SMOT School Of Business

Lessons from Leaders!!

2010-12-27T03:59:00.002-08:00

N.T Arun Kumar is the Ex-CEO with Dun & Bradstreet and i was fortunate to interview him during his tenure as the CEO talking about the various challenges and the setbacks which has to be taken into consideration as a Leader. Below is the extract from the interview

1) *What are the biggest challenges you have faced to reach this position?

[ARUN]: I have had to move away from comfort zones, ‘maintenance’ roles. You see, it gets very cozy in senior roles in MNC’s and then you tend to start compromising on your ambitions and vision. I stayed focused on becoming a unique business leader, in breaking at some time soon my ‘technology-profile’ and shifting to a business profile – and to do that I’ve had to leave some cushy jobs! I believed in my unique strengths at each such change and pursued assignments that would leverage them. I joined D&B as a CIO and successfully transitioned to a business leader – thanks mostly to the opportunities I had to develop new products, meet customers (rather than do an internal technology job!), explore new geographies & markets and to participate in the business strategy rather than just execute the IT part of it! So I had to work extra, extra hard to get business’ acceptance as a leader, to get a seat at the Board as an equal as against a supporting executive. I learnt to speak the customer’s language, learnt to put business first before my department or function and finally, changed my leadership style to change my team’s attitude to business. The critical change I internalized is to be a business enabler and a customer champion and to lead from the front; to take risks that others shy away from. I also learnt the importance of trust: to trust and to earn trust – nothing is more important to a CEO than this!

2) What do you think are the pros and cons of having a situation in which there are two core CEOs rather than a single CEO?

[ARUN]: You know when I was in Citibank and Citi got acquired by Traveler’s to create Citigroup, they initially had two CEO’s. It was amusing although there was a time-bound reason for such a context – transition in the biggest M&A in the Banking world, bringing together two cultures, multiple business lines, global impact etc etc. Closer home Wipro now has two CEO’s. SAP too now has two CEOs. There are reasons for such situations that are unique to that specific organization and it cannot be generalized as good or bad. As long as the customers win, whatever works is fine! But nevertheless, internally for such organizations, it is extremely important to clarify focus areas for each CEO (geography or industry or products or business lines or skill sets based) and to draw clear boundaries so as to avoid internal confusion among employees.

3) How will you maintain a high margin at a time when clients want better prices?

[ARUN]: Innovation, Price led costing (most important) and driving efficiencies through re-usability and productivity enhancements.

4) When you look at the portfolio of businesses which you have, and you look into the future, what do you see?

[ARUN]: Lots of growth J and lots of opportunities for innovation, improvisation, market creation. We are a niche business, niche business model: we integrate 4 business lines – Credit Bureaus, Risk Management, Predictive Analytics and Information Technology – very exciting combination!

5) *Tell me something about the "new image" that your Organization is seeking.

[ARUN]: Our organization itself is new and young (setup in 2005 as a captive and became a company in 2007) so there is no need for a “new” image. We pride ourselves on our phenomenal heritage: 170 years old Dun & Bradstreet which employed 4 USA Presidents and TransUnion a leading US based Credit Information provider. Our image is one of juxtaposition of the traditional & ultra-modern, combination of global and startup and an interesting mix of very niche talent. We are agile, we are caring, we are small in size but huge in impact & value! These attributes of our “image” will continue to get strengthened.

6) What is your current assessment of the Indian economy?

[ARUN]:

7) *What was your plan of action when you took over as CEO?

[ARUN]: To create a globally successful and profitable business in the areas of Risk, Analytics and Technology, carved out of an existing captive organization. To script the vision, mission, strategy and to build a team & the organization to execute it. To infuse social responsibility in our organization’s ethos & strategy. To create a winning culture and to define our leadership agenda. And finally, to win customers! Quite a handful, right?! J I am happy to look back and see all of them achieved – thanks to my team. My Board and our shareholders have been most encouraging, empowering and supportive! I have had a dream run, so to say J

8) Where do you get your ideas, your management ideas?

[ARUN]: Everywhere J - from books that I read voraciously (and increasing eclectically!), from my colleagues (some of whom are so brilliant and daring!), from my 11 year old son (whose imagination is absolutely amazing & enviable), from invisible netizens on Twitter….I can go on and on. But mostly, to tell you the truth, I believe the best is deep inside you and being silent with yourself is the best idea generation machine one can ever get! I am learning to practice intense silence for a few hours daily…now, that’s a great idea, isn’t it?! J

9) *So what's the plan in the future? What would you like to see D & B become in the next five to ten years?

