Awakening Trumpet

We are deeply moved by watching ordinary people doing extraordinarily in course of our Strategy development workshops. Little achievements of the key members (ordinary people) having profound effect on the business leaves us in disbelief. We are glad to watch the changes in their outlook about the business. But, we are regretting that only a small percentage of business owners / teams dare to leave their accustomed way of thinking and catch the growth mindset. One of the major mindset is to expand the production facility, or increase number of sales outlets, or increase man power, etc. 

Most  organisations operate on the assumption or formula that more resources / facility equals better business. They invest a large financial capital in upgrading, expanding and improving resources. Of course, resources matter to accomplish organisational feat. But the mindset for growth matters more than resources.  When you look around the companies that grow geometrically; in spite of meager resources, they thrive with their outlook. Often mindset trumps the resources bank; it sets businesses apart. It help

s the leaders to navigate the right path, irrespective of the circumstances the organisation is having. Mindset can be acquired with right kind of facilitation. A look back on the clients whom we have served indicate, it is sheer mindset that helped them to reach a growth path. The wake up call to every Small and Medium business is to see the market before they spend or acquire costly resources.  Resources may become obsolete faster than the returns it can provide. Many times simplest of the ideas lead to big breakthroughs, but the ideas stick only if there are right mindsets. 

contributed by Sasikanth R Prabhu

Hopes Alive in Change Management

Through our strategy workshops we try to unite people in action (build social capital).  We are able to do that, but we find it difficult to sustain the initiatives undertaken as part of the program (especially the customer visits and new market identification). People have

a tendency to relapse into their individualistic approach to jobs, and they remain operations focused than business focused.  We are very much aware that a poorly led change initiative can inflict disorder on a business unit or the entire company. Sluggish initiatives can breed sarcasm and damage the top management’s and our credibility, and can jeopardize future change initiatives. We are very concerned in preventing change failures. 

Failed initiatives have happened in some of our facilitation midway. As we are a research based consulting, we delved deep into the issues related to initiatives and improved our delivery systems to overcome the inertia of change. In the process of analyzing the cause for change-initiative failures, we also recognized that the business leader’s courage matters most in making the change successful.  There is no substitute for this ingredient, and we have to depend on the leadership level of the client company. Places where we have strong leadership at the top, our strategy facilitation is smoother.   Resilience, patience and trying out until the goal is reached, are the three attributes we expect or want from the top team to implement changes in business strategy.  We are constantly working on developing and nurturing these characteristics in our client’s team.  Even a small breakthrough in change management can give tremendous outcomes.  . We recognize that  leading initiatives is not easy,  but we have identified a few effective principles, that change initiatives stand to  survive the most common vulnerabilities. That is emerging as our strength. 

Contributed by Sasikanth R Prabhu, Marg Atreya

Strategy during stressful times.

Recently we had to stall our Business strategy workshops (DNA Development) in one of the reputed company which serves as vendor to an Automotive OEM. The strategy development process is stopped because the company is undergoing distress in terms of increased costs of production, cut in orders from the customers, lower productivity etc. The company was also preoccupied with negotiations with labor for a renewed contract.  All these put together may take toll on the long term strategy. ‘We need to survive first, to think for future’ that is the principle chosen by our client for the moment.  Logically this mantra seems right but has very limited value.

Impulsive reactions to problems, across the enterprise cost-cutting, failures of leadership, lack of clarity, misunderstanding of risk and ignorance of consequences, are all common strategic failings during stressful times.  Typical actions during such period as we have seen is that, all activities centre around cutting costs and raising cash (by loans, by brisk debt collection or delaying payments to creditors). Other ways are – reducing salaries, renegotiating contracts, selling assets, closing a plant, or even reorganizing the entire plant. Business owners or managers who make these decisions seem to be making a critical error. A majority of companies’ cost-cutting measures fail to deliver the savings expected. In fact, half of all cost-cutting schemes are aimed at delivering incremental savings of less than 10% of costs.

