Performance Appraisal and the Indian Army

The year end evaluations are round the corner and it seems like the mid year appraisals were just here. The system is the same like it was in school, you get evaluated on each project you do and then all projects add up and you mix it up with certain tit-bits that you have done around the office during the period and ultimately boil it with the rapport that you have with people in your group and your boss/career manager/your GM and wait and watch what happens at the end. Well all this is simple when you compare it to the yearly evaluations system that the Indian Army has.

There was this coverage aired on a news channel titled "Measuring Success at J&K" throwing some light on how the army's efforts are measured and how the different units performance is measured during the year on the J&K front in order to decide which unit is better among the best and deserved the award at the Republic Day. Considering that new channels have become more of a entertainment zones these days this story grabbed my attention and I stayed on.

It turns out that General Joginder Jaswant Singh, after assuming command of the Indian Army as the Chief of Army Staff on 31st January 2005 made an announcement the very next day that the performance of the army units will now be measured not based on how many militants they killed during the year but based on how happy and satisfied the people of the village are in which the unit operates. Hearing this all the jargons that I had come across during the 2 years in MBA started coming to my head - 360 degree feedback, customer satisfaction etc. and it seemed a bit weird. I mean how many of us have actually thought about hows the jawans efforts are evaluated or how they are rewarded?

I started wondering how they must have done it before and my questions were answered as the story went on. It seems that in August 2005 General J J Singh thought it best to go back to the earlier system wherein units were awarded points based on how many militants they killed, how many men they lost etc. It went something like

Points for killing a Militant.............4
Additional points if he had a Gun.........3
Points if he didn't have a Gun.............1

Points get deducted if the unit loose men

On loosing a jawan......................(10)
On a men in the same unit
killing a fellow jawan..................(20)
If a suicide takes place................(30)

Points were also deducted if a Human Rights Violation occurred - Rape, harassment etc. but only if it was proven and the men were convicted but the opinions of the villagers were not considered at all. As the General mentioned - If the villagers have a problem then they will complain on their own (don't know how that is supposed to work). Surprisingly the story reported that there were no negative points on incidents like mistaking innocent villagers for militants and killing them and let alone the bad will thus created. At the end all the points are totaled up and the winner is declared.

The first few comparison that crossed my mind was the one of the traffic police trying to meet their quota of chalans as the month end approaches and of some of my batchmates who start pushing applications to the credit department as the month/quarter end approaches with the hope that it will be 'passed' and they will be able to meet their targets and get their bonus at the year end. But the same thought process might become a serious issue when it is the army instead of my batchmates and its killing militants instead of disbursing loans etc.

Disclaimer: All the views presented in the above post are just based on the news clipping that I saw on TV. They have been taken on face value (it was just a news clip afterall, God knows how much of it was true). The post is in no way meant to degrade the systems of the Indian Army or their efforts and sacrifices. Hats off to the Army. Borrowing from the dialogue of Col. Nathan R. Jessep (Jack Nicholas) in A Few Good Men - We need men like them to stay out there protecting us so that men like us can sit in front of their comps and have the luxury to post stuff like this on blogs.

Interesting Comparision

a fwd.... interesting read...

Men & Women

Godfather

Nope am not talking about the movie. Am talking about having a godfather at your job. While I had never thought about it before recent incidents at my office just got me trying to figure out the entire thing... from both the parties perspective.

So who is a Godfather? What does he do? A Godfather would typically be someone high up in the value chain, quite senior to you and/or to whom you might be reporting to, who will promote you and look to it that you do the right things at the right time? Create a situation where "Uska haath tere sir par ho aur tereko koi phikar nahi" (Literal translation "If his hand is on your head then you have nothing to worry about").

So why would someone high up the food chain take up your cause. Well nothing is free in life, so there has to be some gain for the Big Boss as well. If you come to think of it its very simple. Even your Big Boss is at the bottom of some value chain that goes high up to the CEO or someone. So he also is trying to come up with ideas, actions that might put him in a better light than his counterparts and get the Biggest Boss to notice his efforts or his group/division as better than the others'. The only difference is that he has people under him at his disposal through which he mobilises his efforts and earn brownie points. On the other hand the mear mortals like you and me dont have anything to complain. You start getting visibility, start getting rewarded and have a protective shield from others in the organisation. So noone has anything to complain about. The only issue in the entire thing is that its not a game that either party can start. It has to be initiated by the Godfather.

