Lecture 1

Dhandha

The very 1^st class on Principles of Management made me realize how prominent Dhandha(Business) is  in my day to day life. We deal in transactions all the time. Sometimes it is for a need, sometimes for money or sometimes just for interests. All these things involve investment, whether it is in terms of money, material or any intangible thing. Studying in NITIE is a great opportunity, but it comes with a great opportunity cost, both in terms of money and time. It’s upon us to prove it a good business. In our 1^st Lecture, Prof. T. Prasad introduced us with the concept of Hamara Dhandha (an entrepreneurship cell in NITIE), where we can register and run a company during our stay at NITIE. It will facilitate both learning and earning at same time, making study in NITIE a smarter business. It will help us moving in the direction of Job Seeker to Job Creator.

Mandi

The apt words of Dr. Mandi (Prof. T. Prasad) “Socho – Becho ! Becho – Seekho! Seekho – Becho!” summarizes the whole concept of Mandi.  Mandi is an annual full day event in NITIE, where students sell products made by an NGO. Using the concept of Thinking, Selling and Learning in recurring cycles, students get an opportunity to understand Marketing Concepts through Practice.

Excellence = Effectiveness* Efficiency

Any Organization seeking for excellence should have all its units both effective and efficient. Efficiency and Effectiveness though being inter-related are distinct things. What should be our goal, How should it be achieved is part of effectiveness. Now, when we start working towards our goal, Can we do it faster or with less cost is part of efficiency. In simple words, Effectiveness is Management and Efficiency is Technical.

We studied effective goal setting through Tower Building exercise.

Tower Building Exercise

Aditya(Student from IM 19A Batch) was provided with lot of cubes for building a tower by placing one  over the other. Before starting the task, we were asked to note down the number of cube blocks that he will be able to  built a Tower with before it collapses. Aditya set a target of 10 for himself, though almost everybody thought it can be greater. Eventually Aditya, taking great care and listening/ignoring all the advices pouring in, was able to build a tower of 18 blocks. Everybody was content, Aditya with his performance and we with our guidance.

Now, Prof. Prasad asked us to write our expectations if one of us has to build the tower blindfolded with guidance from others. I, convincingly, reduced the target to 12 considering 18 as possible target with open eyes. It was much to my surprise when Dr. Prasad revealed that a student in other class was able to make a tower of 17 blocks, blindfolded.

This workshop gave me a lot of insight into the problems we face during goal setting. We usually prefer setting a goal much lower than our potential while Management (other students in case of workshop) puts a goal much higher than that. This result in a strenuous relationship between management and employee and most of the time employee ends up performing quite below his/her potential. Goal setting is a combined process and both management and employee should work on setting a smarter goal. Effectiveness is also about performing equally good in adverse conditions. A good management doesn’t just reduces its target due to adverse conditions; it looks for solutions to be equally productive despite adversity, as was displayed by the blindfolded student being able to build 17 blocks tower with the help of other’s guidance.