The Hindu Business Line : Exit `meetings', enter `e-conferencing'

An electronic conference lends itself as an effective and equitable technique, wherein the managers may pool their knowledge about every employee and evaluate their merits and demerits. It is an ideal and appropriate forum to meet and manage the massive and multiple needs of employee education and training in large organisations.

CONFERENCES are an essential feature of any organisation. In a well-organised conference, the participants will exchange knowledge and opinions; generate ideas leading to solutions; come to agreements on issues; and commit themselves to consequent action.

Nevertheless, employees in many corporates complain that too many meetings are being held, and that productive time is wasted in prolonged meetings. It is in this context that electronic conferences have emerged to provide an effective answer to this conundrum.

Electronic meetings consume on an average 50 per cent of the time taken by conventional conferences. This advantage is magnified more, when viewed against the background that managers invest nearly 60 per cent of their working time in meetings.

Electronic conferences require the use of a personal computer — either tabletop or laptop — for every participant to enter his input, which he wants to share with other people. The PCs are linked through an internal network.

While the conference will be conducted through the PCs, yet there will be room and scope for conversation, discussion, banter, and even humour — the human touch will not be robbed by the machine.

A large screen for displaying the participants' output and other connected information, a computer printer, and a photocopier are usually available at hand.

Most electronic meetings have a facilitator to assist the chairperson, especially when the participants are numerous, or new to the technology. The facilitator will help only in the mechanics of the meeting, and not in its deliberations. His role will be confined to the process, and not the content of the conference.

The technology of electronic meetings per se enables more people to participate. Since electronic meetings are more focussed and shorter and since people can participate from their own locations, the overall cost in conducting them is much less compared to conventional conferences.

Another significant aspect is the facility to measure accurately and quickly the degree of consensus on any bone of contention, by means of the electronic franchise. This enables the meeting to move quickly towards agreement and action. The objectives and the agenda of the conference are displayed usually on the large screen as, also, on the PCs.

Then follows a series of sessions, each of which is started and stopped from one of the PCs in the network. During every such session, information is transmitted to each PC, seeking feedback from the other participants. In turn, the other participants type their input into their PCs, and send it across the network. All of them study the inputs and add comments, provoked by fresh thinking on the subject. Thus, the issue is discussed threadbare and in toto.

The assumption of anonymity, when warranted, is a distinct and desirable feature of electronic conferences. The advantage of anonymity is that participation is even and equal, irrespective of rank and status in the organisation. Useful opinions — quite often, important facts — surface from the shadow of faceless figures, which otherwise may never be known.

Second, there is no embarrassment, while sponsoring a half-baked idea or proposal for consideration in the conference. By serendipity, sometimes, such an idea may hit the nail on its head, and possibly, be further honed and developed by someone else with more competence, insights, and perception on the subject.

Third, anonymity diffuses confrontation. Participants find it easier to respond to impersonal criticism, than when confronted in face.

Nowadays, customers are far more demanding and much better informed about the goods and services available in the market. Therefore, it is becoming increasingly difficult to create customer satisfaction. Corporates are always looking for improved methods to identify and mobilise the needs, norms, and nuances of the market, which will ensure a cutting edge over the competition.

Companies, therefore, formulate a focus group comprising the core members from the customer constituency, to ascertain and assess their needs and values. An electronic conference is a medium par excellence for this purpose.

The end result of such a meeting will be the compilation of a catalogue of vital information. This data is expressed in the customers' own lingua franca, which may be later prioritised and programmed for further action.

Commercial enterprises invariably operate a strategic plan to stay on track and top of the trade. The kingpin of a strategic plan is the vision of what the organisation will look like, say, 20 years from now; and also, an action programme to process that transition. The plan warrants a collective commitment from the people who carry the responsibility to implement it.

Different phases of the plan must be pinpointed, and linkages provided from the enunciation of the strategy to the nitty-gritty of its execution. Quite often, the plan may need an intermediate review and course correction, to meet and match the market fluctuations, corresponding to the mercurial demands of the customer. Nothing to beat an electronic conference to accomplish such amendments and alterations from time to time.

Business process re-engineering (BPR) is a radical redesign of the activities of a commercial organisation, slated to achieve a sizable and timely improvement in its goals and performance. This involves a number of stages, and each a number of people and their points of view — gathering inputs about the current processes; developing ideas for change and innovation; designing new processes and solutions; and, finally, creating consensus and commitment among the people. Many organisations around the world adopt the modus operandi of an electronic conference to introduce the concept and implement the programme of BPR.

Electronic conferences are particularly useful in the area of human resource development. When downsizing is an inevitable demand dictated by the competitive circumstances confronting a company, assessment of people to decide who stays and who goes, becomes crucial and critical. Since the middle-level managers are likely to be familiar with the potential and promise of most of the employees, an electronic conference lends itself as an effective and equitable technique, wherein the college of managers may pool their knowledge about every employee and evaluate them.

Individual employees must keep their knowledge and skill levels up-dated to meet their personal growth and organisational development. An employee's career growth will depend on his skill upgradation and improvement, whereas organisational development will depend on the calibre and capability of its employees. Electronic conferences are an ideal and appropriate forum to meet and manage the massive and multiple needs of employee education and training in large organisations.

Creativity is the soul of success — perhaps, the sole criterion of success — in a rapidly changing commercial climate. Brainstorming is a standard practice and technique in this area. Participants are propelled to produce a large number of ideas. Inevitably, most of them will be raw, incomplete, unproved, and even outrageous. Whereas the quantity of ideas is the first measure of success, irrespective of their quality, value and pragmatism.

It is essential to step back and review the long list of ideas, maybe more than once, before deciding about their prioritisation and execution. An electronic conference is a simple, quick, and easy method to process a brainstorming session.

(The author is a Chennai-based freelance writer.)

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
On a new dimension

India and China — Economics of airports compared

Trickery of transaction cost

Back to school — frightful, desperate, wild and furious

We have a `banned' list now

Monetary Policy-making — Best time for a breakthrough

Exit `meetings', enter `e-conferencing'

Middle management

`25 to 30 per cent cost reduction possibilities' in insurance

Bank mergers

Poverty eradication