HBO SESSION:5 "The Tipping Point"

"Tipping Point" is one of the very interesting concepts that i have come across. I am amazed how the concept of tipping point can be applied to marketing, how products can be engineered to be successful even before the launch.

The importance of connectors can also be related to marketing. Professor Cruz once mentioned the concept of early alpha users or early adopters. I think these alpha users are also the connectors of some form who have the power to influence the mass. No doubt that companies are using these "connectors" into research partnerships and panels, just as Procter and Gamble are doing with their ground-breaking Tremor panel.

Summarizing i feel that Tipping Points are a reaffirmation of the potential for change and the power of intelligent action.  

The case on NYPD asserted that management practices are not restricted to the corporate world alone. The turn around of NYPD and subsequent reduction in the crime rate stands testimony to the fact.

HBO session 4: Setting the satge for an organizational change

In order to bring an immediate change a top down approach would be probably more successful than a bottom up approach.

The stepping stone towards changing the organization culture is changing the behavior of the people of the organization.

To align people with the new vision/culture, companies should award the people who work towards achieving the common goal

and penalize the people who have a negative. I understand that people who would be rewarded, would start liking the job and would continue to put efforts in the right direction and the others would automatically be left out. 

Implementing any strategy calls for firm decisions. There would be some people who would be in favour of change, some reluctant and some dead opposite to change. Thus one vital strategy should be to come up with some quick victories. It would ensure greater acceptance to the cultural change. This part was most appealing to me and is a key learning for future.

HBO Session 3: People are greatest asset

The Key Insights:

So far we have discussed how important are people to the organization. One of the key to engaging people to an organization is "Empowering the employees". Empowerment is imbibed into the culture of the company. Times have changed, and the command and control policy of the past will not work today. Persuading  and empowering is critical component to make the employees more productive.

In the era of War of Talent, the competition for retaining and hiring people is intense. The various tangible incentives that the companies provide can easily by copied or a new incentive can be invented. But what cannot be easily copied is the intangibles like the culture of the company. So for companies creating more and more innovative culture will be key to the successful management of their biggest asset "THE PEOPLE".

HBO Session 2: Corporate Culture

Key Insights:

"Corporate culture stands for pattern of assumptions that have been developed over time by a corporation and have been proven successful."

 An interesting question raised was. When do companies decide to change the Corporate Culture?

The answer lies in the definition of corporate culture above. When companies feel that the financial performance in the past has been going down, there is perhaps a flaw in the corporate culture. A change in culture thus can turn around a below average or an average performing company to an exceptional performer. Jack Welch's change to the culture of GE reaped future benefits in the financial performance.

 Chris Aregyris has explained this in a wonderful way. ASSUMPTIONS made by the founders stand for the CULTURE of the organization. These assumptions decide the ACTION/values/beliefs adopted by the organization. These actions yield to RESULTS/behaviour/performance of the firm. So if the company suffers a serious setback in results/financial performance of the company it is just not the action/values that needs to be re visited but also perhaps the assumptions/culture of the company. The ENRON debacle is one of the examples where the culture of the company failed completely. 

 My contribution:

Having a healthy corporation culture does not ensure the retention of the employees. Mindtree's culture has been appreciated by most of it's ex-employees. But still it has higher attrition rate than most it's rival companies. I had read a survey on attrition rate in Indian IT companies. The factors like on-site opportunities, job security and brand name took precedence over the company culture.

HBO session 1

There is a very strong relationship between the performance of the company and emotional engagement. Emotional engagement as per Hewitt can be summed up by the concept of      "Say Stay Strive", which means that an emotionally engaged employee talks positively about the company, is willing to stay and is willing to put extra efforts for the company. There may a number of instances where it becomes difficult to create an emotional engagement eg: when teams works from home. The ultimate onus thus lies on the manager to establish an emotional engagement with the employees. A simple telephone call could do the job in this case. It was observed by the examples given in the class that a manager who empowers the employees is likely to create an emotional engagement rather than an authoritarian manager. 

       High growth rate in Asia has created a seller's labor market, thus forcing the companies to be engaged in a "War for Talent". So companies are trying to create a complete ecosystem for the employees. Emotional engagement and other benefits seem to be a ploy to keep employees engaged in this ecosystem. After all an emotionally engaged employee will have a higher productivity.

Emotional engagement is subjective with respect to each employee. What could be engaging to one might not appeal to another. So the key to effective management lies in choosing the right people at the first place who fit in the company culture. So that it becomes much more easier to align and engage them to the company. Ritz Carlton is a classic example of this practice. However at the end of the day the manager should judge what would engage an employee. If he is successful the employees move towards the concept of "Say Stay and Strive" and thus increase the overall productivity of the company.