Its a hattrick!  3 speeches in a row! 3 best speaker awards! 

1st speech title - What's in a name?  2nd Title : Ethically  now the 3rd Title is Jump!

Jump Sathya Jump.  (I actually jumped)

Thank you TMOD, did as you have asked I Jumped! Now will you ask me to sing as well?

Before you do ….let me sing a rhyme or probably recite it…I tried hard to impress the little

kids around me with this..I have failed many a time ! but never gave up!

Here I go again ……come on and unmute and sing along!

5 little monkeys jumping on the bed

1 fell down and broke their head

Mumma called the Dr. and the Dr. said

No more monkeys jumping on the bed.

Fellow Toastmasters and Dear Guests

We Crawl, We Stand, We Walk & We Run. and Sometimes We Jump,

Jump over obstacles , Jump over hurdles….We Jump in Joy ..like Virat too! (The Ind vs Pak ICC game was to begin)

Jumping is associated with sports …..like long jump, high jump, like they hop skip and jump!

High Jump as a sport was very fascinating for me in childhood and it still is

While I still remember my friends, seniors at school would just compete to get the medal in

High Jump so that they get the individual award in sports since High Jump would be the only

differentiator. I wasn’t good at High Jump at all …..this did not stop me from learning about the sport.

Being an avid quizzer,… did read about the sport, the winners, the records and off course the

rules … I’m sure hardly anyone cared about the records and winners…here I was…

One thing that I could never forget was who won the gold medal in the Mexico Olympics in

1968………… Any guesses anyone ??? Yes it’s a quiz question… Dick Fosbury yes he won the gold for high jump! Now let me tell you that’s not his claim

for fame! So you may ask what was it then?

In high jump till 1968 and for many years later…..jumpers used to jump over the bar with leg

first and then followed with their body and head…… we call it the straight jump…

What Fosbury did was he would run in angle towards the high jump bar and would go with

his head first followed by his back and legs……..This was unique and weird but he still was

successful ….. This is known as the Fosbury Flop …yes Fosbury Flop and not Flip!

With this I learnt in life we have many challenges, some of the challenges are daunting

too….remember try to do the different or the unusual that may help you to overcome the

challenge… Don’t fear and off course Practice and trying new things could help! Like The Fosbury Flop!

High Jump is a unique sport ….you must be wondering why! Let me tell you its uniqueness

A jumper gets 3 chances to jump over the bar! If one does , the bar is raised …and again gets 3 chances… till there are a few people left say

4 or 5 …then 3 then 2 and finally there is 1….. remember the winner is declared only when the winner fails to jump the raised bar!

You aren't a winner until you have failed.

This will help you to stay humble and also strive for excellence,

Aren't we scared of failure. Champions are comfortable with failure …

Yes it is okay to fail and it is not the end of the world.

So its important to believe in your ability to Jump and over come …After every success you

raise the bar… Remember the Fosbury Flop !; You are not a winner until you have failed!

So Sathya Jump back to your seat ! Thank you!

Accountability & why it matters!

 Accountability is a noun which means "the state of being accountable, liable, or answerable" as per the dictionary definition. Does "Accountability" & "Responsibility" mean the same?. Well, there are differences and one of the main difference is "Responsibility" can be shared, however  "Accountability" cannot be."Responsibility" is when somebody says " I have given you a task and you are responsible for the delivery of the task". 

On similar note "Accountability" is the sense of ownership of the outcome beyond the task like the result.In today's context, there is a concept of "Shared  Accountability" is when all team members are responsible for team outcomes, not just the leader or manager, typically in an ideal "Agile" team. The culture of "Accountability" is important as people become problem solvers and the problem are opportunities for learning. The focus is on "What is Wrong" rather than "Who is" is more important. I must say this culture emphasizes more based on fact finding rather that fault finding. Trust & Cooperation  go a long way with the intent  to take calculated risks and freely innovate with the future in mind.

So to create a "culture of accountability"  is  everyone's responsibility. Lack of accountability does lead to low  team morale, lower levels of trust and teams becoming less engaged. Its important to make accountability a habit. In a culture of responsibility, yes individuals do feel motivated to work to complete the task at hand rather than the outcome. I don't want to complicate it by adding an element of fear in this.

One of the "Accountability" frameworks I have used in the past is called the RACI Matrix :

Responsible: Individuals who are responsible for completing the task at hand.

Accountable: Individual who is ultimately accountable for the completion of the task or deliverable. 

Consulted: These individuals are typically the subject-matter experts on the task at hand. 

Informed: Individuals who are kept informed of progress at each stage of the project and usually done in the form of one-way communication.

There are so many benefits of this matrix, but would like to mention it does establish clear lines of communication and does  reduce duplication of efforts.

"A culture of Accountability" drives "Effective Leadership", It starts with values of "Honesty", the ability to say "I'm Sorry" voluntarily, seeking inputs from all in a bid to ensure things go well in the future and ensuring in being responsible rather than avoiding "Responsibility".

Even though I write about "Accountability" here as a Leader there is a fine balance between "Accountability" and "Responsibility" that one as a  leader should strike a right balance of.

Stay tuned for more thoughts!

RPA 101- An overview

RPA  - Robotic Process Automation  is a form of “ business process automation technology based on metaphorical software robots (bots) or artificial intelligence (AI) workers” as per Wikipedia.

Lets dwell a little more to understand RPA. Now for those who don’t know what “Automation” is it’s the  technique of making a process or a system operate automatically. In other words the creation and application of technology to monitor and control the production and delivery of products and services. There are different types of automation, fixed, programmable & flexible sometimes called hybrid.

