Culture rules! Part 2 -The eGuru

I was going through a transition that time in IBM sometime early 2000. I decided that I have devoted enough of my time upbringing our services partners and the Business Partner Program can run in its own momentum. Finally! It was time to jump into something more interesting. Dot com bubble was at its peak those days, and IBM almost became synonymous with e-Business, ruling the world, changing the way e-commerce happens and transforming, it could, even the local panwala’s business into the big E.

So I decided, this must be a wonderful moment to get engrossed into the E-world and promptly got myself certified as an e-business advisor. That looks simple in simple line, but I did have to undergo serious preparation and sit for exams! I became an IBM e-business advisor and started advising our clients on how to convert their business into simply-E.

After certifying myself, I thought I should now give to the organization my “other knowledge and skills”. I decided its time to train our teams about nuances of specialized customer facing presentation and communication skills. I was a voluntary member of the training team of my previous company TCS. I shared the coaching shoes with the Ernst & Young training team in coaching TCS project teams. It was time to teach the IBMer kids some tricks of the trade! I filed my nomination with the training group, and next day a gentleman popped up from nowhere and introduced himself as one of the training coordinators.

IBM India is India HQ in Bangalore in 2000 was about 5000 people that time sitting in 3 buildings. I was hoping for just an email with a thank you note (there were not too many internal trainers) and fixing my course name tag in the training calendar. After all, with so any people to handle in a mega organization where is the time for anything else, but an email. And make no mistake, email was a very effective communication tool in a world champ organization like IBM. It’s a mandatory business etiquette in IBM to read business emails, and reply the same day, at the earliest possible time. It used to be an “art” to push it out of one’s table at the first opportunity and fire it back to the sender’s court.

So I was pleasantly surprised! The gentleman introduced himself and proceeded to have a discussion on whatever I mentioned in my nomination to understand my motivation to volunteer for the training session. After a rather long session and several satisfactory answers, he looked pleased with the answers. He then meticulously proceeded to explain the training process meticulously and the logistics support his group will be providing me, including broadcasting support for the content and topic in all the buildings. He personally thanked me before leaving and yes, after the training session I got a little memento with a certificate too.

I was impressed, I saw it as component of a positive learning and mentoring culture of the organization, where the authorities not only went that extra mile to ensure the quality of the training and content, but also took total care of the volunteer with all back up support, and personal handholding volunteers despite their busy work schedule. I loved the trait to my heart. Was that a personal passion of the training department person or was it the process of the company? Neither! I saw similar behaviorism in all these service departments and never found anything like such a detailed process in writing anywhere.

What then is the secret of sustaining such practices? By now you have guessed it right, it is the corporate culture that once internalized, becomes a guiding spirit behind every individual’s action. Of course it comes through belief-preach-practice cycle that goes much beyond written codes.