Riding The Tiger

Joshua Craver’s Real-Time Learning Experience

As a designer of the real-time learning process and a performance consultant based at Satyam, I participated in one engagement that epitomized this type of learning. The members of an onsite account team from Satyam were working with a large customer—a Fortune 100 company—with which they wanted to improve their relationship. Satyam’s account leaders wanted our help as performance consultants in meeting two goals: first, to enable Satyam to grow from being the customer’s core partner to being its strategic partner— meaning more opportunities for project wins; and second, to improve Satyam’s score on the customer’s satisfaction survey from 3.67 to more than 4.0 on a 5.0-point scale.

While collecting data during stage 1 of this real-time learning process, we learned that for the past two quarters, this account team had seen increasing revenue but not won any new projects and that the annual attrition rate for Satyam’s onsite team was nearing 20 percent. The team identified an increasing threat from other service providers and informed us that there would be projects worth millions up for bid in the next six months. Though the customer was continuing its healthy growth and dominance of its industry, its external perception in the marketplace was not stable. For instance, during one visit we had to make our way through a crowd of protesters upset about its perceived lack of eco-friendly practices.

Armed with extensive data from stage 1, we began to ignite change onsite, stage 2 of the real-time learning process. We started the week with a dinner for Satyam’s employees and their families. This helped us get to know the team on a personal level and build trust which would be necessary for our work together. During this week-long stage, we spoke with 18 of the customer’s managers, had development conversations with 26 of our onsite employees, and observed 16 meetings. We found that Satyam’s employee turnover was essentially due to a lack of cultural integration with the new country where they had been asked to move (mostly from India) and a lack of customer integration. We provided 12 learning and development sessions, all outside billable hours. Throughout the week, observed the Satyam team and customer interactions to ensure that behavioral change was happening, and we ended the week with an action planning session for all stakeholders. This customer employed four vendors with similar capabilities and remarked that our learning and development services differentiated us from our competition. The customer saw this engagement as enhancing its communication and working relationship with the Satyam team, which was previously as roadblock to a true partnership.

During stage 3 of the real-time learning process, sustaining change, we began with writing and socializing the final report. This final report documented all aspects of the engagement. We documented all stakeholders’ initial goals, feedback, and thoughts. In addition, we prepared our analysis of the account’s current state and opportunities for team development, which included an action plan to strengthen the relationship and business development.

From this point we had weekly coaching sessions with Satyam’s onsite team leaders, monthly follow-up meetings with the onsite task force, and conversations with key customers to monitor the team’s progress. As a result of this engagement, Satyam’s team reached its goals outlined from the start. It achieved strategic partner status and a satisfaction rating well above 4.0 during the next customer satisfaction survey, thus well positioning the team for business development.

When the Satyam debacle occurred, we coached Satyam’s key team leaders for this customer’s account on how to manage the customer relationship and their teams during the crisis. We, as performance consultants, became trusted advisors to the Satyam team–and the team achieved the same status with the customer. Today, this customer is still using Satyam’s services.

Talent management expert and former Satyam Computer Services executive, Priscilla Nelson and co-author with Ed Cohen, of the leadership lesson filled book Riding the Tiger: Leading Through Learning in Turbulent Times, was kind enough to take the time to answer a few questions about the book.

Priscilla Nelson describes the crisis that almost destroyed Satyam Computer Services, and the initiatives that not only saved the company from bankruptcy, but transformed the entire organization into a more effective and growing business. She shares the strategies and techniques that turned the company around and began its path to renewal and profitability.

Thanks to Priscilla Nelson for her time, and for her comprehensive and informative responses. They are greatly appreciated.

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I had been providing leadership development and executive coaching for leaders from Fortune 500 companies for many years before moving to Hyderabad to work for Satyam. There, my responsibilities included building a global executive coaching program for the company. We began with the most senior leaders and then cascaded coaching throughout the entire organization. From the beginning, it was a formidable venture. The cost of doing business in India was significantly lower than in most countries where Satyam had offices. This factor, and the added factor of the culture’s reticence to use external coaches, resulted in our decision to build an internal coaching capability. Building a strong, professionally trained, and competent resource pool of coaches was paramount for our strategy. Further, it was imperative that we meet the needs of our diverse culture. Though mostly of East Indian origin, our customers and onsite employees represented differing national origins, and therefore our coaches needed extensive training in cultural awareness.

When I arrived in India in 2005, I discovered that coaching was not well known there. Most saw coaching as a “remedial” approach for those who were struggling—all but a “last ditch effort,” before they were asked to leave the organization, or school, where their success or failure might well determine their destiny. With this kind of a perception, and in the predominantly Indian-centered corporate headquarters, coaching would have a long, uphill battle to be seen as a strong resource for leaders. In one conversation with one of our most senior leaders, we were told, “Yes, I can see this as a tremendous asset; I have some leaders I want to refer to you.” Our response was, “That’s wonderful, and how could coaching affect your own growth?” By allowing this leader to realize that he could reap value, he was also willing to present himself as a role model and catalyst for others. Taking all this into account, it was apparent that a massive shift in the perception of coaching was required before executive coaching services could be successfully launched.

