Setting Effective Performance Objective

Posted on May 21, 2015 by IBS India

There is no better than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance the next time. Performance objective is a specific end result that contributes to the success of the unit or organization and that you as a future employee will be expected to accomplish or produce.
Performance objectives provide focus to an employee’s work to ensure that his or her actions are directed towards achieving important mission-related outcomes. This has become really challenging in today’s business environment where lack of proper goal reduces the top line of an organization. Performance objectives are not work activities, task descriptions, or responsibilities listed in a performance description.

A work activity is an overall action that an employee takes when performing his or her job. A performance objective specifies the outcome or end result of a work activity.
There is a subtle difference between the task and the performance objectives. For example- Setting effective performance objective

Task: Determine sourcing strategies to avoid cost.
Performance Objective: By the end of the financial year, present two sourcing strategies for existing and new vendors based on a thorough analysis of volumes, customer needs, capabilities, and value addition.
Task: Prepare and deliver executive leadership deck.
Performance Objective: By March end, deliver three decks to key stakeholders regarding the new process, and consolidate a detailed report on the feedback received.
Task: Collaborate with others.
Performance Objective: For each project received during this year, solicit at least one individual to provide input at the planning stage. Incorporate the individual’s input into your final report.

Difficult times disrupt your conventionalways of thinking and push you to forge better habits of thought, performance and being. Young people often gets discouraged when encounters on immediate failure. You need to hold up your aces, think what went wrong and develop performance objectives to overcome in future. There are five ways to set good performance objectives and if worked diligently on achieving can work wonders for all of us. I believe effective performance objectives should be:-

1) Specific
I think that the Japanese culture is one of the very few cultures left that have its own identity. They’re just so traditional and so specific in their ways that even till now they our amongst the world leader. If your team is going to do what you ask them to do, then you need to be specific about the end result. Use action words like “to increase”, “to establish”, “to reduce” and “to create” in your communication. You can also use “specific” to remind yourself that objectives need to relate back to a specific personal or organizational goal. It’s a constant cycle to remind you.

2) Measurable
Imagine you are playing the games ‘Candy Crush’ or ‘Words with Friends’ and it doesn’t show a score or progress indication as you go along. You wouldn’t play it – there’s no motivation!
You want something that will allow the person to gauge how well they are progressing toward achieving the objective. You don’t want an objective that is vague. This leaves room for misinterpretation and that will end in disgruntled people. So tell the person how you are going to measure the achievement. Then you both know when it hasn’t been achieved, when it’s been met and when it’s been exceeded.
For example, 100 percentile push every student to compete with other. It’s also a good idea to record the source of the measurement. For example, the profit & loss report for retail division, client survey, and sales reports.

3) Attainable
When a warrior learns to stop the internal dialogue, everything becomes possible; the most far-fetched schemes become attainable. I’ll quote a story once upon a time there was a leader and his three direct reportees. The first employee’s objectives were too hard; there is no way they could be achieved. First employee just gave up at the start. Second employee’s objectives were too easy; they just weren’t motivating at all. But third employee’s objectives were just right. They were a stretch and it might be difficult, but employee thought there was a good chance she could achieve them. She was one motivated passionate employee. The moral of the story is “Persist and persevere, and you will find most things that are attainable, possible.”

4) Relevant
Relate the objective back to the team and company goals. Being part of a team effort is much more motivating than just having an objective. Is the objective within something the person will have control or influence over? There’s always going to be the circumstances you can’t plan for. There’s always the unexpected relevance never question the relevance of truth, but always question the truth of relevance. Your goals should be relevant enough for you to achieve it. You can become a shining star or will be shot down depending upon the relevance of goal you have. People are overwhelmed looking up at the Mount Everest of environmental challenges that we face. But you put one foot in front of the other and you recognize that not everyone is Sir Edmund Hillary.

5) Time bound
What is the time frame for achieving the objective? A target date and some milestones help keep things on track. Don’t let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use. Ensure your goals are time bound and should have a fixed hard line. If the objectives are fixed it helps you to work hard until they are achieved. Imagine a 20 over cricket match, the batsmen has a set target or are in process of setting target, they can’t wait till the last ball is about to be ball. It’s a time bound game and everyone wants to win.
Most “impossible” goals can be met simply by breaking them down into bite size chunks, writing them down, believing them, and then going full speed ahead as if they were routine.

Contributed by Vaibhav Chandra (Class of 2009, IBS HYDERABAD)

“Your Mom is the best manager!”

Posted on May 21, 2015 by IBS India

You would have read hundreds of lessons in management and would have studied hundreds of case studies on management. But did you ever think that the best manager in the world is at your home only? Yes, she is none other than your sweet Mom! She may not hold an MBA degree from a well reputed university and may not have worked as a manager of a corporate but she knows well how to manage your family!

Let me define first who is a real manager according to me. A manager is the one who is able to manage a number of things in a given frame of time and handles each and everything well, completing all things within the stipulated time. “Manager” word does not apply only to those people who are sitting in the air conditioned offices, well dressed and managing their sub-ordinates. But it applies to anyone who manages well! Well, a good manager has the qualities of proper planning, leading, organizing and controlling. A mother exhibits all these virtues in her day to day responsibilities and manages everything in her day to day life without any expectations or rewards.

Management at all the levels of the family

A mother has to handle all the tiers of the house which are in-laws, husbands and the kids. In-laws come under the top management, husband is the chief managing director, children are the executives and maids are the employees. There is hardly any dispute and she manages all the members of the family as an efficient manager. She has to manage the expectations at all the levels and if there is any conflict, she is the first one who has to listen and provide a solution. When the kids are growing and lots of turbulences and happenings are going with them, it is the mother only who manages all their resistances to change and ensure a smooth transition. Whenever things go wrong and there is a possibility of corrective action from her side, she willingly accepts it and takes necessary corrective action. She is the best reviewer of everything in the family and always works to bring improvement and effectiveness in the family. Do you really feel that a company manager can do better than this?

