For a while now, I have been listening to the Manager's Tools podcast and have throughly enjoyed it. I would highly recommend it to all managers and others aspiring to be managers soon. Also I noticed it gives me a platform to compare a manager's skills and actions i.e. how a manager reacts to a situation vis-a-vis how Managers tools recommends a manager should act. This is largely due to the fact that Manager's tools, unlike a lot of other podcasts, offers cut and dry practical advice and talks about the common mistakes that managers make.
My ex-boss once told me, one of the best ways to learn to be a manager is to watch other managers, then put yourselves in that situation and think about what you would do. The important thing about this exercise however is that we have to set our ego aside and look at the situation objectively.
Although I don't do it as often as I should yet, I think listening to and learning from podcasts and other books along with role playing by putting yourself in a situation and thinking about how you would act is an effective way to learn and improve upon your management skills.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Anne Mulcahy Podcast
I just listened to a Chicago GSB podcast featuring Anne Mulcahy, CEO of Xerox on how she turned around the company. For those of you unfamiliar with the her leadership, she is a 30 year old Xerox veteran. She started as a sales rep and worked her way up. In 2000 she took over as the CEO of Xerox when Xerox was in around $18 billion in debt, no cash and had recorded its first quarter of losses, and turned it back around to the successful company Xerox once was. The amazing thing here is she wasn't a turn around - "Cut costs and make the next quarter" kind of leader. She truly connected to her employees and customers and focused on what had long term value for the company. She ranks number one in my list of women leaders that I admire.
I have always felt that women for the most part make great leaders and often enough better leaders than men. That shouldn't come as a surprise considering the fact that I think soft skills are way more important in leading and managing than hard skills. That is why listening to Anne Mulcahy talk about how she resurrected Xerox was so inspiring. Her fundamentals rules of management seemed to be simple, but are yet stunningly powerful. Part of the reason I am so excited about this is that I strongly believe in what she spoke about and it feels good to see that one of the most successful women in the history of business believes in the same management principles that you do. My cousin once said, "Business is nothing but common sense". Common sense would be to listen. Listen to your employees and customers, "Learn to be a learner", Focus on the long term and performance and finally treat people in a way that would make them want you to succeed. Yet it is amazing how many intelligent people I have met at various levels in my company (or for that matter any company) who just cannot do this. Instead they try to find fancy technology or complicated processes to find the answers to questions, which their direct reports and others in the company would gladly tell them if only they asked and listened. I don't have any direct reports yet and I do agree these things are a lot easier to talk about than to do especially during moments of truth. But, I can guarentee you, this is absolutely what I believe in and I would do everything I can to, walk to walk, not just talk the talk.
If there is ever a podcast that you MUST listen to, then this is it.
I have always felt that women for the most part make great leaders and often enough better leaders than men. That shouldn't come as a surprise considering the fact that I think soft skills are way more important in leading and managing than hard skills. That is why listening to Anne Mulcahy talk about how she resurrected Xerox was so inspiring. Her fundamentals rules of management seemed to be simple, but are yet stunningly powerful. Part of the reason I am so excited about this is that I strongly believe in what she spoke about and it feels good to see that one of the most successful women in the history of business believes in the same management principles that you do. My cousin once said, "Business is nothing but common sense". Common sense would be to listen. Listen to your employees and customers, "Learn to be a learner", Focus on the long term and performance and finally treat people in a way that would make them want you to succeed. Yet it is amazing how many intelligent people I have met at various levels in my company (or for that matter any company) who just cannot do this. Instead they try to find fancy technology or complicated processes to find the answers to questions, which their direct reports and others in the company would gladly tell them if only they asked and listened. I don't have any direct reports yet and I do agree these things are a lot easier to talk about than to do especially during moments of truth. But, I can guarentee you, this is absolutely what I believe in and I would do everything I can to, walk to walk, not just talk the talk.
If there is ever a podcast that you MUST listen to, then this is it.
