End Vs Path

The debate of end vs path is old one. I don't have any new perspective to add to it. This post is only to share how my view of end vs path has changed over the years. 

In my school days I used to believe end is as important as means. May be I had read it somewhere and I had no option but to believe it. Whenever, the debate of Gandhi Vs Subhash used to surface I used to say Gandhi's way was better. Because his path was better- path of non-violence.

Then a stage came when I started believing that end is crucial. Everything is good if end is good. I always believed that path has to be ethical and must not hamper others' legitimate rights. However, I thought if you go through hardship to achieve the path it's fine. If your aim, goal is right you can go through difficult times to achieve them. Doesn't matter how difficult the journey becomes. 

 With time my view on this has changed. Many times after reaching the goal I realized that there was no joy in achieving those goals. I simply had not identified the right goal. Then what was the point of taking so much of pain to reach it. May be I learnt something in hardship. But is hardship the only way to learn, can't there be nicer ways to learn!

During my MBA, one faculty in his first class said the course will be a joyous journey. (His class was indeed a joyous journey of the world, and also made us see Earth from Neptune).  Later in some other class also he emphasized that career, profession should always be a joyous journey. He said anyway goal/destination has to be good, ensure the journey is good. 

Later once in a personal discussion he raised the same thoughts. He explained his views in a lucid style. He said having a great destination is of no use if you don't enjoy the journey. Reason: you may not reach your destination despite all your attempts, so there is no point in spoiling the journey. 

When I reflect on his words, I see the logic. If you like the path you enjoy your life. When you enjoy life you are ready to put some extra effort to it. You love working hard if required, because you enjoy your work. If you don't enjoy hard-work becomes a burden. 

I recently heard Harsh Bhogle saying the same thing. 

While righting this post one more reason on why a joyous path is important came to my mind. Who knows while travelling in the path you may discover that your aim has changed. (as happened with me). If you are not enjoying the path your are not living your life. You need to see what can be done to make the path more enjoyable or is there any alternative path. 

Rekindling Hope

I don’t know why I miss you today

The smiles we exchanged

The time we spent

The dreams we shared

All have united to haunt me

To create a pungent feeling of guilt, shame and despise.

Will it be ever possible

To reverse the flow of time

To undo the events of past

Some of which unfolded naturally

Some because of our ego

That led to perpetual denial of errors and mistakes

Don’t say life has its tortuous path

And this event is a lesson for life

No, I don’t want to learn these painful lessons

At this heavy price

What is the point in learning life’s lesson

That forces to a state of regret and scorn

I don’t know how you are, where you are

But today after a long gap

I have realised your value

Value of your smiles, and your admonishments

Don’t say it’s too late, too wrong a time

Just be brave to rekindle the hopes

Of being together

Together forever.

Naturally Coloured Cotton

Cotton is normally white, off-white, yellowish. Chemical processing of cotton removes the colour of cotton. The process is called bleaching. Bleached cotton is subsequently dyed to impart desired colour.

Processes of bleaching, dyeing are complex. Require heat, water, chemicals. Ability to get desired shade is a function of science and art of dyeing.

Many will be surprised to know that cotton could be naturally coloured. Yes, there are some varieties of cotton that are naturally coloured. We have cottons that are red, green, brown etc.

There was a time coloured cotton was being commercially produced. However, due to lack of strength coloured cotton could not be machine spun. But as the demand of organic products and eco-freindly fibres is going up, there are discussions on reviving commercial production of coloured cotton.

Many international textile retailers have started procuring colured cotton. Agronomists around the world are working to produce genetically modified coloured cotton with strength adequate for machine spinning.

Sally Fox's Natural Colour Cotton Inc. and Raymond Bird's BC Cotton Inc. have already started commercial cultivation of coloured cotton. The companies are also investing in research to improve commercial viability of these cottons. Hopefully, in near future we will see more of coloured cotton around us.

Role of Global Partnerships in Environmental Sustainability

Sustainable management of ecosystems is increasingly recognised as essential for combating climate change, underpinning progress towards a green economy. It focuses on sustaining ecosystems to meet both ecological and human needs, and integrating social, environmental and economic perspectives to manage geographically defined natural ecological systems. The ongoing process of economic globalization and economic growth demands strong and sustainable environmental globalization. The intellectual as well as political world has realised that the environmental concerns need a holistic view. The decisions and activities of one nation could have a serious impact on the environment of the other nations. This demands systematically strategized efforts to assess ecological significance of economic activities and economic growth on the natural resources of the world as a whole. This makes global partnership imperative for environmental sustainability.

Critical environmental issues like climate change, ozone layer depletion, global warming, soil erosion, excessive use of non-renewable energy, controlling carbon dioxide emission, maintaining the bio-diversity etc. are global issues that could be resolved only through global partnerships. Resolution of these critical issues requires cooperation between large portions of international community. The entire concept of global partnership has to be premised on a need to reconceptualise the ecological management regimes, reconnect with stakeholders of the world environment.

