Redesigning Work Models

In today's rapid changing world we require new working models for organizations:

•  Make organizations flatter & remove structures aligned vertically. In today's world we need to provide responsibilities to people and track based on performance rather than be dependent on person's position in company.
• Remove Horizontals and Verticals rather deal as projects / accounts. Once we break up the horizontals and verticals we bring in lot of leverage to utilize resources at required places rather      than depend on resources to be available.
• Redesign work places from cube based places to life style related places. Facebook & google are already doing it. If a resource is more effective in a Garden or at home let him or her work that way, we require performance not regulatory rules.
• Let people choose their financial plans, for example certain employee might require more salary in a particular financial year rather than later, so why not put him in  a higher salary grade and reduce it when he thinks he can manage with less pay.
• Designations require serious revamp. We are building to many managers and leads in companies when sufficient work is not there. We need to look at market and see which kind of work is in demand. HR syllabuses in MBA colleges also need to be revamped to bring in this kind of revolutionary change.
• Award employees based on performance and ideas. For example a crucial employee in manufacturing industry should be awarded given good incentive so that he feels empowered more to improve companies’ performance further.
• Provide service to retail customers as we provide to enterprises. Customer service can’t be limited based on his ability to spend.
• Allow people to test products before they buy, just displaying in glassed and brightly lighted doors does not provide all required confidence and also testing avoids bad experience to customer after he or she has bought the product.

This post shares some of my thoughts I have in building modern organizations and moving away from stereo type organizations.

Building Bridges !!!

One of the most difficult challenges we face in our lives is restoring broken relationships. The reasons could be many though looking at the way Obama and Modi have restored India - USA partnership is remarkable :

• Its important to look over cultural differences and embrace other's cultures which could bring people closer to you very quickly.
• Its important to hear other people's opinion , If you can other's hear opinion your opinion also would be valued .
• Its important to give them time, if you cant give time to other's there is no way a relationship can be restored.
• Understand other person needs and see what is that you can offer. Great relationships are those where things are done even without being said.
• Give and take always matters. If you have an attitude that always people should come to you, your are actually moving away from others without your own realization.
• There is nothing as a wrong attitude or incorrect approach. A person behaves according to what he or she has experienced in life, if you can understand this simple fact then you would always be happy.
• Do not look for perfection, this is the biggest mistake most of us do in dealing with people. There is no need for perfection, neither your god was ever perfect !!!
• Learn from mistakes and put it back into your learning. Re evaluate yourself every 2-3 yrs, more you learn from life more you should become better person for society.

Building relationships is not a big task as building ships, though people simply do not want to put effort. Remember your living among society not in Himalayas so having great relationships is the only way for a successful life !!!

Idea of an Institution

After series of blogs I wrote on different ideas that could change my home country and world issues, its time to share my thoughts on how can I contribute to the change .

Just launching a company cant be a solution it needs to be AN INSTITUTION !!!.

Institution is a big word and how do you go about creating such an Institution with a sole purpose to make this world a better place to live, some of the fundamentals should be :

• The vision should be clear and felt by each member of the institution, We see in our daily life , employees of any organization have nothing to do with Vision. This needs to be addressed.
• Values should be part of daily life similar to habits and an institution which has a strong value system can survive many generations and not just a lifetime.
• Innovation should be a a constant process and just not a requirement for delivery excellence. History shows innovative companies have survived different technology swifts through decades.
• Any solution should be for end customer or intended people and not just try to sell a solution which might not be needed by the end customer. Very few companies have been able to sell solutions nationwide since most of the surveys done so far across the country was not intended to look frim customer's point of view rather was limited to Company's goals.
• Employees should be rewarded for their efforts and make them part of the success story.
• An Institution should be self sustaining thus constantly innovating into unknown territory, i guess true spirit of capitalism with a socialist approach!!!
• Just do not sell products rather create life long relationships with customers.

Some of the ideologies I have back of mind areshared , though there is much more in my mind and hope I can put all this into practice some day!!!

Its time for Social Revolution !!!

The world is going through major Transition. Europe is on the brink of social revolution, middle east is in a ideological war. South East Asian countries are developing at a faster pace due to result oriented government changes and America is emerging as a major oil producing nation due to new developments in oil production.

Can we do things differently to have a better world :

• Need to create trust building initiatives between groups in countries fighting on ideological differences.
• Youth needs to participate more in building countries not shutting them down.
• Education Needs to be revamped to include more aspects of life , for example why not give good values from all religions thus truly proving we are a secular society.
• People should be encouraged to travel across the globe to have more global perspective on real life issues.
• Women should be given equal opportunity to excel in all fields.
• Career should not be based on qualifications rather on interests and hobbies.

The differences are not as big as they look, if you look at most of them are simple issues made complex for example :

• None of the wars between countries is representing people's needs of respective countries rather only representing political views and this are heavily influenced by corporate world.
• There is no religion which preaches hatred rather it is again a business model to start generating revenue in different ways.
• Money is only circulated between certain section of society thus showing a country as poor which is basically not giving a chance to everyone to prosper at same pace.
• Oil prices are controlled by select countries thus creating a monopoly and leaving major economic decisions in very few hands.
• Individualism is triumphing over social obligations.

I truly believe most of the problems can been solved with simple ideas , we just require few bright minds to join hands in changing the world.

