Expect the Unexpected

How do successful business executives stay on top of the game in an ever-changing global marketplace? By being prepared for the unexpected. When senior management and executives are up-to-date on industry movement, they are better prepared to know when to act and when to wait. Just as investors must understand and learn when to act in the stock market, so too do executives need to understand which industry changes necessitate action.

Successful corporate leaders are not necessarily those who are able to motivate the troops to excel, but rather, those who are able to anticipate and react to change. This executive understands the current business climate, and has a thorough understanding of the management team's capabilities. Signs may point in a clear direction for an industry to head, but is this the best direction for a particular business? This is a fine line to walk, and executives who are skilled in researching industry trends, keeping up with all types of technologies, and are able to handle the unexpected will be the ones who can lead a company into the next phase.

1. Ensure Senior Management and Executives Keep Their Fingers on the Pulse of Their Industry
While it seems like common sense, the simple act of keeping up on industry trends is too often overlooked. Those in executive careers are overworked, over-focused, and too busy developing the next big thing of their own. But what is going on in the industry while your company is buried in its own projects? The perceptive executive knows that it is essential to keep a finger on the pulse of the industry. This includes current trends,projected directions, and of course, what the competition is doing.

Successful businesses are often those who develop a niche and do this best, whether it is develop a product, provide a service, or a combination.However, these companies also seem to know when it is appropriate to expand. What about less successful companies? How often have start-ups gotten off to a great start, only to fizzle out a few months later?

The difference is finding the balance between the core products or services and the new options that show real--not simply hyped--potential. The only way this can be determined with some degree of accuracy is to keep watch over the industry on a regular basis, from observing historical trends to watching which of the latest developments show potential. Many executives get themselves and their companies into trouble by trying to do too much. It is not possible to "hit" every trend that comes your way, no matter how tempting or how big the financial payoff appears to be.

2. Don't Overlook the Short- and Long-term Benefits of Technology

Technology affects all aspects of your business, regardless of whether or not you are in a technical business or not. Corporations of all size rely on a wide range of technologies on a daily basis; a simple breakdown in one area can hold up the rest of the company in very short order. Just as the breakdown of a single machine on a manufacturing line can put a halt to production, so too can a breakdown of the simplest technology create costly difficulties.

Just as the corporate executive needs to have a solid grasp on the direction of his or her industry, so too does this person need to have an understanding of both short- and long-term benefits of technology. Knowing when to act can save or cost the company millions of dollars.

Those with executive jobs need to understand the benefits of a technology in order to make a wise decision on its use. Many current technologies are enticing, promising quick results for a fraction of the cost. Nevertheless, will these technologies be around for the next few years? In many ways, there is no excuse for an executive not to know whether a new development is worth the investment. Information on new technology is everywhere, in many forms, such as online, in books, magazines, presentations, and word of mouth, just to name a few.

3. Is it possible to expect the unexpected?

Of course--anyone can say they're ready for the unexpected. Having an idea what the unexpected will be is quite another matter, which is why it' so important for executives and senior management to conduct ongoing industry research and stay current on technology. Effective leaders have a clear sense of where the company is going and have a plan in place complete with contingencies. Expecting the unexpected means planning for the unexpected.Successful executives understand where the company is in its business cycle and plan accordingly. An established company may be better equipped to take risks, for example. If senior management is prepared for both success and failure, with plans in place for all scenarios, the unexpected may not come as such as surprise. In other words, forecast what's to come and modify your operations, administration, sales and marketing, and customer communications to accommodate it.

Encourage all executives and members of senior management to stay vigilant on industry developments. Promote communication between all corporate departments and compare notes. Use the combined information to make as accurate of forecasts as possible.

JOB MARKET FOCUSING AT INDIAN COMPANIES OVER MNCs

Indian companies are getting recognized in the global arena so more and more people are getting attracted to opt for jobs in Indian companies rather than MNCs. Although working in MNCs had great value on the CV earlier but with Indian organizations gearing up to attract quality talent the competitive edge that MNCs enjoyed in the job market has been shared. Factors like higher salaries, structured training and induction programme, stints abroad, workplace benefits like gym , relishing food varieties at cafeteria as well as the brand equity are usually associated with MNCs but if we look into Indian companies like Godrej, Dabur, HCl all tend to offer the same or better benefits many times.

It is seen that MNCs prioritizes on the employee benefit schemes to provide them a healthy work culture to grow personally and professionally which is again another reason that youth prefer MNCs rather Indian firms to work with. Since at junior levels, people want to build skills so the emphasis is on who provides the best training and learning opportunities – areas where traditionally MNCs excel. Although in the long-run, working in domestic firms in the early years in career and can continue to explore the possibilities of working individually. MNC's have lesser scope of an individual being developed into an owner. But as people move up in the corporate ladder issues like flexibility to innovate, opportunities for making a significant difference in the business etc becomes the need for people and possibilities of such aspect can be better explored in Indian companies. For instance, Sriram Jagannath who is heading Bharti Airtel’s mCommerce initiative joined Indian telecom industry in 2009 after a 20 years stint with CitiBank. And he is among half a dozen senior executives who have joned Bharti Airtel from various MNCs around the globe.

