Summary | Outlast: How ESG Can Benefit Your Business

Outlast: How ESG Can Benefit Your Business 

Author : Mukund Rajan  

Data is shaping the new world. Organizations are mining internal data for predicting and enhancing operational efficacy. In the digital age, the data is used to understand the behavior and influence customers. Use of data as enabled organizations to create value for shareholders. These technical advances have changed the way humans produce and consume natural resources resulting in stakeholders demand on business accountability for their social and environmental impacts. Further, regulation on environment, social and governance (ESG) issues have heightened to protect rights of citizens and the environment. In recent years, sustainability reporting has become a very important part, which combines financial and non-financial parameters.

Outlast: How ESG Can benefit your business, is about how Environmental factors, Social factors, Governance factors shape up the current and future business model using used cases in Indian context, covered in seven chapters. Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) has become critical to organizations for creating long term value to stakeholders. Environmental parameters enable organizations to focus on operations to reduce or optimize the natural resource. Social parameters enable organizations to enhance engagement and inclusiveness with employees, and society in general. Governance enables organizations to enhance performance that is transparent, fair for overall stakeholder value creation.

Many companies, yet to recognize the need to address these multidimensional challenges that needs to be addressed as regulatory compliance. Embracing ESG agenda to build resilience and competitive advantage is the requirement. With SEBI and MCA embarking transparency reporting on financial and non-financial parameters, this book comes handy.

Summary | Stories at Work: Unlock the Secret to Business Storytelling

 

Author : Indranil Chakraborty

It is engaging to hear the story of school dropout becoming a entrepreneur. The journey of opening a small store, overcoming challenges, and innovating new products with anticipating customer requirements is heartening.  That’s the story of PC Musthafa  iD Fresh Food is engaging. His narration of business story is filled with emotions connecting the heart of listeners while delivering the story.  The power of stories helps in connect, engage, gain insights and inspire and Effective leaders are good story tellers.  Thus, stories help in explain critical, complex messages in a simple way inspiring action.

Stories at Work - is structured into three parts, first part is on creating the need on why and how to build your story bank. The second part of the book explains the various story patterns and how stories can be used to build rapport and credibility. The final part of the book is putting them all together touching upon values to be understood, understanding complex human stories, storytelling with data, etc.

The five essentials’ elements of a story are –
1. Start with a time marker, or a place marker

2. About something happening
3. If you hear names/dialogues, it is a story
4. Something unanticipated happens
5. A relevance statement: why am I telling you this story?

Four situations in business where we start our story telling journey are

1.       When we are building a rapport with people we hope to work with – clients, team members and stakeholders

2.      When we explain change – this could range from new vision, mission to transformation agenda to a small change in a administrative process

3.      When we are trying to get people to change their minds and when we are trying to handle objections or mental blocks

4.      When we are looking at sharing best practices, knowledge or success.

 

Story collection can also be used using Cynefin framework adopting a structure of  Probe, Sense and Respond.

The Fearless Organization - Creating Psychological Safety in the workplace for Learning, Innovation and Growth

The Fearless organization – creating Phycological safety in the workplace for learning, innovation and Growth

Author- Amy C Edmondson

In the organization, employees always waited for the much-anticipated event – Townhall Meeting. It was one of the event where free and frank exchange of conversations would happen. Most of the questions that was raised in the townhalls was very relevant to both employee experience as well as for the organization growth, the method adopted to raise was through Slips without names – anonymous. The leadership refused to respond to these questions, reasoning that employees do not have trust and questions will be responded only, when they are asked directly.  Few gathered strengths and raised their concerns, after a month there was a gossip that the employee was transferred. Next townhall, there was silence and even though leadership requested to raise the questions, the hall filled with people, but all were silent. Might be the fear of raising the question / concern will hit the ego and get reprimanded.  Fear in the organization, even to raise the needs.  A culture of silence is a dangerous culture.

The fearless organization is one where interpersonal fear is minimised, allowing a freer flow of knowledge. It’s an environment where a person feels able to express their views on something openly and honestly without fear of recrimination, abuse, putdown or humiliation. Google study on team effectiveness – Project Aristotle observed that the psychological safety was the key factor that led to high performing teams. Teaming is the art of communicating and coordinating with people across boundaries of all kinds – expertise, status and distance. This was supported by four other features:

1.       Clear goals

2.      Dependable colleagues

3.      Personally meaningful work

4.      Belief that the work has impact

 

Psychological safety is not about being nice. It’s about being able to speak the truth. And it’s okay to disagree. Psychological safety is crucial source of value creation in organization operating in a complex, changing environment.  Fearless organization is not only a better place for employees, it is also a place where innovation, growth and performance take hold.

