When the ‘Second’ is the ‘First’: Getting the Perspectives Right

Many times in life, we are so obsessed with symptoms that we lose sight of the root cause. Also, many times we see a part as the whole. True, management thought has taught us to focus on results. True also that the industrial engineering movement, and even the famed Toyota Production System, taught us the benefits of division of work and specialization. In general, if each person does what he or she is supposed to do right, the next in sequence would occur with equal efficiency, Efficient parts, it is believed, make for an effective whole. This indeed is logical but only so long as the logic of what must override what in terms of the core purpose is not appreciated.

The issue at hand is almost like the distinction between Ayurveda, the ancient Indian science of healing and Allopathy, the modern practice of medicine. The former requires a patient to be studied in whole before a disease is treated. The Ayurvedic treatments offered in India are a case in point. The latter believes that unless the disease as expressed by the symptoms is addressed quickly there could be collateral damage. Obviously, both approaches have their merits and applicability. The debate, however, makes us think through what is primary and what is secondary in the real sense and meaning of various practices we are accustomed to in life. Some interesting examples, relevant for individuals, managers, leaders and organizations alike, follow.

1.       Teaching and learning 

There is so much focus on institutes which offer quality teaching. This focus is not peculiar to India; it pervades even the advanced countries. The basic purpose, one would presume, of good teaching is good learning. One should logically look for institutes which enable good learning rather than offer good teaching. Good teaching need not necessarily translate itself into good learning. In any case, rather than assume that good teaching makes students good learners, it would be appropriate to insist on both teachers and the students to focus on learning. While assessing graduates of institutes, it is important to assess if they had assimilated learning to the standard equivalent the teaching of an institute is expected to.

2.      Qualifications and education

As with the chase for quality teaching institutes there is an equal, if not greater, craze for educational qualifications and professional certifications. Without doubt, formal qualifications are essential means of ensuring that one goes through a prescribed process of education and evaluation. However, education can take place independent of qualifications, and all qualifications may not result in the same level of education. The challenge is greater when people acquire diverse qualifications. Whether one qualification de-educates one of the previous qualification or builds on the foundations is a key aspect. While assessing individuals with or without qualifications, it is important to assess the true level of education he or she would have got.   

3.      Assimilation and application

The main purpose of teaching and learning is to assimilate all knowledge within oneself. As modern research indicates human brain is an amazing library and storehouse of whatever information is deposited into it. Contrary to popular belief, the brain has the ability to absorb an endless array of information. Unlike a physical library, even if information is taken out from the brain it remains in the memory; in fact, it gets expanded with the way the retracted information is processed and acted upon. Assimilation is purposeless without application, just as teaching is purposeless without learning. Application of knowledge is the one that differentiates active achievers from passive followers. It is also interesting that it is the greater application of knowledge rather than just greater teaching or learning that results in greater assimilation of knowledge.  

4.      Hearing and listening

Hearing is the electro-mechanical process of receiving external sounds through the ears, whether from nature or humans. Every sound has its purpose and meaning, more so the speech of humans. In fact, the productivity of human relationships is based entirely on communication. Communication is complete only when the message is listened to, rather than merely heard. Listening, as contrasted with hearing, is the process of paying attention with a view to hear and/or hearing with an intention to take notice. Listening, therefore, is purposeful hearing. Hearing without listening does not contribute to human bonding.

   

5.      Managing and leading

Managing is the process of running a business. Leading is the process of taking a business to a new horizon. From a time not so long ago when management was considered all-encompassing we are now in a stage when managing is considered separate from (and unfortunately, somewhat inferior to) leading. Also, it is considered that management is a task of lower hierarchy and leadership is one of higher hierarchy. This un-discerning differentiation is misconceived. Leading is the sole purpose of management. A manager who cannot be a leader cannot be a true manager. The process of running a business perforce has to also lead the business to consistently better results.

6.      Facts and truths

Facts are real incidents that have occurred but truth is what they represent. The fact of one studying for long hours does not necessarily represent the truth or untruth of studying with concentration. Facts are visible and can be recounted with accuracy. Truth is invisible and can be only inferred or evaluated when disclosed. All truth is not factually discoverable while all facts may not disclose the entire truth. The dilemma in active and speedy life is to whether to progress on facts as received or get stalled in a potentially endless search for truth.

7.      Self-reliant and self-sufficient

India, since its independence days, has pursued a policy of self-reliance. This has prompted the governments to build dams and set up heavy industries as well as consumer goods industries. Self-reliance is the ability to develop its infrastructure. This has not been, however, accompanied by an ability to be self-sufficient in terms of technologies, equipment, finances or manufacturing capacities. Self-reliance without self-sufficiency is of little use as it would still leave vast sections of population unattended in terms of its needs. There can be no greater formula for economic growth and social equity than achieving self-sufficiency with self-reliance.

8.      Self-image and self-worth

All successful persons have an image of themselves. Their self-image prompts them to face the world and lead their teams with confidence. In a sense, self-image is in itself a success enabler (as long as it does not lead to narcissism!). Yet, such self-image tends to be the preserve of only the exclusive few. On the other hand, every person can, and must, have self-worth. Whatever be the avocation one is in, or the activity one chooses to do, one must take pride in executing it to the fullest capability. This leads to a strong sense of self-worth. Self-image that is backed by self-worth is a sustainable alchemy, not only for the individual but also for the broader organization.

9.      Empowering and enabling

Leadership (and management) is no longer about just controlling and co-ordinating. It is more about inspiring and influencing. Frequently used in that context is ‘empowerment’ as a concept. It is felt that leaders and managers should empower their team members to be able to accomplish the goals on their own. Empowerment is provision of more authority on one’s life and conduct. More than this oft used cliché, the real requirement for leaders and managers is to enable their team members to set and accomplish their own goals. ‘Enabling’ is making it possible for someone to achieve something by creating certain necessary conditions; this could include, among others, empowerment too. Enabling clearly is a more appropriate concept than just empowerment.  

10.  Title and stature

A key feature of social evolution, over centuries, has been the emergence of titles. Titles signify rank in a profession or in a society. Titles have such compelling attraction that everyone seeks them. Titles by definition tend to be for few. In comparison, stature is the importance and respect that a person has because of his or her ability and achievement. While titles can be had only by a few (and ironically, bestowed at times independent of stature), stature can be gained by all independent of their hierarchy through sheer dint of achievements and accomplishments. Virtuous individuals and organizations aspire to acquire stature rather than seek ranks.  

