HUNGRY PEOPLE, BETTER RESULTS by Deepak Malhotra

HUNGRY PEOPLE, BETTER RESULTS - Unleash the Fire Within to Win Continually in Life by Deepak Malhotra (2017), Bloomsbury, p 298.

Leadership has been a key domain of discussion among academicians and practitioners in last one century starting with a belief on Leaders are born to Leaders can be made. Both the views had their merits and demerits and the literature has proved that one can learn the art of leadership and become successful leader if one is open to learning and has developed a positive attitude towards change.

This book by Deepak Malhotra tries to narrate the nuances of practicing leadership through the perspective of selected successful leaders in different areas of their work and profession. Though the individuals who have been selected for their views on leadership and their conception of Hungry People Better Results have proved excellent records yet the criterion of their selection has not been made explicit anywhere in the volume. It seems to be the prerogative and convenience of the author.  The efforts made by Deepak to gather together these many leaders is remarkable. Though the book looks like a lengthy volume, once you start reading and flip its pages, you can presumably find it handy, short and simple.  At times it gives you a feel that it is an extended version of Oxford book of quotations, but suddenly you find a narrative advice on the ways how one can succeed in life and career. The pathways are illustrative and many a times repetitive.

The book has as many as 29 chapters covering achievers and leaders who have strong messages for practice. It includes business luminaries like Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Harsh Vardhan Goenka, Harsh Neotia, on one side and cricketers like Bishen Singh Bedi and Ravi Shastri on the other. All the leaders and achievers profiled in the book portray strong sense of responsibility. Their vices are convincing, their conception is clear, their advices are authentic and their wisdom is impeccable. Lessons from the corporate boardrooms to the cricket ground, from a successful entrepreneur (PC Mustafa, Preethi Srinivasan, Madan Padaki) to running a big media house (Annurag Batra) and from a cancer fighter (Rahul Yadav) to climbing Mount Everest (Arunima Sinha) are all well recorded and narrated by the author in the book. If I have to summarize and give five common traits that a leader should possess, they could be: High on Integrity, Learning Attitude, Honest Intent, Good Communicator, and High Sense of Humility. The possessions of these characteristics would certainly make one an effective and successful leader. When it comes to theoretical links, one can find these traits well recorded and explained in almost every text on leadership.

I liked this paragraph from the book which has strong message to convey:

Being the best is not enough nowadays and even benchmarking with the best is not enough. Companies like Eastman Kodak, after eighty years of being number one, do not exist. Samsung has outsmarted the Sony that unseated them. GM is outsmarted by Tesla; Cabbies by Uber. Facebook has vanquished Orkut. If you are on the top floor of an elevator building, there is only one arrow you can press and that is the one going downwards. No one wants to do that! Thus, Inspire, Innovate, Implement, Improvise, Incentivize, and be Independent of Extinction and Dependent on Distinction. (p 239)

Hunger for achievement and intrinsic motivation to perform better for the achievement of set goals would surely produce better results. The author has successfully defended the need for Social Media Quotient which is need of the hour but I have my own reservations on its longevity and sustainability, yet it made lot of sense to relate it with IQ and EQ. As one looks at the corporate following the modern ways to respond to their customers and clients through social media platforms and crowd-sourcing many of their new products and services, it seems it is going to have its presence at least for the next few years. And for individual leaders as mentioned earlier, connecting to the audience is important, social media is facilitating it and is able to work as two way communication in multi-channel environment.

The writing style of the book is very different as at many places the continuity gets broken and numerous unsolicited suggestions pop up which disturbs the flow of reading and by the time one gets formatted to concentrate on suggestions and preaching, the text of the interview appear.  The author has much to say than the people who are interviewed. This could have been avoided to focus on the expert's views on leadership.  The overdose of quotations and inconsistent Grey Boxes bites on the seriousness of the text, which could have been minimally incorporated. Many of these quotes are popular and could be seen in almost all related texts.  There are typo errors at many places in the book which I think should not find place in a volume of this kind coming from Bloomsbury. At some places the writing sounds pompous which distracts the reader. Otherwise the book is a good account of real world leadership.

