Dr Tara Chaitanya’s unfortunate experience during the purchase of an expensive medical device is by no means an isolated episode. She has clarity in terms of specifications, functionality and price of the device and high expectations regarding ethical and professional performance. The cost effectiveness of the ultrasound equipment is critical to the viability of Tara’s investment and practice. That she is sensitive to gender-related disadvantages to women in India that impede access to affordable healthcare and plans subsidised prices for them is noteworthy.There is an apparent disconnect between a motivated and target-driven senior management and mid-level and field staff who exhibit delayed responses and poor preparation for meetings. There was marked improvement in behaviour when Company A’s sales staff interacted with Shiv, Tara’s husband, revealing gender bias. This unfortunate and widely prevalent attitude is due to cultural conditioning in the male-dominated Indian society where professionally competent women are consistently at a disadvantage.Company A’s management approach is lacking in many ways: a) Information was highly compartmentalised between the technical team and the sales staff leading to lack of a holistic picture of available options for Tara. b) The company did not inform Tara regarding delays at Customs, which was mandatory. c) Site assessment and determining the cost of any modifications required was not addressed in multiple meetings. The suggestion from the installation engineer to repeatedly press keys to make the device function reflects another typical Indian mindset of jugaad in the absence of reliable quality parameters. Does the high-end Company A’s management know about this?The Indian medical electronics industry, currently valued at $1 billion, has been growing at an average of 17 per cent for the past couple of years and is expected to grow to nearly $6.5 billion in size by 2020. “There are so many orders. What all will I remember” is a telling comment from Company A’s Akhilesh Awasthi, indicating the attitude of a sellers’ market.To reduce the pain of purchasing expensive medical devices, doctors like Tara can take some steps: The buyer needs to have a thorough knowledge of the functions and exact specifications required. The specifications should be categorised as vital, essential and desirable so that price-functionality payoffs can be easily decided. Feedback regarding performance and the after sales service provided is essential.Buyers should be armed with a format listing out every parameter that can impact decision-making, including price, insurance, transportation, taxes, customs duties, AMC (annual maintenance contract) with and without spare parts, possibility and incentives for upgradation, annual and lifecycle operating costs to enable realistic comparisons.While one expects that the vendor will be diligent about site evaluation, but based on Company A’s conduct, it is best for buyers to obtain information about regulatory site requirements — spatial, electric, temperature, humidity, etc.One valuable advice to doctors like Tara: Form a consortium for purchase of medical devices. This pools expertise and enables volume discounts like centralised purchase in hospital chains.Tara and Shiv should also have negotiated so that the final instalment of 10 per cent is paid only after satisfactory functioning of the equipment for some weeks, thus removing jugaad while operating the equipment.As for gender bias, this will not go away for a very long time in India. Lady doctors can, in the interim, hire/ persuade a tough looking male to sit in on their purchase sessions, learn to talk turkey and develop a thick skin.Shocking, but one has to advise vendors to include gender acceptance in their training, as well as how to respond promptly to calls, be on time, go prepared for meetings, etc., by role playing sessions and simulations. Finally business success will demand that companies like A, B and C adopt process standards that will reduce buyer angst. Good luck, Tara! The writer is a medical doctor from AFMC with a PG in Hospital Administration. She is Dean, Faculty of Health & Allied Sciences and Director, Amity Institute of Hospital Administration(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 19-05-2014)
Read More
Clearly there are two angles to the case study and both are valid: One, was Dr Tara Chaitanya treated differently by the sales team because she was a woman?Two, is there a dire need to dramatically improve the level of service orientation and responsiveness in healthcare sales force in general?Attitude and beliefs towards women and potential discrimination in behaviour is a problem across the world. Currently, in the healthcare industry, the number of women radiologists is much lower (less than 10 per cent) than the proportion of women who are in medical schools (40 per cent). The ratios have increased in the past decade, but are still dramatically lower than what we find the world over. One of the reasons cited for women not gravitating towards radiology is because it lacks direct patient contact. Tara comes across as a very dedicated radiologist, very knowledgeable in the field, and also someone who knows her mind very well, having made a set of deliberate choices. In my experience, so far, in collaborating with women radiologists, they tend to be quite assertive in their opinions and needs. When I was presented this case, I called a few of my close radiologist friends who are women and got their input. They mentioned that they had to learn to deal with vendors and invest significantly in preparation, more than their male colleagues, by speaking to several radiologists on the deal before meeting vendors. It is unfortunate that women have to work harder than men, but are paid less than them. This is the collective responsibility of society, policy, HR and the individual to address the issue. Tara could have asserted herself as a customer to the sales team in tone and in approach. If I had been in her shoes I would have negotiated harder and perhaps prepared more thoroughly. It is not to say that women are poor negotiators, though some studies have suggested that. Was Tara right in giving in and involving her husband than directly negotiating herself, perhaps with support from her husband in the background? In this day and age of “leaning in”, did she sufficiently lean in? What was more apparent in the case was the lack of coordination and poor communication between the senior and junior sales team members in companies A and B. If the lack of customer orientation was due to the fact that the customer was a woman, it shows that the companies need to invest more in training their sales teams, and maybe their own overall mindsets, and invest in soft skills training and better responsiveness. Several companies have invested in a training function but more needs to be done to ingrain training not