Revolution 2020 - Love, Corruption, Ambition

REVOLUTION 2020 - Love, Corruption, Ambition (2011) by Chetan Bhagat, Rupa Publications, India

Before the formal launch of the book, in my mind it was obvious that if now Chetan writes something it must be related to corruption, looking at his active visual presence on different channels in the wake of uproar against corrupt politicians and system. Hence it was not a surprise for me, however the plot of the book really caught my attention and I really loved the approach, agenda and activation of this young (no more budding) and established author, an iconic figure for the youth who understands their lingo and who seems genuinely concerned on the deterioration of educational standards. He respects the social fabric but does not mind rejecting the social clutches of free market capitalism.

This fictional story surrounds three young friends (two boys, one girl) like any other bollywood love triangle and develops around their families, ambitions (more than theirs, their parents), migrations and reunions. The rivalry between two friends, one who responds to the dreams of his father and another one though gets an engineering degree, still lands up concentrating on his passion of writing, and becomes a journalist. The girl keeps her flirtatiousness alive while swapping her way through shifting her suspicious loyalties towards both of them.

Chetan successfully depicts the realities of Indian middle class through his textual ability of getting attached to the reader as he mentions - In most parts of the world, speaking about your income is taboo. In India, you share the figures like your zodiac sign, especially if you have lots. Further his punch on friendship is quite apt when he says - Successful people dont have friends. (p 5). Through this book he tries warning those parents who impose their own dreams on their children without even leaving any room for their wards to have their own thinking on their future. Quite truly mention of paternal love obviously overestimates progeny's abilities (p 26) drives me to renew my belief about the trust, confidence and faith parents presuppose in their children.

The journey of a young lad from Varanasi (UP) to Kota (Rajasthan) in the expectation of getting into one of the best engineering colleges of the country is mesmerizing, more so when I have myself seen many of my young relatives sending their wards to this city. Kota is known for transforming tender teenagers into mechanical entities through developing an attitude that by just cracking the entrance their bright future is assured. It is quite ironical for a country like India that every young student passing out from a school dreams of only getting into engineering or medical. And if one does not succeed in getting into either of them, he/she develops a complex which keeps reminding him/her of the failure throughout their lives. It is not just ironic but unfortunate as well.

The story present in this book exposes many aspects of the coaching institutes and these preparatories through the experiences of the auto rickshaw drivers, owners of paying guest facilities, managers and other employees of the coaching institutes etc. Everything follows pure market dynamics.

The reunion of these friends while in their professional career opens another dimension of present day opportunism. The involvement of politicians in business ventures and their strong patronage of such initiatives with ulterior motive of sustainable consideration is another low which India is facing at present. At this moment the book more closely resembles a bollywood drama resulting in some reconciliations and compromises. The good and not-so-good, ideal and practical, right and wrong, dichotomies compel the reader to look around for suitable defense.

The emergence of private engineering and management colleges with profit motive as against philanthropic initiative is spoiling the educational environment in the country. Chetan also seems quite serious about it, just read some of his lines in the book - Politicians, builders, beedi-makers, anybody with experience in shady business does really well in education (p 116) and Most people who own colleges in India haven’t (gone to college themselves). Stupid people go to college, smart people own them. (p 120). I do not think that we are matured enough as a country, economically, socially and politically, that we can leave this domain of management and development of education in the hands of private entrepreneurs who believe in vulgar display of their wealth.

The end of the story seemed to me quite expected, surrender and sacrifice for the cause of true love.

Apart from the mention of one of my favorite songs (If you want to make the world a better place - Man in the mirror song by Michael Jackson, and Kailash Kher), I loved some of the lines of Chetan as follows:

Take a top ranker to meet your parents when u have flanked. (p 31)

In small towns, everyone is interested in every male and female interaction. (p 35)

When people achieve something they become self-obsessed. (p 40)

Girls are the best topic switchers in the world. (p 46)

This complex vortex of tests, classes, selections and preparations (AIEEE & JEE) is something every insignificant Indian student like me has to go through to have a shot at a decent life. (p 55)

Once you get low marks, you learn to lower your eyes rather quickly. (p 64)

Love, officially is nothing but a bitch. (p 73)

We dont get things easily, marks, ranks, girls - nothing is easy for us.... no home, no school, no college, no job, Only Kota. (p 79)

Sometimes the only way to get rid of an unpleasant feeling is to replace it with another unpleasant feeling. (p 80)

