In May 2007, when Manmohan Singh made his famous “conspicuous consumption” speech at the National Conference of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in Delhi, some dubbed it a critique of capitalism. At a time when GDP growth was 9% and the Sensex was 15,000-going-on-20 ,000, the Prime Minister called on the gathered CEOs to be “models of probity, moderation and charity” and “resist excessive remuneration to promoters and senior executives” . What a party pooper. He even quoted Keynes, saying that if the rich spent their new wealth on their own enjoyments, the world would have long ago found such a regime intolerable.
Surinder Kapur was one of the CEOs attending the CII meet that day and he recalls being quite affected by the speech. “There was a sense that quite a few things were going out of kilter in corporate India, including salaries,” says the chairman of Sono Koyo Steering Systems . “The downturn has shown that the PM was right. Corporates had far too much money available to spend and greed had come to be synonymous with success.”
Temptation was everywhere and nearly every company ended up splurging during the boom in some measure . But now all those the expenditures on acquisitions, diversifications, real estate, talent, are causing headaches akin to hangovers after a binge, except that these after effects aren’t about to fade easily with time. Today, the toughest task before the downturn CEO is to work the assets acquired during the boom.
As an auto component manufacturer, Kapur is one of the worst affected by the global recession. The leader in this sector, however, is Bharat Forge, a company that made several global acquisitions in the height of the boom.
Chairman Baba Kalyani admits he was caught completely unawares by the severity of the global recession in the automobile sector. “During the boom, we were focused on creating capacities ahead of the expected demand curve. We were making capital investments ahead of the curve, hiring people ahead of the curve, creating working capital ahead of the curve. Now we have to do just the opposite . The automobile industry is not going to return to previous demand levels anytime soon,” he says.
It’s not uncommon for corporates to accumulate fat in good times — some even make a provision for it. But as everyone knows, working off the fat is always much harder than putting it on, so the downturn CEO is forever on the treadmill. Kalyani, for one, is trying to diversify his customer portfolio and produce products for the global energy industry, which has been less affected by the recession. That’s actually a strategy adopted by many recession-hit CEOs. Rakesh Sarin, managing director of Wartsila India has seen demand for power plants dry up in the shipping sector, once the company’s mainstay. Now the Finnish company is trying to open up the market for smaller capacity power plants of 300 MW and less, meant to serve small cities and metropolitan suburbs .
“You have to be creative in a downturn ,” he says. “The CEO’s job today is to go out and spot new business opportunities.” The downturn has certainly changed the way the CEO allocates his time. Acquisitions are out and CEOs are no longer spending time with investment bankers. Instead, they’re spending more time with their staff, working out ways to deliver better products and services at lower costs. Labour and staffing policies can’t be left to HR — they’re strategic. Launching newer, competitive products and services for the shrinking market can’t be left to marketing, they’re mission critical. With the dollar swinging from Rs 39 to Rs 52, forex contracts are no longer the CFO’s prerogative, they’re strategic too.
“In a downturn, the only strategy is operational strategy,” says Accenture’s Jaime Ferrer, who heads the firm’s consulting business in for Europe, Latin America, Middle East and Africa. “The companies that come out of this recession better will be those that achieve excellence in their operations.”
Since it’s become increasingly difficult to predict the economic weather, the downturn CEO is now busy building a boat that can withstand storms. This means envisioning worst case scenarios and building systems and structures designed to keep the organisation afloat if they actually occur . “Several CEOs are having problems because they have been unable to sense risk,” says Arun Maira, senior advisor, The Boston Consulting Group.
“Now, in order to grow their businesses in an uncertain environment, not only must the CEO have a mind that is permeable to a variety of ideas, but also an organisation that has permeable boundaries with the world outside.”
The Indian IT services industry is one that has always had close ties with the world outside, which may have helped it cope in a steadily deteriorating market. But as global customers negotiate increasingly tough terms, companies in this sector are gearing up to shed what is likely to be a voluminous quantity of flab. Ashok Soota, chairman of Mindtree Consulting says he’s seen many booms and busts in his long career but this has been different: “This time, our customers are in real pain. We have to do whatever it takes to help them.”
The pain after the champagne is familiar to French technology consulting firm Capgemini , where India CEO Baru Rao says, “Your hopes do ride high in a boom. Everybody wants to invest in a bright future. Indian IT has been relatively vigilant compared to other sectors , but we’re still under a lot of pressure. The downturn is a good opportunity to focus internally and reduce inefficiencies.”
As a people-intensive operation, Capgemini has been using the downturn to add flexibility to its work practices. For one, it is training its programming staff to work in sales, a move that might have been resisted two years ago, but is accepted today. These are the kind of policies that send out signals to the rank and file that the organisation is taking creative, proactive steps to counter the downturn. Says Praveen Vishakantaiah , President, Intel India, “People watch the CEO very closely in a downturn. They won’t accept empty assurances. You have to do things to make it better.” For Indian IT, the downturn has been the unimagined Black Swan.
An industry that till recently was complaining of talent shortages is now faced with the prospect of lay offs. As a result, IT’s leadership is still struggling with the restructuring process with many haven’t yet taken the bull by the horns. But as Akila Krishnakumar , country head of global software company Sungard says, “You can’t hunker down and wait for the downturn to pass. You have to be seen as someone who is thinking through this intelligently and taking action. This might mean doing things you would never have had the spine to do earlier , like letting go of non-performers . But you have to do it in order to hold on to your best employees and customers.”
The CEOs of MNC subsidiaries have arguably been under even more pressure than the average Indian CEO, since their parent companies have been severely affected by the recession. Ravi Chauhan was the managing director of Nortel India when the parent company filed for bankruptcy in the US (he has since moved to a different role within the company as head of the company’s Communication Enabled Business Solutions). He says: “The CEO’s job is to cut costs without doing damage to the essence of the business. Cost reduction is also the key selling point today. You have to position yourself as one who can help the customer reduce costs — that’s the only as you get traction.”