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Monday, April 2, 2007
American Customer Satisfaction Index
Here is an article that I read in the HBR March 2007 issue which supports the point I made in my earlier post about customer satisfaction being the number one criteria for a longterm successful business.
Basically the article talks about a new groundbreaking study done by University of Michigan's business school professor Claes Fornell and colleagues, that shows the relationship between financial success and American Customer Satisfaction index (ASCI) by creating a imaginary hedge portfolio in which stocks are bought long and sold short in response to changes in the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). The hedge fund consistently outperformed the S&P 500.
Simplifying it for common person's understanding, about 200 companies are studied for their customer satisfaction index. What this imaginary (Imaginary in the sense that, there are no real transactions. Its all on paper) hedge fund does is, if the customer satisfaction index for a company increases, the fund buys more shares of that particular company. If the customer satisfaction for a company decreases, it sells the stock short (i.e. bets on the fact that the share price will fall). Then based on these transactions, it calculates the return on investment each year. It was found that the hedge fund beat the average S&P returns significantly.
The bottomline is, well! CSI directly affects your bottomline. Its an opportunity to wake up now and beat the competition, by ensuring you put a smile on your customer's face.
Basically the article talks about a new groundbreaking study done by University of Michigan's business school professor Claes Fornell and colleagues, that shows the relationship between financial success and American Customer Satisfaction index (ASCI) by creating a imaginary hedge portfolio in which stocks are bought long and sold short in response to changes in the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). The hedge fund consistently outperformed the S&P 500.
Simplifying it for common person's understanding, about 200 companies are studied for their customer satisfaction index. What this imaginary (Imaginary in the sense that, there are no real transactions. Its all on paper) hedge fund does is, if the customer satisfaction index for a company increases, the fund buys more shares of that particular company. If the customer satisfaction for a company decreases, it sells the stock short (i.e. bets on the fact that the share price will fall). Then based on these transactions, it calculates the return on investment each year. It was found that the hedge fund beat the average S&P returns significantly.
The bottomline is, well! CSI directly affects your bottomline. Its an opportunity to wake up now and beat the competition, by ensuring you put a smile on your customer's face.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Business 101
I am really really really mad right now!!!!
Since I am in the process of moving to Chicago from Farmington Hills, MI, I have been working with this company called Chicago Apartment Finders. First and foremost, I felt like the agent I was working with, just wouldn't listen. I sent her an email telling her everything that I definitely needed in my apartment. I told her what I was willing to pay a month in rent including utilities and also that I will need parking. And then she comes up with a bunch of apartments which are at best a distant match to what I had asked for. Now after looking at a few lousy apartments, we look at one which I like. She told me Internet and Basic Cable was included in the rent. I asked her again, she told me the same thing again.
So anyway in the end, I decided to take the apartment. I had her write down about internet, cable and other utilities. I also asked her about how fast the internet was, she said she will check with the owner and get back to me. All this was yesterday.
Today, She told me again that she had checked and internet was included and it was high speed although she didn't know about the bandwidth. We were supposed to do all this over fax, where I would give her my credit card number, she would charge it and fax me the receipt which I would sign and fax it back to her. Somehow this morning I had a bad feeling about this, so I went to the office, spoke to the manager, who again assured me that utilities, cable and internet was included in the rent and so reluctantly I signed all the paperwork and got a copy of all the receipts. (that was the main reason behind going to the office, so I could have a copy of all the paperwork).
Suddenly, 2 hours later I get a phone call from this girl (new one, never spoken to before) saying, "sir, you had a few questions about the utilities, we just checked with the owner, Basic cable is included, Internet is NOT included". And there all of a sudden my Blood pressure shot upto 250/120!! There are few things that piss me off and make me feel mad and lousy more than the feeling of getting screwed. I was cursing myself since somehow instinctively I knew this was going to happen, yet I let it happen. The funny thing is if they had told me upfront internet was not included, I still would have probably taken the apartment because I really liked it. Even if it was a genuine mistake on the part of the company (after all people do make mistakes), what aggravates me is the fact that the manager nor agent who I worked with, called me to apologize. I am yet to hear from the agent whom I called promptly and left a message for, asking her what the hell was happening.
