Riding The Tiger

By Tim Sosbe on 09/17/2010
No matter the topic, no matter the individual drivers, it’s always energizing to sit in a room of like-minded individuals and talk about things in common. Even with desert temperatures of 106 outside, there’s a certain magic in the air when thought leaders, experts and practitioners come together to share, to learn, to advance the industry that embraces us all.
That sense of collaboration and purpose was certainly evident recently at the Four Seasons in Scottsdale, AZ, when the annual CLO & Talent Management Forum was in session. Produced annually here in the United States by Richmond Events, the CLO & Talent Management Forum brought together about 150 senior learning leaders from organizations including Apple, ADP, Dow Jones, Bank of America, AARP, Hertz, Raytheon, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Coldwell Banker, Nationwide Insurance, Iron Mountain, Bristol-Myers Squibb, ManTech International and ESPN.
With topics as broad as workforce development and talent management on the table, the conference conversations were equally as diverse. In keynote presentations, breakout sessions, individual meetings and networking discussions, the attendees, speakers and suppliers share resources, suggestions and support for the full event.
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Priscilla Nelson and Ed Cohen were senior learning leaders for Satyam Computer Services, a global organization that went through a $2.5 billion scandal when the chairman confessed to “cooking the books,” causing the near bankruptcy and closure of the company. They detail the lessons they learned during their 2005-2009 tenure in their book, “RIDING THE TIGER: Leading through Learning in Turbulent Times.”

Organizations are made up of both conscious and accidental cultures, and a crisis truly magnifies both, Nelson and Cohen note. The conscious culture comes from what’s written and documented. The accidental culture comes about from those accepting and performing around unwritten or unspoken behaviors and norms passed from one employee to the next, and even one generation to the next.
If the organization has planned and prepared well, Nelson and Cohen say, many programs and systems will be in place when turbulent times hit. “If not, then the road back will be tricky and filled with additional challenges because it requires shifting the organization’s culture to get it back on track. Attempting to shift from the accidental culture back to the desired conscious culture is a daunting task.”

Nelson and Cohen determined there are four steps to regain or establish a conscious culture:
Identify all of the components of the existing culture. Include the written, spoken, unspoken, and unwritten.
Facilitate what to keep, what to eliminate, and what to add. This step merges the positive accidental culture into the conscious culture and helps identify the negative accidental influences that need to go away.
Revisit your organization’s core purpose and values, and reorganize them if necessary. To get Toyota back on track, for example, Akio Toyoda realized the need to shift his purpose to “serving the greater global community” in addition to caring for his employees, the team, neighbors, and protecting the organization. When documented as part of the conscious culture of Toyota, this shift has the potential to positively change the organization forever.
Communicate and reinforce the core purpose and values. A conscious culture can drown out the accidental culture only when it is consistently communicated and reinforced.
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Encinitas, Ca, August 30, 2010 / IndiaPRLine / — When leadership matters most, how prepared are you to influence change and guide your organization in today’s ever-changing business environment? Riding the Tiger: Leading Through Learning in Turbulent Times published by Cengage Learning, provides a rare opportunity to learn innovative leadership techniques and ideas for fostering change that are essential for everyone in these challenging times.

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While working as senior talent leaders for a global organization that went through a 2.5 billion dollar scandal (not counting peripheral damages) when the Chairman confessed to “cooking the books” causing the near bankruptcy and closure of the company, we had the opportunity to observe and be a part of culture’s true influence. During turbulent times, like those we have been going through, leadership is not determined by rank but by the strength of the talent and conviction to build the relationships necessary to bring about collaboration and seek solutions. In our situation, leaders came from all areas and from all levels.

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I received your book on Friday and have read it twice!  I will be reading it many times more, it’s like a new bible of usefulness in the work that I do.

As to page six, paragraph two “Somehow, something good must come from this catastrophe.” – Something phenomenally important and inspiring has indeed come from an event that I almost wish to have been part of.  Many congratulations to you both, I know too many people who very quickly wish to distance themselves from disaster, however, you have courageously ensured that all the good lessons and experiences are captured here for all time and in a most constructive and humanistic fashion. Genius!

I could almost write a whole book of praise after two reads!

I do hope that the “leaders” of the financial crises buy your book and learn from it.  Some day, when I put together my own book of life experiences in helping people to deliver sustainable change, I’d be grateful for your counsel. Many things in your book clearly articulated thing that I already knew but did not consider so deeply until now.

My very best wishes and look forward to reading of your next adventures.

Regards

Diane McWade
CEO
Evolution Network Limited
http://www.linkedin.com/profile?viewProfile=&key=7256585&trk=tab_pro

Rebuilding a reputation is a challenging task. If a company has had a good reputation going into a crisis then consumers are more willing to forgive, if not, the payment is dear. Building a conscious culture has been cited as an excellent example of how organizations thrive in good times and survive in bad times.

Looking at BP’s culture, how will they overcome the shame that their employees are now carrying with them? Taking measured steps to communicate with employees, to let them know everything about what is known and unknown is the first step. Beyond that, BP needs to invite their people to be a part of the solution (which is much more than capping the well in the gulf). BP could reap the benefits of maximizing the contributions of their dedicated workforce. If BP takes the right steps to reduce the fears of their people and to engage them in the process of revisiting their culture from the inside-out, then they will reap the benefits of having more than 100,000 brand ambassadors. Their employees and their culture could actually grow stronger as a result of this catastrophe. From their conscious culture, an aware, mobilized workforce could become a part of the story of BP’s turnaround. BP leaders need to “care for the wounded” and that includes their employees. Remember healing always starts from within. These lessons don’t have to be learned in crisis. Organizations can create and sustain a conscious culture that welcomes the positive accidental influences and eliminates the negative.

