Why do we need a Vision?
By Sujit Mundul
"Not much happens without a dream. And for something great to happen, there must be a big dream. Behind every great achievement is a dreamer of great dreams. Much more than a dreamer is required to bring it to reality; but the dream must be there first."
- Robert K. Greenleaf
The Servant as Leader
As an extension to my earlier article I would like to link this writing to reinforce the concept of inspirational leadership. It is believed that Shakespeare presented Henry V to us as an example of a great leader and achieving a great dream. Like many leaders, Henry's actions are open to interpretations; a contrasting point of view is eminently possible. Henry could be a symbolic young hungry leader who manipulates his advisors to tell him what he wants to hear and seeks to end internal differences by attacking a common enemy. In other words, an aggressive takeover bid.
It has been noticed that some seminar participants are reluctant to even enter into the conversations about vision. This is typically due to past experience of bullying tyrants who regardlessly impose their views on others. So one needs to make a crucial distinction between those whose primary goal is to serve themselves and their career; and those who genuinely work for the common good; to leave the world a better place.
I think Henry belongs to the latter category. The difference between inspiration and manipulation is often as simple as whether you agree with what is being said. Imagine sitting with a friend watching a political party conference. If one of you supports the party in question, and the other opposes it, the chances are that the supporter will feel inspired and the opposer manipulated by the same words being spoken by the same person. The difference is whether you believe it.
One of the difficulties of standing up for a particular dream is that some people will assume you are trying to manipulate them for your own purpose. If that thought embarrasses us then we may avoid situations where this energy is called for. So we deny ourselves the opportunity of living a big dream and may just sit around complaining that there are no inspiring leaders nowadays. But in the words of the great German writer Goethe, "Whatever you can do, or dream you can, Begin it! Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now!"
When people are asked what act of Henry V most interests them, the majority usually goes for Act 4 - surviving the "dark night of the soul" and inspiring the troops. It is then logical to assume that the only way to survive the dark night is to have a clear sense of why you started your big project in the first place. If you don't know how the project is serving the vision, there will be no way through to the light of dawn.
Richard Oliver says:
Vision is seeing the potential purpose hidden in the chaos of the moment, but which could bring to birth new possibilities for a person, a company, or a nation.
Vision is seeing what life could be like while dealing with life as it is.
Vision deals with those deeper human intangibles that alone give ultimate purpose to life.
(Mundul is a CEO of Standard Chartered Bank Nepal Ltd.)
Making Partnerships Work For You
By Manohar Man Shrestha
“I hear you started a business,” I asked Uddhav. His answer was a Yes. "Is it a partnership?" I asked again. He said, "Solo. Partnerships don't work in Nepal ."
"So how is business, Ranjan?" I asked another friend. He replied that he had quit. "But why?" I asked again. He replied, "I was doing all the work while my partners just came in to take their share of the money I had earned. They were doing other things and I was looking after the business full-time. Then they were having greater expectations from me and none from themselves. Finally, I realised I was better off on my own, so I decided to quit. Still, it was hard to get back my investment in the business so I had to settle for half."
"Prakash, why are you starting another establishment? Your college is doing so well and you have put so much effort and time into it." I asked my client. He kept quiet. So I pressed on, "Please tell me why, may be there is something my readers can learn from you."
"Well, the chief partner treated us as if we were deadwood. Little does he know about all the work we had to do behind the scene! He wants to take all the credit and boss around all his partners as if they were his employees. So, rather than stay, educate him and get into arguments with him, three of us decided to get out and start on our own. We want to make the new establishment outshine his."
Such is the grim reality of partnerships in Nepal . What is the cause?
Partnerships are all about teamwork. As a management consultant, my diagnosis on these three cases is: lack of expertise in team building amongst the partners and the subsequent breach of many fundamental principles that create and sustain team spirit and magic. Following is my prescription to revive the esprit de corps and team chemistry in your partnerships.
