Unhappy Organisations

Some people sure are amazing – they work in organisations run so appallingly badly that customer dissatisfaction and anguish are direct and inevitable outcomes from their work effort. I can barely imagine what it must be like to spend your days in an environment where every time you try and provide service you make your customers upset and angry.

Of course, if the organisation is in a competitive market, then poor service is a recipe for business failure – customers will just go elsewhere. On the other hand, if you work for a monopoly service provider, customers have pretty much no option but to put up with the service they receive.

Anyhow, it struck me as I recently went through an airport in one of the worlds major cities, while I and several hundred others were waiting in endless lines, missing flights (and rescheduled flights) losing luggage, trying to be patient and then getting frustrated and angry, arguing with the spouse and the kids, waiting around, drinking to much caffeine and (etc….), that it wasn’t that the staff didn’t care – they just couldn’t afford to care.

When its your job to reschedule flights for a hundred people who want to yell at you and you know there is absolutely nothing you can do to improve their circumstances, then all you can do is fix a glazed expression, wait patiently without listening to their diatribe (you know the meaning anyway) reschedule them and get to the next one. While all this was going on other staff were asking people in the line to be patient – there was nothing they could do but wait until their turn. I strained for an apology but must have missed it. Even more curiously after about an hour of waiting, the number of serving staff dropped from a hopelessly inadequate level to 2, while the shift changed for about 20 minutes. So the old shift left the new shift with a now angrier line of customers – thats teamwork for you!

The funny thing is there was so much they could have done to improve the situation just for example by time streaming transit customers according to place and flight time, informing them properly of their rescheduling options, fixing broken x-ray machinery and sluggish computers and so on.

So how must these staff feel I wonder? You must be being paid exceptionally well or really need the job to keep showing up to such an environment day after day, knowing that hopeless management won’t or can’t spend the money to solve the problems, doesn’t have the skills or both. Every minute at work you must be thinking about the next coffee break. Every night you must return home fractured, feeling abused and exhausted. Eventually, surely they must look for another job. I wonder that the CEO and Executive team aren’t ashamed in the rare moments when they aren’t perplexed.

In one of my previous incarnations, I was managing a subsidiary company operating in extremely competitive customer and labour markets. I had to learn pretty quickly about job satisfaction and engagement strategies. Not only did they retain the staff but I was always amazed at their preparedness to give that little bit extra when under pressure; and to solve problems to remove the pressure in the longer term. Furthermore, we could we afford salaries above market rates, because of increased efficiency.

Monopoly infrastructure services are an essential part of modern daily life, but they are no excuse for bad management as far as I can see. If you were in a competitive market and your revenue depended on it you would solve your customer service issues or go out of business.

Generation Y in Asia

Generation Y is a cultural clash creating all sorts of challenges for companies around the world. Asia seems to be no exception.

So not that long ago we were doing a job in South East Asia. The company was confused about why their generation Y professionals kept churning off to work for smart Japanese owned companies. Well it turns out that the gen Y folk were after a bit more action than you might get in some more traditional Asian businesses. Often said is that Asian employee behaviour is about loyalty, formality and respect for those older/wiser, or if your a Hofstede fan, high on uncertainty-avoidance and low on individualism – the collectivist culture. (I’m not actually a great advocate for putting large diverse populations and geographies into little concept boxes, but anyway….)

Well, the gen Y folk, armed with their engineering degrees, MBA’s etc. weren’t happy because they were ambitious (not just money – they wanted training, experience, career development and participation etc.) just like their western counterparts. Perhaps they get the ambition bug from their western university education, or maybe just from being globally networked. Curious too that they respected their elder managers to the extent that they didn’t complain – they just left the company. Those that remained intended to move on after a couple of years experience.

Interesting is the 2/6/2008 International Monetary Fund article projecting economic growth in emerging Asia slowing to 8.6% (excluding China 10%). with 40% of export trade between Asia itself. I can’t see much change in gen Y labour demand based on those numbers.

Emerging Music Markets

As the dinosaur music corporations crumble at the foot of the internet monilith, musicians who love playing and entertaining have an exciting and prosperous future.

The product life-cycle is a standard business text book concept. The idea is basically that the product is developed and sales grow along with profit. Then as the the product matures competition increases and profits stabilise. New ideas, technology, manufacturing methods can lead to a product declining, eroding profits.

Product Cycle

Development ——-Growth ————–Maturity ———–Decline

The product life cycle is a simple description of a reality which is happening every day around us as competition drives innovation. It explains the current state of the music industry perfectly, where technological innovation (the internet) has eroded the capacity of music manufacturers to control property rights with the consequence of plummeting profits. With technology you can download anything for free and because the internet is a free market in the true sense, and theres nothing anyone can do about it.

