What to Avoid When Choosing a Successor?

Choosing a great successor is one of the most important accomplishments that a CEO can achieve. It is often presented as a paint-by-numbers process during which executives concern themselves with abstract concepts such as strategic fit, core competencies, and long-term shareholder value. However, the process of evaluating potential successors can often be as influenced by emotions as it is by logic! From a behavioral (or human) perspective, when evaluating potential successors, we should first look at ourselves.

Beware of the following three classic mistakes leaders make when considering potential successors. All three can cloud our objectivity and diminish our ability to evaluate candidates.

1. Why Doesn’t He Or She Act Like Me? As a rule, successful human beings tend to “over-weight” their own strengths and “under-weight” their weaknesses when evaluating others. The more successful we become, the more we can fall into the “superstition trap,” which, simply stated, is, “I behave this way. I am a successful leader. Therefore, I must be a successful leader because I behave this way.”

All successful leaders are successful because of many positive qualities and in spite of some behavior that needs improvement.

As a leader, take a hard look at your own strengths and challenges. Recognize that you will have a natural tendency to forgive even large errors that resemble your weaknesses and to punish even small flaws that occur in your area of strength.

After making a list of your strengths and challenges, list the strengths and challenges of your potential successor. As hard as it may be, try to think like an objective outsider. Challenge yourself to recognize that the behavior that you feel is most important for the company may really be the behavior that is most important for you.

2. Why Doesn’t He Or She Think Like Me? It is hard for successful leaders not to believe that their strategic thinking is the right strategic thinking. As you proceed in the succession process, you are going to have to let go. It can be very hard to watch your successor make decisions that are different from yours. It is especially tough since, as long as you are still the leader, you have the power to reverse the decisions.

Your successor—not you—will manage your organization in the future. As hard as it may be, you have to let him or her begin to make a bigger and bigger difference in developing strategy. As long as the organization will be headed in a positive general direction—and achieving results—try to recognize that your successor’s different path may actually turn out to be a better path.

3. Why Doesn’t He Or She Respect and Appreciate My Friends? We all tend to overvalue input from people that we personally like and respect and undervalue the opinions of people whom we don’t love as much. Face it: your successor’s personal preferences are probably different than yours. As such, he or she will likely choose other trusted advisors.
Invariably when transition occurs, some of your friends may lose status or power and may end up leaving the company. This can be tough—both for them and for you.

The Bottom Line: Respect your successor enough to let him be himself, follow his own path, and choose his own key advisers.

Reference:
Marshall Goldsmith

Abhinav Bindra: The first Indian to get a gold medal

The first Indian to get a gold medal in Olympics in an individual event.

Background

Abhinav Bindra comes from an affluent Sikh Khatri family. His parents, Dr. Apjit and Babli Bindra, are promoters of the Hitech Group of companies which has a turnover of Rs. 300 crores (US $75 million). The group has interests in agro & dog food processing, computer gaming, livestock genetics and pharmaceuticals.

He was born on September 28, 1982 at Dehradun. He studied at the Doon school, Dehradun till the 8th standard (topping the difficult entrance exam) and then left for St. Stephens School Chandigarh to pursue shooting. He earned his BBA from the University of Colorado.

He did his shooting training in Germany. He practiced for 12-14 hours a day at the shooting range that he owns at his farmhouse near Chandigarh.

International performance.

He won six medals at various international meets in 2001. In the 10 m Air rifle event at the 2002 Commonwealth Games, Manchester, he won Gold in the Pairs event and Silver in the individual event.

At the 2004 Olympic Games, he scored 597 in the qualification round and was placed third behind Qinan Zhu (599 - Olympic Record) and Li Jie (598). In the finals, Abhinav finished with 97.6 p oints, last in the field of eight and was the only player below 100 points. His sub-par finals dropped him from third to seventh.

At the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games, he won the Gold in the Pairs event and the Bronze in the Singles event. He missed the 2006 Asian Games at Doha because of a back injury.