When ‘second’ is ‘first’

Many times, in the pursuit of visible results or even the activities, the central purpose gets lost in visibility. The preoccupation with the results and activities makes one equate the very act or the result (like teaching or qualification) to be the same as the underlying purpose (like learning or education), respectively. This makes achievements rather mechanical, sub-optimizing capabilities and creativity. The organizational designs, including structures and processes, as well as individual and social systems (including values and ethics) must focus on the underlying core purpose.

Oftentimes, playing a sport or participating in a competition is considered more important than winning the competition. Similarly putting in the best effort without aspiring for a result is considered philosophically appropriate. The spirit is considered more relevant than success, and the effort more relevant than result. That said, if in the ten aspects of life that have been discussed above, the primary driver of progress is recognized and followed, spirit will soar high as much as success will sustain for sure. The seemingly ‘second’ is the ‘first’ in most cases of life!

Posted by Dr CB Rao on March 18, 2015                 

Thought, Expression and Action (TEA) Positive: Triggers and Filters in One’s Mind

Thoughts, it is said, are irrepressible. Expressions and actions, it is said, are controllable. There can be no expression or action without thought. Even in involuntary actions, some system or the other of the body “thinks”.  The world expects all expressions and actions to be well thought out. A spiritual guru said that a blow from one person to another person can heal with time but an abuse or indictment from one to another would never heal with time. That is the power of the word, he said.  The physiological and neurological basis of thoughts and speech is a complex field of study. It is rational and evidence based; it can be studied with behavioural observations of a person or scanning of the person’s brain. That said, every thought-expression-action linkage is neither spontaneous nor unpredictable; it is actually conditioned – by one’s own learnings and experiences as well as expectations.

Societies which are naturally evolved but fractious human agglomerations, and organizations which are synthetically created but focused employee teams require conditioned behaviour in terms of thoughts, expressions and actions. Without conditioned behaviour societies and organizations could be at risk of disruption, if not chaos. However, completely conditioned behaviour robs the societies and organizations of the principal benefit of human existence – creativity and innovation. The need for balance between spontaneity (hence of creativity and innovation) and moderation (hence of order and discipline) is genuine for societies and organizations but quite difficult to achieve. Individuals, as they mature and develop the abilities of reflection and introspection, can help promote positive conditioned behaviour.

Cluttering, de-cluttering

Human beings are processors of abundant information. Even when they are not in conversation with fellow beings, their ecosystems tend to be in conversation with them. These conversations, whether active or passive, shape the thoughts of the individuals. These thoughts, as they bubble up, set in motion a complex chain of feedback mechanisms. Left uncontrolled, a person’s mind could become an uncontrolled cauldron of thoughts. Mercifully, a few things help control the phenomenon. Firstly, a person’s innate ability to moderate the thought processes helps. Secondly, a preference for positive thoughts results in a helpful cycle of positive expressions, positive feedback, positive actions and positive recognitions. Thirdly, as a person moves from thought and expression phase to action phase, he or she becomes focused and goal directed. For example, a person in search of an accommodation to buy would be subject to multiple thoughts in the exploration phase but becomes focused on house construction once he narrows down the choice to an acquisition.

There are three other important means to de-clutter oneself of the unending assault of thoughts. One is the daily natural phenomenon of sleep. Modern research has re-established the age old philosophy that a healthy period of daily sleep is the best means for rejuvenation of the body and the mind. The second is the discipline of daily exercise which brings focus and endurance to the body and the mind. The third is the ancient practice of yoga and meditation which helps one to become calm and relaxed as well as focused and attentive.  The Art of Living Foundation lists several benefits of meditation (http://www.artofliving.org/meditation/meditation-for-you/benefits-of-meditation). The Foundation observes that meditation is like a seed which when cultivated with care blossoms to the general wellbeing of a person. Despite the availability of such compelling evidence, people are unable to implement the moderation, focus and execution trilogy at the professional level and the sleep, exercise and meditation trilogy of the personal life.

Starting early

The new NDA government despite its preoccupation with economic reforms and acceleration of economic growth has focused on some important softer aspects of life that need to be imbibed from the early childhood stage. The Prime Minister Narendra Modi has advised students taking the Class X and Class XII Board examinations in March this year that they should learn to develop faith in oneself as Swami Vivekanda exhorted decades ago, and take the examinations as a game to play and also learn to relax. He has advised students to learn Pranayama or practise Surya Namaskar to reduce stress. In a proud moment for India, the United Nations has on December 10, 2014 adopted June 21 as World Yoga Day after Narendra Modi made an impassioned plea in the UN General Assembly for Yoga in September 2014. It is to be hoped that such guidance and measures would influence the new generation to stay positive from the early years.

Like the half empty or half full analogy of a glass, it is never too late or too early to start anything positive. There is so much material and expertise that is available in the public domain on sleep-exercise-meditation aspects that it would be highly inappropriate and inadequate to discuss them in this blog post. There is, however, less attention and material on the moderation-focus-execution trilogy that is needed in professional life. Within this trilogy again, there is enough literature on driving focus and execution but very little thought on achieving positive moderation in thoughts, expression and actions. As a result, organizations and societies are focused on conflict management as a discipline of learning and development. A far better route would be to root out the triggers and precursors for conflicts in the thought processes themselves.

Triggers

Achievements, disappointments, targets, goals, teachings, exhortations, criticisms, observations, advices, and a host of other events relating to oneself or others in the society act as triggers for thoughts. The thoughts could vary across a wide spectrum, from mere noting and registering them in memory or shutting them out of active memory to feelings of joy or sadness, motivation or inspiration, security or helplessness, introversion or extroversion, and so on. These, in turn, make individuals to stay satisfied (with the status quo) or become dissatisfied (to change the status quo). The stronger the feelings, the greater would be the triggers. The triggers lead to expressions of satisfaction or dissatisfaction, and later on to situations of inaction or action. The intermediate stage of expression between thought and action is important because it provides an opportunity to provide or receive feedback, and thus correct or get corrected.

