Surviving In the Corporate Jungle

..So you had a bright academic career, were picked up on the campus (on day one or two) & joined the company of your dream? Right? Well, even if the answer is no, don’t lose heart.  Bright academics doesn’t necessarily translate into a great career!

Here are some tips (which I learned through trial and error, many a times at a big cost!) which may be useful for anybody with work-experience less than 5 years or someone who will be joining in a year or two.

Before you sign on the dotted line –

When you look for a job or change in job (proverbial – greener pastures), more than just the salary package, you should be really looking for following things –

·         How is the company doing? (Market performance, financial stability etc.)

·         What will be your role?  Your responsibilities?

·         What is the potential for growth within the organization?

·         Does that role/skills have market outside? (else, you become trapped in the same organization)

·         Is the title commensurate with your role? (Many companies provide fancy titles. I have seen many employees, not able to change jobs, just because their current titles are too heavy for the miniscule role they are playing & they got so much used to lofty titles that they can’t accept another job with lesser one)

Find out your DNA - 

It is very important to find out what kind of organization suits you best.  e.g. a MNC of global repute may bring in lot of structure, lot of procedures in everything you do, right from what kind of training (internal/external)  you need to undergo to meticulous career planning to a refined performance appraisal (including 360 degree feedback). It will put you on some world-renowned projects, your international travel could be business class (well, take the last one with a pinch of salt!). Now look at the flip side. You could be working on a project like, say, Boeing, but could be a part of 170+ team, working in some corner in third shift for months (or even years, in some cases)! For any simple thing, there could be N approvals you may have to take, flexibility could be too much to ask for & the tall hierarchy (from entry level to CEO) could be of 15 layers ..!

Compare this to working in a start-up or a smaller organization (or as some say, tier-two, tier-three company).  Here you may like it or not, they will put bigger responsibilities on your shoulder (almost from month one, if not day one). You can’t hide in a corner here. Whatever good or bad you perform, you’re visible to the top-brass. And if you’re a performer, well, then I may sound clichéd but yes, sky is the limit! But note, there won’t be much of a structure (if you ask for one, they may ask you to make one!), training will be on-the-job (in plain words, forget training. You’re deployed for work! Learn it somehow & deliver). And they can’t afford the overheads of putting you in a Hilton on a business trip.

You can’t choose your boss –

People leave managers & not organizations! 

So no matter what kind of organization it is, there is one person, who will impact your career growth (in either direction) greatly & that happens to be your immediate manager!  And yes, you may do quite some research before joining a new Organization but you can’t do much when it comes to your boss.

So, once you start working with him, it is important to find out what kind of person/professional he is.  (I will just share some key-words, one or some of them could be applicable.  Micro-manager, hands-off manager, delegates too much, participative, authoritative, etc.) You need to align yourself with the personality/working-style of your manager.

Here is one more piece of advice. Refrain from using the word ‘politics’. No matter what kind of organization it is, some politics is bound to be there & you need to learn to live with it. In fact, a better name for politics is ‘group dynamics’ which is bound to be there when two or more human-beings are interacting on anything, may it be work or sports or any other activity.  If you think your boss favors someone else more than you, the fact is, that other person is in the trust-zone of your boss.  You call them soft-skills or call people-skills, but they matter most here than sheer technical skills.

Keen eye -

Besides working, keep your eyes (more than ears) wide open & observe people in your organization (from various teams, various roles and various countries). See how they work, how they communicate.

Instead of just getting awed by your CEO or COO, find out the qualities that made him the CXO-level material.  You will learn a lot more by observing. It will help not only in enhancing your career but also will provide invaluable inputs to your entrepreneurial aspirations, after few years.

Sixth sense –

Remember Intel’s Andy Grove’s famous quote? Only the paranoid survive!

Thanks to the globalization, digitization and brutal competition, no matter in which country you’re in and no matter which industry you’re in,  in course of time, your organization will acquire another company or your company will be gobbled by someone else. There could be some corporate re-structuring (due to M&A or as per management’s dictat) or plainly down-sizing.  Barring the last one, earlier mentioned events don’t impact much at a junior level.  Also, such events need not be construed as solely negative. I’ve seen many individuals’ career blossoming in spite of (or due to) such events.  But if you feel you cannot cope up with the change, then watch out for the signals & keep your parachute ready.