Effective Management of resources

A mother manages all the Finance like household expenses, income from your father and other external expenses. She is efficient in making the budget of the family, she forecast well and she always keeps a surplus and makes proper planning for the future requirements. At the time of financial crisis or instability in the family, it is the mother only who manages and handles all the incomes and expenses and runs the family smoothly. She manages stores, raw materials and each and every resource at home with full perfection. For all these management skills, she was never taught by anyone or she never took any degree. She developed everything after she took the responsibility of your family. Even, the managers at office get at least one day off in a week, but a mother never gets any off and she has to be in operation throughout the week!

An invaluable service with no expectation of rewards

If someone ever thinks to evaluate the services of a mother in terms of money, then I don’t think that her work, services and her love and concern can ever be paid in return. No amount is ever more than her sincere works and many times her works and services remain unnoticed and unacknowledged. Whenever someone asks about her occupation, the label of just a ‘house-wife’ is answered. But if this housewife is to be paid for her services to her family, then she deserves a number of times more than what her husband is paid in his company or occupation.

A saga of love, dedication and hard work

The world o Your Mom is the best manager f mother is confined in the four walls of the house but she always remains as a saga of love, dedication and hard work. She has an endless love and concern towards her family and

she is the only manager who does not have any designated working hours. She gets up early in the morning when everyone is sleeping and goes to bed so late that everyone has slept off till that time. When we enjoy watching different channels on the television, she is preparing yummy food for us in the kitchen. Whether she is busy or free, she is always smiling and concerned towards her work at home. She is never indifferent in her work and never has any grievances or complaints with anyone. In a company, if a manager is fed up of all the responsibilities and expectations, then he submits his resignation and starts planning to shift to another company, but a mother has one and only one place to stick to and that is her family only.

There are some valuable things in our lives which we learn practically and the lessons of management from our mother are one of those. She helps us to grow as a better person and while growing with her, we learn a lot of important aspects of management which no theoretical books can teach us. She teaches us that everything in this world can be managed by the art of love and dedication. She teaches us the virtues of honesty and sincerity towards our work and responsibilities. She never writes anything on a piece of paper but whatever she demonstrates by her acts are enough as the biggest practical lessons. Let us value our lovely mother for the excellent role of a home manager she has played so far and let us not complain for what she has been unable to provide us. The role of a home manager is really an unmatchable one with hundreds of difficulties and challenges on the way. We have seen that how beautifully our Moms perform this role without the expectation of any reward or compensation. Simply, she is the best manager in the world, even better than the managers passed from the IIMs and the Harvard.

Ashish Singh Parihar ( Class of 2008, IBS PUNE )

Informal Networks in Organizations and Organizational Effectiveness

Posted on May 20, 2015 by IBS India

“In every department that continues to operate, the workers have – whether aware of it or not – formed themselves into a group with appropriate customs, duties, routines, even rituals; and management succeeds (or fails) in proportion as it is accepted without reservation by the group as authority and leader” (Mayo, 1949)

Description

This article discusses how informal networks in organizations operate and their role in both enhancing and detracting organizational effectiveness. The key argument being made in this article is that informal networks should be encouraged as long as they add value to the organization and not when they become the channels for political games and avenues for anti organizational activities.

This points to the fact that individuals in organizations do not stop being social beings while working in those organizations. This in turn relates to the very core of the essential question of how to define an organization. While this question cannot be entirely resolved in this paper as such, the underlying assumptions will be that organizations are basically a web of coalitions and that coalition building is an important dimension of almost all organizational life (Morgan, 1997).

Introduction

It is said that humans are social beings and hence, have an innate need to communicate, relate, and exchange information with others. We are all aware of how we form networks of familial relatives, peers, friends, and in this age of social media, virtual contacts. Therefore, being social and engaging with others comes naturally to us. In an organizational context, this means that employees tend to form networks comprising colleagues, superiors, and subordinates. Of course, the HR department also plays its part in making sure that networks are formed by periodically organizing get together events, offsite meetings, annual days, and family visits. Thus, there are two kinds of networks in place in organization and they are the formal or the organized networks that the management explicitly encourages, and the informal networks that are also known as organizational grapevine wherein news, views, and information are exchanged over coffee, tea, and less healthily, over drinks and cigarettes.

The Role of Informal Networks

Turning to the role that formal and informal networks play in ensuring organizational effectiveness, it is indeed the case that when employees know other employees not only from their immediate teams but across the organization, it leads to value enhancing activities. For instance, in this age when Information Technology or IT is ubiquitous and needed for competitive advantage, knowing someone in the IT support team on a personal basis can certainly help especially when your team or your team members need urgent access to hardware and software that would otherwise have to be routed through the time consuming bureaucratic processes. Of course, this does not mean that the official channels should be bypassed in favor of a free for all interactions. On the other hand, what this means is that you can convince your contact in the IT team to act swiftly while the organizational machinery grinds and hence, can get your job done quickly.

Further, informal networks are a major source of exchanging information and news related to the organization between peers, superiors, and subordinates and more often than not, the first people who get to know of impending announcements related to promotions and launches of new products are the ones who have their ears to the ground. Moreover, informal networks can be a good source of bonding and stress relief in these age of pressure wherein sharing a coffee or a tea during breaks and engaging in harmless talks or talking shop as it is also known as can enhance the value to the organization.

Downsides of Informal Networks

Having said that, one must not forget that informal and formal networks ought not to become places or meetings where intrigue, backroom maneuvers, and vicious gossip become the order of the day. In other words, informal and formal networks work best when the information being exchanged is in the interest of the organization and not against it. For instance, there are cases when employees have been approached by their peers with job offers and moves to rival companies that has resulted in situations where the management had to fir the person who was making these offers as it is against company policy. Moreover, such networks also tend to promote favoritism, formation of power centers in the organization that are outside of the purview of the formal networks, and can even lead to cases where these networks work against the organizational ethos through lobbying and creation of parallel reporting.

