Visit to a Bookshop

After coming back from ISB, I felt need for stocking my bookshelf with management books, which is otherwise full with technology and software development process books. I visited local Landmark store in Gurgaon which is apart from being the best bookshop in the town also sells an unbeatable collection of music CDs and DVDs.

I bought three books namely Business Strategy by Jeremy Kourdi, Guide to Analysing Companies by Bob Vause and Kotler on Marketing by Philips Kotler.

My Reading Notes on Business Strategy: A Guide to Effective Decision Making

I have just done my first pass reading of the book Business Strategy. This book is from ‘The Economist’ series. The book is in a digest format where many ideas such as Strategies for Growth, Rational and Intuitive Decision Making etc. are covered. It covers several case studies and quotes various popular literature on Strategy. I found it good because of its compact and dense format which can be quickly put in the Power Point bullets for sharing with others. However, the book lacks detailed explanation of the ideas such as Scenario Thinking, Vertical and Lateral Thinking etc. Probably each of these topics call for a separate book altogether.

AMP Class of Nov-Dec 2007

We were in a large group of 56 participants in ISB, Hyderabad for AMP. On the second last day, we had a class photo taken. Our last teacher of AMP Prof. Roger Lehman is sitting 8th from the left in the front row. The author of this blog is 2nd from the left in the front row.

Internal Presentation on AMP Cases

I found the 3M case an interesting story to tell to my colleagues. In the early 21st century more and more organisations are heading towards decentralized control and focus on the people. In modern context 3M’s story is an inspiring story to tell since they started in 80′s with concepts like coroporate enterpreneurship and respect for individual.

Next case in my presentation was HCL Technologies which demonstrates how an IT service company becomes successful by shifting its focus to its employees.

Sharing my thoughts about AMP

I am back to work and sharing my thoughts about AMP with my team.

Hi Xebians,

Good Morning!

I was away last two weeks to participate in the Accelerated Management Programme at Indian School of Business at Hyderabad. In this program I learned about Finance, Strategy, Operations, Sales and Leadership. The program duration was short to cover such a diverse range of topics but still I got useful insights. It was also a good networking opportunity since I had a chance to interact with a cross section of people from the Indian corporate world or new India as some people call it. The participants included managers from companies such as Jindal Steels, Thermax, Marico at one end to companies such as Vertex, Genpact at the other end. The faculty came mostly from the American universities except a professor from INSEAD.

In the lovely campus of ISB, I also had opportunity to benchmark Xebia culture against various other companies in our region. I found that many practices at Xebia come as a shock to most managers while the professor said that the most modern organizations should head toward people first approach. We had a very interesting case study on HCL Technologies focusing upon the turn around of HCL under leadership of its CEO, Vineet Nayar. HCL follows written ‘Employee First, Customer Second’ policy. I doubt if it is possible to be true to this policy in a big organization like HCL.

While following training for 12 days in a university setting was tough but tougher still is to put the learning in to practice. In the coming days, I will share my learning with you and plan several activities. This will make Xebia India organization well known, well respected and authority in our market.

Unlike many other fellow participants I was rarely called by Xebians during my training period. I am glad to see that we have a mature team that can function without too much supervision. Agile also aims to achieve that. It gives me extra space to find ways to add value to the Xebia India at a higher level.

I have created a blog on my ISB experiences, which will be improved and updated. You can read it on http://axvia.wordpress.com/.

Regards,

Anurag Shrivastava

Gala Dinner

Last evening we had our gala dinner in the Mirror Pool. We enjoyed drinks, DJ and dinner with all the participants. Some people said that the dean of ISB also joined us in the Mirror Pool although I did not see him. The food tasted different. After having dinner at Bajaj Dining Hall (Restaurent at ISB) for 12 days, it was a welcome change. Almost everybody danced.

We will have case presentations today and then we can fly off to our homes. At 2:00 pm this program is over.

Stanford Speech

Our last lecture ended with the famous Stanford speech by Steve Jobs. You can view his speech on You Tube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1R-jKKp3NA. I wont describe his speech since you must see the video to understand it.

Yesterday’s program also focused upon another corporate personality on our times Carlos Ghosn of Nissan and Renault. We discussed how he revived the Nissan Motor, which was had a debt of US$ 19 billion and 7 years of loss making history when he joined. Turnaround of Nissan took place in just three years under his leadership.

 

 

Change Pro Case

This was a simulated excercise on Organisational Change management.

When 70 days were left, our team started to do better. We found that certain things that helped us starting six sigma project at Change Pro:

1. Face to face meetings initially
2. Hiring experts to coach people
3. Mass communication using internet, news letters and brochures
4. Focus upon easy wins
5. It is not a good strategy to ignore those who are against change

People who are fascinated by an idea but might be too busy to help you further.

Gatekeepers are those who must be involved before you can go up in organization. Secretary of the CEO is an example in this case.

Books Suggested by Roger Lehman

During our leadership Roger referred to several books. Here are the names of the book that I captured:

1. Feiner 50 points on leadership
2. Blue Ocean Strategy
3. Elephants can dance
4. First Hundred Days
5. Tipping Point
6. Snakes in suites
7. Toxic Leaders

ISB T-Shirts

There is going to be a photo session today for our whole AMP class. We have got black ISB t-shirts which everyone is wearing today and looking smart.

Leadership by Prof. Roger Lehman

Prof. Roger Lehman comes from INSEAD, a reputed business school near Paris. We tried recover our lost energy with generous breaks and outdoor activities related to leadership and team building.

Funny part was the blind folded triangle forming exercise in which my group failed miserably. But some groups could make a perfect triangle blindfolded.

I think that our impact as leaders should be underestimated. Things that we may find trivial such as greeting other or responding to the greetings of our subordinates may send strong signals about us in our organisations.

2-Basic Principals to Survive (Excel) as a Manager

• Commitment to your boss’ success
• Ownership of the outcome on projects and tasks.

and one absolute No-No.

Never make your boss look stupid or incompetent, regardless of how incompetent or stupid he or she may be.