A colleague of Srinath’s from business school, Ila Hukku, joined CRY as head of planning at about the same time, and the two became close collaborators. The two had to overcome the ingrained suspicion some other CRY executives had of someone with their background and commercial experience. Says Srinath, “The stereotype of an MBA in many non-governmental organizations is that they are arrogant, elitist, ruthless relative to the rest of the population, not in touch with ground reality, theoretical not practical, but very intelligent.” Understanding CRY’s people and how to help the organization proved challenging for an MBA. Srinath relates:
Ila and I both came from forthright corporate cultures, so CRY was a bit of a shock. Everyone was polite, agreed it was a good idea to do this or that, but when you tried to implement it, you would run into a road block. Despite all the nodding, there were 101 reasons why something couldn’t happen. You could never get a change done right the first time; you had to iterate everything, and it was tedious having to do things many times over. Many of the staff mistrusted MBA’s, because their experience had been that such people fly in, stir things up, then fly off, leaving others to pick up the pieces. We had to go through a long period of establishing our commitment and credentials, signaling that we would be here for at least the medium haul instead of
doing what they thought MBA’s would do to CRY.
Srinath stepped into a challenging situation in 1998. India was going through an economic dip, and CRY’s revenues were impacted sharply because its top line had been temporarily inflated by disaster relief revenues. Resource generation was stagnant, creating serious financial pressure. It was difficult at first for Srinath to get a handle on the situation and sort through options. She says:
Going through documents and talking to people gave me no picture of CRY. It was running faster on a treadmill, trying to sell more cards, send out more mailings, meet more people, and do more of the same. Just talking to people didn’t get me answers since CRY had a non-confrontational culture--all you got was the official line. If you came in with a business degree and experience, you’d come up against passive resistance.
Srinath found that to move forward, more than sound analysis and action steps would be required. She recounts:
At first I sought only intellectual solutions and respected only intellectual abilities. I was disdainful of people skills and micro-operational stuff. It took a while for me to learn that putting a blueprint into place is only a first step. It was easy to get respect, but trust was missing. I had to do more than intellectualize; I had to work with people to get them to follow through on broad agreements, for reasons other than their liking me. I had to respect their skills in people management, operations, and the organization’s ethics and values.
As Srinath moved from running the western region into brand communications before taking over resource generation, she helped shake up CRY. The organization added new products and new distribution channels while bringing down its cost structure. CRY outsourced face-to-face fundraising to Support Direct, a UK-based direct marketing agency, which greatly extended its reach at lower cost. Support Direct’s efforts brought in 16,000 new donors, many from outside India. CRY also outsourced card manufacture and distribution to Archies Gifts and Greetings, Ltd., which extended its reach from 500 outlets to 6000 outlets while adding an online sales presence.
Data entry, processing and mailing were also outsourced, bringing cost and revenue growth more in line. One consequence was a staff reduction. Although CRY instituted a voluntary retirement scheme, provided financial support for those who left and helped many find jobs, it was still traumatic for an organization that relied so much on committed people to let some of them go. CRY’s employee base was reduced by about 1/3 over a 2-3 year period.
Although these measures helped keep CRY solvent, they created organizational stresses that in some ways made life worse for Srinath. “I learned how to keep picking myself off the floor,” she says. “I learned the power of perversity, of cussedness that says ‘I will not let myself be defeated.’ That counted for more than my education.”
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| In April, 2006, CRY formally changed its name from Child Relief and You to Child Rights and you. |
The organization was cleaving into two camps that were becoming alienated from one another. It seemed to Srinath that CRY would remain in a holding pattern instead of moving forward if the two could not be brought together. She explains:
Before 1998, we were very touchy-feely, then the pendulum swung to efficiency and a business focus. That created two factions, which quite often pulled us in different directions. You had business-oriented people who thought we should hire the most skilled person for each job and that it was OK to do alliances with partners who might not have the same ethical commitments you do. You also had values-oriented people, who were deeply disturbed by sacking people and who thought we should hire people primarily because they share CRY’s values. To most in the organization, I represented the business-oriented people, who had become more powerful. There was a real risk that we would become a super-efficient, scalable entity while losing what we stood for. We had to pull these two groups together, get each to appreciate the contribution of the other to CRY and to the movement for India’s children. To be acceptable as someone who could bring people together, I had to demonstrate not only business competence but that my values were also sound.
