Digital CV

                   So our last assignment in Principles of Organizational Management was to prepare a digital CV. It was a unique experience for me as it was the first time I did anything like this and I must say I thoroughly enjoyed the entire process.

                    Here is the link for my video. Provide constructive comments to improve my digital CV.

Managerial Approach to a Rubik's Cube

                    What is the first thought you get when I talk of solving a Rubik's cube? Arranging the cube with six different colours on all its six faces, am I right?

                     On a fine Monday morning, Dr. Prasad walked into the class carrying his bag full of toys (read management lessons). It is an irony that we are not surprised any more to find a surprising task in our Principles of Organization Management class. And so our day started when Dr. Prasad took out 27 small cubes comprising of 9 different colours. The immediate thought that struck everyone was we had to make a Rubik's cube, similar to the first statement I started writing this blog with.
We reached to a judgement just too quickly. The task was to arrange the cubes in such a manner that no face should have two same colours.

                    At first everyone became complacent and thought that the task wasn't tough. But only when one-two people tried their hands at it, they realized that they wren'e organized. Dr. Mandi then explained the algorithm to achieve the given task. Once understood, the algorithm was so simple that we wondered how it didn't strike any of us.

                   1)  The basic lesson learnt was the importance of organization. Half of our problems could be easily solved by proper organization of thoughts, manpower and material.

                    2) The second take-away was that things lie in simplicity. The more one over-complicates things, the tougher the task becomes.

                    3) Unity of command - When everybody was trying to suggest their approach, it resulted in a chaos. But when two people were selected at random and one of them was made the task-completer and the other giving suggestions, the process became smooth.

Following is the video of the task carried out by two volunteers. It was indeed a learning experience for all of us.

                   

                    Happy learning and happy blogging !

Muhammad Yunus - A true socialist with a vision

                    History has given us true heroes but we sometimes fail to recognize the heroes of today. It has been decades that we have been hearing from governments of all countries that they are working for the poor. But as it was destined to, an individual stepped forward and made a significant difference. For all those who know Muhammad Yunus, you might be knowing about his achievements in rural upliftment. For those who don't, you are at the right place. The coming paragraphs would enlighten you with the contributions made by Muhammad Yunus.

                    Muhammad Yunus is an Bangladeshi banker, economist and Nobel Peace Prize recipient. 
As a professor of economics, he developed the concepts of microcredit and microfinance. These loans are given to entrepreneurs too poor to qualify for traditional bank loans. In 2006 Yunus and Grameen Bank received the Nobel Peace Prize "for their efforts through microcredit to create economic and social development from below". Yunus has received several other national and international honours. He was awarded the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal in 2010, and presented with it at a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol on 17 April 2013.

                    The Idea that changed lives -

                    In 1976, during visits to the poorest households in the village of Jobra near Chittagong University, Yunus discovered that very small loans could make a disproportionate difference to a poor person. Village women who made bamboo furniture had to take usurious loans to buy bamboo, and repay their profits to the lenders. Traditional banks did not want to make tiny loans at reasonable interest to the poor due to high risk of default. But Yunus believed that, given the chance, the poor will repay the money and hence microcredit was a viable business model. Yunus lent US$27 of his money to 42 women in the village, who made a profit of BDT 0.50 (US$0.02) each on the loan.

Grameen Bank -

Grameen Bank is founded on the principle that loans are better than charity to interrupt poverty: they offer people the opportunity to take initiatives in business or agriculture, which provide earnings and enable them to pay off the debt.

The bank is founded on the belief that people have endless potential, and unleashing their creativity and initiative helps them end poverty. Grameen has offered credit to classes of people formerly underserved: the poor, women, illiterate, and unemployed people. Access to credit is based on reasonable terms, such as the group lending system and weekly-installment payments, with reasonably long terms of loans, enabling the poor to build on their existing skills to earn better income in each cycle of loans.

Grameen’s objective has been to promote financial independence among the poor. Yunus encourages all borrowers to become savers, so that their local capital can be converted into new loans to others. Since 1995, Grameen has funded 90 percent of its loans with interest income and deposits collected, aligning the interests of its new borrowers and depositor-shareholders. Grameen converts deposits made in villages into loans for the more needy in the villages (Yunus and Jolis 1998).

