Principles of Management ( POM )

My Learning in Principles of Management

2012-09-02T07:42:00.001-07:00

My Learnings and experiences in POM :

RANBAXY

2012-07-30T12:02:00.001-07:00

Company Profile

Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited (Ranbaxy), India's largest pharmaceutical company, is an integrated, research based, international pharmaceutical company, producing a wide range of quality, affordable generic medicines, trusted by healthcare professionals and patients across geographies. Ranbaxy today has a presence in 23 of the top 25 pharmaceutical markets of the world. The Company has a global footprint in 43 countries, world-class manufacturing facilities in 8 countries and serves customers in over 125 countries.

History

Ranbaxy was started by Ranbir Singh and Gurbax Singh in 1937 as a distributor for a Japanese company Shionogi. The name Ranbaxy is a combination of the names of its first owners Ranbir and Gurbax. Bhai Mohan Singh bought the company in 1952 from his cousins Ranbir and Gurbax. After Bhai Mohan Singh's son Parvinder Singh joined the company in 1967, the company saw an increase in scale.

Mission

Ranbaxy's mission is 'Enriching lives globally, with quality and affordable pharmaceuticals'.

Milestones

Ranbaxy & Co sold over promoter’s debt

Ranbaxy’s original promoters, Ranjit Singh and Gurbax Singh, got together to form Ranbaxy & Co. with the aim of taking up the distribution of medicines in the country on behalf of foreign pharma firms. In the early 1950s, Gurbax Singh sought additional financing and turned to a local moneylender, Bhai Mohan Singh. In due course, Gurbax Singh had built up huge debts to Bhai Mohan Singh. When Bhai Mohan Singh came to collect, Gurbax offered to turn over their company to him instead. Bhai Mohan Singh agreed to the deal and on August 1, 1952, he became promoter of Ranbaxy & Co.

Sleeping pill helps Ranbaxy hit pay dirt

In the 1960s, when the India’s pharmaceutical market was largely dominated by foreign drug makers, Ranbaxy tied-up with an Italian pharmaceutical company Lepetit SpA and began production in 1962. Ranbaxy’s upside came in 1970, when the Government passed legislation that effectively ended patent protection. Ranbaxy struck pay dirt early on, when it launched Calmpose, a generic formulation of the hugely popular Roche drug Valium. Released in 1969, Calmpose immediately placed Ranbaxy on India’s pharma map. The company expanded quickly, and by 1973, Ranbaxy opened a new factory, in Mohali, for the production of active principal ingredients (APIs). This facility enabled the company to expand its range of generic medications and ingredients. To finance its growth, the company listed on the stock exchange that year.

Kicking off global ambitions

Ranbaxy’s ability to produce generic medications at far lower cost than its branded competitors enabled it to expand internationally, especially in less developed markets. It launched a joint venture in Nigeria and opened a production facility in Lagos in 1977. In 1987, the company became India’s leading antibiotic and antibacterial producer when it completed a new plant in Toansa, Punjab. In 1988, the Toansa plant received US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval and by 1990, the company was granted an US patent for its doxycycline antibiotic preparation. The following year, the company bagged an US patent for its cephalosporin preparations, and the company built a new facility for their production in Mohali. A big milestone for the company was recorded in 1992, when it reached a marketing agreement with Eli Lilly & Co. The companies set up a joint venture in India to produce and market Lilly’s branded pharmaceuticals for the domestic market while Lilly agreed to begin marketing Ranbaxy’s generic medications in the US. Ranbaxy, thereby, gained access into the world’s single largest drugs market.

Boardroom coup ousts Bhai Mohan

In the late 1980s, in a family settlement Bhai Mohan Singh split the businesses between his three sons. The eldest son, and Bhai Mohan Singh’s favourite, Dr Parvinder Singh and his family got control over Ranbaxy. Subsequently, however, the relationship between Bhai Mohan Singh and Dr Singh soured on differences over Ranbaxy’s growth strategy. Dr Singh took over at the helm of the company in 1992, ousting his father in what was seen as a messy family feud. By then, Ranbaxy had grown into one of India’s largest pharmaceutical companies on the basis of its generics production. Under Dr Singh, Ranbaxy adopted a new corporate mission in 1993 to announce its reformulated ambitions: “To become a research-based international company.”

