Brandwashing!!

Brand-washing?
Business Ethics Forum (U.S.) in its May 2005 issue highlighted two kinds of compulsive approaches towards ethics – ones who ‘exist as streamlined examples of the impact of organisational leadership on a company's ethical culture’ and the ones who were still to evolve structured ethical norms and practices. We are referring to two things that need to catch our attention: 2005 and U.S. What is the plight of SMEs in our country in 2010?
Are they still grappling with profitability vis-a-vis taxation, infrastructure and government support? ‘We want more’ is the philosophy? What are they doing to alleviate these issues? Approach the employers’ forums such as the FICCI, CII, ASSOCHAM and the like to fight it out and voice their woes through seminars and conventions? That’s it and that’s about all! Isn’t there a need to make efforts as an organisation too? What would be the obvious course? Get a name for oneself and a name to reckon with, so that every other need is catered to spontaneously by vendors, suppliers, contractors or even the government.
How does one get it? There are different ways. We all know that earning a name is through branding or brand-building. The question is as to what kind of branding would lead to this sustenance. Product branding – well the life cycle is too short. Corporate branding – do they wish to spend so much? Employment branding – well yes, but cannot be built quickly, because it calls for massive cultural change. Business ethics and ethics in the workplace is the answer. We were approached by a certain company, a MNC [not mentioning the name deliberately] to evolve an ethical culture in the organisation. We refused to undertake the assignment, because we observed a fallacy in the intentions. The marketplace they were operating in called for nothing else but corruption and they were not prepared to deal with it differently. Today, the company not only has very low brand equity and perhaps is also still struggling to find a respectable market share.
Practices, such as bribing the inspectors and getting away with non-compliance of required legalities, is not unheard of, in the SME sector. While business ethics has been added as a compulsory subject for many B-schools, it’s a pity to see that what is preached is not practiced. What the entrepreneurs in the SME sector fail to realise that if they were unethical for acquiring profitability, they were being myopic and not realising that being ethical would earn them a name in all spheres – corporate identity, product marketability, retention of competent employees and eventually popularity amongst the masses without even hyping their CSR agenda.
The journey has been long and we at PERCON have been patient enough to watch the changes that have come through...this would also happen...we are zestfully hopeful!

Another Book Review

WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU BECOME THE BOSS: HOW NEW MANAGERS BECOME SUCCESSFUL MANAGERS

Bob Selden

Macmillan 2008

A BOOK REVIEW BY DHRUVA TRIVEDY*

It would not be a sin if someone rechristens the book as, ‘A Handbook for Managers’ and when the word Managers is being used here, no exceptions are made. Bob Selden has simplified jargonistic messages that have been attempted to be communicated to Managers over the last so many years ever since ‘change’, ‘competition’ and ‘leadership’ have been the keywords in subjects of discussions in all forums and platforms. It would be worth an apology to state, “No! This book is NOT meant for ‘new’ Managers but for ‘all’ Managers!” Every message in the book has been appended with an introspective checklist or an exercise, so that the message is not only understood but also entrenched into the mindset of every practising Manager, who reads the book.

While distinguishing between who is a leader and who is a manager, Bob has not followed ‘the run of the mill’ understanding that the two roles were distinct, but has endeavoured to portray that both roles were complementary. Bob has covered most of the HR processes that any Manager is needed to perform, keeping in mind the philosophy that HR was primarily the responsibility of Line Managers, indoctrinated way back in the 90’s by Ulrich and his contemporaries. The bandwidth ranges right from selection of new recruits to formidable appraisals. At the end of each process described, the author finds his rich consultancy experience, an enabler, to provide case-studies and questionnaires to ‘soul-search’ the learning the reader has had. The book also entails all the essential formulae for bettering one’s attitude or skills to become an excellent boss/manager in each of the processes.

In addition, the tools that every Manager should be using, such as the elementary forms of managing on the one hand viz., decision-making, delegating etc., and coaching, conducting meetings, mentoring, self management – emphasising the need for controlled emotions, proper time management and developing self and team-mates [while considering the contemporary professional-cum-academic notes and models (for instance the ‘grow model’) that have become popular] on the other, are nothing new in the management world, but how many Managers have been tempted to read about them? Bob has said it all with no purported special appeal, yet the tabulated questions/problems with their corresponding answers/solutions have a lot, not only to display, but espouse anyone to attempt finding semblance to one’s own work situation and to find the gaps in one’s own answers. In today’s environment when every action or behaviour is addressed through metrics, it becomes imperative and tempting for most Managers to ‘give them a try’.