It targets the poorest of the poor, with a particular emphasis on women, who receive 95 percent of the bank’s loans. Women traditionally had less access to financial alternatives of ordinary credit lines and incomes. They were seen to have an inequitable share of power in household decision making. Yunus and others have found that lending to women generates considerable secondary effects, including empowerment of a marginalized segment of society (Yunus and Jolis 1998), who share betterment of income with their children, unlike many men. Yunus claims that in 2004, women still have difficulty getting loans; they comprise less than 1 percent of borrowers from commercial banks (Yunus 2004).The interest rates charged by microfinance institutes including Grameen Bank is high compared to that of traditional banks; Grameen's interest (reducing balance basis) on its main credit product is about 20%.

Learnings -

1) Support Talent

One key learning is that talent should not be wasted for want of money. Many people give up their passions because they cannot sustain them. As an individual or manager, one should support such causes.

2) Reward Deserving Candidates

Proper recognition and reward to deserving candidates urges them to perform better the next time. As a manager, one should be able to recognize and vocal about good work.

3) Success comes the hard way

As is evident from Muhammad Yunus's example, there are no short-cuts to success and that should be made clear to everyone in the organization. One should be prepared to work hard for long term success and recognition.

                    I hope all those who weren't aware of Muhammad Yunus have finally understood the significant contribution of him towards the upliftment of the poor. Such inspiring stories keep me striving hard to achieve more and I hope it motivates millions around the world. Happy learning, happy blogging !

Tryst with Alumni

                    Going back to your alma mater always gives you a sense of nostalgia. We could feel that nostalgia and fond memories cluttered in those hectic schedules post-MBA when Mr. Nikhil Kulkarni walked in for our first interaction with an alumnus. The day started with Dr. Mandi introducing Mr. Kulkarni to us. I had gone through a few of his blogs before coming to the interactive session and I was looking for a more insightful account of his journey at NITIE.

                    The discussion started with an elementary question. "How many of you want to study SCM?" Not surprisingly, many hands went up. After all, NITIE is the mecca for operations. The next question was "How many of you want to be entrepreneurs?" And here too many eager souls expressed their interest. Thus followed an interesting interaction on job v/s entrepreneur. Mr. Kulkarni made everyone realize that one should not enter entrepreneurship just because one doesn't like his job. A lot goes into making a successful entrepreneur and the hassles one faces is nowhere as compared to a disgruntled boss.

                    As we were discussing various career paths, in entered Mr. Hemanth. The first 2 questions he asked were : "What is the ladder to success?" and "Where is NITIE sarovar?" As NITIE students, one ought to know these two places as they form an integral part of your stay at NITIE. He went on to describe his role as an HR consultant at KPMG and all of a sudden we all were engrossed in interacting with Mr. Nikhil and Mr. Hemanth. They listed down some 'to-do-things' at NITIE and stressed the importance of extra-curricular and case studies in a B-School.

                    As expected the discussion moved onto the most important aspect of the session that day. It was the time to reveal Mashtishk. They took us through the stage when they first conceptualized the event and how they had to face rejection at first from their own classmates. But they persisted with idea and managed to convince Prerna, the biggest festival at NITIE, to include Mashtishk. Mashtishk was basically a business case study simulation competition wherein real life situations were presented for analysis. The catch here : It was all online. Many big colleges had tried and failed but here at NITIE they came out with flying colours. It was an entrepreneurial venture that succeeded and is going strong even today. All kudos to these too.



                    The session ended with some must-read books list and must-watch movies list. I have noted them down and they would certainly form a part of my planning schedule at NITIE.

                    After a fun-with-information session by a NITIE alum, we are awaiting another such experience. Till then, happy learning and happy blogging!

  

Fayol's 14 Principles of Management

                    Today's managers have access to an amazing array of resources which they can use to improve their skills. But what about those managers who were leading the way forward 100 years ago?

                 

                     Managers in the early 1900s had very few external resources to draw upon to guide and develop their management practice. But thanks to early theorists like Henri Fayol (1841-1925), managers began to get the tools they needed to lead and manage more effectively. Fayol, and others like him, are responsible for building the foundations of modern management theory.

                   

                     Fayol's "14 Principles" was one of the earliest theories of management to be created, and remains one of the most comprehensive. He's considered to be among the most influential contributors to the modern concept of management, even though people don't refer to "The 14 Principles" often today.

