Create an IDEA FACTORY coz an IDEA can change your life

Enough of Java and C++ programming, bugged up testing bugs, irritated appearing tests. hold on. There’s something new we can think of. Creating an IDEA FACTORY in an organization. In a competitive world, to sustain in the market, we need right kind of people or people with right attitude who can align their vision to the company’s objectives. The challenge is to create a pool of knowledge workers. How to create? Simple.. Go ahead with creating an IDEA FACTORY.

To start with IDEA FACTORY would be kind of a game, or an assignment open for your employees in your organization. The challenge would be to create a group of your own and select the participants of your choice. There would be one group per department and the Management would select the leader.

Now, it’s the responsibility of the leader to choose right kind of people and select the correct number. Once done, they need to come up with an idea, which can be beneficial to the organization. This plan would be first in a blueprint. The viability, implementation, timeframe needs to be decided among the members.

The important thing is to get an approval of the plan from the Management. Once done, a pool of knowledge workers and an IDEA FACTORY is created. What’s next?? Obviously, Implementation of the idea. Here, each and every member should care of few things:
1.Knowing the Business Delivery Model
2.Understanding the strategic objectives of the organization
3.The financials of the organization
4.And, understanding of management tools

These should be mandatory. The purpose behind it is to make your employees involved in the organization rather than making them think just about their regular job. The execution of the plan should take care of all the above factors. While working out the plan, it is necessary to do a Cost Benefit Analysis and its impact on the organization both positive and negative.

So, what are you waiting for?? Lets start IDEA FACTORY….

My Tryst with FAILURE

1 year of effort, 30 mins performance and your career decision is made. As usual, I again met failure yesterday. But, this time I didn’t have any fear of meeting him. I put my more than 100% to achieve something, which I dreamt 1 year back. I performed without thinking about my personal benefits, took initiatives, set a benchmark but my dreams were dashed.

I have read a lot of Robin Sharma’s books on Megaliving, Who will cry after you die etc. but wonder how practically we can put those theories in our lives. Ask a person who is struggling to get a job of his choice. In a city like Mumbai, everyday, he starts his day wasting his 2 hours in the bus, reaches office sweating. Completes his work and again waste 2 hours in the bus, reaches home to find food which is not worth eating because he cannot afford good food as his company is unable to pay him for the work he does. When do he has time to nurture his dreams? He has wasted his 4 hours seeing failures of other people. If you question his capability, I will answer that capability does not come appearing tests or scoring in exams, it comes with the determination. If Richard Branson can think of starting a magazine “STUDENT” and then go on becoming face of VIRGIN, if Narayan Murthy can dream of Infosys without having a Management Degree, why cannot we? Why our future is decided without our consent. Its easy to write books on life, give lectures on positivism, but do we have the energy at the end of the day struggling with failures to dream? Even, I have posted an article called “Working on your Mind” but what if your mind stops programming. Every time, I think of achieving success, I see the shadow of Failure behind it. But, being a consultant, I will not end this article with a negative note. The purpose of writing this article was not to make you feel negative but to give a thought process on how to be really practical with life.

I might have lost the battle,but the war is still on.One of my dearest friend said on my unsuccessful attempt to enter Mc Kinsey, that “IF YOU CANNOT ENTER Mc KINSEY, CREATE A COMPANY LIKE Mc KINSEY…” and I am determined to show people that even I can build an empire that everyone could dream of.

My sincere thanks to my friend for being a constant force of inspiration to me..

COMPETITOR Analysis

In the market, someone creates a benchmark and the other try to outperform and set a new benchmark. Every game has its own rules. In a competition, either you try to create an image of your competitor’s product in a negative way or show your product in the most positive way. To highlight a small example, Coca Cola shows Pepsi as a drink for Children because it is sweet and the their product something for people who have a courageous heart with the tagline “Taste the Thunder”. To sustain, the most important move is to study the competitor. While formulating strategy for your own firm, you need to take a keen interest in your competitor’s strategies. In doing so, Competitor Analysis can be used as a method to gather information and understand the moves and behaviour of your competitor.

The most important aspect of Competitor Analysis is to understand your right competitors. In the market, a small start up software firm cannot decide to compete with Microsoft in the initial stages. While identifying your competitors, you need to understand your organizations and the objectives, which have been set for the organization in the coming five years. For example, if the organizations want to create a base in the Indian Market, then may be the particular software firm can see a company, which is existing in the market for 10years or so as a competitor. The point of discussion is to challenge the competitors who have a similar kind of organization like yours and caters the same kind of clients. And, if you decide to diverse then rather than competing its better to understand your competitors in a better way and learn from them. Remember, competition is not the first thing for survival. The thing, which is necessary, is to create a base, which means make the foundation strong and then attack your enemies. It’s also necessary to study how the strategic decisions of your companies affect your competitor. The parameters could be whether there is a fall in the market share of your competitor, or there is an increase or decrease in the brand value or there is no influence at all. It’s true that Intelligent Information can help in taking Intelligent Decisions. The Competitor’s current moves can be understood through its annual reports, press releases, and statement by the management, interview with analysts. The competitor’s moves can be understood by mergers and acquisitions, hiring activities, promotional campaigns, investments etc. The result of the Competitor Analysis should be used as an effective tool to influence your competitor to your firm’s advantage.