The doodles given by Adil Malia are excellent pieces of original thinking and provide creative portrayal of organizational and individual reality. Deepak has a lot in store to convey on leadership and motivation, both from theoretical perspective as well as from practice.  Though it is his second book (first being – Match the Age to Keep Them Engaged: Decoding the Secrets of Creating a Happy WorkPlace published by Bloombury in 2016), he has shown his capacity to communicate with the reader and to provide examples of leaders of today. He needs to be congratulated for having brought so many leaders from diverse fields in one volume for the cause of finding inner drive to excel in whatever one takes up.

The students of management would certainly find it valuable, inspiring and illustrative. Deepak’s presence on social media shall help the readers to connect with the author and converse on the issues narrated in the book.

F?@K Knows by Shailendra Singh

F?@K KNOWS by Shailendra Singh (2013), Rupa, p 234

Last month I was reading a business magazine and found this book reviewed.  First the title caught my attention and as I read the brief review. I got inclined to buy this title and read it. So that's how I got this book. I knew about Percept and its foray into advertising and people management. I admired this company and gave its example many times to my students in the class. But I did not know Shailendra Singh as a person.   

After having gone through this book, I can really admire the individual as well for his guts and grain to have penned down his experiences and the journey so wisely traveled. Many of the lessons are quite similar to my personal growth as more or less we belong to same generation, which has witnessed the growth (economic) of India and the upsurge of organisations resulting in huge shift in work behaviour of people involved in managing the resources of the organisation.

Jack Welch's Straight from the Gut taught four key lessons, It's nice to be small, however big you become, it's all about people, boundaryless organisations, efficiency over quality. I somehow learnt these lessons through this very unconventional and crude title F?@k Knows. Personally I have strong belief in what Shailendra mentions - Journey is more important than the destination. We need to focus on journey and enjoy every bit of it and rest assured you are going to go places, you are going to reach to a perfect destination. If one is destination driven, one misses on enjoying the journey. I have been sharing my views on happiness at many formal as well as informal fora and in that sequence this title adds some more value to my learning so I have something more to share with the defense of F?@k Knows. Interestingly this book seems to be the target of the the author and as he mentions at many places in the book, he has been wanting to write the book.  I wonder was it his ambition or he wanted to honestly motivate people through his life lessons.

I really liked two of his chapters which directly focus on having opposing view on Robin Sharma, as Shailendra suggests, one does not need to sell one's ferrari in order to lead a happy life (the monk who sold his ferrari) and I'd rather have them laugh with me while I'm alive, than cry for me when I die (who will cry when you die). The logic is convincing. It shows the originality in this title as one flips through chapters after chapters, though the author suggests that one should read one chapter at one time.  

The family wisdom that he conveys through his relationship with his father, brother, wife and mother makes the book quite grasping and honest. I am sure many of us also find ourselves somewhere in the book, though he keeps addressing the younger generation at many places in the book. The language is crude at times and gives a very different feel (may be that is what Shailendra is known for, so his original style), yet I think it makes sense as it is coming through the heart of the author and at that he scores points for being blunt and bizarre in some chapters.

It makes a good read and I assure, though it may not have a capacity to become a bestseller, it would not disappoint the reader. Time spent on reading this book is worth and it does teach many things in simple and practical way. Thanks Shailendra for having shared your journey.

>>>Some Lessons<<<

Make a 'to do' list

Enjoy every bit of life

Stop thinking, start doing

Give 100 percent

There is nothing which is right, or which is wrong

Being wealthy rather than being Rich

Being Healthy rather than being fit

Replace 'have to' with 'want to'

Smile increases your face value

Your body is your temple

==============

DESTINATION WORK! Getting people excited about coming to work and working hard

DESTINATION WORK! Getting people excited about coming to work and working hard by Harry Paul and Ross Reck (2010), Westland Limited, India, first published in the US by Wiliam Morrow: HarperCollins in 2009, p 117

Managing work force in the organizations has become much greater challenge in the times of increasing employee expectation, high stress levels, demanding tasks, and peer pressure and cut-throat competition.  In these times Harry Paul (co-author of Fish) and Ross Reck introduce this book entitled Destination Work: getting people excited about coming to work and working hard.  This book suggests ways to turnaround the organisation through motivating the workforce by displaying concern and affecting their behaviour intrinsically so that they start enjoying work.

The book starts with an example of the performance of New York Giants in the National Football League losing seven out of nine matches played in 2007.  The job of the coach gets questioned and thats when he changes his approach to deal with the players from ‘motivating with fear’ to ‘motivating with trust’.  This reverse approach helps reap good fruits for the team and turnsaround its performance in 2008.  The communication amongst the team members and the coach improves, the team members come to understand how much their coach really cares for them.

