Engineering is the Camel in the Management Arabs tent!

Engineering focuses on technological problem solving, while Management deals with organizational, planning and administrative competencies.  The relationship between engineering and management is like that of a husband and wife. One complements the other and together they make organizations tick.

 Or is it?

 Like in the institution of marriage, where gender roles were well defined and almost in silos, organizations used to have the roles for engineering and management well defined and in silos. Today, things are different. Skills have become wider, especially with 97% of those admitted tp IIM's being engineers, engineers dominate by far the best positions in Management. Whether this is a good thing or not is a good subject for another debate, however, in the last few decades management is becoming more quantitative driven rather than ideas-driven, and this is a well-known fact. 

Already for most, who has the control in this relationship must be clear by now!  There are engineers and managers, and almost all the managers are also engineers! It is only a matter of time before the only white or blue shirts will be replaced by checks and other precise geometric patterns preferred by engineers! 

Good Management programs now focus on quantitative courses from operations research to analytics and also have courses like innovation, project management, technology management, once exclusively taught in engineering programs.  All engineers should be grateful to management guru Fredrick Taylor who introduced quantitative techniques in shop floor management that began what is now called scientific management.  

Similarly, engineering programs have many courses once considered the preserve of Management including principles of management, technology management, Operations research, Production Planning and control, Supply chain management, Design Thinking, etc. 

The silos are breaking down and today both the disciplines do not operate in watertight compartments. At an operational level also, there is a clear trend that most of the functions and roles span both engineering and management at once. 

Consider any position in an organization; plant engineer, maintenance engineer, Quality Control Engineer, Production Engineer, and visualize their day at work. Management is all about improving effectiveness and efficiency. Are tools for this not essential to all the previously pure engineering jobs? In a competitive environment, management skills need to be omnipresent to derive business value. Similarly, most management functions need technology support as the Internet, enterprise software, AI, Machine Learning, etc. are changing even small businesses to a great extent. In this case, technology has become the enabler for efficiency and effectiveness. 

The future really needs people who are adept with technology and management. What will educational programs look like in the future? Already for a few decades now, there are specialist MBA programs that span both both technology and management, what is the future curriculum for post graduate engineering programs? Will a combination of engineering and management emerge as a new undergraduate program? In what directon will employers, who now seek only job ready graduates, push curiculum development.

As a commerce graduate, to me it's clear engineering and quantitative analysis has taken over management

Indian Model of Corporate Governance - The aborted talk

I was invited to a panel discussion on 'Corporate Governance' by students of Christ University and since 13/02/2020 was a Bangalore Bundh I got to know the event got shelved when I called to confirm. Each panelist was to have spoken for 15 minutes before the discussions and so I wrote this as my talk. As always, your feedback is critical and let it come in plenty and with full force!

Namasthe Friends 

You will hear about the various important aspects of corporate governance today from all the learned panelists. When I was contacted to be on this panel, I was very hesitant, because CG is not my area of expertise, even though in my corporate working life I got to see things in small and medium-sized publicly listed firms and state public sector firms. I worked in what is now called a vanishing company, which is can be another talk altogether. 

As students and faculty members, you might already know the statistics about the number of companies in India. I think it helps to look at these numbers to set the context for corporate governance in India. In the textbooks, you read about different types of companies public sector, private sector, etc. We should know the numbers

The total number of companies registered in India as of 2019 was 18 lakh 26 thousand companies. Out of these 11,56,374 are active which means 6,70,018 are not active. Of the active companies, only 2011 are government, only 4771 are foreign companies, public limited companies are 62550 of which 6915 are listed and the private unlisted ones are 10,85,178. I am probably missing turnover, market cap, and other such numbers, however, the number of companies gives us a sense of the number of boards which is the unit for corporate governance. Essentially corporates in India are private unlisted firms even if there are other categories in some small measure. Another important aspect we need to remember is that while a firm may be family owned and managed it does get substantial funding from banks which are custodians of public monies. The point I am trying to make is that Corporate governance is not only about large listed firms, even though we generally study only large listed firms. The focus of CG has always been about rules, regulations and regulatory authorities, even though there is generally a passing mention that directors must have Integrity, ability, and cohesiveness. 