[ARUN]: Our vision is to be the most trusted partner for our stakeholders, in being able to bring together risk management, predictive analytics and technology & consulting skills to help our customers become the best for themselves and their customers. Growth in alignment of such a vision is what we are aiming at, retaining our niche.

10) In your opinion, what are the most urgent ethical issues in business today?

[ARUN]: Financial integrity and transparency of governance.

11) Why are ethical business practices so important in today's society?

AND

12) *Is ethics training just as important for working professionals? How can working professionals make better decisions on a daily basis?

[ARUN]: Absolutely important, more important than anything else. Ethical business practices are the only ones that sustain long-term. It is critical to look at our stakeholders holistically and not just at our shareholders. You know, we worked with a leading University in it’s doctoral research program in defining our model of strategic stakeholder management! Society and community development are cornerstones to a meaningful organizational & business strategy and you can’t do that without being absolutely ethical. Ethics training must be made mandatory. I remember in XLRI where I graduated from, this was given a lot of importance and the Tatas contributed actively to it. I learnt a lot from there and it left a deep impression. At D&B we have a very well defined and propagated ‘Code of Conduct’ that is our Ethics-DNA.

13) How do you think about social responsibility of the company in management decision?

[ARUN]: The two must be practiced in an inter-dependant manner. There is no alternative.

14) *As it turns out, doing good is good for business, and more companies are realizing the benefits of Socially Responsible Investments (SRIs). How is your company engaged in SRIs?

[ARUN]: We believe in – and pioneered the concept of – “Individual Social Responsibility” or ISR as against conventional model of CSR. Because we believe every individual employee MUST contribute to community service. Because, as Peter Drucker said, that’s what makes for better managers, better professionals. Human Values are the baseline for becoming good professionals too. We have seen that empathetic and socially-sensitive employees go longer miles in their commitment to work, to customers and to the organization – without being incentivized to do so! We are probably the only organization that mandates a minimum of 2 hours per month community work for our employees (it’s a HR Policy in the company and employees are assigned a performance appraisal weightage against this metric!). Please see www.dnbtransunion.com and www.idotrust.org and www.techsai.org for some interesting details J

15) *How can one find the middle path between CSR and profit maximization?

[ARUN]: As I said the two are inter-dependent and have a mutual force-multiplier effect. I believe in ISR rather than companies issuing large cheques / donations in the name of CSR. And to me quality and long-term sustainability of profits are more important than the conventional definition of “profit maximization”: social service adds those two elements to the financial health of the business.

16) In which geographical markets do you see the most growth potential for D & B?

[ARUN]: The US continues to be a huge market for us for IT and analytics. We see Asia & Africa as strong emerging potential growth areas for Credit and Risk solutions.

17) What kind of traction do you see from sectors that have been affected due to the recession?

[ARUN]: Banks & Financial Services are beginning to recover and Gartner predicts a higher IT spend in 2010-11 in this sector compared with last year. Healthcare will be big too. I also believe high-value, specialized education / learning will be a big area of growth.

18) *What do you think about recruiting Freshers? How much of importance do you give to freshers? Do you think the new blood would have something to contribute to the firm?

[ARUN]: Absolutely. Freshers do bring in energy and the perspectives of ‘next-gen’! But we are selective since we are a niche business and a niche business model – our current growth imperative calls for highly experienced specialists. We do want to create more specialists in our niche domains (Credit Bureau, Predictive Risk Analytics etc) and hence the occasional need for bright freshers – but it takes time, patience and a lot of commitment from folks beginning their careers to become credible in these fields. And that’s a huge challenge for us!

19) *Could you tell us how you are ensuring the financials stay healthy?

[ARUN]: We are a fusion of two of the best global brands in the Information Industry: Dun & Bradstreet and TransUnion. So while we have a start-up culture, in terms of our independence and agility, we enjoy the benefit of being a subsidiary of these two global organizations. Our business is captive i.e. we only serve our parent companies and their customers so our financials are predictable and extremely healthy. We have been profitable and cash-positive from the very beginning and that is a testimony to our delivery capability and our business model. Our valuation has reached 5x in less than 3 years since inception! We have a healthy business pipeline and commitment from our parent organizations.

20) *Do you think the world economy is on a way to recovery? Or is it just a temporary phase? How about in India? Is the worst over?

[ARUN]: Yes certainly (on way to recovery), though the recovery will be a slow, painful process. We are already seeing turn-around especially in export oriented sectors in India (e.g. IT/ITeS Services). What is happening in the US and specifically in the Banking/Financial Services industry is more long-drawn out and no, the worst is not yet over, it is just pulling along slowly upwards. India, I believe, is strong – our economy is growing in a robust manner and by & large the financial sector was immune to the blows from the US. A lot of companies, across different sectors, are now seriously looking at India as a growth market. Telecom, Healthcare and Technology will lead the boom.

