Why every Manager should think and act like a CEO?

Every Manager be it a unit head, group head, account manager, program manager or even managers in supporting functions like HR, Marketing etc should actually start to think and act like a CEO. This is a mechanism of ‘self-empowerment’ and will give a much broader canvas and a larger purpose to work on within the confines of their work boundaries. Every manager needs to run his unit like a company or atleast a pseudo profit center. They must know where each dollar comes from and where each dollar is spent and where the inefficiencies lie. This will enable managers to think big, get rid of the blinkers and impact the organization on a larger scale.

Every manager needs to run their respective unit with a focus on the stakeholders just like the CEO of the company does. They should work with the strategic objectives of the company in mind such as improving top-line/bottom-line, launching new services, reducing the time to market/cycle time, penetrating new markets etc and at every point in time keep the units objectives aligned to the organizational objectives.

Every Manager needs to keep a hawk’s eye on operational and delivery excellence and should have up-to-date operational metrics and dashboards at their finger tips at any point of time. This should reflect the grounds up data from the grassroots and should be cross verified for correctness and accuracy. The operational pulse of the unit must be known to the manager at all points in time. The operational metrics must encompass the parameters that are vital to the health of the organization. In IT services industry this will cover parameters like revenues, utilization, billability, attrition, sales pipeline, recruitment pipeline, innovation metrics, adherence to certifications like ISO 9001 and SEI CMMi,  program dashboards, program quality metrics, risk factors impacting delivery of programs etc

A very strong ‘Financial Control System’ needs to be in place such as systems for tracking the allocation of resources to projects, rate cards, expected revenues (both projected and actual), invoicing systems, accounts receivable systems etc. While the above systems are used for tracking the revenues we also need strong and stringent control systems to track the costs such as employee salary costs, sales and administration expenses, infrastructure costs, R&D expenses, consumables, travel expenses and other miscellaneous expenses.

A very important aspect of running a unit is Sales and Marketing. Managers must remain connected with the sales teams and customers where ever possible and try to gain insights into the customer problems and what can be done to delight the customers. Managers must always have a finger on the customer pulse and must be able to predict the customer’s perception about the unit’s offerings without having to wait for the annual customer survey done by the company. The acid test of a strong customer relationship is when the customer comes to your rescue when you are having problems in meeting sales targets and works out a mutually beneficial plan.

An effective ‘Financial Control System’ together with an efficient ‘Sales engine’ will help the unit to forecast its quarterly earnings accurately with minimum deviations. This engine is a must for the companies that need to face the bourses quarter on quarter and year after year on the earnings front.

 On the people front needless to say managers must adopt a ‘People First’ policy and should be sensitive to people’s issues. Managers should coach and mentor employees as well as provide them career guidance and roadmaps. There must be continuous and constant engagement with the employees and communications will need to keep flowing. Having said that poor performance and lackadaisical attitude must not be tolerated and must be dealt with an iron hand.

Thinking and acting like a CEO provides a larger purpose to the managers and will open their creative gates which will enable them to function more efficiently and contribute to the growth of their organizations. It will not be possible to operate independently at all times and take decisions on their own but even if done sometimes will give the desired results. Within the sphere of influence and control if managers’ work for a larger cause and act like a CEO within the constraints and within the permissible limits of freedom it will go a long way. This will not only give short term benefits to the managers but will also poise the managers for taking on higher roles and bigger positions in future.

Social Networking and Collaboration on the 'Intranet'

Social Networking is a rage on the Internet with popular sites like Facebook and Twitter competing with countries like India and China on the "population" front. Unfortunately many corporates globally restrict access to the Social Networking sites from the office due to security as well as work productivity related reasons.  It is however a good idea to have the equivalent of a social network on the Intranet.

Several companies are leveraging the social networking phenomena on the Intranet as this fosters bonding, networking, exchange of innovative ideas, joint problem solving and many other benefits which result in creating benefits to the organization like stronger camaraderie which might lower attrition due to the feel good factor, free exchange of information across the functional boundaries which will help resolve complex problems involving multiple functional areas, communications between like minded people bypassing the traditional hierarchical lines  will also help foster innovation and growth.

There are two broad categories of social networking applications on the Corporate Intranets of today. The first is the “Facebook” like applications which build social networks within the company and the second is the “Wiki” like applications which are used as tools of collaboration. Both the types of applications serve their designated purposes and may be even more within the Corporate Intranets.

“Wiki” like applications can be used for the following purposes:

·         Creating a Knowledge Management portal within the organization to tap the tacit and latent knowledge which groups of people have in a specialized area. This will serve as a repository or storehouse of information which remained untapped earlier. The beauty is that several people can simultaneously collaborate in creating this storehouse of information and can enhance the quality of information collectively.

·         Some companies use “Wiki” like applications when they need to come out with crucial documents such as the “Company Strategy” or “Unit Business Plan” in a collaborative manner involving the people at multiple levels. This can achieve even better results if it is moderated and driven by an SME. Several global companies have successfully used this tool for coming out with a bottom’s up strategy and when they need to incorporate the ideas from grassroot level folks in the creation of the strategy. A properly moderated “Wiki” can yield good results especially when there is an enabling structure for consolidation and funneling up of information.

·         Even day to day documents like user manuals, project plans, RFP responses, technical documents etc can be created by teams of SMEs using “Wiki” like tools

·         These can be used for collation and dissemination of information across geographically dispersed teams

“Facebook” like applications can be used for the following purposes:

·         Creating a purely informal social network for people within the organization (for friends within the organization) to share personal information and photos, videos etc. This will replace the email which has been used so far for this purpose

·         To create a ‘project workgroup’ for people working on a project to share and exchange information and ideas related to a project. This can gradually lead to people on the group sharing personal information as well and thus fostering stronger ties within the project team.

·         For Initiating discussions within a company or a unit on various aspects of the company such as policy changes, opinions on business strategies, trends in the industry etc

·         Create a forum for like minded groups to share and exchange information across the company pertaining to their topic of interest

Many corporations the world over have embraced these social networking trends and are in-fact using these tools for their competitive advantage. Any organization that needs to compete in today’s world cannot do without these kind of tools.