Point to Ponder

I wonder how the subject would be treated by professionals coming to Zumbeel considering the current market situation. Whether its telecom or otherwise, nearly all the industries linked to global markets have been affected by the recent financial crunch.

Yes we have heard news and rumors at the same time, of professionals loosing their livelihood. But one way or another we as individuals do give a thought to it maybe a couple of times these days.

“What will happen in the next couple of months?”

“Will my organization consider me valuable enough to retain my services?”

“What options do I have in case my organization thinks otherwise?”

I believe at this point in time, the best way is to discuss out the situation with your line managers. Senior leaders or people from management can should explain the situation in clear simple words in town-hall meetings or other informal arrangements.

This will atleast give the best possible picture to everyone concerned and let them decide on their own the best way forward.

********* The intent of the post is to share management actions in times of crunch with no intention of creating a furor amongst the industry professionals **************

Seeing a blog post with a such a subject might scare away people like me from even clicking on it. But to think of such an activity being carried out in an organization is painful job indeed. The parties on either side of the table have a notion to justify and support. Nonetheless it is the employer who has the final say whatever be the argument or counter argument.

Considering the global financial crunch, down sizing, lay-offs, cost cutting are some of the jargon we tend to listen around us. With clouds of down-sizing looming above in local market here is what Kawasaki thinks about it:

Kawasaki (Venture capitalist and democratizer of information How to Change the World) has the following viewpoint on laying off people. Some aspects are interesting others not so amusing.

a) Take Responsibility — CEO has the final say in such matters, so needless to blame it on the board of directors, market conditions and competition. CEO being the leader shall accept the responsibility with courage.

I tend to differ slightly here. If the market conditions are stable then why go for a down sizing activity. The org can live with a non-increase in head count if the market / competition allows it. Again what ever the decision the CEO as a leader has to take the lead and put it as softly as possible.

b) Cut Deep and cut once

If it is inevitable then Yes, one big blow to do away with the excess chunk. Multiple cuts tend to effect the employee morale more with reducing motivation levels.

c) Move Fast

When ever the decision is made act on it quickly and swiftly rather than making it a gossip point.

d) Share the pain– When people around you are losing their jobs, you can share the pain, too. Cut your pay. In fact, the higher the employee, the bigger the percentage of pay reduction. Take a smaller office. Turn in the company car.

Probably this one relates more to the top management rather than the co-worker. Share the pain just as you share comforts in good times.

e) Dont ask for pity — The person who suffers is the one being terminated, not the manager.

No comments

f) Provide Support

Yes the post lay off support, like counseling, resume writing and job search help.

Time: 0200 hrs, Location: Somewhere in the Capital City

While some part of the city is long asleep, ((Beep)) ((Beep)) - The cellphone of an operations manager beeps. Within 5 minutes it beeps again. The manager checks the first message with blurred vision - “20 sites down- in Northern Areas, Initial reason - Power failure for 5 hours/ Genset out of fuel”

((Ring)) ((Ring))- This time its the NOC guy calling up. “Sir, another HUB site is out. The total outage site count is now 50″. The manager now wide awake listens to the engineer and confirms escalation of outage to field team. …..

The above lines are just a snapshot from the life of an operations team. They work and burn the mid-night oil like any other team providing round the clock services to the end users. It is the very nature of such jobs that make it complex, yet demanding and challenging at the same time.

I believe no other area of work within a telecom organization is more stressful than that of a Operations team responsible for 24×7 availability of the network. This is why that at the time of hiring fresh graduates at Network Operations Centers, they are clearly communicated the challenges and hectic life schedule of people working in shifts. They literally live and sleep on “Alarms“.

Yet more of a challenge is managing such a team of people- taking care of their career growth, motivation levels, workload and lots more. You loose track of one of these and the impact it has on the morale of these guys, its simply devastating for the network monitoring KPIs.

With increasing competition in the local market and falling revenues, the problems are compounded by economic downs.

For the equity holders, Networks need to be up and runnning, Costs controlled and threats to revenue growth minimized.

And in the words of the new US President Elect, these are changing times.

With the ever increasing price-wars between operators in Pakistan, mobile companies come up with new services for its end users. Usually a new service by one becomes a rat race for another. The profit or revenue margins remain positive until the followers or late entrants manage to come up with something similar and that too with a more attractive name.

Services like TeleDoctor (Telenor), CallSecure (Mobilink), CallBlock(Ufone), have set a precedent in local market.

But the key to success remains innovation. How close can you get to the customer needs and expectations? No matter how many CSIs (Customer Satisfaction Indicies) you carry out, there is always a segment in customer base that remain below the satisfaction level.

Lack of R&D centers and test beds within operators restrict potential of new services. Engineers within these telcos are mostly assisting managed services teams of vendors rather than taking up the work themselves.

It will take some serious thinking by telco top management to look into this aspect and try to seek some alignment.

One of the most challenging aspect in a work enviroment is Change Management. Whether is relates to some procedural change at grass root level or some product introduction, change is resisted.

This is better digested if it is coming top-down (from higher ups). But the air of discontentment is felt. Taking the last customer satisfaction post one step further, one way of improving it is to go for a Quality management system.

Going through one such phase in my work place, the readiness or should i say willingness to adapt to this upcoming change is on the lower side of the measurement scale. Some term it as another form of bringing in bureaucracy in work flows, others simply resisting it because it will highlight and measure the effectiveness and efficiency of their procedures.

Not owning this change is the biggest challenge. One of the ways adopted to tackle it, is to bring the change or get it enforced top-down. Then again the buy-in is not high. Another method is to have one-to-one meetings with line managers and explain them “Whats in it for me?” Try to ward off the fear of additional work and explain the positive aspects of change.

Once there is acceptability, then constant training can lead to a successul change across the board.

The telecom industry of Pakistan is taking a radical shape in the present time period. With falling ARPUs (Average revenue per user) and increasing costs to operate, the profit margins are getting thinner for the businesses day by day. Yet we see the commercial divisions launching innovative (read operational death traps) each week.

But still what are common needs of the end user? Successful call in the first attempt, no drop calls, no voice distortions, easy messaging.. The list goes on. For a user sitting in Hajeera-AJK area and not being able to call the loved ones and bound to use the only cell phone service in the area is no less than a misfortune.

So who shall be the one who stands out and says, yes we can deliver on our promises and tag lines. Service quality is one area which every operator needs to look into. This is not about the RF KPIs but about the overall culture of bringing out the best for the end user. No technology, no business plan can be successful unless and until the delivery of the service stands out.