Thursday, June 23, 2011

Knowledge driven market

A couple of weeks back I was in Chicago attending a senior management course at Booth School of Business and amongst the several areas of thought leadership I was privileged to be part of, quite a few stood out and one in particular seems to have resonance for this magazine.

Even since technology became a key aspect of businesses, technology was considered an enabling function - used for ensuring core business could utilize available technologies to streamline operations, remove efficiency barriers, create decision support systems for easier analysis etc - however things have changed now. Technology is no longer just an enabling function enabling core businesses like banks and telcos to streamline and run operations but actually is now increasingly defining strategic value more than ever. Let me explain.

Most of my working life I have been confronted with a statement from the CXO community - 'we have a business problem (& it could be efficiency, productivity, revenue or something else but mostly tangible), find me the best way to solve it - typically using a mix of consulting, business process engineering and technology provisioning.' What I am hearing now is an increasing number of CXOs speaking about disruption - brought about principally by technology. I am hearing more CXOs (and not just the CIOs, in fact the CIOs seem very quiet in this one!) who are asking me - well, we understand there is this new great technology or application (some CFOs, COOs and CEOs are even using acronymns like apps!) and we want to be able to leverage it, we are struggling with how we can use say facebook to provide better service for our customers or increase our branding. Incredible but for the first time in almost two decades, I am witnessing technology driving business innovation, desire and dynamics and business leaders are struggling to keep up with it.

So what is causing this transformation? So what is causing the COO or the CFO or the CEO to struggle to appreciate and utilize these trends? These are some of the smartest people I am privileged to work with and they should know how to leverage Facebook for their banks or telcos right? Well, I am not sure - not because the CXO communities are not smart - they are exceptionally so - but the fact remains that the rapid change is something no one has prepared anyone for. It is not something that can be taugth in a business school and no one really knows how to leverage knowledge economics at the speed of light. It just hasnt happened before and most standard management books are unable to provide a template or a framework for leveraging this phenomenon. Interesting isnt it? To put this into context - for today's consumer (& not just the Gen Y or Z), the last tweet is often is more important determinant than the career resume'! So by the time someone dreams up a strategy or framework to analyse and leverage the existing knowledge content, the time for it has already passed!!

The short answer on leveraging knowledge is - build agility as part of the business dynamics. Agility and adaptability have always been part of a CXO's agenda but they are probably more essential than ever before and the virtuous cycle of agility perhaps has to be exponentially rapid. Perhaps it is time to revisit the 1-5 year business plans, perhaps it is time to jettison large and complex programs that promise much in 18 months time (or more), perhaps it is time to re-think on what actually constitutes strategy - perhaps it is actually time for us to evaluate our knowledge content, its relevance and frameworks, perhaps it is time for us to revisit long held notions of importance given to revenue sustainability, marketing dynamics and I think most certainly it is time to rethink what actually constitutes our target markets (& marketing strategies thereof) and our competition.

Which is all good reasons why I thought a break to study at two world class institutions was a good idea! We shall go back to discussing outsourcing operations in my next article.

Captives & their issues

Thanks for the comments on the last article, that provided me with significant food for thought and I felt that I should address some of the points raised before delving into the key dynamics for outsourcing.

