My Digital CV

Are you up with the trend?....Then make a Digital CV

Our parents and grandparents may tell us stories of how they simply walked into a company and got a job, but those times are long gone. As are the days of mailing hundreds of speculative CVs to prospective employers, hoping one might bite. No, the job market has changed dramatically over the last few decades; competition is rife and scores of people vie for the same one role. It's more difficult than ever just to secure an interview.

To keep ahead of the curve and get themselves noticed, applicants are increasingly resorting to more innovative ways to showcase their talents and demonstrate their suitability for a vacancy. More often than not, these innovations are digital - but can they ever better the traditional linear-format CV? 

Types of digital CV

Online: most people have posted their CV online, registering with internet recruitment firms or jobs boards. Although just an electronic version of the linear CV, placement online enables recruiters to find them, or algorithms to suggest 'jobs you might be interested in'.

Video: currently used more commonly to enhance traditional CVs rather than instead of them and, when done well, they can be great. Great video CVs often 'go viral' and result in a deluge of job offers from which the talented candidate can choose.

Visual: collates interactive material into a traditional format, such as videos, blogs, presentations and/or social media to create what mashable.com calls a 'great digital portfolio'.

Social media: LinkedIn, the professional networking site, is widely considered as a social media CV of sorts, comprising job history, skills and professional connections. Twitter and Facebook can be used in similarly creative ways to detail skills, experience and what role the applicant is looking for.

Advantages

There are a plethora of advantages to employing a digital CV. Here are a few:

Beat the competition: aside from the speed benefits in terms of physically getting a resume in front of an employer versus snail mail, digital CVs can be eye-catching, engaging, humorous and elevate an applicant above the rest; for their effort if nothing else.

Appropriate channel: as more jobs are advertised online, it is fitting that CVs should be posted via this channel also. With so many applications to sift through, this saves a huge amount of time and also allows recruiters to search for suitable candidates faster. 

Reflects changes in the recruitment process: a large proportion of today's recruiters are expected to research candidates online, while most managers admit to doing it, whether morally right or not. As such, a positive, professional online presence, in whatever form, is all-but essential and can vastly influence an individual's job prospects.

Demonstrates skills: a digital CV can indicate that an applicant has initiative, is creative, possesses technical abilities and has original ideas that transcend the 'everyday'. They can also infer precisely how passionately an individual wants to work for a specific brand or in a particular role in ways that a paper CV simply isn't able to convey.

Representative of modern working life: using a digital CV, it could be argued, is a method which is far more appropriate for the application of modern roles. Changes in working practices and workers' own expectations/ attitudes mean we have seen roles essentially deconstruct and become non-linear. Surely, then, a linear CV is no longer sufficient on its own? 

Gift A Rakhi!!!!

Prof.Mandi has been actively involved in introducing various Alumnis to our class in the pursuit of knowledge sharing. Every lecture has been enriching in experience. This time, he has introduced us to a special bunch of enthusiasts . They are special because unlike our alumni, they are right in interaction space of ours. They were our own seniors !!!!!

                This very fact  has stuck a chord with us as we had a live example in front of us who could venture out into the competition with their ideas when they were as occupied as us. Does this mean we too have an opportunity to promote our idea to the next level. The answer is an obvious “YES” after the session we had . An EYE opener session.

                Shubam and his friends are a young group of people who believed in a novel idea that envelopes our tradition . They are the new age postmen who not only deliver the message, but also keep the value intact by delivering it in time and on occasion .They developed an e-commerce for selling rachis, and this idea is feasible in the current scenario were siblings are separated by distance due to the responsibilities created through time. They have not limited to providing rachis through their website, but also came up with the idea of bundling value adding gifts to complement the rachis and thereby increase the revenue.

             The idea evoked positive response from our class, as they were interested to dig deep into the story behind the idea and the obstacles that had to be surpassed in the pursuit of making it to a reality.

There is an entrepreneur in everyone, but why is he hiding?

           This was the question that stuck to my mind since the class. Every individual wanted to know the processes to initiate a company , and the logistics behind it.I was surprised to know that the seniors have actually incorporated payment gateway that was also a part of famous ventures like redbus and snapdeal. This would immensely help in garnering the necessary credibility for the first time user and might create a sale from the look. These small additions generate a value on which trust can be balanced . The young entrepreneurs were also patient to understand that e-commerce business are not an instant hit and do take some considerable time in capturing “sales”.

Overall the session was a must to all the explorers in our batch including me, and would like to finish it off by thanking prof.Mandi for introducing such young talent to us.

Valley of Thought!!!

Three people want to cross a valley which is more than 1 step wide.So how will they all cross the valley?

