The BIG Picture

I knew this would happen. But I am happy that it continued for a while and now I am back. The thing I am talking about is the string of posts that I could manage (a total of 10 posts in 3 months); and I did a great job going by my historical trend.

So, where's this post headaing. I want to focus it on the "big picture" concept; but excuse me for if I wander a bit [or may be 10-20 bits :)]

So what's this funda of BIG picture. Its one of the mangement/intellectual jargon of looking at things/processes/systems/business/organizations from a high enough point so that the whole of it is clearly visible. Or in other words simply- "looking at the big picture".

But why? The point is to have every aspect of a particular system in mind before making any decision or understanding the whole system; and not merely looking at the tit-bits. For example: if you have to understand MBA; merely falling for the huge salary(and that too is an well articulated illusion) would not give a complete picture. There are a whole lot of more important things that one must consider before making up an opinion about MBA.

I think that one went out of the "BIG picture" arena and into the why MBA debate.

Anyways coming back to the big picture idea; its important to incorporate such vision into your outlook and I feel it is valid for all aspects of life and not just management.

But then what's the point. If its important then let it be; why this post???

There you go! You learn the most when you don't do it right. And having learned it the the hard way....(unfinished)

Mid Term Review Continued...

Commercial Bank Management that is! Quite interesting as the course started off. Its mid term time now and feels like nothing has been learned till now. This seems to be the problem in every course; all seems well and fine (understanding seems to be settling in) until there's no examination and every learning seems to pass bye during the time the same is required the most.
The course is basically about the banking industry. We learn about the organizations taking a general framework so why there's this need to dedicate a full course on a single industry and more importantly why is this course oversubscribed. The answer to the first question lies in the inherent nature of banking sector which makes its quite unique as compared to most of the other industries.

• There is too much of debt
• We compare performance through ROA
• Since debt is a part of operations hence too much of it is there, and thats why strict regulations for capital ratios are there to check exccesive leverage (risk of  bankruptcy)

Service Operations Management-This post is meant for academic purpose only and thereby don't expect it to be interesting unless you really are interested in the subject.
To cut the story short it is my mid term exam day (SOM exam i mean) and hence this post to elaborate my understanding.
I would take "education" as an example of service to explain the concepts learned.
Definition
"Any act of creating an intangible output through and interaction between the customer and servers"
So education is-
"A service where the customers (students) interact with the servers (professors) to undergo a n experiential transformation (gain knowledge)"


Role
As per the book there are some classifications of services-VAS, Manufacturing, Personal and so on. By those classification, education fits into Government Service, but then what about private institutes and even non funded national institutes (IIMs). I can't find any fitting classifier for these.

Mid Term Review I (Strategy Management)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~DISCLAIMER~~~~~~~~~~~~

THIS CHAIN OF POSTS CONTAINS POTENTIALLY HARMFUL MATERIAL AS THE POSTS ARE HIGHLY ACADEMIC IN NATURE AND MAY IMPART SERIOUS INJURY TO THE INTELLECTUAL HEALTH OF THE READERS. THE WRITER WILL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR AN SUCH CASUALTIES.
So mid term exams are here again. I will try to pen down my learnings from the various subjects till now. The first one in line is SM as it is the first in the exam schedule. As is clear from the course name this one is about learning strategy as being formulated and practiced by corporates. The course structure has been designed around a number of case studies. The discussions basically build around the case facts and to identify strategic elements from the way a particular organizations reacted or pro acted in various periods during a period of time.
Although it is always a good exercise to extract learnings out of "success stories"; which is mostly the content of all the cases but I feel it would be handy to look at the "grand failures".sfs

Learnings from cases:

Arvind Mills

This case highlighted one of the most important aspect of strategic planning-"settings objectives with specific time frames". The company realized the need for structuring its business strategy in wake of unfavorable environment for the industry and set time based objectives.

The approach taken by the company can be understood through the Abell's model of business. The company first extended its product line (customer functions) and ventured into Denim manufacturing realizing its favorable resource capabilities. Then it gradually extended its target market (customer groups). The company also identified and incorporated new technology for manufacturing to improve quality.



Walmart
The case highlighted the operational aspects of strategy particular to retail sector. The company's CA was cost leadership. It employed numerous measures to ensure highly competitve pricing and yet maintained relatively high margins. Moving along the value chain firstly it enjoyed high bargaining power with suppliers mainly because of rationalization and development of supplier network. Then it created high operational efficiency through standardization of merchandise, computerized inventory control, efficient distribution system. It ensured employee participation/contribution to business motive by pegging bonuses with profits and also discouraged luxurious spending by top management. The other end of value chain was taken care through ploys like local pricing and higher display area in stores.

