Kalyan Ganguly and leadership

 

I met Kalyan the other day at the Bangalore club. We discussed Upanishads, literature and the future of AI. In the night, as I walked out of the colonial building, I thought with a little budget I could change the face of the earth. You get it. That's what I always felt after meeting him. Therein lies his best trick I suppose. He is the biggest leader I have really met and worked with. He and Joe hired me to help them with their strategy when Kalyan was the CEO of  United Breweries and Joe his SVP HR. Philosophers and happiness books keep saying we should feel gratitude. Well.. I have tried. It doesn't come easy. You work with people like Kalyan, it comes to you naturally. You really want to thank them. Great leaders in my opinion, bring the best in you. When you have done your best, you want to thank them, thank God.  Generally you meet a great leader and say, wow, what a great leader. That's great, no doubt. But…Kalyan can take leadership to the next level. He takes two steps forward. He makes you feel great about yourself. You will like yourself. At least I did. I am sure most do. Remember William Blake's poem?

The wisdom of Charles Handy

Prof.Handy is one of my long time favorites. He is a management classic.

In this nice article Charles Handy of Empty raincoat says

In my experience, 150 is pushing it. I like the bit of Dunbar's research where he says that our levels of intimacy go up in multiples of three. We may have just five people whom we know intimately and trust implicitly: our best friends. At the next levels, there are 15 good friends or mates whom we are always delighted to be with, 45 whom we see occasionally, perhaps work with, and 135 that make up our Christmas card or Facebook list of friends.

Read more here.

https://www.strategy-business.com/article/The-wisdom-of-Charles-Handy?gko=6b365

What the others can learn from revival of Microsoft - Economist article

Just a decade ago Microsoft was considered an evil empire, scheming for domination. Today it is the most liked among the big tech.

At the heart of this change is the change in its culture - from dominance mode it went to collaborative and cooperative mode.

Microsoft missed social networks and smartphones because of its obsession with Windows, the operating system that was its main moneyspinner. In the past quarter revenues at Azure, Microsoft’s cloud division, grew by 68% year on year, and it now has nearly half the market share of Amazon Web Services, the industry leader.

But today that rival operating system is more widely used on Azure than Windows. And many companies see Microsoft as a much less threatening technology partner than Amazon, which is always looking for new industries to enter and disrupt.

From the start Microsoft designed Azure in such a way that it could accommodate local data-protection laws.

Facebook and Google have started to recognise that with great power comes great responsibility, but each has yet to find its equivalent of Azure, a new business model beyond its original golden goose.

Digital Strategy - HBS - Sunil Gupta

Measuring Strategy capability - by sheshagiri hegde

Measuring Strategy Capability

Here is a  booklet I wrote on measuring strategy capability in organizations.

Strategy CMM from Sheshagiri Hegde

Critic of strategic reason - Part 1

Board rooms are not unified on strategy. The most painful point of strategy making in large organisations is, as people rivet their views die hard to their intellectual inclinations to views as diverse as simple one-cell amoeba to complex billion-cell human brain about what is strategy, why it is critical, how it helps winning in the market place and so on – leaders often think strategy in contradictory terms. Each one’s view of strategy becomes practically roadblock, antithesis and a wall to the other’s view. People may change their religion, not their view about what is strategic and hence what is important for the organization. Even negotiating thin shared view, among the leadership team of what has been thought of as strategy, hoping something right is thought of in the first place, itself is a difficult challenge. No doubt strategy as a subject is researched extensively. Academic scholars such as Porter, Prahlad, Mintzberg Kaplan and others from eminent universities, business leaders of high repute, Jack welch, Louise Gestener, Andy Grove and so on - have demonstrated its importance for organizations by theory and practice, however to say that strategy is a method repeatably scientific is a huge ask. People used to social sciences- psychology, politics are used to uncertainty about their theoretical predictions which are generally obvious to commonsense. But apprehensions that persist despite their scientific claims wrapped with academic jargons, degree to which such complexity is stretched in case of strategy - is way too much for even a nuclear and God particle theorists. Only one needs to traverse through briefly, the confounding maze of ideas held together by frail logic to realize the slippery ground the business strategy making stands on.
This, confusing as it sounds, seems to be more a rule than exception whenever we make any attempt on theoretical construct at such higher levels. As we look around, we soon realize that this is not the problem of business strategy making alone. This seems to be the bane of all issues of social space that matters no matter how many Nobel prizes are given and won, economic models included. Take Marxism for instance. Power of theory of Marx, more popular as marxism, has swept through the world and has captured the intellect, imagination and conscience of human beings, only the way great religions - judaism, christianity, and Islam have done in human history. Marx however, who talked so much about money for most part lived moneyless in a dingy impoverished suburbs of London, would have been horrified by even a faintest suggestion that his work is anything like religion. One may debate whether Marx was right or wrong and whether his predictions were right. But to say Marxism is not a theory significant enough to influence people would be an intellectual suicide.
Suppose we begin a simple question. How useful and scientific is Marxist theory anyway? Can Marxism mean the same thing two people?
“Scepter is haunting Europe - scepter of communism” Said Marx. As you know, Marx theory deftly explains all human past as history of class struggles. Capitalist class is the most revolutionary class ever existed on earth so far, Karl Marx says. “The rising bourgeoisie has completely revolutionized the production and have dominated the world market. Bourgeoisie has achieved that far surpass wonders of Egyptian pyramids, Roman aqueducts and gothic cathedrals”.

