Knowledge Cross Over In A Globalized World

Knowledge Cross Over in A Globalized World Submitted by Kanisha Raina & Rohit Jain

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TABLE OF CONTENT A CEO’s Dilemma…………………………………………………………..3 The Transformational Visit………………………………………………….4 What is Knowledge Cross-Over (KCO)?........................................................5 ‘Changing States’. Where Am I today?...........................................................7 I am already connected. Why do I need KCO?...............................................8 KCO – The Step wise Approach. …………………………………………...9 Understanding the Benefits of KCO……………………………………….16 Challenges that a KCOed organization might face………………………...17 A CEO’s Ally in the Knowledge Cross Over……………………………...19 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………21 References………………………………………………………………….22

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A CEO’s Dilemma Arun Mehra was sitting by the window of the Jet Airways 9W-812 and was looking at the magnificent Bengaluru airport; the lights were bright like stars against the overcast skies. He wondered how much toil and hard work would have gone down every single brick of the structure and somehow he knew how it felt when a dream takes shape and becomes a reality. After all, his company ArMe Techsoft was no different in essence from the new international airport at Bengaluru. Arun recalled reading the interviews of Albert Brunner, CEO, Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) and could relate to the apprehensions he faced when the entire city seemed to be opposed to the idea of seeing the airport shift to the other side of the city. It was only fifteen years back when Arun’s family, friends and colleagues had sat him down to tell how foolish it was to leave his stable job of ten years and start a new venture. Trying to convince that this could be the worst mistake of his life, how things might work against him, how tough it would be to find a job after a business failure and how everything would change. Change, he thought, is one word most of us despise as it causes a ripple effect on all aspects of our life. It makes us uncomfortable, makes us claustrophobic, thus we tend to run away from it. Today he was going through that same phase all over again except that this time he was not unable to show the same strength, & conviction in his ideas, nor did he feel the same energy that he had felt fifteen years ago. Time was slipping out of his hands and things were not in his control. While he was debating on various issues, the Airhostess made an announcement that it would take few more minutes for the flight to get to the runway before they were airborne. He looked out the window again; suddenly the memories of the past fifteen years came rushing back to him. He remembered how he converted his guest room to a temporary office. His first client – UWT (United West Textiles) whose CEO was a classmate of Arun from his Masters days in IISC Bangalore. He vividly remembered how he got his first international client – a London Based Bank, and later in 1997 when he opened his first international office in Europe. Today ArMe Techsoft has its offices in 10 countries spread over 4 continents and employs 900 employees across the globe. With its annual revenue close to $25 million But with the changes in the environment, ArMe Techsoft had begun to show signs of decline. The market was fast changing and ArMe was not quick enough to adapt to these changes. The initial innovation which brought the clients to ArMe was now obsolete. Arun could understand the expectations of his 900 employees. He closed his eyes and wished for a miracle. A tap on his shoulder made him come back to reality.

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The Transformational Visit ”May I take this seat?” asked a stranger. He was about the same age as Arun and was wearing a business suit and a very different expression on his face as compared to Arun’s. He looked curious and happy at the same time. Arun stared for a moment before letting out a laugh “Mukesh, since when have you started wearing business suits, they were so not your style”. “Blame it on the global giants, they make all look alike through all the differences. Hey may I take this seat?” and without waiting Mukesh came and sat next to Arun. After walking thru a fifteen minutes recap, giving short summary of the past 27 yrs since they were together in their engineering college, Arun felt that he was transposed to the past. His friend’s life was quite similar to his – did MBA from a premier institute then worked twenty years with the world’s biggest IT company and now into worked as a freelance consultant. His wife was the VP of sales for a Telecom company and ‘their’ son was happily settled in the USA. As the plane took off, Mukesh looked at Arun and asked “I can see that you are worried, I walked the aisle twice in the hope that you would look my way but your reverie compelled me to break into it. Talk to me Arun”. It was as if Mukesh had asked the question that Arun wanted to answer. In no time Arun explained his situation to Mukesh. How in the past 2 yrs ArMe had lost 2 of its major clients to Global companies. How its present clients were asking for value proposition and despite many innovations in the product and services the clients were still not satisfied, the attrition figures were at a staggering 35% and its top performers were exiting every single day. His VP HR was giving him sleepless nights with the attrition reports. With the trend continuing there was only one way to keep the company going– sell it off to a bigger company – may be one of the Global giants. That’s why he was going to Delhi to speak to his legal team about the various options. He had his board of Directors meeting planned in Delhi. As the refreshments came by, Mukesh sat and pondered through the many things that Arun had told him. He could also sense many more facts and feelings that Arun had not walked him through –agitation, instability , lack of confidence on self and on his Sr. Directors and a growing sense of unease at the prospect of losing his company. Mukesh knew that he had to help his friend and had only a few hours on the flight to make a difference. Mukesh looked at his watch and turned to his friend. ”Arun, I am going to teach you a mantra which works. This mantra will help you find new ways of not just retaining your clients but most importantly retaining your workforce. It will make your company seem like the perfect business partner and give it the much needed edge in

