My smart phone reminds me of my friend's birthday. It also reminds me that I had to send an official mail at a particular time. It tells me to do shopping. It also tells me where to shop. It shows me the way when I drive. I am very comfortable about this payless, non complaining (only for power it craves) very reliable assistant that I have.
But the question that came to my mind is, did it really help in improving my efficiency in my work or my personal life?
13 years back when I was in pharma, I had a team of four people working in four different parts of Andhrapradeh. Initially I had no mobile phone. Applied and in long waiting list for the land phone.
There were no digital organisers. All the communication was through letters sent through post or courier. In case of emergency the only option was to send a telegram and wish it had reached the concerned.
A book and a pen did everything that is needed. It would be once or twice in a month that I used to visit the place of a representative and meet him in person. It was the only time to communicate to him. Once I leave the place there is no way I can communicate to him directly.
Every time I need money I had to go the bank before it is closed, take a token, wait for the kind hearted teller to call my name.
When planning for a tour it consumes an hour or two in booking a ticket in a train or bus where I had to be physically present at the counter.
Lot of things to remember, lot of time to get the things done. But did business suffer ?
The answer is a strict NO.
Now a days.. I spend typically 50% of my time communicating with my team on various issues. Hours together are spent daily on a fancy thing called "conference call". A truck load of MIS analyzing the numbers in every possible angle that newton can invent arrives everyday.
Bud did all this made the work or comfort at personal life improve ?
The answer could be NO
Earlier days I know what I need to do for the day at the starting of the day. My team too knows what they are supposed to do on a particular day (which was decided monthly once through something called tour planner and was adhered to)
Time spent on comupter, phone and other gadgets was less. Time was mostly spent in the field.
Less number of analyses were made. It was commonsense that made the people to take corrective measures if something goes wrong.
I had leisure time that was really leisure time.
Then what is that this entire digitalisation of business brought ?
A question that I feel that everybody should ask themselves.
Let us understand, gadgets, technology may help to some extent. But it is basically human beings that improve the bottom line.
Friday, May 31, 2013
Sunday, May 19, 2013
KNOW YOUR DNA BEFORE YOU DECIDE TO DO SOMETHING NEW
There was a CEO of a large FMCG comapany making a statement that "Indians are willing to pay extra if the product offers value. It is not the price that impacts the decision of consumer in today's world"
Minutes later came one more interview with yet another CEO of a retail chain. He went on saying " the success of his retail stores is in discounts and offers that it offers. "Indian consumer is very price conscious"
Within ten minutes I heard two CEOs who head very large companies saying completely contradictory statements, both backed by their logic and experience.
Are they contradicting... yes but still both of them seem to be correct.
Any organisation builds it's strategy based on market research and logic. Powerful theories supported by huge data base are made and presented to the boards.
Let us see if whether Indian consumer is price conscious or value conscious.. (from my subhiksha retail experience)
Godrej sells Rs 10 per packet hair dye, whereas Garnier sells Rs 100 pack. Godrej has it's own market and Garnier too.
People spend good amount of money when they buy formal shoes. But seldom they spend on socks. Most of the indians buy cheaper socks and costly shoes.
Most consumers buy shampoo sachets in bulk rather than buying a bottle. But don't bother about money when they buy over priced detergent powder.
People become value conscious when choosing an LCD tv but become price conscious the next moment when they buy a voltage stabilizer for the same.
I feel that we can not categorize customers as value conscious or price conscious. A customer can be value conscious as well as price conscious in different occasions. One can also see the behavior of customer becoming more price conscious during month ends.
The point that I would like to make is, while companies try to analyze different theories before they formulate a strategy it is more important to spend more time on which strategy suits, than which strategy is correct.
Even Garnier can enter the Rs 10 sachet market and still can capture market share that is dominated by Godrej. But the company needs to ask itself whether the change in the strategy can be implemented profitably. In other words every company has it's own strengths. If the new strategy or the new segment that the company is evaluating is going to further strengthen the same then it can go ahead.
