How important is a strategic plan for business?

Everyone out there is to sell something to someone. That's called as business in business language.

In today's VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) world the sellers seem to outnumber the buyers. If yet not, then they will eventually do. Because, Everyone out there is to sell something to someone.

Naturally, it's important to answer a few questions before setting out to do business without bankruptcy.

How to do business with limited access to resources?

That's where comes the role of strategy.

In order to evolve strategy you need to probe into yourself as also into your business environment. It'll help you to do PEST and SWOT analysis as they say and do in business. PEST and SWOT you need to do both at personal as well as business level.

You need to know Where you want to go?
With what (offering) and how?

In order to do this adequately, you should've heard and read the VOC Voice-of-Customer.

Strategies derived earlier will help you to translate the VOC into delivery of the delightful offering to customer duly differentiated from competition and of course with cost leadership. Unless, of course, you want to drive volume leadership at calculated loss by design.

Now you need a daily control over the strategy to stay ahead of competition and stay successful sustainably.

Mosquito to teach patience

Say, you are busy reading a long pending novel.

A mosquito sits on your left hand.

No sooner you shove it off, another one troubles you.

You get upset. You try to hit it hard.
It escapes leaving a mark on your hand.
The cup of coffee by your side spills over you and over the book as well.

Nothing happens to the mosquito.
You get more angry.
If at all, everything that's wrong happens to you.

You hurt yourself physically.
You mess it up around.
You lose balance of mind as well thinking that everything wrong happens to you and you alone.
That enhances the chances of more reactions rather than a rational response.

Reactions generally tend to be wrong.
You invariably hurt your own-self more.

That's exactly is the result of getting angry.

Not that I'm free from it.
The learning that, however, I draw from it is that there's no point in getting angry.

Reactions tend to damage you your own-self more.
Instead, better to stay in control.
It's better to act (as well as proact) rather than re-act while enjoying the process of tackling the difficulties at hand.

Mosquito is perhaps the reason designed for you to learn patience and to learn to come out as a more composed personality.

If a mosquito can

You too can

Make a difference man

That's my Haiku inspired by the quote of Dalai Lama: "If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito."

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

No Time? Micro-Meditate!  
What do you do when a dog barks at you?
How To Make A Difference 
Conscious Of Self-Esteem
Catch a Butterfly

Overworked? Tension? CPU of the mind hung-up? 
Do you exercise your choice meaningfully 
IQ-EQ-or-SQ: What-is-more-important? 
Eternally Happy! 
In-a-problem? No-problem! Dwell-a-while! 
I am afraid ! What do I do !! 
Fearful-Of-Death-of-Birth
Take Habits For A Ride 
Happy-Birthday-to-Youooo
Do You Celebrate Mean-or-Green 
Big-Be Or Bug-Be ! 
Raam or Krishna-Shyam: Tell me Hey Raam! 
Are You Good If Others Are Bad?  
Want Need-Or-Want 
Love is Care.. Care is Love !  
Deity is in the eyes of the beholder 
Success-or-failure! What-do-you-like?
Ball-Basin-Team Combine !  Maketh The Smile Divine !! 

Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation

Passion or Fashion?

7 P.M. Cool and pleasant evening. I was on an evening walk.

I was almost pulled by the rhythmic beats of Mridangam (a type of percussion instrument) from behind the hedge.

Raja (name changed) was practising, looking at the notations by his side. He could hardly read the notebook. He was sitting in dark at the farthest corner by the side of the eastern express highway in Thane.

For over five minutes Raja didn't even realise that I was standing by his side watching him play the Mridangam. My wife was watching patiently from a distance. She is used to such foolish halts of mine.

With a little bit of inquiry (finally when he looked at me), I came to know that he stayed in a rented shanty. His workplace was a few kilometers away. And that he sometimes came to practise in this corner whenever he got time. Once in a month he would go to his native near Murbad about 100 kilometres and take lessons from his Guru there.

What a commitment towards one's passion!

Whereas it is very easy to get spoilt (with smoking, drinking and chewing tobacco) in a metro city like Thane or Mumbai, the boy chose a corner and Mridang. The young boy (at 20 age) was pursuing his passion by the noisy and polluted roadside after work hours.

