The Truth About Changing Into a Culture of Innovation and Excellence - Aditya Yadav

1. *
“Running an Agile Fortune 500 Company”
Aditya Yadav, aditya.yadav@gmail.com
in.linkedin.com/in/adityayadav76

2. * A Typical Global Company
* Fortune 500/1000
* 200 Divisions
* 40 Countries
* 25000 Employees
*

3. *
@ Acme Inc.

4. * Original Question “What are the incentives we
should give to promote Excellence?”
* The Correct Question - “Lets review incentives
in the larger context of the work and set
expectations right. Lets see how?”
*

5. *
And The Philosophy Behind The Answer

6. * Management Guru‟s say Lead More and Manage Less
* But whatever incentives we give employees don‟t want to put in any
effort besides their immediate Job Description and Tasks and KRA‟s
* We have tried everything but nothing seems to work
* We have gone to the extent of including a comprehensive list of
things expected in everyone‟s KRA‟s. Now we have over 30 items in
there in 5-6 categories. But that doesn‟t work too.
* We have offered incentives and bonus‟s for innovation‟s, conference
presentations, patents… that hasn‟t worked either
* We have put incentives on consultants to build the practice and grow
the business, that also didn‟t succeed.
* What do we do?
*

7. * You cannot Motivate anyone who is not already self
motivated to „Succeed‟
* You cannot convince people either. In Leadership the biggest
problem is „Consensus‟ even the biggest problems Top
Consulting Company Ivy League Consultants face is arriving at
a Consensus between themselves. Primarily because
everyone is smart and thinks of themselves to be so over
others and they don‟t want to admit somebody else has a
better solution.
* Ref: Another Deck of mine on Motivation & Incentives.
Incentives are not meant for Primary/Core behavior.
* Metrics/KRA‟s/Reports won‟t solve any problems either.
* Its time for…
*

8. *

9. * Employees Expect “Managers and Company will take care of my
career”
* We need to set the expectations right
* It‟s a 3000 seater office. Nobody even knows you exist or cares (Take
a pinch of salt while saying this!)
* Look at the industry around you there are 10,000,000 people doing
exactly the same thing.
* You can retire as a Senior Manager at 60 years or you could succeed
in achieving your Life Goals/Plans.
* Given a choice your manager will build his own career over burning
the midnight lamp to benefit yours. And that‟s a Reality.
* The Company cannot take care of your career either. The maximum
they can do is [Facilitate] create the Roles, Hierarchies,
Recommended Career Paths and the Environment but its up to you to
manage your own career
*

10. * Employees Expect that “When the organization needs work it is their
responsibility to Train employees apriori”
* “You don‟t train Human‟s you train Dog‟s”
* You Mentor and Coach Humans
* While the company should offer Training Resources to one‟s who want
it
* It is the Job of the employees to Self Elect themselves to trainings
* It is the Job of the employees to Collaborate, Share Knowledge and
Learn
* The Company is just a facilitator and the HR – Training and
Development department should ideally be abolished with Finance
taking the responsibility of expensing training expenses.
* This is a Bottom Up Empowered Organization!!!
*

11. * If you think an Ivy League Degree will be enough to help you succeed in your career. Think Again!
* It can open doors, offer some credibility, get some interviews.
* But look around yourself there are 40,000 Ivy League Graduates competing for the same opportunities
you are…
* Get in the line
* The Industry has Transformed itself into a Reputation based Ecosystem
* Today degrees, certificates, corporate brand image, role, title, profit & loss management numbers
won‟t get you anything
* Its plain simple supply and demand
* Without your Personal Brand and Reputation you are just another face in the crowd. You are a
commodity…
* You have no negotiation power, no ability to choose, impossible ratio‟s of selection into your perfect
desired job or education
* The Industry is filled up with people with Mammoth Reputations, with an average of 100,000 people
knowing the Top Thought Leaders.
* You can choose to “Just Exist” or you could choose to “Put a dent on this Universe”
* The choice is completely yours.
*

12. * One wonders the need to put in 60-80 hours a week
into their career when 40 hours will do according to
the contract.
* One looks in awe at Strategy Consultants and
Investment Bankers who make Millions of Dollars or
even Billions of Dollars (Fund Managers) But do you
know they have put in 80-100 hour weeks for
decades.
* It gets very lonely with such a skewed work life
balance when you keep working hard for years at a
go. But Success doesn‟t come easy and comes at a
price to people who try and work towards it.
*

13. * Many people don‟t work harder and smarter, self-
learn and grow, or collaborate and share with the
community or build their Brands and Reputation…
* Because… they haven‟t seen or known anyone
succeed doing so, so they are skeptical of putting in
so much voluntary effort
* Leaders need to exemplify and enumerate examples
of successful employees within the organization and
in their industry. This is the homework that needs to
be done by the Leaders trying to bring about the
Change!
*

14. * I‟m not promising anything except that…
* As per policy you are still just required to work only a minimum or 40 hours/week and
deliver on what‟s expected from you
* And the managers will still offer sustainable work hours to everyone.
* But what we are saying is…
* We are offering all the resources you need to learn and excel, mobility policies, global
exposure, lateral transitions…
* We are offering an environment where you can learn and experiment, where failure is
not only tolerated but there are no repercussions for failure; enforced by policy and
culture.
* We will still expect you to invest in learning, innovating, building a reputation and your
brand, sharing with the community, collaborate, build your own careers and succeed.
* The choice is completely yours…
* But the fact is even within the Company and Life in General the most successful
people will move up and others will not and will have to live with their choice.
*

15. * Innovation and Learning is a core expectation from the employee‟s…
* And as such it will NOT be incentivized.
* It is a part of your job, and the reason behind people who succeed
* How much incentives do you need from the company to build your own careers and
succeed? There will be „some‟ to drive change but nothing otherwise mostly.
* The company will not and cannot financially incentivize Learning and Innovation
enough for everyone
* We will stick only with Salary + Performance Bonuses without Extra Incentives for
Learning and Innovation
* And three Globally mandated KRA‟s are (i) Initiative(s), (ii) Innovation(s), and (iii)
Growth (Professional + Business)
* Factor Based KRA‟s don‟t work. Putting 30 of them don‟t work either. These 3 KRA‟s are
Direct Strategic Business Success Drivers
* These KRA‟s and nothing else should ideally be the set for every employee Globally for
the next 50 years of the Firm‟s Existence.
* And there is a Move Up Or Move Out Policy in place Globally.
*

16. * The Message & Actions from Leaders have to be
consistent
* There shouldn‟t be any examples across the
organization where non-deserving employees move
up
* Failure shouldn‟t be penalized
* The Environment has to be reinforced by Policies
and Culture
* Or else the Change will #fail to Deliver
* Some people who don‟t make the transition will
have to be let go
*

17. Aditya!!!
*