United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) acts as a global platform to address issues related to environment. It has identified six priority areas for its focus as the environmental challenge of 21^st century. These are climate change, disasters and conflicts, ecosystem management, environmental governance, harmful substances, resource efficiency and other key thematic environmental areas. The UNEP and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) have established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It is the leading body for the assessment of climate change that provides the world with a clear scientific view on the current state of climate change and its potential environmental and socio-economic consequences.

Despite the presence of UNEP and numerous other organisations for global coordination on climate change, there is a striking difference of opinion on the implementation policies among the developed and the developing nations. There is a need of global leadership with commitment and competence to tackle the entangled issues of sustainable environment. Only a strong global leadership which can think globally and can act locally addressing the local issues of each nation on the basis of its socio-cultural structure could bring the entire world on a common platform. A good world leader can root the environmental diplomacy on the edifice of good governance rather than on the principles of business transactions. It is expected that a developed country would play this leadership role.

In principle countries across the world agree the dire need of controlling the disastrous and detrimental consequences of climate change. However, the developed and the developing countries find it very difficult to arrive at a consensus on the cap of carbon emissions. In per capita carbon emission, the developing countries are still much lower than the developed ones. They believe that big reduction in their emission will severely affect their growth momentum. Additionally these countries do not have ample facilities and infrastructure for the use of clean technology. They expect economic cooperation from the developed countries on building sustainable, clean and environment friendly technologies. On the other hand, the developed nations are in favour of reduction of emission by all countries despite the difference in their per capita emission. In the process one group has started visualising the other as an environmental fundamentalist.

Despite the differences, global partnership is inevitable to combat the challenge of sustainable environment. Each country needs to recognise its responsibilities by way of mitigation and adaptation. Mutually agreed global sustainable environment agenda, meaningful cooperation and commitment and compliance to the international agreements among the global partners could address the crucial issues of environment. At present many countries are willing to make environmental sustainability more effective by ensuring use of clean, sustainable technologies. Global partnership that respects the doctrine of interdependencies through commitment to common goal and compliance to international agreements on environmental issues would help to achieve the goal.

The Dilemma of Hypercharged Economy

Many of us notice the world around us undergoing a swift change. Life has become a race. Race for everything. Many of us (in India) miss normal life that people used to enjoy two decades ago. Today, when we talk about life we talk about corporates, jobs, pollution, degradation of moral values, money and corruption. On one hand we blame the current socio-economic scenario, on the other we all love to earn as much as possible to satisfy our needs (knowing or unknowingly we have modified the definition of needs in such a manner that now luxury has also become a need).

People say change is the most inevitable thing in life. It’s impossible to stop, avoid it. True. At the same time there is a need to understand the fundamental factors that drive change. Where the change is leading towards? Is the change desirable?

The answer is not simple. It requires systematic research. It requires ability to identify patterns embedded in world economics and politics.

The book “Super capitalism” by Robert Reich helps the reader to unravel some key patterns of American and world economics and identifies the underlying principles of the same. The concepts and ideas substantiated by data makes the book an enjoyable read.

There is a dilemma within all of us. We all want to earn more and more. We all want a decent social set up. This desire is not incorrect or irrational. But the means we deploy to achieve our desire are contradictory to some extent.

For earning we look for stock market. We invest our money where we can get maximum return. That makes the companies to focus too much on their stock performance. If stock market performance is not good they will face the heat…even the top executives may lose their jobs. Too much focus on stock market many times forces companies to neglect social, cultural and environmental aspects. We as citizens face the heat of such negligence. Now the question is who is responsible? The companies? Yes. But what made them neglect factors other than stock market? We investors. Our pension funds, mutual funds etc.

We also look for a stable job. No one wants a job full of stress and insecurity. A job with decent pay. At the same time we love to get cheap products. And the pressure of cheaper product forces companies to trim their workforce, to put additional burden on their employees, to curtail their pay (Wal-Mart is notorious for its pay, and for bringing its supplier in the same loop). Who faces the heat? We, the citizens. And who is responsible? Right, not the companies. We, the consumers.

Now what should we look for? To be happier consumers and investors or to be happier citizens. We are in a dilemma. We want to be both. But the present model is forcing us to choose one.

Robert Reich is right when he says that blaming companies or the governments won’t help much. It’s is the dilemma faced collectively by the society.

How green is your green cloth

Green is a buzz word today. Green means eco-friendly, natural. Individuals as well as companies have been advertising their greenness like anything.

Understanding green is not as easy as it seems. It requires technical knowledge about environment and eco-friendliness.

Which is more eco-friendly? Cotton cloth or Polyester cloth.

Many will say cotton. Polyester means chemicals, synthetic chemicals and formulations. Cotton is natural, so more nature friendly.

