Enigma Solution

Overly curious and hyperactive children are a challenge and exhausting for almost all parents, particularly during the periods when the school and college were shut for vacations. Our parents and Uncle and Aunts conceived an eminently practical and useful solution. They packed us four brothers off separately to accompany either our father or Uncle to attend either the office or the factory. At work since we had no real responsibilities we were given little errands and small to do projects. We would often just loiter around and did pretty much what we wanted. This was learning by simply walking around and generally bugging employees with questions and requests to teach us various stuff or give us something to do. We aspired to be like our dad and uncle and simply could not wait to grow up. When you are 10 years young a factory is a wonderland worthy of exploration. Bit by bit we learnt a lot without even realising it, about what our dad and uncle did and how things were run. ...

Last month I dropped in at a friends manufacturing plant in Pune recently. He was both happy and very busy, and why not? They were doubling sales every two years. He and his family reflected visible aspects of the India growth story. I was happy for him. We were having a cup of tea when a senior member of his team walked into the cabin. I was surprised to see that the gentleman was an old colleague of mine. We chatted briefly about things in the industry and also about former colleagues etc. I knew him to be a very good engineer and manager. During his tenure with my company we had undertaken many path breaking initiatives in technology and management. I asked him if he was still undertaking industry benchmarking studies like he had when he worked for us and which had been extremely useful for us. My friend immediately butted in and retorted; "we have a policy here not to concern ourselves with others, we are preoccupied with our own internal issues." I was aghast ...

During my various assignments I observe a worrying theme; Successful people become rigid and adopt the same style and approach irrespective of the changing environment. Success makes them highly inflexible. When changes occur in the business environment they are unable to change their style and approach They begin to believe that all they have to do is work harder, however this does not always produce satisfactory results. Result oriented leaders do their homework and often try to change their approach until they get it right. Adopting suitable technology can often make the crucial difference. The best results normally come when there is a blend of technology coupled with good management practices. Take the case of The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). The commissioners suspected inflation of the payroll by the addition of large number of fictitious employees. This was confirmed by published reports from The anti-corruption branch (ACB) of Delhi government which has investigated ma...

I remember ever since I was in the ninth grade in school, I started spending holidays and weekends at the factory accompanying our Uncle Manohar Singh ji. It was great fun and many days were spent absorbing so much by just casually observing things. We used to supply a lot of manufactured components to the famous motorcycle manufacturing company 'Ideal Jawa' in Mysore. At that time they produced 1500 motorcycles each month. Produced under license from the Czech manufacturer Jawa, beyond doubt it was India's finest motorcycle, I often accompanied my Dad, Uncle and quality staff whenever they visited the Jawa plant in Mysore for a number of issues. I observed, but did not realise until much later, that the plant had a rather large workforce yet there were very few managers, supervisors and other staff. Ideal Jawa was owned and managed by the dynamic duo Irani brothers Rustom ji (Commercial) and Farouk ji (Technical). Rustom ji & Farouk ji personally worked very hard, driv...

Starting with Nehru, the Indian government has always been anti-business and anti capitalistic.  It favoured state ownership of everything. That approach has not yielded required benefits to the people but it has certainly maimed Indian entrepreneurship, and harmed India's development immensely. I narrate a real life experience of mine. Two things one can be certain of, death and taxes. Once set up, government bureaucracies can never be shut down. On the contrary government departments and their numbers continue to grow until Government strangulates life of the very people who generate wealth. Governments rarely generate wealth but provide governance. Politicians often feed their fantasies, egos, and programs by using government machinery but burdening the people with taxes. Paying taxes is the duty of all earning and consuming citizens, provided the taxes are reasonable. The government's appetite for funds is insatiable and it needs ever increasing amounts of ...

Every now & then things get tough for a lot of organisations. This may be caused by technology, competition, recession or whatever. When the nasty stuff hits the fan, this is what typically happens at large organisations; The CMD (Chairman & Managing Director) will call a meeting and scream and rant on how useless and lazy his entire management team is and how they have let the organisation's profitability slide. blah, blah, blah!!!! The boss desperately searches for a scapegoat. Sometimes sacrificial lambs are found and a few heads roll and the situation only deteriorates because attacking people rather problems never helps . Sometimes the boss realises the truth, that there is no one individual or department or function that can be specifically blamed except the boss himself. After venting his ire, the boss will issue a diktat to the management team. "I want my organisation to return to high profitability so this is what the team is going to do. I want you to...