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today’s dynamic world. You have to trust me and yes, you can ask all the questions you want.” Arun nodded. Mukesh went on. In my 25 years of work experience I have seen many a company try and test this approach, though only a few have got it right. I have extensively researched to understand why this has worked for some organizations only. Today, I know the answer to the most important aspect of this mantra. For your benefit, let me call this concept “Knowledge Cross-Over”. Arun had his first question ready.

What is knowledge cross-over? Let us first break down the term into two parts- Knowledge and Cross-Over. The term “knowledge” has been repeatedly defined and redefined in the history of literature and management but let us look at the one which work for us. From the organization’s point of view, knowledge can broadly be divided into two types. Tacit Knowledge is defined as the awareness of how to do things: Accumulated practical skill or expertise that allows a person to do something efficiently. It is intuitive & unarticulated and not capable of being verbalized. It is a knowledge that has been transformed into a habit, in the sense that it becomes “the way things are done around here. Explicit Knowledge- is primarily information that is factual and is capable of being articulated and therefore can be communicated. Key challenge for an organization is to convert Tacit Knowledge into Explicit Knowledge. Organizational Knowledge to be valuable must be usable at some point in the future. On seeing the look of bewilderment on Arun’s face, Mukesh decided to illustrate with an example. “In an organization, a sales manager with several years of experience will have the knowledge of how to go about his job, but along with it he may also have a better insight on the nuances and the tricks of trade required in dealing with his clients. This intuitive knowledge about his target market can be invaluable for the business. On the other hand, a newly joined sales person may be aware of the procedural aspect of the work, which is what we call explicit knowledge, but he might lack the acumen which is gained through various experiences. The aim of the organization should be to efficiently transfer this tacit knowledge of the experienced sales manager to beginner sales persons so that such newcomers can leverage on the knowledge already existing in the organization.” “Ha! This looks easy”, remarked Arun. I can increase the scope of training for the new joiners as well as the existing staff. Mukesh Smiled, “I wish it was this simple. Did you

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not mention that you were losing your clients to the so called Global Companies? The need of the hour is to leverage the knowledge pool residing in your entire organization and remove the barriers for the purpose of knowledge sharing. That brings us to the 2 nd part of the Mantra- ‘Cross-over’. P&G in 2002 wanted to print pop culture images on Pringles to make the snacks more novel & fun. Though the idea seemed great but P&G did not possess the desired technology to implement it. Traditionally it would have taken much more time and money to develop a workable process through their internal R&D. Instead they created a technology brief that defined the problems they needed to solve and circulated it through their global networks of individuals & institutions. Through their European network they found a small bakery in Italy which had invented an Ink-Jet method of printing edible images on cakes & cookies that solved their problem. So how I would like to define ‘Knowledge Cross-Over’ would be that it means that the various elements along the value chain are capable & willing to seek opportunities to Create, Share & Transfer Knowledge across organizational boundaries. The participants in this process can be internal, like employees and sub-units of the firm, as well as external, like joint venture affiliations, retirees, suppliers, dealers, and customers. Such a collaborative process involves sharing Individual Knowledge & its evolution to a collective state, embedding new knowledge in products & services. It is this interdependence across all borders (i.e., functions, industry, sector and geography) and a shared mission (i.e., “Knowledge creation”) that can truly differentiate a global enterprise from the crowd. Symbiotic partnering across all nodes of the business ensures advancement of modern management practice. “Francis Bacon once said that ‘knowledge itself is power’. In the new economy and the current century, we have moved to a world where ‘knowledge sharing is power’. And Arun that’s the state that you want to be in. It’s all about Changing States”

