If you have been following the news on demonetisation in India, you would have heard the opposition blaming the government on the ever changing rules and that things haven’t been thought through. On the other hand, the government defends itself by saying its a cat & mouse game and everything could not have been thought through

In this video, I take you through the changing demonetisation implementation rules where-in you can decide for yourself whether we have an Agile Government or an unprepared Government

"It was a famous boat race between two arch rivals - Team A & Team B. Both teams had 6 people and had similar configuration boats

The whole town had gathered to see the ultimate race. Much to everyone's surprise, Team A won by a huge margin of more than 2 kms

Team B hired an expensive consulting firm and after an extensive study, they submitted their report;  Team A had 5 rowers & 1 leader, while Team B had 1 rower and 5 leaders, therefore Team B needed restructuring

Team B brainstormed & re-structred - now there was 1 rower, 2 people to encourage the rower, 2 people to monitor the 'motivators' and 1 leader

It is a no brainer on who won the next race... "

I had recently been to one of the private sector banks and what I saw amused as well as enlightened me, on one of the reasons for long queues outside banks

It took totally around 2 hours for me to get to the cashier and for reasons best known to them, they hadn't replenished their ATM although it was in the same premises - probably because they did not want other bank customers to withdraw cash from their ATM! 

Anyways after about an hour of standing outside, I entered the Bank. I saw 3 to 4 bank employees scuttling around, talking in corners and doing nothing! Apparently on enquiry, I was told they were marketing executives and weren't core bankers

As I neared the cash counter, I saw the cashier and two more employees standing around the cashier. On approaching the cashier, I understood, one was the Manager who was 'overlooking' & doing nothing and the other employee merely collected my cheque and filed it. The only person who was 'actually' working and who was totally stressed was the poor lone cashier

The whole of India and the world is talking about demonetisation of Rs.1000 and Rs.500 rupee notes. Through this video learn about the extent of black money, the need to eradicate, the benefits and the perils of demonetisation

Sam had gone to receive the delivery of his new car. He was received enthusiastically and offered refreshments

The salesman ran through the regular drill of explaining the features, what can be done, what should not be done, what must be done, etc. After a 20 minute demo, he was asked to wait until the paper work was complete

As Sam waited munching through a cookie, a young smartly dressed lad walked across the room and greeted Sam

"Good Evening Sir, I am Prakash. I am the Quality Representative, how're you doing sir?"

"I'm doing great thank you", replied Sam

"I'm here to get feedback on how your experience has been", he added beaming

"Yeah, so far, so good"

"Sir, are there any areas of improvement that you would suggest?"

"Come to think of it, the test drive car that you brought was in pathetic condition, you guys should maintain these vehicles"

"Sure sir"

"and your delivery lead time has to be shortened" 

"check your google reviews, the ratings are only 2 star, you can pick some improvements from there" continued Sam

Being the enthusiastic person he was, Sam provided a few more feedback, highly impressed by the proactive questioning from this dealer's Q-Rep

"Sure sir, we will take your feedback and strive to improve" said Prakash, stifling a yawn with great difficulty

"The poor guy must be tired, after all its near closing time", thought Sam

Sam also noticed that none of his feedback was noted down - probably Prakash had an awesome memory

As the conversation between them was ending, the salesman joined the conversation with a 100 watt smile

"How is your discussion with our Q-Rep, sir?" questioned the salesman, putting his hand over the Q-Reps shoulder

"You will get a call from the headquarters, please do give us 10/10. sir" added the Q-Rep

Aghast, Sam could only nod. Both the Q-Rep & the salesman were in cahoots and the whole exercise was to urge the Customer to give a high feedback score! So much for the 'pro-activeness'!

After a few days, Sam received a call

"Good Morning Sir, you had recently bought a car from us, what is your overall dealer experience?"

"It was ok"

"How would you rate your experience on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 to 8 is poor, 9 is good and 10 is excellent?"

Sam couldn't believe his ears. What kind of a non-linear rating was this!

Dumbfounded he muttered "9"

"Thank you sir, when you get a call from headquarters, please rate us 9 or 10"

"Excuse me, then who are you?" inquired Sam

"We are the dealer from whom your bought the car. Thank you very much for your time"

We have two take-away's from this

1. a 'pro-active' dealer whose pro-activeness is not in finding & fixing issues but in 'managing' feedback

2. The company 'gaming' the feedback by providing a non-linear scale of measurement in order to show they have 'highest' feedback score among the competition

So much for Quality, Customer Feedback & Process!

