Integrity Matters

I was preparing for a talk I needed to deliver to students at a Hospitality Institute, and as I was looking at some of the key issues that were coming up in my research, I thought that some of them would be quite relevant in the different corporate sectors that each of us are in. Some of the issues that came up primarily had to do with the tension that existed between the two words – hospitality and industry. On the one hand, hospitality had a focus on being social, with moral issues involved in it. And on the other side, industry had this hard-nosed, make-profit attitude attached to it. So, the key issue here was: how do these two come together?

Note The Feedback

I want to start by asking you a very simple question: How do you handle feedback, whether good or bad? Let's start with good feedback. Somebody comes and tells you: "I really like what you said," or "I really liked that presentation that you made." How do you actually respond to them? Do you respond by excusing yourself and saying, "Thank you? I was just lucky." Or minimizing it by saying, "I had a lot of help." Or just a very blunt abrupt "Thank you."

Feedback is difficult. When we get it we're not sure how to respond. Typically we think it's the negative feedback that we can't respond to. But it's the positive ones as well that we almost self-effacingly cannot respond to.

Pitch Perfect

This last week I was travelling back from the US on the long haul 15-hour flight from Newark airport to Mumbai, direct. I had decided beforehand itself, that I would get my computer out and spend the time watching an old television series called 'Studio 60.' I like Aaron Sorkin and his writings and this was one of his old television shows. In that show, there was one episode, which caught my attention in terms of a thought to look ahead for Corporate Capsules. It was a scene with the network President, also the Chairman and a couple of executives. They were listening to two guys who were pitching a new sketch, or a show that they wanted the network to run.

I listened, fascinated, because they wrapped it up in just under five minutes. It was very succinct; they came right to the point. They handled the main thought behind the new show, how it would run, how they would get the program done in the right time frame, the audience that they were targeting and the potential viewership that would go up – all of that captured within a space of five minutes.

Perfectionism - A Blessing Or Curse?

There used to be a time when perfectionism, or the desire to be perfect, was looked upon as a good quality to possess. But increasingly, as with everything that can be good, it has been taken to a point where it isn't productive anymore and, in a lot of cases, is beginning to be unhealthy.

Michael Sandel, professor at Harvard University, says, "High levels of perfectionism are associated with vulnerability to problems in life, proving that there is a bad side to being too good." Then he goes on to say, "It comes out of a desire to be so perfect that it is causing more damage than good."

I don't know about you but I think it's a good thing to strive to be good and to excel. Yet, the more I read about this subject, I think we need to be able to find a balance in the things that we do, so we don't take perfectionism to the point where it is being looked on as a psychopathology. Psychologists are now saying, "To be a perfectionist is to be one who is driven by fear of failure, a fear of making mistakes and a fear of disapproval."  As Dr. Adrian Furnham says, "They can easily self-destruct in a vicious cycle of their own making." What is that cycle? Set unreachable goals à fail to reach them à become depressed and lethargic à have less energy and a deep sense of failure à get lower self-esteem and high self-blame." That's a cycle worth avoiding.

On Being A Competent CEO

Novo pen is a pen that I use and I use it a couple of times a day. It has more value for me than all the other pens that I have around me. I pleasantly surprised to read that Lars Sorensen, the CEO of Novo Nordisk, was voted the best performing CEO by Harvard Business Review for the year 2015. That was good to read and to know that Lars Sorensen, among the myriad number of CEOs all across the world and in different companies, had been picked as #1.

But as I looked at that, and thought about CEOs and the roles that they play in organizations, I wanted to do a little bit of research and see the extent of CEOs' impact on companies. It's interesting that the impact that CEOs have on companies ranges from 2% to 22% depending on the industry. This was research that was done and recorded by Todd Warner in Harvard Business Review. It seems like just 10 or 15 years ago, competencies that CEOs had were very important in determining the kind of jobs that they were given and the kind of impact that they had on their companies.

