Every Crisis is an opportunity

 Businesses since the beginning of the 21st century have been talking of 2020 plans. Now that 2020 is here all they can wish for is to get over with the COVID -19 induced rough phase. Leading economists including Gita Gopinath of IMF and Raghuram Rajan of Chicago Booth College are talking about this phase as the worst economic recession since the 1930s. Though these are troubling times, they provide opportunities for businesses to focus on business basics to help them overcome the tide and establish themselves as industry leaders.

1.    Recognize the core competency of the businesses.

Businesses over time diversify into many verticals and segments, but they lose focus on their ‘purpose of existence’. This strategy works fine when going is good, as high consumer demand overcomes the challenges of efficiency, quality, cost, and profitability and consumer satisfaction. However, when an organization faces intense competition in a downturn, holding on to the core of the company through increased investment in manpower, machine, material and method should be prioritized.

The above approach may look like a walk back from the grander vision of the past but it provides a solid foundation for the realization of same vision in future on your own terms.

One of the most remarkable turnarounds of fortunes in the last century was the success of Apple under Steve Jobs 2nd tenure as CEO in early 2000. When Steve Jobs joined Apple for the 2nd time, Apple was facing the threat of bankruptcy. Steve cut down on the plethora of offerings by Apple into a few computing products, outsourced manufacturing to East Asia and focused the company towards technological innovation. As they say, the ‘rest is history’.

2.    Customer Centricity as the primary principle of business:

An organization that has truly re-defined the meaning of customer-centricity is e-retailer Amazon. From its founding onwards, Jeff Bezos lead Amazon has tried to provide maximum choices, at cheapest possible market rate in quickest possible time to its customers. It has gone to great lengths to achieve its dictum. It is now the owner of the largest warehouse chain in the world; in supply chain management it has outgrown long-established players like FedEx and American Post and is now innovating on drone delivery.

Amazon survived the dot com bust of the early 2000s, as compared to its rival as it was focused on customer centricity by building trust through faster, better, efficient and consistent performance. Over time it has transformed itself from vendor to partner in people’s daily life.

3.    Shared values

Was Gandhiji the person who had the most impressive plan for the independence of India or did Martin Luther King present the best Civil Rights proposal in the United States? Some would agree and some would not. However, the real question is why millions at extreme personal cost followed them when success was only a mirage?

The answer to the question is the alignment of values; When people see the manifestation of their values in speech and action of the leader they go to great lengths to support the leader’s vision.

A successful corporate culture must adhere to Aristotle’s adage of ‘man is a social animal’, which means people want to be associated with like-minded groups. In the real world, this translates into values of the employees being aligned with the values of the organization. Shared values can be anything from market leadership to most innovative or the most customer-oriented among others. The key is that these values should be reflected in each level and activity of the organization.

In times of crisis, when money is in short supply, it is the shared vision which helps in the retention of the talent.

In Silicon Valley, the culture of employee loyalty is part of the organizations like Apple, Google and Microsoft. Employees of these organizations feel they are part of an endeavour which is larger than their own being.

4.    Creating a safe environment

Modern organizations are hierarchical where employee focus is on retention of the job at all cost. This has created a ‘Yes Boss’ culture in which creativity and innovation takes a back seat.

For an organization to survive tough times, it is important that news ideas and inputs from any corner of the organization are valued, discussed and debated. The future course of action is not to be taken without this process.

It is important that for the culture of free flow of ideas is allowed to flourish in an organization. People who raise questions should be praised not targeted.                                                      

Senior management can devise a variety of means for people to raise voices from traditional Town hall meetings and employee surveys to more modern techniques of Red Teaming and Information and Technology platforms.

5.    Developing LEADERSHIP among employees

In commercial organizations leadership has one simple meaning, ability to take initiative at any level. The quality of leadership is part inherent and partly built through training and experience. Leadership is one of the most valued virtues that all organizations look into their employees.

An organization must ensure that it is recognizing the leadership talent within its employee pool and imparting them with the necessary skill set for career progression. This leads to employee satisfaction and retention.

LEADERSHIP training must impart the quality of

Listening to others, Example, Attitude, Development of self and other, Excellence, Resilience, Surround with best, Humbleness, Innovation, Purpose                                                                                                             

6.    Performance Management

Global schemes of motivation based on ‘Push Model’ have failed to improve employee productivity in India.

To unlock the hidden wealth in India’s manufacturing plants, the ‘Pull Model’ of performance management where all stakeholders are involved in the creation and distribution of wealth is needed to be implemented.

Parameters that can be used for measuring the performance are process performance index (how rigorously the processes are implemented), overall equipment efficiency (measuring productivity), specific energy consumption, overall input efficiency (yield), and overall labour effectiveness among many other parameters.

If target parameters are met some portion of the profit generated can be distributed among frontlines employees to keep them motivated.

7.    Organizational restructuring

Large organizations typically follow 80/20 rule where 80% of wealth is created by 20% of employees. This requires that organizations are correctly structured to create the maximum value.

An inverted pyramid structure: where a large number of frontline employees with basic training is located, this is followed by mid-level employees which are Analyzed, Improved, Coached and Certified (AICC) and finally high-performance teams where regular addition, deletion, up-gradation and modification of members take place.

Modern management techniques like High-Performance Team architecture have proved immensely useful in improving employee productivity.

High-performance teams can be categorized into 3 types:

1.    High-Performance Core Process Teams

2.    High-Performance Shared Process Teams

3.    High-Performance Center for Excellence

8.    Hiring: Ability to look beyond corners

If someone asks, who is a good lawyer or doctor, the correct answer will not be the person who has read most books or one has the most experience, but rather a person who can preempt the argument of opposing counsel or diagnose the disease correctly in the first time.

Hiring new employees is a crucial part of an organizations working, but in times of crisis having the right recruit is even more crucial. It is the new blood which pushes the boundaries with their energy and innovation and keeps up the competitive spirit within the organization.

An organization must look beyond the regular parameters of educational qualification, age, experience, salary package etc. They must hire employees who have the ability to look around the corners to analyze the cause and effect of a problem.

The ability of people to look outside of the defined frame is greatly aided by their education and training in statistics, machine learning and artificial intelligence and having diversified industry experience.