The author is COO and president (US operations), MindTree Consulting
Peter Drucker is the most-read author on modern management theory. Drucker, an ageing California-based immigrant, is regarded as a philosopher with depth, simplicity and an uncanny ability to anticipate future. Peter Senge, a professor at MIT, is acclaimed as a thinker with high impact. His seminal work, The Fifth Discipline, brought into focus the importance of systems theory to modern-day managers. I remain in awe of both men as much as I am surprised how few Indians are aware of both the Peters.Some time back, I came across a video conversation between Peter Drucker and Peter Senge. The two Peters talked about managing in difficult times. In this instalment of Arbor Mentis, I am going to talk about four important lines of thought that touched me. Drucker, who talked in most part, highlighted the concepts of planned abandonment, need to focus on opportunities, preserving values and learning from non-profit organisations. The concept of planned abandonment deals with 'letting go'. It is a difficult thing for many designers and architects of products, services, or even business models. According to him, you have to move on when things look 80% complete. Similarly, you need to destroy your own creation when everything is looking just perfect. Creative people and technologists become so attached to their creation that it becomes their life. In time, it becomes a deadly embrace. The next concept is about focussing on the opportunity, not on the problem. An example Drucker gives is how a mediocre orchestra like the Chicago Philharmonic became world class in the hands of a new conductor. Drucker went to check the man out. When asked how he managed to uplift the standard, he said that the gap between the excellent people in any organisation, and those who are average is always constant. So the trick is to raise the level of the top performers, and, automatically, the overall performance level moves up. Peter Senge gives his own example of how every teacher has a problem student who is disinterested in the class. The teacher often makes it his or her personal challenge to reform this one student. Inordinate amount of finite energy is focussed on the problem student at the cost of the more attentive ones. The trick is to recognise where the natural flow of energy is, and go with it.Next, Drucker talks about values. But first we must understand that most of the time, we are really dealing with the challenges of growth. However, growth of any kind is inherently destructive. It happens because of the tension between centripetal forces of continuity and centrifugal forces of change. The secret, according to Drucker, is in emulating nature. Nature found out early on that the way to create vast amounts of change is to find out a core of constant values, and keep spinning around it. For example, nature created animals on the principle of polar symmetry. Physically, we are all symmetric at the poles. Once nature found out about the power of polar symmetry, it kept that as a constant value and created a two-legged animal, a four-legged animal and even a centipede around it. The number of times a heart beats in a human being and a salamander is constant. Keeping that value as constant, nature has been able to create endless variations of life forms around it. In an organisation's context, the polar symmetry or the heartbeat is the value system. Once we get that right, it is possible to grow without getting destroyed. Finally, Drucker talks about learning from non-profit organisations. It is about volunteerism. The industrial and post-industrial workplaces use a number of monetary instruments to motivate employees. Stock options and bonuses work only in good times; they backfire in bad. The key is to learn from voluntary organisations, where people give their best even without any of these. Drucker is convinced that 'for profit' organisations have more to learn from 'not for profit' organisations than the other way round.
Monday, January 22, 2007
The raw material mindset
The raw material mindset
India has the golden chance to present itself as designer of monuments, not supplier of granite
Subroto Bagchi
The author is COO and president (US operations), MindTree Consulting
It happened to me many years back on a visit to Washington, DC, home to the most-visited monument in the US, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial: "A place to remember those who served during a turbulent time in US history... a place for the nation to heal its wounds." The memorial lists 58,226 names, in the order they died or were reported missing. At the end of all those names, there is a line that says: "This granite was imported from Bangalore, India."We have been a nation that supplied to the world raw materials, rather than finished products - granites, rather than the monument's design. The world discovered us for spices in the 1st century A.D. Since then, we have been spice-sellers to the world. Meanwhile, McCormick dominates the bottled spice business, and has pride of place in supermarkets. While we export spices, who leads the food business? The best chefs keep coming from Italy.After spices, it was the turn of Indian silk. The world discovered that one in similar antiquity - with the advent of the Silk Route. For centuries we bred silkworms and spun silk, but who calls the shots on the ramp? Versace, Giorgio Armani, Chanel, Yves St Laurent. Then came software services. For decades, most Indian companies have focussed on supplying grey matter that is equivalent to quarried granite and raw silk. This behaviour is driven by a desire to live off the land, to do what has the least risk and low value-add. Not stopping there, the whole pharmaceutical industry came up on the strength of the bulk drug business. As a nation, we need to break that mould. Proponents of continuity would argue that the raw material mindset was critical to establish our presence in the world market and that now we will automatically go up the value chain. By itself, that assumption is severely flawed.Yves Doz is a world-renowned professor at INSEAD, France. He explains that by doing something well, you do not automatically graduate to the next level. He argues that there are three layers of value someone can add, and each of the three require a different mindset. The lowest layer of value-add is the technical, adaptive layer. Raw granite, frozen shrimp, cotton bales and manpower: all fall into this category. You have least risk, least value-add, and lowest margins and highest susceptibility here.Then comes the experiential layer. Here, you do not play on your ability to intermediate between the access to raw material and the end user of it. You 'step into the shoes' of the customer, and create valuable products and services. Confronted with the challenge of introducing a new car in Europe, Nissan flew in its car designers to Frankfurt. They rented different makes of cars and drove 2,500 km all over the continent to get a sense of what it takes to be a motorist in Europe. Then they went back to design a car for Europe. It is not about a car. It is about stepping into the shoes of a motorist to experientially feel the need.At the highest level is what Doz calls the existential layer. This is where Sony or Mercedes Benz, or Swatch operates. They not only know how to get into the shoes of the customer, but as Doz says, "they creep into the mind of the customer." When a teenager in the Bronx or Mumbai or Tokyo walks with a sway in his step after putting on a pair of earphones, Sony knows what is going on in his mind and works backward from there to create products and services. Each layer we talked about is separated from the other by a glass ceiling. If these layers represent the so-called value chain, the conclusion is that you do not go up the value chain. You decide where you want to be on the value chain, and perch yourself there.India is on the cusp of interesting new times. It appears that finally the butterfly will emerge from the cocoon. In that emergence, we have the golden opportunity to present ourselves as designers of monuments, not suppliers of granite. I sense that the break from the past is coming from very unusual new directions. More about that next time.
