Slashdot Mirror
The World's Most Modern Management System
NeoPrime writes "CNN has a story
about an Indian IT outsourcing firm HCL Technologies, whose president feels
that 'employees come first and customers second.' He further feels
that every employee should 'rate their boss, their boss' boss, and any
three other company managers they choose, on 18 questions using a 1-5 scale.
There is even an electronic ticket system to flag anything they
think requires action in the company.
The company president explains, 'It can be I have a problem with
my bonus, or My seat is not working, or My boss
sucks.' This ticket is then routed to a manager for resolution. The article's argument: India has the most modern management system in the world."
but what happens when the employees start blackmailing managers?
"We all want a raise of $AMOUNT or several of us will make tickets about you"
I know blackmail like this always existed, but not its a lot easier.
Happiness does not come from having much, but from being attached to little.
This company appears to have actually implemented the electronic equivalent of a suggestion box! I call dibs on the patent for using a computer to implement suggestion box functionality!
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
I'm just wondering how many customers he'll be getting after this article pops up a few places.
I'm not a troll, but I play one on Slashdot.
Remember the Red Stapler.
Any system which fails to account for the chaos of human interaction and people running amock with their own personal agendas can hardly be called effective, never mind modern.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
Ticket status:
[ ] Open
[ ] Assigned
[ ] Not a bug
[ ] Feature request
[x] Won't fix
[ ] Closed
Well... that's useful.
People work for money, but they also work where there hearts and minds are. Companies have to make sufficient returns to stay in business, or no one has a job.
The corporate mentality in the 'west' mandates return on shareholder assets. What's missing is that employees are an organization's best assets.
That said, the propaganda machines are simply turning out fodder for an easily duped press. Twenty years ago, Japanese companies were the best run, and we know the end of that story: stagnation and dissatisfaction at virtually all levels, and an economy full of bad debt.
India has a long way to go, as do we all. But calling then 'best' in the context of the article is to succumb to a clever marketing person's pitch to a gullible editor. Go there and find the truth. It's not what's described.
---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
But do they have Hawaiian shirt Fridays?
Thats the only true way to get employees to be more productive and happier, all at the same time.
Suggested Title : India discovers Government.
Seems like one of the least effective uses of technology would be to automate this kind of interpersonal relationship (leader/follower). There's no substitute for in person, face to face discussion of problems. This kind of system attempts to quantify and abstract things that simply don't lend themselves to such treatment. This proposed system smacks of fear of conflict and inability to mediate such conflict effectively. Maybe it's a cultural thing (India still does have some notion of caste system pervading their culture I believe) - but I can't see this solution being effective as a management strategy. Perhaps it will be used as a springboard to further exploration of problem relationships, that may not have been brought to light (in which case you'll have to engage in conversation anyway so you've not really bought anything), but to me it actually looks like another excuse for managers to become less involved in their relationship with those they supervise. "You had a chance to fill out the survey and there were no problems detected - so it's not my fault that you're unhappy." If the goal is to further treat your workers as cogs in a machine, and you equate that kind of functioning to efficiency, I guess this would make you happy. But I don't see it as a great way to manage actual human beings. I mean seriously - can you imagine trying to manage other interpersonal relationships this way? Give your significant other a fifteen item ranking survey on your satisfaction with your relationship with little to no extra explanation - let me know how that goes. I hazard to guess either you lie in your rankings, or you're going to have some serious 'splainin to do.
When I've got a problem with someone, I go talk to them. If I want to know if people have problems, I go talk to them. It's the most efficient, effecive way of carrying out interpersonal relationships.
You make an assumption first, indicating that this is an assumption.
And based on that assumption, without verifying or qualifying it further, you make a conclusion: "This sounds like a PR stunt."
I categorically disagree with your conclusion. Personal humility of a CEO is not sought after in the US (despite ground-breaking work by Jim Collins http://www.jimcollins.com/). If this indeed was a PR attempt, given that their market is the US, they would have chosen a different message.
I work for a company where we rank managers the same way they do. The results are unbelievable for innovation and for employee satisfaction, which in turn leads to more innovation.
It's part of a new school of thought called "bottoms-up" instead of "top-down". Interesting things happen when a non-linear dynamic system (such as an organization) embraces "bottoms-up".http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergenc e/
I sincerely hope that you and likes of you embrace the new revolution silently going about. Expression, communication and change are no longer a virtue of the powerful, may it be the Government, CEOs of a company or anyone else. Expression, communication and change are now emerging from the masses. Why should a company be any different? You get a whole lot of smart people, give them stock options and let them decided, bottoms-up, where they want to go, and see what happens. $.