Running away from stress? –

As you rise up the career ladder, the stress factor is going to increase exponentially.  And all said and done, you can’t eliminate (or even minimize) stress. You need to manage stress, learn to live with it, with a smile! Remember, you need to be working for at least 20 years (assuming some of you want to retire at 50!). But think of 20 years as a marathon race (& not T-20 cricket match) You can’t burn out in first 5 years itself! If you realize that you can’t handle stress, then curb your ambitions. Period.

Don’t get tied up with one location –

Yes, all of us like to settle down in one place but at least in the first 10-15 years of your career, you need to be flexible to move to any location (within or outside India). This can not only fast-track your career but also will provide you a new experience. Your social skills / adaptability (& in turn, emotional quotient) will enhance too (& which again, provides a big intangible help to your career).

Last but not the least-

Just like you upgrade to a new model of mobile phone almost every couple of years, you need to upgrade yourself to a new skill / new role / new organization almost every couple of years else YOU become obsolete in the corporate world!

Now ..go & conquer the corporate world!!

Best Luck!!!

Embrace Change if you want Predictability..

Isn’t something wrong with the title? Sounds like oxymoron, right??

Allow me to explain…

You could be having any kind of business, may it be a Fortune-100 organization or a sole-entrepreneur working out of a garage, you would certainly be striving for YoY (year on year) growth of your top line, bottom line, market share , delivery fulfillment (reduced cycle time), customer satisfaction and so on and so forth. In fact, you would like to predict the revenue, profit margin, market share, fund-flow customer satisfaction, headcount, attrition & want to achieve it. Basically, you want a ‘Predictability’ in the business, something which should be run on auto-pilot mode. Right?

But this predictability doesn’t come on its own. To make it happen in the medium term (and or long term), you may have to do some lateral thinking, unbox the innovation, disrupt/challenge the established thought-process, challenge the current system, may it be in the form of changing your product mix/BoM/recipe, changing your distribution channels, dropping some laggard products (or even winding up some businesses) or going for aggressive acquisitions. On the other hand, ‘Love thy customer’ & ‘love the technology’, will never go out of fashion. Rather than loving technology purely from technology per se, if you love technology as an enabler of change (read, opportunity for new business), you’re bound to increase your business exponentially. And more importantly, we cannot sit on our laurels for long but we have to view the process of innovation/change on a continuous basis. The oft-quoted cliché ‘Change is the only constant’ is valid very much!

In short, be ready to initiate, accept, assimilate, embrace and propagate the change internally (& continually) to ensure PREDICTABILITY, which will sound like music to the ears of your most important external stakeholders, i.e. customers, analysts & investors!

Read to ..Lead

“Reading maketh a full man and

Writing an exact man” – Sir Francis Bacon

This quote was printed on the backside of my college Identity card (it was way back in early ‘80s).  The impressionable mind took it in the earnest spirit & I went on a reading spree; right from Irving Wallace, Robin Cook, Alistair MacLean, Jeffrey Archer, Arthur Conan Doyle to P G Wodehouse  to Asimovs of the world ! Later on, B-school opened a new frontier & I started reading management books voraciously..

In today’s world, due to the onslaught of 24*7 TV channels & the ‘always-on’ social-media network (thanks to the smartphones), the good old habit of reading has taken a backseat. (Rather, the joke often heard in this part of the world is, teenagers read only one non-academic book & that is ...‘Facebook’! J) The Gen-Next of India (as well as from the most part of the world) might be knowing the center-forward of Man-U club but will fail to give even two names of books they read last year! 

And today when the boundaries of the world are rapidly shrinking and when the outsourcing shifted focus from ‘why’ to ‘how much’, the flat world’s economy necessitates its knowledge workers to be much smarter & well-read than ever before! When many projects are getting executed from offshore (even without a single Onsite visit of 90% of the team), the client knows an offshore team-member  and forms an impression only from what s/he is talking and from the way s/he is writing, expressing in  conf. calls, email exchange. So, communication has attained the crucial importance, from ‘nice-to-have’ to ‘must-have’ kind of soft skill.  But unlike the technical skills, some of which can be mastered in a couple of weeks (of course if sustained efforts are put in), communication skills is a different ball game.