Dealing Decisively With Crisis

Julius Maggi must be a happy man albeit that he has been dead for many years. He was the founder of Maggi noodles, the first person to bring out this protein-rich legume meal way back in 1872 which merged with Nestlé in 1947 and Maggi became their flagship product. But it took a major beating about 6 months back in May, when they were banned across different states in India for allegedly high lead levels along with MSG.  But Maggi is back on the shelves except in some of the states that had banned it, and according to reports has been doing very well—in fact sold out in Kolkata. That's good news for all Maggi lovers.

I remember talking about it at that time and posing the question: Did they handle it right? It seemed like everybody who used Maggi noodles was willing the company to come out and handle the situation, to get on the offensive. The consumers seemed to be on the side of Maggi, and yet, they didn't do anything. It seemed like they were just underplaying the whole issue, hoping that it would go away. In fact, Paul Bulcke, who was the global CEO, came out and met the press only about 3 weeks later, and even then, it didn't seem like they were getting on the offensive at all. It seemed like they were hoping to ride out the storm and then make a comeback. There was absolutely no visibility of Maggi stepping up and saying, "We've got this under control. We are doing everything we can and you will not be disappointed." That didn't happen.

Emotional Triggers

I wonder whether you have ever been party to a meltdown at the office – a situation where, in the course of a normal discussion or brain-storming, a comment was made which was taken too seriously and the reaction that followed was totally disproportionate to what was said. Everybody is surprised; the person involved bangs down a pen, storms out of the place and leaves everybody scratching the heads.  It was a very innocuous comment; there was nothing overtly serious about it, and yet major offence was taken, in serious disproportion to the remark, at least that's what everybody thinks.

I've been in the presence of these kinds of meltdowns before and it always brings up some interesting questions. I'm sure you've experienced them as well. But what happens at these meltdowns? What is going on in the mind of this hapless colleague? Well, it's an emotional trigger that just went off. Suddenly there's a 'blast from their past,' as it were; this event, or the words, brought back emotions that were attached to an incident way back in their history.

We Messed Up. I'm Sorry

Some days ago, a few of us were talking about new cars in the market, when the conversation veered towards Volkswagen and how they had been caught intentionally adding software that was designed to prevent them getting caught from emission standards that were over the normal. It was surprising that this was the first time where an auto company had been caught for something that they had done very intentionally. The Environmental Protection Agency caught up with them. Sources say that they could be fined up to $18 billion for what they did. Volkswagen stocks have plummeted 20% in just that one day.

It made me think of the various infringements of companies these days. Jeffrey Liker in an article for Harvard Business Review chronicles the fate of these companies.  First, Toyota, a highly revered and respected company, accused of selling cars with unintended acceleration problems that had led to quite a few serious injuries. Toyota put it down to faulty and mismatched mats that were causing the problem, and didn't take it seriously for a long time hoping the storm would pass.  It didn't, and they ended up with a $1.2 billion settlement order.

Then, General Motors had a faulty ignition switch that led to 124 deaths and 274 injured over a span of 10 years. They too didn't take it very seriously and finally paid up $900 million as an out-of-court settlement with the Department of Justice.

Face The Facts. Change

Jim Collins brought out a book many years ago that has almost become a classic. It's called 'Good To Great." In that book, he has an interesting title for a chapter – 'Confronting The Brutal Facts'. That title has always intrigued me. Basically, he is saying is that sometimes there are facts that just sit up and beg to be looked at and analyzed so that decisions may be made. Yet, they're ignored, and instead of understanding the times and seizing the opportunity, a chance goes a begging to the detriment of a company or an individual.

He then goes on to give two examples of companies who responded to facts differently. The first was a company known as The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company, better known as A&P that was doing exceptionally well at that time. It served America through the war, and in the 1950s and 60s, it was the #1 store in the US. It was the largest organization, second only to General Motors in terms of annual sales. But, soon after the war, things started to change in America.  Re-building was going on, businesses were doing well and money was beginning to flow. At that time Kroger was another company in the picture—small, and nowhere near A&P in terms of turnover.  However, Kroger realized that times were changing, and if they needed to survive or forge ahead, they needed to act differently. And they did. They began to try new innovative ideas that catered to the changing landscape of American retail stores, and by the 70s, they had forged ahead of A&P. In fact, by the year 2000, they were the #1 retail store in the US.

