Management and Life

Importance of Genetics (Speech delivered at Toastmasters District D3 Meet, Mumbai) Have you ever wondered….. Why do some of us have brown eyes, or golden hair or a dark skin tone? Why do some of us like cold weather in Delhi while others relish the humidity in Mumbai? Why do some of us land up with a heart attack or a cancer despite a perfectly healthy lifestyle? Human Body has always been an enigma for the mankind Mr. Toastmaster, fellow club members and dear guests Today I shall tell you about a field of science called Genetics which holds the keys to unravel several mysteries of human body. To know about genetics, let us first look at how our body functions. We all know that our body comprises of organs which are in turn made up of cells. Each of us has about 100 trillion cells in our body. It is these cells which carry out the various body functions – be it respiration, thinking, digestion, response to stimuli etc.  How do these cells know what to do? ...

If there is one thing that differentiates the people in their 50s (sometimes even 40s) and those in their 20s at the workplace - it is the comfort with emails. In present times, for most of us, we take emails and internet as a very simple, normal and common element in our lives. (Though, this does not true for millions of people without food, basic amenities, electricity, access to computer and even 'English'). However, among the educated and english speaking professional in the corporate world, the comfort and skills with email/internet are as important or sometimes more important than even proper English itself. Knowledge and comfort with emails has created its own version of 'Haves' and 'Have-nots'. While the number of people who are not comfortable with using emails is certainly depleting, there are still some significant section of people in the professional/corporate setups who are not so 'hands-on' with emails. Most of such professionals or m...

‘Meetings’ are the most common and visible activity in any organization. Almost every task is identified, debated, planned, executed, tracked and improved through meetings. It doesn’t matter if the meeting is of two individuals or a large group. They are all pervasive. In my experience, there are only two kinds of meetings – productive and non-productive. The latter type has the maximum share!! Productive meetings are fewer and amongst these; ‘productive and efficient’ are an even rarer lot. This may sound an extreme or cynical view. However there is enough data and anecdotal evidence to prove that ‘most meetings are managed poorly and are often unproductive’. Again, there are enough guidelines and recommendation for managing meetings better, such as –circulating agenda in advance, controlling the participation to the most relevant/essential members, assigning roles, having a timer, focusing on action items, circulating the meeting notes soon after the meeting and many others. Seve...

Recently I came across an interesting term called 'Totipotence'. totipotence, noun: the ability of a cell to give rise to unlike cells and so to develop a new organism or part; [syn: totipotency ] (Refernece: www.dictionary.com) This is a term from the field of genetics and refers to cells which are capable of becoming any sort of cell. Totipotency is the basis for all multicellular organisms and lies at the heart of developmental genetics. In simpler terms, it means a cell whose function has not yet been established. If we were to look at it broadly, we find that apart from cells, this term can be applied to individuals and well as organizations !! Just like in genetics, at the beginning of the career, a person's specialization or function is not very well defined. The person is (or should be) allowed and encouraged to explore the different functions and discover his/her own strengths and interests. During this stage, the person can very well be called ...

The whole cricketing world and especially India is just recovering from "ICC Cricket World Cup" with several fervent and edge-of-seat matches. Although, I have been a very notorious 'Non-Enthusiast' of Cricket (I have little interest in watching any sport including cricket, though I have nothing against them perse), I did end up watching a few matches, especially when India was playing the quarter, semis and final. And whoa, I did get some good insights and lessons from Cricket !! 1. Patience - don't expect action in each and every ball. At times, just taking a run or two or even defending a tough bowler for a few overs is better than trying to hit on each ball and making mistakes or getting frustrated. 2. Perseverance - no room for frustration or boredom. Do you job - consistently and consciously. 3. Small events make a big difference - many a times it is the small events (a missed catch, ones and twos, easy overs, casual stroke etc) that end up making a big dif...

One of the principles in the Theory of Constraints (TOC) states that all the non critical resources should be made subordinate to the critical resource. Since it is the critical or the bottleneck resource which will determine the output of the system, there is little need to worry about the utilization of the non-critical resources. On the other hand, if the non-critical resources work faster than the critical resource, they will lead to creation of a lot of inventory deposits in the system. Often if it is found that despite the simple logic, having a resource (even if non-critical) sitting idle, is viewed as  inefficiency and is hence very discomforting to the observer or the management.  Mr. Goldratt has beautifully explained and illustrated the use and violation of his principles at the corporate/factory settings in his business-fiction books. I have observed similar violation in everyday life and some of it is rather absurd and funny. One such example is about the c...

Thou shalt not fear the 80% The 80-20 rule also known as the Pareto principle is sighted in many time management and general management books as an effective guide for choosing the focus areas. The principle states that 80% of results or effects are caused by 20% of the causes. For e.g. 80 % of sales come from 20% customers; 80% of problems are caused by 20% of causes, 80% of the costs can be attributed to 20% items, so on and so forth. The rule is very simple, straight forward and through basic anecdotal evidence and intuitive logic, it appears to be universally applicable. Once understood and applied effectively, the rule holds the promise to improve effectiveness and efficiency significantly. I believe that this rule should be vigorously applied to all domains of personal and public life. However, like all principles, there are a few words of caution or danger zones worth noting. The first one, as pointed by James P. Lewis in his book on Project Management, points at the bal...