Interactions: Change focus, not just accent

Summary: [You might view the earlier post "Interactions: Medium of influence" before this.] Interactions improve business. But companies still tend to base interactions solely on costs. Systems need to change focus to realize interactions have their own economic power.


Interactions have to be handled right to be successful. This requires divergent thinking, ability to integrate diverse knowledge, and astute judgement.

Customer disconnects

Outsourcing hit mainstream mainly because labour is cheap on the other side of the world. ‘Training’ for call centre employees in third world countries means imbibing the accent – American, British and what-have-you - so the ‘contact’ makes customers feel at home.

But high-speed transmissions aren’t the automatic guarantee of effective interactive capability. What to say or how to say it remains the people’s issue – it doesn’t arrive with changing the accent!

When knowledge of the business, idiomatic expression and the culture is limited, these processes may simply be earning customer disconnects at high speed.

Basing solely on costs

Yet…Interactions have always spelt costs for management. The decision to outsource is based on costs. And the recruitment and retention of expertise is also based on costs.

In earlier times they worried about contracting specialists particularly if there were geographical distances between them - they still do.

Despite the changes in global scenario, managerial measures and mindset remain the same. Thinking centres on money, rather than the value of skills and thought development.

Cheap to interactive

The traditional focus on ‘threat’ generates fears - of losing margins. This ‘cost’ perspective guides decisional strategy. The ROIC companies tend to seek are not in long-term value but in profitability.

Manipulating data is preferred to learning to interact with other people. In cost cutting exercises, transnational expertise is usually undervalued even in firms that seek a global presence.

Corporate leaders put in time, energy and other resources to build the business, so focus rivets on internal processes rather than on the environmental reality. The unexpected generally isn’t anticipated, even with new challenges.

Thus the organization that opts for the stereotypical in a diverse world sets to also lose its competitive edge, as it fails to capitalize on the quality of insight and knowledge of its best resources.

Changing economic power

The ongoing action process may be building up to future failures. Computing technology can’t provide the thought development required in knowledge-based diversity.

Management needs to be prepared for 'when' not 'if' reality changes. Systems need to adopt new mindsets and new measurements, besides new vocabularies, to realize the economic power of interactions.

They need to evolve, so to speak. And, with time and technology, to change the operative focus from cheap to interactive value.

By increasing the quantity and quality of interactions in business, they could better manage their talent resources and their customer service. And ultimately, perhaps even hold the line on costs.

Comments/opinions, anyone??

Interactions: Medium of influence

Summary: Interactions are as crucial organizationally as in our personal spheres. Greater exchange of ideas, services and goods means more business.

We keep organizational interactions to a minimum, to just as far as we think we have to… and we’re wrong.

Energy exchange

The word ‘interact’ is defined by Webster’s dictionary as ‘to act on each other’. Meaning that there is mutuality, reciprocity in the process of being with people, talking with them, sharing thoughts and experiences.

Interactions mean a lot to us in our personal spheres in making or breaking relationships. With family and friends, there are plenty of highs and lows in the energy exchange.

But by habit or by learning, we’re guarded at work.

Business activity

Interactions relate to the exchange of ideas, services and goods. Fact is they are the point in business influence today.

Figures reported in 1997 (McKinsey Quarterly) mentioned how interactions are or should be, at various levels of the business world:

economy level: 36-53 percent

industry level: 35-50 percent

firm level: 58 percent

individual level: 15 percent in physical labour jobs, 80 percent for managers and supervisors.

These interactions ensure that every organization goes about the tasks of searching for the right party to work with, managing its activities associated with the exchange, and monitoring the resulting performances.

Infrastructure transforms

Boundaries, geographical and organizational, are being loosened every day.

Much of the transformation is in infrastructure – the proliferation of networks, connectivity and bandwidth, new generations of routers, fibre-optic cables and wi-fi making our globally interactive capability easier, faster and cheaper by far.

Change in structure

The structure of organizations is also undergoing change. Smaller size now means greater agility.

Even larger companies are seeing value in horizontal integrations, shifting towards forms that are more networked, more loosely linked.

