Disclaimer: I do not have faintest of intentions of making my family members look/sound smart. Jokes apart,
Yesterday, at home, we were talking about different things and naturally recession too was topic that we exchanged views. To sort of sum it up, my mother was perturbed, I was concerned, my father was not and my wife did not worry at all! (her apparent lack of worry is not because she knew exactly when the recovery will happen or that she knows exactly how to ride through or because we have loads of money that it did not matter - it is just a plain hope that it will not impact us as a family in any which way and she was confident about!)
Topics of discussions moved on from recession but I, subconsciously, remained. What struck me was that my mother's 'perturbed' state or my 'concerned' state of my wife 'hope-based-nothing-will-happen-to-us' state are among the most common that we would find most people falling under.
How come my father was not in any of these? or, What state is he really in? and What makes him be in a state whatever it be? I brought back the topic and asked him these questions.
He started telling me a story - Most kids going to school most often would tell, during the rainy season, that it is raining badly and so it is difficult to go to school. During the winter they would say it is very difficult to wake up early because it is so cold and hence can not go to school. They will have a reason for every season not to go to school.
At this point, I was really getting a bit annoyed as to what connection this story has to the topic of discussion - 'Recession' and more importantly its relevance to the 'state' he is in.
Few minutes later he threw a one liner that he read while he was in college - 'There is no bad weather - There is only bad clothing/gear' - Boom, all antennas are up! and I got answers to his 'state' and why he is in that state and his approach in general.
What we often mean when we say bad weather is that we do not have appropriate clothing or gear. Per se, there is only weather - neither good nor bad. A guy with appropriate clothing for 10c winter doesn't feel winter bad as would a guy with inappropriate clothing - difference is not in the weather!
Now, it is a choice that we have to make - do we want to continue to crib about weather itself or would we want to equip ourselves with appropriate clothing/gear.
Extending this to the business - we can continue to crib about recession and bad times and wait for it clear or hope that somebody will help or, worse still, hope that customers will continue to give us business because they know we need it. Or, take things into our hands and quickly equip with appropriate clothing/gear suited for the current times and go to customers and show them and seek business.
I work in IT Industry and for most companies in this industry, appropriate clothing/gear would mean the following:
What this recession is doing is, it is changing the situation. Situation that the industries or customers we serve are in is changing and if we do not have appropriate clothing/gear for these new situations, we call it bad weather and find a reason for season! How cruel?
Rather, we should be focusing on equipping ourselves with appropriate clothing/gear and if you have those you are bound to succeed. Bound to succeed and here is why - The very reason for existence of Outsourcing industry is that there are challenges that companies across the globe are not able to cope up with and they wanted to find if there are vendors that can help solve those challenges (like workforce challenges, time-to-market challenges, cost competitiveness challenges, innovation challenges etc). What this recession is doing is compounding those challenges for the same companies, which essentially means those companies will continue to look for vendors that can help solve those challenges.
I'm not therefore inferring that challenges remain same. I'm only saying challenges remain, they are not same though! - That's the big difference. Nature of 'challenges' (content, shape, form and magnitude) have changed. Change in the nature of challenges is what I would equate with changes in the weather and hence the need for appropriate clothing/gear.
Now the problem with most companies is that they equip themselves with clothing/gear (refer to the 4 points I listed above) and keep pushing them. Consider this example: Many of the India based outsourcing vendors have offered 'I have 1000 programming language experts, I have CMMi, I can do $20/hour - Do you have business to give?' - This looked like a wonderful proposition till recently and soon came tonnes of business India way. Problem is we continue to offer the same even now and it is annoying customers and they are saying 'get the hell out of here', which we are taking it as 'They do not have business to give'
What the customer actually saying is 'you are wearing inappropriate clothing/gear' but not 'I don't have business' - Those customers still have challenges and so still have opportunities for business for us, if only we have the appropriate clothing/gear.
I can't get any more prescriptive on 'What exactly is the appropriate clothing/gear for current times?' given my full-time employment and also because it is different to different people/industries/regions. But, it is also not a very difficult question that you can not find answers. Some of the things you can do find out answers are:
No bad weather from now on for me, Thanks Dad!
Yesterday, at home, we were talking about different things and naturally recession too was topic that we exchanged views. To sort of sum it up, my mother was perturbed, I was concerned, my father was not and my wife did not worry at all! (her apparent lack of worry is not because she knew exactly when the recovery will happen or that she knows exactly how to ride through or because we have loads of money that it did not matter - it is just a plain hope that it will not impact us as a family in any which way and she was confident about!)