Most ‘reduce - cost’ decisions have limited effectiveness. There is genuine concern that more invasive cost-cutting decisions designed to deliver short-term benefits often harm the long-term competitiveness of the company. The key to effective cost cutting is to know the business and its outcome.  That outcome should be in line with the organizational actions we take. Even if a cost reduction attempt is considered essential to survival, simply looking for percentage cuts across the business is likely to lead to a reduction in a business’ competitiveness.   The Business owners / managers should have strategic outlook on cost savings and it should be available for dialogue.

Applying a cost-cutting mentality within existing strategies (if there is one) can deliver not only sustainable savings but also help advance strategic goals. For example, it’s often assumed that cost-cutting and customer satisfaction – a common strategic objective – are mutually exclusive. But if there is an existing supply chain strategy in place, it makes sense to identify which processes are not directly related to improved customer relationships – then look to cut costs or refocus those activities.

Though we supported our client who suspended the strategy discussions in passive way, our answer to this problem is to address strategy in simple, relevant ways that keep business owner / key players focused on the business of the company (strategy), while delivering clear courses of action to survive in turbulent times and grow at the same time.  This need for maintaining a strategic approach is critical, which means looking clearly at business in clear ways, then analyzing how long-term strategy can be maintained in a depressed situation. Business owners / key players who have a mindset to make reasoned decisions based on the solid strategy will do a better job of securing a winning future of their business, as well as their survival.

At times of economic upheaval and low availability of finance, there’s a real danger that

the strategy can take a back seat to survival. But organisations that abandon strategic thinking not only run the risk of undermining their chances of advancing their business when the economy improves, they also endanger their ability to weather the storm.

The key to ‘strategy under stresses is discipline – business discipline !

Contributed by Sasikanth prabhu

Outside support

Entrepeuners succeed with one set of skills and mindset. They are often tempted to think that success can be repeated in the future with the same set of game plan. What we have found is that many successful entrepreuners get stuck at some level of achievement and their business do not grow further. The reason could be when things slip, as it coud be, the temptation to do the same old things hardens aggressively and urgently.

But some companies, very rare ones, even though they are successful in their initial phases, they do differently in their second phase. One of the different things is that these long surviving companies infuse help from outside at an early stage itself by associating with resources such as external board of directors, advisory councils, industry experts, consultants, mentors, facilitators, learning forums etc.  

While the companies that are stuck and have a retarded growth appears to be more insular and are less eager to form partnerships with people outside the firm. Such company owners show so much confidence in themselves that they end up eulogising themselves about how they succeded in tackling challenging situations in the past and how they rely on their own internal abilities. At times, they also, redicule external sources of expertise.

"Help seeking" is a mindset, that need to be inculcated very early in an organisation. But the entrepreuners who start an enterprise tend to be great at figuring things out by themselves and are extremely confident in their ability to find the right answers. Initially this seems to be great , but as the business grows, the leaders must be willing to look for people (outside the four walls of the organisation) with relevant experience, connections and perspectives that are useful to the company.

The power of seeking outside wisdom is immence. The outsiders can play a number of relevant roles. Such as....

1. Usually leaders and managers who take extraordinary initiatives are alone at the top / edge. They can rely on or use outsiders as mentors / counsellors / sounding boards

2. Business is all about perspectives. Outsiders can bring in different perspectives. Many leaders, due to operational urgencies, get bankrupt on ideas. Facilitators can bring new ideas and help key people in the organisation to navigate to the growth path.

3. Sometimes the company may be trying out new ideas or innovation that were tried and perfected by others, elsewhere. If the organisation has a habit of looking for the best from the market, the chances are high that a useful resource be found.

4. Many business tools are developed and tested by varius institutions for the benefit of the business organisations. The outside network of people can get these new tools into the organisation quicker and with ease.

5. Closer contact with external people will enhance the competiveness of the people in the organisation including the top leaders of the organisation.

