Enigma Solution

Everyone who attempts to do anything, wishes to be successful.  Success can come accidentally but rarely so. If we desire to be successful by design and not by fluke then objective /goal setting is a must. It is essential not only for individuals and organisations but also economies and countries.  In the absence of objectives one runs the risk of running aimlessly. Pursuing activity without direction and pace, it is to waste resources and opportunity and even failure and collapse.  If one wants to succeed in any venture, then objectives are essential. We may define them formally or subconsciously. It's better to write them down so that one is clear and able to share them with other team members.    Objectives should have these 4 characteristics. They must be, Specific Time bound Measurable  Challenging Specific , because objectives must be clear, providing no scope for of misunderstanding to anyone. Time bound , because if there is...

We often hear the terms 'developed countries', 'developing countries' and 'underdeveloped countries'. It has nothing to do with progress or backwardness. It simply means industrially developed or under developed. Why is this significant? Futurist Alvin Toffler in his seminal book  ' The Third Wave '  proposes how humankind developed and evolved in waves from early nomadic people, till today.  Ever wondered why some societies were rich and powerful and now not so?  In the earliest period nomadic leaders and tribes were those who had more livestock and members, to forage, hunt and fight. In the first wave humans moved from being hunter/forager to farming. During this wave the wealthiest and most powerful were those societies that owned and controlled the maximum amount of fertile land. Today societies that are predominantly first wave are amongst the poorest countries because they are seen as the industrially undeveloped economies. ...

Work never ends, especially if you are looking for it. There is always something new to be planned, and executed, or something that needs to be attended to. Such people who are obsessed with work are known as workaholics. If one is focussed, result oriented and fortunate, success is bound to come. The danger is workaholics become magnets for more work and challenges, especially if one commands  necessary resources and authority. The danger for workaholics is that they grown distant from family, friends, and even they themselves. When one is young, one possesses boundless energy and enthusiasm and one can cope with this pleasing burden. However with passage, of time one can easily get overwhelmed, as I was. To cope, workaholics recruit more people into the team. Instead of productivity and output improving, it actually decreases. This is because new recruits learn quickly that 'upward delegation' can free them from much work and responsibility. This is not on...

A new idea is delicate. It can be killed by a sneer or a yawn; it can be stabbed to death by a quip and worried to death by a frown on the right man's brow. ~ Ovid . My amiable brother Parvinder and I managed all the technical matters of our large and successful manufacturing business. We were hardworking, innovative and are still pretty good engineers. My aggressive and cocky nature made me believe I was the smartest guy around. This is what success does, it fooled me into believing my own perceived greatness. Like a small child that unashamedly makes it clear that does not want to share his or her toys, I refused to listen to my other brothers and my father on technical matters.  They too were owners and part of the management team and and extremely smart and sharp individuals. They had a right to express views and ideas and rightly felt disturbed by my arrogance and rebuked me often. Eventually things came to a head and we almost broke up as a family.  ...

Failing to plan, is planning to fail. This article is a sequel to an earlier article  Sir, we might have a problem As owner and head of my own manufacturing organisation, initially I had to face numerous embarrassments because of failed commitments to customers. Commitments made by me or members of my team. We all face this problem. Colleagues, subordinates or even we ourselves fail to deliver on commitments. Monday comes and goes and then another Monday passes by as we fail to deliver. We land up with muck on our face and our reputations. We lose both our money and our sanity along with our reputation. Failure often occurs due to bad or no planning. Here is an approach that I adopted and it worked very well. It seems that one of the most difficult thing for most people is to sit down, think, focus and plan out things in detail. Thinking, analysing, planning are the bane of most humans because, it is intellectually demanding and can be exhausting. Rarel...

Henry Ford the American legend, was obsessed with being the only shareholder and manager of his company.  Ford carefully analysed the work and its flow and broke up the tasks into the smallest possible elements so that tasks could be performed without application of mind or spirit repeatedly by faceless and nameless workers. Henry Ford designed his operations so that workers were completely dispensable and easily replaceable by any other able bodied worker. This approach inhumane as it may appear, gave the brilliant Henry Ford, tremendous improvements in productivity and savings in cost, helping Ford to leave his competitors a long way behind. Initial success was phenomenal. In early 1920’s Ford motor company’s share of American automotive market was an eye popping 75%. This approach soon thereafter became a norm in all industries. (This is why majority of trade union activities focussed more on work conditions than only on increase in wages.) Henry Ford was obsessed with be...

During a visit to the mental asylum, a visitor asked the Director, "what is the criteria that defines a patient to be institutionalized?" "Well," said the Director, "we fill up a bathtub, we offer a teaspoon, a teacup, and a bucket to the patient and ask the patient to empty the bathtub." 1. Would you use the spoon? 2. Would you use the teacup? 3. Would you use the bucket? Oh, I understand," said the visitor. "A normal person would choose the bucket as it is larger than the spoon." No," answered the Director. "A normal person would pull the drain plug." He flunked..... ..... There is a difference between an objective and actions!  Unless we understand our objective, we will be wasting our time in inappropriate actions. Always know and understanding the objective first. My thanks to Mr. Arun Yallatikar for this piece

Imagine watching a sporting match , say a game of cricket, where there are no announcements, or commentary or display boards giving any information. If all one sees is a lot of activity with players running all over the playing ground with someone bowling and some chaps batting, obviously it will be difficult to fathom what is really happening. If one has not even an inkling as to who is winning or losing and what are the runs or run rate required to win the match or wickets remaining etc, the game will in all likely-hood not sustain the interest of the spectator. Not only spectators but players too will soon get bored, and likely to lose interest in the game /match and of course the results. Unfortunately this is the same situation in many organisations. Many employees within organisations haven’t a clue on what is happening. Yet they are screamed at, lectured, and sent to motivational and training camps to get them to be enthusias...

In life its not sufficient to be merely efficient but to also be effective. Someone once asked my father Man Singh ji, 'What is the secret of your success?'  He remarked, "I do not always make right decisions. I make decisions, and then almost always make them right" Read more ..........

I love statesmen for they demonstrate the better qualities in people. Unfortunately statesmen are an almost extinct species. On the other hand, I detest politics because the conduct of politicians often brings out the worst in people. Yet it is undeniable the entertainment value politicians provide to the public, often at great cost to our sanity, loss of wealth, destruction of our environment and generation of a lot of  chaos in society. Yet every fiasco and blunder, of which there are many   by our politicians and the government lie powerful and important lessons for individuals and organisations on how not to do things. Driven by control rather than contribution, politicians and governments rarely get things right and can always be trusted to botch things up. The billion rupee question is ' How do they not only survive but thrive, in spite of their sheer incompetence and duplicity?' I believe the right answer would be, 'They resort to the...

                                                    Why do you want to leave us? A couple of weeks ago a college mate came to town. It had been a few years since we had met up and we chatted about a lot of things well into the night. He sought my advice on a few things. Maybe he felt that I had learnt something from the large number of mistakes I had made. His business was growing by leaps and bounds and he had clients in most major Indian cities. Yet he had major concerns. He said the work was draining him of his energy and his peace of mind. He was candid enough to say that he could not manage his growth and he was worried, very worried. In my book of experiences; " It is a wise person who knows himself. " I had been there and done that, and I could only appreciate the gravity of his situation when he said that he had a 70% attrition rate at h...