~ MAGNET - ALIGNMENT - BUSINESS ~

Have you ever played with magnet ... Of course the answer would be yes and if provided one now you would start playing with it . One of the POM classes we had same experience . Dr Prasad came to class and distributed some magnets to us. We as usual started playing with its magnetic strength.  But after a while he asked us , 'why does a magnet attract metal ? Of course he wanted a Management level answer but we engineers always thought it the technical way . At last someone said  ALIGNMENT . Yes in terms of management , a magnet teaches us how to align manpower in proper direction to create the force.Basically what a magnet does is to align all the magnetic poles in one direction... i.e north poles in one and south poles on other.

Same way as the magnet does alignment , a MANAGER does the same in a organisation i.e perceives the best person at the best place so as to carry on the business smoothly . They align people and power along with their task and objectives .

Same is the case with Music and Noise... When a guitar is tapped in unorganized way noise is produced which is irritating to ear , but when tapping is done in a certain organised  manner with all the strings working fine , a perfect tune is played which soothes our ear. So its very clear that its Organizing matters apart from the work .

So in management we call such alignments as : MANAGEMENT BY OBJECTIVES (MBO)

  It is a process of defining objectives within an organisation so that both the section i.e managers and employees properly understand their domain and what they are supposed to perform .

Peter Drucker's book The Practice of Management in the year 1954 popularized management by objectives.Thinking in a confined way , its the goal setting in managerial level so as to make process going An important part of the MBO is the measurement and the comparison of the employee’s actual performance with the standards set. Ideally, when employees themselves have been involved with the goal setting and choosing the course of action to be followed by them, they are more likely to fulfill their responsibilities. 

This can be further understood by previous blog on Craft management & Modern Management and Three Monks . So consolidating features in one single table I came up with :

So as seen in the table we can see the major difference in controlling and the loads present in the various types of management organisation . Mismatch or ego clashes are the major problem of flaws in the Three monk type. This can be seen in case of sports person as well as very clearly in politics . So final teaching that came out of the class is that when a work is done in a proper organised way with every person doing the best possible work he could perform  , then the work efficiency increases with accountable profit at the end. 

Decision Making

MAJOR PROBLEM : DECISION MAKING

When ever a Company is in profit or loss , its due to the decisions that are taken by the managers .

Decision being the parameter for profit and loss in business, it is the most important and difficult task of a manager. Also after taking decision , it is managers responsibility to look after the implementation of the decision he has taken.

STEPS FOLLOWED IN DECISION MAKING

Their is no hard and fast rule for decision making , yet we have experienced a method which is most widely implemented for decision making in big Industries.

• As we see in this flow diagram , the first process is to identify the problem, this can be done by estimating the problem and its consequences ,
• Second is analyzing the problem i.e how much is the organisation effected by that problem ,
• Third is developing alternate solutions for solving that problem , 
• Fourth one is selection of the best possible solution/s economically fruitful in solving the problem, 
• Fifth one is implementation of the solution , & 
• The last step is supervising the action taken .

Once the problem's solution has been found out , almost half of the problem is solved.

TYPES OF DECISION MAKING AND IMPLEMENTATION 

These are the four types of decision making and their implementation. 

• In the first process , their is possibility of wrong decision being taken as the problem understanding and decision making is done by a single individual which might think according to his mind setup. In this case the performer is also one person so possibility of implementation of a good solution is also least.
• In the second one , everything is same except their is a group to perform the task. In such case if a good decision is taken , then the team can perform better than the first case.
• In the third one, a group decision is taken . This increases the chance of understanding the problem and coming to a useful solution but implementation still depends upon the single person who can make some mistakes as he is the only one performing the task.
• In the forth one , a group decision is taken along with a group implementation . This increases the chance of the problem being efficiently solved.

So in the above model , 'group decision and group implementation ' is the most successful one .

SOCIAL BUSINESS .....In view of MD. YUNUS

World of opportunities without poverty  

Md. Yunus

Muhammad Yunus (Bengali born 28 June 1940) is banker, economist and Nobel Peace Prize recipient. As a professor of economics, he developed the concepts of micro-credit 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 micro-credit to create economic and social development from below". Yunus has received several other national and international honors . 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.

In 2008, he was rated #2 in Foreign Policy magazine's list of the 'Top 100 Global Thinkers'.

In 2012, he became Chancellor of Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland. He is a member of the advisory board at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology. Previously, he was a professor of economics at Chittagong University in Bangladesh. He published several books related to his finance work. He is a founding board member of Grameen America and Grameen Foundation, which support micro-credit.

Yunus also serves on the board of directors of the United Nations Foundation, a public charity created in 1998 by American philanthropist Ted Turner’s $1 billion gift to support UN causes.