No. Not correct. Polyester is more eco-friendly. To understand this we have to understand the entire life cycle of both cotton and polyester and the chemicals used in production/cultivation and so on. Cotton is no doubt natural. But at the same time cotton cloth has more adverse effect on environment than polyester cloth. Two convincing reasons:

• Use of chemicals/pesticides in cotton cultivation. The toxic pesticides affect many inhabitants of the ecosystem.
• Cotton cloth requires frequent ironing than polyester cloth. Ironing means heat generation and excessive energy consumption.

Researchers with analysis of the end-to-end life of cotton and polyester clothes and effect on environment of various chemical and physical processing have concluded that on an overall basis cotton is less eco-friendly than polyester.

Similarly if you pay a premium for organic cotton, you need to understand many organically grown cotton are latter subjected to toxic chemicals. It is not about only cotton cultivation. You need to ensure that the organically grown cotton has been processed as per organic processing standards. So think twice before paying premium if you are paying only for organically cultivated cotton.

Many times natural dyes are also not that natural. Many natural dyes use metal complex as binding agents. And these metal complexes are not eco-friendly.

The so called green cloth may not be green. If you are paying premium for greenness ensure that you have evaluated all aspects of greenness. And people with degrees in textile chemistry may also fail to evaluate this.

If you have already paid premium for your green cloth, without investigating further assume that the cloth is green and enjoy the feeling of happiness for contributing to environment.

The Millennium City

Which is the Millennium city of India? asked one of my colleagues. I said Gurgaon. The follow up question was why? I answered because of the growth of the city. He laughed and proposed an alternative answer.

The traffic jams in Gurgaon is intolerable. If you count the time wasted by any person in an average day and multiply it by the number of people to get an idea on total time wasted in Gurgaon, you will realize that Gurgaon wastes millennium hours in traffic jams. This makes Gurgaon millennium city. If we think millennium word linked with growth and infrastructure we are misguided. In Gurgaon where is the health care system for the poor, where is a public transport system, where is sufficient water supply, where is electricity?

May be the millennium city needs to look at the sustainability of its explosion.

Achieving Competitive Edge by Driving Lean Culture in Supply Chain Management

Introduction

The world market today is characterized as an intense competitive market. The ongoing process of globalization, privatization and free trade has been pressurizing the firms to compete at global level at all possible fronts. Improvements of internal processes are no longer sufficient. In a competitive market the threads of both efficiency and responsiveness span across the chain of raw material to the end user. A slack at any point of the chain could impact the competitiveness of the firm. The domain of competition has shifted to the entire supply chain. Firms that can effectively manage the supply chain by aligning it with the competitive strategy of the business can enjoy a competitive edge over the others. One of the core aspects of effective supply chain management (SCM) is developing lean culture in the extended supply chain.

According to a McKinsey Research report companies with high performing supply chain achieve an edge over its competitors through effective management practices[1]. Deloitte sees lean supply chain management as a practically implementable practice that could create significant shareholders value. Bain and Company claims that rapidly emerging technologies, industry consolidation through merger and acquisitions and shorter product life cycles have made supply chain management a complex and dynamic challenge[2]. Firms that have understood the complex issues of supply chain integration and have acquired the management expertise to inculcate lean culture in their supply chain can achieve low cost advantage coupled with higher responsiveness. A well-designed, systematic and integrated supply chain with lean culture becomes an edge when it comes to competition. Such a competitive edge will be difficult to imitate and the firm with the right supply chain strategy will lead the market. Thus, supply chain is no longer being seen as a pure cost reduction centre, but a platform to create value for all the stakeholders of the firm. Achieving competitive edge through lean supply chain requires broad strategic approach based on a long term view.

Concept of Lean Culture

The term lean essentially means a systematic approach to identifying and eliminating waste through continuous improvement for achieving customer satisfaction[3]. The concept related to lean has been discussed under different terminologies including Toyota Production System (TPS), Just-in-Time (JIT), Short cycle manufacture, stockless production, value adding manufacturing, focused flow manufacturing. The underlying concept behind all these terminology is same and has been used as lean culture in this paper. In lean culture anything that is not contributing towards customer value is considered as waste. For example Toyota considers anything other than the minimum amount of equipment, materials, parts, space, and worker’s time, which are absolutely essential to add value to the product as waste. Waste in a supply chain includes overproduction, waiting time, non-value added processing, transportation, inventory, underutilized manpower.

Lean Culture for Competitive Edge

Unfortunately the understanding and implementation of lean supply chain management concepts are at a crude state. Many firms view supply chain a way to achieve high speed and low cost. But supply chain is a broader concept and covers multiple business dynamics beyond high speed and low cost. Firms that focus only on speed and efficiency may lose out due to piling inventory moving away from the lean culture. On the other hand companies like Amazon, Dell and Wal-Mart have cracked the codes of SCM through lean SCM concepts.