just for features and product differentiators but also for developing the emotional quotient of the sales team. No company today can ignore the need for gender inclusive training. For example, Walmart, Home Depot, IBM, Microsoft, etc., invest upwards of $300 million each year in training their sales teams. In some B2B companies, the proportion is sometimes as high as 10 per cent of sales. In the healthcare industry, more needs to be done by way of training. A good sales person at the outset should have had a conversation with Tara on her overall needs and addressed it 360 degrees as a solution tailored for her. The big three of the industry form an oligopoly in the medical equipment industry and if they do not invest enough in training, relationship building and retention, they could potentially lose share to the newer entrants in the market who come completely gender-sensitised.On the basis of this case, there are three key takeaways:— Women need to invest more in preparation and in asserting their roles to demand, command respect— Sales teams and sales representatives should be trained in gender inclusion as well as soft skills such as listening better and understanding needs before addressing the customers— Companies mentioned in the case, such as A and B, need to improve communication and coordination within their sales teams As an industry, healthcare needs to serve ALL — men or women! The writer heads marketing, strategy and is the oncology business head for Philips Healthcare in India. The views expressed are hers and not representative of Philips(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 19-05-2014)
Read More
Sriram Iyer was surprised to hear the introduction to the casually dressed Anil Guha. This was the Chief Operating Officer of Trix India! What unusual coincidences life presented. They were at a CII forum on ‘Customer service in the context of the 2000s’ and Guha was the guest speaker on customer systems and service efficiency. When the Q&A session began, Sriram promptly asked, “If a customer encounters a problem twice, what is the system you have to ensure the problem is flagged and thrown up for investigation at the brand level?”“That is an unusual question!” Guha replied, “At Trix, it will get lost in the statistics. The probability is 1 in many thousands; Trix has never had a problem getting repeated.”Sriram: Despite the fact that the same problem has occurred twice, your system rounds it off as ‘not significant’? It does not cease to be a problem. Does it not bother you from an R&D point of view?Guha: No point worrying about something insignificant, so won’t waste my time! ... Next?Sriram was not surprised anymore. This laid back attitude cut across the rank and file at Trix India; his experience had shown him that.Last year, his daughter Ursula received a Trix laptop as a gift from her cousins. One morning, less than two months later, she woke up to find the right side, outer side base plate was totally cracked. Teary eyed, she dragged her father into her room and showed it to him. Sriram was surprised but immediately took it to the Trix service centre (SC). The local manger said, “Yes, it is in warranty. But because it is an external damage it cannot be covered under warranty; You will have to pay Rs 7,000 for the hinge and the entire base plate, which will also need to be changed. Otherwise you cannot open it and if you do so the screen will also crack.” The warranty did say that it would not cover damage due to misuse. Ursula swore she had not dropped or banged the laptop. But her mother suggested she may have been careless. And poor Ursula was most disappointed. She had wept the whole day. Sriram left the laptop at the SC, accepting their verdict that the damage could not have happened without the user being careless. The laptop had to be repaired. But he said to the guy, ‘Be sure it is not the hinge that is at fault. I do not want this to recur.’ In a day, the SC called Sriram and said,“You are lucky the hinge is okay, we are going to change the base plate; your laptop will be ready in four days.” Based on this, the repair cost would be Rs 4,000, the SC guy said.Sriram gave them the go ahead. On Day 6, he called them up and asked, “Is it done? I am coming to Mango Street, I can pick it up.” But the laptop was not ready. The service engineer told him the part had not come. He suggested that Sriram wait for 3-4 days. Several days passed and on Day 11, Sriram went to the SC wanting to know what was going on. The engineer said, “This is a cosmetic part, we don’t carry inventory of these parts. They have to come from Singapore or Hong Kong.”Sriram: Then on what basis did you message me that the laptop was ready? This is a model you are selling currently in India! How long will it take? You give me a date, please! It is part of warranty and already two weeks are gone. We can’t use the laptop. But the service centre blamed the company and said, “We are the franchisees; we can’t do anything about policy.” Sriram then asked to speak to the manager. The manager was called. Sriram recognised him as he coming out of his cabin. This was the same guy he had come to for a problem with a Trix TV last year! When Gulab Rawal came up to him, both caught up in their mind their mutual recognition and discomfiture. “Oh, it’s you, Mr Iyer!”Sriram: Yes, we meet again! I do hope we are not going to see history repeat! But already the symptoms are identical! What is your policy on the matter of laptop parts? You are charging me Rs 4,000, despite being in warranty, on a false assumption that I damaged the laptop. I am paying, but now after telling me the laptop is serviced and ready for delivery, I come here and am told that ‘Oh, parts have to come from Hong Kong’. But nobody can tell me how long that will be? This is so slipshod!Rawal (embarrassed by the attention they were drawing from other customers): I need some time to get back to you. I will put it in the global tracking loop so that once recorded your need will be accessible to all service centres globally. I am sure the chain will access the part faster that way. Sriram’s colleagues at work were also involved in the case. Soon, another contact at Trix Global emerged, through one of his colleagues. This new person said, “Arre, yaar, you should have come to me. But now once you are registered in the global track system, I cannot do anything!”Sriram: What would you have done that these guys cannot?New Contact: I would have told you to register under the global warranty quota. Then, I would have shown it as an ‘outside’ repair, as if a foreigner had come on a two-day visit to India from Hong Kong, suffered a product breakdown, etc., That way, you would even get the service free! Did that mean they had the inventory? wondered Sriram, taken aback. He was slowly seeing the underbelly of Trix and its secret dual policy.After his experience with getting his Trix TV repaired last year, Sriram