It's All About Culture

Simon Sinek is probably a name that you have heard, and he is increasingly being followed on Twitter; his TED talks are so well received. Most of his talks found on YouTube too, have received much following. And his books are well worth reading. I was looking at conferences that are available around the world and find that, very often, he is one of the speakers that are invited for leadership and corporate conferences.

But, I was reading this book that he had written, "Leaders Eat Last" and in a chapter in the book called 'Destructive Abundance', he talks about a leadership lesson. He titles it: So Goes The Culture, So Goes The Company. In it, he documents the way Goldman Sachs moved from a point of being such a well-known, respected company in the seventies. And how Gustave Levy, the senior partner in Goldman-Sachs in the 1970s would talk about what he called 'long-term greedy.' Long-term greedy meant – "Sometimes it was worth taking a short-term hit to help a client because the loyalty and trust it produced would in time pay back in spades." And he adds, "Pay back it did."

Sinek goes on to document how Goldman Sachs at that point – their selection criteria was never actually academic based. They never picked the top people, the cream of the class. Their selection criteria was always – could this person fit into the culture of Goldman Sachs? That was the key ingredient that was used to recruit people. But he says, "Somewhere along the line, about 30 years later, around the turn of the century, that particular culture began to break down, and academic pedigree began to be the way they started picking people even before seeing whether it was a culture fit. Slowly, that began to break down. Soon the company began to slide down, have layoffs and so on." And we know what happened with the insider trading and all that in the last 5 or 6 years and how it has affected the company culture.

Above & Beyond: The Extra Mile

Yesterday I happened to watch an episode out of an old television serial that had aired quite a few years ago called ER (Emergency Room). It revolves around doctors, nurses and other staff, and how they handle situations that arise out of the emergency room. In the episode that I watched yesterday, one of the doctors who is taking care of his father who has been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, brings his father home to stay with him. They have never had a good relationship all their life, but he decided that in these days, he would take care of his father. It's a tumultuous time – the father is not really easy to get along with. One day his father reminisces and talks about the time that he was in the Navy – how his greatest thrill was to be on a ship watching the bow slice through the waters and ride the waves. His eyes lit up with just the thought of being out on the sea. As his son Mark watches this, he decides to take his wheelchair-bound father onto a boat. There's a wonderful picture of father and son on the boat, enjoying the wind in their faces.

As I watched it, I thought to myself – there's a level where we do the things that we are supposed to do because it's duty, a duty of a child to his parent. And then, there are things that we can do that go far beyond that. I think that's what the extra mile is all about. It's going beyond what duty calls for and that's a good perspective for all of us as we look at our work spaces and ask ourselves the question, "in the company that I am in, do the people who report to me or I report to, go the extra mile? Or do we just say: "This is what is expected of me," and then don't do anything further.

Attitude Trumps All

On previous talks, I have touched on attitude quite a few times. I remember once talking about how attitude tops performance even in appraisals. I had quoted from an article by Shruti Sabharwal and Devina Sengupta who had said that in Microsoft's Global Technical Support Center in Bangalore, performance rating was not linked to the aptitude, but to behavior and the ability and willingness to learn from the problems that the people were solving. It was linked to willingness to share knowledge and the doggedness and persistence in solving problems were very high on the desirability charts at the company. In fact, Microsoft junked its performance review system doing away with targets for engineers, and instead judged them on behavior and the way they performed the task rather than what they did – looking at the how rather than the what in terms of an appraisal and found that there was a 20% increase in employee satisfaction within that year.

Attitude seems to be very important in the scheme of things. Zig Ziglar once commented, "Your attitude is more important than your aptitude," and I remember rounding off on that. But he's also been credited with saying, "Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude." That's a nice pithy way of saying: How high you go depends on the kind of attitude that you have, not so much the skills and the aptitude that you have, though that is important as well.

