Create the Change YOU Want

An entire year has passed. What did I learn this year? Some things are really easy to do. Passing frivolous judgment is easy without being accountable. We all can sit on sofas in front of a 42 inch TV and scream at our cricketers or footballers on how they should have played the shot or passed the ball but the ones actually doing it out there are the real protagonists truly making a difference in the outcome – better or worse. During the Sydney seize there was a tweet about so many security teams and only one gunman and still they were unable to crack him in minutes. Such reckless comments are pitiful. I felt like tweeting back to the person – “what would you have done if you were in charge?” 

Barack Obama had said that “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”  Incumbent Prime Minister Shri. Narendra Modi is the true manifestation of this quote and an inspiration. Let me be clear though that I am apolitical. Whatever inspiration I draw from this personality has got nothing to do with his ideology or political stand. He has demonstrated systematically why and how to enter a system, work hard and take the responsibility to change it. Due to his active involvement in politics, he has risen through the ranks and now become the Prime Minister of India. Today he is in a position to actually execute his plans and vision. It all comes down to choices. What we choose to do about a situation really matters. We all get different opportunities in life, what we create out of them makes the difference. We can either choose to sit on the fringes and make noise which no one will hear or get into the thick of affairs and make ourselves heard, seen and create the change we seek

We have strong examples closer to home. TSSIA’s selected office bearers and members have been fighting relentlessly against LBT and Octroi. The level of involvement and dedication is phenomenal. These are people who have chosen to join an association and to work towards creating a change that they desire. What made the difference? It is the decision to act and not just speak and forward messages. It is easy to advice and pass comments but difficult to create an outcome. We often build notions out of nothing and pass crazy remarks without going into the depth or intricacies of why it can or cannot be done. Many of us suffer from half knowledge but do little to improve our condition. In our country, we have a very hands-off approach in general. It does not work. Get your hands dirty, walk the talk, see where the shoe pinches and then work to remove those obstacles. 

About a year back we started facing huge challenges in our business. We were left with two options – to roll up our sleeves and plunge in to reverse the situation or lament about mistakes, the past, current circumstances and the environment. Basically blaming everything but not taking responsibility. However, good sense prevailed and we started facing the obstacles head on thus slowly bring about improvements. The journey is a long one but atleast we embarked upon it. We would often discuss about certain business processes which were not appropriate and should be changed. Today, we are at the center of managing the business bringing in systems and processes that we feel are more effective and yielding good results. We took action and we started creating the change. 

When I look at our business challenges and feel the pressure; I think of the dire opposition that Mr. Modi faced and then came into power with resounding majority. Lesson is – everything is doable once we resiliently move ahead setting aside doubts and insecurities. I realized that the change in our business could happen not when our employees, suppliers and buyers do their part but when we start acting, leading the way and creating a framework to bring forth an outcome of our choice. We have to be the originator, the instigator as no one else will.  

The year is about to change and we can look forward to a newer year of hopes and aspiration. It is time we stop being at the fringes and take the responsibility and toil to create change. Change in our life by starting to exercise, eating better, doing yoga, spending more time with the family.  Your doctor, lawyer or spouse and kids cannot make it happen – only YOU can.

It is tough to take a stand, to get involved and to work with a purpose. It is difficult and time consuming but nevertheless rewarding at the end. We end up gaining more confidence and drive to achieve even more or take up newer causes, motivate others to join in. We have to keep at it and never let our focus waver. At times the journey might seem lonely but who said change was easy. 

Have a wonderful year 2015 ahead with renewed hopes, vigor and resolve.

The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new. ~ Socrates

Change is ALWAYS an Opportunity

Socrates said, “The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.”

Small businesses and their owners are always on the edge. There are continuous challenges and most often there are simultaneous issues to be dealt with. This throws the business into a continuous state of change some radical others gradual. A sudden machine breakdown, an old employee quitting, new competitors entering into the supply chain and eating into the margins and shares, payments, workers – just about anything can throw life off gear. But these changes are neither predictable nor avoidable. Embracing each and every change with the goal to identify an opportunity for improvement rather than a threat is the best course of action.

How change can be an opportunity?

Let me give an example. I came across a person who had taken over the charge of a function from an employee who was holding the position for years. After the handover, this employee found that much of the reports that can be generated directly from the software were being physically created through spreadsheets. Apart from that certain activities which can be automated with the use of pre-printed stationary was being done manually. It seems the previous employee just did not try to learn or use the available features. Why? No one knows. Today the same reports are generated at the click of a button and the Excel sheet has been long discarded. This is serious improvement in efficiency and productivity; something that could have been done earlier. The person is now investing time in streamlining many such redundant tasks in the area of his work. The management also realized that the previous employee had built a sort of black hole about his jobs and responsibilities thus, creating a feeling of being indispensable.

Another example was shared by a friend involved in Sales. She was trying to negotiate a price rise from an old established customer as the margins were declining. The customer informed her that we have got another supplier. It seemed like a jolt initially then she says, “I realized there could be good opportunities for me in this – a. the competitor will also charge the current prices thus forcing the customer to renegotiate with me, b. if the competitor plays with a lower rate then my team will have to rework on the costing and find out where we can become efficient, c. I will be forced to seek out newer customers willing to pay our asking rates to make up for the lost share. Who knows it might turn into bigger sales numbers and margins?” It all depends on our mindset and approach to life and challenges.

A third example is from my own experience. When I took over the responsibility of some IT related functions in a small company, the distribution and accounts personnel told me to focus on the billing system. According to them if the system failed there was no alternate option. Further if the PC (in which the application is installed) crashes then also we are doomed. This billing software was a very old custom-made one that generated only routine excise invoices. And the developer was long gone out of the scene without any trace. I asked the operator what is so special about this software – does it generate any specific reports etc? I was told that all that comes out of the system is a bill and challan on pre-printed stationary. Each bill entry containing 3 items would take minimum 10 minutes to complete all the steps till the bill was ready to be printed.