Answer:  When the leading person crosses the edge of the path, he starts hanging in the air. But he can't fall unless the other two give up or he leaves the hold of the bar. And as the 2nd person reaches the verge of the path ,the first person reaches the other end.Now Second person hangs in the air holding the long bar.

Similarly, as soon as the third person reaches the edge, the second person reaches the other end.
And finally all three cross the valley.

So , how does this exercise relate to a manager?

Just as the co-ordination among the team members was made in the exercise , in the similar fashion , the coordination among the employees in an organization is required. And that relies in the hands of the manager.

The management principles which I found in this activity are:

Team work : 

To succeed at the task in hand, everyone involved needs to combine their efforts. If everyone does their job well, then it increases what the team can accomplish. This teamwork has to be recognised by everyone and know that great things can happen if individuals master the fundamentals and work together as one unit. Everyone has their own unique role, but each person's individual role must be recognised and appreciated.

" Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success. ”

When challenges arise (as they always do), the team needs to have the resources, accountability and commitment to deal with them in a constructive and positive manner. A sense of teamwork will play an integral part in this.

Individually humans are weak, Together they are taller, Provided they are managed properly.

                                                    T - Together
                                        E - Everyone
                                        A - Achieves
                                        M - More

Leadership:

In the exercise, each member has the same set of tasks, burdens and responsibilities. But , not every member in the team would take the initiative to go first as the first person is the first risk taker and not everyone in the team would be willing to follow anyone else. Yet, the show has to run and the team has to do its job and this is where a manager comes in.

The Manager is responsible for taking the initiative because he visualizes the goal in his mind. The manager is responsible for the work division, for giving the interdependent roles to the team workers and finally take them all along to achieve the target.

Work Division and Interdependence:

Now, it would not be practical if each role in an organization can be crafted as in the above case with similar risks borne by everyone and expect everyone else to follow the leader thereby satisfying every employee.

Well, we certainly cannot have an organization designed to satisfy every employee. It is the role of the manager to divide the work in an effective manner keeping in mind the accomplishment of hisSMART goal.

Remember ,

  ||   We never create the organization as per the capability of the employees.
                             We just design the organization and adjust people into it.    ||

The responsibilities of a manager are:-

1. Work Planning:

How to organize work and people in terms of specializing people in specific work or distributing a common chunk of work among all?

2. Authority Planning:

How to organize power or authority in terms of decentralizing into departments, each responsible for their own performance and decisions, or centralizing decision making across the organization?

3. Planning  - Control:

How to regulate work? By a set of hard enforced rules or a set of norms “supposed” to be followed?

For performing the tasks in the most effective way ,the manager must be well versed with these tools. The manager also has to be equipped with these skills to understand his responsibility at each stage:

1.In a lower level management , technical skills or the domain knowledge and human resource management is of utmost importance followed by Conceptual skills.

2.In a middle level management , most important aspect is of human resource management, followed by conceptual and technical skills because here strategies are made using conceptual skills and maximum human resource management is done.

3. In a higher level management , most important part of the job comes out to be strategy conceptualization and work force management. So , it is the conceptual and human skills that dominate here , with a very attention to the technical aspect of the things.


This can be related to any real world company, and this is why a starting level manager with technical and human skills take some time to reach to the higher level management as the conceptual skills are learnt by experience.

Three management principles through three monks!!!

"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."

The Three monks in 18 minutes has encapsulated the evolution of management through a simple yet effective story. The Chinese film, with three character juggles with the concept of organizations and how employees can be both assets and liabilities if not subjected to proper task or not assigned with proper responsibilities.

 The movie starts with a monk making his way to the monastery. When he arrives at the monastery, he recognizes his duties with no iota of doubt and carries on with them .As the days progress the little monk is at peace going about his routine schedule. We can draw an inference to a craftsman. He has no superiors to answer to and no additional duties to perform falling outside his boundaries of interest. His skill is perfectly tailored to his tasks

The monastery now has a new guest. He is the second monk who has come with a purpose akin to the little monk. The monks are greeted well at the monastery. Now comes the question of distributing responsibilities among two men with similar objectives. This question is thoroughly explored in the second scenario where no one is ready to accept additional responsibilities. Now the main challenge comes foreground, and the movie does not deviate away from the solution either. Scientific metrics was used to determine how equal the work was distributed. This can refer to Taylor’s scientific management theory where in scientific measurements were involved as in part on managerial philosophy.

The monastery now has a new guest. He is the second monk who has come with a purpose akin to the little monk. The monks are greeted well at the monastery. Now comes the question of distributing responsibilities among two men with similar objectives. This question is thoroughly explored in the second scenario where no one is ready to accept additional responsibilities. Now the main challenge comes foreground, and the movie does not deviate away from the solution either. Scientific metrics was used to determine how equal the work was distributed. This can refer to Taylor’s scientific management theory where in scientific measurements were involved as in part on managerial philosophy.

