By GSG

How to

Fast-Track

way up in the

Corporate

Ladder

Corporate Environment

Most people opt to work under corporate

environment. The Possible reasons could be:

1. Professional culture.

2. As a young and hungry individual, it is their right to

strive for excellence.

3. More responsibility and more opportunities.

4. White collar jobs & Work in an awesome atmosphere.

5. Implement their innovative ideas & work recognition.

6. A good experience can lead them to work at abroad.

Corporate Environment

But in reality :-

1. In particularly large companies, you are just a

number and a minute creature .

2. You are merely a single that has no say in the way

things operate.

3. Unless you are one of the big closers or bring in

huge accounts, no one really cares about your

presence or recognise.

4. Your voice is practically unheard because everyone

around you feels like they know better and they

don’t give you a chance to voice your opinion.

The Reality Example

Corporate world

Survival of the fastest

Two guys were hiking through the jungle

Suddenly they spotted a tiger

The Tiger looked very hungry and very fast.

One of the guys reached into his pack

and pulled out a pair of Nike shoes.

Changes his shoes.

His friend looked at him and asked "Do you really think those shoes are going to make you run faster than that tiger?"

Any guesses for the answer ???

The answer is:

His friend replied "I don't have to run faster than that tiger……

"I just have to run faster than you."

If this was your answer Then:

Welcome to the corporate world !

Every morning in the jungles of Africa a Gazelle

wakes up and realizes that if it is to survive the day

it must outrun the fastest Cheetah.

Every morning in the jungles of Africa a Cheetah

wakes up and knows that if it is to eat today it

must outrun the slowest Gazelle.

So it doesn't matter whether you a Cheetah or a Gazelle.

When the sun comes up, you better be ready to run!!!

Africa is not very different from the corporate world.

What is Corporate Ladder ?

1. Corporate ladder is a

term used to describe

the hierarchy of a

organizational structure.

2. The concept reflects the

levels that must be

climbed to get to the top

of the organization.

Corporate Environment

Entering into a career in

big companies can be a

shock to many new

recruits, when they find

themselves placed in a

different environment.

Then how to

survive

&

progress

upon ?

Let us start

with an

example of

school story.

Good old lessons

from an age-old fable

The Hare

and

The Tortoise

Once upon a time a tortoise and a hare had an argument about

who was faster.

I’m the Fastest runner.

That’s not true.The fastest runner is me!

Ok, let’s

have

a race. Fine!

They decided to settle the argument

with a race. They agreed on a route

and started off the race.

The hare shot ahead and ran briskly forsome time. Then seeing that he was farahead of the tortoise, he thought hewould sit under a tree for some timeand relax before continuing the race.

Poor guy! Even if I take a nap, he could not catch up with me.

He sat under the tree and soon

fell asleep.

The tortoise plodding on, overtook

him and soon finished the race,

emerging as the undisputed champ.

Champion!

The hare woke up and realized that he'd lost the race.

The moral of the story is ?

“Slow and Steady wins the Race”

This is the version of the story that

we've all grown up with.

The story doesn’t

end here but

continues …

The hare was disappointed at losing the race and

he did some Root Cause Analysis.

Why did I lose the race?

He realized that he'd

lost the race only

because he had been

overconfident, careless

and lax.

If he had not taken

things for granted,

there is no way the

tortoise could have

beaten him.

Why did I lose the

race?

Can we have another race?

Ok.

So he challenged the tortoise to another race. The tortoise agreed.

This time, the hare went all out and ran

without stopping from start to finish. He

won by several miles.

Fast and consistent will always beat the slow

and steady.

If you have two people in your organization,

one is slow, methodical and reliable, and the

other one is fast and still reliable at what he

does, the fast and reliable chap will

consistently climb the organizational ladder

faster than the slow, methodical chap.

It's good to be slow and steady; but it's better

to be fast and reliable.

The moral of the story?