In contrast, Toyota, in its Lexus model, had to issue a major recall when it introduced the Lexus saloon in the US market. It was expected that their brand would take an enormous hit, yet the efficient manner to recall actually reassured customers, built confidence, and bolstered brand loyalty. Transparency is key here. Organizations that take responsibility and act swiftly and decisively are able to rebuild their reputations faster. While Toyota’s stock plunged, it is again on the rise.

Every week I like to round up five blog posts that I found to be especially good reading over the past week.  Below are five posts I recommend checking out from the week of June 21st – 27th, 2010.  Enjoy!

Gina Trapani, Fast Company: Work Smart: How to Avoid “The Busy Trap” – In our work lives, there is the “perfect world” where we plan out our tasks and projects for the day and complete them one by one in order of importance, and then there is the “real world” where emergencies and interruptions are frequent and can easily derail an otherwise productive day.  Gina refers to this as the “busy trap” and has some thoughts on how you can work smarter and avoid it.

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We searched far and wide for a PR agency and ultimately chose NEWMAN COMMUNICATIONS.  They provide the personal touch, solid guidance and are great communicators.  NEWMAN COMMUNICATIONS is a nationwide publicity/media relations agency based in Boston. The firm has developed an outstanding reputation with top publishers, authors, business leaders and members of the media throughout the country. Through traditional and new media services, their goal is to build both personal and corporate brand awareness for clients and their initiatives by connecting them with their desired target audiences.
 
Leading the Newman Communications team for Riding the Tiger is Tess Woods.  She has been leading the National Media Relations at Newman for eight years. She works on major media campaigns, sales and oversees all national projects. During her time at Newman, she has spearheaded numerous campaigns for bestselling authors including John Bogle, Rudi Giuliani, Patrick Lencioni, Michael Lewis, Robert Kiyosaki, and dozens of others.

Dear Ed & Priscilla,

I do not know whether you recall me as VP-Finance at Satyam (now Mahindra Satyam). Prior to Satyam, I was Director Finance / CFO for Canon India for 5+ years, all the buzz about a growing IT services organisation , prestigious awards, elite board of directors, Corporate governance awards everything lured me into this organisation, 3.5 years prior to the break out of  “Riding the tiger” news. Until the news broke out we had no inkling of any of these. Each one of us in business finance where I belong to stretched all out for excellence to win many deals and kept on innovating. It was like our career was soaring quite high when in mid-air the career exploded to pieces and we come crashing down.

There were so many well wishers saying do you need any help, some were advising us make the career moves immediately. Each one of us did not know what to do since we had been saddled with loan of housing, we had to put a confident face hiding our personal emotions and run for finding the money in the bank (driving collection) to pay the first month Salary. Personally would say we four of us (Ramesh, Murali, VVK and Self) came together and steered it with support of other leaders. Thanks to government which stepped in. Believe me we had the land and property we wanted to pledge and take loan for Satyam- no banker or financier were willing to provide the same in the first 2 days, rather bankers starting lining up to protect their interest.

The entry of Government directors and their swift action helped us to ensure that we had the audience of the banks and we were able to gradually steer things together. As finance team we were sandwiched from multiple angles, we had to handle agencies – multiple, new board, bankers and operations to protect the interest in addition to our team motivation – many of the team members stood together to play the support role. Believe me from nowhere we required to don the hat of compliance and treasury role which we had not handled before in Satyam , build the basic data which we did not have access to and built all data metrics to enable the sale of Satyam.

When the rechristened “Mahindra Satyam” was born again then before the new employer we needed to prove ourselves to be pure, trust worthy and of integrity and were only innocent fools. Now is almost a year and half if we look back we have waded through the woods but in the journey one thing is coming out clear personally when I speak to many of my colleagues which really hurts as a professional but the learning experience of continuous adaptation handling crisis by the minute has certainly made me more confident to face anything worst.

The world finds it hard to believe – you are a senior finance professional, you may say you were part of business finance and how come you were not aware of it. Be it a consultant or new employer who wants to hire or anyone finds it difficult to believe it, this incident has surely tarnished professional image in one’s CV and left a hurt feeling. While one would feel confident in one’s inner soul that am right and have strong values and beliefs but public perception of Satyam Finance team is a “Big?” We had 50-60% attrition despite all these in Finance function, the middle layer is completed wiped out, we have been handling reskilling and re-training all junior most resources who are graduates and still surviving. I do not know what will change this and we are patiently waiting for it to dawn. But personally and professionally I feel I had been able to stay on to save those 50000+ employees to anchor somehow in their lives…….. Subbu

When Ramailnga Raju confessed to cooking the books sending Satyam into a downward spiral many people thought the company would cease to exist.  The passion of the leaders who applied the leading through learning strategy sustained the organization until April 2009, when Tech Mahindra checked in. Since acquiring Mahindra Satyam, much has happened to put the company back on the path to success.  We are thrilled to see the organization rebounding under the leadership of Mahindra and Mahindra.  Keep up with what’s happening at: http://www.youtube.com/buzzatmahindrasatyam