The movie therefore focuses on three main challenges faced by the managerial philosophy through three simple characters. A must watch for every manager and a must follow for every organization.

Give me my Feedback!!!!

Today’s class started with Prof. Mandi explaining about business and its product. This product was unusual, and it is not the idea that promoted its status, it is a more primary factor i.e. the availability of the product. Many of them are still lingering with the idea of procuring a prototype and here we are with a business in front of us that sells these products. “3D” Printing. 

Prod Mandi has given the model made from the printer and circulated it through the class. We were looking at what we only read through news and internet. It now dint look as distant as it was produced. The class now discussed about various possibilities. One such concern was the misuse of the printer in the future scope of action. I agree with Prof Mandi’s view that the adulteration of an idea exists in every invention, but the cause should supersede such apprehensions as it would deter the very motive of the idea.

Another concept that was floated post establishment of the business is the feedback. Feedback is an essential component of any business. It is the only way one can bridge the gap between expectations and result, both being separated by supplier and consumer ideologies.

It also becomes a source of motivation in cases of positive feedback and creates a base for improvement and excellence. For every successful company there exists a feedback mechanism they rely on.Lets take on the example of a professor taking feedback from the students.This is a live example as professor Mandi infact took some feedback from the students to understand what would motivate the students to write more blogs.

The main characteristics of successful feedback mechanism are

1)                    It is descriptive rather than evaluative

2)                    It is specific rather than general

3)                    It is directed toward the behavior that the receiver can do something about

4)                    It is well-timed.

5)                    It involves the amount of information that the receiver can use

6)                    It involves sharing of information rather than the amount we would like to give

7)                    It is solicited rather than imposed

8)                    It takes into account both needs of the receiver and  giver of the feedback

9)                    It concerns what is said and done and does not ask “why”

10)                  It is followed by attention to the consequences of the feedback

11)                  It is an important step toward authenticity

Samsung Galaxy S4 is a perfect example of a creation of feedback implementation. It has implemented features that the consumers expected from a smart phone. Pausing of the video when one looks away from the screen is not a new idea, but noticing such subtle requirements through the feedback mechanism and implementing it in the next product is an achievement in itself.

Can craftsmanship survive in the age of mass production?

Craftsmanship was once a celebrated art. Through the pages of history we would see that, as economic sense started to make presence among various societies, craftsmanship provided a leverage to everyone to excel at what they have been doing. But as the need for the created goods started to substantially increase, production became a challenge for the craftsman.





This is the advent of mass production. No longer could a craftsman distribute his energies on all his skills to create a product. The necessity for specialization in one skill would not only divide his work by expertise but would also reduce his time of production by assigning him only the smallest entity of work.Craftsman no longer had the edge over mass production.

Low productivity of the craftsman has driven the need for establishing Organizations that could mass produce the same products with better efficiency and productivity. The total skill-set of the craftsman is maintained by distributing it across various specializations.This Organization follows the sound principles of  modern management.

Not only the productivity of goods increase but the proficiency of the labor too increases on repeated execution of their tasks.This would greatly facilitate in streamlining the production successfully. The craftsman now has to "Deskill" his skill set to facilitate distribution of his tasks for the betterment of the production.The flip side of such an event is the drop in the satisfaction level of the employees who are subjected to same jobs repeatedly.

We therefore need proper metrics to measure the performance at every level.The three Es that define the performance can be briefly put as

These first two i.e. being efficient and effective would promote one to the level of excellency.Excellency can be attained with accurate speed and direction for a company.







For a company selling a product being efficient is being affordable, and the quantum of market research they do before they develop the product is effectiveness.to put in other terms,being efficient will look at things with high margin but being effective will question weather we have to do it or not.

             More out of less     :    Efficiency

                        for More     :    Effectiveness

More out of less from more  :    Excellence 

Behavioral Dimensions and their Implications on an Organisation

Organisational Behavior has always played a pivotal role in identifying various aspects of  the "human side" of  the Organisations. It has evolved as a field of study that investigates the impact  of individuals and groups on an organisation's effectiveness.An organization as a structure is comprised of various individuals spanning across definitive roles and responsibilities. In the process of  establishment of an organisation it becomes palpable for a certain section of these roles with a supervisory  status. With the injection of various behavioral patterns assigned with different regulations and responsibilities, psychology does become a necessary science for understanding an organisation's functioning on a ground level.

