Must read for every MBA grad:Week-1

Hi Everyone,

I took up the challenging task of documenting list of tools/techniques that are commonly used in management field across industries.With help of industry experts,professors and my little experience, I was able to list down top 40 important tools/techniques which are most widely used.

There are countless tools/techniques, strategies and Laws etc., that are used in management filed but these tools/techniques which are quite commonly used and have significance relevance in our day to day professional life.

I will be publishing the list in a batch of 5 every week, so please stay tuned.

Below are list top 5 tools/techniques with description

1.SWOT Analysis: Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, Threats.
         This analysis is used to monitor individual/corporations. It is divided into internal and external parameters. Opportunities and Threats are treated as external parameter and Strength and Weakness are treated as internal parameter.

2.Porter's Five fore model: Micheal porter has identified five forces that determine market attractiveness. The five forces are:industry competitors, potential entrants, substitutes, buyers and suppliers.

3.McKinsey's 7'S Framework: This framework is widely used for improving organization effectiveness. It is divided into hard and soft elements on the basis of influence/dependency of this elements to the success of organization.The hard elements are:Strategy, Structure, Systems. The soft elements are:Shared Value, Skills, Style and staff.

More details: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/strategy/enduring_ideas_the_7-s_framework


4.PESTLE model: The most common analysis for underatnidng the external environment, they are Political, economical, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental.

5.BCG matrix:It is the growth share matrix, having 4 quadrants.It helps companies to prioritize their investments and strategies for growth.


More details:  https://www.bcgperspectives.com/content/articles/corporate_strategy_portfolio_management_strategic_planning_growth_share_matrix_bcg_classics_revisited/


Note: This top list may change from industry to industry, person to person.

Learning from the book "Jack:Straight from the Gut"

Recently I completed reading the book "Jack:Straight from the Gut" by Jack Welch.

About the author:
Jack Welch: CEO of GE Corporation from 1981 to 2001.

About the book:

It is must read book for every person who needs to taste success in their life, it will be more appropriate to senior executives and senior managers. It is autobiography of Jack, who describes his journey in GE. The book describes his family, education, career in GE and reaching the pinnacle as CEO in GE.

It clearly depicts how he struggled to manage his early life in GE as entry level executive in plastics division and getting promoted as General manger and responsible for the entire operations of the plastics division. His No.1 or No.2 agenda made company to concrete on core areas/domains, rather than diversifying into various fields [the major reason to do reduce their portfolio is to improve on their financial numbers i.e., revenues doubling, margins improvement and PAT  improvement].

In early years as CEO, he invested heavily on new plants and machinery, new acquisitions and selling of no-core business, during 2nd year as CEO he was know as "Neutron Jack" for firm decision in removing employees from GE payroll and many critics came as he laid  profits first ahead of people.During this period he laid importance on capacity building of employees through training and other initiatives. His strategies in making GE a global corporation. The thing which was not achieved by him is Honeywell deal.

His famous performance curve called as "vitality curve"[Top 20; Vitality 70; Bottom 10]. The famous RCA deal, which lead to NBC acquisition. His ability of proactive thinking, thereby devising four game changing  plans for GE they are:

1. Globalization
2. Services business
3. Six Sigma
4. E-business

Key takeaways from the book:

• Believe your "Gut" and believe in yourself
• Thinking ahead of crowd make you a valuable person.
• Managing people
• Create a company were legacy is ingrained in the employees.

Every page has a takeaway, so difficult to mention all.

Note: I strongly recommend this book for every MBA grad.

Lean in IT/ITeS

Lean in It companies

When we hear the word Lean we think of manufacturing companies that to in particular Toyota automobiles.

Due to advancement in information technology, the It/ITeS companies are learning the importance of lean in there daily operations.

As for as my  knowledge is concerned a leading IT/ITeS company in India has employed world's leading consultancy firm for it's lean implementation in their daily operations.

From lean we can eliminate waste and can improve value creation.

There was a Harvard business review article stating the importance for lean in It and it's successful implementation in Wipro.

For a lean to be implemented in the company the leadership team should be committed to it and should thrive for it.

