The Case of the Bonsai Manager

Excellent read. The writing and thoughts reflect the rich experience of the author Gopalakrishnan. He presents a view of what is needed for managers apart from analytical skills to develop the intuitive skills. The book name gets from the fact that most managers are bounded and find their growth stunted due to various hindrances just like a Bonsai tree which has a stunted growth. He emphasizes the need to be effective. Most of time as per his experience managers have inclination for efficiency, though efficiency is good to have but not at the cost of effectiveness. The author has rich industry experience and is able to articulate his thoughts very well. Interesting to read how he observes the phenomenon in nature and explains it as a learning mode for the managers . He emphasizes the need for developing intuitive skills apart from honing the analytical skills and shows several ways in which it can be developed by managers or people in general.Most of the learning's are conveyed through short stories/ anecdotes which I found much more interesting and captivating than usual jargon on the subject as such.

Some notes from the reading:

1. Wisdom= Knowledge + Intuition ( Knowledge is what you know. Intuition is what you do not know you know). Knowledge & Intuition are complementary in nature.

2. Develop intuition by viewing issues holistically and not in isolation. Enhance intuition through varied experiences, relationships, contemplation & reflection. Manager can develop intuition by exploring and sensing beyond what is visible and audible. ( supported by various examples)

3. Understanding the context( contemplate) is important while reflecting on how a success or failure happened. Context influences perception of the issue.

4. BRIM( Brain's Remote Implicit Memory) - email ID of the brain. Remote memory stretches deep into psyche and childhood. This memory is very durable. In the implicit memory human hold processes - such process manifest themselves as skills or habits. Practice embeds processes into the implicit memory. In the explicit memory human hold facts. One knows what one knows. BRIM is the common area between remote and implicit memory in the brain. To develop strong intuition the this Email service need to be activated.

5. Effectiveness comes through good judgement

Good judgement comes through experience

Experience comes through bad judgement

6. Management is an art than a science. Management principles are philosophies and not discoveries in any scientific sense.

7. Space in which manager grows is defined by 4 perceptions:

- nature of industry & company

- type of work & role within the organization

- people relationship involvement

- threats and obstacles faced

8. Experience is not what happens to a man, it is what a man does with what happens to him ( Aldous Huxley)

9. Westerners tend to emphasize explicit knowledge ,the Japanese tend to emphasize tacit knowledge.

10. Be humble about what one knows, recognize what one can learn from others and be willing to seek out opportunities.

11. Mentoring attributes include trust, respect, mutual commitment and faith.

12. Excess of resources increases competition where as scarcity promotes cooperativeness. ( eg. USA & Singapore)

13. Cash does not fuel the journey of future but the emotional and intellectual energy of every employee.

14. Bland's Law- The amount of backbiting, infighting and skulduggery in an organization is in direct proportion to mobility of its goals.

15.Enduring leader's trait : integrity, decisiveness, competency and visionary.

Interesting facts:

1. Brain constitutes 3% of body weight but consumes 25 % of energy used by body.

2. When a a crocodile has torn a chunk of flesh off its victim and swallows it, pressure is exerted on the thin flexible roof at the back of reptile's mouth. This squeezes the tear glands which are just above, causing tears to well up in its eyes. hence the cynical expression 'crocodile tears'.

3. Snail- when faced with threat , the snail reallocates its resources away from early reproduction towards growth and community survival.

4. "Nirma" brand of detergent ( local popular brand in India) got its name from entrepreneur Karsambhai Patel's daughter named Nirupama.

5. One can calculate the outside temperature by counting the chirping rate of Cave crickets. These have antennas 4 times there body size.

6. Pigeons can flay at 90/100Km/hr covering over 10,000Km distances.

Other article.

The Kite Runner

A great read. One of the best fiction books I have read. The story is set in Afghanistan of 2 friends. The story is very touching with a lot of twists. The time period also fairly large...starting in early 1970's and moving till 2003. The good part about the book is you feel some part of you associated with it while reading it. The story is inspired by the author (an afghan national) childhood time spent in Afghanistan & Iran. The story starts as a flash back moves into the past and comes back to the present in a very smooth way. A young boy(Amir) belonging to a rich family has his closest friend (Hassan) who lives in the servant quarters of the same house. They mostly are together playing around and yes flying kites every year when the Kite flying competition took. Hassan is the best kite runner who is able to spot the location of lost kites. The last opponent kite is usually considered as the prized possession of the winner. All is well until one day something happens which changes things forever and it will take years to bring back things to normal before which many characters are already put to sleep and some new ones enter.

