Principles of management as I learned it.

Hello every body I am sharing a video of how I learned Principles of Management.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mARirrFmtgA&feature=youtu.be

Please see it. Comments from your side is welcome for any improvement..

Creative Problem Solving,

              When ever we do work problems are bound to come. Problems can be solved in two ways. First is a complicated way and the other is a simple way. Complex solutions are undesirable and they are the ones we mostly get. But simple solutions are the most creative ones. It takes us to think creatively. This is creative thinking.
               Here I would like to recall to you a simple story of a pen. Once the astronauts were faced with a problem of how to write in 0 gravity in space, because ink flows down into the nib due to gravity only which will be absent in space. To address this situation United States developed a pen which would work in 0 gravity spending millions of dollars. At the same time Russian scientists solved the problem by writing with pencil. This how a problem is made or solved in a simple way or complex way.

What is Creative Problem Solving?

Creative problem solving is  is a form of deliberate creativity: a structured process for solving problems or finding opportunities, used when you want to go beyond conventional thinking and arrive at creative (novel and useful) solutions.

3 Monks And Water Problem

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.

STORY:

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 candleholder, 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.*

IMPORTANT POM CONCEPTS EXPLAINED HERE.

          When there was one monk he had no other optipn but to carry the buckets by himself. It was long and tiring. This is CRAFTSMANSHIP and commonises the task as he brings water whenever he likes.

          Then comes another monk. Together they to bring water. As the stick is small they could carry only one bucket. But thier effort reduced and they could enjoy their time while comming. But this process had a major drawback, if the bucket was tilted to someones side more he had to carry more load. So a solution was reached by a standard methord that it is to be place at the half position only so as to distribute the load equally.

         This methord had an added advantage that here the efficiency increased as manual effort per kg of water reduced drastically and they were fresh on reaching the destination.

         

Now a problem came when third monk reached. Now work division was difficult and the task was put on each others shoulders. This was poor management and a proof that with poor management compiling more more workers would lead to drop in productivity.

       Now with the event of fire all of them worked together in a fire fighting mode and devised a new methord of bringing water to the top.

This new methord has an added number of advantage to it which will be discussed below.

CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLUTION: To address a crisis situation in future they devised a pulley methord of bringing up water to the top.

MODERN DAY APPROACH: This methord is a moder day assebly line methord in which productivity increased drastically.

INTERDEPENDENCY: Here in this improved methord there is a high amount of interdependency which reduces the unproductive time due to social loafing is reduced.

THEORY X AND THEORY Y: This methord is even better than theory X or theory Y because this reduces the work content on each by so much that it makes work play.So the workers enjoy doing their work.This is theory Z.

SPECIALIZATION , DECENTRALIZATION AND STANDIZATION OF WORK: Here work is de centralized and one person does one job only. This gives enhances productivity and excellence of work as both efficiency and effictiveness increases.

SYNERGY: Here clear enough is that the three persons working together can put more water to the temple than all the working individually.


* copied from Wikipedia

VALLEY CROSSING

Here are three men walking but are stalled because infront of them lay a valley which they have to cross.


1. The width of the gap between the valleys is more than a step so they canot jump over it but less than two steps.
2. There is no temporary bridge available i.e no falt platform which they can lay over the gap and walk over.


So what do they do?
After searching for resources they found a round wooden log and they use it to cross the valley. Its illustrated in the picture below.

Creative and wonderful. The image itself is good enough to illustrate that phenomenon. But there are some managerial concept hidden here which is discussed below.


   TEAM: A team comprises a group of people linked in a common purpose. Teams are especially appropriate for conducting tasks that are high in complexity and have many interdependent subtasks. the valley cannot be crossed by a single person but as a team they form a synergy and achieve more than what individually they can achieve.


   STRUCTURING OF TASK: There are three position in this whole task.


1. High Risque: The hanging position is of high risque.
2. Medium Risque: One foot on the ground and other hanging in valley is medium risque.
3. No Risque: The position where both the feet are on ground is of no risque.


     Here if you notice all the persons go through this phase. So all positions are same. The tasks should be designed in such a way that it shouldnot be dependent on person.


   STRUCTURING OF TASK ROLES: Tasks should have certain attributes for perfect realisation of a task. these are
      1.Interlocking roles i.e. highest level of interdependency
       2.Highest level of interactions among the members
       3.Instantaneous feedback
       4,No scope for any Social loafing


The task here is highly interdependent and provides instantenous feedback upon any mishap.


TEAM EXCELLENCE:  Excellence is efficiency * effectiveness. Individual cannot achieve excellence but a team an organisation can achieve that. Efficiency and effectiveness both comes simultaneously and has to be handled simultaneously. Effectiveness is where to go? and efficiency is how to go efficiently i.e at reduced cost or enhanced safety. But to put effect efficiency one has to again think efficiently.


