People management

Nothing is more contagious than passionate enthusiasm and any business that is able to ignite this in its team is guaranteed success

This is probably the aspect of management most rife with hypocrisy. Businesses with the most pontifical vision statements, the ones that shout loudest about how much they care, are rarely the ones that understand even the concept of employer of choice. Sadly, this is truer of our region than of others.

Companies are all about people, not machines; they are living communities of individuals. It is neither brick and mortar, nor technological processes, that assure the success of a business. It is actually people. And, as has been amply demonstrated over the ages, happy people are far more productive and creative than slaves. Possibly the best distillation of this is in the energetic Tom Peters style, "Enthusiasm. Emotion. Excellence. Energy. Excitement. Service. Growth. Creativity. Imagination. Vitality. Joy. Surprise. Independence. Spirit. Community. Limitless human potential. Diversity. Profit. Innovation. Design. Quality. Entrepreneurialism. Wow!"

There is nothing more contagious than passionate enthusiasm, and any business that is able to ignite this in its team is guaranteed success. This can only be driven by pure hands-on, emotional leadership from the very top. If a company really cares, it must care for its own first – and show it in action rather than in just the 'vision thing'. Infosys, in Bangalore, India, has become a true employer of choice. The swimming pool, tennis courts, large lounges, beautiful gardens and gym on its campus make an eloquent statement – they really do care. Today, Infosys is among the biggest, most profitable software giants in the world, where the MITs of this world send students to intern. They are more productive than average IT houses by a factor of not ten or 100, but 10,000.

An interesting approach to human potential is GE’s performance measure. Unlike most, GE does not evaluate performance against budgetary targets, but against the individual’s last performance and that of competitors, ie. against real-world situations, rather than spreadsheet games.

Among the common malaise of major corporations is too much discussion, too few decisions. It is vital not only to gather a bright, talented team together, but also to allow each individual in that team enough room and independence to develop a genuine, passionate bias for action. This can only happen in an error-tolerant culture that does not kill initiative because of mistakes that, in fact, speed learning and improvement. Had NASA harboured an error-intolerant culture, it would never have seen the innovation and team enterprise that achieved one of America’s greatest moments in history, the safe return of Apollo 13.

Apple is iconic for its creativity and ingenuity, largely because Steve Jobs actively encourages his people to create things 'insanely great'. The target has to be to build a team that is so charged it creates a cause, not just a business. People want to be part of something larger than themselves, something to be proud of, something they see as their legacy to the future. Such corporate pride – and accompanying achievement – is only possible in truly people-oriented organisations, in the real employers of choice.

A leader of a successful corporation realises that he needs to earn the respect of his people, even more than they need to earn his. And this can only be done by the leader displaying, unequivocally, real esteem for his team. This begins, naturally, with selecting a team of talent – a forest of giant sequoias, rather than pygmies overshadowed by a banyan tree. A defensive, insecure leader, surrounding himself with mediocrity and sycophancy, is as certain a corporate death-knell as financial failure or sales rot. As the truism goes, the bottleneck is at the top of the bottle.

Cost-cutting efficiencies help in the short-term, especially during a downturn, but long-term success requires an unrelenting pursuit of innovation and creativity by the team. And this can only be done by having innovative and creative people in it, people not afraid to try crazy ideas, people who actually enjoy their work, within an environment that is enabling, appreciative and, above all, fun. The one who succeeds in creating such a corporation is the leader, or really the mentor, who will truly leave the imprint of his legacy on a very successful, profitable, dynamic future.