As small car and mid sized segments are growing, even Mercedec Benz also can view entering this budget segment and can be profitable too. But the Benz DNA is different. It would give more returns for the company if it spends more time and money on it's strength and innovate.
EVALUATE THE STRATEGY BUT KEEP AN EYE ON THE DNA OF THE COMPANY BEFORE YOU TAKE A DECISION.
A cricketer can play foot ball too if he puts effort. But the question is "is it worth doing that"
Minutes later came one more interview with yet another CEO of a retail chain. He went on saying " the success of his retail stores is in discounts and offers that it offers. "Indian consumer is very price conscious"
Within ten minutes I heard two CEOs who head very large companies saying completely contradictory statements, both backed by their logic and experience.
Are they contradicting... yes but still both of them seem to be correct.
Any organisation builds it's strategy based on market research and logic. Powerful theories supported by huge data base are made and presented to the boards.
Let us see if whether Indian consumer is price conscious or value conscious.. (from my subhiksha retail experience)
Godrej sells Rs 10 per packet hair dye, whereas Garnier sells Rs 100 pack. Godrej has it's own market and Garnier too.
People spend good amount of money when they buy formal shoes. But seldom they spend on socks. Most of the indians buy cheaper socks and costly shoes.
Most consumers buy shampoo sachets in bulk rather than buying a bottle. But don't bother about money when they buy over priced detergent powder.
People become value conscious when choosing an LCD tv but become price conscious the next moment when they buy a voltage stabilizer for the same.
I feel that we can not categorize customers as value conscious or price conscious. A customer can be value conscious as well as price conscious in different occasions. One can also see the behavior of customer becoming more price conscious during month ends.
The point that I would like to make is, while companies try to analyze different theories before they formulate a strategy it is more important to spend more time on which strategy suits, than which strategy is correct.
Even Garnier can enter the Rs 10 sachet market and still can capture market share that is dominated by Godrej. But the company needs to ask itself whether the change in the strategy can be implemented profitably. In other words every company has it's own strengths. If the new strategy or the new segment that the company is evaluating is going to further strengthen the same then it can go ahead.
As small car and mid sized segments are growing, even Mercedec Benz also can view entering this budget segment and can be profitable too. But the Benz DNA is different. It would give more returns for the company if it spends more time and money on it's strength and innovate.
EVALUATE THE STRATEGY BUT KEEP AN EYE ON THE DNA OF THE COMPANY BEFORE YOU TAKE A DECISION.
A cricketer can play foot ball too if he puts effort. But the question is "is it worth doing that"
Well defined plans fail due to poor execution WHY
A few days back I was watching a T.V program " Man Vs Wild". While I feel great after walking for a few kilometers during morning walk, here was a guy walking kilometers together in the dense forest. It gave me huge motivation and I instantly decided to jog everyday rather than walk routinely. Also I felt the need for the new shoes to support my new decision. For the next few days I felt so good with my improved stamina and started imagining if I could accompany the person in the TV show. It all went as planned for a week.
It was the 8th or 9th day after my new Stamina Improvement Regime (SIR) started. The alarm started as usual at 5 am indicating me to wake up for the SIR. Before I decided o hit the snooze button my brain started citing reasons like, delayed sleep last night, unusual power cut that disturbed the sleep... the reasons that looked more than genuine, were endless. When the reasons reached the desired level I decided to excuse myself for the day.
In the second week of my SIR the frequency came down to three times a week from everyday in the previous week. Then slowly it became once in a week.
When I was trying to understand as to what was preventing me from doing what I passionately wanted to do, I could find a few similarities in the organisational behavior too.
People go through huge amount of data before taking decisions in an organisation. Spend lot of time in making plans for execution. Think of "if and buts" and prepare blue prints. Then the execution starts with a big hype. Everybody talks about the new strategy. It becomes the talk of the town. People at the lower levels resist, discuss, rebel but have no choice but implement.
Implementation levels improve over a period of time.The strategical fever reaches newer levels. Then something happens and the execution levels continue to appear to be normal but they are no more normal. Exceptions start taking place. After a few months it's only exceptions, except the plan everything else gets implemented. People say the strategy is wrong, impractical. Then the board decides to find one more strategy and the whole new exercise starts again.
