Nah-Go Skills

9:05am
P1 – Baahar kyon khada hai yaar? Class hasn’t started?
P2 – Nahin, he has locked the room from inside.
P1 – Sahi, Chal breakfast karte hain. Which class was this btw?
P2 – Negotiation Skills.
P1 – hahaha, lets “negotiate” with him in that case. Kidding, chal yaar, I am hungry, breakfast karte hain.
By that time, P3, P4, P5 … P15, P16 had also gathered outside the class.

*At breakfast table*
P1 – What is the next class?
P3 – Same, Nego ka hi hai.

10:30am
Prof – I see more people in this class than the previous class.
P46 – Yes sir, some of them were late for the first class, so they have joined us.
Prof – But this is a “back-to-back” class. Should we allow these people to attend this class?
P32 – Sir, since today is the first class, I think we can allow them.
Prof – But, discipline is very important and we should ensure that we follow the timings since we are going to be budding managers.
P54 – Sir, we can give them a chance.
Prof - *Scratches head, chin* Nah-Go
P10 – Sir, what!?
Prof – NAH-GO

P1 to P16 (and P17) walk out of the class. Professor watches them in surprise, wants to speak, but before he could say anything more, all late comers were outside the class.

P8 – After a long time I have been thrown out of the class.
P3 – Hmmm, it was bad.
P17 – Kya hua people. Chalo, chalo, chalte hain.
P1 – Tu subah kahan tha. We didn’t see you when we were all standing outside the class.
P17 – I was inside the class. Got a chance to skip the second class hence came out with you guys.

Just then, P4, after a long deliberation, utters something.

P4 – Guys, I think, he was asking us to “Negotiate”.
P1 – Kya bakwaas kar raha hai. He clearly said, Nah-Go.
P4 – Precisely. He was asking us to “NEGO” - short for negotiate.
P12 – Shucks, and we thought, he was asking us to leave the class!
P17 (the guy who was there in the first class) – Chalo, chalo, chalte hain. Mast mausam hai, chill karte hain.

Regards,
Mridul Baldi

Supply Chain Management - I2 Technologies

Supply Chain Management has become the buzz word in the modern business. It has become part and parcel of efficiency improvement exercise in today’s business. The importance of SCM was also realized by the students pursuing PGPM at SPJIMR, Mumbai. So these sharp minds tried to delve further in the topic and invited a top notch supply chain professional from the leading Supply Chain Company “I2 Technologies”. Mr. Jiten Sandhu, Senior Director, I2 technologies was on the campus explaining the nuances of IT in Supply Chain Management on 9^th May, 2008.

Mr. Sandhu started with a video which was an eye opener and brought out the importance of SCM in the success or failure of any business. Then Mr. Sandhu started his power point presentation which was intellectually stimulating. But the participants of PGPM were also not be left behind. They bombarded Mr. Sandhu with questions and a person of his caliber was also left gasping for life. PGPM students brought out the nuances of the subject and the session was very interactive.

IT as we all know has become important support function of all the industries so much so that the new business models are being decided keeping IT in mind. In the areas of SCM also IT has started playing a very important role. The role that IT can play in making Supply Chain effective is tremendous. Mr. Sandhu explained these intricacies in details and the participants were spellbound by the way he handled this complex subject. He explained how IT has changed the way we look at the Supply Chain issues. He explained as to how IT can be used in the successful planning in today’s business. He explained as to how the IT has helped companies to evaluate alternatives, and make effective decisions at the speed of business change. IT tools enables companies to boost customer service levels due to increased product availability and improved responsiveness. Cash-to-cash cycles are lowered with synchronized planning and execution. Better decision-making using IT leads to reduced expediting costs and operating expenses. As productivity increases, companies reduce costs for system changes and upgrades, as well as improve the return on investment from information technology assets.

In a nutshell it was very stimulating session which both the students and Mr. Sandhu enjoyed, who was very impressed with the questions which the students asked. The importance of IT in Supply Chain and Supply Chain per se was realized. Many participants after attending the session have become very much interested in Supply Chain Management and have decided to make a carrier in the hot and happening field of SCM.

Rahula Kr Kashyapa,

PR Committee, PGPM

SPJIMR

70 minute, 70 minute hain tumhaare paas!

Following is the text of the inspirational talk given by our professor just before the Nucor case group work began. This is for all those of you who came in a little late and missed the talk.

“70 minute, 70 minute hain tumhaare paas!

Shaayad tumhare Business Strategy course ke sabse khaas 70 minute.

Aaj tum achchi strategy banao ya buri, yeh 70 minute tumhein poore General Management trimester mein yaad rahenge.

To kaise strategy banana hai, aaja mainn tumhein nahin bataoonga.

Pchchch *shakes head*

Bas itna kahoonga, ki jaao, aur yeh 70 minute jee bhar ke strategy banao, kyonki iske baad aane waale sessions mein, chahe kuch sahi ho ya na ho, chahe tum 5 Forces framework lagao ya 7 S’s framework, tum pass ho ya fail ho, lekin yeh 70 minute tumse koi nahin chheen sakta, koi nahin.

To, meine sooncha ki, is class mein kaise strategy banana hai, aaj mein tumhe nahin bataonga, balki tum mujhe bataoge - startegy banaakar.