Southwest Airlines Chairman Herb Kelleher has said before that employees come first, and customers follow next. This is mentioned on their press bibliography page under "LUV in the air". Today they have the highest market capitalization of any airline in the world and one of the highest profit margins as well. They are the third largest airline in the world in terms of passengers carried. 'Nuff said.
Slashdot's first reaction to VMware
A ticket can only be closed by the originating employee.
I dare them to implement tickets that can only be closed by the customer.
Hoo boy. Someone comes in off the street to do phone drone work, and they can hang a manager up indefintely because they don't like the food in sector 24?
Also according to TFA the managers are pretty well vetted & trained, and then have to put up with every whine from a new hire? Think of the hire you've seen that punched a hole in your least expectations in record time and is the low water mark of your work experience - now hand them a pile of tickets that they can use to complain about anything. Anything. Endlessly. And I mean anything. And did I mention endlessly? Is this annoying yet? How about now? Huh? Hello?
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
What you probably fail to realize if that the chef (and the waiter you later mention) are in what's known as a "service organization" and as such their entire goal should be to "serve" their customers. Unfortunately your attitude is not at all uncommon; it's really leading to the decline of society in a number of subtle but important ways, but I digress.
Yes, some customers are morons, who don't know any better, and they would actually appreciate you letting them know that this is really not what you recommend. But others (non-morons) might make the same well-done request for non culinary reasons. Very few of these non-morons would be insulted if you gave an unsolicited recommendation that rarer is better, so that part is fine; and yet they may still decline to accept your recommendation and request it well-done anyway.
Now, your precious talents are not being wasted, and you as the chef have no place taking out your pent-up frustrations on your customers. Use your vast talents to create the best damn well-done steak you can. Be proud of your ability to improvise under adverse conditions. You are there to serve your customers, not to showboat as a whining elitist.
Yes, there are pretentious snobs who think this crappy service attitude adds a degree of class to the establishment. And the customers who prefer the same may even be willing to pay a premium for it. But ultimately this is a self-defeating attitude, as you will eventually lose sight of the fact that customers are occasionally (not always) right, and if you can't respectfully disagree, you're not going to be in business very long.
There are many "great chefs" in the IT industry (and elsewhere) ready to take your place, many of whom can actually be bothered to care about their customers more than themselves.
In real life customers will complain, but they will never stop using the service or product. Here in Jacksonville, the community bitched about how horrible the local broadband company's service was. The news ran several stories about how the company was aware of how bad they were doing. City council even got involved. My friends even complained about how terrible it was. Did the company ever go out of business? Did my friend cancel his service? No. The company stuck around until they got bought out and all the employees kept their jobs. New company name same crappy service. The American consumer is lazy and doesn't believe that they can make a difference. Best way to tell a company you're pissed is to stop using their service or product, but no one does it.
Can I bum a sig?
You want other players in other industries where employees come first and customers come second? Try GM in the auto industry, or United in the airline industry. Do they make/do anything you would willing buy? Didn't think so.
:)
Your examples are unions, i.e. worst-case examples of management/employee relationships. How about Costco or Southwest Airlines? Both of those actually said that they put employees ahead of customers (pretty much preventing a union from ever forming). And yes, they do make/sell/provide things that I willingly buy.
Personally, as an entrepreneur, I'm sold on the idea. My customer service employee knows that if there's a disagreement between him and a customer, I'm going to go to bat for him. The customers are almost always satisfied, possibly because he's happier and more comfortable in his job. Also he's more likely to be here in next year or five, which costs me a LOT less in training and recruiting.
I'd enter this industry just to compete with this knucklehead. Imagine getting to come in with your sales team after the first team just told the prospect that their needs are not your companies' top priority. Buh-bye.
If my sales team actually got to the point of telling a customer this, you're more than welcome to them. As in: we just kicked them to the curb because we weren't getting any value from the relationship and we're hoping that a competitor will get saddled with them while we spend our time and effort on more profitable relationships. We might even provide some sales intel to help get you the sale
Regards,
Ross
"this company has apparently implemented the electronic version of the suggestion box."
Bullshit. Read the article.
In the US, a suggestion box is a joke. For this guy in the article, only the employees can close out those tickets. Try that under US management.
Face it, folks. US management - 98% percent of it - is based on the military-Catholic Church model: do it or I fuck up your life; in fact, I'll fuck up your life by even asking you to do it. Anything goes wrong, it's your fault; anything goes right, I take the credit. Oh, and get me a cup of coffee while you're at it.
This guy has a better way. And it's working for the company - so calling it a "PR stunt" is just sour grapes that the critic doesn't work there.
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!