Kill the Spreadsheets!!!

Any new system implementation like an ERP or any other IT based system has to counter a long legacy. It all depends how they face each other. IMHO based on personal experiences with a Manufacturing Giant and now an EPC giant, the existing IT systems often hinders the implementation of new IT systems. I am not talking about compatibility and data transfer issues. I am just talking about stand alone individual systems that each one of us create and cling to them as if they have a potential to get Noble Prize nominations. I am talking about those several files and folders created through MS Office (or similar) applications.

MS Office beyond doubt has transformed the way we work. Hand written documents are on the verge of extinction. With features like spell check we don’t really need to flip a single page of any dictionary and the excellent storage and retrieval edge that e-documents have over the traditional ones, the extinction was bound to happen. But we often go an extent where we create our own systems on these platforms, systems that are secluded, which becomes our own intellectual property.

While we create our own way for looking at things, we do a great injustice to the organisation. We often do things that others have been doing, we create tacit knowledge base without sharing it, we depend more on human interventions and more importantly we create confusions with small errors in data entry.

The entire idea of Database automation was to have a single database and generate reports from the same date base. It also required some amount of discipline in terms of data forms and structures. More importantly, it was to serve as the resources centre for any data churning activity. As networking and computing infrastructure evolved to higher levels, a centralized database managements system was expected to weed out redundancies in roles as much as in people on such roles.

The individual spreadsheets came in the way. They blocked the way towards organisational effectiveness. Their creators loved them more than their jobs and had a hard time imagining life without those spreadsheets and e-documents. We somehow fail to understand that our spreadsheets and queries can take the shape a standard report by a small customization. It wont cost a fortune (infact may be a freebie) and more importantly would be from a centralized database. From all cross-linking and syntax writing, it might just require a click of a button. Most of these change management initiatives have failed to address such issues. New System Implementation to me, is more of a cultural issue rather than a technology or process related stuff.

The leadership in particular has a major role here. Most of these spreadsheets are created for answering queries and preparing reports for the top management. So in the most charitable words, they somehow drive the culture of standalone systems. They often ask what do we do? And the simple answer is stop driving those standalone sheets! Kill those spreadsheets. Instead try acting as a ‘Convert” and a champion for the new System. Don’t accept spreadsheets from the stand-alone systems. Apart from being a change agent, you must also be aware that the validity of such report is questionable and you will never have the time to check it yourself. By asking for a system generated report you reduce the risk and in turn help reach newer heights with exploiting the existing resources to their highest potential. So please kill all the spreadsheets. Please!

Connecting the Dots ......

I have flair to enjoy ambiguities. By design or default, life has thrown me to ambiguous situations, time and again.

After kindergarten, I failed to clear the school’s admission test and had to join a class below the one I was supposed to join. I failed not because I didn’t know the answers but coz I wasn’t well and I never knew that a one-hour test could decide my fate for a year. I came out of the exam hall and told mom that I would come down later and write all the answers. During the next twelve months, I jumped three classes and effectively ended up one class ahead. My parents objected to this erratic move by the school but they were finally convinced that if I stay at a lower class, I loose my edge.

The next two years happened to be the toughest part of my life. I was a classic case of someone who went to write sentences straight after he learned the alphabets and skipped almost all his lessons on words. Life was difficult, situations unclear, almost everything was ambiguous. I never knew what was happening to all around.

I tried to make out meanings from these ambiguous and unclear situations. I tried to identify patterns and figure out some guiding principle rules etc.

When I look back today, I think those were the most constructive years of my life. I was exposed to uncertainties at a pretty young age. Many psychologists believe that the personality develops by the age of 5 or so, I fortunate to have seen vague, unclear and intriguing situations at the formative stages of my personality. I don’t fear uncertainty, I love thinking and tinkering around with unclear and vague situations.

This is not a one off example. Just like my early part of education, my early part of work life also threw me to enough ambiguous situations. I graduated out with a degree in Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, worked for about six years and ended up doing Finance, Logistics, Contracts, International Business …almost everything and only a very little of engineering. I ended up heading one of India’s largest import facilities and really enjoyed the cross functional roles. It wasn’t as tough as my earlier story. In fact, I enjoyed it this time as a ‘Déjà vu’. At times, I must admit, it was frustrating but it gave me a overall exposure to major aspects of business and since most of the problems need a cross functional approach , I can now look at those soft corners with a more meaningful insight. After working for six years, I joined XLRI for an MBA and found that this cross functional exposure enhanced my ability to analyze cases, decipher problems and put forward solutions that can stand the tests.

Non Aligned Systems ....

Ever since we landed at the B-school, STRATEGY seemed to be the most used ,misused and abused word on the campus. A very close second would be another word: ALIGNMENT.

I kept looking for strategic misalignments and then suddenly, as it has always happened with me, I had a live case of strategic misalignment.

I was talking to the neighborhood tailor and he explained to me the issue . The Indian festivals are celebrated with lot of pomp and show. A good amount of consumer spending revolves around the autumn festivals of Navratri, Durgapuja, Dusshera and Diwali. These are however celebrated on the basis of a lunar calendar . The wage disbursement however is as per the 365 day calendar or the solar calander to be precise. Thus at time, you might have the festivals in the fag end of the month while sometimes they may just be after the wage disbursement days. The spending pattern does differ significantly depending upon these timing. However such data could only be studied from the order books of the local tailors and goldsmiths. One wont be able to witness much about this phenomena by looking at the credit card swipes at those shopper stops and Pantaloons.

Another important lesson that emerges out of this situation is the fact that access to cheaper credit to the customers can help the business hit by the business cycle.