Organizational Dynamics: Social Forces and Interpersonal Skills

Organizations are structures created to bring together people who possess requisite competencies and attitudes to deliver common organizational objectives for the companies they represent. The theories of organization have evolved over the years to identify appropriate methods and approaches, and tools and techniques by which an organization can function efficiently and effectively. The need for such theories arose because some of the fundamental and essential building blocks of organization such as departmental arrangements, performance management systems, business priorities, leadership opportunities while ensuring organizational delivery also generate forces of impedance. This, coupled with the fact that people tend to have dissimilar backgrounds despite sharing common criteria and objectives makes people management in an organization truly challenging and complex.    

Several types of organization structures have been devised to enable organizational dynamics that support rather than impede business objectives. Functional, geographic, business, project, matrix, and flat organizational structures are deployed to meet specific requirements. It has, however, been found that structures rarely solve anything by themselves and management of interpersonal relationships is something that has enduring substance and challenge. This blog post hypothesizes that organization being a social structure at its core interpersonal management needs to recognize and understand the social forces that operate in an organization. While interpersonal skills are important to ensure organizational harmony, the social forces in an organizational setting must first be understood.

Social forces

Just as an industry has competitive forces that impact firm performance, organizations also have social forces that impact team and individual performance. Similarly, just as there could be industry specific generic competitive strategies, there would be generic organizational strategies to manage the social forces effectively. Social forces in themselves fall under two categories, neither of which is necessarily bad nor good on an individual basis. Collectively, however, one set of social forces that are called Type A Forces collectively generate impedance while the other set called Type B Forces generate synergy. Both the types do exist in organizations. The challenge is to enable Type B Forces.

Type A Forces are typically five in number, and have a significant impact on how people, teams, departments and domains work together in a firm. These are rivalry, paradoxes, conflicts, misalignment and silos. It is easy to appreciate that each of the five forces is a natural corollary of organizational diversity while together they form a counterproductive set. Type B Forces, on the other hand, are inherently more positive, individually as well as collectively. These are collaboration, clarity, harmony, alignment and “one firm” as an operating paradigm.

Individual comparison makes it clear why Type B Forces are eminently more desirable for an organization. Collaboration, as opposed to rivalry, enables synergy of mutual strengths. Clarity as compared to paradoxes avoids loss of time and effort on confusing paths. Harmony as contrasted with conflicts ensures positivity and fulfillment. Alignment helps the value chain function seamlessly while misalignment leads to broken processes. And finally, when specializations and departments turn into silos processes slow down in an organization while the organization functioning as one firm works with synergy.

Generational styles

Type A and Type B Forces are not new to discover or aim for in organizations. They have been in existence from the very beginning of organized activity. Over time, conservative and non-competitive organizations are characterized by a preponderance of Type A Forces while proactive and competitive organizations are characterized by a preponderance of Type B Forces. Leaders have tried to manage these forces with different management styles. These styles are both the causes and result of the respective forces, and often represent generational differences in people management philosophies of managers and leaders.

Certain leaders facilitate and manage the Type A Forces in an organization by their Command and Control Style (CCS). Leaders adopting the CCS model simply direct people to obey. They typically let the Type A Forces build up and when they feel that such forces have become inimical to the organization they used their CCS model to root out the negative forces. This approach works in spurts, and is both a cause and a result of Type A Forces. In fact, team members who are observant of the CCS model adopt that in their own behavioral approaches leading to greater generation of Type A Forces.

Certain leaders facilitate and manage the Type B Forces in an organization by their Influence and Deliver Style (IDS). Leaders adopting the IDS model consciously inculcate in their people positive aspects of collaboration, clarity, harmony, alignment and one firm. They articulate a shared vision, detail out a workable strategy and demonstrate execution through constant employee engagement.  They are observant of the emergence of Type A Forces and work towards converting them into positive Type B Forces. As with the CCS model, team members who are observant adopt their own positive behavioral approaches, creating a virtuous organizational ecosystem.

Interpersonal skills

In the context of the foregoing, it is easy to observe that interpersonal skills would tend to be more impactful in an organizational ecosystem that has IDS leadership model and Type B Forces. In ecosystems marked by CCS models and Type A Forces, interpersonal skills act as temporary palliatives. The effort must therefore be focused on creating a positive organizational ecosystem that enables the full play of interpersonal skills. That said, there is considerable misreading of what interpersonal skills mean in an organizational context. While these are, no doubt, social skills they are not all about being nice to each other. In an organizational context, they have certain deliverables too.

Interpersonal skills, though falling under the category of social skills, are driven by technical or professional competencies. In today’s competitive world, managing people or partnering people is impossible without an ability to understand and analyze issues and present solutions. Strange as it may seem, competency is the foundation of successful cultivation of interpersonal skills. The foundation of being skilled interpersonally lies in the ability to build trust and rapport. Trust and rapport between individuals, whether they are colleagues or bosses and subordinates, are built based on three fundamental appreciations.

To be acceptable in an organizational setting, one should be aware that an issue or a problem exists, should be able to understand the ramifications and empathize with the other person who has the problem. This ability to build trust and rapport comes with the technical and professional competency to grasp problems and issues. In the absence of such an ability, the statements made by different individuals and departments  to each other in the ordinary course of business become positions of silos, rather than approaches of collaboration. Competency and trust thus coexist but can find the linkage only when people are able to connect through communication.

The third equally important enabler of interpersonal skills is communication. Communication, in an organizational context is not a matter merely or solely of language or grammar, which, of course, are nice to have. Communication is relevant and complete only when it comprises an equal and equitable measure of listening and speaking, enabling both the parties to communication developing a common platform, from which they can work together.  

Skill triad

Successful organizations approach organization dynamics in a holistic manner. While organization structures are drawn up to meet business needs, the real emphasis will be on creating an organizational ecosystem that promotes the positive Type B Forces of collaboration, clarity, harmony, alignment and one firm concept, managed by an Influence and Deliver leadership style. In such a solution, interpersonal skills are developed on a triad of professional competencies, trust and rapport building and communication. Organizational efficiency and effectiveness require a holistic approach as outlined in this blog post.

