netrashetty
Netra Shetty
Cognizant Technology Solutions (CTS) (NASDAQ: CTSH) is a U.S.-based multinational provider of business, technology and consulting services headquartered in Teaneck, New Jersey, United States. Cognizant has been named to the 2010 Fortune 100 Fastest-Growing Companies List for the eighth consecutive year.[2] Cognizant has also been named to the Fortune 1000 and Forbes Global 2000 lists. It has consistently ranked among the fastest growing companies including the 2010 Business Week 50 list of the top-performing U.S. companies, the Business Week Hottest Tech Companies 2010, and the Forbes Fast Tech 2010 list of 25 Fastest Growing Technology Companies In America.
early one-half century ago, Burns and Stalker noted that mechanistic organizations are often appropriate in stable environments and for routine tasks and technologies. In some ways similar to bureaucratic structures, mechanistic organizations have clear, well-defined, centralized, vertical hierarchies of command, authority, and control. Efficiency and predictability are emphasized through specialization, standardization, and formalization. This results in rigidly defined jobs, technologies, and processes. The term mechanistic suggests that organizational structures, processes, and roles are like a machine in which each part of the organization does what it is designed to do, but little else.
It is easy to confuse mechanistic organizations with bureaucracies due to the considerable overlap between these two concepts. Yet despite the overlaps, a primary difference between mechanistic organizations and bureaucracy is the rationale for utilizing each of these. A goal of bureaucratic structures is to protect lower-level administrative positions from arbitrary actions of owners and higher-level managers. For example, an individual holding the job title of vice-president of production would, in a bureaucracy, be protected from indiscriminant changes in work hours, wages, and responsibilities through formal rules, regulations, and grievance procedures. The goal of the bureaucracy is protection of positions within the organization.
Mechanistic organizations, on the other hand, are utilized to increase efficiency when tasks and technologies are relatively stable. The vice-president of production in a mechanistic organization would employ production processes and techniques that minimize waste and maximize outputs for a given quantity of inputs. The goal of mechanistic structures is efficiency. Thus, the rationale for bureaucracy is protection while the rationale for mechanistic organizations is efficiency. Clearly, the two are not mutually exclusive; an organization could be structured as a bureaucracy and also be mechanistic. On the other hand, many examples of inefficient bureaucracies can quickly come to mind, suggesting that while there is overlap between the concepts, there are distinctions as well.
Mechanistic structures are highly formalized, which simply means that nearly all processes and procedures have been administratively authorized. The organization considers processes and procedures out-side these established protocols as variances that must be brought under control. Such formalization is driven by efficiency; reduction in variance increases predictability, and increases in predictability allow for improvements in efficiency. Examples pertinent to product or service distribution include the processes a store clerk uses when presented with a customer's credit card or how returns of products by customers are to be handled. Examples pertinent to product or service production and assembly include how a book publisher manages the workflow from completed manuscripts to final bookbinding and how Dell Computer manages assembly of made-to-order personal computers. Decision making is largely concerned with application of the appropriate predetermined rule, policy, procedure, or criteria.
Environmental and technological stability allow work to be clearly defined and differentiated. The work of the organization is divided into specific, precise tasks. Created from one or more such specific tasks, specialized job positions rigidly define skills needed, task methodology and procedures to be used, and specific responsibilities and authority. In effect, lower-level managers and other employees simply follow procedures, and while this may have the side effect of stifling creativity, it also increases efficiency of established processes. In stable environments, however, stifling creativity may be worth the improvements in efficiency. Few customers, for instance, would want a McDonald's employee to use creativity in preparing their hamburger. Instead, the repetitiveness and stability of the procedures needed to cook a hamburger are more efficient when the employee follows established procedures and customers can trust that each hamburger they purchase will taste the same.