Compare that to this other experience couple of days back...
Every morning I drive up to a nearby Starbucks to get my morning coffee. Couple of days back my coffee happened to be from the very bottom, so had a few coffee grains. Truth be told it didn't bother me a whole lot. (or may be I feel this way now considering what happened later...read on and you will understand what I am talking about) I let it sit for a couple of minutes till the grains settled and then drank the coffee. So I walked in to the same store next day, got my coffee, paid for it and just casually mentioned to the barista about my experience the previous day. She instantly apologized and handed me a "free any size any drink on us" coupon and said she will check into it and make sure that doesn't happen again. I walked out of the store with a sheepish grin and almost even feeling bad that I had brought it up since the barista looked like she was truly sorry that this had happened.
How likely am I to visit and recommend Starbucks to others compared to using Chicago Apartment finders's services? Sure, may be I am wrong, may be Chicago Apartment finders intentions were all right and their service is exceptional. May be starbucks screwed up really really badly and in reality their free drink is too insignificant to correct what they did. But does that really matter? After all I am the customer and what is right is what I think is right, what is good is what I think is good and what is bad is what I think is bad. Its all my perception of the company that determines, if I will go back or recommend other from going there.
It always beats me why companies can never get this? I mean look at any list of top performing companies in the last century or whenever and if somebody could point me to a company that was in the list, yet had lousy customer service, I'd give them my next paycheck. I agree you may not be able to give all that the customers ask for, but one thing you can give them (at no or minimal cost to you) is respect and good service. Mistakes cannot be eliminated, but in my opinion every mistake is an opportunity to connect to the customer and let them know how important they are to you. You never never never ever let customers go unhappy and/or with a feeling of being screwed. You are really just shooting yourself in the foot. This to me is Business 101. Its the foundation upon which supply meets demand or in some cases better yet, supply creates Demand.
I couldn't think of a better way to start my business blog than write about this topic. It is an issue I feel very very very strongly about.
Since I am in the process of moving to Chicago from Farmington Hills, MI, I have been working with this company called Chicago Apartment Finders. First and foremost, I felt like the agent I was working with, just wouldn't listen. I sent her an email telling her everything that I definitely needed in my apartment. I told her what I was willing to pay a month in rent including utilities and also that I will need parking. And then she comes up with a bunch of apartments which are at best a distant match to what I had asked for. Now after looking at a few lousy apartments, we look at one which I like. She told me Internet and Basic Cable was included in the rent. I asked her again, she told me the same thing again.
So anyway in the end, I decided to take the apartment. I had her write down about internet, cable and other utilities. I also asked her about how fast the internet was, she said she will check with the owner and get back to me. All this was yesterday.
Today, She told me again that she had checked and internet was included and it was high speed although she didn't know about the bandwidth. We were supposed to do all this over fax, where I would give her my credit card number, she would charge it and fax me the receipt which I would sign and fax it back to her. Somehow this morning I had a bad feeling about this, so I went to the office, spoke to the manager, who again assured me that utilities, cable and internet was included in the rent and so reluctantly I signed all the paperwork and got a copy of all the receipts. (that was the main reason behind going to the office, so I could have a copy of all the paperwork).
Suddenly, 2 hours later I get a phone call from this girl (new one, never spoken to before) saying, "sir, you had a few questions about the utilities, we just checked with the owner, Basic cable is included, Internet is NOT included". And there all of a sudden my Blood pressure shot upto 250/120!! There are few things that piss me off and make me feel mad and lousy more than the feeling of getting screwed. I was cursing myself since somehow instinctively I knew this was going to happen, yet I let it happen. The funny thing is if they had told me upfront internet was not included, I still would have probably taken the apartment because I really liked it. Even if it was a genuine mistake on the part of the company (after all people do make mistakes), what aggravates me is the fact that the manager nor agent who I worked with, called me to apologize. I am yet to hear from the agent whom I called promptly and left a message for, asking her what the hell was happening.