One thing is certain—the downturn is forever changing the persona and outlook of the Indian CEO. In good times, India Inc has been shown to be capable of irrational exuberance in the extreme. In these difficult times, its chastened leadership has to reckon with the bad karma of lay offs and cut backs. How will it cope? Two lines from the PM’s “conspicuous consumption” speech might help: “promote enterprise and innovation , within your firms and outside. If our industry has to make the leap to the next stage of development, it must be far more innovative and enterprising.”
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Features/Corporate-Dossier/The-Recession-Man-How-CEOs-are-coping-with-assets-acquired-during-boom/articleshow/4674230.cms
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Managing worker dissatisfaction: R Gopalakrishnan
As the sentiment for business starts to improve in the future, I wish to reflect on just one unseen leadership challenge .
Managing worker dissatisfaction will be the next leadership challenge globally. Managements have enjoyed exceptional labour relations for two decades: industrial unrest (strikes and lockouts ) during 1992-2007 is drastically lower than 1977-1992 : by 80 percent in UK, S Korea, Japan, and 60 percent in India and US.
After three decades of Reagan-Thatcher super-capitalism , a new generation which has no experience of tough labour power is now leading enterprises. Unionists like Arthur Scargill in the UK, George Meany and Walter Reuther in US or Datta Samant in India have all been forgotten.
Many countries all over the world have experienced unprecedented growth in the last decade but skeptics doubt whether labour got its share. In the words of one union leader, “The time for corporate dictatorships is over. This is our time.”
Consider a sample of global events just in the last one year: In India, Jet Airways fired 1,900 employees to save the jobs of the balance 11,000. ET journalist Mythili Bhusnurmath observed, “The global financial crisis has finally invaded the middle class drawing rooms in India...... Jet layoffs are the first sign that the middle class is no longer safe from economic downturns.”
In May 2008, a trans-Atlantic merger was announced between United Steelworkers and Unite, UK’s largest union representing workers. President Leo Gerard said, “Now we have got globalisation running rampant over workers all over the world, and there is not a counterforce in the labour movement. We want this merger to be something that can deliver for workers.”
Andy Stern of Service Employees International Union, USA has expressed the view that “our world, is going through the most profound transformative economic revolution in history....the trade union movement has lost its way because it did not accept that the world has changed.” He has been campaigning loudly against private equity and sovereign wealth funds and is widely regarded as “the modernising face of America’s unions” although the Wall Street Journal dismisses Stern as a “drama king.”
A British newspaper reported these events on a single day in September last year, “France paralysed by a wave of strike action, the boulevards of Paris resembling a debris strewn battlefield....as unemployment rises, the Hungarian currency sinks to its lowest level against the euro....Greek farmers block the road in Bulgaria to protest the low prices for their produce....Revolt is in the air” Journalists used terms like “dawn of a new age of unrest” and “back to the barricades.”
In September, a strike shut down Boeing, which had customers’ orders for several years to come. The Machinists’ Association representing 27,000 Boeing workers halted the production of aircraft in Washington State, Oregon and Kansas. In Japan, with the slowdown, about 200,000 temps were to be fired. Tsuyoshi Takagi , president of Rengo, Japan’s biggest trade union confederation, said that temps are being treated “the same as robots and we need to go back to the old ways.”
Early this year, Waterford Crystal factory in Kilbarry, Ireland had to be shut down. The workers occupied the building and refused to leave. President Obama signed the astounding Liddy Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Leaving the company in 1998 after poor job evaluations, Ms. Ledbetter
collected her pension. Then she went to court claiming that she had been the victim of gender discrimination 15 years earlier (yes, in the 1980s!) . The Supreme Court rejected her claim due to the statute of limitations , between 180 to 300 days, depending on the state. You know what Congress did? It legislated to throw out the statute of limitations with the result that a worker can now claim gender or race discrimination for 20 years after leaving the company!
Everywhere workers despair about the uncertainty and fear of being short-changed by managements. As millions of jobs vanish in the worst slump in eight decades, something new and strange is happening in relations between company employees and leaders. Employee dissatisfaction is becoming deeper and uglier. The ground is shifting in the labour-management model that has prevailed for the last thirty years of supercapitalism . Managers have to be more and more sensitive; they must shed any unconsciously accumulated arrogance of the last 25 super-capitalism years.
They must truthfully engage with workers, and not to deny or dismiss their concerns. There are many ways forward but one theme could be prominent, viz putting humanism back into businesses. Alongside the focus on cost-cutting , down-sizing , managers must find the space and emotion for softer inputs: they must be more sensitive, while actively and truthfully communicating with workers. How can leaders intuitively bring human values , communications and openness back into their relationships with workers? Through 3 Es: explicitness, empathy and emphasis.
In his New Year letter to employees, Mr Ratan Tata, Chairman of Tata Sons, was explicit and direct. “This economic crisis may well be the worst we have ever faced in living history.” He reached out to employees, saying, “The greatest strength that our Group has today is the spirit of its people....the environment over the next twelve months will require us to display, more than ever before, the strength of this spirit... a period of crisis brings out the spirit, and marshals the strength to tackle unbelievable challenges.” When the Taj Mahal hotel employees were devastated by the terror attack of November, the leadership visited every single affected family.
When the HR folks explained all that they had generously done for the employees, the leaders asked with empathy, “What else can we do?” The Taj management went on to set up a welfare trust for the benefit of all citizens affected by the attack—including the public, policemen and guests at other hotels, not just its own employees. The first beneficiary was a guest at a competing hotel!
The approach of Tata CEOs is captured by the in-house think tank, whose internal paper emphasizes the soft aspects, “Effective communication is necessary to portray the changes in a proper light to ensure that morale does not suffer....Simple communication is essential, urging employees to redirect their efforts to achieving the company’s new objectives....Creating a sense of togetherness and belonging can reduce the execution risk,” the paper said. This is no rocket science. Yet the penalty for ignoring these simple things in an increasing complex environment will be severe.