The reason: 

His neighbors would complain to his landlord about the 'noise' of Mridang. 

No room inside his room that he shared with a couple of partners.

Many 'innovate' hurdles to complain of 'why and how a thing couldn't be done' even after the corresponding resources were available in abundance. The young boy instead found solutions over his hurdles while nurturing his passion, staying alone 100 kilometres away from his family.

What an empowerment and self-enablement!

Sure to grow into a real life RAJA (King) of his passion if he continues to nurture it with consistency (rather than Passion as a Fashion) and self-managed supervision like Ekalavya.

Actually while I was writing this blogpost, my wife showed me a WhatsApp ping. It wrote "Joshua Bell, playing incognito in the D.C. Metro Station, that was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people's priorities.

This experiment raised several questions:

In a common-place environment, at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty?

If so, do we stop to appreciate it? " particularly when it comes free!

May be the boy is still to go far as a percussionist.

But what I wanted to appreciate was that that's how big names get made. In fact most successful people in various fields have left similar trails in their individual lives. They had little more patience to turn tables over while their problems were hell bent on testing them.

Their passions won over their problems by miles!

Big names get made when people find opportunities in problems without complaining about lack of resources, if any.

Big names get made (with holistic satisfaction as the result) when people find and nurture their passions rather than running after the run-of-the-mill careers.

Who knows (like Joshua Bell) sometime in life the boy may become a great percussionist if not Padma Shri Zakir Hussain!

In his humble mind, perhaps he already is!!

Here's my Haiku poem over the learning of the day:

Passion isn't a Fashion

Success isn't a cushion
Life is being in Motion

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

Do you know a Best-Career-Plan

Take your career in fast lane!

Talent-Is-Latent: Enable It! 

Crying? It's time to kick-it-off! 

Is Your Job Boring!

Is the Free cheap?

Overworked? Tension? CPU of the mind hung-up? 

Do you exercise your choice meaningfully 
IQ-EQ-or-SQ: What-is-more-important? 
Eternally Happy! 
In-a-problem? No-problem! Dwell-a-while! 
I am afraid ! What do I do !! 
Fearful-Of-Death-of-Birth
Take Habits For A Ride 
Big-Be Or Bug-Be ! 
Are You Good If Others Are Bad?  
Want Need-Or-Want 
How To Make A Difference 
Success-or-failure! What-do-you-like?
Succession-Plans In Fast Lane! 
Do you exercise your choice meaningfully
Do You Ask Right Questions? 

Carrier for the Career 

Carrier for the Career

Will I succeed in the career I choose and chase thereafter?

This is usually a question that lingers on the mind of most prospects.

In a couple of blogposts¹ earlier, I offered some guidance. In this one I would like to value add by offering some visual explanation.

There always exists some demand D, correspondingly some careers C and some passions P. In some cases, they overlap as in sketch-1 and in other cases they exist mutually exclusively as in sketch-2. 

Some people nurture their passions after office hours or at weekends. Those who do not know their passions may like to keep a journal of the activities that they enjoyed during working hours as well as after working hours and during weekends. Those could be the pointers to their passions!

Various types of demands could be due to the basic human needs (like food, shelter, clothing, security and education as in Maslow's hierarchical model) or due to wants (or so called glorified higher needs) as well.

CD arrow indicates that you may fall (burn) out of the current career irrespective of the demand being in place. This is true particularly if the both do not overlap the circle of passion.

PC arrow indicates that demand can get created if passion is in place and corresponding careers are available.

PD arrow indicates that career can be easily made if passion and demand both are in place.

If all of the P, C, D, co-exist then what's the problem?
Why does the doubt of 'success and failure' and that of 'choose and chase' exist?

One reason could be that the three might be floating around in isolation in their own P, C and D zones independently (mutually exclusively in the mathematical lingua), something like as you see in the sketch-2.

If however all the three overlap as in sketch-1 then the shaded zone (the green dot area common to P, C and D) is the most easier one for the prospects to succeed. That's because demand and careers are already available as a carrier for their passion to ride upon. In fact there'll be a pull from it for one's passion even if one may not want it.

Career chosen in this zone is where you are likely to make a major difference and leave your impact.