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‘Changing States’ Where Am I today? Mukesh pulled out a tissue and quickly drew a diagram. “Lets say that your company right now is A. All the round circular objects are your many offices – each having its own identity, its own culture, its client, its own uniqueness; some circular objects may even be connected to each other. Now as you can see all these figures are different, disassociated from each other held together by nothing but your name – ArMe.” Arun nodded. Mukesh continued. “Now what we need is to reach the final goal B where your organization with its many offices stands connected, where there is a common DNA that binds ArMe, and where decision making is a combined effort and yes where clients are serviced from ArMe as a whole and not from a subsidiary like ArMe London Pvt. Ltd. If your India office is down, China works. A problem in Greece is solved by a team working in Mexico.”

A

B Fig 1

Seeing the quizzical expression on Arun’s face, Mukesh stopped. Arun had his third question ready.

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I am already connected? Why do I need KCO? “Mukesh, I have internet as the basic integrating technology – it’s the foundation of my company. We work across the globe and are connected with each other. We send mails, chat online, have newsletters published, have many common policies; in fact our offices at all locations look alike and we have the same set of values. See, I am connected and so is ArMe.” Mukesh smiled and said, “Arun, I am talking about knowledge management – leveraging knowledge across the geographies – creating systems that enable ArMe to tap into the knowledge, experiences, and creativity of its employees from across the globe to improve its performance.” “Even we manage knowledge, have discussion forums in every location, brainstorming sessions etc.” “Arun, what you have, may soon fall victim to comfortable clone syndrome.” Seeing the look of exasperation, Mukesh continued to explain, “This syndrome which many organizations suffer from prevents them from innovating. This happens largely because the co-workers who start discussing the innovations often share similar interests and training, everyone thinks alike. Because all ideas pass through similar cognitive screens, only familiar ones survive.” “But isn’t managing different opinions from across the globe an even tougher job?” Arun asked. And that’s why you need to understand the KCO approach.

KCO - The Step Wise Approach 8

KCO is a cycle (Fig 2) which is never ending but for the first time when it is applied in an organization one needs to know where to start from. Now remember, this is a no cost approach and as one uses the existing employees, existing network and existing values, the KCO approach becomes the culture for the organization. 1. Identify – Choosing the right people to be a part of KCO. 2. Creation of the Spider’s Web – Connecting people across geographies. 3. Creating the Inverted Organization – Bringing change in the management structure within the selected teams. 4. Causing Cognitive Abrasion – Making KCO happen and managing it. 5. Creating the KCO culture – Ensuring the success of KCO through recognition and successive KCO cycles.

Identify Creating the KCO Knowledg culture

Creation of the Spider’s Web

e Cross Over

Causing Cognitive Abrasion

Creating the Inverted organization

Fig 2

1. Identify

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“For any sort of brainstorming we need to identify the right set of people who can collectively hold a meaningful discussion. Choosing the right people from across the geographies has one major issue – whom to choose from amongst the various people. What if I end up choosing the same kind of people but only coming from a different country?” It was as if Arun was waiting to be asked this question. Mukesh had an answer to that as well. “There are many ways of selecting the right people but the one I would suggest would be either The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) or The Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument (HBDI). However, these diagnostic instruments will measure only one aspect of personality: preferences in thinking styles and communication. These tools do not measure ability or intelligence, and they do not predict performance. Neither of them measures other qualities important for innovation like curiosity, integrity, empathy, or drive. For these other personality traits we might have to look at past projects, qualifications and follow the PAR approach during interviews – We check their Past in terms of situations or challenges they have faced – Actions they have taken to resolve them – results of their efforts. Let me quickly tell you the essentials of these instruments. MBTI (Fig 3) model regards personality type as similar to left or right handedness: individuals are either born with, or develop, certain preferred ways of thinking and acting. The MBTI sorts some of these psychological differences into four opposite pairs or "dichotomies namely, Extraversion/Introversion, Sensing/Intuition, Thinking/Feeling, Judging/Perceiving, with a resulting 16 possible psychological types. None of these types is "better" or "worse"; however, Briggs and Myers theorized that individuals naturally prefer one overall combination of type differences. As it is difficult for a left handed to write with right hand, similarly, it is difficult to use opposite psychological preferences. People can become more proficient (and therefore behaviorally flexible) with practice and development. One can fill out a multiple choice questionnaire either in paper form or online. There are no right or wrong answers. The MBTI instrument is not a test. One selects the answers that are best for him or her. Arun, you can put employees with difference preferences together and behold! You have a vibrant group looking at both sides of the coin or let me say all sides of the coin”