Love is what your parents give you if you clear the IIT exam. (p 81)

Girls get extremely upset if you give them evidence contrary to their belief. (p 85)

When someone refers to your weak spot even indirectly, it hurts. (p 89)

There is a sense of power when you sit in a white government Ambassador car with a red light on top. (p 96)

Losers, even if they dont have a brain, have a heart. (p 102)

Ease of cremation is one solid advantage of being in Varanasi. The death industry drives the city.... probably the only city on earth where Death is a tourist attraction. (p 109)

Politicians can multitask better than most people. (p 123)

We don’t fix cases, we fix the people in the cases. (p 125)

(finished reading on 23 Oct 2011 (10:30 pm) Shillong.... compiled notes and wrote this review on this day...20 March 2012, 11 pm)

DESTINATION WORK! Getting people excited about coming to work and working hard

DESTINATION WORK! Getting people excited about coming to work and working hard by Harry Paul and Ross Reck (2010), Westland Limited, India, first published in the US by Wiliam Morrow: HarperCollins in 2009, p 117

Managing work force in the organizations has become much greater challenge in the times of increasing employee expectation, high stress levels, demanding tasks, and peer pressure and cut-throat competition.  In these times Harry Paul (co-author of Fish) and Ross Reck introduce this book entitled Destination Work: getting people excited about coming to work and working hard.  This book suggests ways to turnaround the organisation through motivating the workforce by displaying concern and affecting their behaviour intrinsically so that they start enjoying work.

The book starts with an example of the performance of New York Giants in the National Football League losing seven out of nine matches played in 2007.  The job of the coach gets questioned and thats when he changes his approach to deal with the players from ‘motivating with fear’ to ‘motivating with trust’.  This reverse approach helps reap good fruits for the team and turnsaround its performance in 2008.  The communication amongst the team members and the coach improves, the team members come to understand how much their coach really cares for them.

This book prescribes the ways to turnaround the performance levels of employees through creating positive environment at the work-place so that employees are driven (intrinsically) to enjoy work.  It is about turning around unhappy workers into happy workers.  The book is all about caring for employees and to communicate this positively to them how much the organizations and bosses really care for their employees.  Surprisingly we are still thinking about it after around a century when Elton Mayo with Roethlisberger had concluded in illumination study (Howthrone Experiment), that work is a group activity and taking care of employees is one of the most important motivation for them to work harder.  

The book divided in 10 core chapters offers nuggets at the end of every chapter which succinctly ends each chapter.  Some of the nuggets are here:

• Most fully understand that the harder employees work, the better those numbers are going to be.
• What many don't get is that the better they treat their employees, the harder they will work. (p 9)
• Managing employees strictly by numbers sends all these wrong messages: (p16)
• performance numbers and the bottom line are more important than employees
• managers don't trust their employees
• employees are expendable
• managers don't care about the well-being of their employees
• Happy employees - smile more, have more fun, work harder, work better with fellow employees, are more loyal and love their boss and hence the bottom line is Happy Employees are Productive Employees (p 26).
• Managing with trust frees employees up to turn their work into fun. As a result - the most mundane and repetitive tasks become enjoyable, employees look forward to coming to work every day - especially on Monday, and employees apply more of their discretionary effort toward performing their jobs (p 50).
• How can you tell if you are using fear as a motivator? The next time you walk through your department, ask yourself the following questions - do my employees: look like they are glad to see me, have smiles on their faces most of the time, eagerly make eye contact with me and do I feel my employees have my best interests at heart?  If the answer to each of these questions is 'no', you are using fear as a motivator.  This means your department is underachieving which is costing you on your performance. (p 65)
• Fear can not be considered as a motivator rather it has to be Trust which needs to be built between the boss and subordinate through following four Be's - Be real, Be appreciative, Be interested and Be nice (p 38). 
• Your employees want to talk to you and let you know what is going on and spending time with employees becomes a source of happiness (p 74)
• Front line employees apply even more of their discretionary effort toward performing their jobs (p 90)
• Employees look forward to coming to work and working hard, lower and middle managers no long have to worry about their performance reviews, and the entire workplace is characterized by contagious excitement which translates into positive experiences for customers and shareholders. (p 106).

