Craftsmanship to Company

... Continued from previous post

Theory X and Theory Y 

Theory X and Theory Y have been created and developed by Douglas McGregor. The Theory is all about the perceptions that managers hold on their employees. Below table will explain you what managers think about their workers

 

09: 40 am.  Mr. Mandi well known for teaching the concepts through fun filled learning activities and it was time for some fun. To explain the Theory of X and Theory , he grabbed his bag and took out two small wooden boxes containing several wooden cubes of 2 cm each. He threw the wooden cubes to audience and everyone started gazing at them. He asked the students “who would participate in the tower building exercise.. haath kaadhe karo…” and most of the students lifted their hand in excitement. Prof. approached Bharani and asked him how much he would bid for doing this activity. He said Rs 100 /- and asked the other students how much they are ready to bid for. I quickly gathered my voice and said 101. “chi chi.. chi chi…” Mr Mandi said and the entire class busted out laughing. Bidding proceeded further 200…300…400. Finally, bidding closed at 500. I won the bidding and my task is to just build the tower as long as I could with that wooden blocks… that’s it L… I started building the tower with one block by other. Life was going easy till 13^th block. The tower started shaking and I was taking the advices from all my classmates. I built 16 block tower and I quitted the task.

This task was repeated and 7 and 8 of us volunteered. Simple rules for this task

          1. Person building the tower will be blindfolded.  

                    2. Only Second person would be directing the first person to build the tower.  

            3. Others would be giving advices to second person in building the tower.

 

 The learning’s from the above tasked is mentioned below


When I was building the tower, it is referred as Craftsmanship and there is no management and organization involved in it.

When the tower was built by a blindfolded person, it is company and there is management and organization in it.

I have drawn the contrast between both in the table

 

3 E’s of the Management

These three terms can be related as below

 

“Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence”

-          Vince Lombardi

Good Vs Bad

I plugged in my ear phones and was snooping to “Pink Floyd - Another brick in the wall” . Thinking about the current education system prevailing in the country, I was taking a stroll to NITIE sarovar (NITIE pond).

The campus is blessed with a picturesque pond where fellow NITIEians feel close to mother nature and take out their time to increase the bonding among the peers with everlasting meetings, conversations etc. I feel calm and compose watching the ripples in the pond. There it is, we have mizzle and was searching for an umbrella in my bag. Then I could hear someone shouting " Anvesh... Anvesh..", as  a nurse is calling the surgeon for a medical emergency to attend. I turned around and opened my eyes… It was my roommate Pavan, who was looking at me impatiently and said “Arey Idiot… Get up… we have to get ready… We don’t have much time”. I quickly grabbed my nexus (I explicitly mentioned not to show-off but to showcase that my lovely bro has gifted me this phone a month ago. He has been my mentor since my childhood)) under the pillow. It was 8:39 AM !!!

I quickly jumped out of my bed and got ready in 15 minutes and as usual I skipped the breakfast as I did yesterday. Yes I woke up at the same time yesterday as well. 

                 I could see the mammoth of steps to climb. These steps are often referred to as 96 steps of success. I tried to manage to climb as fast as I could and reached the Syndicte-1 (classroom) at 9:05am. I was thinking this would be my first class that I would be late.

19^th June 2013, 09:09 am

There he is Prof. Mandi arrives to class carrying jute bag. He enquired about the blogging and other aspects discussed in the previous class. But still my focus was on his jute place which was placed on table. Instead of his bag, he picks up the chop on the table heads towards the green board (our black board is green in colour :P )

 After merging we would get the below matrix
Rank 2 & 3.  

Organizational Behaviour

 Prof. makes the classification of managers and workers as given in the adjacent figure.

We would have already come across this classification in our previous projects in the organization.

