29 July, 2020: “It’s great to be talking to some of the brightest minds of the country,” declared Vriddhesh Jain, Chief of Staff, Strategy & Program Management, DHL SmarTrucking, addressing students of the one-year Executive Post Graduate Programme in Management (EPGP) at IIM Bangalore on ‘Strategies in Operations – A Manager's Perspective’, in an interaction as part of the EPGP Seminar Series, on July 29 (Wednesday), 2020, from 2:30 pm to 04:00 pm.
Opening his talk by defining Strategy and Operations, Vriddhesh observed that strategy is a plan which can give an organization a differentiated competitive edge. Operations, he said, are a set of processes to deliver a product or service to the needs of the customer.
In his 45-minute talk, he dwelt on the key areas of Strategy with a focus on being practical rather than pedantic.
“Mission and Vision are high-level components of Strategy. Instead, he chose to discuss how you, as an organization, can become a provider of choice, employer of choice and investor of choice,” he said.
Focusing on customer-centricity, He said, an organization must keep its products simple and differentiated. To elucidate, he underlined the brevity and simplicity of the message-“If you cannot define your product or proposition in a tweet, then your product is too complex.” This was the learning, he said, his former employer (Aviva) drew from Jeff Bezos and his team at Amazon.
Emphasizing the need for an organization to ensure continuous visibility and customer feedback with a focus on acting on the feedback and closing the loop with the customer. He also explained why it is important for an organization to keep moving up the value chain of the customer.
Mechanism to fulfil Customer needs
Explaining how to create differentiated and efficient processes, he said managers must look at everything through the lens of the customer. Drawing once again from his days at Aviva Life Insurance, he spoke of the Customer Protection Committee that the life insurance player set up with two B-school faculty members. Anecdotally, he said that, “In any key meeting, we always kept a vacant chair in the room to remind us to keep our focus on the customer”.
Urging the students to challenge the status quo as managers, he told them to leverage the power of technology and analytics intelligently. “Try and implement a minimum number of platforms and ensure that these platforms are robust and integrated.”
On the matter of long-term and transactional goals, Vriddhesh said a customer must be supported in times of need.
“Irrespective of your level in the organization, your ears should always be to the ground.” Drawing from his experience at Mahindra, he spoke of how the company got market intelligence from tehsils. “This helped us develop tactics customized to a particular state and gain significant market share.”
Creating Efficient Processes
Efficiency must generate long-term financial results, he said, explaining the need for a manager to differentiate between good and bad costs. “Every business leader must develop the ability to pick agile and frugal processes and make the cost structure as variable as possible.”
Vendor contracts, he suggested, must also be done in such a way that their payments are linked to the success of the organization.
“Managing risk is a key ask for a business leader,” he said, drawing from his experience at DHL and Aviva, on putting safety and ethics above returns/ rewards/ business growth.
People-centricity
Pointing out that becoming an employer of choice is a key strategic pillar of every organization, he said no function should be individual dependent and therefore it was important for a manager to rotate people.
On the subjects of mergers, he spoke of how managers should manage change and handle the pain points of employees of the company being acquired. “Involve them in key strategic initiatives so that they feel invested.”
The talk was followed by a 30-minute Q&A session.
About the speaker:
Vriddhesh Jain has over 11 years of experience across multiple industries such as Logistics, Life Insurance, Automotive and the Oil & Gas sector, and has led multiple strategies and organizational projects across these sectors. His areas of strength include Strategy Development & Deployment, New Business Development, Operational Performance Improvement, Program Management, and Change Management.
29 July, 2020: “It’s great to be talking to some of the brightest minds of the country,” declared Vriddhesh Jain, Chief of Staff, Strategy & Program Management, DHL SmarTrucking, addressing students of the one-year Executive Post Graduate Programme in Management (EPGP) at IIM Bangalore on ‘Strategies in Operations – A Manager's Perspective’, in an interaction as part of the EPGP Seminar Series, on July 29 (Wednesday), 2020, from 2:30 pm to 04:00 pm.
Opening his talk by defining Strategy and Operations, Vriddhesh observed that strategy is a plan which can give an organization a differentiated competitive edge. Operations, he said, are a set of processes to deliver a product or service to the needs of the customer.
In his 45-minute talk, he dwelt on the key areas of Strategy with a focus on being practical rather than pedantic.
“Mission and Vision are high-level components of Strategy. Instead, he chose to discuss how you, as an organization, can become a provider of choice, employer of choice and investor of choice,” he said.
Focusing on customer-centricity, He said, an organization must keep its products simple and differentiated. To elucidate, he underlined the brevity and simplicity of the message-“If you cannot define your product or proposition in a tweet, then your product is too complex.” This was the learning, he said, his former employer (Aviva) drew from Jeff Bezos and his team at Amazon.
Emphasizing the need for an organization to ensure continuous visibility and customer feedback with a focus on acting on the feedback and closing the loop with the customer. He also explained why it is important for an organization to keep moving up the value chain of the customer.
Mechanism to fulfil Customer needs
Explaining how to create differentiated and efficient processes, he said managers must look at everything through the lens of the customer. Drawing once again from his days at Aviva Life Insurance, he spoke of the Customer Protection Committee that the life insurance player set up with two B-school faculty members. Anecdotally, he said that, “In any key meeting, we always kept a vacant chair in the room to remind us to keep our focus on the customer”.
Urging the students to challenge the status quo as managers, he told them to leverage the power of technology and analytics intelligently. “Try and implement a minimum number of platforms and ensure that these platforms are robust and integrated.”
On the matter of long-term and transactional goals, Vriddhesh said a customer must be supported in times of need.
“Irrespective of your level in the organization, your ears should always be to the ground.” Drawing from his experience at Mahindra, he spoke of how the company got market intelligence from tehsils. “This helped us develop tactics customized to a particular state and gain significant market share.”
Creating Efficient Processes
Efficiency must generate long-term financial results, he said, explaining the need for a manager to differentiate between good and bad costs. “Every business leader must develop the ability to pick agile and frugal processes and make the cost structure as variable as possible.”
Vendor contracts, he suggested, must also be done in such a way that their payments are linked to the success of the organization.
“Managing risk is a key ask for a business leader,” he said, drawing from his experience at DHL and Aviva, on putting safety and ethics above returns/ rewards/ business growth.
People-centricity
Pointing out that becoming an employer of choice is a key strategic pillar of every organization, he said no function should be individual dependent and therefore it was important for a manager to rotate people.
On the subjects of mergers, he spoke of how managers should manage change and handle the pain points of employees of the company being acquired. “Involve them in key strategic initiatives so that they feel invested.”
The talk was followed by a 30-minute Q&A session.
About the speaker:
Vriddhesh Jain has over 11 years of experience across multiple industries such as Logistics, Life Insurance, Automotive and the Oil & Gas sector, and has led multiple strategies and organizational projects across these sectors. His areas of strength include Strategy Development & Deployment, New Business Development, Operational Performance Improvement, Program Management, and Change Management.