Because for improving competitiveness among companies, the lean is there tool of delivering more value to the customer with less use of resources.

A company to deliver more value to the customer, they has to ensure that there resources are fully utilized.

Lean should be the important goal to the leadership team along with other strategic goals.
a dedicated team of experts who can guide the implementation.

Note: This is small thought in my mind..pls correct me if wrong, and value adds are most welcome..

Lead at your best:

The word impossible or I cannot is most often used by us in our day to day life. The reason is that we think that we cannot do or achieve.Majority of us  underestimate the  power of brain and potential lying inside us.

Example:
Usain Bolt couldn't achieved as fastest man on earth, if he thought that the previous record cannot be achieved.

The title of the post suggests that we should maximize our use of brain and draw maximum potential lying inside of our body.

But the question is how?

Here are some of the areas in which I feel are important for us in achieving mastery in utilization of our potential:

• Understand your strengths
• Question yourself.(Like What I am doing?, How I am doing? and Why I am doing?), this helps us a lot in problem solving and understanding the situations better.
• Remove your mental barrier that limits our thinking ability, in simple words I can say "Erase Laxmana rekha" you can achieve anything in this world.

Note: The areas I mentioned are of my personal views based on personal experience.

My Journey begins.....

I am proud to say that, I am a working professional......

As part of job , I relocated from Bangalore to Noida. This location is new to me, I can feel the importance of diversity needed  to a working professional, which helps in career growth.

On reaching Delhi, enjoyed the ambiance of IGI Airport Terminal-3, which is well sophisticated and that suits present day needs of international and domestic passengers.

The day came which I was waiting for 6 months, i.e., 30-April-2014 , it is the day I joined the company and experiencing corporate life..

The day one journey was smooth. The schedule includes joining formalities, briefing policies. The day two was also same with corporate overview and briefing about employee engagement.

I should equip with contemporary knowledge and passion towards job for succeeding in my personal life and in professional career, with a zeal to learn new things and explore the opportunities with at most ethical standards and keeping the value system of company unchanged.

I can recall the Robert Frost famous poem "Stopping by Woods" :

And miles to go before I sleep,   

And miles to go before I sleep.  

The cockroach theory for self development

This is story is extracted from a mail sent to me by friends:

At a restaurant, a cockroach suddenly flew from somewhere and sat on a lady.

She started screaming out of fear. With a panic stricken face and trembling voice, she started jumping, with both her hands desperately trying to get rid of the cockroach.Her reaction was contagious, as everyone in her group also got panicky.The lady finally managed to push the cockroach away but... it landed on another lady in the group.Now, it was the turn of the other lady in the group to continue the drama.

 

The waiter rushed forward to their rescue.In the relay of throwing, the cockroach next fell upon the waiter.

The waiter stood firm, composed himself and observed the behavior of the cockroach on his shirt.

When he was confident enough, he grabbed it with his fingers and threw it out of the restaurant.

Sipping my coffee and watching the amusement, the antenna of my mind picked up a few thoughts and started wondering, was the cockroach responsible for their histrionic behavior?

If so, then why was the waiter not disturbed?

 

He handled it near to perfection, without any chaos.

It is not the cockroach, but the inability of the ladies to handle the disturbance caused by the cockroach that disturbed the ladies. I realized that, it is not the shouting of my father or my boss or my wife that disturbs me, but it's my inability to handle the disturbances caused by their shouting that disturbs me.

It's not the traffic jams on the road that disturbs me, but my inability to handle the disturbance caused by the traffic jam that disturbs me than the problem, it's my reaction to the problem that creates chaos in my life.

Lessons learnt from the story:

• I understood, I should not react in life.
• I should always respond.

Reactions are always instinctive whereas responses are always well thought of, just and right to save a situation from going out of hands, to avoid cracks in relationship, to avoid taking decisions in anger, anxiety, stress or hurry.

Are smartphone users are dumb users???

It is most contradictory statement that I can say.....

The reasons for making such a statement are as follows:-

• The value we derive from our smartphones are less compared to what we paid for
• We are not aware of many functions in the smartphone
• Many functions are not used i.e., underutilized 

These are points are can recall as of now...

If anyone has view points on this topic please post as comments...