LE01

Tuesday 19th June the first class was of Dr. T. Prasad better known as Dr. Mandi. Class was on Principles of Management. I went  half expecting a boring lecture but what followed was completely different or say it was poles apart. The class started with a video of Pink Floyd  “Just another brick in the wall”. First session went on why to sell, then what to sell and lastly how to sell.         

         Selling is not what product you sell but what idea you sell with the product. It’s the value addition that makes a product special. This is “Socho becho….”.

         Next session I expected that at least this will be a theory session. But again…  we played games!!!

         It was a very interesting game. It was symbolic. The game was simple one To enter the game you will have to bet means literally bet like 100, 101, 102 as it happens. So the cost of game reached 350. The highest 3 bidders were allowed for the game.  In the game we were give small cubes of 1cm*1cm*1cm. The task was to build a tower piling one cube over the other, just one cube over the other. Initially a survey was taken and more than half of the class responded that it cannot be build beyond a tower height of 15 cubes. The target was given to us build it beyond 17 cubes which was previous year’s record.  So the game was set to play and then came the surprise. The person who will be building it will be blind folded and has to do with his left hand i.e. his weaker hand and the other person will be guiding without touching him or the cubes. The third person will sit at a distance and will interfere only 10 times. The person blind folded was skilled person whose skill was given a direction by management and the person sitting at a distance was top management.

  Some lessons are learnt in the class but the most important ones are learnt outside the class. This small

game teaches a lot of things just from start.

        It teaches us that initially keep the target high and if possible make research on how was previous   attempts have been.

        Opportunity knocks and then you will have to grab it or say buy it if necessary because once it goes all the resources will be of no use. In the game the guy who was blind folded had no money in his pocket so what he did he borrowed it from a guy sitting before him to bet.

        It took almost 3 hours to build 18 cubes tower i.e. 10 minutes per cube. It teaches us perfection. Making it big requires each and every thing to be analyzed and put in a perfect way for further development. Once it goes wrong the whole thing will crumble so creation of a very strong base is very much emphasized. Building it was easy initially but later on putting each block took even more time. Same with business initially you grow rapidly and later on sustainable development require something extra and if base is not strong it will fall. It teaches us patience especially in the later stage when growth takes more time then a small impatience will cost. Finally this is how the tower looked.

in the process...

final product

The 3 Builders and our teacher

          Business is a concept. A concept is to be sold, just like IPL. It’s nothing but cricket but it sells because there are peoples out in the stand who want to watch IPL and pay for it. But what made it a grand success was the way it was sold. Mr. Lalit Modi knows how to sell cricket to maximum. Even the air above the ground was sold which were carrying bill boards. This is where managers comes, to create opportunities  and when opportunities exist get the maximum from it. Everything is possible given the right resources but whether to pursue that is again the decision which a manager has to take.

       Management is all about managing the perspective as well as the intricacies. Being a manager we have to give direction and also should have the creativity to address the practical problems arising. 

        While the tower was being build all the persons in the class were cheering and giving suggestions even though they were not a part of the game. This is with customers. They also like the company with which they are associated to succeed to be recognized.  This is also with the workers. So a manager’s duty is also to look at the welfare of the workers and the customers both.

       Now leaving all the teachings aside just only seeing the tower stand tall breaking all records proving every stereotypes wrong gives an immense pleasure in itself.