LE01&02

Here I am writing my first blog only because it's a part of my assignment which brings me to the topic for this blog, the class on Principles of Organisation and Management. Just when I was expecting a serious looking professor,meaning only business walk into the room I see a guy with a broad smile walk in. He starts off with a couple of jokes and then starts pulling out some toys which most of us have never seen before. And then he starts explaining physics using one of them. Now, I'm a little surprised regarding the course content and then he says that the toys are meant to be sold and talks about how everyone should be made self reliant even school kids. And then it falls into place, he was trying to emphasis the value of self reliance in us and was trying to motivate us to become entrepreneurs.

So far having been brought up with the sole purpose of being expected to study while studying this was a change in perspective i.e. being expected to earn as well to fulfill all our daily needs. After this he went on to show how much we really were investing over the next two years and that's when it dawned on me that what he was saying was true and we should earn what we spend. But the question is HOW?

Well, I haven't yet decided on the HOW yet but I'm motivated enough to take the risks and take up entrepreneurship. The session then depicted the need for teamwork, for it is only when we work in a team that the output of the company can be generated faster and multiplied while distributing the responsibility among everyone.

The session ended with a game to build a tower of cubes for which people were asked to bid money just to try, again the purpose, 'One should be ready to take risks as a manager'. Now, I was beginning to like this MBA course more and more. This was a huge change from what I saw in my schools and colleges where most of us are expected to just listen and there has never been enough motivation to participate in the class. The purpose of the game was to emphasis on the Excellence. By Excellence I mean, something that's extraordinary and everyone wants to have it and can have it.

This Excellence comprises two components Efficiency and Effectiveness. By Efficiency I mean the quality of work done by the doer which in this case was building the tower i.e. the tower should be stable, it shouldn't collapse after sometime. To maintain this Efficiency the person tries to limit the no. of cubes used but here comes Effectiveness i.e. the no. of cubes are made optimum while maintaining the efficiency. When both these components become maximum possible we get Excellence i.e. something outstanding and difficult to surpass. Relating this game to that of an organizational working, the managers imbibe Effectiveness while the other workers or employees are responsible for the Efficiency. Only when both these forces combine mutually can one get Excellence. Ex. During the initial days of Apple, Steve jobs brought in the Effectiveness and Steve Wozniak the Efficiency and today it portrays Excellence.

I always thought excellence came from the one doing the task i.e. in the above example Wozniak because it was his brains which implemented it all but after the session I realized that without Steve Jobs, wozniak would have never been able to do it. In the nutshell, managers are the ones who bring in Excellence and Apple would have existed even without Wozniak but not vice-versa.