was not expecting much now from the laptop division. But he felt he must get the area sales manager involved if he must get his laptop back. He obtained the ASM’s number from the SC and called. The ASM informed him blandly that he was aware of Sriram’s case. Sriram: What is the wait time now? It’s already been so many days...No one seems to have an idea! I don’t expect this from Trix!ASM: Look, we are doing our best. If that is not good enough, you are free to go to consumer court!Sriram was taken aback by this unexpected assault. “How dare you talk to me like that?” he yelled, as others in the SC winced. “Of course, I will damn well go to consumer court! But you are not the brand, you are only a paid employee so you can lose your job for abusing the brand, bear in mind!”Others at the SC began to calm him. A furious Sriram walked out. Next morning, the SC manager called Sriram and put a date to when the part would come. Peace returned. The part did come exactly 27 days after they committed and finally the laptop was repaired. Ursula was delighted as Sriram placed the laptop on her table and opened it. Right before his eyes, the laptop cracked in the same spot, in the same pattern, same shape, while he was opening it!He got up and went straight to Mango Street. The manager was away, so a service engineer attended to him. “Give this in for repairs, sir,” he said. “The part will have to be ordered and it will take 27 days....” he rattled off in practised manner.Sriram threw a fit. “This is getting to be a joke. This laptop came from repairs this morning! You need to replace that laptop! ... baat karta hai... What nonsense! Where is the manager?”A fuming Sriram decided he was not going till he met the manager. After two hours, Rawal, the manager arrived. He shot off an e-mail to the head office saying, ‘This should be repaired free of cost’.Sriram: Please tell me, what is the story? Kahaani kya hai?Rawal: Kya bolegaa, sir! They don’t want to listen. We are the service people, we know design defect when we see it. But the company does not agree. It wants customers to pay. Kantaal aa gaya! (Am fed up).Sriram now began to prepare for war. He returned to his office, immensely annoyed over the lost time and the stupid inefficiency of companies that consumers believed in because of their global image. There was already an e-mail from Trix India. It said: The part cannot be replaced free of cost. You will have to pay Rs 7,000.Sriram replied: ‘If you think I am going to fund your experiments with faulty design, you have another think coming. Watch this space...!’But an automated system replied to him, ‘You have not agreed to the estimate. Please pick up your equipment and take it back.’Read Analysis by: Chandan Dang & Rajan Chhibba break-page-breakSriram went to the SC again. He walked right into an angry fight between the SC and another customer. Seeing Sriram, the man said, ‘After warranty I spent Rs 18,000. That computer has not worked for seven months!’ Everyone there was an aggrieved customer. When his turn came, the service manager said, “I am unable to help you. I did what I could. I made the request. I even told ASM to come and see the product problem. But woh nahi aayega... Company has a standard stance on this. They won’t budge.”Sriram: But there are two claims: one, refund of Rs 4,015 because the problem could not be corrected; two, this time the repair should be done free of cost because it is clearly a manufacturing defect or a design defect. I will now take this to the streets if I have to...Rawal: Karo, sir... I hope they see how wrong they are...Nothing happened for a week. Sriram drove to Trix’s office in the far suburbs. At the reception he asked to see the seniormost sales manager on the premises. The reception said if there was a service problem, I should meet the service manager. Back at the Mango Street SC, Sriram waited for 45 minutes, calling all levels of people but nobody came out to meet him. By now furious, Sriram began to shout. He had had enough. Other customers gathered around him and soon they were all sharing issues they had with Trix. The raised voices did not augur well for Trix. Out of nowhere, a slightly senior looking man in blazer emerged and taking Sriram to a corner, he shook his hand. Sriram realised this was the peace corps. So, he said, “What would you do in my place? What would you think of a company that avoids addressing the issue, whose service team is clueless, whose ASM tells you go file a suit in the consumer court...! What would you do? Slightly-Senior Man: You tell me. Sriram: Give it in writing that you won’t repair this!Just then, another man came up and showed the complaint to the senior man on his tablet. Sriram noticed two photos sent by the SC of both panels — the one that broke the first time and the one that broke the second time. And a comment from sales: One-off occurrence. Does not warrant leniency.’ Sriram read that and gagged. “Leniency? You owe it to me, dammit! How about respect?” Sriram was hollering by now. “Is there anybody here who takes responsibility for the brand?” And out emerged another even more senior-looking man. He was the assistant VP of the SC. Apologising as he sprinted towards the lobby area where Sriram was raving and ranting, the new man said, “Sorry, I was in a meeting, simply could not...”Sriram: In a meeting? I have dropped all my work and come here to save a Rs 40,000 laptop. But you don’t worry for a Rs 40,000 crore brand?!The assistant VP, Sumedh Chary, remembered Sriram so well. Sriram’s Trix TV, a wall-mounted model... the SC had taken it for repairs from his residence and as his luck would have it, the service engineer went and lost the bolts that held up the TV. And when Sriram asked, Trix’s SC asked him to pay Rs 6,000 for the bolts! And now Sriram recalled to Chary, “How do you expect me to have any faith in anything you say or do? The last time, your guy was acknowledging that he had lost them, yet you asked me to pay. Do you recall? And what was your plea? That your head office was not approving the cost. How was that my problem, Mr Chary? But you made it my problem!” But the repair itself was a nightmare, Sriram recalled. Four times in 15 weeks he had to take the TV back to the service shop. And even after four attempts, they were unable to fix it. Finally the engineer told him to get the repair done in ‘private’. Frustrated Sriram had dug out an old electric repair chap, Alam bhai, someone who used to repair his transistors and recorders 20 years ago. He fixed the TV for Rs 3,000, including installing in it an original Trix motherboard. But Trix did not replace the bolts!Chary chaffed at the memory and said, “Ok, let me give this my best shot. I need the MDs approval to get this done.” And sure enough, the next morning Sriram was told, “Ok, we will replace it free of cost.”But what about the Rs 4,000 he had paid the first time? Trix did not send a written reply, but a telephonic reply was given to him: That transaction is over. You have paid for it, and that cannot be refunded.’ Sriram pondered on the condition that India was in, where senior management of companies in which society placed great faith, rampantly abused right behaviour . The service staff was where the brand really fought hard to survive. He now recalled Madan Johri, the service engineer, who had said, “We had sent photos of the crack to the main office and told them that it was a design fault.”The front end was saying, Serve the Customer. The back end was saying, Damn the Customer. Madan explained: the moment you book a complaint, a copy of it goes to Trix India, to Trix APAC and to the HO. If anything has to be replaced free of cost, it needs to be approved by Trix India first. The chaps who say ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ are tucked far away into the system and you cannot get access to them. The mindset was becoming clear: the Trix India system was not designed to service individual customers. Is customer service really a service, or is it a profit centre? Is it not a means to enhance a customer’s brand experience? Or is it a live R&D operation funded by the consumer? Given this, is Customer Service a service or a business opportunity? Read Analysis by: Chandan Dang & Rajan Chhibbacasestudymeera@gmail.com (This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 05-05-2014)
Read More
Trix is a victim of a deep malaise that strikes many durable product brands — the great IT-enabled service fallacy, which is often grounded by big data. Enterprises like Trix set up expensive IT systems mainly with the objective of standardising service response and improving response time. What is often achieved is a lot of live data, but the main use of the data is to drive “service” profits and not customer “happiness”. When Sriram reached Trix’s service centre, his complaint was promptly recorded as yet another statistic; the system checked the service response protocol that said any physical breakage is the customer’s fault and instructed that all such services will be “paid” even though the product was in warranty. It failed to recognise the repeated product failure and had no room for the front line service engineer’s assessment. The service model is clearly designed for maximising service revenue. The result: a very angry customer. What had Trix forgotten? That service is a front-end activity and not a back-end play. Service means responding to the customer through the four Ms — mood of the customer in the most recent context; materiality of customer beyond today’s billing; message to the customer regarding his need first and money commensurate with the actual cost. These would have applied in this case thus: Mood: When Sriram came the second time after the body had cracked right in front him while opening the laptop, the mood at best was “rage”. Rage at the laptop base cracking again and the fact that Trix had cheated by charging him during warranty. His second visit just could not be treated as another call or statistics. Given that the mood was clearly adverse, the dealing mechanism should have altered. Only the front end, represented by the service engineer, can assess and manage the mood. On the contrary, Trix’s IT driven service decision system had disempowered the front end’s ability to manage the “mood”. Materiality: From Trix’s point of view, the materiality lay in the Rs 4,000 it earned as revenue. The front-end team knew that Sriram was a multiple product user, so the client materiality or life-time value was far higher. The complaint should have got flagged as “save a customer”, which is the real material impact on Trix’s business. Message: Trix’s effective message to the customer was that its systems slowed response the first time round. The second time, it conveyed that its processes come first and then the consumer. It conveyed that the staff Sriram was dealing with had no real power to perform. The service engineer saying that “we agree that it’s a product problem but the Trix office is not listening” is very damaging. Money: Trix priced its service as ‘premium’ yet had no means to show it. Consumers respect a fair ‘profit’ but not profiteering. Trix was clearly into profiteering. Sriram should have been told that he was a valued client, but they couldn’t be sure if this was a product problem or a client fault. The customer may need to pay right now but if there was an iota of doubt that it was a product problem, even if the first one on their record, the amount would be refunded! It may be useful to mention that spare part pricing should not lose sight of the part cost versus the original equipment cost. In this case, the part cost was initially quoted as 30 per cent of the new machine cost, within warranty. One always wonders if there should be a discount on part costs during warranty repairs. After all, the aim is to ensure that Trix’s equipment keeps working for at least a year. Also, it seems that while strong IT systems are supposed to improve service response time, in this case, the laptop was non-functional for at least three months of the 12-month warranty period. Did Trix offer to extend the warranty? To start with, Trix should have offered to check if it was a technical fault instead of assuming client fault. Next, it should have got the front end to flag a regular Trix customer. It should have proactively kept the customer posted. When the second complaint came, it should have offered to either replace the machine or refund the first Rs 4,000. It did neither. Chances are that it lost more than a few thousand rupees. Given the circumstances, one can safely predict that Trix will soon be consigned to the dustbin of history if it fails to realise that its service is a fallacy and that it is destroying the brand. The writer is the MD, Intrim Business Associates, a global management consulting firm (This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 05-05-2014)
Read More