Psychological safety is essential for communicating, collaborating, experimenting and ensuring the well being of others in a wide variety of teams and organizational settings. Lack of psychological safety can create an illusion of success that eventually turns into serious business failures.

Today’s leaders must be willing to take on the of of driving fear out of the organization to create a condition of learning, innovation and growth. Leaders need to take two vital steps to achieve fearless organization

1.       Build phycological safety to spur learning and avoid preventable failures by

a.      Setting stage

b.      Inviting participation

                                                              i.      Situational Humility

                                                           ii.      Proactive Inquiry

                                                         iii.      Designing structures for input

c.      Responding productively by Focused Event Analysis (FEA)

                                                              i.      Express Appreciation

d.     Destigmatize Failure

                                                              i.      Reframing the failure

e.      Motivating the efforts

 2.      Set high standards and inspire and enable people to reach them.

Book Summary | Tata stories: 40 Timeless Tales to Inspire You

 Book : Tatastories: 40 Timeless Tales to Inspire You

Author: Harish Bhat 

One of the advantage of working with the Tata Group is access to know more about the group, their philosophy, belief and the stories that are inspiring and thought provoking ! 40 Tata stories, The author's has curated beautiful inspiring, stories from the house of Tata’s. These stories share the humbleness of Tatas from then to now...

 

Some surprises from these are ………..

Okay Tata – Quality : Many of us while traveling notice a peculiar writing at the back of the trucks, normally we recall – “Sound Horn Please” and If it is a Tata Truck, then obviously you will find the label “OK TATA”.  Many of us might have observed this, but over the time we might have ignored this as it is common in most of the Tata Trucks.  The author provides that anecdote on why these trucks have OK marked on these and the reason.  Reflecting back this would bring the simile back on the face as it is just application of Common Sense for improving Quality of the Product.  

 

On Time: Many of us might have experienced the delay in boarding the flights and had bad experience, how about reading an anecdote on people of Geneva setting their watches to the time at the air India flight flew over their city ! – amazing isn’t it ?

 

Competency & Capability : India had working knowledge and expertise for the development of the nuclear energy in the future before the first atomic bomb exploded in 1945 – Incredible Right

 

Influence: The story of Super Computer “Eka” – truly remarkable and Would be surprise that an offer of entire crate of kingfisher beer would lend help in solving the problem !!

 

Tata Memorial Hospitals: Dorabji Tata and Lady Meherbai Tata, whose generous benevolence helped build Tata Memorial Cancer hospital, TIFR and TISS, and many more projects started and supported by the trust.

Generating Employment : establishment of Tata Silk Farm

Okhai – creativity of Saurashtra tribal to the fashion ramps of Milan

Workman Safety, Slimmest Watch in the universe, Tata Scholars, Tata and the Olympics,

 Binding line : If you cannot make it great, at least preserve it. Do not let things slide. Go on doing our work and increasing it, but it you cannot, do not lose what we have already done

Book Summary | The Age of Agile - Stephen Denning

 

Book: The Age of Agile: How smart companies are transforming the way work gets Done

Author: Stephen Denning

 

One of the popular words in today’s corporate world in any discussion is Agile. It may be on the culture of work, the projects that we drive. Today organizations are connecting everything and everywhere, all the time. They can deliver instant, intimate frictionless value on a large scale. They are creating a world in which people, insights and money interact quickly, easily, and cheaply. In software development, there is no option but to purse Agile Management.  The shift is nonnegotiable. If management won’t support Agile Management, the best developers go elsewhere.

 And since the software is eating the world and become more central aspect of every business model, the pressure for changing from within the organization is never ending.

Agile Management is about working smarter than harder. Agile is about understanding and interacting with the world with a different mindset. Business success in the twenty-first century increasingly depends on becoming quick as the rapid shifting and unpredictable context in which organization operate. Becoming an agile organization is an increasingly urgent necessity for companies in today’s digital economy. The principle of Agile management is empowering small teams, that will add value to the customers through bottom-up innovations. There are many case studies and research, that Innovations generated by agile teams had fuel growth. Innovations that happen from the top-down trends to be orderly but dumb. Innovation that happens from that happens from the bottom-up trends to be chaotic but smart. Agile means embracing fundamentally different assumptions. In organizations that have embraced agile management, self-organizing teams are continuously providing new value for customers. When Agile is done right, the teams are working within a business model in which organization is generating value for the organization itself as well as customers.  Agile is about generating more value from less work. The driver of sustained success is the Agile Mindset.