So what is a mear mortal like in such a case? What is the profile of such a guy? Well wont comment on it right now. Not after jus witnessing a couple of examples, but my guess is that it is also dependent on the kind of person your Big Boss is!

The 'X Factor

Am sure most of you understand what I am referring to however for those who didn’t have the privilege of having studied Services Marketing under Prof. Ramkumar will soon understand it.

Prof. Ramkumar was one those few people who achieved the next-to-impossible feat of having full attendance in his lectures and that too with 100% attention from all of the attendees. He managed to criticize every little thing in life but not in a negative manner. His aim was always to make people think and see the simple logic of things and appreciate common sense. Am sure most of the guys n gals would agree that he was one guy who made us see the obvious (which is must say is not an easy task). This post is dedicated to him.

The other day we were shopping and found ourselves in Big Bazaar. This chain of stores are basically discount stores and are jam packed, no matter what time you are there. While standing in the queue at the checking counter my eyes went on a sign which didn’t make much sense. So let me know if you can make something out of it. It went something like...If within 2 days of buying a product at Big Bazaar you find the same quality/quantity of product at a cheaper rate somewhere else then bring it to us within 10 days and we shall give you double the price (or was it double the difference, don’t exactly remember but that’s not the point). What I couldn’t figure out was why was the "within 2 days" mentioned out there?

If I actually do find a cheaper rate somewhere do they expect me to buy the same product again (within 2 days) and bring the receipt of that purchase (within 10 days) so that they will jus pay me the difference or something?? If you want to give a guarantee to a customer then make it simple. 'find a cheaper rate within 10 days and we pay you back your money' or something like that.

Happy Lohri

Friday the 13th was Lohri - The Bonfire Festival. Its celebrated in northern India. Had gone over to a colleague's place to celebrate. In true spirit of the festival a huge bonfire was lit and punjabi songs were playing full blast. It was only when I reached there that I realised why he and his flatmates had gone through all the trouble of arranging for the music, the snacks (gajak, rewari, kurkure, etc.) and the bonfire. It turns out that there are a couple of girls' hostels in the same society. To cut the long story short the place resembled Lord Krishna's Raas Lila! with 50 odd girls dancing round the bonfire and a few of us guys to 'help' them out :)

Btw the DJ sucked and for the couple of hours that I was there I dont remember any song going beyond 2 lines.

Current Song - 'Masti ki pathsala' - Rang de Basanti (sud be a good movie, hope it aint another Mangal Pandey)

New Song that I heard today - 'Big City Life' (nice catchy rythm)

Hell just froze over

Someone once mentioned that Gurgaon is like hell. Well this winter I am experiencing what the expression "when hell freezes over" actually means. Yesterday mercury broke all records in the past 70 years!! ...and people out here were telling me that this year it aint that cold. Its so cold out here that waking up in the morning should be a criminal offence or something.

The other day my boss was telling me how Delhi does not have its own weather. Summers is influenced by places like Rajasthan and Winter is influenced by places like Srinagar and Jammu and blah blah.... well duh, who cares?...doesnt change the fact that its still freezing out here and that he expects everyone to be in the office at 8 in the morning.

Btw last week went to IIT-D for placements. Will talk about that some other time.

Happy New Year!

Its 2006 and as they say, you dont realise where time flies.

March 2003 - Was busy giving interviews, trying to convince the B-Schools that i fit the bill perfectly

November 2003 - Before I could catch my breath, was busy trying to convince companies to hire me for summer placements

December 04/Jan 05 - Was running between interviews so that i can get a decent job to start off my career with.

December 05 - Am on the other side of the table. All of a sudden I find myself taking interviews. Its a bit "wierd" when you know that one tick on the feedback form will accept or reject the candidate for the next round.

Lets see what 2006 has in store.