 This small exercise teaches us how to effectively work in a team beacuse an well managed team can achieve more than all the individuals combined where as an ineffective management can cause utter blunder as we see in the Maruti Suzuki case at Manesar Plant.

 

SETTING GOALS: A REAL WAY

        Smoking kills 900,000 people every year in India, and unless corrective action is taken soon that number will increase to 1 million smoking-related deaths annually by 2010 and beyond, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

         "Smoking kills". The size of the skull mark and the warning sign has been made bigger. Government also increases the taxes on them every now and then. But these results are not showing effect as it should be.

Ask any smoker how many times they have kicked the butt in their life. They all start with a goal “not to smoke” but end up where they are now. So we will discuss how to set a SMART goals.

But the goals which are continuous in nature, where goal is not reaching there but remaining there we need two more elements

1.     Evaluation: It’s a continuous feedback if where are there or are starting to slide. Most large organization evaluates their market position as often as they can.

2.     Reevaluate: For a long stretched goal evaluation won’t do alone. There must be a desire to stay there. Reaching the top of the mountain is a goal because scaling the mountain is what makes the view from the top so exhilarating. But no one would like to be on the top unless there is a reward in it. So evaluation must be followed by a reward.

So that takes us to SMARTER goals.


Q. Why don't smokers quit smoking?

1. They are common man and they don't know how to set smarter goals  They are common man and don’t know how to how to set smarter goals but most CEOs also face the same.

2. They don’t want to.

3. They are too addicted to nicotine

Well none is such a strong reason. In fact this is with all goal settings. Why do we fail to accomplish our own perceived goals? This leads to very basic facts of setting goals.

           What do people understand when we say “setting goals”. It means “a lofty ambition,” something to “shoot for,” something to “strive for,” or something to “work towards”. The descriptions we give the the word “goal” implies it will be difficult to achieve or in a word "impossible". There is a subtle undertone crafted by the implicit meaning of the words telling you won’t achieve your goal. This gives us a chance for us to rationalize if we don’t realize the goal. “Ahhh I reached 90 % of my goal”, “goals are meant to be like that” , “ I gave in my best”, “ this is all I could do”……… So the achievement of a goal becomes actually an alternative.

        But consider a situation you promised your girlfriend that you would be on a date with her and suddenly when you are about to come out of the office a very important work stalls you there. You call her up and say you won’t be able to make up. So you set up an easy goal and you can’t achieve it. 
      Now in this case you feel bad. Here you don’t rationalize even if have the perfect reason. This is because it’s a promise. Non achievement of a goal leads to rationalization but in case of promise it leads to guilt as it has higher emotional attachment.

      However there is difference between a goal and a promise. We promise what we consider doable. So to map goals to promise we can break our goals to small small promises, telling about them enthusiastically to your friends and family and including them in your goals and achievements. Here the goals won't become my goal only but it would be a shared promise and when you would start to drift they would remind you of your goals. To put in the words of ―  Paulo Coelho “And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” , The Alchemist

TEACHING 2.0

          When a bubble grow big it bursts. This is with the present educational system. The cost of education is spiralling upwards. Around 2 million rupees* is spent on a child’s education only and the bubble is growing and growing. Then a person comes with a vision “A world class school where anyone can learn anything in their own way for free.” We are talking about Khan Academy. An innovative and outstanding way of teaching where a student can pause and rewind his teacher with no embarrassment. This is the future of education where a student learn in their own pace own style and by peers.


          This innovation is put forward by Salman Khan, a financial analyst who quit his job to devote more time to his philanthropic activity. This whole thing started when his cousin Nadia living far away from him needed help in mathematics and he was tutoring her from his home via a sketchpad and later by YouTube videos. With time his lectures have grown into an online phenomenon and a kind of solution to a flawed educational system. The videos don't look or feel like typical college lectures or any of the lecture videos that traditional colleges put on their Websites. These lectures are short and they're low-tech. Viewers see only the scrawls of equations or drawings that Mr. Khan writes on his digital sketchpad software as he narrates. This gives a feel of a peer discussing the problem not someone lecturing you. Here the content becomes important than the person.

     In management we have 2 types of managers THEORY X and THEORY Y managers.
     In theory X management assumes employees are inherently lazy and will avoid work if they can and that they inherently dislike work. As a result of this, management believes that workers need to be closely supervised and comprehensive systems of controls developed. A hierarchical structure is needed with narrow span of control at each and every level. According to this theory, employees will show little ambition without an enticing incentive program and will avoid responsibility whenever they can[1].
     In theory Y, management assumes employees may be ambitious and self-motivated and exercise self-control. It is believed that employees enjoy their mental and physical work duties. According to them work is as natural as play [1].
     Nevertheless to say Theory Y is most encouraging and effective and in Khans Academy of teaching, theory Y is inherently built. Students learn in their own pace and the best from peers. Khan Academy is pushing for this concept. Here all data for all students are available for all students and in a typical classroom where teachers prefer good students here teachers have ample time and devote it to the lagging ones to know where they lag and their difficulties.


