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A number called customer satisfaction

In my previous post, I covered some of the pitfalls in ‘quantitative management’. In this post, I will cover some common errors in handling customer satisfaction. Most of the organizations today  have an established process of collecting and reporting customer satisfaction. But are the organizations effective in using this feedback? There is always a temptation to derive an ‘index’ out of the CSAT feedback that can be aggregated at different levels like project, account, BU and the whole organization. While it is very convenient to have this one uniform number to compare the performance, there is a danger of getting obsessed with this number. Let’s start from the beginning. The primary objective of seeking customer feedback is to improve the future delivery. But in CSAT index we have a neat number that distracts organizational attention to performance measurements of individuals and teams. Hence the focus moves away from the improvement actions at the level of project and
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Sasikala, Jayalalithaa and Barkha Dutt

These are random thoughts on reading an article from Barkha Dutt on how Sasikala was judged in the context of what happened to Jayalalithaa. Here is the link to the article. https://t.co/kmqV8Qw3Nk In fact I have noticed that in recent times almost every act is judged in relation to another similar act in the past. It is ok for Congress to disrupt the parliament because BJP did that when they were in opposition. What happened in the case of Wendy Doniger’s book is acceptable because Congress government banned Satanic Verses. The judgement on Sasikala was too harsh because Jayalalithaa did not get the same treatment. It is quite silly to to be outraged on what happened to Tarek Fatah in the Urdu festival because you did not protest when someone poured ink on someone else. It is as if there is no way of judging the merit of the case in point without leaning on a precedent. It is not that this approach of comparison makes it any easier to conclude on the issue. There are always
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Causal Analysis

I was staring at my ceiling as I had nothing much else to do. I was down with a virus. My son gave me an accusing look that he had to skip a party due to my condition. I was reflecting on how I happened to catch this virus which inevitably led me to my favorite topic, Causal analysis. The ultimate purpose of doing a Causal Analysis is to improve the status quo - look at the current system objectively and identify what can be done better next time. Humankind has consistently applied these principles in its development – where complex events have been encapsulated into simple adages and proverbs for posterity. However learning from experience is one of those things that are easier said than done. One has to evaluate the past, understand why something succeeded or failed, device systems to ensure that successes are repeated and failures avoided. As simple as that. But it doesn’t remain that simple when we try to put it into practice in our lives. It is not very different
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Evolution in politics – Part II

In 2010, when the Shashi Tharoor – IPL controversy was at its peak, I wrote a small note wondering about the future of politicians like Shashi Tharoor – well qualified, polished, with international exposure – in the Indian political environment. Here is a link to that note. I worried then that the environment is too hostile for this new life form – let’s call it the T-gene - to survive. Half a decade has passed and there is good news as well as bad news. The good news is that he has survived the test of time so far. If anything, he is stronger today than he was then. The bad news is that I still don’t see many more like him coming into politics. So the T-gene survives but does not seem to prosper. It is not difficult to see why. The environment of selection remains as hostile as what it used to be. If the T-gene has survived, it has survived on its own tenacity and not by benevolence of selection. Media still prefers Lalit Modi or Lalu Yadav brand of politics. Let us consider a
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