The Five traits of Innovators

Whenever I try to think, what innovation looks like, the same slides of images clicks across my mind: that photo of Einstein with his tongue sticking out, Edison with his light bulb, Steve Jobs onstage in his black turtleneck, introducing the latest iSeries.

Forbes Insights’ recent study, “Nurturing Europe’s Spirit of Enterprise: How Entrepreneurial Executives Mobilize Organizations to Innovate,” isolates and identifies five major personalities crucial to fostering a healthy atmosphere of innovation within an organization. Some are more entrepreneurial, and some more process-oriented – but all play a critical role in the process. To humor: thinkers need doers to get things done, and idealists need number crunchers to tether them to reality.

In any healthy working environment, a tension between the risk-takers and the risk-averse must exist; otherwise, an organization tilts too far to one extreme or the other and either careens all over the place or moves nowhere at all. An effective and productive culture of innovation is like a good soup: it needs to have the right mix and balance of all the ingredients, otherwise it’s completely unsuccessful, unbalanced — and downright mushy.

Apart from attitudes, beliefs, priorities and behaviors, we coupled them with the external forces that can either foster or desiccate an innovative environment, a picture emerged of five key personality types the play a role in the innovation cycle.

This last piece – the corporate environment – is a stealth factor that can make or break the potential even the most innovative individual. Look at it this way: a blue whale is the largest animal known ever to have existed, but if you tried to put it in a freshwater lake, it wouldn’t survive. Well, that and it would displace a lot of water. Even the largest and mightiest of creatures can’t thrive in an environment that doesn’t nurture them.

I’ll leave it to you to decide which one from the five personality traits fits on you best. You may even see a little of yourself in more than one group.  But remember, none of these are bad. All play crucial roles in developing an idea, pushing it up the corporate channels, developing a strategy and overseeing execution and implementation.

Movers and Shakers: With a strong personal drive, these are leaders. Targets and rewards motivate them strongly, but a major incentive for this group is the idea of creating a legacy and wielding influence over others. These are the ones who like being in the front, driving projects forward (and maybe promoting themselves in the process), but at the end of the day, they provide the push to get things done. On the flip side, they can be a bit arrogant, and impatient with teamwork.  Movers and Shakers tend to cluster in risk and corporate strategy, in the private equity and media industries, at mid-size companies; though they comprise 22% of total executives, at companies with revenues of $25 million to $1 billion, Movers and Shakers can encompass up to one-third of the executive suite.

Experimenters: Persistent and open to all new things, experimenters are perhaps the perfect combination for bringing a new idea through the various phases of development and execution. “Where there is a will, there is a way,” is perhaps the best way to describe them. They’re perfectionists and tend to be workaholics, most likely because it takes an incredible amount of dedication, time and hard work to push through an idea or initiative that hasn’t yet caught on. They take deep pride in their achievements, but they also enjoy sharing their expertise with others; they’re that intense colleague who feels passionately about what they do and makes everyone else feel guilty for daydreaming during the meeting about what they plan on making for dinner that night. Because they’re so persistent, even in the face of sometimes considerable pushback, they’re crucial to the innovation cycle. They tend to be risk-takers, and comprise about 16% of executives – and are most likely to be found in mid-size firms of $100 million to $1 billion (20%). Surprisingly, they’re least likely to be CEOs or COOs – just 14% and 15%, respectively, are Experimenters.

Star Pupils: Do you remember those kids in grade school who sat up in the front, whose hands were the first in the air anytime the teacher asked a question? Maybe they even shouted out “Ooh! Ooh!” too just to get the teacher to notice them first? This is the segment of the executive population those kids grew into. They’re good at…well, they’re good at everything, really: developing their personal brand, seeking out and cultivating the right mentors, identifying colleagues’ best talents and putting them to their best use. Somehow, they seem to be able to rise through the ranks and make things happen, even when corporate culture seems stacked against them. Unsurprisingly, CEOs tend to be Star Pupils. What’s most interesting about this group, though, is the fact that, at 24% of corporate executives, they don’t seem to cluster in any one particular job function, industry or company size; rather, they can grow and thrive anywhere: IT, finance, start-ups, established MNCs. They’re the stem cells of the business world.

