impacts an employee's career.

Striking the Balance

From the society's perspective, a fair balance between an organization's selfishness and its employees' selfishness is crucial for the larger benefit of mankind. Organizations hire and fire employees, employees join and leave organizations but what transpires when they are together is crucial for the world economy and the society at large.

Why Organizations Die?

The phases in the life of an organization closely resemble those in the life of a human being - taking birth, surviving infancy and childhood, growing up and maturing, achieving success to a certain extent constrained by the inherent potential, getting older and then finally dying.

Since organizations are not real biological/physical entities but rather notional/legal entities death in the case of an organization is not only in the form of getting closed in a physical sense but also in the form of getting bankrupt or getting acquired. This difference also holds the answer to the question "Why Organizations Die?".

The key factors which are instrumental in leading organizations towards their death can be summarized as below:

1. Ignoring changing customer trends, wants, needs, expectations and preferences - an organization should always remember that it exists for its customers and not the other way around.

2. Acquiring a superiority complex about the organization's technologies, products, people, systems, policies and processes - an organization should always remain fully aware and sensitive about the real world in which it operates.

3. Not keeping pace with newer methodologies and technologies - an organization should constantly learn and adopt improved ways of conducting business.

4. Not ensuring a high performing culture - an organization should understand that high performing doesn't mean rewarding people who work on projects in trouble and those who stretch themselves hard late into the night and on weekends (this means the organizations doesn't want its employees to focus on improvement, prevention, effectiveness and efficiency but rather focus on execution and just more execution, corrections, corrective actions and fire-fighting).

5, Not ensuring business is conducted within legal and ethical boundaries - an organization should know the legal and ethical ways of behavior and never cross the boundary.

Another related question which comes up naturally in a discussion on the topic "Why Organizations Die?" would be "How An Organization Can Succeed at Keeping Itself Away From Obsolescence and Closure?"

The titles of the following books by the renowned author Jim Collins are worth taking a closer look if one is interested in understanding the implications and possible solutions for an organization's sustainability not just in long term but for ever:
1. Built to Last
2. Good to Great
3. How the Mighty Fall

The above books essentially delve deep into questions related to sustainability of organizations. Many earlier posts in this site have also explained about sustainability of business organizations. A list of those is as follows:__

1. Successful Business Model
Discusses the correlation between sustainability and scalability to the success of a business enterprise.

2. Winning at Business in the Long Run
Discusses about advantages of long-term decisions for an organization.

3. 4 Es for Sustainable Business Success
Discusses about fundamental concepts and foundational elements for ensuring long term business success

4. Doing is to Survive... but Improving is to Grow
Discusses about focusing on improvement and growth and not merely on execution and survival.

5. Leaders and Shopkeepers
Discusses about the importance of vision for an organization.

Ignoring the factors and considerations discussed in the above posts would severely diminish the chances of an organization to survive. This is in addition to the five key factors described earlier in this post.

Organizational Politics and Change Initiatives

Change initiatives are easy victims of organizational politics. The real success of any change initiative is not that it takes place but that it sticks. However, many times change initiatives are started with fanfare but are not nurtured in the proper way till the end. They may succeed in getting completed but fail in terms of effectiveness and sustainability.

What are the circumstances which significantly diminish the likelihood of a change initiative to succeed in the real sense?

• It is initiated at a local level. This means that it doesn't attract enough visibility and even if it manages to attract visibility, it's not considered strategic or significant enough for the business
• It is led by line or middle managers who don't have funding authority. This means that getting resources will be a constraint at each stage of the initiative. The amount of efforts spent to "get buy-in" and "sell to management" will be tremendous which will make the person leading it and the team involved with it frustrated and demotivated
• It is performed in a captive environment. This means that the circle of influence is smaller than what is required for a change initiative to make a real difference. The initiative may get completed but end up making no ripples in the organizational waters
• It is not staffed adequately. This means that the required manpower and bandwidth may not be available to do it in the "right way" to make it stick after the limelight fades out

Interestingly, the above factors are not only an element of the organizational politics but also amplify it further. Egos, legacies, hierarchies, idiosyncrasies, etc. play a crucial role in forming and sustaining the organizational culture. And this manifests itself in the form of organizational politics. Individuals may lose something in the bargain... the organization, unfortunately, looses the most.

