doHow

I got a very interesting insight last week as I remembered my German stay for almost 8 years. The majority of the society there demonstrates a self-driven desire to perfect whatever they are doing. In Brazil, where I stayed for 5 years, on the other hand one finds a way out through the “Jeitinho Brasileiro”. In India we talk about the “Jugad”.

In the colloquial day to day English in India, whenever we want to delegate writing a letter, we first ask “Do you know how to write a letter?” and then at times “Can you please write a letter? In Brazil one asks “Vôce sabe como escrever uma carta?” and then ask “Pode escrever uma carta por favor? Whereas in Germany one asks directly „Können sie einen Brief schreiben?” – no one asks „Wissen Sie einen  Brief schreiben?“, which is gramatically inappropriate.

In German the usage of the verb “Know” is grammatically inappropriate when it involves “Doing”!!! Whereas in the colloquial day to day English in India and in Brazil usage of the verb “Know” when “Doing” is involved is quite natural. This is when I realised that in almost all the trainings that we attend in India mainly Knowhow is imparted, in some programs with some simulations and exercises for the “doHow” though. However there is hardly any program where only the “doHow” training is done on the job.

Supporting this grammatical phenomenon, the vocational training in Germany and many European countries is quite matured and the focus is just the “doHow” with Knowhow being an obvious part of the “doHow”. Unfortunately in India even the Diploma institutes and Industrial Training Institutes generate graduates who have good knowhow but lack “doHow” resulting in the competency gap that one keeps discussing and debating in all forums.

 
With this insight when I thought of the way skills were imparted in the good olden days all over the world, it was quite insightful that the main focus was on the “doHow”.

On the other hand, I realised that in today’s world of extreme competition, free access to knowhow through internet and the drive to get quick returns, using mobile technology posing challenging questions that one can answer during the normal working can result in a “doHow” revolution.

Now my challenge is to start the “doHow” revolution and achieve Sustainable Profitable Growth. I will surely share my experience with “doHow”. 

Scarce Resources for Sustainable Profitable Growth

Scarce Resources in general is a result of demand exceeding supply. It was quite enlightening to me, as I recently read a book on economics, that this condition is the source of any business activity. Scarcity breeds businesses and drives progress of our civilisation.

What about competing businesses? The ONLY differentiator between competing businesses is the efficiency of the usage of these scarce resources.

1.        Relevant products and services (including the raw materials)

2.        Leadership bandwidth

3.        Right employees

4.        Willing customers/clients

5.        Knowhow both tacit and explicit

6.        Time to implement an idea

7.        Investors for finance

8.        Partnering vendors

9.        Office and production facilities

10.    Cooperative society

I have further explained each of these scarce resources and identified the key question as well as a rhythm to ask this question.

1. Relevant products and services (including the raw materials)

The most important scarce resource for a business is the availability of appropriate and relevant products and services to meet or fulfil a need, both explicitly stated and implicitly prevalent.

Key Question: Value Innovation?

Rhythm: Once in 3Y

2. Leadership bandwidth

The leadership bandwidth is a very common scarce resource for a business, especially due to us human beings commonly not being able to generate time for the important but generally not urgent tasks.

Key Question: Focus Areas – Maximum 5?

Rhythm: Annual

3. Right employees

I’m sure getting the right employees on board is a humongous challenge for any business due to the gap between what the organisation can offer and what the employee expects and inversely what the organisation expects and the employee can offer.

Key Question: Passionate and Enthused?

Rhythm: Quarterly

4. Willing customers/clients

It is quite obvious that willing customers and clients who are ready to use the products and services is always a major scarce resource irrespective of the life-cycle of an organisation, be it a start-up or a fully matured organisation in its milking stage.

Key Question: Value Perception?
Rhythm: Monthly

5. Knowhow both tacit and explicit

Knowhow of products, services, processes and practices is one of the key scarce resources which many a times is not very explicit, especially because of the gap between knowing and doing – we quite regularly believe knowing without doing and thus base our decision or inaccurate knowledge.

Key Question: Repeat Failures?

Rhythm: Monthly

6. Time to implement an idea

Time necessary to implement any new idea or change of course is a very scarce resource, especially to stay ahead of the competition.

Key Question: Waiting Time?

Rhythm: Monthly

7. Investors for finance

As we all know if we pull up all the available finance in our society, finance should not really be a scarce resource at all. However finance becomes a perennial scarce resource, since finding those investors who are interested in the respective business and are prepared to lend at affordable interest rates is quite a challenge.

Key Question: ROI?

Rhythm: Monthly

8. Partnering vendors

One generally feels that buying something what we need either as direct materials, indirect raw materials or knowhow is not very difficult as long as we have the necessary finance. Feeling and reality being different, it is really quite a challenge to find abundance of vendors who are proactively interested in partnering for a long-term win-win relationship.

Key Question: Reliability and Dependability?

Rhythm: Monthly

9. Office and production facilities

Finding an appropriate and affordable space for office and production facility is equally a challenge and therefore is also a scarce resource for business.

Key Question: Utilisation?

Rhythm: Monthly

10. Cooperative society

Finally, when one wants to achieve sustainable profitable growth it is primordial that inclusive growth becomes the DNA of the business and this can only be achieved with the cooperative society that on the one hand can understand the risks associated with the business and can on the other hand equally appreciate the progress that can be achieved through the respective business.

