Here is my key learning from POM course by Dr.Mandi.......

Organisational Culture of Larsen and Toubro LTD

As we come to the end of the module one I write this blog. It will be sin if don’t thank Dr.mandi if I don thank him at this moment. The reason behind me writing this blog is the inspiration and motivation given my Dr.Mandi. I hope I get a chance to attend many more classes handled my Dr.Mandi

Overview:

Larsen & Toubro Limited (L&T) is a technology, engineering, construction and manufacturing company. It is one of the largest and most respected companies in India's private sector.

 Larsen & Toubro is a  USD 12.8 billion technology, engineering, construction, manufacturing and financial services conglomerate, with global operations. It is one of the largest and most respected companies in India’s private sector. A strong, customer–focused approach and the constant quest for top-class quality have enabled L&T to attain and sustain leadership in its major lines of business over seven decades.

More than seven decades of a strong, customer-focused approach and the continuous quest for world-class quality have enabled it to attain and sustain leadership in all its major lines of business.L&T has an international presence, with a global spread of offices. A thrust on international business has seen overseas earnings grow significantly. It continues to grow its global footprint, with offices and manufacturing facilities in multiple countries. The company's businesses are supported by a wide marketing and distribution network, and have established a reputation for strong customer support.

L&T believes that progress must be achieved in harmony with the environment. A commitment to community welfare and environmental protection are an integral part of the corporate vision.

In response to changing market dynamics, L&T has gone through a phased process of redefining its organisation model that facilitates growth through greater levels of empowerment. The new structure is built around multiple businesses designated ‘Independent Companies’ or ‘ICs’.

Vision:

L & T’s vision clearly speaks about the fostering a caring culture among its stake holders.The company strives to build trust among the society and learning continuously from ambience.

CORE VALUES

1.       Performance Driven

2.       Innovation

3.       Integrity

4.       Excellence

5.       Customer Focus

6.       Mutual Respect 

L & T’s Culture

L&T employees share one common feeling - of being part of one big family and of a winning team. There is a sense of pride in belonging to a fine organisation - where professionalism is a way of life, where talent is encouraged and skills honed, where individual and organisational goals blend for mutual success.

L&T offers employees more than a job - it offers them a lifetime career with challenging opportunities for continuous development and growth in diverse fields of business.

The company recognises good performers. The leadership programmes like MLP (for management areas), ELP (for Execution related areas) and TLP (for technology areas). Top talent is given focused attention in terms of growth opportunities, compensation, challenging roles and assignments

The L & T’s Anthem explains much more about the conglomerate

Congruency between Vision, Mission and Core values:

There is clear accord & harmony among Vision, Mission & Core Values:

Let’s take Performance:  All 3 below focus on putting up performance, in one or the other way.

Core Value:  Performance Driven

Vision:  Attaining global benchmarks, co nstantly creating value, meeting expectations of employees, stakeholders and society, total customer satisfaction, enhancing shareholder value.

Mission:  To complete and grow, ambitious target setting for each sector, strategic planning.

Let’s  take Innovation  & Excellence:  All 3  reflect  company’s  ability to  be innovative & its excellence by diversifying & creating value.

Core Value:  Innovation & Excellence.

Vision:  Indian Multinational, professionally managed,  Entrepreneurial and empowered team, L&T-ites shall be innovative, shall foster a culture of caring,  continuous learning, high corporate governance standards & constantly creating value.

Mission:  Included are opportunities of diversification,  create long term value by setting new standards & through superior product structuring, capitalizing on our knowledge pool & consultation with leading international strategy consultant.

Let’s take Integrity: All 3 below shows company’s uprightness, wholeness & unity.

Core Value:  Integrity

Vision:  Entrepreneurial  and empowered team, professionally   managed and committed, foster a culture of caring, trust (shows uprightness & honesty as an important part for integrity).

Mission:  Capitalizing on our knowledge (this clearly shows company’s integrity and the knowledge  it has attained over the years).

Let’s  take  Customer Focus & Mutual Respect:  All 3 below shows company’s uprightness,

wholeness & unity.

Core Value:  Customer Focus & Mutual Respect

Vision:  Customer satisfaction, enhancing shareholder value, fostering a culture of caring, trust, meeting expectation of society, employees and shareholders (shows mutual respect and customer focus)

Mission:  Create long-term value for our customers through superior product structuring , partnering our customers by offering solutions, deep understanding of Indian sector and full range of financial products.

So L & T always strives for values which It believes in. I am very proud that I have been part of such a wonderful organisation.

Olam International-The brand behind The Brands

Three Monks: Antique Animation from China teaching Productivity

DR. Mandi was trying to teach management by one  of the most unorthodox way by showing us a animated Chinese movie. It turned out to be a huge success. Three Monks, a quite famous animated short made in 1980 by the celebrated director, A Da is based on the proverb that posits: "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."

