What does leadership mean as per PBOPlus in a Process World?

In a Process World, the word “Leadership” is deployed to emphasize Leadership in Thought and Action. This is different from other Leadership types such as people Leadership, business Leadership, functional Leadership, technology Leadership etc.

Leadership in thought: The process would have some or all of the following elements interacting iteratively.
1.Internal trigger
2.Seeding of an idea
3.Germination
4.Evaluation
5.Selection
6.Developing

Leadership in Action: The process would have some or all of the following elements interacting iteratively.
1.Communicate
2.Influence
3.Delegate
4.Review
5.Follow till completion

What is PBOPlus understanding of the processes in the brain?

1. The below post is based on our current understanding and past consulting experience. This would essentially evolve over time as we go ahead.
2. Brain is a random system for most employees. They keep moving from one thought to another (sometimes every 3 seconds). To that extent, we agree with the findings that a human brain travels through around 11000 thoughts in a day largely originating from their subconscious in response to internal/external trigger. PBOPlus wishes to create a process world in which people can be fitted into processes and simultaneously each individual in his own brain must become more process oriented. The key aspects in order to attain the same are CONCENTRATION and FOCUS .
3. CONCENTRATION: It is the ability of an individual to focus on a single thought. Normally this is limited to a few seconds and we encourage people to increase the duration of the same.
4. FOCUS: It is the ability of an individual to concentrate on a single topic which is made of chains of multiple related thoughts. It is easier for an individual to focus in a group instead of being all alone. This is the reason why most meetings are not extended for more than 60 minutes (with each topic lasting 15-20 minutes) as the participants tends to loose focus.

“End Backwards Horizontal” is a phrase which is used very frequently at PBOPlus. What does it mean?

1. PBOPlus helps companies in designing business processes and avoids working on functional processes.

2. The processes are designed for building synergies among all the business elements (Eg: strategy, planning, objective, target, review, processes, ICT, people) within the company to improve overall customer value quotient (Customer value delivered / Customer value promised).

3. All our design work begins with customer in-sighting (external or internal) and elements that deliver that value. For each value element a scale is created on which the company and the competitors are compared/evaluated. Based on the company’s strategy, a 3 year path for each value element is finalized and thereafter we design processes which will deliver that value-mix. This explains the use of the word “End Backwards”.

4. It is called “Horizontal” because the design process works by integrating a series of processes connected seamlessly through the shortest route (with minimum touch points and minimum turnaround time) thereby minimizing vertical movement of information/decision flow in the organizational hierarchy.

5. The above concept is applicable for the operational world which accounts for more than 99% of a company’s work.

What is the difference between strategic work and operational work?

1. Strategic work is that work in a business which results in embedding those properties in the product, service or solution that influences a customer to choose a certain brand/company over others. All other work is operational.
2. If we apply the above definition incisively, more than 99% of a company’s work is operational and less than 1% is strategic.
3. If the consumer’s reason for choosing a certain company’s product/service changes (which is bound to happen in a competitive society as competitors copy & catch up and introduce novel value propositions), the work that was strategic yesterday would become operational today. The new/additional work to be done by the organization to bring about the shift in customer’s perception/decision in choosing the company/business over others would now become strategic and everything else would become operational.
4. Most operational work are simpler than learning and therefore can be learnt in 90 days or less. In certain cases it may require upto 1 year and in rare cases upto 3 years.

What is the single most critical factor which can enable a CEO to maximise profits?

There are a lot of anxieties and worries at the top seat. Some of the major concerns are around customer preferences, operational efficiencies and right people in the right positions to execute strategic objectives. This was further validated by a survey done of about 409 C.E.Os in US. Here are the results of that survey:

Sustained & steady top-line growth (41.3%) Excellence in execution (39.6%) Consistent execution of strategy by top management (38.5%) Profit growth (29.9%) Customer loyalty/retention (25.6%)

Finding managerial talent (20.9%) Top management succession (20.1%) Corporate reputation (19.7%) Stimulating innovation/creativity (19.2%) Speed, flexibility, adaptability to change (18.2%)

Source: The Conference Board “CEO Challenge 2007″ (4 October 2007),    Based On: Survey of 409 U.S. CEOs

If we further analyse this data then we can observe that these worries harbour around the following:

1. 1. New strategic initiatives; 2. Increasing efficiency and effectiveness of company’s operations; and
2. 3. Building the right team and its capabilities

Most companies opt to focus mostly on operational efficiency and implementing strategic objectives. The most appalling thing is that people of an organisation are responsible for achieving this in such a massive way but still their skills & capabilities development is ignored.