Added to this mix are demographic changes in society and the rising numbers in diversity at the workplace of people and skills.

Exchange of expertise

Information may be exchanged anywhere and anytime between points through intranet and websites.

Technology has created huge opportunities to interact. Skills transfer in the global marketplace becomes easier as costs of interactions fall.

Expertise is the most valuable asset sought and leveraged across borders – this, unimaginable before.

Business value

Crucial business interactions occur within different companies, between them, and in the marketplace right up to the consumer.

They take various forms – management meetings, conferences, phone conversations, sales calls, problem solving sessions, reports, memos, and so on throughout any working day.

Most importantly, they influence customer behaviour. Positive moves turn non-customers into active users, although negative impressions precipitate the search for new suppliers!

The point is with the information explosion, companies should value interactions much more in their businesses today, and make greater use of them.

Cont’d 2…Change focus, not just accent

Banking on senior citizens: Relationship management

Summary: [You might view the earlier post "Banking on senior citizens: The institutionalized process" before this.] Relationships matter, especially in Asia. Many of the high value account holders in India are senior citizens, missing the close interactions of family. They fulfil the social need becoming the new investors.


The undeniable fact is that in Asia in general and India in particular, “relationships” are a social strength.

Building relationships

This cultural trait has come handy for investment banking following global trends that focus on Asia’s new economic frontiers.

Banks have latched on to creating designated roles specifically for customer support. Relationship Managers, for example, adopt a very personalized approach with the high-value account holders.

The task of building rapport seems simple, but needs strong people skills, if it’s to be effective.

The lonesome elderly

In the new global reality in India, many of these account holders are the elderly.

They have not been overly active users, but are there in name as custodians of the family coffers while children and grandchildren are a part of the migrating knowledge-based workforce.

The economy is booming, but with the ‘empty nest’, their loneliness is acute, difficult to cope with.

Filling the social need

Perhaps inadvertently, Relationship Management has filled this new-age social need. It has helped to precipitate the change that transforms these ‘non-customer’ account holders into active investors. Senior citizens, many of who are not quite the outgoing types, are now regular visitors to their Bank’s local branches.

Not because they are constantly strapped for cash, but for the joy of a few moments of animated conversation. They begin to look upon their contact persons not merely as Bank representatives, but as members of their own circle, worthy of trust.

Mediate communication

Investment advice could very naturally follow. Investment advisors are a floating team of financial experts moving around the Bank’s various city branches, carrying various fund portfolios.

The Relationship Managers mediate in communications, facilitating interactions between these technocrats and the customers, who might otherwise have little indeed to say to one another.

Secure future

Banks’ elderly customers in India are becoming comfortable with market risks! They now have something worthwhile to do to secure the economic future for children and grandchildren.

In the process they are useful again… Would this work in a more individualistic society? We shouldn’t put our money on it, because social relationships tend to differ with culture!

Perhaps then, strategy in a global company needs to be thought out as a loosely linked collection of moves. Depending on culture and context, they may be differentially activated in any particular direction.

This would keep the system from becoming hidebound only to cut costs, and ‘institutionalize’ for each region, the process with the most effective fit.

Comments/opinions, anyone??

Banking on senior citizens: The institutionalized process

Summary: An institutionalized process implies that the policy-makers know best. When working with people, companies with a global presence have to be sensitive to the cultural contexts they come in contact with, which may be very different indeed from what they're used to.


We grew up believing that you stored money and valuables much as squirrels store nuts! The idea being that thus untouched, our savings in the Bank grow slowly, securely.

That process institutionalized in our minds.

Breaking tradition

Banks, assuming new avatars, are shaking up our traditional views. Now they themselves discourage you against things like long term fixed deposits or excessive liquidity.

Mutual funds are in high fashion, and ‘aggressive’ is the new banking catchword. Recently, Standard Chartered Bank won an award for investment advice in India, so obviously that’s what ordinary people are beginning to give the nod to.

Kudos for process?

In drawing in heavy investments from customers the powers-that-be might claim kudos for the new institutionalized process.

