Prof Madhukar Shukla on Management Literacy
......a large number of MBA graduates merely acquire "management literacy" - they know the latest terms, frameworks, formula, etc., but very, very few actually stretch themeselves to apply these to other domains (other than the quizzes and exams)... which is somewhat sad, given that most of them are bright people, and will be taking decisions which will affect others...
One way to understand this situation is to believe that once people start working, they also learn to apply these skills, understand the context, etc., and so, become educated. But I don't think that lack of work-experience is the only rationale of this state-of-affairs. It has, in my understanding, something to do with the premium value (mainly in terms of its earning potential) which is given to the MBA degree, and which attracts a large number of people who are just looking for a nice lucrative job - and not towards becoming a professsional.....
Mar 31, 2004
Mar 30, 2004
Management Lesson from Sehwag !
No sooner had Veeru from Najafgarh become the highest scoring Indian cricketer than we have management lessons from his approach (phew!)
OK so here is what the Economic Times thinks Sehwag can teach the corporate world !
Play by your rules, not the Opposition’s.
How can business benefit from this approach? Simple: ignore the competition, just focus on the customer. The issue, as with Sehwag, is not to react or respond to what the opposition is doing, but simply to set your own target irrespective of their efforts – and then pursue that target single-mindedly.
It’s all about core competence
Whether he succeeds or fails, Sehwag never abandons his approach. Not for him is the motto of flexibility or adjusting to the situation. Hell, he doesn’t even appear to know the situation. What’s crucial, too, about Sehwag’s choice of core competence is its affinity with his natural ability. He knows he can hit the ball hard and clean – and anywhere. So, that’s the ability that he has made his mainstay, instead of chasing competences like solidity a la Rahul Dravid or style along the lines of Sourav Ganguly.
History is not a mistake.
Veeru believes there is no such thing as history – there is only an endless attempt to fulfill one’s tryst with one’s target by treading the same path over and over and over again.
So can it be with companies wooing the customer. If you know something should work with the customer, don’t be afraid if the first attempt fails. Try the same thing again and again and again: as long as your homework wasn’t way off the mark, you will hit paydirt sooner rather than later.
Skills matters more than technique.
The lesson in for corporate competitors? Forget the homework. What matters is what you’re actually doing out there in the marketplace, in the thick of things. And what matters there is how well you can do what you’re best at. The idea is to simply focus on that one activity your DNA is programmed to do, and improve on its execution continuously. Add to that the act of goal-setting – just one target, please, not multiple objectives – and you’re there.
No sooner had Veeru from Najafgarh become the highest scoring Indian cricketer than we have management lessons from his approach (phew!)
OK so here is what the Economic Times thinks Sehwag can teach the corporate world !
Play by your rules, not the Opposition’s.
How can business benefit from this approach? Simple: ignore the competition, just focus on the customer. The issue, as with Sehwag, is not to react or respond to what the opposition is doing, but simply to set your own target irrespective of their efforts – and then pursue that target single-mindedly.
It’s all about core competence
Whether he succeeds or fails, Sehwag never abandons his approach. Not for him is the motto of flexibility or adjusting to the situation. Hell, he doesn’t even appear to know the situation. What’s crucial, too, about Sehwag’s choice of core competence is its affinity with his natural ability. He knows he can hit the ball hard and clean – and anywhere. So, that’s the ability that he has made his mainstay, instead of chasing competences like solidity a la Rahul Dravid or style along the lines of Sourav Ganguly.
History is not a mistake.
Veeru believes there is no such thing as history – there is only an endless attempt to fulfill one’s tryst with one’s target by treading the same path over and over and over again.
So can it be with companies wooing the customer. If you know something should work with the customer, don’t be afraid if the first attempt fails. Try the same thing again and again and again: as long as your homework wasn’t way off the mark, you will hit paydirt sooner rather than later.
Skills matters more than technique.
The lesson in for corporate competitors? Forget the homework. What matters is what you’re actually doing out there in the marketplace, in the thick of things. And what matters there is how well you can do what you’re best at. The idea is to simply focus on that one activity your DNA is programmed to do, and improve on its execution continuously. Add to that the act of goal-setting – just one target, please, not multiple objectives – and you’re there.
The magic %age figure?
In the HRgyan egroup someone asked this question:
Can I have attrition rate in % in Indian IT industry, which is permissibble and not alarming
My response:
In my view there exists no such magic figure.
Your HR and business leadership have to be comfortable with a certain
figure and that depends on various extraneous and internal factors
too!
