After going through my blogs I hope you would have gained at least some knowledge of the subject "Principles Of Organization Management" taught by Dr. Mandi at NITIE.
In end I would like to present all of you my Digital CV:
I thank professor Dr. Mandi for teaching us this subject in such a wonderful manner. For the first time in life I had found such a faculty who emphasizes more on practical approach of learning rather than theoretical.
Thank you all for reading & commenting on my blogs.
Here is another insightful session arranged by Dr. Mandi for interaction with our immediate IM19 batch seniors.
Prateek Kureel Meet Merchant Sagar Tamboli
A very enriching experience and after listening to their interaction it seems that they have been successful in achieving their target. They have done a commendable job & they have earned respect in NITIE.
Let me talk about their work: Company: www.gift-rakhi.com
How they are going to capture Market?
In today's times both brother & sister don't reside under one roof as they both are either studying, working at some far location. There could be many reaons for this. E-Commerce is booming business in today's environment. Our seniors have developed a website through which one can send rakhi on just a click of mouse.
What an amazing idea !!!
How were they able to manage this along with studies ?
As per them one thing that is required for such things is: Passion. Work divison among team members helped in decresing the load.
One designed website. Their website is designed in a manner such that even a naive can also use without any hindrance. They also asked to visit website and provide feedback and they were open to any criticism.
Such statements can be spoken by an entrepreneur only. This is very important quality of entrepreneurs that I admire the most, willingness to accept criticism and working on them.
One student in class raised doubt that "Readability" is the issue on the website. To improve it one can focus on embedding Zoom-in & Zoom-out feature. As a result customer would be able to view the items more closely & get look and feel of the product. The discussion then moved to payment gateway: Cc Avenue payment gateway is the largest payment gateway in India. Getting approval from Cc Avenue was the biggest achievement for them till now.
A little about CCAvenue:
Cc Avenue provides the online payment method to all customer and is considered to be fully reliable and safe payment gateway.
Association with partners of such a repute would also serve as a important in attracting customer as now they will be less hesitant to pay money online.
What about Marketing ?
Broadly two ways:
a) Online
b) Word of Mouth
Another way that I want to suggest them is to put up posters, advertisement in newspaper according to their budget. As all this will lead to sales boost.
Having offline or ground promotion is also an added advantage.
What about Procurement ?
They have signed a deal with the delivery vendor.
How to boost Sales?
They are doing this by giving gifts for free. A Rakhi along with the gifts is an wonderful strategy.
What I have realized from their discussion is that people automatically develops the various kind of skills such as leadership, managerial skills,
public relations etc. when is involved in start-ups.
It was clearly visible from their way of conversation, body language. I am assured that Dr. Mandi would be proud of them.
For my friends I would like to recommend that do visit, make a transaction at the website after reading this blog. Also tell your friends about existence of such a website. Free gifts also along with Rakhi.
So celebrate & start gifting Rakhi the online way !!! Thanks Dr. T. Prasad for organizing such sessions and focusing on practical way of teaching rather than textbook teaching methodology
Let's begin with definition of Organization Structure: An organizational structure comprising of activities such as: a) Task allocation, b) Coordination and c) Supervision
which are directed towards the achievement of organizational aims. OR It can also be considered as the viewing glass or perspective through which individuals see their organization and its environment. What are the ways through which Organization action is affected by Organization Structure ? a) Laying the foundation on which standard operating procedures and routines rest. b) Determines which individuals get to participate in which decision-making processes, and thus to what extent their views shape the organization’s actions.
The impact of inadequate Organizational structure is very harmful: E.g., A wrong organizational structure may hamper cooperation and thus hinder the completion of orders in due time and within limits of resources and budgets.
What an Organizational structure like be ? Organizational structures shall be adaptive to process requirements, aiming to optimize the ratio of effort and input to output.
What are the different types of Organizational structure? Main types are listed below: 1) Functional Organization
Brings together in one department everyone engaged in one activity or several related activities that are called FUNCTIONS. For example: As shown, the organization is divided by functions into different departments like sales, finance, engineering, HR. A sales manager would be responsible for the sale of all the products which are manufactured by the firm. Prons: Operational efficiency, Cons: Lack of Communication due to which Organization becomes low and inflexible.
Prominent in smaller firms that offer a limited line of products.Makes supervision easier as each manager must be expert in only a narrow range of skills. It also helps to group a particular set of people with the specialized kind of skill set.
But as the organization grow and diversify, some of the problems begin to surface:
a) As each department functional managers need to report to central headquarters (President), it can be difficult to make quick decisions b) Harder to judge performance because which department to blame when a new product fails. c) Difficult to coordinate the functions of members of the entire organization as each department may have difficulty working with other departments in a unified way to achieve organizational goals
2) Product/Market/Divisonal Organization:
Brings together in one work unit all those involved in the production and marketing of a product or a related group of products, all those in a certain geographic area, or all those dealing with a certain type of customer.