The book stands out as an extraordinary documentation of contemporary intellectual potions, theories and models that have been converted to usable instruments for the practising Manager, while making no exception. In today’s environment of information flow gushing in from all ends, the practising Manager finds oneself at a loss to focus on what needs to be sieved in and what needs to be discarded. The sources are many, the print media, the television-radio combine, the journals and newsletters published by different professional bodies and of course the volley that comes through the internet. The Manager is at crossroads and takes a beating in comprehending what directions to choose from, so many being available. ‘All in one’ is perhaps what Bob has tried to offer in the platter.

There are some critical observations too. Some of the tabulated checklists are oversimplified, while practically one has to examine much more, for a correct analysis. For example the ‘Team leader’s health check-up’ tool is good enough to give directions and clues, but certainly not a very comprehensive instrument for a leader-to-be. Again when Bob prescribes a checklist for ‘managing yourself’, it’s more of tips than finding something such as a measuring tool. The other aspect is that although these are wonderful rules of the game that have been codified, the author has nowhere suggested a rigorous practice of these rules as a follow up. It perhaps would have added immense value to Bob’s writings, if he had also put in a word at the end of the book in the form of a separate chapter, as to how his recommendations would become deeds that were put into action as a practice successfully; and here an international scenario should have been chosen. By and large the book has its settings in the U.S. and in an era of globalisation, where emerging economies such as China and India are making it big, the book turns a blind eye. Let’s not forget that human issues are culturally variant.

** Dhruva Trivedy is an alumni of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai and is a management consultant and a certified trainer based at New Delhi, working on ‘morphing’ of organisations for the last 21 years now and for almost 16 years had worked his way up the corporate ladder before he took to consulting. To know more about him visit: www.percontsi.com

Additional reading suggested:

1. “From job-based to competency based organizations” by Edward E. Lawler III, Centre for Effective Organisations, University of California

2. “Coaching For Performance: Growing People, Performance and Purpose” by Sir John Whitmore

Are we losing the values of our society through the ad campaigns and television programmes?

Controversies are raised but nothing happens! Degeneration of our values continue. In fact captions like 'Mommy's Watching' are catching on with more readers. 'Coffee with Karan' is a programme that I now and then bump into when I walk into my daughter's room...and there I find an option given away so freely to Saif that if he was to choose between sex and acting which would he quit first...and there comes the answer,,,acting!! Any takers on this issue of 'whither (I would prefer wither) our values?'

A Book Review

BOREOUT!

Philippe Rothlin & Peter Werder

Kogan Page 2008

A BOOK REVIEW BY DHRUVA TRIVEDY*

As back as the early 70’s I had the opportunity of watching a short film which was an entry for the International Film Festival, from the then Federal Republic of Germany. The film was of five minutes’ duration. It began with showing a woman sitting on a slotting machine, picking up a small piece of wire from her left, inserting it into the machine and taking out and piling up the ‘finished’ pieces on to her right. The film continued and continued to show the same action for the rest of the five minutes. The spectators were left aghast, wondering what message the film had tried to send. At the end of the film, a plate finally was scrolled up, “Bored? Imagine yourself working on this machine for eight hours, which this woman does!”

I had just finished reading Durkheim’s ‘state of anomie’, and I could picture what it meant...although Durkheim highlighted this in the context of extreme division of labour and even went on to stating that such a situation is one of the causes for suicide in the industrial society. But the modern context also, in which Rothlin and Werder have written this book perhaps takes into account unknowingly the situations created by extreme division of labour. Wasteful engagement, which Covey brilliantly puts in Q4 of his description of the ‘third habit’ is only the opportunity one gets at the workplace with little willingness to do what he has been assigned or has been confidently able to finish off well ahead of time what he has been assigned. Although we talk about multi-skilling and job rotation liberally, how many of us have witnessed it in practice in large corporations – where the ‘division of labour’ is at its peak? (Smaller organisations on the contrary are closely monitored by the entrepreneur-manager and therefore the human resources are overtly multi-skilled without deriving the satisfaction of what he ‘loves’ to do.) There is an apathy prevailing towards accountability and nothing is left on the job to ‘charm’ them. What is left to be done by the ‘disengaged’ is inadvertent indulgence into boredom!

Clearly Rothlin and Werder have been able to define the ‘Boreout Paradox’. In their words, “The paradox is that the employees themselves keep the boreout condition of dissatisfaction alive....and make no active effort to break out of the vicious cycle.” There is a similarity that essentially needs to be drawn out between a boreout and dispassion, which the authors have very subtly expressed throughout the book.