If you are doing work for which talent pool is extremely limited then
even a 5% rate might feel very painful and vice versa
Can I have attrition rate in % in Indian IT industry, which is permissibble and not alarming
My response:
In my view there exists no such magic figure.
Your HR and business leadership have to be comfortable with a certain
figure and that depends on various extraneous and internal factors
too!
If you are doing work for which talent pool is extremely limited then
even a 5% rate might feel very painful and vice versa
Mar 17, 2004
from the BusinessPundit's Blog
The Problem of Value-Added Operations
In business school I was taught to examine the operations of a company, figure out which ones added value, and try to get rid of as much of the rest as possible. That is a very simple idea. If you make widgets, then the more time your people spend actually making widgets, the more profitable you will be. But it ignores one huge fact - sometimes the value added by an action is not quantifiable.
If I owned a carpet cleaning company, I will probably get more business if my cleaning trucks are... well, clean of course. But how clean? B-school theory says that the carpet cleaners should spend as much time cleaning carpet as possible - that is how we make money. But truck cleanlinesss, cleaner training, and all that stuff really does affect the bottom line. Unfortunately, it isn't always measureable. What they won't tell you in business school is that you sometimes just use trial and error. In theory, if spending some time training makes you a better sales rep or carpet cleaner or cashier, you should spend more time training. But is that 10%, 40%, 80% of your time? When do you hit the point of diminishing returns?
This is something I am struggling with now. I think staffing and HR is going to be my achilles heel. Being an introvert doesn't help because training wears me out. It's just another example of things they don't teach you in business school.
Which is why if you ever want to run a business, the best way to learn to do it is to...run a business.
The Problem of Value-Added Operations
In business school I was taught to examine the operations of a company, figure out which ones added value, and try to get rid of as much of the rest as possible. That is a very simple idea. If you make widgets, then the more time your people spend actually making widgets, the more profitable you will be. But it ignores one huge fact - sometimes the value added by an action is not quantifiable.
If I owned a carpet cleaning company, I will probably get more business if my cleaning trucks are... well, clean of course. But how clean? B-school theory says that the carpet cleaners should spend as much time cleaning carpet as possible - that is how we make money. But truck cleanlinesss, cleaner training, and all that stuff really does affect the bottom line. Unfortunately, it isn't always measureable. What they won't tell you in business school is that you sometimes just use trial and error. In theory, if spending some time training makes you a better sales rep or carpet cleaner or cashier, you should spend more time training. But is that 10%, 40%, 80% of your time? When do you hit the point of diminishing returns?
This is something I am struggling with now. I think staffing and HR is going to be my achilles heel. Being an introvert doesn't help because training wears me out. It's just another example of things they don't teach you in business school.
Which is why if you ever want to run a business, the best way to learn to do it is to...run a business.
Mar 16, 2004
Patti Wilson the career coaching expert says in her Blog:
Its not really a people shortage that is predicted but, rather, a talent shortage. Big difference. Why you ask? Are you asking?
Because, talent is indefinable, subjective. Its really dependent on the whim of a company to decide exactly what kind of "talent" they want to hire and where they must be sourced from. People, on the other hand, may not exactly fit the bill, exactly. A skill may be missing here, an attribute there...it all adds up to available people, ready to work hard, long and diligently...but they just aren't quite the required "talent". Maybe they are too old, too expensive, not from the right competitor...is this what it means for a person to be productized?
Its not really a people shortage that is predicted but, rather, a talent shortage. Big difference. Why you ask? Are you asking?
Because, talent is indefinable, subjective. Its really dependent on the whim of a company to decide exactly what kind of "talent" they want to hire and where they must be sourced from. People, on the other hand, may not exactly fit the bill, exactly. A skill may be missing here, an attribute there...it all adds up to available people, ready to work hard, long and diligently...but they just aren't quite the required "talent". Maybe they are too old, too expensive, not from the right competitor...is this what it means for a person to be productized?
Mar 8, 2004
Corporate Communications : Did it ever have credibility?
Sure Dilbert's been telling us there's no point trusting what the organization says...and now comes a research from Towers Perrin that says that employees just know when their firm is putting news and when it's "spinning" !
Download the research from here . It is a Pdf document
Sure Dilbert's been telling us there's no point trusting what the organization says...and now comes a research from Towers Perrin that says that employees just know when their firm is putting news and when it's "spinning" !
Download the research from here . It is a Pdf document
Mar 6, 2004
Sloan starts a course on Outsourcing
Picked this up from Nikhil's blog.