He received the Arjuna award in 2000 and Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna (India's highest sports award) in 2001.

Winning Shot

Bindra booked his place in the 2008 Olympics by winning the gold medal at the 2006 ISSF World Shooting Championship with a score of 699.1 At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Abhinav Bindra won the gold for the Men's 10 meter Air Rifle final after shooting a total of 700.5. He scored 596 (fourth) in the qualifying round and out-scored all other shooters in the finals with a round of 104.5. In the finals, he started with a shot of 10.7, and none of his shots were below 10.0. Bindra was tied with Henri Hakkinen heading into his final shot. Bindra scored his highest of the finals - 10.8 (A Bull's eye) while Hakkinen came with 9.7 to settle for Bronze medal.

This was India's first individual gold medal at the Olympics, and the first gold in 28 years, since the Men's Hockey team won the gold at the 1980 Moscow Olympics. Bindra is rewarded by various Indian state governments and private organizations for his achievement. These include the state governments of Punjab - Rs. One crore, Harayana - Rs. 25 lacs, Maharashtra Rs. 10 Lacs, Karnataka Rs. 10 Lacs, Tamilnadu - Rs 5 lacs, Madhya Pradesh - Rs. 5 lacs, and Chandigarh 5 lacs.

Other organization that rewarded Bindra include Chandigarh civic administration - Rs. 5 lacs, BCCI Rs. 25 lacs. and Samsung Rs. 20 lacs. Indian Railways has rewarded him with lifelong free pass for himself & one companion in First AC. Spicejet Airways has offered him lifelong free flight.

How to Get the Most Important Things Done.

Have you ever gotten to the end of a "busy" day and then realized that you didn't really get anything significant done?

One of the biggest causes of this common problem is what Peter Drucker calls "drifting into trivia." Getting so caught up in all the small
stuff that you forget to do the big, important stuff.

There are many opportunities during each day for you to drift into trivia: remembering a phone call you need to make, coming across a piece of
paper reminding you of some other project, getting an email asking you a question, a call from a colleague, a drop-in visitor, etc.

Before you know it, the important task that you were working on is hijacked by a much less important errand.

If you find yourself routinely working on unimportant things or not accomplishing as much as you want, you may be drifting into trivia more often than you think.

Drifting into trivia is not always easy to spot. Sometimes the work that you drift into seems important, but if you take a step back and reflect on what you are really trying to accomplish, you realize that the work doesn't really serve your
objectives and is merely distracting you from what you really need to do.

The best way to avoid drifting into trivia is to have clear priorities and objectives. When your priorities are clear, you will be able to tell when that tempting distraction is less important. You will realize immediately that by doing it you would be drifting into trivia.

Setting Clear Priorities

Effective time managers quickly realize that they simply cannot do everything. They have to be selective with their limited amount of time and consciously choose to spend it on what is most important to them.

This is why it is so important for you to be the one choosing, rather than just going with the flow and allowing circumstances, interruptions or other people to choose for you.

Prioritizing means taking conscious control of your choices and deciding to spend more time on the projects and tasks that are important and valuable, and less time on the ones that are not as important or valuable.

This may sound obvious, but the fact is that the vast majority of people don't put much thought on how they spend their time. They just flow through life doing whatever grabs their attention next, or repeating the same things day after day
out of habit and routine.

How to Prioritize

The ABCD prioritization method is a simple, practical and powerful technique you can use to prioritize your projects and tasks.

You should start by prioritizing your projects (which represent your outcomes) based on their importance.

I normally assign an A priority to ongoing projects that I'm actively working on, as well as important long-term projects that I want to continue moving forward.

Your A projects represent outcomes that you have decided are important enough to commit time to on a regular basis. So, if you think you should be making progress on a project right now, give it an A priority.

I assign a priority of B to projects that are "under review." They may very well be worth moving forward, but they are not important enough to devote time to them this upcoming week. You can then revisit your decision during your next weekly
planning session.

