Suzlon Energy - Finance For Non-Finance Executives Program

Conducted my usual Finance for Non-Finance Executives Programme for the Operational/Maintenance and Project Managers of Suzlon Energy Limited. Suzlon Energy is the largest Wind Energy Solutions provider in India. Based at Pune they have presence in all states. I have already done a similar programme for their executives at Coinmbatore. The group is proactive and the executives bring high energy and enthusiasm to such HR initiatives for Sharpening the Saw.

The Wind Energy space is slowly moving away from a Tax Concession driven market demand to Profit Models that stand on their own legs and give paybacks that are commercially viable. Suzlon is one of the major players in bringing this about.

Fin For Non Fin (as we trainers call it!) is not a homogeneous or generic product. To treat it as such and try to sell the same content to all audiences is virtual suicide! I always study the Industry and the oprarting cycle before I plan my delivery. For example Fin-for-Non-fin for Godrej Sara-Lee which is a FMCG player is vastly different from that for Suzlon a project based company. The Product here is "a fuly functional and commisioned wind mill! worth a minimum of 6.5 Crores!"

I try to sensitize the engineers and Non Finance Executives to the need for linking their operational decisions to the bottom line. Similarly the need for looking at the cash-to-cash cycle. Many Marketing executives appreciate the need to go beyond order procurement and after sales support only after this program. The profit is not realised till the cash is realised!
For human beings it is Ash to Ash! For Companies, Cash to Cash!

Mr. Srinivasan a senior executive shared a lot of his ewxperience and knowledge. The program was quite interactive. I hope the 17 Executives who attended enjoyed and learnt from the program.

WHALE Done!

Read a book called 'WHALE Done!' by Ken Blanchard and three other authors. Blanchard is the co-author of best sellers like 'One Minute Manager, and 'Who Moved my Cheese?'. This book is about the Power of POsitive Relationships.

In my Research Paper titled 'Purpose, Empowerment, Praise (PEP) Model for leadership and motivation I have stressed the need for Praise as a powerful motivator.
Let me quyote from my paper which was presented at Athenaeum the National Symposium conducted by the Centre for Contemporary Management Research attached to Bharathidasan Institute of Management, Trichy:

"Leaders motivate by praising people. Leaders appreciate that team members at all levels work under stress and self-doubt. Even the best performers have a lurking fear that they are somehow going wrong.

Covey makes the following powerful statement about the need for Recognition and understanding that resides in everyone:
“People are very tender, very sensitive inside. I don’t believe age or experience makes much difference. Inside, even within the most toughened and calloused exteriors, are the tender feelings and emotions of the heart.”

To understand the Power of Praise, it is necessary to appreciate the concept of Emotional Bank Account, which Covey postulates.

An emotional bank account is a metaphor that describes the amount of trust that has been built in a relationship. It is a feeling of safeness you have with another human being. Deposits are made in the bank account through courtesy, kindness honesty and keeping commitments.

Successful leaders use every opportunity to top up their emotional bank account with team members. The best and arguably the most enduring method of doing this would be through honest, impartial praise, which is meant to encourage and motivate the team member.

This the concept behind WHALE Done!

Whale Done! Is a small yet powerful book that reinforces the need for Praise and “the need to catch people doing things right in order to develop productive home and work environments”.

The book tries to apply the animal-training techniques used by the trainers of killer whales in Shamu Stadium, Sea World, Orlando to management.

The more attention you pay to a behavior, the more it will be repeated. We’ve learned from the killer whales that when we don’t pay a lot of attention to what they do wrong, but instead give lots of attention to what they do right, they do the right thing more often.

If you don’t want to encourage poor behavior, don’t spend a lot of time on it.

While praise would make large deposits, criticism or punishment, however justified, would deplete the balance quickly and make the account overdrawn. In fact most team conflict situations stem from such indiscriminate and unnecessary withdrawals.

