2005年初,HCL科技公司面对市场份额的减少而失去最有才华的员工其竞争对手,华创联通面临的一个基本问题–是足够的危险公司应该尝试改变自己之前是不是太晚了?或者它只是安然度过难关,希望事情变得更好?
传统观念认为企业必须始终把顾客放在第一位。然而,在任何服务业务中,真正的值是在客户和雇员之间的接口创建的。因此,通过把员工放在第一位,我们就可以为公司创造和提供独特价值给客户带来根本性的改变,使其与竞争对手区别开来。通过聘用员工和负责任的管理相结合,一个公司可以创造非凡的价值,为自己,客户和个人参与这两家公司。因此,当一个公司把员工放在第一位时,顾客最终会首先获得最大的利益。
Introduction 简介
In early 2005, HCL Technologies faced with decreasing market share and losing its most talented employees to its competitors, HCLT faced a fundamental question – is the company in enough danger that it should attempt to transform itself before it’s too late? Or should it just ride out the storm and hope for things to get better? This was the time when Mr. Vineet Nayar (former CEO of HCLT) came into picture, the man behind turning conventional management upside down. He was born and spent most of his childhood inPantnagar, a town in the foothill of Uttarakhand. He completed his schooling from Campus School Pantnagar. He studied for aB.Techin mechanical engineering from College of Technology, G.B.Pant University and a Masters in Business Management at the XLRI Jamshedpur in India. Due to the diverse background of technology and management he viewed the pyramid i.e., hierarchy level inverted; that changed it all. This book is an epitome for conventional HR practices and depicts clearly how things can be brought back to normal rather better than being only normal with the help of humans. Perhaps, it gives the insight how people becomes the most valuable asset of every company.
Conventional wisdom says that companies must always put the customer first. In any services business, however, true value is created at the interface between the customer and the employee. So by putting employees first, we can bring about fundamental change in the way a company creates and delivers unique value for its customers and differentiates itself from its competitors. Through a combination of engaged employees and accountable management, a company can create extraordinary value for itself, its customers and the individuals involved in both companies. Thus, when a company puts its employees first, the customer actually does ultimately come first and gains the greatest benefits.
Leadership is about exercising leadership by mobilising the resources one has. HCL’s CEO Mr. Vineet Nayar actually exercised adaptive leadership where he first judges the situation and shaped up the solution as per the requirements. Leaders need to look closely at the employees who are creating the most value for customers. Without them, the company would have nothing but a shell with layers and layers of management or aggregators with controls and processes that had nothing to offer to the customers.#p#分页标题#e#
Analysis 分析
Organizational design forms the most important part of every organization because it brings the purpose of creating an organization’s structure and setting a definite culture. Culture is inherited, an intangible aspect which binds the people of an organization.
This book gives the insight of how simple rules and practices can bring in big changes. The book describes four phases of the EFCS journey, broadly categorised as-
Looking in the mirror – Creating the need for change
Trust through transparency: Creating a culture of change
Inverting the organizational pyramid: Building a structure for change
Recasting the role of the CEO: Transferring the responsibility for change
To go deep, each and every aspect can be analysed separately.
Looking in the mirror – Creating the need for change
A company’s performance is just one aspect of where it is. This position needs to be placed in relation to the entire landscape of the industry in which it operates and to see how it is evolving. One need to analyse the fundamental changes in the industry and translate this knowledge to the employees to help them see the truth of a new point for the industry and the own company’s position within it. Companies often will choose not to change because they have become tolerant of gradual change that did not match the rapid change of the industry. The pride one takes in their own work and their past makes it difficult to hear the truth. But it is very important for employees to participate and accept the reality.
In trying to engage staff members to get on board with a new strategy for change, often 3 types of people are encountered: The transformers, the lost souls and fence sitters. The transformers have been waiting for a long time for change to come and are often aggressive and even angry with the company and its situation. They want change, and they want it fast, as they are frustrated with the lack of change that they have thought necessary over time.
Lost souls are the ones sitting with frowns on their faces feeling that whatever is proposed is hopeless and wrong. They are convinced that there is nothing you can do, and no plan you can follow that would ever change anything.
Fence sitters are the largest group who speak up the least and rarely ask questions, and who adopt a watch and wait philosophy.
This process of holding up a mirror and looking at the reality of the organisation as a starting point for change is one element in a continuous cycle of change that companies need to undergo in order to keep up to date with their world. It should happen periodically throughout a company’s life, not just once. It is the key to creating the necessary aspiration for change, by helping the organisation to see the reality of its situation, to create dissatisfaction with the status quo and to build a hunger for change in the company.#p#分页标题#e#
Trust through transparency: Creating a culture of change
The essence of this strategy involved three main thrusts:
1. Firstly, to offer flexibility and transparency of a kind customers have never seen before. 2. Secondly, to sharply focus on value centricity, meaning to put all the company’s energy into increasing the value it is creating for customers, rather than trying to build the volume of business it does with them. 3. Thirdly, and most importantly, to set a new standard for the value the company can actually deliver, by unleashing the positive energy and passion of the company’s employees, which will create a boost in the value zone that will become the company’s major differentiator.
The trust quotient- The first challenge the company faced after deciding on this bold, risky plan was the trust quotient. While many people might be convinced by an idea through the stirring speech of a great orator, they probably will not trust that the idea can be executed.
The Nature of Trust- Credibility, Reliability, Intimacy & Selforientation
Giving everyone access to information- This allows everybody in the organisation to see all the business units and the company’s financial data. When this is done, people are able to see which business units are doing well compared with other units. Employees gain a true picture of the overall performance of the company.
Opening up the office of the CEO- Opening up the office of the CEO was another method employed by HCLT to increase transparency in the organisation. This involved providing people in the organisation with a way to interact with the CEO and get the answers they wanted from the leadership.
Employees First Customers Second- Each company should undergo a mirror exercise on a regular basis to identify the true situation within the company. Then each company should find its own methods and catalysts, like those employed by HCLT, to increase transparency and trust and cultivate a culture for change. Catalysts are simple actions, rather than elaborate programmes of organisational transformation that go on for years, but they can help transform a company culture into one that is constantly changing.
Inverting the Organizational Pyramid – Building a structure for change
HCLT found that employees in the value zone were as accountable to enabling services such as finance, HR, training and development quality and administration, as they were to their immediate managers. While these functions were supposed to be supporting the employees in the value zone, the reality was somewhat different. Employees had virtually no power over the enabling functions, and if they had any problems they would have to go to their managers for help. Managers served as go€betweens and arbitrators who sorted out problems between employees and support staff –herein lay their power, not in value creation, but in relieving bottlenecks. Thus, inverted the hierarchy by introducing factors like 360 Degree survey, the Smart Service Desk etc.#p#分页标题#e#
Recasting the role of the CEO: Transferring the Responsibility for change
If an organisation remains highly centralized, with the office of the CEO at the centre of everything, it is acting like a spider. Organisations need to become more like the starfish and transfer more of the responsibility for change to the employees. Only in this way can an organisation continue to focus on the value zone and put employees first as the company continues to grow and change. Some of the measures taken to ensure the same were Additions to the online communication portal, engaging the whole person etc.
Conclusion 结论
Employees First, Customers Second’ should be seen as a cycle of activity, a journey that begins over and over again. Each time it is played out it comes up with new catalysts that continue to push the boundaries so that the company can change further. This is essential because the world of business is changing in fundamental ways, including rapidly evolving customer needs, greater regulation, a levelling of the competitive playing field and the ever changing nature of risk and ethics