What Matters Now: Post #11--Ideology

Managing at HCLT [Inverting the Pyramid]: HCLT (70,000 employees and $3.5 Billion in revenue) is one of India’s and the world’s most progressive IT companies. They’ve decided to turn management upside down and give power to the many, not the few. In the latest recession, instead of taking a beating, they surged by 24%. How? They “killed” command-and-control and gave power to employees to create value for customers. And they did! CEO Vineet Nayar was the principal architect of this amazing effort. Putting employees first and the concept of “reverse accountability” that managers are accountable to followers fueled this remarkably innovative reorganization. Here’s how he did it: Transparent Data (offered financials to all employees); Online Forums (aired dirty laundry and people could raise very difficult questions); Service Level Agreements (employees could open a “service ticket” to complain about treatment, etc.); Open Evaluations (anyone gets to comment online about any manager); MyBlueprint (all unit-level plans are placed online for anyone to comment); Employee-First Councils (Communities of practice and passion open to all). Vineet summarizes: “…the CEO must become the management architect, someone who continuously asks, “What are the principles and processes that can help us surface the best ideas and unleash the talents of everyone who works here?” (page 240).