A good leader appreciates that team members need to be corrected and disciplined. She also accepts that criticism and threat of punishment would only aggravate the situation especially in view of the stringent regulations and statutory prescriptions. Therefore she chooses the PEP model and tries to locate at least three positive things that could be said about the team member’s performance. Having said it, she moves on to suggest meaningful and constructive suggestions that are capable of being implemented immediately in the work situation. In situations of extreme deviation from norm, the leader politely yet firmly, delivers the ultimatum. The whole exercise is carried out by questioning specific behaviour through descriptive observations that are based on fact rather than evaluative statements that are based on opinion. Most team conflict situations arise due to exchange of opinions rather than sharing facts about the situation. Once opinions are ignored and the facts are analysed colorlessly, the conflict may not survive.

The PEP Model prescribes Praise as a component because it is the most powerful positive influence that can influence as well as motivate people to perform far beyond their best performance levels.

I found a lot of similarities between PEP and Whale Done!

E & Y Tax Associates Programme

18.04.2007

Completed my lectures on Law for the second batch of E& Y Tax associates. This was a slightly boistrous and lively bunch of youngsters from all over the country. They were quite shrewd on Fundas. I really enjoyed the sessions. Especially the interaction with Neha Malhotra, Dinesh and Sunil. My favorites, if I can call them that were Abhishake(!), Sunil,Neha Pandey,Vinay, Ashu and Kabhir. Not that the others weren't great people, but these people impressed me. The photos below were taken on 16th. I've labled those whose name I know. The Numbering is from the left and does not include me.

The comments are just for fun. Sorry if I am hurting you!

1. Deepika (Always tensed. But great performer.) 2. Neha Malhotra. (Charming but has a short fuse.) 3. Neha Pandey. (Relaxed. Loves Movies. Happy-go-lucky) 4. Padmapriya (Cool and professional) 5. Jayshree (Again cool and efficient. Liked her poise) 6. Ashu (Did not waste time watching Cricket, so my favorite of this lot.) Sorry Neha(s)!!!

1. ?? 2.?? 3. Manoj Patel(?) Smooth, Professional, A Toastmaster. 4.?? 5.??

1.?? 2. Sunil (Highly Knowledgeable. Has good experience in International Tax and Finance. 3. Dinesh. (He's Great! (Today is opposite day!) Wish he could have argued less. But I liked him anyway.
4. Kabhir (Potential CA. Cool and assured. can go places if he lets go of his inhibitions.) 5. Manoj

1. ?? (Sorry! I know him well but name forgotten!) 2. Vinay. (The best of the lot. Sincere, amiable achiever.) 3. Abhishake. (Tall, handsome chap. Has he found his Aishwarya?)

4. ?? 5. He's a Toastmaster & 6. ???.

Standing

Sitting: 1. Don't remember his name, but know that he is an engineer.2.? 3. Ashitha (Ok now?) From Bombay. Cool. Chews Gum. But great performer.

Guys and gals from E & Y,

Hope you liked the photos and my comments. Why don't you supply names to some of the faces. I sincerely want to know your name. Just mention photo and number from left excluding me. Respond through the comments feature on my Blog. Also give your sincere feedback for my improvement as a teacher.

It was a great session! I Loved it! All the best to ALL of you.

Love

Srikanth

The Balanced Scorecard

14.04.2007
Had the unique opportunity of sharing my thoughts on the Balanced Scorecard with the Top Management Team of The BLISS Group of companies. Mr. Lawrence H.R Head at Jumbo Bags, a company in the group had invited me over. The interaction was superb. They were all good listeners and highly business savvy. So, I think our deliberations were practical. I did my best to take the framework designed by Kaplan and Norton and make it relevant for them.

What I appreciated most about the meeting was the practical, 'no-nonsense' approach they brought to the meeting. The atmosphere was collaborative and solution oriented. Seniors and juniors were discussing issues on the level with no blame shifting or hang ups. I am sure the group would emerge as a great Mid-cap player in the market in the near future.

A brief note on the Balanced Scorecard

Robert S. Kaplan, a professor of Accounting at the Harvard Business School and David P. Norton, a Management Consultant, worked together on a year-long research project with 12 companies at the leading edge of performance measurement to devise what is today known as “The Balanced Scorecard”.

This compilation seeks to provide background material culled out from various published articles written by Kaplan, Norton and others on The Balanced Scorecard.

What is the Balanced Scorecard?