Another big disadvantage with the informal networks are that they tend to be comprised mainly of men which is also known as the boys club because it has been the tradition for male employees to engage with fellow men and keep the women out. Though this can be dismissed as harmless bantering and when anyway women employees tend to bond with other women, the real kicker is when the managers (whether men or women) tend to favor others in their informal networks for promotions and other benefits. Apart from this, the other disadvantage of informal networks as well as perpetuate harassment, discrimination, and prejudice against those that are not part of the charmed circle. Moreover, it is also the case that employees with the bad intentions can leak the information obtained in the informal networks to competitors and the media thereby jeopardizing the interests of the organizations.

Conclusion

It is for this reason that management tends to keep a watch on what is being said where and when as otherwise, the downsides as discussed here can lead to the effectiveness of the organization being compromised. It is the argument being made in this article that informal networks must work towards enhancing organizational effectiveness instead of detracting the same. In conclusion, informal networks are good ways for employees to unwind, relieve their good as well as bad moments, crib about their bosses and let the pressure ease. However, they become dangerous when they become centers for political games. Therefore, the HR department must encourage and tolerate such networks as long as they are beneficial to the organization.

Contributed by Suchin Kulshrestha, (Class of 2008, IBS Hyderabad)

Are you a Pied Piper?

Posted on May 20, 2015 by IBS India

As a child when I read Robert Browning’s ‘The Pied Piper of Hamelin”, it was a simple, but delightful piece of poetry. The rhythm, the rhymes, the simple story line told in a racy way was what appealed to me.

When I grew older and reflected on the poem, it had acquired sinister overtones. A stranger luring children into a subterranean cave in revenge for not being paid for rendering a service – there was something chilling about it and it could have come straight out of a horror movie.

However, leaving the macabre aside, I think we can draw on other messages from the story of the Pied Piper. Books on leadership and management principles, all talk about motivating, leading by example, advising, mentoring etc. It all seems like a lot of hard work. To my mind, leading should be like what the Pied Piper did – fascinating them into following you. People should follow you because they just want to. People should follow you because they think you are going to reveal something wondrous to them. There is no analysis or cold logic here about leadership qualities. Like the Nike slogan they just want to ‘do it’.

Let me give you some examples. I have always wondered how the so-called ‘holy men’, ‘holy women’, swamis and babas are able to attract crowds of people with very little trouble. What they offer is not specified. They will offer vague assurances like – ‘freedom from all your troubles,’ ‘all your love issues solved,’ ‘prosperity for ever’ and so on. These things are just hinted at but somehow it gives a lot of people a promise that wonderful things are ahead for them.

In the poem one of the children, who was unable to follow the others into the cave due to a lame leg, laments later,

It’s dull in our town since my playmates left!

I can’t forget that I’m bereft

Of all the pleasant sights they see,

Which the Piper also promised me.

For he led us, he said, to a joyous land,

……..”

Think of Prince Siddhartha Gautama, who became the Buddha. Do you think he stood on a dais like a politician, thundering and exhorting people to follow the middle path, which would lead them to Nirvana? He practised what he believed in and his following grew. Actually if you come to think of it, religious leaders are the ones who are most akin to the Pied Piper. Their appeal is subtle. It speaks to the emotions rather than to reason. That is why their teachings are still followed centuries after they are dead. What a leader has to offer should be implied.

Think of the difference between Jawaharlal Nehru and Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Nehru was a perfect politician and had an intellectual bent. He stirred up the patriotic fervour of the revolutionaries with his speeches. His leadership qualities cannot be doubted but Gandhi was more popular with a wider mass appeal. Gandhi made very few public speeches as such (the one before the salt satyagraha being the most famous), but he managed to touch the hearts of the common people. When crowds listened to him, they did so with their hearts. He roused their emotions.

As the Piper you have to charm the people around you. You have to cast a spell on them, if you know what I mean.

I’ll give you another example drawn from my personal experience. I once had a boss, who was one of the most unassuming persons I’ve ever seen. He rarely raised his voice in office, and even out of it. He had a fine sense of humour but his chief quality was that he would never tell or order anyone to do anything. He would always ask – ‘do you think you could do this by 4 pm please?” If we did as he asked he was, of course, most grateful and would show it too. If, for some reason, we were unable to do it, he would never take us to task. He would just look concerned, ask us if we were busy and offer to help us in completing the work. Sometimes he wouldn’t say anything at all but just go away, making it clear however that we had let him down in some way.

I don’t think any of us ever disregarded his requests if we could help it. If we failed to do our task, we felt guilty and ashamed of ourselves. He was held in high esteem and affection by all of us and indeed was a respected editor. All of us would swear by him. His presence in office was a comforting one, even if we did not interact with him directly. He was one of those managers who never presumed to advise; he would throw out suggestions, which we were free to take or reject. He approached everyone, even the most junior member of the team with a certain degree of faith in their abilities.

Look at some of the prominent dictatorial figures in history, such as Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini. They brought a lot of misery to the countries they led and we are often left wondering why people ever followed them. The emotional attraction or pull of these leaders was so great that people could not help going along with them. Like the Pied Piper, they had a ‘secret charm’ which drew the people to them. They could exert some kind of an influence on ordinary people, who were willing to suspend their rational thinking and obey them blindly.

So, are you ready with your pipes and charm?

Contributed by Janaki Krishnan, an entrepreneur in the education and skills sector. Prior to this she was a business journalist. Writing continues to be her abiding passion

Difference between Personnel Management & HRM

Posted on May 19, 2015 by IBS India

Many students of management and laypeople often hear the term HRM or Human Resource Management and wonder about the difference between HRM and the traditional term Personnel Management. In earlier times, the Personnel Manager of a factory or firm was the person in charge of ensuring employee welfare and interceding between the management and the employees. In recent times, the term has been replaced with HR manager. This article looks at the differences in usage and scope of functions as well as the underlying theory behind these nomenclatures. In the section on introducing HRM, we briefly looked at the main differences. We shall look into them in more detail here.

Personnel Management

Traditionally the term personnel management was used to refer to the set of activities concerning the workforce which included staffing, payroll, contractual obligations and other administrative tasks. In this respect, personnel management encompasses the range of activities that are to do with managing the workforce rather than resources. Personnel Management is more administrative in nature and the Personnel Manager’s main job is to ensure that the needs of the workforce as they pertain to their immediate concerns are taken care of. Further, personnel managers typically played the role of mediators between the management and the employees and hence there was always the feeling that personnel management was not in tune with the objectives of the management.

