What they do not teach you at Management School!!!

Many in-betweens exist between No-No and Yes-Yes. Their species are many. One of the varieties is the decisive and smart. Sounds great. But be careful. Do not be a compulsive decision maker. A right decision should be taken at right time; an efficient decision need not be an effective decision. What I mean to convey is that in realm of actual productivity, effectiveness always scores over efficiency as efficiency often neglects quality. I need not emphasize, that in the globalized market quality is the only key word for success. Let me take some time off from describing all those species in-between No-No and Yes-Yes and try to differentiate between effectiveness and efficiency. At least one species will be defined. I am sure all of you know that, but you must allow me to survive in this 360 world. Unless I write, then how do I survive?

In India before we start something we try to remember somebody whom you consider as an expert in that field. For example, before we start construction of a building we pay our gratitude to LORD VISWAKARMA who is supposed to be the God of Architecture as per Hindu belief and mythology. Examples are many. In my case, with all humility I pay gratitude to all the Management Gurus of India and same time, I air a word of caution for them too, “BE CAREFUL, MUNNA BHAI IS BREATHING AT YOUR NECK”.

The story goes like this. A fisherman was worried for he did not have any child of his own. He had visited many doctors. But all of them expressed their helplessness. Nothing new of course. They are always helpless. Like Indian managers they only manage the things. Hypertension? Pat, comes the reply, “Hmmn, it is manageable”. Diabetes? Insomnia? Arthritis? Ok, I do not want to give that long list. Everything is either manageable or controllable. Nothing is curable. Of course I am not talking of those self-limiting viral diseases, which gets cured on their own. However, our doctors friends, out of sear honesty, never claim to cure them. They say they can manage and control the secondary effects. Good managers. I am sure after reading this blog they will be effective manager too. Not my doctor friends’ fault at all. Because we are more interested to know what exists in Moon or Saturn than to know what exists inside our body.

Now let us concentrate our attention on the main actor of the story, the fisherman without any child of his own. He was bent upon to have one. Somebody advised him to meet a miracle man who stays in a faraway remote village. The miracle man supposed to have solution for everything. A living panacea! He was a married man, a vegetarian, having wife and children along with his miracle power. Those are the days of bullock cart. But fisherman did not wish to use the bullock cart and preferred to walk down to the miracle man. “No pain, no gain”, he thought. “Let me take the pain of walking down, so that I will be gainer by miracle man blessing”, he further thought. So he went to the miracle man and explained him the problem. The miracle man listened to his problem. He did not offer him any solution and asked him to come in the next day adopting the same mode of transportation. In this case we all know the mode of transportation is walking. The fisherman followed the advice and came next day by walking. He was again advised to come next day. Things went on like that, but the solution never came. It was always postponed to next day.

The fisherman was getting desperate day by day. The solution is not forthcoming from the miracle man. There is a saying in my language. It says, “If you can not pick the ghee in straight finger, you need to bend your finger”. Most probably the fisherman was aware of that saying. He tried to adopt that. He looked for the weakness of miracle man.

I am sure Mario Puzo was not born at that time. Surely “God father” was not available for reference. Then from where the fisherman got the idea of: LOOK FOR WEAKNESS? Ok, we will found out that later on.

Now, the fisherman looked for the weakness of the miracle man vigorously. Suddenly it occurred to him that miracle man is a vegetarian. Of course nothing new. In India if you want to be a miracle man first qualification required is to be a vegetarian Sorry for distraction

“Yes, the miracle man was a vegetarian”. The fisherman got a clue. Can it be a weakness? Next day the fisherman went to the miracle man with his heavyset friends and a can full of fish curry. My Indian friends can imagine the scene, straight from Bollywood. Of course there are ‘Many’woods in India which do not allow much of Hollywood here.

The fisherman asked the miracle man with anger, “This time if you do not solve my problem regarding the child, my friends will force you to eat fish curry and you will be disqualified to continue as a miracle man”.

Now, you must be thinking. No big deal. The miracle man will use his power to prevent all these nonsense forcing him to eat fish curry. But surprisingly the miracle becomes helpless in front of force and threat. The power never works at that time. There are many examples. I do not want to be controversial by quoting those. We will accept with good spirit that miracle men do not misuse their powers for their own benefits.

The miracle man maintained his calm and composure and asked the fisherman, “Son, how many children you want?” The fisherman got angry. He thought miracle man is joking. He replied in anger, “HUNDRED.” The miracle man asked,” Any thing, else?” The fisherman, still angry, replied, “NOTHING.” The miracle man ultimately used his power. “Go my son; your wife will give birth to hundred children, tomorrow?” The fisherman never asked, “How?”

Now, you, too, please do not ask me, “How one wife can give birth to hundred children in one day when she is yet to conceive”. We all like miracles. That is why it happens. But we all come to know after it happened. It never happens in our front for it is miracle. The mundane should not see it. Who saw it then?

The miracle man was true to his word. Next day, in the morning, fisher man wife gave birth to hundred children. But unfortunately, by the evening all the children died. They all left as they had come. You can very well imagine the mental condition of the fisherman.

Next day he again went to the miracle man and asked for the reasons of this cruel joke. The miracle man consoled him and said,” See, I have only given whatever you asked for. You asked for hundred children and you got it. You never asked me how long those children are going to live. What will be their capability and ability? You never asked for even when an opportunity was given. You were just satisfied with number. You demanded for efficiency, never for effectiveness.”

So the crux of this story is that efficiency looks for quantity where as effectiveness looks for quality. Depending on the market you operate you must make a judicious mixture of efficiency and effectiveness. In the management grid this can be expressed as follows:

3 HIGH EFFICIENCY LOW EFFECTIVENESS	4 HIGH EFFICIENCY HIGH EFFECTIVENESS.
1 LOW EFFICIENCY LOW EFFECTIVENESS	2 LOW EFFICIENCY HIGH EFFECTIVENESS.

I know, all of us will be tempted to be in fourth grid. It is possible to an extent only. Mathematically, we know that optimization of a particular variable in a combined domain of another mutually dependant variable is always less than optimization of that variable in a single domain. Here, we have two variable effectiveness and efficiency. Hence by setting limits depending on the market we operate, optimization is possible somewhere between grid-2 and grid-4 or grid-3 and grid-4. Operation in grid- 4 is not sustainable and operation in grid-1 is not desirable. Existence in grid-1 leads to management sickness while existence in grid-4 leads to burn out.

Let me conclude by making it clear what I mean by terminology “market we operate”. For example if you are manufacturing consumer durable where technological change is very fast and the product is economically affordable. Then there is no point in manufacturing a highly durable product because high technological change and economic affordability will tempt the customer to switch over to latest model available in market. Here the quality associated with high durability can be compromised to improve the quantity being produced.

THIS IS MUNNA BHAI’S MANAGEMENT THEORY IN MUNNA BHAI’S STYLE. THEY DO NOT TEACH YOU THIS IN HARVARD. THAT IS WHY BILL GATES WAS A HARVARD’S DROP OUT. DO NOT ASK ME WHETHER HE LEARNED FROM ME! COULD BE!! YOU JUST HEARD THE JOKE OF THE CENTURY.