However, specialized tasks are repetitive and can sometimes be boring. For example, at a Sam's Club store, one person stands at the door to perform the single task of marking customer receipts. Because employees often work separately with little interaction, it is often hard for them to see how one's small, specialized task relates to overall organizational objectives. Also, the work of mechanistic organizations tends to be impersonal. Jobs are designed around the task rather than the individual. Personnel selection, assignment, and promotion are based on the possession of skills required for specific tasks. Other people, like interchangeable parts of a machine, can replace people in a position.
Specialization carries throughout the organization. Positions are grouped together into specialized work units and, ultimately, into specialized functional departments such as production, marketing, or finance. Each organizational unit has clear and specific responsibilities and objectives. Communication is primarily vertical, with more emphasis on down-ward directives than on upward communication. Thus, such matters as goals, strategies, policies, and procedures are determined by top-level management and communicated downward as instructions and decisions to be implemented.
Play nice. The “rules” governing interpersonal interaction apply in marketing research, just as they do in every other field. The research industry tends to attract well-educated individuals, who often hold strong opinions regarding research techniques, methodologies, etc. While such knowledge is of indisputable worth, researchers must take care to exercise restraint in their interactions with each other and with clients. A measure of humility is required — there will always be someone else who knows more than you. The need to show deference and respect to co-workers and clients is certainly as critical in marketing research as in any other field — often more so.
You will never have completely arrived. As noted above, marketing research is an extremely complex field containing elements of several other disciplines: psychotherapy, sociology, statistics, mathematics, consumer behavior, organizational behavior, marketing, etc. Although individuals may be inclined toward a particular area of research (e.g., qualitative vs. quantitative), truly superb practitioners have their fingers in several pies. Knowing when to use which method, rather than fitting all research problems to a preferred methodology, is critical to providing high-quality, actionable information.
Think, don’t just calculate. Marketing researchers are marketers. Ultimately, the goal of every project is to provide clients with information that furthers some basic marketing objective. Researchers must be ever cognizant of the real-world meaning and application of their data.
Be flexible. Too often, marketing researchers dictate to clients (especially internal customers in the case of client-side research units) the appropriate methodology, sample size, etc., without always being fully aware of the background or history of the brand, product, package, company, politics, etc. In almost every case, clients know more about their business than do research suppliers. Thus, researchers must take care to consult with clients, being flexible to accommodate their unique needs, budget, timeline, etc.
Got education? Given the variety of disciplines from which marketing researchers must draw, ongoing education is critical. You really can never know enough. However, a few specifics are key to the beginning researcher:
Technical writing skills — The English courses you took in college may or may not be sufficient. Academic writing tends to be much more verbose than business communications. Take a good technical writing course.
Statistical training — The statistics courses you took as an undergraduate were definitely not sufficient. Continued statistical coursework will be critical to your ability to extract usable information from survey data.
Table-building/analysis — Although multivariate data techniques are very powerful tools for researchers, clients’ budget and/or time constraints will often preclude data analysis at that level. Thus, researchers must become experts at extracting key data points from and recognizing important patterns within simple crosstabulated data. Unfortunately, most academic curriculums with which this author is familiar are deficient in this area. Students of marketing research more often than not must supplement their formal studies with hands-on work experience to master this type of analysis.
Post-graduate degrees — Most beginning researchers will find themselves hitting a ceiling fairly early in their careers unless they obtain a graduate degree. Many long-time researchers recommend either an MBA supplemented with quantitative analysis courses or one of the MMR (master of marketing research) courses offered in the country. Advanced degrees in communications, sociology, consumer psychology, or related fields may also be options.
Experience, experience, experience. Because marketing research is so specialized a field, most academic programs will not fully prepare beginning practitioners to design and direct marketing research projects. In particular, many novices do not have adequate experience with the process of collecting data — a critical shortcoming that can adversely affect project timelines, budgets and quality of information. This is an area properly addressed by both beginning researchers and marketing research employers through orientation, apprenticeships, seminars, and the like.
It’s not what you know, it’s who you know. Networking is an important function for furthering careers. This is particularly true in the marketing research industry, where only two or three degrees of separation exist between you and everyone else involved in marketing research in your region (or even in the country).