The balanced scorecard allows managers to look at the business from four important perspectives. It provides answers to four basic questions:

How do customers see us? (customer perspective)

What must we excel at? (internal perspective)
Can we continue to improve and create value? (innovation and learning perspective)

How do we look to shareholder? (financial perspective)

While giving senior managers information from four different perspectives, the balanced scorecard minimizes information overload by limiting the number of measures used.


The balanced scorecard forces managers to focus on the handful of measures that are most critical. The scorecard brings together, in a single management report, many of the seemingly disparate elements of a company’s competitive agenda; becoming customer oriented, shortening response time, improving quality, emphasizing teamwork, reducing new product launch times, and managing for the long term. The scorecard guards against sub optimization. By forcing senior managers to consider all the important operational measures together, the balanced scorecard lets them see whether improvement in one area may have been achieved at the expense of another. Even the best objective can be achieved badly.

Companies can reduce time to market, for example, in two very different ways: by improving the management of new product introductions or by releasing only products that are incrementally different from existing products.

Similarly, Production output can rise, but the increases may be due to a shift in the product mix to more standard, easy-to-produce but lower-margin products.

How is the Balanced Scorecard Different?

The balanced scorecard represents a fundamental change in the underlying assumptions about performance measurement. It requires total involvement from the senior managers who have the most complete picture of the company’s vision and priorities.

The scorecard represents a fundamental change in the underlying assumptions about performance measurement. Probably because traditional measurement systems have sprung from the finance function, the systems have a control bias. That is, traditional performance measurement systems specify the particular actions they want employees to take and then measure to see whether the employees have in fact taken those actions. In that way, the systems try to control behaviour. Such measurement systems fit with the engineering mentality of the Industrial Age.

The balanced scorecard, on the other hand, is well suited to the kind of organization many companies are trying to become. The scorecard puts strategy and vision, not control, at the center. It establishes goals but assumes that people will adopt whatever behaviors and take whatever actions are necessary to arrive at those goals. The measures are designed to pull people toward the overall vision. Senior managers may know what the end result should be, but they cannot tell employees exactly how to achieve that result, if only because the conditions in which employees operate are constantly changing.

By combining the financial, customer, internal process and innovation and organizational learning perspectives, the balanced scorecard helps managers understand, at least implicitly many interrelationships. This understanding can help managers transcend traditional notions about functional barriers and ultimately lead to improved decision making and problem solving. The balanced scorecard keeps companies looking – and moving – forward instead of backward.

300

14.04.2007

Saw 300 at the Seasons in the Satyam complex. The movie is about the last stand of The Spatans in 480 BC against the hordes of the Persian emperror Xerxes. King Leonidas who leads the 300 Spartans who lay down their lives is foolish, egoistic, inhuman and sometimes illogical in his patriotism. But you cannot help admire his courage and bravery.

The dialogue "This is Sparta!" with which he pushes the emissaries of Xerxes into the Well to their death is classic histrionics.
The redeeming feature to this otherwise plotless documentary type movie is the cinematography. The hazy sepia-tinted background enhances the viewing experence. Similarly, the fight scenes where the Red Cloaks and white bodies of the Spartan warriors are contrasted with the Masks and Blackl cloaks of the immortals are great.

The graphics and editing are obvious and Xerxes millions aren't so impressive. Especialy for an audience that has already seen Lord of the Rings Part II.

From Broke to Broker

12.04.2007

Saw The Pursuit of Happyness with my son Srivatsan.

This is a warm, touching and at times wryly humorous movie about the struggles of Chris Gardner, a homeless, penniless scanner salesman and the challenges faced by him on his journey from "Broke" to "Broker".

It is also the story of his extraordinary love and affection for his son "Christopher" and the extraordinary trust placed by Christopher on his father's honesty and ability to bring them out of their hard times.

A few scenes are imprinted in our memory and refuse to leave. The scene where father and son are forced to spend a night in a subway restroom is brilliant because of the underplaying of emotions. The point where Chris finally breaks down and silently sobs with his son's head on his lap while someone bangs on the rest room door must be one of the best twenty scenes in movie history.

