Video Resume

This post I'm using to just upload a video resume that I just created for myself.

Muhammad Yunus- The Banker to the Poor

Before starting this post, I would urge you to watch this video:

I know it is around an hour long, but trust me it will be an hour well spent!

As you must have gathered from watching this video Muhammad Yunus is a Bangladeshi banker, economist and Nobel Peace Prize recipient. As a professor of economics, he developed the concepts of microcredit and micro-finance. 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.

Dr. Mandi had asked us to watch the above video of  the lecture given by Md. Yunus in Emory University detailing how he achieved his aim of "Creating a World Without Poverty" by founding Grameen Banks.The one thing that really struck me about the video was when Md. Yunus explains how they created the model for the Grameen Bank:

"Look at how traditional banks work and do the exact opposite."

Exactly how the Grameen Bank is different from a conventional bank, you can see from the following table:
































The other takeaway from this video for me was the idea of how the organizational culture actually shapes and is shaped by the goals and objectives of any organization.

The culture at Grameen Bank is to find ways to eradicate poverty. The Managing Director of the bank is not asked, “Why are Profits down?”. Instead he is asked, “How many people have you taken out of poverty today." It is precisely this culture that has allowed the Grameen Bank to achieve so much.It is the Organizational Culture that motivates employees to perform well. It is the Organization Culture that affects the way people and groups interact with each other, with clients, and with stakeholders. It is the Organisational Culture that gives the brands the organization.

That's it for now. The comments are below. Let me know what you thought of the video and the
concept of social business.

Onwards and upwards!

The Navrang Puzzle

 What you see here is a Navrang puzzle or a Navrang cube.  It's a simple playing cube composed of 27 identical small cubes of 9 different colors (3 cubes of same color) . Each small cube a hole in five of its sides and a connector in sixth one so that it can be attached to the other cubes. When seen , it resembles a Rubic cube but is very different in nature and composition . The Navrang cube can be disassembled into its 27 smaller cubes, and the cube is said to be solved when each of the faces has 9 different colored cubes on each face.
But hold on.. This is supposed to be a management blog! So why am I telling you about a puzzle? Well as Prof. Mandi showed us in our POM class, there are valuable management lessons to be learned even from a game.

Prof. Mandi invited us to try and solve the puzzle, but when the entire class failed, despite trying their best, to come up with a solution, Prof. Mandi showed us how to do it in 5 minutes flat!

When you see the task performed in front of your it looks rather simple: Take the 27 elements, organize them to form 9 rods, which can be combined to form 3 plates, and the 3 plates finally come together to form a single block.


When you look at it this way, you can actually see how this principle can be applied to any modern organization-

1. Just as the cubes of same color  cannot appear at the same face so should not the people or resources of same skills and characters appear in the same strata in any organization; lest their egos may clash or cause skill deficiency.
2. It is important to have diversity within the organization so that different ideas and views come up and a broader vision and perspective gets established.The organization then becomes holistic and multidimensional.
3. But while diversity brings broader perspective,it is of utmost importance to ensure that the different views are channelized towards a common goal i.e. growth of organization.

So the key takeaway here is that despite number of elements (symbolic of individuals), be it 27 or 27 million, a clearly defined purpose will result in a harmonious organization where there would be no clash of colors. A systematic approach to problem solving will help in understanding the problem better and thus finding a solution to the problem becomes easy.

This organization of 27 elements depicts the real world organizations where a manager works like an artist. The artist does permutations and combinations repeatedly till the purpose of the organization is achieved.

With that I'll end this blog. As usual, you know where the comments are... Let me know what you think!
Onwards and upwards!

Three Monks

"Physics aligns natural forces, managers align human forces
Management is music, no management is noise"

This post is about a video that we were asked to watch. The video in question is a short Chinese animated feature film produced by the Shanghai Animation Film Studio. After the cultural revolution and the fall of the political Gang of Four in 1976, the film was one of the first animations created as part of the rebirth period. It is also referred to as The Three Buddhist Priests. You can see the video here:

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."

