CASE STUDY Infosys KM initiatives (ref: icfai national college business strategy case studies icmr 2007) ABSTRACT: Of late, companies are using spiritual knowledge like Gita etc to findout the solutions for all kind of managerial problems they face. Here, an attempt is made to analyze a ceo’s speech and correlating the terminology with B.Gita. For this purpose only three lines of the speech were taken then build management lesson using the Gita. INTRODUCTION : The three lines I have taken for current discussion are - “KM is central to our core strategy of providing differentiated value to customers and enabling their business growth. KM has helped us develop a pervasive culture of beneficient knowledge exchange across geographies – ceo” Here, I make use of the following list of verses to show how Gita can address the present time business challenges. Verses Used in the article : Here 1.2 means chapter 1 verse 2 (4.15; 12.4; 1.14; 2.35; 1.2-4-6-7-& 8; 1.9; 1.3; 1.11; 2.39; 4.6; 4.61; 2.58; 4.2; 4.3) (2.31; 2.38; 2.2; 2.11; 4.5; 4.9; 4.10; 4.11-16-17-18-20) Llet us examine critically how the knowledge of BhagawadGita will help us in understanding the nature of business and describing the MISSION and consequent steps of planning and executing the strategy of any enterprise. The important words or terminology that had come in the first afew lines of speech were 1. Enabling customers’ business growth 2. Differentiated value to customers 3. Km is central to core strategy 4. Beneficient knowledge exchange across grographies. Company is a software solutions provider (INFOSYS) : B2B Model Ceo’s statement : 1. “customer’s Business growth” tells us that infy’s customers are other business enterprises which use the products or services developed by infy for improving their efficiency or productivity.” So, to help other businesses, infy needs to have DOMAIN knowledge of their clients from various sectors and their operations. Infosys don’t know or expect who will be their future clients (domain) and what their nature of business or model. So Infosys’ operational, functional efficiency depends on knowledge of different sectors. So it is necessary for infy to develop some infrastructure or framework to gather, maintain and disseminating effectively and using this knowledge across all geographies. We know that before launching any business we define Mission (what business they are in) and Vision statements (“What they would like to become”). These 2 describe about the nature of business. 4.15 – “It is about the nature of lord and following his commands in word and Deed. Lord tells us to do satvika karmas to get liberation. So the nature of lord is he blesses or likes people with good heart etc. So to get him we have to to lead a pios life. He doesn’t discriminate anything or anybeing. He is kind, impartial. (satyam jnanam anantam bramha). So understanding his nature help us know and plan to get him. So lord himself in Gita has given ways to attain him like bhakti-jnana-karma yogas and we have to select one of the ways to attain him. So understanding nature of business will help us plan and achieve success. As we know that mission and vision statements are not unalterable and we update these in tune with changing business Environment. So knowing the purpose and nature of business, will help us define our uniqueness in the software industry. Mission and vision statements will get clarity among all the management and staff regarding the purpose of existence and motivate and inspire them towards achieving the objectives. 12.4 “sarva bhoota hite ratah” love and do good to all Furthermore, business is nothing but finding out problems and difficulties people face and designing and developing solutions to the same . If we scan all the Mission & Vision statements of successful companies they describe how and in what way they can provide quality solutions, serve their customers and other focus areas like technology emphasis etc. All enterprises are thinking what they can do for society and have become socially responsible. As today’s management gurus said organization should focus on integrating operations vertically involving all stake holders and should maximize value to them. When enterprises are successful in doing this automatically profits come. Wise say buddhi karmaanusarini. Our behavior is fashioned by our actions and also our behavior determines our actions. Why some people magnanimous and some mean and greedy. Most of our politicians take oath on god but from day one they indulge in corruption. Magnanimous actions done previously left their positive impressions on mind. As we felt good we would repeat those good acts. Positive people think good of everybody so they think and do good deeds. Whereas negative people are pessimists, self centered, low values and standards and will not get good thoughts, ideas, decisions etc. Our efficiency etc. depends on what we decide and what we do. So, negative people have narrow perspective on life and low in creativity and innovtion (frogs in well). They give importance to profits whereas, positive people give importance to society and are creative and innovative by nature. Narrow perspective people don’t think about ‘sarva bhoota hite ratah’, instead they focus more on their development and in the end they fail. R&D seeds, pesticides etc Seed Makers Retailers farmers processing units ( Food Industry ) consumers Whole sale & retailers Fig:1 So in the picture the arrows show the flow of solutions, products, ideas etc from one party to another. Preceding party focus on what their customer’s needs etc. and produce or develop solutions and supply. And again my own performance or growth (growth is not monetary but more clients and customers who need my services or solutions) depends on my suppliers’ ‘value addition’ efforts. Yet again we need valuable resources, tools, technology etc to gain knowledge to provide ‘differentiated value’ to the customers. 