The book is written with a fictional story of individuals (Max, Nancy, Tom, Jack) and organizations.  The journey of individuals through the trivial conditions prevalent in the conservative organisational system to transform the organization towards achieving its targets is very well reflected in the book.  The focus on numbers is questioned and focus on people, relationship and concern for them is explained through very many examples.  The authors also provide capsules from other motivational authors at different places in the book.  

Destination work is all about creating an environment at the workplace where the employees are at ease and keep their esteem very high through their team effort.  It is a book which, at its core, focuses on four Be's - Be real, Be appreciative, Be Interested, and Be Nice.  Sure this small book has big message.  After all we all live to work. Is it the other way?

(finished reading this book on 13.11.11... scribbled notes.... compiled them today...15.3.12)

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY : Text and Cases with SPSS Applications

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY : Text and Cases with SPSS Applications, by SL Gupta and Hitesh Gupta, (2011), International Book House Pvt. Ltd., p 474

As management education is spreading across globe, management research has also become important for creating literature and developing models for their application.  India has responded quite positively so far as institutional infrastructure for the provision of management education is concerned.  We witness existence of many institutions of importance both in public as well as private sector focusing on management education.  However research in this area has not been focused as required.  Still we depend on much of the literature created outside India and that too many years before.  In this light what is important is that we start focusing on creating quality literature based on research which is more relevant, apt and contemporary in nature.  In order to prepare students to get to learn the basics of research and to know the process of conducting research, SL Gupta and Hitesh Gupta introduce this book entitled Research Methodology: Text and Cases with SPSS Applications. 

The book tries to facilitate management research through providing the base of research methodology and its application through SPSS software.  The book is divided in 14 chapters discussing the fundamentals of research, available scientific methods, designing research framework, preparations of questionnaires, methods and techniques of collecting data, relevant statistical tools as to sampling, measurement scales, statistical analysis and interpretation of data through relevant statistical tools and tests.  The book also guides the researcher on writing the project proposal and project report.  As widely accepted statistical package, IBM developed SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) is used by many researchers to handle robust data and to provide the output quickly, has been used throughout the book wherever necessary for analysis purpose.  The students would certainly benefit from this approach. 

The design of the book is simple and systematic.  Every chapter of the book starts with a set of learning objectives and the contents of the chapter systematically arranged to help achieving these objectives.  The contents of each chapter are well designed and portrayed through diagrams, tables and exhibits.  The bullet format of the book makes it easier for the students to focus on the contents.  The illustrations and examples used in the text are very relevant, simple and explanatory.  There are review questions, practical problems (wherever required), suggested problems (try following problems) and cases with questions towards the end of the chapters which help a student/researcher to relate and get practical exposure of the concerned problem.  The cases are very lucid, short yet comprehensive, helping the student to relate and solve similar questions.

The format of the book is excellent.  The presentation of the last chapter on use of SPSS 17.0 is excellent as it is brief, yet guides the beginner (researcher) through the process of using SPSS for statistical analysis in order to get output.  The chapter displays the computer screen view of different processes which is genuinely user friendly.    As a text, the book is good for students, however for a teacher it could have been better packaged through relevant references, citations and bibliography towards the end of the chapters/book. It would have really added lot of value to the book.   Though the title of the book is Research Methodology, it primarily focuses on research in management domain.  There is a scope of improving the theoretical base of research methods and relevance of appropriate statistical tools in the relevant chapters.  Overall the book is good as a text, especially when it is the first edition.  No student would regret buying this volume.  


(published in IJM, Vol 4, No 1, 2012)

Dabawalas: Lessons for building lasting success based on values

DABAWALAS: Lessons for building lasting success based on values by Shrinivas Pandit (Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Co Ltd, New Delhi, 2007) p 105.

This book is unique in its approach, convincing in its delivery and interesting in its style.  A true testimony of the values that bind Dabawalas for more than 120 years by Shrinivas Pandit.  The author follows a narrative in an interview form through the team of four - two dabawallas (Raghunath Megde, 48 and Gangaram Talekar, 55), one business journalist (Anita Dalal, 40) and he himself. The book is divided in 12 chapters and every chapter is closed with one message and take aways (current practice and current opportunity). It makes a good case of Dabawalas for anyone who is interested to know their functioning, operations, supply-chain, value system, priorities, adaptiveness to change, structure, empowerment, decision-making, team-work, commitment, service quality, total quality management processes, standardization, contentment, etc etc. Though the book is small in size (just 100 pages) but the message it conveys is huge in size. There are very many examples which established multi-national corporations and big corporate houses could follow. It reminds me of a saying which says that if one has an attitude to learn, one could even learn a lot from beggars and poor people living in the society. Mind it, Dabawalas are not small in size, there are around 5000 (semi-literate) of them, working on a simple mission of delivering home-made food to the people (in Mumbai) from their respective houses to the workplaces within 3 hours.  And this mission helps them earn their living which is not at all commensurate with the kind of efforts they put in order to reach out to more than 2 lac clients. Interestingly as the book reveals, there seems to be no issue on that as well. They are quite satisfied and contended with around Rs 200/300 which they charge per person, per month.