But I wonder, because on the other hand, SCB’s own credit card divisions in India seem, most intriguingly, to do their best to put off even existing customers!

Bound inflexibly

An institutionalized process implies that the policy-makers know best. following the overall business approach, strategy is thought out in fixed sequences - the same process formulation to be used everywhere, Asia, Africa, Europe, wherever.

Credit card schemes, for example, are bound inflexibly to the internally focused process with the new technology of call centres. Cost control finds them cheaper and recommends use, but customers and staff alike might agree that they’re rather ineffective for purpose – at least in India.

Cultural contexts

Management knowing exactly what to do and how to do it worked well in the days of the manual worker. But the new paradigm is that management does not know... diversity, for instance.

When working with people, companies with a global presence have to be sensitive to the cultures they come in contact with, which may be very different indeed from what they are used to.

For instance, the Western – e.g., UK/USA - view of company purpose generally is the short-term interest of shareholders; while in the non-Western view – e.g., Japan - it is seen more as the creation and maintenance of social harmony.

Depersonalizing process

Besides, management policy shouldn’t base solely on technology. As Peter Drucker said:

The foundations [of policy] have to be customer values and customer decisions…

Strategic decisions set to ignore the importance of context could well destroy the value for business it's expected to create.

For example, the credit card divisions in India probably fall down on customer satisfaction because of the telemarketing call-centres – since culturally neither maker of the call nor its receiver may be comfortable with the starkly depersonalizing process.

What’s missing is the face-to-face interaction that makes sense to the people of the region.

Cont'd 2...Relationship management

Visit to Thailand: Faces of the Buddha

'Buddha' means the enlightened one. Buddhism evolved as new additions came about from the influence of other cultures - and the original Buddha was elevated to godhood. Every day of the week is assigned a significant image.

Scion of the Sakhya dynasty that ruled Kapilavastu in the central plains of Ancient India, Prince Siddhartha Gautama lived in the sixth century BCE. He is of course, better known around the world as The Buddha.

“Buddha” means the enlightened one. The Prince renounced royal luxuries and family to become an ascetic, Shakyamuni (sage of the Shakya), in search of liberation from the bondage of human suffering.

But finding that neither self-indulgence or self-mortification puts an end to suffering, he preached the Middle Way – the path of moderation.

Laughing Buddha

Who then is the fat man?

Laughing Buddha, with a big belly and a wide grin, a sack in one hand and a rosary in the other, is blessed with the ability to predict fortune and weather, and to bring health and prosperity. He is also called Maitraiya, and said to be the disciple the Sakyamuni met in heaven and appointed as the successor to appear 5000 years after his death.

Godhood

Gautama Buddha spoke of no god but Truth. But as Buddhism touched movements and schisms, countries and cultures, it evolved. Revision of scriptures and older techniques with new additions came about - the laughing Buddha, for instance, is a Chinese influence.

In the process, his teachings have been variously interpreted, and the Buddha himself has been elevated to Godhood. In fact, in Hindu cultures, he is named the ninth avatar on earth of Vishnu, the Preserver (of the holy trinity, ‘creator-preserver-destroyer’).


The spread of traditions

Buddhism is one of the oldest religions practiced. But not all its traditions outlasted other influences. After the Buddha, fissions of thought gave rise to different philosophical ‘vehicles’ (yana). Amongst the best-known surviving traditions are –

1. Theravada (Sri Lanka and Thailand) that dates back to the third century BCE, during the reign of Ashoka, the Mauryan Emperor of central India and a Buddhist convert, who first sent theras (missionaries) to preach the faith. The focus here is on personal liberation as preached by Gautama Buddha. With other schools coming up later, this is also called Hinayana, perhaps to mean the 'micro', the individual.
2. Mahayana (China, Japan and Korea) arose in the northwest regions in about 100 CE, with the support of the then reigning Kushan Emperor of India, Kanishka. There is a sense of collectivism in the focus here that every individual can aspire to enlightenment, and that the teacher brings up to par the entire group - hence perhaps 'maha' to mean the 'macro', the group.
3. Vajrayana (Tibet), which arose in eastern India in about the fifth century and spread to Indonesia and Tibet. It incorporates techniques similar to Hindu tantric or yogic practices, so is also known as Tantrayana.
   

