MANAGING SUCCESS!

To most of us the success, as and when it comes is arguably a stroke of luck. We are unable to convince ourselves that we too can be in the zone of success.

Volumes have been written over how to be successful, even more when successful. Several GBs of data are available telling you about achieving success even when you are presently a failure. What is the major difference between the successful and the not so ones?  May be, one who is successful does use the conditions slightly better than the others. Please note that all contestants complete the race, out in their best efforts but the only one stands on the golden podium. So, it is a matter of a microsecond.

I have no objection to becoming successful. In fact, I believe that it should be the sole and principal objective of our existence as thinking animals. We strive, we slog, we take risks, we sometimes bend some rules, and may be with some share of luck we achieve our goals. We become successful.  We are happy. After the initial euphoria, we realize that becoming successful is the tip of the iceberg. We also understand that becoming successful is relatively easy when compared to retaining the success levels. Here we start to think about management of success.  Much after we have used the management tools to be successful.  Presently, we would try to see what one should do when he is successful.

 The biggest exercise of becoming successful is prevalent all over the world. Some people are successful by design but most of us are there by default. The chances of having lasting success are much better for the first category. Mark the word ‘chances’! Even the people who reach their goals by design may not necessarily know how to have continuous and sustained glory. For example, the people who top the merit lists in their earlier life are not always where they could have been. Does it mean that they could not manage their success? Does it mean that they slogged without understanding the concepts? Does it also mean that they mugged up everything and just mechanically reproduced or even worse just acted as a virtual Xerox machine? The machine gives you an ‘exact’ replica of the original document, but certainly does not understand a single alphabet of the document.

 When the success principles are applied to the popularly termed as ‘the corporate world’ the picture is even more hazy. The situation is more or less similar whether in the small or the medium or the largest, the success may be is dependent mostly on the topical factors such as

o  a favorable government policy,

o  a convenient connection in the high places or

o  as in most cases plainly luck.

Talk to any person who is working in an acknowledged successful organization and you would know what I am talking about. Can he really say that his organization is riding the success wave which was pre-designed? What is the special effort that goes in keeping the success?

 When a person or an organization is climbing the path of success, there is very little time to look back and for a review. During this time many people who are not as good as they should be are somehow tolerated.  The passengers are tolerated. The organization during this time neither has time nor inclination to spend any extra time in proper selections. The stress starts to show when the orders start pouring in and there are very few people to whom the organization can look up to. In such cases most organizations try the dangerous path of offering incentives to the existing unfit employees, which sends a completely wrong signal to the existing employees. Incentives and their subsequent ad hoc disbursement are the two largest factors which threaten the continued success of the companies.

 Mostly, people tend to take Success very lightly, whether it is a person, an organization or even the nation. We have seen many students placed in the coveted merit list of the school leaving exams doing nothing spectacular in the future lives.  We have seen what happened to campaigns like “India shining” or “Garibi Hatao”. Loud-mouthing of a limited time-bound success rarely helps the cause. Very few in the organization really understand how success had come. The correct process implemented by correct persons was mainly responsible for success. During the path to the success nobody really pays requisite attention to the success formula, which is customized for each organization.

 Most organizations that were successful just a while ago are now fighting for their breath in the turbulent waters. They tend to forget one simple thing. The duck looks very calm and serene on the top of the placid water, but the constant pedaling under the water is not seen by the people. You stop the pedaling and the trouble sets in. The success is like the mountain weather, when it is nice, it is incomparable. Within next few minutes the scene changes. The crystal-clear sunshine is gone so much so that we start asking whether what we really ever saw it. The rains, the winds and other hazards make every one miserable. Similarly, when the organization is successful, it looks good. Everybody looks happy trying to create an impression that he is wholly or at least partially responsible for the present pleasant state of affairs.  The media runs the interviews of the top people who somehow always appear wonderstruck with the unexpected results. When the boss says that his organization has excellent man power, he remembers all those who have been pain for him. When he talks about sound financial position, he recollects the calls from his bankers. When he says they want to expand, it usually means that they are about to be kicked out of the presently operative areas. Such successes remind me of that bucket which in spite of holes somehow gets full and then the drain starts.

 The management of success hence is as important if not more than being successful. If the success is a product of one spike zone in the graph of the performance then more often than not success would have a small life. So, measuring the routine functions and ensuring that the day to day operations are efficiently monitored can result in a stable success.

 Many of us equate success with growth. Bigger size may or may not be a result of success. If not managed properly the adage which says ‘the bigger they are, harder they fall’ fits in. Take a case of Satyam, it was big, it fell big. The stock exchange scams, the stamp scam, the fodder scam, all were huge and grossly mismanaged.

 Success has a sort of lulling effect on the people or the stake holders as nowadays they are called. They are sure that the success is in spite of their short comings and hence in the future also they would get the success. It is here the seams start bursting. May be, one or two times the system had the inherent capacity to balance the upsets, but that is not any guarantee for the continuous success.

 Success also generates an unwanted race. About ‘who’ is right rather than ‘what’ is right. The organizations going after ‘who’ generally fail very fast, as their system is person dependent than process.   Correct Process is the key to the success. Correctness at planning of the process and its subsequent appropriate implementation, independent of the persons handling the process can be a suitable basis for a continuous success.

 Success which originates from an innovative idea may be is smaller as compared to success which is due correct duplication of that particular idea. Commercially, more duplication generates more money, power and stability. Take an example of Macdonald’s, the key to their lasting success is due to their ability to multiply their successful model across the world. Whether USA, China or Russia they serve the same menu with minimum or no variations at all. Moreover, they are aware of all the problems, pitfalls in the model and effectively ensure that they are better prepared to face the problems as and when they arise. Any new variant if confronted is added to the list of the problems.

 We have to look into one aspect very carefully. What is usually assumed is because we are successful so far, we would continue to succeed in the future. In this we tend to overlook one simple principle: Life is dynamic and, in its dynamism, it has potential to provide more opportunities as well as more problems. Competition, changes in technology, changes in political systems, international money policy, disgruntled employees, dissatisfied customers, material shortages and many such factors are to be correctly tackled if one has to manage the present success. The popular term being ‘proactive’ looks very good but can be extremely counterproductive if not understood properly. One more aspect which decides whether you are managing success properly or not is your sense of timing. They say that an invasion of army can be stopped but not the idea whose time has come. The tapes vs. CDs, cable TV vs. the DTH, can be some relevant examples. Now the apps like Netflix are threatening the cable channels.   The new things once accepted by the society sound a ‘go away alarm’ for the older ones which get replaced.

Lastly, we all have to seriously know the fact that says ‘what goes up comes down’. The key to the success is to delay the coming down, sustain the present-day success levels and be extremely alert to avoid any shocks due to ignorance, accidents, strikes, overall changes and inner dissatisfaction both on a personal as well as the organizational levels.

 The management has to be very careful about the process, the persons running the process, the people managing the perceptions, and of course, the people with new ideas enabling the organizations maintaining the success levels.