His works :-

He is famous for his Idea and implementation of micro-credit and micro-financial structure of Grameen bank .

Muhammad Yunus has shown himself to be a leader who has managed to translate visions into practical action for the benefit of millions of people, not only in Bangladesh, but also in many other countries. Loans to poor people without any financial security had appeared to be an impossible idea.

From modest beginnings three decades ago, Yunus has, first and foremost through Grameen Bank, developed micro-credit into an ever more important instrument in the struggle against poverty.

His speech in Amory University

In his speech he explained how he developed the micro-finance model in the poor villages of Bangladesh which eventually got replicated all over the world. He set up a system of Social business whose main purpose was not profit maximization but serving the most pressing problems of the society.He explained , how simple non collateral based loans can transform the lives of poor. He visualized " we have created a society that does not allow opportunities for those poor people to take care of themselves because we have denied them those opportunities".

Poverty -a survey

Poverty is the state of one who lacks a certain amount of material possessions or money.Poverty refers to the deprivation of basic human needs, which commonly includes food, water, sanitation, clothing, shelter, health care and education. Relative poverty is defined contextually as economic inequality in the location or society in which people live. Most similar problem that poor peoples face in current scenario of the banking system is that the don't get money for their  business and farming .Its because the banks are made so as to get profit out of the loans sanctioned and they believe in materialistic way of dealing with clients rather than socially helping them out.

A data of poor peoples of the world is shown in the chart below :

As from the survey we can see that South Asia ranks 2nd in the poverty ranking of the whole world contributing about 36% of the total world's poor people. So to eradicate this poverty someone like Md. Yunus has to be there.

This was achieved by the model of Garameen bank made by Md. Yunus .

His model of banking was innovative and opposite to collateral based conventional banking system. While the conventional banks grade the loan takers on the basis of their creditworthy assets and worship the principle the more you have, the more you get , Md. Yunus gave maximum loans to the poorer strata without taking account their credit-worthiness i.e.  the more your pressing need, the more you get- so it can be said he set up a new kind of capitalism that serves humanity's most pressing needs.

The most common thing for any new business is understanding the demand. He understood that 'Opportunity' is the missing factor in the lives of the poor and this prevents them to transform their lives. So, by giving them loans, he was actually showing them the path to build their own fortune through small scale industries and services. In the video he gave an example where he met a girl with her mother- the latter got benefited from the loan and was able to help her daughter build a bright future of a doctor. He thus made us understand that the main stumbling block before the illiterate mother was "poverty" and "lack of opportunity" and not ability to repay the loan amount.

He was also one of the main reasons of pouring ADIDAS and Water Purifying Companies into the Social welfare service . This proved a way out for Adidas so as to make a slogan " no one remains barefooted ". Yhis gained market easily and in terms of Corporate Social Responsibility was also fulfilled with both the company and the poor people getting benefits .

The whole class was very inspirational and motivating in understanding the basic problems that poor people face around us, how the schemes become unfruitful and how to create and deliver value to our society through innovative ideas . This type of models take CSR to a very high level and the companies can help in establishing such fruitful organisations across the world so that no one dies of hunger and poverty.

THREE IDIOTS & TEAM WORK

From childhood onward till date we are taught that Unity Is Strength, but have we ever paid attention that how does this unity or the team work helps us to face bitter challenges of life.

But does this only depend on UNITY or TEAM WORK.
The answer is no, It also depends upon how the work is executed and proper and equal contribution from each and every individual in group.

Valley crossing is a simple 9 step process where 3 people cross over a valley with the support of a straight pole. And as a manager i have to come up with a plan to make it possible.Everybody knows that teamwork is one of the major foundations to success. One can only reach so far on his/her own. The beauty of teamwork is that a goal can be reached faster, more efficiently, and the skill sets of each team member can be fully utilized. 

Further explanation of the method is given in the figure below....

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Factors on which Success depends.

Trust: It is one of the most important factor for the activity. There are half risky and risky states where the individual needs to trust and depend on the other 2 person. Similarly for any other group activity trust plays a very vital role.

Share 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.

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 .

CONCLUSION :

This is how we can achieve 6 sigma in a company by proper management and planning .

We need proper innovation timely which can reduce the cost of production and can increase the production. So this blog helps us to understand how to reach 6 sigma and use the present inventories wisely .

