I often wonder if the behavior of top management of various companies, businesses, or for that matter any organization is just short sighted now or if has always been so myopic through the ages. Could it be that due to greater scrutiny and supposed greater oversight we are able to observe their fallibility much more often than was possible in the past.
Look around closely at almost any organization be it public or private and you will see supposedly brilliant individuals who we look/looked up to and revere make meaningless and absurd decisions that effect the lives of hundreds and thousands, if not millions, of people in their immediate vicinity. Yet these folk go about living their lives as if nothing has happened, completely oblivious to the plight of all the people around them.
This leads me to contemplate - Is Leadership really such a great trait, and if it is, what exactly is the secret sauce? I know, have read, and even written about the qualities that make a supposedly good or even great leader, but is it really so...
Let's take a few luminaries who are hailed as some of the greatest leaders objectively dissect their behavior as leaders... I know I am probably going to get raked over the coals for bringing up these names...
John Francis Welch, Jr.- Chairman of GE Corporation for 20 years from 1981-2001, more commonly known as "Jack" and "Neutron Jack".
Here is a recent quote from him - “On the face of it, shareholder value is the dumbest idea in the world,” he said. “Shareholder value is a result, not a strategy … your main constituencies are your employees, your customers and your products.”
However, this is the same man who initiated the concept of "Shareholder Value" or pursed the concept by laying off more than a quarter of GE's workforce within 5 years becoming CEO to pursue higher profits, and increase market cap.
He also pushed the managers of the businesses he kept to become more productive, by constantly working 70-80 hours a week. "Jack" worked to eradicate perceived inefficiencies by trimming inventories and dismantling the workforce. He shut down factories, reduced payrolls and cut lackluster old-line units. For a company that touts innovation and new products what is there to show right now? He is also the same person who pushed for the expansion of GE Capital which almost took the entire company down and caused it to lose it's 'AAA' credit rating. As well as begging the Feds for a TARP bailout, as it was deemed too big to be allowed to fail! Now granted Jack was not at the helm when these things went down, but he took credit for everything good that happened with GE even after he left office, often boasting how he had laid the foundation for everything during his 20 year reign at the company.
If Jack was such a great manager as he has been made out to be then how did everything start to unravel so fast as soon as he left office, that too only after he was assured of an $8,000,000.00 annual pension with lavish company perks. Was there a great smokescreen and mirror show going on, which made him larger than life!?!
His so called "VISION" has decimated so many lives, leaving carcasses all over while he lives in his glass tower in New York, oblivious to the plight of many, still pontificating now!!!
Does anyone ever stop to think that it's not all about widgets and processes, there is a human element to it also! Widgets and processes are there for the use and consumption by human beings. If people can not afford to buy and use the widgets and services no matter how great they are what is the use of creating them. That is exactly the situation the US landscape is in right now. The likes of Jack created this "Shareholder Value" ponzi scheme to pay themselves and now we are there to pick up the pieces...
Maybe one should read Jack's biography with a new perspective, after taking off the rose tinted glasses....
More to come...
Saturday, June 05, 2010
LEADERSHIP - IS IT A MYTH???
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Irrational Exuberance or Stupidity! Part - 2
Last week as I started to write about a - bubble of various sorts, forming across the entire gamut of the Indian economy the – sub-prime mortgage mess started to unravel in the US.
Media outlets and various financial organizations expressed shock and disbelief at the ramifications of the situation here in the US. It is interesting that none of them decided to interview the mastermind of the current fiscal mess his holiness - Mr. Alan Greenspan, under whose watchful eye the entire current sub-prime fiasco has it's genesis!
Yes, Mr.Greenspan is a very erudite and knowledgeable person; he is also the architect of this current mess. Mr.Greenspan had the knowledge and the tools at his disposal to prevent this situation in the sub-prime mortgage market as well as the deeper credit crunch that is making ripples across the globe. In fact if memory serves me and possibly other folks correctly this is not the first time Mr.Greenspan can be faulted for his acts of fiscal omissions - The Great Internet Bubble of the 20th Century also happened on his watch!
Now in India we have Prime Minister - Dr. Man Mohan Singh, who also is a very erudite fellow as well as an economist like Mr.Greenspan. Again if my memory serves me correctly the last time India as a country was almost at the doorstep of financial insolvency, this same Dr. Singh was at the head of the finance portfolio. Wonder if this is just a coincidence or fate as they say in India?
Lets look at some other interesting parallels.
Things that happened on Alan Greenspan's watch.
Black Monday 1987.
Internet pump and dump.
Beginning and end of Real-estate boom.
Super hot and sizzling economy, followed by busts and boom.
Overall decline in manufacturing economy!
Things that happened when Man Mohan Singh was lead Economic Advisor to PM, was FM, or PM himself.
India close to financial insolvency 1990.
Indian stock market pump and dump 1991/92.
Indian real-estate market becomes super hot.
Super hot and sizzling economy, followed by busts and boom.
