Straight Talk

Ques: Gentlemen, I have followed your column with interest. As a CEO, I am faced with issues that have a deep ramification on the stakeholders of my company. I want a straight talk answer from you on how I should orient my employees in this era of economic slowdown. Given the cutthroat bleeding, should I tell them to focus on shortterm survival or should I go the utopian way of telling them to focus on long-term vision? I am stuck in a mutually exclusive situation of these two choices. S.G. Chawla, T. Nagar, Chennai

Ans: Mr. Chawla, in a recent issue of 4Ps Business And Marketing magazine, Jack Welch wrote about why the basic tenets of leadership have not changed at all during this period of slowdown, and in fact have become much stronger. We propose you read this text. Jim Collins, in his bestselling book ‘Built To Last’, showed through research spanning 70 years that visionary companies gave 700 per cent more stock returns when compared to not-so-visionary companies. HBS reports in a top notch paper (Guiding Growth: How Vision Keeps Companies On Course) on how “vision, in fact, makes a profoundly positive difference” to a firm’s performance. Mr. Chawla, if it is a mutually exclusive choice, then it is surely better to die in the short-term than live a visionless existence.

Ques: I am a content manager at an upcoming entertainment news portal in Chennai. I realise the pressure that one constantly has to face in order to consistently produce unique and differentiated content. I do have a great team, and the members are paid very well, but I find that we are seriously lagging behind with regard to innovation and need to do something to prevent our content from becoming dull and boring. Otherwise, I see us hitting the ceiling soon. What should I do? K.S., Chennai

Ans: A content division without innovation? That is quite like a product development division that cannot bring out new products, or a marketing division that cannot drive the company’s top line and bottom line goals. It is a serious issue indeed. Pay structure does work, but after a certain limit, it not only loses its ability to motivate, but can also make people laid back. Innovation and ideation have to be made part and parcel of the culture. Leading from the front is extremely critical, which we are sure you must be doing. It is important to review your team and reward the contributors, through open appreciation, incentives as well as leadership roles. Besides, see if there are some really rotten fish which are spoiling the environment. Tell them to mend their ways or lead them to the exit door. Make ideation more exciting, discuss industry trends and competitor strategies with them and involve them in the discussion process; to make them feel responsible. Develop processes that will lead to your desired results; for instance, monitor their activities on a regular basis and give them recurrent feedback; without necessarily being reprimanding, on how they can improve their performance levels.