With the power of video blogging, you will understand all this UNDER 8 minutes

"Prove it to me, show me scientific proof", I heard her say during the late hours in office

"Everything cannot be proved", he replied as emphatically as her

"What are you guys debating about?", I asked

"I am religious and I believe there is God but she says prove it to me", he explained

"Yes, I will only believe when there is a scientific explanation", she emphasised

I was about to join the debate but realised I had more pressing things to worry about, however there was a fundamental flaw in her argument

In 1831 electricity became viable for use in technology when Michael Faraday created the electric dynamo and later Thomas Edison and Joseph Swam discovered incandescent filament light bulb. If we had questioned someone in 1830, on existence of electricity, what would have been their answer?

Radio was invented in 1895. If we had questioned someone in 1894 on the existence of radio waves, what would have been their answer?

It was in the 19th century, that the Atomic Theory was discovered, where it was stated that matter is composed of discrete units called Atoms. If we had questioned someone in the 18th century on the existence of Atoms, what would have been their answer?

Would not knowing the existence of something, make it a non-reality? Would not having the means to confirm something, make it non-existant?

This debate is long drawn however the premise to claim one would believe only once 'scientifically' proven begs for want of imagination. Science has proved and with the same vigour scientists have disproven. At school we studied, in 1930 Pluto was discovered and christened as the smallest and the ninth planet in our solar system. In 2003, an astronomer saw an object (Eris) which was larger and beyond Pluto. This caused the astronomers to re-think on what is a planet and downgraded Pluto from a Planet to a Plutoid. Probably when we have better telescopes, astronomers may downgrade others too!

As homo sapiens there are many things that we know; and a lot many that we don't

Science = Data;

Science != always reality

Every discovery & every invention stems from an imagination. To limit one's imagination over existing facts is curtailing the very spirit of knowledge

If you haven't yet read Does Education throttle us off simple solutions, I urge you to read it in order to appreciate the intricacies of the current matter being discussed

So in continuation to the previous blog, our software professionals decide on continuing their spot audits through random visits; the randomness aided by complex pseudorandom-number-generator using Javascripts, which surprisingly falls on friday nights or weekends

Meanwhile, out there, our 'farmer cum watchman cum caretaker' after much deliberation, is convinced that he needs a pay hike. After all, he has toiled for a year, put his sweat in tilling the land, watering the crops and guarding them through night & day

"Yes, these software guys just sit in front of that coloured box all day, keep drinking tea and get highly paid; of course you should get a hike" added his loyal wife

So when our software professionals arrives 'as expected', our 'farmer cum watchman cum caretaker' approaches them

"Sir, I need an increase in my pay; I have worked hard and I deserve the hike", he said sternly and with conviction 

The look on our software professionals was of utter shock & disbelief; they also realised the situation was delicate and had to be handled carefully; for, what would they do, if he quit

An emergency huddle was dutifully called

"Exactly, what does he think? Because of his carelessness, we lost our yield and he has the audacity to ask for a pay hike"

"And think about it, we are giving him free stay, electricity and water for his family apart from aiding his child's education and he still expects more!"

"We should add these in his CTC and show him the total cost" quipped the fourth

So after deliberating for an hour, as most corporate meetings, they decided to call for another meeting

In Bangalore, they huddled again and one of them had the eureka moment

"The problem he thinks he deserves a hike is because we did not link the result of his work to his salary", she exclaimed 

As pointed out, if they had linked a part of his remuneration to the successful outcome of the crops, he would have felt more responsible to ensure the goals are achieved

Remuneration structure should always be thought out well because it drives the employee behaviour; it sets the difference between an employee feeling satisfied that he has clocked 45 hours a week to another who assesses if he has helped achieve the project goals

Be prudent, Remuneration and Metrics, drives employee behaviours

Here's a short interesting story of my colleague, her husband & their friends. As most software professionals, after years of toiling in front of laptops, null pointers & memory leaks, they too, like many others in their mid career, were bit by the Entrepreneur bug and decided to invest in a farmland. So they invested in a Farmhouse in a remote village, a couple of hours drive from Bangalore

To manage, they appointed a local 'farmer cum watchman cum caretaker' for their Vineyard. They visit once a month to check on things

When they visited last month, they were excited to see their vineyard and estimated around 1.5 tonnes of grapes, a little on the lower side, nevertheless the toil of their hard earned investment

However when they visited last week, in the hope of taking the produce back home, they found, not one, yes, not even one grape! The whole vineyard was empty

When the 'farmer cum watchman cum caretaker' was questioned, he looked down and said the entire produce was stolen and he was too scared to inform them earlier on the phone

So our Corporate friends, in the most professional manner, gave 'feedback' on how disappointed they were to the silent 'farmer cum watchman cum caretaker'; after all a software guy seldom knows to handle the 'exceptions'  beyond the world of codes

Needless to say, after the chastising session, they huddled to brainstorm on a permanent solution to this issue. They couldn't immediately replace the 'farmer cum watchman cum caretaker', as there were no 'succession plan' in place. So they had to have him around, until further recruitment

On the theft front, they had to address it; clever as all of them were, they quickly arrived at the best solution - they needed to put the farm under CCTV surveillance; probably the first ever farm under CCTV surveillance in India, nevertheless it was the need of the hour. So they dusted their disappointments and got back to Bangalore to work on the costs and vendor, listening to Chumbawamba's - I get knocked down, but I get up again

At home, my colleague spoke to her mother about this incident & how they had decided on installing CCTVs. Her mom, who herself owns a farm, looked very bewildered. After a few minutes of puzzled look, she asked

"Why don't you put a picture of a God, tie some threads and write below that the one who steals the fruits will be punished?"

