Business Blog - India Special

My exploratory visit to India was a great learning experience both for my UK company and the plans for international expansion. One of the great benefits of going away is it gives you time to think and some perspective. I also read two excellent books:
Re-inventing the CFO and
The Workforce Scorecard .
In the first there was an excellent view on what has always frustrated me about finance and it fits with a clear and urgent need for us to have a CFO so it helped me think about the sort of person we would want.

The second book opened my eyes to some simple facts about the people in work – they are at least 60% of costs so the investment in them is a no brainier. I also love the quote this message:

Anthony J Rucci, Steven P Kirn and Richard T Quinn: “The Employee-Customer-Profit Chain at Sears” – Harvard Business Review

The measure of workforce climate is a very broad concept and includes employee perceptions of a company’s strategy execution and leadership practices. Based on data collected from 1997 to 2003, they find that workforce climate is a good predictor of future customer satisfaction, which is a good predictor of future market share. If measures are answers to questions, how much more compelling would those “answers” be if we could determine the relationship between the measures of strategic performance behaviours and customer buying experience? Both the line managers and the HR Manager would be able to get more specific answers, like


“A 15 percent improvement in performance behaviours has increased customer buying experience by 25 percent, which in turn has increased sales growth by 6 percent.”

The other key idea is of people in A strategic positions needing to be A performers really appeals to me and Ms ABW in HR has some clear goals that will help me define her KPIs and MBOs (call me a convert – HR is exciting once you appreciate the link to business strategy and its implementation!).

A few lessons from India


1. Choose the right consultant and agree fees in writing before hand

I choose SK and she did a great job, achieving high-level access to companies, insurers and doctors. One minor error is that we should have agreed and signed off on a fix-fee contract but all is well.


2. Caution re drivers etc

Traffic in Indian metropolitan cities is terrible. You need a driver and a good one with an air-conditioned car.

Customer service stories from India

2 bad

Nehru jacket story

SK the Indian consultant and I have finished seeing a doctor and weak past a clothes shop, which has a Nehru jacket in the window. We go inside and enquire after said Nehru jacket, about four people look a bit bewildered and then send us upstairs. The elderly man upstairs looks even more confused about a Nehru jacket and first shows me a normal jacket and then a jerkin. SK is surprised and we start to leave. On the way down the stairs the accountant says in perfect English ‘Did you not find what you were looking for?’. I reply ‘No, all we wanted was a Nehru jacket!.’ He says ‘Like this one here and pulls one out. Finally I but the jacket and trousers and he proudly tells me that guess who they used to make jackets for – Nehru! Now, the lesson there is dead obvious – Make sure your staff know your product line, especially if it is in the window!

Ram Charan story

I am a great admirer of Ram Charan and think any educated Indian should be proud of their countryman. At a small bookshop I notice they have a business section. I ask the hapless man on the desk if he has anything by Ram Charan. He looks lost and eventually decides to look at his database. He shakes his head but as he does so I notice that behind him is a book by Ram Charan! Again, staff should know their product lines! By the way, ‘Know How’ is a great book.

2 good

Insurance medical market

At a meeting with Kotak Insurance this was estimated for us as worth over $54 million and at NM Medical they explained that do the number of medical insurers required they would need 5000 clinics not 5!

The UKTI team in Mumbai

Anjali and her team were really helpful and speedily provided useful data and advice.


People meetings in India


The incomprehensible

One doctor in his 70’s was a delight but was like a ‘Carry On@ character as he rambled away in his version of English but a great guy and he showed us proudly round his hospital.

The asshole

One doctor was rude and denied we had an appointment and denied knowing who had made it despite him trying to get that person on his board! Well, he blew that one. Cross-referencing confirmed his local status as an ‘asshole’ and the doubtful reputation of his facilities.

The dude

We saw a fantastic hospital with fantastic staff and were then, as a bonus, invited to see the Chief Executive. He was a handsome, trendy young man with long hair and a photo of himself with Miss India on the wall. Beat that!

Summary

India is an opportunity and I really look forward to working with local partners to set up our first clinics there.