To be continued ..

Leadership and Strategy

This book is about management practices that I learnt and observed during my two decades of consulting career, described using some of known frameworks of management theories and sheer commonplace explanations of business processes. These are some of select papers and articles- few of which have been published in journals and magazines I wrote over last decade while I consulted several companies in India - in implementing balanced scorecard, in remodeling some of their key business processes, in improving quality, in developing leadership practices. These papers may not fit into a classical form, the way the academicians might qualify a book to be, i.e. creating proper background detailing and connecting them to history of important works done by any academicians etc – but these are very practical in the sense that they represent, as far as I am right in describing what I have seen, heard, and done – processes, activities, strategies that I have seen in large organizations in India. Hence, these are very pragmatic ideas, ideas that are implemented, practices that are sustained in organizations with attendant limitations of inherent biases of the author and shortfalls of very attempts of describing social contexts such as organization, community or society at large or reality itself for that matter.

What is stategy - webcast 18 minutes

Strategy Dialogs

This, rather organizational  practice was first developed  by theoretical physicicist David Bohm, and later was adopted by Harvard psychologist Chris Argyris with some modifications. Bohm used this method extensively to bring about transofmative shift, deep change in mindset - to bridge divisive, compartmental, defensive attitudes among oppsoing scientists and business leaders alike,  across disciplines and regions and to collaboratively create new thought platform that could transform persisting probelms. Quantum physicist by profession, Bohm explained this discipline of group thinking, which he called “dialogs” - in many of his papers and books extensively.  In my opinion, it is by far the most critical group or organizational skill in thinking through strategy in business.

Microsoft's new strategy

This is possibly strategy at its best!  Worlds, fiercest software company reversing it’s fundamental ideology, it’s very business principles, it’s core strategy,  – entering into hardware, with their new laptop,  in head on competition with Apple, the best in that game. Congrats Satya Nadella! Though all articles and reports in leading papers and TV shows hailed you as new Indian techie who understood cloud better, and hence said your war paraphernalia was  the most lucrative, star wars of ever expanding cloud - you showed the guts to make such a call albeit not on cloud!! Narayan Murthy couldn’t do in his second innings, lacked the verve the grit... . and had no strategy.

Copying someone’s game and beating them down in their home ground is Microsoft’s core strength. By the way, MS came into existence that way. From their OS, Browser to office suite ... none is its very own creation in an ordinary sense of creation.  Bill Gates could not have done this reversal of principles. Not so when Steve was still alive at least. That would be like accepting defeat at a soul level and would have proved Hegelian ideology wrong!. Face well saved.

Anyways lets watch the game. I have my own doubts... they have lost many battles. Why how about Bing? Where is their mobile OS? ...

Strategy for employement generation

Strategy is about making choices. .. 

Employement creation is one of the most critical mandate of the central governement.

Strategy - Playing to win

Former CEO of Procter & Gamble on Business strategy that worked for him 

My Essay on Vision and Goals

VISION & GOALS

By Sheshagiri Hegde


Khalil Gibran, turns all the conventional wisdom of life and living on its head. He once wrote "People say a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. It is other way. A bird and feather in the bush is worth ten in hand. In seeking after the feather life is winged. No, it is life itself." LIfe is in the seeking. Life is longing. A child is complete when she impatiently awaits her mom buying her dream doll, man lives his highest when he awaits in despair first million or lasting fame, his thing of joy. Vision is all about trying to catch the thistling down million dollar midair, or going after singing fame in the bush.
There is an old saying, If you want to build a ship, teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea. Without an urge one's life is a dull venture, a darkness. Nothing moves man the way vision moves, big or small. It's true for all the leaders I have worked with. What makes us act is a glimpse of scene, a short video in the head, clippings of what we truly care. You want to know what keeps businessman busy making money? Go to him and ask what he wants to achieve in next five years. You will sure have peek into his vision, story that keeps him awake. Same is true for a scientist. Ask him what problem he is trying to solve, what has challenged his wit. Most have vision that they want to achieve, desired future they want to create. It need not have to be big, nor compelling breakthrough. But a thing one truly cares. Individual, team, organization societies - vision drives actions everywhere.

I started my career with the world leading accounting firm. The firm was examining the expenses of nuclear power plant. Audit manager of the project was trying hard to convince fresh associates to remote location inside forest in Rajasthan. Despite his imploring not a soul was willing. One would be holed up lonely, in that deserted place with no civilized entertainment in sight. For someone living in ever buzzing Bombay, it was a hard call. No one was ready. Then came partner of the firm, auditor hotshot, who knew ways of the young, had knocked about the world. After few minutes brief on advantages of the project, on a lighter note he added. "I have been there, it has a guest house which was summer palace of a king. You are given horse rides, get to drive a vintage car, dine by the lake side, Ah it is going back two hundred years in time". Before he paused his speech, five of us were competing to catch the next train to get there. The vision, picture of living life of a king, albeit lonely and only for two weeks did the magic.

