The Third Eye: Productivity enhancers

Increased importance of ‘business intelligence’ generated often through competent analysis, elimination of personal corruption within the corporate body and the need for the creation of right organisational environ in which every member would do his or her optimal best to contribute to the desired output, are the other factors that added to productivity.

The speed with which business was conducted has led to valuing of ‘time’ as a new-found resource comparable to money, material and man power since saving of time had become a new productivity enhancer. Information that made a difference between a ‘decision’ and a ‘guess’ must come in time. All ‘time stealers’ have to be consciously eliminated like gaps between information and decision-making, between decision and its communication to the concerned quarters and between the communicated decision and its implementation. Delay in a decision for ‘course correction’ may also affect productivity.

Technology clubbed with the right human intervention is the new means of output enhancement. It is an instrument for injecting ‘smartness’ in the system. By definition smartness lies in increasing the productivity per unit of ‘resource’- money, manpower or time. Being smart means being cost-effective and cost-effectiveness can be achieved through technology as the number of hands needed for an operation or the number of steps needed in a process might be reduced with its help. In fact cost-effectiveness was becoming a major outcome of AI applications which are now extensively used to good effect for inventory management, customer outreach and supply chain maintenance.

Business Intelligence is now a crucial determinant of competitive advantage. Intelligence is reliable futuristic information that indicates what ‘lies ahead’-throwing light on the risks to be avoided and the opportunities that could be availed of. It can either be churned out of openly available information through analysis or accessed directly through the use of Intelligence techniques in an ethical way for gathering information on competitors and the competitive environ. Analysis is helped by ‘imagination’ gift given by nature to the human mind, not to the machine- which enables a bright analyst to visualise what lay beyond the facts in front and not to miss the wood for the trees. Intelligence is ‘exclusive’ information and hence it is to be handled on a confidential note until it was acted upon- otherwise the advantage it brought would be gone.

In any profit- making organisation, the minority of the corrupt can damage productivity by destroying the values of honesty, hard work and loyalty. It can cause laxity in supervision and promote tolerance of inefficiency thus negating the gains of cost-effectiveness. Corruption simply means diversion of the profit of the organisation to one’s personal pocket. All progressive Corporates have a Vigilance set up comprising of trained man power to identify the corrupt elements through confidential enquiries and possible watch, for further action.

A corrupt member is like a subverted insider. The function of Vigilance should be performed on the authority of the top man of the organisation. The Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) helps the organisational head to set ethical norms of behaviour and the Standard Operational Procedures (SOPs) in matters involving financial transactions and handling of Tenders.

Finally, a prime responsibility of the leadership of the organisation is to establish a work environment in which every employee or team worked to his or her optimal potential with concentration and freedom from doubts about credit-sharing and favouritism. A test of this is in ensuring that ‘one worked with urgency even when there was no emergency’. A good corporate body creates the right grid for inter- personal relations, ensures that the senior was ‘nurtural’ towards juniors and tries to see that employees did not have issues of ‘work-life balance’. All employees should be treated as ‘knowledge workers’ and there should be systemic evaluation of the feedback provided by them, for the benefit of the organisation.

(The writer is a former Director Intelligence Bureau)