This book prescribes the ways to turnaround the performance levels of employees through creating positive environment at the work-place so that employees are driven (intrinsically) to enjoy work.  It is about turning around unhappy workers into happy workers.  The book is all about caring for employees and to communicate this positively to them how much the organizations and bosses really care for their employees.  Surprisingly we are still thinking about it after around a century when Elton Mayo with Roethlisberger had concluded in illumination study (Howthrone Experiment), that work is a group activity and taking care of employees is one of the most important motivation for them to work harder.  

The book divided in 10 core chapters offers nuggets at the end of every chapter which succinctly ends each chapter.  Some of the nuggets are here:

• Most fully understand that the harder employees work, the better those numbers are going to be.
• What many don't get is that the better they treat their employees, the harder they will work. (p 9)
• Managing employees strictly by numbers sends all these wrong messages: (p16)
• performance numbers and the bottom line are more important than employees
• managers don't trust their employees
• employees are expendable
• managers don't care about the well-being of their employees
• Happy employees - smile more, have more fun, work harder, work better with fellow employees, are more loyal and love their boss and hence the bottom line is Happy Employees are Productive Employees (p 26).
• Managing with trust frees employees up to turn their work into fun. As a result - the most mundane and repetitive tasks become enjoyable, employees look forward to coming to work every day - especially on Monday, and employees apply more of their discretionary effort toward performing their jobs (p 50).
• How can you tell if you are using fear as a motivator? The next time you walk through your department, ask yourself the following questions - do my employees: look like they are glad to see me, have smiles on their faces most of the time, eagerly make eye contact with me and do I feel my employees have my best interests at heart?  If the answer to each of these questions is 'no', you are using fear as a motivator.  This means your department is underachieving which is costing you on your performance. (p 65)
• Fear can not be considered as a motivator rather it has to be Trust which needs to be built between the boss and subordinate through following four Be's - Be real, Be appreciative, Be interested and Be nice (p 38). 
• Your employees want to talk to you and let you know what is going on and spending time with employees becomes a source of happiness (p 74)
• Front line employees apply even more of their discretionary effort toward performing their jobs (p 90)
• Employees look forward to coming to work and working hard, lower and middle managers no long have to worry about their performance reviews, and the entire workplace is characterized by contagious excitement which translates into positive experiences for customers and shareholders. (p 106).

The book is written with a fictional story of individuals (Max, Nancy, Tom, Jack) and organizations.  The journey of individuals through the trivial conditions prevalent in the conservative organisational system to transform the organization towards achieving its targets is very well reflected in the book.  The focus on numbers is questioned and focus on people, relationship and concern for them is explained through very many examples.  The authors also provide capsules from other motivational authors at different places in the book.  

Destination work is all about creating an environment at the workplace where the employees are at ease and keep their esteem very high through their team effort.  It is a book which, at its core, focuses on four Be's - Be real, Be appreciative, Be Interested, and Be Nice.  Sure this small book has big message.  After all we all live to work. Is it the other way?

(finished reading this book on 13.11.11... scribbled notes.... compiled them today...15.3.12)

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR – A South Asian Perspective, by Nelson, Quick and Khandelwal (2011) Cengage Learning, Delhi (p 392 + xii)

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR – A South Asian Perspective, by Nelson, Quick and Khandelwal (2011) Cengage Learning, Delhi (p 392 + xii)

Management of people in organizations has always been a great challenge for management.  As the organizational structures are getting flatter, this challenge is becoming more acute.  The study of organizational behavior in this context has also become very common especially for the students of business and commerce.  Before twenty odd years, there was a lack of availability of good text on organizational behavior in India which focused on Indian conditions.  Last ten years have seen publication of good relevant literature in India in this area.  As business education has spread across length and breadth of the country, the emergence of good business books which include relevant literature developed in Indian settings has been witnessed.  In this backdrop I would like to introduce the readers to this recently published book authored by Debra L Nelson, James Campbell Quick and Preetam Khandelwal, and published by Cengage Learning, India.