One common mistake while prioritizing is to automatically assign an A priority to urgent things, and to push back important long-term projects to B or even C priority.

If a long-term project truly is important, you should make it an A and commit time to it on a regular basis.

I usually leave urgent but non-important projects/tasks as either B's or C's, which helps me to productively procrastinate on them until I can truly determine if they are worth doing. Since I review them regularly, I don't have to worry about them falling through cracks or becoming a crisis.

The C priority category represent projects that I may want to do at some point in the future, but definitely not right now. Once I've decided that a project is a C, I won't even consider committing any time to it during the upcoming week.

Finally, I reserve the D priority for projects and tasks that I'm not planning to do at all. They are simply not worth my time right now.

Prioritize Your Tasks

Prioritizing tasks is slightly different than prioritizing projects. In general, projects are things that you are going to work in parallel during the week, so the project priorities help you decide which projects to work on, as well as
how much time to devote to them.

On the other hand, you normally work on tasks for a given project sequentially. You work on the most important thing first until completed, and then you move on to the next most important thing, and so on. Task priorities help you decide the
ordering of tasks within a given project... which task to do first, which task to do second, etc.

You don't need to worry about any other projects or tasks you may have, just consider how important the task is for its project.

When prioritizing tasks, I usually start by categorizing them into one of the ABCD labels without providing a rank.

Ranking the Items

Once I have assigned a priority label to all tasks, I focus on the A's and assign individual priority rank values to the top five to ten tasks:

A1 for the most important, A2 for the next most important, and so on.

You can usually tell which of two items is more important just by looking at them.

If you are having trouble deciding, just ask yourself: "If I could only complete one of these but not both, which one would I choose?"

If you think two tasks are equally important, just assign the same priority value to both of them.

If you have more than ten tasks for a project, you don't have to assign rank numbers to all of them. Just rank the top five to ten tasks and leave the others with their general labels (A, B etc.)

One important benefit of prioritizing is that it allows you to focus on your most important tasks without getting overwhelmed by everything that you need to do.

That's why I suggest you only rank five to ten tasks: it allows you to focus on a small number of tasks at any given time.

Achieve Planner makes it super easy to filter your task list by priority so you can stay focused on your most important tasks.

If you still find your large task list overwhelming or distracting, simply move more of your tasks to B or even C status.

Working with Priorities

The key to making the ABCD method work for you is to develop the habit of using your priorities to guide your work.

Whenever you start working on a project, start with the top priority task and work on it until it's done (or it's time to work on some other project).

If you consistently choose to spend your time on your most important projects and tasks, you'll be making great use of your time and you'll feel much more productive.

Here's What You Can Do Now

1) Look over your projects and categorize them into A's, B's, C's and D's

2) If you start working on a project and you haven't prioritized your task list, spend a few minutes prioritizing your tasks and then get to work on your most important task first.

3) Whenever you start working on a project, start with the most important task first - develop the habit of using priorities to guide your work.

Here are some additional resources and tools that you might find useful...

1) Achieve Planner Software

Achieve Planner software for Windows helps you get organized, increase your productivity, and make better use of your time. Here's what one user had to say...

"After trying Achieve Planner for nearly two months I can honestly say that it has
revolutionized the way I work. I have an incredibly busy schedule so I need something that can cope with a multitude of tasks, projects and appointments whilst at the same time keeping me focused on what is most important. Achieve Planner does all of this and much more besides.

Over the years I've tried pretty much every system on the market and nothing, absolutely nothing, comes anywhere close to this. It looks great, works superbly, comes with excellent instructions, is a pleasure to use, but most important of all - IT REALLY WORKS!

For anyone who wants to get organized and take their productivity to the next level Achieve Planner is an absolute must. It's one piece of software that I'm certain I'll be using for many years to come."
Paul Smithson

2 ) The Journal" Diary Software

Keeping a journal or diary on your computer has never been easier! If you've ever wanted to start a journal or keep a diary, take this opportunity to get started today!

