Marggo's Blog: Pursuit on People and Planet, will push the Prospe...

Marggo's Blog: Pursuit on People and Planet, will push the Prospe...:       It has been over 5 years since the great financial crisis had hit the global causing enormous damage and...

While the World Skids on Plummeting Oil, India can stay firm, Smoothening Growth Propspects

Crude is plummeting on account of weak global demand, sending waves of shock across Russia, Iran and Venezuela etc. as these countries run their economies on Oil trade. The conditions are perfect for countries like India and China who are dependent on oil imports and the kind of fall in prices make them smile with their cash chest relatively looking better.

The seeds of the supply shock were planted a little more than a decade ago in north Texas when U.S. companies pioneered horizontal drilling techniques combined with hydraulic fracturing technology. The result: wringing oil and gas out of rocks previously thought to be unworkable.

This Shale technology discreetly developed by US has been kept under wraps for initial few years, which has made them to move ahead on their energy sustenance leaving the rest of world to eat their fingers.

This can damage Russia’s economy badly not to mention about Venezuela which is in a precarious state, if the price of Oil stays at around $80 for a prolonged period. This can be a kind of geo political war as few of the Opec countries are supporting the cause by keeping the prices low leaving others within the group high and dry.

Oil can help Russia to get marginalized for which Europe or OPEC is not going to complain. It is going to be interesting as the global economies will go through varying fortunes on account of the new situation. The world will love to have Oil at above $85 to avoid any disruptions. All will depend on how the US who are the clear winner of the situation plan his shale output and OPEC’s strategy on curtailing production.

Back to India nothing can be better for Modi than the given situation. The government balance sheet should look better with lower oil liability and deregulated fuel prices. Modi and Rajan, the Governor of the Apex Bank can have their task cut out for “Make In India” project to become successful as they can leverage on import of technology to revive Indian Manufacturing which is under doldrums due to policy paralysis.

It has been a while since Modi took over, but nothing much has happened on the policy side. Though the belief on Modi’s deliverables is strong and intact among business community and people at large, there is a bit of restlessness creeping in as the days pass by. The fiscal is improving and inflation is loosening out. You can’t expect more than this for the government to step up growth process.

Geopolitics and Local elections are dampeners. These are taking the Prime Ministers focus away from the growth agenda. Sooner he gets back to the core it is better.

Organizational ExcellenceThrough Change Management Critical for SME's: Thrust, Not wait for them to Seek

It has now become an old saying that adopting to change is the biggest challenge for survival. The dynamics of change are so rapid that many organizations fail to realize the change happening, not to say much about responses.

Organizational Excellence Consultants are pretty much engaged with Enterprises which are willing to grow and seeking support to indentify and navigate on the course that can help their purpose of sustainability.

BCG in their report has covered critical factors which help the organization and its members on alignment towards their vision.

Change is the critical factor. Adopting to change should become a Culture. The leadership focus should be on empowering the individuals to drive towards the change and set management processes which can guide the transformation without diluting on the Organization Purpose.

A stand alone team focusing on change in culture is an onward looking thought process which large and medium sized companies can implement. SME’s should ideally outsource management experts to support the cause for seamless change management culture.

The first generation entrepreneurs’ runnings the business on old economic style are the perfect targets for Culture Change Process. While we cannot belittle their efforts to develop their business and sustain across challenging cycles, they are the ones who are at the risk of being hit by the storms like market dynamics and globalization. They are perfect potential for growth if they are ably supported in building response mechanism to external distortions.

The capitalist theory of Rich becoming Richer and Poor being Poor may also fit into enterprise mapping as we hardly see the SME’s becoming big as they continue to live on survival zone for decades. In fact many SME owners preferred such a status as they deliberately allowed the enterprise to stay in survival zone but ensured their individual wealth growing better.

It made economic sense for SME’s to keep their enterprise on arithmetic progression and ensure their personal wealth growing on geometric progression, with weak government policies and tax structures.

In the new century of globalization, the old economy SME’s need advisors who can guide them to move out of such culture and help them on adopting to culture change through

• Change Management
• Transparency & Communication across employee chain
• People and Process Excellence
• Alignment of organization Vision with that of its Employees
• People Empowerment
• Shared Values

SME’s are the back bone of many economies and they play a critical role in the economic growth. Unfortunately, they are not being part of the growth story. Neither their people are part of the prosperity. This trend needs to change. They should not be the contributors alone but should become participants of growth.
The famous saying of Steve Jobs “Customer does not know what they want and we need to give them” is more so relevant to SME’s. There is an urgent need for old economic SME’s to go for change management and Organizational 
Excellence Consultants have to take this concept to them rather than waiting for the SME Sector to seek their help.

T Margabandhu