I am narrating the video briefly. There is a monastery located on the top of a hill .The day to day requirement of water has to be satisfied from  only water source  at the bottom of the hill. To collect water one needs to get it from the bottom of the hill in buckets with a stick. Initially the situation was that a monk descends the mountain everyday to fill up the water. Soon a second monks joins him. They both decide to share the work after a initial fight. But the second monk is tall. So there is unequal load sharing between the two monks. So they again they start fighting.

Pragmatic Thinking

They was a gross misunderstanding between the monks. First the small monk comes out with a idea and measures the stick with his palm. But the tall monk refuses and starts measuring with his palms. This leads to the unequal division of the Stick. So again there is disagreement because of the subjective measurement. So both monks start thinking again. Immediatley a idea strikes the smaller monks. He decides to measure it with a objective. Thus both the monks come to agreement and resume their work. Its all bout creative thinking. But for solving such a complex problems one needs only simple solution. So as DR.Mandi says it all about power of simplicity.

Collective approach:

Then the third monk comes. Each monk thinks that other will do the daily chores. But none does the work. They said praying in the monastery. Suddenly a mouse lit fire to the monastery. Realising the need the monks overcome the initial difference and came together as team .They extinguished the fire by fetching water from the river. Thus there was clear coordination between the monks. Thus they survived the disaster. This was an eye-opener for all the three monks.

Breakthrough innovation or out of the box innovation:

Thus because of the Coordination they came up with a out of the box idea. They installed a pulley at the top of the hill to fetch water. Each person had their respective role in this. One has to fetch water from river to pulley. The next monk has to pull the pulley and the third monk has to take the water from pulley to monastery. This was break through innovation for their problems. Here there is no need for any special skill. Everyone was satisfied with their work. The effort needed for per bucket was drastically brought down.

Here with I present a simple analysis of the three methods mentioned above across various performance variables.

Variables	Method 1	Method 2	Method 3
No of monks	1	2	3
Information flow	None	Slow	Fast
Skill	High	Moderate	Low
Satisfaction	Low	Moderate	High
Dependency	Low	medium	High
Effort	High	Moderate	Low
Effciency or productivity	Low	Moderate	High

Thus Dr. Mandi has made us realise the importance of scientific solution in an organisation.We are very grateful to Dr.Mandi for his Unique teaching styles.

Valley crossing excercise

The situation is "Three people should cross a valley using only a pole". This was a life lesson on what real management should be, from all perspectives as aptly demonstrted by Pro. Dr. Mandi.

Scene - An enthusiastic crowd of students led by Prof.Dr.Mandi was preparing for some exciting event. So this was going to be the day where they would exactly try and replicate what was shown on the handouts that Prof.Dr.Mandi had given them. Prof.Dr.Mandi had promised them that this exercise would emboss on their minds the real concepts of management. The students waited with bated breath for the session to begin.

Goal Setting:

One of my favorite sayings is an old Yiddish proverb that goes "Man plans, God laughs." It's ironic that would be my favorite saying . When I was a child and people would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I always had an answer. That answer changed significantly as time went on, but one thing never did — I always had a plan. Planning for our futures is very important even if those plans may change. One way in which we plan for the future is by setting goals. Merriam-Webster OnLine defines a goal as "the end toward which effort is directed."The goal was to cross the valley with help of each other collectively. And we section B people achieved it with our Guide DR.Mandi.

Bounded rationality:

We were always trained to think with bounded rationality by Dr.Mandi. We first understood the task properly. We understood the organizational structure required to complete the task. We as team were required to come together to achieve the common goal of crossing the Valley. So we brked down the activities into small tasks as follows.

Following are the steps into which the activity can be broken,

1)Three people are on one side of the valley. They have a pole with them.

2)They hold the pole such that when the first person is above the valley, he is supported by the other two members.

3)So when, each person is above the valley, he is supported by the other two people.

4)They continue until all the members are on the other side of the valley.

Here is the link for the valley crossing exercise video. Please look at this for real experience.

Prof.Dr.Mandi, started off with a practice session. Since it was the first time for everyone, there were a lot of failures. But those failures stopped no one from trying repeatedly. In the end, people actually managed to do it. This exercise has more to it than meets the eye. This is not just about physical efforts. A careful study of this activity will reveal the real depth of meaning. Teamwork is the buzz word among the excited students now.

Below listed are 'My' learnings from beng part of this wonderul activity.

1)Effective Communication:

Communication is the backbone without which the team will not stand. This is amply demonstraed by this activity. As Prof.Dr.Mandi aptly pointed out, it is absolutley essential to communicate effectively with all the team members, without which, nobody's safety is guarenteed.