C and D (the orange and red dot areas) are where you need to push yourself very hard to create the carriers for a career to join the demand. You also need to work exceptionally hard to create skills and capabilities in line with the market demand. The reason is you need to work away from what you already have. The degree of push may vary a little depending upon the saturation level of the careers and the satisfaction levels of the demands as well.

Instead working on what you already have (your passion, the blue dot area) in order to enhance skills and capabilities in line with the opportunities that the market provides, creating the corresponding demand and career is much easier even if they hardly exist. You may have to do a little spadework though.

You may need to push very little to create a carrier for your career. You'll succeed anyway it being your passion. The criteria of success will more be enjoyment derived out of the process or journey rather than merely the earnings out of it. You are surely going to enjoy it because it's your passion that you are furthering it.

Those who understand this P-C-D interrelationship, don't have to worry about the Carrier for their Career. This is particularly true for the passionate ones because they are already 'play'ing the game of it rather than 'work'ing it out.

They already have answer to the question of 'choice and the chase'!

They are likely to be the most successful ones!!

Also read a few relevant¹ blog-posts² hereunder: Please do consider leaving a comment or consider sharing this post.

Footnote-¹

Do you know a Best-Career-Plan

Take your career in fast lane!

Talent-Is-Latent: Enable It! 

Crying? It's time to kick-it-off! 

Is Your Job Boring!

Footnote-² ... Other relevant blogposts

Overworked? Tension? CPU of the mind hung-up? 
Do you exercise your choice meaningfully 
IQ-EQ-or-SQ: What-is-more-important? 
Eternally Happy! 
In-a-problem? No-problem! Dwell-a-while! 
I am afraid ! What do I do !! 
Fearful-Of-Death-of-Birth
Take Habits For A Ride 
Big-Be Or Bug-Be ! 
Are You Good If Others Are Bad?  
Want Need-Or-Want 
How To Make A Difference 
Success-or-failure! What-do-you-like?
Succession-Plans In Fast Lane! 
Do you exercise your choice meaningfully

Do You Ask Right Questions? 
Overworked? Tension? CPU of the mind hung-up?

Being Perfect!

Hearing about a debate on 'being perfect',  I was reminded of a joke that was circulated on social media.

The preacher said, "There's no such thing as a perfect woman. Anybody present who has ever known a perfect woman, stand up."

Nobody stood up.

"Those who have ever known a perfect man, stand up."

One elderly gentleman stood up.

"Are you honestly saying you knew an absolutely perfect man?" he asked, somewhat amazed.

"Well now, I didn't know him personally," replied the little old man, "but I have heard a great deal about him. He was my wife's first husband."

Just as a spouse looks for a perfect partner, people expect others to be perfect. A boss expects her subordinates to be perfect and vice versa. Some people try to be perfectionists themselves though.

Nothing wrong in trying but one needs to be realistic.

Perfection is a concept. It's a moving target.

If someone misses two darts out of a hundred attempts on a bull's eye, perfection level to her may mean not over two darts missing out of a thousand and so on. For someone else it may mean, not over  two darts missing out of a ten thousand attempts.

It's a continuous process of improvising (Kaizen as in Japanese industry) once own (skill sets) accuracy and precision in doing so. Precision is about hitting at the same place in each successive attempt within a certain defined and accepted range. Accuracy is about hitting at the right place.

It's no different than a football player hitting the ball at the right time with right force to get it into the goal post successfully with an improved strike rate.

It's about continuous improvisation in each experiment, meticulously learning from past mistakes or errors of self as well as others in order to minimize them with a stretch goal strategy in order to hit within a narrower range than the last time.

So rather than expecting others to 'Be Perfect', looking for the evidence of this approach of 'being precise but accurately as an on-going journey' can be called as the journey towards 'Being Perfect'.

Vince Lombardi Jr.rightly says, "Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence!"

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

That's How Morons Work 
Kaizen to overcome procrastination! 
"Break All the Rules" but with care! 
Kaizen, even in air!  
Reward the Top or the Bottom  
Flirt behind dirt! 
Penny-Wise Pound-Wiser 
About my first book World-Of-Kaizen 

Why do strategies fail 

Strategise To Achieve Targets Daily 

Old-Problems, New-Reasons !

