Video Blog on POM

Core of Principles of Management

Flipkart – 0 to $100 million in five year

Flipkart presents an interesting story of Indian entrepreneurship. A company started by two IIT D graduates, Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, has become synonyms of e-commerce in Indian Market. How did it happen? Before discussing this, let me show you a brief timeline of Flipkart history.

Flipkart started by selling books and in stages they have expanded to include almost everything under the sun. Looking at their milestones provide a good insight for entrepreneurs on how to establish their business. Let’s split the flipkart story in different parts to understand what made flipkart India’s Amazon.

Small and focused start

 They started by selling books, which required small initial budget. Since they were new in market and had no money for advertisement, they relied on word of mouth publicity. And, for having an effective word of mouth they kept the prices as low as possible. Now, people were getting books at lower prices without taking pain of going to bookstores.

Surprise customer through fast delivery 

From starting Flipkart distinguished itself with other competitors by having a super-fast delivery. Many times, people ordered book and it reached next day itself. Indian consumer habituated of late delivery in everything found it pleasantly surprising and went on a publicity spree for flipkart.

Keep on growing

If we see flipkart’s timeline, they expanded their product category every year after reaching break even. They were already getting a huge no. of page views daily. Increasing product category ensured a 100% increase in revenue every quarter.

Cash on delivery and Cash on Card

 This was one of the most innovative and bold step taken by flipkart. People in India were still skeptical about paying online. Getting things without advance payment delighted customers. They can be more casual in ordering now. In case they don’t like a product or find any defect, they can cancel the order with zero risk. People without credit or debit card can also order. It made online shopping affordable to everybody, which was a luxury earlier.

Range of Product

Flipkart boasts of having around 11.5 million book titles available in their catalogue. It has almost all the brands available for other products as well. It is having around 1 million tracks of 55 different genres in its music store. This fulfils customer’s stated ,unstated and latent wants as well.

Organizational Structure 

Flipkart has focused equally in both operation and Technology. Below is the top view of its Organization structure.

 Till now, it has been a great ride for flipkart. It is growing with a rate of 100% every quarter. This has resulted in significant increase in operational cost. On the operational front, company is facing issues pertaining to delay in delivery or getting faulty products delivered. It faces significant challenge in reverse logistics. It’s a big task to track unsuccessful orders, which are quite costly to track. Flipkart is planning of bigger investments in supply chain and technology to enable large warehouse and increase process automation. Flipkart is also facing huge losses due to cash on delivery for mainly two reasons,  1^st it makes cash flow routed through courier companies, who  charges a hefty amount and 2^nd there are more rejected orders due to customer fickle mindedness.  Recently, flipkart bought letsbuy.com for $25 million. This all has made getting a good funding source essential for flipkart. At the same time Bansal are having more than 30% of flipkart’s shares, so they have  very little to offer for new investors. Recently, Bansals failed to get funding from General Atlantic . They have not been able to get any big investor apart from their first investor Accel India. 

With bigger players coming in the market, increasing cost of operation and chipping in profit margins, it will be a tough road ahead for flipkart.

3 Monks - A Sanghai Animation Studio Presentation

Let me show you one small animation film made by Shanghai animation studio. This is based upon 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.” This rib-tickling movie depicts the human psychology imbedded with many management lessons. I will put movie in multiple parts to provide some mastication and pose some riddles.

Q:- How would you solve the current issue?

Before seeing the clip below, please prepare a plan to solve the issue.

Quite simple, Isn’t it. Divide the work equally by measuring equal lengths from both ends and fix the bucket in middle.  But, when Dr. Mandi asked same question in the class most of the people start thinking in the direction of resolving the fight through dialogue, motivation etc. Here, we need to notice that any problem need to be addressed both at micro and macro level. We must focus on solving the current issue first and then start looking at bigger picture.

Let’s see part 3 of the video.

So, finally all the three have decided to work together. Now they need to formulate a plan to use their combined power for solving water crisis effectively.  What will you suggest them.

Think!

Think!

Think!

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 let’s see the solution they come up with.

And the temple never lacks the water again.

Creative Problem Solving
 Here, major point is to observe that one side of mountain is vertical and it touches the lake directly. We see it many times but miss to observe. Very few students were able to thought of it, when this question arouse in class. For having an optimal solution, we need to think creatively and as a team.

Other lessons from this whole video

Situation changes people
 If you observe carefully all the monks are portrayed as good person through some action they do in their appearance, like planting flower, putting fish in water etc. When they reach at monastery, they fill water without any rivalry. But, soon they get a feeling that others are doing less or consuming more. This brings significant change in their behavior. When solving a problem we should examine situation more closely before blaming any person, because we may be looking cure for the disease that doesn’t exist.

“Understanding can overcome any situation, however mysterious or insurmountable it may appear to be.” - Norman Vincent Peale 

Responsibility sharing
 All the problems were arising because there was no clear role distribution. So, everybody was trying to elude from filling water. Responsibility sharing should also be done judiciously to avoid any clash.

Productivity
Productivity can be enhanced by Team work and creative problem solving as we saw in the last clip. While many people keep on looking for improving the existing method, there may be a whole new way for an efficient solution. Like  they did in last clip by 

On the high end of creativity

Unity is strength 
“We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided.” – J.K.Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

 Together they managed to save monastery and improve productivity.