Similar is the scene where the five year old boy has to sleep alone in the dark in a charity bed while his father works above in a lighted landing on a scanner that he has to repair and sell to keep them afloat. Chris assures the child that he is near at hand by asking "Do you Trust me?" again and again This is is a classic example of the victory of Love and Trust over Poverty and apparent failure.

Another clear message from the movie that Chris actually articulates is " Happiness is not a goal, it is a Path. You can never achieve happiness, you can only pursue this illusory state that disappears on attaining it!" As Chris says, " Thomas Jefferson had it right when he included the "pursuit" of happiness in the Declaration. No Government can guarantee Happiness and no Government shall deny the right of its citizens to Pursue it in their own way upon their own terms.

I could not help but compare Chris Gardner's Rags to Riches story with the story of Sherman McCoy the white american Wall street bond salesman who is the hero of Tom Wolfe's famous novel The Bonfire of the Vanities. While The Pursuit is a Rags to Riches story, The Bonfire is a portrayal of the Reverse. I am sure Chris Gardner could have met Sherman McCoy on their respective ways up and down the ladder of fortune. Both are set in America. The Pursuit in 'Frisco and the Bonfire in the Big Apple. Both paint starkly contradictory pictures of extravagance and irresponsibility coupled with great determination and dedication to the acquisition of wealth.

Taxation to Tai Chi

Met Banusekhar, a leading Practicing Chartered Accountant and Tax Expert on 12th April. Banusekhar is a walking encyclopaedia on taxation, both domestic and international.

A formidable speaker he brings wit and humour to an otherwise dry subject like tax laws. I've known him for a long time as a co-faculty at various institutes where both of us train. Incidentally, he is also a popular faculty on Direct Taxes at the Management Study Centre.

Before begining our main discussion, we were engaged in small talk including the correct method of drinking Corona beer and the relative merits and demerits of red and white wine and why good single malts should never be insulted by adding soda! The talk naturally turned to fitness and I asked him casually if he went to a gym.

He doesn't. But he does something better. He practices Karate and Tai Chi! This tall Taxpert is a Karate specialist and is mastering Tai Chi.

Before we went on to our more mundane deliberations he demonstrated a few simple Tai Chi holds and techniques. Tai Chi uses focused force rather than strength. Most of the time the opponents strength is used against him by turning aside or redirecting his movement as well as by moving the target away! I could experience an entirely different facet of Banusekar today!

So next time you read his column in Business Line on Taxation, remember he can give a good account of himself in martial arts too!

What is Sanyas?

What is Sanyas?
Sanyas is not withdrawing from life after losing everything. It is saying goodbye cheerfully after having enjoyed life to the full and deciding it is enough.
It is "not seeking permanance", but rather accepting impermanance.
Sanyas is not rejecting People and actions but rather letting go of the expectations about the result from actions and the reaction from people.

Here's one more Blog. But, before we begin, I have a chocolate treat for you! What you see on the left is a chocolate fountain. It is a fountain of liquid chocolate. You can dip a piece of cake or a cone it to get a delicious choco-cake or choco-cone. You can have this treat at at Spencers Phase III at the food court. The guy dipping his cake in is my son Srivatsan!

The choco-treats cost Rs. 10/- a piece. Check it out the next time you are at Spencers!

I had an appointment today with Mr. Ramesh Govindarajan who heads Sales at the Apollo Hospitals. This sweet gentleman had spoken to me about training concepts and as I was eager to learn more I had fixed up an appointment to meet him today (11/04/07) at his office off Greams Road. Due to certain unavoidable visitors I couldn't make it on time. I wish I had called and alerted him.

Anyway I entered Apollo about fifteen minutes late and had to wait while he was being located.

My God! Apollo Hospitals is "Bharatha Vilas!"

I am sure you will find every type and colour of Indian and, I am sure, almost every nationality there. In fact they have translators to help people from remote states communicate with their medical advisors!

They have convertedthe Sindhoori Hotel into the Sindhoori Block. If you stand near the reception, from where I took this snap, you will see hundreds of people going by, being helped by Apollo staff and being treated. My prayers to the Almighty that all should be well.

