Today I attended a lecture on Principles of Organisation and Management delivered by Dr. T Prasad in NITIE. I am not a big fan of attending a double lecture ( 4 hrs ) on a trot, but this lecture was a breath of fresh air. It gave me a feeling that I am being introduced to the world of management. Dr. Prasad always kept us on our toes. He demanded us to be inquisitive. He wanted us to question each and every thing, to be pro-active and to think out of the box.
He had brought a college project made by the students of VJTI (Mumbai). This rather simple looking project was based on the principal of conservation of energy. The project was just a brilliant execution of principles of physics. The hard work and the vision of VJTI students was laudable. But the challenge before us management student was to make this efficient object effective in order to inculcate in it the power of excellence. " Excellence = Efficiency x Effectiveness". The challenge was to persuade the people that the commodity is worth buying and it is worth each and every penny of theirs. . The biggest challenge in front of MBA student is to conceptualize the marketing strategy of such product to make the product saleable. This is the story behind "MANDI", a project wherein the Small Scale Products of NGO are sold on the streets to the prospective customers.
He also asked us to question ourselves the opportunity cost of our education in NITIE. This opportunity cost can be recovered in two years of college provided the student and the best way to recover it is by starting our own business which literally translates into “HAMARA DHANDA”, a NITIE project which encourages student to come up with innovative ideas for start up.
TOWER BUILDING EXERCISE
This exercise involved piling up maximum number small cubes one over the other without collapsing the structure. It had to be done by a single person using his odd hand. All the students were asked to estimate the how high the tower can be built. Students came with varied number of estimates ranging from 10 to 30. The tower height achieved was 18. Then the next task was to redo the same project but this time it had to be done by two people. One of them had to build the tower blindfolded with his odd hand and the other had to guide him through the entire building process. The students were asked again to estimate the maximum height the tower could achieve. Almost 65 students lowered their estimate while 2 students retained the same estimate and only 1 increased his estimate.
The above exercise gives very interesting conclusion. Any organisation aspires to grow. Hence it is important that they always increase their annual/ monthly target. This exercise was very much akin to the practise of an organisation. I, myself had lowered my estimate. I got apprehensive of the fact that the tower had to be built by a blind folded person. I felt had a blindfolded person would display lesser skill than an open-eyed person. Also practically setting a higher target would be unfeasible. However I did not take into account that there would be another person to guide him all the way. The two, if they work in unison could achieve higher targets. Besides the exercise had to be done for the second time so there wasn’t any unfamiliarity associated with it. All that is required is to give the assurance to the team member that higher target is achievable.
It was a bad management decision on my part because I feel that a manager should face the odds to better his performance. One thing I realized today is that management in contrast to engineering is not bound by rules or structure. When we think of management sky is the limit. We can come up with many innovative ideas defying the existing structure and try to implement them to the best of our knowledge to make it a successful venture.
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