As global citizens we should make this planet a better place to Live and each living being's contribution is as important as others. !!!

From my next blog  I would be talking about ideas which I would implement if I have to start a company tomorrow and this ideas would become better as i gain more experience in life and people share their ideas and recommendations.

This could very well be a start of the Journey...

R companies focused enough ??

In my eight plus years of experience , working with various companies I somehow feel leadership within companies is very focused but that's not the case with lower level management.

• There are lot of resources in companies which either have not been given sufficient work by managers or are not motivated themselves enough to give 100% at work.
• People want to become millionaires overnight but do not have vision or a path laid out with which they can achieve their dreams.
• Projects are only managed statistically and very little effort is put in by service providers to help client run differently.
• Mismatch in work versus skill set is abundant in companies and in crisis situations their respective staff can hardly solve without vendor / partner support.
• Too many managers and very few niche skilled people. This leads to advice from many but very few to execute as per expectations.
• Mediocre performance is common still it seems work - life - balance takes a toll. I have not seen any service provider who exceeds client expectations though somehow they find themselves over occupied in reporting and not in providing innovative ways to work.
• Leadership lacks ability to motivate next generation leaders or are over occupied so hardly have time for knowledge sharing sessions.
• Too much concentration on profits thus employee benefits is not given serious thought which leaves employee hardly loyal to any company.

If companies have to survive more than 30 years and be remembered as a great company and not just not another company they need to focus internally more than externally. Provide service which exceeds client expectations and makes client wonder why didn't we think about this solution !!!

Motivation !!!

I was wondering how to make people come out of their comfort zone and make them achieve things which they dream off but don't know how to go about it : Motivation is the key.

Motivation would be scenario based and for different set of people different kinds of motivation would be required :

• How  would you motivate a child to do well in academics or sports, a prize which would make him feel special or his achievements make his parents proud.
• How would you motivate a teenager , make him feel like a hero or heroine in front of everyone.
• How would you motivate a house wife, making her feel she is an independent lady and not dependent on her husband.
• How would you motivate a poor person, obvious answer is show him a path to do well in life and he / she also is a part of a progressing society.
• How would you motivate a rich person , show how his contribution could not only give financial returns but make him famous among future generations.
• How would you motivate a disabled person, make him feel equal in society and remember a disabled person is not disabled in mind.
• How would you motivate a person with life threatening illness, make him feel each day he lives is the best possible day in his life.

To summarize we all are caught up so much in race of life that we hardly have any motivation left in us to achieve wonderful things which all human beings are capable of.Set goals for yourself which are difficult to achieve but have a meaning for future generations. This will make you work harder each day and thus prove motivation indeed can help cross many barriers, most of the barriers are always in mind !!!.

Different Solutions for different places

During my brief stay in US I have noticed there are different solutions possible for different places. Everything is all not well even in Uncle Sam's Land.

• Independent life has taken a toll on social life. Neighbors hardly know who stays next door, probably this is now happening in big cities in India also. This gives a sense of isolation and the meaning of the word society is on decline.
• Career success has made personal life go off track, people are either delaying kids or not having kids at all since they think career is more important and they cant spare time, thus people have to help themselves in old age.
• Social security is a token amount and no savings. Very few countries offer social security to its citizens and USA is definitely one of them, though the amount provided monthly is hardly enough to even survive for 15 days and Americans hardly save so they end up working till they die.
• Too much of automation leaving manual options to almost nill. Its great Americans have automated most of the daily needs in life though sometimes it seems like there is no human touch and people simply don't know where to go if machine does not work.

To build a better world America would obviously play a bigger role and they still have to fix lot of things in its own backyard , my previous post spoke mostly about India though aim with my company when launched is not only to solve problems in India, do it at each and every place where required. As a successful community advancement of technology is as important as building cooperative societies . I have a weird theory : if someone is watching from other planet , they should not feel we are fighting among ourselves !!!

The Golden Bird

At present I live in USA though till last year I was in Hyderabad , India. Whenever I use to travel , eat or just go out I use to simply think there is so much to be done in this country. 

• We are training so many engineers but still we don't have world class research facilities, we are simply not engineering enough of our own products.
• Bangalore is called the silicon valley still penetration of IT products is not reached 70% of the country, probably only smart phones have reached to 50% of the country.
• We have McDonald's and KFC opening in every other city and town though most part of Country does not have access to proper food resources and so many people are still dying of starvation.
• Government plans to develop 200 new airports in country, though still vast part of country cant afford second class ticket in Indian railways.
• There are new hospitals being opened in big cities everywhere though still a vast part of country still does not have a proper hospital within 25 km radius and even if government hospitals are available there is no Insurance to treat the ill in India, insurance only is useful if your admitted for more than 24 hrs, so my point is health care though it exists, is not accessible.
• The new prime minister has started a sanitation drive though what can we do about average Indian mentality where sanitation was never taught from Childhood.
• There is an assumption that Indians save a lot of money, though reality is they are also in debt the most, some with banks , some with smaller establishments. thus saving really never helps individuals to reach a lifestyle which is seen in western countries.

I have a dream that one day I can start a company which can change all the above stated and lead India again on the path to glory similar to old age where it was called the Sunahari Panchi..The Golden Bird !!!