Analysis: Beyond Bootstrap

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><root available-locales="en_US," default-locale="en_US"><static-content language-id="en_US"><![CDATA[<p><p align="justify"><span class='dropthecap'>M</span>ahir Virkar's intentions are noble. red dot,  however, may struggle to keep growing with values intact. <br /><br />Mahir needs to compartmentalise his personal aspirations for Red Dot separate from its values, work culture, business strategy, management and recruitment strategy. And then, he should diagnose the core reasons for his small-town, loyal staff's lack of fire in the belly. <br /><br />Personal beliefs and an organisation's values and culture need to be articulated in a way that is relevant for customers and the company's growth, and not just for employees. Of course, Mahir's personal beliefs will have an influence on the company's values and culture but, unless these are made customer centric, he will struggle growing the business, especially in the services sector. Now, a closer look at his approach.<br /><br />Did he go to small towns for the right reasons? In pursuit of his ideals and aspirations or as part of a well thought out business strategy?  Driven by a desire to give back to his community? To help sincere students like himself save and send money home? At Disha Technologies, we grappled with exactly this emotion and reason. Indian entrepreneurs are filled with such dreams when they begin to ride the crest of success. But these noble intentions must soon be aligned with the real business needs — short- and long-term. <br /><br />One window, two perspectives, and a disconnect. From Mahir's perspective, he took huge risks — invested time and energy to train staffers, created a "safe haven" for them and bailed them out and taught them to deliver. It is only reasonable to expect they would get fired up to join his drive to grow Red Dot's business to new levels. Instead, employees such as Ravi have turned complacent, with a false sense of security, unwilling to give their best and enjoying a privileged status, special access and a bailout assurance from Mahir. <br /><br />Whereas, from their perspective, most of the employees have just finished a marathon, and reached a plateau of ‘accomplishment' in a big city, achieving what they had, in fact, dreamt of. They wish to slow down and smell the roses, whereas Mahir wants them to get charged up to climb the next summit! Why this disconnect? <br /><br />Is Red Dot missing some ingredients? Red Dot has become monolithic and inward looking and this is having an impact on customer satisfaction and organisational growth. Why are his employees not developing into the next layer of leadership, looking for challenges, giving their best and some more? This needs to occupy Mahir's thoughts.<br /><br />Only those who have passion, drive and energy, crave challenges, are self-learners and have an urge to see their team win, will progress. Others will languish. Did Mahir look for these attributes during his recruitment? If not, he must address this now.<br /><br />These are the shared values that should build commensurate work culture and bind employees than just the comfort of native poetry, ‘pitla-bhaat' and hometown blues. This will keep them growing in the organisation.<br />I would suggest these ‘fixes' for Mahir.<br /><br /><strong>Game Plan:</strong> Provide a clear vision for Red Dot. Ensure each member of the team knows the game plan; explain how they can help Red Dot win the game. Mahir has loyal employees who would do anything to see a smile on his face, but he has to tell them what and how.<br /><br /><strong>Gap Analysis:</strong> Mahir, Uddhav and other key employees should identify gaps in organisational capabilities that hinder Red Dot's vision. Filling these gaps should drive recruitment.<br /><br /><strong>Customer Focus:</strong> Mahir should leverage his customers to energise employees, provide opportunities for the customers to praise employees for their good work face to face, provide their wish list and encourage direct communication between them. Develop strong customer advocates for each project in Red Dot. And stand behind these advocates.<br /><br /><strong>Diversity:</strong> I understand the approach Mahir has taken to bootstrap the organisation with like-minded people having common beliefs. This helps a lot during a phase when values are not articulated explicitly but are implied as original people ‘get it'. Many successful startups do this in India and the US. But, in the long run, teams with diverse talent, bringing refreshingly unique perspectives, end up winning hands down. We saw this during the growth phase of Disha, Aztecsoft and Microsoft. It is key forMahir to start that process now. The longer he waits, the harder will it be to get there. <br /><br />Mahir, the growing pains you are facing may sound unique, but are typical. Red Dot is going into the next phase of its growth.With some of these adjustments, I am sure Red Dot will transition and become a greater success!<br /><br /><strong><a href="/bw/asset/WordFile/Sanjay_Jejurikar_for_web.doc">Click here to read longer version of four &#39;fixes&#39;</a></strong><br /><br /><em>Sanjay Jejurikar is advisor to Scholarity Inc in Seattle. He has held executive positions across Microsoft, Aztecsoft, and was co-founder of Disha Technologies. <br /><br /></em>sanjayjej at hotmail dot com</p> <script type="text/javascript"> var intro = jQuery.trim(jQuery('#commenth4').text()) var page = jQuery.trim(jQuery('#storyPage').text()) if (page.indexOf(intro) < 0) { jQuery('#commenth4').attr('style', 'display:block;') } </script> (This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 16-11-2009)