Service Operations Management

There is a quiz tomorrow in Service Operations Management (SOM) and i thought it would be nice to write within this realm. This course is primarily structured to develop an understanding (rather an appreciation) about operational aspects in services. The course seems very similar to most of the ops courses where we talk about quality, 2X2 matrices, ....
The course has been divided into two sections with each section being taken by a different faculty. The difference between the two sections is quite visible in the topics being covered; the initial section is about a broad outline about services and role of operations in services while the latter part is more about the application of operations tools in solving problems related to services (supposedly).

The CP phobia

Its 6:30 in the morning and there seems nothing interesting to study. Past few days have been really lazy with average sleep time peaking again.
So CP phobia. This is the fear of being asked to put some "valuable insights" during a case discussion in class. This fear generally aggravates in courses with a higher proportion of theoretical/mandatory globe (obviously the "observed/practical globe" is much more and thereby it does not differentiate between courses). There is a predetermined weightage of CP in these type of courses.
So, that was the general description and background about CP. Now coming to the practical aspects and the mechanism of CP and its phobia. Lets take some course to illustrate the mechanism and what would be more fitting than Strategic Management (my favorite for intellectual sarcasm). We are required to read a case for each class (a different one each time!) . Cases, typically, elaborate the golden or stoney (phew!...i mean opposite of golden, the internet tells me curst and unpropitious as close antonyms) history of some global organization. The discussion starts with some aspect of the organizations action being discussed and we are supposed to score on the CP front by telling the professor some points about the aspect. It basically turns out an exercise of "summary preparation in group".
And then comes the all important part. Now those who haven't pitched in are randomly "caught" and asked to comment in some way or the other. But the problem is that now most of the discussion points have been exhausted and the person has to rely on his/her ability to put in a "random speech" with some valuable insights so that it is as close to the topic being discussed as possible. To illustrate this situation of "forcibly asked for useless talk" I have one personal example :)
The case for the day was on Apple Inc. It was basically about the numerous turnarounds that Apple had gone through with CEOs being replaced like national football coaches. Our group was one of the three to come prepared with the presentation and we were the unlucky ones. The presentation went for about half an hour with me mutely nodding my head through the whole of it (just to appear as if I also contributed in the ppt preparation). Post ppt, the professor put in his precious insights and it was about time for the class to end. But with just ten minutes remaining the prof wanted us to rate the various CEOs that Apple had seen over the years. And that was it. Although I had read the case but wasn't in a position to comment which one of the CEO did a good job and which one didn't. The prof paused for a while and then looked around for the members of the group who presented the case and I was the obvious target as I was the least vocal during the ppt (least= nil). And there I was, stumped while defending the ball. But then you have this liberty in MBA to talk uselessly for as much as you like and still manage appreciation. I described the characteristics of the CEOs and concluded that each one did his best based on his competency and I am not sure which was the best. No appreciations for that, but at least I passed on the ball. The prof reacted saying "He got away telling the story".

The Phobia Unleashed
This was the story as it went. But then where's the phobia. The phobia arises when you do not have this expertise to gather a random collection of sentences based on the case facts and to present them as if you have discovered/resolved the mystery behind the black holes.
This phobia is directly proportional to:

• Lack of GK
  
• yes GK! So that you can play around with some coll facts to support your theory of "black holes"
• Ability to think logically
• thus the more logical you are the more you are prone to this phobia
• Understanding of the fundamentals
• there's no point in the useless talk that happens if the fundamentals are clear.

That's it for now. May be will add to this one sometime latter.