The research of Inman at el. has proved that lean supply chain management has a direct positive relationship with agile manufacturing, agile manufacturing has a direct positive relationship with operational performance of the firm, and the operational performance of the firm has a direct positive relationship with the market performance of the firm[4].

Inculcating Lean Culture in Supply Chain

Various consulting firms including McKinsey & Company, Bain and Company, BCG have analyzed supply chain related industry best practices to develop lean culture in the entire supply chain of the firm. Some of the dominant industry best practices conducive to lean culture are:

· Link supply chain strategy with company strategy

Once the business strategy and competitive strategy are decided it is imperative to align the supply chain strategy with the business strategies. The competitive strategies could be mapped with the supply chain requirements. The strategy at the business level could be divided into smaller supply chain process and sub-processes. Aspirations and expectations needs to be communicated at each sub-process level.

· Modify supply chain design for strategic fit

All products in a supply chain do not necessarily have the same level of profitability, complexity and flow dynamics. Hence, the supply chain could demand segmentation and design modifications. Value adding sub-processes needs extra emphasis while the non-value adding sub-processes could be truncated. Customer service requirements, efficiency-responsiveness trade offs are crucial decisions that decide the degree of strategic fit.

· Build strong planning and forecasting team

Accurate planning and demand forecasting will eliminate wastes, improve both efficiency and responsiveness. However, these activities within an organization will require the Herculean attempts of integrating the operations, sales and finance functions together. The same model has to be integrated with other players of the chain. Only collaborative planning can minimize the errors in forecasting and planning.

· Role Assignment and Accountability

The responsibility, authority for each sub-process has to be identified. The responsibilities and accountability should be documented in unambiguous term. The reporting structure, final decision authority should be clear within the supply chain.

· Performance evaluation, Feedback and Continuous Improvement

Evaluation of the performance is critical for improvements of the supply chain practices. The performance of various processes and sub-processes needs to be evaluates against the previously decided objectives. Evaluation process will generates feedback for the entire model. After analyzing the performance gaps and feedback, the required modifications could be implemented in the supply chain for continuous improvement.

The whole set of the above mentioned activities helps the firms to eliminate non-value adding activities shifting focus to the areas that add value to the final customer.

Developing Components of Lean Supply Chain

Tompkins Associate has identified the components of lean supply chain. These are: Lean supplier, lean procurement, lean manufacturing, lean warehousing, lean transportation and lean customers[5]. Lean culture will be required to target each component of the lean supply chain.

Lean Suppliers: Suppliers must be viewed as integral part of the organization’s value stream. Lean suppliers could be developed by encouraging suppliers to make the lean transformation. Suppliers should be involved in lean activities. This will bring suppliers closer to the organization. Environment of trust and collaboration will impact quality and service positively.

Lean Procurement: Visibility is considered as the key to lean procurement. Both the organization and its supplier could be able to visualise the prospects of one another. Current value stream could be mapped to identify the needs of future value stream in the procurement process. Again efficient flow of information and collaborations are the backbones of lean procurement.

Lean Manufacturing: Developing lean manufacturing requires a simple manufacturing system, recognizing the scopes of continuous improvement in the system and implementing improvement process wherever necessary[6]. A lean manufacturing system seeks feedback from the members of the supply chain process improvement and process modification.

Lean Warehousing: Waste in the warehousing process many times goes unnoticed. Typical warehousing wastes are defective products that create returns, unwanted motions and movements, non-value adding processing steps, waiting for parts/information. Unnecessary, repetitive and non-value-added activities of the warehousing should be identified and eliminated.

Lean Transportation: Value stream mapping, efficient information flow, pull process with customer management are critical for lean transportation.

Lean Customer: Identifying lean customers is one of the most critical dimensions of nurturing lean culture in the entire supply chain. Lean customers understand and express their needs and requirements. They value performance, accuracy, agility and resiliency. They add value by proving useful feedback for continuous improvement and also form long reliable partnership with the organization.

Leadership for Lean Culture

Lean culture in a supply chain will require the commitment of the brand owner/supply chain leader. Then only the culture of lean can be sustained and percolated through the chain. The leader of the chain must be committed to long term lean strategy. In addition the leader organization must demonstrate its concerns to indulge each player of the chain in the lean journey. The responsibilities of the leader organization include: clear communication for the need of lean culture, provide a vision that can integrate all the members of the supply chain, presentation of the benefits of the bigger pie to all, addressing the issues of job security and organizational change, fixation of measurable objectives and periodical review of the progress.

Hult at el. have examined the effects of transactional and transformational leadership between corporate buying centre and supply chains[7]. Formalization, centralization, participative and reflective were used as controls in their study. Their findings indicate transformational leadership has a positive moderating effect on the relationship between the value of the corporate buying center and performance, while transactional leadership negatively moderates this relationship.