Ant Knocks Elephant Down 
Will It Work Here?
Can-changing-thoughts-change-nation?
In-big-problem-wear-hats-to-solve-it 
Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture 
WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling 
IQ-EQ-or-SQ: What-is-more-important 
Talent-Is-Latent: Enable It! 
Judge If It's Paralysis-By-Analysis 
Will It Work Here? 
Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy 
Does recognition really matter 
Who Comes First: Consumer Or Customer ? 
Treat Root-causes, Not Symptoms ! 
ABCD of India Shining 
Do You Ask Right Questions?
Am I 'Short-sighted' or 'Long-sighted'? 

Who Comes First: Consumer Or Customer ? 

Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy

Comprehensive-Strategic-Audits

Why do strategies fail

Sometimes we get so obsessed with formulation of long-term strategy that we fail to see dangers closing-in around in immediate term.

Sometimes we fail to take course-corrective actions, PEST & SWOT analysis as they say, demanded by changes in the environment in VUCA¹ business-world.

Obsession of long-term thoughts prevents us from engaging into immediate-term actions although they are a must-do actions. We engage ourselves into good-to-do or want-to-do actions. Sometimes out of enthusiasm, sometimes inadvertently though.

Must-do actions are about giving first-aid in order to get immediate relief from a problem as well as preventing recurrence of it.

One can prevent recurrence by keeping a daily vigil on the lessons learnt.

Good-to-do actions are about preventing ocurrence itself of an undesired situation.

Want-to-do actions are about all those sundry ones of least or no consequence to the goal at all.

Secret of successful implementation of strategy lies not only in not allowing thought processes to get de-focused but also in balancing the Must-do, Good-to-do and Want-to-do actions in right proportions thereof.

It's about keeping one eye on long-range vision and the other on shorter-range planning and actions.
It's about keeping one eye on strategy, the other on tactics.
It's about keeping one eye on telescope, the other on microscope.

Footnote-1: VUCA is a Military term that characterises Volatilie Uncertain Complex Ambiguous environment in a war situation.

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

Strategise To Achieve Targets Daily 

Old-Problems, New-Reasons !

Ant Knocks Elephant Down 
Will It Work Here?Can-changing-thoughts-change-nation?In-big-problem-wear-hats-to-solve-itRidiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-cultureWOW Work-Culture: By Telling or SellingIQ-EQ-or-SQ: What-is-more-importantTalent-Is-Latent: Enable It!Judge If It's Paralysis-By-AnalysisWill It Work Here?Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-BuyDoes recognition really matterWho Comes First: Consumer Or Customer ?Treat Root-causes, Not Symptoms !ABCD of India ShiningDo You Ask Right Questions?Am I 'Short-sighted' or 'Long-sighted'?

Who Comes First: Consumer Or Customer ? 

Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy

Comprehensive-Strategic-Audits

Be Bug-Be Or Big-Be ?

Overcome The Tyranny Of Small Minds 

While reading the above spiritual article, it occurred to me that there could be four kinds of people in the corresponding context.

1/ Big people with small mind: Bugger-Be !
2/ Big people with big mind: Bigger-Be !
3/ Small people with small mind: Bug-Be !
4/ Small people with big mind: Big-Be !

First category of people (read the corresponding blogpost on the link) is the one that is powerful enough but doesn't bother about other's presence. Bugger-Be doesn't make contribution to other's rightful needs nor to the societal ones.

Last category of people (the so-called small people with big mind: Big-Be !) is the one that is not powerful at all. But it empowers itself in order to bother about other's presence. It also makes diffrence to the small world around them by contributing to other's rightful needs. Through their value adding actions, it makes others think and act!

It's actually the Big-people (the first and the third category) that can make significant diffrence to others and to the socio-economic needs.

Wheel-of-Worldly activity, however, is somehow getting managed because of presence of the last category of ('small') people. The wheel might run faster (and in a better fashion) if the quadrant of the first category of people reduces and the size of second category of people (Bigger-Be With Big-Mind) increases.

Easiest way for the Bugger-Be to turn into a Bigger-Be in this context is to copy actions of the last category: That of the Big-Be !

Big-people do have power to influence bigger circles of people at a bigger scale!!

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder:

No Time? Micro-Meditate!  

