049 Balasubramanian IM20 Nitie pom course
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Friday, 16 August 2013
Monday, 12 August 2013
Organizational Structure
Organizational structure makes complete sense since the company wants to present a uniform and consistent deal to its clients and avoid the problems of multiple deals across different offerings. But this was the same company which was split across Geographies in the late 90's. By 2003, the geographies were merged and company was realigned based on respective delivery units. Gradually the whole company was re jigged across six different verticals. Come 2007 and five horizontal units were embedded within these verticals. Finally just a year back, it was realigned on the lines of four verticals with most of the horizontal business units being merged to respective verticals. So coming back to the question. Why does companies spend so much of their money and time on re-jigging their organization structure?
One word answer - because it is that important to the success of the firm. While the strategic decisions are taken by the top line management, it is the effectiveness of the organization structure which translates this strategy into successful implementation.
Changing Times > Different Strategy > Continuously changing Organization Structure.
A video showing Steve Jobs talking about People Management and Organizational Structure:
In this context we should look at the four main blocks of Organizational Structure:
Let us take the example of Infosys:
Division of work: Complex work can be better executed by dividing it among different people. For example, every project has some people working on different technologies. Some people working on high level design, others doing project management etc.
Departmentalization: This involves grouping people into departments based on some logic. In Infy they are categorized into departments like Delivery, Marketing, HR etc. Also verticals like BFSI, ECS etc.
Hierarchy: Chooses who reports to who. Engineers reports to lead. Lead reports to PM. PM reports to GPM etc.
Coordination: This involves the integration of departmental activities as a whole and monitoring the effectiveness of this integration.
There are mainly 3 types of Organizational Structures:
Functional Organization:
Product/Market Organization:
Matrix Organization:
One example of Matrix Organization in real life example is the Organization structure of Accenture.
This organizational method is more common in the consulting world and has the following characteristics:
- Each worker is assigned to two bosses in two different hierarchies. The first hierarchy is the executive aspect and is there to get projects completed using the resources that the company has.
- The second kind of hierarchy in the matrix structure is the functional aspect and its purpose is to train employees in industry specific knowledge.
These are some of my observations and experience of the different organization structure in IT Industry where I worked.
Tuesday, 23 July 2013
Valley Crossing Exercise
Valley Crossing Exercise – Yet
another exercise to understand management concepts!
“Valley Crossing Exercise” is
a very useful management exercise to understand the importance of teamwork. Teamwork is a mixture of action process,
interpersonal process and transition period in between.
Teamwork consists of leadership, team formation, team norms, outcome interdependence,
competition and cooperation. Teamwork can lead to better decisions,
products or services.
The following
image clearly depicts why teamwork is so much useful and what it can lead to:
As can be seen in the above image,
when multiple people work as part of a team, the overall output obtained is
much higher than the one obtained by working individually.
Explanation of valley crossing
exercise through a picture is as below:
Understanding from the exercise:
·
Three people who are one side of a
valley have to cross the valley using a rod. The gap between the valleys is
more than one step long but less than two steps. At any time, all the three
people have to hold the rod and using synchronous movements, cross the valley.
·
Any person, while on top of the
valley (the “risky” position to be in) will be supported by other two people.
All the three members here have interchanging roles in the completion of task.
As can be noticed in the above image, all the three members have equal
distribution of risky, half-risky and safe situations.
·
The success of this exercise will
depend upon how closely the three people work as part of a team, coordinate and
communicate with each other through sound/signals and follow a synchronous
movement.
Management lessons learnt from this exercise:
Responsibility:
Everyone in an organization should feel equally responsible to achieve
the objectives of the organization. Task can only be completed successfully if
everyone in the team works collectively and in a responsible way.
Planning:
Proper planning is required to be done for
initiating any task so that the task is completed on time. In the valley
crossing exercise, the plan was already formulated by the team members in the
way they would cross the valley (take 9 steps with alternate and synchronous
movement of left and right leg). The plan should be focused on how we can
leverage our strength as a team.
Communication:
Effective communication is very much essential for the success of the
team and the organization and as it has been proven in this exercise.
Synchronous movements by communicating with each other through sounds/skills
were very much essential for the success of this exercise.
Trust:
Organizations cannot be successful if there is no element of trust in
it. As in the case of valley exercise, a person was ready to cross the valley
while being in a “risky” and “half-risky” state only because he/she trusted the
other members in the team. Similarly, in an organization, managers and
employees need to trust each other.
Defined
roles and responsibilities:
Roles and responsibilities need to be clearly defined for each and every
individual in an organization since then, they will be aware of the kind of
work that is expected from them. Valley crossing exercise was successful since
each member knew when to move their leg (either left or right) and that it
should be in sync with the other members of the team.
