The Hindu Business Line : A cardinal sin called overconfidence

Hubris is from Greek hybris. It means exaggerated pride or self-confidence. Hubris may well be humanity's cardinal sin, bemoans Mathew Hayward in Ego Check, from Kaplan Publishing (www.kaplanpublishing.com) .

"If extraordinary confidence is grounded in the best available data, it is authentic, and a positive force for advancement," explains the author. When our confidence is false, we are confident for the wrong reasons, and serious problems can arise, as a result.

"The entire history of the IT industry has been one of overpromising and underdelivering," reads a quote of Larry Ellison of Oracle, cited in the opening chapter. "Software executives routinely say that a product is going to be ready on a certain date, and then it turns out to be literally years late. It's happened at Microsoft. It's happened at Oracle."

The line that separates being highly confident from succumbing to hubris is razor-thin and can be crossed in an instant, without us even knowing it, cautions Hayward.

He identifies four sources of hubris, as follows: "Getting too full of ourselves, getting in our own way, kidding ourselves about our situation, and failing to manage the consequences of our decisions."

The author discusses the Apple Computer case elaborately to show how the company's helmsmen Steve Jobs and John Sculley got too full of themselves, and fell into the wrong pride trap. Pride comes in four forms, one learns: grounded pride, which is intrinsic and based on objective data; exaggerated pride, evidenced by self-serving data; dependent pride that is extrinsic; and overweening pride, `the expressway to hubris', which is `driven by potential outcomes, including how we want others to perceive us'.

Thankfully, though, Jobs is a different man now. "Learning from his mistakes at Mac and NeXT, Jobs refused to let the iPod's form triumph over function, when customers said that the product needed both. Rather than skimp on memory, the first iPod had a 5-gigabyte hard drive, and 32 megabytes of memory - more than most PDAs. Furthermore, Jobs has not let his contempt for Bill Gates prevent iTunes from running on Windows platforms."

Getting in our own way, the second sin, arises out of being led by pride `to tackle single-handedly decisions or actions that should be made by or in conjunction with trusted advisers'. Oracle is the case study to exemplify this. Because, "Ellison's false confidence took Oracle right to the brink of bankruptcy in 1990 and 1991."

Recounts Hayward: "Believing that the firm's database products would carry the firm, Ellison underestimated the importance of financial and sales controls. Instead, what he relied on was a `five in five' strategy. `I was simply extrapolating the annual doubling of revenues,' says Ellison. `We would reach $5 billion in five years. I had absolutely no idea how absurd and naïve the plan was.'"

To complicate matters, the Oracle chief had `the wrong people in place'. For example, `the firm's CFO, an engineer rather than an accountant, took his eyes off the cash flow', and `his sales chief hired an ultra-aggressive sales force that rewarded gunslingers for booking sales, rather than collecting receivables'.

Compelling read.

India is fast losing the BPO edge

Sobering stuff stares at us from the final chapter, where the author looks at how India fares as against rest of Asia.

Madhukar Yadav, a calling agent in Gurgaon, tells all in Winning @ Call Centre, from Wisdom Tree (www.wisdomtreeindia.com) . "Back in the olden days, Indian society worked differently and life was simpler. Traditionally, Indians worked during the day and remained at home after dark. They enjoyed their precious sleep in peace. Never in their wildest dreams had they imagined that honest work could happen at night," narrates the author.

"According to old-timers, no respectable work took place after dark and I was brainwashed a couple of times to let go off the silly idea of working at night and instead find a job as a clerical staff in some government organisation. `At least you'll earn some pension,' they suggested."

But that was not to happen, and here is Yadav offering tips to wannabe agents on what recruiters look for in a candidate for a call centre job. First, your level of confidence as it reflects over the phone. "Remember, out there, the other individual on line cannot see you in person. So be very confident and sound like one."

The second piece of advice is about grammar. "When you speak in English which is full of grammatical errors, the other person is bound to slam the phone on your face." Third, voice quality. Count yourself lucky if your voice is like that of Sean Connery or Amitabh Bachchan! "But others need to work on their intonations. They ought to know when to raise their pitch and when to soften." Commitment and prior experience rank fourth and fifth in the list of desirables in prospective candidates.

"A call centre is an industry in itself wherein an undergraduate can opt for a career of his choice," assures Yadav. "A calling agent can either go in for a voice or a non-voice-based process, enter the quality section, make his mark in operations, handle transport, manage accounts, look after the business development, train people by become a process trainer or simply shift to the human resource department and hire youngsters like himself - all that without possessing a university degree."

India has advanced 50 years in the last five years, declares the author. "Gone are the days when a person used to slog in order to earn a mere Rs 5,000 as now he can earn thrice as much after completing his class XII examination... Educated youth are no longer worried about their future." Yet, a graduate degree is vital for securing a respectable job, he insists. "Many Indian call centres have added a clause in their recruitment process which clearly states that a person needs to be a graduate in order to qualify to work in their organisation."

Unlike the IT boom, the call-centre boom is going to last longer, predicts Yadav. The industry is here to stay for good, he says. "The only change here could be the introduction of KPOs (knowledge process outsourcing)."

Sobering stuff stares at us from the final chapter, where the author looks at how India fares as against the rest of Asia. In `first call resolution rate' - that is, solutions provided to customers in the first call - India ranks second from the bottom, with 71 per cent; overall Asia score is 77 per cent, and South Korea tops the tally with 89 per cent. In terms of `calls answered within an agent's capacity', India is just above the region average of 82 per cent.

On the `unscheduled leaves' parameter, which gauges agent absenteeism, we are the worst, with a 10 per cent score, while Asia's average is 7 per cent. How good are we on the `converts' benchmark, which stands for the actual number of calls converted into sales by the calling agents? Overall Asia is at 49 per cent, and India scores 43 per cent and is at the bottom of the pile. "India is fast losing the BPO edge... If India has to maintain its position in the BPO sector, it has to gear up."

Earnest account.

Tailpiece

"Hello, who?"

"It's me!"