Posted by Dr CB Rao on December 30, 2012  

 

 

 

 

       

 

 

 

The Four Laws and Four Phases of Career Life

In today’s world of increased longevity, the career span for a typical talented executive has significantly extended. As a result, the new generation could be expected to have a long career span of five decades, from 25 to 75 years of age. Compared to the current and older generations who coasted along the career paths (retiring at a ripe young age of 55 or 58 years!), the new generation has the aggression and aspiration to shape their careers in an accelerated manner (without resting till they reach the young ripe age of 70 or 75 years!), and that too more by design than by default. This new trend is, in turn, shaped by the new generation’s quest (and the parental pressures) for joining elite institutions and premium courses to leverage into companies and careers of potential high net-worth in future. This has led to a phenomenon of rapid and early career burnout in most other cases, leading people short of the opportunities of a career marathon.

With a bit of philosophical reasoning, external awareness and candid introspection, one would surmise that in life, the law of averages would eventually work out, coincidentally again in most cases. There are, in fact, four laws that govern career life, understanding of which would provide an appropriate perspective to appreciating the long term realities of career life. Once these realities are appreciated, it would be possible to look at a more orderly and structured progression of career life. Hinduism prescribes four stages of life to a typical male.  Shakespeare has formulated 7 stages of life in his play “As you like it”. This blog post hypothesizes four stages of life for career aspirants so that the new generation can face the corporate life with equality and stability. But, first the four laws of organizational life need to be appreciated.

The four pyramidal laws

The first law of organizations is the Law of Pyramids. Whatever the nomenclature and color given to the structural dispensations of organizations, the enduring law is that any organization is a pyramid in terms of departments and people. In fact, the typical organization tends to be several pyramids within a master pyramid. Each time, one reaches the apex of a pyramid (read, department) he or she will find that that place is, in fact, the bottom of another pyramid. The second law of organizations is the Law of Slippery Walls. Like pyramids which offer no easy steps or holds to climb, organizational pyramids also offer no easy way to climb to the top. The path is steep and slippery, almost inevitably.

The third organizational law is the Law of Multiple Climbers. This law teaches that even if one is fortuitous to be alone on the climb on one’s side of the wall, there would inevitably many climbers from the other sides of the pyramid (read, sections, departments or businesses in place of walls, depending upon which level of pyramid one is trying to perch oneself onto!). The fourth organizational law is the Law of Spiked Chair.  This law, which is the most profound of the four laws, can only be experienced and not taught. It states that if one is able to climb up the pyramid with one’s diligence and persistence, and fair amount of luck, one will find the apex far too sharp and spiked to afford any chance of comfortable stay. Unfortunately, there would be no honorable climb-down either.

Whoever reaches the apex of the ultimate pyramid would, no doubt, wonder why at all he or she has aspired for, and worked towards, reaching the apex of the organizational pyramid. However, like everyone despairs about life looking at others’ travails (be it studies, jobs or marriage) but goes through exactly the same rigmarole, members of organizations go through the motions of multiple pyramid climbing with great zeal and application. Those who understand the four laws in a philosophical perspective would, however, be in a state of equanimity to understand and pass through structured career phasing.     

Four phases of life

Hinduism classifies one’s life in terms of four phases or stages, each being called “ashrama”. The first stage is the “brahmacharya” or the “student” stage. The second stage is the “grihastha” or the “householder” stage. The third stage is the “vanaprastha”  or the “hermit” stage. The third and final stage is the “sanyasa” or the “ascetic” stage.  Without going into the full details of what each stage is expected to involve in a classic Hindu way, it would be sufficient for this blog post to understand the basic purposes of each of the four stages of life.

The student stage is a period of formal education. It lasts until the age of 25, during which, the young male seeks to attain, under a famed guru, both spiritual and practical knowledge. During this period, he is prepared for his future profession, as well as for his family. This is a phase wherein the greatest dedication and application is expected of the young learner.

The second period of householder begins when a man gets married, and undertakes the responsibility for earning a living and supporting his family. At this stage, Hinduism supports the pursuit of wealth as a necessity, and indulgence under certain defined social and cosmic norms. This ashrama lasts until around the age of 50. However, given the rigours of the subsequent two stages, the second stage virtually lasts a lifetime these days!

 The third stage of a man begins when his duty as a householder comes to an end: his children are grown up, and have established lives of their own. At this age, he should renounce all pleasures, retire from his social and professional life, leave his home, and go to live in a forest hut, spending his time in prayers. This kind of life is indeed very harsh. No wonder, this third ashrama is now nearly obsolete.

In the fourth and final stage, a man is supposed to be totally devoted to God. He is a “sanyasi”, he has no home, no other attachment; he has renounced all desires, fears and hopes, duties and responsibilities. He is virtually merged with God, all his worldly ties are broken, and his sole concern becomes attaining moksha, or release from the circle of birth and death. (Suffice it to say, very few can go up to this stage of becoming a complete ascetic.)

Four career ashramas

Given that the career span of the talented new generation is tending to be five decades long, one may hypothesize four distinct phases, which have similar intentions and applications as in progression of life. In the first phase, or the first decade of the career (say, age, 25 to 35 years) which may be called the development phase the incumbent must, irrespective of prior education and background, be focused on learning. The first phase represents the golden phase to master the products, processes, domains and businesses of a corporation. The more one learns, and applies the knowledge as one learns, the stronger will be the foundations of one’s career. And the stronger the foundation, the bigger and taller can be the superstructure. It is also important to secure the right guru or mentor during the learning phase.

The second phase, which corresponds to the householder phase, is the real career building phase. This phase or the second decade and half of the career (say, 35 to 50 years) represents the period of bounty to generate wealth for the corporation, and also simultaneously stabilize professional and personal life balance by providing peace and prosperity to the family. This is the phase when the aspirant needs to bring out all his energy and enthusiasm to lead and manage teams, climb up the slippery pyramids and reach to positions of substance. At the end of the phase, the career aspirant would have typically arrived.