The first point was on the issue of captives and my learned friend felt that a captive is perhaps best placed to leverage the efficiencies of scale and the dynamics for change and drive superior behaviour patterns and increased profitability. I personally think there has not been enough empirical data to support this view - we do have exceptions but in most of the cases where I have had to deal with captives, the experience has been less than great. There are some simple reasons why a captive - unless of significant scale and clarity of structure - will find it difficult to work efficiently. Also at the outset, it must be noted that outsourcing to a captive is a much older and thus more evolved business model than outsourcing to a third party - the British East India Company outsourced jute articles production to their own factories in Calcutta in the eighteenth century! I believe there are essentially four issues with captives and most organizations who have utilized their captives well have managed to appreciate and resolve at least two out of the four issues well -
1. Governance model - the key issue I have often seen is the method of interaction between the two entities - often the captives are treated as another vendor which results in suboptimal results. At the other end of the spectrum there are cases where the business leaders directly control their niche portions of the operations leading to an inability to leverage common functions better. There is always the issue with the captive employees who are often looked at as 'less essential' by the front office business folks in the parent organization
2. Lack of scale - sheer size is critical - lack of economies of scale, lack of career progression opportunities, lack of opportunities to work in different systems, processes and platforms, lack of opportunities to travel / live in different cities/countries and consequent issues with point 2
3. Lack of cross skilling - one of the key differentiators with external services providers is the ability to find interesting opportunities to work in different domains, technologies, countries etc - this makes for constant learning opportunities and creates a broader appreciation of the enterprise. One would argue that working in the same domain and technology creates significant reusable knowledge and thus efficiency but often it works exactly the other way around - working in the same domain and technology creates isolated knowledge centers and dependence on key individuals increasing operational risk. Also, one needs to remember that operations should essentially be repeatable back office work and one needs to often 'dumb' the process, simply the process and need for specialist knowledge to increase efficiency - with obvious exceptions to this point.
4. Lack of cross industry learning - one of the keys to the success of the India based firms has been the ability to leverage cross industry expertise. Telcos for example are very good with managing customer churn while most banks are not. Several service providers have figured on how to leverage such cross industry knowledge to create and drive additional value. Additionally - thanks to a broad industry base - many service providers are able to drive significant efficiency by leveraging common functions and technologies across industries by essentially 'dumbing' the process and technology value chain. Simply, a DB2 administrator performs similar (though not same) tasks in a retail firm or in a logistics firm - no reason to develop an industry specific knowledge - again with exceptions
The second point made by another learned colleague was the fact that customers are constantly looking for value creation in their outsourced relations. Price, process and quality arbitrage is all standards expected from a service provider but what additional benefit are they able to create becomes a crucial differentiator in an outsourcing relationship - this probably neatly brings me back to the topic I left last month's discussion on and which I think needs to be continued in our next post!

Friday, January 28, 2011

Rafi sings for SJ in the fifties

I began this article on Christmas eve as I was uploading a Rafi classic tuned by the incomparable SJ as my humble offering to mark Rafi's birth anniversary when it stuck me - in the 3 decades we spent without the peerless singing voice, he has just become more entrenched in our collective memory - just witness the number of articles and blogs on Rafi floating around the net - incredible. On this occasion I was thinking about Rafi and the fantastic collaboration he enjoyed with Shanker Jaikishen and the obvious examples were those tuned on Shammi and Rajendra Kumar through the sixties. But what about those gems in the fifties when arguably SJ were at their very best? I know many would baulk at the very notion that SJ were at their best in the fifties and their class deteriorated - however slightly - in the sixties but well, it is MY choice! How about those Rafi numbers which are perhaps not as famous as the Yahoo ones on a 'Junglee' Shammi Kapoor or a Chalke Teri on an Arzoo Rajendra kumar? Would it be worth an exercise to pick some gems from the fifties? So here are a set of Rafi classics set to tune by the great SJ in movies released before 1960 - so most of the Shammi classics other than College Girl and Singapore get eased out of the reckoning.

Lets start with the first ever SJ-Rafi collaboration set to tune on a pensive, introspective Raj Kapoor - Main Zindagi Mein Hardam was as much SJ Bhairavi on Rafi as was Mohabbat Ki Dastaan on Lata in Mayurpankh. Simple, elegant and with the music lending depth to an evocative Rafi. It remains an enduring classic to this day. Trust SJ to consider using Rafi for this - all the other songs in the movie picturised on a male actor (both Premnath and Raj Kapoor) were sung by Mukesh. One can listen to the Barsaat ground breaking number here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgXoz51hxTg

After Barsaat, SJ used Rafi for one song in Awara which was picturised on Premnath in a guest appearance, it was rumoured that Raj Kapoor and Premnath had fallen out and RK asked Premnath to lip sync this fishermen melody just to dispel any such allegations. Interesting song, but is it really one of SJ's best? Awara had some of the finest songs composed in Hindi film history and this Rafi number gets lost in the midst of all the Mukesh, Lata and Shamshad melodies especially the title song which even the smallest kid in India knows. Thus I move on and find this gem from Kali Ghata picturised on Kishore Sahu and Bina Rai making her beauteous debut. The SJ imprimatur is evident in the orchestra, the ear for melody and the clever use of the romance in Rafi's voice - hear it here to decide for yourself here – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6A_UimLs6K0


I am cognizant I have missed Nagina with the two Rafi duets (one with Lata and a rare one with Shamshad) but they were both - for me - good but not great numbers and perhaps would be considered later.