Dabawalas are the perfect example of best quality service with six sigma performance as their error rate is one in 16 million transactions...despite having no technological backup and their turnover is around 500 million indian rupees.  Every dabawala is a shareholder in Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Charity Trust. Every one wears a Gandhi cap during working hours and carry an identity card and no alcohal during duty hours is allowed.  Unlike many successful MNCs and other organizations this organization does not believe in internal competition as no dabawala is allowed to undercut or outsmart his colleague. They have a Governming council of 13 members having President, Vice President, General Secretary, Treasurer and nine directors.  There are around 120 groups, each having some 25-30 dabawalas, which are led by a Mukadam (group leader).  Each group works as a Strategic Business Unit The problems, complaints and grievances are initially resolved by Mukadam, however if they are not able to resolve issues it is taken up with the President or Vice President. If there are any disputes about the overall functioning they are resovled by the governing council. 

They follow competitive collaboration which drives them to deliver the daba (tiffin box) within stipulated time and the synergy in the efforts of individuals towards making the group as well as the chain effective is excellent.  The cardinal principle is that the daba has got to be delivered on time, the race has to be won in three hours every day, no excuses.  It is the sacred duty to ensure that the customer does not go without his home food. Team work is the quintessence of our success (p11).  Hatachi pachuch bote hajaro kame kartal; karan tyanchyat aeekya aste (five fingers of a palm can do a thousand things becasue they have unity).  They believe in leaderless teams, which seems to me as an experimental model of Engagement as the group depending on their abilities and capacities chooses a leader (Mukadam) who takes up this role as an additional responsiblity.

The book successfully narrates the functioning, principles, values, and practices followed by dabawalas in a very simple language.  Though it is a very traditional organisation which does not have technological exposure, it teaches very many lessons to the big corporate houses.  Shrinivas Pandit and Anita deserve a kudos for this venture of theirs.  Well done both of you.  As I flip through the last pages and sentences, I end up with a feeling as if there is still much more to come and much more to be further learnt from these great individuals carrying dabas with full dedication and commitment to make sure none of their client goes without home made food.

Good to Great by Jim Collins

GOOD TO GREAT: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't, by James C Collins (Jim Collins), 2001, published by Collins (an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers), USA. p 300

Generally as we read about business organizations and their transformations, it becomes obvious to see some of them doing good, some doing better than others and some not reaching to their targeted goals.  There are many factors which play their respective roles to make the organizations as they are and one of the most important factor is the kind of leader it has and the kind of leadership he/she follows in order to direct the efforts of the organization to achieve its established targets and to carry on with the journey of transforming organizations.

Jim Collins, who co-authored (with Jerry Porras) a business classic entitled Build to Last concentrating on organizational transformation, brought out this great book (based on US Corporations) with robust data and methodology to convince the readers of its relevance through defending the cause of great leadership as the most important parameter to transform a good corporation into a great one.  The creativity in putting the arguments and deriving basic principles of modern day leadership is the acumen of Jim who along with his dedicated team of researchers could filter out 11 American companies which were selected into good-to-great set.