Mr. Ramesh couldn't see me as he was otherwise engaged but he fixed up a meeting with his colleague Mr. Romeo Lobo in Training. (you can see his picture on the right!) This gentle and polite trainer reports to Mr. Shankarnarayanan, who heads Training at Apollo.

This two member team handles the challenging task of training the staff of the Apollo group. They do induction and Management Training. We had a discussiomn on training and the type of training they did. The job of training healthcare workers who are constantly under stress is no easy one. But after speaking with Romeo I could see that these guys are really up to it. I liked the 'namasthe' with which Romeo greets and bids goodbye to visitors and colleagues. It is very much in tune with the pan-national nature of the Apollo group!

Before we begin today's Blog, I think a hot cup of coffee is in order. Here's my favorite from Barrrista!
I attended the Chartering Ceremony of the Chennai Covansys Toastmasters' Club today at their offices in the Madras Export Processing Zone.

For those of you who don't know what or who a Toastmaster is here's a brief Intro:

Toastmasters International is a nonprofit organization with its world head quarters in Rancho Santa Margarita, California. Founded by Ralph C. Smedley in 1924, Toastmasters is today a worldwide organization with 211,000 members and 10500 clubs in 90 countries.

At Toastmasters members learn by speaking to groups and working with others in a supportive environment. A typical Toastmasters club is made up of 20 to 30 People who meet once a week for about an hour. Each meeting gives every one an opportunity to practice Communication and Leadrship skills. Members learn about

• Conducting meetings
• Giving Impromptu Speeches
• Presenting Prepared Speeches
• Offering Constructive Evaluation

At Chennai we have Chennai Toastmasters (CTM), the club to which I belong and Speakers Club. We also have Wordsmiths which was recently started by CTM. We also sponsored a Corporate Club at Covansys. This club is the brain child of a senior and Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM) Janaki Prasad Pattanaik (JP) who works at Covansys. JP is a walking encyclopaedia of Toastmastering.

Today the Covansys ChennaiToastmasters Club (CCTM) was chartered. I was invited by JP to this. I was also asked to address the audience.

Members of the Covansys ChennaiToastmasters Club

A gist of my speech is given below:

Respected dist. Gov. Bosco Abraham, Lt. Gov. Education and Training M. Venkat, DTM JP, Madam President Indira Jayaraj, TM Ravi Bhaskaran and of course my beloved members of the Covansys Chennai Toastmasters Club,

I want to begin with just one word, "CONGRATULATIONS!"

CCTM is our baby! A baby of the Chennai Covansys Toastmasters Club, of which Club, I have the honor to belong. We from the Chennai Toastmasters were privileged to be part of the process of forming CCTM. I can remember those early days when CTM Members used to visit Covansys on JP's invitationfor runni8ng the Speechcraft program.

We met some great human beings like Jayan, Kumar, Satyanarayana and Chrles. It's so fulfilling for us to see these very same people performing superbly and running the meeting so efficiently and effectively. So, Congratulations first. (I requested all present in joining me in applauding the CCTM members.)

Friends, All of us want to become Eloquent; (Applause, because this was word of the day!)

All of us have the potential to become eloquent;

but, all of us need the environment to learn, nurture and develop our communication skills.

This is exactly what Toastmasters (TM) provides. A corporate club like CCTM would obviously provide great opportunities for improving your communication skills as well as leadership and teamworking skills.

TM helps us to learn the art of giving and accepting both praise and criticism. When praised we accept it with grace. When a better approach or way is suggested we accept it and try to apply it.

The seventh habit in the 7 Habits of highly effective people propunded by Stephen R. Covey is "Sharpen the Saw". TM is an excellent method for sharpening the saw. Time spent at a Toastmasters meeting is always a second quadrant, high value added activity that helps you to practice continuous self renewal and build your production Capability.

I hope to attend your meetings more often and request you to attend ours on the 1st, 3rd and 5th Sunday of every month at the Presidency Club.

I Wish you all the best.

I could interact later with Dist Gov. Bosco and LTEG Venkat over a superb lunch hosted by CCTM.

Here are photos of me with them:

Tm. Srikanth,DTM JP, LTEG Venkat, TM. Jayanthi (Director HR, Covansys) CTM Indira (Pres Chennai TRoastmasters), Dist Gov. Bosco Abraham.