Enhancement of communication skills is a very slow process & the desired results are obtained only after years of consistent efforts put in the right direction.  Reading right kind of books will expedite that process.  Most of the management books offer a deep insight on management, changing paradigms, latest in management/technical/social trends (say, how many of you know “SMAC”?), provide  real-life examples / case-studies / testimonials on successes (and excesses & failures).

Here are some of the books I read & found them to be extremely interesting –

1.       The 7 habits of highly effective people – Stephen Covey

2.       The world is flat – Thomas L. Friedman

3.       Lateral thinking – Edward De Bono

4.       Fish – Stephen Ludin

5.       How to win friends and influence people – Dale Carnegie

6.       The tipping point – Malcolm Gladwell

7.       Straight from the guts – Jack Welch

8.       Tough times never last but tough people do – Robert Schuler

9.       In search of excellence – Tom Peters

10.   I'm OK, You're OK - Thomas A Harris

11.   Harvard Business Review on Leadership

12.   It happened in India – Kishore Biyani

13.   Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish – Rashmi Bansal

14.   Connecting the dots – Rashmi Bansal

15.   The monk who sold his Ferrari – Robin Sharma

16.   The leader who had no title – Robin Sharma

17.   The wings of fire – APJ Kalam

The above list is only a partial list taken from an ocean of books, the best-sellers getting published every year, almost every day! Nevertheless, there is no need to rush through all these books mentioned. Even if a couple of books are read every quarter (and no matter in which form, hard-copy / Tab / Kindle), a sound beginning is surely made.  You may also want to choose one of the self-help books you liked most.. to follow it. Also, like the ‘ice bucket challenge’, share the list of good book you read & challenge your friend/co-worker to share his/her read.

If one augments the habit of reading above kind of books by watching right kind of TV programs (like the panel-discussions on NDTV, CNBC, CNN, BBC et al) and or watch You Tube podcasts (like TED Talk) , the mind is sure going to get enriched & so will be the communication and the thought-process! Slowly but surely, the transformation would be happening toward becoming a better professional,.. a better leader!

Happy reading!! ..And Happy Leading!!!

 *Disclosure – I don’t have any holdings in Crossword/Landmark/Walden Book stores/any publisher of any of the books mentioned above J  (..And how I wish J J) 

The Heart of the matter (rather, matter of the heart)!

If the heart flutters in one’s teenage or 20’s, we all know what could be the possible reasonJ

But if the heart flutters or skips a beat in 40’s (& not for the same reason!), then it is a matter of great concern! And what better time than Valentine’s Day to shed light on this grey area!

And why not? Globalization, convergence of IT & communication industries have created millions of new jobs, new opportunities all over the world but the competition also has increased exponentially. Time zone for some countries (like India, Philippines) is proving to be the boon (for getting the offshore/back-office work) and also the bane (need to work in US time zone while living in India) for millions of employees in IT & ITES/BPO industry.   For most, experience is becoming a liability at some point of time in the career. (But that would be a different topic of discussion) . You could be in IT, healthcare, BFSI, manufacturing or entertainment industry, one common thread amongst all of working population is the increased stress level.  And the sad part is, a majority of the workforce is not even aware of how that stress is taking a toll on their health! And this is happening in many cases right from early 30’s! Heart-attack is proving to be the number one silent killer amongst all life-style related diseases.  This article is a sincere attempt to create the awareness (& that’s why I’m posting this non-technical article on my blog as an exception) & provide some help.

·         First things first – Once you reach 40, get your haemogram (including lipid profile, glucose,  T3, T4, TSH, vit. B12 & D2/D3) done every year without fail. It is ok to be ridiculed as hypochondriac than repent when it is too late..  And if the doctor prescribes, go for ECG, stress test (& 2D-Doppler or angiography etc. in rare cases).

·         Let’s dispel some misconceptions - Being slim or underweight doesn’t mean you won’t have high cholesterol.  Yes, in most cases high cholesterol could be due to dietary habits and or stress, but it could also be hereditary. Or, your body just could be creating more cholesterol (& which you could be blissfully unaware of).  Find out your body fat as a percentage of your weight.

·         Beware of stress - While we can’t eliminate stress, we should be at least aware of it & try to minimize it. Spending quality time with family, engaging in hobbies (like gardening), playing with kids & pets , soothing music, watching comedy movies are some of the proven ways of lowering stress. Learn to enjoy happiness out of little things in life; celebrate even small achievements with near ones.  Acid test to check whether you are under stress –Did you laugh heartily, at least once last week, if not today?