Navrang Cube.... The Management Funda

NAVRANG CUBE is a simple playing cube composed of 27 identical cubes of 9 different colours ( 3 cubes of same colour) . The cube has hole in 5 sides and a connector in one side so as to hold on the other cube. When seen , it resembles like the Rubic cube but is very different in nature and composition . All the 27 cubes in this can be disassembled . The main motive of this cube is to make a Bigger cube with no two same coloured cubes in same side of face.....

for those who have not tried this fun yet or those who doesn't have this cube at home.. for them I have come up with this flash player game.
                                                               <<<<navrang game online>>>>

                  NAVRANG CUBE AND MANAGEMENT

When we solve NAVRANG cube , we get into the problems faced and try to solve them. Literally speaking we try to fit every colour into one side of the face of the NAVRANG. As the different cubes are arranged in single face of NAVRANG , so in case of an Organisation every individual is assigned a proper job and function to deliver. Any blocks misplaced will effect the whole NAVRANG , so the same case happens in organisation also. If a person doesnot perform his duty timely and efficiently , the organisation may not work.
As the colours of the rainbow or here the NAVRANG Cube each strata or division of an Organisation should be made up of different types of people so that the organisation structure is holistic and multidimensional. 

So for an Organisation to work efficiently , all the persons should work in their specified divisions without any clashes. This will make the organisation look like NAVRANG Rainbow .

THREE MONKS AND THE MANAGEMENT FUNDA

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.

So after watching the short film we came to a conclusion that:

Table shows a comparative study of number of monks and the buckets of water they carried.

The parameters on which combination is to be judged best are manpower (input), number of buckets carried (output), time .

A simple formula has been devised to calculate the efficiency of each of the methods in terms of Number of buckets transported per person per unit time.

Efficiency = Output/(Manpower*Time required*Effort)

From the 3 situations, it can be inferred that efficiency in the case of situation 3 is higher than the efficiency in situation 1 & 2.

However, during times of crisis the following parameters can force a manager to choose from other options :

1.     Availability of manpower
2.    Time available for production
3.    Motivation levels of manpower

Standardization of Work

Standard working procedures are designed to reduce effort, time and manpower. An organization is supposed to design its procedures in such a way that people of all backgrounds find it easy to work in the designed environment using the designed procedure.

Some advantages of work-standardization have been shown above.  (taken from Toyota’s lean manufacturing concepts)

Similarly , in the movie a point comes where the monks were trying to mark a wooden stick using there hand-span. This led to a divergence of opinion since measurements were not the same every time due to different hand-span lengths of the monks.

A scale as a standard was used to mark up the position from where the load would be hung.

Standardization will help in minimizing loss of any activity due to different skill set of persons.

A lesson from the movie can be taken as all people having different attributes, different skill-sets.

The above depiction is a fundamental expression of how all people are different. The different animals in the pictures showing the different personalities of the monks. Organisations face similar problems  in standardizing work due to different personalities of humans working in a particular field.

FLAT Organisations vs Single Head

If we compare the way organizational principles apply in the beginning and the end of the film, in the beginning only one monk was operating . Looking after all activities. He was the sole-decision maker.

The end of the film showed the working of the three monks portraying the facets of a flat organization. Where all hierarchical levels are similar and every person has an equal say in all decisions. Procedures are also defined in such a manner that any interchange of positions will not result in any loss of productivity.

GOAL SETTING AND ITS IMPORTANCE

Goal setting is important to help people work towards their common objective. Goals set need to be concrete in order to have a clear vision and subsequently strive to achieve them.

Thus our goals need to be S.M.A.R.T

So how do we define smart.

    S – Specific

·         The goals need to have all the specification related to the task. This ensures that we have our destination in place i.e. we know where we have to be in the end.

     M – Measurable

·         This is more or less like a ruler for measuring our performance.

A – Attainable

·         The attainable aspect deals with taking into consideration our own strengths and weaknesses when setting our goals.

 R – Relevant

·         The relevant aspects focus on the now. The goals that are set now might not be relevant tomorrow as the business environment is continuously changing.

 T – Time Bound

·         The time bound aspect deals with the deadline that needs to be set as that an optimal performance is guaranteed. This not only saves time and resources but also ensures that efforts are directed accordingly.

Apart from being an acronym for something this is actually a smart concept. So we are again in confusion weather our GOAL is smart enough to fulfill our dreams or not.

PYGMALION EFFECT
In Greek Mythology, the mythical sculptor carves a statue of a woman that is brought to life and falls in love with it. Pygmalion explores the notion that the way one person treats another, for better or worse, can be transforming. For example, If a teacher believes a child is slow, the child will come to believe that, too, and will indeed learn slowly. The lucky child who strikes a teacher as bright also picks up on that expectation and will rise to fulfill it.
Creating positive expectations is remarkably difficult, and it offers guidelines for managers: Focus special attention on an employee’s first year because that’s when expectations are set, make sure new hires get matched with outstanding supervisors, and set high expectations for yourself.  

Main Purpose: It is to realize the potential.
Potential = Reality
Goal Setting should evolve in a Fibonacci kind of way.
 

So, one must always try to challenge himself and always set higher goals and never underestimate oneself.