Defining a team is like looking at the tip of an iceberg. The definition is so small compared to what the word really means. Yet if you need to have a definition, this one would be a good one: It is a group whose individual efforts result in a performance that is greater than the sum of the individual inputs, as Stephen Robbins, best-selling management textbook author, says. In other words, a team is a collection of individuals who work together so that one plus one plus one is equal to more than four. Thus it is a group in which there is synergy. Don't be fooled by the simplicity of the definition. In how many instances have you seen this definition apply in real teams at work? Most likely, you will say 'a few'. This is because 90 per cent of the iceberg is underwater.
"Team" became a management jargon after 1970s when some multi-national-corporations decided to try the concept out in their processing plants and guess what: it worked. Now, the word ‘team’ is part of our management curricula. Yet the idea of team is not so young. It is over 5,000 years old!
The Pandavas in the Mahabharata were a team of five. They were against 101 Kauravas. Despite being less in number, the Pandavas defeated the Kauravs on numerous occasions and during the war at Kurukshetra. How was that possible? Was it because Lord Krishna was on their side or because they were on the side of truth? I say it is because of extraordinary compliance to the basics of teamwork that they achieved such feats. These basics are:
Each partner must have a special skill: Arjun was an expert bowman, Bhim was the strongest and Yudhisthirata was especially wise. Most people get this part of team building right. Take the example of Prakash's college. At the beginning, the chief partner made a list of the skills (besides the money) required to run such a big and ambitious project and then he got them in. So, there was a partner expert in the technicalities of education, another in the methodology of best teaching, another in public relationships, another in financial management. The selection was so good that the college soon became an unavoidable brand in its category. Still the partnership failed in the end because the second fundamental principle was breached.
Equal sharing of the fruits of success and failure: Arjun won the hand of Draupadi in marriage and upon reaching home his mother ordered him to share her with his four brothers. Draupadi thus becomes the symbol of unity. Without faithful obedience to this law of teamwork, no partnerships will survive. Easier said than done. If you don't believe me, ask the famous MaHa duo. Their partnership could not have lasted so many decades if they had not followed this rule. In an interview, I heard them state this step as a secret of their lasting partnership.
A real estate company called the Ekta Group had fulfilled both of the above basics. Their partnership seemed almost ideal. Their vision was to outshine the category leader Civil Homes and subsequently become super rich very quickly. So they ventured into huge projects that demanded taking of huge risks: financial, physical and social. They raised a huge amount of capital from the market of private investors requiring nothing but assurance of trust and signing a piece of paper. At the beginning, they were doing great. It reminded me of a joke that goes this way. A foolish man unbelieving in what others said, decided to jump off a skyscraper. Having reached the third storey he said, "It was all a lie. I have come down over 50 storeys and nothing has happened to me!" We all know what his fate was.
A similar twist of fate happened to the Ekta Group. Up to their neck with funds invested in land and without any signs that the land would be sold any time soon and more funds required to complete another big project, they were unable to service their debt. Thus having lost credibility in the market with their phone ringing constantly for pay-back and contractors suing them for late payment, they started running hither and thither to woo banks and financial companies, but all in vain. All of this was because they did not follow the third and very important yet equally neglected fundamental of teamwork:
Mix of nine-personality types: The problem with the Ekta Group was that all the partners shared two common personality types. First, all of them were risk loving. What would give heart attacks to most of us, was a ride in the park for them. They all had a positive outlook. They were the type that say, "Everything will work out." That is true on a small scale, but on the scale they were operating, such a mentality was suicidal. Then one half of the group was highly creative, bringing in new ideas all the time, one bigger and more daunting than the last. The other half constituted followers who only saw the 'big return on the risk taken' side. In such a big group there was not a single person who was of the suspicious type. There was no one saying, "Yes, but … what about if things don't work out as we think it should… What is our back up, what is the safety net?"