Example:

Raj works for a company in personnel management. Personnel management is an administrative function of an organization that exists to provide the personnel needed for organizational activities and to manage the general employee-employer relationship. Let’s see how Raj does it.

Raj engages in planning and job analysis to determine his organization’s current and future labor needs. He recruits employees with knowledge, skills and abilities that the organization needs. Raj and his coworkers will also help develop current employees through employee appraisal and training. He’ll help ensure a safe and healthy workplace by making sure the organization complies with all occupational health and safety regulations.

Human Resource Management

With the advent of resource centric organizations in recent decades, it has become imperative to put “people first” as well as secure management objectives of maximizing the ROI (Return on Investment) on the resources. This has led to the development of the modern HRM function which is primarily concerned with ensuring the fulfillment of management objectives and at the same time ensuring that the needs of the resources are taken care of. In this way, HRM differs from personnel management not only in its broader scope but also in the way in which its mission is defined. HRM goes beyond the administrative tasks of personnel management and encompasses a broad vision of how management would like the resources to contribute to the success of the organization.

Example:

Lata works in human resource management (HRM). Human resource management also involves the management of people in an organization. The job of human resource management is to ensure that the organization has the human capital it needs to accomplish its goals. ‘Human capital’ is a fancy way of describing employees with a certain set of knowledge, skills and abilities that can be used by an organization in a productive way. Let’s take a quick look at what Lata and other people in human resource management do.

Lata ensures that the company is appropriately staffed, which includes job analysis, planning, recruiting and selection. Lata and her fellow resource managers also develop training and education programs to keep employees up-to-date on the skills and knowledge they need. Human resource management develops compensation plans just like personnel management.

10 points difference

Personnel management is a traditional approach of managing people in the organization. Human resource management is a modern approach of managing people and their strengths in the organization.

Personnel management focuses on personnel administration, employee welfare and labor relation. Human resource management focuses on acquisition, development, motivation and maintenance of human resources in the organization.

Personnel management assumes people as a input for achieving desired output. Human resource management assumes people as an important and valuable resource for achieving desired output.

Under personnel management, personnel function is undertaken for employee’s satisfaction. Under human resource management, administrative function is undertaken for goal achievement.

Under personnel management, job design is done on the basis of division of labor. Under human resource management, job design function is done on the basis of group work/team work.

Under personnel management, employees are provided with less training and development opportunities. Under human resource management, employees are provided with more training and development opportunities.

In personnel management, decisions are made by the top management as per the rules and regulation of the organization. In human resource management, decisions are made collectively after considering employee’s participation, authority, decentralization, competitive environment etc.

Personnel management focuses on increased production and satisfied employees. Human resource management focuses on effectiveness, culture, productivity and employee’s participation.

Personnel management is concerned with personnel manager. Human resource management is concerned with all level of managers from top to bottom.

Personnel management is a routine function. Human resource management is a strategic function.

Personnel Management and HRM: A Paradigm Shift ?

Cynics might point to the fact that whatever term we use, it is finally “about managing people”. The answer to this would be that the way in which people are managed says a lot about the approach that the firm is taking. For instance, traditional manufacturing units had personnel managers whereas the services firms have HR managers. While it is tempting to view Personnel Management as archaic and HRM as modern, we have to recognize the fact that each serves or served the purpose for which they were instituted. Personnel Management was effective in the “smokestack” era and HRM is effective in the 21st century and this definitely reflects a paradigm shift in the practice of managing people.

Conclusion

It is clear from the above paragraphs that HRM denotes a shift in focus and strategy and is in tune with the needs of the modern organization. HRM concentrates on the planning, monitoring and control aspects of resources whereas Personnel Management was largely about mediating between the management and employees. Many experts view Personnel Management as being workforce centered whereas HRM is resource centered. In conclusion, the differences between these two terms have to be viewed through the prism of people management through the times and in context of the industry that is being studied.

Contributed by Suchin Kulshrestha, (Class of 2008, IBS Hyderabad)

MBA Degree and a Political Career!

Posted on May 19, 2015 by IBS India

Suppose you were to go up to your parents and tell them that you want to study for a management degree and that it is your ambition to go into politics; can you guess what their reaction would be?

Yes, they are likely to hit the roof or at the very least, they will tell you that you would be wasting your education. When you come to think of it, ‘waste’ seems to be rather a strange word to use in connection with a political career because a politician does require all the things that are taught in a MBA class. MBA Degree and a Political Career!

It is a no-brainer that politics needs professionals – educated people who are dedicated to the cause of service to the nation (idealistic though that may sound). At present, we all know the state of politicians in the country. While we do not want to generalise or unnecessarily vilify them, it is an indisputable fact many of them go into it because either they belong to political families or because they think, it is the easiest way to power.

Politics is a very noble profession and I would say that it is a vocation on the lines of nursing, medicine or social service. Politics is about representing the people; politics is about development; politics is about able administration; politics is about raising awareness; politics is about advocacy.

It is unfortunate that what drives many people to politics are all for the wrong reasons – power, money, greed etc. But, that is not the fault of the profession; that is more to do with the people who go into it.

However, the purpose of this blog is not to promote politics as a profession but to dwell on the qualities needed to be an able politician and how they harmonise with your B-School curriculum.

Let us take the attributes one by one.

Leadership: When you join politics, you will probably join as a party worker at the grassroots level. What you do, how you do it, your ability to work your way up (much as in the corporate sector, here also there is a hierarchy to climb) and your influence within the party and the people among whom you work will all depend on your leadership skills and capacity to inspire. It is very important to impress your leadership talent on the citizens, because they are the ones who will ultimately choose you as their representative.

Managing People: Politics is a rough game and as in any corporate set-up, everyone is trying to get ahead and push their way to the top. You have to be able to manage various sets of people – your co-workers, your peers, your party bosses and of course those whom you are serving (I mean the people and not your political masters).

