The leadership challenge, post Covid - pertinent questions to ask ...

The Covid crisis has given us time to sit back and introspect where we earthlings went wrong ..

It seems in the next one month or so most of the organisations will start functioning in full scale even though the severity of the crisis may not abate till December or even next June.

But how do we recalibrate our work life and personal life and document the hard lessons we have learnt during this crisis. It is equally important to bounce back from this crisis as to learn from it the hard lessons too.

More often than not, asking the right questions is more important than knowing the answers to these questions.

What are the most important questions we can ask ourselves and our teams as a fallout of the crisis. 

I am listing some of the most interesting and important ones. These questions can be asked irrespective of organisations, for-profit manufacturing or service, governmental, defense or other not-for-profit organisations across the world.

(colour codes - personal learning, team learning and organisational learning) 

1. What was the point of this crisis? 

2. What will I do if this event / crisis happens again? 

3. What did I learn from this case? 

4. How can I move faster next time? 

5. What did the team learn and how should we change?

6. How did the crisis benefit us ?

7. How did the crisis damage our business / repute ?

8. How long will it take to recover ?

9. Has the crisis given us improved capabilities and strengths ?

10. What are the new challenges of the future ?

11. How can we leverage on our new capabilities and strengths ?

12. Where do we see ourselves in the next 5 years and 20 years ?

It will require a good team exercise to answer all these questions. But getting answers to these pertinent questions at the time of the greatest crisis that hit humanity in this new century, will indeed give great learning and provide a deep vision into the future.

Thanks to the HBR article Leading into the post Covid recovery, by Merrate Weddel Weddelsbog, August '20.

George..

Are we caring enough for the environment ?

What and how do leaders do things differently ..

Leaders have made the world. Great leaders who have led people and countries through conflicts and social problems have helped change the world. Religious leaders have appealed to the common ethic of the society and helped create religions and communities that go according to specific guidelines that have evolved over centuries. 

Leaders of industrial organisations have guided organisations through trying times in their growth. How Henry Ford brought about revolution and change in the automobile industry of the world and how Thomas Edison through his far reaching scientific prowess came up with inventions that changes a generation altogether are great examples of what leadership and scientific insight can do to industrial societies. What is more important is leaders guide people, societies and organisations through difficult times.

The other day I was going through an HBR article on leadership by Allison, Wei and Brianna in the August '20 issue, What's your leadership story . Quite interesting and insightful. The interesting thing I found about HBR articles is that these  articles do give cutting edge research on people and organisations across the world, helping further the frontier of knowledge. This helps organisations and individuals to keep abreast of developments in their area of interest. 

The article mentions about a research study that was done on 92 leaders in different walks of life to find what circumstances prompted them to take on leadership roles. It was like how they looked through 4 lenses of life expectations and experiences. These 4 lenses are as given below.

1. Being - having natural traits of leadership,  accepting responsibilities and rising to the occasion comes naturally to these people. John F. Kennedy was an American President who had the natural charisma and capabilities of a leader.

2. Engaging - these group of people engage with others and motivate them to perform and help attain higher goals and objectives 

Leaders become great not because of their power,  but of their ability to empower others. - John Maxwell

True leaders dont create followers,  they create more leaders.. Life of Jack Welch of GE is an example ..

3. Performing - these group of people individually carry out tasks to attain leadership roles

Great leaders don't tell you what to do, they show you how it's done.

4. Accepting - leadership is thrust on them due to their innate abilities or accomplishments. Mahatma Gandhi had leadership of Indian Congress thrust on him because of his profile as a successful lawyer and a humane individual who fought against racism in South Africa.

Great Leaders believe in delegating very important tasks to their colleagues and subordinates and only carry out super critical tasks which only they can accomplish. They also believe in motivating others by understanding their innate strengths and helping them succeed.

George 

Can the new-born Covid experimental ventures survive into the future?

Covid time has brought up many entrepreneurs both in the service sector mostly in healthcare sector and in the manufacturing of PPE equipment and ventilators ... When the developed and developing world, who are the major victims of this virus which originated in China, are trying to shift their developed businesses from China to other countries of the world, with maximum focus on India, going to be the greatest beneficiary, this topic is of great significance.

When we have so many new entrepreneurs who have set up new experiments and businesses in these trying times, what are the features of these businesses to ensure that they have the potential to survive into the future ?

The following four points would throw some light on this aspect.

1. Is the innovation addressing a a long term problem which has evaded a solution for a long time ?

2. Finding the future potential of the present business and how it would perform and which customer segments can it target ?

3. At the right moment, understand the market, pivot the activities of the startup to a higher level and gear, addressing new potential sectors and customer segments

4. Keep in mind that a business model that supports social entrepreneurship can transform into great innovations into the future.

We should not forget that it was the second world war that brought the digital revolution, including the digital computer, digital communication and everything digital, to the fore, of which we all are great beneficiaries. There is a great potential for some new technology or business that has been developed during these trying Covid times to turn into an innovative offering for the world in the future.