The third phase, which corresponds to the hermit phase, is the stage when one brings one’s experience and wisdom to become a leader, who is expected to lead from the top. This stage, corresponding to 50 to 65 years of age, is one where the incumbent starts becoming increasingly lonely, with both his competitor groups and partner groups becoming thinner. As a hermit discovers truth through prayers, the leader in this phase discovers the larger purpose of leading an organization, which is beyond professional growth or personal riches. The truth as one would understand in this phase is to satisfy multiple stakeholders and craft an executable vision.

The fourth phase, which corresponds to the ascetic stage, is represented by the last 5 to 10 years of career life (say, 65 to 70 or 75 years of age). Clearly, this phase represents one of organizational “nirvana” for a leader. This is the phase wherein highly capable leaders become non-executive chairmen of corporations or become advisers and mentors to a wide spectrum of for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. They start looking for leaders who would fulfill or improve upon their legacy. Those in the first phase of learning could ideally lock themselves to mentors of the fourth phase to establish the right “parampara”.

Journey, not the destination

As one grapples with the four pyramidal laws, and undertakes the rollercoaster ride through the four phases, reaching in the process the narrow and sharp apex, one understands that the journey of organizational life is more important than the destination itself. Some, if not all, would muse that the fortune of satisfied life tended to be more at the bottom of the pyramid rather than at the top. If only there would be a way for the young career aspirants to fast-track themselves through the organizational time machine to simulate and assimilate the philosophical learning, there would be an opportunity for them to savor the journey of corporate growth through contributions each day, rather than waiting to occupy the sharp peak to make an elusive impact. For most people, an incremental contribution each day, from the very first day of a five decade career could be more rewarding than the aspiration of creating a stunning impact at the helm, decades later.

Posted by Dr CB Rao on December 29, 2012

                     

Safety and Security for Women: India’s Greatest Social Challenge

The brutal gang rape and assault on a 23 year old young lady in a moving bus in the night of December 16, 2012 in New Delhi has caused deep anguish and distress to every right thinking Indian. With her passing away in Mount Elizabeth Hospital, Singapore in the morning of December 29, the hope that she would return to active life as a crusader against the scourge of rape in India has been whiffed away. While India has had the unfortunate history of many sexual assaults on hapless women, the latest incident is shocking for its heinousness, bestiality and savageness. Shaken by the public outrage, Government of India (GoI) has constituted a Commission of Inquiry into the incident and a three member Committee to overhaul the laws. The one-person Commission, to be headed by former Delhi High Court judge Justice Usha Mehra, will also suggest measures to make Delhi and NCR safer for women. The three-member Committee under the former Supreme Court Chief Justice J S Verma would look, among others, into the possibility of rewriting the laws relating to aggravated sexual assault and enhancing penalty for it.

There have been several spontaneous suggestions from the public and political leaders on ways and measures to stop such atrocities. Several individuals and organizations have suggested death sentence as a deterrent for such heinous crimes. At a tactical and operational level, more intensive night time patrolling, provision of GPS for buses, elimination of tinting on windows of automobiles, more police stations manned by women, special protection for women on the move in the night times, screening of drivers and cleaners for criminal record, fast track courts to try perpetrators of assaults on women, early closure of night time movie halls and pubs, community protection, special protection by employers, formation of self-help groups and several other suggestions have been made. Even as this incident has stirred the nation’s conscience, there has been a flow of news on continued incidence of assaults on women from various towns, cities and states without any letup. This makes one wonder whether such assaults on women, sexual and/or otherwise, do not reflect a widespread and deeply entrenched social scourge in India.

Social paradox

India has had a long and hoary tradition of according the pride of place for womanhood in making homes and building society. The Indian scriptures and folklore advocate and encourage the concept of protection for womenfolk. Great emphasis is laid on the responsibilities of a man in protecting a lady, as a father, brother, husband or son. In overt ways, India has also been one of the very few countries which encouraged physical reservation of space for women in commuting, excusive schools and colleges for women, reservations or preferential allotments for girls in education etc. The families and girl children have also risen to the occasion and achieved high levels in studies, and equality in certain professions such as banking, medicine, nursing, information technology and so on. The educated female of India is today able to work on her own and travel independently in India and abroad.

Despite this apparent progress, the typical girl child or the mature lady continues to be highly vulnerable to the mischief, and bestiality, of the Indian male. Girl students and working women find public commuting a daily curse, given the harassment they are subjected to. Working late nights in fulfilment of academic and professional pursuits carries unpredictable risks. Being alone at home in the nights brings additional risks to the lady caretakers of the house. The family may protect a girl or a lady (even that seems to be under threat in certain cases) but the neighbourhood community or the broader society seems to have little concern, and even appears to harbour a distinct disdain, for the so called weaker gender. While this trend is blamed on the patriarchal and male dominated nature of the Indian society on one hand and the liberal winds of westernization, the real causes may run a lot deeper.

Discipline as a foundation

The Indian society is badly in need of a fundamental fix, in terms of discipline. The old generations were brought up with a thorough grounding on the essential values of life from the famed scriptures and religious teachings. The sayings of great Swamis like Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Sri Vivekananda, and exemplification by great leaders like Gandhiji and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, just to quote a few names, were inspirational. The social mores and cultural events encouraged discipline and respected womanhood. People, by and large, respected rule of law and feared the consequences of non-compliance. Today’s situation is in abject contrast to the erstwhile disciplined living. The unbridled openness of the society, collapse of the joint families, rampant consumerism and irrational ostentation have destroyed the foundations of discipline, and respect for rules on which the Indian society had been built for centuries. 