                   

                    The theory falls under the Administrative Management school of thought (as opposed to the Scientific Management school, led by Fredrick Taylor).

DIVISION OF WORK: Work should be divided among individuals and groups to ensure  that effort and attention are focused on special portions of the task. Fayol presented work specialization as the best way to use the human resources of the organization.   

                                  

AUTHORITY: The concepts of Authority and responsibility are closely related. Authority was defined by Fayol as the right to give orders and the power to exact obedience. Responsibility involves being accountable, and is therefore naturally associated with authority. Whoever assumes authority also assumes responsibility.  

DISCIPLINE: A successful organization requires the common effort of workers. Penalties should be applied judiciously to encourage this common effort. 

UNITY OF COMMAND: Workers should receive orders from only one manager. 

     

UNITY OF DIRECTION: The entire organization should be moving towards a common objective in a common direction. 

SUBORDINATION OF INDIVIDUAL INTERESTS TO THE GENERAL INTERESTS: The interests of one person should not take priority over the interests of the organization as a whole.   

REMUNERATION: Many variables, such as cost of living, supply of qualified personnel, general business conditions, and success of the business, should be considered in determining a worker’s rate of pay.  

CENTRALIZATION: Fayol defined centralization as lowering the importance of the subordinate role. Decentralization is increasing the importance. The degree to which centralization or decentralization should be adopted depends on the specific organization in which the manager is working. 

SCALAR CHAIN: Managers in hierarchies are part of a chain like authority scale. Each manager, from the first line supervisor to the president, possess certain amounts of authority. The President possesses the most authority; the first line supervisor the least. Lower level managers should always keep upper level managers informed of their work activities. The existence of a scalar chain and adherence to it are necessary if the organization is to be successful. 

ORDER: For the sake of efficiency and coordination, all materials and people related to a specific kind of work should be treated as equally as possible.  

EQUITY: All employees should be treated as equally as possible.  

STABILITY OF TENURE OF PERSONNEL: Retaining productive employees should always be a high priority of management. Recruitment and Selection Costs, as well as increased product-reject rates are usually associated with hiring new workers.  

INITIATIVE: Management should take steps to encourage worker initiative, which is defined as new or additional work activity undertaken through self direction. 

ESPIRIT DE CORPS : Management should encourage harmony and general good feelings among employees.

                    So this was all about Fayol's 14 principles of management. Though these principles were formulated in the 19th century, even today managers fail to identify with them. though these principles might not suffice in their entirety in today's world, these form the basic building block for the next development in an organization.

                 I would be back with more organization management lessons. Till then, happy learning and happy blogging!

3 Idiots Crossing the Valley

           

                  Teamwork is "work done by several associates with each doing a part but all subordinating personal prominence to the efficiency of the whole" .

                    This brings us to the next learning objective in Principles of Organization Management. Our next lecture consisted of understanding the dynamics when 3 people help each other in crossing a valley. Each person depends on the other two for his life as there comes a time when he is fully unsafe while crossing the valley. The situation would be more clear with the picture shown below.

                    As seen from the picture, the first person ends up taking the risk first. The situation where each one of them finds himself into could be depicted by 9 outcomes. Each outcome could be further sub-divided into 3 outcomes thereby giving us a total of 27 situations.

                    After the situation was clear, a discussion ensued where we had to figure out what a manager has to do in such situations. Another important point put forward was who in this case could be the leader! Is it the first person or everyone in the group is a leader. One example that we discussed was that of Dhoni. Though Dhoni comes down the order and is a finisher, does it take away the credit of a leader from him? I guess no. So a leader is one who takes the mantle forward when the chips are down. Designating leadership to an initiator or for that matter through organizational hierarchy is a false assumption.

                   

                    Now let us look at the team ingredients required for the entire team to succeed:

1) Shared Vision : It is necessary in an organization that the subordinates have a clear indication from their manager as to where the organization is heading to. A blurred vision is an ingredient to distrust among team-mates as well as towards the management.

          Actions: Leaders have to be deliberate and have a plan on how to communicate the vision :

• Leaders need to share the vision and tie it into the daily tasks every day in their conversations. 
• People need to be clear what needs to be done and why.
• Leaders need to include others for comments, clarifications or additions. This way they get others “fingerprints” are on it.
• Leaders need to remember involvement = commitment.