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The 16 MBTI Types Fig 3 HBDI (Fig 4) or The Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument (HBDI) is a self-assessment tool, the answers to which indicate your thinking style preferences – the degree to which you prefer a particular way of thinking. This 120-question diagnostic survey identifies four distinct types of thinking. Once an individual understands his or her thinking style preferences, the door is open to improve communication, leadership, management, problem solving, decision making and other aspects of personal and interpersonal development

The HBDI map Fig 4 “Now that we have our selected employees, we move to the second step.”

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2. Creation of the Spider’s Web “A spider’s Web is a mesh or Network where every node is a person and every node is connected to other node directly. Although one node can talk to another node through some intermediary node, but direct communication is also possible.

Fig 5 In an organization, a spider’s web gets created when people across geographies get directly connected, they interact and discuss to take the organization a step forward. A spider’s web brings people together quickly to solve a particular problem and then disbands just as quickly once the job is done. The power of such an interconnection is so great that even with a modest number of collaborating independent professionals; a spider’s web can leverage knowledge capabilities by hundreds of times. Let us take an example, say ArMe’s Singapore office, one account encounters a problem with its dot net application. So you have a spider’s web of people who are your dot net resolution officers – who are from all countries where you have dot net developers. And as they see the problem scenario, they quickly work on solution it and disband just as easily when the work is done. Another strategic example would be if say ArMe decides to come up with some new strategy to meet the changing market scenario, then all they have to do is put together a team which has been handpicked through say MBTI and PAR and have skills ranging from strategy expertise to communication to marketing to technical skills to Human resource. These people will form the Spider’s web – be interconnected and yet spread across the entire organization working on a common goal.”

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3. Creating the Inverted Organization “An Inverted Organization involves breaking away from traditional thinking about the role of the center as the directing force. In fig 6, ‘A’ is the traditional set which transforms into ‘B’ with the former line hierarchy becoming a support structure, intervening only in extreme emergencies. The functions of former line manager change: Instead of giving orders, they are now removing barriers, expediting resources, conducting studies, and acting as consultants. They support and help articulate the new culture. In effect, line management evolves into staff people.

A

B Fig 6

When we are putting teams together for KCO, we have to ensure that the traditional structures are broken and new frameworks are built. We have to condition them that they will be playing by new sets of rules and in this changed environment we expect them to change, adapt, innovate, and cause more change to happen for the benefit of the client. Lets go back to the previous example, if the dot net developers were put in a team and were given a line manager and followed the same managerial rules they played by in the organization, it will bind them, it will prevent them to interact, work together and innovate, it will restrict imagination. They need to be left as a group where the manager is a catalyst for them to make things happen.” Arun mused over what he saw and then said “But that will lead to total chaos. You are turning my organization upside down”. “And that’s why my friend we cause creative abrasion” 4. Causing Cognitive Abrasion.

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“The leader who conducts such different teams through the discussion understands that different people have different thinking styles: analytical or intuitive, conceptual or experiential, social or independent, logical or values driven. Such a leader would build in approaches and understand that cognitively diverse people must respect thinking styles of others. She would set ground rules for working together and would have enough ways of promoting creative abrasion.” ‘Managing the Creative abrasion is the crux of KCO.’ “KCO can be seen as a cycle of events which is ongoing, never ending and managing the creative abrasion means that everyone working on a project is brought to full speed and talking. i.

ii.

iii.

The first step is setting a clear real-world goal with shared accountability and timetables attached. That’s when everyone will understand the need and relevance of honoring one another’s differences. Secondly, the leader needs to make the operating guidelines explicit – simple, clear and concise. This should include guidelines of settling disagreements too. Assumptions could be something as easy as “verify assumptions” & “Get on the call on time with the homework done”. Thirdly, set up an agenda ahead of time so that enough time is available for both divergent and convergent discussions.”