The fundamental need is to restore discipline and compliance as the bedrock of a reformed Indian society. In a milieu where the working families have no time of their own to teach the children or have no space for their elders to assume the responsibility, pre-school day care centres and schools have to assume the responsibility of incorporating lessons from all religions that respect and protect womanhood. Every institution has to establish fundamental rules that discipline the members to respect the womenfolk. From villages to cities, disciplined living has to become a cultural anchor. The fact that women are moving into economic independence does not mean that the old traditions of treating womenfolk with respect in public places and in private homes need to be dispensed with. Institutions have to be rated and ranked for their commitment to disciplinary teachings. Families also must patronize institutions for their disciplined way of functioning rather than for glossy IIT admission rankings.    

Positioning as a reinforcement

While a reinforcement of the foundations of discipline are extremely important, it is equally necessary to promote womanhood in a positive light in all public forums. Over the years, the advertising channels and movie houses have badly slid down in terms of depicting the womanhood. In an age where women are proving, time and again, that they are intellectually and economically second to none, such forums sadly project women as objects of desire certain times. It is important that the finer elements of living, including the sentiments of joint living, are restored in the public media. Movies which depict positive values have even in recent times seen good commercial appeal, indicating that it is still possible to bring out the basic human values.

The other reinforcement potentially is to enable more massive employment of womenfolk in various avocations. By all social and economic indicators, the position of the lady of the house as the builder of the home, and in a broader sense as the builder of the society, needs reinforcement. This is a task which requires the women to also participate and cooperate as a community network. In several parts of the country, religious and community festivals provide the right backdrop for the respectful position that the womenfolk command in the society. India has seen massive campaigns in the past for specific causes, for example family planning, AIDS/HIV control and tourism. It is time for a massive campaign to highlight the need to respect and protect the girl child and the woman. 

In the ultimate analysis, an educated population and an employed society offer additional protection for the reestablishment of the protective moorings of the Indian male and the protected nature of the Indian female. Right education that is relevant for India must have a fine blend of Western liberalization and Oriental conservatism. Right employment that is relevant for India must provide for appropriate levels of protection for the ladies in employment.  Equality and equity for men and women in all walks of life must continue to be accompanied by special dispensation relevant for women in India.   

Safety and security as a mission

While the fundamental and reinforcement fixes advocated herein would provide long term alleviation, the several tactical and operational measures that have been put across in the media, some of which have been reiterated and supplemented in this blog post, need urgent execution. It is to be hoped that the six people and any other persons involved directly or indirectly in the murderous sexual assault are dispensed deterrent punishment and that the Commission of Inquiry headed by Justice Usha Mehra and the Committee headed by Justice J S Verma would complete their respective works expeditiously and come up with a string of measures and statute changes that restore the glory of the Indian woman. While the entire nation grieves for the horrendous suffering the brave lady had to bear as a person over the last few days and prays for the departed soul to rest in peace, it is to be fervently sought that the collective anguish and determination of the governments and the society would bring in changes that once for all eliminate social scourge of the assault on the womanhood. 

Posted by Dr CB Rao on December 29, 2012

Transformative Leadership of Ratan Naval Tata: A Role Model of Ten Leadership Dimensions

After a glorious innings of 21 years at the helm of India's largest conglomerate, the Tata Group, its Chairman Ratan Naval Tata handed over the baton to Cyrus Mistry today, December 28, 2012. This caps the remarkable 5 decade career of Ratan Tata who joined the Tata Group in 1962 as an apprentice, became a director of National Radio and Electronics (NELCO) in 1971, became a director on the board of Tata Sons, the Group’s holding company in 1974, became the chairman of Tata Industries in 1981 (after the patriarch Chairman JRD Tata stepped down) and finally became the Chairman of the Tata group in 1991.

This orderly and meticulously planned succession, on Ratan's 75th birthday is in keeping with the Group's retirement policy of chieftains stepping aside when they turn 75, a policy which was crafted by Ratan himself with forethought. Ratan's tenure at Tata has been path-breaking and it is no surprise that it has already drawn several eulogies in the media, including a rare cover story in the prestigious international journal, The Economist. Ratan Tata clearly had a magical spell in his career at the Tata Group, and more specifically in the over two decade long career as the captain of the Tata Group.

Tata – a distinctive group

While there are other large private industrial groups in India, notably the Birlas and Reliance, no Indian corporate group is as monolithic and yet as diversified as the Tata Group. The Group, known for operating in almost every domain from automobiles to aerospace, salt to steel and information technology to retail management has a list of corporate entities, each a behemoth in itself, that have achieved international scale and scope in design, manufacture and delivery. To be associated with each such major company of the Group as its Chairman, be it Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Chemicals, Tata Global Beverages or Tata Power, and lay his distinctive imprint on the affairs of the company is no mean task for any leader, even globally.

The legacy of Ratan Tata will continue to live on in the Tata Group given the enormous contributions he has made to the Group on several dimensions. This blog post summarizes ten of his greatest strategic achievements for the Group. It is instructive that the dimensions of his achievement, individually and collectively, symbolize the essentials of astute leadership. In more ways than one, Ratan Tata symbolizes a role model of highly effective leadership that has taken the vicissitudes of India as an emerging market and the turbulence of the global economy in its stride successfully. His leadership performance leads us to the model of 10 leadership dimensions, a model which is highly relevant and appropriate for academic simulation and practical followership. And by no means, these are exhaustive and comprehensive; Ratan Tata and the Tata Group have achieved far more than what a modest blog post can do justice to!

Consolidation

Ratan Tata's tenure at the helm of Tata Group which commenced in 1991 (although he was inducted into the Tata Group in 1962 and given select turnaround assignments) was marked by the consolidation of over 300 businesses and firms into a more logical and more cohesive 100 odd businesses focusing on technology with a balance of mature, established industrial firms, fast growing businesses and nascent, sunrise initiatives. The Group came to be known as one that touches the lives of the people at large through wide ranging products and services which signify quality. A leader's legacy is judged by the portfolio of businesses he or she runs. Tata Group's consolidation is a remarkable evidence of the astuteness of the strategic prioritization set in motion by Ratan Tata. Simultaneously, the manner in which he increased the holding of Tata Sons in various group companies reflects the strategic and financial acumen in protecting the promoter interests in the consolidated group.