Three Core characteristics of Agile

1.    The law of small teams

Agile practitioners share a mindset that work should in principle be done in a small autonomous, cross-functional teams working in short cycles on relatively small tasks and getting continuously feedback from the ultimate customer or end-user. 

 

2.       The law of the customer

Agile practitioners are obsessed with delivering value to customers. The firm adjust everything – goals, values, principles, processes, systems, practices, data structures, incentives, - to generate continuous new value for customers and ruthlessly eliminates anything that does not contribute. The law of the customer is a single message, delivered consistently, every day all the time. Agile teams take initiatives on their own and interact with other agile teams to solve common problems.

 

Agile Small team – Common Practices

1.       Work in small batches

2.       Small cross functional teams

3.       Limited wok in process in agile management, teams learn to focus on an amount of work that can be brought to completion in each short cycle.

4.       Autonomous teams

5.       Getting to “Done”

6.       Work without interruption

7.       Daily standups

8.       Radically transparency

9.       Customer feedback each cycle

10.   Retrospective reviews

 

Rule of the customer – Practices by Agile teams.

§  Target

§  Constantly experiment

§  Partner with start-ups

§  Increase product malleability (turn a physical product into a digital product)

§  Focus

§  Innovate in short stages

§  Evaluate

§  Be willing to disappoint

§  Deliver value faster

§  Customize

 

3.       The law of the network

Agile practitioners view the organization as a fluid and transparent network of players that are contributing towards a common goal of delighting customers. A network is a group or system of interconnected people or things. An organizational network is a set of teams that interact with and collaborate with other teams with the same connectivity. A network model of organization is key to making the whole organization agile.

 

Assumptions of Networking:

1.       Network has a compelling goal

2.       The network comprises small groups

3.       The groups have an action orientation

4.       The network is the sum of the small groups

5.       The network legal framework stays in the background

Reviews - Continuously Monitor Progress to drive business:

Every month the program manager reports out on metrics of the accounts, measuring different aspects of the service. The group is learning to become a data informed business.  Done is having the right measures. The teams see this data and monitor it, both when they are testing it and as soon s it goes live. They use the metrics to drive the business forward.

 

Four components of a market creating value proposition: Need, Approach, Benefits per costs, and Competition (NABC).

The four Management Traps

1.       Maximizing shareholder value

Shareholder value is the dumbest idea in the world. Shareholder value is a result not a strategy. Short-term profits should be aligned with an increase in the long-term value of a company.

2.       The trap of buy back of shares.

Market leadership can translate directly to higher revenue, higher profitability, greater capital velocity and correspondingly stronger returns on invested capital.  

3.       Cost oriented economics trap.

Cutting costs could lead to a permanent loss of expertise. – Dell case study an interesting eye-opener.

4.       The trap of backward-looking strategy.

Transformative ideas are ideas that change our frame of refences.  Agile Management offers a financial critique of current management. Shareholder value thinking is a trap that inexorably leads to a preoccupation with the short term and ultimately destroys shareholder value.  The emerging age thus offers the possibility of a great awakening – a foreshadowing of a transformation in the way our organizations and our society functions. The emerging age offers a promising path forward. It’s the work of many minds, hearts and hands.        

The difference between winners and losers is not the matter of access to technology or big data. Both the successful and unsuccessful firms generally have access to same technology and data, which are now largely commodities.  The difference lies in a different way of running the organization that deploys technology and data more nimbly.

Bottom-line:

The central theme of this book – the corporations must radically reinvent how they are organized and led and embrace a new management paradigm. A principal role of the top is to identify and support champions throughout the organization.  

I would recommend reading the case study of how Microsoft deployed Agile and then read the chapters for easy navigation and connect on the principles.

 

Book Summary | Rethinking Competitive Advantage: New Rules for the Digital Age

 

Book :  Rethinking Competitive Advantage: New Rules for the Digital Age.

Author : Ram Charan

Many of us are experiencing the greater convenience using digital platforms. These digital platforms have enabled lower price, greater convenience, and instant access to relevant information to the consumers, businesses and employees. These digital giants have forever changed our experience as consumers and employees.

Creating competitive advantage is different in the 

digital age. In the digital age. Competitive advantage is the ability to win the ultimate price the consumer preferences, repeatedly through continuous innovation on behalf of the consumer to create immense value for shareholders. Core competencies have a self-life.  They become obsolete and new ones have to be built. Today due to information availability in abundance, the consumer takes the call.