But the story doesn't end here …

The tortoise did some

thinking this time, and

realized that there's no way

he can beat the hare in a

race the way it was

currently formatted.

How can I

can win the hare?

He thought for a while,and then challengedthe hare to anotherrace, but on a slightlydifferent route.The hare agreed.

Sure!

Can we have another race? This time we’ll go through a different route.

They started off the race.

In keeping with his self-made commitment to be

consistently fast, the hare took off and ran at top speed

until he came to a broad river.

The finishing line was a couple of kilometers on the

other side of the river. Goal

• The hare sat there wondering what to do. (!?)

• In the meantime the tortoise trundled along,

got into the river, swam to the opposite bank,

continued walking and finished the race.

What should I do?

The moral of the story ?

First identify your core competency and then change

the playing field to suit your core competency.

In an organization, if you are a good speaker, make

sure you create opportunities to give presentations

that enable the senior management to notice you.

If your strength is analysis, make sure you do some

sort of research, make a report and send it upstairs.

Working to your strengths will not only get you

noticed, but will also create opportunities for growth

and advancement.

The story

still hasn't

ended …

The hare and the tortoise, by this time,

had become pretty good friends and they

did some thinking together.

Both realized that the last race could have

been run much better.

So they decided to dothe last race again,but to run as a teamthis time.

Hi, buddy. How

about doing our last

race again?

Great! I think we could do it much better, if we two help each other.

Hi, buddy. Howabout doing our last race again?

They started off, and this time the harecarried the tortoise till the riverbank.

There, the tortoise took over and swamacross with the hare on his back.

• On the opposite bank, the hare again

carried the tortoise and they reached

the finishing line together.

• They both felt a greater sense of

satisfaction than they had felt earlier.

The moral of the story?

It's good to be individually brilliant and to have

strong core competencies;

But unless you're able to work in a team and

harness each other's core competencies, you'll

always perform below par because there will

always be situations at which you'll do poorly

and someone else does well.

Teamwork is mainly about situational leadership,

letting the person with the relevant core

competency for a situation take leadership.

There are more lessons to be learnt from this story.

Note that neither the hare nor the

tortoise gave up after failures.

The hare decided to work harder and

put in more effort after his failure.

The tortoise changed his strategy

because he was already working as

hard as he could.

More Lessons ?

In life when faced with failure, sometimes

it is appropriate to work harder and put in

more effort.

Sometimes it is appropriate to change

strategy and try something different.

And sometimes it is appropriate to do both.

More Lessons ?

The hare and the tortoise also learnt

another vital lesson.

When we stop competing against a rival

and instead start competing against the

situation, we perform far better.

The Real Story

When Roberto

Goizueta took over as

CEO of Coca-Cola in

the 1980s, he was

faced with intense

competition from

Pepsi that was eating

into Coke's growth.

The Real Story

His executives were

Pepsi-focused and

intent on increasing

the market share by

0.1 % a time.

The Real Story

Roberto decided to stop competing against

Pepsi and instead compete against the

situation of 0.1% growth.

He asked his executives “Just answer my two

Questions” ?

– What is the average fluid intake of an

American per day?

The answer was 5 Litres.

– What is the share of Coke & Pepsi that ?

( Just about Quarter (1/2) Litre).

Analysis

Roberto said Coke needed a larger share of

that market. The competition wasn't Pepsi.

It was the water, tea, coffee, milk, alcohol

and fruit juices that went into the

remaining 4 ½ Litres.

The public should reach for a Coke

whenever they felt like drinking something.

The Change of Strategy

To end this, Coke put

up vending machines

at every street corner.

Since then, Sales took

a quantum jump and

Pepsi has never quite

caught up since.

The Result !

To sum up, the story of the hare and

tortoise teaches us many things:

Never give up when faced with failure.

Fast and consistent will always beat slow

and steady.

Work to your competencies.

Always compete against the situation, not

against a rival.

Pooling resources and working as a team

will always beat individual performers.

Let’s go and build

stronger teams!

To Conclude