This type could follow 3 patterns mentioned below: a) Divison By Product
As shown the categorization (division) has been done on the basis of broad category of products. And each category of related group of products has its own marketing, sales, purchasing and inventory manager.
b) Divison By Geography
Geographical organization is logical when a plant must be located as close as possible to sources of raw materials, to major markets, or to specialized personnel.
c) Divison By Customer
d) Matrix Structure
The matrix structure groups employees by both function and product. This structure can combine the best of both separate structures. A matrix organization frequently uses teams of employees to accomplish work, in order to take advantage of the strengths, as well as make up for the weaknesses, of functional and decentralized forms. An example would be a company that produces two products: "product a" and "product b".
Using the matrix structure, this company would organize functions within the company as follows: Product a: Sales department, customer service department, accounting, Product b: sales department, customer service department, accounting department.
Matrix structure is amongst the purest of organizational structures, a simple lattice emulating order and regularity demonstrated in nature.
Weak/Functional Matrix: A project manager with only limited authority is assigned to oversee the cross- functional aspects of the project. The functional managers maintain control over their resources and project areas.
Balanced/Functional Matrix: A project manager is assigned to oversee the project. Power is shared equally between the project manager and the functional managers. It brings the best aspects of functional and projectized organizations. However, this is the most difficult system to maintain as the sharing of power is a delicate proposition.
Strong/Project Matrix: A project manager is primarily responsible for the project. Functional managers provide technical expertise and assign resources as needed
Deciding among different kinds of Organizational structure is a difficult decision. Its important to look an organizations size, no of facilities located in different geographical areas, marketing strategy, business philosophy etc. while making this decision. Regardless of the type of structure you choose, it's important to clearly communicate expectations to employees at all levels, making sure that each member of the team is clear about his or her reporting lines
Mr. Nikhil Kulkarni
[Manager at Management Consulting - IT Advisory, KPMG
]
Linked profile: http://in.linkedin.com/in/nkulkarni
(Founder of India's 1st online business gaming challenge - Mastishk here at NITIE)
It can be accessed by the link: http://mastishk.nitie.net/
Currently Nikhil is working with KPMG in Banking & Financial Services domain. After listening to his ideas we were sppechless.
Later on discussion moved to topic which is on tongue of every young Generation manager 'Entrepreneurship'. On being of asked for the same from class some students raised hands. Digging deep inside this topic we realized for many of us Entrepreneurship seems as an exit option from mundane job lives.
This is hard truth that we never hear stories of those who failed, this is because their stories goes unsung, and he very few who succeed catches limelight. Peep deep inside the ground realities before dreaming to be a billionaire overnight.
As per Nikhil: "A start-up demands extreme patience and passion and if you are ready for both it is THE thing for you". If confused by even 1% then don't traverse this path.
Is there a difference b/w efforts & responsibilities of job creator & doing a job as an employee?
Neither the efforts nor the responsibilities are less anywhere. Positives about job are that one can switch it whenever he desires.Being an job creator in doesn't makes you boss infact you too have to answer your stakeholders, client etc.
Hemant is Co-Founder of Mastishk, a very active person. Then both shared their experiences about of Mastishk initial hurdles and what they learnt from it.
Now enters our 3rd alum: After this stage the discussion was very enriching and it was an eye opener session for us.
They assured us of any help from their side to maximize usage of these 2 years of MBA.
I would like to thanks Dr. T. Prasad alias Dr. Mandi for organizing such an enriching session. I hope we come across more sessions like this in future, as such a session removes all doubts from our minds and sets a vision.
Alumni Name: Amit Shah
The discussion was mostly regarding "value addition to his/her existing skills along with regular up gradation of competencies"
Anybody can know about Amit Shah from below link:
Executive VP & Country Head,
Corporate Branding, Marketing and Strategic Communication at YES Bank
Discussion was open house and mostly audience driven.
Learning can be summarized as below:
1. Achieve Success:
Work with a motive for value addition. It begins with very 1st step of "Evaluating Yourself". Nobody can tell your weakness better than you yourself can. So search for the areas which you think are weak and soon start working on them. This process can be explained by below mentioned figure in a concise manner:
Now comes "Secrets of success" that comprises of
a) Competencies (Behavioral traits eg- Leadership etc. )
b) Knowledge and skills (Specialized courses eg-SCM, IT)
c) Delivery (Exceed set targets, meeting revenue targets, objectives etc.
Now comes the main Q: What is the purpose of existence of a B-School ?