ABCD of India Shining

Make It Simpler, Rest Will Follow

How To Make A Difference

Nauseous Communication Gaps

Do You Cleanup-After-Crisis

Raam or Krishna-Shyam: Tell me Hey Raam!

Will It Work Here? 

Some Moron ! Some Great !!!

That's How Morons Work

You seem Reasonable if you appear Un-reasonable

Smart-Moron Who Breaks Your Glass

WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling

Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy

Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation

Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture

Tolerate Once, Twice, Thrice?

That's how some business partnerships work

Taken-For-Granted ? You Deserve It !!

IQ-EQ-or-SQ: What-is-more-important?

Do you exercise your choice meaningfully

Do You Ask Right Questions? 

Forgive Or Don't?

Forgiveness is the Economics of Heart..
It Saves the Expense of Anger
The Cost of Hatred
The Wastage of Peaceful Moments &
Gives You Profits on Smiles..

The above whatsapp that I received gives the message to: Forgive And Forget!

True..!
Lovely tangible and intangible cost-benefit analysis it offers.

But it's difficult for me to forgive someone slapping me, arriving from the 'blue', apparently for no reason. One shouldn't tolerate itunless of course it's sensed as a God-sent one.

In the latter case my action is to Forgive. In case of the former it is to: Forgive But Don't Forget. Because history 'says' if you do (forget) and stay indifferent, more 'slaps' come back in search of you for 'no reason'.

Decades ago, doors of Sydenham commerce college got 'banged' on me. When some close some do open. Some for the better. Those of Ruparel college opened with many more thereafter. 
The 'slap' proved to be God-sent!

In engineering college, someone ridiculed my looks. I learnt to differenciate among Functional, Aesthetic and Functionally-Aesthetic look/s.
The 'slap' proved to be God-sent!

There were many more 'slaps' even in my professional life. Sometimes due to inadvertent mistakes. All of those made me stronger and wiser.
The 'slaps' proved to be God-sent!

Day-by-day, I've been trying to get WISER to know the difference!

P. S. You may take a tests of wisdom for the 'slaps' in case of situations in the blogposts listed in the end.

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

Tolerate Once, Twice, Thrice? 
Functional-Aesthetics 
WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling 
Take Habits For A Ride 
How To Make A Difference 
Big-Be Or Bug-Be ! 
Make checklists your friends  
Drove To Hell ... Almost ! 
Nauseous Communication Gaps 
Do You Cleanup-After-Crisis 
Raam or Krishna-Shyam: Tell me Hey Raam! Will It Work Here?  
Some Moron ! Some Great !!!  
That's How Morons Work
You seem Reasonable if you appear Un-reasonable 
Smart-Moron Who Breaks Your Glass  
Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy 
Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation
Tolerate Once, Twice, Thrice? 
Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture 
IQ-EQ-or-SQ: What-is-more-important?
Do you know a Best-Career-Plan 
Take your career in fast lane!
Succession-Plans In Fast Lane!  
In-a-problem? No-problem! Dwell-a-while!
Success-or-failure! What-do-you-like? 
Do you exercise your choice meaningfully 
Do You Ask Right Questions?  
Overworked? Tension? CPU of the mind hung-up? 
No Time? Micro-Meditate!  
Talk In Order To Listen!  
Eternally Happy! 
What You See Isn't What's Made 
Am I 'Short-sighted' or 'Long-sighted'?  
Deity is in the eyes of the beholder 

Simplicity Of Theory Of Relativity

My google map was not responding.
Public transport was not in sight.

How far is Hill road, I asked at the roadside stall. 
"15 minutes", the stall-owner replied.

Just to reconfirm I asked same question to a person parking car nearby. It's hardly 2 minutes: He replied.

I was a bit confused. 15 minutes or 2 minutes?

After a couple of minutes walk, I asked same question to a lady waiting to cross the road.
She replied: It's about 30 minutes.

More confusion: 30 minutes after 5 minutes walk?

I continued walking down.
After 10 minutes walk, I asked someone for a landmark for the place I had reached. I thought someone could pick me up from there in order to reach me to my destination.

The person couldn't tell me one. She kept looking at the cow instead I was standing next to. Luckily she didn't tell me the cow as the landmark. Otherwise I would've ended up looking at 'google-guy' (snail) instead of google map. (Cow is pronounced as Guy in vernacular.)

