Riding The Tiger

We are proud to announce the scheduled appearance of Riding the Tiger: Leading Through Learning in Turbulent Times co-authors,  Ed Cohen and Priscilla Nelson, on the Fox News Strategy Room this Tuesday at 8 am PST, 11 am EST, 2:00 pm GMT, 8:30 pm IST. The Strategy Room is the web’s most talked about live show providing entertaining discussion of the day’s top stories, plus a variety of hour-long shows on topics like business, health, technology, and entertainment.
Diane Macedo will be hosting Pris and Ed.  She will be discussing their new book. 
Fox News Strategy Room:  http://live.foxnews.com/strategy-room

Alas, sometimes it’s hard to distinguish between truth and lies.

Published in MSNBC on May 17, 2010

In 2005, Ed Cohen left his job at Booz Allen Hamilton. His wife, Priscilla, left her consulting practice to take jobs in India with Satyam Computer Services, a top global IT outsourcing company.

Satyam’s Chairman and founder, Ramalinga Raju, “was the most generous person we had ever encountered,” said Cohen. “He would speak of ethics and integrity at every leadership training meeting.”

It turned out, Raju was actually cooking the company’s books. He was arrested in 2009.

“At the time the allegations came up, I thought it was a joke,” Cohen said.

Cohen, who was the chief learning officer responsible for talent management of Satyam’s 53,000 global workers at the time, said many of the employees, including himself, seemed to go through the stages of grief that people coping with death often face — betrayal, anger, depression, and eventually, acceptance.

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By Adelia Cellini Linecker
Posted 06/02/2010 04:53 PM ET on Investors.com 

It’s hard to see smooth sailing when you’re in the storm of a crisis. But there’s much to learn from riding the waves.

“Learning can be the very thing that stabilizes and carries a company through troubled times,” said Priscilla Nelson, co-author of “Riding the Tiger: Leading Through Learning in Turbulent Times.”

A crisis doesn’t have to be of epic proportions to fuel learning.

“It could be about acquiring another company or losing a key player,” Nelson told IBD.

• Reset priorities. When a crisis hits, it forces you to think about what your company must do to survive and thrive. The leaders should focus on: What must we start doing? What must we stop doing?

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In January 2009, founder and chairman of India’s Satyam Computer Services—the “largest publically traded company you’ve never heard of”—Ramalinga Raju confesses to massive accounting fraud and resigns. In a five-page letter to the board, he described the problem saying, “It was like riding a tiger, not knowing how to get off without being eaten.” In an instant, he left behind him, chaos, distrust, and plummeting moral among his more than 53,000 employees. But Riding the Tiger is not about how the Enron-like tragedy occurred, but how a leading through learning strategy calmed the chaos and helped the company recover and rebuild.

Authors and former Satyam employees Pricilla Nelson (Global Director of People Leadership) and Ed Cohen (Chief Learning Officer) share the take-away lessons learned on the road to recovery and renewal. Step one was what they eventually called the “Lights On” strategy. That is “deciding exactly what must be done to keep the business moving and doing only that which is critical to help the organization stabilize.” They describe 6-steps—beginning with hold everything and build an adaptable stop-stop-continue plan—based on the two pillars of learning and communication.

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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.

There we were, close to 50 of us huddled in a small conference room, watching the television, shocked beyond belief. The screen displayed a photo of Raju on the right and a graph depicting the falling stock price on the left. The value of our stock had plummeted in less than 5 seconds, drained like an hourglass. I immediately grabbed my phone and called Ed. He did not answer. It rang and rang. I tried the home phone, and no one answered there either. I continued to call every few minutes.

The reporter on TV began reading a letter from Raju: “It is with deep regret, and tremendous burden that I am carrying on my conscience, that I would like to bring the following facts to your notice.” We watched in disbelief as the news emerged. The letter indicated that for the most recent quarter ending September 2008, Satyam’s bank balances had been overstated by close to $81 million and more than $265 million in liabilities were not accounted for. 

How could this be true? Just last week, there had been an article in the newspaper indicating that Satyam had an excess of $1.6 billion in cash. The reporter continued: “The gap in the balance sheet has arisen purely on account of inflated profits over a period of the last several years. What started as a marginal gap between actual operating profit and the one reflected in the books of accounts continued to grow over the years.” We later found out that this deception had been going on since 2001 and that it added up to more than $2.5 billion. Everything we had created at Satyam—our Taj Mahal of learning (see appendix A)—was starting to crack and crumble. 

“Every attempt made to eliminate the gap failed,” Raju’s letter continued. “As the promoters held a small percentage of equity, the concern was that poor performance would result in takeover, thereby exposing the gap. It was like riding a tiger, not knowing how to get off without being eaten.”  

What had we missed? The unthinkable was playing out before our eyes. Could this all be true? I had actually been worried about Raju for months. His recent lack of communication was a red flag. I had spent years as a psychotherapist and worried that the economic fallout now reaching India was taking its toll. I’d even tried to speak with him, and he had quickly changed the subject and darted off to another meeting. Ed also sent a note to Raju that people were starting to worry and needed some form of communication from him. He finally sent out a brief note saying that it was concerning for us all to watch the economy affect us, yet we were prepared and had enough to “weather it.” He asked for everyone’s support, and we had all willingly given it. Now his letter ended: “Under the circumstances, I am tendering my resignation as the chairman of Satyam and shall continue in this position only till such time as the current board is expanded.” We were numb. None of us believed that Raju could have such a dark side. We all worried that without him—our founder, our leader, the man who defined Satyam—the company would not survive. 