i-Fetch a Rocking Application

Although the focus of this blog is not technology I've been always a fun of new apps and services which make life better.
One such killer application is i-Fetch by Ideafarms. I've been trying out this free RSS Reader and from what it appears it is quite handy. It comes loaded with powerful features like archiving of articles, filtering, OPML support etc and integrated browser support. You can use i-Fetch for reading your favorite articles, news items, blog posting and even podcasts.
Quite amazing as now there's lesser pain for my windows favorite folder and I can read my feeds on the move. Moreover, even when I am not connected to internet as it offers offline feed reading support.
Check out the cool application right now Give it a go at http://www.ideafarms.com/products/ims.htm
An easier way is to google "i-Fetch + ideafarms" (minus quotes).

Basics to reach the TOP

To succeed is not waiving a magical wand, but strategizing your moves. When you are in a big organization, and counted just as a normal resource, you need to decide whether to stay as you are or create an identity on the top. People take 7-8 years to reach there but if you have just started your career, there are ways to reach the Top soon. To survive as a King in the Chessboard is very difficult when there are hundreds waiting to kill you and win. So, how to get there??

1.Business Networking: The most important thing to decide in an organization is your target audience. Audience, I mean, those who will take you to the Top. Business Networking just does not mean talking to each and every people but making a move to the right people. When you know who are your audience, the next question is how to make contacts?? Well, the next point talks about that.

2.Showcase your Talent: Showcasing does not mean proving yourself the best, but differentiating yourself from the rest. Best is relative and has no proper definition to it. In a big organization, it’s very difficult to find the people who show interest in their organization. They are happy with the 9-5 jobs, salary and the events conducted by their organization. If you think sitting idle and doing your regular job perfectly, the company is going to shower you with more money, onsite opportunities and perks, forget it. It’s never going to happen. What’s needed then? Well, that’s what the third point talks about.

3.Initiatives: This is where more than 97% of the employees in a big organization lack. Try to participate and give suggestions and views every time your organization comes up with some future plans or initiatives. Interact with the management, if not anything, mail at least to the Management congratulating them of their initiatives. A well-documented mail can work wonder for you. Every time something new comes up in the team, try to involve yourself. This is not the only thing you need to do. There is something magical word associated with Initiatives…. Well…the next point

4.Feedback: Feedback, positive or negative helps in improving a lot. Mails to the people sitting on the top on the initiatives you have taken. Make yourself known to them. I am sure they will never say a NO in helping you with your work. Treat them as your mentor.

5.Communication Skills: This is the most important thing in an organization. A best communicator can only help himself in achieving what he wants. Sometimes, the receiver does not get the message. The same sentence can be said in a number of ways. You need to decide which is the best way to communicate yourself.

There is always a choice, whether to sit on a bench for whole life or to taste sweet success at the early stages of your career. The decision is yours……

TALK About

I have decided to introduce a section called "TALK ABOUT" for you. the aim of introducing the section is to talk about the latest happenings in the field of Technology and Business. We will talk about gadgets, practices,theories,people,persona,companies and more..It will be the most happening section of STRATEGYAAN.Do let me know your opinions on this idea and we can go ahead with it.

WORKFORCE Architecture

We had a lot of discussion on Employee Retention, Employee Satisfaction. HRs planning strategies to give employees a sense of satisfaction and make the organization a best place to stay. We have discussed about Performance Based Approach, Variable Pay Approach etc. Lets talk something new today. It’s a term which is discussed less and is still unheard, “Workforce Architecture”.

Workforce architecture is a detailed blueprint for an organization's talent structure. This blueprint defines employee roles, competencies, accountabilities, performance expectations and development opportunities across the enterprise and clearly articulates how work should be accomplished.

Workforce architecture gives employers a better grasp of their overall workforce composition and capabilities - their "talent inventory" - in relation to their current and future business needs by identifying what skills are needed in various roles and who has those competencies now. This information allows senior leaders and managers to make better, more objective decisions about how best to build and deploy the workforce in pursuit of business goals. On an organizational level, it helps them answer critical questions such as:
·How are our workforces needs changing? What kinds of employees should we be recruiting?
·What are the development needs of our workforce?
·Where are our talent gaps and how do we fill them?
·Which specific roles or job families create the greatest value for our organization?
·Where do our top performers reside and are we rewarding them appropriately?

On a managerial level, managers gain the ability to answer practical, day-to-day questions such as: Does a particular employee have the right skills, competencies and experiences for this role? If not, who within the organization does?

