Bosses who want their way...

'My manager- I ' is just another relation one needs to nurture and build. Refer HBR classic "Managing Your Boss" for more details.

Every sustainable relation between 2 partners is a means that helps both partners meet more needs than those they'd meet if they were alone. One has to help one’s manager succeed and manager has to help her /his directs succeed; success can mean different things to different persons, usually it involves achieving a combination of emotional, personal, financial, social needs. If manager helps directs succeed, then directs do not mind giving manager what s/he wants; that means directs would make some choices that they would not normally make.

Here is a pertinent quote - “Two things to help keep one's job. First, let the boss think he's having his own way. Second, let him have it.” - Sam Ewing

If one is left with only those two choices mentioned by Sam Ewing, then I recommend one to have a discussion with one’s manager to understand each other’s expectations. Usually, I expect action- ' the need to change' lies on both sides to ensure relationship improves. If things don't improve and it's still tough to continue the relation, then I recommend suspending the relation over medium term.

Another quote “Insecure managers create complexity.” - Jack Welch. This statement applies to everyone, managers are just a subset; Insecure persons make things complex. Or putting it in another way- "things appear complex as long as one does not understand, one does not understand things as they are not qualified and (including not making enough effort to understand) continue to do social-loafing.” If boss is insecure, then what should directs do?

Trust and Team Building

When trust prevails, members with ordinary skills and experience, deliver extraordinary results. Needless to say, ‘Trust’ is essential for a team’s success.. In this context, ‘Team building’ is synonymous with ‘Trust Building’. Importance of 'Team Building' proportionately increases with diversity of team. Diversity of the team is a function of geographies which members operate from, members’ -age groups, genders, races, cultures, skills, experiences, and customers who they server or build the products for.
Trust, team and reputation capital are built over a period of time. Every interaction among the members over the course of time either increases or decreases the Trust.
Manager is responsible to create and maintain the right environment that allows members to build the team. There are many ways to establish this environment. Off site meets including activities such as building rafts, beating drums, hiking, trekking or similar exercises that present members an opportunity to understand one another are one such way. Goal is each member needs to understand what s/he thinks are her strengths & weaknesses and how other members perceive her so that over a period of time
How a member sees herself – Other do not see quite the sameà How others see her, she does not knowß
How a member sees herself – Others agreeßà Un Known area

Such understanding helps the team to work towards building a self-organizing and self-governing team. ‘Team Building’ is a continuous process. Onus is on the manager to ensure this process is not broken.

Improved Trust among the team members directly improves productivity of the team. There are many measures which help one assess how the Trust is among the team.

1. Attrition rate- any voluntary movement out of the team by a team member should be considered as attrition.
2. Escalations (a) Internal escalations (b) external- customer/other groups: emails, ad-hoc
3.#of Innovative ideas/new product/process improvements, what's the expected $$$ benefit or actual $$$ benefit if those ideas are implemented
4.Turnaround time for given size of delivered effort.
5.Defects for given size of delivered effort

My Ideal Boss

I was reminded of Rahul when I came across the words stated by US Army General Patton: “ Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity”.

Rahul is known as one of the best people to work with. It has been about 2 years since I last met him. Vijay used to work for Rahul. Vijay was my classmate and good friend. Rahul, Vijay and I used to work at the same office and used to stay in the same apartment complex. We used to discuss a variety of topics while we commute between work and home. These discussions and my interaction with Vijay helped me understand Rahul.

Rahul is a great simplifier. His statement “a task remains complex as long as one does not understand it” is true. He keeps himself abreast of latest trends in technology and business. He has opinion on what business demands and which technologies have the potential to effectively meet those demands. I believe in his philosophy “constant learning and innovation” are essential to succeed in knowledge intensive industry. He effects change by exuding positive attitude at work. He comes across principled and consistent in his approach. He sides to right at any cost. He negotiates well with any party. He focuses on having values, creating and nurturing values. He exhibits recursive leadership qualities. It’s no surprise that Rahul won lot of accolades and customer appreciations.

Rahul shares his vision with his team and discusses with team on different ways of accomplishing it. He cuts through arguments, debates and offer solutions that team can understand. He learns from his team members and from his mistakes. He practices true delegation. He allocates tasks to his team members and empowers them with complete freedom to execute those tasks. Team members do definitely make mistakes; but such delegation increases team’s confidence level to take up insurmountable tasks. He never gets frustrated at any mistake. He opines ‘frustration is the sign of weakness.” He gives specific feedback to his team members to improve themselves. He believes that making people around him successful will make him successful.

Sudden buzz of phone put me back on mundane world. For a second, I could not believe what the caller is saying. I am given a new assignment and Rahul would be my reporting manager.

I know Rahul has confidence and trust in me. We understand each other’s strengths and improvement areas. It helps us collectively leverage our strengths and undermine individual weaknesses. I am sure Rahul would discuss with me and then clearly define the set of goals that I need to achieve. These goals would help me discover how far can I go and how high can I reach. More importantly, Rahul would help me learn, contribute, grow, and succeed in my career. Rahul is my ideal boss.

Limitations of Porter's Model

Industry Attractiveness and Five Forces

Assumptions behind Porter's model, developed in 80s, do not completely hold good in current markets; I do not say that these assumptions were good in 80s; but more assumptions are broken these days.

(1) Competition vs. Collaboration/ Co-opetation - a powerful concept relevant to today's market- by Prahlad and Hamel- Porter's model does not consider alliances, collaborations and partnerships.


(2) Innovation: Schumpeter's theory of creative destruction. Porter's model does not consider it at all. A firm(extend to Industry) can /should kill its current products/cash cows by bringing innovative/advanced products: E.g: iPhone, Blu-ray/HD vs. normal definition

(3) Predictable /stable/static: definition of industry , market and regulations. In today's market, these definitions dynamically change and constantly evolve.

E.g: Which industry does Google belong to? What about Apple? who regulates 'rules of internet'? Define plagiarism? Is sharing information correct/incorrect? what's information? who owns it?

(4) Interactions between Suppliers, buyers and the firm? What if: a buyer is also a supplier? E.g: eBay. Porter's model does not account for these interactions.

Porter's model a simple framework to perform initial analysis. But do not reach any conclusion and make any recommendation just by using Porter's model.