1.14: “tatah svetaihrayair yukte” big chariot drawn by white horses..” In battle if we are one of the best warriors but if we don’t have quality horses and big chariot we may lose war. 2. “differentiated value to customers”. As we previously discussed about performance etc. to a large extent depends on the suppliers. There are many suppliers who are competing to serve my enterprise. But we select a supplier who can give more ’ added value’ or offer more valuable service. To achieve this you require quality human resources. You can not induct every person into army. It’s an honor to fight for the motherland. Even we have to do business with this ‘service motto’ or we should feel honored to be selected by the country to give us chance to serve. So to produce quality goods or services we have to become the best among the peers like 2.35 “great commanders who respect you ..” Arjuna was one of the best commanders so considered not only by his commanders but also by enemy commanders. So we have to acquire education-knowledge-capabilities etc and applying these in life and also constantly updating these to attain this position called the best. Arjuna was the disciple of drone and his devotion to the guru etc. fast learning skills shrewd intelligence etc make him the best of archers. 1.2 to 9 all these verses compared the great commanders in both the armies with bheema and arjuna. So here Bheema-Arjuna were taken as bench marking as they are the best in their respective fields. And again kaurava army was much bigger than pandavas’. But still finally pandavas won as Krishna provided his wise counsel to them. So every company requires the most suitable, resourceful person as ceo to lead his company. Leader will provide the vision set great targets and motivate and become role model for every employee to give their best. And also at the time of interview candidates go through many stages of selection process and only the better will succeed in getting the job. Infosys recruits only 1% of candidates from applications received – All can’t become soldiers - All engg. Graduates can’t be good programmers. Motivating followers to give their best is a challenge to the leader. He has to focus on many areas like conflict mgmt, change mgmt etc for motivating them. So the importance of motivation is mentioned in 1.9 “I have commanders who are ready to sacrifice their lives for me”. It shows that level of motivation expected from a soldier or an employee. It is clear that to be distinct or unique among the competitors or to provide highly differentiated services we require knowledgeable-practical-skilled-capable-goal oriented-highly motivated employees. To achieve all this we require a strategy or action plan. As khare said in his book you can win – “successful people don’t do different things but they do them differently ”. This doing or thinking (out of the box) differently is necessary quality in competition. 1.3 “See your disciple Drupada used his skill to arrayed their army strategically ” It is clear that job oriented skills and special skills which help you keep ahead in competition both are required in a manager. So many skills and knowledge of many things are essential. 1.11 “take strategic positions in the formation and protect the supreme commander ” Duryodhana requested Drona that you and other commanders occupy the most important places in the army formation and provide full scale protection to our supreme commander Bheeshma. Army used to comprise 4 battalions FOOT SOLDIERS – HORSE – ELEPHANT – CHARIORT MARKETING – HR – FINANCE - MANUFACTURING To win a war four battalions have to cooperate and collaborate with each other. In the same way, we have many specialized departments in corporate world and have to cooperate and collaborate with each other to provide differentiated value to the customers or create wealth for all stake holders. Infosys is a knowledge based company, and they require knowledge in many areas 1. Domain knowledge 2. Customer knowledge 3. Level of competition 4. Technology 5. Organizational knowledge etc. Knowledge required by Infosys is highly dynamic in nature. Its Knowledge life cycle is very short – “yesterday’s knowledge may become obsolete today” – when compared to other sectors. Internal Knowledge (Infosys Environment) Intertnal External 1. Domain K 1. Politico-legal 2. Operations etc. 2 . Economy – world and domestic 3. H R expertise,requirements etc 3. Competition 4. Latest Tech. 4. Trends in software 5. Handling all geographical branches 5. R&D in software technologies 6. Etc… 6. Etc (similarly Knowledge of Infosys’s customer environment) The company requires knowledge of its own 1.Iinternal 2. External environment and also, customers’ 1. Internal 2. External business environment. So knowledge is critical to its business core strategy. Yet in future too they have to carryout up gradations or updating of installed softwares at clients’ place. Even today’s soldier should know how to use pistols, riffles, guns, knowledge of ammunition, riding horses,camels,different vehicles, adaptability to live in different terrains and climates etc. They get highest quality training thereby they can survive and defend themselves and then only they can defend the country. Same way, company should defend itself internally, injecting good organizational culture. 