My First Attempt: DIGITAL CV

Hey friends
Here comes the end of our course of Principles of Organisational Management with our exams just around the corner.
But before the end, Prof. Mandi made me do yet another 'first' thing of my life...My First Digital CV!!

Please look at the CV and provide me your feedback!
The real question is: Whether you'll hire me based on this Digital CV?  Think hard and then decide!
Do leave your comments!

Thanks!!

NAVRANG CUBE & ORGANISATIONS

Hello Friends,

I hope you are fine and eager to learn more POM concepts. Today I am going to introduce you to a unique and interesting object, A Navrang Cube. Those who are familiar with Hindi language would find it easy to understand that NAVRANG is formed by two words, 'Nav-' which means 'Nine' and '-Rang' which means 'color'. So, NAVRANG means 'Nine Colours'.

Coming to the significance, let me take you to the class where I was introduced with a NAVRANG cube. As always, Dr Prasad brought a new surprise for us, the cube looked like the one shown below.
But I wondered- What does THIS have to do with Management?

The class began with the prof. throwing dismantled pieces of this cube to students sitting around him. There were 27 Pieces in total. His question was if this particular cube can be formed again, with no color repeating on any side.

'Oh, That would be easy', was my first thought , and the entire class seemed to follow my ideology. Lots of hands rose to accomplish this simple task. Two were chosen and given enough time. But then, they were not able to complete it, in the given time and then gave up. 
The Next part was when Dr. Prasad handled the cube. He seemed to have a structured format and completed it in one third of the given time.

Then he explained that we required to have a structured approach to solve the cube and this is what needs to be done in organisations. One of my friend made a video in English language to demonstrate the same as well.

So what all did we learn from the experience?

Attempt by Student (First time)	Attempt by Professor
A Trial Attempt without preparation	A planned attempt with early preparation
Random Format	Structured Format
Confusions, Uncertain, stressed,	Calm, Simple and Clear flow of ideas
Unrealistic goals set based on excitement	Realistic goals based on experience
Not done even upto 10 Mins	Done within 4 Minutes

Other Principles of Management

• Each Problem can be solved by systematic thinking

• Each Block represents an entity (Labour, Machine etc) in an organization and is to be assembled in a structured and hierarchical way like the above process, so efficiency is maximum

• Two blocks of the same color may represent people who don't gel well with each other. And hence while forming a team, a structured approach is necessary.

This is all for the time.
Keep reading and keep exploring!

And if you want one of such cube, inform me.

A Job Seeker Or A Job Creator !?!

• 
  
  
  
  An Entrepreneur, according to Oxford Dictionary is "A person who sets up a business or businesses, taking on financial risks in the hope of profit."
  
  
  
  And, Urbandictionary.com, a popular online website for informal definitions defines Entrepreneur as 
  
  "Knows a little of something but lots of everything. Loves starting things then delegating them to others. Hates bosses, rules, authority and taxes. Thinks Donald Trump should have a golden statue erected in his honor. Probably doesn't really know how to spell entrepreneur."
  
  
  Ask any entrepreneur and (s)he'll readily relate with the latter one rather than the one given by oxford dictionary. Being an entrepreneur is more than just being an owner of a business, it's being an innovator, a daredevil, a visionary, a gambler and what not! 
  
  Be it  the discouraging employment market or a generation with enough resources to vision and aspire, ours is an age of evolution of a new breed of homo sapiens.
  
  
  
  
  Okay, so should you get you step in or stay away from the  boots of an entrepreneur?
  Interesting question!
  This can't be judged by tossing up a coin in the air. No, just can't!
  Let's see how you should decide that... 
  
  
  

  Do you have what it takes to be a 'JOB Creator'?

  Entrepreneurs are very particular bunch. They usually don’t fit a common mould. When they look at the world around them, they don’t dwell on how things are. Rather, they focus on how they
• 
  
• 
•  
• can transform things into how they want them to be, as well as how they can make a profit in the process. Here are some of the characteristics of a successful entrepreneur.  Do you possess any of these traits?
  1. 
     
  2. Self-Starter - Being an entrepreneur entails initiating something. Entrepreneurs see an opportunity to seize it, and start a business.
  1. 
     
  2. Enjoys big challenges – Entrepreneurs like challenges. They like to push the limits and test themselves against the world. The trill of beating a challenge is just as rewarding as the profit that follows.
  1. 
     