I share here an incident that happened in Trichy (the place where I live) that could give some clarity as to why execution levels fall over a period of time.
Tamilnadu Government took a decision to make wearing helmet compulsory for the people riding the bikes. Police department for the next one month strictly checked and fined the people who are not wearing the helmets.People too bought the helmets to avoid fine. For a month or two everything went well. Then slowly police department reduced their focus on checking the people on roads. From a small minority of people who were not wearing helmets, in the initial days, more and more people started riding without helmets over a period of time.
Now in most of the cities in tamilnadu people no more wear helmets. But in case of Trichy it is completely different. Here majority of people still wear helmets. Let us see what made the strategy work here when it failed in most of the cities.
Trichy police in the first three months ensured that they kept the check points for every two kilometers. If you are not wearing helmet while driving then you are sure that you will be caught somewhere on the road. It brought the fear in the people.
Then when other cities reduced the check points Trichy police maintained it for another three more months.
Even after an year and half still though the number of check points are reduced, you can suddenly find an inspector checking and fining the people without helmets on the road.
Trichy police department is able to convert the FEAR into HABIT.
Implementing the strategy is the responsibility of the employees. But continuous, un diluted monitoring of the same is the responsibility of the organisation. If organisation fails to monitor then employees fail to execute.
A long execution and monitoring time to convert the strategy into habit is what I thought could be secret.
It was the 8th or 9th day after my new Stamina Improvement Regime (SIR) started. The alarm started as usual at 5 am indicating me to wake up for the SIR. Before I decided o hit the snooze button my brain started citing reasons like, delayed sleep last night, unusual power cut that disturbed the sleep... the reasons that looked more than genuine, were endless. When the reasons reached the desired level I decided to excuse myself for the day.
In the second week of my SIR the frequency came down to three times a week from everyday in the previous week. Then slowly it became once in a week.
When I was trying to understand as to what was preventing me from doing what I passionately wanted to do, I could find a few similarities in the organisational behavior too.
People go through huge amount of data before taking decisions in an organisation. Spend lot of time in making plans for execution. Think of "if and buts" and prepare blue prints. Then the execution starts with a big hype. Everybody talks about the new strategy. It becomes the talk of the town. People at the lower levels resist, discuss, rebel but have no choice but implement.
Implementation levels improve over a period of time.The strategical fever reaches newer levels. Then something happens and the execution levels continue to appear to be normal but they are no more normal. Exceptions start taking place. After a few months it's only exceptions, except the plan everything else gets implemented. People say the strategy is wrong, impractical. Then the board decides to find one more strategy and the whole new exercise starts again.
I share here an incident that happened in Trichy (the place where I live) that could give some clarity as to why execution levels fall over a period of time.
Tamilnadu Government took a decision to make wearing helmet compulsory for the people riding the bikes. Police department for the next one month strictly checked and fined the people who are not wearing the helmets.People too bought the helmets to avoid fine. For a month or two everything went well. Then slowly police department reduced their focus on checking the people on roads. From a small minority of people who were not wearing helmets, in the initial days, more and more people started riding without helmets over a period of time.
Now in most of the cities in tamilnadu people no more wear helmets. But in case of Trichy it is completely different. Here majority of people still wear helmets. Let us see what made the strategy work here when it failed in most of the cities.
Trichy police in the first three months ensured that they kept the check points for every two kilometers. If you are not wearing helmet while driving then you are sure that you will be caught somewhere on the road. It brought the fear in the people.
Then when other cities reduced the check points Trichy police maintained it for another three more months.
Even after an year and half still though the number of check points are reduced, you can suddenly find an inspector checking and fining the people without helmets on the road.
Trichy police department is able to convert the FEAR into HABIT.
Implementing the strategy is the responsibility of the employees. But continuous, un diluted monitoring of the same is the responsibility of the organisation. If organisation fails to monitor then employees fail to execute.
A long execution and monitoring time to convert the strategy into habit is what I thought could be secret.
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