Turning Conventional Management Upside Down
By Vineet Nayar
Harvard Business Press, $24.95, 192 pages
Talk about a eye-catching title? Vineet Nayar sure got our attention with Employees First, Customers Second . Really? For a consultant? The books' five chapters each represent an action plan for C-level executives and Nayar's own company, (he took over HCL Technologies in 2005) is the case study. Under his leadership, the firm has become one of the fastest-growing IT services companies on the planet.
How'd he do it? By putting employees first, especially the ones that worked in the "value zone," the interface between the customer and the firm. For starters, he opened the books, shared information and created a level of transparency rarely seen today in corporate America. He also inverted the traditional pyramid, making management accountable to the employees and recast his own role to turn HCL into a self-governing company.
If this all sounds easier said than done, it probably is, but Nayar's book serves as a good starting point.
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