Day trading on the job front
The lure of lucrative jobs at a very young age today is akin to the attitude of day traders during the Internet boom
CONVERSATION in an elevator: two engineers in their mid-20s exchanging notes. "How much did you ask?" "Eighty-five," comes the reply. The job interview has obviously taken place on company time. So what? The two engineers are oblivious to the fact that the elevator is a public place and that they are not alone. The casual, almost cynical, transaction reminds me of day traders during the Internet boom.Day trading, for the uninitiated, is buying and selling stocks in order to make a gain, in one day. It requires the intuition and the risk-taking abilities of a gambler. It is not about tomorrow, it is not about anything you would remotely call long term. The Internet arrived. And day trading shifted from the floor of the stock exchange to the virtual world. Many sensible professionals learnt about ways to make money without leaving the suburbs - all you needed was a PC and a modem. People quit their jobs and got on to day trading. Then the world stopped. Billions of dollars of losses later, the day-trading folk - flower children of the late 1990s - are still picking up the pieces.It is ironic, however, that the lesson is lost on many other people. The workplace is not a gambling den. To some, the most critical issue is to know who is getting how much money and where. There is no view of tomorrow and what the real wager in the game is. The initial years of a career are akin to the years spent in internship by a young surgeon. Inherent talent or skill does not matter. Real learning comes by watching senior doctors at work, learning to pick up signals while doing the rounds holding on to someone's coat-tails, and sharpening one's knowledge, skill and attitude. More importantly, these are the years when one learns to learn.But where is the time to learn to learn? I meet 20-something people who are convinced that they are ready to become the chief of finance or marketing or human resource of their organisations. They cannot wait and must get there before a 'batchmate' does. Telling them to ease up is like preaching celibacy to a teenager.Recently, I met one such give-me-the-chief's-job-or-I-will-go-elsewhere youngster. He just could not wait. I have a very simple thing to say to his kind. Think of nature. By the time you enter your teens, you have the ability to procreate. But society has realised that the ability to procreate and to parent are two different things. That is why even though at 12 you are physically ready to be a dad, you wait till you are 30. To the youngster I met, only functional knowledge mattered. That is like the ability to procreate, not the ability to take up parenting.On another occasion I was speaking to a competent professional who had just changed jobs to join MindTree. I asked him what his motivation was in stepping out of his earlier organisation. "Peer pressure," he replied. The last time I had known people talking about peer pressure was in the context of smoking or drinking. Here was an otherwise sensible, full-grown human being, educated in the best of institutions with a good job on hand. Yet, he walked out because all his friends who had joined the organisation with him were gone.One makes a job change for substantive reasons - each job change can be a snake-and-ladder game. It is not just about the job title and salary you get. In the early years, it is critical who you work with, how much headroom there is to learn and contribute, how competent the environment is to provide tough feedback, so that you are ready for larger challenges.Another group of young engineers I met at an industry event asked me if it is true that staying in one place for long makes you lose your worth. The answer lies in observing the track record of people who have made an impact during their lifetime. Seldom will you see that they have been mindless job-hoppers. They certainly haven't made job changes of the day trading or the peer-pressure kind. People at the top are invariably the ones who have made two, at best, three changes in their entire career.
Human Spirit Knows no bound S.Bagchi
LATHA was born to a truck-driver in a slum in Bangalore. She was born with a form of cerebral palsy that took away her ability to stand on two legs. Life delivered her as a cripple. In the eyes of society, she was doubly burdensome - girl children are considered burdens anyway, but she was also handicapped.Her parents gave her away to a missionary. Latha was raised at a convent away from her family. The missionaries realised the nature of her handicap and enrolled her at the school of the Spastic Society of Karnataka. We discovered her there when we were launching MindTree Consulting in 1999. We were looking for a visual identity for the organisation and decided to try working with children who had cerebral palsy.In a unique experiment, a week-long exercise was conducted with 10 children. They were briefed about the company's mission, vision, values and DNA. Our DNA was settled as Imagination, Action and Joy. She was one of the 10 children who were asked to render the concept of Imagination, Action and Joy into MindTree's visual identity. Latha, who was in the class-10 level of non-formal education at the school, did not make it with her design, but she won our hearts with her enthusiastic smile. We asked her to come and intern with us. We wanted to see if someone like her could run the front office of a consulting organisation. And over the last five years, she has grown up to fully take charge of our front office.When Latha joined us, she had just come from the doubly protected environment of the convent and the school. Though she was studying for her class-10 level non-formal exam, she talked like a small child and had a poor attention span. But we refused to sympathise. We believed that she had to learn her work, and if she challenged herself, she could scale. She did.As soon as she started with a stipend of Rs 5,000 a month, her long-lost family rediscovered her. She wasn't a handicapped person anymore. Her economic viability made her very wanted. They persuaded her to leave the convent, and come to live with them. They even tried marrying her off. And Latha was clearly not in a position to take her own decisions. We were also in a quandary: do we intervene or do we not? Were these her personal issues even though their outcome could hurt a shared goal of proving that a person like Latha could become part of the so-called mainstream? Were we selfish about nurturing that goal? These were not easy issues. Latha and the organisation worked their way through these challenges. Eventually, she emerged a winner.Today, Latha has a respectable place in society. She earns well and is even on MindTree's stock option plan. She comes to work as regularly as the sunrise. She knows her work and does it very professionally. Not stopping at that, she has trained two students from her school - both are earning members of society today. One of them is Lavesh who was a complete introvert. Many people with cerebral palsy are like that. Being part of a social system that focuses on the disability of an individual ahead of anything else, they tend to withdraw. It is both a defence mechanism and an inevitable trap.Months after coming into contact with people at MindTree, Lavesh has largely forgotten his past. He is not what his appearance or manner of speech is, he is what he knows and what he does. One day, when Lavesh was managing the front office, a visitor came looking for Abraham Moses, our administration manager. Moses was caught up with other work and, quite unlike his normal self, came to meet the visitor late. Lavesh chastised Moses and told him that while keeping a visitor waiting might be OK for Moses, it wasn't OK for him. Moses gracefully apologised, and was let off.One Latha has shown the way to one Lavesh, and to 1,300 other MindTree minds. Like Lavesh and Latha, we all have some disability or the other - some are pronounced, some are not. Latha has taught us that we are not our disability. We are our dream.
