Telecom Regulation – Effectively Blocking the Pesky Calls

You are in the midst of an important meeting, and your mobile rings. The display shows a number that you do not recognize. You don’t want to pick up the call. But it could be important, perhaps from your child’s school. You excuse yourself, pick up the call and say hello. Good Morning Sir (or Madam), I am calling from the XYZ Bank and we have an excellent scheme….you get frustrated and angry, call the caller names, threaten the caller not to call again, and say you would sue them, and disconnect the call.

Back to the meeting, you are still seething with anger, and not at your best for a while. This can happen in your home city, or travelling with in India or even when travelling abroad. And pay huge roaming charges for these unsolicited calls. If you happen to be travelling to the US, you could even be woken up with these calls due to the time difference. Sounds familiar? There is hardly anyone amongst us who has not faced such a situation almost on a daily basis!

See the Times of India, page 5 of October 23, 2008 (Delhi Edition). Even a Delhi High Court Judge is frustrated about pesky (unwanted) calls. See http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Delhi/HC_to_ICICI_Bank_Face_the_music_for_making_unsolicited_calls_/articleshow/3629951.cms.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) launched the launched the Telecom Unsolicited Commercial Communications Regulations in 2007 which was then amended in 2008. This provided a facility to the mobile users to register themselves in the ‘National Do Not Call Register’. Marketing companies are supposed to keep checking this database and update their records so that they do not call these people.

The TRAI website gives data of how many people have registered, how many times marketing companies are using this data, etc. It also gives procedure of how complaints can be filed, process for enquiry, etc. However, there is no data about how many complaints have been filed. What happened to these? Was any penal action taken on anyone? You can see more details at http://www.TRAI.gov.in/TRAI/upload/Regulations/73/regulation17mar08.pdf.

However, the calls keep coming! Everyone who I know is still getting these calls. And most of these folks have registered themselves on the above ‘National Do Not Call Register’.

Who wants to get rid of unwanted calls?

The marketing companies? Obviously not, they are looking for business. So what if someone is getting disturbed, or already has a credit card or insurance from the same company that is calling now!

The TRAI? Yes, but they seem to be helpless beyond creating the regulation. It is just too messy and prolonged affair to register complaints, process them or impose any penalty, if at all it can be imposed. The penalties mentioned in the regulation do not seem to be any significant deterrent anyway.

The mobile companies? Of course not. They generate revenue from these calls. If they are lucky, they can collect roaming charges too. The telecalling companies are big institutional customers for them. They must be having high level account managers for them!

The mobile users? Yes of course! But other than registering on the ‘Register’ or getting angry on the callers, what else can they do?

There are two objectives of this article:

1. Send email to TRAI. Say that you are still getting unsolicited calls. As them to do more. Their email addresses are trai@trai.gov.in and trai@del2.vsnl.net.in.

2. Both these email addresses given on TRAI website bounced today! So please print this article and send it by post to them: THE TELECOM REGULATORY AUTHORITY OF INDIA, Mahanagar Doorsanchar Bhawan (next to Zakir Hussain College), Jawaharlal Nehru Marg (Old Minto Road), New Delhi - 110 002.

3. Forward them the url of this blog. Because this article is suggesting a way in which these calls can be stopped in a big way.

A New Solution to Stop those Unsolicited Calls

TRAI enacts a new regulation that requires mobile operators to implement ‘Stop Unsolicited Calls’ feature on their telephone system.


This is how the ‘Stop Unsolicited Calls’ feature would work.

i. When you get an unsolicited call, you press a pre-determined sequence, say #007 on your phone.

ii. As soon as this sequence is entered, the telephone system recognizes that this is an unsolicited call, and it creates a log in the system which notes the telephone number of the caller, and other details.

iii. As soon as the telephone system sees enough evidence of unsolicited calls from a telephone number, they send an automatic warning to the user, asking them to stop. And inform TARI simultaneously (say through a shared database).

iv. Even after this, if the caller persists (you will know because more people would be pressing #007), then TRAI automatically refers this to the Consumer Court, which will automatically impose a significant fine, say Rs 25,000 on the caller.

v. If the caller (the company whose employees are making the unsolicited calls, and not the employees) is caught in a situation of being referred to the consumer court a 2^nd time, the fine could be higher, say Rs 50,000. For the 3^rd offence, it could be Rs 100,000. And after this, imprisonment of of 1 day for the promoter or managing director or proprietor.

vi. Even a simpler solution could be that once a caller is identified as unsolicited caller, then the service to that number is automatically stopped. The next step could be to stop services to all telephones registered to the caller. And share this data to all other mobile operators so that no one provides service to such a caller.

