Meeting The Alums

I always believe that you must find a good mentor before you begin with a life changing activity. Half the work is done if you succeed in identifying a good mentor. The do's and don’ts can be explained in no better fashion, than by a good mentor.

Hence, the right mentor can always show you right steps, the right way and the right method. But, the onus of reaching out to the mentor at the right time lies on you.

For a person like me, who has just started with a new phase in life by enrolling in a MBA program at NITIE, interacting with the seniors and alums would be one of the most interesting and intriguing things to do. Many thanks to our professor Dr. Mandi who made our day by inviting alums from IM 10 batch - Mr. Nikhil Kulkarni (Manager - IT Advisory, KPMG) and Mr. Hemant Kumar Jain (Manager, Human Capital Advisory, KPMG).

I and the entire class were excited to know their experiences, learnings, ventures, victories, failures and industry happenings etc.

After the introduction, Mr. Kulkarni took over and raised this fundamental question - 'how many of you want to get into SCM?’ NITIE, being the mecca of operations management, it was of no surprise that many hands rose. The next was an interesting question - 'how many of you are thinking of entrepreneurship?’

This time few hands rose and even those who evinced interest, weren't confident enough.

By now it was clear that Mr. Kulkarni had intentions of clearing the air for the students for them to make wise decisions when it comes to taking up entrepreneurship. He advised that entrepreneurship is for those who really are passionate about setting up their own enterprise, who can think innovatively and for those who think big and act big. This he explained with couple of real life examples.

Comforting the disheartened souls, Mr. Kulkarni went on to say that one can run a business and be the boss even while working for a company. He stated his own experience as a manager where he looks at and analyses the profit and loss sheets of the company he works for, while consistently thriving to increase the profitability and customer base of the company.

As the curiosity bar kept rising among the students, Mr. Hemant made an entry into the hall with a bang! Concluding a brief introduction he engaged in a jovial discussion with the students like asking them if the count of steps to reach the academic block from the hostels was still 96.After a sound 'Yes' from the students, he compared those steps collectively, as a ladder to success. 

The duo suggested on how the students must make the most of their stay at NITIE and make it more than just worthwhile. They elaborated on their invention at NITIE - 'Mastishk' that was so dear to them and something that they are really proud of even today. Mastishk is an online business case study simulation competition that witnesses the presence of best minds from the top colleges across the country. Despite the criticism right on the face and turbulence in conceptualizing the event, Mr. Kulkarni team battled it out and pulled it off very well making a huge and successful event.

Apart from the participation in committees, forums and several other campus activities like case study competitions, the alums have recommended some good books and movies which they said would help in improving our personality and change our persona altogether.

Overall, it was a wonderful,knowledge filled session.Once again, would like to express our gratitude to professor Mandi for making this happen!

Teamwork of the 'Three Idiots Crossing the Valley'

      Co-operation and Collaboration

  “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much”

We can achieve so much if we are a team. But, what's a team?

Team

I would describe teamwork by using the acronym TEAM - Together Everyone Accomplishes More. Google explains it as "A feeling or attitude of devoted attachment and affection."

If that is 'Team', then what is 'Team Work' ?

TeamWork

Teamwork can be defined as "a joint action by a group of people, in which each person subordinates his or her individual interests and opinions to the unity and efficiency of the group." 

This does not mean that the individual is no longer important; however, it does mean that effective and efficient teamwork goes beyond individual accomplishments. The most effective teamwork is produced when all the individuals involved harmonize their contributions and work towards a common goal.

For example, if you take your hand and spread out your fingers, each of your fingers possesses the strength of a single digit. But if you clench them together into a fist, they become much more powerful.

Characteristics of Effective Teams.

The following are eight characteristics of effective teams:

1. The team must have a well defined goal. 
2. The team must be results-driven.
3. The team must have competent team members. 
4. The team must have commitment. 
5. The team must have collaboration. 
6. The team must have unanimous standards. 
7. The team must receive support and encouragement. 
8. The team must have a leader.

We shall try to understand how team work manifests with the help of an example :

As is evident in the above picture, three people are trying to cross a valley which is deep and risky to cross.But, team work along with the help of a pole made it possible.If each of the three tried to cross the valley with his own efforts, it would not have been possible.