(The writer is executive director, Tata Sons. He is the author of The Case of the Bonsai Manager)
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Features/Corporate-Dossier/Managing-worker-dissatisfaction-R-Gopalakrishnan/articleshow/4674370.cms?curpg=2
Managing worker dissatisfaction will be the next leadership challenge globally. Managements have enjoyed exceptional labour relations for two decades: industrial unrest (strikes and lockouts ) during 1992-2007 is drastically lower than 1977-1992 : by 80 percent in UK, S Korea, Japan, and 60 percent in India and US.
After three decades of Reagan-Thatcher super-capitalism , a new generation which has no experience of tough labour power is now leading enterprises. Unionists like Arthur Scargill in the UK, George Meany and Walter Reuther in US or Datta Samant in India have all been forgotten.
Many countries all over the world have experienced unprecedented growth in the last decade but skeptics doubt whether labour got its share. In the words of one union leader, “The time for corporate dictatorships is over. This is our time.”
Consider a sample of global events just in the last one year: In India, Jet Airways fired 1,900 employees to save the jobs of the balance 11,000. ET journalist Mythili Bhusnurmath observed, “The global financial crisis has finally invaded the middle class drawing rooms in India...... Jet layoffs are the first sign that the middle class is no longer safe from economic downturns.”
In May 2008, a trans-Atlantic merger was announced between United Steelworkers and Unite, UK’s largest union representing workers. President Leo Gerard said, “Now we have got globalisation running rampant over workers all over the world, and there is not a counterforce in the labour movement. We want this merger to be something that can deliver for workers.”
Andy Stern of Service Employees International Union, USA has expressed the view that “our world, is going through the most profound transformative economic revolution in history....the trade union movement has lost its way because it did not accept that the world has changed.” He has been campaigning loudly against private equity and sovereign wealth funds and is widely regarded as “the modernising face of America’s unions” although the Wall Street Journal dismisses Stern as a “drama king.”
A British newspaper reported these events on a single day in September last year, “France paralysed by a wave of strike action, the boulevards of Paris resembling a debris strewn battlefield....as unemployment rises, the Hungarian currency sinks to its lowest level against the euro....Greek farmers block the road in Bulgaria to protest the low prices for their produce....Revolt is in the air” Journalists used terms like “dawn of a new age of unrest” and “back to the barricades.”
In September, a strike shut down Boeing, which had customers’ orders for several years to come. The Machinists’ Association representing 27,000 Boeing workers halted the production of aircraft in Washington State, Oregon and Kansas. In Japan, with the slowdown, about 200,000 temps were to be fired. Tsuyoshi Takagi , president of Rengo, Japan’s biggest trade union confederation, said that temps are being treated “the same as robots and we need to go back to the old ways.”
Early this year, Waterford Crystal factory in Kilbarry, Ireland had to be shut down. The workers occupied the building and refused to leave. President Obama signed the astounding Liddy Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Leaving the company in 1998 after poor job evaluations, Ms. Ledbetter
collected her pension. Then she went to court claiming that she had been the victim of gender discrimination 15 years earlier (yes, in the 1980s!) . The Supreme Court rejected her claim due to the statute of limitations , between 180 to 300 days, depending on the state. You know what Congress did? It legislated to throw out the statute of limitations with the result that a worker can now claim gender or race discrimination for 20 years after leaving the company!
Everywhere workers despair about the uncertainty and fear of being short-changed by managements. As millions of jobs vanish in the worst slump in eight decades, something new and strange is happening in relations between company employees and leaders. Employee dissatisfaction is becoming deeper and uglier. The ground is shifting in the labour-management model that has prevailed for the last thirty years of supercapitalism . Managers have to be more and more sensitive; they must shed any unconsciously accumulated arrogance of the last 25 super-capitalism years.
They must truthfully engage with workers, and not to deny or dismiss their concerns. There are many ways forward but one theme could be prominent, viz putting humanism back into businesses. Alongside the focus on cost-cutting , down-sizing , managers must find the space and emotion for softer inputs: they must be more sensitive, while actively and truthfully communicating with workers. How can leaders intuitively bring human values , communications and openness back into their relationships with workers? Through 3 Es: explicitness, empathy and emphasis.
In his New Year letter to employees, Mr Ratan Tata, Chairman of Tata Sons, was explicit and direct. “This economic crisis may well be the worst we have ever faced in living history.” He reached out to employees, saying, “The greatest strength that our Group has today is the spirit of its people....the environment over the next twelve months will require us to display, more than ever before, the strength of this spirit... a period of crisis brings out the spirit, and marshals the strength to tackle unbelievable challenges.” When the Taj Mahal hotel employees were devastated by the terror attack of November, the leadership visited every single affected family.
When the HR folks explained all that they had generously done for the employees, the leaders asked with empathy, “What else can we do?” The Taj management went on to set up a welfare trust for the benefit of all citizens affected by the attack—including the public, policemen and guests at other hotels, not just its own employees. The first beneficiary was a guest at a competing hotel!
The approach of Tata CEOs is captured by the in-house think tank, whose internal paper emphasizes the soft aspects, “Effective communication is necessary to portray the changes in a proper light to ensure that morale does not suffer....Simple communication is essential, urging employees to redirect their efforts to achieving the company’s new objectives....Creating a sense of togetherness and belonging can reduce the execution risk,” the paper said. This is no rocket science. Yet the penalty for ignoring these simple things in an increasing complex environment will be severe.
(The writer is executive director, Tata Sons. He is the author of The Case of the Bonsai Manager)
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Features/Corporate-Dossier/Managing-worker-dissatisfaction-R-Gopalakrishnan/articleshow/4674370.cms?curpg=2
Friday, April 17, 2009
How am I any less? - Naina Lal Kidwai
HSBC boss Naina Lal Kidwai talks to Venkatesan Vembu about her life and work, her passions and peeves -- and that woman thing.
Power sits lightly on Naina Lal Kidwai's sari-draped shoulders. HSBC India's country head, who ranks among Fortune magazine's recent listing of the world's 50 most powerful women in business, may walk with the kings of the investment world, but hasn't lost her endearing common touch. "What is power?"Kidwai asks rhetorically, during a recent interaction in Hong Kong. "To me, power is about making a difference. Each one of us is powerful in what we can do in terms of using our skill sets -- whatever they might be -- to make a difference."