The intermediate stage of expression is also important because it helps in either dissipation of excessive (often negative) energy or reinforcement for needed (often positive) energy. In certain cases, when the triggers are particularly strong, individuals tend to jump from thought to action directly without going through the very important stage of expression, often leading to undesirable results. While keeping one’s own inner counsel does happen, and is also important and appropriate in certain cases, in most situations expression of core thoughts and intended response would go a long way in improving the end results. Needless to add, actions would certainly lead to certain results, which in turn lead to the next cycle of triggers. In order for one’s life to be in a manageable boundary, the triggers for thoughts and the consequent expressions and actions need to be purposeful.

Filters

As one grows up, the brain or mind starts developing its own filters that are set in place in a rather firm manner with maturity. Typically, an individual consciously or unconsciously passes his or her thoughts, expressions and actions (TEAs) through these filters. While the triggers add velocity and momentum to one’s TEAs, the filters help one to separate the positive ones (or those agreeable to one’s personality) from the negative ones (or those disagreeable to one’s personality). These filters start the processes of reflection, introspection, evaluation and selection as the TEAs pass through them. In an ideal situation, only those thoughts that pass through all the filters become expressions and those expressions that pass through all the filters become actions. Developing the right kind of filters and keeping them effective (and unclogged) is certainly in one’s capability, and helps one in staying TEA positive.

The typical filters one has in one’s mind are the following. The primary one is the emotional filter (will the TEA make me happy or sad, satisfied or dissatisfied and motivated or demotivated?). The second is the social filter, social including the family, friends, peers and the broader society where relevant (will the TEA gain me acceptance or rejection, recognition or castigation?). The third is the value filter (does the TEA fit into my value system or not?). Only those TEAs that pass through all the three filters make one truly happy. The sequence given above tends to be applicable for a great majority of individuals. For sage and wise individuals, the sequence would probably be in the reverse order; the value filter first followed by the social filter and then the emotional filter. While a few other filters like development filter or growth filter can be considered, the author feels that they are ultimately expressed in terms of emotions. Likewise, while the social filter can be separated into family filter and other filters it only adds needless complexity.    

 TEA positive

Staying TEA positive is a worthwhile goal in life. Ability to entertain only positive or agreeable thoughts and ability to de-clutter one’s mind are the fundamental capabilities which help one in the process. The more important aspect is setting the right filters in one’s mind. The filters are chosen right and set right depending on one’s knowledge of the broader good as may be taught by scriptures, texts, teachers, friends and families. The social and value filters, in particular, help one reach alignment and congruence between what is positive and what is agreeable.

Staying TEA positive is an organizational possibility and requirement too. From choosing a business to operate in to generating and sharing wealth with stakeholders to fulfilling corporate social responsibility, organizations and corporations have multiple ways to become and stay TEA positive. Organizations, which promote a TEA positive culture in their team members would become virtuous organizations. Societies and nations which create ecosystems that help individuals and organizations become TEA positive would become virtuous nations.  

Posted by Dr CB Rao on March 15, 2015    

KBC/MEK Paradigm: A Knowledge Game Show for Prizewinning or a Digital Platform for Social Reengineering?

Most Indians know “Kaun Banega Crorepati?” (“Who Will Become Crorepati?”), or KBC, as the pioneering and highly popular knowledge based reality game show, in Hindi and English, that inspired millions to compete for the hot seat and to aspire to win the Rs 1 crore prize money (initial stake, now getting increased to an astounding Rs 7 crore in the seventh season, and in the forthcoming eighth season)  to fulfill their life dreams. The show got completely identified with Big B, Amitabh Bachchan, despite Shahrukh Khan hosting a midterm series, and despite a four year holiday. Whether KBC transformed the lives of the prizewinners, it sure did transform the image of Amitabh as the master showman as a person of elegant intellect and touching emotion. While the excitement of climbing up the ladder of questions with the three lifelines in tow was exciting, the connectivity and rapport which Amitabh established with the participants and the audience alike was a delight to watch.

The Telugu version titled “Meelo Evaru Koteeswarudu?” (“Who Will Become Crorepati Among You?”) started to be aired from June 9, 2014 as a forty-episode version with Akkineni Nagarjuna donning the role of host that  Amitabh played in KBC. Pre-telecast, there was skepticism about the show’s nativity for the Telugu population and Nagarjuna’s ability to measure up to the historic benchmark set by the mighty Amitabh. However, as the MEK show closed its first season with its fortieth episode on August 7, 2014 it became evident that MEK was no less popular than KBC, and Nagarjuna became no less transformed and transformative than Amitabh was. In addition, its translation into Telugu nativity was perfect and the connectivity with the Telugu audience was instantaneous.  For students of social engineering, however, MEK offers several interesting insights and corresponding hypotheses.  Five of these are discussed below, with some suggestions for making this knowledge based game show an instrument of micro level social entrepreneurship.

Human touch

MEK demonstrated that if the basic DNA of any show is emotional as well as intellectual the show can transcend all barriers of geography. After all, KBC itself was an adaptation, with a significant Indian emotive touch, of the popular UK game show “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?”. The objective of any product or service is to fulfill the human needs. Human needs have two integral parts; one of rational need (influenced by knowledge and logic), and the other of emotional need (influenced by belongingness and empathy). MEK went one step ahead of KBC in unraveling the rational and emotional experiences and goals of the hot seat participants. The MEK show could succeed in bringing out emotional aspects of the show by focusing on humanism without unduly leveraging the materialism of the prize money. This sensitivity brought the show close to an initially skeptical audience. Social engineering through a product, service or a host is possible only when the human touch is understood and embedded in them, and is manifest in features.

Hope and determination  

It is more than a coincidence, in fact a clear pattern, that the story of each participant in the MEK show has been one of hope and determination. Irrespective of the contemporary status of each participant, it was clear that all of them faced some very serious odds in life, and most continued to face more challenges for future; yet, all demonstrated remarkable grit, courage and hope to overcome the difficulties. Some of them had their near and dear in financially, physically or medically challenged state but each was determined to work for their benefit as much as for their own. There were participants who moved up the ladder from humble beginnings to reasonably settled jobs but none lost sight of the difficult past. The common thread is that a combination of hope and determination makes life. Hope without determination is facile while determination without hope is purposeless.

