The performance appraisal specially becomes a huge challenge in case of matrix organizations where the responsibilities, managers and expectations keep on changing. Though the basic fundamentals of appraisal techniques like Straight Ranking, Critical Incident, MBO, 360 degree and Interview etc. all hold good, what becomes a challenge is the implementation. Once the appraisal technique is applied the process of fitting the appraisee in normal curve or straight ranking or any other performance measure is where the large amounts of subjectivity is introduced which largely depends upon the relationship between the appraisee and appraiser.

In a matrix organization there are two schools of thoughts on managing the appraisee-appraiser relationship

1-      Direct Relationship- This is where an Appraisee – Appraiser direct interact with each other for the work. Essentially the appraisee generally assigned to the project being led by the appraiser. The primary benefit in this model is that the direct oversight and experience of the work is considered in the performance evaluation. This model also directly links the performance appraisal and thus the rewards & recognition directly with the current line of work making the matrix stronger. On the other hand the model of direct relationship has some serious pitfalls; since in the case of matrix organizations where the direct relationship is transient there are often cases where the appraiser changes leading to change in work style, expectations and relationship. Also this change in appraiser brings in the subjectivity or self interests from the point of view of contribution to the current work instead of work done in the past.

2-      Indirect Relationship – This is where an Appraisee- Appraiser are not supposed to directly work with each other. The appraiser is an independent evaluator who has not worked with either of the people he is evaluating and relies on the feedback mechanism from the direct managers of the matrix regarding the appraisee. The primary benefit of this kind of method is that all the people being evaluated are placed on an equal footing thus penalizing or ignoring due to subjectivity and transition is rare in this kind of scenario. This ensures that all the evaluation is fair and projects a accurate picture of organizational performance. Also since the evaluator remains same over the period of time, this allows a uniform set of expectation and development direction. The major drawback of this model lies in the fact that there needs to be an excellent feedback mechanism and the structure is easily prone to pitfalls of power matrix in organization.

Though both of the techniques are relevant and come in with their own set of advantages, I particularly feel that the right solution lies in a system which is a mix of two. As the subjects of evaluation move up the hierarchy pyramid of the organization shifts to weaker matrix the evaluation style should be a direct relationship on the other hand when subject lie in the stronger matrix of the pyramid the evaluation method should be indirect relationship.

My reasons why I support this kind of structure are

• Consistency in the type of expectations and feedback can be used the performance evaluation to be mapped to the organizational objectives
• At the lower side of the pyramid the motivation is generated from the fact that employee has a voice in the system apart from his direct report
• Establish a personal connect in the lower side of the pyramid where the transitional nature of work lowers the emotional connect with the organization
• Since the personal dynamics of work place is not involved, the appraisal system at the ground level is seen fairer. On the other hand where the roles are not transitory in nature and personal rapport becomes a factor of performance the evaluation keeps a track of it.
• This kind of a structure is easier and faster to realign, while accommodating tactical and strategic changes in the organization direction and performance
• Closer and direct involvement with the current work at a higher level creating a stronger performance culture which gets driven down but doesn’t gets negated due to transitional nature of work.

So what do you think is the best method for a practical implementation of performance evaluation and appraisal in matrix organization?

I have always believed that sports are a perfect ground for displaying the leadership and a lot can be learned from the leaders and their actions in the field. The winning speech by MSD had some very valuable lessons for leadership. After listening to his speech my respect for him as a leader grew multi folds, given such an emotional moment and short time frame he effectively communicated his vision and journey. You can listen to his speech embedded below after which I present my five key lessons of leadership from the great captain.

1- Deliver- I think that is the most important aspect of a great leader. Before any leader can become great he needs to deliver the goals which were decided for him or by him. The results in present world are the most important parameter for a leader.

2- In Contingency Lead from Front- The way he decided to come at number four when two wickets of Sachin Tendulkar and Virendra Sehwag had fallen shows a very positive trait. The situation was a contingency situation and his decision to come higher in the order and lead things from the front is what gives a lot of confidence to the team mates who might already be under pressure or under fire due to the situations and constraints beyond their control.

3- Exposure for Juniors- As he said in his speech that Dhoni himself was coming down the order to ensure the new or younger players can play up the order relatively free of pressure while he would field the crunch and the pressure. Despite affecting his personal performance his priority was providing exposure to juniors.

4- Take Calculated Risks-He took the risks of choosing players like Sreesanth in the final who hadn’t played a single match in the tournament. The decision was a risky one and he was well aware of it as he stated in his speech but he still took the risk and accounted for if it might have gone wrong.