Designing Organization Structure for Lean Supply Chain Culture

Excessive formalization and centralization of the SCM department within a firm might interrupt complete SC integration and performance improvement[8]. However, some range of control by the SCM department is required to build the foundations of integrated supply chain management. Intermediate organization types such as Functional and Process Staff organization maintains adequate balance and harmony with other functional areas and at the same time it controls, adjusts, and integrates various SCM activities effectively. Such organization types are advisable for lean supply chain management. Some literatures suggest considering hybrid organization types (hybrid of high formalization-centralisation with low formalization-centralisation) for best nurturing the culture of lean supply chain management[9].

Formal communication is positively related to innovation adoption, while centralization is negatively related to adoption of IT innovations[10].

Building Trust in Lean Supply Chain

Trust is a significant predictor of positive performance in lean supply chain. Panayides at el. have evaluated the effects of trust on innovativeness and supply chain performance[11]. Their findings have added credence to the positive effects of trust in lean supply chain management. Handfield at el. have suggested that to build relationships based on trust, suppliers must invest in site-specific and human assets, and buyers must judiciously apply contracts to control for relative levels of dependence within the relationship[12]. They have also demonstrated that buyer-dependence, supplier human asset investments, and trust are all positively associated with improved supply chain responsiveness. Their findings reveal even when buyers do not have a great control over their suppliers; working to build trust within the relationship improves supplier responsiveness.

Deployment of Information System

Information technology (IT) has emerged as a tool to integrate the supply chain to achieve lean culture. The ever increasing complexity in achieving lean supply chain due to information constraints is minimised through the deployment of information and communication (ICT) tools. Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), Internet etc. are examples of such tool. Gunasekaran at el. have provided a framework for deployment of IT for effective SCM[13]. Their framework addresses the critical issues of strategic IT planning, vertical enterprise, E-commerce, IT infrastructure, Knowledge management, IT implementation.

Enterprise application software providers like SAP and Oracle have developed industry specific, solution specific SCM software packages that help to integrate supply chain to achieve lean culture. The SCM solution providers like PricewaterHouse Coopers, Deloitte, IBM, Oracle Consulting etc. help organizations to implement the SCM softwares by making them to adapt to industry best practices, change management etc. SCM application packages and SCM consultants have helped organizations across the globe to initiate and maintain lean cultures.

Evaluation of Lean Supply Chain

Kaimuna at el. proposed the multiple attribute utility theory method for assessing a typical lean supply chain[14]. The metrics proposed includes: supply chain ROA (return on asset), customer satisfaction, and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The LCA approach takes into account the environmental factors associated with the supply chain. Effective evaluation against preset objectives provides scope of improvement and makes the lean management concepts more refined and matured.

Li & Fung’s Lean Culture: A Case

Li & Fung Group (established in 1906) is a multinational group of companies driving strong growth in three distinct core businesses - export sourcing through Li & Fung Limited, distribution through Integrated Distribution Services Group Limited and retailing through Convenience Retail Asia Limited, Trinity Limited and other privately held entities. Li & Fung limited has extensive global sourcing network of around 80 offices covering 40 nations[15]. The group manages all the vital aspects of lean culture to achieve right combination of responsive-efficiency-reliability. Intimate market knowledge, experienced sourcing professionals, cutting-edge technology and state-of-the-art information systems to ensure that all orders are delivered on time, on budget, and according to customers' exact specifications provides Li & Fung an edge. A dedicated Extranet links entire supply chain to provide tracking capabilities, streamline the flow of business information and provide much granular control of supply chain activities.

In view of stringent global consumer scrutiny, Li & Fung has developed a strict compliance program with ethical sourcing standards. The group encourages a rigorous Code of Conduct for the entire chain. Systematic inspections, audits and supply chain education ensure production from socially responsible suppliers.

The lean culture of Li & Fung is best reflected in its Inventory day and Fixed-asset turnover ratio. The Inventory day is the average number of days goods remain in inventory before being sold. For Li & Fung despite the gamut of product varieties, the figure has constantly being less than 10 over the last 10 years. Fixed-asset turnover ratio measures a company's ability to generate net sales from fixed-assets like plant, land machinery etc. Li & Fung due to its lean culture has been able to increase its fixed-asset turnover ratio over last 10 years. This means the lean culture supply chain of Li & Fung has been helping them in more effective use of fixed assets to generate revue.

Conclusion

Driving lean culture in supply chain management for competitive edge requires supply chain orientation that can identify the inter-dependence of various factors. Driving lean culture demands alignment of all functional departments within the organization. Role of finance, IT, HR, Marketing and HR are interknitted when it comes to achieving competitive edge. The ability of an organization to manage and steer the intra-organization and inter-organization factors within the supply chain can provide the desired edge over the competition. However, such edge will be sustainable only with continuous improvement and customer orientation.