Monsters and Initiatives

If one doesn't know about something or feel it's tough to do or worse doesn't agree with it, labeling it as monster is the best way to challenge it or worse disown it.

When changes are introduced in a system in the form of new initiatives, what's the typical reaction that can be expected? Here are some which are quite important for a person to know:

• It won't work here... we are different or it has to be done differently here
• We have been doing it this way for years, our system is the best
• We want the initiative the succeed but nothing should change (because of 2)
• Why does it need so much resources? We did it last time with spending almost a fraction of the money being demanded now
• How can you say we need to change? Can you prove it... just last year only we were told that we are doing great
• We want to do it but don't have resources to allocate. Tell us only about the minimum that needs to be done

What should an individual do when caught between the cross-fire of organizational culture (the mascot of 'As Is') and change initiatives (the harbinger of 'To Be')? From the learning and growth perspective, this is generally an excellent opportunity for an individual. A word of caution though, the following points must always be remembered:

• "One should pick the battles wisely"
• "Stretched beyond a certain point all objects will break"
• "One may not flourish in all types of environments"

Is Fair Negotiation with Higher Management Possible?

The shortest, simplest and the best answer to this question is - "No".

What are the reasons for this to be the case?

The jobs in the higher management layer are created with just two objectives:

• Allocate resources (staff, budget, infrastructure, etc.) to various activities being performed in the organization in the most cost-effective manner. In some sense the core strategy which drives this objective is "rob Peter to pay Paul".
• Make sure the various activities being performed in the organization get performed with least amount of resources (staff, budget, infrastructure, etc.). In some sense the core strategy which drives this objective is "get a bigger bang for the buck".

The senior management is always under pressure to live up to the above two objectives. And this is of utmost priority for people in senior management for it ensures they manage to save their own jobs.

Unfortunately, senior management would generally not know about the close-up shot of anything in the organization and would generally just have the bird's eye view since they are hard-pressed on multiple and at times conflicting priorities.

This means that their decisions are at times forced down the throats of the "common employee".

The power of higher management is derived from their titles and big-sized chairs (and even bigger-sized egos).

At times, this may border arrogance, though in the progressive organizations such decisions are forced using refined methods like branding an employee who persists in fighting for more resources as a "poor listener" or a "non-performer" or even worst "not fit to be promoted".

Questioning and challenging senior management is akin to revolt, especially if done in a public forum. And questioning and challenging by a new hire is nothing short of "career execution".

Corporate world has millions of stories of "corporate execution". Right or wrong, it is a reality in most organizations - whether small or large.

Small organizations adopt crude means (as the manager/CEO are the primary owner) whereas big organizations adopt refined means (using terms laced with all those good, nice words and sound-bites that the senior management are fond of and all senior management wannabes have to become fond of).

In light of what is described above, any and every negotiation with higher management is never bound to be fair. When they are asked to provide more resources, their first question will be "can we try to get a bigger bang for the buck?".

If that can be proved to be not possible somehow (which is an uphill task), the second question that would come up is "can we "rob Peter to pay Paul?" - meaning can resources be spared from someone else?

Types of Managers and Supervisors

Here's a list of common types of managers and supervisors found in the corporate world:

Hands Off Manager

They are never seen unless they need to break news about a crisis and ask you for explanations. They will never advise or guide you about potential issues proactively but hit hard upon you if some issue arises.

I Know All Manager

They seem to know everything about everything, about your team and also about all other teams and also the entire organization. They offer generic solutions to all problems.

This Is Way We Work Manager

They start advising and giving feedback about anything you present to them, even before they have heard and understood what you have to present and at times, without even knowing about the subject at the surface level. Their advise is around 'this is the way we work here' or this is the way I did it in the past. They seem to believe that there is a universal solution to all similar problems. They are generally biased and opinionated .

