Exploring a Roadmap to $ 100 Million Corporate Excellence …

Organizations today have evolved and with all the expertise and years of experience making leaders fascinated to theories of Six Sigma built during 1980’s and try to replicate something similar to knock the door of an overlooked opportunity…

Large transformation and cost optimization thru change projects cannot be accomplished only with incremental efforts although they are very important to build the organization DNA, breakthrough improvement should be the focus and grab all opportunities with both hands wide open…

My objective was to go beyond the orthodox methods and focus on experiments, unless one experiments with various models it’s very difficult to get the breakthrough. Conceptually I found everyone in agreement with my proposal to experiment and hardly anyone agreeing to budget and fund it … alas … have I wished I was elsewhere … nonetheless I did not lose heart and continued to play more of a sales man role instead with a focus to get the budget for experimenting.

With a lot of travels and a series of meetings I found a cloud with a silver lining and the hope grew positive as I finally found one person to invest in my pilot.

Excited with the initial investment and support I set forth with the plans in place just to meet the end very soon and saw the initiative reaching its unexpected failure…, things did not go as planned and money wasted… I almost lost faith and my face value only to find the sponsor is interested in the idea and wanted to fund more … Surprise Surprise … ! … Thank god… my days look bright…

I did find an interesting and matured leader who joined hands to champion the efforts as a co-owned project execution being a strong promoter… we started it all over again and this time all the knots tied with roles and responsibilities not only aligned but tracked … the team members were from lower bands much hands on SMEs unlike the leadership bands who we had on our team previously, we had a very different strategy and focus was on straight forward execution instead of a traditional approach of gathering buy in and selling the idea … engagement etc… it was very clear… either do what is told or look at different opportunities for yourself.., a lot of strong decisions were taken and of course there were people who got irked and watched us with eyebrows raised… three months of the pilot and from the fourth month we started to see the results … overwhelmed we started to dream if this can be extrapolated across the organization we will easily make a savings of $ 23 Million YOY … multiplication is a very good mathematical application and in all practical purposes should not be used loosely… our experiences held us back and reminded it’s only the pilot which is successful … now with this success we should go to the world out there to build momentum  and gather buy in… 

Unlike me there are lot of people bubbling with energy, top leaders with more experience than me and not to be surprised while I find my creativity God’s Gift there are few leaders who consider themselves as God. Manoeuvring thru the egos and ethos proving people with a lot of case studies, Industry best practices and expert transcripts helped me propose a structure to be put in place and projects be picked up which will help accomplish the goal… while traditional Lean and Six Sigma team will continue to focus on incremental improvements and cycle time improvement where the gains are intangible and notional we will need another team focusing on accelerating the Change … the real multi dollar gains will come from large transformational projects using the principles of TRIZ coupled with tools of Lean Six Sigma and change acceleration. The thought process was very simple … address the wants instead of the need…!
 

With the key pillars and approaches identified, I moved on proposing the team structure. This is the most important part of the proposal; while I was clear that each of the pillars be run by a separate leader and roll up to the program there were few suggestions which were of an all-rounder approach… every one doing everything. I don’t deny this approach, but at least in the initial stages it is important to establish clarity and set the right direction and I chose the following team structure.

  

 Once we have the team and concepts agreed approved stamped and communicated and get the house in order … the next step is to connect with folks at the CxO level to brainstorm ideas for larger transformations… while at the downstream similar brainstorming will continue at all levels till the bottom node to identify areas of improvement …

I'm only drilling on my side

I was running a program that span across various verticals; we had closely studied the business process and transitioned to India under one Umbrella, this was a big simplification exercise where different functions had to be integrated and a handshake was required to ensure there is a smooth flow.

Not all business transformations and transitions go noise free, there will definitely be some ups and down, few things will run smooth and few may not. What is important is to follow the plan while sailing on the ship. The end goal is not to roll back a process for one sub business when rest is going fine… I’m sure you too would have come across situations like this.

Some times in the top management and senior leadership there is a bureaucracy that prevails in organizations where the leaders are either afraid of change or delay decision making which impact business operations. Many a times when an agreed process exists that is planned and execution occurs you will find someone unhappy with if and starts deviating from the set process instead of working together to enable the same in his/her sub business too... It’s something similar to an example as stated in this story below.

Two men were out on the ocean in a boat.

One of them began drilling in the bottom of the boat, and the other, aghast said "What are you doing? Stop drilling!”

And the first man replied: "It's all right. I'm only drilling on my side."

Monkey see, monkey do

Monkey see, monkey do a saying that originated in Jamaica in the early 18th century. The saying refers to the learning of a process without an understanding of why it works, it’s been a while I am working in a consulting role and find it so difficult for people to try something different. There is a lot of reluctance in leaders today to take a decision, I’m surprised that people want to make popular decisions no matter they are right or wrong the focus is more to keep everyone  in a comfort zone.

Last few years there has been a lot of unrest and in the name of economy and caution people have stopped thinking; the learning process is simply stopped at every node. Unless we do things differently during a turbulent period we will not be able to raise the bar. It’s easy to talk big… the question is are you really thinking big… and if you are thinking big do you have the real capable people who can execute. I have seen in in the past in an organization two senior leaders moved in and moved out, as they got in there was a lot of optimism and upbeat enthusiasm and soon things went down the drain, we all start well but soon succumb to the situation at hand and with people around things don’t move.

I’m surprised that people quit a company and join another, while this is called as growth in career the question that haunts me is cant a person grow in the same organization, why can’t the current organization retain him/her and there is someone else who is picking him/her at a price higher than his current organization pays.

Well… what happens after that… let me illustrate this with the below story…

A group of scientists placed five monkeys in a cage, a ladder and few bananas on the top of it.  Every time the monkey went up the ladder scientists socked the other monkeys in the room with a cold shower. After sometime no monkey dared to go up the ladder regardless of the temptation.

The scientists then decided to replace one of the monkeys with a new one, the first thing the new monkey did was go up the ladder and immediately the other monkeys beat him up, after several beatings the new member learnt no to climb the ladder even though he never knew why.

The scientists then replaced one more monkey and the same thing occurred, surprisingly the first monkey was replaced too participated in beating the second monkey with the rest in the room.

The third monkey was changed and the same thing happened; now both the new monkeys in the room with rest of the two old one participated in beating the new monkey. The fourth monkey was replaced and same thing occurred again and finally the fifth monkey was replaced the same thing happened it was beaten down with the other four.

What was left was a group of five monkeys that even though never received a cold shower continued to beat up any monkey who attempted to climb the ladder.

If it was possible to ask the monkeys why they would beat up all those who attempted to climb the ladder the answer for sure will be “I DON’T KNOW … THAT’S HOW THINGS ARE DONE AROUND HERE”

Have you ever in your tenure working with your organization or business heard a similar statement, and then it’s more important to first change the thought process of the people even before attempting to climb the ladder, if not go ahead and change the entire set of pople and bring new ones in who have not gone thru the similar shower treatment. This will bring in a new paradigm. Change management is not about managing the status quo and replacing manual process with digitization or bringing in new tools, over a period of time the one who brought the tool will move on and the tool will remain, times change, process changes but the tool sticks around ….

Not sure… but I guess you too would have come across a similar situation in your career… will be happy to listen your comments and perhaps changes you brought in standing up against the tide as a leader..