A similar quote on the same lines can be found in the Telugu culture - "Three people should never start doing a piece of work, for, at the end, the work will still remain incomplete."

The film does not contain any dialogues, overcoming all language barriers and allowing it to be watched by any culture, and a different music instrument was used to signify each monk.


Story Highlight

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.


 Management Lessons:

1. Joint Decision making / Participative Management: When two monks are carrying a bucket, there are conflicts around the load distribution. When the smaller monk tries to divide the pole into two parts using the length of his hands as a measure, the taller monk used his bigger hands to show that the bucket should be hung closer to the first monk. Finally to resolve the matter, the first monk measures the stick using a ruler while the other marks the mid-point, implying consensus among the two in the action.


2. Process Innovation/Improvement: When there were two monks they faced the problem of unbalanced loads wherein the one monk who had the bucket tied closer to him on the pole would have to bear more load than the other, they decided to mark the midpoint of the pole using a ruler so the burden was divided equally. Eventually, the three monks come up with an innovative solution. One monk goes to the bottom of the hill and fills the pails of water, one works the pulley to lift up the filled bucket and lower the empty one, while the third monk carries the water from pulley to monastery.

3. Productivity and Efficiency: At the end, the 3 monks work with a defined process in place and are able to get more buckets of water with very less effort compared to single person carrying two buckets or two persons carrying a single bucket.

4. Division of Labor: Clearly defined roles with mutual agreement brings in "management without management". Supervision of individuals becomes unnecessary at this point as a direct and immediate feedback can be obtained based on individual tasks. A delay in one task would hinder the other task.Since everyone is responsible for his/her assigned task, accountability increases and the system becomes transparent.


5. Responsibility: The three monks allow personal pride and ego to interfere with the performance of daily tasks, each believing that the other two should go downhill to fetch water. When a fire breaks out, however, they understand their responsibility and work in a team to save the temple.


Conclusion:

Through a simple theme, the movie tries to present the various facets of human mind, the way the thought process evolves and the various repercussions of such thought process in day to day management and team dynamics.

A disaster brings about a drastic change in the attitudes of the three monks and makes them work harmoniously towards the common goal.

However, the importance of technology too needs to be stressed here. Instead on one person running up and down the hill to fetch water, the three monks together devise a pulley mechanism to increase productivity and fulfill the needs of the monastery. This scene stresses the fact that technology plays a pivotal role in reducing the human effort and increasing efficiency.

On a whole, the play conveys the behavior of human mind, some key managerial insights, importance of task sharing and effective planning, use of technology to reduce effort and need for increasing efficiency as well as effectiveness.

In the end, I would like to conclude that the movie is about methods of work. Efficient and effective methods in any situation lead to excellence as is evident from the following table:

Items for comparison	Method I	Method II	Method III
1. Members	One Monk	Two Monks	Three Monks
2. Work tools and  work method	Two baskets Long pole hanging two buckets two ends of the long stick.	One basket Long pole hanging  one bucket in the middle	Three baskets Rope, and pulling water bucket on pulley
3. Input  - Effort by monks  ( Units in Joules)                  ( Estimated figures)	100 Joules  ( J)  by One person	< 50 Joules ( J ) by two persons together	Total effort together by the three monks in this method is almost                          ' INSIGNIFICANT'.
4. Output - Water	2 baskets	One basket	The output ( number of baskets of water )  that the method can fetch is almost   ' SO MUCH WATER'
5. Productivity Measure:            ( Input / Output)	100 J / 2 Buckets  =  50 J per basket of water	< 50 J / 1 Bucket  =  < 50  J per basket of water	Insignificant effort per basket of water
6.Nature of Member  Roles	Independent	Somewhat  Interdependent	Very much Interdependent
7. Monks Life philosophy@ monastery	Life is misery and Death is the solution @ This is evident as shown in the film the monk is physically exhausted and gets in to sleep while doing daily prayer.	Life somehow can be managed to make it worth living.  @ This is evident as shown in the film the monks engage in more productive prayers. Monks are shown not sleeping as much as they used to do earlier.	Life is Fun and even monks can have blissful life. @ This is evident as shown in the film that the monks are happy and blissful to work together.