5. Creating the KCO culture “Creating a Culture? Isn’t that far fetched?” “Arun, creating a desired culture is not an easy thing to do in an organization, but, once you work on a project, rewarding good performance, providing learning solutions that definitely is a way to start building a culture of KCO, it is not an easy approach but a very logical approach which can directly impact employees’ career growth, succession planning and of course control attrition”.

i. Reward and Recognition – As individuals will work with many different colleagues on a variety of projects over the course of a year; all of them submit a confidential report or evaluation on everyone with whom they have worked closely. A person will get final evaluation on the profits generated and also how well they throw themselves into various projects, work with different groups to meet priorities, and meet clients’ needs. This culture will penalize those who fail 14

to be team-players or to meet clients’ needs. James Fallows in his book ‘Breaking the news: How the media undermine American Democracy’ says that: “Any organization works best when the behavior that helps an individual get ahead is also the behavior that benefits the organization as a whole”. The size of these rewards is commensurate with the value with which that knowledge adds to the organization (and often involves a measure of organizational equity). ii. Workplace Learning – Now let me tell you Arun that something that can work wonders for your organization. Many don’t realize but its investment in employees that is worth organization’s time and money. a. Structured Learning opportunities – A KCO organization should structure processes such as ‘After Action Reviews’ (ARR) into every project cycle. These processes involve reflection on the work done and lessons learned (mistakes made, ideas for the future). b. Cross-functional exposure – In order to create the KCO culture, the agenda of limitless and boundary less learning has to be pushed through learning that involves employees understanding different faces of the business and not just stay limited to their own area of expertise. This also works to the advantage of project teams who are put together from different functions where the team members understand each other’s contribution to the business. c. Forums - Creation of forums on the net which enables employees throughout the organization to be a part of groups beyond the ones they physically sit with. Groups they can discuss issues with and also help resolve the ones put forth by employees from different corners of the world. These are supplemented with knowledge fairs and other similar events which maximize the exposure of employee base to one another. d. Communities of Practice – Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about the topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis. The need for organizations to become more intentional and systematic about managing knowledge provides Community of Practice a bigger role in the business. e. Mentoring – In the KCO culture, the concept of shared learning forms the basis of organizational growth. Mentoring supports this. It is a roll over process where the learning and knowledge flows from the mentor to the mentee. It is a two way process as the mentor also sharpens his skills and increases his learning and may get introduced to a new point of view through this process. 15

“So Arun”, remarked Mukesh, Can you tell me how this will benefit your organization?

Understanding the benefits of KCO Arun was feeling more confident of his understanding of KCO now. He said,” well I see two types of benefits – External and Internal. External Benefits will entail KCO Effect on Business, Client, and Company Brand KCO helps an organization realize the potential of its intellectual assets. For example - I never realized that all the people across my global offices can together work on projects which will use their collective intellectual capabilities and help further the organization assets. I look at KCO as something that will help me in achieving competitive advantage. The ultimate goal being profitability, once KCOed my organization will have an improved time-to-market performance, reduction of duplication, and promotion of intelligent collaboration. Imagine the possibilities when the problems posed to a team in Japan are solved by someone in London. And yes – the most important entity for our business – The Client. Which client won’t want to work with a company that has clarity and realization of its true potential and is able to perform to its maximum capability? Not to forget, we will now know all possible ways of servicing the client. After all we would have crossed over to the Knowledge era. And my company’s brand – The possibilities are tremendous here. I can now call it one organization – a living organism spread across the many countries but with a unified brain. I think that’s what will make me a global company and not just an MNC. Internal Benefits look as good with the KCO Effect on Employee and Organization Culture In a KCOed culture my employee will now not just be a part of his team but of ArMe where one interacts, works and learns with colleagues from the various parts of the world. Where skills, abilities to share and work with the team will help appraise performance. One will be involved in producing results not just in the segment of work provided but, by interaction with other groups and projects of organizational importance. One will give and get help from all corners of the world.

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The culture will grow and mature with interdependencies being the basis of all interactions. Mutual collaboration and mutual gains will help my company grow. And yes when I reward my teams for their work together, they will spread the KCO around. I don’t think anyone would want to leave a company like that, in fact, it would also be one of the most attractive features for prospective employees. Having understood in depth the need and benefits of KCO Arun remarked, “I think I can do it.” “Its not as simple as it sounds to put in place the processes for uninterrupted knowledge transfer”, Mukesh said, “Let’s talk about the challenges you might face.”