The book is divided in four parts (Introduction, Individual Processes and Behaviour, Interpersonal Processes and Behaviour, and Organizational Processes and Structure) consisting of 17 chapters.  These chapters cover all the constituents of organizational behavior like individual behavior, group behavior and organizational structure.   Nelson and Quick’s OB book was there present in the Indian market even before but it lacked the content on Indian firms, individuals and conditions.  The present book has Khandelwal as one of the other author as well whose contribution looks quite visible in the book where lot of Indian snippets are placed at their respective places.  The earlier book was more exhaustive and had global appeal which did not just targeted the text students but even the researchers.  This present book is designed and published under 4LTR series which is a Cengage Learning product, and is a widely acclaimed concept of learning with a simple approach – creating an innovative teaching and learning solution build around today’s learners and teachers.  The idea behind brining out this series of books is to introduce students and teachers in South Asia to an innovative concept in management studies which is based on the inputs from discipline-specific focus groups, conversations, and surveys. 

Every chapter outlines the learning outcomes before one proceeds through the chapter and the contents of each chapter are explained through these learning outcomes, which is quite impressive, thoughtful and focused.  Small side boxes with important keywords used in the text and their brief description leaves the reader with clear understanding of the terms used.  The book is full of colorful pictures, relevant figures, tables, statements, did you know?, hot trends, and to the point notes.  The fast facts and by the numbers boxes engages the reader and provides appropriate defense for the text it supports. All chapters end with their respective In Review and What about You?, which very succinctly summarizes the whole chapter and helps the reader to practically evaluate oneself.  It is a good reminder of all that one reads in the chapter.  The pictures used in the chapter are put on one page at the end of the chapter which visually reminds, engages and involves the reader with all the contents that one has read.  This format of the book is excellent. 

The book is fully updated, sourced and referenced, (with web addresses) for the benefit of its readers. However it is felt that as the book has South-Asian Perspective, it should have included some cases or notes on other countries in the region apart from India.   The small stories on Indian firms like Bajaj Auto Limited, The Dabbawalas, Biocon, ICICI Bank, Wipro (for its values), NTPC (for its People before PLF – plant load factor), Indian Bank (for turnaround) etc are well placed.  In fact there are not many books which illustrate Indian cases in such a way and many a times while a teacher is teaching a course on OB, with a book having global perspective, the students find it difficult to correlate.  But this book through its Indian content makes it easier for the Indian students to relate the theory with the practices and tries bridging that gap quite convincingly.  The examples of individuals with Indian origin are very well put in the text wherever applicable.  On commitment it is Mahatma Gandhi, father of the nation, who has been put and captioned as a karma yogi par excellence, on communication, the contribution of one of the most popular presidents of India in the Indian history of independent India, APJ Abdul Kalam, who has been communicating with the children all across the country, is quoted.  We have witnessed a great transformation in the telecom sector in the last 20 years which was conceived and initially led by Sam Pitroda.  His example on the chapter on Leadership is very apt.  In the chapter on Personality, former Indian police officer, Kiran Bedi, who has been quite active in raising the issues of social concern, winner of many prizes for social service including Ramon Magsaysay Award, has been put.  These people have made a great impact on the lives of common people in India and their examples are well placed which helps indian readers to understand various concepts and models better.  Small stories related to the business leaders such as Indra Nooyi, captioned as Iron woman of PepsiCo, on motivation, Azim Premji, captioned as a strategic leader, on Leadership, Dr Vijay Mallaya, on Personality, and E Sreedharan, the managing director of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation on job satisfaction, commitment and Power and Political behaviour, make good sense. 

Conflict is one of the important parts of management and organizational behavior literature.  The chapter on conflict and negotiation (p 254-275) discusses different aspects of conflicts and explains the existing conflicts in Indian family businesses.  The conflict in Ambani family is explained through a box borrowed from the times of india news, which is quite relevant.  In my view there would not have been a better model to resolve conflict other than Gandhian approach which is very aptly put in the chapter. 

After going through all 17 chapters, I firmly appreciate and commend the work of the authors for 4 chapters (Motivation at work – p 94-110, Power and Political Behaviour – p 211 - 228, Leadership and Followership – p 229 – 252, and Conflict and Negotiation – p 253 – 274) and would like to specially recommend these chapters.  The models are explained nicely and briefly with excellent colorful graphical presentation.  The notes at the end of the book help the reader to dig out further on the sources and references if one wants to get to the original paper. 

Though the format of book is excellent but at times and places it become very loud in colors, pictures and different types of boxes.  The book could have been further better if the amount of text was put little more.  It is a concise book on OB. Having gone through the book and looking at all its aspects, I feel the presentation of book is very engrossing and whoever goes through it shall not regret having chosen it.  I strongly recommend it to the students and teachers involved in the teaching of text on OB.

