Value Chain!

Should we look at only role content when charting out our career plans? What other factors should we consider?

I feel we should also consider what is portfolio of contexts we are building for ourselves.

We can look at life stage of an organization- start up, high growth, mature, or declining.

We can also look at where in value chain is context? Is it

• Closer to customer- pre-sales, sales, delivery, post sales service?
• A little higher up in Supply chain? - secondary distribution (to customer)?
• Much higher up in supply chain-primary sourcing/distribution to factories.
• Product design/R&D?
• Central function -governance of value chain?

 

I have worked in a central org, manufacturing org, sales org, and delivery org.

 

Why is working across different points of value chain important? Well, for one as we see different points we understand the value chain better. For another, different parts of value chain hold different values.

Some values a central org may hold are integration, standardization, bet practices, etc.

In a manufacturing set up values may be Right First Time (no errors), predictability, reliability, process orientation, etc.

In a sales org values may be outcome orientation, resourcefulness, etc.

A delivery org might have values similar to a manufacturing org - focus on processes, quantitative orientation, large scale implementation, etc.

I've worked in mature and high growth phases. I've worked in HQs , with sales orgs, with manufacturing orgs, and with delivery orgs. I’ve worked in HQs as well as in subsidiaries. I've started experienced handling international markets.

What are some of contexts I have not experienced? Service (should be about customer orientation/delight) and R&D (creativity, knowledge); start up and declining phase orgs; and regional and HQ (international) roles.

These are some lines I am thinking on, along with content of next roles, as I plan my next career steps.

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Sourav

Excellent Managers

What are enablers for managerial excellence?

Let’s make an assumption - focus of excellence is on what managers are doing today.

Hence focus becomes - what are HR processes manager is supposed to manage for his/her directs.  Some of these processes are across employee life cycle (e.g - joining, onboarding, development) some across team life cycle (e.g- storming, forming, norming).

I've come across two ways of ensuring this focus.

• Organization clarifies what is expected of Managers and measures them on basis of outcomes (subjective or objective).
• Organization institutes project teams to drive outcomes/improvements related to focus.

Both ways can work. In the first way, consistency in outcomes across managers may be a challenge.  In the second way, there is a danger that responsibility for managing is abdicated – responsibility for managerial outcomes is perceived to have moved to project teams.

But obviously, managerial outcomes still need to emerge from Managers doing the right thing for their employees.

That's a focus one has to maintain in the second way.

 

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Sourav

 

Behaviors

A few years back I got interested in individual and group behavior. I wanted to explore 'why do individuals/groups behave the way they do?'

I read works of a number of psychologists - Freud, Adler, Jung, Ellis, Frankl, etc. Each of them seemed to have different answers for WHYs.  Who got it right?

Determinism didn't sound right- we were shaped by our biological instincts but we did have choice.

I could resonate with some elements of collective unconscious- sometimes I could evidence of it in similar decisions taken by people far removed in space and time. But I did value uniqueness – the fact that sometime I did take decisions on my own too. Again I felt that Jung’s theory sounded deterministic.

Fictional finalism sounded right.  I did find people setting and working towards a better future -even though they may not reach it.

I could find evidence of suffering and meaninglessness in stages of our lives, but life was not all about suffering and meaninglessness.

Concept that neurosis was an exaggeration of normal things we do seemed relevant.

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But then again – who got it right?

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I chanced upon biographical works of some of these psychologists. I realized they were trying to find meaning of their experiences/lives and their theories brought sense to their experiences/lives.

So it seemed all of them were right but only in certain contexts/situations.

Hence these theories might have application at different points of our lives. They might be applicable to different people in different degrees.

Every theory seems to provide a possible explanation to behavior. But none seem to be comprehensive in scope.

But that's possibly what reality is.  

Each situation can be same as or different from a previous situation. Every human being is unique in some way and I am not sure whether a theory can encompass all human beings.

 

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Sourav

Building a Career!

What are next roles I want to work towards?

Well! That's not very difficult to figure out. I can rattle off 2-3 roles that come on top of my mind.

But is identifying and working towards roles an opportune/resourceful way to build a career?

Recently, I came across an alternative approach that resonated with me.

Think of your career in terms of a combination of skills and experiences.

 

What skills and experiences do you want in your next role/s?

I see an advantage of approaching building careers in this fashion.

Thinking of next role gets us fixated on role. We sometimes stop identifying and even evaluating alternatives. Coveted roles are limited and number of contestants are high.

On other hand, when we approach building careers in terms of skills and experiences, we become receptive to a number of opportunities - some of it not obviously apparent.

We might be able to identify emerging opportunities. We might land up identifying multiple opportunities.

A career as a portfolio of skills and experiences! And experiences being much more than just identified roles!

Subsequent question obviously is 'What skills and experiences do you want in your next roles?’  Obviously you will look at what are your career goals in long term, what skills and experiences you want to work towards in medium term, and what skills and experiences you already have.

I refer back to my belief in ‘intentionality’ - ‘ It’s necessary we intentionally and smartly build our portfolio of skills and experiences'

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Sourav