2)Trust:

The trust factor is indipensable for any team that aspires to reach dizzy heights. As depicted by this activity, if you do not trust that the other member can carry your weight, you tend to fail.

3)Idea Generation:

It is important for any team to brain storm and get as many ideas as possible before getting down to planning or actually doing the activity. Idea generation will help in easy planning.

4)Planning:

"Failing to plan is planning to fail" .Nothing happens without first a plan. It is mandatory to plan the activity exactly as you want it to happen and then execute it.

5)Execution:

This step is the culimination of all your previous efforts. It has to be done with much care. Effort mst be put in, to adhere to the plans that were charted out. The communication within the team should be in pristine order. Proper execution will exude proper results.

6)Perseverance:

It is very important to persevere in your efforts. As Prof.Dr.Mandi rightly puts it, every time we fall, we should rise and every time we rise, we are wiser and stronger.

All thanks to Prof.Dr.Mandi for such an innovative teaching methodology we have here at NITIE. We have now been enlightened about how effective groups are formed and how true team spirit is developed. I have been fortunate to have been part of this wonderful activity!!!

LE02

The change

Vision and mission:

As the famous Chinese axiom goes "Give a man a fish, and you have fed him once. Teach him how to fish and you have fed him for a lifetime." The Khan Academy has revolutionized teaching in this contemporary world. Khan Academy’s Vision is to provide world class education at free of cost to anyone or anywhere in this world. Mr. Khan is visionary who have leveraged technological advances to the advantages of his social cause. His vision is to create thousands of video tutorials to make self learning. He has also stated that he wants to state the academy into charter school where students will involved in activity based learning. He sees a world with free education for all in the future.

Technological Skills:

Technology has made possible Mr. Khan’s dream come true. It all started just when Khan started teaching math’s his distance cousin Nadia from Bangladesh using yahoo doodle images. Based on the cousin’s feedback other cousin requested for such remote tutoring from Mr. Khan. In order to use his and their time efficiently. He just revolutionized the teaching practices sitting at home with a mic and pen tablet mouse. He uploaded all the video tutorials to youtube and made it accessible to everyone. It can also be accessed through facebook and google.T here is close to 150 million view whereas MIT’s blog has only 38 million views. He will teach more number students than any other institution has taught.

Human Skills:

He changed the whole concept of virtual tutoring. In all other virtual tutoring they would be just standing beside the black board and teach. But in Khan’s video he never once showed his face. Everyone just know him through his voice. He employed simple techniques and creative solutions to teach complex problems which school students had difficult in learning. Students can also learn at their pace. They were given feedback based on their performance. There also tools available to give feedback to teachers about their student’s performance. He is Theory Y person with positive aptitude. That made him Quit his job has a Hedge fund manager and form this nonprofit organization to empower the students. If he was a theory X person we would have never quit his current job to take this work. His wife also needs appreciation in allowing him to do his work and after quitting his current job.

Organization structure:

Mr. Khan till now was a one man army. He till now made the most of the video’s of 3200+ videos. He has recently started a partnership with Smarthistory. Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker have joined our faculty and added hundreds of Art History videos to our library. Volunteers have also begun to translate the videos into other languages

Revenue model:

He started this has a NGO and willing to continue to do so even after being pursued by various Venture capitalist. He says he is ready to participate with any social venture capitalist but not with people who are keeping profits in mind. He is being promoted by Milinda & Gates foundation and Google right now.

Conclusion:

Thus Mr. Khan as done a great amount work for the society. We students of Nitie must also come up with solution for day to day problems faced by the people in lower level of starta. We should act with bounded rationality as Mr. Khan has done to his firm.

LE01

Tower building exercise:

          Every organization will have its own vision and mission statement. Vision states that destination of the organization while the mission states the path to be taken. These Vision also known as goals should be smart goals. Here smart goals mean S- Specific M- Measurable A- Achievable R-Realistic T-Time bound.

                  This was illustrated in our first lecture of Principal of Management (POM) course by a simple tower building exercise. Here a team of three people were assembled and given a task of building tower using blocks under certain constraints. The whole class was given the last year batches highest record as 17.Then every one was asked how much the team will be able to build. Most of the answers were below 15.But at last the team was able to break past the previous year record and reached 18 blocks.

                       Here the Goal was to break the record of 17.Thus it is measurable and specific. The past record proved the task to be achievable and realistic. Time was not constraint here. Thus the team was given a smart goal. They achieved the constraint by acting together with each other. Each of them where stake holders in the organization to achieve the goal. They planned and practiced the way in which they should work together. This led them to achieve the target.

             Thus my learning from this exercise is that any organization with good vision and mission can achieve a any smart goals.