Getting connected with outside human resources is a channel to grow the company but Douglas Adams says " Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others are also remarkable for this apparent disinclination to do so"...... but do not hesitate to seek help!   

contributed by sasikanth prabhu

Entry Barriers

When I was a MDP consultant at IBS Kochi, I had a chance to visit premises of more than 50 small, medium and large businesses. My job was to develop businesses for the intellectual capital of the faculty at IBS. My experiences during the visits to the prospective customers' premises made me feel that intellectual capital is the least wanted capital by them, but mostly needed. We found two situations in the customer’s premises: one is " business is doing well" and the other " business is not doing well". After visiting a score of prospects we found a pattern in their responses, mostly unfavourable ones.

Places where business is doing well the following behavior is found.....

 They....

·   Do not allow the new service providers to access the business leaders

·   Show ‘we-know-it-all’ attitude

·   are busy Expanding the organisation at a faster pace

·   Revenue growth and profit generation is equated with business growth

·   Give high priority to prestigious certifications and image building activities

·   Focus mostly on customers with high purchase power

·   Engage in creating entry barriers to the new comers / competitors

·   Look for business diversifications

·   Command and demand services from the vendors (supply chain)

 Places where business is not doing well the following behavior is found.....

 They....

·         engage in cost cutting measures

      ·         sell the products at thin margins

·         arrange programs to change the peoples’ behavior. The programs will be conducted by in house experts or by an outside agency that quotes the least.

·         take disconcerted marketing initiatives

·         spend more time in urgent and managerial issues

·         Search for certifications that will give them credibility in the market.

·         are hesitant to discontinue the unprofitable / failed product lines

contributed by Sasikanth Prabhu

Characteristics of Strategy meetings with the key people of an organisation (Part 1)

By now I have facilitated more than 100 sessions on development of Business strategy and I see some common occurings / patterns in most of the sessions. The observations and experiences are given below.......

• The development of suitable / appropriate strategic options often require novel perspective. Catching the novel perspective sometimes is the most difficult and time consuming part in strategy devlopment


• Many in the organisation view strategy and execution are two different and sometimes even go to the extent that they cannot co-exist.


• Real strategy making requires inputs and contributions from various members of the team. But the top management has the tendency to act as an apex body and take a stand point 'do as I/we say ". This disconnects many employees from the business.


• Strategic information is often forgotten amidst new information pertaining to daily operations. This makes people to be fire fighting than doing the important.


• Many times it requires the key people to make difficult decisions, which they postpone thinking better decision can come as time passes by.


• Many important key points need to be taken into account from the business perspective. But many key people think only in specific functions such as finance, production, accounts, sales , HR etc. They think of doing the job well and not winning the business.


• There is gross disagreement exists among key players on basic assumptions regarding the future of their business.


• The strategy need to be communicated to the employees convincingly, but little time and effort is spent on making the strategy simple to communicate.


• Difference of opinion among the key players regarding the strategy escalates into personal conflicts at a later stage.


• The key players fail to help the employees feel that strategy is something worthwhile to pursue, to identify and to feel proud of.

contributed by : Sasikanth Prabhu

Passion is inevitable

In the last two weeks of February 2011, I met at least 50 new interesting people. Many of them are business owners and leaders. While interacting with them it is reconfirmed or rediscovered that "Passion" has a significant place in the success of a business.

It emerges that Passion is a pre-requisite for business. It is one of the primary investments of business owners . It is an invisible ingredient. It provides a compelling reason to stay on purpose and it ignites the desire to serve a greater cause than profit alone. Passion leads to care for something. If any person fails, it is because they are unable to care. The caring attitude stems from passion.

In an economic context it appears now that passion is important though it is intangible. A passion for business (making profits and gains) and passion for serving a higher purpose ( creating valuable results) is seen among most of the successful business owners.

Jack Kahl the erstwhile Owner of Manco Inc - a successful duct tape company in America (now known as Henkel Manco) used to go for lectures to colleges and other business gatherings. one of his favourite speech was titled as " Don't park your heart at the Curb", which indicates that a great work is accomplished by involving the heart (which is passion).