Controllers: Uncomfortable with risk, Controllers thrive on structure and shy away from more nebulous projects. Above all, they prefer to be in control of their domain and like to have everything in its place. As colleagues, they’re not exactly the team players and networkers; Controllers are more insular and like to focus on concrete, clear-cut objectives where they know exactly where they stand and can better control everything around them. They comprise 15% of executives — the smallest group overall — and tend to cluster on both extremes of the spectrum: either in the largest enterprises (with 1,000 or more employees) or the smallest (with fewer than 10). This makes sense when you think about it: controllers thrive on overseeing bureaucracy (at larger firms) or having complete control over all aspects of their sphere – at the smallest firms, they may be the business owner who has built an entire company around their personality. Controllers pop up most frequently in sales and marketing and finance, and populate the more practical, less visionary, end of the corporate hierarchy: these are the department heads and managers who receive their marching orders and get to mobilizing their troops to marching.

Hangers-On: Forget the less-than-flattering name; these executives exist to bring everyone back down to earth and tether them to reality. On a dinner plate, Hangers-On would be the spinach: few people’s favorite, but extremely important in rounding out the completeness of the meal. Like Controllers, they don’t embrace unstructured environments, and they tend to take things one step further, hewing to conventional wisdom and tried-and-true processes over the new and untested. When asked to pick a side, Hangers-On will most likely pick the middle. This is not necessarily a bad set of characteristics to have; someone has to be the one to remind everyone of limitations and institutional processes. While they comprise 23% of all executives – the same no matter the company size – they cluster most strongly in the CFO/Treasurer/Comptroller role, where 38% are Hangers-On. This makes sense; someone has to remind everyone of budget and resource constraints.

No one group can be considered the purest “entrepreneurial group,” but Movers and Shakers and Experimenters may be the closest. They have the strongest tendency to be internally driven, in control and bridle the most at others telling them what to do. Younger, more innovative firms generally need Movers and Shakers at the top, channeling the energy of Experimenters into a vision that can be implemented. As organizations grow larger and more established, however, they need Star Pupils who can translate that vision into a strategy and lead it forward, Controllers who can marshal the troops to execute it and Hangers-On who can rein it in. A firm reaching maturity has greater need for strong processes, as well as those who value control.

As we’ve seen time and again, unbridled innovation is a wonderful thing. But it’s what comes next that’s arguably more important. To get an innovative idea off the ground, it’s crucial to have a cast of characters who can keep that tension between risk-taking and reality at a healthy balance midway between the sky and the ground — where innovation can thrive.

Source: www.Forbes.com

“I am not a serial killer”

“I am not a serial killer”

“I am not a serial killer”, don’t guess by this statement that I am some kind of murderer of any sort, what I mean here is that I am not a addict of watching family melodramas which airs every evening from 7:00 PM to 10:30 PM on various TV channels(called as prime time)

It is all started with the old “saas bahu ke khaniya” series which bestow lessons (instruction manuals) on how to be a good DIL(daughter in law) or MIL(mother in law), but in each and every episode there are precipitation of tears and brand new fights and she who shed more tears is the righteous one (holy cow) , the same serial tells story about a joint family which is a rare concept in today’s world, and if persons (mostly women) get erudition from serials than why there is still no harmony in the same families or houses called as homes,

 After 10 years of watching these saas bhau sagas most women viewers understood that, this kind of instant coffee type solutions will not work in their families and they need to devise their own ways for a happy family—(I think that’s why women brain is called as “complicated” because what they need to understand in one year they understand in 10)—

by virtue of which all TRP of those serials suddenly gone down to south and then a new type of serials crop up

 I will name them all as “sataye hui abla nari ke khaniya” (the hardship which women are facing in India) mostly they are covering issues like child marriage, gender bias on education, eve teasing, forced marriage etc etc. , it is good to see that people are getting mature and accepting all these injustice in society dramas but eventually either due to lack of story line or too much of air space given to them, serial becomes a picture of over exaggerated social malice which nobody is interested to watch.