"I just wanted to thank you for writing such a useful program. I use it daily to record my thoughts, which I later review as I write my poetry. The easy reviewing of my previous thoughts from other days has alleviated much of the writers block I experienced in the past. Thanks again for the great software!"
Gregory Allan Clark

Designs on your Wallet.

Designs on your wallet

FROM a small operation run from the terrace of his house to getting luxury brand Louis Vuitton (LV) as an investor, it has been a long journey for Dilip Kapur and his leather accessories firm Hidesign. There have been a few changes along the way — more factories, more outlets, more countries but the underlying philosophy has been the same — emphasis on design, utility and craftsmanship, and most importantly, keeping it natural. It was this philosophy that won the luxury brand over to Hidesign. Dilip Kapur, founder and president of Hidesign, talks about the company’s journey, the LV investment and the road ahead.

How did the LV investment happen? Were there other contenders for the investment?

We did not approach LV. They came to us. They were looking for global sourcing locations and as part of it they were evaluating multiple countries — China, India, Vietnam. The French embassy had recommended visiting our factory in Pondicherry. They liked what they saw — our approach to work was very similar to theirs. Our focus is on leather craftsmanship not mass manufacturing. Also, we don’t use anything artificial in our products — for instance, we don't paint or emboss even if it means giving it a neater finish.

What does the investment mean for Hidesign? Will you also make bags for LV?

No. We are very clear that we will sell only under our brand. We are not interested in being an outsourcer to LV or any other brand. Will help each other but we will maintain our separate identities. We are helping LV to set up a factory in Pondicherry that is coming up adjacent to one we are setting up. In return, we will learn from the 150 years of experience LV has in leather. Their technology, systems and technical expertise are far superior to any other player.

Were there other offers for investing in Hidesign?

Yes, there were many. But we were not interested. They could not have added much value to what we were doing. LV, on the other hand, brings 150 years of experience in working with leather. So, we immediately said yes. We have a lot to learn from them.

DILIP KAPUR Founder & President , Hidesign

What is your current capacity? What was your turnover and profits for FY07?

We have two factories in Pondicherry and one tannery in Chennai. A third factory — the one I spoke about — is coming up on 30 acres of land. Our current capacity is about 25,000 bags, 30,000 wallets and 3,000 leather jackets a month. The FY07 turnover was around Rs 100 crore with a net profit of Rs 12 crore. We have been profitable from the first year of our operations.

Was there anything else that you did differently that worked in your favour in the LV investment? For instance, you started retailing over seas before you started in India. Was that a strategic decision?

Not really. It just happened. At the time we started, our product was a very rebel, alternative lifestyle kind of product. The other products in the market were well-finished, sleek. Ours was rough and vegetable tanned. This type of product is mainstream now but back then there was no market for it in India. Those who started retailing it London, San Francisco, Melbourne were also cultural rebels. We opened our first store in India in Bangalore in 2000. By then, India had opened up, there were more women professionals — things were changing. We now have 38 stores in India and 15 overseas that we own ourselves overseas.

The Hidesign logo, how did that come about? Did you hire a professional firm for your branding strategy?

The logo was designed by a friend. Again, it wasn’t like we hired a professional firm for it. The only thing that we’ve focused on consciously is quality. We have a lot of integrity and we recognise customers are not dumb. In fact, till recently, we didn’t even have CFO or CEO. We hired a CFO three years ago, a CEO two years ago and a COO this year. The business was proprietorship. We are only now incorporating Hidesign Design Pvt Ltd because of the LV investment.

I started the business with Rs 25,000 from my personal savings. I really didn’t think of it as a business at that time. It was more a hobby run from the terrace of my house. Then we moved to a bigger house, then four houses, we kept expanding. We set up our first factory only in 1990.

Where do you see yourself in the future?