Professionalization
From the very early years of inception in the late 1800s, the Tata Group was known for its professional moorings, relative to other groups and entities. Nevertheless, when Ratan Tata took charge of the Group, he found that the larger companies were run by established powerful veterans almost as individual fiefdoms. This had inhibited a unified group focus, debilitated growth impulse and introduced crony management. It is to the credit of Ratan Tata that he displayed gumption and resoluteness to "de-satrap" the Tata Group, induct talented professional leaders from outside the Group, rotate and elevate performing managers and introduce orderly processes of retirement and succession planning. A leader's ability is demonstrated by the capability to lead several capable leaders with equity and equanimity, catalyzing in the process a rich blend of youthful aggression and experienced wisdom. Ratan Tata's professionalization of the Group's leadership bore all the hallmarks of an authentic leader in command of a sprawling conglomerate, managed by multiple leaders.

Globalization

Ratan Tata's start of the Chairmanship of the Group in 1991 coincided with the opening up of the Indian economy and the unleashing of a slew of economic reforms in 1992. Ratan Tata's stewardship of the Tata Group in terms of globalization of domestic entities through entry into sunrise sectors and overseas acquisitions has been unrivalled in the Indian industry. During his tenure, Tata Global Beverages (formerly Tata Tea), Tata Motors, Tata Chemicals and Tata Steel emerged as global companies. There have been over 40 major acquisitions by the entities of the Tata Group, some of them larger in size than the acquiring entities. Indian Hotels, Tata Chemicals, Tata Communications, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Global Beverages, Tata Motors, Tata Power and Tata Steel have led such acquisitions between 2004 and 2010, reflecting the intensity of his globalization drive. Successful turnaround and/or growth of the acquired businesses has been a distinctive hallmark of his globalization drive. An ability to globalize successfully and in a sustainable manner is the hallmark of a global leader, and Ratan Tata demonstrated a unique acumen for globalization in a daring and pioneering manner. And, the fact that in almost all the cases, the managements and employees of the acquired entities welcomed the Tata group as the preferred acquirer speaks volumes about the cultural ethos and brand equity of the Tata Group.

Innovation
Innovation is the core of sustainable growth for an enterprise. Ratan Tata was known to have an inventive mind for creative product design and an innovative approach to conducting competitive business. His passion for indigenous innovation showed off in no uncertain terms when he got Tata Motors to develop and manufacture India’s indigenously developed passenger car, Indica in 1998. His subsequent drive in the mid and late-2000s to develop, manufacture and launch Nano small car as the world's cheapest four door family car (against all odds) is another example of creative passion to fulfill mass consumer needs. Tata Swach, a low cost water purifier and Tata’s plan for affordable quality homes are further examples of innovating to meet India’s unique developmental needs. He was also open to listening to, and fostering, his colleagues' innovative ideas. The aggressive and ethnic approach to the watch and jewels business that Titan and Tanishq adopted as well as the first-off-the-block approach for digital broadcasting that TataSky pioneered are examples of his support to his entities becoming innovative in business.

Diversification

A wise leader diversifies his business and product portfolio to be able to not only drive growth but also to counter cyclical trends. His drive to transform Tata Motors from its predominantly truck and bus business to a full-line automobile business has been a striking example. There is no integrated automobile firm in the world that manufactures an unmatched range, from the smallest and the cheapest Nano to the most expensive Jaguars and Rovers (as well as the smallest trucks and buses, Ace and Magic respectively to the largest Prima trucks). The segmentation of the hospitality business into four brands of hotels was another notable example of diversifying the market base to cover a wide range of travelers in budget, business, affluent and luxury travel categories. Equally impressive has been his foray into emerging growth sectors such as telecommunications and consumer retailing. Some diversification moves such as the move into basic pharmaceutical research have not done well. That does not distract us from his fundamental vision and fortitude in identifying new areas of growth on a continuous basis, whether it is solar power, aerospace or automotive components, and more recently coffee chains (in joint venture with Starbucks). An ability to refocus and reprioritize has not come in the way of smart diversification for Ratan Tata, reflecting his visionary approach to consolidating and growing the Group.

Harmonization

A Group tends to get known not only for its businesses but also for a homogenous brand equity that flows through the apparently unconnected businesses and stands out as a binding force across the independent legal entities. Ratan Tata has been a prime mover in rebranding the Tata brand both visually and emotionally, and also connecting each entity as a Tata Enterprise. The Group also developed a common code of ethics, a common standard of corporate governance and, as referred to earlier, a common retirement and succession policy to ensure that all the Group companies reflected harmonized standards. In a milieu where growth was and is seen to be dependent on external support, the Tata Group stands out as a proof of how companies dedicated to excellence and probity can continue to grow on their own merits. A leader inspires his entities as well as the external world by the standards he sets for himself. Ratan Tata excelled in setting benchmarks that drew the best global brands to collaborate with him and the Group. It is not surprising therefore that Tata has spoken, in his farewell letter to the employees about the Tata Group playing an important role in the continued development of India, providing leadership in various industrial segments it operates and living by the value systems and ethical standards on which the Group was founded.

Socialization

The Tata Group has always been in the forefront of social development. The Group, especially the lead companies such as Tata Motors and Tata Steel, have been in the forefront of integrated township development for Tata employees, complete with schooling and hospitals as well as utility systems. Under Ratan Tata, corporate social responsibility took a more institutionalized and inclusive turn with the Group spending approximately 2 percent of its turnover on projects of corporate social responsibility. Himself a well educated professional (with BS in Architecture from Cornell University), Ratan Tata was in the forefront of supporting educational causes. His USD 50 million grant in 2008 to his Alma Mater Cornell University and the subsequent grant of USD 50 million to Harvard University to establish dedicated educational forums stand out as the largest and most visible examples of corporate educational support by the Indian industry. He continued to maintain the Group’s commitment and support to academic institutions and industrial laboratories such as the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR).