This system would work because it is efficient and effective. All evidence (call records) is automatically being collected. There can be no mistake. Courts do not even need ‘hearing’ as everything is fool proof. No one can drag their feet because it would hurt their business.

It would also work because it works in the internet world. There was a lot of spam earlier. But with efficient solutions like ‘Stop Unsolicited Calls’, the spam has reduced significantly. When you receive email or invitations on email, if you click ‘This is Spam’, then it ‘hurts’ the person who sent such an invitation. There is still some spam, but relatively low. The same thing can happen here too.

This is possible technically. The solution would perhaps be simpler than implementing ‘Number Portability’ across mobile operators. This regulation is already enacted, and would be available in India with in a few months.

But who will ensure that something like this gets taken up?

YOU. Act NOW. Renowned spiritual leader, H. H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar who started Art of Living says that we usually postpone good deeds (e.g., making a donation to for a noble cause). But do not wait for doing things that are not so good (have you ever postponed getting angry:)

It is simple – (1) Write to TRAI and request them to help stop the spam – send them this article – you can easily email it from this blog, (2) Forward this article to as many people as you know and ask them to do the same (3) You can also request TRAI to fix their email address :)

Lets Make A Difference. Lets (be) M.A.D. Lets stop the Mobile Spam.

Why don’t you share your comments here too? What else can we do for the mobile spam?

Self Appraisals

The posting ‘M.A.D. As A Manager’, got several comments. And these comments showed two things – that this is an extremely important subject, and that there is a lot of room for getting more out of Performance Appraisals. The comments also added more perspectives…the more, the better!

One of the comments suggested that we discuss ‘Self Appraisals’. Here we go, and I am sure this will stimulate more thoughts for all of us to ponder on.

Let us begin by asking what is the purpose of Self Appraisals?

Many a times, we as employees, use it for ‘posturing’, i.e., writing great stuff about ourselves and feeling good about it. There is an inherent belief that if we write something which is not grade A, then the manager may take ‘advantage’ of this and give us a low grade! The other belief, conscious or sub-conscious, is that if we are showing ourselves as the best, it would put pressure on the manager, and he/she would feel compelled to give a good grade to us, because who wants to upset a team member!

Ask any manager, and most will tell you this – that they do have their own assessment about each of their team members, even before they receive the self-appraisals. Please note that managers tend to make continuous judgment about the performance of their team members (they are human too :-) and that this does not depend on self-appraisals that happen once a year anyway. If the manager finds a self appraisal too high compared to their own judgment, they may feel some pressure because the employee is likely to feel upset. So they start thinking about how to convince the employee that their judgment is right. Only rarely would a manager change the rating of an employee due to pressure.

We all know that most companies have a ‘distribution curve’ to which the ratings of a large group must comply to. And this puts a constraint on the manager to irrationally change someone’s rating just because of a highly rated self-appraisal.

The general purpose of Self Appraisal could be seen us getting some form of benefit. It could be in the form of higher rating, recognition, higher role, promotion, reward or award or increase in compensation. These are all subject to the judgment of the manager as discussed above, and may not have a material impact on manager’s decision.

One other benefit could be to use the Self-Appraisal for Introspection, Reflection and Contemplation – sitting quietly, and looking at what worked well and what did not, what I want to achieve and where I want to go, and what changes I can make in myself to increase my chances and speed of reaching there. Such an appraisal would bring excellent results to the employee regardless of what the manager thinks! Because you can actually use you self-appraisal to make things better yourself. And, when a manager sees this type of appraisal, they feel very positive towards the employees and their energies get directed towards helping and enabling the employee in making things better, rather than making a plan to defend their own assessment.