There is very less focus on designing the right structure and building a great team.

First, almost all major strategic initiatives have to be carried out by the people of an organisation. Their agility, attitudes and leadership skills will determine how able they are to tailor and adapt initiatives to the company’s changing circumstances and newer objectives.

Second, a strong team of people will produce outstanding operational results, easing the need for a CEO to oversee and intervene directly in day-to-day operations. A well-functioning team also will proactively create a constant stream of new initiatives (keeping customer preferences in mind) to remedy problems and seize new opportunities. Excellence of people is the key leverage point for great performance.

Third, a sound structure where people of an organisation can perform in a sustainable way and act like leaders will make a CEO focus solely on growth and maximise profits. Ideally this can be achieved in a process based organisation where best fit people are aligned with best fit processes to deliver best fit solutions.

Hence, its the people of an organisation and their development which should be the top priority of a CEO in order to answer most of his worries as listed above. A CEO should focus on creating the right team, right structures and critical business processes to combine the two to deliver the results in a consistent and a sustainable way.

Cultural Resistance to Strategy: A Headache for the CEO

A CEO is perhaps a little anxious about the resistance to his vision and strategy across the organisation. One of the core reasons why a lot of strategies don’t come to fruition is because of the resistance to the change that an implementation of the strategy would require. The prime source of this resistance comes from the People and the Culture developed in an organisation.

What is Culture? – Simplified

Culture is nothing but the perception/belief about What is right and What is wrong. If the beliefs are too strong and the people are not prepared to change their beliefs either then:

1. the organisation is not ready for the change;  OR
2. the cultural belief is to learn only one function and guard that function closely;

Hence, it becomes absolutely paramount to assess (measure and check) the change resistance factor of an organisation before even imploring the idea of implementing the vision or the strategy.

How a CEO may assess Change Readiness?

A CEO should search and assess if his main source of worry comes from the following:

1. Not enough autonomy given to the employees;
2. Lack of transparency and not enough sharing of information;
3. No culture of multi-skilling of functions;
4. Introduction of layers to obtain false control;
5. Lack of incentives for internal customers (employees) to make external customers happy;
6. Structure is too rigid and can’t be changed;
7. Work place design/layout can’t be changed and
8. Technology can’t be upgraded.

In addition to these factors the CEO would naturally be worried about the following too:

1. The gap in the elements which will set future targets;
2. Too much fat in the company;
3. Organisation is too slow to respond to customer expectations.

If the above mentioned factors are the main sources for anxiety then it can be safely said the organisation needs to think along the lines of Process Based Structures. Adopt best-fit solutions by designing best-fit processes and aligning the best fit people to own and run the processes.

In addition to pacify the anxiety factors, this structural change will not only create a liberated work environment but will also alter the culture of an organisation significantly to embrace changes and new ideas.

Self-Sustained Leaders or Managers ? PBO or FBO ?

PBO develops a culture of self motivation, self direction and self management. This promotes leadership qualities, team work and quality output of processes resulting in greater value-add for the clients. A direct comparison between the PBO and FBO management would reveal the same.

Managers in FBO		Leaders in PBO
Attitude Towards Goals
Take an impersonal passive outlook. Goals arise out of necessities and not desires.		Take a personal active outlook. Shape rather than respond to ideas; Alter moods, evoke images and expectations. Set company direction. Change how people think about what’s desirable and possible.
Conceptions of work
Negotiate and coerce. Balance opposing views. Design compromises Limit Choices. Avoid Risk.		Develop Fresh Approaches to the Problems. Increase options. Turn ideas into exciting images. Seek risk when opportunities appear promising.
Relations with Others
Prefer working with people but maintain minimal emotional involvement. Lack empathy. Focus on process, e.g., how decisions are made rather than what decisions to make. Communicate by sending ambiguous signals. Subordinates perceive them as inscrutable, detached manipulative. Organisation accumulates bureaucracy and political intrigue.		Attracted to ideas. Relate to others intuitively, directly, empathetically. Focus on substance of events and decisions, including their meaning for participants. Subordinates describe them with emotionally rich adjectives, e.g., “love”, “hate”. Relations appear turbulent, disorganised, and intense. Yet motivation intensifies, and unanticipated outcomes proliferate.
Sense of Self
Comes from perpetuating and strengthening existing institutions. Feels part of the organisation. Source : HBR Classic : Abraham Zaleznik		Comes from Struggles to profoundly alter human and economic relationships. Feel separate from the organisation.