The year 1952 finds me with Parbat, a veritable treasure house of Lata classics but in the midst of all the Lata melodies, one finds a rare Rafi duet with Geeta Dutt and Lata set to tune by SJ. Hear it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPq70X4gTRo and let me know if Geeta didnt keep lilting pace with the great Rafi - in fact I often felt that Geeta was the best foil for Rafi - even superior to Lata - for a certain genre of songs - essentially playful, full of verve and lilt. Her effortless rendition of this song makes one wonder why SJ never used her more. As one wonders why SJ didnt use Rafi more in the early fifties.

Rafi then had the one solo in Shikast (1953) - Nai Zindagi ke pyaar karke dekh - which was not picturised on the hero Dilip Kumar but a good song all the same. However Shikast for me was all about Talat and his soulful playback for a melancholic Dilip and thus I move on to try and unearth more Rafi gems in this part of the SJ time period. I unearth this classic from Pooja - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIaqAcFoOx8 - a song I had never heard till a few months back. Evidently this song is in a raag called Madhuvanti - a rag so rarely used that there has been only once more in Bollywood. Hear this song and let me know if it wasnt as good as - if not better than - any raag based song Naushad composed for the peerless Rafi

In my excitement on discovering Pooja and its 7 Rafi numbers (4 of them solos), I realise I have missed out another classic released just before Pooja - Boot Polish, a movie whose songs were composed in a month thanks to Aah's box office failure and Raj Kapoor's consequent desire to avoid experiments and a musical where the peerless Rafi had to keep pace with a virtuoso - Manna Dey and while we probably hear more of the classic Manna Lapak Jhapak more today, the two Rafi duets - Nanhe munhe bachche and Tumhare hain tumse daya maangte hai bring to forth two sides of the Rafi repertoire - the sad and wistful allied to the strong and sensitive. Hear them and let me know if Rafi and SJ weren’t made for each other - even in the early fifties! Funny I wasn’t able to find these two classics on You Tube!

Picking out the best Rafi numbers gets more tricky as we approach the mid fifties and it seems SJ had by then understood the verve and potential in Rafi to utilize him for the more unconventional songs - thus Rajhath with the superb Aaye Bahar Banke, Basant Bahar with the classical Rafi numbers, the two Seema heart stealers and even in Raj Kapoor's Shri 420 where Rafi played singer to Shailendra's on screen persona were a significant quantitative and qualitative improvement on the SJ-Rafi partnership from their first 3-4 years of their collaboration. In Chori Chori, SJ used him on Johnny Walker with telling effect - tell me if All Line clear is lesser than anything the prolific OP Nayyar and SD Burman composed to go on a tipsy Johnny Walker. You can hear it here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxaONMbmzA8.

In the same period there emerged a song sung with rare passion set to music with equally rare feeling of wistfulness - check out Halaku's Aaja ke intezaar mein and let me know if Rafi ever reached those poignant heights again! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2XU3i__Jgc

As we approach the end of the decade, Rafi again has to fight for vocal superiority with Mukesh (Anari, Yahudi), Manna Dey (Baagi Sipahi, Ujala), Kishore Kumar (New Delhi, Begunaah) and even Subir Sen (Kathputli, Chhoti Bahen) and in the midst of all the songs Manna, Mukesh and Subir sang for the movie heroes and Kishore for himself, Rafi's high pitched Ye Duniya Ye Duniya from Yahudi makes a telling impact.

SJ’s clever use of Rafi to lip sync for a rock and roll number from Ek Phool Char Kaante while using Iqbal Sinha flown in specially from Calcutta for the original piece was a masterpiece. Hear the Rafi-SJ ode to Rock and Roll here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8C-ty-guK0. Ek Phool Char kaante also had Johnny Walker lip syncing to the Rafi number Tirchi Nazar se yun na dekh: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAIFydaL98M

However it was only in 1960 – after Ujala that SJ began using Rafi as their primary male voice. It is thus quite incredible to note that it took SJ a full decade to decide on Rafi while it took them no time at all to commence using Lata as their primary female voice! Consider the number of songs an Asha or Geeta or Shamshad have sung for SJ in their first decade as India’s finest music directors and you will know what I mean. But once SJ got their bearings with Rafi right, they proceeded to give some of the finest songs Rafi ever sang in his career from the exuberant Yahoo to the romantic Ye mera prem patra padkar and proceeded to help create the on screen persona of two of the brightest and most successful stars in the sixties – Shammi Kapoor and Rajendra Kumar. I end this delve deep into memory lane with the classic Shararat number picturised on Kishore Kumar – well life had come a full circle! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhnVzlY_5rg

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