If we look into the premier B-school like IMM-B’ 2010 placement season, more than 40 Indian firms were invited –double the invitees a decade earlier. Moreover Indian companies have come to realize that human resources are an important asset -their skills and abilities cannot be easily replicated by competitors so companies like HCL Technologies follow the ‘employee first-customer second’ approach.

So…..friends…as placements are knocking at the door…..have options open …..and keep going !!!!!!!

LIFE can be FUN...

It's OK to want to have fun in everything that we do in our life... It's not selfish, insensitive or self-centered rather it's natural, normal and healthy... Every aspect of life goes better with fun... It can lubricate even the most tedious chore and can infuse even the most serious of situations with the lightness of love...

Here are a few actions which I think would help to keep our day light...

1. Practicing random acts of connection: Reach out to others... When we give, we feel more connected to people around. And if you don't feel motivated for this, think 'selfishly'... Buy someone a cup of coffee or let another driver past in front of you... You are in the fast track to feeling good!

2. Make at least one 'just-for-fun' phone call a day: Call a good friend who is consistently fun to talk to... Not for business or to have any of your needs met, but just to say a hello without any expectations.

3. Invite surprises into life: Our life has been secretly structured by our soul to bring to us the best experiences... The whole of creation is conspiring to bring us goodness... And unpleasant situations are placed in our path in life to help us grow big enough to embrace even them.

4. Seek wonder: Don't dwell on the old... But move towards fun, joy and ease... Don't try to run away from boredom, loneliness, fear and struggles but whatever may happen focus on the destination.

5. Rejoice every step in the way: Break down larger goals into smaller manageable steps and take up at least one task a day no matter how minor it may be... Focus on the advancement you have made just as the distance you would like to cover.

6. Give up on perfectionism: Perfectionism leads to fear of success or failure... And by being perfect, we'll never be satisfied with who we are. See the good in our lives rather than the faults and focus on what is working rather than what is not... See the positives in life.

7. Take a daily mini vacation: Take out half an hour everyday to do... Nothing. Relax... Do not race against the clock or do anything productive... Slow down... Our spirit becomes free and more creative.

8. Learn to say 'No': Saying 'No' to things that are not intuitively right for us, we are actually saying 'Yes' to ourself and to the people and values that mean the most to us... We are no longer tied up with disharmonious and non-aligned situations and are more free to share our joy and happiness with the people and the world around us.

9. Create more room in your life: Rearrange the elements in your life to create more space to nurture the fun, freedom, opportunities and effectiveness you desire... Clearing out the old and dead elements creates a vacuum for new and fresh ideas and energy.

10. Share your experiences: Personal experiences can be valued by others... We thrive to feel that we are valued and have left the world a better place at the end of each day... And remember, happiness comes from sharing our happiness...

Joy defies the laws of economics... It's not something that we have less of when we give it away... It grows greater in the giver, the more he gives it out...

The more you give, the more you have!

Picketing

Picketing is the activity that is carried by the employees during strike,it is signified by employees carrying signs announcing their concern near the employer’s place of business. Its purpose is to inform the public about the existence of the labor dispute and often to encourage others to refrain from doing business with the struck employer.
In such cases employer make different kinds of responses when they become the object of a strike. One is to shut down the affected area and halt operations until the strike is over, A second is to contract out work in order to blunt the effects of the strike. A third response is to continue operations, perhaps using supervisors and other non-striking workers to fill in for the striking workers. A fourth alternative is hiring replacements for the strikers.
For HR managers the importance of picketing lies in the capability of sorting out the problem and avoiding the consequences of picketing on the daily business activities. he experts views to solve such issues are-
1. Paying the strikers the amount that company owes to them on the very first day of the strike.
2. Negotiating with the striker keeping in mind the benefits and wellbeing of both the parties.
3. Keeping a ready pool of substitute workers to take the job in absence of striker in order to avoid effect on job and productivity.
4. Keeping the legal issues in mind and taking actions accordingly.

HR BENCHMARKING

What is Benchmarking?

"Benchmarking is a tool to help you improve your business processes. Any business process can be benchmarked."

" Benchmarking is the process of identifying, understanding, and adapting outstanding practices from organizations anywhere in the world to help your organization improve its performance."

"Benchmarking is a highly respected practice in the business world. It is an activity that looks outward to find best practice and high performance and then measures actual business operations against those goals."

