Published 5 years ago on Oct 16, 2020
by Anindya RayView: 623
Anindya's Anecdotes #2
“Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it.” So rightly said by Salvador Dali
The word “Perfection” has been an enigma my whole life. We all want it, but is it what's needed?
This simple incident directed me towards an answer to this question.
A few years back, we were working on a new initiative to reduce our lead time and get to market quickly. There was a lot of pressure, Mr. Sells Maximus had joined us as the sales head and he was trying to maximise business in his channel.
He had taken up the challenge of increasing his business manifold. He held multiple meetings with the Channel partners, the design, product and sourcing teams. He even had meetings with the vendors to tie up all the loose ends.
His ask, very simple.
- a system which offers fast fashion to the channels
- react to the market in 8 weeks with the required product
SOP’s were set up, regular reviews were planned, approval processes defined, nothing left to chance.
Or so he thought!
Everyone went into hyperdrive. Work started in right earnest. Ball started rolling!
But he soon ran into an unusual problem.
The stakeholders seemed to be dealing with some commitment issues!
Yes, you heard that right.
They just would not commit an end date. And every time there was a review, there were new curve balls thrown in the form of open points.
By the 3rd week, it had become obvious that the timelines were derailed.
Costs were not getting closed, vendors were not committing to timelines, no closure on colours, so on and so forth…
He decided to roll up his sleeves and dive right into each issue. And to his utter surprise, he came face to face with his nemesis,
- designer refused to delegate approvals to the vendor
- product manager refused to close the cost till he got a detailed cost sheet
- vendor refused to give a detailed cost, wanted to vet every single variable like final fabric width, consumption, were closed before committing a cost
- mill refused to confirm the ex-mill date till griege was in-house
- vendor refused to confirm a delivery date before he got a final date from the mill
Bottomline, there were no closures.
All exhausted, our hero came to me and asked a simple question.
Frankly, I still do not have an answer for this!
He was clearly frustrated. But the the other stakeholders could not see the problem.
They genuinely wanted to give him a ‘correct’ answer. And there-in lies the problem.
How much precision is required to conduct business? Is it better to be quick and roughly right rather than miss the bus in search of PERFECTION?
When companies have too many specialists and they lose sight of the final objective, they lose their nimbleness and speed. They focus on process and perfection rather than speed and the big picture.
Businesses need to develop a culture which balances out the above. The answer is always in the balance. In ancient Indian texts, there is a word for this ‘samay-achaar’, or simply put ‘adapt your approach/style/process based on the need of the situation’.
Would love to hear your opinion on this. Do share and comment below...
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8 Comments
DipinNov 04, 2020 at 14:22 pm
Well said Mr.Anindya Ray... The working culture need to be changed and that is not possible to make in a day or few days. It will test your patience at its extreme level
Sarika AroraOct 22, 2020 at 17:31 pm
Excellent Topic and very well-articulated Sir, –Perfection is good to idealize. In a real situation, you have to keep an eye on a multitude of factors and take calls accordingly. These things make me wonder – Do Perfection Exist? Like Beauty, Perfection lies in the eyes of Beholder, to what scale you want to bend down to ensure it’s PERFECT. Commercial calls and conditional approval are taken to avoid such situation – but do we mine that data – the winner/losers out of the calls taken and learn to bend our curve of perfection, to get to the path of winning the situation- keeping in mind the past mistakes.
Prashanth HvOct 20, 2020 at 10:46 am
You are absolutely right Anindya. Many projects gets derailed or failed because of want of perfection. As you say many times "Best is the enemy of Good", I have experienced this everywhere. It all happens when there is a fear of attack at the line managers. Unless everyone is taken into confidence and advised that nobody will be questioned for unforeseen delays and nobody will be attacked or demoralised, team would put there best efforts and make it happen. The project owner should first put a disclaimer or own the failure if it happens and give full confidence to the team to work fearlessly. It's all give and take, win-win for the team and the vendor partner. It all lies with the tracking mechanism that one has, identification of risks and have mitigation plans for those risks. Simply giving an idea and preparing process will not give success to any project. I would also want to add, when there is bigger idea or plan, it has to be tried with small bits and check the result and modify and then launch the plan in a bigger scale. This we learn from start ups where any idea is first tested with a proto type or MVP(minimum viable product). From proto types feedback will be received, improvements will be done and then it will be launched in the market for a broader customer base. As I say the above points, it is very much important to keep a plan and monitor rigorously, any deviation should be kept in mind and have plan B and C ready for quicker adaptation.
Akhil khannaOct 18, 2020 at 20:14 pm
The pandemic has made things happen. This year we have for the first time moved from top down approach to a collaborative approach and have been successful in reducing delivery lead time and the collaborative creativity took efficiency to another level. Delivery in 45 days in india ! Colour approval digitally and closing styles over zoom calls. It has been a rush and if we collaborate at design and buyer level with production and factory at one time we will reduce 50% of the time line. This is with caution it’s the smart working between the brands and the factory supply form mills there has seen no change but the process time reduced with the transfer of responsibility to the factory for yarn colour approvals and flexibility in the approach. It started with basic yarns and to our surprise we managed doing blended products too. The key was communication and flexibility. I believe if the scourge of stock needs to be addressed then the answer is small qty multiple design with trade being feed only what they can sell. We must have 10 percent of the line change every month the culture of sale must be phased out from fashion brands.
Anand JainOct 18, 2020 at 12:30 pm
Bang On !! Timely closures are critical to successful sourcing and for all stake holders .
Gunish C JainOct 18, 2020 at 10:33 am
Anindya, you are absolutely bang ok. Perfection is the enemy of improvement. I have always felt that the right approach to improvement is not stream lining a process, rather elimination of a process. So, when trying to do quick lead times, its important that all stake holders are clear on the new process and SOP. Rather than trying to fit an outdated process on a new way of working. Change management is critical. And having someone own this "Change Management" is important.
Sudheer veliselaOct 17, 2020 at 22:54 pm
Rightly said , this is the practical problem everyday we face but with no solution in sight. If all stakeholders align with business goal we can still get this done.
Arvind ThakurOct 17, 2020 at 11:04 am
Very Well Written Anindya and it is very correct to get moving rather than keep planning the perfect move, as a Rolling Stone Gathers No Moss but it Shines.....Keep Shining...