Sometime an unlikely idea fascinates you in an instant beyond reason. You come across some vague idea of your own in a talk, in a book, in a theatre, some dim image that comes back to you from afar as the complete expression of your deep wish. You are a changed man in that very minute.

In school we had a maths teacher who most thought was an unappreciated genius. He was respected by all the students and faculty. One day in his class, making a small detour, he often took to refresh attention, he told a story of a his former student. It created such a desirable picture of the student, of his mathematical abilities, of things the student almost invented to the shock of the world of science, the way he solved an old math riddle, unsolvable even to university professors -- I was ready to read thrice as many hours and wake up two hours early, to be a wizard like that. In ten minutes flat the entire class of forty was full of Nobel enthusiasts. In the next quarterly examination, for the first time in history of our school, three students secured 100 out of 100. It required hard sustained effort. I was charged as bull. I got up before sunrise. In my mind I saw people congratulating me, university asked me to give a talk on theory I had heard the first time, imagined a medal in gold around my neck. Those mental pictures although way too unreal, kept me and many busy studying, solving, overcoming competing impulses. I was now self regulated and self motivated. Good vision can change you even instantly.

Most leadership gurus are clear on power of vision to motivate, whether a person, group of people or organization. Peter singe, management expert of book, Fifth Discipline fame, wrote about a scene from a movie Spartacus, in his book that sold to best seller slot , where overpowered army of rebels stands up to death one by one. Peter, a best selling author and a professor at one of the world renown institutes, MIT observes that, vision of being free man, free from being slaves which the leader of the rebel army instilled in his men, had inspired the slaves to prefer death to living as slaves. People can give up their life for their purpose.

Many authors of management , business leaders, leadership psychologists - Tom Peters Mckinsey consultant, Jack Welch the celebrity CEO of GE , John Kotter of Harvard business school, Henry mintzberg, England foremost Guru of management, Luis Gestener turnaround artist of IBM, - all reiterate throughout, that vision moves both individuals, corporations, groups and communities, to act. A heart rending incident in records of Indian history underscores, how touch of vision makes even ordinary citizens brave extraordinary acts. British declared tax on eating salt. This made basic living harder for the poor. Most were living on the edge already. Gandhi was upset with the new tax. He with his thousands of followers, decided to march to Dandi and make salt there as a protest. It was decided that all would be nonviolent no matter how provoked. Even if police were to behave unruly, beat them, participants were to remain nonviolent. A battalion of police waited as protestors reached Dandi. Police ordered them to stop the protest and disperse else threatened to cane them. But protestors kept marching forward. That led British to commit one of their worst. One by one, 332 participants were beaten fatally at the entry. Many were soaked in red as their head squirted blood at the strike. Few died on the spot and many others on the way to hospital. This didn't frighten the determined crowd. Next Protestor came forward willingly no sooner than his fellow man sank writhing in pain. What was amazing was While they were thus beaten, not a single hand was raised against the police. Even the mortal fear couldn't break protesters slightest conduct.


This power of shared vision, to teach British rulers how unfair it was to rule ones freedom in one's own country, and show all this in a most civilized way, as british historian Will Durant observed, made people display this unusual bravery.

Lets now see how we can create a good vision.

Leaders I have met, all had a vision which they earnestly sought, pursued with dedication and worked many hard years to attain. Many achieved more than what they set out to do initially. Manish Jain engineer MBA built a premier management institute in Bangalore. IIT engineer and an IIM graduate, Sudhir Angur left a big ticket career with an MNC, to start management institute, now one of the most respected private universities in India, Alliance university. Naresh Malhothra, former CFO of UB who joined then a small start up with few cafes, changed very paradigm of speed of building companies in India, and built 500 cafe strong chain of restaurants. All these are magic of vision I witnessed close in action. They all had the drive that sustained the rigor.

How to build a vision

Of people of excellence, some discover their passion by chance, some create it, most however, half create and half discover. Vision in simplest form is not anymore than answer to a plain question, What is that I want? But it is as hard an answer to grasp as simple a question to seek. What one truly desires is vague dream that lies deep inside oneself, often varying as wind. May be It is a dimming childhood wish of distant past, unsure million dollar enterprise, blurring fame of being srar actor, fuzzy logic of revolutionary algorithm, elusive quantum idea that is flitting between particle and wave. Source of our passion is uncertain future floating confusedly in the mind. Without conscious awakening, vision lies in a state of potential which surfaces now and again taking distinct forms. When we turn our attention on it, reflect on it, it gathers itself clearer.

One best way to find the vision is to find anchor story. You need to find a story, fiction or fact that resonates with you, echoes within you. It could be a movie, novel or real life story. You won't miss it if you are searching. You can prop your dream against an inspiring story.