Social entrepreneurship

It is well understood that entrepreneurship holds the key to rapid and sustainable economic growth with social equity in India. It is, however, not so well understood that many Indians, contrary to the perception that they are risk-averse job seekers, have an entrepreneurial spirit, and that a socially inclined one, in them. Some participants in the MEK show were already self-employed while almost everyone desired to set up a socially relevant entrepreneurial venture if they were to win a substantial prize money. It also transpired that those who underwent troubles experienced firsthand an aspiration to create their own little ecosystems that could educate and train people or establish businesses and services. The spirit of social entrepreneurship was palpable here even though the prize money stakes were less than the KBC stakes. This emphasis on social aspiration contrasts with a somewhat excessive emphasis in the KBC show on the size of the prize money.  It was interesting to perceive that a combination of life’s challenges and personal skills provides the right motivation to set up socially responsible entrepreneurial ventures.

Professional rebirth

The adage that nothing succeeds like success is typically validated by great corporate or leadership achievements. This adage is true at a micro level as well. In fact, many participants found a distinctive confidence and a unique motivation as a result of participating in the MEK show successfully. Umakant was a participant who knew all the answers, together with the entire background, even before a question was read, so much so he earned the sobriquet of Acharya Umakant from Nagarjuna. He said that despite his hard work he never got a chance to prove his worth, and finally the MEK show helped him establish his competence; he gratefully said that he was reborn because of the show. Similar has been the experience of another intelligent and sharp participant who lost his confidence due to a head injury; the very fact of his being in the hot seat demonstrated his alertness and acumen, and to boot Nagarjuna could extract a promise to rediscover his confidence. Clearly, certain landmark competitive or successful events can reinforce one’s confidence and propel one to greater heights.

Leadership transformation

Prior to KBC, Amitabh was a national hero within the shade of the past ‘angry young man’ image. The failure of business ventures and an inability to manage the generational transition in the 1990s took some sheen of his image. It is to the credit of Amitabh that he could utilize the KBC game show vehicle that started in 2000 to bring out his histrionics, knowledge, emotions, humility and empathy as a unique personality of intellect and emotion that connected with not only the participants but also millions of households. Like Amitabh, Nagarjuna had a distinct screen presence, relative to the Telugu film industry. Nagarjuna, a generation younger than Amitabh, started as an ‘angry young student’ in movies and consolidated as a boisterous mass hero with evergreen characteristics but also blossomed with unexpected histrionics in religious movies. As seamlessly as Amitabh, Nagarjuna could acquire the shades of an emotionally intellectual showman, with a homely television presence that is distinct from his screen image, playful or devout. Leadership, it would seem, is contextual, and adaptive leaders can build on their latent competencies to transform themselves contextually; leadership rebirth seems to be entirely possible and feasible.

Digital social reengineering

A successful TV show is, at best, seen as a string of episodes that momentarily transports audience each specified time of the day to think differently. As the analysis on KBC and MEK in this blog post demonstrates, certain reality shows that combine intellectualism and compassion under a voluntary experiential canopy of social awareness are much more than just successful TV shows; they have the right ingredients for mass social transformation. There are five distinct lessons for social development which must be grasped. Firstly, from governance to business, human touch must prevail in all product, process or service delivery. Secondly, good times, and better times, will come only with hope and determination. Thirdly, most individuals, especially those who came up through troubled times, can evolve, and re-evolve, as natural leaders for social entrepreneurship and social reengineering at micro level. Fourthly, competitive successes are opportunities to rededicate oneself to professional rejuvenation. Fifthly, given the right challenges and opportunities, leaders adapt and transform themselves to be inspired themselves, and inspire others.

Digital communication through media impacts millions of minds on a 24X7 basis. If positive messages are conveyed through entertaining and engaging shows, anchored by inspiring icons, they become integral to life journeys.  If the digital power and imaging is constructively channeled, knowledge and achievement based reality shows can become truly mass movements which can convert a normal society into a knowledge society and create wealth and wellbeing with social entrepreneurship. Siddhartha Basu, the iconic quiz master of India and the force behind the KBC/MEK shows has demonstrated how intellect can lead to engagement and how knowledge with emotion can not only mean good business but also transform lives. A few incentives from the promoters of the shows as well as from the governments could take forward the concepts and unleash creative social energy. Siddhartha Basu, himself, can evolve from being an intellectual authority and a successful businessman to a knowledge developer and social transformer.  

The knowledge game shows can be social game changers with the following few tweaks. Fundamentally, the game shows should be seen as social entrepreneurship ventures which are inspired through individual aspiration for intellectual and material development. The games should have socially inclined sponsors so that the prize corpus is significantly enhanced. The prize money in lower bands of Rs 1000 to Rs 80,000 should be significantly enhanced, and that in the Rs 160,000 to Rs 1 crore band doubled so that more money is deployed in the hands of prizewinners. Rather than scale up the apex prize to astronomical levels, the corpus must be deployed to generate as many lakhpatis as possible. The prize money should be exempt from taxation if the money is invested in social entrepreneurship. The KBC/MEK organization must maintain a registry of the winners and their ventures so that more sponsors can support such ventures on an ongoing basis. The show formats can themselves be made in all the Indian languages and in each region anchors like Amitabh, Surya and Nagarjuna should take up this as a developmental mission. KBC/MEK paradigm with its intellectual and emotional engagement, and with social passion and entertainment quotient, can uniquely engage individuals, families and societies in India’s knowledge based social reengineering.   

Posted by Dr CB Rao on August 10, 2014     

Slow and Steady Wins the Race: The Five Oxymoron Theorems of Good Life and Good Business!

One of the most interesting and intriguing adages that has been passed on through generations is that ‘slow and steady wins the race’. The message is further driven home by the rabbit and tortoise parable, where a slow and steady tortoise wins the race over a sprinting and napping rabbit. The proverb started losing its sheen even the jet age that set in a few decades ago. It is considered even more anachronistic in today’s instant world of random challenges and expectations of instantaneous results. In social life as well as in business life this instant phenomenon has resulted in a way of life that is characterized by intense competition and unthinking consumption.  This generation, for example, multitasks far more and builds redundancies far greater than earlier generations used to do.

The supply-demand equation is artificially altered in an instant world. Because everyone is in such a hurry to hit the market earlier and better than anyone else, there is that much more anxiety and speed, and even cramming more inputs in lesser space than ever. For individuals, it means a relentless focus on growing faster materialistically, offering more of one’s services and attention in exchange for monetary benefits in an ever-engaging fashion. For businesses it means churning out more products at a faster rate, pushing up physical deliveries and clocking up ever-greater revenues. There are several areas that have benefitted from such intense competition and consumerism but several areas have also seen adverse environmental impact.    

