Motivating the support function

I always used to wonder about solving the mystery of motivating a support function (HR, Finance, administration, security etc) of an organization. Though these categories of people are paid a lesser amount of salary when you compare it with the ‘Billable’ resources, they form the most integral part of completing an organization and often act as engines to drive the company forward. But unfortunately not all organizations give importance to them and seldom take pains to motivate them; they are expected to be a set of self-motivated individuals being the reason!

In the due course of demystifying the motivational parameters for the backbone of an organization, I bumped into the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. For the ones who are new to it, just refer to the diagram below:

But you cannot have a direct mapping with the hierarchy as it is. Hence, I tried changing it to map it with the dimensions which would probably motivate the support function.

The Impact

McKinsey Quarterly early in the morning has become a norm for me now. In one of its latest reports on the public sector - 'The Market State', they have tried to describe the state of the society existing in the market. In the due course of doing the same, a few analysis on the unemployment issues existing across the globe (esp post recession) stuck my thought process.

"While Japan and most European countries don’t share Spain’s punishing 20 percent unemployment rate, they have sacrificed GDP growth to support a robust social-safety net." Well... there are as always two perspectives to this statement.

Looking at the brighter side of the coin, the social welfare is still protected even though the markets have created havoc. The interest of the society is maintained to an extent where people can lead their day-day life without having to bother much about their daily bread. They will have to eventually find a job in the given time span for financial coverage. But with recession hit countries, the span has been stretched after the government has realized the fact of jobs not being available for the locals. Obama tried bringing in a few laws for local employment at US. This did prove to be a success to some extent though there were certain communities apposing it! Even during my days at the UK, I figured out the fact that the government did offer a financial cover to its citizens for a certain period of time so that their daily bread is protected.

But an economists’ counter argument would be ‘Look at it with the magnifying glass of the world! People in the globe are working.’ He is definitely right in his perspective of a boundary less operation. But, with the political scenario existing, it might not be a near possibility. Coming back… With the world getting flatter by the day, it is becoming a very challenging task for countries to create and maintain jobs locally. Hence these measures are proving to be a boon to the society. But by doing this, can the countries sustain for long? Won’t the debt of the countries increase to an extent where it is not returnable? Taking a pessimistic view, to answer these questions, I tried drawing the ‘MR=MC’ curve.



Consider MR (Marginal Return) as a parameter for the income from taxes and other governmental cash inflows and MC (Marginal Cost) as the cash outflows in terms of infrastructure development, Social welfare, R n D etc. Now, if a percentage tolerance to the point MR=MC is provided (point ‘Z’ in the above graph), the countries can probably control the amount of debt which might impair the growth. When the countries have decided to sacrifice the GDP growth due to social issues, the tolerance level just increases and hence the uncertainty of growth.

But whatever be the decision to go ahead with, the complexity in terms of the number of diversified parameters involved in this is huge! Hope that the political heads won’t screw up things by taking undesirable decisions…

Managing without the power of execution

Can you do that?? Do you have enough patience to be sandwiched? Can you deal with the top as well as the bottom layers? Can you be a football for the rest of the players on the field to play? etc etc...

In the quest for beating the rest in the rat race and 'Growing' in the industry, one has to deal with the mid-management layer. As my idle days at office continued, I pondered over the career progression offered by the industry. Well, it makes a lot of sense. Though Elliott Jaques considers this as one of the factors for the occurrence of Midlife crisis, it definitely is something which one has to go through.
Usually in this stage of the career, a person gets into a lot of gray areas which tests his patience. The interactions with BOP seem to be obvious; the interactions with the TOP seem to be ridiculous. Though he might know what has to be done to get things done in the right way, he might not be given powers to implement it (strictly coz of the fact that the data available to the guys at the top is very much different). This raises the frustration level and thus might affect his contribution to the company.

The best way to deal with this problem - 'Think in their shoes. Wear a different shoe when you enter into a different discussion...' and Voila! It works! While the concept of 'Six thinking Hats' deals with the different angles of decision making; it is highly applicable for the day-day situations that a person at the mid-management level undergoes. By doing this, unknowingly, he will be grooming himself up for the growth. Having been at the lower levels more recently than his managers, one should be in a better position to strike a connect with them in order to understand them and sync with their thought process. In the quest of growing up, one should be in a position to strike a chord with the top layer.

The question that people at this level often go through is - 'Do I have to really go through all this in order to earn a few bucks?' Well... yes my dear friend; you have to! That is when you will be broadening your reach, getting to understand the different angles of the human psychology, understanding the bigger picture, polishing yourself etc. These are just a few essential traits to deal with the issues faced by the top management. Either you startup someday or grow in the industry to reach the top; immaterial of the path taken, these traits are highly essential for an individual.

The Finance function...