That's it for now! The comments are below, let me know what you think.
Onwards and Upwards!

Goal Setting- Lessons Learnt From the Tower Buliding Activity

"Democracy is about majority, Management is about consensus"

What are the lessons you can hope to learn from building a tower out of building blocks (in an MBA college, no less)? Not a lot, I can hear you say.. But, it turns out you can actually learn quite a bit.

Goal Setting:
Lets first get the theory out of the way (A lot of interesting stuff follows it, I promise!).

1. S.M.A.R.T. Goals

A pretty well known acronym to start with. It means goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. I could explain it here, but better people have already done it much well than I could, so I'll just point you in their direction-

Wikipedia
More theory
SMART goals for Dummies

But the idea here is to make the concept yours and run with it. Since the goals and targets are yours, the meaning of this acronym should also be yours.

Alter it, make variations, use it to provide a more comprehensive definition for your goals:
S - specific | significant | stretching | synchronized
M - measurable | meaningful | motivational | magical
A - attainable | agreed upon | achievable | acceptable | action-oriented | accurate | admirable
R - relevant | realistic | reasonable | rewarding | results-oriented | resonant | radical
T - time-bound | time-based | timely | tangible | trackable |tenacious

Its your wish really. Your goals can be what you want them to be.

As Elbert Hubbard, once said- "Many people fail in life, not for lack of ability or brains or even courage, but simply because they have never organised their energies around a goal."

2. Pygmalion effect : It is the phenomenon in which the greater the expectation placed upon the people, the better they perform. 

Wikipedia
How to use it 
Pygmalion and Galatea Effects 

This video also does a good job at explaining the concept:

3. Top to Bottom : In this Strategy goals are set hierarchically. First Goals will be set for the Top Management and then each Top management level will set goals for their respective unit goals such that they can fulfill their goals. Now each Unit head will set the goals for each employee in their unit.
Wikipedia
Advantages and Disadvantages
Top-down vs Bottom-up
 

4: POSDCORB : The acronym stands for steps in the administrative process: Planning, Organizing, Staffing, Directing, Coordinating, Reporting and Budgeting.

Wikipedia

Summary:
As you must have seen in the last post, the teams which went for building the tower had very modest targets. The end result especially made the targets set seem laughable. In the case of the activity, it might have worked out with the team over-achieving, but it was an exception and not the rule. If you consistently set low targets for yourself you end up underachieving- compared not to the goals set, but to your potential. Consider the graph below:

Not speaking for anyone else, but the above chart is how I feel most of us usually set our goals. Look at what has been historically achievable, set the target a little high, but well under your potential so that in the end even though you might achieve more than you set out to achieve, but it is much less than what your potential is. The fear of failure or the fear of not living up to expectations breeds the philosophy that most of us have been taught- "Under-promise and over-deliver".

But targets should not be set this way. All this does is promote lethargy and is the cancer in any organization. Your potential is not a constant. As soon as you achieve it, it increases. The more work you put into an activity, the more adept you become at it. So the solution to break this chain is to set your objectives way higher than your potential and once set, sweat and give it your all to achieve it.

Goals set should follow the Fibonacci spiral:

Each consecutive target, much higher than the one preceding it- only then can you ever hope to ever achieve your true potential! "Over promise and super deliver"- that should be the mantra.

That's it for today. The comments section is below. Let me know what you think!
Onwards and Upwards!

Modern Management vs Craftsmanship

If you had to build a tower out of small wooden building blocks, would you rather chose to do it alone with your eyes open or with your eyes blindfolded and another person guiding you?

The session started with a game to build a tower out of cubes for which people were asked to bid money just to try, the purpose, 'One should be ready to take risks as a manager'. The bids started at 100, the final being a bid for Rs. 500 and the highest bidder allowed to approach the stage to start the activity.

Have a look at what happened next yourself:


So the first attempt ended with the tower finally reaching a height of 22 blocks!

