The Highlights of 36Th AMP at ICLIF in Malaysia and INSEAD in Singapore

The Highlights of 36th AMP at ICLIF in Malaysia and INSEAD in Singapore

We reached Malaysia 0n Sunday i.e. 02-09-12 by MH 607. We stayed in Hotel Renaissance and classes were held in JW Marriott in Kuala Lampur. In the morning, we left hotel for class at 7:30. The class started at sharp 8. The first session was on Leadership, Happiness and Success. It was taken by famous CEO of ICLIF, Mr. Rajeeva Peshawaria and the author of “Too many bosses, too few leaders”. He is internationally acclaimed and at present he is writing on the implications of recent Neuroscience and Quantum Physics discoveries on Leadership. He is a brilliant orator and the emphasis of his entire lecture was on value driven success. He said, “Leadership is the art of harnessing human energy towards the creation of a better future”. The role of a leader is to clarify both the purpose and the value in order to find and harness the leadership energy. It is an inside out paradigm. He also talked about the emotional intelligence pioneered by Daniel Goleman. He also talked about how your brain may have the power to influence other people and events i.e. linking neuroscience with quantum physics. In the end he asked the participants to answer six questions given by him honestly e.g. what will people say about you and your life at your funeral tomorrow, etc.. Then we were introduced to the world of business innovation and scenario thinking and use of scenario thinking and scenario development for business innovation followed by Group Exercise by a host of lecturers of ICLIF. They were equally brilliant. The focus of the rest of the classes during the whole week revolved around these topics only. The focus of business innovation is outside in paradigm i.e. you see your customer and competitors as they are and not as you want them to be and then you try to satisfy the need of your customer i.e. what they want and in order to satisfy their needs you try to know what your competitors are doing particularly those who are more successful than you are. Once you ascertain those factors, you try to adopt them. It may be through imitation/copying/scanning or steeling. The art of innovation lies in doing something different that has impact. It is a very good concept but the ethical dimension is missing. There is need to link this outside in paradigm with ethics. I also had an opportunity to delve deeply into harnessing the emotional energy of tem members (human element involved) during group exercise. Some of the members may be indifferent and barely ready to contribute. The others may be egoistic and stick to their point of view and not ready to listen to others. The art lies in carrying all the group members together by acting as a facilitator who is neither indulgent to any of the unwarranted/irrelevant idea of any group member nor allow the group to reach a solution which is untested and substandard.

Our stay in Kuala Lampur was comfortable and was taken care off well by the organizers. On Wednesday i.e. 05-09-12, the organizers took us to Putra Jaya, the political capital of Kuala Lampur. We had an outside view of the President’s House there. Here the President is chosen for a period of 5 years by a limited electoral college comprising the governors of all the thirteen provinces. The nine provinces have Sultans/ Monarchs as their rulers and one of them is chosen on rotation as president. President is a titular head here and the real power lies with the Prime Minister. Once a Sultan is chosen president, he loses all his real power which he used to exercise as ruler of a Province. Therefore, very few want to be President. At Present, His Majesty Sultan Mu’azzam Shah, a 84 year old man is the President of Malaysia. This is his second stint and he had his first stint as resident in 1970s at the age of 46. Then we saw Prime Master’s Residence from outside. We visited the national mosque in Putra Jaya. I had the chance to participate in the funeral prayer (namaaz-e-janaza) of ex Sports Minister Late Mr. Hamza Ismail in the mosque. We came back from Putra Jaya and had our dinner at the Restaurant Olive Gold in Kuala Lampur hosted by the organizers in Kuala Lampur. The dinner was very good.

Our classes ended on Friday i.e. 07-09-12. We were given our Certificate of Participation by the faculty of ICLIF. We left hotel Renaissance on Saturday i.e. 08-9-12 in the morning. However, some of us stayed in hotel till the afternoon and they went directly to the Airport to catch their flight. The tour on Saturday was sponsored by ICLIF. We first went to see a Cave which comprised Hindu temples and their gods. We then went to the Genting Island. It has the one and only Casino operated in Malaysia. It was built and is run by a family of Chinese origin having Malaysian nationality. It is a marvel as it is on a

Certain height and entry to it mandates the use of Cable Cars run to climb heights. The cable car takes you through these heights giving you a glimpse of greenery and forest lying below. It is awfully beautiful. When you enter there, it is full of fun and frolic and is a complete entertainment. There are indoor and outdoor games/events and you can spend the whole day here participating in these events. The most impressing event was a 4D movie shown on the life of a little Prince which dates back to the origin of the world. We left for Airport at 5 PM in the evening as our flight was scheduled for Singapore at 7:30 P.M. in the evening. We reached Hotel Mandarin oriental in Singapore at 9:30 in the evening.

In the morning on Sunday i.e. 09-09-12, we were taken to Sentosa. It is run by the same family which owns Genting Island. It shows the Disney Movies produced worldwide. It was a complete fun. The Transformer was thrilling and the most entertaining. The Red and Blue Rides were completely awful as there was a steep descent at a certain point and the speed was so terrific that almost all the riders closed their eyes at that point. However, we couldn’t see the Dolphin Show. In the evening we watched ‘Song of the Sea’ Laser show on the beach. It was completely entertaining.