The only way these deleterious trends can be reversed is through the judicious application of certain oxymoron theorems which enable greater efficiency and effectiveness in individual and business lives. Some of these are considered below.

Less is more (LIM)

Fundamentally, the world will be a better place if with lower inputs we could achieve greater outputs. That said, we need to apply the LIM theorem judiciously, and certainly not perversely or cynically. At an individual level, it does not, for example, mean that with fewer educational qualifications one must target better job opportunities. It should also mean that one should aspire to succeed just because one has got into the ring. It should, however, certainly mean that one should practice a discipline of study that enables one to acquire greater knowledge with lower time allocation. It should also mean that the intent should be to reap a reasonable reward that is commensurate with genuine effort.  At a biological level, frugality of right eating is known to ensure disease-free longevity and at an economic level, prudence in expenditure is known to ensure stress-free prosperity.

At a business level, Henry Ford pioneered how just one standardized car model can generate a mass market. More contemporaneously, Steve Jobs demonstrated how just one iPhone model can generate close to 200 million units of sales. General Motors and Samsung as respective follow-on competitors did exactly opposite in terms of differentiation and segmentation through multiple products to upstage the pioneers in terms of sales volumes and market share. The LIM theory at a business level needs to be applied judiciously. For example, simple technology that can achieve greater functionality will deliver greater value even in a mono-product situation. Doing a few core management processes correctly will fetch better results than undertaking scores of peripheral processes elegantly. There is no classic 80-20 rule that is universally applicable (varies depending on industry context) but mastering the core is mightily important for maximal impact.

Filtration adds more (FAM)

The second oxymoron theorem is that filtration adds more to strategic and execution power. In a technical sense, filtration removes impurities and makes a liquid pure. In a life sense, filtration helps the individual or business to add more content and catalysts. At an individual level as well as at a business level, we are today spoilt for choices and never left starved for inputs. From education to employment, an individual has choices that confuse and confound, with the added signals and compulsions from parents and families. FAM theorem states that the more an individual filters the inputs based on appropriate sieves of existing competencies and intrinsic aptitude the more effective will be the individual’s growth plan and its execution.  Use of inappropriate sieves, on the other hand, would lead to wrong residues.

FAM theorem works somewhat differently for businesses. Existing businesses need to be continuously osmotic with the environment to achieve the right equilibrium. Business competencies have to be built up to meet the higher business opportunities of the environment. In respect of new businesses, competencies have to be absorbed from the environment to prepare an organization that can fit the environment. In both cases of business, appropriate osmosis can occur only through appropriate cultural filters. In business, people speak of stage gates, decision trees and funnel- down approaches as approaches to filter business ideas. The more effective filtration approach in business is truly invisible. Competency-opportunity osmosis tends to be effective only with cultural filters that can only be experienced rather than explained.

Complex is simple (CIS)   

Complexity rules today’s world.  Even the apparently simplest decisions are challenged by the need to evaluate several simulations with multiple choices and alternative logics. At an individual level, such complexity can be tackled by inherent simplicity. There exist two ways to delayer complexity to discover the internal simplicity; understanding what one wants and understanding what it takes to get what one wants. Matching aptitude to opportunity through a means often reduces complex decisions of life to simple pathways. The same imaginative ability of an individual that enables him or her evaluate several alternatives will also help the individual relate each of the scenarios to his or her desired scenario. Often, there tends to be only one criterion that is relevant; the rest is noise. The CIS formula for tackling complexity is simple: hear or see everything, listen to or retain a few things and accept the right thing.

At a business level, complexity is tackled by focus. Business development, strategic planning and operational excellence often require evaluation of complex situations. Corporations, by design, are tuned to create and relish complexity, given multiple functional departments and multiple professional viewpoints. The same CIM formula that helps an individual achieve simplicity helps corporations achieve focus. What business or businesses the corporation would like to be in, what core competencies and core strategies the organization needs for realizing those businesses and in what operations that the corporations need to excel in are questions that provide the focused pathway of success to corporations encountering business complexities. Often, strong leadership is required to engage corporations prone to plurality of thinking into simple choices and focused execution.  Successes of organizations that are driven by entrepreneurs and strong leaders point to the validity of the CIS theorem.

Instant is distant (IID)

In today’s instant world, the drive to achieve instant results keeps real success distant. In this case, the word  ‘instant’ needs to be interpreted in a manner of speaking; in terms of seeking results as fast as possible without understanding what, and how long, it takes or without marshaling requisite resources. At an individual level, strategic goals require long term planning and assiduous effort. Individuals seeking success in terms of entry into premium institutions (such as IITs and IIMs in India or Top Schools abroad) and premium courses (such as medicine, genetics, robotics and nanotech) require the requisite time and effort. Making sporadic and spontaneous efforts with expectations of instantaneous results almost always makes the goals elusive. The proliferation of development handbooks abroad and coaching institutions in India reflects the recognition that personal and professional growth is a process. Individuals who aspire for instant success and adulation, more often than not, tend to get disappointed.   

In successful businesses, what seems an instant success is, almost invariably, preceded by unseen focus, effort and lead time adopted, behind the scenes, by such business corporations. On the other hand, rapid business development (eg., seeking to grow twice as much and twice as fast as industry leader) and hasty product launches (eg., seeking to saturate market with self-cannibalizing products) tend to  lead to weak foundational support with risks of business collapse. Similarly, mergers and acquisitions that are carried out without due diligence by managements as quick-fix solutions for instant business expansion, diversification or growth tend to flounder on challenges of misaligned expectations, troubled integration and elusive synergies. Forbes in a March 2012 research article concluded that almost 50 percent of the mergers and acquisitions either fail completely or do not generate the substantial part of anticipated value. Clearly, instant calculations and instant results are not so synonymous with success in business

Slow is speed (SIS)  

Edmund Burke stated, “The march of the human mind is slow”. He also said, “To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting”. Confucius said, “The expectations of life depend on diligence; the mechanic that would perfect his work should sharpen his tools”. He also said, “Those who break down the dikes will themselves be drowned in the inundation”.  Mahatma Gandhi said, “Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from indomitable will” He also said, “There is more to life than increasing its speed”. For individuals as well as corporations, these sayings from educational, philosophical and spiritual leaders across generations indicate that it is important to be thoughtful and deliberate in planning, and appropriate and contextual in governing the speed of one’s life. Different people are blessed genetically and developmentally with differential abilities to shape and cope with life. Being slow and safe saves individuals from huge setbacks that could occur with impulsive, unplanned and momentary speeding up in life.  