Srinath began spending significant amount of time working with others to rethink and re-commit to a vision for CRY, instead of focusing on communications or new revenue generation ideas. She says:
We had to get into the soul of CRY. The core strengths of the organization were that it was genuinely Indian, present across the country, had a viable brand, and had a reputation as an innovator with high levels of integrity. We had to go into ourselves as humans, turn ourselves inside out. We had to stop being analytical and do what felt right, not what sounded right. We had to bring 140 people (down from 250) on board by getting them to go beyond their mundane jobs to see the vision of the future for India’s children. I have always wanted to change the world and fight the good fight. CRY allowed me to do that, but the only way I could do that is if everyone could feel the same. Every day you have to look at what must be done and say, ‘Let’s do it.’
CRY had instituted an annual, bottom-up planning process that Srinath thought could become an engine for renewal. Each individual completed a plan that was consolidated into the organization’s plan, so each individual knew what s/he was contributing to the organization and how that made up the overall mission. By starting with the organization’s mission, Srinath thought it would be possible to integrate planning and institution-building into one process, allowing each individual in the system to understand the motivations of one another.
Beginning in 2003, the company asked its second-level managers across each function to evolve a strategy brief from the bottom up, ensuring that all staff were involved. This was turned over to a task force that was chartered to produce a longer-term strategy and direction for CRY. As this process moved forward, Srinath was about to step in as CRY’s new CEO in 2004. She says, “I had been approached about this before, but I felt I needed to finish some things in marketing and sales. By 2004, I realized that I couldn’t do anything more until I could overcome road blocks from other functions, and I thought the way to get everyone aligned was to be CEO.”
Srinath’s immediate challenge was to articulate a unifying vision that would bring together the two camps the institution needed. Only a clear statement of values would reassure people that Srinath’s appointment represented more than the victory of CRY’s business-oriented faction. How, she wondered, could she unify the organization, its board of trustees, and its thousands of donors behind a re-conceived statement of mission and purpose that would keep the grand dame of Indian NGO’s thriving and growing?
Srinath’s predecessor as CEO worked with her during a three month transition period positioning the change of leadership to the management and trustees. They visited every office, met every employee, and discussed what the change would mean. Once this phase was completed, Srinath spent two years emphasizing the importance of institution building, to bring everyone together.
CRY’s employees had been meeting twice a year to discuss non-business issues, and this was integrated with the business planning process. “We communicated that numbers and values were interconnected and everybody does both. Both strategy and culture were designated as KRA’s (Key Result Areas): everyone from the jeep driver to the CEO was reviewed quarterly on how s/he furthered strategy and culture.”
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| We decided to become the voice of authority for children in India, to be a builder of models for what works on the ground, and to build a cross-sector movement for child rights. |
Collaboration was identified as a cultural theme and people negotiated collaboration objectives together at the levels of individual, team and function. Srinath recounts, “It hard-wired collaboration into the system in a way you could measure and review. We created a series of cross-functional forums, and senior people from each function in each region formed a leadership group solving problems collectively and sharing information. We created a regional committee and devolved grant making authority to the regional head collaborating with this group of people. They decide what projects to fund in region and what fund raising strategies to use. We moved decision-making down and made it cross-functional.”
A cross-functional strategy group identified the three key areas CRY would focus on. Srinath summarizes, “We decided to become the voice of authority for children in India, to be a builder of models for what works on the ground, and to build a cross-sector movement for child rights.” She continues:
We did a national tour where every employee shared the strategy template and debated strategy, answering all questions until all were on board with the strategic direction. There was a lot of anxiety about how donors would react to the rights and advocacy themes—people wondered whether corporations would give us money if we become more activist in our orientation. So we did a couple of trial runs to see how people would react to new CRY. For example, we did India’s first telethon, which reached 8 million people. We found that few people deserted us.
In April, 2006, CRY formally changed its name from Child Relief and You to Child Rights and you. All 171 employees met for only the second time in CRY’s history. Says Srinath, “They knew the name was changing we told them how it would pan out, then answered questions. Then we took to NGO’s, and finally to the external world. By that time, the external world was comfortable with it. In parallel, we opened branches abroad designed to get nonresident Indians (NRI’s) on board.”
In 2008, Srinath retired as CEO of CRY to become Secretary General of CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation, an international alliance of civil society organizations. Management of CRY now resides with a leadership team comprising the five Regional and Strategic Heads, including Hukku. CRY continues to be one of India’s most visbile NGO’s, having sustained the passion of its founder across thirty years while managing the transition to a broader mandate that can be supported and extended over time.
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