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[1] Bruce Constantine, Brian D. Ruwadi, and Joshua Wine , Management practices that drive supply chain, February 2009, McKinsey Quaterly.

[2] http://www.bain.com/bainweb/Consulting_Expertise/capabilities_detail.asp?capID=15

[3] Developing a Clean culture, James Clark School of Engineering , University of Maryland

[4] R. AnthonyInmana, R.SamuelSaleb, KennethW.GreenJr. c,1, DwayneWhitten, Agile manufacturing: Relation to JIT, operational performance and firm performance, Article in press, Journal of Operations Management, Accepted June 2010

[5]http://www.tompkinsinc.com/publications/competitive_edge/articles/06-04-Lean_Supply_Chain.asp

[6] Holweg, Matthias (2007). "The genealogy of lean production", Journal of Operations Management 25 (2): 420–437

[7] G. Tomas M. Hult a,David J. Ketchen Jr. b,1, Brian R. Chabowski, Leadership, the buying center, and supply chain performance: A study of linked users, buyers, and suppliers, Industrial Marketing Management 36 (2007) 393–403

[8] Soo Wook Kim, Organizational structures and the performance of supply chain management, Int. J. Production Economics 106 (2007) 323–345

[9] Bowersox, D.J., Closs, D.J., Helferich, O.K., 1986. Logistic Management. MacMillan Publishing Company, New York, pp. 497–506

[10] Russell, D.M., Hoag, A.M., 2004. People and information technology in the supply chain: Social and organizational influences. International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management 34 (2), 102–122

[11] PhotisM.Panayides, Y.H.VenusLun, The impact of trust on innovativeness and supply chain performance, Int. J. Production Economics 122 (2009) 35–46

[12] Robert B. Handfielda, Christian Bechtel, The role of trust and relationship structure in improving supply

chain responsiveness, Industrial Marketing Management 31 (2002) 367– 382

[13] A. Gunasekaran, E.W.T. Ngai, Information systems in supply chain integration and management, European Journal of Operational Research 159 (2004) 269–295

[14] Yasutaka Kainumaa, Nobuhiko Tawara, A multiple attribute utility theory approach to lean

and green supply chain management, Int. J. Production Economics 101 (2006) 99–108

[15] http://www.lifunggroup.com/front.html

The Shameless Corrupt!

Recently one of my friends narrated his experience with corruption- how he became a part of the corrupt act, that too inadvertently.

My good friend got transferred from Chennalore to Bangallei (don’t search this places in map, I just created them). Official transfer. He was entitled to relocation allowance. Relocation allowance always demands submission of receipt of relocation expenses. So there was additional burden of collecting receipt of each expense.

Bangallei welcomed my friend with lots of traffic. He got confused to see the traffic at 8 am in the morning. Thought it was a special day. Innocent didn’t know this is the hallmark of Bangallei. He had 3 bags which started troubling him as soon as he got down in the Majestic bus stand. An auto-rickshaw man rushed to him. Unlike Chennalore here people understood the national language. But my friend, with all his experience of Chennalore continued in international language. No issues. They also understood this.

Auto: Where do you want to go?

Friend: No reply. (He was trying to find out a prepaid taxi. The crowd and the luggage didn’t permit him to move and find out one).

Auto: Where?

Friend: Curse Course, Phase I

Auto: sit

Friend: How much?

Auto: Rs 250

My friend started looking at another auto.

Auto: How much will you pay?

Friend: Rs 100

Auto: Ok come.

My friend remembered he needs to provide a bill to reimburse this under relocation expense.

Friend: Just give me a bill. A hand written one will do.

Auto: Ok come with me I will give you a bill for Rs 100.

My poor friend thought the bill is for the Rs 100 he has to pay to the auto. The man asked him the amount to put him in the bill? Ans: Rs 100 is what I am going to pay. My friend paid Rs 100 expecting a bill of Rs 100. But he got a bill of Rs 450. He understood that inadvertently he has bribed Rs 100 to get a bill of Rs 450. Anyway now it’s time to reach Curse Course, auto will charge additional Rs 100.

The auto started moving. My friend started loving the cool climate of Bangallei. Many thoughts came to him. Most were positive and some were anxious thoughts on new place and new work.

The auto stopped at the Curse Course, Phase I.

Friend offered Rs 100 to the man as agreed.

Auto: Rs 100??? It’s Rs 250

Friend: You only said Rs 100

Auto: When? I said very first time it’s Rs 250

Friend: But then you agreed for Rs 100

Auto: Ohhhhh! Now I understand. I was bargaining with the other guy for some other place for Rs 100. You misunderstood it.

My poor friend extended another 150 rupees and said that he was not expecting to get cheated in early morning.

Auto: Errrrrr….who cheated? You paid Rs 100 to get a bill of Rs 450. You are the cheater. How on earth can you blame me? You shameless corrupt!!!

