Proactively Resistive

Uncertainty is certain, that is the maxim of today and reality for all of us individually as well as for enterprises. A repeat of the economic downturn of a few years back or worse, that is the question everyone is pondering over. When the sentiment is down, the first casualty is perceived risky innovative propositions. People withdraw into their anxieties and work to keep status quo. Any remotely disruptive thought is beaten black and blue unless inaction threatens existence.

So what does it do to the IT budget and the CIO who is being challenged to do more with less and find resources to create efficiency ? How can operating expense be lowered when a large chunk of the allocation is to paying license fees and annual charges for the large systems ? Cloud may shift some capital expense but does not take away the payout for license and support. Can the business critical solutions be shifted to open source ?

Even if the shift to open source was possible for some processes, the core ERP systems are the ones that will be resisted by the users; be it HR or Finance, they do not want to shift away from already stable (take that with loads of salt considering the patches that continue to make the system unstable) and comfortable systems. The big vendors know that such a shift is almost impossible and continue to hammer the proverbial nails into corporates with increases year on year. So what is the way out for the CIO ?

In a CIO forum I met one of the thought leaders who has and would make it to every list globally. He ran a discourse on change that IT brings about in an enterprise. He talked about some of the change projects being executed by many global enterprises pertained to reducing expenses across the board led by IT. Mandated or democratically agreed to, these were being resisted by layers across the enterprise. He preached top-down and bottom-up collaboration to “sell” the ideas along with existentialist discussions. If we did not do this, then the sky would fall upon us.

It was nothing new as CIOs use this strategy quite well to garner buy-in for most projects. It is another matter that measurement of the impact is rarely done a few years later as the business context has changed, or we have moved to another crisis, or the people who made the case no longer exist in the company. Push ahead and ye shall be rewarded he expounded. Maybe I have become a cynic after trying this so many times to believe that it would still work in the current business environment.

I believe that irrespective of support levels across the enterprise, the CIO should continue to engage with the stakeholders to have them share the pain before embarking on the journey to create colossal change or transformation of the IT landscape. Finding business allies will be difficult, but the journey in solitude is a sure way to achieve martyrdom. After all we all live under the same sun but have different horizons. So lead the way, but make sure that there are others along with you, not following you.

The words that stayed with me a long time were “the cultural response was resistive, sometimes proactively resistive”. Hasn’t the world always been the same for the CIO ?

Surviving layoffs

We live in uncertain times with global economies tumbling randomly impacting everyone within as well as across borders. Citizens and corporates alike are living with FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) as the world watches the unfolding of one crisis after another. With survival at stake, individuals as well as enterprises are taking steps to tide over the current quagmire. In our connected world, the impact is felt even in otherwise stable or developing economies.

Are there learning from past economic events that have left many economies struggling. Recession and slowdown driven new normal had everyone focusing on cost and then incremental growth. Successive events have taken away much of the impact once again driving enterprises and individuals up the wall. Once again there is talk of deep cost cutting which now chips at the bones with no flesh remaining.

Not too long ago interacting with such a CIO who was asked to find alternative opportunities, I learnt about the trials and tribulations of such a situation, especially when there is a gap between two jobs. The person was a great performer and excelled in creating new technology solutions. In recessionary times discretionary spending was cut, no new projects and thus the pink slip.

In good times every enterprise leader will cite the often repeated cliché “people are our best assets”. In difficult times after everything else has been tried, companies lay off assets that can no longer be deemed useful. Normalization has a way of sometimes impacting productive assets too with resultant attrition hitting operating efficiencies. Layoffs are reality and so is the adverse impact it creates.

The ecosystem of friends, peers and close family can help overcome the negative sentiment. Seek a coach or mentor who can keep the sanity levels normalized. Even if you are lucky it takes time to find what works for you and the new company wanting to hire your services. A non-CIO friend took almost 2 years to get his rightful position while his kids and family supported him emotionally. The CIO was lucky to find a fresh beginning within 6 months.

What could I have done to prevent this from happening ? The mind tries to justify and find causes related to personal behavior, performance or shortfall that created the situation. It refuses to recognize external forces instead attempting to rationalize self-existence. It takes a while for reality to sink in and start afresh. The self-denial phase can last from a few hours to years. This self-pity mode becomes the most unproductive time. It is important to leave behind the baggage and move on with a fresh start.