·         Breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince & dinner like a pauper -  If one follows this advice, more than 50% of the battle against cardiovascular diseases is won! But in South Asia (& mostly India), people follow the exactly opposite routine.  They eat no breakfast, some working lunch & a very heavy dinner (mostly after 9 pm), watch some TV program & then sleep. No wonder, all that food gets converted into fat in no time.  And as expected, that spicy biryani or pizza (& a whole of lot of oily/spicy stuff we indulge in), alcohol & tobacco are certainly NO-NO.

·         Quantity & quality of sleep – This is very important. You could be running for hours on treadmill or running marathons regularly and having the best of healthy food intake but if you sleep only for 4-5 hours on a daily basis, you’re certainly increasing chances of heart attack! 7 to 8 hours of sleep is a MUST for working adults. Believe me, the old gem of ‘early to bed, early to rise’ will never go out of fashion!

·         Cardiovascular exercise – You need to sweat it out for the sweet victory over cholesterol. Depending on your age & weight, you should choose at least one of the cardio exercises like 45 minutes brisk walking/jogging/treadmill, swimming or aerobic dance. Should do this for at least 4 days a week. 

I’ve put above observations out of my own experience. But what works for John, may not work for Jane or even James! So, consult a good cardiologist if the lipid profile shows aberrations & follow the medication/instructions/exercise.  And of course, change your life style, as most probably s/he would advise you!

Last but not the least… Happy Valentine’s Day J

Ten ‘MUST-HAVE’ Apps

How time flies.. My journey with mobile phone (literally J ) began in ’97 when I was in Singapore.  That time, the popular term was cellular phone.  It was a simple Nokia phone, nevertheless I used to treat it as a prized possession! Changed few more Nokia devices before moving to Blackberry, and the BB love-affair continued for 7-8 long years before the sleek iPhone captured my attention.. finally !

In the meantime, the convergence of IT with telecom industry was happening, ICT became the buzzword. Mundane mobile phone became smart phone & then came millions of apps promising us to make smarter J

And believe me, I took quite some time (call it neophobia, which plainly means fear of learning new things J )  before venturing into the wonderland of Apps!  And considering there are still thousands of people (or could be millions) who don’t know whom to ask or who think ‘what-is-the-big-deal’, here are ten Apps which sure will change your life .. for better, ..just like I discovered!  So, here we go..

1.       Contact Snap –  Assuming you’re in the corporate world for 10+ years, you would have accumulated at least 100 business cards of various contacts. And if you’re in sales, you know how difficult it becomes to manage business card album & find out the right contact when needed. This app lets you scan the business card, it gets stored as a contact with all the necessary info right from phone numbers, email id to office address without any efforts.

2.       CamScanner  - Many a times, we have a need of scanning documents (certificates / ids / license , medical report etc). This software provided provides a much better quality scan, than compared to taking just picture of the document. It also enables you to email the scanned document & related stuff

3.       SportsTracker – So you’re worried about your new year resolution related to weighty matter or cholesterol? This app will help you in achieving that. It lets you record your walking / jogging, shows entire path in a map, maximum speed, total distance covered in walking/jogging, time taken & calories burnt. It saves each walk/run as a workout record so you can see the progress over the days.

4.       MoneyControl -  This is a good app (by CNBC, TV18) I’ve been using since long. It not only gives the stock portfolio overview, day’s gain etc. but also rich analysis of any scrip listed on BSE/NSE.

5.       Currency – This simple but useful app quickly tells you the conversion rate from Dollar or Euro  (or for that matter, any currency) to any other currency. Typically when we’re working on the proposals involving global clients, this app comes handy (or, when you want to valuate your holdings parked in foreign banks J )

6.       Google maps – You need to use it to believe it!  Going from point A to point B was never easier! My friend from US was amazed seeing me using it in Chennai! May it be Chennai or Chicago (or Chechnya), it works like a charm.  A great tool for us men who are somehow hesitant asking driving directions to strangers!