Avoiding the unavoidable

During my MBA days I came across many interesting stories. Some of them had a long lasting impression on my mind. One of such stories talks how we try to avoid the unavoidable. I don't remember the book and the author. I think the author will love the fact that I remember her/his story.

Once a man was searching something on a street just below the streetlight. A passerby stopped and asked what was it. It was the key of his room. With the intention to help the passerby asked where exactly he lost it. The answer was surprising. The man had lost his key in the nearby bush. Then why was he searching it on the street. The man answered: "there is darkness in the bush, so I am searching it under the streetlight".

The author had written in the story to highlight the under-performance of the economists and the finance community. Many times the economists and policy makers avoid going into difficult areas (darkness) and keep their focus on already known areas despite knowing the fact that they have to venture into the darker sides to find out a solution.

The story precisely talks how we as individuals and collectively are functioning. If we find darkness in certain areas we just try to avoid it and focus on areas where there is light. Following the easier way might not help. In life many times we try to please ourselves by finding out logic that are illogical. Instead of venturing into the darker parts we love to forcibly accept the unacceptable facts. If we don't like something we keep on telling ourselves- "this how the world is". We forget that accepting fact is different than not even trying to find out to do something you like. And many times simply carrying a portable light to the dark area may solve the problem rather than searching a solution where there is light.

The financial crises we face proves that the author of the story was correct about the economists and finance community. An introspection may help us to realize that the story is equally acceptable to our lives as well.

Reading Between the Lines

During my MBA studies I came across the term "reading between the lines" several times. What a confusing term it was! I used to see blank space between the lines. What to read then?

Use of the term sky-rocketed in strategy papers. Now even in an HBR article it was told that you have to read between the lines. What to read as there is nothing between lines.

Initially it was all about finding out the inferred meaning, the implicit message. Reading between the lines meant "apply your brain to understand that the author wants to say without saying explicitly". But as the MBA journey (thank god! for me it was never a journey of 2/2 matrices) moved towards it climax (believe me, most of my friends and I call it anti-climax!) I realized reading between the lines could be more than its dictionary meaning. It's not only what the author is saying implicitly, it's also about why the author is saying whatever he is saying. Is there any personal bias, is there any tampering of facts and so on.

In some of the subjects terms like asymmetry, distinct yet implicit, network dynamics helped me to understand reading between the lines also requires connecting what you have read in the lines and between the lines from different sources. The understanding that the obvious sources, widely considered as reliable could also be tampered helps to read between the lines. For example the newspapers we read might get influenced by govt, corporations and political parties. In the present context the newspaper industry will love to see these entities as their customer as they pump money through advertisements. The newspaper reader could be fooled by their nexus. And what one gets to read could be a tampered, lopsided view of the situation. Forget about the newspapers, we have seen people complaining the kind of distortions we have in our text books.

Reading between the lines is difficult. It is equally difficult to identify what not to read in the explicit writing also.

My initial concerns of how to read between the lines is still unresolved. What to read (not to read) in what has been written in the lines has also become equally important concern.

How Loyal Are We?

Even a dog is loyal. Are you?

This commonly used statement confuses me. When we extend the logic used for dog to human beings many things come to my mind. "Are you loyal?" is an incomplete question. Loyal to what? When we say a dog is loyal we mean it's loyal to its master. But is it wise to expect a human being to be loyal to it's master? Answer is probably "Yes. Why not?"

In a recent conversation, my good friend who works with an MNC, projected a bright but untrue picture of his company. Many people present there had no option but to believe him. The next time I met my friend personally I asked about the veracity of the projection he had. As suspected that was a grossly exaggerated statement. But what was the need? What's the point in such distortion? My good friend believes making distorted positive statements about his employer reflects his loyalty- no matter how untrue the statement is.

Is it fine for a human being (even for a dog) to be loyal to his master knowing that the master lacks integrity, humanity and character. It will be difficult for a dog and many people to leave the master. It may not be possible to stand with truth, justice and humanity when your basic bread and butter is at stake. But what surprises me when well educated people pretend to be loyal to their employer despite knowing that the master doesn't deserve to be a master.

You must have seen many professionals who have loved to be loyal to their work, to their profession, to the society rather than being loyal to the employer. What's the point of being loyal to the employer? After all, you are contributing your work and being paid for that. You may not like to disclose any critical information of the employer or try to bring embarrassment to the employer but at the same time given a chance, you won't mind to reconsider working with a new employer if they value your work or talent better. And if you feel the employer is in a wrong path, or promotes a culture that is not conducive to your personal learning and growth you have every right to opt out. Does it mean disloyalty? May be not! A professionals definition of loyalty is different from the definition of loyalty applied for a dog.

Being loyal may not mean to nod your head with agreement every time. If there is an opposition for a good reason, if there is a disagreement with a valid logic it doesn't make you disloyal.

