Life At NITIE - With an eye on Principles of Management
Sunday 25 August 2013
Thursday 15 August 2013
ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE EXPLAINED BY NAVRANG CUBE
What is a NAVRANG Cube?
The NAVRANG Cube is actually
a large cube formed by assembling 27 small cubes. The small cubes are of 9
different colors such that there are 3 cubes for each color. The NAVRANG cube
is so formed that each face of the large cube shows 9 different colors and no
color appears twice on the face of the large NAVRANG cube. The task of forming
the large cube was given to us by Prof Prasad. However, surprisingly, none of
the 80 engineers sitting in the class could complete the task at the first go. Prof
Prasad then taught us the technique to do it, which, I think, as engineers,
should have been invented by us. Excellence is achieved through Innovative
thinking.
Learning from NAVRANG Cube
- Multidimensional diversity exists at the same level / strata in an organization
- As the cubes of same color do not appear at the same strata so should not be the people or resources of same skills and characters else there may be ego clashes or skill deficiency
- It is important that we 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
- Different views are channelized towards a common goal – the growth of organization. It is important to have unity of direction to met the set goals otherwise it will result in organizational failure
THE ORGANIZATION AS A MAGNET
Magnet as an Orgnization |
A magnet is something that has
always fascinated me since my childhood. The sight of metals getting attracted
towards the magnet looked nothing short of a miracle. However, it was only in
higher secondary school that I came to know about the phenomenon at play inside
a magnet through our physics subject.
The same analytical process
regarding magnets was again stimulated in our minds after a gap of nearly 7-8
years when Prof Prasad brought along a magnet in the POM class. However, this
time we could relate it with a real organizational structure. Talking about the
characteristics of a magnet, it consists of two ends – the North Pole and the
South Pole. Inside the magnet are dipoles which are aligned in the North-South
direction and provide the basic feature to the magnet which is to attract any
metal towards it. These dipoles are also responsible for creating a magnetic
field which can align iron files kept near a magnet in a particular shape and
direction.
Employees are like Dipoles that need to be aligned with objectives of Organization |
If we compare the magnet with an
organization, we find that the north-south direction of the magnet is like the
goal or mission of the organization. Every activity of the organization is
aligned towards this mission just like every dipole is aligned in the N-S
direction. The different dipoles are like the different departments of the
organization. These departments have to work in synchronization with each other
to achieve the mission or objectives of the organization. They are aligned in
the same direction i.e. they work with the same motive of achieving excellence
in organizational objectives. The magnetic field of the magnet can be compared
with the influence the mission can have on the employees. Just like iron
filings kept near a magnet get influenced by the magnetic field, the employees
get influenced by the
culture prevailing in the organization and their
activities are coordinated
in the same direction for achieving the goals of the
organization.
Influence of an Organization can be like the magnetic effect of a Magnet |
A thing as simple as a magnet can
also present a great learning about organization. It is necessary that we work
as efficiently and effectively as possible in order to achieve our tasks. A
magnet teaches us that only when the individual objectives coincide with the
objectives of the organization can excellence be achieved.
Excellence through Grameen Bank
Every other day we hear about the government’s initiatives
for upliftment of the rural poor. How much these proposals materialize is a
different issue. But hardly do we see individuals coming up with something on
their own with the sole intent of helping the rural poor and empowering them
financially and socially. It is this excellence in microfinance that has made
Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank so popular and relevant in today’s times.
The origin of Grameen Bank can be traced back to 1976 when
Professor Muhammad Yunus, Head of the Rural Economics Program at the
University of Chittagong, launched an action research project to examine
the possibility of designing a credit delivery system to provide banking
services targeted at the rural poor.
OBJECTIVES
The Grameen Bank Project (Grameen means
"rural" or "village" in Bangla language) came into
operation with the following objectives:
- Extend banking facilities to poor men and women
- Eliminate the exploitation of the poor by money lenders
- Create opportunities for self-employment for the vast multitude of unemployed people in rural Bangladesh
- Bring the disadvantaged, mostly the women from the poorest households, within the fold of an organizational format which they can understand and manage by themselves
- Reverse the age-old vicious circle of "low income, low saving & low investment", into virtuous circle of "low income, injection of credit, investment, more income, more savings, more investment, more income"
METHODS EMPLOYED TO ACHIEVED EXCELLENCE
The Grameen Bank's Method of
action can be illustrated by the following principles:
1) Start
with the problem rather than the solution: a credit system must be based on a
survey of the social background rather than on a pre-established banking
technique.