Another day of idleness at office and I started thinking about the working of a Finance function in an organization. Since I have the liberty of walking down to the highly co-operative Finance team and getting the details from them in a generic perspective it made it a lot easier.

After having seen the Q2 results of various industries over the last month, I was in particular wondering about the amount of impact forex rate fluctuations can have on the balance sheets of an organization which is locally registered (and hence the balance sheet should reflect the local currency). It is a no-brainer to guess the fact that the magnitude of the impact is in direct proportion to the size of the deal. A 10 paisa (INR) can make a difference of 100 million in a $1bn deal! Now, though the amount looks to be huge, an organization should concentrate on the factor - 'Percentage contribution of the revenue'; Saying, what % of the total revenue is this 100M contributing to. For a SME, yes it is a huge %; likewise for a larger enterprise, it might not make a huge difference! The enterprises usually get into a contract with the bank where they agree on a future rate in dealing with the currency conversion. This way the risk of currency fluctuation is mitigated to some extent.

During the conversation, I also was informed about the way bank accounts are created in order to avoid the conversion rates (forex transfer rates). Since the % deduction in the forex transfer depends on the bank, it becomes fairly important to avoid this. A forex account specific to the currency of operation is the answer for this. By making this forex account local to the client site, it only avoids the transfer rate. However, the macro-economic parameters (service tax etc.) are country specific and viewed with a bigger picture. Here, it depends on the kind of work being done. If it is a bodyshopping (the service provider just provides resources and are not responsible for what work is done by him), services taxes are most likely to be applicable depending on the country's corporate laws. If a complete development work is done, there might not be a service tax. But all this highly depends on the country with which the engagement happens.

I also worked out a high level Team structure for an IT industry which has to be in place for smooth operation. The team size and intermediate hierarchies depend on the size of the organization.

It's never too late...

After almost an year of experimenting stuff on the field... just when I took sometime to relax and realize a few things, I saw a huge wave of guys bumping on having LOADS of dreams in their eyes... The realization of 'Your boss isn't always right' seemed to be at its peak... Hopes its just not one of the trends of the Hype curve thou :D. Was just pondering over this concept of people getting into enterprenuership offlate... A lot of them have realized the fact that what ever they work for; rather whtevr they are paid for is just a percentage of the bulky stuff! Not that, the situation was something very different before... but people have been bold enough to take a step forward and experiment in the market. This has created a whole lot of enthusiasm waves!

Any organization to sustain over a long period of time with the same amount of motivation in the people has to grow horizontally! Should get into unknown areas of operations... It might take a few bucks and a few more scars on the face but that really is the only way out! If it doesn't succeed to do so, the whole drama of the top notch creaming off starts! When an enterprise doesn't start getting its work done by guys risen from the Bottom Of the Pyramid (BOP), it just cannot deliver new stuff! It always goes by the saying - 'You cannot expect things to change if you don't change the way of dealing with it!'

Having said all this, the whole thought process which was running through my mind since a week was the appropriate time for starting up! Well... the only answer which came out all the time was 'There is no std ans for this!' It seriously is never too late! I have come across people starting up at their 50s. At the same time, have come across people starting up rt after college... So, it precisely is an output of an individual's risk appetite. It all depends on how much can a person bear in order to get into what he is passionate about. Kalyan Verma for example - He just knew that he wanted to be the 'Mogli' of the jungle and entered the Western Ghats and learnt the tricks of the trade on the field for sometime... Then came the boom of photography (thanks to IT...) and boom he clicked his way out for existance!

Many more such examples are there... Hence it is never too late... Just start off with the intial set of ideas and things may fall in place at some point of time. Having worked in unorganized sectors for quite sometime now, I have realized the importance of getting your hands dirty when it comes to on the field jobs! It is always easy to play a blame game and works very well in organized sectors. But, to get things rolling whichever may be the sector one has to roll on the floor and get dirty ... aakhir - 'daag acche hai' :D ...

So guys who want to get out and get going, just do that if you feel you can sustain for sometime financially!!

Cheers,
Shreyas

Groom to grow...

After pretending to be busy for more than a month, here I am back to the basics! Must say, it has just been a good turn around in the past one month or so in terms of relationship management, learning and health! Kick boxing has really helped me to scale up my fitness level before I plunge into the D-day to submit myself to nature's lap and say 'Miles to go before I sleep ... (credits to the Canadian artist for this ever encouraging statement!)'