Over all decline in manufacturing economy.
What happens next in India?
Every time I talk of the above scenario I am told to stop being a naysayer, and look at the rapid strides the service sector economy has made and the growth of employment etc. that will eventually create a trickle down effect that will uplift the Indian masses. Everyone tells me about the transition of global economies, from being agrarian to industrial manufacturing to eventually service driven.
TO WHICH I SAY CRAP! STOP THIS NONSENSE, FUELED BY PSEUDO-INTELLECTUAL DRIVEL!
SHOW ME ONE, ONLY ONE ECOMOMY THAT HAS SUSTAINED ITSELF ON A SERVICE ECONOMY WITH A GROWING POPULATION!
World War I & II saved the British Empire from being a footnote in history 50years ago. Japan has seen it's best days behind it. The Asian Tigers on the Pacific Rim are barely managing to keep their heads above water from the onslaught of the Chinese Tsunami. Countries on the African and South American continent barely register on any economic indicator or can hope to do so in the near future. Argentina and Brazil have never lived up to their potential despite the billions of dollars pumped into them in the past. Except for South Africa which has some economic activity the rest of the African continent it seems will be battling a human medical catastrophe.
Granted some of my predictions are a little extreme, but with a looming global recession, it would not take much for those predictions to come true!
Lets not forget about the nature of the Internet and electronic specialty service economy which moves at the speed of light is also susceptible to an equally rapid transformation into a commodity service that tends to flatten and remove various hierarchical barriers to entry for most service businesses. This not only reduces margins it automates and eliminates various functions that may have been essential earlier, and in turn may have been a source of wide scale employment.
The speed of the service economy is very rapid and by nature disruptive; it has a cannibalizing effect on general business and society as a whole. This is due to the constant search for greater economies of scale and optimization of efficiencies. We have witnessed this on a wide scale level during the dotcom meltdown. The same happens and has happened in an agrarian and industrialized economy, but at a much slower pace. When this reduction in economic activity does happen there is already enough ancillary business activity that has been created that it smoothes out the usual and periodic cyclical business and economic ups and downs.
My next post will touch on the immediate and near term ramifications of this service economy.Sunday, August 19, 2007
Irrational Exuberance or Stupidity? Part - I
For an individual that has been closely associated with the two business sectors in the
This sense of deja vu is not of the same optimistic kind promoted and shared by a lot of other evangelists of developing world growth patterns.
I rejoice at the phenomenal growth that has and is continuing to happen in
Let's not forget what the acronym ITES stands for - Information Technology Enabled Services, in the majority of cases this is nothing but once again a fancy term for low end backroom processing support work that has been offshored to India from the more developed nations.
Support activity can only happen if there is primary business activity to be supported, if we keep on creating and encouraging an environment where home grown physical industries are decimated and discouraged we will face the same consequences that the US is currently facing.
The home grown US economy is already frayed at the edges and is starting to tear apart due to the lack of regular investments in in the physical infrastructure for almost the last 30years. Let's not forget even the robust internet era of the 1990's in the US could not keep the economy going for long.
I understand all investments follow the money trail, but you cannot have isolated islands of economic prosperity and growth in a land of 1.2billion people, not have some kind of equitable balance being maintained without having nasty repercussions. We have seen the former
At the time when I was moving to the US in the early '90s, major trans-national consumer (hard and soft goods) corporations were making a beeline to India to capitalize on the spending power of the - emerging Indian middle class. Many of them lost their shirts in the ensuing years and some have barely managed to stay around profitably even after all these years. This despite all the years of boom activity.
There is risk in all activity, however when people lose sight of rationality in understanding and accepting risk, it is politely termed - Irrational Exuberance, or in layman terms - Stupidity!
The Indian stock market has been growing at a double digit rates for the past few years, the real-estate situation is even worse prices are going up in triple digits and the lay people are lapping it up in the name of growth, being led around by organized opportunists - like rats dancing to the tune of the Pied Piper!
My opinions may seem harsh to many, but I have my reasons and will elaborate on them going forward.
Sample of my musings on Linked In - 13
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“My comment does not pertain to any particular incident, but to the seemingly insane, moronic, as well as oxy-moronic questions that potential qualified candidates get asked during interviews, and the person asking feels that they are going to get a real and genuine answer.
Sometimes, when I have been asked such questions I have felt like giving the 'genuine' answer, but then good sense or rather - 'hypocrisy' has prevailed and I have kept my real answer to myself. There have been instances when the person sitting next to me has asked a potential candidate one of the questions and I have had to literally choke and chortle myself from blurting something on the verge of being censored!
My list (can always be added to) with the top questions in random order -
* What is your current compensation?
* What are your current compensation expectations?
* Why do you want to leave your existing job?
* Why do you want to work with our company?
* Can we contact your current & immediate boss?
* Where do you see yourself with our organization in the next 5 years?
* What do you rate as important in your life - money, family, career, or something else?