21) How do you zero in on the investments that will fit the kinds of priorities that will work towards the kinds of goals you have?

[ARUN]:

22) *How do you balance your personal and work life?

[ARUN]: In my experience (and existence!), the term “work-life-balance” is a bit anachronistic! To me, it is about work-life integration. We live in a global, all-time-zones, competitive professional milieu and increasingly find personal & professional life always inter-twining! We have to constantly straddle interests, ambitions and multiple priorities so delineating the two worlds is becoming impossible. I stay connected always both at work and to my family; I have come to realize that these two need not be mutually exclusive: as long as the common themes are passion and purpose. So I am equally at ease tweeting with my son about Pokemons while at work and responding to urgent customer/employee emails while at his music concert or reading my books! I take frequent short breaks and I give myself fully to whatever I do. Makes all the difference I guess to the word ‘balance’…. J

23) *Just out of curiosity, who is your role model, We did see you the other day in the MSSW event held last month where you had come dressed similar to Steve Jobs, Is he an inspiration to you?

[ARUN]: Ha ha ha! Yes, I do admire him (Steve Jobs) more than anyone else in the business world but that’s where any attempt at resemblance stops! Jobs, to me, epitomizes resilience, grit to innovate and simply do what none has done before! Similar dress was unintentional! I don’t dare even think of imitating him! Coming to your question, I did have some terrific bosses and worked with some world-class business managers: Achal Agarwal and Ram Ramsundar of PepsiCo, Arun Jain of Polaris come immediately to my mind.

My role models are varied according to my different interests: Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba is my Spiritual Guru, my God. Amongst world leaders, I admire H.H. Dalai Lama, Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore, and Mikhail Gorbachev.

What I really get a kick out of is to see and experience leadership in everyday life, from ordinary people: Nammalvar - a simple villager who has revolutionized organic farming against all odds, some of my colleagues at work who defy time-zones and customer demands taking commitment to new heights and finally, my mother who at 62 is the most energetic multi-tasker I will ever know in my life!

24) What is your message to aspiring managers like us?

[ARUN]: Internalize Richard Bach’s message through Jonathan Livingston Seagull: Passion, Purpose and Perfection. If I may take the liberty of adding the 4^th P, it would be – Plan. Management and leadership are all about – and only about – People (hey! That’s your 5^th P!!). So focus on developing the soft skills and continuously improving upon them.

PS: This was done as part of the 'What CEO says' project from SMOT School of Business

Mishaal Hamza
SMOT School of Business

Leadership in a (permanent) crisis - A HBR article Review

2010-06-05T03:46:00.000-07:00

A review of HBR-SA, JULY-AUGUST 2009 article ‘Leadership in a (Permanent) crisis’

As a regular HBR reader, I was in a way rather let down by the article which seems to lack the charisma of regular HBRs. On the whole, the whole write-up seems to revolve around application of Kaizen and Emotional Intelligence. As the saying goes, ‘The crisis of today is a joke of tomorrow’.
The author talks about exhibition of leadership qualities fostering adaptation, embracing disequilibrium and one that generates distributed leadership. There are a lot of companies in the world which went up and down with the bubble burst phenomenon of the internet age. The reason for these companies being unable to sustain their growth was their inability to maintain business growth when the regular/conventional source of income for them dried out or started diminishing. Thus began an era of mergers and acquisitions which yet again paved way for larger organizations retaining the major chunk of the markets. The rich became richer and new millionaires were thus born in the process.

Foremost, for any business to survive in the long run, the business process must be able to adapt itself to changes on small and large scale. This may be also compared with the Darwinian theory of Evolution which says that the fittest survive. To remain fittest, one must adapt and recalibrate at regular intervals of time. If we take the examples of dinosaurs, the only dinosaur that still exists is the crocodile. This was possible by the ability of crocodile to adapt to live on land as well as under water.

Secondly, the idea of embracing disequilibrium seems to be a shlep. In a state of disequilibrium, the emotions are already at a heightened state. Any further disequilibrium would certainly result in the employees being shattered to an extent that their morale goes down. This as such impacts the productivity and not facilitating the process of making difficult decisions by the employees. The author also talks about maintaining an optimum level of disequilibrium to continue the progress. To me, this seemed like stretching a rubber-band and holding it there to be used as a slingshot. As time passes, the rubber-band tends to wear out and breaks at one point of time or loses its elasticity. Humans are so much like rubber-bands; they cannot be stretched for a long period of time. If done so, they tend to break down or there is a noted drop in the performance.