Literature is full of different models of CG like the Anglo-US, Japanese, etc. based on which stakeholder is getting greater focus. I read also somewhere about an Indian model which is a blend of the german and anglo Saxon model. What I would urge you to think about as an Indian model of corporate governance is to look at the roots of corporate governance. To me, living value is far more important than abiding by the rules. 

The core of corporate governance is not adherence to SEBI rules. For corporate governance to happen in the right way I suggest we look at some essential concepts from India's ancient wisdom which are practiced today also. For simplicity, I call this PPP which Purpose, People, and Personality.

Purpose of Business 

Based on ancient Indian texts and the practices of many businesses in India the purpose of business or organizational credo has been set as ‘Sarva Loka Hitam’. You will find it in many Indian company websites. It simply means for the well-being of all stakeholders.  This is not about shareholders or entrepreneurs but all stakeholders. Another expression which is also popular is that of 'Lokasamgraha' which means 'welfare of the world'. When a business has this as the purpose of its being, corporate governance is more or less automatic.  

Business, profit or even pleasure are not a bad or negative expression in Indian culture.  The four objectives in life are Dharma, Artha, Kama, and Moksha

 Man seeks dharma: which is to act righteously, being ethical and fair, Dharma also includes repaying our debts to god, debts to parents and teachers, debt to guests, debts to other human beings, and debts to other beings.
 Artha is the pursuit of wealth and prosperity. The important aspect is that this pursuit of wealth and prosperity should be without going beyond the dharma. Wealth should be earned in the right way. 

Kama is about obtaining enjoyment, and finally, Moksha which is enlightenment. These four goals of life are the purpose of life, based on ancient Indian wisdom. Whether it is the CEO or the business, making a profit is good as long as the principles of Dharma are followed. 

People

Recruitment of middle-level managers might be connected with efficient operations, however it is the recruitment of directors and senior management that is key to good corporate governance. Most Indian firms operate on dynastic principles, one gets an office because of birth and/or relationship with the promoter. The actual stake of the promoter after the usual over-invoicing of capital assets is actually negligible, and such a promoter generally brings his family members at the senior levels. When people are qualified professionals, corporate governance is most likely to be good, and if they are qualified professionals who understand ethics and values, it will surely be good.

Gandhiji has discussed the concept of 'trusteeship' for all businessmen. It is important for directors to understand that the assets of the community are given to the business for management and everyone involved is a trustee especially the MD and the board. Swami Vivekananda's concept of servant leadership another idea that is worth considering for people managing businesses. Both trusteeship and servant leadership are concepts from ancient Indian wisdom. 

Personality

The 'mental make-up' or essential character of the board members is a soft aspect, however, it is a critical one. Ethical behavior happens after an ethical and clean response to the situation happens in the mind. Selecting people who have ethical values and beliefs will naturally ensure all stakeholders are considered and none is exploited for the undue benefit of the other. 

To conclude, In my view corporate governance starts with setting and living the right purpose of the corporation, getting together of the right kind of people, all of who have a personality that values ethics and the interests of all.

Thank You for the opportunity and best wishes to all the students! 

Consumer Co-creation - The highlight of 'Noodle Theory'

Noodle theory is a franchise food kiosk serving south Asian cuisine. Many of their franchisee's are in Chennai and I visited the one in Thanisandra, Bangalore near Bharti City.  I am not sure if the owner of the franchise is the same young man who was at LinkedIn, however, the concept is nice even if it is a tad expensive or to put it correctly, not good value.

When I was doing my MBA in the 1980's we had an example of how premixed cake succeeded in the US market because mothers felt they were baking the cake. Their involvement in the process, however minimal, made a emotional connect and they felt they were adding their love into the cake.
Consumer co-creation has many benefits and in the restaurant business it might even attract more customers.