Jalaluddin Rumi says, what you are seeking is also seeking you. While you seek your passion, your passion is seeking you. When man stumbles on his vision he falls in love with it.

Formerly english teacher who I know since over a decade, Akumal Ramachandar found works of an impoverished Russian abstract painter so moving he left his job, risked his savings and career to help the aging artist whoes hopes were all but dry. Salman Rashdie wrote a story in one of his famous books, Imaginary homelands and BBC made a one hour documentary where Rushdie was the narrator. An engineer read novel by Asimov left his job to invent a hi-tech product. Years of struggle followed by bankruptcy and gloom finally made him a millIonaire inventor. A software couple traveling around Indian country side were touched by poverty of farmers. They left their high paying corporate jobs and started helping farmers get better price for their crops. Top IIT Delhi professor has been living with a tribal community in Assam helping them find customers for their agriculture products, a day wage worker became a real estate tycoon inspired by Amitab Bachman movie Kalia. One can stumble over one's vision all over.


Following questions can help you find your inspiration

Is there a story or a novel you read that inspired you, that you loved ?

Is there a bIography that struck deep chords within? Left you wanting to be one like the protagonist.

Who are your top two most liked mythological characters? Is it Arjuna? Is it Vasistha, Meets, Raadha, Krishna ? Who you want to be like?

Are there any historical stars or heroes who have struck your imagination for long?

Any real life story you have watched close or read about? How about shoestring startup that raised 100 million in round two, musical genius whose records were sold out on Amazon, a chess prodigy?

You need to reflect on real-life stories that you heard or seen close. Recollect movies that inspired you, elevated your spirits. Bring back to mind any stories you read in magazine or newsletter. Something that created intense desire. If it is your story it stays long within you. Novels that you read that kept coming back to you. You hear the hero saying something profound while on your way to office. A dialog between him and his arch rival may be. As you work your day you feel as if you were he because your hero has intense routine himself. You secretly even wish to be humiliated and be very strong in the face of it like in the movie. You identify your work with him. Certain aspects of the work which raise your imagination. The way a particular job is finished in the nick of time with such classiness. People stand around and clap. Sometimes just a very short scene is enough to stick in the mind. You go to bed with hundreds of people giving standing ovation while you clear the suspense, your product. Biographies of many musicians and actors show that such imagination sparked fire . Few scenes, a dialog, a song, secrete a mission kindles a new spirit. It evokes. Not anything supernatural. But just the kind you feel when you feel super attracted greatly fascinated over something. That is the story we need to find and live with this fiction for sometime.


Bruce Lee way

Inspiration comes to you, but it should see you working, says Pablo Picasso. Bruce Lee found his passion while practicing it. Gandhi found his actualization, his God as he said it, in service of humanity as he began helping indentured poor labours in south Africa. Passion is found more in the realm of practice, than in the domain of thought.

Bruce wss practicing Kungfu over a decade before he turned it into his mission. He was a martial artist film maker and a philosopher. His life is text book example of vision practiced to its finest. Clarity of his thought and unwavering dedication to execution of it is exemplary. In 1969 Bruce Lee wrote himself a letter. The letter is window to his vision, living witness to his discipline of execution. Two books he published, Dragon letters and Striking Thoughts give details of his vision, journey and his chief aim in life.

Young graduate of Washington university Bruce lee was awe struck by kungfu, an ancient Chinese martial art. He became a committed soldier, ever hungry student and a professing messiah of the ancient Chinese system. His movies such as Enter the Dragon return of the Dragon are unmistakable evidence to this. At 21 he was already accomplished Kungfu master. In his heart Kungfu was not training of body. It was training of mind and spirit. It disciplined people spiritually. It was not a blind faith or belief. It was a spiritual force. Bruce Lee believed that it helped people awaken a spiritual force within them.It helped them achieve inner harmony.

Bruce Lee wrote.

My Definite Chief Aim

I, Bruce Lee, will be the first highest paid Oriental super star in the United States. In return I will give the most exciting performances and render the best of quality in the capacity of an actor. Starting 1970 I will achieve world fame and from then onward till the end of 1980 I will have in my possession $10,000,000. I will live the way I please and achieve inner harmony and happiness.

Bruce Lee

Jan. 1969

To fall in love with your vision means to practice the essence, act on its core skills, to pursue it for long enough to see if it raises your energy.

It's hard to picture to oneself what one loves to do sitting behind desk. Harder still in front of computer or laptop. Also one is not sure whether he will love them long enough. Best way to know what one loves to do is to do it for sometime. Best way to know if you like to sing or not is to sing for sometime. With a laptop and PowerPoint you cannot imagine how is it like to play Beethoven for an audience or teach quantum theory for post graduates. Right way therefore is the hardest way there is. I.e just sing if you want to know if you like it. How can we be sure we love playing cricket or not, without playing it even once ? Acting on something you think you love is the best way to get to know if we can persist, whether we sustain beyond initial enthusiasm. When Bruce Lee thought of making kungfu chief aim of his life, he was already a master warrior of Kungfu. He wanted to further perfect his skills over years. But he already knew it too well. He knew it for many years.