  2. Does Not Quit – Real entrepreneurs never give up. If they fail, they regard it as nothing more than a temporary setback. They go back to the drawing board, fix their plan and try again. Most successes only come after many failures.
  3. 
     
  1. Desire to succeed – Starting a business is risky. Entrepreneurs cannot stand the idea of living an uneventful life. They need to be challenged and succeed. They have a genuine appetite for success.
     
  
  1. 
     
  2. Creative – Entrepreneurs are usually very creative people. Creative here refers to the ability to see a business evolve where nothing existed beforehand. They can spot an opportunity and work to profit from their observation.
  1. 
     
  2. Hard-Working – Entrepreneurs are always hard-working people. Running a business is not a walk in the park. Ultimately, they must put in the hours to get the job done and make sure that the business achieves its full potential.
  1. 
     
  2. Flexible – Entrepreneurs wear many hats. If there is a problem, they simply can’t call up Bob form Legal or their VP of Marketing for a solution. They usually need to figure things out on their own and get all aspects of the business running single-handedly, at least in the beginning. A first-rate entrepreneur also know when it’s time to bring in additional managers to help with the business.
  1. 
     
  2. Competitive – The world of business is the ultimate shark tank. In our capitalist society you are either the hunter or the prey. Thus, entrepreneurs like to compete with others. They relish the opportunity to measure wits with others and come out on top.
  1. 
     
  2. Independent – A big driver to starting one’s own business is the desire to work for oneself. Entrepreneurs are notorious for this characteristic. They generally hate having a boss and having to report to someone else. They want to call the shots and make their own “destiny.”

No that you know what is an Entrepreneur and what makes a successful one, get off your butts and start making some noise and/or money. Life is short! Live it!

What do you think? Do you know what it is to be an Entrepreneur? Did I leave any important actions out? Please write a comment. I’d really like to know your take!

A meet with the Alum and 'Mastishk' Storming

This post is not about any routine lecture but that of a special session organised for us.Dressed up in formals, we all arrived at the classroom to listen to three of our Alumni. Our first interaction was with Mr. Nikhil Kulkarni, the think-tank behind India’s first online business gaming challenge  Mastishk , whic is now a popular event in B-School circles. 

I found Nikhil,presently working with KPMG in Banking and Financial Services domain, to be a very simple personality and a serious person initially by the looks. As he addressed us and the session went ahead, I witnessed that his ideas are so powerful that everybody in the room was left impressed and inspired to think out of the box.
I found Nikhil,presently working with KPMG in Banking and Financial Services domain, to be a very simple personality and a serious person initially by the looks. As he addressed us and the session went ahead, I witnessed that his ideas are so powerful that everybody in the room was left impressed and inspired to think out of the box.
I found Nikhil,presently working with KPMG in Banking and Financial Services domain, to be a very simple personality and a serious person initially by the looks. As he addressed us and the session went ahead, I witnessed that his ideas are so powerful that everybody in the room was left impressed and inspired to think out of the box.
He started the discussion asking us how many of us want to become entrepreneurs, many of us raised hands, then he tried drilling into their reasons for this choice and figured that except a few most of us had exactly zero idea what exactly it is to be an entrepreneur.
Most of the students look at entrepreneurship as an exit option from their mundane job lives. Most of us were confused between being independent with taking zero liability. He tried to give us a brief understanding of what exactly it is to be an entrepreneur, quoting some examples he inferred that we never noticed.

He pointed out that  we hardlt come to know about failed startup stories because their stories go unsung, and the very few which succeed catch the limelight, and reading their stories we envisage ourselves as future billionaires without peeping into the ground realities.
“A startup demands extreme patience and passion and if you are ready for both it is THE thing for you” said Nikhil, but if you are confused even to the extent of one percent  don’t go.
The feeling of a job creator comes with its own terms and conditions. Comparing doing a job and being an entrepreneur he identified that neither the efforts nor the responsibilities are less anywhere, in job you have an advantage of switching whenever you want, in startup you are your own boss doesn’t mean that you are not answerable to anyone, your stakeholders , your customers are all your liability.

 

While he was just to start telling his experiences about Mastishk, Hemant entered the class, classmate of Nikhil and co-founder of Mastishk. A vibrant personality; who lightened the discussion with his smiling face, both shared their experiences about the genesis of Mastishk, the problems faced by them running it and what they learnt from it. The discussion was very involving. 

I loved the part where Hemant told us how they used to look at themselves as C2C (CEO to Chapraasi) of the company and how they derived their satisfaction while fulfilling what they envisioned.After the arrival of our third Alum the discussion turned more engrossing and we enjoyed a mind boggling and eye opening session.