One of the approaches to HR performance monitoring is Benchmarking. Benchmarking denotes a comparison with selected performance indicators from different organizations typically in the same industry, or with comparable organizations that are considered to be the best in class. One of the biggest mistakes people make when beginning their benchmarking endeavor is that they only look to benchmark someone within their own industry. Although this doesn't hurt, you probably already know enough about your industry to know what works and what doesn't. Worse yet, some people think they must benchmark their competitor. What if the competition is worse than your company? Seems like a pretty good waste of time and energy. Instead how about benchmarking a company that is well known for being a good model. Sometimes referred to as Best Practices, Exemplary Practices, and Business Excellence. Successful benchmarking requires careful selection and manipulation of comparable measures. The greatest gains from benchmarking exercise are provided through comparisons with other firms and different ways of thinking. Many firms strive for performance improvements by benchmarking standards of excellence from other firms in such areas as production, research and development and marketing. HR can be employed to similar competitive advantage.

Benchmarking serves a number of purposes:

1) It enables a company to calibrate how it is delivering HR practices by examining the way other organizations accomplish tasks and responsibilities

2) Benchmarking enables a company to learn from others successes and mistakes.

3) Benchmarking can create an environment in which active learning is encouraged.

4) It can be used as a tool to motivate people to change.

5) Benchmarking can be used to help set direction and priorities for an HR manager and helps him to focus on critical activities.

6) A well established benchmarking process can help managers set goals and targets designed to make the company the best in its competitive field, and to initiate focused programs that move the company from its current position.

By Benchmarking one can find out;

• Who does the business process really well and has processes that are adaptable to my organization

• What areas are causing the most trouble

• Which employees contribute most to the critical success factors

• What are the performance measures to determine the effect of our actions?

• Who is the most compatible for me to benchmark with

• Most business processes are common throughout industry.

Source : Research Article published by Learning and Development Association at University of Houston, Texas and Wikipedia

Work force management system

Workforce Management (WFM) encompasses all the activities needed to maintain a productive workforce. Sometimes referred to as HRMS systems, or even part of ERP systems. Recently, the concept of workforce management has begun to evolve into Workforce Optimisation.

Specifically, workforce management includes:

• Payroll & benefits
• HR administration
• Time & attendance
• Career & succession planning
• Talent management and/or applicant tracking
• Learning management and/or training management
• Performance management
• Forecasting and scheduling
• Workforce tracking and emergency assist

Workforce management can also encompass Field service management. This provides software to optimally plan and dispatch field service technicians and their properly stocked vehicles to a customer's location in a timely manner in order to deliver against their service commitments. Field service management will itself include elements of:

• Demand management - to help forecast work orders in order to plan the number and expertise of staff that will be needed
• Workforce scheduler - using predefined rules to automatically optimise the schedule and use of resources (people, parts, vehicles)
• Workforce dispatcher - automatically assigning work orders within predefined zones to particular technicians
• Mobile solutions - allowing dispatchers and technicians to communicate in real time

CHEERS TO THE WOMEN PROFESSIONALS

A challenge that organisations face in present scenario is the retention of women employees at mid and senior levels, when they are faced with domestic responsibilities.
Latest Industry trend shows that head-hunters have specifically been directed to look for women candidates for senior positions. A lot of MNC’s want to infuse gender diversity into the Indian workforce, especially at the upper echelons. As a result, women at the senior levels are being offered a premium consulting fee of 25 to 30 % of the annual salary for hiring women against the generally given 15 to 20 %. The story does not end here. In order to retain female talent, organisations have taken many extra measures, such as adoption leave (which enables employees to avail of three month’s paid leave when they adopt a child). They are also increasing offering to the employees the opportunity to work part-time or from home, under special circumstances. Other options include telecommuting (where in the employees can work for one or two days from home), special relaxation room, lactation room, and car parking for moms-to-be.
TCS is clear that it will not break the service record of women who discontinue work due to family commitments, allowing them to return at later stage. The company also allows flexibility of roles through job rotation across businesses, practice and functions. It has launched DAWN (Diversity And Women’s Network) which offers a framework for the professional growth of women associates. Cisco has WAN (Women’s Action Network) a volunteer network of women who have similar interest and concerns. PepsiCo has set up Talent council to help women come together and share experiences.
Harrisons Malayalam Ltd., an integrated agriculture operation giant, is India's largest producer of rubber, South India's largest cultivator of Tea and perhaps the largest farmer of Pineapple in the region even have more than 50% Women as their employees in the workforce. This enlightens their initiative in maintaining workforce diversity.
As gender mainstreaming is gradually taking place within all organisations, it is important that individual staff members take responsibility to contribute to this effort in any way they can. It can be even through a small gesture of providing opinion about the same.