Make No Enemy Manager

They never want to get into controversial or heated situations even if the other party offers incorrect facts and suggestions. They want to keep everyone happy by not taking actions until it becomes difficult to avoid them.

How Dare You Tell Me Manager

These are the typical war veterans who have led many not so successful assignments in the past and believe that by virtue of that they know about the issues and challenges in that organization more than anyone else. If you suggest them anything they will take offense at being advised by a rookie. You run the risk of being labeled as a poor listener as rookies are not supposed to be knowing the system that well to advise a veteran. Though, the issue under discussion may be so commonplace in other organizations.

Loud Mouthed Manager

They are generally loud and full of intense energy. Their pet hobby and passion is to come out with issues and discrepancies in anything you present to them. They enjoy thrashing the presentations in the name of performing reviews with rigour and adding value.

Don't Tell I know Less Than You Manager

These managers feel that they need to be technically five steps ahead of their entire team. They go quiet when challenged on facts and information.

Successful Business Model

What are the characteristics of a successful business model? There are many complex and convoluted theories and theses on this subject. Management gurus and consultants make their money by advising Board Members and CEOs (or CXOs, to make it more inclusive) of business organizations on how to create and run a successful business.

In simple terms, stripped of all-too-arcane buzzwords and difficult-to-understand concepts, a successful business model is one which is both sustainable and scalable.

1. Sustainable:

The first primary need of any business is to have the ability to 'retain' its potential to earn revenue. Sustaining the revenue stream is of paramount importance for any business to remain around for years and decades.

Revenue is what the business gets every time it manages to sell its product or service. Making and selling products and services which the business's customers will keep on paying for is crucial for survival. The revenue stream thus must have certainty for the business model to be successful.

2. Scalable:

The second primary need of any business is to have the ability to 'enhance' its potential to earn 'higher and higher' revenue with each passing year. Augmenting and increasing the revenue stream ensures ongoing business growth.

Growth is what fuels further business growth. Being able to scale up the business operations makes it possible to make and sell more and more and more. Of course, continuous improvement and innovation in the products and services to discover new revenue streams is a part of scalability.

Working with a Small Company

A small company is characterized by its "smallness" which can be described in terms of the following aspects:

• Less number of employees
• Just a handful of customers
• Just a handful of products and services offered
• Relatively simple type of products and services offered (generally speaking, though there are niche companies which may be working on high-end or newer technologies)
• Low annual turnover or revenue
• Thin senior management layer (typically the promoters, owners occupy the various CXO roles and also generally one person would be in more than one role)

Just like every coin has two sides (Heads and Tails), so is true about working with a small company.

What is it like working for a small company?

• You would be like a big fish in a small pond and what you suggest or work upon will be easily noticed in the organization - you may not get eaten by other animals but the pond being small could dry up easily!
• You would get chance to handle more than one kind of work (multitasking) - there won't too many hands around in any case so you must be willing to work a little bit on many things, but this may prove to be a serious career handicap depending on other factors.
• You could get fired any day as such decisions are typically made based upon the thoughts, assumptions (or in the worst case even the moods, whims and fancies) of the CXOs and not any defined policies and procedures. The owner-cum-CXOs' decision will be the final call in all cases even though it may be defined otherwise in the policies and procedures. You must be prepared to hear statements like: "we aren't making much money these days so let's shunt your department and lay-off the entire staff". The key thing is the owner-cum-CXOs' will always ensure that they get their share of cash to maintain their and their family's lifestyle, others can simply go to hell!
• You must become a trusted member of the CXOs' coterie to survive and never get fired. In a small company there are a lot of informal sets of relationships that outlive and outsize the formal working relationships. Display of trustworthiness, admiration (even though faked up), servitude to the CXOs' is a crucial survival skill in all work and non-work dealings with the CXOs. This is so since the CXOs are the company!
• You should not expect too many employee welfare measures as there won't simply be enough cash to run them. Of course, their will always be cash for owner welfare measures. All the employee retention measures one would see in a bigger company will be typically conspicuous by their total absence!
• Your experience may be discounted in the job market especially if you give interview with a big company especially the blue-chip ones. The experience of working with a small company is supposed to "weigh" lesser than those with a big company. This though unfair is how the job market operates.
• Your performance has to be excellent or you must become a trusted soldier and if you don't fit in one of the above two category your days will be numbered. The CXOs' of a small company like to keep only those employees who perform well and bring in the cash or those who are trusted soldiers and willing to do anything as and when asked or bring in "the news from the grapevine". Also if you are in the first category (excellent performer), you must make sure that there's no adverse news about you in the "grapevine", you must also know who are the trusted soldiers and take care when speaking to them about anything and in particular anything to do with the CXOs' management style - remember CXOs are the company!