Breaking the behavioral aspects into  four different entities, we can broadly classify organisational behavior into

                         1)Sociology
                         2)Psychology
                         3)Communication
                          4)Management

Understanding the applications of these various aspects can be better understood with the interaction of different behavioral patterns .One such theory that provides us with this perspective is

"The Theory of X and Y "

Douglas McGregor proposed his famous X-Y theory in his 1960 book 'The Human Side Of Enterprise'. Theory x and theory y are still referred to commonly in the field of management and motivation.Mcgregor's X-Y Theory remains a valid basic principle from which to develop positive management style and techniques.

Since the focus is on Managers, let us discuss Henry Fayol's description of functions of managers.According to Henry Fayol, the key functions of a manager are to :

• make forecasts and plan
• organize work
• command the people under them by giving instructions
• co-ordinate the resources(money,people,time) for which they are responsible
• control activities and people by measuring and correcting them to enable performance to fit the plans.

Now further bifurcating the managers into X and Y as per the above table we can draw a hypothesis on the type of managers that are well suited and fall in line with the organisation's progress.

Therefore Theory X managers are resourceful in case of lazy workers as they would be set a standard framework to work within. Constant review of their progress in work would facilitate in expediting the work and remove any liabilities associated with them

Manager Y looking after NON LAZY employees is the most profitable combination for any organization.I would personally prefer to be Manager Y as it would create a conducive environment for growth and innovation.











According to the research conducted by Chartered Management Institute CMI,London, a survey was conducted asking what type of mangers they responded to best. The results showed that employees preferred a theory Y approach.

Research conducted by CMI also showed that over half of the managers surveyed felt that there is a short supply of management skills in two key areas.

• Inspiring people and leading them through change
• innovation in business growth and development.

Therefore, the need for Manager Ys can be observed form both the managerial and worker communities. They are the next generation managers who understand organisation as a collection of ideas to a common objective.

Building Organizations

Professor Prasad is full of surprises, and having his class at the very beginning is always a delightful start to a day and today was one such day. Professor Mandi,as he is popularly know, has a different approach to unraveling the complexities of management, which i call "Uncomplexifying" Management. "What is management ?", would have a million definitions but "what can be a management?"  would provide a better insight. This is "Uncomplexifying" by Professor Mandi.

In which type of organisation would one prefer to work ?, is it the one with a "Hopeful" manager who does not believe  in stressing on criticality or is it the one with a "Hopeless" manager who does not shun away in passing on the pressure to the subordinates?.

Now does the buck stop with the manager?.What if the employees too can be categorized into  "good" employees and "bad" employees?, would it aggravate the current scenario to worse or would it prove to be an effective combination?

This puts forward an interesting game of combinations. Now apply the same probability to an organisation having 1,00,000 employees.

"Do you think you know management?"

The answer is right above in bold italics. If a huge organisation is sustainable with such varied combinations it would solely be because of effective "management". Management thus optimizes resources to bring an organisation closer to its goal. It would provide stability through practices that would provide uniformity in  the course of action and draw a forecast for the future.This makes management and organisation intangible at every level of functioning.

It also becomes binding for us to understand the word Organisation before we learn management. Professor Mandi conducted a simple experiment in the classroom  to explain "organisation".

This simple experiment was done to explain Organisation and its composition. A craftsman working individually would not be called an organisation, thereby management principles would not be significant in his case. The lack of incentives would not motivate him to build on management principles and hence he cannot be a part of an organisational structure.But does building a tower require an organisation or management theory?

"yes"

We can still apply the same principles to the task. This can be done by scaling the task by incorporating in a large number of people.Imagine a group of 2000 people working to build similar towers, this is called an organisation. All the 2000 people now have a common objective , to build towers. This also puts forward a new challenge, the identification of jobs. Management therefore not only focuses on combining and optimizing the resources available, but it also identifies key functionalities in the process of structuring an organisation.

The practicality of the above scenario was exercised by another experiment. A group of ten people volunteered to build on a common tower. But, there was a twist to the tale as always,the tower was to be built blind folded!!!. The one building was guided by a team of ten people to build the tower, and the result, he could stack only 7 cubes.This now changed the focus to the details of an organisation.

Middle tier employees and their inefficiencies were observed through the experiment. Therefore building an organisation with huge number of employees would not suffice, but ensuring proper set of responsibilities at all levels and at every instance is a trademark of  a successful organisation.Putting in Professor Mandi's tone "If removing you doesn't remove my profits, i will remove you"

The clock then struck 11 AM to end another of Professor Mandi's intriguing sessions. We have not only understood management and organisations as definitions , but also have been able to interlink both the entities to understand their significance in building a successful organisation.

I call this

"Uncomplexifying" Principles of Organisation and Management