Collaboration

Tata Group, over the last two decades, has taken the lead in public-private collaboration and private-private collaboration, a significant part of the credit must go to Ratan’s apolitical approach to doing business. In the late 1990s when public sector and the government on one hand and the private sector had frequent face-offs, Ratan Tata showed an amazing perspicacity in collaborating with the public sector and the government on merits. Tata Group, under his stewardship, was the first to participate in public sector disinvestment processes by acquiring Computer Maintenance Corporation (CMC) in 2001 and Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) in 2002, reinforcing the Group’s position in information technology and telecommunications respectively. He was also open to collaborating with the Birla group to establish a cellular telephone services company. Over the years, his leadership became famous for collaboration in several areas to bring new technologies and new processes into the Indian milieu. While successful integration of iconic businesses such as JLR, Corus and Tetley represented one level of seamless internal collaboration, establishment of new joint ventures and alliances with companies such as Cummins, AIG, Marcopolo, BP, Starbucks and DoCoMo, to quote a few, represented the other impressive level of external collaboration.

Reinvention

Successful companies reinvent themselves periodically. Ratan Tata’s early leadership in the Group started with both successful and failed turnarounds (NELCO in 1971 and Empress Mills in 1977, respectively). Ratan drew the right lessons and ingrained reinvention as the mantra to stay competitive. Modernization represents a challenge as it requires investments that could drag down profits in a competitive business landscape. Tata was willing to sacrifice short term profits to build long term future. Listing the key entities on overseas bourses, raising large scale funding through aggressive bond issues and enhancing internal generations through performance optimization, Ratan Tata ensured that modernization of the Group always had sufficient funds. More importantly, however, Ratan Tata virtually reinvented the group by entering into new areas such as telecommunications, insurance, realty and housing, satellite services, supercomputing, consumer retailing and so on. Carrying out the reinvention on the back of domestic and global acquisitions and collaborations and alliances gave an additional competitive edge and execution speed to the Group. Within the established industrial sectors too, the focus of reinvention was applied within entities such as Tata Chemicals, Titan Watches,Tata Motors and Tata Steel. Reinvention is often associated with tough decisions and painful transitions. A visionary leader reinvents the Group in a timely manner by making reinvention itself as a positive DNA of the enterprise. Ratan Tata has been able to achieve reinvention at the entity level as well as the group level painlessly, seamlessly and productively.  

Transformation

A great leader’s mission in life is transformation. On the benchmark of transformation, Ratan Tata emerges as a leader of great strategic accomplishment. During his tenure, the group grew over 50 fold to become a USD 100 billion group, employing nearly 500,000 people. From a largely domestic orientation, the Group became truly global deriving nearly 60 percent of revenues from global sales. He transformed an essentially industrial group (which had over 75 percent of revenues from steel, power and trucks) into a diversified group (with consumer goods and technology contributing over 66 percent of revenues). Inheriting a leadership team of veterans, he infused youthfulness and vigor in the team by accelerating the development of next generation leaders. Ratan Tata’s transformation over the five decades of an illustrious career in the Tata Group, from the position of a shop floor apprentice to an entity director, a Group director and finally to the ultimate leadership role of the Group Chairman, was driven personally and professionally by the highest standards of ethical and transformative performance, which enabled him to take the Group on the transformational journey, literally walking the talk. The two decade plus leadership of Ratan Tata as the captain of the Group has made Tata as the 45^th ranked brand globally and the top ranking brand nationally. It is certain that Ratan Tata’s legacy will not only live on but inspire the successor Cyrus Mistry and the Tata leadership team to continue to achieve higher trajectories of transformative growth.

The Ten dimensions

Great leaders like Ratan Tata leave enduring lessons of management and leadership to study, absorb and follow. The ten dimensions of leadership of Ratan Tata, namely consolidation, professionalization, globalization, innovation, diversification, harmonization, socialization, collaboration, reinvention and transformation represent together a leadership paradigm that is not only unparalleled in the emerging markets but also a differentiated role model even for the developed economies. It is to be hoped that the Government of India would honour Ratan Tata for his leadership drive and industrial contributions with the highest civilian honours. Ratan Tata himself, the author is sure, would like to see his legacy grow through the institutionalization of his development and transformative leadership model in India, across enterprises and organizations, for fulfilling his vision of India as a great nation.

Posted by Dr CB Rao on December 29, 2012 (the author is an alumnus of Tata Motors).

Reverse Leadership: Forward Initiative

Leadership is often seen to be synonymous with top positions in an organization. The reasons are not far to seek. Incumbents of top positions would typically possess high competencies honed out of academic studies and practical experience. This would lend maturity and ability to steer the complex affairs of an organization. This conventional paradigm has some challenges in a world where young talent is competent and competitive and is more desirous than ever to climb higher echelons of an organization earlier than the previous generations hoped to. Many organizations do try to provide fast track opportunities to promising youngsters through faster job rotation and independent projects. Despite this variation, leadership is still held synonymous with a position one occupies, the only difference being age is perhaps less of a determining factor.

The fast track paradigm while apparently seeming to find a solution actually ends up leading to additional problems. Comparisons between composed, competent mature leaders and aggressive, talented young leaders apart, the paradigm barely covers a score of young performers at best. Performance tends to be driven by visible metrics and fierce individualism. Eventually, most fast track performers find themselves slowing down at some point of time or other based on demand and supply of talent. Virtuous organizations clearly need a more broad-based leadership canvas to be distinguished on a sustainable basis from others. Many experts, accordingly, refer to the concept of grassroots leadership but this also has its limitations.