The Japanese corporations are living examples of giving less importance to speed and according more emphasis on durability, illustrating the SIS theorem. Though the Japanese economy and industry have been beset by decades of flat growth, the Japanese corporations remain technologically competent, competitive and relevant; the same cannot be said of corporations of certain advanced and emerging countries which race ahead under propitious circumstances only to stall and stutter under the first signs of adversity. The Japanese are able to succeed despite being slow and steady because internal standardization and external harmonization as well as intrinsic politeness and extrinsic elegance which are essential constituents of the Japanese society are integral components of the Japanese corporations as well. Societies and corporations in emerging economies must emulate the Japanese credo of being slow and steady, sure and safe, polite and persistent, consistent and standardized, and harmonious and elegant to ensure sustainable success. A behavioral mindset on these lines alone can ensure pleasant progress, for individuals as well as businesses.

Posted by Dr CB Rao on September 22, 2013     

     

 

Engagement and Focus in a Digital World: Need to Retain the Evolutionary Learnings

The growth of civilization is traceable to a single minded pursuit of an avocation, discovery or innovation. From the times of caveman who never relented till the art of making fire was discovered through the times of agriculturists who pursued farming as a life avocation to the times of scientists, technologists, and industrialists  who invented and refined products and processes and finally to the overarching times of administrators and businessman who pursued social and economic progress diligently, there has been one and only one factor that drove success - the relentless and singular pursuit of an objective. While nature, chance and serendipity could have played certain roles in all of these activities, and their successful outcomes, there is no denying that engagement and focus had been the success drivers.

Organizations have been the first instrument of providing institutional framework to single minded pursuit.  As organizations and businesses became complex, strategy became the route for firms to pursue success on many dimensions. Organizations then had to be recast to provide single minded pursuit through appropriate structures and cascades of objectives (“Structure Follows Strategy”: Alfred Chandler). Still, complexity remained to be surmounted effectively.  Management theories, not illogically, began to advocate specialization, focus, core competence and competitive strategy as the key tenets of success, in any avocation or domain. The 20^th century concluded thus with an organizational and strategic construct of focus and specialization as the mantra for success in any type of organization; single business or multiple business. The new digital world, however, seeks to upturn all of individual and organizational evolutionary facets, partly for the good and partly disabling in the process.

Connected disruption

Electronics had transformed mechanical, electrical and electro-mechanical devices over the last fifty years. Communication and computing have further diversified personal devices and enhanced mutual connectivity over the last twenty years. But along with the strides in the ability to archive and process terabytes of data and the flexibility to connect and communicate with anyone virtually across the globe, the pursuit of digital efficiency at work and beyond work has become the new single minded pursuit. With the advent of smart phones and tablets over the last five years, devices have become the eternal companions of individuals. The net result of all the digital developments is the opening up of globe with a touch or click.

The ability to communicate in a viral fashion with huge global social communities has brought about a sea change in social living. Facebook posts have reportedly been instrumental in reuniting a family member lost eleven years ago with his family recently. Concerts and music shows are now not averse to audience keeping their cell phones on so that they could snap and send the snippets to global communities. One need not have lifetime guilt of missing an important family wedding as the event can be easily webcast now. Facetime brings generations across miles closer home. For the working executive as well as the home maker, perpetual connectivity through a variety of devices is assured. In short, one can always have instant and perpetual touch with the digital community he or she is part of.   

Much as digitization has led to manifold increases in productivity, it has also become a disruptive force in human life. From birth, a child is exposed to digital power and dominance. As one grows up, the reliance on digital devices increases exponentially. At work and home, the ratio of devices to an individual has increased significantly. It is not uncommon to see individuals possessing multiple electronic devices; televisions and music systems in a house, and  desktops, laptops, tablets and smartphones in an office. While technology allows all of these to be seamlessly synchronized, deriving convergence from out of diversity, what is alarming is the influence of digital devices on the human mindset. The influence has indeed been disruptive already.

Portends of change

The way human race conducts itself in the increasingly digital world is set for a profound change. Over the centuries, the human race came to be divided, in common viewpoints, between ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ or ‘urban’ and ‘rural’ or even between states and nations. Similarly, organizations came to be divided between ‘profitable’ and ‘unprofitable’ or “specialized and diversified’ or even as national and multinational firms. Today, the human race seems to be set to be divided between ‘engaged’ and ‘distracted’ people and organizations between ‘focused’ and ‘diffused’.  At the heart of this divide lies the way the human brain is getting rewired with access to multiple devices and functionalities. Whether it is advanced countries or emerging markets, it is evident that the ecosystems are digitally geared to disengage individuals and diffuse organizations.

The human brain has the ability to store and process millions of data bytes but is wired to execute sequentially because of the need to coordinate the brain and the parts of the body. If a person is walking, the brain and body are equipped to conduct the activity of walking alone with the best assurance and safety, with brain processing the traffic and road conditions and body walking in a trained fashion with occasional course corrections from the brain. The moment the person starts walking while simultaneously talking on the cell phone or reading a book, the neurological and physical activities become distracted with serious disservice to both the activities and even more fatal disservice to the person’s life itself. The temptation of multi-tasking is probably the biggest bane of the new generation of digital life. However, the impact in terms of adversely rewiring the human brain could cast a shadow for generations to come.

Easy living, changing genetics

People who are aware of the course of evolution understand that the several ways in which the human race conducts itself have solidified through compulsions of preservation first and actualizations of achievements. This involved exposing and training all of human faculties from motor skills and sensory acuities to emotional connects and intellectual capabilities. The devices that the current generation is addicted to are designed to make life easier to this generation of human race which has mercifully acquired the skills and acuities the hard way. To the extent that the very same devices are being deployed for use by the just-born and just-growing generation, the new array of digital devices carry a huge risk of rewiring the human brain to the detriment of intrinsic faculties honed over generations of tough living and consistent learning.