A second bidding took place to decide who would perform the task blind-folded. The bid this time was a lowly 100 with no one expecting much success. Even the estimates to the size of the tower were paltry. But a team was formed- a worker, who was blindfolded and asked to use only his left hand to build the tower block-by-block while following instructions; a manager, who was to guide the worker without helping out himself; and a CEO, who set the target. This is what followed:


In the video you can see the tower reach a height of 21 blocks- one less than the former. The team did not stop there and went on to build a tower 25 blocks high.

This activity served to contrast the workings of Modern Management and Traditional Craftsmanship. We saw two people doing the same job- 1. Open Eyed Person(OEP) 2. Blindfolded Person(BFP)

Open Eyed Person

• He has decision making ability.
• He assumes all responsibilities.
• He has to pay attention to each and every task.

Blindfolded Person

• He doesn't have any decision making ability, and follows the decisions made by management.
• Responsibilities handled are very few.
• As he cannot see the end results, he does not have any fear.

The open eyed person can be compared to the Traditional Craftsman, while the blindfolded person represents the Modern Management approach. Modern Management involves the deskilling of all tasks and taking all decision making power from the worker.
In Modern Management, it is seen that the productivity is high, and at the same time, the skill of individual and also of a group goes on decreasing. But the dissatisfaction in workers increases, as they are unaware of decisions. The division of work is clear. The Top management does strategic management which includes decision making, planning etc. Middle management guides worker and supervises. The worker has clearly defined tasks and activities which he performs.

So, this is the theory.. But if you think about it, all of the major corporations today are based on this approach. Modern Management is what allows all the highly profitable multimillion corporates to exist, the base for all the conglomerates across all sectors!

The Begining

It's a dull and dreary Tuesday morning. It's still raining outside. Has been that way ever since we got here. By here I mean NITIE. It's the second day of college and I find myself sitting in the classroom at 9 am looking forward to another class. The timetable tells me it's supposed to be two hours of Communication and Negotiation Skills. I'm sure  you can forgive me for not being overly excited. I was just making the same point to the person sitting besides me when, as if right on cue, an elderly professor walks into the room. He looked to be one of those stereotypical teachers, the kind who walk into the the classroom and as soon as they are through the door start reciting notes for you to take down and leave as soon as they are done. But what followed surprised us all!

The professor walked to the front of the class and sat down cross legged on the stage.. Surprise, surprise! The next thing he does is to call everyone to the front and sit on the floor (Hum desi hain aur desi ki tarah hee parhate hain. Kursion par baithna toh firango ka tareeka hai). The entire class, shocked as we were, followed the request and cleared enough space to sit down.

As soon as everyone settled down he informs us that the Communications professor was on leave and he was filling in for him. His name was Dr. T. Prasad and he would be teaching us the Principles of Organization and Management. With this small introduction he draws close his bag, reaches into it and starts pulling out.. TOYS! He starts throwing stress balls into the crowd, following which he distributes a couple of what appear to be pink plastic butterflies and in the end pulls out a Newton's Cradle.

With this he started explaining the use of simple toys in education- how the poor could learn and play using inexpensive educational toys. The Newton's cradle he used to prove that even though the class was full of engineers from varied streams, few if any understood the practical application of the theories they had studied. It was eye-opening, the experience.

The rest of the lecture was him encouraging each and everyone to ask questions- related to anything. It was during this exchange that I found out about his nickname- Dr. Mandi, the brain behind Mandi- A unique annual event in which NITIE students take to the streets of Mumbai to help every student understand and discover management wisdom for himself. Mandi integrates the theoretical principles of statistics, managerial economics, marketing and basic market research with their practical application.

Through the example of Mandi he explained a concept he called "earning while learning". He made everyone realize the true cost they were paying for an MBA. He then shared his vision of making earning not just the end-product of learning, rather, making it a part and parcel of it.

The second part of this vision includes making management education available to one and all for free through the use of technology. This, I'll admit is the reason for me writing this blog- a blog I'll continue to update with each class, sharing my experiences and learnings along the way.

With this I'll stop my long-winded monologue and invite you share your thoughts in the comments below.

Onwards and Upwards!