Making Sense of Difficult times
The day the world changed forever
Sept 8,2001: MindTree Consulting presented business plan to Board forecasting 100% growth YOY
Sept 11, 2001: WTC is hit by terrorists
Events next 48 hours:
Locate 2 employees
Call all hands meeting
Decision to contribute 1 days wage to an identified disaster victim
Next Steps
Company takes 10% salary cut – Directors take 10% cut on 1999 base
Decision taken to renegotiate every contract
Leadership huddles on bottom 5%
Indian managers decide not to let go, take additional cut
In US 5 non-performing high cost resources let go
Business unusual – plan is no longer valid. Focus on cost and hold on to revenue
Top Management starts over activating the communication engine
Middle Management fades
Continuous exposure to difficult news
Information dissemination replaces dialogue
Facts versus hope – what do people need?
The fallibility of Institutions & Leadership
The Government fails to protect – WTC to Anthrax
The economy crawls
There are lay-offs and closures – Scient, Viant, Cambridge Technology Partners…….
The Stock Market caves in – people lose nest egg. Heroes turn out to be involved in insider trading
Stock options look wimpy
The Priest becomes a pedophile
Big business becomes big hoax – Accenture, Enron, Qwest….
Leaders like Jack Welch – between company paid toilet paper to septuagenarian flings
What we learnt…..
Tough decisions, however appropriate, leave residual toxicity
People develop the survivor syndrome – information discounting becomes a form of survival
"Sense Making" emerges as a key leadership priority
Residual Toxicity
Many management decisions are like antibiotics. More quick acting they are, more is the residual toxicity
Every decision must be weighed for downstream implications and detoxification must accompany the decision
Decisional rules must be explained before publishing decisions
Recipient of radio activity must be clothed against radiation. A manager asked to take a tough call, must be told to temper toughness and not to conclude, it is the way to go
Leaders must look for toxicity residues. Silence and compliance do not mean absence of toxicity
Certain traces will only heal with time. Some problems can not be solved, they can only be survived
The Survivor Syndrome
Most people are Path dependent – when paths blur, there is emotional insecurity
When people see the fallibility of institutions and leaders, they can conclude that no one really can help
When I need help, only a stronger and more capable being can help me. When everyone looks vulnerable, I am really all by myself
When people around us lose, there is an invisible mourning within us
People mentally shrink and start discounting the environment as a form of defense
We run the danger of emerging as less than human beings when all becomes well
Sense Making
In externally and internally difficult times, "sense making" becomes a major leadership priority
Sense making is about system thinking. It is the ability to rise above a causal interpretation of events – you relate to larger body of knowledge and look at continuities
It involves wisdom, detachment and dialogue – it is about understanding emotional issues and not just rational linkages
Leaders must help others to do their own sense making
Apparent and the obvious cease to be appropriate
Leaders must suspend instant gratification and not try to influence every outcome
Values, humility & high availability
Values are the polar symmetry of an organization. Value centric organizations will be able to better navigate difficult times
Leaders must have humility and the sense of continuity of a farmer to be able to cross the chasm
Leaders must be available and engaged – Mayor Guiliani was available and engaged
We must know that only if we sweat in peace, we do not bleed in war
Sept 8,2001: MindTree Consulting presented business plan to Board forecasting 100% growth YOY
Sept 11, 2001: WTC is hit by terrorists
Events next 48 hours:
Locate 2 employees
Call all hands meeting
Decision to contribute 1 days wage to an identified disaster victim
Next Steps
Company takes 10% salary cut – Directors take 10% cut on 1999 base
Decision taken to renegotiate every contract
Leadership huddles on bottom 5%
Indian managers decide not to let go, take additional cut
In US 5 non-performing high cost resources let go
Business unusual – plan is no longer valid. Focus on cost and hold on to revenue
Top Management starts over activating the communication engine
Middle Management fades
Continuous exposure to difficult news
Information dissemination replaces dialogue
Facts versus hope – what do people need?
The fallibility of Institutions & Leadership
The Government fails to protect – WTC to Anthrax
The economy crawls
There are lay-offs and closures – Scient, Viant, Cambridge Technology Partners…….
The Stock Market caves in – people lose nest egg. Heroes turn out to be involved in insider trading
Stock options look wimpy
The Priest becomes a pedophile
Big business becomes big hoax – Accenture, Enron, Qwest….
Leaders like Jack Welch – between company paid toilet paper to septuagenarian flings
What we learnt…..