[published in Invertis Journal of Management, Vol 3 No 2, 2011, Pp 99-101]

Fish! A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results

Fish! A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results by Stephen C Lundin, Harry Paul and John Christensen (Hodder and Stoughton, Great Britain, 2000)

While I got the book Destination Work, published in India by Westland in 2010, by Harry Paul & Ross Reck few weeks back, I learnt Harry Paul has written another book titled Fish earlier and that book was there in my wishlist as well as in my reading list, however I had not read it fully.  So I thought before Destination Work, I should finish Fish and then go to destination work, so I took Fish and finished it in two long sittings.  My review of this book is here.

The book starts with its dedication to millions of workers who relish the thought of having a more playfully productive atmosphere at work and a foreword by none other than Ken Blanchard (of The One Minute Manager fame). It is a story of an organization called First Guarantee Financial situated at Seattle. Mary Jane loses her husband (Dan) who was working in another organization, she has two children, a son and a daughter, the workplace which has been termed as The Toxic Energy Dump (TTED) situated at the Third Floor. There is an indication that if they do not improve their work, they might lose their work to an outsider agency.  The security of the people working there is at stake and they are just carrying on the activities without any motivation and with no mindset to take initiative to change the working pattern, system and methods. Mary has started getting frustrated ("Does my staff know that the security they cherish might be just an illusion? Do they realize the extent to which market forces are reshaping this industry? Do they understand that we will all need to change in order for this company to compete in a rapidly consolidating financial services market? Are they aware that if we do'nt change we will eventually find ourselves looking for other employment?"p 23) till one day when she visits the world famous Pike Place Fish market (PPFM), where she learns the basic lessons of dealing with people and processes and it boosts her morale to take initiative and to introduce her colleagues and subordinates to a totally new work environment. She maintains a journal where she keeps jotting down her thinking and learning which gets consolidated at the end of the book apart from its mention in pieces here and there.

She is convinced about the view that everyone in the organization has to put extra effort in order to impress leadership about their competence, however the energy level and the morale of the employees in the department is touching all time low. Her boss has termed the department as TTED and when she communicates this to others, they feel further demotivated and they have lost all enthusiasm to perform better and are planning for a better place to work elsewhere.

One day Mary visits the work famous PPFM, which changes all her opinions, views and thinking which motivates her to transform the third floor and to convert TTED into a great work place where everybody enjoys working. She is able to find a huge set of energy, enthusiasm, involvement and engagement at the fish market where the shopkeepers are adding lot of fun to there work and enjoying every bit of what they are doing. These reflections drives her to the fish market many times and one day she gets successful in bringing all her team members to this market amidst individuals who, much against their will, are visiting the market. At the end she succeeds in using her learning at the fish market at the third floor which transforms everybody there and the workplace becomes a great sharing space for everybody.

Some of the take-aways from the book:

• Choose your attitude: There is always a choice about the way you do your work, even if there is not a choice about the work itself. (p 37)
• Speak from the heart. 
• Find a message that communicates the notion of choosing your attitude in a way that everyone will understand and personalize.
• Provide motivation.
• Persist with faith. (b-e p 54) 
• Play. (p 62): Benefits of play: Happy people treat others well, fun leads to creativity, the time passes quickly, having a good time is healthy, and work becomes a reward and not just a way to rewards. (p 88) 
• Make their Day. (p 64)
• Be present. (p 67)

The book ends with a small paragraph which reads as follows:

OUR WORKPLACE

As you enter this place of work please choose to make today a great day. Your colleagues, customers, team members, and you yourself will be thankful. Find ways to play. We can be serious about our work without being serious about ourselves. Stay focused in order to be present when your customers and team members most need you. And should you feel your energy lapsing, try this surefire remedy.  Find someone who needs a helping hand, a word of support or a good ear - and make their day. (p 107)

I suggest this book for each one of them who get disheartened at the workplace by looking at the highly demotivated workforce, for each one of them who think small things do not matter in big organizations, for each one of them who believes that the thought of positivity throws away all negativities, for each one of them who has strong faith and belief in oneself.  I know I made a better choice by reading Fish before Destination work on which I jump now.

(published in IJM, Vol 4 No 1, 2012)