Power sits lightly on Naina Lal Kidwai's sari-draped shoulders. HSBC India's country head, who ranks among Fortune magazine's recent listing of the world's 50 most powerful women in business, may walk with the kings of the investment world, but hasn't lost her endearing common touch. "What is power?"Kidwai asks rhetorically, during a recent interaction in Hong Kong. "To me, power is about making a difference. Each one of us is powerful in what we can do in terms of using our skill sets -- whatever they might be -- to make a difference." Kidwai has certainly made a sterling difference in every sphere of her endeavours, right from the time she prevailed upon her conservative parents to let her study at Harvard Business School, from where she was the first Indian woman to graduate.
"I come from a family where women don't work, so I had to fight -- really fight! -- to go to Harvard," says Kidwai. Her parents had their concerns: her father, for instance, felt she should wait a few more years to decide what she wanted to do, "but I decided I had to go then". Sometimes, she notes wryly, it helps to have a mind of your own.
It was a time when corporate India didn't have many role models for careerwomen. So where did she draw her inspiration from? "One person who influenced me was [filmmaker] Mira Nair; we'd been to school together, we were close friends, and she'd gone to Harvard for her undergraduate studies," says Kidwai. "But there were few other role models, so I looked at every guy around me and asked myself, 'How am I any less?' I was smarter and better at studies, so why couldn't I have what they did?"
Then she adds, a tad philosophically: "I guess the more one is discriminated against, the stronger one becomes. I've asked my parents this question: if I had a brother, would I have still been allowed to go to Harvard? I don't know if I would have, honestly."
When Kidwai started work at Pricewaterhouse, she was the only woman employee, and they didn't know what to do with her, literally. "To be fair, I can see where they were coming from," she says. "If they had to send an audit team out into the boondocks, would they send this single woman with four guys for a month or two? I don't see this as an issue, but it was obviously a concern for them." Today, having spectacularly shattered the glass ceiling, Kidwai allows herself to be a lot more charitable. In fact, she says being a woman isn't a consideration in the workplace anymore, and top-rung careerpersons like her aren't even conscious of their gender in the boardroom. "I don't think it's a gender issue," she says. "You can have good bosses or bad bosses, and they can be either men or women."
So what kind of a management style does she abide by? "If I were to talk about the traits that I respect most, it is to always be fair and to respect every person's point of view -- from the most junior to the most senior employee, man or woman," Kidwai explains. "It is this diversity of ideas and opinions that enriches our decisions."
Indicatively, under Kidwai's watch, HSBC India has undertaken an initiative to enhance diversity in the workplace. According to Kidwai, "When I was deputy CEO, I was appointed to head the diversity initiative. We set up task forces across the country -- with groups of 10 or 15 people, and with both men and women -- who met over three months and came up with ideas on how to make the workplace more diverse." That effort threw up "wonderful ideas", says Kidwai -- five-day weeks, flexi-hours, sabbaticals, paternity leave, extended maternity leave, after-hours classes on yoga, parenting and even salsa.
One such initiative has enhanced HSBC's image as a particularly gender-friendly organisation. "We have a very young workforce, and at any given point, we had some young mothers who would not come to work because they were breastfeeding their babies," she says. "No one had thought of it before, but they needed an additional facility at work. It was just a token -- these restrooms aren't even used a whole lot -- but it was a good 'hygiene factor'. These are among the reasons why HSBC is one of the most preferred employers in India today, apart from the fact that we provide global careers. We're giving women plenty of space and time."
Do these ideas get reflected in the gender profile of HSBC's workforce in India? "I would like to believe so," says Kidwai. "This year, 40 per cent of those hired at the IIMs were women. When you consider that the pool we were fishing in was only 17-20 per cent female, that's a pretty good showing."
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1060702
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Management by Heart, not by Mind: Shehnaz Husain
The legendary professor Samuel L Hayes at Harvard Business School is nonplussed. The finance guru’s jaw drops every time he’s confronted with the Shahnaz Husain line of products and services. That the 63-year-old nature ‘Princess’, a title bestowed on her by her mother, who transformed the beauty landscape with the science of life (ayurveda), is an enigma in her own right, is unquestionable .
But Hayes questions how Husain manages to launch new products without ever resorting to publicity. Shahnaz Husain never advertises, and that, she says, has become a talking point at Harvard, where Hayes has now invited her to teach. “Professor Hayes says that since I defied all norms, he wanted me to teach the students my style of operation. I think I’ll go next year.”
Husain commands a chain of 400 global franchisees and 570 distributors Rs 650 crore revenues. In her flowing black-striped gown, burgundy hair, the princess, at first, seems to evoke fear. As gofers move around what looks like a Charles Perrault-meets-Ekta Kapoor set, the cloud seems to clear a bit. “Fear does not work, love does, and so I rule the company with my heart, not my head,” says Husain. Her loyal retinue (most of them have been with Husain for more than 25 years) diligently rearrange the furniture and organise food as the conversation courses along.
In 2004, a batch of her ShaClear Pimple lotion had a problem. The sachets at the company’s third-party supplier were found to be sub-standard. So she personally landed up at the manufacturing facility and destroyed a ton of the lotion. “I walk into my parlours impromptu and take stock of things,” says Husain, who now employs about 20 whistle-blowers in her team for ready feedback.
The hands-on Husain adheres to “very strict norms” in training and maintaining quality across her “cure and care” line. “We maintain that we do not sell cosmetics, but ayurvedic care. Everyone has to be well-versed in ayurveda. Each beauty advisor is a paramedical doctor trained to provide solutions,” she says. That also explains why the thrust of the company is on regime selling — where a range is sold, rather than a single product.
Husain, who lost her only son last year, says, “My company is my family. Like a mother who educates her children, I personally train each and everyone and ensure their mental comfort. I’ve lost the three most powerful men in my life — my chief justice father, first husband and rapper son — and everyday I cry for an hour at the crack of dawn in my tub.” For Husain, it helps to steel herself “in solitude where your shrieks break like thunder” . Uncontrollable grief before sunrise, a control freak by day — the Husain way remains an enigma.