The above points may not be true in all cases and in fact, there are many exceptions as well. However, knowing the above points will put you in an advantageous position as you think about "Working with aSmall Company" as part of your next career move.

Employee Performance Management System

Managing performance of its employees is central to an organization's success. All organizations, large and small, in all sectors of the economy have some sort of Employee Performance Management System in place.

Elements of Effective Employee Performance Management System

An effective Employee Performance Management System is supposed to consist of the following elements:

• Grading of employees in certain categories (Separating Wheat from the Chaff) - high-performing, performing, under-performing, or something on similar lines
• Identifying top talent (the Queen Bee) - recognizing high performance and rewarding it through steep hike in compensation (salary, stock options, etc.) or promotion
• Identifying average talent (the Worker Ants) - recognizing desired and better than desired performance and rewarding it through normal salary hike (just beating the inflation!)
• Identifying poor performers (the Dead Ants) - setting action plan for performance improvement and tracking the action plan to improved performance or in extreme cases, employment termination 

Business Value of  Employee Performance Management System

In real sense, an effective Employee Performance Management System is intended to address the following business needs:

• Improving collective performance of the organization vis-a-vis its competition
• Improving organizational skills and competencies for staying in business and getting better at it
• Retaining high and average performers and removing poor performers
• Developing, stabilizing and maturing skills and competencies that have strategic value for the business and phasing out non-strategic skills and competencies. This may require re-skilling existing employees or laying off existing employees and going for fresh hiring for the needed skills and competencies

Limitations of Performance Appraisal

The limitations of Performance Appraisal are somehow inherent to the Employee Performance Management System and exist probably due to the fact that performance appraisals are conducted by and on fellow 'humans'. Some of these limitations are as listed below:

• Though appraisal is supposed to be for the entire year, it's generally the last few weeks which really matter. For understanding this, try to remember what activities you yourself performed in Q1 of this year, think about how easy or difficult it is going to be when you do this for others.
• The nature of work an employee performs opens up or restricts the challenges/opportunities available to him/her. For understanding this, compare the role of a Training Coordinator with the role of an Engineer working on developing a new product in relation to challenges/opportunities available to both.
• Bosses do have their favorites. And it's not always the most competent team member who gets to back-fill the boss in his/her absence. Personal equation and trust matter a not. Also, for the crucial tasks and assignments, bosses have their favorites. What is there to stop this bias from creeping into the performance appraisal process?
• Perception matters more than reality. All of us tend to type-cast or label other persons. Perceptions created initially tend to carry on and on. And many times perceptions are created but are never indicated or communicated to the concerned person. This could come as a surprise if one is at the receiving end. Do you remember something like, "Oh! I never thought my supervisor thinks that I don't update him on what's going on and that he wanted a weekly status report... I thought he did not want too many e-mails and anyways all important e-mails were always forwarded to him, besides I have called him every time there was need and he seemed to be okay with all this"
• What people think and say or write may be different or could be understood differently. Many times what one wants from others are not clearly articulated. And many times the way one understands a statment may be different than what it is supposed to mean.
• People have emotions. And even emotionally mature people tend to experience changing moods. Due to what happens to them outside the workplace, due to the way they have been brought up, due to personal beliefs and values, and due to the fact that everyone is unique in their own ways, how a person assesses a situation is generally different than how others will assess it. This difference in assessing situations carries itself to performance appraisals also.