I have seen many universities mentioning about "passion' as requirement, but did not yet found it as a part of curriculum in any of the Business schools. In the real world of business and leading, passion plays an integral role. Hence it is important to ask the question. Can passion be taught? difficult to answer, but it is transferable and evokable. A business leader has to have passion and then transfer it to others or has to awaken in others for the cause. Great leaders do this.

When a group of people are passionate about a unified cause... social capital builds. Social capital is one of the prime capitals required for business success in the modern times.

How to do this may be saved for another blog... of if you have answers welcome... if you put it in your blog ... please send the link....

have passion... preserve it... nourish it....

contributed by : Sasikanth Prabhu

Creating Sense of Urgency

Yesterday a friend of mine has marked me a copy of email that was sent to his client urging him to take some action soon on some important issue. This triggered this blog.

By now I would have interacted with more than 100 business owners, mostly of small and medium sized business. Most of them wish a leaping business growth and they actively search for ways to do so. But they feel that something or the other hinders their growth. The usual reasons attributed to their stunted growth are recession, competition, price/availability of raw materials, hostile market conditions, unenthusiastic employees, unfriendly Government policies etc. Rarely do they agree that their business fundamentals are to be changed, their leading posture to be changed. They are just blind to 'the obvious' that need to be changed within themselves and with the business. One such is the lack of urgency on business matters.

The business owners often see lack of enthusiasm / commitment or lack of urgency among their employees, but are not aware of their own urgency habits. Once, this issue of 'sense of urgency' popped up in a discussion with a reputed business owner, who claimed that he always has this. When discussed about it at deeper levels, it was found that most of his time was spent on the 'crises of the moment' and not on the growing the business. A little discovery on one's own time management made him realize something profound ... Doing more things faster and attending to more urgent matters is not as good as doing the right things. The right thing is to work for the growth of the business..." this rarely happens" admitted the business owner. It points out that, Sense of urgency should be built around important and the right things.

It is observed that, most of the business owners are passive, they want work to come to them in the form of urgent matters. But the successful business owners somehow manage the urgent matters and find time to act on the matters of growing the business. This is the crucial difference. Acting upon is not passive , it requires, will - commitment- action.

Sense of urgency is an organisational ingredient, that is perceived by others very subtly. It may be expressed in verbal as well as non verbal ways. People perceive sense of urgency at a subliminal levels.

Once clear understanding of the business is gained, it should be implemented as early as possible. In order to make people implement the strategy quickly, the business owner must display some urgency or else the people associated with the business become complacent.

Other people assess the urgency of the business owner through various windows. please note that no employee would exceed the urgency of the business owner. "the speed of the train is going to the speed of the engine". Hence the business oner must learn ways to display the urgency appropriately.

Here are some ways you can try. These were collected from observations and other knowledge repositories.

• show priority and hurriedness at key business aspects
• Respond faster to emails and phone calls
• Do not allow the discussions to drift, get to the point quickly
• Take decisions. Do not delay decisions unnecessarily. Some business owners think that delaying decisions will improve the quality of decision or their position. As the old adage goes, “it is easier to steer a moving object.” If you’ve made the wrong decision, you can adjust. But if you wait too long, you miss the opportunity entirely.
• Follow... Do it now...... policy
• Do not work faster, but move the work faster

Creating sense of urgency simply is helping others see the need for change and the importance of acting immediately. You can do anything that you feel is right for the moment.

Yesterday, I tried to get connected to a business owner to discuss an important matter. For more than two hours, his mobile phone was engaged and I got the connection after trying 20th time. While talking I passed a comment that" you seem to be very busy, sir. Not able to get your number for long time". He admitted that he had attended several calls in this two hours and in low voice he said that most of the calls were not much significant. He even admitted that our call is more important, and he was waiting to some how finish off the earlier calls............." Fair enough! he is at least aware of what is important and not so important for business.

This is my last blog of this year. wish You all a Happy New Year 2011.

contributed by Sasikanth Prabhu