Alibaba!!!

In our one of the lectures we had discussion about the Alibaba group. AliBaba Group is a privately owned China-based family of Internet-based eCommerce businesses started by Jack Ma. It covers B2B online marketplaces, retail and payment platforms, shopping search engine and data-centric cloud computing services. 

Jack Ma ventured into this based on the simple realizations that:

    1. I don't have the money.

    2. I don't have a plan. 

    3. If you can't use the internet in this age, you are useless.

Jack Ma’s objectives were to strengthen SME’s by bringing it into online marketplace

And it was fulfilled to a larger extent such that today AliBaba's consumer-to-consumer portal Taobao features nearly a billion products and is one of the 20 most-visited websites globally. Alibaba Group's sites account for over 60% of the parcels delivered in China.                

 Organizational Culture encompass the values and behaviours that contribute to the unique social and psychological environment of an organization.

                   There are various types of organizational cultures. We discussed a few of them in class. I am listing them below:

1. Open Culture - An open culture helps to counteract any occasional lapse into passivity at the board level or on the part of institutional investors.

2. Safety Culture - People immediately report any perceived short comings in the work place safety and in the safety of products given to customers or clients.

3. Quality Culture - A culture where utmost importance is given to the quality of the product or service being rendered.

4. Performance Culture – It emphasizes on achievement, results, and action as important values.

5. Ethical Culture - We see that in such organizations, ethics are given precedence even if being so may lead to a loss of business and profit. 

Problem Solving

Organization is the most volatile place where nothing seems to be a cakewalk. Turbulence in the air of an organization is sensed easily. Well, this is not in a negative connotation – Organization does have positive vibes. This positive vibe is not sprinkled from somewhere; it is from the turbulence itself which has the potential to infest positivity. This is in reference to the opportunities which organization provides to their people. Now the basic questions arise. What is an opportunity for someone? Who gives an opportunity? From where it does originates?

All the answers of above questions lay in a word i.e. Problem. Yes, it is the problem which gives you the direction to unravel hidden opportunities. Now, how can problem leads towards an opportunity? This is answered by the approach used in handling the problem. If you decide to have the takeaways from the problem faced then one can easily find out the opportunities. So again the question is, what is that approach to solve the problem.

Most important step in problem solving is identifying of the problem because unless we know a problem exists we cannot convert it into an opportunity. 

2) Decision Making:

             Decision making is one of the difficult tasks for finding solution to the problem. Every decision making process produces a final choice. 

Decision making is normally achieved in 2 steps

Individual Decision making is independent of the group. Decision is made by single person based on his conviction. So it is extremely fast and simple. However the fundamental problem with Individual decision making is the rationale followed while making the decisions. So it can be dangerous to an organization to rely on a single decision. Usually individual decision making is restricted to board of directors who virtually own the company.

Group Decision making is done during brainstorming session. It is usually a team work where decision made by team is validated by its manager by own conviction.

            
     

3. Build the test idea uses an input from the decision making to build the test idea which is to be used for problem solving. This helps to find out the robustness in the framework developed while solving the problem.

4. Evaluate the result – It is done to find out the efficiency of the approach followed in solving the problem. If the solution obtained has hit the nail at right place then we can carry forward this approach in solving other cases.

 

 This is the layout if followed while solving the problem will help in finding out the solutions.

        

Principles of Magnet

One must thing what principles does magnet exhibits that can be borrowed in management. Even I was bewildered for a moment when Prof T. Prasad brought in magnet in our class and ask the basic significance of magnet i.e. why magnet attracts?  

Students started guessing the answer which was ended when someone from us said the alignment property. Professor was seeking this answer which makes this stone as a magnet.

So how this magnet and its property are helpful to managers? Well, if we use a managerial prism to find out this answer then you will strike the chord with many managerial aspects. Yes, it is the Manager who has to have magnet like properties to attract the work from its team. 

Best managers are known for the work they fetch it out from its team. It is not necessary that every manager is blessed with excellent team members. Perhaps, managers have less liberty to creep about its team. An efficiency and quality of a manager is reflected in how he/she is able to use its given resources in best possible way.

So here is the magnet principle which comes to a rescue for a manger who is pondering to derive the best out of its team. Like a magnet, manager starts aligning the human forces so that it incepts the cohesiveness among its team. Manager merely on this innate power can bring together people and power. 

E.g. M.S Dhoni did not creep when he was given the first assignment as a captain to represent India for T20 world cup. In absence of excellent members in a team, what MSD achieved there was a sheer example of magnet principle. He was instrumental in building a team by pulling out their positive forces in order to be invincible in that tournament. 

Therefore the gist here is that, no team is perfect, if it would have been perfect, then there were no requirement of managers. It is the managers who has to carry forward all the latent forces within team facing in different direction and then to realign these forces in a single direction so that the ultimate purpose of an organization is served.

Noble work of Dr. Mohammad Yunus

This post is about the work done by Dr. Mohammad Yunus in the field of economics

Below are his 2 famous mind striking adages:

All human beings are born entrepreneurs. Some get a chance to unleash that capacity. Some never got the chance, never knew that he or she has that capacity

If you have that money in your hand, you desperately try to make the best use of it and move ahead.