Research shows that there is a match between what you love to do and what you are good at doing. People are drawn to their strength, their inner strength, what they are natural at. Though few are exception to this rule, most tend to like where they can play their strength full. To know what could be our best story, we need to narrow down the stories mentioned above to very few where we have natural talent or some God sent skills.


Write down your dream

Writing is the middle of thought and its manifestation. It sharpen the thoughts by cutting out the inconsistency and fuzziness. Putting down on paper makes the magic, brings you a step closer to achieving it. Owner ceo of Facebook has written his mission in about twenty pages. Writing weaves your story on the canvas. It helps you outline the overall idea, proportion the parts and imagine more vividly. The more one dwells with it the more one relates to it and hence the more it drives him. Every imaginary millstone achieved, product launched, recognition earned and all that little by little brings your vision closer to reality. It is as if each detail imagined brings with it, power to manifest.

Identifying with a story is good starting point, but that may still not make you act. Only action gets results. Therefore we need a vision that moves us to act. Big actions get you big results says personal development Guru Tony Robins. Writing is a good way to fill the details.

Your anchor story, story you are identified with determines what you write. But there are few key things you can do in any vision. Work for instance is very critical for anyone today. Never ever in human history work was so defining for people. What is your typical weekday is good detail.

If your dream is to be a great Software engineer at Google Facebook or Microsoft you may write about piece of code you are writing about. Just ask few random related questions. .

Describe your team members

Are they PhD from diverse background

What kind of relationship you share

What about your boss and his background

What kind of project are you working on?


There is no limit. As you see you don't need to be expert writer. You just need to bullet few points and gradually fuse them together later.

Vision doesn't have to be big to write about. Mahatma Gandhi had a mission. He wanted to help voiceless poor Indians out of their ill treating white masters. It all began with one or two victims of . Then it rolled into a huge mission. if Mahatma Gandhi can start it small. So can anyone. No matter how ridiculously small a vision appears to be it should be written.

Your office and the campus building is very key piece for the story. We spend large percentage of our waking hours in office. May be you work in a sprawling campus such as wipro. An a.c. bus brings you to your office. A hi-tech gym is in the adjacent building where you regularly use the treadmill thrice a week. A kind faced lift operator never forgets to greet you. In the large floor where some two thousand people sit, yours is the third cubicle as you enter. The cabin next to vp marketing is busy with people. You can see the people chatting at the water cooler. Your boss secretly likes your work and cares about how you are shaping up to take his critical responsibility.

Another area common in all vision is how what you do helps people. Or anything you do directly to help people Are you donating in kind or cash ? Are you going out directly and giving it or donating it to institution. See in thought how the receivers face lights up as she sees you. Many great leaders like Nelson Mandela Mohandas Gandhi, have found their calling in their small acts of serving people which later rolled up big. One of the telling moments for Gandhi was when an Indian poor home servant came asking Gandhis help all his face smeared with blood. Gandhi found greater satisfaction in serving poor men free than defending rich for a fortune as a barrister. Bringing such specific touching detail into the vision can make our dream real.



Goal setting

Goal setting is a millionaire habit. Recent interviews with 300 millionaires suggested that 92 percent had habit of setting goals, says author Tom Corley whose book is national best seller. This is the habit that directs every day actions to meaningful larger goal. We all need to learn this discIpline. A student sets a goal to improve his maths grade, a footballer commits to improve his dabbling skills, dancer disciplining to do the moon walk smoother all are example of how we do goal setting. In achieving excellence there is nothing like goal setting as an acquired habit. You learn a bit of this discipline every time you set a goal and successfully achieve it.

Habit is as follows

1. You set the goal

2. You work on it with commitment to achieve it

3. You either achieve it in many cases or correct it after a hard try.

It looks like I am being pedantic on the too obvious. I am not. I am just emphasizing something that is deceptively ordinary and easily ignored. Lot of us are obsessed with dramatic. Anything that doesn't sound important or mathematical is likely to be discarded for lack of interest.

Goal Setting should be everyday habit. Over Long as you practice the habit becomes strong. Stronger this habit becomes more you achieve. In the above example of Bruce Lee, his goals set in 1969. Four years later he had achieved all the goals set. He had made more than ten million USD. He was the highest paid oriental actor. For people who knew Bruce it didn't come as surprise. He being arch disciple of art of Kungfu he had intensity and rigour of a master. Kungfu is a war training. It has ferocity and blood thirst of a battlefield. With such intensity one easily can achieve whatever he sets on. Some of these Chinese and Buddhist training such as Shaolin etc are have vigor of gladiator fight. What is shown in movie Enter the Dragon is not mere fiction. Bruce didn't mere act the hero. He was the Kungfu master in real life. Just that he didn't have the dramatics of the story. He didn't have the villains, the rival camp. As far as Kungfu training and mastery goes, he really was the Kungfu master. He had two decades of training in that discipline.