Kyonki mein jaanta hoon, ki agar yeh 70 minute, is class ka har ‘participant’ apne General Management trimester ki sabse badhiya strategy bana gaya, to yeh 70 minute SPJIMR bhi tumse wapas nahin maang sakta.

To jaao, jaao aur apne aap se, PGPMRA se, SPJIMR se, aur har us Prof. se jisne tum par bharosa nahin kiya, apne 70 minute chheen lo.”

PS: Pun Intended, No Offences Meant – Seriously :-)

The Six Thinking Hats by Edward de Bono

10:30am-1PM, 5^th May 2008, Bhavan’s Campus (The ‘Pranganga’ Lakeside):

Buntings in various colours fluttering in the hot summer wind, an open-air amphitheatre filled by an attentive (but occasionally raucous) young crowd. A table with a half-dozen occupants, at once part of and distinct from the crowd, is discussing animatedly while an indulgent (but sharp-eyed) lady looks on from the side-lines, and interjects sporadically. The casual observer might be forgiven for thinking that it is a political rally in progress, though he would be stumped when asked to identify the political party from the buntings- hats painted in six different colours. Hats, still reminiscent of the colonial sahib are an unlikely party symbol in India.

But heck, no! This was no political rally or camp, despite all superficial resemblances. Indeed, far from it- it was a PGPM Session on the Six Thinking Hats (ah, now you understand the buntings and the colours! J) by Dr. Edward de Bono, conducted by our respected Professor Rukaiya (the sharp-eyed lady mentioned above). (PGPM, by the way, is the Post Graduate Program in Management is a 1-year full time management program in SPJIMR, Mumbai for professionals with experience greater than 5 years in Manufacturing and Operations).

Leaving the lighter vein, the session was indeed a refreshing eye-opener. Workshop, training and group interaction in equal measure, the session was a tremendous success and extremely well-received by the participants. The Six Thinking Hats is a system of thinking strategies for individuals, each Hat representing a different strategy. The Red Hat represents Emotional thinking. The Yellow Hat represents Positive thinking. The Black Hat represents Critical thinking. The White Hat is purely the facts. The Green Hat is Creative thinking. The Blue Hat represents the Big Picture, sort of looking at it from all the viewpoints.

The Six Thinking Hats way opens up the power of parallel thinking and at the same time is an aid to lateral thinking. Dr. de Bono describes six different approaches and each is symbolised by the act of putting on a coloured hat, either actually or imaginatively; the hats are as described above. This can be done either by individuals working alone or in groups.

The session was a splendid example of SPJIMR’s unique ‘Innovative pedagogy’. The participants were divided at random into groups of 6-8 and given a random topic to discuss on, with a group moderator selected at random from the group. Each group was asked to discuss the topic given for 10 minutes. The moderator would anchor the discussion and guide the group through the relevant hats to be worn for each stage of the discussion and was also responsible for timekeeping.

Topics ranged from the highly charged (‘Is T20 a form of Cricket?’) to current affairs (‘Oil above $115 a barrel’- this doesn’t seem very current now with Oil at $135, though) to the political (‘Mee Mumbaikar’) to the mundane (‘Personnel problems post mergers and acquisitions’). But what was astounding was the way the groups, with no prior preparation apart from a reading of Dr. de Bono’s book took the topics up and in a mind-boggling display of parallel thinking. Changing their metaphorical hats every 90 seconds on average, every group came up with salient points on various aspects of the topic/problem. With sound application of the concepts learned from the book, all the groups demonstrated an enhanced ability to think in parallel (‘on the same wavelength’), avoid debate and in the most astonishing display of the power of the Six Thinking Hats, reach a consensus on most topics within the time allotted. Not to be left behind on lateral thinking either, the groups managed to come up with innovative (if somewhat idealistic) solutions to the issues presented in the topics while wearing their ‘Green Hats’.

Another revelation was the ability of some of the randomly selected moderators to control and guide the group through the discussion, keeping track of time( and the Hats!) while eliciting the responses of all members and summing up at the end!! Vaibhav’s style for the cricket based topic, reminiscent of Harsha Bhogle, was much appreciated. At least one guy has an alternative career ready should he ever need it (or even if he doesn’t)!

But all this fun, as with all good things in life came at a cost- self-evaluation, peer evaluation and the much-dreaded post facto ‘write-up’. Every participant graded each group and group member on a variety of parameters (moderators were graded separately) and also did a self-evaluation of his/her own performance with critical comments for the other groups. Of course, the Professor did her own appraisal of each group’s performance.

At then of the 2-odd hours, all of us came away richer and wiser. Specifically, through the group interactions and the thought-stimulation that had occurred, there were a few key learning points.

The importance and the power of parallel and systematic thinking in the Six Thinking Hats framework as opposed to conventional thinking is in bringing out the

· The power of collaboration

· The value of different perspectives brought in by divergent viewpoints

· The ease and the speed in reaching decisions

· Avoiding unnecessary debate

· The improvements in general communication and in lateral thinking

All of us enjoyed the session thoroughly and look forward to more of the same! (Though we would prefer an AC classroom and no write-up the next time J)

- by Prashanth Sadashivan