Having looked at data related to tens of thousands of performance appraisals, I have seen that about two-thirds of best performers rate themselves same or lower than their managers! Perhaps, a candid approach to self-appraisals goes a long way in making an employee a best performer!

Being M.A.D. as a Self-Appraiser would certainly give better results in the long term. Why get sidetracked by inflating the self-appraisal, which even if it gives some short term results, will prohibit any long term gains! So the choice perhaps is with all of us in the role of an employee, whether to be M.A.D. or not. If we are M.A.D., we would be Making A Difference to ourselves, and to others around us too. Perhaps this is Leadership too.

As always, you can be M.A.D. too – by sharing your thoughts for everyone to benefit. It would be best if you directly post these on the blog.

What should we discuss next?

M.A.D. As A Manager -- Performance Appraisals

Every manager is required to do Performance Appraisals. Generally, the season for this is once a year. The employees keenly look forward to this, because they are expecting a ‘good grade’ after a year of hard work and more importantly, their compensation increase would be based on this. The managers, usually, do not look forward to this season. During this time, all the ‘work’ stops and only this ‘HR activity’ happens. The 3rd party in this season is the HR team. This is their time, and they push the whole system to get the ‘job’ done. The ‘policy’ already exists, and all clarifications and questions generally are answered with the ‘policy statements’. All departments are required to meet the ‘normal’ distribution of the ratings.

So why do managers generally detest this? There is this huge emotional dialogue and debate with the team members. They get upset. Managers get emotionally overdrawn. Each review lasts for a couple of hours, without seeming to reach a closure (you thought you closed it and pop…there is an email in your inbox from the employee raising some or same points again!). A few even ask for group change and occasionally some even leave citing bad review! Who likes this anyway?

The more important question is – How to do this right? Let’s start with the expected outcome. The employee must feel good after the review and look forward to doing more in future with the manager and the company. The manager is very hopeful for employee’s growth and performance.

A manager has to play the judge and deliver a verdict about the performance of the employee. As a Judge, you carefully look at all the data, and make a judgment taking into account the law (in this case the policy). The big difference here is that the Judge is himself or herself involved – they provide the relevant data and then judge it too, and the employee is judging the Judge too (is my manager being fair to me?). Hence there is an inherent conflict of interest here. If the employee’s expectations are not met, then he/she gets frustrated.

In order to accomplish the goal, the manager, perhaps needs to become the coach of the employee. A coach is also making judgments. But there is a difference. A successful coach earns the trust of his team. The team knows that the coach is working towards their success. This is all the job of the coach is. Hence they listen to the coach. The coach gets to know the ‘game’ and the ‘capability’ of each of the members, and then helps each of them to make a plan to make this better. Trust means that the team does not doubt the agenda of the coach. The agenda is obvious – the team wins and this can happen only when each of the members gets better, and this is what the coach is working on. The coach is helping on a regular basis. He/she is giving pointed feedback, and then asking how the team member plans to improve. The coach gives his/her own suggestions too. A good coach is very demanding, much more than managers. But his/her team listens because they have unwavering trust in the coach – that he/she has their success in mind, and that he/she is competent.

A manager despite competence finds it hard to become as effective as a coach. The team members may not be sure whose success the manager is interested in – theirs or his/her own. Most of the time the manager spends time reviewing the task and not connect to the employee. Employee thinks that manager is focused on the project success (i.e., his own success) and does not care about employee’s interests. It is hard to have a trusting relationship in this situation. Sometimes, there is also lack of clarity on the overall goal. And hence the feedback looks like a judgment, and team members could feel violated because they consider the manager as an outsider rather than as one of them. To top it all, most managers do not give feedback for improvement until the ‘season’, that is once a year, through the review. The employee gets a surprise, and we all know that unpleasant surprises of this type do not build trust.