Then what about the educated people who change their own view just to align it with the view of their masters/employers? What about the people who take an U turn on their own statements to ensure that they don't differ from their boss? May be they are yet discovering how to define loyalty. May be for them loyalty is only saying "yes" without using brain.

How loyal are we depends on how we see the term loyalty, how we interpret it and at what level we are looking at it.

Weaving Relationships That Matters

Relationship matters. From business families to politicians everywhere relationship has its value. The first few relationships that come into our mind are: mother-baby, husband-wife, teacher-student, master-servant etc. The relationship that excites people across age groups is friendship.

Let's dive bit deeper into the underlying principle of relationship. (No I have not done any research on this, just going to narrate as it comes to mind.)

Doesn't matter whether you are social, asocial or anti-social. Relationships are something you care for. The studious, hardworking guys make relationships with work, a sports person with games and sports, an introvert with himself. Let's not discuss these relationships here.

The focus of this post is workplace relationships. Workplace is a complex environment. The variables interact with themselves in unpredictable, unexpected manners. But this doesn't mean complex interactions of workplace variables are extremely difficult to decode. It requires skill. Skill to know people, their preferences. The most critical resource of an organization is its human capital. Not individual human beings, but the work teams. It's the team that makes the difference. When it comes to teams it comes to workplace relationships. (Workplace relation matter even if one is of some different team).

Workplace relationship comes from mutual understanding, trust and complementing each other.

Canteen, cafeteria are places where workplace relationships get the much desired boost.

Relationship weaving also requires personal conviction. Respecting differences and core elements of professionalism counts. Trust once broken, respect once lost is difficult to regain. But it is not impossible. The mistakes of weak moments could be amended by constant demonstration of will and intent to amend those mistakes.

At the end of the day the relationships make our life smoother and fulfilling. Makes our life enjoyable. Cultivating good working relationship is an art. The art could be mastered.

The myth of silly mistakes: Inculcating and Nurturing Habits

Many times we focus on building good habits and to shred away the poor habits that we have already developed in due course of time. Parents, in many families, pay extra attention to ensure that the kids imbibe good habits from the early childhoods. It is generally believed that it’s difficult to give up an old habit. Good habits usually add colours to one’s personality. Regular reading of newspapers, devoting time to exercise, being punctual, keeping stuffs clean are some of the habits all of us value. These habits are very basic tenets of life and carries lots of importance.

Given a chance all us may like to improve upon out habits. Many times we fail to identify the demerits of our own habits. The feedback of friends and family helps us to act upon our not so good habits. Sometimes we manage to change some of these habits and sometimes we don’t. As I had understood two things are crucial for acting upon old bad habits. First you need to realize which habit you need to act upon and second improving an old habit requires conviction. My friend Anuj made me believe that many times just realizing that you have a bad habit is enough. Conviction is not that important. I had to agree with him after hearing his experience.

Anuj was in a B School. He was an electrical engineer and had around 4 years of work experience prior to joining the B school. He had reasonably good understanding of subjects and was doing well in tests. Finance was his Achilles' heel. The difficulty was not in his understanding, but because of his “silly mistakes”. He used to commit small mistakes in addition/deletion and used to land up in wrong answer that brought him poor marks. Later Anuj managed to overcome his tendency of committing silly mistakes. How? Anuj says he just realized that he had developed a bad habit. That’s it. He further explains how this realization came.

In a fine evening he was discussing different issued with his professor. During the conversation the issue of silly mistake propped up.

Professor: What about your studies?

Anuj: It’s going fine.

Professor: How are you doing in finance papers?

Anuj: ummmmm……fine….ummmm

Professor: Come on! You don’t need to think to answer this question.

Anuj: In fact, going by grades my performance in finance paper has been the worst.

Professor: Why so? Do you find it difficult?

Anuj: No, rather it’s easy and logical. There is no issue with understanding. I goof it up because of silly mistakes.

Professor: Ohhhhh! I see. The problem then is in your understanding. Right?

Anuj: Errrrr…..Ummmmmm……No I have got a clear understanding. It is silly mistake.

Professor: That’s what I am saying. You have termed certain mistakes as silly mistakes. That’s the problem. How do you decide that these mistakes are silly mistakes? These mistakes in real life applications might have large scale implications. The moment you use the term silly mistake, I got sure the problem is in your understanding. The term silly makes you feel that these mistakes are small errors and you have become habituated to accept these. Once you start accepting the mistakes you stop acting upon it. Once you stop acting upon it, it starts increasing in scale and magnitude.

Anuj: I am getting your point. I have made it a habit to commit these mistakes. And the feeling that these are silly mistakes has prevented me to rectify them.

The discussion with the professor made Anuj realize that it’s his habit that he needs to change. Once he felt that the mistakes are not silly ones rather serious mistakes, he stopped accepting such mistakes. Automatically he started focusing on not committing such mistakes. To his pleasure he saw substantial improvement in his accuracy level and attention to small details.