Tough decisions, however appropriate, leave residual toxicity
People develop the survivor syndrome – information discounting becomes a form of survival
"Sense Making" emerges as a key leadership priority
Residual Toxicity
Many management decisions are like antibiotics. More quick acting they are, more is the residual toxicity
Every decision must be weighed for downstream implications and detoxification must accompany the decision
Decisional rules must be explained before publishing decisions
Recipient of radio activity must be clothed against radiation. A manager asked to take a tough call, must be told to temper toughness and not to conclude, it is the way to go
Leaders must look for toxicity residues. Silence and compliance do not mean absence of toxicity
Certain traces will only heal with time. Some problems can not be solved, they can only be survived
The Survivor Syndrome
Most people are Path dependent – when paths blur, there is emotional insecurity
When people see the fallibility of institutions and leaders, they can conclude that no one really can help
When I need help, only a stronger and more capable being can help me. When everyone looks vulnerable, I am really all by myself
When people around us lose, there is an invisible mourning within us
People mentally shrink and start discounting the environment as a form of defense
We run the danger of emerging as less than human beings when all becomes well
Sense Making
In externally and internally difficult times, "sense making" becomes a major leadership priority
Sense making is about system thinking. It is the ability to rise above a causal interpretation of events – you relate to larger body of knowledge and look at continuities
It involves wisdom, detachment and dialogue – it is about understanding emotional issues and not just rational linkages
Leaders must help others to do their own sense making
Apparent and the obvious cease to be appropriate
Leaders must suspend instant gratification and not try to influence every outcome
Values, humility & high availability
Values are the polar symmetry of an organization. Value centric organizations will be able to better navigate difficult times
Leaders must have humility and the sense of continuity of a farmer to be able to cross the chasm
Leaders must be available and engaged – Mayor Guiliani was available and engaged
We must know that only if we sweat in peace, we do not bleed in war
Friday, December 29, 2006
BPO options for mature talent
Life begins at 30, with a ring from call centers
The BPO and call centre industry is providing an ideal opportunity to mid career professionals who are looking for an alternate career. Over a period of time, the monopoly of youths and swashbuckling teenagers has been partially broken with more middle-aged individuals being employed by the call centres, Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) units in India. On an average, with few exceptions, roughly around 5-10 per cent or in some cases even 15 per cent of the total workforce in these units now consists of those who are between 30-50 years.
In one instance, a mother and daughter were working together for a period of time in Mumbai based Transworks. The CEO of Transworks, Atul Kunwar, says that the mother followed the daughter and both worked together. Out of the current 4200 employees, 200 are above 30 in Transwork.
In another Mumbai-based BPO Intelenet Global Services, of 11,000 employees, 20 per cent of the total workforce is above 30 years of age. In Bangalore- based Wipro of the 17,000 employees, 16 per cent are above 30 years and 1 per cent above 40. Mumbai-based Epicentre has nearly 10% of its workforce who are above 30 years of age. In Efunds, which is a KPO, of the 3,800 employees, those who are between 30-40 years of age constitute 23 per cent of the workforce while those who are above 40 years constitute 2-3 per cent of the workforce.
In keeping with their growing numbers, the senior employees are now being offered jobs cutting across the entire spectrum of the outsourcing business. From floor duties to voice calls to managerial positions, they are doing it all. Night shifts and the pressures are accepted as a part of the job profile and age is no longer a limiting criterion for not hiring older citizens. Various human resources managers and the CEOs have realised that they could be useful, if their talents are channelised properly.
Manuel D'Souza, vice-president, Intelenet Global Services, says the industry perception and the staffing pattern have changed in the last three years. His company, for example, has been hiring persons above 30 from the insurance and banking sectors, retired persons or persons who have taken VRS and even housewives. "We are open to hiring anyone who has a set of skills that our company can utilise. We match the skills with our requirements and thereafter offer them training. Some join the floor duties, some are given voice-call duty and so on," says D'Souza.
It is the same industry that rejected such older people (above 30s) not so long ago. So what changed? As business expanded and demand for employees increased, the industry felt an acute shortage of youngsters or persons in their 20s who did not think twice before job-hopping. The rate of attrition in some of the BPOs reached an alarming level. It was then that the industry woke up to the fact that there was a huge workforce, not necessarily younger and in their 20s, but 30-plus and still mentally and physically able to meet their requirements.
Wipro CEO T K Kurien admits as much. He does say, though, that it was not just the attrition factor that lead to the change of heart. "Initially,in the formative years the BPOs or call centres were perceived as fun places for youngsters. But, over a period of time, everyone realised that it is a serious business. And if we get serious people why not hire them?" he asks.
Atul Kunwar, who was previously with Efunds, said the decision to hire persons above 30s was made when they were working on a variable model where people could work part time for a couple of days on the day of peak loads. "We recruited older persons, housewives or even youngsters who worked only for a few days in Efunds and we were pleasantly surprised at the output," says Kunwar.
According to Kurien, persons who are above 30 have taken their knocks in life. "They know what they want and are more stable professionally. They are not using their job as a stop-gap arrangement. And they adapt themselves to the requirements despite their past or despite some of the baggage they carry," he says.
But there are companies like Firstsource Solutions Ltd that have very few persons above 30. Vrinda Walavalkar, vice-president, corporate communication of Firstsource, says they have less than one per cent of workforce in their work operations though they have many in their management and office. "It is not that those who are above 30s are not capable but they are limited by various factors. Many of them don't clear the tests," says Walavalkar.
Those who have worked before and are above 30 have expectations. Therefore, in a company like Transworks, once selected, they undergo a year of on-the-job training followed by six months of training that prepares them for the subsequent senior position. Wipro has a special seven-day programme where senior people are trained on various aspects of communication. Psychologically, such persons have to cope with factors, ranging from having a boss who could be their son's age to physically coping with night shifts and vagaries of a very demanding job. So most companies are upfront about what the job entails during the interview and during the training process.
The BPO and call centre industry is providing an ideal opportunity to mid career professionals who are looking for an alternate career. Over a period of time, the monopoly of youths and swashbuckling teenagers has been partially broken with more middle-aged individuals being employed by the call centres, Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) units in India. On an average, with few exceptions, roughly around 5-10 per cent or in some cases even 15 per cent of the total workforce in these units now consists of those who are between 30-50 years.
In one instance, a mother and daughter were working together for a period of time in Mumbai based Transworks. The CEO of Transworks, Atul Kunwar, says that the mother followed the daughter and both worked together. Out of the current 4200 employees, 200 are above 30 in Transwork.