Later after finishing the book I was reading more about the author Khaled. He is a doctor by profession , makes me wonder there is no age to spot your own talent :).

More reviews here.

Managing the Value Chain

Great read. A collection of articles on supply chain management by Harvard professors which have appeared in the Harvard Business Review magazine. The authors present insight into the various activities which form part of supply chain and how companies have improved over the same making the value chain more competitive and efficient. Since it is collection of articles , the book need not be read in a sequential manner. It covers topics of Modularity in design, Trust power in relationships, finding the right supply chain for a particular product, concept of Value constellation and lean production to lean enterprise ( the last one seems to me far too fetched seeing the pace of globalization ...wonder if any consortium of companies will achieve it...though this can be an ideal model for all). All articles are associated with studies done by professors on various global companies like P&G, Walmart, Caterpillar, Chrysler( now Diamler Chrysler), Li & Fung, Apollo, Sun Microsystems etc.

Some Notes:

1. Modularity in design boosts the rate of innovation but heightens the degree of uncertainty in design process.

2.Typical cost distribution in new product development in automotive industry:

Engineering and R&D -15-20%

Tools- 40-45%

Facilities-25-30%

Pre production and Launch- 5-10%

3. Trust between 2 companies- they beleive that each is interested in other's welfare and that neither will act without first considering the actions impact on the other.

Honesty & dependability do not always promote trust.

4. Things to take notice of for devising an effective supply chain:

- product life cycle

-demand predictability

-product variety

-market standard for lead times and service

5. Functions of a supply chain

a) Physical- includes converting raw material into parts and eventually into finished goods and transport all from one point in the supply chain to the next.

b) Market mediation- ensuring that the variety of products reaching the marketplace matches what consumers want to buy.

6.Do not design and manufacture something and then think about distribution instead consider it as a critical part of value equation.

7.Companies that survive and thrive are the ones that looked beyond their immediate boundaries to the social and business system in which they are enmeshed and discover new ways to reconfigure those systems in order to reinvent value for their customers.

8. In today's environment 2 asset matter for value: Knowledge( of companies competencies) & relationship( with customers)

हिन्दी और अंग्रेजी

गूगल इन्दिक्ट्रंस्लितेरेशन से अब मै हिन्दी मे भी ब्लॉग लिख सकता हूँI आराम से हिन्दी मे कुछ लिखे अब बहुत समय हो चुका है शायद आखरी बार आठवी कक्षा मे लिखा था मतलब की १९९४, करीबन १४ साल पहलेI शुद्ध हिन्दी तो अब बोली ही नहीं जाती अंग्रेजी की इतनी आदत हो गई है की अब हिंगलिश ज्यादा चलती है Iभारत मे ब्रिटिश साम्राज्य का बहुत साल साशन रहने और आजकल अंग्रेजी बोलने के फैशन से ऐसा हो गया हैI अंग्रेजी नहीं आती आपको तो आप को हर जगह दिक्कत होती है Iहिन्दी भारत की राष्ट्र भाषा है पर अब ऐसा लगता है की हिन्दी से ज्यादा लोग अंग्रेजी बोलते है , खास कर की शहर मे जहाँ ग्लोबलाइजेशन का अधिकतम असर दीखता है Iअगर उत्तर भारत से दक्षिण भारत मे जाओ तो अंग्रेजी ही समझते हैं लोग, कई बार आश्चर्य होता है की हिन्दी होते हुए भी अलग प्रदेशो के लोग आपस मे बोलने के लिए अंग्रेजी बोलते हैंI इससे भारत को फयदा भी हुआ है बहार के देशो से ज्यादा व्यापर करने का और ज्यादा रोजगार के अवसर होने काI मुझे इतना लिखने मे ही थकावट महसूस हो रही है इसलिए फिलहाल इतना ही बाकि बाद में I

The White Balloon

Another great movie I happen to saw on UTV World Movies channel. I really like the channel for its coverage of movies made in different parts of the world and not just sticking to usual all American movies like on Star Movies and HBO. Also the kind of movies played are very good...most won an award when they were launched. The latest one I watched was The White Balloon...a story of little girl named Razieh who has a wish to get a new gold fish on the eve of New Year in Iran. The ones she has are skinny and she is not content with them. The whole movie is centered around the events which go through in order for Razeih to get her wish. The movie direction and acting by the lead child actor is superb along with good performances from other actors. Considering the fact this was a debut movie for Iranian director Jafar Panahi it is really commendable work. More detailed review can be found here.

