The da Vinci
Code : A FADA - Transforma initiative
Workshop on
Business Effectiveness , bE-I @ Pune, Dec 2-4, 2011
In a competitive & uncertain
scenario an entrepreneur is faced with uncertainties at every turn. The da
Vinci Code programs have been planned to enable CEO’s de-risk their businesses
from the ensuing volatility and vulnerability in performance
bE – I : the first program under this
joint initiative of FADA and Transforma at Pune, was very well attended by
Dealer participants from across all parts of India. The program was very well
conducted by renowned faculty Mr. Anindya Mukerji, Mrs. Saujanya Shetty and Mr.
Babu Shankar
The program covered areas where the
dealerships are prone to Volatility & Vulnerability. It emphasized the importance of more being effective than simply efficient. It was very well explained, by an example of
putting our efforts in wrong or right direction; or climbing a ladder with all
effort, but ladder is leaning against the wrong wall
The first day started with trying to understand
Vulnerability : how the business is prone to external and internal factors, and
volatility by which our output faces sudden or unexpected fall or rise in
performance, due to manpower. We can't remove or 100% wipe out volatility and
vulnerability from our business; but with our efforts we can insulate our
business
The first case study done was of Milestone
lubricants - where “we” as the new CEO had to recommend to Board of Directors
the future course of action, based on
the data of two and half years of performance of brands and SKU's. The case
study required starting thinking in a way where the decisions or the
recommendations are of a CEO level and not that of a Brand Manager or
Functional Head in the organization. As a CEO, we could understand that simply focusing
on the Balance Sheet & Profit & Loss Account, one cannot be insured
against future volatility. The final accounts just give a glimpse of current
earnings, but fail to give an indication of consistency of the profitability in
future
The second case study was of a leading
mobile handset manufacturer, where speeches of two successive CEOs of the
organization were circulated : the first from 2006, and the other from 2011. This
was a clear example of Volatility and Vulnerability in the business. The speech
by CEO in year 2006 showed invincibility & complacency of the organisation
where everything was going well and future looked bright; but after 5 years in
2011, the speech of CEO expressed concerns on the changed environment, they
were no longer market leaders, competition had overtaken their market, in terms
of products acceptability, market share and everything. The CEO also mentioned
that the organisation is as good as on fire. This was one of the best real life
example how in short time organisations are prone to downfall. This clearly
shows the importance of insulating our organisation from Volatility and Vulnerability
An article of Sridhar Mitta on Latent Value
of the organization formed the next focus of learning. In this, the key point was
that physical book value and the latent value of the organisation are
different and the main differentiating factor is ‘human capital’ .A very good
example of the same was that how much “Human Capital” wants to invest in the organization,
is voluntarily decided by him daily. Also the article mentioned that lot of
organisation are even finding ways to measure the human capital and some even
started mentioning human capital in the balance sheets. Output from human
capital is volatile. From this article we understood the importance of human capital
: employees in our organizations
The article of Mitta was the springboard
for moving to the concept of Employee Engagement. We were given a task to make a
presentation on Employee Engagement on “what do we understand by the same and
also how it is applicable to our kind of organisations”. Presentations were
made by participants in groups, giving different definitions for employee
engagement. The learning’s were:-
1.
Employee
Engagement is a measurable degree of an employee’s positive or negative emotional
attachment to their job, colleagues and organization, which profoundly
influences their willingness to learn and perform at work. Or in simpler words
how much the employee contributes to the organization voluntarily
2.
Employee
engagement can be classified in three categories engaged, disengaged (neutral
or not actively engaged) and highly disengaged employees
3.
An
example related to automobile industry was discussed where one disengaged
employee affects many customers who in turn stop coming to the dealership. It
was visible in 3-4 years where no customer was left when handled by disengaged
employees and it clear relates to our industry where whole time we are working
hard to get new customers but maybe our base of customers is getting eroded away
by disengaged employees
4.
Besides,
the driving factors to enhance employee engagement, the benefits it has to the
dealership, and the effects of disengaged employees on your business were dwelt
upon
Keith McFarland’s study of 7000 SMEs were
also discussed during the presentations, where how the successful companies
have successfully engaged their employees, which have contributed greatly to the
success of the organization. The key point : raising and maintaining employee
engagement lies in the hands of an organization and requires a perfect blend of
time, effort, commitment and investment to craft a successful endeavor
A very important insight was also that
it is not only physical infrastructure which contributes to employee engagement
but that intellectual and emotional infrastructure play a far more important
role in enhancing employee engagement, - this being therefore the basis for giving the 3
components the relative importance of 10%, 30% and 60%, respectively
The feedback of the participants was
very enthusiastic and they were all interested to attend the further programs
also. By end of the 3rd day, every participant had a very clear goal
in his mind of - ways to benefit from the course. The program ended with the
award for the best participant being given to Mr. Rishabh Sanghi
From Ashish Bambha,
PP Automobiles, Karnal and Vinkesh Galati, United Automobiles, Allahabad :
participants at the bE – I program of the da Vinci Code organized in Pune, Dec
2 – 4, ’11
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