Robotic Process Automation  was coined by Blue Prism in 2012.Now for beginners to get a better understanding think of Robotics Process Automation as a  software solution that automates rule based tasks performed on single or multiple applications. Its Automation that mimics human activities carrying out steps of rule based, non-subjective process. Here Software robots are pre- programmed with sequence of tasks, “IF-Then” logic. Robots can interact with any application the same way a user does in a  Non Invasive / UI based interaction.

Let’s take an example of a “ Claim processing”  by a finance team member in production. Here the finance team member logs into the financial application, views their assigned task and clicks on the task where a claim needs to be approved.Based on the rules & guidelines set up for claim processing the finance team member views the claim, the proof of submission and if it within the ambit of the rules and guidelines set up for the claim. The finance team member approves or rejects the claim. The robot can be programmed to do this whole task.

Now one would say to automate this we could use an excel macro, yes we can and probably it would work well too. Macros have technology limitation and dependencies. One needs  to know a programming language like Visual Basic. Macros do work well with office applications and yes needs governance. Have you heard of a macro bringing down a complete mainframe system post a developer leaving the firm costing a large firm millions of dollars in loss?Yes unbelievable but true. There are challenges with excel that still can be addressed the question we ask is if everything that can be done by RPA could be done by excel then why was it not done years ago? Some so called technologists  would like to belittle RPA by saying RPA is macros on steroids.

Having given a view of Macros lets understand the power of RPA. The economic value is that it reduces operational cost and its attains return on investment goals faster. From a workforce standpoint it moves from labor centric to technologic with the capability of working 24/7.There is improved accuracy and an audit trail and helps in digitalization of manual process. While there is advantages in using RPA ,It still needs to be thought through and project selection becomes critical.

Here are some of the considerations to take advantage of RPA. A careful assessment of the following factors is required to determine where we use RPA and what impact to expect. Note this is not a whole exhaustive list but some important ones.

1.     What is the Business Objective of using RPA?

                                I.            Is it speed of service delivery

                              II.            Quality of service

                           III.            Is it to meet Risk management, Regulatory objectives

                           IV.            Is it to improve Efficiency and to reduce Cost

2.     Is the process rule based, repetitive [e.g. moving data from one system to another, creating report from multiple sources, etc.] or is it subjective?

                                I.            Do standard rules or variable rules apply. Are they documented?

                              II.            Volume of work , has this been captured and determined?

                           III.            Seasonality / Variability/Exceptions of the process

3.     Are there major changes in the immediate horizon?

                                I.            Process changes

                              II.            Platform / Underlying technology changes

4.     Is there a need to Optimize / Re-Design process ahead of Automation

                                I.            Can lean be applied and wastes eliminated before we apply RPA?

                              II.            Complexity of Process Redesign, Not everything needs to be automated.

                           III.            Time to Market, how important is this?

In other words to start of with RPA one could consider a simple process which intensively manual  with high volume, structurally repetitive, low exception volume, high likelihood for human error process to start with. The key is the business process is well understood and documented. I’m not going to dwell on how important is the business involvement and stakeholder commitment  towards the RPA initiative , like any other project it is very  important to set expectations with the sponsor or business unit.

Finally while you think RPA , make sure you think of all other process and governance areas like you would do for any project. Do consider what is the business continuity plan, change management governance, how the RPA teams both business and technical teams are engaged in the governance. Do consider separation of duties & roles and responsibilities. How are the robots being monitored and is it approved by the information security office and meets regulation for that business process.

RPA is here to stay , though I’m sure future products, applications would be pre-automated and there will be convergence of RPA technologies within the products. Stay tuned for more in RPA!

Blue Ocean Strategy - A book review

An Ocean is a very large expanse of the sea , it is vast and its depth is still being revisited by man every time. I’m sure most of us know why the ocean is blue.. its for simple reason of the sun’s white light entering the ocean & blue getting returned. The are portions of light like red , orange and yellow that just gets absorbed so some times you could possibly see a red ocean. In the market universe imagine 2 sorts of oceans Red & Blue. Red ocean represents the industries existing today and blue oceans represent industries not in existence today i.e known and unknown markets.

Competition does exists in industries ….especially in known markets…it becomes red due to the fight cause of the shrinking pool of profit. One may ask if this happens in a monopoly or oligopoly market? The fact remains as to how does one create an uncontested market space and make competition Irrelevant.

W Chan Kim & Renee Mauborgne makes an attempt to provide a systematic approach to making competition irrelevant in their book.This is definitely a blue ocean as most studies done in the past was based on company and industries. Here with a study 150 strategic move spanning 130+ years they have tried to help in providing ways to create blue oceans and their impacts.

The key here is Strategic Move which is the set of actions and decisions involved in making major market creating a business offering.

In this book one would dwell in cornerstone of blue ocean strategy which is Value Innovation, which focus’s on making competition irrelevant by creating value for the buyer & company.As you read along you would find it interesting as the book does introduces the tools and frameworks for creating blue oceans , In addition to this the 4 guiding principles for successful formulation looking across 6 conventional boundaries. Strategy does involve both opportunity and risk. The book uses visualization approach towards tackling risk which helps to create a blue ocean and also to maximize it.They say strategy is in the design which addresses business model risk and the sequence to create the strategy. The book then talks about leadership and introduces the concept of tipping point leadership which help leaders and managers to overcome hurdles which is a key to creating, sustaining and renewing blue oceans.

I would recommend reading this book if you want ideas and anecdotes and think there is a process to strategy.I’m looking forward to reading hopefully the part 2 of Blue Ocean Strategy and Blue Ocean Shift where more companies would have been analysed especially in the digital era of technology(2000–2020) and blue oceans designed ,created, implemented &justified with outcomes and there by find a company or industry which is perpetually excellent.