There are many more limitations but the fact is some kind of Employee Performance Management System is here to stay albeit its limitations and weaknesses. Simply because, there seems to be no better alternative - after all something is better than nothing!

The Young CEOs

Almost everyone who joins the corporate world starts with the dream of becoming a CEO one day, sooner than later, in their professional career.

It is, however, a harsh reality that majority of those who enter the corporate world will never reach the CEO position.

For becoming CEO, one must start on the “CEO Track” and more importantly, stay on the CEO Track during one’s career.

A CEO Track is one that connects an entry-level position to the CEO position eventually.

There are many who join in an entry-level position which is not on the CEO Track and hence will stand virtually no chance of ever reaching the CEO position barring a helpful intervention by mother luck.

The entry-level positions which are not on the CEO Track are generally in support functions like HR, Administration, etc.

There are many who join in an entry-level position which is on the CEO Track and hence stand a good chance of reaching the CEO position.

However, being on the CEO Track doesn’t guarantee that one will reach the CEO position since the corporate world is like a pyramid and the CEO positions are in perpetual scarcity.

Most of those who are on the CEO Track will generally meet the following fate as they will lack “CEO Material”:

• Stagnate at a certain position and retire well before becoming CEO
• Move out as CEO of another organization (which will generally be a smaller organization)
• And at worst, linger on and get laid off one fine day (all positions in an organization are subject to redundancy due to the uncertain business climate that envelops the corporate world – recession, acquisition, restructuring, facilities shutdown or relocation, product or service discontinuation, etc.)

Finally, there are those who by virtue of being “CEO Material” will eventually get promoted to the CEO position. Those who eventually become CEO become part of an exclusive club.

Many of those who become CEOs will take time to reach the CEO position and will generally be of a ripe age by the time they become CEO.

However, there are those also who will manage to become CEOs at a young age.

They may be self-made, successful, young entrepreneurs-turned-CEOs like Bill Gates of Microsoft or professional managers like Jack Welch of GE (who get on to the fast track career path and end up becoming CEO at an early age).

The young CEOs are a class apart.

They are the chosen ones who not only realize their dream of becoming a CEO one day in their professional career but also realize that dream at an early age so that they have sufficient time to enjoy the fruits of their accomplishments in the corporate world.

What Comes First - Trust or Talent?

It’s a commonly agreed fact in the corporate world that talent is of paramount importance when it comes to hiring or promoting people in an organization.

However, this is not the case in a true sense – in certain situations trust may come before talent.

Talent is a function of many factors. Some of these are hard like educational degree, professional certifications, years of experience, previous job titles, etc. and some of these are soft like jobs actually performed in the past, competencies acquired through hands-on experience, understanding gained through hands-off involvement or self-learning, etc.

Organizations usually employ techniques like background verification and reference checks to verify the “truthfulness” of the ‘hard’ aspects of talent and techniques like behavior-based interviews, case-study-based interviews to verify the “truthfulness” of the ‘soft’ aspects of talent.

It is commonly accepted that in an interview it’s easy to verify the “truthfulness” of the ‘hard’ aspects of talent as compared to the ‘soft’ aspects of talent.

Trust, on the other hand, is a function of many factors all of which are typically soft. Trust on a person comes through repeated experiences of successful engagement in multiple job situations.

Effective demonstration of talent in terms of achieving the desired or targeted business results aids greatly in building trust on a person.

It must be clearly understood that building trust requires talent to be present at a reasonable level. Trust also embodies developing a mutually beneficial relationship so that information can be shared without fear of repudiation or retaliation.

When someone is being hired, the focus is on assessing talent to a larger extent and trust to a somewhat lesser extent. However, when someone is being considered for promotion, the focus is on assessing trust to a larger extent and talent to a somewhat lesser extent.

It must be said, however, that at times trust becomes the over-riding factor. This statement proves to be true at the time of an acquisition.

When company A acquires company B, the senior management team of company B will generally have to make way for the senior management team of company A.

This will happen even though some of the persons in the senior management team of company B may score much better as far as talent goes than those in the senior management team of company A. They will have to go out because they will invariably score much lesser as far as trust goes.