We need to clarify strategy

First critical step in turning vision into reality is to bring focus on what needs to be achieved in next 3 to 5 years. You should write about 500 words vision story for three years. Preferably write 10,000 words like Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg has done recently. That leads you to strategy. How do we get there? This is what I want in three years, but how do I get it? Strategy is a game plan. War, business, sport every competition needs a strategy. Similarly individual team group, association and every organization needs strategy. Strategy tells us how they plan to move into future. In some crude way, strategy to our vision is what architecture plan is to the house. It is high level reasoning of how one plans to win. And strategy helps us set goals more accurately.

Imagine your friend is new manager of cafe that has newly come up in an upmarket layout. He has a vision to make it a number one destination for coffee and hangout of this place in three years. He trusts your advice. What should he do?

His game plan or strategy may look as follows.

He can make a great looking frontage with glass door that makes the cafe standout. No restaurant has classy look in this area.

He can have exotic menu, make it only vegetarian, Make it a dining only. No breakfast or snacks.

He can advertise in local papers

Hire females as waitresses and make the service more pleasant and soft.

He can get Licence and serve wine with food

Charge premium for the food attract high net worth consumers

Hire authentic chef and make it authentic Chinese food destination


Unlike mathematical problem where solution generally tends to be one answer, strategy making has many answers. It is perfectly fine for two people to come out with two different strategies for achieving the same vision. In our restaurant example, other adviser may give exactly opposite strategy. In a good strategy, goals fit together and bring focus.

And all strategy to be practical needs to be explained in about 15 to 20 separate goals. So strategy translates your vision into 15 - 20 goals.

Have you heard of 80/20 principle? It is somewhat like this. Roughly speaking, in any software project, 20 percent of project takes up 80 percent of time. In most companies 80 percent of revenue comes from 20 percent of products. 80 percent of salary is given to 20 percent of employees in an average organisation.

Strategy is some what like that. It is that 20 or less that makes up the most essential. Everything has strategic essence. Every function every work every goal has strategic parts. Strategic simply means something very key. Something of essence.



Following can help understand strategy.



If vision is to be alive, breath is strategic, while hair, teeth, fingers can be said to be non strategic. On the other hand iIf looking good is vision, may be hair becomes strategic. If playing piano is the vision, fingers are strategic.

Strategy is to find very key parts answer to this question. How do we reach the vision from here.



Suppose a software engineer wants to be a project manager in three years. Finding out how to reach this vision, the hypotheses of cause and effect is his strategy. It could be combination of few of these.

1. Build a trusting relationship with the boss

2. Execute projects on time

3. Learn to be a better leader of team mates

4. Learn few critical technologies

5. Master few existing tech skills

6. Learn to manage customer more effectively

7. Learn to promote

8. Improve quality of proposals made to existing customers for new business



Strategy explains reasoning behind how we achieve our vision or main goal that we want to accomplish in three or five years. Roughly speaking it is much like recipe. If you want to cook good Pasta you need to find the right recipe. If pasta is your vision recipe is your strategy. In case of restaurant we ask, if restaurant has to be successful in three years what should be the strategy? What goals or choices one should make.



In the following paragraphs let's explore how one thinks strategically, keeping restaurant example above as our vision down five years.



Consider goal of making it vegetarian only dining destination. Vegetarian is not only health consciousness. It is also religious or spiritual sentiment. Excluding non vegetarian dish assures the vegetarian consumers certain spiritual sanctity. This surely draws them to our restaurant. Goal becomes more feasible if there are good number of conservative elderly who observe stricter religious rituals such as vegetarian food. Also this helps bring in more elaborate vegetarian menu.



Above thinking shows how strategy thinking outlines the reasoning, searches for logic, outlays the possibilities and makes the choices. Strategic possibilities seem to be many branching, limitless. The more one thinks the more is one confused. As you choose one other seem to be more feasible. Challenge is to make the choice and stick to it.



Goals for next 9 months



What do we need to achieve in next 9 months ? This is the most important question one needs to ask once a three year vision is clear. In order to achieve our vision what should we get done in next 9 months.



Nine months timeline is not gimmick, nor is it random. Many leaders of large private companies I have known have this practice. One head of HR I know, of five thousand people strong software services company asks all his recruiters one page of their goals for next six months. Most angel investors, people who invest money in business ventures that are at just idea stage, asked me this question when I was helping team of young entrepreneurs from Kolkata few years ago. Unlike bankers, they needed a small estimate and action for six to nine months. Most fortune 500 companies have practice of what they call performance management. HP, UB, Google, Shell, Amazon every great company has it. They all ask their employees to set 12 month goal. Even in academic institutions students are evaluated once in six months.



Following could be 9 months goal for restaurant. Here again remember, three are more than one right answers. Our mathematically biased mind looks for one perfect answer. In non mathematical matters such as restaurant we have here there are many perfect answers. Also there are an equal number of wrong answers. Experience in restaurant business helps you separate the good ones from not so good. Experienced restaurateur can tell you if you have right breadth of choices in the menu, right pricing, good catchment and many more.




Increase repeat customer base by additional 10 000



Introduce customer feedback form



Introduce loyalty card in next three months



Increase average price by 50 percent



Recruit two best in class chefs



Restaurant to have most attractive front face



Food quality to be the best available in the ten kilometer radius.