The point I am driving home is it's all relative!
Long ago Einstein brought the concept of relativity. 
Perhaps by car it was 2 minutes.
By walk it was 15 minutes.
And by the walking speed of the lady it was 30 minutes.
Probably the lady was right. She was pregnant.

The only thing wrong was I didn't confirm the mode of travel. Nor did they specify.
Actually I was wrong not to ask right question.

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

Do You Ask Right Questions? 
Do you exercise your choice meaningfully
Make checklists your friends
Love is Care.. Care is Love ! 
Take Habits For A Ride
Are You Good If Others Are Bad? 
Bust-wants, Boom-needs
Do You Celebrate Mean-or-Green
Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture
I am afraid ! What do I do !!
Discrimination-is-Cremation of Law-&-Order
Success Or Failure: What Do You Like?
Fearful Death-Of-Birth !
Aesthetics Spills-Over Function, Want Spills-Over Need
Raam or Krishna-Shyam: Tell Me Hey Raam!

Discrimination Cremated! But How Long?

Can you see the traffic-jam in 'Before' picture. 

The change seen in 'After' picture is captured on next day. It so far has lasted for a day at least until writing of this post. Authorities took a couple of vigilance rounds after twilight also. 'Being vigilant on what one wants' was one of the success factors. 

Although it might be too early to rejoice this it didn't happen overnight.

It took more than seven years to see such a desired picture. Public had been struggling to get a solution since then. Authorities with all their might were unable to control a few heavy vehicles parked there illegally, causing trouble to traffic as well as to the community. One may read more details in my blogposts titled "Discrimination-is-Cremation of Law-&-Order (Part-1) and (Part-2) that prompted title of this post. 

But how long will this last? 

Just about I was penning this down see what the other picture that I took at the other end of the road about 30-yards away says.

I tweeted the abnormality as "Corporate-Social-IrResponsibility@HajuriRoad Thane. India Shines! Effluent disposal on road. Road blocked."

Sanjivani (my better half) dials Police-Control-Room #100. Alerts our society's security guards. A few alert citizens don't allow 'them' to take it for granted. The 'irresponsibles' RETREAT. INDIA WINS!!!

All within just about half an hour.

Yes.. ss.. ss! Social media does work sometimes!

The point is how and why everyone just takes-it-for-granted.

So with such an attitude of various stakeholders it's foolish to conclude that changes for the better such as in first picture will sustain on their own.

What's the learning?

Change can happen overnight if people-in-power take up causes of common-interest seriously and with a sense-of-urgency at that.

'They' ('suppliers' of the trouble as well as service-providers) do and will test patience of people-NOT-in-power. So people-NOT-in-power must persevere and "keep-knocking" their-doors even by guerrilla tactics if required.  

It's unfortunate but true that citizens in high-mistrust, inefficient and in-effective societies have to spend more than half their waking hours in non-value activities such as visiting and revisiting government authorities' and supplier's workplaces for reworks and follow-ups.

Be vigilant otherwise "But-How-Long?" will keep you haunting.

Use technology as a powerful enabler. That's one way to speed up the snails.

Faster you rejoice faster you will repent. Let equanimity prevail.

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder:

WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling

Discrimination-is-Cremation of Law-&-Order (Part-1) 

Discrimination-is-Cremation of Law-&-Order (Part-2) 

Make It Simpler, Rest Will Follow

How To Make A Difference

A Ride To Hell

Tolerate Once, Twice, Thrice?

Do you exercise your choice meaningfully

Taken-For-Granted? You deserve it! 

Will It Work Here? 

Technology in-place, security dis-placed

India-shining

Do you know a Best-Career-Plan

Some Moron ! Some Great !!!

That's How Morons Work

You seem Reasonable if you appear Un-reasonable

Customer or Custo-Mer? 

Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture

Smart-Moron Who Breaks Your Glass 

WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling

Raam or Krishna-Shyam: Tell me Hey Raam!

Success-or-failure! What-do-you-like?
 

Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy! Why?

Have you ever thought why suggestions  usually don't get 'bought' even if they are good? Even the ones given by bosses to subordinates get implemented half-heartedly, if at all.

The cause of this dilemma can be sourced at the top.

