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The
barber shop philosophy
The
implications of changes in technology and IT are profound
for most businesses. MOHAN BABU shares the text of
a recent talk he gave at a technical university on IT’s role
in business transformation
During
a recent trip to my local barber shop, I witnessed a change
which most managers are perhaps very familiar with: It involved
personnel turnover. I had been visiting this neighbourhood
barber for a few years and had an opportunity to observe a
young apprentice of his turn into a craftsman in his own right.
During my periodic trips for haircut, the young barber used
to chat with me as most barbers are wont to, and the elder
master would be busy managing the shop which was always milling
with customers. During this trip, however, the young guy was
missing and I asked the owner about him. With a crestfallen
look, he explained that the youngster had moved on to setup
his own shop a few blocks away. He went on to ask if I was
surprised at this change. You bet I was! This, even though
we are used to such change during every working day.
While
waiting for my turn, I began thinking about how familiar this
story sounded: Junior employee turning to be a master craftsman
and eventually a competitor is not new. Businesses have, for
ages, experienced the movement and turnover of employees.
However, from an operational standpoint, the master-barber
was really disconsolate because the business model that he
had worked hard to cultivate was abruptly shaken up.
A
story familiar to most managers: a key member of his team
had suddenly disappeared. Most of us like a sense of equilibrium
in our day-to-day dealings and find it hard to comprehend
changes wrought by others, especially if we don’t have a stake
in the decision-making. Managers like to be in ‘control’ and
work hard to cultivate and nurture their resources. This is
true of the software industry, just as it applies to any other
services business, including managing a hairdressing saloon.
This
move by the former-apprentice-turned-competitor is something
we see in the business-world all the time, and shouldn’t really
have surprised me. Many times the former employee turns out
to be a really formidable competitor. Case in point includes
Tom Siebel and the founders of one of India’s largest software
services companies, who moved away from the shadows of their
employers early in their working lives to found remarkable
organisations (Tom Siebel was with Oracle before starting
Siebel Systems, and the founders of Infosys were with Patni
Computers before co-founding their company).
It
is debatable if either of these entrepreneurs would have done
as well under the shadows of their former employers; however,
I guess it would be fair to speculate that their transition
would have involved a lot of introspection. Needless to say,
their decision must have wrought some unexpected change at
their employers’ end, just as the junior employee’s departure
shook up the barber shop.
The
job scene in the West, at least during the past couple of
years, has been lacklustre and not many brave souls have taken
the plunge towards entrepreneurship. However, the same is
not really true of India where entrepreneurship in the tech
sector is growing at a tremendous pace.
Business
Process Outsourcing (BPO) and technology sourcing units and
companies are mushrooming. Many of the entrepreneurs founding
these units are employees of established companies, which
were themselves founded not so long ago. Organisations in
this industry employ highly replicable business models, and
the industry itself has few barriers to entry. Talented employees—techies,
architects, and managers—sometimes realise that their real
calling is in entrepreneurship, and feel that they would be
happier being free agents. After gaining some confidence and
learning the intricacies of the operations, employees sometimes
don’t hesitate to take the plunge. Applying the best-practices
of their employers, coupled with some of their personal learnings,
these fledging entrepreneurs move on to manage their own organisations
and customers.
Back
to my barber. On asking how he would manage without his junior,
he just shrugged his shoulder, pointed at two teenagers and
said philosophically that he would just have to train them
and hope they would pick up the trade soon. Not very different
from the line of thinking of managers at BPOs and IT outsourcers
who are honing the skills involved in turning fresh crops
of apprentice trainees into productive employees—faster than
the outflow of skilled workers—into an art.
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