Sporting a Rs 14-lakh diamond-studded Louis Vuitton limited edition cellphone, Husain dissects why she’s averse to advertising. “I’m starting a saffron line that gives the face a golden hue. The ad will not make it go off the shelf, but if you will tell a friend, it will build goodwill,” she says. She’s never felt the need to advertise when the packs, with a picture of hers, do the talking.
So last year, she rejected new packaging for her skincare line as the bottles didn’t have her photo. Confident that the brand is nothing without her picture, Husain is cautious when it comes to getting her pictures taken. At any given point, she’s accompanied by two cameramen who seem to know just what the doctor orders —the right angles and a sharp focus on her glittering pea-sized nose ring.
The control of her luxury empire will one day slip into the hands of her daughter, Nelofar Currimbhoy, who doubles up as a doting mother and the president of the company. Husain’s grandson, Sharik Currimbhoy, is the acting vice-president and COO, while granny jets around the world as an emissary of ayurveda, replacing advertising with direct contact and sheer face value. As a child, whenever lightning struck, little Shahnaz used to run outdoors. “I’d tell everyone that God is taking my picture.”
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Features/Corporate-Dossier/Management-by-heart-not-by-mind-Shehnaz-Husain/articleshow/4321602.cms
But Hayes questions how Husain manages to launch new products without ever resorting to publicity. Shahnaz Husain never advertises, and that, she says, has become a talking point at Harvard, where Hayes has now invited her to teach. “Professor Hayes says that since I defied all norms, he wanted me to teach the students my style of operation. I think I’ll go next year.”
Husain commands a chain of 400 global franchisees and 570 distributors Rs 650 crore revenues. In her flowing black-striped gown, burgundy hair, the princess, at first, seems to evoke fear. As gofers move around what looks like a Charles Perrault-meets-Ekta Kapoor set, the cloud seems to clear a bit. “Fear does not work, love does, and so I rule the company with my heart, not my head,” says Husain. Her loyal retinue (most of them have been with Husain for more than 25 years) diligently rearrange the furniture and organise food as the conversation courses along.
In 2004, a batch of her ShaClear Pimple lotion had a problem. The sachets at the company’s third-party supplier were found to be sub-standard. So she personally landed up at the manufacturing facility and destroyed a ton of the lotion. “I walk into my parlours impromptu and take stock of things,” says Husain, who now employs about 20 whistle-blowers in her team for ready feedback.
The hands-on Husain adheres to “very strict norms” in training and maintaining quality across her “cure and care” line. “We maintain that we do not sell cosmetics, but ayurvedic care. Everyone has to be well-versed in ayurveda. Each beauty advisor is a paramedical doctor trained to provide solutions,” she says. That also explains why the thrust of the company is on regime selling — where a range is sold, rather than a single product.
Husain, who lost her only son last year, says, “My company is my family. Like a mother who educates her children, I personally train each and everyone and ensure their mental comfort. I’ve lost the three most powerful men in my life — my chief justice father, first husband and rapper son — and everyday I cry for an hour at the crack of dawn in my tub.” For Husain, it helps to steel herself “in solitude where your shrieks break like thunder” . Uncontrollable grief before sunrise, a control freak by day — the Husain way remains an enigma.
Sporting a Rs 14-lakh diamond-studded Louis Vuitton limited edition cellphone, Husain dissects why she’s averse to advertising. “I’m starting a saffron line that gives the face a golden hue. The ad will not make it go off the shelf, but if you will tell a friend, it will build goodwill,” she says. She’s never felt the need to advertise when the packs, with a picture of hers, do the talking.
So last year, she rejected new packaging for her skincare line as the bottles didn’t have her photo. Confident that the brand is nothing without her picture, Husain is cautious when it comes to getting her pictures taken. At any given point, she’s accompanied by two cameramen who seem to know just what the doctor orders —the right angles and a sharp focus on her glittering pea-sized nose ring.
The control of her luxury empire will one day slip into the hands of her daughter, Nelofar Currimbhoy, who doubles up as a doting mother and the president of the company. Husain’s grandson, Sharik Currimbhoy, is the acting vice-president and COO, while granny jets around the world as an emissary of ayurveda, replacing advertising with direct contact and sheer face value. As a child, whenever lightning struck, little Shahnaz used to run outdoors. “I’d tell everyone that God is taking my picture.”
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Features/Corporate-Dossier/Management-by-heart-not-by-mind-Shehnaz-Husain/articleshow/4321602.cms
Biography of Indra Nooyi
India has a long history where women’s have shown that they are not only the homemaker, however, with their sheer strengths and courage, they have ruled over India from the Medieval History period of India take the example of Razia Sultan, then Rani Laxmi Bai, then Sarojini Naidu, then Indra Gandhi, then Ashiwarya Rai and latest entrant in the block is the Indra Nooyi, a superwomen, who has been placed 4th in the list of worlds topmost influential women’s by the Forbes Magazine.
Indra Krishnamurthy Nooyi is her full name and she belongs to the Southern Indian city of Chennai. She was born in 28 October 1955 in Madras, now Chennai. She has done her graduation from Madras Christian College (MCC) in Chemistry, Physics and Math. On completion of her graduation she went to Indian Institute of Management in Calcutta for doing Masters in Finance and Marketing. Soon after completion of her MBA she joined ABB and then Johnson and Johnson (J&J) in Mumbai. One of her achievement with J&J is her close association with launch of the sanitary napkin “Stayfree”. From there she has been no stopping her life.
However, her career profile was not satiating her wishes to do more in life and she persuaded her parent to let her study at Yale Management School in US. She completed her Master’s in Public and Private Management form Yale. Here in US before landing in the Pepsi in 1994, she had worked with Boston Consulting Group and Motorola. Indra coaxed the CEO Roger Enrico of the Pepsi to follow-up the company’s restaurant division, including brands such KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, as the chief strategy officer.