2)
Adopt a progressive attitude: development is a
long-term process which depends on the aspirations and committment of the
economic operators.
3) Make
sure that the credit system serves the poor, and not vice-versa: credit
officers visit the villages, enabling them to get to know the borrowers.
4) Establish
priorities for action vis-a-vis to the the target population: serve the most
poverty-stricken people needing investment resources, who have no access to
credit.
5) At
the beginning, restrict credit to income-generating production operations,
freely selected by the borrower. Make it possible for the borrower to be able
to repay the loan.
6) Lean
on solidarity groups: small informal groups consisting of co-opted members
coming from the same background and trusting each other.
7) Associate
savings with credit without it being necessarily a prerequisite.
8) Combine
close monitoring of borrowers with procedures which are simple and standardised
as possible.
9) Do
everything possible to ensure the system's financial balance.
10) Invest
in human resources: training leaders will provide them with real development
ethics based on rigour, creativity, understanding and respect for the rural
environment.
All these efforts of Muhammad
Yunus through the Grameen Bank have helped in upliftment of lacs of people in
Bangladesh. With the success of the Grameen Bank, the concept of microfinance
has been adopted by many other countries. So much has been the success of the
Grameen Bank that it is being supported by economic institutions the world over
like the IMF, World Bank, etc.
Excellence in the thoughts and efforts
put in by Muhammad Yunus has been the key in bringing about significant changes
in the lives of lacs of people. Excellence can be achieved only when due
thought has been given towards the steps necessary for attaining efficiency and
effectiveness.
Tuesday 23 July 2013
THE VALLEY CROSSING EXERCISE
Every organization faces
challenges. Often the case is that, at any point of time, one department of the
organization may perform extremely well while some other department may not. The
real challenge is to carry the organization forward through these hurdles through
support and cooperation. This is very well demonstrated by the Valley Crossing
Exercise.
The Valley Crossing Exercise
As the photo depicts, there are 3
people who are carrying a bamboo with them. The bamboo represents the organization
and the 3 people represent the different departments. The 3 people have to
cross a valley safely and reach the other side. The width of the valley is such
that at any instant, it will completely have a person hanging on the bamboo and
the hanging person will have to be supported by the other two persons.
During the exercise, anyone of the three persons can be at the following three risk levels:
1) Risk free (safe) – Completely on ground
2) Half Risk – One half on ground and the other half hanging
3) Full Risk – Completely hanging
Structuring The Task
Managers will structure the task such that it is executed in an easier way. They are solution providers. The task is structured keeping in mind the below mentioned aspects:
- Everyone is at equally risky position at all times
- Communication and feedback across 3 members are instantaneous
- Interdependence among the 3 members is crucial
- Distance between two persons are >1 foot step length and <2 foot steps length
- Maximize Excellence
- Maximize profitability
While carrying out the activity,
there can be 9 possible combinations in which different members of this team
will be at different risk levels which is shown in the table below:
Position
|
Person A
|
Person B
|
Person C
|
^^^
|
Completely On Ground - SAFE
|
Completely On Ground - SAFE
|
Completely On Ground - SAFE
|
^^^
|
Half Hanging - HALF SAFE
|
Completely On Ground - SAFE
|
Completely On Ground - SAFE
|
^^^
|
Fully Hanging - UNSAFE
|
Completely On Ground - SAFE
|
Completely On Ground - SAFE
|
^^^
|
Half Hanging - HALF SAFE
|
Half Hanging - HALF SAFE
|
Completely On Ground - SAFE
|
^^^
|
Completely On Ground - SAFE
|
Fully Hanging - UNSAFE
|
Half Hanging - HALF SAFE
|
^^^
|
Completely On Ground - SAFE
|
Half Hanging - HALF SAFE
|
Half Hanging - HALF SAFE
|
^^^
|
Completely On Ground - SAFE
|
Completely On Ground - SAFE
|
Fully Hanging - UNSAFE
|
^^^
|
Completely On Ground - SAFE
|
Completely On Ground - SAFE
|
Half Hanging - HALF SAFE
|
^^^
|
Completely on Ground - Safe
|
Completely On Ground - SAFE
|
Completely On Ground - SAFE
|
LEARNING FROM VALLEY CROSSING EXERCISE:
TRUST : The single most important factor for their success was the trust factor. Trust was necessary for them because when somebody was in full risky state all of his hope were on the other two and if any of the two failed then he could have fallen into the valley. But he kept on the faith and made it to the other side of the valley . Similarly even in commercial level we need to trust others. We need to trust other people and have faith in their talent and capability.