It's All About Context

Some of you may have seen or read a book by Thomas Friedman called "The World Is Flat", written quite a few years back. It was a landmark book when it came out, won the Financial Times - Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award. It was a futuristic book, which was very well received; Friedman was pointing out that there were changes coming and the world needed to take note. In his concluding chapters, he references Margaret Whitman, who was then CEO of eBay. She has since moved on and is now with HP. But she gave ten years of her life to eBay, took over in 1998 and served till 2008. During her ten years with the company, she oversaw its expansion from 20 employees and $4 million in annual revenue to more than 15,000 employees and $8 billion in annual revenue.

He references her and talks about the time when she had just gone public with eBay. He says that one day they were looking at the way things were going on – they had gone public in September 1998 in the middle of the dotcom boom – and stocks were going crazy. She says, "One day, I was just minding my own business, when her secretary came up to her and said that Arthur Levitt, Chairman of the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission that oversees the stock market), was on the phone." They are always concerned about the volatility of a stock, whether there is manipulation and so on. In those days, for a CEO to hear that Arthur Levitt was on the line, was not a good way to start the day.

BRAINSTORMING STORMED

by Dr. Cecil Clements (9th October 2012)

I have been in different situations where we’ve been part of a brainstorming group. I’m always intrigued by the dynamics that go on when people get together to brainstorm because it’s the coming together of different people, different personalities, different backgrounds, different agendas, different levels of authority – all of these come together in one room. People are asked to speak freely and invariably there are different things that happen that often prevent brainstorming from happening.

I was reading this article by Andy Eklund called ’10 ½ Ways To Unlock Your Creative Streak’. He says, “There’s a combustible mix of emotions and behaviors and negativity stops imaginative thinking in 4 ways. These are the 4 things that work their way into a brainstorming session.”

1. Pessimism – You hear this often, “That won’t work.”
2. Adversarial – You hear somebody say, “Let me play the devil’s advocate.” They try to undermine or say why this is not the best way and stuff like that.
3. Dismissal – “Oh, we’ve already tried that.”
4. Disdain – “Oh, that’s a stupid idea.”

I DID IT. ADMIT IT.

by Dr. Cecil Clements (28th August 2012)

I hope it’s a good Tuesday morning for you here in Mumbai. As I sit in my office, it’s overcast and raining; looks like a dreary morning. But it’s a day still full of wonderful opportunities for each one of us.

I want to share with you this morning, something that’s been in the news the last couple of days and has to do with Apple and Samsung and the case that was going on about how Apple had sued Samsung, saying that they had stolen some of the techniques that they have in their own phones, like the pinching, the display, etc. The big news is that Apple won the case and there’s a $1 billion fine that needs to be paid by Samsung.

‘BULLY’ FOR YOU

by Dr. Cecil Clements (14th August 2012)

I am a cricket fan. As I watch cricket and especially the award presentation ceremonies, I have been intrigued by the way players respond to adulation. Recently I noticed how the Master of Ceremonies introduced the sponsors and then called different players who were receiving awards and they had to come and shake hands with the sponsors, take the cheque and then go back. What caught my attention was how some of the players would walk up and not even give the sponsor the time of day. They would take the huge placard-like cheque, hold it up to the camera and as soon as it was done, walk away without another look at the sponsor. I thought how bad that was; because the money that was being generated and that they received, was coming because of sponsors. Yet they wouldn’t say a proper thank you to the sponsors or the people representing the sponsoring company.

MIND YOUR LANGUAGE!

by Dr. Cecil Clements (31st July 2012)

I want to talk to you this morning about a phrase that caught my attention – actually 2 words that made me think. They are ‘Cultural Permission’. If I can give you a working definition of ‘Cultural Permission’ – it is the kind of permission that we either give by spoken words or by behavior or just by inaction. But these are messages that go forth from us that allow people around us to draw conclusions on what is acceptable or not, in working with us.