Grassroots leadership

Grassroots leadership refers to a concept whereby leadership, as defined by the ability to lead and make things happen, occurs on a universal basis across the bottom of the organizational pyramid. Literally, it would extend to the multiple layers of the organizational pyramid. Exciting and impressive the concept may sound, it tends to remain largely utopian. The reasons often relate to the fact that in most cases focused execution tends to be the need of the hour at the operating levels. In addition, leadership requires space to create and innovate for individuals, which obviously cannot be universally made available. Moreover, most organizational processes are repetitive, requiring standardization and perseverance than versatility and promptitude. There is, however, one or two domains that could enable, or even require, grassroots leadership. Selling in the field is a clear example of grassroots leadership. 

A retail sales person or a field sales person typically serves as a microcosm of the company’s capabilities in its products and services as well as consumer need fulfillment. In a sense, he or she serves as the chief officer of the territory he or she serves. He or she is often expected to promote the products with feature selling, coordinate with multiple agencies to ensure stocks and payments, analyze and address competition, and in some cases take decisions on the spot. A field salesman could be the lowest in the hierarchy but could be expected to take leadership decisions of the highest order. Similarly, designers could be expected to be creative and resonant regardless of the level. These are, however, exceptions rather than the rule. In contrast to grassroots leadership, and in addition to its need in specific domains, reverse leadership is a paradigm of interest.

Reverse leadership  

Reverse leadership is considered to occur when so called ordinary employees or frontline managers, who are outside the leadership arena, demonstrate exceptional leadership in making things happen in the face of anticipated and unanticipated challenges. Reverse leadership provides solutions when apparently none exists. Reverse leadership often ends up providing sustainable solutions including tangibly better ways of performing corporate activities. A reverse leader is often a product of mentorship and typically emerges in an ecosystem that is willing to experiment rather than is terminally afraid of making mistakes. Reverse leadership, unlike grassroots leadership, can occur in any domain or department. Reverse leadership often also leads to visible improvement in the overall leadership strength of an organization.

There could be several examples of reverse leadership in day to day organizational life. In the movie industry, one has the examples of assistant directors coming up with astounding ways of taking certain scenes that defied the imagination of highly experienced senior directors. Cricket teams usually encounter situations where junior cricketers contribute innovative ideas of field formation in the face of opposing teams piling up runs relentlessly. A field salesman could come up with brilliant solution of off-label promotion of appropriate medicines. A designer may come up with redesign of components to reduce costs and weights and enhance strengths. A machine tool operator may come up with ideas to increase cutting speeds with tool feeds backed by novel rake angles. An accounting officer may come up with novel documentation system that cuts processing times and enhances archival capabilities.                                                                  

Characteristics of reverse leaders

Reverse leaders tend to have certain unique attributes that distinguish them from other employees. Fundamentally, they tend to be result oriented and creative process drivers. Observant always of the processes and products they own, they come up with lateral solutions to intriguing problems. Typically, they can operate under multiple constraints and yet provide optimal solutions. Such reverse leaders would require leaders in formal positions who understand the reverse leaders’ impatience and creativity in appropriate perspective, coaching and encouraging them appropriately. The unique approaches of reverse leaders are often borne out of their unique balancing of domain competencies with social skills. They have positive attitudes towards life in general.

Reverse leaders have a strong level of self-awareness which is accompanied by a strong sense of self-worth too. Their confidence, coupled with social skills, enables them to be non-egoistic but proud about their ability to drive a change. Their confidence often arises from a deep understanding of their core domain and their ability to contribute to the departmental and organizational competitiveness through such skills. As a result, when an organization is confronted by a problem, formal leaders and peers tend to look up to the reverse leaders for creative results. Reverse leaders display a high level of integrity and risk taking in their work, building trust and credibility in their competency and commitment.

Not surprisingly, reverse leaders carry out their assignments for the sheer pleasure of achieving results rather than for grandiose plans of creating fabulous careers. Typically, therefore, they are  seen to be transparent without any hidden agendas. As an extension, they also tend to be individual performers being content with the image of do-gooders. Much of their passion and dedication is driven by a motto of delighting the customers, whether internal or external. The satisfaction of changing the internal operating landscape through product and process improvements and influencing customer preferences through better product and service offerings tends to be of genuine fulfillment for them.

From reverse to formal leadership

Given the significant talent base, positive attitude set and selfless approach to performance, it is desirable that an organization nurtures an ecosystem that enables reverse leaders grow into formal leaders. This requires, at a simple level, coaching and mentoring by select formal leaders   to make the reverse leaders aware of the larger contributions they can make. At a more advanced level, they would need to acquire additional skills so that they can replicate their accomplishments on a wider scale. While certain reverse leaders would content to be individual contributors other reverse leaders would be willing to take on additional roles. Organizations which are able to recognize the different types of reverse leaders and recognize, develop, motivate and reward them would develop a solid and sustainable leadership base, and remain ahead of others.

Posted by Dr CB Rao on December 26, 2012                                                      

 

From Type to Touch: For the Text, What’s Next?

Human civilization has seen centuries of evolution and development as an increasingly knowledge society, solely on the basis of oral and written communication. The myriad languages of the human race have been the vehicles of division as well as integration of societies. While oral communication has always been through a complex interaction of the brain, tongue and the mouth, the written communication has seen transformational changes as the human race and technologies developed. In India, Vedas, slokas, epics and poems which were captured on the palm leaves in the ancient root language Sanskrit (as well as in the other Indian languages) are a compelling evidence of the human’s unceasing quest to develop, race to develop, communicate and archive knowledge for the present and the future.

While oral expression has been a natural endowment, written expression has been a manmade competitive advantage. Writing materials have played a very prominent role in the development of diverse cultures. They have helped not only in preserving the history and culture of mankind, but have also deeply influenced the scripts, languages as well as man's mode of thinking. To understand ancient writing materials, therefore, is to understand ancient cultures in a better light. Societies which preserved knowledge, like the Western world, progressed while societies which were indifferent to preservation, like India, lost several treasures of knowledge. India has seen writing forms evolve over  several centuries using virtually every form of materials, from palm leaves to copper plates and stone slabs to modern paper; but so much more of ancient wisdom, it is felt, has not been captured at all. And, of whatever that has been written down a lot has been lost in history too.