The Singapore government and many MNCs used to commission, Steve Morris Associates (the company I worked with) on team maintenance contracts. The job was to complete team fitness surveys of their top teams, to see if all the nine personality types identified by an Australia-based management research firm called TMS (Team Management System) were present in the teams. Then we had to find out which member showed what personality type and whether they were assigned the correct role based on it. Finally, we had to train the team so that it made use of all the nine-personality types, one to avoid any disaster like in the Ekta Group because those teams were in charge of handling billions of dollars, and to make sure they exceeded targets set to the team. Do you think this is a luxury of rich nations and organisations? Don't. They are hard-nosed businessmen. Such consulting contracts to maintain teamwork in their top teams are insurance policies for success.
But slowly, in Nepal too, the idea of taking up management consulting is catching on. With my current company, Standard Icon, we aim to make it part of the organisational growth like advertisement. Till a few years back, even advertisement was considered a waste of money like on training and management consulting today. But economic development, training and management consulting go hand in hand. It is just not enough to educate our workforce. They must be trained and guided all the way. Did you know that the Internet that gives a turnover of trillions of dollars yearly, was the result of one million dollars invested in research about 30 years ago by the US government? My point is, it is now time that in Nepal too organisations invest in research, consulting and training like the big boys do.
So, what are the nine-personality types? In football there are various positions. There is the goalkeeper, the defence, the mid-field, the wings, the scorers, the coach and the manager. Each of them is crucial to the game. But what is the equivalent of this layout in management teams? Next, each of these positions requires particular personality types. For example, the goalkeeper must be someone who doesn't take nonsense. He should be a Mr. Perfect. The scorer must be a go-getter, a bit selfish, loving the limelight. If the defence had a personality type of the scorer then the team will surely lose. None of the players want to share the knowledge so they have a competitive advantage. It is not simply because they don't have time. Rather it is because of their preference. That is why each team has a coach who loves advicing. So each position has its own personality type. According to TMS, management teams too, like football teams, have positions and personality types corresponding to each position. Below is a table comparing the nine-personality types.
I think the table says it all. The creator in the team is the one who comes up with innovative ideas. Such people come up with new ideas all the time -- as they wake up, at breakfast, at lunch, at dinner and till it is time to sleep. The promoter is the one that champions the creator's best ideas. He is of the supportive, action-oriented type. The assessor is the guy the Ekta Group missed. Such a person raises fingers, points to possibilities of failure and analyses the situation. He is of the analytical, thinker type. The organiser cuts through all the hype and doom, and arranges for things to happen. He is masterful, silent and a genius. The producers are those who get the job done. They are the no-nonsense type. The controller stops work that doesn't meet the standard. He is meticulous and a perfectionist. The maintainer's job is to liaise with people outside the team and make sure there is peace and no war with other teams or departments. He loves talking and networking. The advisor must stay aloof, see the team on a macro-level and thereby guide its course of actions. He is well read, and a think tank plus he loves to help people with his intellect. The linker has to keep together, for the common good of the company, all the above eight types of people who under normal circumstances bite each other's ears as they are so different.
Here is another table. On the left column please enter the name of your team members and link them to one or more of the personality type they match:
So are all the roles of a fully functional management team fulfilled by your team or partnership? In the next table please check if your partners have the skill diversity needed.
Finally do you share the following equally with your partners?
In conclusion, making a great partnership work is not rocket science. Follow the three fundamental principles of team chemistry mentioned above: your team will succeed and last for a very long time.
Integrating CSR with core business strategy
By Jwolit Budhathoki
In fact, social strategic choices can be the best way for the firm to find a suitable position in the industry and it can provide an entirely new dimension to the way of doing business.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become a buzz word in the business world, whether or not the business houses have realised its true value. We see lots of organisations donating to the deprived and addressing various social problems. But the major question is, what benefits are they realising and are these activities in alliance with their core business strategy? They claim to get full advantage of their expenses made in such activities but whether they are able to term these expenses as an investment is still questionable.