On 'hearing' about world class companies "topping the number of suggestions" with over "6 million" in Matsushita in so and so year or "over 53 suggestions implemented per employee in one single year" in Toyota (in 1987), typically the decision makers hastily installed 'suggestion-schemes'.

While number of suggestions in such excellent companies gradually increased, in 'hasty' companies the total system flopped. Blame was put on the 'prevailing bad culture here' while crediting the 'opposite there'. They even forgot 'which wall' their own 'suggestion-box' was hung. Some of them 'hung' another one during a new crisis.

Actually the real cause is that the 'hasty' managers didn't understand 'keys to success' of 'suggestion-systems' in such excellent companies and that they are much more than merely a 'box'.

Many didn't know that 'suggestion schemes' are called as Kaizen-TEIAN in Japanese companies. They got 'imported' with half knowledge. Naturally with their ill-effects they turned out to be a big flop as expected.

The way they were installed, rules themselves were 'killers of more ideas' than very few that were 'accepted': often a fraction of the total. The ones 'accepted' got disproportionately rewarded. At times the awardees were found to be same people year after year. In some companies these people even 'budgeted' their earnings. They knew when to 'create a crisis' and when to 'solve' it by their 'so-called suggestions'.

Kaizen-TEIAN system is exactly the opposite. In fact it means an 'implemented suggestion' or as a Kaizen as the world knows now. If generating suggestions or ideas is one side of the coin then implementing it is the other side. So a coin itself is a Kaizen or a Kaizen-TEIAN.

Role of the bosses or the idea-collectors is to involve subordinates in generating innumerable suggestions by training/retraining them on appropriate methods and then enabling them to implement all of those with resource verification as their own primary responsibility. In fact one of the performance criteria (KRA¹) of bosses is to 'make everyone a hero' by helping everyone contribute an idea and help him implement it.

There is no question of 'someone putting suggestions in a box' and then 'someone else assessing them' to 'accept' or 'reject' as was done by non-Japanese 'suggestion schemes' that revolved primarily around economic benefits and degree of it's creativity rather than 'motivation' of the Suggester.

Initial enthusiasm due to 'novelty' of such 'boxes' might attract novices to put an idea or two in it. But would you not be indifferent if yours get repeatedly 'rejected' due to it's 'smallness' or due to someone else's 'bigness'?

Or would it not be demotivating if it gets handled the way it does in a typical housing society where office bearers typically react saying: "talking is easy" or say: "you" do it rather than "let's do it together". Most often their body language not only 'repels' an idea but they see to it that it doesn't get implemented.

Under such circumstances leaving 'common-good' to it's destiny, people keep their brains under 'lock-and-key' while behaving in common places. After all it's 'your rule' not 'my idea': that's exactly the human psychology Kaizen-TEIAN system pre-empts.

In Kaizen-TEIAN there is no question of slapping or punishing a failure. It's about handholding subordinate to 'open  umbrella during rain' (an improvement action to tackle a problem) while giving credit of doing so to him.

This is where the journey of 'doing a Kaizen and reporting it with due credit and recognition to others' begins. With sustained and concerted efforts it accumulates into a 'million Kaizens'.

Without clarity and alignment on such key differences of Kaizen-TEIAN as above, fate of 'suggestion-schemes' will continue to stay doubtful.

Footnote-1, ¹KRA is Key-Result-Area

Also read a few relevant blogposts hereunder:

Big-Be Or Bug-Be !

Make It Simpler, Rest Will Follow

How To Make A Difference

Nauseous Communication Gaps

Do You Cleanup-After-Crisis

Raam or Krishna-Shyam: Tell me Hey Raam!

Will It Work Here? 

Some Moron ! Some Great !!!

That's How Morons Work

You seem Reasonable if you appear Un-reasonable

Smart-Moron Who Breaks Your Glass 

WOW Work-Culture: By Telling or Selling

Suggestions On-Sale, None-To-Buy

Can-changing-thoughts-change-a-nation

Ridiculous Poison-culture versus Maverick Kaizen-culture

Tolerate Once, Twice, Thrice?

That's how some business partnerships work

Taken-For-Granted ? You Deserve It !!

IQ-EQ-or-SQ: What-is-more-important?

Do you exercise your choice meaningfully

Do You Ask Right Questions?