It is simple, fill the questionnaire slip to choose base from among rice, rice noodles, regular noodles, flat noodles etc, then choose 5 out 10-12 vegetables, then tick the protein from among soya, paneer, cheese etc, then choose one of the sauces from among 6-8. Based on your taste and choices the dish is prepared quickly and served. The involvement felt good. really good.

The franchisee is a friendly young man and gulf returnee who is trying hard.

My colleague at Manipal Academy of Banking had a great question. Is this really co-creation or simply customization. Co-creation involves designing the product with the customer. If you consider each serving as a different product..it is co-creation, however, since only the choices from a preset variety are involved it could be considered customization. My reason for calling it co-creation was based on the involvement and experience in selecting ingredients which is quite different from asking for a few changes to customize. Do write in with your views.


Looking for an Indian restaurant where one can choose from among different kotori's to make my thali meal! 

Inauguration of Acharya High School Alumni Association Gauribidanur - my talk

Sri Swamy Krishnan, Sri Sunil Dutt, Sri Venkata Siva Reddy, Sri BR Srinivas Murthy, Sri Varaha Murthy, Sri G N Nagaraj, Smt Nagamani, other members of the alumni, my colleagues on the Executive Committee who are present, teachers, administrators, and dear students. There is a great opportunity to serve your alma mater, society, and Gauribidnur town with this association and I am very delighted with the starting of an alumni association today. The alumni association is starting 75 years after the school was started, it is never late for a good cause and I think it might be the right time.

My sincere thanks to Sasken and team Sasken for donating the computers. This will be a good support to the students.

We can have only one association so it is very important that all batches are represented I request the Headmaster and teachers especially those who are alumni to see that the alumni association has the representation of all batches.

The purpose of establishing these institutions was to empower through education and seeing the achievements of the alumni I think we are doing well. Today things are different, We may not be providing the quality that you received many years and decades ago. When the school was established it was the first one in the taluk, Today we have many good schools in town, AHS today is different from other schools on at the least two counts. 1. Thanks to the government aid for most of the teachers and infrastructure built under the leadership of Mr. A.N Balram and others, we charge around Rs.1000/- per year so everyone can afford education. The second difference that continues over the decades is that we offer education where patriotism and some minimum spiritual practices are part of the curriculum. We still have committed teachers even though their number is coming down.

The way alumni association can add value is by getting involved by offering selfless service.  Sadly, history has been that the resources of the institutions have been offered to politicians and government officials for small political advantage. This has resulted in many issues. When a wonderful initiative like the alumni association comes up, because of past experiences, many people worry, as to what could be the ulterior motive and which person or group is trying to gain in this effort. As many of the old students are aware we have lost more than 2 acres of land. It has gone for good causes like inter-faith harmony, hosing for SC/ST and to house international service organizations, yet it is in some ways a loss for our students.

Our association NREA has an 80G exemption and alumni and alumni association should make use of this tax benefit.

As a part of the constitution of the NREA one elected representative of our alumni is on the Executive Committee and since the other institutions do not yet have a registered association for the present it will be from the association being formed today. At present Sri. B. Srinivas Murthy represents the alumni on the Executive Council.  At the AHS we also have a governing council and I request Dr.Subramania and Sri. Madhusudan who are both experienced academics to join this governing council and I will be sending them a formal invitation soon.

I will be delighted if Sri B.Srinivas Murthy, Dr. Geetha, along with some senior members of the alumni and our employees who are also alumni form a platinum jubilee celebrations committee and help the institution by organizing a grand platinum jubilee of the National and Rural Education Association which is the mother organization for all the institutions with AHS being the first to be established.