There are variations in thought and practice within each of these vehicles as well.

The mythology surrounding the Buddha includes the Jataka fables, canonized from about the fifth century, that relate his exploits in other lives – some, like the ‘Great Turtle’, in non-human forms. The folklore is still ritualistically performed in dance, theatre and recitation.

Days of The Buddha

Each day of the week is assigned a significant image of the Buddha, perhaps to assist followers in meditation and a harmonious way of life.

Sunday:

The Buddha offering the eye

Monday:

The Buddha persuading relatives not to quarrel

Tuesday:

The reclining Buddha

Wednesday:

The Buddha holding an alms bowl

Thursday:

The meditating Buddha

Friday:

The reflecting Buddha

Saturday:

The seated Buddha protected by the 7-headed naga (snake)

Universal attraction

In India, as in other parts of Asia, Buddhism lost its ascendancy considerably with the revival of older religions, or the advent of others, like Islam. Yet still holding the power of universal attraction are its basic tenets of:

• Tolerance,
• Absence of an ‘almighty’ authority or fate, and
• Self inquiry to understand reality,
  

Buddhist traditions are followed in places as far away as Chile, South America. In Britain, it now appears to be the fastest growing religion. In the age of increasing diversity, how strange is that?!

Comments/opinions, anyone??

Visit to Thailand: Life by sea

Artists in coastal Thailand copy images and designs onto canvas and human body with the patience and dedication sorely missing in souvenir shop assistants on the waterfront. The daily repeating reality for livelihood by the sea is the ebb and flow of tourists at the beach.


So what’s it like, where the river meets the sea?

The locals in Thailand know India for two reasons, the Mumbai film world (globally nicknamed Bollywood), and the IT industry. The Thai people don't have these skills but, taxi-driver Feiy boasts with twinkling humour, they're number one at copying. When they’re done with the job, you can’t tell the original from the fake!

The artists at work

We believe it, when we see it, on the way to the beach!

The tattoo artist glued to the computer screen, downloads intricate designs from the 'Net to transcribe onto human canvases…and there could be plenty of customers waiting to be adorned with new creations.


The painter with his careful colour mixes and magnifying lenses recaptures on a different canvas the minute details of a small photograph, blown up to many times its actual size.


The quality of patience

Watching them at work, we’re impressed by their dedication, and their extreme patience with tasks that may seem tedious. For the chess players concentrated on the board, verbal language similarly becomes redundant in making meaning or intent clear.


But everybody is not so blessed with patience and job focus, we soon discover. Near the waterfront, the souvenir shop assistants posted on plastic chairs out on the sidewalk, probably develop little or none at all of these qualities.


Their livelihoods depend on sales, but the shops have few customers. Their frenetic strategy to get business is to jump up to greet targets who look moneyed - the westerners.

But these tourists usually brush past them, moving on to other interests. Their frustrations, rocketing by the end of the day, display poorly with visitors genuinely attracted by ethnic handicrafts, thus defeating their own purpose. End result: they go back to their plastic perches with poorer attitudes to restart their 'customer service' cycle with!

Life by the sea

The coastline at Pattaya (in the Gulf of Thailand) is called Samut Songkhram, we learn from the atlas. The locals guess Andaman Sea, which actually is on the other side, to the west of the Malay Peninsula.

Tourism, we mentioned before, drives the local economy. People leave and people return - this is the daily repeating reality to be adapted to.

Not everybody on the beach can be there for fun and games. For many locals it means going to work - lazing is alright only for the tourists.


Members of all ages in the family, have to pitch in to ensure that the ambience is just perfect for the tourists to spend as much time as possible on the beach - and to continue to buy their services (starting at 30 bahts per!) throughout the day, on the sands or in the waters.


Being there is the scheduled routine, catering to people’s needs from daybreak to sunset, especially during tourist times. Toddlers socialize into the process early as well.