Teamwork: As the recent elections have shown, for a party to succeed, it is necessary for the entire team to swing together. The BharatiyaJanata Party had only one star in its pack (NarendraModi) but the cadre worked together to impress upon the people that voting them to power would bring about change in the country. Using the same argument, we can say that it was lack of teamwork that led to the Congress party’s rout in the general elections.

Planning a Long-term Strategic Campaign: Politics is one of the few professions where you have to plan for the long-term. Unlike as in other vocations, a single act of brilliance will not get you anywhere. It has to be a sustained effort. You have to start your campaign strategy in advance, if you want to stand for elections and aim to be a legislator. The planning has to be meticulous, detailed and factor in unforeseen circumstances among others. You have to consider your rivals (both within the party and outside), your competitors, gauge the mood of the electorate and weave all that in your campaign strategy. It is like bringing a product to the market.

Having a Global Vision: Present-day politicians rarely have a vision, unless it is that of enriching themselves, cynical as that may sound. When you think of the older generation such as Jawaharlal Nehru, LalBahadurShastri, Sardar Patel etc., you know that they had a grand vision for India. Unless you have a vision your work will be meaningless and without any purpose. Think of Arvind Kejriwal when he started the AamAdmi Party – it was to rid India of corruption.

Using Statistics and Data Analysis to Predict Poll results and Outcome: We know that India is a land of demographic, cultural and religious diversity. This diversity, while enriching, is also a reason for confusion because nobody votes in a cohesive fashion. This will require you to track the voting patterns of the various segments over the years, create a trend analysis, extrapolate those results for the medium and long-term and then forecast your chances of victory or loss and the margins thereof. During elections, you will need all the data crunching at your disposal and on a real-time basis that will enable you to know where you stand.

Raising Funds: Your clout in the organisation/party is directly proportional to your ability to raise funds. Every party looks for a steady source of funding and if you can ensure that, your position in the party is assured.

Management of Funds: As you rise up the hierarchy in a party, you will be responsible for management of funds in the particular area where you work. Later, if you are elected and become a Member of Parliament or that of a legislative assembly then the government will give you funds to use for the development of your constituency. How you use these funds and put them to work will test your funds management expertise.

Deploying Resources and Using them Efficiently: People, money and your own reserves (of skills, assets etc.) are the resources that you have. You have to deploy them intelligently and efficiently if you want to see the returns that you seek. In the case of politics, returns are invariable measured in terms of your vote-catching abilities and whether you manage to retain the seat for your party.

As you can see, a political career is not much different from a corporate career and the skills and domain expertise that you will learn in a B-School can be equally used to further your career as a politician.

So, politics anyone?

Contributed by Disha Parekh Mohanty

Start-ups demand leaders and not just bosses

Posted on May 18, 2015 by IBS India

Every successful company was once a start-up and behind the growth and success of each, there were pillars called leaders. There is no place in the world where a strong leadership is not required to achieve substantial growth. When it comes to a start-up, a strong and positive leadership is needed to help the company to sustain the hectic environment where the odds are most stacked upon you. If you are leading a team in a start-up and really want to see your employees contributing to the growth of the firm, then you have to act like a leader and ward off all the qualities of a horrible boss. The distinction between being a leader or a boss may seem small to you, but it really means a whole world to your subordinates.

Are you a leader or a boss?

A leader always learns while a boss knows it all
A good leader listens more than talks while a boss talks lot and listens less
A leader encourages while a boss criticizes or blames
A leader recognizes your natural talents while a boss identifies the weaknesses
A leader finds solutions while a boss gives just answers
A leader takes the accountability while a boss passes the blame
A leader reveals his vulnerability while a boss protects his ego
A leader demands performance while a boss demands results
A leader trains while a boss directs

Every team has a boss but what they look for is a leader. So start leading today and win the hearts!

When a company is getting off the ground, there is no room for the bosses, it demands leaders. Here are the qualities which are demanded in the leaders to be successful in start-ups.

Quality to set the path and get everyone in the right direction

A good visionary can well set a path for the start-up and a strict boss can execute it but only a true leader can perform both the activities right. There is a huge scope of setting a long term strategy and day to day tasks based on that. A visionary leader has to do both the things well and should recognize each and every opportunity coming on the way and should well execute the plans based on that.

A leader knows how to generate resources, not just allocate them

A boss can organize an army. He takes the given set of resources and allocates them wherever required. But a smart leader leverages the given set of resources. In the environment of a start-up company, the most important thing is to hire the best people and then train them in the most efficient manner, so that they help in the faster growth of the start-up. A leader knows it all and works with the long term prospects in order to build a great foundation of the firm and not just focusing on small term achievements.

Passion for work

Passion for work is the most desired thing for a leader. It is not just 8 hours of your office schedule, what matters is the amount of dedication towards your work. Even after leaving the office, leaders find some time to think about new innovative ideas for innovation for their work and management. This gives a positive impact on the minds of the employees that their leader is the person who is actually leading everyone in all aspects and is the ideal for the job. As said ‘Work is worship’ and this thing is followed by the leader in every dimension of his job, whether it is managing the core job or managing employees and other resources. Start-ups demand leaders and not just bosses

Knowledge is Power

It is rightly said that one who has stopped learning has stopped growing and this is what done by the bosses who think that they know everything. ‘Knowledge is Power’ and a 360 degree thirst for knowledge is what desired by the leaders in a start-up. When a company is growing, it is important to understand the workflow, business scenarios and profit making initiatives. Having a sound knowledge is desired but learning in parallel is more needed by the leaders. One who wants to be the boss only will avoid listening to the employees but the real leaders keep their eyes and ears open when the staff or client provides feedbacks or suggestions. A good learner is a good listener and that applies to a good leader.

Identifying the real talents and attract them

The key to success of a start-up is to identify the real talents of the employees and use them in the positive growth of the company. A pool of talented employees can change the scenario and they can lead to a sharp rise in the growth trajectory. While a leader should identify the talented people, he should also become a powerful magnet for them. History has shown that people choose leaders and then follow them up to hell and that should be the quality of a start-up leader. If a boss can’t create a talented team of his own, then there is no way by which he can lead a team well.