Education is changing rapidly and we need to update in many areas. Our students and teachers should be on par with peers anywhere. This is where alumni can play a big role. Some of the areas I am seeking help include 1. televisions and digital content for classrooms as this is good teaching and learning aid. 2. Upgradation of the kitchen with stainless steel vessels and working tables as aluminum is really not good 3. Faculty room upgradation and furniture so teachers can have a better working space 4. Rainwater harvesting as we are facing huge water shortages 5. A covered area for assembly in front of the stage 6. Support for life skills training/talks by experts/film shows/ extracurricular activities etc.

Another important area alumni can work is scholarships. I believe government aid will slowly reduce and we will have Government and Private institutions. In such a scenario, fees will go up and if we want to keep the essential character of the school we need to provide scholarships. It will be very good if one alumnus can sponsor one child and the alumni association ensures the scholarships reach the most deserving by way of a transparent selection process.

Finally, I am hoping the alumni association will be a good association for networking among students of various batches. All the 25000 students share a part of their lives with this school and it would be wonderful if they can connect with each other, help each other and enrich the lives of each other.

We can together make this school a model school in Karnataka with your support and involvement. My sincere thanks again to the sponsors, Alumni who are here today and the faculty and students who made these arrangements and for having me here. I am really happy with the dress and turnout of our students today, all in clean and white, super bright.
Thank you and Namaste

Request feedback about my answers

https://www.quora.com/profile/Sudhakar-G-P

My nephew Mihir Nadig has a new food blog https://rabbiteatz.wordpress.com/

Theory of Indian Management and Indian Theory of Management

My initial comments at the brainstorming session on emerging areas for  research in Management at the Centre for Educational and Social Studies (CESS) Nagarbhavi Bangalore on 1st of Dec 2018

Good afternoon Friends,

I am delighted to be here and am grateful to Dr Sridhar and Professor Gowrisha who have permitted me to share my thoughts. In the day before yesterday’s ‘Deccan Herald’ there is an article with a very arresting title ‘MBA, in its current form, is dead’.  Of the two quotes in this article, one is from Google founder Larry Page  who felt the way MBA’s approach business is ‘stupid’.  Pay Pal Owner Peter Thiel has said he found MBA’s ‘highly extroverted people with low conviction’ and with ‘extremely herd-like thinking and behaviour’ While the need for better research is universal, I think it is critical for the long-term survival of management education in India. MBA can survive only when we have more meaningful research. It is strange and not a nice thing to say, however, the fact is I have met faculty members and researchers pursuing PhD programs who are not clear about the fact that theory is nothing but practice or practical applications that have been researched.

Today industry does not have any respect for management researchers, sadly, neither does society in general, or Government. I think there is a great potential to earn the respect of all these groups if only research was focused on solving real-world problems. We need to make the research relevant and rigorous at the same time.  I think we must not restrict our research to ‘Business management’ and use the broader expression of ‘Management’ which will include many other sectors including government where research can provide some high impact answers.

This  DH article  I mentioned uses the term ‘physics envy’ to describe one of the problems with Management research. Physics envy for those who might not have heard the expression is the over-concentration on statistical tools, mathematical models or rigour of research in general.  Initially Business education was designed to be only practical, however, around 1959 two reports called the Ford and Carnegie reports found that business education was not grounded in scientific methods. Thanks to these reports all management research has been focusing on the rigour of research that everything else is forgotten. This is a western problem which we have embraced in India also. We must understand that most reputed journals are of western origin and they have those templates. In India also all the top ranking B schools employ professors who have been educated in the western world with those methods. While we must respect western education for many wonderful things, we must recognize that it may not be most useful for us now. What we need is research that fits with our ethos, culture, social system, history and present economic situation. The difficulty for many great researchers is that while they want to be locally relevant, they also want publication in reputed International journals which evaluate articles with western frameworks. The gap between India’s economic reality and Management research is really wide in my opinion.