The setting sun signals the time to bring the water sport machines and other paraphernalia ashore, pack up, load onto trailers, and head home.

The beach at night looks deserted, though sands and sea seem to bathe in shimmering fluorescence. Neon lights draw away much of the human activity, while silent rows of drooping beach umbrellas await another day…

Comments/opinions, anyone??

Visit to Thailand: Life by river

Culturally different from India and China, the general academic level in Thailand doesn’t compare well with these other Asian countries. Those who live on the river depend on tourism to put food on the table.


The Thai have their own script, language and speech pattern, despite some connections of mythology and philosophy with India.

English is not usually a strong point, and in speaking it, they tend to mix-up consonants like ‘r’ and ‘l’. Rose, our local travel agent, for instance, is most often called ‘LOse’! [This is quite as the Chinese are said to do, though the Thai say they’re distinct to them as well.]

The general academic level in Thailand doesn’t appear to compare well with these other Asian countries. Possibly higher education is not as heavily stressed here as elsewhere because of differing values and outlooks.

Almost everywhere we look, tourism drives the local economy. We wonder how ordinary people cope, since language is the obvious handicap to interacting with people of other lands.



We do see attempts by some to overcome knowledge and communication barriers. For example, our taxi-driver Feiy always has at hand his pocket electronic dictionary for help in translating to English from Thai and vice versa to facilitate lights of understanding and pronunciation.

Bangkok from Chao Phraya

We take a boat ride on the Chao Phraya river for a new experience of the indigenous. This river irrigates the plains – the major fruit and rice producing areas. It covers a distance of 372 kilometres meandering to its destination in the Gulf of Thailand.


In Bangkok city, canals form a network of interconnected waterways. The view from the river is a study of contrasts. On one hand, there are the imposing façades of modern architecture, palaces, temples and other important institutions.

On the other hand, while navigating through narrow byways, we see parts of the capital that clearly faces hard times in making ends meet.

River transports

Those living by the river, live by it. They depend on tourism to put food on the table.

Thus skiffs, motorboats, barges, cruisers, floating markets and restaurants are constantly on the move, plying busily up and down the river.

Backwater entrepreneurs

Chao Phraya is one of the main rivers of the country and the trade route for individual entrepreneurs of the backwaters also.

Their vocabulary is limited, but to push their souvenir sales, they have a smile and the numbers ready as they hail encouragingly – only 100 baht, Madame!

Boatman Tek – I, driver, he introduces – skilfully steers the boat, pointing out sights that we might otherwise have missed. We surprise many a water monitor going about its daily business.


Temples that line the riverbanks are almost mandatory stops for the boats. The monastery inmates greet visitors with bags of bread loaves priced 20 bahts (the proceeds are help for the organization).


They toss the loaves beyond the boat, and suddenly there is frenzied activity in the water, as shoals of catfish surface to chase after the prize!


A few moments later, the unexpected show subsides, and once again calm prevails as the boats move on. Life, we've heard said, is a great river...

Cont’d 2…life by sea

Visit to Thailand: Place of pleasure

Thailand's road to modernity includes a marvellous infrastructure. But human resource development seems to lag behind the imported technology and lifestyle.

Thailand presents a neat appearance even from the air. The tall buildings have flat tops but the smaller structures look with sloping roofs of red or blue.

The country set on the road to modernity 50 years ago, with the present monarch, Rama IX, King Bhumibol Adulyadej. His working philosophy is that he "...must change with the country, but at the same time keep the spirit of the country".

The planned cities

Progress has included a marvellous infrastructure. Factories, manufacturing and production units fall outside the city limits, but connectivity is excellent.

Networking roadways criss-cross the country as multi-lane motorways, highways, expressways, skyways, the works, and gives the impression of a very meticulously planned westernised set-up.

People’s progress

Skyscrapers at the centre of the cities form hubs of business and retail shopping complexes. Women perhaps labour more than the men do, but in globalisation, jobs of key responsibilities may be difficult to come by for many, since higher education seems not to be widespread.