Let us review a few examples. When a baby or a child listens to lullabies, stories and songs  rendered by alien voices and people through electronic media rather than through the mother’s voice, the emotional connectivity between the mother and the child, which used to be the bedrock of wellbeing and assurance is permanently eroded. When the child is encouraged to play with a robotic pup than a real pug, the million ways in which a devoted companion will respond to care and love will never be embedded in the child. When students, in schools and colleges or employees, in offices and factories, are asked to browse their lessons from computer tutorials, not only the teacher-taught relationship vanishes but also the learning processes of spontaneous questions and contextual explanations become scarce. When people at work or at home communicate through devices rather than looks and words, that true communication is all about personal feel is never understood. The list can go on, but clearly if the device-influenced lifestyles snowball as happening now it is likely that the future generations will be rewired to be intrinsically less self-sufficient. New generations may then most likely require a new set of digital devices that help them get their skills and acuities back!    

What applies to individuals applies to organizations as well. From the long lost direct emotional connectivity to the end-customer in the marketplace to the replacement of human thought processes by heuristic algorithms and computer simulations, the ‘brain’ of a typical organization is replaced by a ‘CPU’ geared to generate and process metrics than appreciate the drivers and implications of the metrics. Increasingly, organizations are compelled to operate in all of the product-market spaces; even the mighty Apple which made maximal impact through minimal products is no longer an exception. Despite the concepts of vertical specialization and horizontal collaboration, organizations are more diffused and dispersed than ever. The power of computing, connection and collaboration provided by the digital technologies have made the organizations lose their customized survival and growth skills that were imbibed the hard way through competitive learning processes. 

Human and organizational implications

The need for regaining the balance in the new digital world is clear; individuals need to be engaged to be effective and successful. Organizations need to be focused to be competitive and profitable. Individuals who continue to demonstrate a continuous high performance learning ability and firms which continue to thrive or rejuvenate themselves in the digital world validate the several hypotheses of this blog post. In the interests of larger social and economic good, however, engagement and focus need to be more universal phenomena.  

In respect of individuals, the fundamentals of genetically primed and neurologically wired learning methodologies that have provided skills and acuities to successive generations must be insulated from the onslaught of digital devices. The mother to a baby, the parents to a child, the teacher to a student, the boss to a subordinate and the mentor to a disciple are essential instruments of human learning which provide the needed emotional connectivity, ethical guidance, creative learning, practical knowledge and leadership evolution to a human being. In a similar manner, exposure to ethereal nature, endurance under physical work and empowerment with mental acumen are essential to develop a well-rounded personality. As an individual grows, he or she needs to be singularly engaged with the fundamental task at hand than dabbling in multiple activities.

In respect of organizations, the fundamentals of competitively learnt and institutionally embedded management methodologies that have provided competencies and adaptabilities to successive corporations must be reinforced with a prudent combination of human ingenuity and technological perfection. Organizational strategy and structure must remain the prime vehicles for firms to pursue diverse businesses and multiple priorities equally successfully. Firms would increasingly need to be diversified but cannot afford to be diffused. Firms also need to be focused but cannot afford to remain narrowly specialized. The optimal balance at the enterprise level is achieved when firms develop organizational structures that bring operational simplicity and focus to address business complexity and diversity. Focused organizational structures, within the ambit of a product-market agglomeration coupled with singularly engaged human talent, within the ambit of a competency-specialty network would ensure competitive success.   

Posted by Dr CB Rao on August 4, 2013

              

Institutional Actualization: The “5 A” Process of Virtuosity

If actualization is defined as becoming what one is capable of becoming, who would not want to reach a point of actualization? The desire to actualize one requires a process of virtuosity. Nothing comes easy in life, more so actualization. In a previous blog post, “Self-actualization by One’s Self for Oneself: An Enlightened Process for the Elusive Goal” published on April 21, 2013 in Strategy Musings (http://cbrao2008.blogpost.com), I proposed a model of ten-component self-actualization that had strong performance and philosophical undertones, and traced several phases and steps that need to be gone through during one’s lifespan.  The blog post postulated and demonstrated that the ten components, namely, self-awareness, self-appraisal, self-confidence, self-control, self-development, self-discipline, self-expression, self-improvement, self-motivation, and self-respect, together, constitute an enlightened process to achieve the typically elusive goal of self-actualization.

The above mentioned approach to actualization was proposed as a holistic solution to handling life’s challenges and opportunities for a human being in a social or organizational context. One question we face is whether the model of actualization for institutions would be any different from that of individuals. The answer probably is in two parts. One, to the extent that institutions are led and managed by individuals, individual actualization should lead to institutional actualization. Second, institutions are also like citizens and need to fulfill certain responsibilities and also seek fulfillment. That said, institutions have a life of their own and individuals may not be able to influence a particular course of actualization, without institutions themselves taking up actualization as a process. This blog post proposes a simple model that would capture the process of virtuosity by which institutions can achieve actualization.

Institutional actualization

Actualization of human beings and of institutions makes the world a better place to live in. There is no single benchmark of what actualization means. In fact, it is established that actualization varies vastly for individuals even within the same trade. For a particular actor or musician, for example, actualization could mean winning of an Oscar. For others in the same artistic domains, actualization could mean mass popularity amongst the audience. For a particular corporate executive, actualization could mean being a generation ahead in growth and creation of personal wealth. For another, it could mean training a vast pool of leaders and creation of institutional wealth. Whatever be the gross difference or subtle nuance, actualization is a key driver of social and economic progress.

For institutions too, actualization could be different even within an industry. For certain organizations scale is important and for others scope is important. Some are inspired by market share and some by profit share. Some aspire for growth while others are content being model corporate citizens. Whatever be the actualization benchmark, it is clear that when actualization ceases, progress plateaus. There was a time when the government-owned public sector corporations were a showpiece of India’s engineering progress. This arose as the bureaucrats and executives found actualization alike in laying the first foundations of national technological development. However, as monopoly power stalled and licensing raj stymied competition, complacence set in and actualization faltered.

Actualization, beyond strategy

Institutions rely on structures and processes to govern growth. Strategic planning or long term planning is one such systemic discipline adopted by corporations. Starting with vision, the process develops a strategy, guides execution and measures progress as an iterative process. The strategic process, unfortunately, is both an enabler and an inhibitor to institutional actualization. The SWOT analysis of long term planning, for example, is akin to the processes of self-awareness and self-appraisal, and lays the foundation for development of a corporation. However, once a strategy is developed metrics take over. Achievement is measured against hard metrics rather than soft aspiration. The even more qualitative goal of actualization never gets assessed. Strategy, while being an important enabler of actualization, also cannot be allowed to dampen the quest for actualization.  