Shift and Change

 Ever since the advent of computer, the domains of writing, publishing and dissemination have seen nothing short of a revolutionary transformation. From the initial binary punching to later day language typing, computer has seen a step function jump in processing power. From being a data processing machine, computer has become the backbone of new age information technology. Development of various computer languages to converse with the computer has customized computers to multiple uses.  Software capabilities and hardware power evolved in tandem to be able to electronically capture, manage, store, transmit and retrieve data, information and knowledge in standalone and networked computers as well as global servers and grids. Whatever the historical lapses in writing and preservation of information in the ancient India, it is a just irony that India is now in the forefront of writing the code for all the computer languages. There are, however, two facets to the language and communication paradigm of the computers; the visible and the invisible.

The visible language is user-friendly while the invisible language is programmer-challenging. The greater the user friendliness that is targeted, the greater is the programming challenge. With the growth of the Internet and instant patching and updating the challenge of keeping the invisible language current and contemporary has been increasing.  The invisible language itself has two parts, the programming language and the machine language. While major enhancements have been happening on the programming language front, the machine language remains binary. The relative exclusivity of popular operating systems (4 for computers and 4 for smart phones) vis-à-vis the proliferation of devices (several hundreds) indicates the complexities and challenges of developing an operating system that is truly multi-functional and robust.  Underlying the complexity is the need to write millions and billions of coding lines to support such user functionalities.

Touch and Write

The first improvement to user friendliness came with the incorporation of drop-down boxes and tool bars to guide the user and let the user select from the available options. This development still had to be accompanied by typing of options. The breakthrough, however, came through Apple bringing touch-select as the next level of user experience. The touch experience is intimately tied with the scrolling capability. Despite the dominance of touch in smart phones, touch navigation could pose a challenge in full fledged computing devices given the significantly additional number of operations to be performed. While an Office suite would cater to the detailed navigation, the fact would remain that touch would still be an immediate experience rather than a type-along experience for the user. Microsoft has recently launched Windows 8 as the ’touch and navigate’ platform applicable across all the devices, from phones and tablets to laptops and desktops. Whether text management can now be integrated with touch management is the next frontier for Microsoft to explore and conquer.

For thousands of years, writing has been the hallmark of human civilization. Writing brings out certain faculties of hand and brain coordination, in terms of control and memory as opposed to typing which, though bringing out a different type of hand and brain coordination, admittedly mechanizes the writing faculty. After the initial failure of initial handwriting recognition that was applied on the original Microsoft tablet computer in the early 2000s, the importance of writing on the computers has taken a distant second position. The more recent revival of pen stylus based devices, more especially Samsung Galaxy Note devices, gives hope that handwriting would reemerge and remain as the most intelligent and intellectual form of providing inputs. This would require a new level of integration between software and hardware technologies with superior capabilities for highly variable handwriting between people. However, that certainly is the way to go as the pen stylus brings the added advantage of free hand sketching, drawing and annotations as well as track changes.

See and Speak

Recognition and cognitive technologies would continue to be developed to the extent that look and talk would be the new input channels. The focusing of eyes would soon determine which icon (in the Apple language) or tile (in the Windows language) is desired to be opened by the user. Eventually, even sub-instructions may be tracked and selected with eye contact. The first evidence of the feasibility is already seen in certain devices and software solutions, from recognition of start and stop commands based on eyesight to adjustments to ambient conditions. In devices of the future, there may not be a need to have a dedicated camera key; a mere blink after focusing could snap the photo. Future cameras may detect the natural power of eyes and accordingly adjust their own aperture and focusing settings.

Cognitive technologies have seen a boost with the voice commands in the navigation systems and the more recent Apple Siri and Galay S voice in the mobile devices. These, however, are limited by the preprogramming potential. Open ended speech based input technologies have not so far realized the potential such technologies could hold. Cognitive technologies have speech recognition as the primary platform.  The potential has not been realized mainly because of the phonetic and pronunciation variations across people. Self-learning programs are the answer. Future speech recognition software solutions would reprogram themselves based on an initial cycle whereby a person inputs his or her speaking patterns and profiles. Such technologies would also add an extra layer of security to the computer system by uniquely recognizing the speaking patterns.

Think and Imagine

Probably, the net giant leap would be when the devices start recognizing the thought processes. As the mapping of brain, deciphering of brain waves and decoding of fired up neurons gain traction, potentially  each thought may be identified with a unique fingerprint. The thought rather than the person or the device could be the unique factor that could be standard across any person-device combination. This would require the devices to have powerful electromagnetic sensors that can recognize unique thought waves that correspond to the commands a person desires to give to the device. As with any new endeavor, the thought recognition technologies may be introduced with simple commands and later extended to the whole gamut of human thoughts.

The ultimate frontier could be to imagine the human intents and desires from out of the myriad overt recognizable actions and thoughts. This development would be quite the opposite of the previous hypothesis of universally standardized thought wave technologies. The ability to imagine would be achieved when a device is uniquely synchronized and intertwined with the owner cum user of the device. The device would have an enormous storage ability and analytical power to capture each and every unique thought, command and action to develop a full portfolio of how the user would behave. As the experience and expertise of the device grows, so would its ability to simulate its user’s thinking and imagining for the user and outlining a whole range of options as if the owner himself or herself would be imagining.

Design beyond Device

If the foregoing were to come true, and the author of this blog post believes would come true sooner than later, the devices would no longer me hand operated apparatuses anymore. They would be vested with increasingly higher levels of human faculties. The advertisement by Samsung for its latest mobile phone, Galaxy SIII, claims that it is “designed for humans”. Based on the foregoing discussion, the advertisement for future devices could well read as “designed as humans”, with each device being as uniquely personalized and intelligent as each human being uniquely is .

Posted by Dr CB Rao on December 25, 2012