Sunday, 7 July 2013
Three monks - A movie to teach productivity and team work
Three monks - A movie which teaches productivity and team
work
In the next class, Dr. Mandi taught us a management lesson by
showing a Chinese animated short film. Three monks is a famous 20 minute
animated short film by famous director in 1980. Movie is based on a proverb , “One
monk will shoulder two buckets of water, two monks will share the load, but add
a third and no one will want to fetch water". This short film has won many awards as listed below.
·
Won the outstanding film award at China's Ministry of Culture.
·
Won the Best animated film prize at the first Golden Rooster Awards in 1981.
·
Won four international awards including a Silver Bear for Short Film at
the 32nd Berlin Film Festival in 1982.
Here I am narrating the story briefly.
Monk 1
Story starts in a monastery on top of a hill. There is only water
source(Lake) in the bottom of the hill. He fetches two buckets of water daily
from the lake. He uses a stick to balance the buckets in his shoulder by fastening
them in two ends of stick. He performs his routine work of bringing water from
the lake to the hilltop and fills the water in a bottle with a small plant near
god. He chants mantras daily and a rat comes in the night to steal food and disturbs
him.’
Monk 2
Second monk came to monastery, first monk offers him water. The
second monk consumes the whole water. Now he realised that it’s his duty to
bring the water again and continued it for some days. Second monk now realised
that first monk has taken advantage of him and didn’t fetch the water. Now they
both felt the work should be equally divided. Hence they decided to bring
single bucket of water by single stick. As the second monk is tall, the weight
of the bucket is not balanced. They both suggested methods which are favour to themselves
but both didn’t agree. They come up with a standard solution of measuring the
centre of the stick to tie the rope of bucket which allowed the equal
distribution of load to both of them.
Monk 3
The third monk has come to monastery and drank all the water.
Other two insisted him to bring the water from lake. After bringing water from
lake to hilltop, third monk drinks the whole water again. All three monks starts
telling the others to bring and fill the water but nobody fetch water. Hence they
had no water. They chanted mantras and slept.
That night a rat came out and hit the candle which resulted
in fire in monastery. In chaos, they started bringing water randomly and
confused about how to reduce the fire. Finally they come up with an innovative idea
of using the pulley in hilltop to bring the water down from the lake directly. One
monk stands near the lake to fill water in bucket. Other pulls up the bucket to
the hilltop. Third one takes the water from pulley to monastery.
Management lessons learnt from three monk story.
Productivity = output / input
Single monk carried two buckets of water with much energy
than two monks carrying single bucket. This implies that if the team work
increase the productivity of work will increase. Following table brings out
the productivity measurement of team
work by three monks.
Practical thinking
When two monks carried a single bucket of water, weight
distribution to them was not correct because of height of monks. Tall monk came
with a solution to measure the distance of rope by palm. But short monk didn’t agree
because it’s a subjective solution. Finally they agreed to find the centre of
stick by an object. Practical and pragmatic thinking is necessary to achieve
solution for any problem.
Innovation
When the third monk entered, there was a chaos of fetching
the water by monks. After the fire in monastery , monks find out the importance
of team work and came up with an innovative idea to use the pulley to bring the
water in hilltop. All three monks had respective roles to them in fetching
water. Their satisfaction was achieved by teamwork and innovation. Efforts needed
was brought down drastically by this idea.
Dr. Mandi has made us to realise the importance of teamwork,
innovation, pragmatic thinking in an organisation with his unique teaching
skills.
Saturday, 22 June 2013
Theory “ X” and Theory “Y” managers.
This lecture focused mainly on the types of managers and
their behavior based on various situations. Douglas McGregor Managers created
and developed two type of theories for managers.
Theory “X” Managers
These managers think that
employees are lazy and avoid work. They also think employees will work only
under close supervision and control over them. Managerial hierarchy will narrow
down in each level by a single point of control above them. This theory x
managers, not only create counter -productive
environment within the organisation but also create a undesirable situation in
the work place for the employees. This lack of positive thinking in managers
will not produce the final product and lead to the dis-satisfactory performance
of the entire team including manager.
Theory “Y” Managers
In this type, managers believe
that employees are ambitious and self-motivated. They also think that employees
will learn to work with responsibility, self-control, and passion to accomplish
the goal. This creates a friendly work condition in workplace and leads to the
self-satisfaction among the employees. Employees are awarded and recognised for
their performance which results in the achievement of common objective in the
organisation. Here employees growth and trust built among the team will create
good work environment.
Employees are classified into two
categories. Those are lazy employees and good employees. This results in four situations
in a workplace.
Situation one:
Employees and managers are type “X”.
This means employees are lazy and manager thinks that they are lazy. Here they
possibility of motivating the employees to accomplish the task will not be
possible because of the theory x manager. This is a failure of a manager which
will lead to very little scope for growth of an organization
Situation two:
Employees are good but they
manager think that they are lazy. This situation might have happened to many of
the employees in the work place. Lack of communication between employees and
manager will create delay to perform the task. Employees will not be recognized
for their performance and this will demotivate them which ultimately force the
employees to search various other opportunities for a better workplace.
