Organizational values have played a critical role in shaping our organization For the past couple of weeks, I have

been discussing organizational values that have played a critical role in shaping our organization. I have discussed the importance of respect and humility, how important it is to develop and nurture relationships and how continuous introspection will lead to learning, self-development and excellence. Another value that I want everyone in the organization to internalize is that of 'Going With The Flow'. As I have mentioned before, there is lot to learn from the way the nature works. And this lesson too is inspired from nature. If you study the environment, you will notice a constant process of creation, destruction and regeneration. The natural theory is of growing, evolving and progressing. Nothing in the nature stops, there is always a continuous flow. In life too, it is important to go with the flow, to move on and to never stop. Once you believe in this, you will find that most of your conflicts are resolved. Let me explain, how this works. Conventional managers spend time in sitting over a decision, debating and discussing everything, waiting for market research, approvals or information to trickle. They are trained to adopt a circular approach to making decisions and are slower to find any solution. Most people do not like to face the reality or bear the responsibility for their action. In the end, of the ten decisions they take, only six turn out to be right and four still go wrong. Our education and management system operates in such a way that people end up going round in circles and behaving in this way. The other approach to business and decision making is the linear approach. Speed and imagination is the bedrock of our organization. If you have to make a decision or believe in carrying forward a new initiative, you got to go ahead with it. There is no point sitting on a decision or wasting time debating and discussing it or waiting for complete information to come in. Business is a lot like multiple choice questions. Often you may not have complete information before making a decision, but that doesnt mean that you should stop. Go with the flow, at least there will be some progress, some accomplishment. And if things do not go the way you had expected, you will have an opportunity to learn. It is always better to seek forgiveness if things go wrong, rather than to seek permission at every step. In todays fast-changing and fast-evolving business environment, the competitive advantage goes to companies that learn faster than rivals. Companies which can learn faster than their rivals can adapt and evolve with the market. As a company, what has helped us speed up our learning process is, we have never shied away from moving ahead. We have learned and benefited from every mistake that we have made and that in turn has helped us gain strength and seize the first-mover advantage across various lines of business. Mistakes speed up learning and enhance our competitiveness. Out of every ten decisions, even if eight are right, then it is very, very good. One or two decisions may be wrong in retrospect but if one stops because of the fear of making mistakes, nothing can be accomplished. Most companies are designed for optimum performance, rather than learning. In such cases, mistakes are seen as defects that need to be minimized. The emphasis is often on flawless execution of a strategy, but a flawless execution also implies zero innovation. And without any innovation, strategies are bound to fail in a competitive environment. Such companies then start blaming the external environment for lack of business success. However, there is always a certain cost associated with mistakes. So one has to extract profitable learning from them. The idea is to make mistakes on a smaller scale and learn from it. If you have an idea or an initiative, go ahead and implement it on a small scale or at the prototype stage. Question the basic assumptions associated with the business, question the established rules and at the prototype stage dont let the fear of making a mistake stop you. Don't make dumb mistakes, make smart mistakes which can give an opportunity to learn or can provide a fresh approach to a complex problem. What I am emphasizing is, do not slow down or stop. Learn while you are doing it and once an idea has been perfected, it can be scaled up. Never stop or hesitate; be a linear thinker, believe in your self and go ahead. Its only then can you rewrite rules. I believe a lot of us have it in our DNA of being a linear thinker. As an organization, we are a bunch of linear thinkers, we keep moving ahead, moving with the flow. I would like you to introspect and check where you are as an individual, you might discover yourself again. In case one wants to debate and deliberate on this

interesting subject, which has been a way of life for me and for the organization, lets interact at ceooffice@futuregroup.in.