Challenges that a KCOed organization might face Mukesh smiled, “As simple and logical as KCO sounds in theory, it is as tricky to implement it in reality. Let’s brainstorm the challenges you might face in your path, as cognizance of these challenges would help you tackle them better” Ignorance i) Number one barrier to knowledge sharing is recipient not being aware of the knowledge already existing in-house, or unit possessing knowledge not being aware that another sub-unit is in need of such knowledge (Szulanski, 1994). Hence in the initial stages of implementation the company needs to invest in extensive training of its employees on the various tools of knowledge management Culture i) Nature of Knowledge Itself- Valuable knowledge many a times is context dependent. When knowledge is embedded in a unique culture/context, its transfer becomes difficult. To give a brief example, Kellogs cornflakes initially failed to take off in India even when it was a successful in the US markets. The reason could be that though Kellogs knew the breakfast pattern of its US cornflakes consumers, the same concept of healthy breakfast option did not fit with Indian breakfast habits. ii) Not Invented Here Syndrome- Managers & Organizations tend to be highly resistant to knowledge that originates outside their sphere of activity & understanding. For example, a large consumer products company, in attempting to globally integrate various product management tasks, found that European managers resented what they saw as American managers with a limited understanding of strategy

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iii) A bias to communicate locally, not globally, about implementing key initiatives- In many companies, strategic initiatives or programs are structured and managed primarily to support autonomous local initiatives and actions. Because of this bias, important resources in one country or region are not used to solve problems in other countries or regions iv) Headquarters dominated thinking-Companies typically focus project teams, resources and budget dollars on initiatives and programs driven from headquarters or home country perspectives. If thinking is too homogeneous and doesn’t take into account the diversity of knowledge, perspectives and experience in the field, the organization can miss opportunities to identify customer and employee issues Tools/Processes i) Complexity of the tool itself – Many a times the processes developed for knowledge sharing are too complex for the users to understand, which hinders their mass adoption across organization as well as across the value chain. For example, when Caterpillar, world’s leading manufacturer of earthmoving machinery, transferred its knowledgesharing tool from the research unit to the corporate university; it realized that the tool was not easy to use. The interface was redesigned for usability in 2002 to address employees’ fears that were creating barriers to knowledge sharing, including concerns of looking foolish. In late 2002 the new interface was deployed, and since then it has continuously evolved. ii) Multiple processes & systems- At times excessive systems & processes existing within an organization can create confusion in their integration for the purpose of knowledge sharing. When Raytheon, a defense and aerospace systems supplier, sought to build their knowledge management platform, they faced several barriers to effective knowledge sharing. Raytheon, as a result of several mergers and acquisitions in the past, had acquired multiple disparate processes and systems (in 2001 they had 69 supply chain systems) that made it difficult to access, select, and share knowledge and standardize common practices iii) Bandwidth and connectivity: Not always one has access to high-speed connections because of the infrastructure limitations in the field and at customer sites. Both are becoming less of a problem due to standardization of technologies in the organization and improved infrastructure.

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All this sounds great and I am now keen to make it happen in my organization. But I alone driving this wouldn’t be ideal, would it? Mukesh smiled, “Arun, that’s why I have to remind you of your ally in the KCO”.

A CEO’s Ally in the Knowledge Cross Over If you look at the entire KCO cycle what is one thing you find common in all stages? Arun pondered over the diagram and then said, “Isn’t that obvious – my people.” And it dawned on him just as suddenly. “You are talking about my HR team”. “Yes, your Global HR Team. I call them Global because they will now move and take over Global roles” They need to manage the global talent pool. Of course, Talent is hard to manage. Talent is to be given choices and they choose the path that fits their aptitude, acceptance and ambition. The challenge for your Global HR Team would be to understand what ambition means in the various countries being a part of the KCO. There may be a set fixed process but they have to work with you to negotiate a localization. I read in a book about an organizational survey that was deployed by an organization and the response rate for which was very low in Korea. The CEO was surprised at such a low response. However, the HR team helped the CEO understand that Koreans didn’t come forward naturally to give feedback. Any public praise is not well received. This comes in the way of any formal succession planning or leadership growth programs – putting one before the other kills their work ethos. Similarly, In a KCO we are looking at your organization’s smartest brains working together but they all have diverse backgrounds and hence diverse ways of treatment. Your Global HR will help you manage that.” Also then comes your Global reward Management. Remember Arun, what drives one individual does not drive the other. What ArMe would like to drive is a common goal through uncommon motivations and heterogeneous societies. This is where your Global HR team will make sense of the diversity to implement rewards that drive the right behaviors. Incentive compensation in sales organizations usually drives individual behaviors and high performances. In countries like Japan, there have been instances where the country head has invested more money in the underperformed businesses. This defeats the purpose of monetary incentives as rewards. There might be many other countries that prefer short term compensation rather than long term wealth creation. The HR team has to strike the right balance so as to match the reward expectation with what the organization provides.

