Organizational Turnarounds with a Human Touch

Give Me the Formula! Hearing these words, I raised my head and was surprised to see my boss standing at the door of my office with a pointing finger and a demanding look. What he was asking me to do was to give him the recipe or the formula that I was using to make a dramatic turnaround in the business I was managing. He wanted that formula so he could pass it on to my peers who were managing other businesses but were struggling to achieve even modest results. My boss did not mince words in reminding me that he had the right to ask and that it was my responsibility and duty to give him the unique formula I was secretly using to achieve spectacular results. When I told him that I didn’t have a secret formula and was just doing the right things, I could see the disappointment and anger on his face. The next thing I knew, he was storming out of the office area, mumbling words that nobody in the office corridor could understand. This was not the first of such episodes for me. For most of my professional life, which I had spent managing businesses in various countries and cultures of the world, unfortunately or fortunately, I had been thrown into the spotlight through running businesses that carried the stigma of being labeled undesirable, nonstrategic, hopeless or an ultimate drain. In almost every case, these stigmatized businesses turned out to not only perform but become quite a benchmark and the envy of others. That naturally raised questions in the minds of my superiors, colleagues, and even the outside consultants, as they thought that I must have a knack, a formula, a recipe, a mantra, or something else that was causing these transformational wonders. I had a dilemma! What was I doing differently? I struggled with this for most of my professional life. It was only at a very late stage of my career when I started to realize that wherever and whatever business I managed in Indian, Japanese, German, American, or Latin cultural work settings, there was a common denominator to my thinking, functioning, and interaction. That commonality remained almost at a subconscious level, which made it difficult for me to answer the pointed questions of my superiors, colleagues, and others. With a partial awareness of that common denominator, I attempted to articulate my management style and transformational approach in my last few assignments prior to my retirement in 2005. So the very gist of that transparent awareness and thus the contents of this book is my exploration and articulation of that insight, which was the integral part of my thinking, functioning, and interaction and without which I could not have achieved so many dramatic and sustained organizational turnarounds in the various cultural settings of different countries. What is that insight? The simplest way for me to describe that insight is as follows: A simple mind-set pursuing a simple process and making the results look simple Learning to develop the simple mind-set is mental preparation for embarking on the journey of transformation and excellence. The three core elements, or pillars, of the simple mind-set are: 1. Simplicity first, complexity last. 2. Leadership is a simple, basic human ability. 3. There is always a human solution. Unlike the traditional management texts, where theories are proposed and then validated, this book is radically different as it has been written from the inside out. Since this book is based upon my personal, real-time experiences of the business world covering many countries and their cultures and is not a typical research study or dissection of the various management theories, I will share evidence through real episodes of my professional life to substantiate the truth of those three elements of the simple mind-set. Armed with that truth, we will learn the sequential transformation process with enthusiasm and positive anticipation. This book is divided into three parts. The first part is devoted to the understanding and development of the simple mind-set. The second part deals with the details of learning the simple transformation process, and the third part is like a helping hand to facilitate your search for and development of your own knack, formula, recipe or mantra. The underlying motive of this book is not to hand-over a ready-made or fit-for-all formula, but to educate and inspire individuals and organizations to seek and use their own hidden potential to develop their own inspiring knack(s). By doing so, they can methodically turnaround their situational realities and thus achieve lasting and enjoyable self-sufficiency. So what? This was the spontaneous reaction of a close friend of mine when I told him about writing a book on organizational turnarounds. He pointedly questioned me about the uniqueness this book was supposed to provide. At that very moment, I wrote down five ideals that this book must live up to in order to differentiate itself clearly from others. Those five ideals are: 1. Restoring the basics (From Myths to Truths) 2. Redirecting the Emphasis (From How to Why) 3. Propagating Layman’s Psychology (From Abstract to Practical) 4. Encouraging Sequential Learning (From Leapfrogging to Disciplined Progression) 5. Savoring the Aesthetics (From Bland to Spicy) At the very end of this book, we will take a reality check to determine if this book has lived up to all these five ideals and has justified its existence. The original intent of this book was to share the process of organizational turnarounds with a targeted audience of business professionals (from entry-level professionals to CEOs) and inspire them to develop their own knack rather than borrowing formulas from others. However, during the process of writing, I have become increasingly convinced that this book can be of great value to those who are outside the business world as well. Whatever you are pursuing in your life and even for your own personal development, try implementing the contents of this book and you will find them quite beneficial.