Sincere, competent and reliable and conscientious, Derek D'souza was a good production manager.  One day Derek's boss the works manager opted to take up a job overseas. With a salary hike we promoted Derek our no 2 man to look after all manufacturing. Technically capable the indefatigable and sincere, Mr. D'souza took to his new role like a duck takes to water.  Derek faced many problems in discharging his new responsibilities well. Our organisation's performance on productivity and quality as did the morale of the team remained a concern. Six months after his promotion, a frazzled looking Derek came to see me. After the usual courtesies he placed an envelope in front of me. With apprehension I read the contents of the letter inside. Derek was resigning and wished to be relieved from his job at the earliest. To say I was shocked would be an understatement.   He said he could not handle the pressure.  What? Why? I threw many questions at Derek. I exper...

In 1993, in pursuit of a large and significant business contract, we travelled to Detroit, to meet with a 5 member team at Visteon. It was a division of Ford motor Company.  Discussions concluded favourably. Both parties were in agreement on everything, except the time frame for development and delivery of samples. They demanded that we deliver in 8 weeks, and we insisted on 14 weeks. It looked like the deal was going to fall through. My export manager took me aside, "Sir we can't afford to lose this order. Please, I implore you to agree to whatever they demand and bag the order. We can always make some excuse and come back later and and ask for a time extension." I knew we could do it in 8 weeks, but past experience taught me that developments projects tend to encounter delays and one should always provide for the unexpected, and in India the variables were simply too many. I decided to shave the safety margin from 6 weeks to 3 weeks.  I said, ...

Ms. Madhuri Gupta the 53 year old member of the Indian IFS - Indian Foreign Service was recently arrested for allegedly spying and providing information to Pakistan. Most Indians were aghast, many wondered, how could she have indulged in such unpatriotic activities? Ms. Madhuri claims that she did not receive any financial benefit but did it only to take revenge against her bosses in the IFS, who treated her badly. This raises several big questions ; 1. What do we Indians understand and believe is India ? 2. What is patriotism in today's world.? 3. Who do people work for? It would take too long to go into all the points therefore here are some thoughts on the last point. • Try to meet your elected representative in Government. Is he or she even approachable? • Visit a government office, do they appear to be the servants of the citizens? • What about many organisations, do they exist for the customer? • Look at employees, how often do they work for and in the interest of their organ...

We have problems. This is the most often heard statement when I deal with clients. This statement is then typically followed by a long tirade, this and that thing is not ok, so and so person is a nuisance etc. After listening for quite a while I find that most people still can't define the problem. They do however have a list of frustrations and complaints but not a problem. What then, can we call a problem? A problem is something that is stopping you from getting from point 'A' to point 'B'. (Points ‘A’ & ‘B’ could be anything. Maybe physical, financial or other targets, situations, a geographical location etc.) This presupposes that; You know where you are You know where you want to get to You have an idea what is blocking you from getting there or what is obstructing you. If you do not know where you are at this present time, nor where you want to go and what is obstructing you, then you certainly do not have a problem. Most people and organisations are purel...

The massive fiscal crisis in Greece and impending crisis in Portugal, and Spain got many people thinking. Their situation is very small as compared to the problems and sad state of management of the government in the developing world. All these are symptoms of dysfunctional and irresponsible governance. Everything with the government is so complex and huge that a brief article will not suffice. It’s not easy to prescribe a simple solution for complex problems that plague society; however here is some food for thought. The other day, there was an article in the newspapers. It seems that the government was in the process of installing biometric devices in all their offices. Primary reason was to ensure that government employees, teachers etc. attend their offices for the duration for which they are paid. This raises the question as to; why should the government deem these steps necessary? It makes for an interesting management case study, hence this article. What are biometric devices? T...

It is said that; 'As per all known laws of aerodynamics, considering the body shape, mass, design and frequency of flapping of the wings, the Bumble Bee cannot fly. However, since the Bumble Bee does not know anything about the subject of aerodynamics, it flies.' Surprisingly, knowledge is often a barrier. Some people know so much about certain things and what could go wrong that they get paralysed. Here are two examples from the lives of our father and uncle which shows that following their instincts and ignoring 'knowledge' can sometimes pay off. My father Man Singh ji along with my Uncle Manohar Singh ji had founded our organisation. Both brothers had been schooled only to the 4th grade in a large village in rural Myanmar. They could not study any further because of the advent of World War II in Burma. They emigrated to India in 1964 after the Burmese Govt nationalised all properties and businesses belonging to foreigners, rendering most Indians almost penniless. B...