Turnaround in style

How would you briefly describe the Tata Chemicals’ turnaround story?

In 1999, soda ash prices were really low and profits were under strain. There were too many people in the organization, costs were high, and we were not competitive globally. To add to it, imports were coming in from China.

Our turnaround came about in three waves. The first one was called Action 500 which focused on initiating the turnaround from red to black. The second was called Manthan which came with its relentless focus on costs and efficiencies. The third one was Udaan which was not about costs but about value. It was a logical shift of focus from cost to value. To achieve this transition, the company changed the entire management around 2000 and a completely new team succeeded in turning around the company.

As a result of that we are the second largest soda ash company in the world today. We’ve done two major acquisitions in the last two and a half years. Today we have presence Netherlands, Kenya, US and India. We are a different company today, profitable and growing.

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Digital Media gives a hard time to marketers

Marketers must have a very clear line of sight into the media-usage behavior of their consumers, which has been changing quite a bit over the last few years. They need to understand what kind of experience consumers are types of media throughout the day whether they are looking for entertainment or information, or they are shopping or communicating. With that understanding, then marketers should think about the relevance of their brand and their marketing objectives for each of those media-usage occasions for the consumer, says Christopher Vollmer, author of Always On and Booz & Company Partner in an interview with Strategy+Business's summer 2008 issue . The Central topic was media environment is changing and what it means for advertisers and marketers.

He said marketers have to be savvy enough to combine the best of traditional media with digital media and use both in ways that are complementary and at times incremental. By complementary, he means, using media in ways that extend an experience from one medium to another. For instance, a person can find out about a product on television , and the marketer can offer him or her an opportunity to learn or experience more about it on the Web.

The critical trend today is that Consumers want to spend more time in environments in whic they can control how they consume the media. "We are going to see a continued migration to entertainment or information platforms, from video games to video on demand to online media, where consumers choose how they interact with programming and content," the author said.

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Equip employees to leave

With attrition becoming a big challenge, organizations seem to have tried every trick in the book but with little success. Here’s a radical idea that will change the very foundation of the employer-employee relationship.

Elizabeth Craig, Chi T. Pham and Sarah Bobulsky, authors of Accenture’s Research Report June 08: Rethinking Retention: If you Want Your Best Executives to stay, Equip them to Leave, find that organizations can strengthen their executives’ intentions to stay by equipping them to leave! The authors’ counter intuitive conclusion: the best way to ensure that critical talent doesn’t leave is by providing experiences and opportunities that truly enhance their value and employability in the external labor market.

This is contrary to the free agent scenario where managers and executives change employers frequently to take advantage of sweetened offers and new professional challenges. Employers often find themselves losing the very people they want most to keep as the talent wars intensify.

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Go Kiss The World

The resurgent India has given Indian professionals optimism and a tad of arrogance as well. Nothing wrong with that! While the new-found wealth is always welcome, the challenge before the professionals – young and not-so-young is to find a sense of direction, purpose and some guiding principles to lead them as they head into the chaotic, unforgiving and demanding world.

Subroto Bagchi, who now calls himself a ‘Gardener’ at IT services company, MindTree, is shaping himself as a master coach and mentor. In his second book Go Kiss the World: Life Lessons for the Young Professional l (Penguin Portfolio June 08) through personal anecdotes, he brings lessons on working and living, energizing ordinary people to lead extraordinary lives. Bagchi urges Indian professionals to recognize and develop their inner strengths, thereby helping them realize their own, unique potential.

For those who constantly worry about building careers and successful businesses, Bagchi has this to say: “Our lives are like rivers – the source seldom reveals the confluence. Does a river fret over the long journey and about its end just as it is about to spurt? It simply does not do that, caring instead to fl ow, to begin its journey, and on its way builds a beneficial relationship with anyone who comes in contact with her.”

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Beyond programming

Most of us would agree that every project has requirements. Every time a new software application is being developed there is always a ‘Business Analyst’ (BA) from the project team who performs the role of requirements gathering for every software project. While some requirements are crucial to the application others are considered to be gold-plated luxuries.

How do we determine that the approach being adopted to gather the requirements is accepted as a good practice? What makes an individual a successful BA who not only understands the business problems but also models a solution which can be effectively leveraged through the use of technology?

How can one be assured that a BA is given the power of execution to get the things delivered with a benchmark of quality and within the defined time frames? Here are some of key pointers which are essential for business analysis.

Who gathers project requirements

While determining the project requirements one needs to identify at the beginning of the project who would be taking the ownership for capturing the project requirements.

Today, many software developers do perform the role of a BA. The technical discussion coupled with absence of soft skills and business acumen can dilute the interest levels of the customer and result in total disconnect.

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The Tata Way

Tata companies today are in the news for big ticket acquisitions of global companies and brands. Yet, the group has not lost its fulcrum, and remains a pioneer in its thinking on how future organizations are run and managed.Decades before terms such as ‘Sustainability’ and ‘CSR’ became fashionable, the founder of the Tata Group, Jamsetji Tata was crystal clear when he said: “In a free enterprise, the community is not just another stakeholder in business, but is in fact the very purpose of its existence.”

While community-centric corporate philosophy was indeed spoken about and practiced all these years, the Group is now making the inherent sustainability element more explicit, and evolving policies and systems to institutionalize it. In fact, corporate sustainability is boldly acknowledged as business strategy by the Tatas now. Dr. J.J.Irani, Director, Tata Sons, is, in fact, insisting that sustainability professionals in the Tata companies should be seen as business strategists. What’s more, sustainability is turning into a serious career option here.

Understandably, the much-used phrase ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’ (CSR) is passé at the Tatas. It’s ‘Corporate Sustainability’ from now on. What this means is Tatas are broadening their agenda beyond communities, to include the environment and bio-diversity. For a conglomerate that’s got its feet soiled in carbon intensive industries such as steel, chemicals and automobiles, this would surely mean a highly challenging commitment to sustain. For the Tatas now, ‘the business of business is sustainable value creation’ and they are busy institutionalizing it across the Group.

The transformation

All this while, the Tatas have co-ordinated their CSR efforts at the Group level through Tata Council of Community Initiatives (TCCI), and gone about building CSR capacities through several initiatives across the Group. They’ve made CSR agenda a part of KRA’s for their managers and integrated CSR with business excellence.

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Cutting attrition among women

Faced with a severe talent crunch, American companies are seriously coming up with attractive plans to minimize attrition among women employees. Johnson & Johnson's Crossing the Finish Line and Intel’s Technical Leadership Pipelines Program for Women provide critical career development opportunities just before the break point. Cisco’s Executive Talent Insertion Program is designed to bring in a significant number of new women as senior-level lateral hires.

A new research identifies a fight-or-flight moment (ages 35–40) when female attrition spikes dramatically. Around 35-40, women across science, engineering and technology experience a perfect storm. Career problems escalate and family pressures deepen at the same time. The losses are massive – fully 52% of women fall away. This is hugely painful, both for women who abandon hard-won credentials and for employers struggling with worsening labor shortages.

A new study—which Sylvia Ann Hewlett co-authored—published in the Harvard Business Review titled “The Athena Factor: Reversing the Brain Drain in Science, Engineering, and Technology”) demonstrates that over 40% of highly qualified scientists, engineers and technologists on the lower rungs of corporate career ladders are now female. In pharmaceuticals, high tech, petro-chemicals, and aerospace, young women are making impressive strides – and garnering rave performance reviews.

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