Monday, 17 August 1998

WRTUPI TXT

Path: E:\Web\India Internet Awared 98\WRTUP1.TXT

#2 Describe the impact of the internet on the quality of life for the employees

17-8-98

Answer:

More than 40 years ago, Norbert Weiner (widely regarded as the Father of Cybernetics), wrote a book "Human Use of Human Beings"

For the benefit of those who have not read it, it was perhaps the first book to expound the idea of "Quality of Work-Life".

In short, it prescribed a theory under which

  • Dangerous, repetitive, boring jobs & processes, requiring low order of intelligence should be "automated" for execution by Robots

and

  • Tasks requiring great analytical skills, lateral/parallel thinking and a high order of intelligence should be left for humans to perform

At 3P Consultants, we are trying to do just that.

Whether, our business process is

  • Creating/maintaining databases of executives and corporates on our website,
  • marketing/selling our services (to both),
  • booking/executing an order from a corporate client online,
  • despatching resumes/executive summaries thru e-mail,
  • arranging interviews
  • Conducting online match-making searches

etc. etc

we have tried to exploit the medium of internet. This is the only medium which eminently lends itself to

  • automating the business processes
  • online, instant "interactivity" amongst the participants, which, who, in our case, happen to be
    • Executives searching for jobs
    • Corporates searching for executives
    • Ourselves - as the service provider

We are aware that we have a long way to go, but having delegated a lot of routine, repetitive business processes to the friendly cyber-genie of the internet, our employees are now free to spend their time on

  • further re-engineering of business processes
  • greater personal interaction with those whom we serve
  • finding Innovative solutions to constantly changing business situations
  • exploiting latest trends in the computer/telecom HW/SW technologies.

Since changing over to Internet, I believe, our employees have discovered a new meaning of "Job-Satisfaction" which is more rooted in "self-Actualization" than merely doing a good job with its consequent Monetary/promotional rewards.

Our $\checkmark$ Business (characteristics)

" Process

" Mission

" Goals

" $\checkmark$ Belief

" Strategy

" Resources

" USP

" History (Management | financial | foster | Tie-Up)

" Affiliate Program

" Asso-

" Organisation

Our Business

We are in the Executive Search business. When client-corporations need competent executives for filling middle/senior level positions in their Organisations, we find such executives. This makes us a "service-industry".

At a more fundamental level (applying Theodor Levitt's explanation of "Marketing Myopia"), we are in the business of,

Gathering/Selling Executive-Profile Databases.

Our Beliefs

We believe,

  • For every executive, there is a suitable job somewhere out there and for every job-opening, there is a suitable executive.
  • There are millions of executives and millions of jobs
  • Executives do not know where exactly are all those suitable jobs and the employers do not know where exactly are those "near-ideal" candidates.
  • Corporates do not attach enough importance to finding good candidates - and consequently do not set-aside enough "resources" for this purpose.
  • Corporates do not plan their manpower requirements well-in-advance - so they always end-up wanting their man yesterday! (May be that is what keeps people like us in business).
  • Then there are competitors who are constantly upsetting your business-plans, forcing you to "hire/fire" on the double!
  • With coming into force of WARP (see annexure: $\square$ ), Corporates would want to change-over to Net-based recruitment in

order to

  • cut recruitment costs
  • reduce recruitment lead-times

(see annex: $\square$ / 6¢ per Resume ?)

  • More and more Corporates would want to outsource/subcontract their recruitment activity to a competent agency. Why do something (any business process) yourself if someone else can do it better/cheaper/faster?
  • Recruitment business is very suitable for conducting on a website. Two wheels of this business-chariot are
    • 100% Computerisation/Data transfer
    • Telecommunication.
  • Over the period of next 4/5 years, national boundaries will become irrelevant for Corporates - and ofcourse, the candidates - (Wait till the next round of WTO).
  • Corporates will tend to hire best candidates from any part of the world and candidates will become more mobile and constantly move from country-to-country (where jobs are).
  • More and more interviewing/selection will be done over Video-conferences.
  • And finally, the traditional recruitment business will die! Corporates will stop hiring people to fill positions. From any corner of the earth, they will hire skills/knowledge

to solve problems/find solutions. And most of such problem-solving (by persons possessing required skills/knowledge) will be done remotely (over the internet) and get paid remotely. The Corporate and the candidate may never meet in person!

$\|$ We believe in this. $\cancel{\text{and where we will be ready when that happens.}}$

$\|$ we will ensure this.

$\|$ we will obsolute ourselves - rather than let others obsolute us.

Business Process Re-engineering

  1. Call Centre
  2. Video-interviewing.
  3. Order tracking on website
  4. Dictate resume over phone (audio-mining)
  5. Remote working by Consultants (telecommuting)
  6. Affiliate Program $\left. \begin{array}{l} \text{7.} \\ \text{8.} \end{array} \right\} \text{Associate Program}$ - This should go under "strategy"

Our Business-Processes

Our business-processes are as follows

Business Process

Currently

Web-based

Offline (Manual)

Client-Related

1. Job-Adt posting

$\checkmark$

$\cancel{\checkmark}$

2. Headhunt (on resume database)

$\checkmark$

3. Shopping Basket

$\checkmark$

4. Interviewing

$\checkmark$

5. Follow-up/Track status with 3P

$\checkmark$

Candidate-Related

1. Resume posting/submission

$\checkmark$

2. Job-search (on jobs database)

$\checkmark$

3. Edit Resume

$\checkmark$

4. Getting interviewed (by 3P/client)

$\checkmark$

5. Monitor interview-outcome

$\checkmark$

 

Web-based

Offline

3P - related

1. Data-entry of typed/e-mailed/floppy resumes

$\checkmark$

2. Conduct headhunt on Intranet

$\checkmark$

3. Communicate "search-results" to client

$\checkmark$

4. Conduct Preliminary interview

$\checkmark$

5. Communicate with clients/candidates

$\checkmark$

 

Our business-processes will change as follows:

  1. We will set-up a "Call Centre" to answer all queries from
    • Corporates
    • Candidates
    • Associates
    • Affiliates

Call Centre will monitor progress/status of every "executive-search" assignment and provide feedback to all concerned.

Depending upon the existing workload/expertise of each of our "Consultants", the Call Centre Manager will (in consultation with consultants)

    • decide which consultant will handle a particular assignment
    • offer terms/negotiate with clients
  1. We are in the process of installing a Video-Conferencing facility (on an ISDN line). This will enable Clients to conduct interviews remotely - especially overseas clients.
  2. Order-Execution processes will get thoroughly computerised. Over a period of 1 year, these processes will shift as shown:

$$\text{from} \Rightarrow \text{Intranet} \downarrow \text{to} \Rightarrow \text{Extranet} \downarrow \text{to} \Rightarrow \text{Internet}$$

The idea is to enable a client to monitor the progress of his order directly on our website on his own and contact the Call-Centre only

for clarifications/doubts/instructions.

  1. By using Speech-recognition technology (IVRS), we plan to let an executive "dictate" his resume to our computer
    • at anytime
    • using plain old telephone
    • from the privacy of his home

Oracle/Dragon "audio-mining" technology will convert

$$\text{Speech} \rightarrow \text{Text} \rightarrow \text{Database}$$

Remember, for every executive with a computer/Internet access, there are 1000 others, with only a plain telephone at home! We are targetting this mass.

 

 

















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