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