Some of my so called female friend who are educated, self-made (on fathers money), self sufficient (on boyfriends money) argued with me that these serial at least made us to speak in the family matters (getting arrogant with their parents is actually what they mean) but my response to all those female chauvinist people is that, are they represent or comprise 80% of the female in India, I believe answer is a big NO, this over hyperbole is creating hatred then creative awareness.

Then comes the genre of soups which better to be called as “Chori ke kahaniya”, they all are either adopted or stolen from some Hollywood soup, movies or concept. I think it is fine to steal (we are esteemed neighbors of China, so there should be some impact) as most of the Indian writers are not able to create any new ideas to create a story around but what I want is justice to the stolen stories or ideas, what has been created for Indian audience is with filthy level of studios , a very low level of graphical effects, downgraded cheap performances from some very underpaid people to save cost and easily replaceable resources.

If all of the above failed to get your attention then there comes new on the shelf these days called as “Baccho ko palnay kay tarikay” series where you will find what is your so called Z generation(X,Y are small and old now) kids want and according to that parents need to set their lifestyle, in these serial kids get angry with their dad or mom on something  which they don’t even know about at their age(like dating, clubbing, romantic relationship etc.)  And then parent goes out of the way and do everything to settle things out as though kid is his father. My Mom and Dad never watched such kind of serials but they did fairly well in upbringing me.

One day when I was in my home town I asked my chachi (My father’s younger brothers wife) why she watch these kind of weird serials and the instant reply was “there is nothing to do in home so better to invest time (means waste of time)  in soaps” , I was so shocked for once and thought that, is it the sole reason for all the women to watch serials , than I asked her why you are not watching discovery or animal planet or some MGM movie , pat comes the reply –they are not making any relation to my life—so from this conversation what I discovered is people watching these serials is not because something else is not coming on television but it relates with their own life or you can say unfulfilled dreams.

One more reason I discovered later when I was talking to my elder cousin sister is the peer discussions which revolve around these serials and their stories so if she is not updated with the story line than she cannot be a part of discussion or even of the group.

So all in all the ongoing of all these prime time irritation will continue for a long time as serial are not only for entertainment but they are attached with the filings and emotions of people who are watching them.

Jai Ho Ekta mata ke……

Keeping Talent Is A Big Challenge – Why?

After working for 5 years in a Multinational company and coming in to contact with many top executives and Managers of the company and working with some of them, I arrived on some reasons, why a company cannot hold on their top talent pool,

Here’s my list of what companies do wrong and lose their top talent:

1. Not Able to Find a Project for the best and brightest: Companies usually don’t have people going around to their talent work force asking them if they’re enjoying their current work or if they want to work on something new that they’re really interested in, which would help them grow within and also help company. The bosses either are too much occupied or they convert conversation on this a “nice to have” rather than “must have”. HR people are usually too busy (or they pretend to be) in new hiring or implementing various changes in the policies dictated by the management. Top talent isn’t motivated only by money and power, but by the opportunity to be a part of something huge and for which they are really passionate. Companies usually never spend the time to figure this out with those people.

2. Company Administration: This is probably the number one reason we hear from unsatisfied people while it is typically a reason that cover the real reason. Company or managers need to listen when top talent is complaining about rules that make no sense. It is usually a indication that they did not feel as if they had a say in these rules. They were simply told to follow along and get with the program, which create a rebellious voice inside them.

3. Annual Performance Reviews: While bosses have too much of time to go for drink and talk on length about policies and failures but at the time of annual performance reviews bosses do not do a very effective job or if they have them, they are hasty to complete form quickly by filling fields with one liner with no elaboration on work done as if it is not even as important as their drink session in the evening and sent off to HR. The impression this leaves with the employee is that my boss and therefore, the company is not really interested in my future. Then if you are talented enough, why stay?