Winning at Business in the Long Run

The motto for every CEO these days seems to be "we play to win". This statement actually reads more like this: "we play if and only if we will win".

This over-emphasis on the above leads to short-sighted strategies and decisions. The performance assessment of CEOs depends on what happened in the last quarter.

It's easy to postulate that strategy and decision-making should have a long-term horizon but the reality is the immense pressure on the executive leadership team (which is headed by the CEO) makes it crucial for them to demonstrate improvements to both the top-line and the bottom-line every quarter, and quarter after quarter. If they don't they will not be around for long.

The need to show "wins" every quarter means those actions are taken which help in this direction and help before the quarter is over. In the process, "wins" in the long run may get compromised.

This is where the market analysts, shareholders and board of directors become important. Their reactions to the actions taken by the executive management sends the signals about how to run the business.

If these three stakeholders react to management actions keeping the long run in perspective, it will send the right signals to the executive management and they will most probably take actions that will result in winning at business... in the long run.

If the above situation becomes true, then the statement can be turned into: "we may lose a little bit when we play, but we will surely win and win a lot in the end"

Talent Identification, Assessment and Acquisition

For the success of a business enterprise, the first and foremost per-requisite is the availability of right competency with the organization. So it goes without saying that attracting the "optimal" talent is a serious business for businesses.

"Optimal" talent means right talent. Both over- and under- competent talent has adverse impact on the organization. Hiring over-competent talent results in higher attrition and on the other hand, hiring under-competent talent results in poor performance.

Talent attraction constitutes of three essential aspects:

Talent Identification

This means being on constant lookout for top talent, keeping an internal database of resumes, having tie-ups with recruitment consultants and executive search firms, encouraging existing employees to suggest referral candidates, etc. 

Talent Assessment

This means screening initial pool of candidates to separate the wheat from the chaff, interviewing potential hires to select the "optimal" talent, evaluating and finalizing the would be hire

Talent Acquisition

This means making an attractive offer to the selected talent, engaging the would be hire from the time of offer till the time of joining, taking care of the joining formalities, induction and on-boarding

4 Es for Sustainable Business Success

Sustainable business success of an organization depends on four Es - Ethical, Effective, Efficient and Easy. Ethical means business enterprises must engage in activities which are ethical - what they choose to do must conform to highest standards of integrity and fair practice. Effective means business enterprises must engage in ethical activities that achieve the desired business outcome Efficient means business enterprises must engage in ethical and effective activities while consuming the least quantity of resources (man, material, machine) Easy means business enterprises must engage in ethical, effective and efficient activities that are easy and simple to perform (to the extent it is possible - the KISS principle - Keep It Simple, Stupid!)

Ethics and CEOs

The Enron incident that took the US Corporate world by storm in the beginning of this century was an inflection point for the CEOs. It led to terms like Business Ethics, Corporate Citizenship, etc. catch the fancy of the CEOs (and the other CXOs) in no time. The rush towards being ethical in business dealings with the entire corporate ecosystem became a mad-rush amongst the corporates especially the premier organizations (companies in the Fortune 500, Global 2000, and other similar list across the globe). The corporate ecosystem that includes clients, end-customers, suppliers, employees, government agencies, non-government organizations, etc. were brought into the scope of business ethics as the stakes were simply too high. The subsequent conviction of the key officials of Enron is a point in case that CEOs and the 2nd level officers in corporates, the CXOs and VPs, are wholly responsible for such incidents. Anyone who has worked in a formal corporate setting (a “Company”) would agree that the CEOs and senior officers hold absolute power over the other non-CXO employees. And if the CEOs and CXOs want and when they want they can just say “off with his head”. Lay-offs, downsizing, job cuts are a part of the corporate game that CEOs and other senior officers play everyday. Protecting the company's revenues and margins is not really a goal of the CEOs and CXOs, it is their necessity. It is their necessity because they have to protect their salaries, bonus, stock options and retirement or severance benefits. And this necessity also makes them take ethics quite seriously as the stakes are simply too high. All organizations who consider themselves be a part of the fraternity of premier and progressive organizations have a Business Ethics Policy in place now. These policies are almost the same across all these organizations. The similarities do not end here and extends even to having common titles such as VP Ethics etc. Ethics is now a pet obsession for many CEOs and CXOs as they know the stakes are simply too high and with an intrusive and ever-alert media they could find themselves in a tight corner in no time. The stakes are simply too high... they have to protect their salaries, bonus, stock options and retirement or severance benefits. Analyzing this whole issue from an abstract perspective would mean that we make or world a place where everyone is just, fair and honest. A person can't be genuinely honest in his professional life if he not honest in his personal life. Business ethics can save the CEO but will not save the world. The great leader of the last century, Mahatma Gandhi, becomes absolutely relevant in this discussion. His preachings on simplicity, truth and honesty provide direction and methods to make this world an ethical place in a complete sense. After corporates are just one element of human civilization.