What is really interesting is not how the industry dinosaurs try and grasp the remnants of their crumbling empires, but how generation Y musicians are innovating and redefining new products and distribution strategies.

The new world is in its infancy, but its evolving fast. Its a world where email is for old timers, framed by networks supported by Myspace and YouTube and text messaging where generation Y consumers structure their media on their own terms. Nothing could fly further in the face of the old authoritarian corporates who controlled the media in their time frames, to their budgets and for their taste.

Consider the radical example of English band Radiohead who distributed their latest album through their own website at a price determined by the purchaser, by-passing the traditional industry distribution institutions. One can only surmise that they believed that voluntary contributions would deliver as much revenue as the their cut from traditional distributors and manufacturers, plus the value of the publicity.

In fact, web platforms such as My Space are abundant with musicians and bands advertising and promoting their skills and products, although to date, it relies on networking and word of mouth. Alternatively, you can put your band on to a ‘find a band‘ business to business site structured to enable classified searches in local areas. These sites are a similar business model to the business to business and business to consumer cyber marketplaces which operate to link suppliers and consumers with Asian producers (eg. Alibaba, VA4U, etc.).

Another emerging strategy involves independant internet radio stations which provide airplay opportunities for bands and musicians, often according to specialist genres. For example, Inside Jazz broadcasts live recordings of some of the finest jazz and fusion players with links to their personal websites where you can download tracks and cd’s.

One of the most interesting, strategies is the US band Umphrey McGee who upload podcasts to their web page, containing their live shows as they tour around the year. Presumably, this reinforces their key marketing strategy as a live performance band.

While the new music industry is young, an emerging common thread seems to be that the emerging new music market place is largely being developed by musicians who have talent and can entertain (as has always been the case). A key issue to be resolved is how to effectively mass market in the new world. No doubt clever solutions will develop as new generation Y entrepreneurs put their minds to creating new ideas.

Perhaps it will integrate with traditional free to air radio marketing, although I suspect they are also entering the declining part of their product market cycle as well.

Leadership

Over the years I have seen a lot of people try at the leadership game. Strangely, a disproportionate number have failed – perhaps because they wore smart suits, but largely I suspect because the demands of their position has exceeded their talent. I’m sure its not pleasant for them but still….’

For the leader, to see for the first time real disaster in their company, is a barren moment – a haze of thoughtlessness creeps across consciousness to block reality, numbing the strength built for years on the thrill of the conquest, the smart logic and the shrewd acumen which drives supreme achievements in their day to day life.

 

With great effort the leader summons their true self from the desolation and despair, with reason and analyses. As the shroud lifts, what do they see? Blunder, destruction, calamity, deceit, foolishness. As they return to reality they try and order the fragments of disastrous events into hope and finally a solution. They fight off emotion; fear of the unknown, loss of power and status, reputation and career. If they truly believe themselves impregnable and absolute, they resolve to fight because they are stalwart, tenacious, sagacious, superior. They fear that if there is no solution then they must ask ‘Am I accountable?’ and even, ‘Surely I am not the pissant….’

 

If the ship is sinking the leader might jump before the company is aquired, leaving their hapless team to endure the undignified carnage of their failed strategy, and to face the barrage of the new ruthless management squadron. Their name plate and options package become lost in the murky history of thousands of corporate failures. They are forgotten – quickly.

If there has been trickery or deceit, then leaders initial despair is followed by a hurried attempt to cover tracks. But the tracks are deep within the fabric of day to day communications, hidden in emails and files searched out by stone-faced techno-bounty hunters, who relish the success of catching their prey. As the leader steals quietly away, he’s confronted by the evidence… and ruined.

If the leaders job was beyond his ability then maybe with a quick exit, their absence will prolong, even avoid discovery of the true extent of their incompetence. With some luck, things aren’t that bad and after they’ve gone the company will survive sufficiently so that their past actions merely swell a wave of blame harbouring their replacement over the next couple of budget periods.

In the face of failure, the defiant leader pursues a survival strategy, distancing themselves from all responsibility and accountability. They carefully appear slightly alarmed at the circumstances and very serious, promoting their corporate citizenship, starting an inquiry and maybe they can find a down-line manager, or some employee that can take the blame. They seem like they have their hand firmly on the wheel, they are stalwart, surviving. But while they linger the staff will snicker surreptitiously in the tea-room. The great leader is the great joke. They go about their business as usual, but they are no longer committed to corporate pride – just to their mortgage. Finally, they are tapped on the shoulder when their payout cost finally falls below the risk of their continuing employment.