Dr Vispi Mehta, senior gynaecologist of Orient Hospital, was on the phone with Tara. “Tara? All well?” “Mostly,” said Tara, more out of utter exhaustion. “My patient Saiba Williams has come back without her scan images, dikra! Soo thaiyoo? This is unlike you! Saiba needs that surgery done by this week, we need the images to save the baby trauma!” Dr Tara: Dr Mehta, I have been having the worst time of my life.....And Tara narrated her woes to Dr Mehta, her mentor during her post-graduation studies.Dr Mehta: This is very unfortunate! Whatever Company A is up to dikra, you cannot afford to jeopardise your work! Would you like to talk to Company B? I know Vatsal Parikh, MD of Company B and he will have his boys set up their BS-232 at your clinic in no time! We cannot have downtime, dear girl!Dr Tara: No, Dr Mehta. There should not be need for that. The service people at A have promised to set things right.Dr Mehta: We are doctors and we cannot hang on ceremony and pointless detail like brand loyalty. Every scan not done could put a life in danger. Tara and her husband Shiv had been up all night with the service team of Company A. Awasthi, the regional sales head, and Aman Yadav, the service engineer, had arrived at 5.30 p.m. on Sunday evening (her weekly holiday), to reinstal the software, a major exercise lasting over seven hours. But not without theatrics and drama.A quick recap: Company A had sold to Tara their older AA-SW13, which after much hardship continued to work even if whimsically while Awasthi had simply said that ‘it will settle with time’. A year into the SW13, Company A proposed that Tara upgrade to the SW15 (which would set her back by another Rs 25 lakh) with a buyback on the SW13. Tara upgraded only to enter a new phase of frustration. The SW15’s touchscreen failed to work, the printers malfunctioned and the machine hung right during a patient scan. Tara’s nightmare had begun a year ago with the purchase of A’s SW13, a Rs 63-lakh ultrasound machine. But like most people used to shoddy service, Tara too expected that the reputed SW13 would be smarter and hardier than its handlers and will quietly fall in line and start working. That did not happen. And Tara continued her calls to Awasthi and he continued to dodge her. One day, he suggested that she upgrade to the SW15 offering her good price offs on the SW15. An unsuspecting Tara, poorer by another Rs 25 lakh, discovered within minutes of the shoddy installation that the SW15 too had serious problems: the images froze or disappeared, the printers went unresponsive, and above all, the machine took to restarting right in the middle of a scan! Tara had called Awasthi several times but the man had pretended to be busy. Why was Awasthi dodging?Tara was a repeat customer and her problems with the machine were uncannily repeating and, most gallingly, Company A’s behaviour was also repeating! Worse, Tara had repeatedly reported the problems since the SW15 had begun to give trouble. But Awasthi had simply rolled over and played dead. Was Company A simply revealing its mental construct or was it hiding something? This was Shiv’s question.So, this Saturday — her busiest day — when the machine hung even as a patient was being scanned,Tara realised the road had ended. That was when she had no recourse but to stop work and wait all day for Awasthi to return her call. Matters had reached such a state not because Tara had not complained in time. She had logged in each and every problem as it occurred. She had recorded all her complaints on the toll-free number. She had then escalated her complaints to the regional service head, Yadunandan Bisht, and even spoken with the regional head, Sameer Sequeira, who had originally sold her the machine. But nothing got fixed. Finally, Tara moved all appointments to Sunday, and called Awasthi and Aman in turns, but to no avail. That was when Shiv left a menacing message for Awasthi promising to put up the SW15 on Pinterest with this caveat: Don’t trust this machine. Within minutes the duo arrived and spent all Saturday evening until midnight reloading the printer drivers, test running and checking. The change was not significant, but did print some reports. A relieved Awasthi left, promising to bring in more help early next morning (Sunday). Tara arrived at her clinic on Sunday morning, soon after that chat with Dr Mehta. She waited. And waited. Saturday’s patients who returned on Sunday had to be sent back yet again. Finally, at 3 p.m, Shiv who had had enough, called Awasthi, “How much longer do we have to wait?” Awasthi: Sir, we have a case to attend before your’s today; as soon as we finish that we will come to you.Shiv: But you were supposed to come in first thing this morning; our complaint has been lying unaddressed since yesterday morning! How does your ‘other call’ today take priority over us?Awasthi: No, sir, it’s not like that, we are just finishing and will come. Just one more hour, I promise you.Shiv: You know what, I don’t trust you anymore. Can you give me your India Customer Service Head’s contact numbers and e-mail IDs? And before you think of lying to me, understand I know how to get it off LinkedIn.Awasthi: Ok, ok, I will get Mr Tambe’s number....Shiv took all of ten minutes to write to Prashant Tambe the all-India customer service director. Describing in bullet points the three problems the machine had, right from the week of installation of the new AB-SW15 machine, he underscored feeling let down and abandoned by a brand they trusted. Also that they had been logging in their complaints and didn’t know why there had been no redressal so far. All this for a machine that was brand new, top-of-the-line, expensive, and within warranty. Finally that the clinic work had stopped since two days and they had no idea when they could restart. Shiv copied Aman, Awasthi, and Bisht, the regional service head on the mail as all of them had been aware of the situation at Tara’s clinic.Seven minutes later Shiv got a one liner back from Tambe’s BlackBerry, “We have received your mail, requesting national service head Sunil Chelaram (copied here) to look into your matter.”Half an hour later, Chelaram called from Bangalore and said he would ask Bisht to get personally involved. Then, Bisht called. Rather hot under the collar, he said mournfully to Tara, “Madam, if you had such a problem, what was the need to go anywhere else – we would have certainly helped you.” Tara: (putting her phone on speaker) I think that is why I called your teams seven times in the past four weeks, that my problems were not being attended to. There are more than a dozen of my service requests pending. Maybe we could take a look at the complaints log together? Bisht: No problem Ma’am, I will come and see you tomorrow, Monday morning at 9 a.m.Shiv: Tomorrow, Mr Bisht? Your team has kept us up all night,...Read Analysis: Vineet Kapoor and Debabrata Mukherjee break-page-breakTara: My patients have been coming back and forth since Friday. ‘Patients’ means they are in need of medical assistance. They know no Sunday or holiday. I did think Mr Chelaram intended for us to get the help we need, today. But if your best is tomorrow, then...In 30 minutes, Aman and Awasthi arrived and after some checks declared they would have to reinstall the entire machine core software. Shiv and Tara were intrigued. Why core software? But Aman gave an estimate of 3-4 hours for the job, in reply! The next thing he did was plug in his headphones and call someone in headquarters who spoke with him for almost an hour while he made notes. For the whole hour, he understood what he had to do and how. It was after that that he actually got started. As he worked, he kept speaking to his HQ and it was clear he was doing this for the first time. Shiv was amazed by the irresponsibility — Company A’s service engineer was here to reinstall the