Theory of Indian Management and Indian theory of Management are both urgently needed. I borrowed this expression from a Chinese article which discusses management research in China as they have been at these crossroads a decade ago.  What I mean by theory of Indian Management is to use universal models or western frameworks to research Indian organizations and come up with findings useful to Indian organizations. Indian theory of management will be the result of research using Indian frameworks and paradigms. The sources for such constructs will be 1. Scriptures/History, for example, Vedas, Upanishads, Mahabharata, Ramayana etc. Gurucharan das has explored the concept of Dharma in his book ‘the difficulty of being good’ to some extent. I think exploring the concept of Dharma in Business decision making, for example, is an opportunity.  2. Indian Practices – Partha system, Bargaining, the hierarchy in Indian business families are some examples. The 3. Source of such themes could be what is happening around us like demonetization, technology adoption leapfrogging etc. It should not be some nostalgic research, it should be aimed at solving current problems even if we are using ancient wisdom.

The challenge for such type of research is that publication may become difficultly unless we have very good and respected journals who have strict quality parameters and yet encourage a different way of thinking. When we are thinking about the Indian theory of management, we need to start with Qualitative studies and only later move to Quantitative or other approaches.

Management research can learn a lot from ‘Ayurveda’. Ayurveda was not respected in India for a long time, however, the effectiveness of this type of medicine has been proven using western methods or frameworks and this has helped Ayurveda to become a respected therapy even in the western world.

In my understanding, the first thing we need to do is to expose our researchers to management books written by Indian practitioners, for example, Bangalore based Dr.Subhash Sharma, marketing researcher Rama Bijapurkar, Gopalakrishnan of Tata sons and even Abhijit Bhaduri’s Digital Tsunami. I have a colleague who is working on converting some old books, Subroto Bagchi’s– Professional and Gopalakrishnan’s ‘‘As the penny drops’ into a workshop because these are very useful and essential for every Indian business student, which sadly do not figure in any syllabus.

The thought I want to leave behind is that we need to move to research whether abstract, empirical or practical which is rooted in the Indian context. I am sure there are many many possibilities, however, just as an example I would like to share some topics/areas

1.     International trade analytics to explore global market opportunities for specific Indian products

2.     Is Partha system really effective to manage a multi-locational business?

3.     Understanding personality and ‘Vishnu Padam’ – the traditional game

4.     Is there a western way and Indian way to manage senior citizens and which is more effective?

5.     How technology brings transparency or not in public distribution or procurement

6.     Local, regional, national and International brands- the long-term / or is industry consolidation always possible?

7.     Are Indian women more suited for the gig economy and why has it not arrived etc. etc.

In my opinion CESS should consider the broader expression of 'management' and have government, public institutions as clients for research. The need to orient faculty and build their capacity to do India oriented research is a felt need that CESS can address. 

For young teachers - A talk that was not :(

At Inurture Education, a company I work in, like every year, a group of 25 young graduates from premier engineering institutions were recruited on campus to be trained in latest technologies like machine learning/ IOT/ AI and such topics, only to be deployed as faculty members to teach in undergraduate engineering programs. After a month long immersion, they were to visit the office, and I offered to be a filler and speak to them about being a teacher. Sadly the corporate honcho's took more time than planned, and my talk got the axe !  Next best thing was to lean on my support and strength, my blog audience!   The topic was 'on being a teacher' and my plan was to restrict my talk to a list of 10 points to remember.

Be Yourself : It is important for teachers to be comfortable in their shoes and tying to be someone they are not is not only a difficult act, it shows in the class, where you are scrutinized, judged, loved, hated, forgiven and so much more all at the same time.

Know your Students: Knowing is essential, though loving them will be really good. The background of the student, present knowledge of the subject, interests, world view, friends and more will help improve the quality of teaching manifold and improve the relationship too.

Be at Teacher; Understand the difference between knowing to be a teacher, which your faculty development program has taught you, Doing the work of a teacher, which is about taking classes, assessments and all that, and being a teacher , which is thinking, behaving, living the life of a teacher. All of us can remember teachers who fit into each category, and obviously the most effective and loved are those who were teachers inside and out.