In another Mumbai-based BPO Intelenet Global Services, of 11,000 employees, 20 per cent of the total workforce is above 30 years of age. In Bangalore- based Wipro of the 17,000 employees, 16 per cent are above 30 years and 1 per cent above 40. Mumbai-based Epicentre has nearly 10% of its workforce who are above 30 years of age. In Efunds, which is a KPO, of the 3,800 employees, those who are between 30-40 years of age constitute 23 per cent of the workforce while those who are above 40 years constitute 2-3 per cent of the workforce.
In keeping with their growing numbers, the senior employees are now being offered jobs cutting across the entire spectrum of the outsourcing business. From floor duties to voice calls to managerial positions, they are doing it all. Night shifts and the pressures are accepted as a part of the job profile and age is no longer a limiting criterion for not hiring older citizens. Various human resources managers and the CEOs have realised that they could be useful, if their talents are channelised properly.
Manuel D'Souza, vice-president, Intelenet Global Services, says the industry perception and the staffing pattern have changed in the last three years. His company, for example, has been hiring persons above 30 from the insurance and banking sectors, retired persons or persons who have taken VRS and even housewives. "We are open to hiring anyone who has a set of skills that our company can utilise. We match the skills with our requirements and thereafter offer them training. Some join the floor duties, some are given voice-call duty and so on," says D'Souza.
It is the same industry that rejected such older people (above 30s) not so long ago. So what changed? As business expanded and demand for employees increased, the industry felt an acute shortage of youngsters or persons in their 20s who did not think twice before job-hopping. The rate of attrition in some of the BPOs reached an alarming level. It was then that the industry woke up to the fact that there was a huge workforce, not necessarily younger and in their 20s, but 30-plus and still mentally and physically able to meet their requirements.
Wipro CEO T K Kurien admits as much. He does say, though, that it was not just the attrition factor that lead to the change of heart. "Initially,in the formative years the BPOs or call centres were perceived as fun places for youngsters. But, over a period of time, everyone realised that it is a serious business. And if we get serious people why not hire them?" he asks.
Atul Kunwar, who was previously with Efunds, said the decision to hire persons above 30s was made when they were working on a variable model where people could work part time for a couple of days on the day of peak loads. "We recruited older persons, housewives or even youngsters who worked only for a few days in Efunds and we were pleasantly surprised at the output," says Kunwar.
According to Kurien, persons who are above 30 have taken their knocks in life. "They know what they want and are more stable professionally. They are not using their job as a stop-gap arrangement. And they adapt themselves to the requirements despite their past or despite some of the baggage they carry," he says.
But there are companies like Firstsource Solutions Ltd that have very few persons above 30. Vrinda Walavalkar, vice-president, corporate communication of Firstsource, says they have less than one per cent of workforce in their work operations though they have many in their management and office. "It is not that those who are above 30s are not capable but they are limited by various factors. Many of them don't clear the tests," says Walavalkar.
Those who have worked before and are above 30 have expectations. Therefore, in a company like Transworks, once selected, they undergo a year of on-the-job training followed by six months of training that prepares them for the subsequent senior position. Wipro has a special seven-day programme where senior people are trained on various aspects of communication. Psychologically, such persons have to cope with factors, ranging from having a boss who could be their son's age to physically coping with night shifts and vagaries of a very demanding job. So most companies are upfront about what the job entails during the interview and during the training process.
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Azim Premji on Success
Azim Premji’s 7 Lessons to Success
It is usually a pertinent question in everybody's mind - how do achievers approach their task at hand - do they do different things or do they do things differently? I came across a beautiful text - that was the essence of the talk delivered by Azim Premji - the architect of Wipro Technologies. This surely gives us an insight into the essence of the shloka from Bhagvad Gita - which says - Karmanyeva Adhikarah Te, Maa Phaleshu Kadaachana... One has the right over one's actions and not the fruits thereof. It was always interpreted the wrong way and people feel that it is the fruit that attracts the performer. However, many events in our life bring us face to face with people - who draw inspiration from the kind of work they do and the way they do it. Interestingly, such people are motivated by the values and the vision that they carry in their heart. Only such people rather rise above others and can give a broader and better meaning to their life. This is how he briefly shared his thought with others: Lesson: 1 I am very happy to be here with you. It is always wonderful to be with young people. The funny thing about life is that you realise the value of something only when it begins to leave you. As my hair turned from black, to salt-and-pepper and finally salt without the pepper, I have begun to realize the importance of youth. At the same time, I have begun to truly appreciate some of the lessons I have learnt along the way. I hope you will find them useful when you plan your own career and life. The first thing I have learnt is that we must always begin with our strengths. From the earliest years of our schooling, everyone focuses on what is wrong with us. There is an imaginary story of a rabbit. The rabbit was enrolled in a rabbit school. Like all rabbits, it could hop very well but could not swim. At the end of the year, the rabbit got high marks in hopping but failed in swimming. The parents were concerned. They said, "Forget about hopping. You are anyway good at it. Concentrate on swimming." They sent the rabbit for tuitions in swimming. And guess what happened? The rabbit forgot how to hop! As for swimming, have you ever seen a rabbit swim? While it is important for us to know what we are not good at, we must also cherish what is good in us. That is because it is only our strengths that can give us the energy to correct our weaknesses.
Lesson: 2 The second lesson I have learnt is that a rupee earned is of far more value than five found. My friend was sharing me the story of his eight year-old niece. She would always complain about the breakfast. The cook tried everything possible, but the child remained unhappy. Finally, my friend took the child to a supermarket and brought one of those ready-to-cook packets. The child had to cut the packet and pour water in the dish. After that, it took two minutes in the microwave to be ready. The child found the food to be absolutely delicious? The difference was that she has cooked it! In my own life, I have found that nothing gives as much satisfaction as earning our rewards. In fact, what is gifted or inherited follows the old rule of come easy, go easy. I guess we only know the value of what we have if we have struggled to earn it. Lesson: 3 The third lesson I have learnt is no one bats a hundred every time. Life has many challenges. You win some and lose some. You must enjoy winning. But do not let it go to the head. The moment it does, you are already on your way to failure. And if you do encounter failure along the way, treat it as an equally natural phenomenon. Don't beat yourself for it or any one else for that matter! Accept it, look at your own share in the problem, learn from it and move on. The important thing is, when you lose, do not lose the lesson. Lesson: 4 The fourth lesson I have learnt is the importance of humility. Sometimes, when you get so much in life, you really start wondering whether you deserve all of it. This brings me to the value of gratitude. We have so much to be grateful for. Our parents, our teachers and our seniors have done so much for us that we can never repay them. Many people focus on the shortcomings, because obviously no one can be perfect. But it is important to first acknowledge what we have received. Nothing in life is permanent but when a relationship ends, rather than becoming bitter, we must learn to savour the memory of the good things while they lasted.