It is also clearly visible that :

1. Every person had a similar role to play i.e. equal share of the responsiblity,burden and risk
2. Each person was completely involved in the process
3. Synergy was neccessary to execute the task
4. Each of them needed the same anount of stamina and nothing less
5. Effective co-ordination and communication is also critical

The lessons learnt from the above theory on Team, Teamwork and the practical example stated above, can be summarised in terms of what benefits teamwork can bring for a mutually supportive group :

  

Benefits of team work

• Improvements in participants' confidence, attitudes, motivation and 

  personal satisfaction
• Greater clarity in expressing ideas through discussion
• Better understanding by individuals of the nature of their contribution – 

  and of the needs of other team members 
• More efficient use of resources – especially time
• Greater optimism – by focusing on positive outcomes and putting less 

  weight on problems
• A wider range of ideas rather than individuals working in isolation
• More effective responses to changes – improved trust and 

  communication help a team to adapt to new circumstances

The Story of the Three Buddhist Monks

Yet another interesting session by Dr.Mandi using the interactive and engaging methods of teaching. And this time, the lesson was taught using a animation movie that depicts the story of three Buddhist monks based on a traditional Chinese folk tale about cooperation.

Background:

The film is based on 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."The film does not contain any dialogues, allowing it to be watched by any culture, and a different music instrument was used to signify each monk.The film tells the story from the aspect of the buddhist bhikku

The plot:

A young monk lives a simple life, meditating, tending to his vegetable garden and fetching water from a cold stream. Rain or shine, he never misses a day lugging this burden up the mountain to the temple. One day he invites a travelling monk to stay with him. Since they will share the water, they descend the mountain together to fetch it. Due to the difference in their heights, the men are unable to balance the shared load on their carrying pole without sloshing the contents of the two buckets all over the short monk. They manage to retrieve only a fraction of the water the young monk would have carried on his own, and not enough to care for the garden. Just as the young monk begins to see his guest as ungrateful, and the other monk begins to see his host as unreasonable, a third monk arrives.

The movie is a must watch, to understand effectiveness and efficiency involved in teamwork.

In short, 'Three Monks' is a superbly poetic animated short film, released in 1980 and directed by A Da. It is one of the most famous and beloved of Shanghai Animation Film Studio's productions, and has won awards at film festivals throughout the world.

Here comes the most important part...our learning from watching this movie:

The most important aspect we have learnt through the movie, the analysis by professor Mandi and the brainstorming by the students of the class was 'Synergy'.

Synergy

As shown in the movie, each monk believes that he is not responsible for hauling water up the steep slope until a fire breaks out.

When the monastery is engulfed in fire, the three monks panic and try to extinguish the fire with their individual efforts, instead of making a 'team' effort that would be much more effective.

In any organization, synergy occurs when two or more businesses or resources come together to make a greater impact than they would separately

But, it's a widely known fact that some of the units of an organization don’t work effectively together, people blame each other for problems that arise and not take initiative to solve them, low responsibility and accountability of work, people working individually and not being team players.All this results in an unhealthy working environment and an inefficient work within the division.

The same goes with me too. I worked at a popular organization where the work environment is on similar lines with in any other organizations of today's world.Conflicts of interests, people blaming each other and workers shirking responsibilities etc could be seen everyday. And all this happened even though best practices were followed in my organization and the process implemented was world-class.

Team Synergy is a very common problem in the corporate world. Whether it’s a fortune 500 company or a local business, as long as humans are running the business – not robots, there’s going to be human relationship problems running in the business. Teamwork problems are inevitable because every individual that comprises a team has different ways of doing one thing. Many people don’t realize that teamwork is more than just working together to get things done, but more importantly it is about achieving results that are much greater than the sum of each person’s contributions.

Finally in the end of the movie, the three monks realise the vitality that every team member must knows their roles and responsibilities, take upon themselves what is their share of the load, work at their best and furthermore collaboratively see the whole process of fetching water through to completion.

This illustration helps us understand the 4 major benefits of establishing synergy in an organization :

1. SHARED VISION, VALUES & GOALS

2. GOOD LEADERSHIP & FOLLOWERSHIP

3. TRUST, RESPECT & COMPASSION

4. POSITIVE ENVIRONMENT