At the end of the session, they answered many of our doubts and guided us with some TO-Dos. They concluded the session with a promise to be back soon to help and guide us with our issues what so ever they may be.
He pointed out that  we hardlt come to know about failed startup stories because their stories go unsung, and the very few which succeed catch the limelight, and reading their stories we envisage ourselves as future billionaires without peeping into the ground realities.
“A startup demands extreme patience and passion and if you are ready for both it is THE thing for you” said Nikhil, but if you are confused even to the extent of one percent  don’t go.
The feeling of a job creator comes with its own terms and conditions. Comparing doing a job and being an entrepreneur he identified that neither the efforts nor the responsibilities are less anywhere, in job you have an advantage of switching whenever you want, in startup you are your own boss doesn’t mean that you are not answerable to anyone, your stakeholders , your customers are all your liability.

While he was just to start telling his experiences about Mastishk, Hemant entered the class, classmate of Nikhil and co-founder of Mastishk. A vibrant personality; who lightened the discussion with his smiling face, both shared their experiences about the genesis of Mastishk, the problems faced by them running it and what they learnt from it. The discussion was very involving. 
I loved the part where Hemant told us how they used to look at themselves as C2C (CEO to Chapraasi) of the company and how they derived their satisfaction while fulfilling what they envisioned.
I loved the part where Hemant told us how they used to look at themselves as C2C (CEO to Chapraasi) of the company and how they derived their satisfaction while fulfilling what they envisioned.After the arrival of our third Alum the discussion turned more engrossing and we enjoyed a mind boggling and eye opening session.

At the end of the session, they answered many of our doubts and guided us with some To-Dos. They concluded the session with a promise to be back soon to help and guide us with our issues what so ever they may be.
Such talks in future would be very helpful for us to take the important career decisions ahead.

Looking forward to more such enlightening experiences.

Learning the management..Block by Block!

Hello Everyone

This post is about yet another informative lecture by Prof. Mandi in Principle of Management subject.

The highlight of the whole class was an exercise cum group task we were made to perform. The prof. had come with small wooden blocks with him and the same were supposed to be used for building a tower.

A tower?
Yes!

The rules were simple:

• The tower should have a base of single cube only.
• At a time,only one cube should be placed.
• Build tower as tall as you can.

Before the students for the exercise were picked up from the class, Prof. asked us to set our goals, define them quantitatively(the height of tower one is going to aim for). As I had talked about goal setting in one of my previous blog post, we had to set our goals accordingly.

The exercise involved building tower from small cubes over one another on a flat ground. The problem at the first time seems to be easier but sometimes constraints involved make it difficult to perceive the solution to the problem. As a manager, it is important that results are to be produced in order to realize aspirations of top management. No matter how difficult the situation is the motto “Nothing is impossible” should always be kept in mind.

The constraint involved in the exercise is that the tower had to be built by three persons in which one person is blind folded who can only touch the cubes (herein termed as worker), second person who has to instruct the first person to stack the cube (here in termed as manager) and third one who observes and comments on the progress of tower (herein termed as top management). Another 5 people (just because 8 people, in total, raised their hands and each one had to do something ) were made the top management people, who were looking at the proceedings from a distance and giving their inputs and kept interrupting in between. In a real time situation in an organization, top management gives the problem which has to be executed by other persons (Asst. Manager and workers) in the company in lower hierarchy.

So now, let me divide the process (and learning) of building tower, for better understanding,  into following steps:

Goal Setting

The first step for a manager is to set up a realistic target or goal, this can be determined from past experiences and competitors. In the present situation the target was set as tower of 18 cubes based on past data and what other competitors can achieve.

Strategizing

The workers are the work force of an organization, they only know about what to do but don’t understand underlying concept of doing the work as in our case worker is blind folded. The manager has to strategize and formulate process to get work done from the worker.

Communication

The next step is to able to convince the workers that the target is achievable and breaking the target into much smaller targets. The process formulated above has to be communicated or conveyed to workers in a simpler way.

Working Conditions

The Manager must also take into account health and safety needs for the workers and take necessary step in making workers comfortable at work place. As in our present situation, worker was given rest and offered refreshments time to time without compromising on deadlines set up by top management.

Presenting to top management

The Manager must present the overall progress of the work to the top level management and communicate progress at the shop floor and problems, if any, faced by workers.

