Mckinsey 7S model

While some models of organizational effectiveness go in and out of fashion, one that has persisted is the McKinsey 7S framework. Developed in the early 1980s by Tom Peters and Robert Waterman, two consultants working at the McKinsey & Company consulting firm, the basic premise of the model is that there are seven internal aspects of an organization that need to be aligned if it is to be successful.

The 7S model can be used in a wide variety of situations where an alignment perspective is useful, for example to help you:

• Improve the performance of a company.
• Examine the likely effects of future changes within a company.
• Align departments and processes during a merger or acquisition.
• Determine how best to implement a proposed strategy.

My first digital CV!!

Why Excellence?

Excellence is an attribute on which organisations survive. A building block for them to flourish and become even more bigger and prosperous. Their success depends on excellence to a profound extent. Which is why great CEOs like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Henry Ford et al have all harped on the salient features of excellence within their organisation to make them worthy institutions that they are today. Without the pursuit of excellence, these organisations would have died a slow death.

Quantify Excellence

Excellence when defined is a non-parametric quantity and hence, often can be interpreted in incorrect means whereby it gives a false picture of whether it is actually achieved or not. However to set clear targets and understand the scenario, we quantify excellence in the following manner:

Excellence = Efficiency * Effectiveness

i.e. a combination of efficiency and effectiveness together gives rise to excellence. Efficiency essentially being "doing things right" and effectiveness being "doing the right thing". Every organisation in due course needs to figure out the effective approach towards accomplishing something. Doing the right thing is important so that ventures and strides are taken in the right direction. Once the effectiveness is taken care of, organisations should then concentrate on efficiency. This is where many establishments differentiate between one another. It refers to an input-output approach whereby depending on the availability of resources and inputs, management will then give the output, dealing with all kinds of optimisation methods in the process.

Tower Building Exercise - Lessons in Excellence

The tower building exercise as shown here is one of the best ways of exhibiting efficiency, effectiveness and ultimately excellence. The individual prior to performing the task figured out a way to complete the task. for e.g putting the blocks slightly to the top left or top right of the below block and not exactly on top, putting that at angles to the below and not completely on top of it. These are ways of accomplishing a effective way of performing the task. This part helps him to do the task better as probably putting them in a certain manner over the other can enhance the output and provide an effective solution to the same. The second part is exhibited in the manner he performs the task. The rate at which he does it, the height which he reaches all on the basis of certain rules will eventually help him achieve the desired level of efficiency. As discussed above, these two factors together will contribute towards excellence.

In a similar manner, in large organisations, managers are always encouraged to follow the above principles to achieve excellence. In my personal experience, I have seen some of my superiors who have always designed goals and tasks in such a way that they understand what needs to be done and then chalk out a way to do the right thing in order to reach the end goal. This is followed by careful analysis of improving the efficiency of the task, i.e utilising the available resources and in the shortest time and at the least possible cost, make the perfect product. Thus, in this manner, the employees and the process that they follow itself lends to the excellence of the organisation as a whole.

Risk management: Three people crossing the valley

“The bridges that you cross before you come to them are over rivers that aren't there.”

-          Gene Brown

The above quote roughly means:  barriers that are physical are reflections of the mental ones. There is an important organizational lesson to be learnt in this. Organizations are meant to facilitate the impossible, unachievable. The recipe is simple: Believe that it can be achieved, plan and deliver.

Objective

Here are three men walking but are stalled because infront of them lay a valley which they have to cross.

Problem:

1. The width of the gap between the valleys is more than a step so they canot jump over it but less than two steps.

2. There is no temporary bridge available i.e no falt platform which they can lay over the gap and walk over.

Solution:

They hold the rod together with the gap between each two of them is one footstep and they simply walk by.  The picture below demonstrates it. Surprised? Does going get this easy? Well, I shall take you through a small dry run to answer that:

Solution:

They hold the rod together with the gap between each two of them is one footstep and they simply walk by.  The picture below demonstrates it. Surprised? Does going get this easy? Well, I shall take you through a small dry run to answer that:

L1     L2     L3_______                                         Step 1: All safe

R1     R2    R3

         L1     L2     L3                                              Step 2: Person 3 half safe

R1    R2     R3

         L1     L2     L3                                              Step 3: Person 3 full unsafe

         R1     R2     R3

                   L1     L2    L3                                     Step 4: Person 2 and 3 partially safe

         R1     R2     R3

                   L1     L2    L3                                     Step 5: Person 2 fully unsafe

                   R1     R2    R3

                             L1    L2    L3                            Step 6: Person 1 and 2 partially safe

                   R1     R2    R3

                             L1    L2    L3                            Step 7: Person 1 fully unsafe

                             R1    R2   R3

                                      L1    L2    L3                   Step 8: Person 1 partially safe

                             R1    R2    R3

                                      L1    L2    L3                   Step 9: Everyone is safe

                                      R1    R2   R3

The '_______' like structure indicates the valley and Li and Ri denotes the left and right foot of the ith person.

Structuring of Task Roles:

Tasks should have certain attributes for perfect realisation of a task, which can be stated as:

1.Interlocking roles i.e. highest level of interdependency
2.Highest level of interactions among the members
3.Instantaneous feedback
4,No scope for any Social loafing

The task here is highly interdependent and provides instantenous feedback upon any mishap.

Team Excellence: 

Excellence is efficiency * effectiveness. Individual cannot achieve excellence but a team an organisation can achieve that. Efficiency and effectiveness both comes simultaneously and has to be handled simultaneously. Effectiveness is where to go? and efficiency is how to go efficiently i.e at reduced cost or enhanced safety. But to put effect efficiency one has to again think efficiently.