We will venture into other related accessories. It could be, say, something to do with paper, like a small pad. Or textile. But our focus will always be ‘natural’. More immediately, we are working re-designing the interiors of our stores. From cream and dark brown that are very masculine colours they will become blue and white. We will also expand overseas, have more of our own stores. In a few years, the plan is to take our exclusive stores from 15 to 60-100.

Resources:
Author: N Shivapriya is the cheif editor in the Economic Times and the article appeared in one of their successful columns called "Starship Enterprise" in the edition on 7th Sept 2007.

Awe Inspiring story from waiter to an IAS Officer.

If you don't succeed the first time, try, try and try again.....

K Jayaganesh's story is similar. He failed the civil service examination six times but never lost heart. The seventh time -- his last chance -- he passed with a rank of 156 and has been selected for the Indian Administrative Service.

Jayaganesh's story is inspiring not because he did not lose heart but also because he comes from a very poor background in a village in Tamil Nadu, and though he studied to be an engineer, he worked at odd jobs, even as a waiter for a short while, to realise his dream of becoming an IAS officer.

Read on for Jayaganesh's inspiring achievement, in his own words:

Childhood in a remote village

I was born and brought up in a small village called Vinavamangalam in Vellore district. My father Krishnan, who had studied up to the tenth standard, worked as a supervisor in a leather factory. My mother was a housewife. I am the eldest in the family and have two sisters and a brother. I studied up to the 8th standard in the village school and completed my schooling in a nearby town.

I was quite good at studies and always stood first. Coming from a poor family, I had only one ambition in life -- to get a job as fast as I could and help my father in running the family. My father got Rs 4,500 as salary and he had to take care of the education of four children and run the family, which you know is very difficult.

So, after my 10th standard, I joined a polytechnic college because I was told I would get a job the moment I passed out from there. When I passed out with 91 per cent, there was a chance for me to get entry to a government engineering college on merit. So I decided to join the Thanthai Periyar Government Engineering College to study mechanical engineering. My father supported my desire to study further.

Even while doing engineering, my ambition was still to get a job. If you look at my background, you will understand why I didn't have any big ambitions. Most of my friends in the village had studied only up to the 10th standard, and many did not even complete school. They worked as auto drivers or coolies or masons. I was the only one among my friends who went to college.

I understood the importance of education because of my parents. My father was the only one in his family to have completed school, so he knew the value of education. My parents saw to it that we children studied well.

In search of a job

Four days after I completed my engineering in 2000, I went to Bangalore in search of a job and I one without much difficulty. My salary was Rs 2,500 at a company that reconditioned tools.

It was in Bangalore that I started thinking about my village and my friends. I wondered sadly why none of them studied and worked in good companies. Because they had no education, they always remained poor. There was not enough money to buy even proper food. There was no opportunity there; the only place they could work was the tannery in the nearby town. If they didn't get work at the tannery, they worked as auto drivers or coolies. In short, there was no one in my village to guide the young generation.

I thought would I be able to help my villagers in any way?

Getting interested in the civil service examination

Till then, I had not even heard of something called the civil services examination. It was only after I went to Bangalore and saw the world that I was exposed to many things. I came to know that a collector in a small place could do a lot. At that moment, I decided that I wanted to be an IAS officer.

I resigned and went home to prepare for the examination. I never thought resigning was risky because I had the confidence and knew I would do well.

My father also supported me wholeheartedly. He had just got a bonus of Rs 6,500 and he gave me that money to buy study material. I sat in my village and studied from the notes I received by post from Chennai.

Failed attempts

In my first two attempts, I could not even clear the preliminary examination. I had no idea how to prepare for the exam, what subjects to opt for and how to study. There was nobody to guide me.

I had taken mechanical engineering as my main subject. That's when I met Uma Surya in Vellore. He was also preparing for the examination. He told me that if I took sociology as an option, it would be easy.

Even with sociology as the main subject, I failed in the third attempt. But I was not disappointed. I knew why I was failing. I didn't have proper guidance. I started reading newspapers only after I started preparing for the examination! So you can imagine from what kind of background I came from.