Learn to sell. As this author has observed, many researchers choose this field as a non-sales alternative within marketing and/or business. Surprise! It’s not. A researcher will enhance his or her worth many times over by developing selling skills and actively seeking opportunities to sell research and to sell his or her own skill set.
early one-half century ago, Burns and Stalker noted that mechanistic organizations are often appropriate in stable environments and for routine tasks and technologies. In some ways similar to bureaucratic structures, mechanistic organizations have clear, well-defined, centralized, vertical hierarchies of command, authority, and control. Efficiency and predictability are emphasized through specialization, standardization, and formalization. This results in rigidly defined jobs, technologies, and processes. The term mechanistic suggests that organizational structures, processes, and roles are like a machine in which each part of the organization does what it is designed to do, but little else.
It is easy to confuse mechanistic organizations with bureaucracies due to the considerable overlap between these two concepts. Yet despite the overlaps, a primary difference between mechanistic organizations and bureaucracy is the rationale for utilizing each of these. A goal of bureaucratic structures is to protect lower-level administrative positions from arbitrary actions of owners and higher-level managers. For example, an individual holding the job title of vice-president of production would, in a bureaucracy, be protected from indiscriminant changes in work hours, wages, and responsibilities through formal rules, regulations, and grievance procedures. The goal of the bureaucracy is protection of positions within the organization.
Mechanistic organizations, on the other hand, are utilized to increase efficiency when tasks and technologies are relatively stable. The vice-president of production in a mechanistic organization would employ production processes and techniques that minimize waste and maximize outputs for a given quantity of inputs. The goal of mechanistic structures is efficiency. Thus, the rationale for bureaucracy is protection while the rationale for mechanistic organizations is efficiency. Clearly, the two are not mutually exclusive; an organization could be structured as a bureaucracy and also be mechanistic. On the other hand, many examples of inefficient bureaucracies can quickly come to mind, suggesting that while there is overlap between the concepts, there are distinctions as well.
Mechanistic structures are highly formalized, which simply means that nearly all processes and procedures have been administratively authorized. The organization considers processes and procedures out-side these established protocols as variances that must be brought under control. Such formalization is driven by efficiency; reduction in variance increases predictability, and increases in predictability allow for improvements in efficiency. Examples pertinent to product or service distribution include the processes a store clerk uses when presented with a customer's credit card or how returns of products by customers are to be handled. Examples pertinent to product or service production and assembly include how a book publisher manages the workflow from completed manuscripts to final bookbinding and how Dell Computer manages assembly of made-to-order personal computers. Decision making is largely concerned with application of the appropriate predetermined rule, policy, procedure, or criteria.
Environmental and technological stability allow work to be clearly defined and differentiated. The work of the organization is divided into specific, precise tasks. Created from one or more such specific tasks, specialized job positions rigidly define skills needed, task methodology and procedures to be used, and specific responsibilities and authority. In effect, lower-level managers and other employees simply follow procedures, and while this may have the side effect of stifling creativity, it also increases efficiency of established processes. In stable environments, however, stifling creativity may be worth the improvements in efficiency. Few customers, for instance, would want a McDonald's employee to use creativity in preparing their hamburger. Instead, the repetitiveness and stability of the procedures needed to cook a hamburger are more efficient when the employee follows established procedures and customers can trust that each hamburger they purchase will taste the same.
However, specialized tasks are repetitive and can sometimes be boring. For example, at a Sam's Club store, one person stands at the door to perform the single task of marking customer receipts. Because employees often work separately with little interaction, it is often hard for them to see how one's small, specialized task relates to overall organizational objectives. Also, the work of mechanistic organizations tends to be impersonal. Jobs are designed around the task rather than the individual. Personnel selection, assignment, and promotion are based on the possession of skills required for specific tasks. Other people, like interchangeable parts of a machine, can replace people in a position.