The Top Level management is responsible for the overall management of an organisation. They don’t get into much intricacies of process but more concerned about getting the results.

Hope you found the post useful.

The Three Monks & their management lessons!

Hello folks,

Carrying forward the nexus of my POM blogs, here I present to you a short animation movie to watch.

Wow....a movie! Great!

Yes! To add to the value, I'll tell you what all management lessons could be learned from the same movie.

Ok...sounds good! But please don't make it boring for us!

Aye, I dare not! 

Ok...let me start with some factual 'gyaan' as usual.

Three Monks is a Chinese animated feature film produced by the Shanghai Animation Film Studio. in 1976. 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."

Alright, now before I share with you what all I learnt from the video, why don't you watch it yourself first.

Alright, now if you have watched it (if not, I insist you do watch), I am sure you must have made some interpretations out of it yourself. Unless you are sleepy, the video wasn't an enigma for you to decipher.

Okay! Okay! We got it! Come straight to the business. Tell us what all you wanna share now.  

Alright then, let me share with you what all lessons I extracted out of the video.

The video is full of management lessons to be learnt on team work intricacies. The movie gives an excellent (and entertaining) lesson on the relation between effort, output, productivity, work methods and innovation.
I have divided the whole video in 4 parts:

00:00-04:16

The video starts with one monk living in a temple on the top of a hill and he is responsible for filling up the bucket with water required in the temple. We notice that he manages to perform the job. Here, a considerable aspect is that he carries two buckets on the pole instead of going for 1 bucket one time, to maximize his productivity.

04:17-08:16

The second monk enters the temple and they decide to work together and share the work. Here starts a big lesson for the organisational management enthusiast. The two monks find it difficult to evenly distribute the work. 

At one point of time, one monk has to make more efforts and at the other moment, the second monk faces the same feelings. 

This is often witnessed in the organisations when the employees feel that the work has been unequally distributed among them and each one has the feeling that he is the sufferer and the other one is enjoying his/her time, which may or may not be true. This causes friction between them and they often end up in unproductive forms of competitions like we notice e two monks try to compete in beating their small drums.

However, after some initial coordination issues, the solution is found by using the following  two tactics:

1. Objective Measurement: A very important lesson is to avoid subjective measurements as much as possible and use 'standard' work measurement methods. For eg.: Once, the monks had decided to carry the bucket in the middle of the pole, first the monks try to determine the mid point by using their hands, which is quite subjective. They both have different dimensions of their hands and hence, they both reach different mid points.
Then they use a 'ruler' which is a 'standard' tool for measurement. This solves their problem of work division. 

This is to be learnt as being managers, we have to ensure that the work is performed with minimum efforts , maximum productivity and  optimal work division.

2. Participative  Management: While determining the mid point, one of the monk measure using the ruler while the other one marks the mid point (You didn't notice this, did you?! ). This is called 'participative management'. The participation of both ensures not only satisfaction for both of them but also make them overseers for each other. (What an efficient and effective way to ensure maximum productivity)

08:17 - 14:30

A third monk enters the scenerio. The first two monks become elated. They unite and try and push the third monk to perform the job all by himself. This shows a very traditional problem noticed often in organisation where the senior workers try to bully the newcomers. This is more observed in organisations where the roles and job schedules are not explicitly defined.Then happens what is expected. The three monks fall into a conflict and the work gets gridlocked. None of them is ready to work and fill the buckets.

14:31 - 18:00
An important aspect is to understand why it happened?

The three monks didn't have their known share of work/duties. Hence, the conflict.

Then comes the real hero of the movie, the mouse. Why am I saying so?
Because mouse is the one who brought the situation which would leave the monks(and us) with a great lesson.
Keep reading for that!

When the temple catches fire, the three monks find themselves unprepared for the situation. They then realize that they require coordination and team effort to cope up with the situation in hand. This not just unites them to work together but also bring them on their toes. 

The lesson from this is that challenges have the potential to inspire us to work together.

INNOVATION

Once the situation in hand is over, the three monks innovate a new system of work using pulley system to be used from then onwards.The beauty of the new devised system is:

• Work is clearly defined for each of the monk.
• Even without an external supervision, this type of system is capable of monitoring itself. This is because no monk would be able to avoid his work as the others would ensure his productivity.

This system is very useful in organisations. This innovation remains to be the biggest lesson we could learn from these three monks.

Hope you liked the lessons(and blog)!
Till the next blog,
Enjoy reading!!  

Be SMART, Be Excellent.