3 “KM is central to our core strategy”. As Knowledge is an important asset and it becomes central to their strategy they have to focus on learning about what is knowledge; can we categorize it; types of knowledge etc. Our entire focus is on understanding this central concept. 2.39 “ Krishna said, so far I have explained about Sankhya knowledge. “ Sankhya means Descriptive or describable knowledge. So it is clear that we have sankhya (describable) knowledge so we have opposite side of sankhya ie., indescribable or nondescriptive knowledge. Why KM has become central to Infosys strategy? Let’s have a diagram to understand the importance of KM for a company like Infosys, knowledge is highly dynamic. In fig 1, if you are a ceo of a food processing unit your performance/profit-loss etc depends on from the stage of R&D on quality seeds through the last stage of consumers. 1 You should know or have knowledge regarding the R&D activities in Bio-Tech labs for producing quality seeds. WHY. If your competitors are getting their K.M in the form of farm produce by farmers who are using the high quality seeds having highest yield then they can get their farm produce at competitive price. Otherwise farmer using seeds which can’t give good yield then farm produce prices will be high. So in the market you can’t offer your own finished goods to the consumers at competitive prices. 2 Then you can also have knowledge of distribution chain. What you can do to improve their performance, cut down the costs etc. Develop innovative inventory techniques like J.I.T to improve your operational efficiency or competitiveness. 4.6 “causal body.. ” naa moola roopam to Seed --------------> Roots -------------> Trunk, branches,flowers, fruits (seed changes (below the (Visible) into a particular ground) tree) seed which changes into the tree roots lie underground, you have to dig to see and trunk, branches, flowers and fruit always visible. Fruit contains the seed. (it is life cycle) Similarly, knowledge too has its life cycle. Sometimes we are confused with which is the real cause (moolam) from which every thing sprouts. Most of us feel it is root but only who have capability and highest level of Knowledge, they say it is seed from which tree germinates actually. So for wise their endeavor is to understand the real cause (moola) to get the knowledge. Broadly we can classify the knowledge into 1. Tangible 2.Intangible and again knowledge is based on context-situation-person-purpose-experience, its width ‘n’ depth etc. Tangible is like tree. We can easily see, understand the knowledge. Like computer and its configuration. Intangible which is difficult to understand its meaning and purpose, Like roots ex. Measuring an employee’s skill (real worth) or performance. Still more intangible like seed and its more qualitative in nature and difficult to quantify it. BUT most of the times it is like fruit which we hold it in our hands to eat contains seeds. The moola or essence or cause is within our reach but we fail to notice it. So tangible knowledge is easily understood and quantified but intangible knowledge is qualitative and difficult to quantify and needs commonsense and extra perceptive skills. As we discussed previously saankhya is describable or descriptive knowledge which is tangible, we describe its form, shape, nature etc. Intangible is like how it works and things which we can’t measure. In gita lord used different terminology or names to address him. And these names describe his nature and qualities. Partha – Kaunteya – Arjuna – Dhananjaya – Gudakesa Partha means Son of Pritha Kaunteya means son of Kunti Arjuna his personal name Dhananjaya means who doesn’t have interest in material wealth Gudalesa means who conquers sleep (sleep also connotes ignorance) Kaunteya (Son of kunti) is easily understood Partha as Son of prutha. inquiry is necessary Dhananjaya – who doesn’t have interest in wealth means who conquered moha for for wealth. We can not underdstand the real meaning of not having interest in wealth But when You say he conquers moha for wealth it is understood what is this not having interest In wealth. AGAIN it needs to know not having interest in wealth is because of moha itself or he Conquered moha. Gudakesa – conquerer of sleep. Means he overcame ignorance. To become wise, as far as domain knowledge is concerned HOW MUCH KNOWLEDGE is required to become wise. (width-depth). Not difficult to measure the knowledge of a person. We have a system of measuring the knowledge of intellectual or emotional levels of a person called IQ,EQ etc. In the same way skill or knowledge (both tangible and intangible) measuring techniques or tools or methods should be developed in house. “complete control over senses (balanced mind) ” Here again we have something interesting information on knowledge available in Gita. It explains who is a person of BALANCED MIND. Means B.M person is he who can have his 5 senses under his control thoroughly and can focus his mind on me (lord). This is the definition given to “Sthitaprajna”. 