Make Money First, Forget Rest

Businesses should follow this cardinal principle - Make Money First, Forget Rest. When a business stops making money that's the end of it. Finance is the first and foremost enabler and driver for why an organization does what it does.

Doing is to Survive... but Improving is to Grow

For a business organization with a clear vision of the future and long-term view of its revenue model, success comes but naturally. The key to this is constant focus on improvement and not merely on just doing things. It can be said, "to merely do is to survive, but to improve is to grow". Business Dynamics The dynamics of the business world make it difficult for any organization with success stories to relax for a very long time. Businesses must gear up and change and reinvent themselves constantly to keep up with the many changes which they have to live through. Business world is currently undergoing massive transformation. From the boom times a few years ago to the challenging times of today, businesses have passed through varying circumstances. Agility is a key to survive and grow for any business, especially in these trying times. Survival and Growth Surviving is definitely the primary goal of a business. Then comes growing. However, with just a survival strategy, an organization will fail to survive. In fact, at times, growth strategies may actually result in survival but not result in any growth. Constantly improving how they work and adopting business excellence strategies is now very important more than ever. Budgeting for growth strategies even in the times of downturn is key to survival. It may probably be more apt to say, "to improve is to survive and grow, but to merely do is to inch closer towards failure".

Entrepreneurship and Excellence

Entrepreneurship and Excellence - these two, at times, may sound disconnected concepts. In reality, though, these two are not only deeply interconnected but also strongly complement each other. Becoming an entrepreneur means that one has imbibed excellence as an inherent and integral part of the original business idea, overarching strategy and execution approach behind the entrepreneurial venture. Entrepreneurial success requires the presence of: 1. Novel Business Idea that can be commercialized to generate revenue (after a certain duration if not immediately but surely on an ongoing basis - to the extent one can visualize). The strength ofthe business idea depends on innovation or differentiation in the products and services that constitute the business idea. The key point that emerges is - "what business need do the target customers have? and what products and services will the target customers be willing to pay for to meet those business needs?" 2. Down-to-earth Execution Strategy the execution strategy should be simple and down-to-earth, and should in no case be bogged down in the management jargon and theories often used to describe business management (as one would find happening inthe business schools). Business execution in a layman's language simply means - spend money (expenses) to earn more money (revenues), the difference beingthe business 's real value (profits or losses as the case may be). It's commonsensical to assume that no business can survive for long if it continues to make losses! 3. Committed Core Team a set of people who come together with a common purpose, share personal trust and confidence and who complement each others' competencies (so that the team as a whole is rich is all required competencies) is essential to be successful in any entrepreneurial venture. Commitment and dedication to thebusiness idea and to each other is a must in the core team. 4. Entrepreneurial Traits the core teams must display extreme behaviors... passion and child-like curiosity for the technological, functional and technical aspects of thebusiness idea and hard-headed, hard-nosed negotiation and communication skills for the financial, commercial, legal and general managerial aspects of thebusiness idea. 5. Vision about the Future Direction of the Business Idea this may sound counter-intuitive but is extremely important. It may be next to impossible to articulate the exact direction and pace of howthe business idea will progress. It is, however, very important to keep the entrepreneurial mission alive at all times (especially when things may seem to be adverse and unfavorable). 6. Leadership and Communication Style of the Leader there is always one individual who can be labeled as the main brain behind any entrepreneurial venture. He may assemble other like-minded people but eventually he create and carries the aura of the main founder, visionary and leader - take the example of Bill Gates (Microsoft) and Narayanamurthy (Infosys). The leadership and communication style of this person shapes and guides the soft underbelly of the organization. And if the organization becomes successful and eventually grows on to become larger and bigger later on, some of those practices and the culture live on forever. 7. Excellence in Strategy and Execution this increases the chance of being successful, by a factor of 10X. Beyond the commercial merit of the business idea, the strategy and execution aspects decide the eventual fate. How much chance does an otherwise healthy patient have at the hands of an incompetent surgeon? Entrepreneurship and Excellence, as is obvious by now, are complementary by nature. Presence of excellence is a must for entrepreneurial success.