Four key applications of workforce architecture are:

1.Integrated Workforce Architecture.
2.Functional Excellence
3.Global Harmonization
4.Emerging Markets

Keep watching the space, as we will discuss on this applications separately.

Courtesy: Mercer

Please Note that the article is taken from Mercer. The idea is to make ourselves aware of something, which we do not know.

EVERYTHING EXISTS, THE POINT IS TO DISCOVER THE CONCEPT AND SELL IT AS AN IDEA

Corporate ENLIGHTENMENT

I would highlight two genres of organization who believe that employees can be retained in two ways:

1.Give them challenging roles. Understand their interest and give an opportunity to prove themselves.
2.Engross them in other activities. Conduct Fashion shows, sports tournaments organize frequent events.

The question is which one interests more to the generation now? Most of the companies have a high attrition rate. Some of the organization has a bench rate of 52%. Are the employees more concerned about the fun part of the Corporate or the work of Corporate or the employers are failing to understand the needs to their employees. The organizations have become more like a product which packages itself well so that some priced customers’ takes it but the reality peeps out soon. The thinking quotient has surely changed. Now, a person believes in working in a firm, which can give him more independence in terms of decision making and challenging roles. A career-focused individual is certainly broadening his vision to work for a small firm rather than working for an MNC and get lost in the crowd. The most important thing to understand is an organization can hook its employees in the corporate events for some time but in the long run the feeling of being in a monotonous job creeps. The organizations should come out from the long followed policy and take a drastic step to change it. The change is to make the employees feel home in the office where the employee should have the rights to take decisions upto a certain limit and given challenging job role. There can be ways through which this can be achieved.

1.Remember, hiring new employees cost more than retaining old one. So, make sure, job rotation is followed as a policy and every employee should be given a chance to change his/her profile within a year if not interested.

2.Make the maximum use of Benchees. Rather than looking outside, the benchees can be asked to jump on the roles depending on their interest whenever certain employee needs a change which can best be termed as Replacement.

3.Not to forget, Marketing is not ahead of Performance. If marketing is good but the product fails to deliver then nothing can save the product from dieing. Its necessary to organize the corporate events but it should not be regular thing. The employees get diverted more towards to it rather than his job. Employee interaction should be frequent with the HRs. Workshops is certainly helpful in a month where the Manager along with the employees and HRs can discuss on how to make the best use of the employees.

Vinayak Kamat Named 2007 PRM Candidate of the Year

Vinayak was chosen from those nominated for this award based on his excellent exam scores, top ranking among candidates who answered five essay questions and his performance during a telephone interview of five finalists. The nominees spanned from all across the globe.


"This is a highly prestigious award, identifying the best of the best among our PRM holders," said David R. Koenig, Executive Director of PRMIA. "We were highly impressed by Vinayak and congratulate him on this international recognition."


When contacted, Vinayak said that he was thrilled at receiving such a highly prestigious award and it felt great to get achievement at an international level. The senior management team at HSBC GLT has lauded Vinayak for carving his niche at the PRMIA and placing GLT on the global map.


PRMIA is the Professional Risk Managers’ International Association with more than 60 chapters around the world and over 40,000 members from more than 175 countries. A non-profit, member-led association of professionals, PRMIA is dedicated to advancing the standards of the profession worldwide through the free exchange of ideas. PRMIA offers the only globally endorsed Professional Risk Manager (PRM) certification program, pursued by over 2,000 active candidates in more than 90 countries, more than any other risk certification program the PRM is the higher standard in risk certification.

VINAYAK KAMAT WORKS IN BUSINESS SOLUTION AND CONSULTING GROUP OF HSBC.

Need to BRAND..Why?

Well, Branding and Advertising have become key focus area for organizations. A lot of it depends on the target market, budget, and the influence it can create on the minds of the customer. Today, we will discuss what are on the biggies minds when they advertise for branding their brand. IBM, one of the most sought after organizations comes with innovative ads, which require a lot of thought process to understand the message IBM wants to convey to its customers. According to IBM, The key to differentiation is innovation. Not the innovation that sparks new inventions per se, but innovation that reinvents how businesses do business at every level of the enterprise. No one does innovation better than IBM. The ads are very much thought provoking. It can be a water cooler in the middle of the desert serves as a metaphor for a meeting place where your organization's best minds can come together to create innovative new ideas. And, Accenture, one of the best Consulting firms believes in high performance and when we think of high performance, Accenture thinks of Tiger Woods who serves as a metaphor for their commitment to helping companies become high-performance businesses. Their advertising theme united their ethos and position: "Go on. Be a Tiger." Similarly, in HSBC commercials, a ring can signify a marriage or a group composed of people from different ethnic backgrounds. The important thing to notice is the sustainability in the market and the continuity to remain the market leader through continuous positive re-enforcement about the brand.