Embrace Process, Think End Backwards OR Perish

A typical CEO of a company would be worried about the customer and competition. A closer inspection will reveal that both these very critical variables are beyond the control of an organisation. The best-fit solution would be to in-corporate these variables in order to realise the value for a customer.

Before we go any further, let’s first understand the very complex and an ever changing customer space of modern economy.

Customer is Supreme – Most businesses are driven by commodities (98% according to an estimate) and the customers have plenty of choices in today’s market to make a selection from. No matter how much loyalty a customer has for a brand and how much differentiation an organisation can offer, let’s face it in the end the decision to buy or not lies with the customer. In order to buy a product the customer will have to make a choice. Customer needs and demands can’t be ignored.

Un-predictable Customer Landscape – The current customer landscape is extremely un-predictable. It changes very rapidly and erratically at times. This requires for an organisation to have a quicker TAT, agility and dynamism to adapt to a constant change. This can only be achieved in a Process Based Organisation by designing a process across functions, horizontally and end backwards.

Relentless Competition – The competitive landscape is pretty relentless too as everyone is trying to adapt to an ever-changing variable of a customer.  Quicker responses to address competition will gradually give Competitive Advantage to organisations. This can easily be achieved in a Process Oriented model and culture of working.

Our Product must be sold - Further we would like to make an organisation believe in itself totally. An organisation in order to grow must have the mindset that if a product has to be sold in a pool it has to be ours. This mind-set becomes even more crucial when the customer has a large pool to choose from. Industry share may fall in a year or a quarter but an organisations revenue should not fall based on this argument. This claim was substantiated last year when during GFC Coke had its sales increased by about 36%. It will only happen if the responsiveness to customer demands is quicker and the needs are taken care off. A process based organisation would be able to meet these very demanding tasks rather easily.

Process based organisation and an end backwards mind-set will be the way business and organisations will run. If you are not prepared or ready for this massive change then it will be very difficult for you to operate.

The change is here and a futuristic organisation will adopt it. Please make no mistake about it this is the way forward. Embrace process world and gain competitive advantage or perish. The choice is yours and the one that needs to be made rather quickly.

What is PBOPlus’s Vision of this World ?

1.A world full of processes ,
processes that are perfect
enough to meet all promises made to
- the customers who pays for the product/service/solution,
- all the stakeholders connected with process directly or indirectly
- humanity at large by ensuring sustainability of earth

2. A world where teams of 10-15 ( in rare cases as high as 30 )
own processes , like mothers own their
children.

3. A world in which each team sees an igniting
purpose in the process they own

4. A world in which each member of the team can grow to his
potential as per his/her DNA and realise
the purpose of his/her life

What is the connection between Business Processes and Functions ?

1 . A Business Process necessarily cut across several functions . Therefore it is right to say that a business process is combination of several functions .Let us get into further details
2. . Components of Business Process
A business process has nine to 14 components – customer, output, process, input, supplier, man, energy, machine, policy , money , tools , land , building etc. Therefore a business process as well as each of its components must be specified to deliver the defined /agreed measurable multi-parameter process performance to serve business objectives . Surprisingly, each of these components have their source in different functions and that is how a process is a combination of multiple functions. Function is 1/9th to 1/14th of a process depending upon the complexity. Therefore, each functional manager can see only a fraction of a business process .It’s the famous analogy of being able to see only a ” fraction of an elephant”
3. Why then PBOPlus emphasizes only two components of Process ie People and Technology ?
A process is combination of 9 to 15 components drawn from 5-15 functions. However People and Technology are being extensively as well as intensively focussed because of huge untapped potential of people as well as technology in enhancing business performance . Infact we look at all the components in a process and pick up those which can make a significant impact in improving process capability
August 26, 2010