Key Question: Media Noise?

Rhythm: Monthly

In conclusion I realised that our thinking and actions will become totally different the moment we perceive these 10 business requirements as scarce resources and closely monitor the efficiency of their usage, both objectively and subjectively, and gradually improve to achieve Sustainable Profitable Growth and contribute to the progress of our society.

Manufacturing Competetiveness

Last week on Friday, 7th November 2013, during the national quality summit organized by the CII, lot of discussions were held about the manufacturing competitiveness in India.

I thought of writing this blog to record my thoughts of the enormous HIDDEN potential we have in our country that can be harnessed to reach great heights.

I would like to start by stating our JUGAD ability as a huge strength to improvise, that we learn from a very early age due to a huge uncertainty in the daily routine. This surely is not the case with the countries dominated by manufacturing industry. Are we using this huge JUGAD potential???

Let me share my views about the competence and qualification. We all know that we need to have exceptional merit or connections, good resources,.... to get qualified. On the other hand, ones landing in Industrial Training Institutes not necessarily are incapable. Thus it is really not uncommon, especially to have the fresh graduates as front line managers with significantly less competence that the workmen. Thus the FRONT LINE MANAGERS normally have a role of leading senior and more intelligent subordinates. Even with a good lot of leadership experience this kind of a team to lead is quite challenging. Just imagining their condition and their effectiveness. It is quite interestingly different in the advanced manufacturing economies, where education in based on merit and generally the less capable ones end up as workers, making the life of Front Line Managers easier. Do our workmen need FRONT LINE MANAGERS???

In all the advanced manufacturing countries the basic livelihood is not endangered, since arbitrary firing is not easy and even if a worker were to be fired, the social security system supports in some way. Whereas in India, unfortunately, many companies, the big ones, pride themselves in flexible manpower - outsourced CONTRACT workmen who can be "Hired and Fired" at will. Some companies come up with similar models but with different terminology of "On Job Trainees", Temporaries, etc. Just imagine what would be going through a worker who is either a temporary or a contract workmen for years - sometimes > 10 Y. Will these CONTRACT workmen be engaged with the company???

Imagine how it would be when we get the workmen fully engaged by first ensuring PEOPLE QUALITY and DIGNITY before product/service quality.
Imagine how it would be if we get our workmen to take on some coordinating roles on rotation to become a SELF MANAGING TEAM without the front line manager.
Imagine a system of remuneration based on CONTINUOUS LEARNING and TEACHING using the Jugad abilities.

The enormous hidden potential can in my opinion only be released provided we relook at some conventional wisdom, like our payment systems, hierarchical structure, accountability for down stream performance, etc. You may want to check out the functional value stream, BITS and Timeout in the following L2L system presentation.

 

Sustainable Success

The saying success breeds success is very true even for organizations. Precisely this is why sustainable success with recognitions and awards is very much essential for the psychological health of the organization.

That is why I have this success factor up in my listing even before looking into how and organisation can achieve this. I would like to use the analogy of geeting good grades in school or college to put forth my point of view.

How frequently have you come across students who haven't been doing well through out the year, but get esceptionally high grades and end up with recognitions and awards. I am sure you have found some. Have these been able to repeat similar success on a sustainable basis, year after year? Now I am quite sure that you would not find anyone!

Getting recognitions and awards on a consistent basis not only gives us a pat on the back but also reinforces our approaches and gives our brain a sense of security which in results in the increase of dopamine, a simple organic chemical in our body. Increased dopamine provides a positive feeling that is conducive for further learning and discovery.

Imagine what positive energy will be flowing around in organisations with high dopamine employees!!!

How are we going to get to this stage can be answered easily if we check out the stretch we have in our targets. Are the targets stretched enough to encourage the additional learning and discovery but easy enough to sense success, get recognized for the success and get awards. Many a times it may also be necessary to choose to participate in such events where competition is not that severe, especially at the early stage of an organization wanting to become world-class.

I will explain my  though process on target setting in the Goal and Role clarity blog.

For now I want to conclude by suggesting to create an environment and set targets that are achieveable so that success can breed success.

Sustainable Performance

In organizations it is quite easy to produce exceptional results once or occasionally against all possible odds. I use the word easy due to the relative effort needed to produce exceptional results consistently on a sustainable basis. I want to share my learning to produce consistently sustainable results organizations.

1. Identify intermediate check points, when and how frequently to check
2. Establish what to check or "KPI: Key Performance Indicator" and how to calculate or arrive at this KPI
3. Define who calculates the KPI, who analyses the actual situation, forecasts the final result, compares with the target and defines the immediate containment, corrective and preventive actions.
4. Ensure that the KPI is released only after step 3 is completed.
5. Define who verifies that step is is being performed and at what frequency is this verified (once every three cycles would be preferred)
6. Assess the adherence (Steps 1 to 5) to the defined steps and modify system to ensure adherence.

Go ahead and get consistency through sustainable results in your business using the above steps. I must caution that it may take a several cycles till consistency is achieved. Apart from this consistency doesn't mean that the targets are met. Here you need to use these steps for the basic stability (SDCA) and deploy task forces to work with gaps and develop measures to reach the target (PDCA).