What does this mean ? Be prepared as Black Swans are becoming more prevalent than NNT (Nassim Nicholas Taleb) postulated. Do not feel disheartened when someone close gets impacted. Support the person any way that you can. When I faced this situation a long time back, my friends and the IT industry leaders provided adequate cushioning to sustain self-pride. I was fortunate to maintain continuity in my transition and thankfully overcame emotional distress quickly. That’s when I realized the importance of networking and reputation.

We live in uncertain times.

Leadership is ...

Across two events over the last few weeks, I came across many CEOs and thought leaders who debated, discussed, and opined on the future state of the economy and what the industry can look forward to. There exists a general sense of optimism and expectation of a brighter tomorrow. A few mentions of the struggles that still remain in pockets, not to forget the lessons learnt in the last couple of years. But the highlight was the speech delivered by a third generation young family owned business entrepreneur.

He was speaking for the first time in public and that too in an event held outside his home country. After a hesitant start he warmed up to the subject which was the journey of the family business as the reigns are eased onto the new generation with the grandfather keeping a dictatorial but benevolent eye on the day to day affairs. Every generation starts from the bottom of the pyramid working their way up until the patriarch decides it’s time to move to the next level. As the story unfolded, the audience listened in rapt attention wondering how each generation has built upon the foundations laid six decades back with humble beginnings, now run by a large joint family of over 150 managing the enterprise successfully.

I could draw parallel to some incidents of the protagonist with our experiences with corporate behavior, complexity of the markets and the organization culture, as it shifted with each new leader entering the business. Swayed by the economic turmoil and political uncertainties, the company was buffeted in the waves up and down as if it had no direction of its own. Reflecting on my own experiences and the various case studies that came my way, life unfolded as if in slow motion reminding the lessons it left behind. The one tenet that was evident through the session was perseverant leadership that kept the family going through rough and smooth. Tough decisions taken resulted in many positive outcomes and a few that made the situation worse. What has all this got to do with the CIO?

To me the CIO leader faces such decision points a lot more frequently irrespective of whether s/he works in one industry/ company or across different ones, big or small, and agnostic of geography and lineage. The CEO is personified in the patriarch, occasionally benevolent when s/he is IT friendly, else indifferent or sometimes hostile. The CXOs pull in different directions like the family members with different priorities. Competition and the overall economy impact everyone and are thus similar in their effect.

Many IT leaders are rightly felicitated for success and contributions to the company; influencing industry trends with early adoption or innovative use of solutions. They take decisions which could potentially wreck a business function or create a setback in the short-term. Risk ability is a critical part of every leader’s armor and CIOs are expected to fail less often as compared to other business leaders.

CIOs who are able to manage across the journey are classified as successful and turnaround specialists while few suffer ignominy of the technology world. Leadership is after all a mindset and not a position. Like the grandfather, many CIOs are now well positioned to mentor fresh talent to take the mantle. But will they? That’s a story for another time.

Blue Oceans and Black Swans in the current economy

I have been fortunate to meet both the authors (Kim Chan and Renee Mauborgne though at different times spread over a year) of Blue Ocean Strategy, the much talked about book. Both authors present a contrasting style when discussing the book and the Blue Ocean Strategy and that got me thinking a lot about how does one go about creating strategies that can be indeed classified as Blue Ocean way of steering a company ahead.

When I met Kim in a high power talk, it was motivation enough to read the book. The book was a wonderful collection of facts presented together to justify the Blue Oceans v/s the Red Oceans or the competitive scenario in which all of us operate. But the question that remained unaddressed is that how many companies had their executives read the book, engaged consultants and then came up with a real Blue Ocean strategy which was implemented and found successful. I have yet to find any.

Almost a year later, the meeting with Renee was to that extent different, where I was a bit skeptical as well as started asking many within the audience whether they had read the book and found any of the principles making a difference in their strategic thinking. Reality is everyone who had read the book liked it, but had no answers to the question that continued to haunt me.

And then a few weeks back I read Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb and I found solace in the fact that most theories are created to justify what happened; rarely a theory has been applied to create the impact that it justifies by looking at the past.

Putting both of them together, the conclusion that I draw is that tactical strategies may bring short-term results, long-term strategies may work to a point, and then the unexpected comes along and thought leaders (?) will create new theories to justify them.

So what has all this got to do with a CIO ? Well IT organizations end up at the receiving end when Red Oceans and Black Swans come together as it is the case right now. Budget cuts, manpower pressures, outsourcing and vendor management, all of these are here to stay. What Blue Ocean strategy keep the Organization afloat and the CIO busy ? If I do find some answers, you will see them here. If you have any, do post them here.