Lesson: 5 The fifth lesson I learnt is that we must always strive for excellence. One way of achieving excellence is by looking at those better than ourselves. Keep learning what they do differently. Emulate it. But excellence cannot be imposed from the outside. We must also feel the need from within. It must become an obsession. It must involve not only our mind but also our heart and soul. Excellence is not an act but a habit. I remember the inspiring lines of a poem, which says that your reach must always exceed your grasp. That is heaven on earth. Ultimately, your only competition is yourself. Lesson: 6 The sixth lesson I have learnt is never give up in the face of adversity. It comes on you suddenly without warning. One can either succumb to self-pity, wring your hands in despair or decide to deal with the situation with courage and dignity. Always keep in mind that it is only the test of fire that makes fine steel. A friend of mine shared this incident with me. His eight-year old daughter was struggling away at a jigsaw puzzle. She kept at it for hours but could not succeed. Finally, it went beyond her bedtime. My friend told her, "Look, why don't you just give up? I don't think you will complete it tonight. Look at it another day." The daughter looked with a strange look in her eyes, "But, dad, why should I give up? All the pieces are there! I have just got to put them together!" If we persevere long enough, we can put any problem into its perspective. Lesson: 7 The seventh lesson I have learnt is that while you must be open to change, do not compromise on your values. Mahatma Gandhiji often said that you must open the windows of your mind, but you must not be swept off your feet by the breeze. You must define what your core values are and what you stand for. And these values are not so difficult to define. Values like honesty, integrity, consideration and humility have survived for generations. Values are not in the words used to describe them as much as in the simple acts.
At the end of the day, it is values that define a person more than the achievements. Because it is the means of achievement that decide how long the achievements will sustain. Do not be tempted by short cuts. The short cut can make you lose your way and end up becoming the longest way to the destination. And the final lesson I learnt is that we must have faith in our own ideas even if everyone tells us that we are wrong. There was once a newspaper vendor who had a rude customer. Every morning, the Customer would walk by, refuse to return the greeting, grab the paper off the shelf and throw the money at the vendor. The vendor would pick up the money, smile politely and say, "Thank you, Sir." One day, the vendor's assistant asked him, "Why are you always so polite with him when he is so rude to you? Why don't you throw the newspaper at him when he comes back tomorrow?" The vendor smiled and replied, "He can't help being rude and I can't help being polite. Why should I let his rude behaviour dictate my politeness? In my youth, I thought of myself as a rebel and was many times, a rebel without a cause. Today, I realise that my rebellion was another kind of conformity. We defined our elders to fall in line with our peers! Ultimately, we must learn to respond instead of reacting. When we respond, we evaluate with a calm mind and do whatever is most appropriate. We are in control of our actions. When we react, we are still doing what the other person wants us to do. I wish you all the best in your life and career. I hope you achieve success in whatever way you define it and what gives you the maximum happiness in life. "Remember, those who win are those who believe they can." (The author conducts self transformational programmes and can be contacted at vijnanswami@gmail.com )
It is usually a pertinent question in everybody's mind - how do achievers approach their task at hand - do they do different things or do they do things differently? I came across a beautiful text - that was the essence of the talk delivered by Azim Premji - the architect of Wipro Technologies. This surely gives us an insight into the essence of the shloka from Bhagvad Gita - which says - Karmanyeva Adhikarah Te, Maa Phaleshu Kadaachana... One has the right over one's actions and not the fruits thereof. It was always interpreted the wrong way and people feel that it is the fruit that attracts the performer. However, many events in our life bring us face to face with people - who draw inspiration from the kind of work they do and the way they do it. Interestingly, such people are motivated by the values and the vision that they carry in their heart. Only such people rather rise above others and can give a broader and better meaning to their life. This is how he briefly shared his thought with others: Lesson: 1 I am very happy to be here with you. It is always wonderful to be with young people. The funny thing about life is that you realise the value of something only when it begins to leave you. As my hair turned from black, to salt-and-pepper and finally salt without the pepper, I have begun to realize the importance of youth. At the same time, I have begun to truly appreciate some of the lessons I have learnt along the way. I hope you will find them useful when you plan your own career and life. The first thing I have learnt is that we must always begin with our strengths. From the earliest years of our schooling, everyone focuses on what is wrong with us. There is an imaginary story of a rabbit. The rabbit was enrolled in a rabbit school. Like all rabbits, it could hop very well but could not swim. At the end of the year, the rabbit got high marks in hopping but failed in swimming. The parents were concerned. They said, "Forget about hopping. You are anyway good at it. Concentrate on swimming." They sent the rabbit for tuitions in swimming. And guess what happened? The rabbit forgot how to hop! As for swimming, have you ever seen a rabbit swim? While it is important for us to know what we are not good at, we must also cherish what is good in us. That is because it is only our strengths that can give us the energy to correct our weaknesses.