The classes started in INSEAD from 8 A.M. in the morning which meant 5:30 a.m. in India. They made us work up-to 5:30 to 6:00 P.M. in the evening. We had some feedback on Mr. Amitava Chattopadhyay. He welcomed us in the morning as Director of this programme. The apprehension that clouded our mind about Mr. Amitava Chattopadhyay was clear after this address and as we interacted with him more and more, we found him more and more a nice person. Professor Chattopadhyay holds a Ph.D. from the University of Florida, a PGDM from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and a B.Sc. (Honours) degree from Jadavpur University, India. Prof. Chattopadhyay has been a faculty member at The University of British Columbia, Canada and McGill University, Canada prior to joining INSEAD. Professor Chattopadhyay is an expert on branding. After this introductory session, Mr. Jasjit Singh took over. Professor Jasjit Singh has been a member of the Strategy faculty at INSEAD since 2004. He obtained his Ph.D. in Business Economics at Harvard Business School. He spoke on fundamentals of Strategy followed by case study of Airborne Express. He defined strategy as an exercise which involves unique value creation through/via mutually consistent choices on:

a)  Scope: Where to Compete?

b)  Competitive Advantage: How to compete?

However, the fundamental question of ‘Why to compete?’ is missing here. I asked this question and Mr. Singh agreed to my proposition. As I have discussed on the issue of leadership, how it is critical to have a leadership which is focused on clarity of purpose as well as values. It is the emphasis on ethical leadership which is missing from Strategy and Innovation.

Value Creation may be defined as difference between:

a)  CTD (Cost to Deliver) : Overall cost per unit of the product

b)  WTP (Willingness to Pay): The value (in monetary terms) that the customer attaches to one unit of the product or service i.e. the maximum price the customer would ever pay for it.

Alternatively, Value Creation may be defined as value captured by Company (i.e. the real profit) as well as the customer (i.e. the perception of the customer about its utility and uniqueness which we call customer satisfaction). He illustrated it by the example of Steinway, the top class and most expensive piano selling company in the world. Its competitive advantage stems from the value proposition ‘best piano at any cost’. It sells its piano @ $85000 per piano to the premium segment. Thus its strategy is differentiation and not low cost. Interestingly no company including Yamaha could beat it in the Premium segment.

Thus Strategy may be summarized as replying to the following questions:

a)  Why to compete? The reply should be clarifying both your purpose and values. It is the leadership issue.

b)  Where to Compete? The reply should be clarifying for what markets or customers you strive to create unique value i.e. the gap between WTP and CTD

c)  How to compete? It may be the gap between your promise and delivery.

d)  Sustainability of Advantage: i.e. knowing your long term threats and taking steps to mitigate them.

The rest of the session was spent in group exercise. The participants were divided into random groups, sent to breakout rooms, discuss the case in hand (here it was the Airborne Express) and then find a reply/solution to the problems in a time span of nearly half an hour and then come back in the classroom and present them. Each group was allowed to present up-to 5 minutes. This was the modus operandi throughout the week. The composition of the groups was changed at frequent intervals. After individual group presentations were over, the faculty gave its own views/set of solutions on the case in hand.

The afternoon session was taken by Mr. Amitava Chattopadhyay on CRM (Customer relationship management). The case study was on ISS, the largest facility services group (office cleaning, catering, mailroom operations, building maintenance, etc.). He gave an insight into CRM and opined that the strategy of CRM hinges on asking two key questions namely:

a)  What type of relationship do you want to have/develop with your customers?

b)  How do you manage these relationships?

He also opined that the relationship should be based on win win paradigm i.e. it should be mutually beneficial and the sum total of VTC (Delivering value to the customer) and VFC (getting value from the customer). The business objective is to maximize value from the customer over the customers’ lifetime by delivering superior value to the customer. In the subsequent sessions spread over the week Mr. Chattopadhyay deliberated on Customer Focused Strategies and Building Strong Brands. In Customer Focused Strategies, the case study taken was the DELL Online Case. He opined that the watchword for winning competitive markets is to become customer/consumer focused and not competitor focused. He corroborated it by using the report of the study conducted by him and his two colleagues namely Mr. Dahl and Mr. Gorn in 2001. The study concluded that the results were much better when visualization/imagination was based on consumer/customer rather than the competitor. He illustrated as to how Indian Railways has lost its share of freight and passenger to road and other transport sectors during the last four decades. The key question to be asked is: Who are our customers? Once we identify our customer, the next question to be asked is: What are their needs and how do we meet them? One of the strategies may be:

a)  Reorganization of IR on business lines instead of the present functional structure.

b)  Creation of Customer-focused units for different units of business

c)  Outsourcing of activities like maintenance and manufacturing as done in other Railways.

d)  Separation of infrastructure from operations.

The supplementary strategy may be:

a)  Look for dissatisfied customers across the spectrum of customers, potential customers and non customers and then to identify a new way to configure segments based on a common unmet need.

b)  Focusing on the consumers’ decision making process including the consumption done by them

c)  Identify the consumption basket of the decision making unit, understand their role and motivation in decision making.

d)  Provide only the features consumers want.

e)  Be 100% consumer focused.

Mr. Chattopadhyay deliberated also on ‘Building Strong Brands’. According to him, the brand may be defined as value proposition comprising the following:

a)  Core values/services at the centre/core of three concentric circles. It shouldn’t be more than 3 or 4.

b)  Auxiliary Functional Benefits on the outer circle.

c)  Emotional/Perceived benefits on the outermost circle.

And Brand Identity may be defined as set of associations that the legal owner of the brand would like the consumers to have. Every brand will have a differentiating value proposition e.g. if we take GE, the core values are:

a)  Integrity

b)  Performance

c)  Change

Some of the Auxiliary Values are: Discipline, Passion, Growth, Leadership, Change, Innovation, etc. The emotional benefits may be quality, reliability, environment friendly, etc. The differentiating value proposition is: ‘Imagination at work’.

In the end we were given the group exercise of building brands for IR. Any unit of service, e.g. Shatabdi, Rajdhani, etc. was to be taken as brand for this exercise. Our group took Shatabdi as brand and we identified the core, auxiliary and emotional values of the brand. We also developed a differentiating value proposition for our brand. Similar was the case with other groups.