One can never know the potential present within unless it is channelized. There are fortunate like me who got a chance to study and move ahead in progressive direction. And yes, it was indeed possible with the money shelled out for my education by my parents. Apparently, that is not the true picture across the world. There are many people who still strive for basic needs and it’s only because of money. We ourselves have created strata in our society where we distinguish people in terms of rich and poor. Albeit this is present since medieval ages, there is very little done in this area to improve the things.

 And then there comes a man like Dr. Mohammad Yunus who with his alternate thinking try to eradicate this thinking. Society, where credits are offered only to one who has the potential to return it back, is as good as a land of no opportunity to poor. This kind of economic cycle never allows the upliftment of poverty infact poverty grows its root deeper.

Dr. Yunus through his microcredit model did the noblest job of helping those people who never got an opportunity. He provided wings to the dream of those people who dared to fly high in the sky. Now, again being from so called “sane world”, one would think, is Dr. Yunus having a lot of money? Why is he carrying out such kind of system where there is high chance of debtors turning out to be a defaulter?  

Well, then here is the answer explained in his model. Dr. Yunus considers poor to be the people deprived of an opportunity to transform themselves. They do have the potential but the current system doesn’t allow them to leave that poverty. So he created a credit system where he gave the loans to the poor stating the more your pressing needs the poor you get. In this way, poor’s were encouraged to live their dreams and since they were adopted by the system which made their dream come true there were more probability of the loan getting repaid in timely manner.

All in all, Dr. Mohammad Yunus came up with a new credit system which is viable in terms of credit returns and also noblest in terms of humanitarian efforts. 

Valley Crossing Exercise

Famous Quotes:

Talent win games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships – Michael Jordan

This adage stands crystal clear in terms of explaining the significance of team work.

And in my below blog, I am trying the converge on the same line which Michael Jordan said and this is done with the illustration of famous management concept – Valley crossing by 3 workers

This is an exercise done by 3 workers while crossing the valley while carrying the load of rod. To experience the team work, simulation of this activity was done in our class where group of students tried crossing the valley and the class was analyzing the processes involved and their implications.

From the demonstration, we were able to figure out 9 steps which were classified as Risky, Half Risky and Safe as shown in the table.  As we can see there are 3 risky steps, so the ultimate goal of organization is to eliminate these risks.

Below are the management lessons learnt from this exercise:

1.       Responsibility:

      Goals of an individual within the organization should be aligned with an organizational goal. Task can only be completed successfully if everyone in the team works collectively and in a responsible way.

2.  Shared vision:

      It is important to have a shared vision, which is clear and informs about where the organization wants to head in the future. Vision needs to be shared with all the members of the organization so as to enable the members to work collectively in achieving the organization’s defined goal.

3. Planning:

    Proper planning is required to be done for initiating any task so that the task is completed on time. In the valley crossing exercise, the plan was already formulated by the team members in the way they would cross the valley (take 9 steps with alternate and synchronous movement of left and right leg). The plan should be focused on how we can leverage our strength as a team.

4. Communication: 

    Effective communication is very much essential for the success of the team and the organization and as it has been proven in this exercise. Synchronous movements by communicating with each other through sounds/skills were very much essential for the success of this exercise.

5. Trust:

    Organizations cannot be successful if there is no element of trust in it. As in the case of valley exercise, a person was ready to cross the valley while being in a “risky” and “half-risky” state only because he/she trusted the other members in the team. Similarly, in an organization, managers and employees need to trust each other.

6. Load Sharing:

    Ultimately, as this is a team work, everyone in the team must stand upfront in terms of sharing the load. This infests the quality of cooperation which will help to sustain and sail the team through all phases.

Three Monks!!!

Plot

The story of three monks enlightens us with the theory of efficient team work. Story starts with a  young monk lives on hill top understands his individual responsibility and fetches water from river flowing downhill. On the next day when new monk joins and there lit up the conflict regarding the distribution of workload. In movie it is shown that initially single monk used to bring 2 buckets of water in a single trip. However when the second one joins him in the task, they started bringing only a single bucket of water. Here not only the volume of water that is the productivity decreases but also a problem of workload distribution pops up. So they solve this problem by measuring the stick and then tying the knot in exact middle in order to equally distribute the bucket load. Next day, when third monk joins in, it further more encourages conflict within the team members. Consequently, no one takes their own responsibility but expect others to do their work.

 On that day, no one fetch the water and they consume all the leftover water with them. When they were sound asleep, a rat tumbles the candle holder and curtain catches fire and soon it went out of control.  They tried to bring water from river but it was of no use and their house turns to ashes. 

Finally, the three monks were united with that incidence and make a concerted effort to bring in water as a team.

Lessons to learn from the Story

Objective measurement

To avoid the variety in subjective interpretation of quantifying terms such as "green", "hot", "large", "considerable", and "negligible", managers strive, where possible, to eliminate human senses by the use of standardized measuring tools like meter sticks, stopwatches, thermometers. This eliminates much of the perceptive variability of individual observers. The results of measurements are expressed on a numerical scale of standard units so that everybody else understands them the same way. The end result should be same whether one person or another person do same activity.