4. No Discussion around Career Development: Everyone wants to have a discussion with their managers about their future. In most of the cases employees have no idea about the career development policies of the company, which courses they can take or what other specialization they can apply for which company will take responsibility partially or fully. Most bosses never engage with their employees about where they want to go in their careers even with the top talents. Best companies have separate annual or bi-annual meetings to discuss career development or planning roles. If best people know that company thinks there is a path for them going forward, they will be more likely to hang around.

5. Irregular Project Responsibility: Top performing employees hates to be made foolish by their seniors, if boss commit to a project that they will be heading up then they need to give them enough opportunity to deliver what they have promised, not like, giving lead for first few months for the ground work and then shift it to senior person in the company.

6. Observations/suggestions: Top talent demands responsibility from others and does not mind being held accountable for their projects. Therefore, have regular touch points with best people as they work through their projects. They will appreciate your insights/observations/suggestions as long as they don’t convert into lectures.

Move up Move down

7. Top Performers likes good Team: Recently I read an article going round on Facebook with heading “Working with idiots can kill you” and I feel it’s true, If you want to retain your best people, make sure they’re surrounded by other best ones. Many companies keep some people that sensibly should not be there and when you ask why, they will explain that it is too hard to find a replacement for them so bear with them for some time, now is not the time.

8. Lack of permissiveness: A lot of companies have a vision/strategy which they are trying to execute often find opposing voices to this strategy as an irritation and a sign that someone’s not a “team player.” The best people want to share their ideas and have them listened to. However, if all the best people are leaving and disagreeing with the strategy, you’re left with a bunch of “yes” people saying the same things to each other.

9. Who is the Boss? If a few people have recently quit at your company who report to the same boss, it’s likely not a coincidence. If the projects are flowing and the challenge levels are high, salaries are matching with the profile then the only reason a good resource is leaving is his/her boss attitude towards him or towards work he or she is doing, another big reason is that manager is indecisive and seemingly changes direction at whim or according to his superiors without telling or giving reasons to the team members.

From the above points even when the foundation remains intact, the loss of just a few of talented employees who have a special expertise can shake an organization to its roots. In this age of high chance and random market and organizational changes, organizations must educate their managers and create an environment where today's top talent can thrive. The alternative is unacceptable.

Matrimonial Investigation through Facebook

“All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.”

I am starting this blog with a disclaimer which some of you will understand later

For last few days I am thinking about “Is Facebooking is fine for a person or it is an interference to privacy “ , prima facie it looks as if everything is at arm’s length, your old friends, your lost groups, following your passion through specified groups and so on so forth…. But these pros comes with cons, imagine scenarios like,

you don’t want to share your some specific photograph to people outside your group or friend list but one of your friend tagged that same photo or commented on it, woala now his friends can see your photo on his wall, take another scenario

One of my male friend don’t want to post his status as “Engaged” with someone but to his surprise his fiancée tagged him saying her relationship status as engaged to him, and everything is loose and open after that,  

I am more concerned about all those unmarried guys or girls wanting to be married who will be concluding up their love affairs and then start identifying the girl they want to marry (I am not writing women here because it’s very offensive these days to call a lady as women until the age of 50 which they never achieve before dying) and live a life with (because successful love marriage is a Hypothesis unto failure, it’s worth mention here that one of my close friend would not agree with this).

I can almost anticipate matrimony detective companies coming up which would focus on Facebook investigations. Companies with tag lines such as ‘Helping discover the actual Him/her’ or ‘saving your innocent (please notice the emphasis on word innocent, do u agree with me?) girls from assholes (a better word than DOG)

 I can imagine the girl’s parents visiting a private detective firm titled ‘Facebook Investigators’ called as F I in the subsequent write up and having a discussion such as this:

Parent: We are planning to have our girl married to a boy from Delhi (Delhi is infamous for all bad things). “The boy’s name is A Singh (Read disclaimer above). And we want to find out if he is a high-quality fit for our innocent daughter.

F I: Do you know his Facebook ID?

Parent: Yes our daughter has already started Facebooking (this word is not synonym of roombooking) with him. His ID is A.Singh and his email ID is A.Singh@gmail.com

F I: Thank you. Consider your job done. We will need at least 15 days. If we find him not good for your daughter, we will not just give you the proof of his past but also generate proof in the present.