We live on in the memories of other people

Dr. Debashish Roy is our neighbour and my personal surgeon too. His mother expired yesterday. We Hindus believe that the body is of no value after the soul has left and we cremeate or burn our dead. In a tropical country which is hot and humid this needs to be done very fast. So the cremeation is usually hastened. People who wish to pay their last respects generally try to go as early as possible and as soon as they hear about thie demise. Another custom that we have is not to say good bye to the close relatives of the deceased as we leave. This is considered inauspicious as it would imply wanting to return for a similar event.

Dr. Roy's mother was 92 when she passed away. People weren't too sorrowful as the departed was quite aged. But I feel every death kindles in us a feeling of loss. She was a mother, a sister, a mother-in-law, a grand mother, so many things to so many people. These memories stay with us. In fact, this our chance for immortality. To so impact on people around us that they will continue to remember us and our life and actions. This is the essence of the second habit, Viz., Begin with the End in Mind.
What will people say about us after we die? The answer is a mission statement crafted and prepared by us. Will our Life be our Message?
Will our life be so great that the undertaker will weep when we die?
Our immortality is in our hands. The seeds we sow today. Seeds of friendship; Seeds of Love; Seeds of support: Seeds of Help!
Let us live forever in the memories of millions of people!

Knowledge is an Ocean

The more I write, the more I realize how much more I need to read!
Knowledge is an Ocean!
What you can take from an Ocean entirely depends on what you take to it!

Common concerns raised by MBA students

I was invited to National Institute of Technology (NIT), Trichy, for delivering a talk on the relevance of the 7 Habits to Management. The campus is great and the organisers worked really hard to make the event a success.

I heard Kiruba Shanker on Blogging at this event and that is the reason why I've started this Blog!

I gave my usual evangelistic high powered talk on the 7 Habits and how it can change your life. I also played a clipping from Vasool Raja, MBBS a popular Tamil movie featuring Kamal Hassan! I used the scene where the hero motivates a sweeper in the hospital by empowering him. I relate this to my Purpose Empowerment Praise (PEP) model for leadership and development. I think they loved it.

After the almost full day seminar, the questions and concerns the MBA students raised were something like this:

• I am committed on change, but my team doesn't want to change or learn.

This is the most dangerous Paradigm. This is a 5th Habit issue. Seek First to Understand then to be Understood. In fact great managers bring with them unbounded enthusiasm for what they do. Believe me enthusiasm is contagious. But,Before we start preaching change, we should listen and truly attempt to understand the other person's personal paradigm, vision for himself and his aspirations. Once this attempt is made the usual response is sharing and then crafting a new team mission that is commonly owned.

I call this Sharing the Same Picture! You learned this in Organisational Behaviour as Goal Clarity and Goal Allignment! But, don't believe in it, right!

The easier Paradigm is to heave a sigh and say, " These guys are no good. They are the reason why a great leader like me is not able to deliver on my promises."

Remember, Great Leaders are not the guys who wave their swords and start giving inspirational speeches. Great leaders facilitate and support. Yes sometimes when there is a need for a PEP talk they stand up and speak out and inspire through speeches. But most of the time a smart leader tailors his message for every team member. This is a poewerful approach. Adopt this and you will be a powerful influence on everyone you work with.

• I am doing everything! Since my team knows I will do it anyway, they do not bother. I am becoming a victim!
• There is a heavy political play in my company, so I need to do manipulative things or become a loser.
• I think 7 Habits is boring and doesn't excite me thwe way Shiv Kera's You can win does.

I gave them some suggestions, but no solutions. Should work on these issues.

I discovered the 7 Habits in 1997. Since then I have been attempting to implement the simple yet effective concepts propounded by Stephen R Covey in this great book.

The process involves a Principle Centred, Second Quadrant Focused, Third Alternative based approach that involves a lot of fun and experimentation.

Want to know more about my experiments with the 7 Habits? Stay tuned.

Want to share your thoughts on the 7 Habits? Just respond!

I am planning to use this Blog to share my experiences in implementing the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People in my life.