Personal Scorecard

Are you a great professional? And do you feel down in the dumps at times? How about a balance?
This is how.
I have a friend Jagannath. A great guy oozing with wisdom at times. When that oozing stops, he is a normal guy, though. One of the pearls of wisdom that dropped out of him is that method of balance. I am sure he must have read it somewhere, couldn’t have imagined it all by himself.
Once he asked me the same questions as you see at the top and ventured to answer it himself. He told me to start a confidential notebook, preferably a large size. He said that a notebook could be kept more secure from prying eyes than a computer. “Have four sections under the four titles – My great achievements, My lesser achievements, My failures, My great failures”, he explained.
He wanted me to write down in brief with dates and in just one or two sentences, relevant points under each head – whatever I remembered from the past and certainly in future, but promptly without delay. He reminded me that the notings were entirely for my personal consumption and therefore I should be brutally frank there, subject of course to my not indulging in any criminal activity when it might serve as evidence against me!
He answered my quizzical look with, “If you are to keep your mental balance, you should not get carried away when you do a great job; at that time, it helps if you read about your failures and realize that you are not always that great. Similarly, when you are highly depressed due to a failure, read the section of your achievements – that will perk you up and make you realize that success and failure are equally common.”
I followed his advice and found that it really worked! Jagannath seemed to have guided towards what the Gita talks about “Nirmamo nirahankarh samadukha sukhah kshami” (Bereft of possessiveness and egotism, taking sorrow and pleasure with equanimity …).

ISO or Eyewash?

When ISO 9000 was first introduced in India, there was a hue and cry even from many knowledgeable quarters that it was a conspiracy for creating a non-tariff barrier for Indian goods to the European markets. You may recall that the initial ones to be affected were the suppliers of grey iron castings. There was anyway a scramble to understand how the documents were to be prepared and the forerunners zealously guarded their Quality Manuals and Procedures from the evil eyes of aspirants.
Anyway, the initial resistance was got over and the major organizations proceeded to get certified to ISO 9000 without further ado. The turn came for the next line of companies and they got through with some struggle. When it came to the smaller ones, the typical Indian ingenuity came into play.
The big boys insisted on their suppliers being certified to ISO 9000 – so what was needed? Just a piece of paper with the due signatures. Certifying bodies sprouted to make use of the opportunity and pliant consultants were there to provide the nexus. Documents were reproduced in droves, competing agencies were very kind and certificates multiplied. A few days of polishing of records just before the due date, make-believe minutes of the ‘Management Review Meetings’ and a good protracted lunch for the auditor took care of the ‘Surveillance audit’.
Any certifying body which tries to do a real job is afraid of getting thrown out in favour of a more ‘helpful’ one. The six-monthly surveillance audits tend to be conveniently made into annual ones; auditors are expected to bend over backwards to ‘accommodate’ the clients.
It is unfortunate that the companies do not realize that they are the losers. They are anyway spending money for the audits, for the certificates, for the consultants; they are spending time and energy to maintain the records (even if false). But many of them are not getting the benefit of these things, except that they continue to be approved suppliers of their principals.
Many times of the costs incurred can be recouped if they only bother to make use of the well-thought out provisions of ISO 9000. Just a few are:
 Use the Non-conforming products clause to reduce the defectives and improve the profits
 Use the Corrective and Preventive actions clauses, again to improve the operations and improve the bottom-line
 Put the requirement of Continuous Improvement into effect to see the operations become more efficient
 Implement the Objectives and Targets in order to reap the benefit of all-round advancement of the organization