Summers

This post dedicated to my co-interns at SEBI- Ayush, Anjan, Aniruddha, Gopesh, Piyush, Shankar and Rohit.
It was the summer of 2008 and we arrived at humid Mumbai for our internship at SEBI. We were put up in a SEBI guest house at Malad. The apartment was semi-furnished and we were allotted two flats, each comprising of two rooms, a kitchen, a dinning hall and two bathrooms. The office was in Bandra Kurla Complex, some 25 kms away. There was an employee-managed bus service that helped us out for easy conveyance. A typical day started with getting up at around 7:15 am and getting ready to start off with the bus waiting near our apartment. The bus used to battle its way through the Mumbai traffic for around one hour to leave us at SEBI office in BKC. Then it was time for morning "paid" breakfast in the office canteen. Then we moved to our desks and get involved in our core activity, surfing the net. The "free" lunch timing was from 12:45 pm to 2 pm; and we used to be the first ones in the queue. Post lunch it used to be time for "getting aware of the happenings around the world" (also called reading newspaper) in the library. The office hours were till 5:30 pm and that was the time for evening "paid" snacks
and then getting on the bus for another 1 hour 15 mins ride through the thick traffic.
Listening to "Dekhta hai tu kya" (from crazzy 4) on Radio Mirchi all those memories of internship flashed across my eyes. Although it was neither my first experience of summer training nor my first time out of home; but still it was kind of different in many ways. The people I mentioned above were each with their own set of uniques and it was quite a time with them at Mumbai.

It Depends (Management Jargons Part I)

It depends! One of the most frequently used phrase in management and more so when one is answering to some query. The phrase in itself looks small and also gives an impression that the person using it is trying to make up something when he/she actually does not has an idea about what is being asked. Although it true a number of times, but sometimes it is the very nature of management issues which do not have a clear yes or no. But, again, it is difficult to distinguish between the two.
Management is not a subject of accurate/pin-point explanations and results. And even the thrust is also not to formulate standard methods/results otherwise what will be left for the managers to do. Management is, to me, a science of trade offs and that is way "it depends" has a very large proportion in management talks. One has to some how "manage" the two extremes of requirements- urgency vs accuracy; soft talk vs hard banging...can't think of more practical ones except for the usual operations examples.
How should we increase sales?...."it depends"
Where should we put our plant?...."it depends"
What kind of advertisements should we make?...."it depends"

And even...
Sir, what is the cut off for passing the course?
Doctor, what injection should we give to the dying man?
Pilot to the technician at the radar station- Which is the button for automatic landing?
...OR may be
What is your goal in life?...."It depends [short-term, medium-term or long term :) ]"

Really useful (the "it depends" tool)....right?

Any Questions
The professor (After a presentation or a verbose explanation) "Do you have any questions?"
"Well, if you don't have any, it is presumed that the concept is understood properly."
Simple logic...isn't it?
But that's not the way it should be. I believe one can only question when one really gets the understanding and if one doesn't get the thing right then, to my "understanding" the only question that can be asked is-"Can you explain the thing again?"
But then that's how life is. You are forced to ask some random questions and carry forward the discussion.

Strategic Management (SM)
It was asked to define this term. The first thought that came to my mind was-"It is the management of strategy." Then I looked at the term and understood it is actually-"strategic management." So, what is meant by that. This in core management terminology............ would not be explained by me. i would take the analogy of business with the game of football and try to explain the term.
In football the analogy with a company would be a club. And there are clubs with a large degree of variations similar to business which will help the cause. The are clubs with the stature of Wal Mart, Microsoft, Reliance, Tata and the like. We have Manchester Utd, Arsenal, Real Madrid and so on to match their counterparts in business and then we also have clubs like Southall United (remember "Goal", the bollywood one of course ), Mahindra Utd, Mohun Bagan, East Bengal (don't know much about the lesser knows European clubs, but I know there would be plenty of them) to show us the other side.
So from football's perspective, SM means to carry out the functioning of a club with some thing in mind to achieve and thereby choose those alternatives that would take the club towards those things. To put it simply it is "to think before implementing".
And I feel most of the clubs do that, because even these tops clubs operate in the way business is carried out globally.
The club managers are loaded with targets and they go about formulating their strategy to fulfill those targets. They have to decide about how much to spend and which players to buy through the transfer markets, which players are to be sold out, which players need to be retained, what formation to be chosen, how much to spend on technicians, support staff, publicity and infrastructure, when to rest your star performers and when to give chance to the youths and so on.
All these form a part of the Strategy- "the game plan to beat one's opponents".
And then we move on to something called Competitive Advantage. In terms of football the competitive advantage can be strong financial position of the club, a brigade of youth, and experience in terms of player skill and like wise. Teams/clubs try to leverage their most significant asset/attribute and try to build around that. A rich club would try to rope in good technician and invest in support systems to reap benefit; on the other hand a club full of young players would go about building a strategy around these players to succeed.


Watch out!!! More GLOBE coming up. [Jargon Count= 5]