Excellence through Training and Development

Training and development activities play an important role in creating and sustaining excellence. As an enabler training and development creates the right atmosphere by ensuring employees receive the right kind of training to be more efficient and effective in the workplace. An organization is nothing but an aggregation of the people who work for it. The delicate balance between the various factors that impact business - like regulations, competition, consumers amongst the many other factors - is what makes or breaks a business. And who is responsible for ensuring this delicate balance? It's the people in the organization. As is obviously evident from above, investing on people is the only real investment a business can make. Having competent, skilled and well-trained staff is an important element of successful organizations. Training and development thus become quite important in the overall context of how organizations are run and also how they succeed or fail. Even if an organizations fails the people who work for it continue to be assets in which ever organization they would eventually serve. What is the way training and development helps businesses vis-a-vis excellence: 1. Sharpen the competencies and skills of the staff 2. Demonstrate the competency gaps in the organization 3. Encourage employees to put in practice what they learn from new concepts and thoughts (that emanate from training programs) 4. Provide clear direction for the organization to develop or sharpen competencies from both operational and strategic perspectives

Communication in the Business World

Communication is considered to be a powerful tool for achieving sustained success in the business world. The many ways in which communication plays a pivotal role in the business world are listed below: Management's articulation of the business goals with visible support and commitment to it Communication of the road-map and plans (both high-level and detailed) to the various stakeholders Determining the correct status of progress at various intermediate checkpoints through both proactive and reactive communication channels Communication of the goals and vision on an ongoing basis to sustain the momentum It is true that action leads to sustained success. At the same time, communication should be taken as an important prerequisite to direct action towards sustained success. Thus, sustained success of a business organization is the end result of right action supported and guided by right communication.

Leaders and Shopkeepers

In the business world the individuals who start companies can be labeled as one of the following two types - Leaders and Shopkeepers. Leaders are guided by a long-term and overarching vision. The product or service they conceive is a path towards entrepreneurial success in terms of fame and money. They are focused on the long-term and view the balance sheet and profit and loss statements over a wider time horizon. Real businesses do no start making money immediately as they first attempt to create a tempting revenue model based on a product or service idea which carries certain newness in it. Leaders invest in their people. They would generally hire with a long-term and don't do seasonal hire and fire. Everyone hired by them is a part of the strategic vision till the organization gains traction and reaches the critical mass. On the other hand, Shopkeepers are just the opposites of Leaders. The organizations they start are means for them to earn cash from an emerging trend in the business. They watch the profit and loss on a daily basis. They engage in seasonal hire and fire but never fire the coterie and the trusted lieutenants. Such organizations are run like an old boys club with the well-knit family assuming complete control. Professional practices find it difficult to gain a foothold in such organizations. The moot point is - does this make a difference? Yes, it emphatically does. For organizations which are managed by "Leaders", likelihood of growth and success is much higher and it is generally much faster. For organizations which are run (not really managed) by "Shopkeepers" growth and scaling up always remains a distant dream. And in situations of economic turmoil the "Shopkeepers" will tend to be like mad men trying to desperately row their boat in troubled waters and getting exhausted, without ever realizing like "Leaders" will, that at times no action is the best action.