If we rank the above matrix with most preferred organizational structure to least preferred one

Rank 1. Hopeful Mangers – Good Workers:

This scenario is ideal for every organization and the management anticipates. Managers and workers strive hard for the desired output keeping the organizational goals intact

Hopeful Managers – Bad workers:

We might have come across this situation in our day to day life. We think this scenario is applicable for other projects. We think Mr X is very good manager always motivates whenever there is a need in the project. The workers take the advantage of manager being lenient and they work for only salary rather than keeping his career goals in line with organizational goals.

Hopeless Managers – Good Workers

We all think, are in this category (in the context of persons who have workex of 2-3 years in any industry who have just started their career). We have a bad manager, who always keeps an eye on us and doesn't give much room for innovation or doesn’t even care about the project. The manager in this case just focuses on his personal goals rather than organizational goals.

Rank 4. Hopeless Managers – Bad Workers

The biggest threat for any organization, managers and workers doesn't care about the organizational goals. They just focus on the personal goals and work for salary.

That’s all for now… I have other assignments to be completed. I would post other concepts taught us with fun filled activities in my post.

                          

                            To be continued…

First Day… First Show

10^th June 2013, 6:15pm

 Relieving date of my previous organization Infosys Ltd., I was filled with mixed emotions, Was it a right decision for leaving vast experience in IT for pursuing an MBA??? I was not in a position to answer this... 

I packed my bags with lots of aspirations and confusions headed to NITIE, which has been recognized as one of the 15 center of Excellence in India.

12^th June 2013, 12:33pm

 I read “National Institute of Industrial Engineering” as I peeped out from the Local Taxi. In the spur of the moment, God has blessed me with the cool showers welcoming me to his own Campus.

17th June 2013, 9:05am

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

- Lao Tzu

I was anxiously waiting for my first class to begin. Then I see a professor has just entered the class carrying a jute bag. He took out two sponge balls from the bag, which has globe printed on it, and threw to the students. He also took out other educational toys and passed it to the students to have a look at them. But I was looking at him as if I have seen him earlier and then I realized it was none other than Dr Mandi. Then he introduced to the class “I’m Prof T. Prasad, would be teaching Principles of Organizational Management”. 

My first stint @ Blogging

Dr. Mandi was taken aback as they were a few bloggers in the class. He imparted us the importance of blogging and sharing the knowledge taught in the class in digital forum for wider audience. He dreamt of the world where there is no need of buying books and can gain knowledge through blogs that fellow engineers (meant B.Tech/B.E grads) have retained in the mind for years.

आज की रोटी... आज ही कमाओ... !!!

Mr Mandi made us realise at what expense we all have joined NITIE or other prominent B-schools across the world for pursuing higher education. After several discussions, the Prof. has given a rough estimate of Per Day Cost (PDC) of 2500 /- and made our grey cells to think how to earn it during our stay in the campus. He told us how he had struggled in the initial stages as he was sole bread winner for his family besides taking care of his education. That gave me an inspiration and started to put on my thinking cap.

He informed us that everyone should bring forward an innovative idea to start the business that can earn our PDC. If the idea is feasible and profitable it would be funded by the NITIE Alumni.

I don’t want to be another brick in the wall

Then Prof. was interacting with students was asking about their hobbies and interests. Then he played a song and asked everyone to sing. The song clearly depicts the current education system in the country and Mr. Mandi wasn't pleased with it. He fancied that traditional way of teaching should be stopped and a change in the education system is the need of the hour. This can bring innovation and inspiration to do different among the students.

सोचो बेचो... बेचो सीखो... सीखो सोचो... !!!

The embodiment of all the concepts that have to be learnt in a Management course. This was again explained by two volunteers one being the seller and other buyer of the educational toys.

With these concepts the class came to end and time passed like whisker.

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” 

― Mahatma Gandhi

 All in all it was totally an amazing experience to begin my stint at NITIE with Dr Mandi, promising everyone a great learning experience which can bring laurels in future endeavors.

And yes I got my answer, it was the right decision to pursue MBA in an reputed B-school like NITIE.

In my subsequent posts I would share my erudition with Dr Mandi a.k.a Prof T. Prasad @ NITIE.

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