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Another very critical skill that the HR team should have is to ensure that openness and transparency is displayed that accommodates multiple interests, and which overcome regional preferences. Making the system and the people in it approachable; relating easily to diverse groups and the people in it; building and developing the relationships are also part of the openness aspect of the organization. Enabling a trusting and fair environment becomes paramount in an organization trying to establish the KCO. And yes not to forget the aspect of global training which aims at conditioning the mindset of the high potential employees identified as the set driving KCO. The trainings should be aimed at reducing the cultural biases and increasing the economic global mindedness besides of course imparting them the required technical and managerial knowledge. The person who leads the project in a KCO environment has to exhibit traits like openness, judicious decision making, geocentric approach and a keen sense of identifying potential. The HR team has to work with these leads to make that happen for cognitive abrasion to be successful in the Spider’s web. Each and every individual who becomes a part of the Spider’s web also needs to be trained and prepared for what is about to take place. Creating the inverted organization is mainly the work of HR as it includes bringing a change which may otherwise strike as a bolt of lightening. They need to work towards bringing the organizational change without loosening any of the hinges on which the company stands. Conditioning employees’ attitude towards the change, establishing the benefits of the inverted organization, empowering the employees, decentralizing the ownership – all these require experience, sense of potential control and an impartial outlook which only the HR team can bring to the table. They will act as your coaches, as catalyst, change agents and will cause the KCO to live and breathe and become the culture that it aims to be.

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Conclusion Arun was walking down the aisle of his flight from Bangalore to Delhi. He spotted his seat and sat down only to realize that 2 yrs back, it was here that he got his second lease of life. He smiled contentedly as the work in the past 2 yrs was his biggest achievement till date. Today, he was on his way to receive the award from the same client who was once on the verge of ending the partnership with ArMe but today considered theirs as the most valued partnership. Arun still remembered walking into K D Sanyal’s office in Delhi after his discussion with Mukesh and asking him to give him 3 months for a turnaround. The client grudgingly agreed. And what followed was the biggest cultural change that ArMe saw. Arun put forth KCO in front of his Board and got Mukesh on call for any clarifications. After 6 hrs of debated and heated arguments, the board came out with one unanimous decision – KCO will be the new mantra for ArMe and each one of them will play an important role in driving the new initiative In the next few months ArMe saw the KCO unfolding beautifully across the organization. As the company gradually moved into an upgraded level of maturity, many things happened simultaneously. Attrition dropped as people were engaged and were willing to be in an organization which cared about what they knew and what they learnt. The culture improved as nobody wanted to withhold knowledge but share it. And yes, the clients stayed as KCO intrigued them and assured them that ArMe knew what it was doing. This new avatar of ArMe not only provided better service to them but also made them feel more connected with the organization through creation of several forums where clients could discuss their concerns and issues. Arun had once heard that “Knowledge is a source of economic strength and a great liberator and the harnessing and diffusion of knowledge can be a powerful competitive advantage.” He now agreed with it in principal and practice. With the ever growing power of ideas, solutions and concepts must be deployed seamlessly across the corporation, to aid the wealth creation. Working in a global environment calls for willingness and ability to share information, people, and resources. It also requires ability to maintain a network of personal relationships that is global in its reach. His biggest ally – the HR Team needs to spot global talent and identify drivers for different employees in different cultures. Organization with strong KCO culture will excel in every way. They will be more likely to be performing better than before, be profitable, be more responsive to the changing market demands, be closer to the customer, be very innovative, be more flexible in dealing with change and have better workplace morale. After all, the collective strength of an organization will always be more powerful and effective than individual capabilities. 21

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