So the success mantra for a successful start up is “Not Bosses but Leaders”. In today’s world of fast growing competition, it is the effective leadership only which can help companies to grow and succeed in the competition. Whichever services you provide or whichever products you create an effective leadership of your employees and production is vital for stepping up. The productivity of your organization can only reach the expected levels when there is leadership and not just rules and regulations. It is better to be your own boss but not to be a ruling boss of others! Anyone can start a business but only those succeed who have effective leadership in the center. So, the bottom line is “As a startup leader you need to make things happen by acting as a leader and not just a boss”!

Ashish Singh Parihar ( Class of 2008, IBS PUNE )

MANAGEMENT AND THE DIGITAL NATIVE

Posted on May 15, 2015 by IBS India

Management and the digital native

Today everything around us has gone tech. The need to have everything in place while being “on the move” is something that every person looks forward to. Apparel, furnishings, FMCG, food, housing, you name it and the internet provides you with a solution to bring it within your reach. This tsunami of digitization is being readily lapped up by a generation that drives the future. And it is this generation about whom the world is talking and taking notice of their activities.

The beginning of it all:

Digital natives, also expressed by some as Generation Me, are now entering or planning to come into the job market. This generation’s private activities, fashioned by growing up on a digital planet, will show strong effects on the future of business and the relations between employers and employees.

Older generations had an outlook of management which could be considered close to having a demigod status. Contemporary graduates have a different understanding of leadership and management. Previously managers had the powers because of their title. Digital natives on the other hand, follow the right individual who will lead them to eventual success. So, in case of ineffective managers, who do not seem to be equipped to lead the team; the digital natives will identify the most effective person and will tag along with him or her regardless of their title, or lack of it. This is not rebelliousness but somewhat a fresh, more valuable manner of running inter-team dynamics.

Graduates in their late-20s can be viewed as being superficial or casual as they experience the recently popular, “quarter-life crisis”. They question after years of study, whether the current job profile is what they would identify with, and many change careers before they’ve even started. On the face of their career, many of them don’t really recognize what it is that they covet. As a result, the aspiration for a dream job is not always in line by the facility to express what that job is.

Digital Natives are an exceedingly networked generation which is further facilitated by growing technology. Social networking is a primary element of the manner that they function. Expecting them to leave this way of being linked with the wider network when they arrive into the workplace will swiftly take them out to look for another place to work.

They carry technology with them and make use of social and tech tools for everything. Such an attitude is clearly seen in cases when they are provided with old hand-me-down tech, or expect them to perform with shoddy hardware or software; their dissatisfaction will be expressed in the substandard work that they will deliver. Their caliber is such that they will be managing their own world with new technology that they bring themselves at the same time, while the employer’s substandard tech lies on their desks.

B- Schools bringing a change:

B-school’s have a lot of smart populace. This is a fact no matter which way you look at it. Most institutes nowadays are also packed with people the internet likes to call digital natives. The type – whose understanding of pop culture is better than their knowledge of finance, for whom NSFW (not safe for work) means categorically open everywhere and who keep one eye on their Facebook feeds regardless of posting modestly.

It is not fairly close to the digital native Marc Prensky had thought whilst he wrote his influential study in 2001. As per Prensky, the main barrier this digital generation runs into is education, in particular the digital students being educated by analogue faculty. Having sat through classes in different domains and multiple locations, I have somewhat diverse outlook on this.

Today’s trial with the group of digital natives old enough to attend b-school is that we are the generation who tailored ourselves to the digital universe during the path of our lives. We were not born into it, we did not have access to tablets and mobiles at the age of five and we had to acclimatize to live our lives on Orkut, Facebook and Twitter. Now this adaptation has moved to such a height that we have become gripped to the digiverse in a way very similar to addictions seen with teens and other drugs related issues. It is a new side of the world we know which is exposed to agile minds at a time when learning latest skills is easy. With this logic, we are not the exact digital natives. The ‘originals’ are the ones who are being born today, yesterday or anytime after the iPod became a commodity.

B-schools have had to settle themselves to this imminent tide. Everyone identifies the fact that learning is on the rise and will one day be wholly digital. That gamification will puff out through the education system and future MBA scholars will be trained on negotiation from playing a hostage game or value capture from counter strike. However the challenge is that schools have tried to push “digitization” to an audience that does not necessarily use the plethora of resources aptly. How many of us in fact use more than one digital source to get real work done? What percentage of the bandwidth consumed across professional institutes, is Facebook and YouTube and why is no one alarmed that it is so high that it would call for tough actions?

I’m no special, every time I gazed about in class, I always saw a few scholars (ok more than a few) fiddling with devices for various motives. Institutes have to outline a system to keep students suitably focused as this generation of naturalized digital natives, will by no means be truly native.

Addressing the unknown:

So, who are digital natives and what makes them unusual? Are they an opportunity, a threat or both? How can business use their explicit behaviors and mindsets to function productively? We explore some of these key characteristics to help counter these questions.

Digital revolution in the industry is generating new revenue streams for businesses but it is the generation of “digital natives” that is set to bring good yield. Nearly all international brands are trying to reinvent their industries by providing new digital services, crafting new sales channels and developing technology to get in touch with new global customers. In the path of doing so, they are opening up career prospects for tech-savvy business managers in departments and services areas that did not exist years ago.

As per a study by Capgemini, 77% businesses regard lack of digital proficiency an obstacle to their digital makeover. The quest to extract digital understanding is driving a requirement for highly trained graduates. Financial services group American Express (Amex), for example, plans to hire 250 MBAs in 2015 as part of its “digital renovation”. Technological change is one major reason for the sheer pace of this growth. Tech has renovated the face of how commercial businesses were run, from retail to banking to media. Cities like Bengaluru, Pune, NCR and Mumbai are home to more digitally-led organizations than other urban areas in most of Europe and the UK. Biz schools say there are prospects for MBAs to create their mark across the globe, particularly in management consulting.

