Brief-Case on managerial orders

John and Kumar are very good friends, they both work as IT project managers with different companies in Dublin, Ireland. They are very confident and experienced project managers. As a result their managers have lot of confidence in them.

One Thursday morning John received call from Kumar on his cell phone. Kumar invited him for drinks after office that John accepted gleefully. They both met at a local pub in City Centre. Kumar told John that he is very excited as his boss has asked him to manage a project, which is very important from company’s perspective and he felt that it will get him lot of visibility. John sipped in his cold pint of Guiness and congratulated Kumar. John also told him that it is a nice coincidence that his manager has also asked him to lead quite an important and big project. John also believed that this opportunity is very important for him to impress senior managers about his capability. After all he was doing MBA from a very reputed business school and he was very eager to apply his knowledge. Both friends decided to meet every month to discuss progress of their projects. However both friends got so busy with their individual assignments that they didn't meet for 3 months.

On fourth month John called Kumar to meet in the same pub after office, Kumar was a bit reluctant but accepted the offer. John reached pub a bit early and ordered a Carlsberg. Kumar entered the pub and joined John on the table. He looked very dejected and pensive. John asked if he is all right. Kumar replied that he is under lot of stress. The project that he was handling is going through a rough phase and he is under lot of pressure. Kumar asked John about his project and John replied that his project has just finished successfully and he also received very good feedback from his manager. John had a lot of confidence in Kumar's ability as a project manager and he was surprised to know that his project is not doing well. They both then started to share their experiences in order to learn from each other. Here is the narration from both of them.

Kumar’s story-

Four months back my manager called me in his office and told me that management has decided to setup data analytics centre whereby different projects will be evaluated to calculate return on investment. So that different projects can be compared against common KPI's and scientific data analysis can be used to allocated proper budget to different projects. The idea behind this approach was to increase return on investment throughout company by at least 5%. My manager asked me to submit a strategy document that will be used to achieve this objective. I conducted a thorough analysis and consulted number of key stakeholders in the company and came up with strategy. This strategy was reviewed by number of change champions and they all agree with my approach. I submitted my report to my manager. This is the time when everything started to go wrong. This project was kept on hold for month because of budgeting reasons and I was allocated to a different project. When I asked my manager about this project he told me that I have done my part and that now any other resource can take this project forward for implementation. He told me that this is very common in our industry that someone does the analysis and some other person does the implementation.
After about a month this project was allocated to some other person for implementation. As this manager initiated the project he started to face resistance from different people in the company. Meeting was called in a hurry where everyone pointed out the risks associated with the plan. The current manager also got confused and gave feedback to my manager that improvement of 5% in ROI is very difficult to maintain with this strategy and that further analysis is required. My project and my idea were shot down. I could feel that everyone in the company was blaming me for the failure of this project.

John’s story-

My bossed asked me to meet him for a meeting over lunch. During the meeting he told me that company is starting a project to reduce the cost of sales by 4% and that I will lead this project. I was very nervous, as I have never handled anything like this before. I asked my manager about his expectations and how I will be evaluated for this project.
I asked my Manager if there is a need to submit any plan or approach document for this project. My manager replied that he is not expecting any document from me. What he needs is result of actual 4% reduction in cost-of-sales and not any fancy document. He continued that if I require he is willing to provide any support and guidance.
From the day one I was clear that my objective is to get results and this changed by mindset totally. I met many hurdles on the way but since I was clear that my job is not complete until I have achieved my results I kept my focus and eventually managed to meet the target.

The striking difference between the story of John and Kumar is not the way they handled their projects but the way their respective managers gave them task. It’s interesting to answer few questions with respect to this case.

1. What is the difference between the way two managers gave orders to Kumar and John?
2. Think how different managers give orders in your organization?
3. Can you think of past event where you faced similar situation as described in this case?
4. What style would you prefer as a manager to give task/objectives to your team?

Lessons from Gandhi and current recession

Current recession is the worst recession that many of us have faced in our lives. It has done everything from putting people out of jobs to changing governments. People have seen their wealth wiped out in a blink of an eye and companies are shutting down at an unprecedented rate. The other day I was talking to my friends and everyone had a story to tell about how austerity measures are changing the culture within their company. One friend said that before Christmas their office cafeteria used to have free fruits and juices but now all free supplies have been stopped, in another friend's company all educational and training funding has been stopped, whereas one of my friend has been asked to cut down on business traveling, now he is taking handover from someone on phone, good luck to him. My intention is not to flood readers of this blog with negativity but these examples are reflections of time that we live in. However, this recession has also taught one golden lesson of life to all of us, which is to be humble. Time is a great leveler that evens out good times with bad ones. Dramatic decline in quality of life can be seen around us. We can argue at any length about the reason of this recession and we can blame anyone from Lehman Brothers to reckless landing from European banks. The key question is, can we learn from this failure and stop any future recession? My personal answer to this question is a big No. Private companies are born to make profit. Marketing manager of a housing loan division will not give any room to his executive for losing a customer on ethical grounds. Governments can make strict laws to restrict reckless lending by financial institutions but no law can stop any organization from adopting aggressive strategies if they want to.