7.       Quora – You always had some question (anything under and beyond the Sun, from humanities to literature to sports to management to sciences etc. etc.) but never knew whom to ask; right? Well, google is there, but Quora does a far better job. The quality of answers is pretty good. You can save some questions/answers & can again read when you have time. Whatever your question may be, chances are someone had already asked it & someone had answered it too!

8.       Dictionary – Comes handy especially when you work in media, content prep, ad agency or when you just have the flair for writing & are looking for that good word ..! Quick test –what is insouciant :-?

9.       Saavn – For the Bollywood music buffs a great app. Has all genres from duets to sad songs to gazals to dance numbers..

10.   Zomato – If you’re one who is a heavy business traveller (or leisure traveller), this app would tell you the great eating places in the town. Lists restaurants neatly under various categories, like seaside, late night eats, Sunday brunches etc.  So you know where to pamper your taste-buds..!

And then there are the usual social media Apps (FB/WA/Instagram/Twitter) & some other hugely popular apps like YouTube & Skype which everybody is aware of, so I didn’t include them here. 

My simple criteria was, the novelty factor, does it boost productivity & is it a free app J

‘Appy Times are here to stay!  Join the bandwagon!!

Disclaimer – I don’t have any stakes in any of the organizations (owner/developer of aforementioned Apps). And how I wish ..J

Corporate Governance, Risk & Compliance

The Dotcom boom of late 90’s, also saw some major corporate scams like Worldcom, Enron & Adelphi.  Some national headlines in US media (“Data theft at nuclear plant went unnoticed for six months” – June 10 , 2006 New York Times, XYZ Manufacturer violates EU pollution laws” – July 06 2006 CIO Tech Informer “US imposes record $100 Million penalty for export control violations” – March 27, 2007 Washington Post, etc.) would accentuate the changed milieu.  This necessitated a major emphasis on data security & vigorous audits (financial / system audits).  Sarbanes-Oxley (commonly called as SOX) act came into existence.  (The sections of the bill cover responsibilities of a public corporation's board of directors, adds criminal penalties for certain misconduct, and requires the Securities and Exchange Commission to create regulations to define how public corporations are to comply with the law).  There was a growing need of more transparent corporate governance, a well-designed whistle-blower policy framework & detail audit log (of who did what & when).

IT firms took these challenges into cognisance & turned it into opportunity to come up with security solutions, seamlessly integrated with organizations’ ERP softwares.  ERP players like SAP acted upon it swiftly & integrated security solutions into SAP under a growing niche product suite called GRC (Governance, Risk & Compliance). SAP’s GRC 10.1 suite handles it through 3 sub-modules of 

Access Control, Process Control & Risk Management.

·         Access Control – It involves managing user roles, who will (& who can) do what in the systems. The principle of Segregation of Duties (SoD) needs be considered while providing access. A simple example of SoD is, never to provide the same user access of creating new vendors as well as issuing/printing cheques.  Giving too little access to user hinders work, whereas giving too much access attracts risk, so due care needs to be taken while designing access control. It also involves super user management & emergency access management.

·         Process Control – This involves checks and balances built into the business processes to avoid/minimize occurrences of fraudulent activities. There are three different types of controls need to be designed: Preventive Controls, Detective Controls & Corrective Controls. The other way to look at building a healthy internal control environment is, following below 5 steps.  1. Documentation 2. Testing 3. Remediation 4. Analysis 5. Optimization.  (The details under each will be covered in a separate article)

·         Risk Management – It helps reduce the risk of failing to comply with the regulations for financial reporting, trade regulations, factory act/s & environmental protection. At a very high level, Risk Management involves:  Identify the risks, analyse the risks, identify risk owners & coordinate responses.

Considering the growing need of ERP-agnostic solutions, many IT consulting companies (like Infor Approva, Greenlight Corp etc) came up with GRC solutions which complement the ERP software (like SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics) or seamlessly integrate with it. 

If we talk of India, the Indian corporate world was shaken by Satyam scam, Reebok India & a recent case in India’s top IT firm. In India, Clause 49 came into existence from 31st Dec 2005, for the improvement of corporate governance of all listed companies. (Which entails - It would be necessary for Chief Executives and Chief Financial Officers to establish and maintain internal controls and implement remediation and risk mitigation towards deficiencies in internal controls, among others)

In short, the question ‘Do-I-need-to-implement-GRC’ is no more relevant. Instead it should be, “What are we going to implement under GRC and when?”