Shyamal Majumdar: The knowledge champions

HUMAN FACTOR

TCS has a chief transformation officer "" one of only three companies in the world to have such a designation

Microsoft and Pfizer have chief knowledge officers, some like Coca-Cola have chief learning officers and software major Tata Consultancy Services has a chief transformation officer "" one of only three companies in the world to have such a designation.

But whatever the title, the gentlemen occupying these posts have almost the same set of responsibilities: focus on how to keep the skills of the corporation's work force at a high level and take the lead in managing change.

Also it's up to them to gather unbiased intelligence on emerging threats and opportunities and get ahead of the curve in understanding the business. One of the major tasks they seek to achieve is to spread expertise and insight throughout the company rather than leaving it isolated in pockets of brilliance. They don't seem to mind who takes the credit for any successes, as long as the success is visible.

What makes their task formidable is that they don't belong to the set corporate hierarchy and, hence, run the risk of treading on too many toes. The ambiguities of a new and ill-defined corporate role can often make these people potentially vulnerable and they have to depend heavily on the CEO's support.

HR experts say the track record shows this is somewhat true. At the height of the dotcom craze, more than 25 per cent of Fortune 500 companies had chief knowledge officers. After the collapse, less than 15 per cent companies retained these posts.

So the task of these people "" a HR expert calls them the knowledge champions of an organisation "" is huge, no doubt. But companies like Whirlpool, for instance, have shown this is eminently achievable.

Whirlpool's chief learning officer, for instance, has helped create 350 "innovation mentors" around the world who encourage employees to exploit new ideas. Whirlpool attributes the birth of several successful product lines to this innovation network.

The need for such "innovation network" is something that prompted TCS to appoint a chief transformation officer.

P S Vishwanathan, the man occupying the post, feels his job doesn't require him to launch any transitory measures like special knowledge management initiatives because the goal is to achieve embedded knowledge capabilities.

To get an idea of the change in mindset, consider this: TCS was initially conceived merely to serve the Tata group's software needs and the impression was it's a sleeping giant "" less agile than its smaller, more market-savvy, and publicly listed rivals.

From the start, the group was not convinced about going to market. In 2000, TCS's former CEO F C Kohli was quoted as saying that if the company went public, the employees would be talking only about share values since morning.

Keeping this in mind, the challenges before the company were many: changing the mindset of its people who are now working for a listed company instead of a division of Tata Sons. The organisation which has 8 lakh shareholders and operations in 55 countries is another challenge.

For Vishwanathan, another key challenge was to make people think global and deliver local. He has a point. For, all over the world internal corporate structures are already mutating beyond recognition as businesses explore entirely new modes of association and interaction.

The ability to think global and deliver local, which Viswanathan talks about, requires the change manager to adopt a "fishnet" model. Reason: The fishnet is flexible; it can form and re-form. It rearranges itself quickly while retaining its inherent strength.

But the opinion in corporate India still seems to be that the rank-and-file in an organisation would rather leave things as they are and the main reason for this status quo bias is people's strong desire to hang on to what they own; the very fact of owning something makes it more valuable to the owner.

McKinsey tested the effect with coffee mugs imprinted with the Cornell University logo. Students given one of them would not part with it for less than $5.25 on average, but students without a mug wouldn't pay more than $2.75 to acquire it. The gap implies an incremental value of $2.50 from owning the mug.

The more important reason is that most CEOs are still trapped in an incrementalist mindset that change can come only in degrees and lack the energy of their own convictions to change.

These CEOs need to understand that for any transformation to succeed, organisations need knowledge champions who can spend a lot of time "walking around the organisation" selling the concept of converting a good company to a great one. Companies like TCS have shown the way to great effect. It's time others take the cue.