      But for small scale it works fine but to take it to the large mass and maintain the quality, revenue is  important. Khan Academy is a non-profit organization i.e. what is earned as a revenue is again rolled back to business.
·         Khan Academy in the initial stage was non revenue earning and was part-time.
·         Later donations started to come in 5 $ or 10 $ and some from advertisements. Then Ann and John Doerr, well-known venture capitalists, gave $100,000[1].
·         Later the project was taken to a grand scale by aid from Google and Microsoft.

         The strategy of the academy is so innovative that it is challenging the traditional system of learning in every way and shaking up the system where learning is perfect and easy as well. All the students are tracked by a software which gives data on his present status whether he is lagging behind or not or if so where, unlike the traditional system where its known during tests only.  This makes education complete. More emphasis is on the content and covers a wide range of topics from maths to science to history to biology and even finance. Its just another school in itself.


         This is revolutionary as it increases productivity and personal tracking of every student. In Salman Khan’s words ” This could be the DNA for a physical school where students spend 20 percent of their day watching videos and doing self-paced exercises and the rest of the day building robots or painting pictures or composing music or whatever.”, a perfect way to start schooling system from scratch again.


[1] WIKIPEDIA

*  Standard school fees 1000 per month
12*1000*14(yrs) = 1.44 L
Engg = 3L
MBA = 15 L
total = 19.44 L

LE01

Tuesday 19th June the first class was of Dr. T. Prasad better known as Dr. Mandi. Class was on Principles of Management. I went  half expecting a boring lecture but what followed was completely different or say it was poles apart. The class started with a video of Pink Floyd  “Just another brick in the wall”. First session went on why to sell, then what to sell and lastly how to sell.         

         Selling is not what product you sell but what idea you sell with the product. It’s the value addition that makes a product special. This is “Socho becho….”.

         Next session I expected that at least this will be a theory session. But again…  we played games!!!

         It was a very interesting game. It was symbolic. The game was simple one To enter the game you will have to bet means literally bet like 100, 101, 102 as it happens. So the cost of game reached 350. The highest 3 bidders were allowed for the game.  In the game we were give small cubes of 1cm*1cm*1cm. The task was to build a tower piling one cube over the other, just one cube over the other. Initially a survey was taken and more than half of the class responded that it cannot be build beyond a tower height of 15 cubes. The target was given to us build it beyond 17 cubes which was previous year’s record.  So the game was set to play and then came the surprise. The person who will be building it will be blind folded and has to do with his left hand i.e. his weaker hand and the other person will be guiding without touching him or the cubes. The third person will sit at a distance and will interfere only 10 times. The person blind folded was skilled person whose skill was given a direction by management and the person sitting at a distance was top management.

  Some lessons are learnt in the class but the most important ones are learnt outside the class. This small

game teaches a lot of things just from start.

        It teaches us that initially keep the target high and if possible make research on how was previous   attempts have been.

        Opportunity knocks and then you will have to grab it or say buy it if necessary because once it goes all the resources will be of no use. In the game the guy who was blind folded had no money in his pocket so what he did he borrowed it from a guy sitting before him to bet.

        It took almost 3 hours to build 18 cubes tower i.e. 10 minutes per cube. It teaches us perfection. Making it big requires each and every thing to be analyzed and put in a perfect way for further development. Once it goes wrong the whole thing will crumble so creation of a very strong base is very much emphasized. Building it was easy initially but later on putting each block took even more time. Same with business initially you grow rapidly and later on sustainable development require something extra and if base is not strong it will fall. It teaches us patience especially in the later stage when growth takes more time then a small impatience will cost. Finally this is how the tower looked.

in the process...

final product

The 3 Builders and our teacher

          Business is a concept. A concept is to be sold, just like IPL. It’s nothing but cricket but it sells because there are peoples out in the stand who want to watch IPL and pay for it. But what made it a grand success was the way it was sold. Mr. Lalit Modi knows how to sell cricket to maximum. Even the air above the ground was sold which were carrying bill boards. This is where managers comes, to create opportunities  and when opportunities exist get the maximum from it. Everything is possible given the right resources but whether to pursue that is again the decision which a manager has to take.

       Management is all about managing the perspective as well as the intricacies. Being a manager we have to give direction and also should have the creativity to address the practical problems arising. 

        While the tower was being build all the persons in the class were cheering and giving suggestions even though they were not a part of the game. This is with customers. They also like the company with which they are associated to succeed to be recognized.  This is also with the workers. So a manager’s duty is also to look at the welfare of the workers and the customers both.

       Now leaving all the teachings aside just only seeing the tower stand tall breaking all records proving every stereotypes wrong gives an immense pleasure in itself.