2) Trust among members : It is natural for an individual to trust his own team or his own department. But one should develop a sense of understanding with other departments too in an organization for the organization to achieve the set goals.

          Actions: Leaders develop trust by trusting their people.

• Leaders develop trust by being vulnerable and admitting their mistakes.
• Leaders make and keep small promises.
• Leaders set high expectations for their team and encourage risk taking and direct feedback.

3) Established Expectations and Guidelines : What is natural is to assume that co-workers are on the same page and that they understand the desired results. What is unnatural yet necessary is to be very deliberate in clarifying reciprocal expectations and establish guidelines fro how to work together effectively.

         Actions: To be a team the individuals need to co-create expectations for themselves and feel their                 input was heard and valued.

• Leaders and the team need to decide on how they are going make decisions, i.e. majority, minority a “tell” or content expert, unanimous or consensus.
• Expectations need to be clarified, leader to the team, team to the leader and team of each other.
• Meeting and team guidelines are established that flow out of the expectations, such as “One conversation at a time,” “Stay focused”, and “Defer judgement.”

                    This is a simple video which I have shared which depicts the true essence of team work. Do go through it to understand the importance of team work and interdependence in an organization.

                    Till then, happy learning and happy blogging!

Three Monks - A Movie with Management Lessons

Background :

                    The film is based on the ancient Chinese proverb "One monk will shoulder two buckets of water, two monks will share the load, but add a third and no one will want to fetch water." The film does not contain any dialogues, allowing it to be watched by any culture, and a different music instrument was used to signify each monk.

                    A young monk lives a simple life in a temple on top of a hill. He has one daily task of hauling two buckets of water up the hill. He tries to share the job with another monk, but the carry pole is only long enough for one bucket. The arrival of a third monk prompts everyone to expect that someone else will take on the chore. Consequently, no one fetches water though everybody is thirsty. At night, a rat comes to scrounge and then knocks the candle holder  leading to a devastating fire in the temple. The three monks finally unite together and make a concerted effort to put out the fire. Since then they understand the old saying "unity is strength" and begin to live a harmonious life. The temple never lacks water again.

                    Watch the following video for more clarity.

                    In order to understand the management concepts better, I would be taking you through the three cases one at a time.

1) Only one monk

                    This is a classic case of self-reliance. The monk has no one to look up for help and he brings two buckets of water daily by balancing the buckets on the two ends of the carry pole. He himself forms the fulcrum of the carry pole.

                    In this case the monk remains contended as he is the only person utilizing the resources for which he puts in his energy.

2) Two Monks

                    In this case the second monk brings water a couple of times to quench the thirst of both the monks. But then he realizes that he is the only one doing all the work. Thus they decide to work together to get the water.

                    The arrangement they follow is similar to the first case the only difference being that the two monks occupy the places taken by the buckets in the first case while they bring only one bucket this time attached at the fulcrum.

                    The only difficulty this time is that one of them is taller than the other. This makes it difficult for them to balance the carry pole. They sort this out by accurately measuring the fulcrum point.

3) Three Monks

                    In the third case, the fatter monk drinks all the water which irritates the other two monks. The 3rd monk brings water a couple of times but then realizes that no one else is working. This way all three of them refuse to contribute leading to starvation at the monastery.

                    One day a rat causes arson at the monastery but the monks are devoid of water to put of the fire. It is then that they realize the importance of working together. They device a pulley to haul water up to the monastery thus showcasing the importance of team work.

Lessons Learnt :

1) Team Work - 

                    The movie imparts important lessons in team work. Though every individual is important in a team, it is the larger picture which should be envisioned. 

2) Accountability and Responsibility - 

                    When a person is given the responsibility of carrying out the task, he should understand that he himself is the only person accountable for the same. As in this case, the monks were accountable for the fire at the monastery as it was their responsibility to look after it.

3) Combination of Hard Work and Smart Work -

                    As seen in the last case, the monks did smart work by building a pulley to haul the bucket up to the monastery thereby demonstrating that although hard work can take one places, smart work coupled with hard work could take you there faster. Smart work saves time and energy which can be used for other productive work.

                    So these were the management lessons from the movie "Three Monks". I would be back with more real-life cases which impart management lessons. Till then, happy learning and happy blogging !