core software, learning on the job! Wow, the blinding power of an MNC brand! Around 2 a.m. on Monday, Aman finished the software reinstallation and restarted the machine. Bleary eyed and tired, Aman showed Tara that the machine was starting and the printers were receiving inputs. On the touchscreen issue, he said he would discuss with Bisht in the morning.When Bisht arrived at 9 a.m. Tara had to explain everything one step at a time — the problems as if ‘surprised’ him. It was as if he had never seen the call logs, never spoken with Tara about these. Aman had nothing to say. Shiv chose to be present, having taken a half day’s leave from work. One would have thought at this stage, Company A — if it honestly believed that the SW15 was as amazing as they had made it out to be — should have been fair, taken back the faulty machine and supplied a new one, thus saving face and importantly patients’ time. But the story goes on...Bisht, uniquely, suggested that Tara should ‘observe the machine’ to see if it hung again. Tara choked in disbelief. Next, Bisht also blamed the Dustin Dempa printers for the patchy printing. But Tara said, “Many other Ultrasonologists use exactly this printer brand and model.”He had no answer, but even suggested she use a different photo paper, “Maybe this brand is the problem, who knows?” Shiv groaned audibly and deliberately, “No, not that again, please. We have already tried three brands of photopaper, including the most premium brand. We have also bought a new brand of printers as suggested by Aman. What else may we change, let’s think, the clinic?”So that was the end of that line of reasoning from Bisht.Something was not adding up. Increasingly Tara and Shiv both felt the problem was different. Even fundamental.Glad that the machine was responding, the printers printing, an exhausted Tara bid Bisht goodbye and set about printing Saturday’s backlog. That was also when Chelaram called to check status. Tara told him that the touchscreen issue had not been addressed even by Bisht. Chelaram promised to get that fixed immediately .Shiv was also scathing in his comments about Aman and Bisht. “There is a lot of shooting in the dark. Neither has a logic to his suggestions. Only diversions. Very disappointing, really! ended Shiv. Three days later Company A sent a new touchscreen, with another service engineer, Brijender, who replaced the old errant one. Now the SW15 began working perfectly. Tara had a moment of déjà vu. “This is exactly like the faulty keyboard on the old machine and how Paul Anand waved his magic wand. Looks like this organisation’s customer support is completely personality-led, and complaint logs, etc., have no meaning for them. I don’t think they use the logs to study trends and understand...”Brijender was different. The machine hung twice in that week, but he was quicker to reach than Aman.Until, the machine hung twice on one day. Tara was devastated. “What is going on?!” she lamented. Read Analysis: Vineet Kapoor and Debabrata MukherjeeWhy was the machine software still hanging? This time, Brijender painstakingly collected the data and keystroke logs just preceding each hanging incident (which was recorded in the machine’s memory). He sent it to the HQ, and in two days, he came back and said something that shook the ground under Shiv and Tara’s feet.Brijender: See, the version of the machine software on the SW15 is due for change.... some bugs are being fixed... so, you may as well wait for the new version?Shiv was sure he heard wrong. “What do you mean?” he asked.Brijender: Aisa hai, you know that the SW15 has a new software and a faster processor? Now, the software that was reloaded on your machine on Sunday night was the recently debugged and documented new version. The global tech team has been working on it since six months. The difficulties that you and some others have been facing were fed to the global tech team in Virginia where the software is being debugged and a new version is being developed. The new version will solve the machine’s hanging problem, which has also now got documented for implementing the fix.... It will be available in two weeks...You will have to wait, ok?”Shiv felt an unusual sense of anger. “So, was this some kind of experimental software,” he asked.Brijender: I won’t say that....Shiv pressed on keenly, “In computer parlance, this is called a Beta version. Was this what we were subjected to so far?”Brijender’s silence was both eloquent and embarrassed as it was evasive. Tara picked up Shiv’s phone and found the call from Tambe in Bangalore and dialled it. Introducing herself she said, “This SW15? It is a life saving equipment, Mr Tambe, but your organisation sold it to me like it was a juicer. Do you realise these are equipment that determine life decisions for ill patients? And all this nonsense about debugging and version change, etc., you do not think is downright unethical, worse when you wilfully conceal it from me the doctor ? You Mr Tambe knew all along that you were using me as a guinea pig to test your software. You put my patients’ lives at risk?This is breach of customer faith, Mr Tambe! This is breach of your fiduciary relationship with me because I trusted you to know what healthcare is about. I am hopping mad now Tambe. You have betrayed unsuspecting patients!” casestudymeera@gmail.com (This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 16-06-2014)
Read More
The Kalpana Case' is an example of how an organization refuses to use it heart and how an employee refuses to use her head. The facts starting from Kalpana's inability to read the writing on the wall and going through into the organisation's inability to manage people issues, are fraught with dissonance. Here are a few questions I have for the senior managers of the bank.Why did you deal with Kalpana in this manner? What was your issue? Why such a cloak and dagger approach?Why did you allow Sundari to play games?What is the real story behind sacking Kalpana?What is your policy with regard to treating pregnancy, and medical emergencies?What are your core values which govern the way you will conduct yourself in good times and bad?I get no clear answers. Instead, I see a management that is indulging in inexplicable behaviour. Sundari's conduct is despicable and the behaviour of the Country Head and National HR head is pathetic. (All the men in this case were really disappointing in their complete lack of sensitivity and courage.)David Ogilvy once said, "Rules are for the obedience of fools and guidance of wise men." I see no evidence of adherence to policy (whatever it might be) nor evidence of any wisdom guiding the decisions. I am not surprised though. This is how most organisations, MNC or otherwise, behave. There are, of course, exceptions. It may be argued that men don't understand pregnancy or women's issues. But in this case, two senior managers (Sundari and the lady director on board) did nothing