* Can you get along with your boss?
* What kind of boss would you like?
* Why do you think we should hire you?
* What would your boss say about you?
* Do you get along with people?
* Can you work 'overtime' to finish a crucial project, if needed?
The list not all inclusive, but just a sampling.
Here's one I was actually asked by one of the biggest MNCs in India, it went like this - (after 2 hours of a grueling 2nd interview) - ...we really like what you have to offer, we are the final decision makers with no further review and would be willing to make an offer on the spot, keep in mind we have people lined up to do almost anything to work for us (true). "Would you be willing to shave your facial hair? The culture of our company predicates that people with facial hair are perceived as being lazy and incompetent. Please take 15minutes to review and let us know your answer."
I heard the offer, their condition, and expectation of the response. Without even batting an eyelid I put my papers in my bag, got up, thanked them for their time and added " ... it was a shame that they did not review my application in detail earlier, as it would have spared everyone the trouble of wasting so much time, as my photograph (a requirement for the job application) was on it with facial hair, secondly nowhere in the job ad was there such a stipulation that one had to be clean shaved!...." I extended my hand for a handshake, but then just waved, turned around and walked out of the room.
Outside, I was stopped by an HR associate who came running upto to me and asked me to wait in another room for a minute. No sooner than I went in the 2 gentlemen who supposedly held my fate (job-wise) in their hands came into congratulate me on being selected to join their company. I was a little taken aback and asked what about the 'facial hair' they brushed it off as a "TEST" to see how susceptible I would be to various pressures in compromising my integrity!”
Sample of my musings on Linked In - 12
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“ It depends where you are based there are several such associations. If you were to do a Google search and then localize it you may find what you are looking for. You may want to check the following site
http://www.customerservicemanager.com/call-center-associations.htm ”
Sample of my musings on Linked In - 9
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“Was that a ‘real question’ or a ‘rhetorical question’ and what is the context of this question?
The reason I ask is to determine how to answer it, instead of giving an answer full of moral platitudes and ethical values.
Depending on where you are and what the business environment values are, a referral fee commission may be viewed as a ‘bribe’ in certain situations, whereas a ‘bribe’ in another environment may be business as usual somewhere else.
The second part of the question ‘ becoming powerful’ is an enigma in itself to the person asking the question. So without knowing the context of this query I guess all answers are moot…”
Sample of my musings on Linked In - 8
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How would you differentiate between skill, knowledge and competency ?
“Competency = basic / learned capability required gain knowledge and skills.
Knowledge = basic / advanced information required to perform certain functions.
Skills = the dexterity to required to perform those functions.
Expertise = Competency + Knowledge + Skills ”
Sample of my musings on Linked In - 7
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“Please provide details on your domains of expertise, a few references of projects currently ongoing or recently completed, billing rates, and average lead times along-with your location in India. Will certainly get back to you if this passes muster with my associates. ”
Sample of my musings on Linked In - 4
How do you ask a former star employee to leave?
“Your question on "How to?" seems a little more in-depth than just a superficial question to a performance related situation.
You mention - - this person is emotionally attached to the company
- Why / How ? - is this person a former partner who is not happy with a new direction the organization may be going?
- Was this person promised / awarded with high rewards compared to initial baseline
expectations than what the company initially had? Now that that the business is maturing the expectations are different? So a change in star status????
- Since yours may still be a fledgling organization you may not have a formal HR setup and everyone maybe viewing themselves as having potential ownership of the company, though in reality there may be only one or two real owners.
- No matter where you are or what you do a - 'friend' is never perceived as a - 'boss' or 'mentor', so don't try to become a 'boss' now after being a 'friend'. You will usually be ignored at best and / or be viewed with antagonism and being arrogant otherwise.
My suggestion is to have a peer of your's have a formal heart to heart talk with this associate and plant a seed of separation on either a voluntary or involuntary basis. Sometimes even the office grapevine has it's uses in resolving such issues. This way if and when you finally discuss the separation issue directly it will not come as a surprise to this individual as then it would be viewed as inevitable since others in the work place knew of it also.
Lastly, I can't imagine having dead weight around as you imply is good for the company bottom-line, so also mention that the organization's finances cannot support operational inefficiencies therefore separation would be the most mutually beneficial option. Keep the discussion focussed on the organizational needs and expectations, do not delve into personal issues, habits, or behaviour as this would be counter-productive.
Be firm, but compassionate. Offer a personal recommendation to assist with new endevours if the person requests and keep it brief and business oriented. Hopefully, your friendship will survive this incident."
Sample of my musings on Linked In - 3
Greed is good. But what’s better than greed?
“Having your CAKE and being ABLE TO EAT IT !
Greed is only a CONCEPT, a means to an end... THE CAKE !
If you never get the CAKE, and always keep running after it - You are labeled GREEDY !
Those that have are - CONTENT, those that don't have are - GREEDY !
CONTENTMENT IS BLISS !!!!!!!!!”