In three months time we changed over to Tally.ERP 9 including configuration, master data entry and testing. Quite a bit of the repetitive static data was also included in the pre-printed part and the layout modified thus saving ink and time. Since then the monthly sales report, party-wise sales, party-wise pricelist are all generated from the system apart from other information. Prices are stored with historical rates for comparison. Data backup is easily done with the help of a simple SOP. This was about two years ago. Few days back I met the operator and he said now work has increased but thankfully due to this software, billing is smooth and very easy. I wonder why they continued to use the complex application without saying anything at all. 

Due to shortage of resources, owners and managers are often tied up on one front while something else goes wrong. Our initial tendency is to panic and lose control over our ability to process and analyze. Complacency is common human tendency and it plagues businesses too. It is one of the reasons why we often continue functioning in the same way over the years until an issue crops up and forces us to the edge of our seat. The best way is to sit back and think of the options available to us – however hard they may be to incorporate or implement. There is always a way out.

Carthaginian Military Commander, Hannibal had told his soldiers – “I will either find a way or make one!”

Book Review. Is our existence threatened? Are we ready to change?

Published in TISA Feb 2013 Issue. 

John Kotter, Holger Rathgeber.

OUR ICEBERG IS MELTING. Changing and succeeding under any conditions.

Pan MacMillan India Pvt. Ltd. London, 2006. pp. 147, Rs. 248 (Flipkart)

This is an amazing book by Harvard’s John Kotter written in association with Holger Rathgeber who is a modern global manager. Though written in 2006, the book’s content and message is extremely relevant today for individuals and companies existing in these turbulent times.

The appeal of the book lies in its message delivery in the form of a fable. The book talks about the devastating and life threatening challenges faced by a colony of emperor penguins in Antartica and how they overcome them and continue to flourish by altering their culture.

As you read the book, you will be able to identify with the penguin characters. You will realize that many such individuals exist in your company (including yourself) who can determine the direction of your company with their sheer efforts – good or bad. The book will persuade you to sit back and think where you are going, what you are doing, whether you are missing out on potential opportunities or overlooking threats to your existence. How are you gearing up to tackle your issues? The prescriptive nature of the book will let you create your own change management plan and enjoy the fruits.

The authors intelligently use the fable and penguins to explain Kotter’s Eight Step Process for Successful Change that was first introduced in his path-breaking book Leading Change.

The eight step process talked about in the book starts from a sense of urgency created by a young penguin Fred who discovers that the very existence of their iceberg is at stake (which is melting and leave the penguins looking at a bleak future) and when disaster strikes they will be at a disadvantage and ill-equipped to face it. He approached the most “open” person in the council of leaders to share his findings.

Once this leader Alice is convinced that Fred has a strong case, she gathers support from other leaders and creates a core team to find a lasting solution. Penguins with complementing skill-sets like communication, data analysis and pattern formation, negotiator are brought into the team. 

This core team sees an opportunity while observing a seagull and decides on altering their very culture of how they live to tackle the issue of survival. They share this vision of change and how they are going to achieve it with their fellow colony members. As predicted, there are skeptics amongst the penguins who constantly question the validity of data or seriousness of the issue.

The book finely brings out the fears and motivation possessed by individuals, the nuances of group behavior and need for strong communication, the stress that is caused by the need to change and how to overcome the resistance of people and create a brand new culture.

The turning point of the book is when one of the penguin’s Buddy gives a heart rendering speech to the colony members and tells them “This iceberg is not who we are. It is only where we now live. We will find other places to live that are safer. WE WILL PREVAIL.”

As the guiding team sees positive response, they start disseminating proactive information and posters to keep reinforcing the knowledge to the fellow penguins lest their memory becomes dim. This communication is essential for buy-in as the authors suggest. But resistance continues though slowly dwindling.

When the team faces the challenge to look for scouts to identify newer icebergs, they understand the need to empower others to act in whatever capacity they can to bring about the larger change. A little penguin Sally Ann plays a dramatic role here. This shows that when survival is at stake everyone should be pulled in to do their bit for the greater cause.

But with the best of the vision and strategy or team nothing sways support like small verifiable wins which assures people that the vision is real and achievable; parts of which have been achieved. It creates hope and motivates more people to join the mission.

The initial success is little hard to come by but once that happens, there should be a steady push to keep on achieving and doing better. Complacency is the greatest obstacle to all things good. The penguins which have now started living a nomadic life slowly gets used to it and starts enjoying it. This is the birth of a newer sustainable culture given the circumstances.

The actual book is only 125 pages of lucid text and lot of illustrations. An average reader will be able to read the book completely in one hour. However, once you read it, it will hook you on with its message and set alight your thinking process. It will not be surprising if you go back to the book many more times.

Owing to its generic message about the need to change and how to go about it; the book is appealing for a cross section of readers comprising of various age group (18 – 60 years) and gender engaged in diverse occupation and roles from business owners, company CEOs, middle managers, doctors, lawyers, teachers, shopkeepers and politicians to housewives and upcoming entrepreneurs.

Everyday there is an innovation which might make our products obsolete or a new policy that threatens our cash flow, liquidity, investments. In a business, such surprises can spring from any quarter. The more prepared we are to face these changes the greater chances of our succeeding under any condition.

This book is worth investing a short time to read and see what remarkable value it has to offer. Go ahead, read it and share it with your employees, colleagues, friends and family. This book offers something for everyone.