The book is divided in 9 chapters, appended with research notes.  In fact around one third part of the book is devoted to the research notes and references which makes the book very rich, authenticated and authoritative.  The first chapter starts with its caption Good is the enemy of great and outlines the motivation of this work and further explains the basis of selection of 11 companies.  The performance of the companies through the stock returns is the primary basis of selection though a precondition that the company must have appeared in Fortune 500 companies of 1995 is followed.  The methodology follows 4 cuts to eliminate the companies at different levels.  At Cut 1 level 1435 companies are selected out of Frotune 500 companies, on the basis of their performance between 1965-1995 (30 years), then at Cut 2 level, out of 1435, 126 companies are filtered on the basis of CRSP (Univeristy of Chicago Centrer for Research on Security Prices) data based on 4 tests and then at Cut 3, 19 companies are selected on the basis of cumulative stock returns of each candidate company as per CRSP data set, and then out of this 11 companies were selected which made a transition.  This is what made them Good-to-Great companies.  The selection process is fully described in the Appendix A.  The 11 companies thus selected are compared with another company (known as director comaparison company).  These companies are : Abbott Vs Upjohn (which was taken over by Pfizer in 2002), Circuit City Vs Silo, Fannie Mae Vs Great Western, Gillette Vs Warner-Lambert, Kimberly-Clark Vs Scott Paper, Kroger Vs A&P, Nucor Vs Bethlehem Steel, Philip Morris Vs RJ Reynolds, Phitney Bowes Vs Addressograph, Walgreens Vs Eckerd, and Wells Fargo Vs Bank of America.  The direct comparison companies are selected on the basis of there operation in the same industry with same opportunities and similar resources at the time of transition.  However there are some companies (Burroughs, Chrysler, Harris, Hasbro, Rubbermaid and Teledyne) which made a short term shift from good to great but failed to maintain the trajectory - to address the question of sustainability.   Thus in total 28 companies are studied to find out the commonalites (and What's Different) which make transform a good company into a great company.

In general, in contrast with the general assumptions they found out interesting facts (dogs that did not bark syndrome) as:

• Larger-than-life, celebrity leders who ride in from the outside are negativley correlated with taking a company from good to great.  Ten of eleven good to great CEOs came from inside the company, whereas the comparison companies tried outside CEOs six tims more often.
• No systematic patter linking specific forms of executive compensation to the process of goin from good to great.
• Strategy per se did not separate the good to great companies from the comparison companies.
• Good-to-Great companies did not focus on what to do to become great, they focused equally on what not to do and what to stop doing.
• Technology can accelerate a transformation but it cannot cause a transformation.
• No relation and impact of merger/acquisitions.
• Good-to-Great companies paid scant attention to managing change, motivating people, or creating alignment.  
• Good-to-Great companies had no name, tag line, launch event, or program to signify their transformations.
• Good-to-Great companies were not, by and large, in great industries, and some were in terrible industries.  

The book advocates for Level 5 Leadership driven out of the readings, data, narratives and the contributions of great leaders in the good-to-great companies.  The personal characteristics of the leaders, their competence level, commitment to the cause, integrity and honest intentions are some such common features found in the leaders of great organizations.  The transformations of the organizations during the tenure of their visionary leaders is well placed in the book (George Cain at Abott, Alan Wurtzel at Circuit City,  David Maxwell at Fennie Mae, Darwin Smith at Kimberley-Clark, Colman Mockler at Gillette, Jim Herring at Kroger, Lyle Everingham at Nucor, Joe Cullman at Philip Morris, Fred Allen at Pitney Bowes, Charles Walgreen at Walgreen Pharm, and Carl Reichardt at Wells Fargo). The robust database and collections of articles, press reports etc from different journals, magazines etc are the base for the arguments for Good-to-Great organizations.

Professional Will and Personal Humility are portrayed as two sides of Level 5 Leadership which refers to a five level hierarchy of executive capabilities, level 5 leaders are ambitious, to be sure, but ambitious first and foremost for the company, not themselves, they set up their successors for even greater success in the next generation, display a compelling modesty, are self-effacing and understated, are fanatically driven, infected with an incurable need to produce sustained results, display a workmanlike diligence, look out the window to attribute success to factors other than themselves.  Generally we tend to overstate the role of money or compensation with the performance.  Quite the contrary Good-to-great companies do not support such an argument.  This is even otherwise proved in the context of any individual which is popularly known as Easterlin Paradox in happiness literature. Another general perception that 'people are most important asset' is questioned by Collins and he says 'people are not your most important asset. The right people are'.  In fact there have been a concern raised on this issue by the management academicians.  I remember one of the very prominent paper by Peter Drucker where he argues that People (Employees) are not assets, rather they are Liabilities.  Collins view that right people are real asset for organization is well defended in the book.  While making comparisons with the counterpart companies the differences in the practices are explained and the key is found to be the right kind of people at the right place.  Chapter three ends with a very good sentence - The people we interviewed from the good-to-great companies clearly loved what they did, largely because they loved who they did it with.  This sentence says it all.