To Chennai for coaching

When I came to know about the government coaching centre (external link) in Chennai, I wrote the entrance examination and was selected. We were given accommodation and training.

Because I got tips from those who passed out, I passed the preliminary in my fourth attempt. We were given free accommodation and food only till we wrote the main examination. After that, we had to move out. I didn't want to go back to the village but staying in Chennai also was expensive.

I tried to get a job as an engineer but my efforts turned futile. I then decided to look for a part time job so that I would have time to study.

Working as a waiter in Chennai

I got a job as a billing clerk for computer billing in the canteen at Sathyam Cinemas. I also worked as the server during the interval. It never bothered me that I, a mechanical engineer, preparing for the civil services, had to work as a server. I had only one aim -- to stay on in Chennai to pass the examination.

Attending the interview in Delhi

After I got the job at the Sathyam Cinemas, I was called for the interview. As counselling was my hobby, a lot of questions were asked about counselling. I was not very fluent in English but I managed to convey whatever I wanted to. Perhaps I did not articulate well. I failed in the interview.

Preliminary again, the 5th time

Once again, I started from the beginning. Surprisingly, I failed in the preliminary itself. On analysis, I felt I did not concentrate on studies as I was working at Sathyam Cinemas.

I quit the job and joined a private firm to teach sociology to those preparing for the UPSC examinations. While I learnt the other subjects there, I taught sociology. Many friends of mine in Chennai helped me both financially and otherwise while I prepared for the examination.

Sixth attempt

I passed both the preliminary and the main in the sixth attempt but failed at the interview stage.

While preparing for the interview, I had written an examination to be an officer with the Intelligence Bureau and I was selected. I was in a dilemma whether to accept the job. I felt if I joined the IB, once again, my preparation to be an IAS officer would get affected. So, I decided not to join and started preparing for one last time.

Last attempt

I had to give the last preliminary just a few days after the previous interview. I was confused and scared. Finally, I decided to take the last chance and write the examination. Like I had hoped, I passed both the preliminary and the main.

The interview was in April, 2008 at Delhi. I was asked about Tamil Nadu, Kamaraj, Periyar, Tamil as a classical language, the link between politics and Tamil cinema etc. I was upset since I did not wish the interviewers at the start and they did not respond when I said thanks at the end. Both the incidents went on playing in my mind. I just prayed to God and walked back.

The day the results were out

I was extremely tense that day. I would know whether my dreams would be realised or not. I used to tell God, please let me pass if you feel I am worthy of it.

I went to a playground and sat there meditating for a while. Then, I started thinking what I should do if I passed and what I should do if I didn't.

I had only one dream for the last seven years and that was to be an IAS officer.

156th rank

Finally when the results came, I couldn't believe myself. I had secured the 156th rank out of more than 700 selected candidates. It's a top rank and I am sure to get into the IAS.

I felt like I had a won a war that had been going on for many years. I felt free and relieved.

The first thing I did was call my friends in Chennai and then my parents to convey the good news.

Warm welcome in the village

The reception I got in my village was unbelievable. All my friends, and the entire village, were waiting for me when I alighted from the bus. They garlanded me, burst crackers, played music and took me around the village on their shoulders. The entire village came to my house to wish me. That was when I saw unity among my villagers. It was a defining moment for me.

What I want to do

I worked really hard without losing faith in myself to realise my dream. My real work starts now. I want to try hard to eradicate poverty and spread the message of education to all people. Education is the best tool to eradicate poverty. I want Tamil Nadu.

What we learn from Jayaganesh

1) Not to lose hope- After failing five times he still sat for the exam the sixth time.

2) Tremendous self belief- Any ordinary person would have grabbed the chance to become become the IB offcier after the 5th attempt but Jayaganesh wanted to be a civil servant.

3) Passion- Jayaganesh did not hesitate to work as a waiter inspie of being a mech. engineer in his quest for the final goal.

These are my learnings please add your learnings in the comment column below: