PN, CEO - Creating an Atlantis

This is the story of PN, CEO of a large information technology company, who believed that his real role was to create a new world for his people.

It all began on Sept 8 2006. PN was going through the monthly management report. He suddenly stopped reading when he came across the employee turnover part of the report.

He was concerned that his employees were going away to work for someone else.

Some of those who had been part of the team that created a brand worth a billion dollars for his company were no longer with him. The employee turnover costs for the past twelve months were a staggering three hundred million US dollars.

PN thought the people working for him were proud to be part of their organization. Then why was this happening?

PN went through the statistics once more. Most of his employees were between the ages of twenty and thirty; they were bright young minds with great enthusiasm. Maybe his organization did not give them a field in which to blossom fully.

In the beginning, PN felt that his job was to help people find meaning in their work, create a culture where more and more people would want to join him, create a dreamland for everyone, a place where one could realize one’s dream, a place where one could dream larger than life.

But what were people doing in his company now? Weren’t they more like robots, churning out productivity figures, input-process-output, input-process-output?

When they had joined his organization, they had been full of aspirations about their lives. What had happened to their passions? What had happened to the dreams they buried for the needs of the organization?

He was not happy with the supposedly innovative solutions given by his advisors for “managing attrition.” Their suggestions included:

-give productivity bonuses;
-give spot awards;
-plan job rotation;
-give them flexible work hours or allow them to work from home;
-initiate team building, or sports activities;
-invite family members for company functions;
-pay for a day of golf;
-introduce work-life balance, build child care centers, start counseling services, or concierge services.

Now it all looked cheap; he felt he was, by doing all this, actually insulting the real owners of the wealth, the owners of a magnificent organization created by the employees.

His role was much more than “managing attrition.” It was to create an environment in which people achieved something about which they cared passionately. And it was to generate possibilities for his people, to bring out the passions they had buried deep down, to rekindle their core interests.

He felt like John Galt—the same John Galt who created an Atlantis.

Read on, to know what PN did to reap a fortune from the untapped talents in his people. Read on, if you want to create an Atlantis in your organization.
2. Docendo Discimus
(pronounced as: dȯ-ˌken-dō-ˈdis-ki-ˌmu̇s)

June 15, 2010: PN was looking with a sense of satisfaction at the three envelopes spread on his table. He felt he had more than repaid his debt to the teachers from his village school. The three envelopes carried letters of a very unusual nature. No IT CEO would have received such letters in the past.

The letters were from the governors of three different states, inviting him to receive the Best Teacher Award, on behalf of his company, on Teachers’ Day. It was really a record of sorts; a company, rather than an individual, had been nominated as best teacher.

PN’s mind went back three years. That was when this new revolution had started in his organization. It was on June 2, 2007, when he invited all his team members for an off-site meeting with a single agenda—unusual corporate social responsibility (CSR).

When the team met, each member was excited and knew PN would come up with something very unusual. They also knew there was going to be an additional work put on them, but they were more than willing. The organization was respected as “thought leaders,” and they were all proud about it.

PN started with the customary words about where the organization was and where it was headed.

When the curiosity about the day’s agenda reached a peak, PN paused and then flashed the statement on the screen—Docendo Discimus.

The people in the room could have had huge question marks over their heads the way their faces looked. They all waited eagerly for PN’s explanation. He turned to them and started explaining.

“Friends, we are known for the quality of our delivery. We have maintained our employer-of-the-year status for the past three years. Our names appear in the agenda of our competitors as a threat. Our widening global presence is recognized all over, and we are on the top-five employer lists of most colleges.”

Everyone waited, still wondering what this docendo discimus meant. PN continued.

“Times are changing. We are finding it difficult to keep better-quality people working in the company. If we do not act now, it will be difficult for us to meet our target of becoming a company of one-hundred and twenty-thousand people by 2010.

“Our campus recruitment team is doing a great job. A fifth of our new entrants are new graduates. But there are murmurs about the quality of these people, the quality of teaching in their colleges, and the outdated curriculum, which doesn’t match the needs of today’s industry.

“Our board is not happy about the huge cost we have to invest in the additional training to the freshers who take six months to be ready to work on client projects. We need to reduce these timelines; we need to have better people on projects faster.”

Mohan, head of human resources, pricked up his ears. But these costs were well-justified. After all, every large company faced the same problems waiting for new recruits to achieve corporate standards. He was well aware of the quality of education and was already in discussion with colleges all over on how to improve the curriculum.

Suresh, the finance guy, was aware of the talks in the last board meeting about the rising cost on people and the impact it had on the margins. There was going to be no additional money, should PN come up with something new. Yet at the end of this meeting, he sensed that he was going to have to scoop out some money and build a solid justification for the board for whatever PN would propose.

PN continued, waving his hand towards the screen.

“Docendo discimus is a Latin term that means, ‘we learn when we teach.’ People add to themselves when they give knowledge to someone. This also means that we send our employees out to teach and, in turn, grow them into better people.”

Everyone gaped at PN. This made no sense to them.

“PN,” said Anand, the delivery strategist, “we are in the business of delivering software solutions, not teaching. The world around us is outsourcing its non-core business, and you are asking us to take on some business that has nothing to do with us.”

PN smiled and said, “Yes, I am asking the organization to do this. When I explain the full scenario, you will agree with me.” He continued.

“The solution I am proposing will have manifold benefits. It will have a better hit rate in our campus recruitment; it will reduce our fresher training duration. Not only that, this will improve our brand recall, it will improve our employee satisfaction and retention, and it will improve our margins.”

Everyone in the room became a little restless. They were clueless as to how on earth all this could improve the brand equity, the CSR, and above all, the margins.

PN went to the next slide on the screen: Prepare our key employees from all levels to go out and ask them to teach in colleges.

There were questions in some people’s minds. How would the education department allow this? The key employees were already burdened. How will they find time to prepare and teach?

But a few saw some meaning in what PN was saying. Suchitra, head of resourcing, said, “PN, you know what some of our old timers keep saying? They tell me that when they retire, they would like to go back to the universities and teach. Only then will they feel they have served the community.”

“Spot on, Suchitra. And look at what will happen when we give this opportunity to them now, well in advance of their retirement. They will be tremendously happy about this.

“Folks, people won’t mind doing all this, even giving their personal time. Especially if we recognize their efforts and reward them.

“What I propose is:
- we get our experienced employees together and agree on what we want to teach;
- we give them world-class training from a world-class institute on how to train and how to teach;
- we ask them to choose the colleges and the topics and to take a teaching session once a year.

“I am sure that many who come forward to take this up will actually choose their hometowns as places to teach and feel happy that they have.

“I am aware there are doubts in our minds on how to sell this to our people, the educational institutions, our shareholders, and the board. But I also know that you collectively will come up with solutions to address all this.

“Take the rest of the day to work on this. Together you have always come up with something really smart, and I know this time will be no exception.

“So, by the end of the day I would like to hear your ideas on first, how to sell this to our employees, meet their aspirations, and reward and recognize them; second, how to sell this to our shareholders, to the media, improve brand recall, sell CSR, and improve margins; and third, how to sell this to the educational institutions.”

The team members put their heads together for the rest of the afternoon and, as usual, came back with something stunning. The idea that had seemed so farfetched in the morning looked most convincing, once they had all debated, discussed and distilled their thoughts into actions.

Their key ideas were:
- enhance employees’ satisfaction by offering them an opportunity to grow outside their work, to address their social aspirations, and to receive world-class training to equip them to teach effectively;
- recognize their efforts by including this contribution in the employees’ database and embossing one star for each year of teaching onto their photo id cards;
- record input from students who had benefited from the teaching, from employees who went out and taught;
- create stories for all the PR campaigns and include a mention in the annual reports.

The best idea that came from the business group was what they called “cub sourcing” which meant that the organization should not stop after teaching the students. It should create a mechanism by which various pieces of work could be outsourced to students, the cubs.

This idea of cub sourcing was picked up for debate and improvement. Everyone felt the idea had fantastic potential. It provided an opportunity for students to do “real work.” It allowed for the organization to assess people’s caliber and identify future employees, and it provided the opportunity for the businesses to actually get work done at lower cost. The work could be as complex as writing software components, test cases, or simple documentation.

At the end of the deliberations, everyone looked very excited about what they had created. They could actually sense the excitement that docendo discimus was going to create in the market, a new topic being debated among the management gurus.

PN looked at his team with pride and told them, “Great work, as usual, guys. I can clearly envision the results of what you came up with today. I see about five thousand people, trained by our people, on board in the next three years, productive almost on day one. I see about one percent of our people, our future leaders, showing off their docendo discimus stars on their badges. I see a hundred colleges spread across the country covered under this program. And I see revenue coming from cub sourcing having a direct positive impact on our bottom line.

“Congratulations. You’ve done a great service to the organization, to our people, to the student community, and to our customers.”

The dream he sold to his lieutenants three years ago had actually became a reality. His employees loved being part of this revolution. The students loved it. The media splashed rave stories about the organization’s contributions to society. Colleges were proud to display a sign that read: “Our students are taught by the stars from the best employer of the year.” The management gurus loved the term cub sourcing and started building case studies around it.

PN came back to the present. His eyes rested on the three invitation letters on the table. The result of the hard work of all his people was in front of him: public recognition of his organization—the Best Teacher Award for 2010 from three states.