The companies in order to succeed must confront with the brutal facts of their current reality. And such confrontation must be with all positivity and honest intentions. The truth must be heard and the corporations must develop a culture of this kind through leading with questions and not answers, through employee engagement, through conducting autopsies without blame and through building such mechanisms which does not allow you to ignore crucial information.  The learning of the adversity and successfully managing it is a strong feature of good-to-great companies and such lessons can be learnt from Stockdale Paradox which is based on a simple thinking that - retain absolute faith that you can and will prevail int eh end, regardless of the difficulties.  Unlike general assumption, Jim experiences that in good-to-great companies, charisma can be as much a liability as an asset, as the strength of your leadership personality can deter people from bringing you the brutal facts.

Three intersecting circles (What you are deeply passionate about, what you can be the best in the world at, what drives your economic engine) of Hedgehog concept are really great convincing factors. Jim says that good-to-great companies are the best in the world at circle of the Hedgehog concept and this he explains through the practical example of all the 11 such companies.  The culture of discipline has to be developed to transform an organization into a great organization.  The freedom or autonomy has to be commissioned to the people within a set framework.  The discipline of working within the system and structure and allowing people to use their freedom in decision making within it makes one a great organization.  It is not just the disciplined action which is important, equally important is to get disciplined people who engage in disciplined thought and who then take disciplined action.  The organizations have to get habituated to stay within three circles which shall allow them to explore further opportunities for growth.  The stop doing list has to be prepared cautiously and such activities needs to be ignored for capitalising on potential growth opportunities.

Good-to-Great companies showed consistent use of technology as accelerator of momentum, not a creator of it. The flywheel model (tremendous power exists in the fact of continued improvement and the delivery of results) as suggested by Jim proved that the great organizations followed it in one or the other way as compared to comparison companies which followed the doom loop.  It also included maintaining proper returns through their performance at the Wall Street.

Earlier work of Jim Collins in the shape of Built to Last concentrated on what does it take to start and build an enduring great company from the ground up.  While he took up the project on studying Good-To-Great companies, Built to last was there at the back of the mind of his team.  As mentioned - Looking back on the built to last study, it appears that the enduring great companies did in fact go through a process of buildup to breakthroughs following the good to great framework during their formative years, though the organizations studied were all different, however an overlapping in the approach on looking at them was observed.  Some of the frameworks proposed in this book were seen to have been followed by the organizations which were under study in Built to Last like in the case of role of Sam Walton in the evolution of Walmart, who followed Fly Wheel model.  This chapter 9 (last chapter) of the book compares these two books (Built to last and Good to Great) through suggested models and how they were practiced by them.  As suggested in the Built to Last, preserving core values and purpose is important for enduring corporations and they have to preserve the creative culture of the the organization, however in Good-to-Great, which is primarily focused on developing the base for Level 5 Leadership, the concentration is on the leaders role and his/her sense of personal humility.

As individuals we aspire to be great, we always think (ideally) that we must leave behind such contributions for which we are remembered, this is was drives us to think of something great.  Similarly organizations also need to think of achieving greatness.  And this is where Jim Collins through this work tries to convince the readers of the practices that great business leaders follow to transform their organization into a great organization.  Mind it unquestionably who would not be interested in achieving greatness. Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice.

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR – A South Asian Perspective, by Nelson, Quick and Khandelwal (2011) Cengage Learning, Delhi (p 392 + xii)

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR – A South Asian Perspective, by Nelson, Quick and Khandelwal (2011) Cengage Learning, Delhi (p 392 + xii)

Management of people in organizations has always been a great challenge for management.  As the organizational structures are getting flatter, this challenge is becoming more acute.  The study of organizational behavior in this context has also become very common especially for the students of business and commerce.  Before twenty odd years, there was a lack of availability of good text on organizational behavior in India which focused on Indian conditions.  Last ten years have seen publication of good relevant literature in India in this area.  As business education has spread across length and breadth of the country, the emergence of good business books which include relevant literature developed in Indian settings has been witnessed.  In this backdrop I would like to introduce the readers to this recently published book authored by Debra L Nelson, James Campbell Quick and Preetam Khandelwal, and published by Cengage Learning, India.