MBA and GDP

Read an interesting article on Economist which compares the GDP figures of US with the MBA applicants rate. The relationship turns out to be inverse. When economy is doing good people tend to stick to work where as when it goes down they tend to hone thier management skills in MBA schools.
Huum putting myself in place when I went for an MBA in 2005 the Indian economy was booming as the USA one. The number of Indian applicants aspiring for MBA just keeps rising each year irrespective of state of economy . The analysis looks more suited to the US then India & China.

exploring Delhi!

along Janpath Road.....

Qutub Minar in Saket...

Delhi Hatt...shoppers delight

India Gate...
Lotus Temple in Kalkaji




On Google Map...

meet @LIVE

Jaju called up to meet along with other ex-nucleus colleagues.It was quite some time after our last meeting. Thanks to Jaju, had a good time :)! Venue= @LIVE pub -Connaught Place (now called as Rajiv Chowk). Just next to York hotel on outer circle.
(from left Manish, Anshul & Debashish)
guys drank....but gal(Srishti) had the after effects!!
(live band playing 80s songs) ...

The McKinsey Way

I got hold of this book based on recommendation by Jaju. Indeed a good advice on his part. A book written by an alumni of Mc Kinsey - The best management consulting company on the globe. The author has written a book in a very neat fashion so it is easy to understand for anyone. The book is split into 5 sections which can be read as per the interest of the reader. The first 3 sections from the crux of the way Mc Kinsey carries out its business. I decided to take proper notes while reading this one. I wont go into details of listing out all the notes I made . It is surely a must read for all those in senior management and middle managers position apart from those running the show. Even for anyone who has not yet joined the corporate ladder there are many useful tips. Some notes:
-The solution to any problem should be Fact based, Rigidly structured (MECE- Mutually Exclusive Collectively Exhaustive) and Hypothesis driven.
-Always let the other party know you are listening (esp. client)

How To Take Charge of Your Life

I had got this book in Singapore sometime around Jan2007 from one of the visit to either China Town or near Singapore National Library where shops sell old books at low prices. Thanks to GuekHar(an avid bibliophile) for showing around the place. Got this for $2. The book dates back to 1977, though being a psychology one still holds a lot of relevance. The authors ( Mildred Newman & Bernard Berkowitz) were leading American phychologists in that period. It was strange to find no entry on any of the author's in Wikipedia.

The book tells about how one can transform anxiety into energy and how one's capacity for decisiveness can be strengthened. The book is written in a plain and easy to read language devoid of jargon. Short and simple. Authors give many practical advices on how to know yourself better. Book is filled with lot of short stories of people whom authors had helped in their professional career.

After reading I feel I have some home work to do for better knowing myself. Other thing I liked specially of this book is the odour of the old light brown pages. So it added up as a pleasant factor. I guess I have some strange liking ;).

Some Notes :

1. The wonderful thing to understand is that you do not have to take yourself as a pre packaged product coming off the assembly line. There are certain things you have inherited- your coloring, your sex, your bone structure, your height- but what you do with your biological inheritance is up to you. Much of what you are you have made, and it is your right, if not also your obligation, to remake yourself exactly as you see fit.

2.Developing a habit of being decisive, an important part of being in charge of your life.

3.Try making small decisions

4.It is not self indulgent to entertain your own thoughts, because only then do you really have enough of yourself to give to others. Otherwise you are simply reflecting what you admire in others back to them.

5.You cannot please everyone around you.

6.Have the courage to confront and deal with your negative feelings. It's not easy but don't let the difficulty of all this deter you from the real job of filling in the picture of who you are and what you want for yourself.

7. An object at rests takes a much greater amount of energy to move than when it is already rolling. For this reason you often hear this advice to someone who is stuck ."Make any decision, any move, even if it's the wrong one. It's better than just sitting there." But action which is based on knowing who you are is of course much better than just striking out randomly for the sake of getting going. Then you have a sense of direction, you know where you are going.