Roadblocks to moving into Digital

1.       An overreliance to outdated theories

2.       A dominant psychology of incrementalism and short term thinking

3.       A blind spot when it comes to customers

4.       Acceptance of existing boundaries

5.       Belief in mass markets and segmentations

 

New Rules of Competition

# 1.  A personalized consumer experience is key for exponentiation growth.

The digital companies imagine a 100X market space that does not yet exist. Digital giant’s relentlessly focus on consumer’s total experience end and work backwardly.  They operate with the mind-set of Market of One – M=1, is the ultimate personalization.  Technology is important, but the ultimate focus is on the consumer. Mapping the customer journey is emerging as distinct expertise. It involves breaking apart all of the interactions and decisions steps a consumer goes through from first exposure to an idea or recognition of a need through to what happens after the person makes a purchase.  Leaders in the digital age takes on a stiffer but more exhilarating challenge.

# 2. Algorithms and Data are essential weapons

The digital platforms are built using algorithms and data that collects and analyses various customer experiences and behaviors.  Each algorithm is a simpler sequence of steps for solving a problem. The ability to personalize an end-to-end consumer experience creates market space of 100x.  A digital platform is also key to exponential growth. Standardization of data will eliminate lot fo the waste in record keeping and combined with algorithms can detect fraudulent billings Technology, logistics/ distribution and customer experience are the key pillars for digital growth.

#3. A company does not compete, its ecosystem does.

The ecosystem accelerates the growth. In digital age, competitive advantage goes to those who build ecosystem or network that leverages digital technology for the benefits of the consumers and paves the way to multiple streams of revenue. Ecosystem are never permanent, because the work is moving at such a ferocious speed, technology changes continue to accelerate and consumer expectations, continuously evolve finding new partnerships.

# 4. Moneymaking is geared for huge cash generation, not earnings per share, and the new law of increasing returns.

# 5. People culture and work design form a social engine that drive innovation and execution personalized for each customer.

Most digital companies operate with as few as three or four organizational layers. The digital companies recognize that structure goes lonely so far and that success ultimately depends upon the quality of its people. Technology plays a key role in giving people greater freedom to do their work. Technology makes real time data transparent, but still the organization depends upon people to knit the pieces together on a daily basis. Decision-making is designed for innovation & speed.

# 6. Their leaders drive learning, reinvention and execution.

Leaders continuously learn, imagine and breakthrough obstacles to create the change that other companies must contend with.

Book Summary | Innovation by Design - Thomas Lockwood

 Innovation by Design: How Any Organization Can Leverage Design Thinking to Produce Change, Drive New Ideas, and Deliver Meaningful Solutions, Reviews

Author : Edgar Papke and Thomas Lockwood

 Organizations have realized that the each customer has unique experience and need to tap this experience for developing products and services that would enhance customer experience and thereby loyalty resulting in improving business. There are various tools and techniques, which organizations adopt to map these customer experiences and thereby develop new products.

Design thinking is one such tool, where in the empathy is to map the customer journey at various touch points to drive innovations for new products and improve customer experience. Several key traits appear common in Design Thinking

1.       Identifying the right problem to solve coupled with deep understanding of the user

2.       Empathy coupled with collaboration both with the user & through multi-disciplinary teams

3.       Accelerate learning through hands-on experimenting, visualization and creating quick rough prototypes.

Ten Attributes of design thinking

1.       Design thinking at scale

2.       Pull Factor

3.       Right Problem

4.       Cultural Awareness

5.       Curious confrontation

6.       Co-Creation

7.       Open Spaces

8.       Whole Communication

9.       Aligned leadership

10.   Purpose

 

Three driving factors of the Collective Imagination:

1. Participation (collaboration).

2. The pursuit of knowledge.

3. Free expression (engaging in unbridled creativity).

Five - orders of Design

First order – focus on graphics design & visualization

Second order – Design of products which includes feel

Third, order Design – Customer experience and application in design of service, user interface & information

Fourth Order Design – Design of system

Fifth, order design – Design of culture

 

12 Key cultural keys

1.       Power & Influence

2.       Planning & Goal setting

3.       Problem Solving

4.       Decision Making

5.       Conflict Management

6.       Incentive & Reward

7.       Hiring

8.       Role definition

9.       Customer interface

10.   Team work

11.   Structure

12.   Aligned Values

 

Aligned Design in expertise culture

1.       Leverage internal competency

2.       Expertise based, adhoc teaming

3.       Support analytical process

4.       Challenge for better and best peer competition

5.       Leverage external expertise

6.       Reward Conceptual thinking

7.       Leverage status through and for high achievement

 

Bottom-line: 

Many use cases from various successful organizations have been presented in the book. However, complete approach and challenges that they have overcome while implementing is not provided, making this a one-time read.