Therefore, if we cannot avoid such recession in future the next logical question is how to prepare ourselves so that we are better equipped to handle such crisis in future? Few months back I came across this powerful concept of Gandhian innovation in Innovation's Holy Grail, July-August 2010, Harvard Business Review, by C.A. Prahalad and R.A. Mashelkar. The Gandhian innovation is based on the philosophy of Gandhi, who said that “I would prize every invention of science made for the benefit of all,”. According to the authors the traditional approach of innovation by companies was based on affluence and wealth but slowly the parameters for innovation are changing and customers in US and Europe are demanding more value for less money.

Traditionally developing countries had bad reputation when it comes to innovation but this image is changing rapidly and developing nations are coming up with remarkable innovations. This is partly to do with the challenges faced by developing nation such as high population, high percentage of poor people, bad infrastructure etc. Because of these challenges these countries are constantly facing pressure to find innovative solutions to unique problems. Few of the innovations that have come out of developing nations are cheap health care services, USD 2000 car, Tata Nano, portable CT scanner, cheap mobile phone rates etc. The important thing to note is that these innovations are not only used by developing nations but also by developed nations. More and more people are visiting India for medical treatment that otherwise would cost fortune in US or Europe, this phenomena is called medical tourism. The portable CT scanner invented by GE in developing nation is being used in US in ambulances, as they need an instrument that take less space and is portable.

Now since everyone knows about this secret can Europe join the Gandhian innovation and come up with ideas that "benefit all"? Well, this is going to be extremely difficult. Any product innovation is hardly done in isolation; companies depend on various partners and vendors to provide them with raw materials and components. If there are no vendors that also believe in philosophy of providing cost effective innovative solutions for all then the task of Gandhian innovation can be extremely difficult. Another problem that companies in Europe and US will face while adopting this philosophy is that these companies does not have existing culture and processes to facilitate this. It is natural for engineer from developing nation to understand Gandhian philosophy of developing a solution that might not look most high tech and cutting edge but provides a solution that solves a problem and solves it for millions of people.

Going back to our original point of discussion, if all countries want to be ready for next recession and if they want insurance of quality of life, the investment in Gandhian innovation is worth the effort.

So I am 25% MBA now ..

I am pursuing Executive MBA from UCD Michael Smurfit School of business and glad that first semester is over. Towards the end of the semester schedule and work load was so hectic that I felt like playing 30 minutes of extra time after 90 mins of regular time in a game of football. However now I am feeling relaxed and it is time to recharge batteries and enjoy some personal time.
The feeling about the first semester is mixed with its high and lows. The best thing by far has been learning from case studies, this was the first time I was using this mode of learning and I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed participating is these session. One might not be able to touch all aspects of topic in single case study but it is very effective way of leaning. It is also very unpredictable as even lecturer does not know how the energy in class will be and what will be the outcome for any case study. It is an art in itself to channel the energy and momentum of class in a meaningful way so that takeaways can be taken from each session that can be applied in practical manner.
However I must confess that often I was left frustrated after these sessions because I had more questions than answers. This feeling of anxiety is unbearable for me. I discussed this with my lecturer and they told me that motive of case study is to ignite fire in you to look for correct answer. The aim is not to find right or wrong answer as right and wrong answers are applicable only for certain situations but if one needs to develop comprehensive understanding that can be applied to different practical situations then one should enjoy the journey of finding the answers. I am not sure if I can claim that I enjoy journey more than the end result but I do enjoy hoping from one article to another and from one journal to another in search for answers much like as Chow Yun used to hop from one house to another in movie Crouching tiger hidden dragon. More I know more questions I have and more I notice that how ignorant I was and I am.
When I look at the curriculum of MBA, first semester seems like that most interesting semester and I can't help thinking that why college has put all interesting and important subjects in first semester itself. I would really like to revisit advanced marketing concepts later in MBA as this is one fascinating subject that cuts across whole organisation. It is absolutely important to get it right and get it right the first time. May be I can choose some electives for the same purpose.
It was fascinating to learn new tools and models created by best minds in the business such as Porter and Canon. However when I look back at first semester I feel that I should have challenged more these standard theories and practices rather than just learning how to apply them. We should not accept these model as just extract from Bible or Gita but to get most out of these tools best things perhaps would to challenge them. Who know there might be next Potter among us. I suppose you got my point.
Still fresh in my mind is the first case study that we studied, it was called Honda(A) in which we learned how its legendary Sochiro Honda turned his passion into a big conglomerate and used precision strategy to beat the competition. In the second part of that case study called as Honda (B) we learned how Honda as an organisation tasted failure but tweaked its strategy time and again to overcome challenges. It was an eye opener to see that company like Honda also have their low points. Later we went through number of case study where one striking similarity was that companies hardly get their acts right the very first time. In fact, it is all about being persistent and keep on trying new things and learning from your mistake. I really wished if there was any video game that I can pay through my Xbox where I will play the CEO of my company and play my strategies to see how I face these challenges. This could be a fascinating simulation game to practice business strategy. This game can be further extended to make it a multi game player where different players can play and be competitor to each other and prepare counter strategies. I suppose you got my point.
Am I really 25% MBA? I am not sure but then it reminds me of story in which baby elephant was tied to a tree with a chain. Baby elephant would try his best to break free but he is not strong enough to free himself. After trying for a while baby elephant gives up accepting the fact that he can't set himself free. Later when baby elephant grows into a strong full size elephant he still does not try to set himself free when tied to a chain because he has accepted the fact the he can't set himself free. This is baby elephant syndrome. Hope none of us suffer from this syndrome and realise our full potential and break all boundaries.