The issue with strategy is that past performance or current competition almost always serves as a benchmark for vision and strategic goals. Strategy is rarely determined in a corporation by a true understanding of its actualization potential. That hardly does justice. Actualization is pushed to limits when a person or institution charters into a completely unchartered territory or imagines a completely invisible. Actualization for a corporation is a lifetime experience rather than the result of a five year strategic planning process. A review of the multinationals, such as Lever, Glaxo, SKF, GE who entered India more than 100 years ago and have tasted a level of growth in, and integration with, India, that would not be visible to the trained mind even at the time of entry, demonstrates how actualization of a lifetime actualization differs from a limited perspective strategic goal setting. Most pioneering inventions and most path-breaking businesses, national or multi-national, and in India or abroad, owe their success to higher levels of actualization inspired by an unknown but imagined future.

A 100 year horizon

Institutional actualization, as a process, has a horizon of several decades. While institutions exist in perpetuity, and therefore have no specified life as individuals, probably 100 years, in rests of 20 years, as with individuals is a good way of establishing actualization horizon even for institutions. Continuing that concept, a corporation can be postulated to grow up in the first twenty years, become established in the second twenty years, season itself in the third twenty years, emerge as a bellwether in the fourth twenty years and become an icon in the fifth twenty years. Today’s corporate analysts and business historians judge corporate evolution far too early. As a result, young startups are praised as bellwethers and icons even in the first decade of their growth. Like individuals, institutions are also prone to the adverse consequences of headiness caused by premature recognition, which may impact their ability to secure lifetime achievements.  

This is not to suggest that corporations do not or cannot become innovators or pioneers in the first twenty years of their life, or even within the first few years of inception. Certainly, they do and can as demonstrated by many young achiever-companies. Success of entrepreneurial efforts or competitiveness of business models, however, does not ipso facto imply sustained institutionalization of a corporation or its actualization of a lifetime. A whole series of Internet product or service companies have made their mark in their first years in the recent post but it would remain to be seen whether they would keep up a sustained momentum and achieve actualization. A process that helps institutions target actualization as a lifetime objective would be well-merited. This blog post proposes a five component process, comprising Aspiration, Ambition, Analytics, Achievement and Actualization (called the 5 A Process) that would be particularly relevant for institutions. 

The "5 A" process

Aspiration, which implies a strong desire to achieve something, is largely seen as an individual trigger. At an organizational level it gets translated into getting into a business or growing a business based on targets of revenue and/or profitability. The real aspiration for a corporation, however, must be in terms of making available to customers or society something which has not been available thus far and thereafter remaining a leader in that pioneering business for a lifetime. Whether it is Lever, Glaxo, Philips, SKF, Tata or GE who entered India over 100 years ago with consumer products, healthcare products, electronics, bearings, steel or infrastructure equipment the rule of making something available for the first time, and remaining a leader for decades in that business reflects an aspiration that lays the foundation for lifetime institutional actualization.

Ambition is aspiration reinforced with the determination to achieve and succeed. The difference between ambition and aspiration is same as the difference between determination and desire. Corporations need to be fired with an ambition to succeed. Pioneer-entrants mentioned above and a host of other private sector and public sector firms in India made their entries, braved near hostile circumstances, brought in novel products, opened up unreachable regions and all the while successively introduced new technologies, products and business models. Determination helped these corporations become institutions. Even ITC, which depended only on the socially regressive tobacco and cigarette business demonstrated pluck and determination to re-charter its course into multiple socially acceptable businesses to survive and grow.

Aspiration and ambition need to be channeled through a robust framework of analytics for corporations to achieve their aspirations. Analytics is the science of analyzing data to develop trends and providing guideposts to future. That said, decades ago there was no analytics as a domain, yet the pioneers did successfully what they did over hundred years ago. The reason lies in the fact that there is no better analytical tool than the human brain. All of GE’s inventiveness is no match to the invention of GE’s great founder Thomas Edison and his analytical ability that foresaw the need for a corporation based on technology in the 1800’s. So has been the analytics of Henning Holck-Larsen and Soren Kristian Toubro, the two Danish engineers who foresaw India’s future and established Larsen & Toubro (L&T) in 1938 in India. Human analytics still remains the best bet for providing a framework for channeling aspiration and ambition.

Measuring achievement is apparently the easiest of the five step actualization process which moves as per set aspirations. If achievement is to be measured against revenue/profit metrics, it is indeed an easy task. If, on the other hand, it is to be measured in terms of sustainability of the aspiration, it is indeed a hard task. However, there are ways to measure the sustainability of the transformation. The robustness and scalability of technology deployed in a corporation is the first measure of achievement. The breadth and depth of market reach of a corporation is the second measure of achievement. A corporation which consistently maintains its high score on these two dimensions would be on a sustainable path of actualization. Toyota and Sony are examples of such sustainable achievement; they are helped to overcome financial setbacks on the strength of sustainability of their technological depth and market reach.   

In a process of institutional actualization, why should actualization figure as a discrete process component instead of as the final outcome as would be in the case of individual actualization? The reason is fairly simple; corporations are expected to be perpetual in life while individuals are not. For individuals, actualization is nearly an end-of-the-active life experience, almost synonymous with nirvana. On the other hand, for corporations actualization is a reminder of how they can transform themselves into institutions and how they can contribute to societies in a perpetual manner. Each actualization cycle should ideally lead to the next one. In institutional actualization, the very fact of actualization should spur thinking on the next frontiers. This applies whether corporations see a 20 year horizon or a 100 year horizon for institutional actualization.

Leaders’ responsibility

Corporate leaders and their boards must, from time to time, take time off to assess their corporations on their actualization journey. Even if their corporations have met all the performance metrics and even if they are the preferred ones of the Street (and in some cases, in spite of their not being so), the leaders and boards would do well to introspect and review whether their corporations have become what they must become, and actualized themselves to the best extent. Institutional actualization tends to be a perfect blend of all the positive faculties of the individuals comprising an organization, in time spans appropriately visualized.  

Posted by Dr CB Rao on May 19, 2013