The book is divided in four parts (Introduction, Individual Processes and Behaviour, Interpersonal Processes and Behaviour, and Organizational Processes and Structure) consisting of 17 chapters.  These chapters cover all the constituents of organizational behavior like individual behavior, group behavior and organizational structure.   Nelson and Quick’s OB book was there present in the Indian market even before but it lacked the content on Indian firms, individuals and conditions.  The present book has Khandelwal as one of the other author as well whose contribution looks quite visible in the book where lot of Indian snippets are placed at their respective places.  The earlier book was more exhaustive and had global appeal which did not just targeted the text students but even the researchers.  This present book is designed and published under 4LTR series which is a Cengage Learning product, and is a widely acclaimed concept of learning with a simple approach – creating an innovative teaching and learning solution build around today’s learners and teachers.  The idea behind brining out this series of books is to introduce students and teachers in South Asia to an innovative concept in management studies which is based on the inputs from discipline-specific focus groups, conversations, and surveys. 

Every chapter outlines the learning outcomes before one proceeds through the chapter and the contents of each chapter are explained through these learning outcomes, which is quite impressive, thoughtful and focused.  Small side boxes with important keywords used in the text and their brief description leaves the reader with clear understanding of the terms used.  The book is full of colorful pictures, relevant figures, tables, statements, did you know?, hot trends, and to the point notes.  The fast facts and by the numbers boxes engages the reader and provides appropriate defense for the text it supports. All chapters end with their respective In Review and What about You?, which very succinctly summarizes the whole chapter and helps the reader to practically evaluate oneself.  It is a good reminder of all that one reads in the chapter.  The pictures used in the chapter are put on one page at the end of the chapter which visually reminds, engages and involves the reader with all the contents that one has read.  This format of the book is excellent. 

The book is fully updated, sourced and referenced, (with web addresses) for the benefit of its readers. However it is felt that as the book has South-Asian Perspective, it should have included some cases or notes on other countries in the region apart from India.   The small stories on Indian firms like Bajaj Auto Limited, The Dabbawalas, Biocon, ICICI Bank, Wipro (for its values), NTPC (for its People before PLF – plant load factor), Indian Bank (for turnaround) etc are well placed.  In fact there are not many books which illustrate Indian cases in such a way and many a times while a teacher is teaching a course on OB, with a book having global perspective, the students find it difficult to correlate.  But this book through its Indian content makes it easier for the Indian students to relate the theory with the practices and tries bridging that gap quite convincingly.  The examples of individuals with Indian origin are very well put in the text wherever applicable.  On commitment it is Mahatma Gandhi, father of the nation, who has been put and captioned as a karma yogi par excellence, on communication, the contribution of one of the most popular presidents of India in the Indian history of independent India, APJ Abdul Kalam, who has been communicating with the children all across the country, is quoted.  We have witnessed a great transformation in the telecom sector in the last 20 years which was conceived and initially led by Sam Pitroda.  His example on the chapter on Leadership is very apt.  In the chapter on Personality, former Indian police officer, Kiran Bedi, who has been quite active in raising the issues of social concern, winner of many prizes for social service including Ramon Magsaysay Award, has been put.  These people have made a great impact on the lives of common people in India and their examples are well placed which helps indian readers to understand various concepts and models better.  Small stories related to the business leaders such as Indra Nooyi, captioned as Iron woman of PepsiCo, on motivation, Azim Premji, captioned as a strategic leader, on Leadership, Dr Vijay Mallaya, on Personality, and E Sreedharan, the managing director of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation on job satisfaction, commitment and Power and Political behaviour, make good sense. 

Conflict is one of the important parts of management and organizational behavior literature.  The chapter on conflict and negotiation (p 254-275) discusses different aspects of conflicts and explains the existing conflicts in Indian family businesses.  The conflict in Ambani family is explained through a box borrowed from the times of india news, which is quite relevant.  In my view there would not have been a better model to resolve conflict other than Gandhian approach which is very aptly put in the chapter. 

After going through all 17 chapters, I firmly appreciate and commend the work of the authors for 4 chapters (Motivation at work – p 94-110, Power and Political Behaviour – p 211 - 228, Leadership and Followership – p 229 – 252, and Conflict and Negotiation – p 253 – 274) and would like to specially recommend these chapters.  The models are explained nicely and briefly with excellent colorful graphical presentation.  The notes at the end of the book help the reader to dig out further on the sources and references if one wants to get to the original paper. 