Inter-dependency

The extent to which a group’s work requires its member to interact with one another. In final solution of problem of carrying water to house uphill, the process is highly interdependent as compared to earlier ways of carrying water. Interdependency improves the productivity with much less effort of the system as can be seen in the movie. The same concept is applied to assembly lines wherein each forward step is highly dependent upon previous step.

Theory Z Managers

Theory Z represents a humanistic approach to management. Theory Z managers exhibit a strong, homogeneous set of cultural values characterized by homogeneity of values, beliefs, and objectives. They emphasize upon complete socialization of members to achieve congruence of individual and group goals. They rely on informal methods of control, but do measure performance through formal mechanisms. In present case monks are influenced by theory Z, wherein they are motivated by sense of beliefs and values towards their home and God.

Productivity

Productivity is an objective as well as scientific concept. It is a measure of ability to produce desired result. More specifically, productivity is the measure of how specified resources are managed to accomplish timely objectives as stated in terms of quantity and quality. Productivity may also be defined as an index that measures output (goods and services) relative to the input (labor, materials, energy, etc., used to produce the output). In our example of monk story the productivity can be different in following manner:

Methods	Effort	Productivity	Synergy
Three monks carrying 2 bucket individually	3b	6 buckets	No synergy
Two monks carrying 1 bucket and one monk carrying 2 bucket	b/2+b/2+b	3 buckets	Low Synergy
Three monks carrying two bucket for equal distance	b	2 buckets	Low synergy
Using Pulley system for carrying water	Lowest Possible Effort	Highest Productivity	High Synergy with high interdependency

Conclusion

This is ironical to a normal thought process of productivity getting increased as a result of increase in workforce. No doubt that productivity is going to increase, but it is increased at the cost of mutual understanding and proper planning by taking help of scientific approach.

Theory of Pygmalion effect and S.M.A.R.T goals

“High achievement always takes place in the framework of high expectation.” — Charles Kettering

Successful managers have high expectations, both of themselves and their team. These expectations are powerful, because they’re the frames in which people fit reality. We often see what we expect, rather than what is actually occurring.

Social psychologists have referred to this as the self-fulfilling prophecy or the Pygmalion effect. In Greek mythology, the sculptor Pygmalion carved a statue of a beautiful woman, fell in love with the statue and brought it to life by the strength of his perceptions. Many managers play Pygmalion-like roles in developing people. In addition, great managers tend to not give up on people, because doing so means giving up on themselves, their judgment, and their ability to get the best out of others.

Key Ideas:

·         The Pygmalion Effect explains that people tend to perform up to the level that others expect of them.

·         This effect explains why our relationships are usually self-fulfilling prophecies. Once you set expectations for somebody, that person will tend to live up to that expectation, whether it’s good or bad.

·         The Pygmalion Effect doesn’t justify having unrealistic expectations of other people. Expecting miracles is a recipe for frustration on both ends.

·         The paradox of the Pygmalion Effect is that having high expectations of people will produce better results, but it’s also more likely you’ll be disappointed. If you’re assessing someone, remember to judge as objectively as possible.

Illustration

Knowingly or unknowingly you might also have been the part of Pygmalion effect in your respective organization. I would like to highlight my manager’s way of getting out the work done without disturbing the equilibrium. Once my team was in crisis when one resource went on a urgency leave. Being a small team contingency was a major problem during crisis situation. As it was a client facing project it was indeed important to maintain the same level of support. So for those 2 weeks period my manager handed over to me of handling the additional responsibility of that resource by inculcating the faith of ‘you can do it’. Expectations were high but it was feasible if dedicated efforts were poured into it. And the result was apparent because as a team we were able to pull it off a daunting task without any major hiccups. With this exercise feeling of handling the project in someone’s absence was built and in later point of time it became an easy task.

High expectation kept us motivated to slog hard and finish it spectacularly. However manager should remain cautious. There is a fine line between realistic high expectation and unrealistic target. Unrealistic target brings in frustration and affects productivity.

Things considered while setting SMART goal

Specific – The first criterion stresses the need for a specific goal over rather than a more general one.

      Measurable – The second criterion stresses the need for concrete criteria for measuring progress toward the attainment of the goal.

         Attainable – The third criterion stresses the importance of goals that are realistic and attainable

         Realistic – The third criterion stresses the importance of goals that are realistic and attainable

         Timely – The fifth criterion stresses the importance of grounding goals within a time frame, giving them a target date.

So what we had discussed in tower building exercise can be followed closely by looking to these attributes of smart goals. Team building tower with blind fold dared to set a goal. Their initial bid was of building the tower with 22 blocks but they ended with a tower having 24 blocks.

Now if you combine the aspects of Pygmalion effect and SMART goals together then the things which are distinctive are as follows:

• As a manager, you have to keep the morale of a team high by motivating and inculcating the faith of ‘you can do it’.
• At the same time, care has to be taken that expectations set are realistic and attainable within the given time frame.

Did I deliver? If yes, the do let me know your feedback.

Thank you.