However, I totally support the author with reference to creation of distributed leadership. In an era when everybody pitches in to provide solutions rather than answers, it is rather imperative that the decision making has to happen at grass root levels and the leadership has to be distributed. Everybody loves being a part of the solution rather than the problem. So, as the author rightly points out, it is necessary that opportunities are created and thus create avenues to come out successfully from the crisis. However, my concern on this arises from the saying ‘Too many cooks spoil the broth’. What is needed in distributed leadership is co-operation and a determined effort to achieve the goals rather than negating each other out.

A crisis, as a wishful thinker would consider that the Chinese equivalent of the word ‘crisis’ consists of two parts representing opportunity and danger, is a mere turning point at which the fall or raise of any company is decided. Once a gale storm passes, it brings with it change that takes a long time to be negated and overcome. The surface is so rough that the prior composition of the land might not exist after such an event. To make the surface usable, any prior experience not involving the gale might not be of much use anyway. Similar is the case with any organization. The past experience not involving such an experience holds little or no significance as per my point of view. So, to restrict the decisions on past experiences would be rather blasphemous. What is required in such a scenario is the ability to adapt and grow with the scenario in hand to survive the crisis and grow once the crisis has been overcome. At the end of this crisis, the company has skills to manage such a situation in the future if faced with such.

The author provides us a case study of Best Buy where a person’s leadership wits are able to transform the company from being gender specific to being the best in business. For me, that is rather an insight than creative leadership. When a person learns to see what is stopping the business from growing, the solution is rather simple: Find a way to negate the issue. As the saying goes, ‘Hurdles are those scary things you see when you take your eyes off the target’. In this example of Best Buy it was more of a focus on the target than creative ways of solving the problem. Or in other words, it is rather an adaptive measure which helps the business grow. Had the business looked at small time fixes to just get over the crisis, it would have proved fatal in the long run. A business fix is like fixing the flat tire of a car; if not done properly, there are good chances that the car will run flat soon. However, too many fixes will make the ride bumpy. In such a situation, what one needs is replacement of the tire or what the author calls to be ‘Pressing the Reset Button’.

Sometimes it is better to start things afresh rather than providing fixes. In such a situation, what a business needs to do is look at its past and try not to repeat its mistakes the second time around. When the business starts afresh, there are a lot of possibilities that the business might go through a lot of dire straits initially. Sometimes even be tested up to the breakdown. In such situations, adapting to the situation does help one and all. Rather than sitting and cribbing about the problems, collective intelligence must be used to solve the problems with intelligent solutions.

Finally, I agree with the author when pointing towards adaptive leadership in general. It is adaptation that makes cacti grow in sahara where other creatures barely exist. Each day brings new opportunities to grow and branch out. All that is needed is perseverance and the grit to grow stronger and better with every opportunity provided. Adaptive leadership is the way the future is going to be.

Review by,
Bharath S Iyer
http://themoonfruit.blogspot.com

Terrorism, Population, Global Warming : Are they branches of the same tree?

2010-06-05T03:43:00.000-07:00

It was 28th of October, as I was busy writing my Statistics Examination when this notion struck me. Are Terrorism, Population and Global Warming branches of the same tree? To examine our case in a layman language let us consider Greed as the stem of the cause. Now consider the branches: terrorism, global warming and pollution. The problem must have a interdependent solution.

If you consider the world as a class room with let's assume, 50 benches to sit, there are students whom we would equate to the population of the world. As the teacher comes to the class and leaves, there is a lot of noise being made - Relate this to birth, death and other issues revolving around humans. When the teacher gives the class work to do, the class is rather silent - Consider relating this to employment.

Now, if the class had say 100 students sitting in 50benches, wouldn't it be louder than usual?? Anything beyond the control of the teacher - This has to be equated to the Population Growth.

In the class there are students who are sitting, the ones who are busy studying, ones playing pranks on others and there are ones who sit on the floor and stand outside the class as well - Relate all of these of the economies, the G6, G8s and such alongside the poor counties.

The pranks in the classroom sometime turn into fights, which others are mere spectators of - A typical WAR situation.

While the fight was happening in the class room, a student goes and invites people who are not remotely related to the scenario to have a look at the fight, rather than trying to solve the issue by her/himself. - Equate this to Terrorism.

Now, as the class strength increases, the class becomes hotter and hotter. Students leave the class and go out to breath - Equate this to Global Warming.
Just that we do not have a world apart from The Blue Planet to go to as yet.It will take at least another 10,000 years before human race decides to move to Titan, Saturn; but then, the race needs to survive till then in order to do that.

