Sunday, December 26, 2010

Employers = Customers!

India is a maturing country we do not have a civilized and matured work culture as in the western countries. We are progressing from textile/foundry mill work culture to modern day ("corporate") work culture. I guess we are the in middle row now. The mindset of employers are not changed much even after IT revolution in India. To the worst, majority of Indian IT service companies treat their work force as resources ("commodities") in the assembly line as much as raw materials in the manufacturing plants (The IT Project Managers are shop floor supervisors. Apply Six-sigma or Lean principles).

In the times of mindless capitalism, the work force should change their mindset for the survival and peace of mind. Loyalty/trust your employer are the past things which are not applicable any more. The companies wants to make profit for their survival and investor benefits. Treat your employer as your customer and you are as a supplier. The customer is happy as long as the supplier provides high quality product with less cost. Similarly, the supplier can also have the liberty of saying “Get lost, enough is enough” to their customer when their demand is unfair. Think of Supply-Demand theory. Learn this reality and get out of the employer when things are not working for you. There are plenty of companies outside especially new age companies treat you better than big corporate Indian companies (“white collar sweat shops”). If you are talented and innovative, then choose the companies like Google, CISCO and Microsoft. They pay you decent salary and provide options like work from home, flexible working time, etc.,

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Jack Welch vs. Al Dunlap

I happened to read an article about "Chainsaw" Al Dunlap, who is infamous CEO, turned ailing companies into profit making companies by means of various ruthless acts, mainly downsizing (Read: firing folks who are not good in handling corporate/work place politics). He later got into series of accounting scams (looks like he is pioneer in corporate scams). I immediately started to think about Jack Welch, former GE CEO who is champion of cost-cutting and downsizing. I immediately "Googled" the term "Jack Welch vs. Al Dunlap". Not exact macthes, but folks in the web space have talked about these former CEOs and their "kind" acts. BTW, Jack Welch too have a nick name like Al Dunlap – "Neutron" Jack Welch. I dont know the exact description of his nick name "Neutron" Jack. I feel its a small thing which middle class - employee class people can do for mighty CEOs. I'm also curious to know who is the "kind-hearted" CEO who has not bothered ("fired") many hapless "employee" class folks and still managed to pull the falling companies from further falling? I heard that SouthWest Airlines managment team is kinder to their staffs? Is that true??