Compare that to this other experience couple of days back...
Every morning I drive up to a nearby Starbucks to get my morning coffee. Couple of days back my coffee happened to be from the very bottom, so had a few coffee grains. Truth be told it didn't bother me a whole lot. (or may be I feel this way now considering what happened later...read on and you will understand what I am talking about) I let it sit for a couple of minutes till the grains settled and then drank the coffee. So I walked in to the same store next day, got my coffee, paid for it and just casually mentioned to the barista about my experience the previous day. She instantly apologized and handed me a "free any size any drink on us" coupon and said she will check into it and make sure that doesn't happen again. I walked out of the store with a sheepish grin and almost even feeling bad that I had brought it up since the barista looked like she was truly sorry that this had happened.
How likely am I to visit and recommend Starbucks to others compared to using Chicago Apartment finders's services? Sure, may be I am wrong, may be Chicago Apartment finders intentions were all right and their service is exceptional. May be starbucks screwed up really really badly and in reality their free drink is too insignificant to correct what they did. But does that really matter? After all I am the customer and what is right is what I think is right, what is good is what I think is good and what is bad is what I think is bad. Its all my perception of the company that determines, if I will go back or recommend other from going there.
It always beats me why companies can never get this? I mean look at any list of top performing companies in the last century or whenever and if somebody could point me to a company that was in the list, yet had lousy customer service, I'd give them my next paycheck. I agree you may not be able to give all that the customers ask for, but one thing you can give them (at no or minimal cost to you) is respect and good service. Mistakes cannot be eliminated, but in my opinion every mistake is an opportunity to connect to the customer and let them know how important they are to you. You never never never ever let customers go unhappy and/or with a feeling of being screwed. You are really just shooting yourself in the foot. This to me is Business 101. Its the foundation upon which supply meets demand or in some cases better yet, supply creates Demand.
I couldn't think of a better way to start my business blog than write about this topic. It is an issue I feel very very very strongly about.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Disclaimer!!!
My very first post is going to be my disclaimer...
My knowledge of business and management is very limited. I don't have a business degree. (You don't need to have one to understand business or for that matter having a MBA does not mean you understand business either) I wanted to start writing this blog merely as a means to communicate my thoughts and perspectives on business, management, macroeconomics and finance. I have developed a great deal of interest on these fields lately. For a while now, I have been reading a bunch of magazines on these fields regularly (Mainly, The Economist, Businessweek, Harvard Business Review & Strategy+Business). While these journals do give me a great insights, I now have more questions than answers to several topics I read about. Through this blog, I would like to answer some of those questions and offer my perspectives.
So that said, if you are a seasoned expert on any one of these fields and think my posts are a whole bunch of BS and that I am wrong about what I am writing, please please feel free to correct me! I would really appreciate your time since there is nothing I seek more than honest feedback and constructive criticism.
I hope I will have something to offer than you will enjoy reading...
My knowledge of business and management is very limited. I don't have a business degree. (You don't need to have one to understand business or for that matter having a MBA does not mean you understand business either) I wanted to start writing this blog merely as a means to communicate my thoughts and perspectives on business, management, macroeconomics and finance. I have developed a great deal of interest on these fields lately. For a while now, I have been reading a bunch of magazines on these fields regularly (Mainly, The Economist, Businessweek, Harvard Business Review & Strategy+Business). While these journals do give me a great insights, I now have more questions than answers to several topics I read about. Through this blog, I would like to answer some of those questions and offer my perspectives.
So that said, if you are a seasoned expert on any one of these fields and think my posts are a whole bunch of BS and that I am wrong about what I am writing, please please feel free to correct me! I would really appreciate your time since there is nothing I seek more than honest feedback and constructive criticism.
I hope I will have something to offer than you will enjoy reading...
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