Graahaka: Devo Bhava

Ever wondered why China has grown leaps and bounds on the global business front, while the Western Countries are playing catch up?

About a month back I wanted a quote for some Oil Field Equipment to participate in a tender in Oman. I contacted a Chinese Company, and my query was handled by a young Sales Girl. Despite me giving her a stiff deadline (Just a Week), and giving difficult delivery terms, she did a terrific job. She met my specs, deadline and all other requirements well in advance. Despite a change in spec at the last minute, she, uncomplainingly, reworked the quote so that I was able to prepare my tender well in advance. And she has been following up with me on the fate of the tender religiously since then.

About a week after this, I had to contact a Western Company for a much bigger order of Oil Field Equipment. In this age of falling business in the Oil Sector, one would have expected them to work day and night to give me the quote which was worth nearly $ 7 Million. It is three weeks since I floated the RFQ, and I have been running from pillar to post to get my requirements met. First they didn't respond for a week. Then, they asked me to split the RFQ to three and send to three different people. Later, I got a mail saying it will take time as they are short staffed, as many are on vacation. Then a further excuse that they had to source it from third party. And as I type this blog, I am yet to get the quote for 2 Categories. All this, despite we having excellent personal contacts in that company!!

Unfortunately, Indian Companies also are very poor in meeting Client requirements. If Narendra Modi's push to make India a manufacturing super power has to be realized, he needs to ensure that our Companies have a very high level of customer orientation.

We are proud of our quote 'Athidhi Devo Bhava'

It is time we also chant the mantra

'Graahaka: Devo Bhava'

Go for Specialists any time

The Industrial Era saw the predominance of the Specialists in the workplace. The focus was on maximizing the production, which required in depth knowledge of the task on hand and the technical skills that go with it.

 

Later on, at some stage, there was a gradual shift to the generalists. Maybe the development of Management Science had something to do with it. People were cross trained so that we had jacks of all trades, who were masters at none, running the organizations for a long, long time.

 

This was the norm not only in the Private Sector but also in the Government sector. The IAS officers of India managed everything under the sun, from Districts, to sports, to Industry, to mining, to Nations Finance and even were the preferred choice to head Public Sector Organizations. A guy, who was a middle level IAS officer in the Agricultural Ministry would be posted as head of State Road Transport Corporation. Is it any wonder most Public Sector Undertakings have gone down the drain?

 

We have seen the strange scenario of IT companies recruiting Engineering students, en masse, irrespective of their stream of education in the College? After a few years, a mechanical engineer, so selected will be totally unfit to take up a job in the field of Mechanical Engineering. Education and job has absolutely no relevance, leading to the chaos that is seen in the organizations these days, and also one of the biggest reasons for employee attrition.

 

I was reminded of the above, while reminiscing about the World Cup past. No team that depended on bits and pieces players (with the freak exception of India in 1983, whose victory was an absolute fluke) have won the World Cup. West Indies of 1975 and 1983 had a legendary batting line up, backed by a set of world class fast bowlers. You wouldn't want to be chasing any target against Roberts, Holding, Garner and Marshall. The very thought scares you. 

 

Australia, winners of 1987 had a strong batting line up Boon, Marsh, Jones, Border, Valetta, two world class all rounders in Steve Waugh and Simon O'Donnel, and the bowling was led by McDermot, Reid and May. Both Waugh and Simon could get into the team as either batsman or bowler alone, and can never be considered as also ran players.

 

Imran's Pakistan won the 1992 world cup with a quality balanced team - Aameer Sohail, Rameez Raja, Javed, Salim Malik, Inzamam, Ijaz Ahmed as batsmen, wonderful all rounders in Imran Khan and Wasim Akram, backed by Aquib Javed and Mushtaq in the bowling department. Add to it the fighting wicket keeper Moin Khan. All specialists and no wonder they won the cup hands down.

 

Srilanka won 1996 using their batting might - Jayasurya, Kaluwathirana, Gurusinghe, Aravinda Desilva, Tilakaratne, Mahanama and Arjuna Ranatunga could chase any target down. But don't forget, they had a good bowling attack in Murali, Dharmasena and Vaas, but still the depended on their batting.

 

Australia dominated in the next three world cups and had a phenomenal batting line up led by Gilchrist, Waugh, Hayden and Ponting. They also had McGarth and the redoubtable Shane Warne in their ranks.

India in 2011 again depended on their strong batting - Sehwag, Sachin, Gambhir, Raina, Kohli, Yuvraj and Dhoni. This covered up for their relatively weaker bowling led by Zaheer and Harbhajan. But since the tournament was in India, batting dominated.

The interesting take away from the above is that it doesn't pay to take generalist bits and pieces players, if you want to win the World Cup. England had tried this with disastrous results in the past, and continue to do so. Ditto New Zealand, though they have had a rethink this time around.

History is against it. They why-oh-why is India carrying these below average neither batsman nor bowler players like Stuart Binny, Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja or even Ravichandran Ashwin. And we don't have a strong batting as a cover for them.

I don't see us going beyond Quarter Finals, and we don't deserve to, on form or on talent or on selection.

The most balanced side is South Africa. They have quality batsmen in AB Devillers, Amla and De Plaussis, and a world class bowling attack led by Steyn and Mornie Morkel and a wily coach in Kirsten. My money is on them. This is their best chance to win for a long time, and I hope they do.

And on form, New Zealand could be a finalist.

 

 

 

Management Learnings from Alexander the Great

There is much to learn from History. The famous malayalam poet, Kunjunni Mash, had this to say

"ABCD il undoru thathvam, kalathin thathvam
AD kkullil kidappu BC"

loosely translated it means there is a philosophy of time in ABCD, and that is BC (past) is present in AD (current).

Hence the need to dwell into history.

According to Partha Bose, author of "Alexander the Great's Art of Strategy", modern executives can learn from Alexander's campaigns in three key areas.
"It fundamentally boils down to three things: it is where you want to compete, when and how you want to enter or exit that market and how do you want to go about competing when you are in that market," says Bose.

Alexander's ability to link the three, along with his marvellous organizational skills and ability to delegate makes him an interesting case study from a management historian/students perspective.

His approach towards cultural integration of countries that he has conquered with the Greek culture created a new vibrant culture. An example for transnational companies to emulate.

Read the full article here