MBA graduates bring a fresh approach and understanding of digital perspective into consulting companies. The understanding of digital services will be a key prerequisite for all consulting posts. A gush in hiring at the tech wings of big strategic quarters like Accenture and Deloitte is determined by the revenues of new service channels. Digital and tech services amplified their allocation of consulting profits by 6% last year, accounting for a quarter of income.

Digitization of media sector is one such trade area which is in dire want of managers. Managements talk about skill shortage on the rise, and biz schools have established professional MBA programs for various industries, including the much hyped media industry. An MBA with awareness of the trade will certainly be a valuable asset. Cable companies are moving content online. HBO in recent times stated about a new separate digital service, while online distributors such as YouTube are on the rise.

International advertising and marketing corporations have also been increasing their hiring to match with the pace of digital growth. Businesses say they value MBAs skilled in data analytics. As per Maurice Lévy, CEO a key French conglomerate, Publicis Groupe: To break new ground in today’s world of advertising, citizens need to have a high “technology quotient”.

Microsoft runs an internship program which takes in 75 MBAs per year, and they also are into recruiting about 300 students into full-time roles. The online retailer Amazon has also been the leading recruiter at various b-schools over the past two years. This upsurge owes to the fact that MBAs are strong problem solvers and analytical thinkers, thereby making them become a part of the potential leadership pipeline. MBAs blossom at strategic spots as they can take the ownership of big projects and work out hard problems for clients. Amex has opened up its employment process, and is targeting b-schools at the US, UK and India. In actuality, American Express is in the center of an exhilarating digital transformation and this presents infinite breaks for MBA grads.

The outlook of digital natives for the world is very different, even to those who are perhaps less than a decade older to them. Today’s university grads have most likely spent at least 50% more time using their digital toys than reading. In India, China and Japan, this figure is considered to be even more. Does this make them less intelligent or less educated than the previous generation? No it doesn’t. It only means that their learning patterns are different and they bring this divergence into the workplace. Digital natives live and work in a world where information moves at the speed of lightening. Pictographics play a significant role; milennials like to multi-task and they perform their best when networked. It all begins from within and how the leadership deals with their young digital native employees.

To conclude, it is highly likely that the future will hold a challenge for digital natives: if they are inclined to develop an aptitude for leadership, they must hone some emotional intelligence, or else the control will be possessed by a handful of senior web savvy folks who are more able to internalize information (since they are supported by technology) and with superior social skills (they learnt during their life).

Contributed by Deeba, (Class of 2013, IBS Gurgaon)

How to effectively manage your family business?

Posted on May 15, 2015 by IBS India

America is the biggest economy in the world and you will be surprised to know that the biggest part of America’s wealth is from family owned businesses only! Nearly 80-90 % of all business firms in North America are actually family enterprises. About 50 percent of the gross domestic product of US comes from family businesses; nearly 60 percent of the country’s employment and 78 percent of all new job creation comes from family owned businesses in US.

Recent surveys have shown that family businesses have longevity and continue for generations to come. The mean age of the family control businesses is 60.2 years and more than 35 percent survive to the next generations. The driving factor is sense of connection and the sense of identity which owners and other members perceive with the business. There is a long term perspective and the firm has high values which affect the resource inventory positively. However the day to day work of a family business owner can be compromised and affected by different factors such as relatives and through an effective management all the issues coming on the way can be solved positively. The challenges are big and lots of things like emotions etc. can cause interference to rational business decisions. If you run a family business then here are some useful tips for you to effectively manage the challenges you face in your business and excel at all steps.

Business comes first

Always work on the rule that in business, business comes first and the success of the business is very important whatever may be the politics or ties in the family. The business relationship should be accepted and understood by all the family members. The boss and employee relationship must be followed with full sincerity. The issues and problems of the work or home should never overlap or conflict with one another. For making this point effective you should do the following things:

A clear business plan, mission and strategy must be developed and communicated to each and every member of the family.
The structure and chain of command of the business should be well communicated to all. Line of authority for decision making should be clear and communicated to all.
Avoid confusion and blame making by communicating everything with each and every family member.

For stronger management hire a non family member

To make decisions and stick to them firmly, consider hiring a non family member for a position of authority. By doing this you will be free to make effective strategies, plans and developments and the non family member will incorporate it well in the day to day operations. By doing this you may be a bit thick skinned but the strategy will really work for smother operation of the business.

Resolve all family discords and conflicts

Dealing with discord or conflict among the family members in a business scenario is really difficult. But it can be handled well by remaining objective about the situation. Do not take side of any particular member of the family but on the same time tell everyone that you will not let disagreements hamper the business and its objectives. If you find that you are not able to solve the disagreements among the family members then consider moving the disagreed member to new line in the work or to other branches of the work.

The conflicts in the family businesses are easily resolved when there is a proper planning in advance for dealing with the future problems that may arise. A good thing is to develop the business plan which recognizes the impact that relationships can have on the business operation. The plan should discuss that how the business operation and family relationships can be managed. The plan may have a detailed procedure for resolving the disputes between the family members. The use of an outside advisory board with non family members nominated by shareholders can solve the disputes in a better way. There are qualified family counselors and family business mediators too who perform the job of resolving discord and conflicts in the family owned businesses.

Give importance to family relationships too

It is really important to understand the importance of relationships too. Everyone wants to be a successful businessman and earn a lot of money but giving importance to family relationship is also important and needful. It is really heartbreaking when we hear that families ripped apart due to business disputes. One thing should always be there in mind- “You can build a business again but not the relations”. You have got only one family for life, so give importance to it.

There should be family fun time too!

All business and no fun time should be avoided. You may have fun during the business with the family but you should really set aside a “family only” time. Talking about the business all the time will make your relationships suffer as well as other members may feel frustrated. Spend time away from the business with your family. Enjoy with the feeling that you are not business partners. Go out for lunch and do everything which makes fun. This will not only give you and your family relaxation but will also help in strengthening the bonds within the family. Ultimately your working relationships will improve.