Actually, CSR is all about maintaining a proper balance between various stakeholders, namely owners, customers, employees, the government and the society. When we analyse the value distribution between these various stakeholders, we can see that most business houses do not maintain a proper balance. Firms are pretty much focused on owners and return on their investment has always remained the first target. With the increasing recognition of human resource management, employees are valued as key resource. Similarly, the government is gaining its share of value in terms of taxes and other charges exercised through legal provisions. And the customers are always at the centerstage. Still, during this whole value distribution process, the society has been left far behind.
The major challenge of the CSR is whether the business will be able to get the return on expenses that it makes in these activities, i.e. turning the expense into investment. This concern is restricting the firms from moving ahead in this area. The concept of CSR has not been able to grow beyond philanthropy, mainly in our part of the world. So the return from investment in CSR is unseen, unrealised and questionable. Businesses may get certain benefits from engaging in CSR up to a level, maybe in the form of influence, image or by feeling good about ‘doing good’ for the society. But the true value of CSR is far beyond this as it has the capacity to bring strategic thrust and give a direction to the organisation as a whole by influencing the decisions while making strategic choices. After all, corporate level strategies directly determine the path for the organisation and strategic choice is more likely to be successful if the strategy is considerate of each stakeholder. And it is insufficient to say that social responsibility detracts from a firm’s primary obligation of financial success. Increasingly, profit maximising strategies need to be supported by CSR considerations. This requires the CSR to be executed in a planned way by bringing it into the ‘strategic arena’.
CSR needs to be integrated in core business strategies if a company is to survive in the present global insecurity. Putting corporate responsibility principles into practice, however, can be difficult and many organisations struggle to justify the management of social and environmental affairs in terms of business benefits. So what could be the strategic benefits of CSR then? Actually, it is a matter of whether the business decision makers see stakeholders as threats or opportunities while conducting their businesses activities and formulating strategies. It is reflected in the corporate response to social issues as strategic choice. The management can choose strategic options with respect to social responsibility. In fact, social strategic choices can be the best way for the firm to find a suitable position in the industry and it can provide an entirely new dimension to the way of doing business.
CSR is a continuous learning process for the organisation. Any organisation can learn from the best practices in the industry or even outside it. In the Nepali context, we can take examples of organisations which have been executing CSR in a planned way. Their main effort has been to strike a balance between CSR and business strategy. But they are still at the learning process.
To find the roots of competitive advantage, an organisation has to go deep into its own value chain through extreme self assessment. This helps the organisation analyse the role of various stakeholders which ultimately enables it to maintain a proper balance between each of them. Actually, this will help the organisation to identify if it is being able to deliver any value to the society. It can also identify how the organisation can turn these efforts in CSR into financial success.
The major benefits of social strategic moves are operational cost savings through environmental efficiency measures; enhanced reputation through positive responses to stakeholder concerns; increased ability to recruit and retain staff; sharper anticipation and management of risk; and improved capacity to learn and innovate. This not only helps the organisation to find the competitive platform by identifying new markets but also leads to continuous development and helps in gaining trust of the financial markets.
Stakeholders today are looking at the social and environmental performance of all parties in a product’s life cycle, from extraction to end-of-life. Association with non-responsible companies through the supply chain can pose a real threat to an organisation’s long run survival. This has necessitated that organisations frame their strategies by integrating social issues. So, for instance, if the firm identifies that its strategic success lies in pursuing a low cost strategy, then it should identify the impact on the entire stakeholders including the society. This, in turn, will support strategic success by providing efficiency, trust and continuous learning.
The inclusion of a social dimension will certainly widen the entire strategy formulation process and will make it more dynamic and adaptable to environmental changes. It will enable the organisation to realise the value of even a single rupee invested in the form of CSR by bringing it into the ‘strategic arena’. So both these activities will move in a single direction and support each other. Although assessing the effectiveness of CSR efforts is often qualitative and difficult to measure and quantify, the benefits are certain, sustainable and enduring.
(Budhathoki is pursuing MBA degree)