"After all, all villagers believe in God, Mantras & Magic, wouldn't this be enough to scare them away?"

All of them were dumbfounded. Anyone who's from an Indian village knows that they deeply believe in God and fear the powers of Mantra's & Magic. A black thread would do the whole trick! A Rs. 100/- solution to a Rs. 100,000/- solution from the best software minds!

As we become more 'educated' and sophisticated, do we stop finding obvious, easy, straightforward, localised solutions?

"I am surprised to see so many people, usually there are only a few in the first class, 2 or 3 scattered around in the second and just myself from the third", jokingly remarked the Professor

The seed was sown...

This weekend was the first contact session for our MS Program and there were around 25 students in the class, all attentively listening

Earlier during the welcome speech, the coordinator had emphasized us on attending the classes. The professor jokingly telling us about the behavior of earlier batches, made us realize it was acceptable to miss classes

Many years back, my role demanded that I reported to someone who was 4 levels above me.  He was a friendly Manager and one day he hinted regarding an opportunity he might have and whether I too would be ready to move along with him

The seed was sown...

Until then, the thought of quitting had not occurred to me - at least this strongly. What he said liberated me of the guilt of 'betraying' - the feeling a fresher 'imagines' when he thinks about resignation

I bet him to it - I had much lesser experience and baggage. I got a job within a month!

In the next job, I decided I would continue for a long time - rather the thought of quitting never occured to me. Three months down the line, my colleagues, who were seniors along with my manager were discussing regarding the sudden spike in attrition over a cup of coffee

My Manager looked at me and asked "Krishna, you have plans to stay at least for a year, right?"

The seed was sown...

A little more than a year after this discussion, I quit. The question indicated the expectation - It was OK to quit; it would only be seen as natural!

As a Manager, we need to be very careful with the our behavior - verbal and non-verbal. Our teams look up at us for approval irrespective of whether they admire us or not! A shadow of weakness or an inappropriate behavior would be sufficient to give them the wrong message!

Meanwhile, I am looking forward to see the attendance in the next contact session

Tired? Need a break? Take 4 days off in August and get 10 days off in a row... thanks to a long weekend and Independence Day

In all probability, majority of people taking off is high, considering the long weekend. A friend and colleague of mine had the same thoughts when she called for her team meeting. The meeting went uneventfully until she came to the last agenda - Leaves

She had thought of this long and hard; an easy way, was to ignore that there were long leaves that can be availed since her team members had not approached her for leave, so she could plan assuming business as-usual - why unnecessarily give them ideas?; on the other hand, it was inevitable that many may want to avail leave at the last minute where either she would have to disapprove their leaves or have slippage in her plan

Being the good Manager she was, she decided to throw the ball in the teams court

"How many of you have plans to take off in August? We need to plan our work accordingly" she 

bravely asked

The moment she uttered 'off' the energy levels changed. There was excitement in the air and everyone was talking animatedly. She did expect this; she also expected all her team to apply for leave

"I know everyone is going to apply for leave. It would be a joke when I go to Management and say my entire team is on leave!", she thought. The only comfort she had was that her teams key deliveries would be over much before August but it still would be an embarrassment which she had to face for her teams sake!

"I need leave for the 4 days" said one of her team members

"I too need off" said another

"Hmmm.... I am not sure whether I need... I don't have any plans... no I don't need it" said the third, overwhelmed by the options

She sighed in relief, at least it is not going to be the entire team!

"I don't need leave now, I have something planned later this year" said the fourth member

She went around the table and to her surprise only 3 of her team members wanted leave! She wouldn't need to talk to Management, it would be business as-usual in August

She discussed this incident with me. How often do we end up assuming group behavior especially assuming the negative? Most of the time!

Every time I discuss a change in the way of working, I almost always hear people taking a negative stand - What if this happens? What if that happens?

We debate on 'n+1' number of negative alternatives and try to address the exceptions in the process rather than addressing the common flow. This stems from the fact of mistrust and when there is mistrust in the environment, you would be proved right!