Situation three:
In this
situation, managers are “Y” category but they employees are lazy. Here managers regularly motivate employees to
complete the task and he believes in every one of the employees that they have
hidden potential in them which needs to be identified and motivated. This situation
has high probability of putting the team in right track to achieve the goal. And
it also motivates many less productive employees which ultimately results in
the improvement of workforce in the organisation.
Situation four:
This is
the ideal situation of both employees and managers are hardworking, motivated
and responsible to achieve the common goal set by the organisation. This situation
seldom exists, but journey of an every organisation should be towards this
ideal work environment. Here people will be more productive with job
satisfaction.
These categories
of managers and employees also teach us a lesson in our life …..that is “Be
positive”……..
Tower building – An exercise to understand team management
Second lecture of POM started with an exercise to understand the goal setting and execution of a task in an effective and efficient way. For a manager goal setting is the important parameter when he motivates and judges his team members and to perform the task with them. Tower building activity was conducted in the class to understand major designations in a team with the relationship between supervisory, planning and execution. Entire class was asked to participate in the activity. Highest bidder got the opportunity to build the tower whereas the next volunteer got the supervision role. Other 7 odd members were supposed to guide the supervisor in the building activity with the various analyses to build the tower as high as possible.
Step 1:
All the students in the class were asked to quote the number
of cubes to be mounted in a single base tower and the range varied from 15 to
25 blocks. Task was not an easy one as we need to build it blindfolded. Situation here explained that fact where
interested people invest money to accomplish common goal by setting up an entity
with sheer determination. Bidding money to build the tower shows the risk
taking ability has to be shown to involve in any business.Step 2:
Now the group of students were ready to perform the task. Here comes the important concept of goal setting as it needs a clear objective, limitations, knowing the resources available and external factors. Goal setting also helps to decide the structure of the organisation before the execution1. Work force - Blind folded student has to perform the activity of building the tower
2. Midlevel Management – student who helps to blindfolded guy to help building thetower.he is responsible to give the direction, short term goals, explain the objective, maintain the timeline, and optimum use of resources.
3. Top management – group of people who plan the strategies , stream line the thought process, understand the competition, analysing external factors, reorganizing the objectives based on time, and evaluate the performance of workforce.
Step 3:
At the end of activity, everybody learnt the importance of team work, communication, analysis of situation, estimate of resources, and supervision. Most importantly sense of achievement, association of people, share of appreciation within team and feedbacks help the team and organization to grow in a healthy and focused manner.Lessons from the activity:
1. Top management is responsible to show the direction of the company to accomplish the task. Hence they should be clear about the goal and various factors associated with it and they should be ready to enhance the mission and vision of company based on time.2. Middle management should be approachable and understand the difficulties faced by the workforce. They need to bridge gap between workforce and top management.
3. Workforce is the people who perform the real work with the sense of responsibility towards the organisation by following the instructions from mid-level management.
Thursday, 20 June 2013
My first blog about the first class in NITIE !!!!!!
God's own campus “NITIE” welcomed me with a mesmerising weather. I relaxed and settled in hostel .Met many batch mates and enjoyed an outing in Mumbai roads in the heavy rain.In the first day, Lots of questions in mind about the classmates, professors, exams, and how will we cope up with the college environment after three years.
In his lecture, I learnt two important lessons to remember throughout the life in NITIE,
1. I believe all the students agree that it’s a high time to go to parents asking for financial support except emergency. My responsibility is to earn the total expenditure of the two years while studying. I agree with this idea, all the students had left a good job or had a good job offer before coming to NITIE. Now also We have the potential to earn then why not now…..Two years of MBA is not only about the classroom then why not to explore the world with immense opportunities outside!!!! He made me to realize the fact of “Aaj ki roti aaj hi kamaana” (earn on daily basis for livelihood). If not we are nothing less than a beggar who spends the money which is not ours.
2. Dr. Mandi’s mantra :- "Socho Becho, Becho Seekho, Seekho Socho!! "
These words inspires us to
Socho - innovate and think with the open mind to identify, explore the abundant opportunities.
Becho – Develop the ideas and equip them to earn
Seekho – Continuous learning by the experience gained by thinking and earning.
And there was one activity for two students to sell the toys given by professor to each other which made us to realize the importance of being informed about what we do and how we do it. We are told about the science and maths principles in those toys.
For example, Butterfly toy had a circular hole using which it can be mounted on a tip of pen. This explained the center of gravity principle.
This concept is used in “Mandi” event where students sell products in local markets. This created a huge enthusiasm and response from the students and professors across the b schools.
All the students were asked to share our everyday experiences and learning of POM class in blogs. If all the students write blogs, then we can educate millions of deprived students. Thanks to Dr.Mandi who made me to write blogs and I admire his unique way to teaching with passion. This is just the first day one experience. Stay tuned for regular updates on principles of organisation and management.
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