Shows how mainstream Outsourcing is to management thought now !
Is it going to be a "fad course" or become core??
MIT is starting a regular course on outsourcing at its famed Alfred P Sloan School of Management.
The course is the brainchild of two senior faculty members, one of whom is an Indian American. Dr Amar Gupta, a product of IIT Kanpur, has been on the MIT faculty for the last 25 years.
All 55 seats were picked up within 24 hours of the announcement and there is now a long waiting list.
The course will make students aware of both the positive and negative aspects of outsourcing. "We know the pain that comes with lost jobs, but people don’t necessarily appreciate some of the benefits we get every day because of outsourcing." He talks of lower consumer prices and higher dividends because of the corporate turnaround due to outsourcing.
Shows how mainstream Outsourcing is to management thought now !
Is it going to be a "fad course" or become core??
MIT is starting a regular course on outsourcing at its famed Alfred P Sloan School of Management.
The course is the brainchild of two senior faculty members, one of whom is an Indian American. Dr Amar Gupta, a product of IIT Kanpur, has been on the MIT faculty for the last 25 years.
All 55 seats were picked up within 24 hours of the announcement and there is now a long waiting list.
The course will make students aware of both the positive and negative aspects of outsourcing. "We know the pain that comes with lost jobs, but people don’t necessarily appreciate some of the benefits we get every day because of outsourcing." He talks of lower consumer prices and higher dividends because of the corporate turnaround due to outsourcing.
Mar 5, 2004
Wired 12.03: The Complete Guide to Googlemania!
Wired 's story on Google's forthcoming IPO paints a really interesting picture of what happens in a small firm when the IPO date grows near.
And it also focusses on why Google is such a different than usual IPO
And it also focusses on why Google is such a different than usual IPO
Mar 4, 2004
Euroguru Sumantra Ghoshal dead - The Times of India
The Times of India says:
Euroguru Sumantra Ghoshal dead
"LONDON: Sumantra Ghoshal, the Kolkata-born academic turned European management guru, who counselled a world bewildered by the runway growth of gigantic corporations and MNCs with the power and pelf of mediaval empires, has died.
Ghoshal's death, early on Wednesday, came at the end of an 11-day critically ill period in a London hospital, where he was rushed after suffering a double aneurism or brain haemorrahage.
Ghoshal, who was once memorably described by The Economist as 'Euroguru', is widely believed to be one of the handful of Europe-based management theorists on a high-earning, cut-throat circuit dominated by American thinkers.
On Wednesday afternoon, as news of 55-year-old Ghoshal's death spread throughout the European business and management community, reaction ranged from abiding grief to a sense of loss that he died relatively young. "
Euroguru Sumantra Ghoshal dead
"LONDON: Sumantra Ghoshal, the Kolkata-born academic turned European management guru, who counselled a world bewildered by the runway growth of gigantic corporations and MNCs with the power and pelf of mediaval empires, has died.
Ghoshal's death, early on Wednesday, came at the end of an 11-day critically ill period in a London hospital, where he was rushed after suffering a double aneurism or brain haemorrahage.
Ghoshal, who was once memorably described by The Economist as 'Euroguru', is widely believed to be one of the handful of Europe-based management theorists on a high-earning, cut-throat circuit dominated by American thinkers.
On Wednesday afternoon, as news of 55-year-old Ghoshal's death spread throughout the European business and management community, reaction ranged from abiding grief to a sense of loss that he died relatively young. "
Mar 3, 2004
Another interesting blog I discovered today is Steve's. Some great thoughts on Management.
A sample:
Object-oriented development is becoming easier and easier; this trend favors talented employees with business and technology skills. When you understand business and use the power of objects to create business models (in weeks instead of months), you position your company for innovation, since real-time customer feedback cascades ideas and generates nonlinear results.
In fact, if you were bold enough to follow the examples of agile manufacturing companies described in The New Pioneers, you’d make software professionals work in business jobs to assure they truly grasp your business. Imagine that, software development learning from manufacturing.
A sample:
Object-oriented development is becoming easier and easier; this trend favors talented employees with business and technology skills. When you understand business and use the power of objects to create business models (in weeks instead of months), you position your company for innovation, since real-time customer feedback cascades ideas and generates nonlinear results.
In fact, if you were bold enough to follow the examples of agile manufacturing companies described in The New Pioneers, you’d make software professionals work in business jobs to assure they truly grasp your business. Imagine that, software development learning from manufacturing.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)