Prepare, Prepare, Prepare - What that also includes is research which is major component of preparation, as are pedagogy, board plan, teaching aids etc. The more one prepares the more effective the class and better learning outcomes, this is definite.

Start from where majority of students already know. Many times, the curriculum/syllabus is so much emphasized that we forget that the starting point for knowledge transfer is to understand precisely what the students currently know.

Retool yourself both about domain knowledge and about teaching-  Post google teaching is so different as is International Business after Donald Trump. We need to learn skills and knowledge the is recent and relevant. Change is a constant and adapting is the only acceptable response.


Get Feedback both from students and colleagues. We should know what works and does not in a classroom. This again keeps changing so it is important to get feedback about content, teaching method, evaluations, the black board at the end of the class....everything!

Reflection is unfortunately becoming a lost art with the emphasis on speed in most spheres of our lives, however for teachers, it is critical tool, actually much more than a tool. Find time to reflect about everything. I believe teachers can contribute more to the world and to their students if they find time to reflect to improve creativity, become more aware of oneself and emotionally intelligent.

Connect to the life of the student: Teaching will be most effective when the learner is immersed in the process and has motivation. It is essential for teachers to connect the subject to the life of the student. This should happen in every class to improve the learning outcomes.

and finally

Spread energy and happiness in the classroom. There is so much negativity around that teachers can be that whiff of fresh air and infuse energy among students by being teachers who are energetic, cool, happy and relaxed. It is an important function of being a teacher to spread happiness , joy and energy.

My best wishes to all the young first time teachers and do hope you have a wonderful journey of touching the lives of many individuals !

On quitting Jobs...

https://www.quora.com/What-is-your-reason-that-you-have-resigned-from-your-job/answer/Sudhakar-G-P#

A good guest faculty

Dear Guest Faculty,

Whether it is just one lecture or an assignment to teach a subject through the semester, please take time to prepare well. Most guest faculty are experts in the field and need little or no preparation in terms of the essential content, as they are practicing what needs to be taught.

In my experience, the greatest issue with guest faculty is their lack of understanding of the audience of students. And students will be students! The students in a Tier 1 institute are very different from students in a tier 2 & 3 colleges. This is very important and not to be taken lightly. Pitch high and comprehension will be zero, pitch low, and no one is interested. Students of today are quite different from the obedient, eager to learn, submissive bunch that existed in earlier days. The ability to switch off with a click of the mental switch and just escape are well honed skills. It is essential to understand what the background of the students is, their previous knowledge level as far as the subject/topic is concerned etc. My suggestion is to meet the students informally before the first session. Also important to have a brief idea about what has been done in class about the particular topic/subject.

Many of you have a wealth of experience stored in bytes of  'anecdotes'. These are fun to hear and provide the much needed practical orientation, however, when the underlying theoretical concept/frame work is not discussed, many find the connect difficult and end up enjoying the class without actually 'learning'. The other issue with anecdotes is that a series of anecdotes does not make for good structure. In the classroom, best is to have a good structure which includes an introduction, theoretical underpinnings, examples, conclusion, summary or any other logical structure. Once you are familiar with the specific class/batch, prioritization, weight-age for components and even the structure becomes easy to plan.

Many classrooms might not have the technologies or teaching aids you want to use. Check this aspect thoroughly. Many a lecture where the video was critical, have been a wash out for this reason. Similarly, projectors might not be compatible with 'apple' or HD etc. so visiting the place is a good idea and finding out is the next best thing.

Please make sure everyone is able to hear you. It is your responsibility. Ask for a mike, increase speaker volume or do whatever it takes to ensure you are heard. I know you feel this is the responsibility of the school, however, in many instances you will have to take the lead.

Your corporate responsibilities might keep getting you late to class or miss a few, please consider realistically if you can really spare the time and plan the time well.

Did I miss something? Do share your experiences and help others who have been invited.

Happy lecturing, Don't get too good at it and snatch our livelihood :)
Best Regards
gps