This paper has valuable inputs from a paper by Dirk Schroeder "Turn your Covid 19 solution into a viable business", in HBR of July 2020 (click here for the paper)

George..

A design thinking exercise on improving retail sales during Covid times

Service sector is presently facing great hardships given the Covid protocols of social distancing necessitating reduced customer density at service facilities. 

The famous Little's law gives us the relationship between the number of customers in a facility N, the arrival rate lambda and the average time spent by customer at the service facility, T  by the expression 

N = lambda x T.

The arrival rate of customers lambda is an independent variable, outside our control, while the no. of customers inside the service facility N during this Covid time is decided by the government and health authorities depending on the shopfloor area.

The only variable under the control of the retail management is the time each customer spends at the retail outlet, T. 

Given the random nature of customer arrivals, getting customers to maintain the same spend on products and services (merchandise) at the retail outlet while at the same time reducing the time spent at the facility and permitting only limited customers inside the facility to maintain social distancing norms is the challenge for retail outlets across the world, during this Covid time. The only variable within the control of the service outlet is the time spent by the customer inside the facility and the availability and variety of merchandise.

 

Taking the case of the outlet of a large major all- India retailer in Bangalore, a Design Thinking exercise was done to evaluate the options. The participants were a private group and after the initial empathy building exercises, the participants were asked to brainstorm on ways by which 

1. the individual customer spend could be improved

2.  reduce the time spent inside the retail facility. 

 

Government regulations are presently in place where not more than 15 customers could be allowed in the said retail provision and veg/fruits facility at any time. The facility works in two shifts from 6 am to 2 pm and 2 pm to 10 pm and has about 6 staff in each shift. The staff man the counters and weighing centre, besides taking stock of inventory and arranging replenishment of depleted shelves.  Replenishments come mostly in the morning. 

Maintaining less human density (hence increased social distancing) inside the store while at the same time ensuring faster flow of customers though the facility, thereby spending less time at the facility and enabling more customers within the 12 hour open window of the store, is the only option for the store management to ensure it remains profitable even during this Covid time...

The many suggestions to improve customer spend and reduce customer time inside the service facility that came up during the brainstorming session of the Design Thinking exercise is given below.

1. make employees more customer responsive thereby offering more customer service 

2. better visible arrangement of merchandise on the shelves

3. availability of large, comfortable, well maintained carts

4. better display of notifications and areas earmarked for specific items of merchandise

5. create more space for stocking items by reclaiming part of the frontage of the store

6. keep staple items at the rear and fast moving items prominently displayed at the counters at comfortable heights which ensures customers get a view of the stock and revise his/her purchase plan

7. increase check out counters so customers don't queue up at the exit

8. increase the warehouse heights so that extra items can be stocked, enabling faster replenishments when stocks get depleted

9. as far as possible ensure a uni-directional flow of customers within the premises to prevent customers intersecting others' paths

10. improve the indoor colour shades and aesthetics

11. classify vegetables and fruits in organic, healthy and economical (value for money) sections 

12. pre-packing of fast moving staple items like potato, sugar, onions, tomatoes into convenient packages of 2 - 3 kgs each to enable faster movement of customers from staples area

13. exhibit posters requesting customers to ask or help in case they are unable to find particular items of merchandise 

14. improve cubic utilisation of store shelves  

15. smaller items could be placed in drawers attached to the racks than be placed in the open 

16. maintain a fixed layout without much of change at least for 6 months so that repetitive customers can shop faster

17. keep dedicated staff at busy areas like vegetables, staple food item shopping area 

18. make provisions for self-weighing and sticker generation by customers 

19. more staffing at manual weighing counters

20. air conditioning to provide comfort to customers shopping 

21. increase the alley space to reduce the feeling of congestion inside the store 

22. a new metric rack ratio which is the ratio of storage floor space to total store floor space in the store is to be deployed to ensure effective utilisation of floor area. 

23. have welcome staff at entrance and exit to guide and direct urgent customers to the racks and enable faster ckeckouts,

After these 23 suggestions have been generated, it is being discussed with the store management, who will take valuable suggestions and do a quick deployment on the shop floor. If this prototyping is found effective, it will be deployed not only at this store, but across the county.

The quality of the ideas generated at the brainstorming session was what added lot of value to this design thinking exercise.

This note has borrowed ideas from a Harvard Business Review article from Robert Schumsky and Lawrence Debo, What Safe Shopping Looks Like During The Pandemic, HBR, July '20 and the author acknowledges the authors of the HBR paper.

George..

A fool-proof supply chain for Covid vaccine

The Covid vaccine discovery is happening at a fast pace around. While two clinical trials are underway, about 50 vaccine candidates are in clinical evaluation. 

Herd immunity is what can hold the virus in control. Herd immunity should cut across economic cleavages in society. The policy of the highest bidder deciding the market price and distribution strategy along with the appropriate effective supply chains cannot work for this virus. The geographical spread of the vaccine administration covering the major hotspots across the world only can ensure herd immunity, bypassing all economic wellbeing and literacy considerations.