“I will give my best shot this time.”…Sounds familiar?

Why won’t it be!
I have said it thousands of time myself and listened people saying it million times…

(cumulative, of course)
But do we really mean it? Do we even realize what our best shot is? How that could be 
achieved?
I think No. This often comes out to be an impulsive statement rather than a well thought off 

strategy.

The same situation scales up to the level of organizations. Be it a small proprietary or an MNC, it is very important to set realistic goals and vision for the company and well thought off strategy is, inevitably, always required. 

Even this is not enough; we must also understand how to achieve Excellence.

I am going to divide the ‘gyaan’ in two parts...Read ahead with your eyes and mind open!

First and Foremost….

The first part in achieving our goals with excellence is to set the goals. 

Of course, what else could it be? How stupid a suggestion it is!

Wait…I am not finished yet…
It is easier said than done…
Setting up just any random goal will never take you anywhere…It would leave you revolving around the same point losing out on your resources.

For eg:

Mr. Harilal Chobey: “Hey, I just came to know about the life of a film star. I want to be a superstar actor. Let me spend 3 hours in a beauty salon and 2 in a gym each day  for a year, and then nobody would be able to stop me!"
Mr. Champak Prasad: "Wait, Shouldn’t you join some acting school first?"
Mr. Harilal Chobey: "Uhmm…Never thought about that! Is it relevant at all?!"

Here Mr. Harilal set a goal for himself without putting up a lot of thought into it. His goal setting is not just random, but impulsive, irrational and most importantly it lacks the requisite amount of ground work.

Hence, setting up a SMART goal becomes the first and foremost step before we sprint towards our dreams.

Ok, do we have to look for the literal meaning of ‘Smart’ and proceed?
No, wait!
It’s something much more profound.
(Frankly speaking, it’s not a new concept. There has been numerable interpretations and explanations. I am jut presenting my own) 

Yes. This is SMART goal which I was talking about.
The elements above give us a, more or less, checklist of what all parameters we should 
comply with before finalizing our goal and proceeding any further.

Now, here comes the catch!

Often, it happens with us that we make goals, check them for few of the above mentioned

parameters but fail to include all of them. It is very important that our goals reflect (at least) 
all of the above characteristics. 

I personally think that maintaining a balance between ‘ambitious’ and ‘achievable’
is the most difficult one among the mentioned factors. While the goal should be achievable, it 

should be ambitious enough to always keep us on our toes.

Well, that looks like a lot of work. Who, in the whole world, would take up so much of 
headache.

The answer is simple, "Whosoever understands that 'Success' is at stake".

Let’s walk towards Excellence….

Once we are prepared with our goals, the real race begins.
The next motive is to attain excellence on both individual and organizational level.

The formula is very simple (simple ‘to write’.., ‘to follow’ is a different story).

EXCELLENCE = EFFECTIVENESS * EFFICIENCY

 These 3 are commonly called as ‘3 Es’.

Ok, three similar look words to make it look wonderful. But what’s the point. What 
exactly is the difference between Effectiveness and Efficiency? Don’t they mean same thing?

Hang on, I was just about to answer that when you(r thought) interrupted.

Effectiveness is ‘Doing the right thing’ whereas Efficiency is ‘Doing things rightly’.

Efficiency is more related to speed up the process whereas effectiveness is associated with 
providing correct direction to the work in hand.

Still not clear?

Let’s take up an example.

Take the example of two Customer Service reps, the first one is very short with the customers. 

If they start to tell him any unnecessary information, he cuts them off and tells them "leave it, 

that's not important". He quickly resolves their issue but leaves them with a bad taste for the 
company - most will never be repeat customers. He is able to handle 50 customer calls per day. 

The second rep takes time with the customers, shows empathy and concern, reviews the 
situation with the customer at the end of the call. Every customer is satisfied and impressed - 
all will certainly do more business with the company and refer their friends. This rep is able to 
handle 30 customers per day. 

The first rep is very efficient; the second rep is more effective. 

Hence, achieving excellence would include both the elements in balance.

So, both the 'goal setting' and the strive towards excellence were the two things I wanted to
talk about.
I recently learned it. I thought sharing it would be a nice thought.

So, next time, you say 'I'll give it my best shot', Just include a SMART goal setting, coupled 
with 3 Es. I don't see any reason why you would not be able to deliver your best.

Ok, the ‘gyaan’ is over for the time.Hope I was 'effective' and 'efficient' to some extent.

Hope you liked the blog post.

Happy Reading!