Apart from regular textbooks a B-School should have
a) Club & Committees to provide students hands-on-experience on theory
b) Adequate time for preparing for certifications
c) Enough Project works, events
I am very thankful to Dr. Mandi to not limiting our minds to textbooks infact imparting us extra knowledge by putting lot of efforts in convincing Alumni's to come and talk to us.
In today's lecture Dr. Mandi asked us to perform
valley crossing exercise in a group of three. The agenda behind this exercise
was to learn Organizational Management.
The task at hand required a group of three people to move
from left side of the valley to the right side with the help of a pole. After
closely analyzing the task I would say the key ingredient to success were
1)Coordination among
team members
2)Efficient execution
of the strategy devise
This activity
also demonstrated how an organization works, how the roles and responsibilities
are assigned to the employees and how safety can become an important aspect in
increasing the efficiency of the organization.
Team work is
very important
There were 3 states that came up during valley crossing
which are listed as below
Safe State: Safe state is the one in which both the feet
of a person is on ground and he is in not in danger.
Half Safe: Half Safe is the state in which one leg of the
man is in air and the other one on ground.
Full Risky: Full risky is the state in which both the
legs of the man is in air and his body weight is supported by the other two
men.
All these states are clear from the below picture:
Main learning's from the above exercise can be summarized as below:
1. Responsibility: Every role is equally responsible. In a team every person
shares a similar role but not the same role i.e. there is no differentiation of
work between the persons doing the valley crossing.
2.Faith:Trust was necessary for them because when somebody was in
full risky state all of his hope was on the other two and if any of the two
failed then he could have fallen into the valley
3.Effective Strategy Implementation:Strategy and planning are futile without effective
implementation
4. Training:Proper training is essential to achieve the desired level
of results
5. Goal:There should be a well defined goal and every team member
should have absolute clarity about it
6. Trust:Mutual trust and belief are the foundation of a good team
7. Leadership:Leadership and team work aren’t two separate entities.
Collective leadership from the team delivers optimum results
8. Accountability And Responsibility:Every team member is accountable and responsible for the
job at hand
9. Innovation:There has to be openness in terms of new ideas and suggestion
Management concepts can also be learned from movies. In this blog I am going to talk about management learning that I received from a very famous movie: "Story of 3 Monks".
History:
The story of the three Buddhist Monks is an anime film directed by A Da. The film has got many recognitions including:
Won the outstanding film award at China's Ministry of Culture.
Won the Best animated film prize at the first Golden Rooster Awards in 1981.
Silver Prize at the 4th Odense International Fairytale Film Festival in Denmark
Silver Bear Prize at the 32nd Berlin International Film Festival
Best Film Awards at Portugal International Film Festival
It is a short and beautiful movie with a wonderful message. A must watch for managers and practitioners who try to implement working-teams in an organization without looking at the other side of the picture.
Here is the movie:
The film 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.
Learnings
The movie throws light on some important concepts of management. Here the concepts that I learned:
1. Team work:
Its true that team work enhances the effectiveness and efficiency of any task. In an organization it is very important to keep personal ego aside and perform the duty at hand for the greater good.
Even in movie it is shown at time, when they all gel with each other and save the temple by extinguishing fire.
Without Cooperation: 1 monk can fetch 2 buckets of water, 2 monks can fetch 1 bucket of water and 3 monks will fetch no water at all. With cooperation: 3 monks can increase the efficiency of the process to a level previously unattainable. (Innovation, creativity etc plays an important part).
2. Conflict:
When there is more than one person on any job, disputes are unavoidable. In an organization, selfish motives must be detected and discouraged for
the good of the many. All members of a team working together towards a
common goal is the best practice of work.
3. Innovation:
When the inevitable conflicts arise they should be dealt with scientifically and methodically.
For example in movie the problem of placing the bucket at a position, so that the weight is balanced for the two monks, was resolved using a scale. Similarly in end the pulley system was used to haul water from river.
4. Synergy
The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. A coordinated effort by monks proved very effective in dousing the fire.
5. Productivity
Productivity is Important. Productivity is about how well an
organization converts resource inputs into goods or services. Workplace
productivity is about how firms can utilize labor and skills,
innovation, technology and organizational structure to improve the
quantity and quality of their output.
Excellence = Efficiency X Effectiveness
Efficiency can be described by productivity ratio which is Total output/ Total input. One of the important functions of a manager is to optimize the process, improve the work design and try to aim for the most efficient process.
We see that even during the fire, when all the monks were doing extra effort, their efficiency level is not at par with the final solution. This it is important for managers to be thought leaders and try to come up with innovative solutions to improve efficiency.
These were my learning from the movie. Do comment if you learn something different from the movie, so that even I get to know about that.
Keep looking this space for more lessons on 'Principles Of Organization And Management' taught my Prof. Mandi at NITIE.
