Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Tata Crucible Quiz 2007

One of the biggest Corporate Event if one can think of after Brand Equity Quiz is Tata Crucible Quiz 2007 is back with a bang.Started on 2004, it promises to bring you the excitement seen never before.Corporate honchos fighting with each other and Giri Balasubramanium,popularly known as Pickbrain will host the show.CNBC will be covering this event with a style.Keep watching this space as I bring you more news on this event.Well,even I am participating in this event!!!

Sunday, August 26, 2007

A BUSINESS CONSULTANT View

A Business Consultant sometimes needs to understand that its not all about Business but Technology plays a key role too.How to ensure that a Business Consultant provides a feasible solution which will help the organization measures it current and future objectives.A Business Consultant should develop a BUSINESS VIEW on an organization which will help to develop a broader and detailed picture.It consists of following elements:

1. Business Vision: As the term is self understood,Business Vision is an understanding the current position of the business in the marketplace and where it would place itself in the years to come. Its all about strategically defining the organization's business objectives and the viability and the ways to achieving the objectives.

2. Organization and role:The Business is always mapped in terms of organizational hierarchy and the roles performed.

3.Location and Culture: The geographical location of the company and the staff function and role is also covered.

4.Change Management: Whether the organization and the employees on a whole are ready for a change.The change could be pertaining to the Business, Mergers and Acquisition or a new Role.

Along withe the Business View, a Business Consultant should take care of FUNCTION VIEW, TECHNICAL ARCHITECTURE VIEW,APPLICATION ARCHITECTURE VIEW AND INFRASTRUCTURE VIEW which we will discuss in the next posting.Keep checking the space for more information on the views that a Business Consultant should keep it in mind while arriving at a solution.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

3 PLAYERS of Business Strategy

While formulating Business Strategies,its essential to take account of the three key players or commonly known as 3Cs, Customer,Corporation and Competitors.The three Cs can be related. The strengths of the corporation should match the needs and the objectives of the customers and the competition should be healthy enough to give a clear distinction so that a superior performance could be achieved.How to ensure that a business strategy is successful keeping in mind the three Cs:
1.Its essential to focus on KSFs(Key Success Factors. It will help to understand the strengths and the factors of success which could be later exploited accordingly keeping customers and competitors in mind.
2.The success of a strategy depends on the relative superiority.Relative superiority could be defined as exploiting the differences in the competitive conditions.It might not be possible to find the KSFs putting customers in mind for every organization.So,the best way is to find an innovative approach in a process and gain superiority.
3.Initiatives is the key to differentiation.Competitive advantage could be achieved either by introduing new KSFs or making the existing KSFs redundant.Innovation could be used to introduce a trend in the industry.

Friday, August 10, 2007

PROFILE or SKILLS??

Today I was having a discussion with one of my colleagues on the necessity of profile or functional skills while working in an organization. After reading an article on Economic Times, we had a hot debate. It’s very true that at the top level, the person’s profile that counts, not his functional skills. While recruiting senior managers, the organization always looks his work experience in various domains. Working in different domains gives an insight on the business and working of an organization as a whole in a better way. The functional skills can be developed later but profile is very important especially at the initial point of the career. The employees are always expected to be loyal to their team and company. And, if you perform well, you are expected to continue doing well for your team. The aspirations of an employee are ignored by most of the companies. Organizations talks of job rotation but the question is whether the rotation occurs at the right time. If my manager comes to me and say that to work for a certain department, I need to have 4years of experience and till then I have no choice, then I have lost my 4 years of knowledge and compromised with my career. Do the organization thinks that skills are inborn and it will come with experience. If that is the case, why the companies have training department for? If I have the right education with me, then it is the responsibility of my organization to train me to acquire necessary skills and contribute to the organization. Today, Training Department itself is a critical factor. The people in the training department and the sessions that are conducted are nothing less than passing time. The sessions have become monotonous. If there is a training on Risk Management. I have to attend a 4 hours training which means listening to some person for continuously four hours. Is that sufficient? The answer is No. It is always recommended to carry workshops and give the trainees hand-on-experience while training them. It should come with proper handbook, 2-3 hours of hands-on working session and obviously a test to complete the formalities.

