Digital Corporate Yoga

I was excited when I first read about Smart cities in India! 

My city Thane (with probably the highest floating population in India) was among the shortlisted ones.

With a caveat, I feel the 'local' or layman's understanding of the 'Smart' goes hardly beyond digitally automating and monitoring human and material activities. To some prosumers and politicians alike, it's about 'showing' that we also do not lag behind in IOT (internet-of-things), in digitally connecting (and networking of) everything (devices, people and resources) everywhere in real time. In Kaizen parlor, the IOT is supposed to connect each Gembutsu at each Gemba in Genjitsu time.

In reality, Smart city initiative is supposed to be much more than synthetically planting 'digital' over its current level of physical existence. It's supposed to go to the higher level of physical, social, political, economic, 'emotional', 'mental', and 'spiritual' existence as well. I call the initiative as the Digital Corporate Yoga of the cities or rather of the universe!

I think it's of no use to call such cities Smart unless the digital progress helps them, the people (all stakeholders) and the cities alike, to evolve and get holistic experience of value.

Smart cities are supposed to house smart companies as well: the ones that are lean, digital internally and digitally connected externally to their value chains upstream as well as downstream.

Yes; being digital and lean, or in short each constituent of the smart city being digitally lean, is important.

But it's like, crudely say, the Digital or Soft or electronic form of Monozukuri that can be facilitated only through Hitozukuri as in case of smart companies in Japan. Without human involvement nothing can work as desired!

Monozukuri is about making products (rather making great offerings of products as well as services that add value) through Hitozukuri. The latter is about involving and 'making' (rather developing) people without whom Monozukuri is nearly impossible. Implementing both Hitozukuri and Monozukuri simultaneously as integral and complimentary concepts (see book 'Stay Lean, Make Planet Green') is the essence for any improvement initiatives to be sustainable at that. It's no different for digital initiatives! 

Why is it so, particularly in case of digital initiatives? 

Why do some people can't go beyond using an advanced IOT-capable smart phone (only) for socialising at higher speeds rather than for improved productivity?

Rather it's about their logical sequencing: 

The answer is in the roots of the questions such as follows!

Why do people keep going back to using Excel sheets in spite of expensively installed ERP systems in place? Or 

The answer is: Lack of Hitozukuri! 

Any ERP system in a company (be it expensive or otherwise) finds it difficult to succeed in it's true sense (to deliver the expected  levels of performance, as initially desired when the same was marketed by the suppliers) in absence of 'involving and preparing' people for the same. Same would-be the case of smart (digital) cities too! 

It's like taking up a high-tech flyover to speedily 'flyover' the problems left unattended below it, back once again to land into the traffic jam at the other end. (Extract  from Book "Stay Lean Make Planet Green, The Toyota Approach" by Shyam Talawadekar)

Smart cities will happen if people learn to take care of every little thing just like they would do for their hard earned penny. They must learn to prevent waste of any resource however insignificant it may appear to be like, say, to care for even a drop of water! 

In short, they must learn to put basics in place!

So to me, Digital Corporate Yoga is about both the Monozukuri and Hitozukuri coexisting. 

The horse before the cart; 
The Hitozukuri before the Monozukuri; 
The Smart people before the Smart cities!

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder: Please do consider leaving a comment or consider sharing this post.

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