Enigma Solution

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...

Many responses came in after the article on Kaizen was written. An interesting one was; How did the Japanese devastated by a terrible war, come to challenge and overtake the Industrial leadership of Europe and America? Can it be only Kaizen? Can it work in India? A great number of books and material has been written by well respected people for a couple of decades on Japan and their unique culture and the Japanese Government support etc. SO I will keep try to keep my comments brief. The practices outlined in Kaizen did not originate in or are unique to Japan, they were however adopted and improved in Japan on a massive scale, with BELIEF & CONVICTION. Too much credit is given to the Japanese and too little to the Americans for not only Kaizen but also many technological and managerial innovations and practices. Japanese government and Industrial leaders copied and adapted the best practices of the American organisations to their culture. Starting afresh, without much of the legacy ...