different either to show that women would have handled this situation better!Why does this happen? It is not because there are no clear policies. It is because the organisation does not have a clear set of values that guide them in good times and bad. It is probably impossible to frame policies to cover all possible situations. In such cases the organisation should be guided by values than by policy. "What we believe and how we behave".I don't believe this organisation suffered from any recession. It suffered from a bankruptcy of values.My next concern is Kalpana. She did NOT know her priorities. "What is more important? Having the baby or the career in the bank?" Right in the beginning when Sundari told her "You need to have your options clear and take a call between your professional and personal priorities", why did Kalpana keep quiet? Should she not have said "My baby first, you can keep the job"? By dithering there, she allowed herself to be pushed around. The other point is that she should have stopped to think "why did Sundari say that" instead of getting upset about "how dare she talk to me like that" or "if this is what she does to me (who is so senior), imagine what she would do to someone junior".She made this into a women's issue before exploring the various angles as to what is happening to her. She should have adopted a more strategic approach to tackling this problem.I also noticed that she reacted to situations impulsively rather than respond carefully. You could easily provoke her and get her to say the wrong things. My biggest shock is that after all the insult, unfair treatment, and being sacked - when the country head and and national HR head ask "What is it you want?", Kalpana's reply is "My job". Why would Kalpana ever want go back to such an organisation? Beats me. That is why this is a classic case where the organisation did not use its heart and the individual did not use her head.Does Geffel have a hope in hell? Can we salvage the company now? Can it rethink its approach? What should they have done, when and how? Geffel does have a hope in heaven, if they wish to be there. But much depends on what their focus is and what their genuine people philosophy is. It must stem from the top.Good companies know how to handle exceptions. In the service industry they use something called service recovery when something goes wrong. These are the broad steps they follow:1.Acknowledge that there is a problem/mistake.2.Apologise for what happened to the person affected.3.Think of ways to redress and turn the situation around. 4.Put your best foot forward to implement the solution.5.Check with the affected person if the problem has now been sorted out to their satisfaction.6.Capture learning and ensure it is part of the organisation experience, knowledge and folklore "What worked, what did not."7.Make this way of thinking and working a regular way.8.Start at the top and set an example; lead the way.9.Be tough on people who do not comply with company values (not easy). 10.Never let people forget who we are, what we are. Celebrate heroes and heroines who follow the values no matter what.The author is an innovation coach, a CEO coach, and creator of TickleMeThink (an iPhone app), an aspiring writer, a speaker, and former director Ogilvy & Mather India
Read More
I’m as fierce a mum as the next milk banking ‘lactivist’ but when it comes to postnatal career calls, I believe it is solely a mother’s prerogative. I may not agree with Marissa Meyer’s cab ride to work straight from the labour room but back-fence nattering and column inches given to discussing the same are all too astounding. Either people want such women to fail or cannot get over the success of it all, haven’t a clue, but what gets me all hot and bothered is if tears, pain and joy belong to the mother, then surely the first domino tumbling in that complex trail of decisions ‘to go or not to go’ must be for her taking too. Companies have to trust that the woman they hired, to make critical decisions for the firm, can make this one soundly enough.Not that they should expect the same woman to come back to her job, breast pads under business suit and unlikely to have changed one bit. Far from it! Mothers return to work ridden with guilt, hormones, pressure, emotions, desire to prove that they are indispensible and can outdo their last stint, and sure enough they multitask and make it work with the baby compartmentalised snuggly in their mental folio. Should we not then be viewing maternity leave as a leadership development course that equips women even better for their workplace? Wouldn’t the best and most productive employers be those who see the complete person, kids and all? I am gobsmacked that an MNC bank recruiting high-flyers like Kalpana, who have taken advantage of the best education, would actually encourage them to abandon their careers (and contributions to the bottom line) in favour of changing nappies at home!Growth in aspirations, wages, average spend, lifestyle and inflation coupled with a decline in family incomes across India are all putting many more Kalpanas in this position every time they decide to take up their ovaries on the offer. Whether they go back to give meaning to their lives or simply to collect a paycheck, children are still conceived to enrich lives not enslave conscience.Kalpana’s boss reminds me of erstwhile Margaret Thatcher who was so tough on new stay-at-home mums, that she was reluctant to give them tax breaks for she thought they ‘lacked get-up-and-go and gumption’. Need I remind, that was the eighties. I for one went back to work almost a year after my child was born and still found it challenging to serve as a director across European, West-Asian and African markets whilst juggling childcare, pick-ups, flight delays and traumatic hours away from my little one. I took my call to take a sabbatical, based on my set of considerations. Neither husband nor company persuaded me into doing so, hence I am at peace with it. For Kalpana, that decision wasn’t hers – which is what makes all of this is so unfair!The issue is complex, subtle, difficult to tease apart for there may well be a rich collection of anecdotal reports or 'company policy' papers on gender diversity. There is virtually no hard data clearly outlining issues getting in the way of women’s progression. Be it structural issues (policies and work practices) that create those barriers or personal ones (values, beliefs, stereotypes, responsibility of making marriages work, having kids on time) that bias perceptions about women’s ability to lead effectively — either way qualified women often simply opt out.Sure it doesn’t apply to Kidwais, or Sandbergs, in my opinion they are outliers, and while their actions may make splashy headlines, their situation doesn’t apply to the Kalpana Dixits. They can hire cooks, nannies, nurses, drivers, dog walkers and personal trainers, or set company policy to allow infants at work or buzz back everyone early from maternity leave as Meyers just did, does it matter? 