3 monks: A wise old Chinese fable

The film ‘3 monks’ is based on the ancient Chinese 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." The film does not contain any dialogues, allowing it to be watched by any culture, and a different music instrument was used to signify each monk.

                The film is available on you tube and has more than 15 thousand views. The video is described on you tube as follows: “ Three Monks is a Chinese animated short, released in 1980 and directed by A Da. It is one of the most famous and beloved of Shanghai Animation Film Studio's productions, and has won awards at film festivals throughout the world. 
                A note about the columns of text that appear at the beginning: the first column reads, "one monk fetches water to drink", the second column reads, "two monks carry water to drink", and the third one merely says, "three monks". The unfinished sentence reflects the film's central question, which is whether the three main characters will learn to work together so that they can all have water to drink.”

                The film teaches us a valuable lesson in organizational management. The story of 3 monks is analogous to the corporate world when a company is in growth phase.

                When there was one monk, all the responsibility was on his shoulders and he worked hard and with more productivity to complete the task at hand. The first monk alone carried two buckets of water and this was sufficient as the water required for one person was lesser. Similar is the case for organizations in the start-up phase. The tasks are fewer, but so is the staff. There was no co-ordination or co-operation required for goal achievement and everything was based on hard work.

                When there were two monks in the monastery, the productivity decreased to a quarter as 2 monks were carrying just one bucket of water. However, the cost of this decreased productivity was compensated by increased comfort for the monks. Same goes for organization as they expand. Everyone is unable to perform equally and some of them try to make others work for them. Increased workforce in an organization doesn’t necessarily mean that more work is done because everyone thinks that there are plenty of people to accomplish the task at hand. Another reason that the productivity decreases is that everyone doesn’t think at the same frequency, thus the situation is like different people pulling the cart in different directions which is always detrimental to the organizational goal. Hard work is important in this situation, however co-ordination is also very significant.

                In case of 3 monks, no one works for the common goal and the productivity is almost zero. This is the classical case of large organization when there is no co-ordination between different departments. Finally, there is a crisis analogous to the fire, and thus things get shaken up. Everyone works together for a common aim to bring forth a ‘revolution’. Thus a new organizational procedure is evolved which is productive for large organization. This ‘revolution’ is necessary for large organization without which growth cannot be beyond a certain point.

               

Theory X and theory Y managers

The second lecture by Professor T. Prasad explained us the concept of theory X and theory Y managers. These are the human motivation theories put forward by Douglas Mcgregor of the MIT sloan school of management.

Theory X managers are not employee friendly. They always believe that the employee will avoid his work. Theory Y managers, on the other hand trust their employees with the responsibilities given to them. The two type of managers can be better understood from the following video:

Now lets check out the possibilities when various type of employees work under various types of bosses.

1.    Lazy employees work under theory X manager:- The productivity would be low due to the lazy employees. And it would decline even further due to lack of incentive given to employees.   

2.    Motivated employees work under theory X manager:-This situation is the most dangerous. The result could be that the productivity of good employees would decline due to lask of incentives. Also, good employees may leave the organization leaving behind only lazy employees in the organization.

3.    azy employees work under theory Y manager:- Since the employees are lazy, their productivity needs to be increased. Theory Y managers, being employee friendly would try to motivate them by giving them incentives. This, if successful would boost productivity.

4.    Motivated employees work under theory Y manager:- This is the most ideal situation. Since the employees are good, they are ensuring that their targets are met. Due to this, their boss is giving them due reward, motivating them further. Thus, finally the everyone is gaining from this favourable nexus.
  

Every organization should therefore try to achieve the last scenario. This is most favourable as the productivity is more, the work culture is better and all the things are moving towards better. This can be achieved by having more Theory Y managers in the firm who can motivate the employees to perform better.

Aaj ki roti aaj hi kamana !!!

                After working for 3 years, getting back to college was always going to be a unique experience. And so I marched towards the classroom to attend my first MBA class. As I walked toward the class, I thought of the various possibilities of how the class would unfold, but none of these matched what actually happened in my first MBA class! In fact, I’m pretty sure that none of my batch-mates would have ever predicted it.

                The first surprise, and a pleasant one, was our class was taken by Professor T. Prasad more fondly known as Professor Mandi. The next shock was that toys were distributed among the students. But the best part of the class was when we were told to throw the sponge balls at our batch-mates. I’ve always wanted to play catch catch in class, but least expected it to happen, not in an MBA class, nor while the professor’s back not facing us! I will always remember this; thank you sir for unique experience, you’d become our favorite by now!

                Now that he’d got everyone’s attention, it was time to get to real business. He called students forward and made them sell the toys distributed to each other. Then he gave suitable suggestions so that the student selling can increase the value of the product for the buyer, a simple but effective way to boost the value of any product. Then he encouraged blogging so that the content taught in his lectures is not restricted to NITIE, but open to anyone who has interest to study, this is one thing I appreciated the most.

However, the most significant take away from the lecture was ‘aaj ki roti aaj hi kamana’ i.e. the students should not rely on their parents for expenses but try to earn on their own, and that too in their area of study. Earning from one’s own area of study reinforces the gained knowledge and its application, thereby giving mastery in his field; a very easy concept, but equally difficult to implement. We were made to realize how big the opportunity cost was, for coming to NITIE; roughly around Rs.2500 per day and then we were inspired to earn this back by opening our own companies while in campus.

Overall it was a great lecture, and I feel that if the concept, ‘aaj ki roti aaj hi kamana’ is implemented even partially, the future seems great then!