Perhaps we as managers must see ourselves as coaches who are able to demand high performance from their team because the team trusts them completely. The right way to measure the success of a review is that a manager mails the review document to his team members in advance and asks for a meeting. Many employees say they are willing to sign it off without the meeting. The meetings last for 30 to 45 minutes and are focused on discussing the future, and not arguing about the past. And, the team wants to retain the same coach!

Irrespective of the strengths or limitations of the Performance Appraisal Policy of their company, good managers earn the trust of their team and are able to drive their performance, and make them successful. They are able to Make A Difference to their team. Everyone wants to work with these managers. And the HR team can perhaps focus on how to enable managers to be coaches.

Question 1: In your experience, what determines the success of a Performance Appraisal System?

Question 2: What is the main reason for its failure?

Your thoughts and questions will be a learning opportunity for everyone. Won’t you like to (be) M.A.D.?

Diving into Leadership

One of the topics that has fascinated me is Leadership. With time, a lot of different dimensions and meanings of Leadership have unfolded.

It appears to me that Leadership means Making A Difference. A few days ago, I took an Indigo flight from Bangalore to Delhi. It took off in time and landed in time, which in itself was a wonderful change. As we were waiting for the ramp to be installed before getting off the plane, the captain came out of the cockpit and engaged in exchanging pleasantries with the passengers. I had not seen this earlier, and it was a refreshing change. As the bus was getting filled, I saw something that I had never seen before. The Captain was carrying the baggage of a lady who had some more stuff; he deposited the bag in the bus, greeted the lady and went off. The lady was obviously very pleased and thankful. I thought this was real customer care and wrote about this incident to Indigo management. They wrote back their thanks and said that with this attitude they hope to create a differentiator in the market. Which airline do you think this lady will use the next time? How many people will she share this story with?

Just before taking the flight, I had another incident. I had taken one of the new Meru taxies to the airport, and realized after checking in that I had left my mobile in the taxi. I came out, and approached one of the Meru executives. He was immediately helpful and connected with the driver, who had already returned and was a few kilometres away on the highway. Until the driver returned, the Meru executive kept tracking him, and gave me company. The driver return the phone, and when I gave him some additional money, he refused it and only accepted it when I insisted that he had extra expense of fuel and time for my mistake! These two folks did make a difference. I would certainly use Meru every time I go to Bangalore.

My friend Ravi Kodukula (www.fursatfriday.com) and his wife have recently started a school, at their home. It runs for a couple of hours in the evenings, and they teach children who don’t get to go to a regular school. They even provide them with things that are needed to learn (e.g., books) as well as refreshments. They are doing this with their own resources and making a big difference.

Similarly, another friend Sadhna, her husband Ashwani Lal, and a handful of other like-minded people in their neighbourhood in Gurgaon started a similar makeshift school about a year ago. They have 100+ children and a few of these have already graduated to regular schools based on the ‘step up’ they received. They have pooled in the resources required themselves and they are volunteer teachers too. Wow! What a difference they are making, and this will help the future generations of these children.

Last week, CFO World organized a seminar called ‘Secrets of a Happy, Healthy and Meaningful Life’ in Delhi. The speaker was H. H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the founder of Art of Living (www.artofliving.org), which is the world’s largest volunteer-based NGO. In response to a question asked to him, H. H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar said that everyone must contribute 3% of their earnings for the development of the society, for the benefit of others.

So many people, moved by the havoc caused by the floods in Bihar and Orissa have contributed in cash and kind. Different people have done different things:

• Felt bad for the affected people
• Criticized the government for not planning better
• Wanted to contribute, but were not sure whether the money would reach the affected, hence have done nothing so far
• Collected some used clothes and material
• Donated some money
• Inspired at least one more person to contribute.

Which one of the above do you think made a difference?

Question 1: You must be having people around you who are making a difference? How are they doing this? It could be at work, home, school or college, neighbourhood or society.

Question 2: What difference have you made in the last 7 days?

Your thoughts, feelings, anecdotes and insights will help all of us. Would you not like to (be) MAD – Make A Difference by sharing these?

PS: By the way, if you not watched ‘A Wednesday’ yet, go for it this weekend. Don’t miss it for anything!