Lesson: 2 The second lesson I have learnt is that a rupee earned is of far more value than five found. My friend was sharing me the story of his eight year-old niece. She would always complain about the breakfast. The cook tried everything possible, but the child remained unhappy. Finally, my friend took the child to a supermarket and brought one of those ready-to-cook packets. The child had to cut the packet and pour water in the dish. After that, it took two minutes in the microwave to be ready. The child found the food to be absolutely delicious? The difference was that she has cooked it! In my own life, I have found that nothing gives as much satisfaction as earning our rewards. In fact, what is gifted or inherited follows the old rule of come easy, go easy. I guess we only know the value of what we have if we have struggled to earn it. Lesson: 3 The third lesson I have learnt is no one bats a hundred every time. Life has many challenges. You win some and lose some. You must enjoy winning. But do not let it go to the head. The moment it does, you are already on your way to failure. And if you do encounter failure along the way, treat it as an equally natural phenomenon. Don't beat yourself for it or any one else for that matter! Accept it, look at your own share in the problem, learn from it and move on. The important thing is, when you lose, do not lose the lesson. Lesson: 4 The fourth lesson I have learnt is the importance of humility. Sometimes, when you get so much in life, you really start wondering whether you deserve all of it. This brings me to the value of gratitude. We have so much to be grateful for. Our parents, our teachers and our seniors have done so much for us that we can never repay them. Many people focus on the shortcomings, because obviously no one can be perfect. But it is important to first acknowledge what we have received. Nothing in life is permanent but when a relationship ends, rather than becoming bitter, we must learn to savour the memory of the good things while they lasted.
Lesson: 5 The fifth lesson I learnt is that we must always strive for excellence. One way of achieving excellence is by looking at those better than ourselves. Keep learning what they do differently. Emulate it. But excellence cannot be imposed from the outside. We must also feel the need from within. It must become an obsession. It must involve not only our mind but also our heart and soul. Excellence is not an act but a habit. I remember the inspiring lines of a poem, which says that your reach must always exceed your grasp. That is heaven on earth. Ultimately, your only competition is yourself. Lesson: 6 The sixth lesson I have learnt is never give up in the face of adversity. It comes on you suddenly without warning. One can either succumb to self-pity, wring your hands in despair or decide to deal with the situation with courage and dignity. Always keep in mind that it is only the test of fire that makes fine steel. A friend of mine shared this incident with me. His eight-year old daughter was struggling away at a jigsaw puzzle. She kept at it for hours but could not succeed. Finally, it went beyond her bedtime. My friend told her, "Look, why don't you just give up? I don't think you will complete it tonight. Look at it another day." The daughter looked with a strange look in her eyes, "But, dad, why should I give up? All the pieces are there! I have just got to put them together!" If we persevere long enough, we can put any problem into its perspective. Lesson: 7 The seventh lesson I have learnt is that while you must be open to change, do not compromise on your values. Mahatma Gandhiji often said that you must open the windows of your mind, but you must not be swept off your feet by the breeze. You must define what your core values are and what you stand for. And these values are not so difficult to define. Values like honesty, integrity, consideration and humility have survived for generations. Values are not in the words used to describe them as much as in the simple acts.
At the end of the day, it is values that define a person more than the achievements. Because it is the means of achievement that decide how long the achievements will sustain. Do not be tempted by short cuts. The short cut can make you lose your way and end up becoming the longest way to the destination. And the final lesson I learnt is that we must have faith in our own ideas even if everyone tells us that we are wrong. There was once a newspaper vendor who had a rude customer. Every morning, the Customer would walk by, refuse to return the greeting, grab the paper off the shelf and throw the money at the vendor. The vendor would pick up the money, smile politely and say, "Thank you, Sir." One day, the vendor's assistant asked him, "Why are you always so polite with him when he is so rude to you? Why don't you throw the newspaper at him when he comes back tomorrow?" The vendor smiled and replied, "He can't help being rude and I can't help being polite. Why should I let his rude behaviour dictate my politeness? In my youth, I thought of myself as a rebel and was many times, a rebel without a cause. Today, I realise that my rebellion was another kind of conformity. We defined our elders to fall in line with our peers! Ultimately, we must learn to respond instead of reacting. When we respond, we evaluate with a calm mind and do whatever is most appropriate. We are in control of our actions. When we react, we are still doing what the other person wants us to do. I wish you all the best in your life and career. I hope you achieve success in whatever way you define it and what gives you the maximum happiness in life. "Remember, those who win are those who believe they can." (The author conducts self transformational programmes and can be contacted at vijnanswami@gmail.com )
Monday, November 20, 2006
20/11 5.15 PM
It is always a bad day , Monday. Got to wake up early in the morning , to leave for mumbai. One day of joy that i get being with my family , abruptly ends every monday morning . I do not know when and where this is going to end.
Form last post till today, whole lot of things happened.
On 09th there was an income tax raid. As usual i loitered into the office , found an unfamiliar guy speaking on phone at guards table. Little did i know that , the guy was from Income tax and was posted there to ensure that nobody goes out , including anybody who walks in !
The sordid affair went on all thru the day. The It guys ransacked the office looking for anything they could lay hands upon to incriminate the owners. I wasn't under stress but was appalled with the way the entire thing was going on.
Anyway contrary to bang with which the search was launched by it guys in the morning , by late evening it almost fizzled out. I walked out of office at around 9.30 pm , more bothered about what i would get to eat than anything else.
My first impression about It raid was that it was useless affair , they wasted their time on an organization which had nothing to offer in terms of revenue or bribe. I wonder if this is the way IT dept zeroes on its targets in Mumbai , Only GOD can help them !!!.
The next day was saturday which got over before i could even start. I had made up my mind to leave office early & was on my way to poona by afternoon.
In evening i met old colleagues like paresh , chinna et all. It was a pleasant evening meeting all these guys over a drink after a very long patch. I just enjoyed their company after a very long time i was with the guys with whom i could relate with.
Sunday though looked to be good day , turned out to be nightmarish. First i woke up late & was out for some work (ticket booking) , it was almost 12'. Mamta called me informed me that elder son of Upendra dada had expired in bike accident.
I & Mamta reached Updendra dada's residence at around 1.30 pm , around the time devesh's body was brought in. The scene was quite sombre , young lad of all 25 years dies in a freakish bike accident , what a waste .