This movie was released in 1980 and went on winning many awards.

Awards

§  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.

§  Won four international awards including a Silver Bear for Short Film at the 32nd Berlin Film Festival in 1982.

There are still many life lessons you can find in this video. Do you see any? Please comment.

Team Work in valley crossing

Sometimes a picture says more than words. When Dr. Prasad started discussing this picture in class, we had little idea that we can learn this much from this picture. We also simulated this activity in classroom. It was a funfilled exercise full of insights.

Organisations are made of Teams. Good Teamwork is essential for high performance in any business.

“Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.” – Michael Jordan

Having a talented individual can produce results only partly. For a complete solution/success, we need strong teams. That is why Organisations prefer a Team worker to an individual contributor with no team spirit even if the latter one is much more talented. Even if one person is so capable that he can perform all the tasks individually, an Organisation should not let him, because it will reduce reliability, flexibility and sustainability. There may be cases when that particular person is unavailable, simulated by hanging man in valley crossing exercise. Suddenly there may be some huge workload (two person carrying weight of pole and 3^rd person) or a new work may come where the same person may not be competent enough.

Here, as we see in valley crossing exercise, 3 people have to cross a valley. It is wide enough that they can’t jump to other side. So, they form a Team. They get connected with the help of a pole (metaphor for an organisation). In the end, they are able to cross the valley. It looks simple, but it is not. When we started doing this activity in real, it needed a lot of iterations to complete it successfully. Let me list out the ingredients required for successful completion of this task. These are the same things required for a good team work.

Planning: - Suppose, we are 3 people. We are provided with a pole and we need to cross the valley. Our 1^st step will be to form a Team and formulate the plan. The plan should be focused on how we can leverage our strength as a team. Though, we have already seen the picture, plan was already  out.

Proper communication: - Communication is very important both in Planning and executing period. Everybody needs to understand their role clearly. There should be a smooth flow of communication even at the time of executing task. As, we saw during activity, assuming the solution to be simple, people didn’t allocate proper time to understand their role clearly. It resulted in bad co-ordination. One person moved one step ahead while other person stood at same place. People were hanging on pole in wrong sequence or at wrong time. Though, Task was finally completed with the help of proper communication at the execution time. There may be possibility that while formulating the plan people are not 100% clear about their role, though they think so. Effective initial communication can avoid this situation and proper communication during task performance will ensure a successful task even if there was some gap at 1^st stage.

Responsibility: - Everybody in Team needs to be accountable. Suppose, if one person either in front or back leaves the pole while 2^nd person is hanging in middle, both 2^nd and 3^rd person will not be able to cross the valley.

Trust: - As a Team member, we need to trust other team members. In the valley crossing exercise, if all three people do not trust each other, nobody will get ready to hang on pole in the valley with their life at stake. Trust is build over time and as a manager we must ensure to create an environment where one team member can trust other.

Coordination :- Coordination is the important factor in making the crossing successful. Every team member need to be equidistant. They must move step at same time. They also need to cover equal length in every step. They must be aware of timing when they need to put extra effort, also the amount of extra effort required. For good coordination,Team need to do proper planning, have good communication,take responsibility and trust each other.

Lecture 2

Theory X, Theory Y

In this lecture Prof. T Prasad discussed about 2 types of manger and employee, Type X and Type Y. The combination can be explained through below table.

Manager Type	Employee Type	Condition Description
X	X	Employee is lazy and manager thinks that employee is lazy.
X	Y	Employee is good but manager think employee is lazy.
Y	X	Employee is lazy but manager think employee is good.
Y	Y	Employee is good and manager think employee is good.

Condition 1:- Employee is lazy and Manager assumes that employee is lazy. This is a condition where both effectiveness and efficiency is compromised. Manager doesn’t motivate employee or try to find the ways to improve employee’s productivity. This condition is degenerative for Organization. We can see this scenario in lot of govt. organizations and this has been major reason for low productivity among them.

Condition 2:- Employee is good but manager think employee is lazy.This condition is also not good. Employee is trying to do his best but he is getting no incentive for that. Manager is not providing proper appreciation and motivation to employee. This results in deteriorating performance by employee, inclining the organization to move towards Condition 1.

Condition 3:- Employee is lazy but manager still treat him like a good employee. He provides proper motivation and feed back to employee, which results in better performance by employee, inclining the organization to move towards Condition 2.This is like Pygmalion phenomenon. ‘Things happen when they are expected’. I have seen similar cases in my company where my manager believed in every employee having some positive quality and that’s the reason they are working in the organization. He provided employee full flexibility to work in the part of the project they were interested in. he also encouraged employee to inculcate other leadership activities via courses facilitated by him and giving employee chance to work in manager’s shoe.

Condition 4:- This is condition for very effective and efficient organization. Employee is good and he is getting proper motivation to strive for better. I had similar experience in my previous organization, where I saw many employee including me transforming in a better person and employee with the help of guidance provided by my manager.

The major learning is that if Manager is of type Y, Organization is bound to move towards excellence irrespective of employee being X or Y type. Though, if employee is of type Y, transition is faster. 

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.