Sanmar Group Chairman N Sankar was the chief guest at the 47th Annual General Meeting of the Madras Management Association on 27 June 2003.
The occasion also marked the valedictory function of the MMA Awards for Managerial Excellence. Sankar gave away the awards for managerial excellence to Hyundai Motor India Limited, Cognizant Technology Solutions India, and MOP Vaishnav College, represented by G S Ramesh, S N Lakshminarayanan and Nirmala Prasad respectively.
Other award winners were the MBA toppers of Anna University and Madras University. Some highlights of Sankar’s presidential lecture on ‘The makeup of Management Excellence’ are given below. “I pick three components of the management
process that I believe are especially crucial in today’s context to achieving managerial excellence. This belief is based on my personal experience.
The three are :
1. The critical need for a relevant Organization culture/ Performance culture.
2. The phenomenon of variable returns to all stakeholders.
3. Business Ethics and Corporate Governance.
“Linked to a structured system of planning and execution, there is a need to spread the message of performance right across the organization. ‘Hunger for performance’ needs to be an integral part of the organization’s DNA. A culture where plan targets are routinely missed is no longer acceptable.” “Variable pay for employees, both blue collar and managerial, is becoming the order of the day.
With regard to the people on the manufacturing floor, productivity linked wages and bonuses are getting increasingly popular and more important, accepted by the worker.” “But even more dramatic has been the concept of variable pay for management, particularly senior management. In the 90’s, with the relaxation of ceilings, there was a manifold increase in rupee terms of managerial pay scales. These increased payouts were well supported by the boom years of the mid-90’s.However, the down turn since then has forced serious rethinking,
and today there is increasing emphasis on linking pay to performance.” “Ethics and corporate governance, which go hand in hand, have in the last couple of years achieved tremendous importance.
It is becoming increasingly important for organizations to set clear ethical standards, and make them understood and appreciated by each and every employee. The standards should cover areas like : Transparency; Equal opportunity; Staying within the law;Integrity of records, and Intellectual honesty.”
“These ethical standards should be widely disseminated. We in Sanmar have recently taken the help of the Ethical Business Practice of KPMG to publish our own policies in this regard.” “If senior management believes that they should focus on the bigger issues and leave implementation to the foot-soldiers, they are living in a dream world. Leaders have to be involved in execution. Big thoughts have to be translated into concrete steps or action, and then implemented through constant communication and follow up.”
I believe :
“Execution is a discipline, and integral to strategy
Execution must be a core element of an organization’s culture.
Execution is the major job of the business leader”