Work attitudes then tend to be rule-bound and bureaucratic, following familiar set patterns. Besides, the language barrier is still a severe constraint, although oddly enough, Western fashions are avidly adopted.

The skills hierarchy would restrict the locals to junior or subordinate levels in corporate houses headed by multinationals. The problem could be that human resource development lags behind the imported technology and lifestyle.

The sources of revenue

Tourism fuels the revenue stream. The spectacular scenic beauty of the country, its wildlife parks, grand palaces and temples attract those inclined to communion with Nature, spirituality and cultural history.

But many more tourists prefer the abundant hospitality of spas, massage parlours, and bars. Catered to mainly by young women and men, ‘pleasure’ has become a huge draw to the region over the years.

In the equation, the big-money spenders buy the opportunities of rest & recreation denied them back home; their hosts/hostesses sustain families on their earnings.

The passive acceptance


When we believe that women in other parts of the continent are on the march to self-reliance, this gendercentric approach appears a setback for the Asian feminine perspective.

By their socio-cultural heritage, the people have a passive acceptance of life. They generally are law-abiding, quiet and unquestioning. Even political unrest is taken in stride as “things that happen”.

The slow realization

Looking in from the outside, one feels a mismatch in aspects of development. Until we perceive that a change in the collective outlook is coming, though slowly.

Many ageing hospitality workers now hope for a different reality, and for their children to escape the legacy of exploitation. Perhaps television and Internet is forcing the realization here, as in sister nations of Asia, that education especially for girls, is key to a people keeping up with the rest of the world.

We see women gyrate in shop windows or parade the streets holding little placards written in English to attract moneyed tourists. But we also sense a growing self-esteem in some others as they work hard to utilize the available technology to educate themselves, and build a more stable and harmonious future in a new direction.

Comments/opinions, anyone??

Visit to Thailand: The aesthetic harmony

Thailand is a nation of amazing stability, and harmony with the environment. Traditions are of personal liberation and the attainment of nirvana...but not as one of Asia's leaders.


We knew of course that Thailand is a country in Asia, sharing borders with Myanmar, Malaysia, Laos and Cambodia. We were aware that Paradorn Srichaphan (recently more in the news for marrying a former Miss Universe than for playing tennis!) hails from there.

Shoppers paradise

And we anticipated being afflicted by the ‘shop till you drop’ syndrome at branded (or fake) retail outlets at Bangkok, or elsewhere in makeshift marketplaces mushrooming three days a week in parking lots, where bargaining on prices is a part of the fun…

Juxtaposing old and new

But until we decided to visit this month, we didn’t know that the currency, called baht, converts to about 1.30 INR, and 0.03 USD. Or that Thailand is a nation of amazing stability, and harmony with the environment.


Ten million years old stone remnants of the ancient world, temple spires and modern-day landscaping juxtapose aesthetically. No surprise perhaps that Sa-nga Kulkobkiat, the Master of Feng Shui finds a place of honour at the (Chinese) Temple of Tao.

The Big Buddha

The majority religion is Buddhism. The Theravada traditions of personal liberation and the attainment of nirvana follow Gautama Buddha’s original path of enlightenment.

The laser carving on the rock-faced hillock in Khao Chee Chan province commemorates this belief as it does the people’s faith in the constitutional monarchy that holds the nation together.

Living co-existence


The Thai are a hardworking people generally. They keep on without obvious supervision at repetitive tasks to ensure that the aesthetically pleasing ‘clean, clean, clean’ image of Nature is maintained everywhere.


The inclusiveness is cultivated with living and apparently non-living beings in the air, on land, and in the watery depths.


Creatures small and large are remembered and nurtured in their own living space. Visitors are included in various activities like feeding bottled milk to tiger cubs, or in the sale of t-shirts painted by elephants.

The crocodile eggs breaking festival is held annually, and is growing in popularity. The event last year set a new record of over 86 thousand hatchings that keeps the numerous reptile farms busy!

We were, of course, amply impressed with the surroundings in Thailand. The question then arising is why the country is not spoken of as one of Asia’s leaders?

Cont’d 2…place of pleasure