What are the precautions we need to take to ensure the covid vaccine once released does not get mired in corruption and favouitism and instead gets through to the needed people in the society who can ensure a fast and safe herd immunity.

Vaccinating the people closely associated with the virus : The different groups of people who need to be first vaccinated with the covid vaccine in order are

1. patients

2. healthcare professionals across the world

3. law and order maintaining personnel, police forces and paramilitary

4. workers from the government machinery who are holding the thread to arranging an upkeep of the quarantine facilities and containment policies

5. social service workers arranging for transportation, stay, food etc for the patients and their dependents

6. the vehicle personnel including drivers and maintenance personnel.

Once these patients and service personnel are vaccinated, the rest of the public can be vaccinated keeping in mind their geographical spread irrespective of financial and social status.

Financing of the vaccine for the different strata of population across the different countries of the world can be taken up by the global financing bodies like the United Nations, OECD etc.. Gavi, (click here for the HBR article) the vaccine alliance of the world has been functioning since 2000 in almost 73 poor countries supporting 496 vaccine programmes and helping vaccinate half of the world's children. This programme has eventually helped all ages of people to be vaccinated. A programme on similar lines would be what the billionaires or rich groupings like the OECD of the world need to focus in the coming months and years.

Personal Identification : The global process of inoculation would necessitate a form of personal identification system for the people inoculated. This would ensue the effective and safe administration of vaccine. Some proposals could look at having bio-markers like a coloured permanent strip or a semiconductor chip to be ingrained under the forehand skin of the patient could ensure a fool proof method of identification of inoculated individuals. Incorporating blockchains to ensure a safe and integral fool-proof system of vaccine inoculation could even be implemented. 

Monitoring the process : Using AI and Data analytics, the efficacy of the inoculation programme could be monitored.

Cold Supply Chain : ensuring the availability of refrigerators and other appliances, mainly solar powered to ensure a cold supply chain from manufacturing, bottling to transportation and storage at the destination is going to be the next big challenge of international bodies and counties of the world.

Global coordination : global coordination between international bodies and countries of the world for the first one year after introduction of the vaccine would be very critical to the success of the inoculation programme.

These steps would not only help improve the output from the progamme, but also ensure we have a closely monitored and efficiently managed innoculation programme to manage the viruses that are going to attack humanity in the future, given the change in environment and global temperature and climate which we humans have burdened on this planet through our extravagant and careless life style.   

George..

Why is Covid spreading fast in India ?

Why is Covid spreading fast in India ?

• George Easaw, Alliance University, Bangalore.

From what started as the first a Covid infected Kerala origin medical student returning from Wuhan, China by end February '20, the numbers getting infected by Corona virus is increasing in the country to the present tally of 52,000 new Covid patients daily as of 30 July 2020.

How come the numbers have swelled of late, to put us at #3 globally. With no respite in the infections, very soon we will be touching the #1 spot globally.

The author has identified some of the  major causes for the present high Covid infection rates in India, as given below.

1. Inadequate testing of patients leading to failure in patient identification 

2. Error in testing, type I error (patients remain undetected) and spreads the infection to families and communities 

3. Spread from asymptomatic and undetected patients leading to community infection.

4. Inability to carry effective contact tracing for lack of manpower to help find source of infection 

5.  Not following home quarantine religiously leading to infection among family members and relatives 

6. Inability to contact trace presently quarantined persons because of false addresses and mobile numbers 

7. Low reliability of antigen test kits at 70% compared to RT-PCR at 90 - 96% leading to inaccurate infection rate, triggering the spread further.

8. Reinfection of cured patients remaining asymptomatic because of of infection from a genetically mutated and/or increasingly potent virus strain

9. Virus mutation leading to more potent strains and ineffective and inaccurate treatment 

10. High density of population, especially in cities, leading to poor ventilation, congested surroundings,  low hygiene levels and hence faster virus spread.

11. Non-availability of hospital beds are forcing governments to either reduce testing or allow people to do self home quarantine 

12  Ill-equipped hospitals and improperly trained medical professionals acting as virus carriers, spreading the infection.

13. Comorbidity from other diseases of the heart, high blood pressure, liver, lung problems accelerate Covid infection

14. Once admitted to hospital, the psychological and mental stress of isolation, accelerates the deterioration.

15. The high cost of treatment  combined with low medical insurance penetration is a deterrent factor for people approaching hospitals, triggering infection at community level

16. Misinformation of home-cure remedies and ineffective untested alternative systems of medicine delays start of symptoms based treatment 

17. Lack of a properly balanced diet of the right quantity of carbohydrates, proteins and vitamins reduces immunity levels 

18. Political communal propaganda of divine curse due to various reasons, strikes a chord with the illiterate masses

With a better awareness of these reasons, it is hoped that our political and health authorities can act and we can fight the Covid disease together better, faster and more effectively. Fighting Covid is now no more an issue of the healthcare system of the country, it has impact and ramifications much beyond what was thought of and requires a concerted effort from all sections of society to help fight it out.

George..