We developed a two-pronged approach. The first prong involved one-to-one engagements with senior leaders, getting them acquainted with the infinite possibilities for building on the success of a solid career. We began by telling everyone that coaching was for successful leaders; we were not there to “fix” anyone. It started slowly, and over time it began to gather a following. The second prong entailed more comprehensive programs, including “group coaching” programs for new and emerging leaders, and coaching support for those pursuing new leader certificates and global business leadership opportunities. This further embodied the core messages of our coaching relationship: trust, partnership, and accountability. The pipeline for coaching included individual senior leaders; leaders in transition; new leaders, both promoted and hired from outside the organization; and emerging leaders.

To prepare professionals as coaches, we sought the right training. We worked with several external providers and also developed our own internal certification program aligned with the organization’s core competencies, as well as the core values and code of ethics of the International Coach Federation. Armed with our new internal program, we groomed a strong contingent of 45 professionally trained coaches who stood ready to match their skills with the needs of our leaders. By 2009, we had the largest internal professional coach program in Asia and quite possibly, the largest in the world. Coaching was the cornerstone of all our professional service offerings. Executive coaching became a critical service, noted in each and every award the organization received between 2006 and 2009. Our coaching model has been used as a baseline by other organizations throughout India as they have created their own coaching programs.

Leadership Development Consultant

What could we offer to the leaders, when—clearly—whatever tools we had reinforced earlier did not include managing a crisis of this sort? As I was trying to make sense of my own reactions and fears, the learner in me desired to know what others were thinking. As I spoke with leaders, I found their tone to be “protective” for Satyam. It was heartening to observe that many leaders wanted to step in and help.

Satyam as an organization had invested significantly in learning, and so I asked if learning played a role in their strong demonstration of leadership. Many leaders gave credit to the leadership development we provided, stating that it helped them understand how to “lead from the front, motivate teams, talk, network, and collaborate.” We had taught our leaders to think about the impact of their behaviors on others. Some said the learning helped identify inherent strengths. One leader told me, “Leadership training has given me confidence to face any situation, including this one!” It is true that anything you repeat as a mantra gets ingrained in the individual’s psyche. . . .“no one wins unless everyone wins” was one such mantra that had penetrated the minds of our leaders. Here is one example of how we gathered strength from another. My colleague, Nicola Klein, and I launched a training program for a response team on counseling services. The program started right after a critical announcement that was filled with even more bad news. Everyone was shocked. Nicola and I were totally broken inside and forced to face a room full of distraught faces. In my mind, the voice rang again, “What’s the point? What can I tell them?” I forced myself to calm down and started the session by saying “I know what you are feeling right now because I feel it too. I am wondering how we can take this session and how we would be able to focus. Let’s not park our feelings. Instead, let’s identify them, because this is how any individual would be feeling when seeking counseling help.”

It’s been almost a year since that fateful moment, and most of us are still reflecting on what has happened. Our responsibility as learning professionals is not one to be taken lightly.

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

Throughout an organization’s life, additional norms, behaviors, and practices creep in. This reality is even more pronounced during turbulent times. Positive behaviors may include greater pride, fierce loyalty to the organization, a stronger work ethic, broader collaboration, and boosted collegiality. Negative behaviors may include fear, distrust, and anger that results in hoarding of information and unhealthy internal competition. Together, both positive and negative behaviors change the organizational culture.

Charles Hill and Gareth Jones (2001, 396) define organizational culture as the “beliefs and ideas about what kinds of goals members of an organization should pursue and ideas about the appropriate kinds or standards of behavior organizational members should use to achieve these goals. From organizational values develop organizational norms, guidelines, or expectations that prescribe appropriate kinds of behavior by employees in particular situations and control the behavior of organizational members towards one another.” Unfortunately, countless leaders do not recognize the influence that organizational culture has on the past, present, and future accomplishments of their enterprise. Even more important is their lack of understanding about how they influence the culture.

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The canvas we were painting was a collaborative effort, a true partnership. We were partners in developing world-class leaders. Our inter- and intra-team diversity made us stronger with team members from Nigeria, Germany, Greece, Columbia, Sweden, the United States, and of course India. We had measured significant business impact and won numerous international recognitions.

We created best practices and next practices that were being proliferated to diverse industries all over the world, and were the masterminds of a new model to build global leaders faster. We were the first organization outside of the United States to receive top honors in ASTD’s BEST Award; and we had journal articles, numerous interviews, and keynote presentations and requests to add to our beautiful canvas of success.

Then, without warning our canvas was taken from us. We watched as our Taj Mahal of learning began to crumble. On January 7, 2009, Ramalinga Raju, the founder and chairman of Satyam Computer Services, told his board of directors that he had inflated the amount of cash on the balance sheet by nearly $1 billion, incurred a liability of $253 million on funds arranged by him personally, and overstated Satyam’s September 2008 quarterly revenues by 76 percent and profits by 97 percent. There we were, close to 50 of us huddled in this small conference room, watching the television, shocked beyond belief…

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