In the above case, she braved against the common fear and won the trust of her team - everyone was contended that they were given a choice. Transparency and consensus does help in building strong teams

I like my hair short… cut really short… the liking may be deep rooted, arising from the fact of my laziness to comb… having short hair has soo many advantages such as less “maintenance” time, looks more tidy, lesser “round trip” time to the barber’s shop, etc. (meet me and I can tell you at least a 100 more reasons!)

For the past couple of month’s I have been regularizing on a barber near my place. Due to my fantasy to cut my hair short, not many barbers come forward with enthusiasm, for they are unable to try out their “fantasies/creativity”. Of the three barbers available in the nearby shop, I usually end up with the youngest… probably around 16 yrs (talk about encouraging child labor)… by my deduction, this happens due to the simple fact, that, my hair requires not much creativity!!!

As many other businesses, this shop also does not run just on the “main line” of hair stylist but has other premium services such as hair massaging, anti dandruff treatment, removing black spots, etc

Coming back to my story, for the last three months, as mentioned, I always happened to end up with the youngest barber… he is very quick at his job, should I say, a petite hair mower… the only problem with our young hero is that, he has a mind of his own, of course nothing wrong with that, but it hurts when our preferences crosses… after all its my hair, not his!

Our young hero is usually more interested in wooing me to take up his premium “services”. During my hair cut, every 5 minutes or so, he would say “Sir, I’ll do hair massage, it’ll be nice” and with my broken kannada, I say “That’s ok, some other time” and our hero proceeds to pester “Sir it’ll be very nice, soothing and relaxing” and I say “No time” and he says “It won’t take long, I’ll do it real quick” (and I think, if its that quick, then why go for a short lived happiness, eh!). After couple of cross rebuttals, he quickly completes my hair cut, unties the cloth wrapped around me and ushers the next person in line (probably in the hope that, that guy will go for his premium services).

I put on my glasses; see myself in the mirror and voice out my opinion, that, he can still trim my hair. Our young hero replies “Sir, it’s correct, else you will not have any hair to comb”. Being a gentleman I am (at least I like to think that way), I feel too rude to continue the argument, especially since the next Customer has got up and is waiting for me to embark the “priced” chair, so I silently accept defeat.

This happened to me for around three times and my dissatisfaction became stronger each time… I had mentally made a note to try out a different barber, the following month…

The following month (two weeks back), as luck would have it, I get up at 10 and am rushed for time, so I end up in the same shop.

Our young hero was busy with another Customer, so I forcibly enthroned myself on the oldest barber’s (possible the owner) chair. He listened to my simple specification (had our young hero ever listened to my specification?!) and he started his work. Towards the end, he hinted to me about the other available “premium” services and even before I could decline, he said that I could have those things done whenever I wished to (he probably noticed my body language and knew my answer).

I was quite relieved at the way he had handled the selling of “premium” services, instead of pestering me. To add the icing to the cake, after he had done with my hair, he handed me my spectacles (which is usually placed on the table during the hair cut) and asked me if I was satisfied. This was the first time a barber had the “thoughtfulness” to have handed my spectacles and then, asked if I was satisfied. Usually almost everywhere, my barbers used to ask me, somewhere towards the fag end of the hair cut, if I was satisfied and I used to think, doesn’t this guy understand that I can only give a better judgment if I wear my specs and should I go through the embarrassment of picking up and wearing my spectacles???

But here was a barber,
1. Who knew exactly how much to push his Customer and
2. Could literally put himself in his Customer’s shoes and offer me my spectacles (he doesn’t wear one, so it was his thoughtfulness)

I was more than happy with the services that he had offered and needless to say, he had listened to my “specifications” and had done just what I wanted (no unnecessary improvations!)

This reminded me of the Kano model. The young boy could not even meet up to the basic needs of meeting the Implied and Expected Needs, not to say about the Delighting Needs! The old man had met all the three… to me “no pushy sale” was the Implied Need, “hair cut to my expectation” was the Expected Need and the final show of “thoughtfulness” met the Delighting Need!

How are we, as individuals, meeting the Implied, Expected and the Delighting needs of our Customer’s? This is a worthy point for each of us to ponder over, whatever be our role...

My next line of thought was, if I ran this business, how would I assess the performance of these three barbers? Would it be by

1. Who does the most number of hair cuts?
2. Whose conversion rate of ordinary to premium customer was the highest?

If I have just these as my parameters to assess their performance, I would have been sending a wrong message to the three barbers! You can see how misleading the above two measurements by themselves would have been. They almost lost a Customer and we do not know how many others have already left! Focusing on these measurements may have brought in short term profits but would have failed in Customer Retention and Long Term Sustainability.

The question that struck me was: which would be the most appropriate way to assess their performance??? A Customer Satisfaction Survey? But how many Customer’s will have the patience to provide such a feedback? Well that’s a separate topic by itself, so I leave that as “Food for thought” for all the readers to contemplate… Bon thinking…