5- Communicate- As he spoke that the decision like him moving up the line up was not only discussed with his mentor but also the senior members of the team. The communication within the team makes for a very important trait and also plays a crucial part in the uniting the team which is true quality of the leader.

So these were my five leadership lessons from the Captain of the Indian Cricket Team, do you find any other lessons from him?

Firstly the Piracy industry in India brought an absolute change in the Music & Entertainment industry. Calling it a perfect example of marketing myopia would be stretching it too far but then it would be close. It is interesting to observe how this particular Piracy Industry had far fetched effects on the Pop Albums, Old Age Cinema and Music as a whole. On a direct competition Piracy industry almost ruined the music sellers (the companies selling tapes and CDs like Sony, Venus, Tips, T Series, HMV etc.), though the concept of MP3 is not Indian but the credit of taking it to the masses goes to Napster in US and the Piracy industry in India. I don’t think the authentic or original Music industry has been able to tap even the tip of the 1.1 billion individual market of India.

Coming to the indirect effects of the Piracy industry, pop music industry has almost gone out of bread & butter. The industry which was a rage in years 1997-2000, when almost everyone including Tom, Dick & Harry seem to have released a pop album. The fact that the pop music industry depended on the sales of the CDs and tapes for their revenue and profits, it took a minuscule amount of time for the Pirates to release the albums on the pirated CD along with 100 other songs. So the erstwhile Pop Albums have lost their way and you don’t see too many of them too often these days, interestingly the killing of pop albums also generated a new genre of entertainment in India, The Reality Shows. It would be unfair to say that the concept was born at this time, Sa Re Ga Ma & Meri Awaz Suno are old singing based reality shows. But the decline of pop music industry brought a huge wave of talent to the television reality show and today almost every channel national or regional has a singing, dancing based reality show.

Now coming to the other quality of the Piracy industry which I find admirable; and also relates to my area of expertise supply Chain. If you would check most of the pirated discs available in India the source would be tagged as a website. What amazes me about this industry is the agility in the entire supply chain; the moment a major movie’s music gets released the next day or the day after you would be able to buy the MP3 for that movie from the street side vendor.

I admit that I have not been able to have a direct visit or first experience of this supply chain. But from the information available about the market, the creation of a CD/DVD has to be a central activity with may be regional hubs, as the high speed recording instruments are the most expensive and bottleneck parts of the supply chain. Imagine what all activities would have happened during this time.

Procurement of the blank CDs and Polyurethane covers (I believe they would be keeping a stock inventory)

Planning what titles to be a part of what compilations (this when they don’t have any official control or information on release dates)

Printing of Labels which would display all the movies which are the part of the compilation

Actual Burning of the CDs.

Packaging the labels, burnt CDs into the Zip Lock Polyurethane bags.

Distributing the CDs throughout the chain, to the last link of the retail vendor which sells it to the customer on the street.

Almost all of this activity generally happens in a little span of time after the music release, and I have never seen a blackout when asked for a new song’s MP3, it is easily available and at all points of time. To add the flavor, this whole operation is supposedly under cover with utmost secrecy.

If you look at the coverage of the distribution network, I really think these pirated CD folks are close to HLL and P&G of the world. One can travel to the length and breadth of the country and the pirated discs of all kinds are available by the highway sides, in the small towns and villages. Interestingly this efficient and robust distribution system is officially unorganized. There are no ERPs & IT for the good’s tracking, no high flying MRP & demand planning systems for forecasting. The disruptions like police raids etc are far more frequent and far more disruptive as what a normal manufacturing or distribution firm would face. The efficiency of the entire value chain despite the odds against it is simply commendable.

Do you think the highly sophisticated distribution & manufacturing systems have a thing or two to learn from this Piracy Industry, especially from a process perspective?

Disclaimer: I do not support any kind of Piracy, this post is written with an objective to identify the positives and best practices followed in a business which is not legal by nature.

However, the focus of the coffee chains has been to extend reach and presence by opening the new stores at very fast pace, especially by Café Coffee Day & Barista primarily grew in this fashion. This has been a replica of what exactly was the growth mode by Starbucks in North America, with more than 30,000 stores opened in the growth frenzy the market didn’t seem to flourish as much as per expectations. We all the know the woes of Starbucks from then and it’s decision to close the non profitable stores.

I don’t deny that Indian markets appetite for the coffee stores, is huge and the market still has a lot of untapped potential in the tier 2 cities and also the metros. However, there is one aspect of the business that has been neglected by almost all the coffee chains, that is customer retention, brand loyalty and customer association.