Though the format of book is excellent but at times and places it become very loud in colors, pictures and different types of boxes.  The book could have been further better if the amount of text was put little more.  It is a concise book on OB. Having gone through the book and looking at all its aspects, I feel the presentation of book is very engrossing and whoever goes through it shall not regret having chosen it.  I strongly recommend it to the students and teachers involved in the teaching of text on OB.

[published in Invertis Journal of Management, Vol 3 No 2, 2011, Pp 99-101]

Fish! A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results

Fish! A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results by Stephen C Lundin, Harry Paul and John Christensen (Hodder and Stoughton, Great Britain, 2000)

While I got the book Destination Work, published in India by Westland in 2010, by Harry Paul & Ross Reck few weeks back, I learnt Harry Paul has written another book titled Fish earlier and that book was there in my wishlist as well as in my reading list, however I had not read it fully.  So I thought before Destination Work, I should finish Fish and then go to destination work, so I took Fish and finished it in two long sittings.  My review of this book is here.

The book starts with its dedication to millions of workers who relish the thought of having a more playfully productive atmosphere at work and a foreword by none other than Ken Blanchard (of The One Minute Manager fame). It is a story of an organization called First Guarantee Financial situated at Seattle. Mary Jane loses her husband (Dan) who was working in another organization, she has two children, a son and a daughter, the workplace which has been termed as The Toxic Energy Dump (TTED) situated at the Third Floor. There is an indication that if they do not improve their work, they might lose their work to an outsider agency.  The security of the people working there is at stake and they are just carrying on the activities without any motivation and with no mindset to take initiative to change the working pattern, system and methods. Mary has started getting frustrated ("Does my staff know that the security they cherish might be just an illusion? Do they realize the extent to which market forces are reshaping this industry? Do they understand that we will all need to change in order for this company to compete in a rapidly consolidating financial services market? Are they aware that if we do'nt change we will eventually find ourselves looking for other employment?"p 23) till one day when she visits the world famous Pike Place Fish market (PPFM), where she learns the basic lessons of dealing with people and processes and it boosts her morale to take initiative and to introduce her colleagues and subordinates to a totally new work environment. She maintains a journal where she keeps jotting down her thinking and learning which gets consolidated at the end of the book apart from its mention in pieces here and there.

She is convinced about the view that everyone in the organization has to put extra effort in order to impress leadership about their competence, however the energy level and the morale of the employees in the department is touching all time low. Her boss has termed the department as TTED and when she communicates this to others, they feel further demotivated and they have lost all enthusiasm to perform better and are planning for a better place to work elsewhere.

One day Mary visits the work famous PPFM, which changes all her opinions, views and thinking which motivates her to transform the third floor and to convert TTED into a great work place where everybody enjoys working. She is able to find a huge set of energy, enthusiasm, involvement and engagement at the fish market where the shopkeepers are adding lot of fun to there work and enjoying every bit of what they are doing. These reflections drives her to the fish market many times and one day she gets successful in bringing all her team members to this market amidst individuals who, much against their will, are visiting the market. At the end she succeeds in using her learning at the fish market at the third floor which transforms everybody there and the workplace becomes a great sharing space for everybody.

Some of the take-aways from the book:

• Choose your attitude: There is always a choice about the way you do your work, even if there is not a choice about the work itself. (p 37)
• Speak from the heart. 
• Find a message that communicates the notion of choosing your attitude in a way that everyone will understand and personalize.
• Provide motivation.
• Persist with faith. (b-e p 54) 
• Play. (p 62): Benefits of play: Happy people treat others well, fun leads to creativity, the time passes quickly, having a good time is healthy, and work becomes a reward and not just a way to rewards. (p 88) 
• Make their Day. (p 64)
• Be present. (p 67)

The book ends with a small paragraph which reads as follows:

OUR WORKPLACE

As you enter this place of work please choose to make today a great day. Your colleagues, customers, team members, and you yourself will be thankful. Find ways to play. We can be serious about our work without being serious about ourselves. Stay focused in order to be present when your customers and team members most need you. And should you feel your energy lapsing, try this surefire remedy.  Find someone who needs a helping hand, a word of support or a good ear - and make their day. (p 107)

I suggest this book for each one of them who get disheartened at the workplace by looking at the highly demotivated workforce, for each one of them who think small things do not matter in big organizations, for each one of them who believes that the thought of positivity throws away all negativities, for each one of them who has strong faith and belief in oneself.  I know I made a better choice by reading Fish before Destination work on which I jump now.

(published in IJM, Vol 4 No 1, 2012)