Topics of discussions moved on from recession but I, subconsciously, remained. What struck me was that my mother's 'perturbed' state or my 'concerned' state of my wife 'hope-based-nothing-will-happen-to-us' state are among the most common that we would find most people falling under.
How come my father was not in any of these? or, What state is he really in? and What makes him be in a state whatever it be? I brought back the topic and asked him these questions.
He started telling me a story - Most kids going to school most often would tell, during the rainy season, that it is raining badly and so it is difficult to go to school. During the winter they would say it is very difficult to wake up early because it is so cold and hence can not go to school. They will have a reason for every season not to go to school.
At this point, I was really getting a bit annoyed as to what connection this story has to the topic of discussion - 'Recession' and more importantly its relevance to the 'state' he is in.
Few minutes later he threw a one liner that he read while he was in college - 'There is no bad weather - There is only bad clothing/gear' - Boom, all antennas are up! and I got answers to his 'state' and why he is in that state and his approach in general.
What we often mean when we say bad weather is that we do not have appropriate clothing or gear. Per se, there is only weather - neither good nor bad. A guy with appropriate clothing for 10c winter doesn't feel winter bad as would a guy with inappropriate clothing - difference is not in the weather!
Now, it is a choice that we have to make - do we want to continue to crib about weather itself or would we want to equip ourselves with appropriate clothing/gear.
Extending this to the business - we can continue to crib about recession and bad times and wait for it clear or hope that somebody will help or, worse still, hope that customers will continue to give us business because they know we need it. Or, take things into our hands and quickly equip with appropriate clothing/gear suited for the current times and go to customers and show them and seek business.
I work in IT Industry and for most companies in this industry, appropriate clothing/gear would mean the following:
- Expertise, Skill, Capability (largely these are with the people they employ)
- Processes & Systems
- Business Model
- Infrastructure
What this recession is doing is, it is changing the situation. Situation that the industries or customers we serve are in is changing and if we do not have appropriate clothing/gear for these new situations, we call it bad weather and find a reason for season! How cruel?
Rather, we should be focusing on equipping ourselves with appropriate clothing/gear and if you have those you are bound to succeed. Bound to succeed and here is why - The very reason for existence of Outsourcing industry is that there are challenges that companies across the globe are not able to cope up with and they wanted to find if there are vendors that can help solve those challenges (like workforce challenges, time-to-market challenges, cost competitiveness challenges, innovation challenges etc). What this recession is doing is compounding those challenges for the same companies, which essentially means those companies will continue to look for vendors that can help solve those challenges.
I'm not therefore inferring that challenges remain same. I'm only saying challenges remain, they are not same though! - That's the big difference. Nature of 'challenges' (content, shape, form and magnitude) have changed. Change in the nature of challenges is what I would equate with changes in the weather and hence the need for appropriate clothing/gear.
Now the problem with most companies is that they equip themselves with clothing/gear (refer to the 4 points I listed above) and keep pushing them. Consider this example: Many of the India based outsourcing vendors have offered 'I have 1000 programming language experts, I have CMMi, I can do $20/hour - Do you have business to give?' - This looked like a wonderful proposition till recently and soon came tonnes of business India way. Problem is we continue to offer the same even now and it is annoying customers and they are saying 'get the hell out of here', which we are taking it as 'They do not have business to give'
What the customer actually saying is 'you are wearing inappropriate clothing/gear' but not 'I don't have business' - Those customers still have challenges and so still have opportunities for business for us, if only we have the appropriate clothing/gear.
I can't get any more prescriptive on 'What exactly is the appropriate clothing/gear for current times?' given my full-time employment and also because it is different to different people/industries/regions. But, it is also not a very difficult question that you can not find answers. Some of the things you can do find out answers are:
- Engage with your customer/prospect - Often, they will be willing to share their current challenges. But please, don't expect them to give it to you on a plate. You should be able to deduct, read between and see through.
- Engage with your core team internally - very often we will be surprised, pleasantly, with what they have to contribute. The guys closest to real world only will know real world challenges. Yes, at higher levels of hierarchy you will know more strategic challenges which are also things that we should know.
- Network with outsiders - By virtue of they talking to different people in the industry, these outsider offer a great deal of insights into whats happening. Choose the good ones, otherwise it can be a drain!
- Be open and flexible - Things change and sometimes dramatically and very quickly too.
- Look internally for the clothing/gear that you want to get rid off (in all 4 categories that I listed above) - The things that you want to get rid off, sometimes offer a great insight into what you should have. Besides, it also helps you stay healthy and make profits - Not a bad thing to have :-)
No bad weather from now on for me, Thanks Dad!
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