“Rarely does a book come along that is as useful as Riding the Tiger. Ed and Priscilla have turned their turbulent experiences into a realistic howto guide for the rest of us. They show how to move from crisis to credibility of leadership; from pain to passion for the brand; and from scandal to renewed success. Using their practical experiences as a basis, they share action item lists, introduce a new vocabulary, suggest questions to ask, and present a plan to move boldly forward from chaos to confidence. This is not a book to be read, but one to put into action, especially when you are riding your own tiger.”

Elaine Biech Author of The Business of Consulting and Thriving Through Change

The huge scale and impact of Satyam’s downfall were clear in the headline of The Economist’s cover story: “India’s Enron,” and Business- Week featured a photo of Raju on the cover with the headline “From Icon to I Con.” Even in the maelstrom of this scandal, however, for the vast majority of Satyam’s dedicated leaders, daily life at the firm still came first— customer retention, revenue, collections, delivery of projects, and tending to wounded employees. Yet Satyam’s leaders, and in fact most leaders in India, had never encountered anything like this. Employee morale had plummeted to an instant all-time low, no one knew whom to trust, and feelings of betrayal had left a sour aftertaste.

But this book does not tell the story of Satyam’s downfall. It tells about what happened after Raju’s confession and how a “leading through learning” strategy was implemented to stabilize the company and help it recover and rebuild. Moreover, though the story of the crisis endured by Satyam’s leaders and employees in Hyderabad is engrossing, the leadership lessons from their experiences are just as applicable to a nonprofit advocacy organization in Baltimore, an agricultural products firm in Omaha, a sporting goods retailer in Beijing, an investment bank in Sydney, or a hightechnology firm in San Jose. These lessons, in short, are universal; whenever people in an organization are facing turbulence—whether caused by external recession, internal malfeasance, or anything else—the organization’s leaders and all employees’ efforts to continue essential initiatives play a key role in resolving issues and putting the organization back on an even keel. Thus, when a crisis hits and the going gets beyond tough, when it gets nearly impossible, this crisis itself—in accord with the Chinese proverb— is paradoxically both a grave danger and a great opportunity to set the organization on a path toward renewal.

“To be faced with a crisis the magnitude of what Satyam dealt with and then one year later to be reborn and vibrant in a new avatar speaks volumes about the value of a strong leadership culture. This resilience is the result of years of painstakingly implemented leadership development strategies, which were spearheaded by teams led by Ed Cohen and in which Priscilla Nelson was also a highly influential senior leader. As a beneficiary of the leadership techniques covered in this book, I believe they are a must for all who aspire to succeed in today’s world.”

Venkatesh Roddam
Director, VenSat Tech India
Former CEO at Satyam BPO

As a business leader and learning professional, my eye is always geared toward exploring insights into learning cultures and models. During my visit to India in 2008, I was the keynote speaker for the Indian Society for Training & Development’s annual conference, which was hosted by Satyam. I was immediately struck by the power of Satyam’s image and infrastructure. The support provided for the conference in the sparkling, high-technology facility in Hyderabad was impressive. Even more affecting was the learning culture that had been created by Ed Cohen and Priscilla Nelson. A few days later, I facilitated an offsite seminar for Satyam professionals on how they could use a “whole brain” approach in designing their teaching and learning. I had the unique opportunity to discover Satyam via this vibrant, growing team of professionals, who demonstrated such passion and dedication to their mission that, at first, I was a bit suspicious. As my time with them unfolded, however, I felt the power of an organizational culture that was designed on the basis of learning and growth—in contrast to so many, who treat learning as a separate function or an add-on. The leadership approach that Ed and Priscilla delineated at this seminar has as one of its core principles the recognition that a learning organization is engendered from within each employee and the infrastructure that is made available to them.

“I read it. I lived it, and I recommend it. Ed and Priscilla have carefully and eloquently captured the essence of the betrayal of a Leader (Ramalinga Raju) to those who not only respected him personally but admired his professional leadership vision.

This book highlights for the reader those attributes and characteristics of “true” leaders – who benefitted from Raju’s vision of “everyone is a leader” and the Satyam School of Leadership’s meteoric rise in recognition (Ed Cohen’s drive) that transcended the misplaced trust and actually provided the corner stone of a firms unparalleled successful survival. ” Hetzel Folden, CSC

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

published May, 2010 in Leadership Excellence Magazine 

WHEN YOU ENCOUNTER STRONG Turbulence,you should revisit your core values and then adjust, communicate, and reinforce them. For most leaders, today’s turbulence stems from the global recession; but others may be dealing with rapid growth, mergers and acquisitions, reorganization, internal corruption, or other changes.

We invite you to review your core values and decide what to keep, what to change, and what to add, ensuring that each value is clearly articulated and the boundaries of behavior are well defined. We’ve identified core values that are vital for all leaders: 

1. Conviction: Conveys sincerity and confidence in beliefs and decisions; willing to make and stand by decisions.
2. Diversity: Values different perspectives; builds multifaceted, diverse teams; seeks to understand what drives and motivates individuals.
3. Entrepreneurship: Recognizes opportunities and organizes resources to maximize them.
4. Excellence: Strives for excellence, not perfection; recognizes that excellence may vary from country to country, depending on the local context.
5. Fairness: Makes decisions that are fair, consistent, and equitable.
6. Humility: Acts in the knowledge that you are no better or more important than others.
7. Integrity: Demonstrates honesty and makes ethical decisions.
8. Passion: Leads by example; shows high energy and enthusiasm.
9. Perseverance: Shows resolve in moving along the path, with a strong will and the drive to accomplish.
10. A positive attitude: Maintains a positive attitude; represents decisions and policies in a positive manner.

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