1st step : “what is sthitaprajna state “control of 5 senses” 2nd step: “What we have to do” to attain the state. 2.62 “Dhyayato vishayaan” When we start thinking about sense objects… So, its like research and noting down the observations from human behavior, emotions etc. They know or identified different states of mind or emotions which provides “what is sthitaprajna” and 2.63 The uncontrolled mind Doesn’t guess that the Atman is present; How can it meditate? Without meditation, where is peace? Without peace, where is happiness? And arranged sequentially to find out which state or mood we are in and to which state it leads to.. Cause-effect phenomenon.. Thinking about sense objects, Will attach you to sense objects; Grow attached, and you become addicted; Thwart your addiction, it turns to anger; Be angry, and you confuse your mind; Confuse your mind, you forget the lesson of experience; Forget experience, you lose discrimination; Lose discrimination, and you miss life’s only purpose. And finally presented action plan “WHAT WE HAVE TO DO” to achieve bliss (AANANDA) in life. Gita also mentioned Yoga (ashtanga yoga) to achieve the state. A step by step practical method. 1.Yama 2. Niyama 3.Asana 4. Pranayama 5. Dharana 6. Pratyahara 7. Dhyana 8. samadhi 1 YAMA: i) Ahinsa - by thought, word, and deed ii) Satyam - truth iii) Asteya - non-stealing iv) Bramhacharya – complete ctrl of the s.organs of k & j indriyas 2 NIYAMA i) Shouch - cleanliness and purity of physical body ii)santosh - mental satisfaction and contentment of the mind iii)Tapas - Rigid ctrl of the physical organs of the body iv)Svadhyaya - Study of the sacred sciences v) Isvara pranidhan – Total surrender of one’s self to eesvara in thought ,word & deed. 3. AASANA …….. …….. Its highly intangible knowledge as subject matter is human behavior, attitude, emotions etc. Same way, Infosis like organizations should capture the intangible knowledge of both functional, operational or other wise and try to give it a format or procedure etc. So that real knowledge of an employee can be understood and shared among others in the organization. We are familiar with FILE EDIT DELETE etc icons in computers. Just by seeing the icon picture we can say its function. Same way intangible knowledge should be captured in symbols, analogies etc. In Gita 2.58 ” Tortoise folds all its limbs into its hard shell” same way a WISE would turn away his senses from physical objects. This kind of knowledge presentation will help in perceiving the knowledge by the learner. So knowledge should be simple, easy to format,easy to use, store, retrieve, share etc. How we solve a mathematical problem using logs etc . So Infosys should use its knowledge base to fulfill its objectives and serve their customers well. You need to be superior in your chosen area to beat competition. Organizations draw up mission, vision statements, set organizational goals and objectives and develop descriptive plans and strategies to maximize wealth to the all stake holders. Innovative, creative software solutions to maximize value to customers. And knowledge is also used to achieve cost leadership, measure employee net-worth etc. 1. “ Beneficient knowledge exchange across geographies” Once arrangements are made to create and update knowledge base are done the next step is its dissemination among all the development centers around the world. So every employee can make use of this knowledge to create differentiated value in their respective geographies. 4.2 “knowledge flows through master-student chain”. 4.3 “you are my devotee and friend so I’m teaching you this secret science Share info among friends, employees etc. Leakage of konwledge will hurt the organization (patent /confidentiality/ipr of content). Guhyam- rahasyam, god-devotee relation.. Impart-receive of knowledge is Guru to sishya. So in today’s world. We put it on web and share the knowledge. This verse tells us that the knowledge and its nature like confidential priority, strategic and can be public etc. So we have to put all security features to safeguard the knowledge from theft. CONCLUSION: Out of 700 slokas that gita contains I have taken only 22 slokas to analyse the essence of the speech given by infy’s CEO and how a manager can utilize the knowledge for not only day-to-day managerial problems but also drawing up an enterprise’s winning strategies. B.Gita is a treasure house of knowledge and any professional can get solutions to his professional challenges and no need of saying how an individual can get benefitted in his personal life. NageswaraRao. Somanchi
Posted on: Fri, 02 Jan 2015 06:46:57 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015