 "Kiran Koteshwar")
How fast can you tweak a product and bring an upgrade into the market?
How fast do you react to consumer feedback and change?
How quickly can you sift through data and take a decision?
Let's get this straight first: No one likes to do things or take a decision in a jiffy. You need data and information and space to roll things over in your mind, consider the pros and cons and then proceed. The great thing about the world today is that you can do all of that without delay. You have all the tools at your disposal to collect data, slice and dice them and turn them into actionable insights in no time.
In other words, there are no excuses for being late. Speed is hygiene if you wish to compete and win in a hyper-competitive marketplace. Pallavi Jha, managing director (MD), Dale Carnegie Training India, puts the dilemma before leaders succinctly: "The new business reality is: do more in less time with fewer resources. Given this, the ability to allocate scarce resources is a key responsibility for a leader today."
If one were to really break it down, speed is of the essence in decision-making, in reacting to consumer feedback or demand and speed in getting things off the drawing board and into the market. How do you stay in constant contact with your customers and get your products in their hands as quickly as possible - all of which can make or break a business?
So how are leaders reacting to this need for speed?
For Vivek Gambhir, MD, Godrej Consumer Products, "Now every aspect of life as well as business calls for higher ambidexterity." And from a leadership point of view, this starts with a clear view of the company's vision. Next comes clarity regarding decision-making - what decisions have to be made and at what level of the organisation. "If decision-making is clear then the speed of response automatically becomes fast," says Gambhir. This also has a bearing on how agile the organisation can be. "Agility, once again, is a consequence of a leader being clear about the company strategy," adds Gambhir.
So if in the past, it took 18 months for Godrej to come up with a product innovation, the window now is down to six months. The organisation has achieved this level of speed by changing a lot of internal processes. For one, it has simplified the procedure of potential business acquisitions by putting together a clear merger and acquisition (M&A) playbook in place. This way the company can identify interesting transaction opportunities quickly.
Linking agility to time to market, Sumit Bhattacharya, executive president, strategic businesses and marketing, HCL Infosystems, says, "Time to market (speed) is a function of multiple factors such as the structure of an organisation and the level of empowerment of people. A flat decision-making structure within the organisation with clear decision-making responsibilities accelerates time-to-market ability of an organisation."
On the shortening product cycle, Abhijit Nimgaonkar, principal, ZS Associates, cites an examples from the pharma industry, a sector he has followed closely. "Earlier, pharma companies followed a 10-year cycle covering functions such as research, product formulation, market testing etc. before a product launch. Today, all these processes have to run simultaneously. The entire process now is lean, mean, faster - from testing to commercialisation."
While it is important for a leader to be aware and in sync with the organisation's vision to take relevant decisions quickly, it is equally important to nurture the ability to sift through varied data sets to see what is relevant. Capturing the challenges that the deluge of data presents, Puneet Kaura, MD and CEO, Samtel Avionics, says, "In today's highly volatile and connected world, while information aggregation is not a challenge, information segregation is. One has to constantly filter out and retain valuable information from the plethora of stimuli targeted at us all the time." Kaura also cautions against glossing over networking. "If you are well-connected, information finds a way to you rather than the other way round. I and my team grab every chance that we can get to gain knowledge and to be mentored by those who have an in-depth knowledge of the business."
Staying abreast of what's going on around you is unavoidable when planning the launch of a product. "This poses three challenges - generating continuous and genuine insights, empowering an organisation and balancing data-driven approaches with intuition," underlines Nitin Prasad, MD, Shell Lubricants India. He says a smart organisation will keep a finger on the pulse of the market via social media, pressing into service insight generation experts who can quickly identify a growing trend. On the empowerment front, it is a good idea to give local teams the freedom and authority to make the decisions they need to, to speed up execution.
The challenge in balancing data-driven processes with intuition can daunt many leaders, says Prasad. The deluge of data has led to sophisticated data management techniques, but it can lead to what he describes as "analysis paralysis". And that is the space where experts and mentors can step in.
Vivekanand Venugopal, vice-president and general manager, Hitachi Data Systems, India, suggests an easy way to break out of that paralysis: listening to one's gut feeling whenever in doubt. Venugopal says no amount of innovation or speed will work if a company fails to find relevance among customers and partners. "To accelerate the relevance and adoption of solutions, you have to behave like an entrepreneur by collaborating with different stakeholders and forming alliances to provide the best platform for customers." Hitachi Data Systems leverages its big data and social innovation labs to generate a fair idea of what the customer wants.
Learnings from international markets has helped Godrej cut time and cost to develop new products. Good Knight Fast Card is a case in point. Initial research by the company revealed that India alone sees 24 million cases of malaria each year and 90 per cent of the population resides in malaria-prone areas. Also, in rural India, the penetration of household insecticides is very low. Lastly, the products available were either expensive or needed electricity. Godrej responded to the challenge and moved quickly to introduce the Good Knight Fast Card, a product that broke the price barrier, worked instantly and did not require electricity. "The idea for this product came from a similar product we had launched in Indonesia," says Gambhir.
Having a wide footprint also makes the task of soft launch easy. "We test market response to new products by introducing them in a select geography. This helps us to quickly understand acceptance levels and make adjustments before a full-fledged product launch," says Sanjay Bhutani, MD, India and SAARC, Bausch + Lomb India.
Remarkably, companies today are not only looking to amplify positive feedback; they are keen on discovering negative feedback as well and channelising it into positive learnings for the brand. For instance, Shell Lubricants has a senior management review on all negative feedback it receives through its "Hot Alerts". The company challenges itself on what can be done to address the cause of the comments. All "Hot Alerts" are rigorously followed up with the specific individual or company who raised them. Similarly, at Bausch & Lomb, each complaint is addressed within 24 working hours. Any product-related feedback on social media is received by brand custodians. Once the team understands the nature of the complaint, a dedicated team of experts takes appropriate action. The company also has an internal MIS wherein all feedback is recorded and shared at the national and international levels. This helps it identify areas of improvement and also serves as a quality check dashboard.
Don't waste time: Kiran Koteshwar
Expert Take
Kiran Koteshwar
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Take time out: Leaders need to have time and make time. Administrative tasks take a lot of mental space; hence delegation becomes important. If I see an opportunity or an area of improvement, I take an unconventional route and engage directly with the ones I feel are apt for implementation. I then inform their seniors - this is where relationship equity places a key role.
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Stay informed: Staying abreast of situations and having a finger on the pulse is the key to effective decision-making. We have "management by exception" work culture where exceptions are discussed face to face at all levels. We also have live reports to look at trends, weakness, opportunities.
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Be proactive: In any crisis, big or small, we proactively keep our consumers informed through social media updates, and as required keep adding latest updates frequently and periodically.
- Innovation matters: Innovations are best implemented with the ones who thought about it. Creating situational leaders helps foster talent and most importantly implementation is easier.
CFO, SpiceJet