Now consider the dustbin in the classroom. When there were just 30 students, the school could manage the disposal of the thrash. With the new advent of 100students, the thrash might not even fit into the thrash can. Might overflow at one point of time to such an extent that students start falling sick. - Equate this to pollution.

So, when all of these are so much related, the solution has to be related as well. Wouldn't you agree?

Contributed by,
Bharath S Iyer
http://themoonfruit.blogspot.com/

Importance of Management Education

2010-06-01T12:44:00.000-07:00

Management education is all the rage today. Graduates pursuing an MBA from any institution that offers one is common. Many people have criticized that it imparts no additional skill to a person other than making them more acceptable to the market place. It is a known fact that the MBA education scenario in India has been vitiated by profit-seeking individuals out to make a quick buck. However , I feel that the students are also party to not choosing rationally. There is always a choice of pursuing one’s true calling and there are relatively few people in the world who come in to the adult age without any idea what that calling might be. Moreover even if there is no clear choice, there is always the path of education through experience. This ,no course in India or elsewhere can provide. Students everywhere in India and elsewhere see education as a means to get a job. Learning for learning’s sake has it’s own merit which is more often lost. Once we stop to think we might realize that going down the path that have relatively few people may have unforeseen rewards. What i feel is that Management Education should rightly be a practical approach to what one has learned in his/her graduation or the experience the person would have got during the initial stages of one's career. MBA as many say is Applied Common Sense and rightly said as whatever the Management Education provides is what he/she is going to be facing in the future in any corporate firm and the situations are more or less likely to happen which may be simple or complex as well. Management Education apart from leraning the various Management techniques gives importance to Entrepreneurship as well now a days in a country like India as the young citizens of India are looking forward to run their own organizations instead of working for others. This indeed is a great move for a country like India wherein the developing Phase of the country is slowly moving into the next phase of 'Developed'. In Short Management Education is something which can be applied by any one be it Doctors, Lawyers, Engineers etc and this is an essential element for any countries development.

Contributed by :
Mishaal Hamza
www.mishaalhk.blogspot.com

How effectively management graduates fit into the roles in industry after they graduate and join an organization...

2010-06-01T11:45:00.000-07:00

An excerpt from the Vault Guide to Management Careers

Looking to learn Management administration and development from the ground up? If you're just coming out of college, many large companies such as General Electric have general management rotations where you'll get a chance to work in many business functions. But big companies aren't always the answer. If it's your first management role, you may have better luck getting in the door at a small organization where you can take on a greater amount of responsibility quickly.

If you are interested in manufacturing, your best bet is to hone your skills at a manufacturing company such as Toyota or 3M. While each of these companies manufactures different types of products, they all have a high number of employees.

Management roles pique your interest? Look to industries that have some of the largest companies in the globe., such as consumer products and financial services. Companies such as Wal-Mart and Bank of America have large, fully staffed organization development functions with internal consultants who address the development issues of different business areas. For every Management and business function, there's a way to learn more about companies known for success in those areas.

Starting any career is tough -- you don't want to start in one job, find out you don't like it and then start over with another. But as a management professional, your experience in the field, regardless of its type, will always be valuable. A good way to start an management career is to determine what side of management you want to work on: People Management or Developmental role.

It has become common practice among U.S. business schools to require potential students to have substantial work experience before admission to MBA programs. Yet, the benefits of this selection criterion have not been fully articulated nor empirically examined. This article explores the relationships between years of pre-MBA work experience and post-MBA career outcomes. Specifically, we examine the effects of prior work experience on cash compensation, career satisfaction, number of promotions, and individuals' propensity to stay with their first post-MBA employer. Results indicate that previous work experience is not significantly related to graduates'' tenure in their first post-MBA position. Furthermore, counter to conventional wisdom, MBAs without prior work experience were more satisfied, had received more promotions, and earned more cash compensation than some of their more experienced counterparts. The implications of these findings for those responsible for admissions in graduate professional schools and for corporate recruiters are discussed, along with suggestions for future research.

SMOT's 16 Month Program - Why is it different?

2010-06-01T00:59:00.000-07:00

The focus of Business education should be to create lifelong learners and make managers of today, leaders for tomorrow. The 16 months PGPM program gives the students the time advantage – which means the student will be industry ready 8 months ahead of his friends and peers. One of the Critical Success factors of SMOT is the management’s flexibility in accommodating courses and programs based on academic council suggestion.

Salient Features

Faculty from academia and industry Endeavour

Up-to-date course content

Lifelong learning Center

State – of – Art Wi-Fi campus with a corporate ambience

QME – Quality Management Education at an affordable cost

Contributed by: Laveena Jain