If the profile of a person is strong, he is confident to measure himself in the market and decide on his abilities well in the later stage of his careers. But, if a person is expected to build on his profile and in the journey, he loses 10 years of his career just building his profile. Knowledge Management is essential for an organization to improve. An organization driven by knowledge survives or else dies soon. KM workshops can also help employees to build profile. A certificate could be given by the organization at the end of each knowledge workshop sessions and if they are given an opportunity to work on small projects during the workshop, it can add value to their profile.

Profile helps you to acquire functional skills.

Thursday, August 9, 2007

Sincere THANKS

I sincerely thank my readers for taking interest in STRATEGYAAN because of which I was able to post 50 articles. Since its inception, I have tried to post article on interesting subjects and your participation in the journey is highly appreciated.Looking forward to improve my blog.Your suggestions are welcomed.Keep visiting, reading my blog and posting your comments....

Regards
Ashutosh Bose

Tuesday, August 7, 2007

BLOG your Business

Blogging has been important in the business arena. Its not seen just as a weblog where you post your articles for fun. Blogging has been a true value addition to the business. Blogging is often viewed as a tool for business networking. The best way to network is visit other’s blogs, put your comments and in turn increase the traffic in your blog. The question arises, why to blog when you already have a reputation in the market? Well, blogging can be used as a centralized source of information for all your customers, shareholders, vendors etc. It’s always good to enlighten your customers on the latest happenings in the business domain. Consider, THINKFLAT, a blog of Infosys by Nandan Nilekani, where the focus is mainly on outsourcing, economy and various business domains like Banking. Prominent writers of the Corporate Arena like Romil Bahl, Stepehen Lane and Nandan Nilekani himself enlighten readers with some serious thoughts. Even, Capgemini CTO believes in Blogging. Capgemini’s thought leaders and advisors bring the spicy happenings in the world of business and Technology. A company like Accenture too believes in Blogging. The Blog is categorized into Experienced Consultant’s Blog, Consulting Analyst’s Blog, Some of the high profile employees like Ed Gottsman and Andy Zimmerman run their blogs on Accenture.

Thoughtworks provides platforms to all its employees to run their individual blogs in Thoughtworks Blog. It is seen as a way to communicate and exchange ideas freely among the employees. Some of the bloggers like Sanjeev Bikhchandani’s Blog “Wisdom in hindsight” helps readers to discuss on various subjects and truly enlightening.

Blogs have come a long way as a contributor to increase knowledge. Sometimes, it can be used as a potential Knowledge Management Tool.

I recommend the blogs below:

http://thinkflat.infosys.com/
http://origin.capgemini.com/ctoblog/
http://www.accenture.com/Global/Research_and_Insights/Accenture_Blogs/default.htm
http://bikhchandani.blogspot.com/

Thursday, August 2, 2007

STRATEGIC Choice

How do I go about solving a problem? Shall I follow Top-Down Approach or Bottom-Up Approach for a better solution. What do I need to increase the sales of my product? Do I need to spend more money on Advertising or can I adopt other forms of marketing? Well, every single day, we are faced with some situations where we need to take some decisions. There are choices infront of us and we need to select the best one so that it could be beneficial for our organization as a whole. Strategic Choice is one of the important elements of Strategy Formulation Process. Whether you plan for your budgets, take decisions to improve your sales, think to stop attrition rate, strategic choice plays a key role.

The Strategic choice starts with finding the available options. The options can be about market, products and services, options to improve resources and capabilities or on improving processes. Once the individual options are found on various areas, the next step is to integrate all the available strategic options. The integrations is based on the relationship of those options, impact of options on each other and the after effect of the options on the organization. The most important step is to make the strategic option now. It depends on assessment criteria of the options using various theoretical frameworks and strategic tools. It is also essential to understand whom to involve while making strategic choice. Wrong people make wrong choices. Taking all these into consideration, a strategic choice are made.

Here, I would like to highlight generic strategies used to assess the strategic options. The focus is on Cost Leadership and Differentiation Strategies, which are the basis of competitive advantage in the market. While making strategic choice, the implementation is of utmost importance. The organization can look into improving the internal processes, keeping a quality check and training the employees. Mergers, acquisitions and strategic alliances have become a common decision for the organizations as it involves sharing of knowledge and expertise.

A strategic choice leads to a strategic direction for the organization. Should we compromise?? No…