SHARING OF RESPONSIBILITY : At all the positions while crossing everyone shared equal responsibility.At no time was any person more responsible for a success/failure than the other one and this defines why they had success in the end. They showed great responsibility while carrying each other. Similarly in our business world we need to share and take responsibility . Unless we take it ourselves nothing would be beneficial for us.Once we start taking it and execute it properly we will see results showing good in our favor as well.
FOCUS : Focus was one thing that they did not lose. Until they had reached their goal they did not even shifted their focus for a single bit. This defines a true quality of an entrepreneur. One should never lose focus till one has reached where he had aspired for.
COORDINATION : Nothing would have been possible unless there was coordination at place. If they had lost a single bit of coordination at any point then the whole idea would have failed. Similarly in our business world we need to coordinate things properly. If not done well the whole thing could go haywire resulting in utter failure of the concept in spite of hard work.This coordination should be there all throughout the hierarchy of the organization .
LESSONS FROM IM-10 – Shri Nikhil Kulkarni
Who says learning can only be
achieved in an academic subject class? Yes this was a class in the academic
building but the ingredients were not quite the same. It was the first time
that we were getting to interact with a NITIE alumnus. The alumni are the
assets of any college and we were having the first glimpse of the assets that
NITIE possesses. Courtesy Prof Prasad (our beloved Mandi Sir).
Shri Nikhil Kulkarni passed out
of NITIE as an IM-10 batch alumnus and is currently a consultant in KPMG. He
had come for a guest lecture alongwith his batchmates Shri Hemant and Shri
Aribit.
Prof Prasad had sent to all of us
the link for Nikhil Sir’s blogs. Most of us had read that one blog regarding
‘Experience Vs Freshers – MBA’ as it related to all of us in one or the other
way.
Shri Hemant Kulkarni with Prasad Sir |
Nikhil Sir started out the
session asking us why would one go for entrepreneurship rather than going for a
job. Everybody in the class had his/her opinions but a logical rationale was given
by Nikhil Sir regarding the difference between starting out as a professional
with some firm and starting out as an entrepreneur. He reminded us that when we
talk of having to manage an enterprise, the same kinds of responsibilities are imposed
after some time in any job. One would be responsible for profits/losses in an
entity as is the case in entrepreneurship. The crux of the matter is that only
if someone has the extreme urge and passion to take up something of his own
should he go for entrepreneurship. He also said that setting up a company would
take only 30 minutes. The only things required would be an idea and a domain
name. The website would be established and your business will get running. What
would sustain your business, however, is the fact that how you make use of your
resources and how fast you embrace innovation.
Talking about entrepreneurship,
Nikhil Sir and Hemant Sir discussed the idea of their brainchild ‘Mastishk’
which was setup by them. It was an online portal involving simulations of
business-like situations which eventually became a big hit among all the
students. They discussed how nobody was initially interested in ‘Mastishk’ and
they had a difficult time selling the idea to ‘Prerna’ – the organizers of the
NITIE’s premium annual event. Everything right from coding to developing the
interface for the online portal was done in-house. Buoyed by the response,
everybody eventually wanted to be a part of it. Sponsorships started coming in
and the business started rolling on its own. Their interviews for placements
also revolved around Mastishk.
Touching upon other aspects of
their professional life, they provided us subtle inputs about how their life actually
is. Nikhil Sir told us that he did not return home back from office before
11.30 pm for 3 out of 5 working days at KPMG. It’s important to maintain a work
life balance when you are faced with such long working hours. He also talked of
the politics that usually happens in every workplace and it is up to the
individual to tackle it.
In between all this, we had the
energetic Hemant Sir who before saying anything had asked us all about the
NITIE pond and the 96 steps (there are actually 94). He is one of the few guys
who have been selected for an HR role which is a rarity in NITIE. Talking of
his placement, he said that he had written his responsibilities for Mastishk in
his CV as C2C, which means ‘Chaprasi to Chairman’. He had the zeal for human
resources which was quite evident in his CV and mannerisms during his
interview. And because of this zeal and enthusiasm, he was taken for an HR role
even though the company had come for some other profile. His simple advice to
all of us was to do what we had passion for.
The first session from the alumni
cleared a lot of doubts for all of us. We hope to frequently have these
sessions in the future.
After the session, I read some of
the other blogs of Nikhil Sir like ‘Salesman Vs Professional’ and ‘Should one
drop out to become an entrepreneur’. Each of these blogs had been very
analytical. I would be reading his other blogs soon as each of them deals with
one or the other real life experiences. And I hope that I would be able to again
meet these alumni at some point in my professional life.