Nooyi not only shows tenacity for follow-up, but she equally emphasized in the Mergers and Acquisition. This was bolstered by the acquisition of the Tropicana and Quaker fruit juice brands. As a typical tycoon of the business from her acumen she has predicted the slowdown in the popularity of aerated soft drinks in the markets worldwide. That’s how she has enhanced her position in the business world where for a woman it’s very difficult to leave any mark on the corner room office of the big conglomerate. She is the one who has meticulously planned for the foray of Pepsi into the sport drinks market in association with Gatorade.
Her quick decision making ability and sticking to the work until it’s got accomplished has drawn this comment from the Enrico that “If she gets an idea, she goes after it. There’s no stopping her.” No doubt her firmness and go getting attitude has won her laurels in the company and this helped her to build a strong foundation in the career graph to reach the top echelons in the organization where many people just day dreams to reach. As of now she is the only Indian woman to become the Chief Executive Officer of the more $ 25 Billion Multinational, and perhaps the first Indian to reach to this level. “As of now” has been deliberately being used so as to see more and more Indian transcendent to that level in future. For Indira this has been a both tough and exciting experience. As she has said in her own word that being a woman, immigrant and colour made it thrice difficult for her to reach to this destination, but only mantra which she followed during the course of time was working hard twice as the male counterpart
Living up to the moment and enjoying every thrills coming on the way is the best strategy to go unhindered. Indra connection with her India is conspicuous by looking at her attire. In most of the office ceremony she wears sari to show that her heart beats for India and her culture. Most of the woman would be envying her knowing to this fact that she has a great boss both in office and in home. The way she is balancing her office obligation with similar ease she take cares of her household stuff. It’s she an icon to be followed and emulate so that a few things if not all. She has been daughter, a wife, a mother and last but not the least a business woman who has been spearheading in every direction whichever she heads to.
The faculty members of IIM Calcutta has brought out this facts to the media that she has been a very mediocre student in the campus, however Nooyi has surpassed everybody’s imagination, when it was announced that she was going to replace the Steve Reinemund, CEO of PepsiCo. This has lit up fire every mediocre soul that if she can achieve this insurmountable hierarchy nothing is impossible for the determined and strong willed person, the only thing being required is the perseverance.
Indra Nooyi lives in Greenwich, Connecticut with her husband Raj and their two daughters. Indira Nooyi very chirpy and has a great sense of humour. She has the inclination towards arts which is supported by the fact that she is a member of the Boards of the Lincoln Center for the performing Arts in the New York City. Besides that she has been a member of the Boards of various organization prominent amongst them is the Motorola and Yale University.
Nature wise she has been simple and prefers to avoid controversies. Recently while delivery the speech at the graduating ceremony of Columbia Business School she has stirred a controversy by mesmerizing her childhood days. She said that for remember the name of the five continents was a tough task for her in the geography class, so she remember Africa for the small finger, Asia for the Thumb, Europe as the Index finger, South America for the Ring finger and North America as the Middle finger. She justified the analogy of the five fingers with the continent based on there economic and political standing world forum. However, this has instigated furors and she immoderately apologized for the same.
However, Indra Nooyi is the truly global in her thinking keeping a wide perspective about the world and has great intellect.
http://www.beautywithbrain.com/success/indra-nooyi-one.htm
Indra Krishnamurthy Nooyi is her full name and she belongs to the Southern Indian city of Chennai. She was born in 28 October 1955 in Madras, now Chennai. She has done her graduation from Madras Christian College (MCC) in Chemistry, Physics and Math. On completion of her graduation she went to Indian Institute of Management in Calcutta for doing Masters in Finance and Marketing. Soon after completion of her MBA she joined ABB and then Johnson and Johnson (J&J) in Mumbai. One of her achievement with J&J is her close association with launch of the sanitary napkin “Stayfree”. From there she has been no stopping her life.
However, her career profile was not satiating her wishes to do more in life and she persuaded her parent to let her study at Yale Management School in US. She completed her Master’s in Public and Private Management form Yale. Here in US before landing in the Pepsi in 1994, she had worked with Boston Consulting Group and Motorola. Indra coaxed the CEO Roger Enrico of the Pepsi to follow-up the company’s restaurant division, including brands such KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, as the chief strategy officer.
Nooyi not only shows tenacity for follow-up, but she equally emphasized in the Mergers and Acquisition. This was bolstered by the acquisition of the Tropicana and Quaker fruit juice brands. As a typical tycoon of the business from her acumen she has predicted the slowdown in the popularity of aerated soft drinks in the markets worldwide. That’s how she has enhanced her position in the business world where for a woman it’s very difficult to leave any mark on the corner room office of the big conglomerate. She is the one who has meticulously planned for the foray of Pepsi into the sport drinks market in association with Gatorade.
Her quick decision making ability and sticking to the work until it’s got accomplished has drawn this comment from the Enrico that “If she gets an idea, she goes after it. There’s no stopping her.” No doubt her firmness and go getting attitude has won her laurels in the company and this helped her to build a strong foundation in the career graph to reach the top echelons in the organization where many people just day dreams to reach. As of now she is the only Indian woman to become the Chief Executive Officer of the more $ 25 Billion Multinational, and perhaps the first Indian to reach to this level. “As of now” has been deliberately being used so as to see more and more Indian transcendent to that level in future. For Indira this has been a both tough and exciting experience. As she has said in her own word that being a woman, immigrant and colour made it thrice difficult for her to reach to this destination, but only mantra which she followed during the course of time was working hard twice as the male counterpart
Living up to the moment and enjoying every thrills coming on the way is the best strategy to go unhindered. Indra connection with her India is conspicuous by looking at her attire. In most of the office ceremony she wears sari to show that her heart beats for India and her culture. Most of the woman would be envying her knowing to this fact that she has a great boss both in office and in home. The way she is balancing her office obligation with similar ease she take cares of her household stuff. It’s she an icon to be followed and emulate so that a few things if not all. She has been daughter, a wife, a mother and last but not the least a business woman who has been spearheading in every direction whichever she heads to.