I could hear the wails of kaku & devesh's sisters & others .Their heart rending cries were too much for me and mamta. I just kept talking to myself that day , U cannot beat ur destiny ..... if it is destined no matter what u do , u will succumb to god's will.
May his soul rest in peace. But moot point is , how many indians die on roads in a year , i reckon more than US lost in ww-ii .
The sunday creep ed into monday without my konwing . The dark shadow of sundays happening kept disturbing my thought process .
Coming back today a week later this monday , it is not different. Salaries are no where in sight, most of staff speaks to hint about it. I curse myself , how do i land up at such place all the time. I barely was able to shake memories of n-logue (2004 ) . I feel like it is a black curse of n-logue which will follow me .
I was yesterday with mamta at the park , contemplating what to do next. How to give fillip to my flagging career. BPO was all that i could think of. Yes it is hobson's choice , but you have to look at it with another angle. If a job now provides u with ample opportunity to learn or upgrade ur skills it could only be BPOs.
I can feel that talent crunch for BPO is yawning in face of everybody. Time will come people like us will feel in the resource gap. There are articles here and there about how mature talent could stem the attrition rates.
I am giving a thought to it ! it was in my mind for a very long time , even before i landed up in pune. I have to look at it with more conviction and resolve.
I do not think i have plenty of choices left , i got to get may act together. I must not panic & get immobile . I must count my blessings and not my misfortunes.
Let me hope the next dawn in my professional life will bring more professional bliss !!!
Bye for today
It is always a bad day , Monday. Got to wake up early in the morning , to leave for mumbai. One day of joy that i get being with my family , abruptly ends every monday morning . I do not know when and where this is going to end.
Form last post till today, whole lot of things happened.
On 09th there was an income tax raid. As usual i loitered into the office , found an unfamiliar guy speaking on phone at guards table. Little did i know that , the guy was from Income tax and was posted there to ensure that nobody goes out , including anybody who walks in !
The sordid affair went on all thru the day. The It guys ransacked the office looking for anything they could lay hands upon to incriminate the owners. I wasn't under stress but was appalled with the way the entire thing was going on.
Anyway contrary to bang with which the search was launched by it guys in the morning , by late evening it almost fizzled out. I walked out of office at around 9.30 pm , more bothered about what i would get to eat than anything else.
My first impression about It raid was that it was useless affair , they wasted their time on an organization which had nothing to offer in terms of revenue or bribe. I wonder if this is the way IT dept zeroes on its targets in Mumbai , Only GOD can help them !!!.
The next day was saturday which got over before i could even start. I had made up my mind to leave office early & was on my way to poona by afternoon.
In evening i met old colleagues like paresh , chinna et all. It was a pleasant evening meeting all these guys over a drink after a very long patch. I just enjoyed their company after a very long time i was with the guys with whom i could relate with.
Sunday though looked to be good day , turned out to be nightmarish. First i woke up late & was out for some work (ticket booking) , it was almost 12'. Mamta called me informed me that elder son of Upendra dada had expired in bike accident.
I & Mamta reached Updendra dada's residence at around 1.30 pm , around the time devesh's body was brought in. The scene was quite sombre , young lad of all 25 years dies in a freakish bike accident , what a waste .
I could hear the wails of kaku & devesh's sisters & others .Their heart rending cries were too much for me and mamta. I just kept talking to myself that day , U cannot beat ur destiny ..... if it is destined no matter what u do , u will succumb to god's will.
May his soul rest in peace. But moot point is , how many indians die on roads in a year , i reckon more than US lost in ww-ii .
The sunday creep ed into monday without my konwing . The dark shadow of sundays happening kept disturbing my thought process .
Coming back today a week later this monday , it is not different. Salaries are no where in sight, most of staff speaks to hint about it. I curse myself , how do i land up at such place all the time. I barely was able to shake memories of n-logue (2004 ) . I feel like it is a black curse of n-logue which will follow me .
I was yesterday with mamta at the park , contemplating what to do next. How to give fillip to my flagging career. BPO was all that i could think of. Yes it is hobson's choice , but you have to look at it with another angle. If a job now provides u with ample opportunity to learn or upgrade ur skills it could only be BPOs.
I can feel that talent crunch for BPO is yawning in face of everybody. Time will come people like us will feel in the resource gap. There are articles here and there about how mature talent could stem the attrition rates.
I am giving a thought to it ! it was in my mind for a very long time , even before i landed up in pune. I have to look at it with more conviction and resolve.
I do not think i have plenty of choices left , i got to get may act together. I must not panic & get immobile . I must count my blessings and not my misfortunes.
Let me hope the next dawn in my professional life will bring more professional bliss !!!
Bye for today
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
09/11/2006
The day has started . I wake up everyday morning wondering , if i am on right track. Am i not wasting my time in mumbai with an unknown supplier of vending machines.
But always at the back of my mind Subrato's word ring " try best for work on hand". But the thoughts keep creeping back.
Am i expecting too much from myself. I have to realize that i am not the best person , so many of them have come and gone by.
I keep on nudging myself , to do better , to keep poistive frame of mind . Take one day at a time & do best. Think if i have gained out of that day anything. Have i learned a bit more than when i started in morning.
I must also realize being static is also dangerous. A person who does not strive to break from beaten path , may not suceed beyond a point.
Anyway i am running out of time. today onwards i will keep posting my thoughts happening good or bad ,so that i can analyze myself over period of time.
But always at the back of my mind Subrato's word ring " try best for work on hand". But the thoughts keep creeping back.
Am i expecting too much from myself. I have to realize that i am not the best person , so many of them have come and gone by.
I keep on nudging myself , to do better , to keep poistive frame of mind . Take one day at a time & do best. Think if i have gained out of that day anything. Have i learned a bit more than when i started in morning.
I must also realize being static is also dangerous. A person who does not strive to break from beaten path , may not suceed beyond a point.
Anyway i am running out of time. today onwards i will keep posting my thoughts happening good or bad ,so that i can analyze myself over period of time.
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