Often people tend to make long list of goals. That clutters the execution focus. We should be able to capture all we want to do in about 8 to 10 goals.



Make the goal measurable.



There is a saying in quality management, what gets measured gets done. Our goal must be measurable. How do we know if a goal set is achieved or not? It requires training and practice to develop thinking that is specific and precise. This is a subject by itself and volumes have been written. Setting Specific goals require some practice and skill. People untrained in goal setting tend to set vague goals. For instance consider goal like we will have buzzing restaurant in next nine months. It is not a specific goal. What is buzzing restaurant? Also, what is buzzing for one can be only deserted for other. We need some measure done, a number by which we can know It precisely.



For all the goals set we ask this question, is the goal measurable? Is there a number attached to it? Else we need to force a number which can closely describe the goal. Remember anything can be measured, including the most abstract and vaguest. There are range of methods for measuring brands, customer satisfaction, loyalty, food quality, happiness of citizen, even quality of love between couples and so on.



There are scientific ways to measure certain abstract looking things, product brand of a company for instance, or level of customer satisfaction , which political party people are likely to vote for. There are scientific ways to measure intelligence, emotional compatibility between couples. We are not looking for scientific or the best way. What we need is a reasonable number that can be a good measure for our goal. Once your goal is tracked by number it is half executed already.



Take case of goal , create a buzzing restaurant. At this stage it is vague because what is buzzing for x is deserted for y. How do we fix this?

Obviously two tables occupied is not buzzing. Empty restaurant doesn't buzz. At about 70 percent full the restaurant creates a hubbub. That's possibly one of the good measures for the buzzing restaurant. Some may argue in favour of 80 full restaurant, some others may say even 50 percent full to be buzzing. There can be other measures like number of customers, number of orders placed etc. Though at the outset it may appear fuzzy, most things can be measured in some way.



Set goals for the month.



Nine month or one year goals are too far. And one may lose sight of it easily. We need nearer goals to keep us motivated and guide our daily and weekly tasks. In texture and tone monthly goals are much like nine month goals. In that they have to be measurable, about eight to ten in numbers, meaningful parts of nine month goals, flock together logically not mutually opposed. All that is said about yearly goal is true for monthly goals except that former is ten times bigger. Also note, setting monthly goals is done in every well managed business.



Continuing our restaurant example, we can have following as our month one goal.



Hire a best in class chef

Hire an interior designer for front face design



Have the customer feedback form designed



Get five key food menu created and trials run



Hire a celebrety chefs like ones shown on national TV as consulting chef.



Do budget for implementing strategy.



On a closer look above set of goals show that all these goals are derived from yearly goals. First goal hire rock star chef is straight lift from the year goal. Hiring interior designer for designing front face is part of goal getting a most attractive front face. And so is designing feedback form of goal instituting customer feedback survey. Most goals are straight copy in smaller size or part of the year goal. Some goals can however be not a straight copy but derived out translated. In the above example preparing budget for implementing is translated goal. What it simply means is that it is not such a straight forward copy. It is goal that indirectly or eventually supports the goal. Budget helps plan our cash requirement for executing. Hiring best in class chef might cost the restaurant 30 percent more in operating. Redesign of front face has one time cost. Without this budget restaurant strategy may fail due to cash crunch.



Keep a goal task journal.



Monthly Goal is a whole of which the daily tasks are parts. Rightly proportioned and well fitting daily tasks turn goals into reality. Finally most goals have to be broken down to weekly and daily tasks. We need to translate goals into daily activities that aggregate to goals at monthly and yearly level. Daily tasks done is much like a mile traveled. It keeps track and aligns towards destination.



Here is the key question,



Keeping in mind my year goals and monthly goals what do I need to do today?



A journal of daily activities is a good practice. Many Android apps such as anydot do etc, few of which with free versions, are good for journaling our daily activities. Journal of daily activities help us bridge our daily tasks to monthly or yearly goals.



Web developer writing codes today for a particular page with an intent to complete a website for a law firm by the month end is a good example of goal journal. Business executive, meeting his customers in the hope of winning a contract so as to reach his monthly sales target is another example. Tele caller doubling his calls after review to reach his insurance premium targets is yet another example of translating our monthly goals into every day tasks.



Steven Covey , best selling author of Seven habits of highly effective people, say that working with end goal in mind produce great results. Like most success habits of life, this too is a victim of over simplicity. It is very easy to understand but difficult to implement. It requires discIpline and commitment.



Keeping journal of everyday tasks is a great motivational tool, says a research published in Harvard business journal by researchers

Teresa Amabile Steven J. Kramer. Article shows how Nobel winning team Watson and his partner were motivated by everyday progress and small wins. And their journey through highs and lows of everyday to Nobel. Their 12000 people survey suggested that 76 percent of time, on an everyday basis, when people felt motivated, charged to compete towards their meaningful goal - they experienced a little progressl. Conversely 13 percent were demotivated when they encountered setback.

As habit, goal setting system , three year vision, nine month goals, one month goals, weekly and daily tasks - guide one towards excellence.