Almost none of the coffee chains have a proper India website (except for Café Coffee Day and Barista (which recently created the site)) and loyalty programs in place. I remember the old tagline which was used to marked on the interiors of the Barista I used to frequent “It’s easier to change one’s religion than changing one’s café.” And I quite agree to this part that changing your coffee and acquiring the taste for a new coffee is not very easy. But in the end coffee is a commodity item and most of the café customers are not brew sensitive in India might make it redundant in the loyalty context.

The fact that the café chains acting in middle income group segments and above and it also entertains a huge amount of customers which are mobile, travelers and the so called young urban professionals. It produces all the more case for them to strengthen your ties with a customer, go a step and reward him for his loyalty with your brand. With technology moving towards mobile applications and GPS based applications it’s a strong case for them to put use to it and develop sites and application which would ensure the customers would know where is their nearest favorite café where they can spend some time and have coffee.

With the pace the new entrants are coming into this market and increasing competition, that one cup of coffee that your loyal customer had at your competitors’ might cost you the customer in longer term. All this just because he didn’t knew that you had a store operating right there in the next lane.

1- The IT projects acting as the support system to the current system and cannot be taken down needs to be treated as expense. A cheaper maintenance alternative or renegotiation of the contract can be the strategy.

2- The project which are from a view of transformation/cost savings n future need to be treated as investments and since the cost of capital has risen, The ROI, NPV & IRR of the projects need to be recalculated and considered. The project which does not offer an NPV/IRR acceptable to the company needs to be reconsidered not only within the company but also with the IT partner.

3- Also the projects which have a shorter breakeven point should be given preference over the long term transformational projects. They will produce quicker returns and enhance working capital in a short term. Another thing which becomes critical in IT parlance in these times of downturns is when an IT project is taken the quality and the ability of the team should be scrutinized with extended care by the organization. The investment in IT may be successful or failure, run into huge cost over-runs or be completed before time and at lower cost and also deviating from business requirements or completely in sync with business requirements. All this depends upon the team of the IT partner and is a very critical factor in the IT projects. This is one area where organizations should be really monitoring.
I believe that if worked on diligently even IT projects would give more than expected returns irrespective of the downturn just like any good investment if they are based on strong fundamentals.

1- The world culture in the term itself speaks volumes. A culture can’t be implemented through processes. A culture needs to be bred with in people through continuous orientation process. So the first part of a learning culture is the people orientation towards learning.

2- A learning culture should not only have a focus that ensures rewarding of continuous learning of people through their experience but also ensuring that the people leveraging their learning are consistently rewarded for their behavior.

3- A learning culture should also ensure that the learning is being converted in real time measurable deliverables like reduction in costs, enhancement in quality etc. If an organization fails to show the rise in this area then there is a high probability that either it is not a learning organization or it is learning a lot more noise than substance.

4- A learning culture should also ensure that knowledge is shared seamlessly and especially in the growth phase the knowledge should effectively be transferred or ramped up to maintain the learning standard across the organization.

I believe only the organization able to sustain above principles can be said as one breeding the Learning Culture.

As per my interpretations of the philosophy the core message is the connection of the manager/management with the ground roots of the team /organization which generally happens through the people being managed. However in this process the following points should always be in consideration-

1- Objective- The manager should always keep in mind the objective of walking around. He is not there to interfere or micro-manage. A manager should be walking around to be a support system for the team. The job of the manager is not to do the things himself and be a part of operational details, his job is more as a support system or enabler for the team to do the job in hand better enabling synergies. A “walking around” manager should always keep in mind his objectives are very similar to a Talk Show Host on a television serial, who doesn’t becomes a better host because he speaks very well but is a better host because he enables the guest on his show look better. Similarly a manager also needs to be a background support and enable his team to achieve better performance.

2- Communication- Secondly, for a philosophy to work successfully the manager needs to effectively communicate in words and actions to the team that works with him. He should ensure that he earns the trust of the team and vice versa. The most important is that he should be able to inspire the team to let him be the support and strive towards the goals. The team should understand that his eternal presence with them is not ONLY for collecting points for the appraisal process (though it is also one thing manager needs to do) but to be a part of team and the guy who would stand by them when they genuinely need him.

3- Fear Factor- The toughest task for the manager is to ensure that his presence is in line with the thin balance of fear factor. The team should not be afraid to approach him despite his presence or be jittery because of his presence; on the other hand should also be aware of who is the boss and though he is in the background but when it comes to calling shots he is the one who would be leading from front. Maintaining the thin line of balance between these two different and opposite objectives is a key to be an effective management by walking philosophy.

The managers who follow this policy should ensure the above three points in effective order in their management style. A lot of times people try to follow the management philosophies literally without understanding their essence, this where the detrimental effect starts happening in the teams and organizations.