Surviving with a boreout in a workplace is accepting that nothing would ever be possible to bail oneself out of the situation and one has to live with ‘loss of interest’. Dispassion on the other hand is an inherent distaste and ‘no interest’ in a particular kind of work, albeit a boreout can be emanating out of dispassion. Marcus Buckingham in his book ‘First Break All the Rules’ talks about passion, although in a different context that of talent. Both Rothlin & Verder and Buckingham talk about the waiter. The former have analysed and have quoted the example of waiters doing the vanishing act after leaving the menu card with the customer, because he was going through a ‘hidden boreout’. The latter, however, talks about the ‘passionate’ waiter. He comes back to the customer, verbalising his previous order and asks him if he would like to have the same menu or something different this time, with suggestions from his end.

Without being simplistic in drawing conclusions, I am only suggesting that Boreout seems to be the flip-side of ‘Passion for talent’. This understanding would lead us to reviewing the methods, the authors have chosen to address boreout. Let us understand that passion (the opposite of dispassion or boreout) emerges from inherent motivational needs that McClelland had identified many years ago and have not been addressed by large corporations: achievement, affiliation and control or power. And at the same time in passion there are personal interests to cover. Jerry Lopper the author of ‘Jump for Joy! Clearing the hurdles to an easy life’, says, “Personal interests and life's passions are the activities a person loves. These are the activities you gravitate toward whenever possible. Your personal interests and passions are things you've done since youth—perhaps in different forms—but with an underlying common thread. Your life's passions, whether work or hobby, are the activities which allow you to experience life purpose—who you are at your core.”

Sense of ‘individual responsibility as an instrument against boreout’, stems from the motivational needs, which the corporations have to identify ruthlessly and relentlessly. Individual responsibility is also a complement of accountability, which should be borne in mind by these corporations.

Personal interests are what Rothlin & Verder refer to as ‘meaning’ in the job, in their ‘qualitative pay’ model. Seeking out work during working hours is a question of a combination of one’s sense of individual responsibility and personal interest once again. These obviously guide the person at the workplace to the comprehension of the value of time. Lastly, in this model the authors describe that there was sufficient importance to financial incentives, (Get the very best deal you can!) but the emphasis should not be on money alone. They sum it up by saying, “If you are trapped in a wrong job, then all the money in the world will not help you to spend your working days in contentment.”

The book has two great advantages: (1) it is a quick and precise reading with plenty of insightful windows that one needs to look through and (2) the language is lucid and simple without being jargonistic at any stage.

* Dhruva Trivedy is an alumni of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, a management consultant and a certified trainer based at New Delhi, working on ‘morphing’ of organisations for the last 21 years now and for almost 16 years had worked his way up the corporate ladder before he took to consulting. To know more about him visit: www.percontsi.com

Additional reading suggested: The Living Dead: Switched Off, Zoned Out - The Shocking Truth About Office Life - David Bolchover

Habib Tanvir (1 September 1923 – 8 June 2009) was one of the most popular Hindi playwrights, a theatre director, poet and actor. He is the writer of plays such as, Agra Bazar (1954) and Charandas Chor (1975). A pioneer in Hindi theatre, he is most known for his work with Chhattisgarhi tribals, at the Naya Theatre, a theatre company he founded in 1959 in Bhopal, and went on to include indigenous performance forms such as nacha, to create not only a new theatrical language, but also milestones such as Charandas Chor, Gaon ka Naam Sasural, Mor Naam Damad and Kamdeo ka Apna Basant Ritu ka Sapna.

For him true "theatre of the people" existed in the villages, which he strived to bring to the urban "educated", employing both folk performers as actors alongside urban actors. He died on 8th of June 2009 at Bhopal after a three week long illness.

During his lifetime he won several national and international awards, including the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1969, Padma Shri in 1983, Kalidas Samman 1990, Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship in 1996, and the Padma Bhushan in 2002; apart from that he had also been nominated to become a member of the Upper House of Indian Parliament, the Rajya Sabha (1972-1978). His play 'Charandas Chor' (Charandas, The Thief) got him the Fringe Firsts Award at Edinburgh International Drama Festival in 1982, and in 2007, it was credited for "an innovative dramaturgy equally impelled by Brecht and folk idioms, Habib Tanvir seduces across language barriers in this his all-time biggest hit about a Robin Hood-style thief" as it was included in the Hindustan Times' list of 'India’s 60 Best works since Independence'.

Hindi Sai Satcharitra : Audio - Chapter 43 & 44 ~ Download Shirdi Sai Baba Bhajans Mp3 Artis

Hindi Sai Satcharitra : Audio - Chapter 43 & 44 ~ Download Shirdi Sai Baba Bhajans Mp3 Artis

Greetings 2009