Case Game: The Case Of E-enabling

CASE GAME
The Case Of E-enabling
Contd.

Just How Should Total Wire Up?

THE DISCUSSION

AJOY KRISHNAMURTI
Business Head, Shoppers's Stop

It is important for Kumar to realise that the internet and e-mail are no more than business tools. Their value-addition to business depends on how you use them. Evidently, there are two major issues that Kumar and his team should address: culture-related changes and the overall information strategy.

Total is in three businesses where it deals with a large number of end-customers (batteries, consumer durables, and soaps and oils) through intermediaries. In the switchgears division, it deals with few large industrial customers in addition to the dealer network.

Kumar should closely examine this structure as part of the process of identifying sources and channels of information, and ascertaining how they impact the conduct of business. This is the first step. It is obvious that the internet can be used for business-to-business information flows and for transactions with the intermediaries by the consumer divisions and with end-consumers by the industrial division. Equally obvious is the fact that the internet can be used profitably in the consumer durables division in several ways-in terms of providing information to end-consumers on product features, promotion schemes, and location of the closest retailers/service centres.

With technology, as with anything else, end-users need to see the benefits in order to get motivated to use it. E-mail, with its ubiquity, is probably easier to sell to end-users than most other technology changes. Yes, there is bound to be misuse. But that is true in case of just about anything else.

There are many things that come together to create the culture and structure of the organisation. It is in the nature of an 'overkill' to expect the introduction of e-mail to change it. It will modify the existing culture. Briefly, Kumar should adopt the following roadmap while attempting to e-nable Total Industries.

Find a few critical areas where quicker communications (as opposed to quicker information) can make a difference.

Sell the concept to the people concerned and get them to act as evangelists.

Get the basic e-mail policies in place. Get senior people to use e-mail and, therefore, demonstrate its uses. Work simultaneously on other information initiatives to get some 'quick wins' which would facilitate buy-in from key internal people.

PALLAVI JHA
Chairperson & MD, Walchand Capital

While the internet throws open a plethora of opportunities, it also breaks down traditional communication systems and hierarchies. The way out is to recognise this upfront and develop an open culture where the management is more accessible, employee initiatives are acknowledged, and the pursuit of excellence is encouraged.

It is important to note that the internet poses completely new challenges and that Total must be able to adapt to the new ways of doing business. Simultaneously, it must leverage its brick-and-mortar strengths. It needs to adopt a two-pronged approach.

The first is to retrain existing employees. The training should focus on transforming the old economy mindset and creating a work culture and systems for the new management. The new breed of managers should have the ability to think differently.

As far as concerns over e-mail abuse go, it is important for Total to get the system in place first, create acceptability, and ensure its efficient adoption before worrying about its abuse. True, e-mail can be misused. In fact, surveys on intellectual property violations suggest that people who understand company intricacies-employees or former employees-carry out 75 per cent of such frauds.

So protocols, such as a defence mechanism, need to be in place. This will enhance the use of e-mail as a faster and wider communication tool in the organisation. But care must be taken to communicate the context of these protocols, as to why they are required.

A recent internal survey carried out by a Fortune 500 company showed that 95 per cent of the employees willingly agreed to have their e-mails checked by company authorities.

The use of every system depends upon demonstrated management behaviour. Tendencies to micro-manage are behavioural in nature. This is where attitudinal shifts are required as part of exploiting new technologies for creating a flatter and informal organisation.

GANESH SHERMON
Chairman, hrfolks.com

The real issue before Kumar and his team is to define the problem, identify the opportunities, and evolve an appropriate strategy. e-Commerce is a business concept by itself. It cannot be seen as an add-on to an existing business model. Of course, Kumar must reckon with changing business models and the effective use and re-use of Total's assets-be it physical, financial, customer, intellectual, product, process, external, or organisational-in the context of a changing environment.

Branding strategy, for example, would influence the soaps division, even as its manufacturing and delivery systems can easily be outsourced. An on-line connectivity arrangement with the suppliers would make switchgear manufacturing cost-efficient. The consumer durables division, which is obviously facing the problem of low margins, can well benefit from direct customer contact for customised just-in-time delivery.

Of course, fundamentally, Kumar must also contend with an inherited organisational culture. It is in this context that I think using a combination of learning from the CCC (configuration, competence, culture) Framework given below would help. Kumar should use 'configuration' to evaluate Total's current structure, authority, and communication process; 'competence' to study knowledge and behaviour; and finally, 'culture' to strengthen Total's vision and values as part of making it an e-nabled organisation.

The future of e-business is not about either/or. It is about integrating, leveraging, and deriving synergies out of both the real and virtual worlds. I would suggest the following steps in transiting towards an e-enabled organisation.

Form a business vision taskforce with a mandate to evaluate the e-business strategy.

Involve members from business operations to ascertain the impact of the new strategy and the change in business model.

Rework the corporate vision, create working examples, and communicate these across the various organisational channels.

Rework on human resource processes currently in place and align them to the new demands.

Establish teams on each of the roll-out areas and steer them through execution.

Identify an it familiarisation programme, incorporating management of the fear of technology, facilitating ease of learning, and promoting self-worth.

Link individual-level stakes and risks to business risks and opportunities. Link organisational swot to individual swot.

Delegate it-business integration to teams that would benefit the most and facilitate it through an appropriate third-party consultant.

Look at e-business as a strategic step and not just as an extension of e-mail, and build a holistic enablement programme covering all aspects of knowledge, people, processes, and systems.