The faculty members of IIM Calcutta has brought out this facts to the media that she has been a very mediocre student in the campus, however Nooyi has surpassed everybody’s imagination, when it was announced that she was going to replace the Steve Reinemund, CEO of PepsiCo. This has lit up fire every mediocre soul that if she can achieve this insurmountable hierarchy nothing is impossible for the determined and strong willed person, the only thing being required is the perseverance.
Indra Nooyi lives in Greenwich, Connecticut with her husband Raj and their two daughters. Indira Nooyi very chirpy and has a great sense of humour. She has the inclination towards arts which is supported by the fact that she is a member of the Boards of the Lincoln Center for the performing Arts in the New York City. Besides that she has been a member of the Boards of various organization prominent amongst them is the Motorola and Yale University.
Nature wise she has been simple and prefers to avoid controversies. Recently while delivery the speech at the graduating ceremony of Columbia Business School she has stirred a controversy by mesmerizing her childhood days. She said that for remember the name of the five continents was a tough task for her in the geography class, so she remember Africa for the small finger, Asia for the Thumb, Europe as the Index finger, South America for the Ring finger and North America as the Middle finger. She justified the analogy of the five fingers with the continent based on there economic and political standing world forum. However, this has instigated furors and she immoderately apologized for the same.
However, Indra Nooyi is the truly global in her thinking keeping a wide perspective about the world and has great intellect.
http://www.beautywithbrain.com/success/indra-nooyi-one.htm
Friday, April 3, 2009
On Leadership: Sangeeth Varghese
First Rule is to Begin
Leaders have to overcome the fear of starting something new. It is the first step that is important.
All beginnings are difficult. Starting something new is one of the most difficult things a leader can go through. Many times, potential leaders are not able to even convince themselves to take the first step, though all of them desire to drive great changes. There are many excuses: they are busy, they don’t have time, and that the change is irrelevant to them.
But why do potential leaders fear to begin new tasks? Beginnings are difficult because tasks appear difficult from outside. When we look at tasks for the first time, we look at them as outsiders. An outsider’s perspective is coloured by fear — fear of the unknown, fear of risk and fear of unpredictability. We fear the unknown because many things in the new situation are strange and unfamiliar to us. We face new situations, new people, which we have never met in our lives, and hence, we fear making mistakes. We fear risk because we are used to a particular format of doing things. We are familiar with its demands and hence reluctant to leave it. We fear unpredictability because we are not aware of the results, which our decisions on performing this new task might bring about. Because of the irregularities we see, we are not able to ascertain whether the circumstances and outcomes will be favourable to us or not.
Research indicates that there are four ways which leaders resort to while looking toward breaking their initial fears of beginning a task:
Giving yourself permission to begin: Leadership guru Fred Smith says that consciously or unconsciously, people look out for permission before they could begin new tasks. The purpose of this permission is aligning the resources available with the leader, that is, willingness, time, efforts, etc., to the task at hand. This permission could come as an endorsement from an outside entity that they look up to, or from within themselves.
Potential leaders can obtain this permission to begin new tasks broadly in two ways. First, they have to learn to remain positive about the task they intend to perform. For this it is very important that they do not focus on difficulties or failures, but on the positives. They should remind themselves to keep their minds open, trying to discover new aspects of the task. A good example would be constantly trying to work out several ways of carrying out and accomplishing the task. Second, they should try and be in the company of like-minded and optimistic people. This would help in creating a positive rub off and in building enthusiasm. They should take their encouragement positively and their criticism constructively.
Seeing the end in the beginning: The excitement of every task is in the results it produces. A clear vision formed in the mind about the results can be the biggest motivator for a potential leader to begin a task. Sustaining a level of enthusiasm is difficult if leaders have no end in their minds. So, even before beginning, leaders should start thinking about the end results and they should push themselves to be excited about those possibilities.
Giving yourself incentives to begin: Leaders should appeal to their sense of adventure even as they are looking forward to beginning a task. They should motivate themselves by imagining about the new learning and growth opportunities that it would open up and the impact that it would help them produce. They should start viewing the task they are about to start as the greatest growth opportunity in their life.
Using fear to your advantage: Rather than being afraid of losing security, comfort and predictability, leaders should start fearing losing valuable opportunities to drive important changes that can create a positive impact to their organisation or to the world at large. Leaders should start using fear to their advantage. They should use fear to motivate and encourage themselves. They should understand that their fears come with them only till the threshold, beyond that there is no fear, just a clear path towards achieving their objective.
http://www.businessworld.in/index.php/On-Leadership-Sangeeth-Varghese.html
Leaders have to overcome the fear of starting something new. It is the first step that is important.
All beginnings are difficult. Starting something new is one of the most difficult things a leader can go through. Many times, potential leaders are not able to even convince themselves to take the first step, though all of them desire to drive great changes. There are many excuses: they are busy, they don’t have time, and that the change is irrelevant to them.
But why do potential leaders fear to begin new tasks? Beginnings are difficult because tasks appear difficult from outside. When we look at tasks for the first time, we look at them as outsiders. An outsider’s perspective is coloured by fear — fear of the unknown, fear of risk and fear of unpredictability. We fear the unknown because many things in the new situation are strange and unfamiliar to us. We face new situations, new people, which we have never met in our lives, and hence, we fear making mistakes. We fear risk because we are used to a particular format of doing things. We are familiar with its demands and hence reluctant to leave it. We fear unpredictability because we are not aware of the results, which our decisions on performing this new task might bring about. Because of the irregularities we see, we are not able to ascertain whether the circumstances and outcomes will be favourable to us or not.
Research indicates that there are four ways which leaders resort to while looking toward breaking their initial fears of beginning a task:
Giving yourself permission to begin: Leadership guru Fred Smith says that consciously or unconsciously, people look out for permission before they could begin new tasks. The purpose of this permission is aligning the resources available with the leader, that is, willingness, time, efforts, etc., to the task at hand. This permission could come as an endorsement from an outside entity that they look up to, or from within themselves.
Potential leaders can obtain this permission to begin new tasks broadly in two ways. First, they have to learn to remain positive about the task they intend to perform. For this it is very important that they do not focus on difficulties or failures, but on the positives. They should remind themselves to keep their minds open, trying to discover new aspects of the task. A good example would be constantly trying to work out several ways of carrying out and accomplishing the task. Second, they should try and be in the company of like-minded and optimistic people. This would help in creating a positive rub off and in building enthusiasm. They should take their encouragement positively and their criticism constructively.
Seeing the end in the beginning: The excitement of every task is in the results it produces. A clear vision formed in the mind about the results can be the biggest motivator for a potential leader to begin a task. Sustaining a level of enthusiasm is difficult if leaders have no end in their minds. So, even before beginning, leaders should start thinking about the end results and they should push themselves to be excited about those possibilities.
Giving yourself incentives to begin: Leaders should appeal to their sense of adventure even as they are looking forward to beginning a task. They should motivate themselves by imagining about the new learning and growth opportunities that it would open up and the impact that it would help them produce. They should start viewing the task they are about to start as the greatest growth opportunity in their life.
Using fear to your advantage: Rather than being afraid of losing security, comfort and predictability, leaders should start fearing losing valuable opportunities to drive important changes that can create a positive impact to their organisation or to the world at large. Leaders should start using fear to their advantage. They should use fear to motivate and encourage themselves. They should understand that their fears come with them only till the threshold, beyond that there is no fear, just a clear path towards achieving their objective.
http://www.businessworld.in/index.php/On-Leadership-Sangeeth-Varghese.html
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Altruism furthers Self-Interest
Human beings are driven by self-interest . We make the choices that give us the best possible advantage, given the circumstances we face. In fact evolutionary psychologists say that even altruism is a form of furthering ones self-interest , be it feeding our deep emotions or gaining popularity. Hence, we could go on waxing eloquently on the need for leaders to be selfless, but the fact still remains that we are hardwired to pursue our self-interests .
To top it the decades of underdevelopment and scarcity that our nation has gone through adds on to our insecurity. So, it is not too surprising to see many of our leaders insensitive to most events around — except when they feel that they can derive a direct benefit out of it.
But it is in the self-interest of leaders to be empathetic — not only from a moralistic or what-is-right point of view, but also from a pure utility and rational perspective. Leaders gain immensely in the short term as well as long term, if they remain open to people and their emotions. A good example of this is Rudy Giuliani, who as the Mayor of New York City played a key role in the response to the 9/11 attack.
Prior to the terrorist attacks , Giuliani was perceived by many as a divisive and combative politician, who frequently made enemies of minority leaders or those whose political or social views differed from his own. No one would have really minded even if he were to just perform what his job demanded — being a back stage operator. But Giuliani rose to the occasion.
He was out there coordinating the response of various city departments while organising the support of state and federal authorities for the World Trade Center site, for city-wide anti-terrorist measures, and for restoration of destroyed infrastructure. He empathised, reassured and more importantly stood with his people, in body and spirit. In his public statements, Giuliani mirrored the emotions of New Yorkers after the attacks: shock, sadness, anger, resolution to rebuild, and the desire for justice to be done to those responsible.
Giuliani later said that “I was at Ground Zero as often, if not more, than most workers... I was there working with them. I was exposed to exactly the same things they were exposed to. So in that sense, I’m one of them.” By doing so, Giuliani fell on the right side of moral expectations, but also consciously or unconsciously furthered his self-interest.
He was widely praised for his close involvement with the rescue and recovery efforts. When polled just six weeks after the attack he received a 79% approval rating among New York City voters, a dramatic increase over the 36% rating he had received a year earlier — a long 7 years into his administration. Now, to really drive this leadership point home, all that we need to do is to compare the fate of some of our politicians after what our nation went through recently.
Leadership Takeaway:
Being empathetic is not only the morally right thing to do, but eventually also is in the self-interest of the leader.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Features/Corporate-Dossier/Altruism-furthers-self-interest/articleshow/4198473.cms
To top it the decades of underdevelopment and scarcity that our nation has gone through adds on to our insecurity. So, it is not too surprising to see many of our leaders insensitive to most events around — except when they feel that they can derive a direct benefit out of it.
But it is in the self-interest of leaders to be empathetic — not only from a moralistic or what-is-right point of view, but also from a pure utility and rational perspective. Leaders gain immensely in the short term as well as long term, if they remain open to people and their emotions. A good example of this is Rudy Giuliani, who as the Mayor of New York City played a key role in the response to the 9/11 attack.
Prior to the terrorist attacks , Giuliani was perceived by many as a divisive and combative politician, who frequently made enemies of minority leaders or those whose political or social views differed from his own. No one would have really minded even if he were to just perform what his job demanded — being a back stage operator. But Giuliani rose to the occasion.
He was out there coordinating the response of various city departments while organising the support of state and federal authorities for the World Trade Center site, for city-wide anti-terrorist measures, and for restoration of destroyed infrastructure. He empathised, reassured and more importantly stood with his people, in body and spirit. In his public statements, Giuliani mirrored the emotions of New Yorkers after the attacks: shock, sadness, anger, resolution to rebuild, and the desire for justice to be done to those responsible.
Giuliani later said that “I was at Ground Zero as often, if not more, than most workers... I was there working with them. I was exposed to exactly the same things they were exposed to. So in that sense, I’m one of them.” By doing so, Giuliani fell on the right side of moral expectations, but also consciously or unconsciously furthered his self-interest.
He was widely praised for his close involvement with the rescue and recovery efforts. When polled just six weeks after the attack he received a 79% approval rating among New York City voters, a dramatic increase over the 36% rating he had received a year earlier — a long 7 years into his administration. Now, to really drive this leadership point home, all that we need to do is to compare the fate of some of our politicians after what our nation went through recently.
Leadership Takeaway:
Being empathetic is not only the morally right thing to do, but eventually also is in the self-interest of the leader.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Features/Corporate-Dossier/Altruism-furthers-self-interest/articleshow/4198473.cms
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