Specialization carries throughout the organization. Positions are grouped together into specialized work units and, ultimately, into specialized functional departments such as production, marketing, or finance. Each organizational unit has clear and specific responsibilities and objectives. Communication is primarily vertical, with more emphasis on down-ward directives than on upward communication. Thus, such matters as goals, strategies, policies, and procedures are determined by top-level management and communicated downward as instructions and decisions to be implemented.
Play nice. The “rules” governing interpersonal interaction apply in marketing research, just as they do in every other field. The research industry tends to attract well-educated individuals, who often hold strong opinions regarding research techniques, methodologies, etc. While such knowledge is of indisputable worth, researchers must take care to exercise restraint in their interactions with each other and with clients. A measure of humility is required — there will always be someone else who knows more than you. The need to show deference and respect to co-workers and clients is certainly as critical in marketing research as in any other field — often more so.
You will never have completely arrived. As noted above, marketing research is an extremely complex field containing elements of several other disciplines: psychotherapy, sociology, statistics, mathematics, consumer behavior, organizational behavior, marketing, etc. Although individuals may be inclined toward a particular area of research (e.g., qualitative vs. quantitative), truly superb practitioners have their fingers in several pies. Knowing when to use which method, rather than fitting all research problems to a preferred methodology, is critical to providing high-quality, actionable information.
Think, don’t just calculate. Marketing researchers are marketers. Ultimately, the goal of every project is to provide clients with information that furthers some basic marketing objective. Researchers must be ever cognizant of the real-world meaning and application of their data.
Be flexible. Too often, marketing researchers dictate to clients (especially internal customers in the case of client-side research units) the appropriate methodology, sample size, etc., without always being fully aware of the background or history of the brand, product, package, company, politics, etc. In almost every case, clients know more about their business than do research suppliers. Thus, researchers must take care to consult with clients, being flexible to accommodate their unique needs, budget, timeline, etc.
Got education? Given the variety of disciplines from which marketing researchers must draw, ongoing education is critical. You really can never know enough. However, a few specifics are key to the beginning researcher:
Technical writing skills — The English courses you took in college may or may not be sufficient. Academic writing tends to be much more verbose than business communications. Take a good technical writing course.
Statistical training — The statistics courses you took as an undergraduate were definitely not sufficient. Continued statistical coursework will be critical to your ability to extract usable information from survey data.
Table-building/analysis — Although multivariate data techniques are very powerful tools for researchers, clients’ budget and/or time constraints will often preclude data analysis at that level. Thus, researchers must become experts at extracting key data points from and recognizing important patterns within simple crosstabulated data. Unfortunately, most academic curriculums with which this author is familiar are deficient in this area. Students of marketing research more often than not must supplement their formal studies with hands-on work experience to master this type of analysis.
Post-graduate degrees — Most beginning researchers will find themselves hitting a ceiling fairly early in their careers unless they obtain a graduate degree. Many long-time researchers recommend either an MBA supplemented with quantitative analysis courses or one of the MMR (master of marketing research) courses offered in the country. Advanced degrees in communications, sociology, consumer psychology, or related fields may also be options.
Experience, experience, experience. Because marketing research is so specialized a field, most academic programs will not fully prepare beginning practitioners to design and direct marketing research projects. In particular, many novices do not have adequate experience with the process of collecting data — a critical shortcoming that can adversely affect project timelines, budgets and quality of information. This is an area properly addressed by both beginning researchers and marketing research employers through orientation, apprenticeships, seminars, and the like.
It’s not what you know, it’s who you know. Networking is an important function for furthering careers. This is particularly true in the marketing research industry, where only two or three degrees of separation exist between you and everyone else involved in marketing research in your region (or even in the country).
Learn to sell. As this author has observed, many researchers choose this field as a non-sales alternative within marketing and/or business. Surprise! It’s not. A researcher will enhance his or her worth many times over by developing selling skills and actively seeking opportunities to sell research and to sell his or her own skill set.
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