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Strategy Execution at United Breweries - Video

Strategy execution method, balanced scorecard, implemented at United Breweries Ltd, top performing billion dollar beer division of UB group - remains one of the most successful corporate transformation stories in India.  UB continues its onslaught on its competition, outperforms them by miles in almost every key business measures- sales, EBITDA, innovation, leadership, new products, quality of beer, consumer delight and brand experience , to name few.

Ten years ago, Kalyan Ganguly, the CEO of the division, a Harvard Business School Alumni and his leadership team Shekhar Ramamurthy, Joe Naronha and others initiated balanced scorecard as one of the key strategic initiatives for energizing then perfectly nice looking enterprise to drive it off its comfort zones, inviting the non-existent problem to solve it for reinventing and revitalizing the organization, which in retrospect appears to have paid off phenomenally well.

Here is an interview with Shekhar Ramamurthy, Joint President United Breweries, who is all set to take the enterprise to the next level, sharing his thoughts on how the strategizing, thinking-through and dialoguing on strategic objectives, BSC tools at al – helped the UB leaders create one of the most formidable global enterprise both in its financials and in its management sophistication.

http://euseden.com/sg/bsc_shekhar_interview.php

My Book - Strategy & Leadership

Dear friends, Here is my book on management, Strategy & Leadership (310 pages of standard size book), collection of articles and white papers, I wrote over last ten years of my consulting and training.  Many of these are more like brief case studies of some of my consulting projects with few of the leading organizations in India.  Charles Handy, one of the most prominent thinkers of management, freelance consultant, author of best sellers like – Age of unreason etc., and former professor of London Business School said “I came to study organization and behavioural science expecting certainty, but I was disillusioned. …  I found too often ponderous confirmation of obvious and weighty investigation of trivia”. Then he reconciles with why such study as management would be worth. On a more reasonable plain he concluded that study of management is insightful; help predict trends when organizational phenomena are given contextual interpretations much like the historians do. I am not too sure if my articles are any less disillusioning, especially if you are looking for precise how-to-dos; No these won’t tell you how to exactly implement strategy and make an organizational strategy plan.

Nor will these tell you, how to become a great leader by reading these or produce great leaders in an organization. But these can certainly provide insightful information about what did my clients do when they were faced with a myriad web of strategic choices such as those, how did they wade through those to pick the right ones, or create an action plan, how the top leaders arrived at way to communicate something which was hitherto only mist of knowledge thrown about loosely with vagueness sufficient enough to scare any action on that by any leader at any level.

As generally the case with most of such writings, and you should pardon the authors for that, and hence pardon me too - due to sensitivity attached to such, as much is disclosed to provide insights as is hidden to conceal the sensitivity of the data which can certainly make significant part untold and hence lesson incomplete enough to make it dangerous to try on your own without a proper counsel.

I can only hope you will find it useful.

Improving Sales through Balanced scorecard

Head of US sales, Michael Hickey of Astra Zeneca had a clear sales strategy which helped 6000 people strong US sales force achieve break through performance in the US region. Astra Zeneca, which is a global pharmaceutical major with over USD 12 billion in sales, later adopted such a strategy process across other major geographies. Strategy was one of the major components of successful transformation of IBM (Louis Gerstener 2003). Among others, Gerstener pursued creating focus on services, adopting open standards, moved product lines and above all changed the culture of the company.

Read on 

Write down your strategy - Satya Nadella way

How about Some 3500 words of white paper/essay on your business strategy? It has bit of touch of innovation. Satya Nadella, new CEO of microsoft has used a nice practice in communicating his strategy. He has written short essay or a long letter on his strategy which talks about the strategy he is adopting to bring about the much needed change in Microsoft.

He says he wants to use this letter and initiate dialog on this with all the senior managers and leaders. So that people can fine tine this and draw up their action plans at their levels.

Look at how he has written about Microsoft's strategy 

Measuring Progress- What Bill Gates said

Here is a blog I found on Gates Foundation website, written by Bill Gates himself. Blog says it all about the power of measuring progress. I think progress is one of the greatest motivators for people. Not many companies provide their people with proper tools to measure the progress they make against their set goals!

In this blog, Mr Gates writes;

Over the holidays I read The Most Powerful Idea in the World, a brilliant chronicle by William Rosen of the many innovations it took to harness steam power. Among the most important were a new way to measure the energy output of engines and a micrometer dubbed the "Lord Chancellor," able to gauge tiny distances.

Such measuring tools, Rosen writes, allowed inventors to see if their incremental design changes led to the improvements-higher-quality parts, better performance, and less coal consumption-needed to build better engines. Innovations in steam power demonstrate a larger lesson: Without feedback from precise measurement, Rosen writes, invention is "doomed to be rare and erratic." With it, invention becomes "commonplace."

Read more...

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Get organized like VISA does

 Have you heard of VISA?Now, do you know how is it organized- Check it out? If listed it would have USD trillion+. Largely its is self governing! Lets self-govern women safety..you cannot change Indian Govt...rather its best way to change it