Nevertheless getting back to the thought process which provoked me to write today; it has been months since I have been thinking about this concept of grooming in a corporate world. I off late end up in discussions which tend to end up in this wonderful concept of grooming the kids! I was in fact amazed with one such conversation in particular where the plan was to plan for a grooming session for organizational promotions. Having groomed a good and co-operative team in the past, these are a few pointers which I feel are essential for an organization to adapt for them to build the next-gen professionals:

>> Psychographic analysis - Not all individuals need hand holding. As a person at the top, one needs to realize 'how to deal with whom.' I like to quote this snippet from a Sanskrit poem which says '... praptetu shoDashe varshe, putram mitramvadaachareth'; meaning once the son (kid) reaches an age group of 16, he has to be treated like a friend by his parents. So, you should know when to guide and when not to. Too much of hand-holding might put the person being groomed in a situation where he wouldn't commit a mistake and wouldn't have dirtied his hands to deal with things later! So, a lot of psychographic analysis needs to go in before you decide how to groom an individual.
>> Conflict Management - I see conflict as an inbuilt boon in any team. Though it makes the situation a bit inconvenient for a few in the team, parking the egos help! This is a very hard lesson to learn as it demands a change in the way an individual works. It takes years for a few and just a few days for a few; majorly dependant on the maturity level of the individual involved in the transformation process. Having seen it myself, I would strongly recommend a good talk around ego and anger management to resolve conflicting situation. This will give a perspective of thought process for the person being groomed himself as he can experience it first hand!
>> Birds' eye view - It is necessary for people moving to more responsible positions to have an organizational perspective of their day-day work. This not only helps in aligning their thought to that of the organization, but also in adding to the maturity level of the individual. He / She will surely come out of the cocoon being an adorable butterfly!
>> Being politically transparent - Transparency of operations is one thing which I have seen working in an organization; be it a small team or a huge corporate. At the same time, people at all walks of the hierarchy should keep in mind about the consequences of being transparent. Hence a balance should be drawn in terms of what has to be transparent in what ways etc. It necessarily doesn’t mean that one has to lie always; but has to be matured enough to realize and accept the fact that not everyone views the information in the way you meant. Even a small coin has atleast two faces! So, political correctness has to be imbibed!

These are a few essentials which I feel has to be imbibed in a grooming session and one cannot expect to be done with grooming overnight! To sum it up ‘Professional maturity’ is the key word and an organization should realize the importance of such a session and view it as a strategic way forward instead of a time & material calculation...

Quandary of a Police Department

Riding my bike on a cloudy evening always gives me immense pleasure. With the cool breeze hitting my face, I will always be racing against time trying my best to sneak into gallis and space between vehicles to ensure that I reach the destination as soon as possible without getting wet. Having spent most of my life in Bangalore, a cloudy evening has always been an all time gift. It was one such evening where I was racing home after office at around 8PM. I just happened to encounter a red signal at the Lalbagh west gate. Very unusual of me, I jumped the signal (had done this after months though) and to my bad luck, there was this Head Constable (HC) Sidayya waiting for me with his boss!

I was stopped right away and I promptly paid him Rs.100 upon acknowledgement of a receipt. One more individual followed me and he too was stopped; but to my surprise, he was allowed to pass through. Then was my time to protest the act of not filing against the other person. I put the stand of my bike and set out to quarrel with the HC. After a hot initial talk, the conversation turned into a discussion and the funniest part was it turning into a grievance session where the HC ended up letting out his frustrations on the traffic police operational inefficiency!

The traffic police are set daily targets of around Rs.3000 - Rs.4000 depending on the inflow of traffic in the area of operation. The night duty policemen detecting the drunken driving case have a target of Rs.5000 per night! That day, there was a high profile meeting of the politicians near the Vasavi School and hence our Siddayya and his boss were asked to do the traffic control duty on this day till 11 PM in the night though his house was 35Kms away. It was his boss’s wedding anniversary that day and he was there on the streets controlling the traffic flow since 9 in the morning! He had to literally beg his higher authorities to leave for the day as he had still not met his daily target.

Now, isn’t this frustrating! To add more to it is the fact that they are not given even a single leave in a month and they have to work for 6 days in a week after being paid peanuts! Now, where will anybody get motivation to work under such an environment? Seeing all this, our Sidayya rejected a promotion to the post of a Sub Inspector few years back. This is the current motivational level of the traffic police! This is not just the case of Siddayya or his boss here. It is the question of the entire police department. Even the area police departments have the same issue. Their targets are in terms of crimes though.

It is a basic HRM related issue which may be a bigger bomb if not addressed as soon as possible. Considering the criticality of the department, it is very important for the government officials to consider this as a high priority issue. If the issue is kept apart and one goes to think about the approach of tackling crime, it Is very shameful to see the targets set on the amount of crime done! It seems as though the basics of prevention being better than cure have been forgotten. Hope the new age policemen are allowed to have a say in things and a more intelligent system in terms of planning emerges. But I definitely praise the act of innovation of the police where they have adopted Bluetooth and other advanced technicalities for operations!

PS: Names changed for security purposes