Do not create two classes within the family

This is one very important rule in a family owned business. Never try to create 2 classes of employees which are family and non family. Never give special treatment to your family members and be impartial towards all the employees. Giving special favors to family members in a company sets a bad example to everyone and can be a cause of de-motivation to the non family members. This feeling should never come in the mind of non family members in your company that promotion or salary increment is out of their reach because they are not family members.

Family business gives you a sense of pride, loyalty, fellowship and continuity apart from a financial stability for everyone in the family. The legacy continues for generations and provides a sense of uniqueness and recognition for every member of the family. With proper planning and management you can always avoid the pitfalls and effectively manage your family business. By using the strength of the knowledge passed down the generations to you and blending it with your management skills you can surely reach the new levels of success in your family business.

Contributed by Ashish Singh Parihar ( Class of 2008, IBS PUNE )

HOW TO INCREASE PERFORMANCE THROUGH STRATEGIC THINKING

Posted on May 14, 2015 by IBS India

Strategic thinking, the term means taking time to imagine, dream and think futuristically. A ‘would-be manager’ must not just depend on subconscious thoughts keeping in mind the requirement of exceptional performance at work and him. It has to do with your mission, vision, values and strategy. Strategic thinking is important because it leads to options that enable strategic decision making that result to decisions. These decisions lead to strategic planning and actions.

Strategic thinking is also a process that involves letting go of assumptions and postulates such as ‘it is impossible’; ‘it’s irrelevant’ and ‘I am too busy’ etc. You must remember that the job of assumptions is to block progress and hence they must be done away with.

Coming to the attributes of strategic thinking, I personally feel that strategic thinking must be big to understand the macro and micro environment; deep to ensure depth in questioning and testing validity of your assumptions as well as long to understand how far you are looking.

But, the question is, how to think strategically? You need to scan for your macro and micro environment; think and selections through brainstorming; relate options to reality and uncertainty; keep trends in mind and alongside imagine and innovate. Now let us correlate strategic thinking with productivity:

Raise Doubts and Questions

Question and answers rub against each other like stones that product sparks which ignite the fire of imagination. Ask yourself ‘where am I today?’ to increase your presence in the moment; note where you stand in your pursuit and what you need to add to reach the zenith.

Question yourself ‘where would I want to be in near future’ to determine prior and new objectives that lure you. You will be able to get your priority list and hence will be able to think of actions.

Enlist all impediments in the way of your strategic goals by re-asking and analyzing ‘what obstacles stand in my way’. All these will initiate action and better performance!

Imagine your Future

Your performance is crucially linked to your inspiration and motivation. You really need to put aside all distractions to identify new challenges and opportunities for the future.

Think about what you want to be as well as what you want in the next 5 years and be clear about it so that your internal self guides you along bringing in motivation. This process makes everything exciting and raises the level of performance.

Adapt Happiness in your Choices

Understand and acknowledge the thoughts, feelings, values and meaningfulness about your professional life. Remember you choose what to think and when to think but what you really have to account for is whether these thoughts make you happy. People who are content and happy are immensely productive than those who dislike or disrespect their work.

Embrace Creativity

Your life is not just all about reasons, logic and rationality. Hence to boost your strategic performance and thinking you must delve in being creative with your thoughts and actions.

Along creativity, you open all doors to novelty, innovation, being out of the box; improved vision, imagination; accepting emotions and foreseeing by thinking ahead. You will end up being intuitive and understand the failures to improve upon. Being creative rewards you with greater productivity; out of the box achievement and greater freedom.

Invest in Innovation

New products, ideas, concepts always tend to pull the masses towards themselves and hence you must invest in innovation by remaining inspired. Understand and imbibe the excitement of an entrepreneur who converts his ideas into reality and this very factor boosts not only responsibility but also his performance.

Don’t Stick to Failures

Delving on the past or failures stifles your process of strategic thinking. Hence, you could shift your focus away from symptoms of failures to the solution. Failures if not corrected cause stagnation but solution thinking improves performance and the overall person.

Be Alert and Pro-Active

If you are alert and aware through your 5 senses, you are to additional information around you that will invoke your thinking and thus enhance your performance and productivity. Being pro-active makes you able to think and respond faster. ROLE OF INFORMATION AND PRO-ACTIVENESS

Build and Evaluate Options

Just like you fill theory papers with new ideas; flood the sheet of solutions with options to a particular problem. Frankly, this is what advertising agencies also practice. Brainstorm and build a plethora of ideas so that each idea pushes you to perform and keep removing the impractical ones. Once the best idea is selected by you; you become more confident and your performance increases.

Take Risks and let go Fear

Fear always plays with your productivity and if you choose to stick with it, your performance gradually declines. Hence along thinking differently, accepting risks and preparing to face all failures in the process of growth; you must accept calculated risk and delve in innovation. Steve Jobs became immortal in the history of technology and marketing for his different thinking patterns; honor for creativity and embracing change.

Learn from your Mistakes and Leaders

A failure is actually someone who doesn’t learn from his mistakes and keeps repeating them. By employing strategic thinking in your life you invite immense learning progress and increase performance by a corrected thinking, behavioral or habitual pattern that comes to you with it. Also it is advisable to critically think and analyze other’s mistakes to learn from them else the world would not use case studies.

Leaders serve 2 purposes i.e. being examples of success and invoking inspiration in you. One must notice that most of the popular leaders took the road less travelled; believed in their thoughts and dreams more than other’s doubts while remaining perseverant and enduring. Strategic thinking process didn’t make them only productive but also brought them personal and professional growth.

To enhance your strategic thinking process you would require some or all of the following tools:

Balance between logical and creative sides of the brain
Ability to develop clearly defined professional and personal vision
Define objectives and strategic plans.
Adopt flexibility to allow strategic drifts
Awareness and use of 5 senses.
Willingness to learn and improve
Ability to devote time to oneself
Seeking other’s advise and feedback
Matching creativity with reality: Realistic Thinking
Being non-judgmental
Patience and perseverance

Strategic thinking sounds like a huge and heavy term however, you can try and make it a habit to not only improve your life but also enhance your overall performance.

Contributed by Chayan Jain (Class of 2011-2013, IBS HYDERABAD)

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