Wednesday 3 July 2013
THE THREE MONKS - A SILENT MOVIE THAT SPOKE AT LENGTH ABOUT MANAGEMENT
THE THREE MONKS
With each class, my understanding
of some basic concepts about management and organization gets enhanced because
of the practical examples discussed in class by Prof Mandi. This week, after
the discussion on goal setting and the smart approach, it was time to watch a
movie – The Three Monks. This is a very famous 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 an animation film with
no dialogues but speaks a lot about team effort and cooperation.
The Movie:
There was a small temple on a
mountain and a little monk in the temple. His daily routine was shouldering
water, chanting sutras, knocking the wooden fish, adding water to the holy
water bottle on the table honoring the Goddess of Mercy, and watching over the
mice from stealing food at night. His life was smooth and comfortable. Soon
after, a tall monk came. He drank half of the jar’s water as soon as he arrived
at the temple, so the little monk asked him to fetch water. The tall one
thought it was unfair for him to fetch water alone, so he asked the young one
to do it together. They could only carry one bucket a time, and they would only
feel content when the bucket was placed in the middle of the shoulder pole.
Anyway, they still had water to drink in this way. Then, a fat monk came. He
wanted to drink, but there was no water in the jar. The short monk and the tall
one asked him to fetch water by himself. He carried a bucket of water, and
drank it up immediately. From then on, nobody would fetch water, so they had no
water. Everyone chanted his own sutras and knocked his own wooden fish. As
nobody would add water to the holy water bottle, the plant in the bottle
withered soon. At night, a mouse came out stealing, but everyone pretended not
to see it. As a result, the mouse was so rampant that it knocked over the
candleholder and caused a fire. Only thus did the three monks make a concerted
effort to put out the fire, and finally awaken. After that, they started
hanging together and the temple never lacked water again.
Management Lessons Learnt From The Movie:
1) A
task can be performed more efficiently when one person has entire control of
activities – In the beginning, there was a single monk in the monastery who was
free to do all the things the way he liked. So he planned for himself and
carried out all the activities without any interference from anyone else. As a
result, there was water readily available at all times.
2) Necessity
of Team Work – Team work is absolutely necessary in order to come out of a
problematic situation. It can be seen from the movie that only when the three
monks came together and put all out efforts that the fire could be
extinguished. Had they not been working as a team it would not have been
possible for them to save the temple from the fire.
3) Undefined Responsibility Relations lead to chaos – Each member of the team needs to be explained his/her responsibilities in the task. Without this, there will not be proper understanding about one’s roles in the team. This may lead to missing out on certain activities and eventually ineffective completion of the task. In the movie, there was no clear cut role assigned to each of the monks. As a result, none of the monks worked and that lead to shortage of water in the monastery.
4) Unnecessary
ego should be avoided among team members –
The three monks in the movie
developed unnecessarily large egos and consequently nobody bothered to discuss
the problem with each other and find a suitable solution. It is in the team’s
interests that ego be avoided and cooperation be given its due credit.
Bring About Innovation |
Avoid Ego Clashes |
5) Initiative
– None of the monks in the movie took the initiative to divide the work among
themselves. They let things happen
without any effort to control them and the this resulted in the fire at the
temple. It is necessary in any team to take initiative towards resolving any
issues and working as a team.
6) Innovation
– After the fire had been put off, the monks amicably worked together and
designed an innovative pulley system where every monk had a well defined job
and their efforts also got reduced. This shows that innovation can lead to
unique and helpful solutions for any situation and organization.
7) Resolving
Conflict – Conflict of interest can arise in any workplace and any organization
but it is imperative to resolve them amicably and work in alignment towards the
goal of the organization. The three monks also finally resolved their conflicts
and then lived happily together in the monastery.
8)
Productivity – the methods applied by the monks
included bringing 2 buckets by one monk and bringing 1 bucket by 2 monks. This brings
in the debate of individual vs team productivity. As per productivity analysis
method 2 is more productive than method 1. This is shown in the table given
below. Assuming one man uses 1 unit of energy to lift 1 bucket.
Event
|
Output (No. of buckets)
|
Input(Worker Energy units)
|
Productivity = Output/Input
|
1 Man – 2 buckets
|
2
|
2
|
1
|
2 Men – 1 bucket
|
1
|
0.5
|
2
|
1 Man - 2 Buckets |
2 Men - 1 Bucket |
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