'Lean-in' all you want, the playing field is neither the same, nor as even.Kalpana, who was senior enough to manage clients, surely should have had her sense and wits about her, or have alarm bells go off long ago, based on the discussions she was constantly having. She should have known better to catalogue any discrimination, note sidelining tactics, save emails, references, dates and details of phone calls, and kept a timeline of events, should it be needed for a tribunal or case. A strongly worded letter with her timeline, for instance, could be a good start in reminding a company of their legal obligations. When a company breaches a code of trust — trust that the employee will be dealt with fairly come what may – it is asking for trouble. But it is upon the employers to challenge that culture and attitude, with the same 110 per cent that they give to their work.No wonder large reputable companies have taken to employing the services of maternity coaches to advise on family-friendly compromises and to mentor women returning from maternity leave. Business psychologist Ros Taylor, in her book Confidence at Work, suggests women can appoint an amenable peer as a "buddy" before they go on leave. "They can keep you in touch with what's going on at work and, just as important, gossip too, so that you don't feel cut off when you return." If possible, it may help to go out for occasional drinks or lunch with your colleagues or ‘buddy’ every month or two, so that you keep abreast of any management changes that could affect you. In addition, female employees can set up an informal support group and senior managers harness it to promote the recruitment, retention and progression of women. Top companies nowadays offer workshops for women about to go on maternity leave, support during their absence and mentoring on their return, to ensure most of them join back – not only does it make better business sense over employing fresh starters but is a no-brainer when it comes to higher returns. Geffel’s a leading bank but seemingly, not so good at common math.Kalpana not only faced discrimination and constructive dismissal, but also became a "victim" in the process. Where she should be enjoying motherhood or work or both, she is now consumed by the injustice of what had happened. Sometimes, a promising career elsewhere is the best way to get even and get ahead. Maybe, Sundari did Kalpana a favour who knows, but Sundari sure did herself none.The author was brand director, Hewlett-Packard, EMEA, at Publicis London. Now based in Chicago, USA, she is guest faculty at ICSC European Retail School, and an examiner at the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), UK
Read More
As Kalpana’s story moves on, we establish without doubt that her bank is a discriminating organisation. My criticism of the individual players was explicit in my previous analysis. Let me focus on the larger issues this time.How can organisations that form a part of discriminatory societies be aloof from the reality around them? Our society is a violent and an unequal one — women are killed before they are born, women are more likely to be malnourished, women drop out from school more often than men, women are sold for sex, organs and labour, and women from middle-class families report domestic violence and sexual abuse to the extent of 50 per cent of the population. Can then Kalpana expect her organisation to be any different than her society? Can one create a value-enhanced diverse oasis? An organisation that is equitable and respects and includes all people in the larger desert of discrimination and exclusion, is a rarity.We also live in a society where very early on in his life, the male child recognises that he is the protector. The women in India have recognised that they have the right to be equal. They have also recognised that this right will be infringed upon more often than not and they will have to fight for it. Given the ongoing vulnerabilities of violence, and of being dismissed and spurned, women have learned that to survive in male bastions, they have to be like men. The culture of silence pervades and institutionalises the discrimination and violation of women. This happens to the extent that Sundari as a woman does not recognise that to please the male determined cultural norms she has become discriminatory herself.In such a stark socio-cultural reality, there is an expectation that the organisations will be able to create a world of equality. Is that possible? Is it even attempted? Is Corporate India gender friendly? Or are the women still invisible and silenced in the boardrooms? There is unfortunately limited research or evidence on the issue. The organisational effort for ensuring gender equity is not documented. The best practices are not highlighted. The human resource policy does not have measurable indicators or audit processes. This heightens the risk of organisations living under the illusion that they are ‘gender friendly’ while the discrimination continues right from recruitment to leadership succession.This affects the culture of the organisation, its productivity and its ability to retain the best people for the job. It is also a reflection of institutionalisation and normalisation of such discrimination in the larger society.Some will have you believe that it has already been achieved and no gender-based discrimination exists in India Inc. Such is the level of collective denial that one has to question the intent that allows the delusion to prevail. The Bank in the said case is definitely suffering from the delusion that it respects diversity! I hope this challenges it to question itself and its team members.Given the lack of evidence on the gender dimension in corporate India, there is need to provide tools and methods to managers in the Indian context so as to enable them to be champions of engendered and diverse processes. There is a need to build capacity among managers to identify discriminatory events or processes. There is need to develop methods to measure the impact of gender equity and also the impact of gender discrimination on the organisation and the individual manager. There is a need to develop and reward best practices that can be rolled out to the larger corporate world. The idea of gender equity has been accepted to some extent there is a need to make it behavioural and measurable.In the meanwhile, one can only hope that Kalpana finds the courage to continue to challenge those around her to treat her as an equal. The battle does not end even if you change the organisation. The characters change, rules, unfortunately, do not! The author is Senior Consultant Psychiatrist and Psychotherapist, Apollo Hospitals, New Delhi; and chairperson of an NGO named Saarthak(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 21-10-2013)
Read More