Parent: How much will this investigation cost us?

 And suddenly emotional marketing of the detective agency starts and they will charge the unfortunate parents a fortune.

F I: just think about it for a while. How much will you be ready to give to ensure your daughter has a good married life?

And once the client party (parents) exit the scene, one MBA Fresher will be put on the job. He will immediately use one of his Girl IDs and send a friend request to A. Singh. Being already deprived of girls, the poor A. Singh will immediately accept it and fall into the catch.

The MBA Fresher will then go through’ A. Singh’s life history on Facebook and find out that he has changed his relationship status with different girls 3 times in the last four years. Based on the status updates and the comments, the MBA Fresher will also form a report on the kind of relationships A. Singh has had with these three girls.

With the report in hand, he will go to his reporting manager to discuss the future action plan.

Sir, A. Singh has had three girl friends in the last four years. And they were all very deep relationships. Here is the report.”

The MBA Fresher reporting manager will go through’ the report and finally look up and say:

 Hummm.. Good but we also need to show that he has not changed. Start chatting with him and get some proof of his intensions.

Will do sir. FYI, I will be using either Priya Singh or Neha Gupta’s profile for this assignment.

As you wish. You are my man

After the go ahead from his reporting manager the MBA Fresher will get onto the task of exposing A. Singh’s present intensions and start chatting with him.

Priya Singh: Hi Singh

A. Singh: Hi Priya, sorry but do I know you?

Priya Singh: Hmmm….does that matter?

A. Singh: clearly not. It doesn’t matter but it helps.

(How many times in a lifetime does a guy get a Hi from an unknown girl anyway?)

Priya Singh: You don’t know me. But I know you. I studied in the same college as you.

A. Singh: Is it? How come we never met?

Priya Singh: I was nervous to approach you. You were so popular.

(Who doesn’t want to hear that he/she was famous in college)

A. Singh: That I was. Which faculty you were in?

Priya Singh: I did B.E. Elex(short form of electronics, one of the engineers showoff words)

A. Singh: Where do you stay?

Priya Singh: I stay in Noida. And I know you stay in Delhi….your FB profile says so.

A. Singh: Yes, I stay in Delhi. Smart girl

(A.Singh kay SRK waley funday : A flirtooo specialist knows that girls like to be called smart & beautiful)

Priya Singh: Thanks. I was feeling lonely & getting bored so thought I might as well gather the courage to buzz you. Hope I am not disturbing me.

A. Singh: No…no…not at all. In fact, I myself am bored.

(A.Singh kay SRK waley funday : For trapping girl’s a smart man should never be busy)

Priya Singh: Thanks. You are a cute (again a trapping word) person.

A. Singh: Thanks. Is that your real profile pic? You look pretty.

Priya Singh: Yes of course.

Priya Singh: So…what else?

A. Singh: What do you mean bored?

Priya Singh: Ever since I have broken up with my Ex three months back, life has become dull. No thrills.

A. Singh: You have come to the right person.  (KL but no PD right now)

Priya Singh: What do you mean?

(Actual girls have to do this. After years of chatting a seasoned man starts suspecting if the girl comes easy)

A. Singh: Was just saying that I know Delhi-NCR region in and out. So you have come to the right person.

Priya Singh: Better. I thought you were meant something else…you know what I mean.
(During investigations, it is the job of the MBA fresher to lure the boy into the trap by giving enough hints)

A. Singh: I know what you mean. But I generally go slowly.

Priya Singh: How slow?

A. Singh: As slow as the girl wants.

The chats continue for around five days and in these five days A.singh starts feeling that he has known the girl for ages.

After Ten days, the Facebook Investigation agency sends its report to the girl’s parents. This is how the report looks.

Same day A. Singh parents get a call from the girl’s parents that they aren’t interested in pursuing the relationship.

After dinner, a miserable A.Singh logs on to Facebook and finds that Priya singh has removed him from her friend list. But wait now Priya Singh is friends with one of his Facebook friends Biru Rana (Read disclaimer in the start)…..talks are ongoing.