Outsiders step in

Dr Parvinder Singh died in 1999 and his right-hand man Mr D.S. Brar took over as company leader. Mr Brar, on taking over, named family outsider Brian Tempest as company President. The new management team continued Dr Singh’s expansion strategy, opening a new manufacturing plant in Vietnam in 2001. Ranbaxy also sought new alliances, and in 2003 the company reached a global drug discovery and development partnership with GlaxoSmithKline. The company’s international expansion also took a major step forward at the end of 2002, when it agreed to acquire RPG (Aventis) in France. Ranbaxy’s sales had by then topped the $1 billion mark

Family back at the helm

In December 2003, Mr Brar, CEO and Managing Director, announced his decision to resign from his post. Mr Brar was to complete his tenure in July 2004. He named Dr Brian Tempest (President, Pharmaceutical Division, Ranbaxy) as his successor. Mr Brar’s exit from the company was attributed to strained relationships between Ranbaxy’s professional managers and the promoter family. Subsequently, in early 2006, after an interval of seven years, the promoter family re-took control at the helm of Ranbaxy, with Dr Parvinder Singh’s son, Malvinder Singh, donning the mantle of CEO and MD.

Products
Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited manufacture and markets generic pharmaceuticals, value added generic pharmaceuticals, branded generics, active Pharmaceuticals (API) and intermediates.The Company remains focused on ascending the value chain in the marketing of pharmaceutical substances and is determined to bring in increased revenues from dosage forms sales. Ranbaxy's diverse product basket of over 5,000 SKUs available in over 125 countries worldwide, encompasses a wide therapeutic mix covering a majority of the chronic and acute segments. Healthcare trends project that the chronic treatment segments will outpace the acute treatment segments, primarily driven by a growing aging population and dominance of lifestyle diseases. Our robust performance in Cardiovasculars, Central Nervous System, Respiratory, Dermatology, Orthopedics, Nutritionals and Urology segments, clearly indicates that the Company has strengthened its presence in the fast-growing chronic and lifestyle disease segments.

Top 10 Molecules (2010)
• Valacyclovir
• Simvastatin
• Donepezil
• Atorvastatin & Combinations
• Co-amoxyclav & Combinations
• Ciprofloxacin & Combinations
• Ketorolac Tromethamine
• Imipenem+Cilastatin
• Ginseng+Vitamins
• Loratadine & Combinations

Company's Q1 Result ( click here )
click here for Financial Reports

Research and Development
Ranbaxy views its R&D capabilities as a vital component of its business strategy that will provide a sustainable, long-term competitive advantage. The company has a pool of over 1,200 R&D personnel engaged in path-breaking research. Ranbaxy is among the few Indian pharmaceutical companies in India to have started its research program in the late 70's, in support of its global ambitions. A first-of-its-kind world class R&D centre was commissioned in 1994. Today, the company has multi-disciplinary R&D centers at Gurgaon, in India, with dedicated facilities for generics research and innovative research. The R&D environment reflects its commitment to be a leader in the generics space offering value added formulations and development of NDA/ANDAs, based on its Novel Drug Delivery System (NDDS) research capability.

Environment, Health and Safety

Ranbaxy is fully committed to achieve Environment, Health & Safety (EHS) excellence and conduct its activities in the most responsible manner. Over the years, importance of EHS has been stressed and extensively promoted as a corporate culture within Ranbaxy. It is also clearly reflected and well defined into Ranbaxy’s value statements of “Managing our operations with high concern for safety and environment” and “Be a responsible corporate citizen”. Thinking and working responsibly so that the employees, the community at large, and the environment including the natural resources, are protected leaving minimal environmental footprints, is integral to Ranbaxy’s EHS philosophy. On the road to EHS excellence, Ranbaxy has adopted a top down approach and embraced the principles and codes of best EHS practices into its redefined world class EHS Management System.

Anti Malaria Project

Ranbaxy has been working on the anti-malaria research project since May 2003. Although antimalarial drugs have a large market, it is a market with very limited resources. Together with the challenges of drug resistance, poor health systems, lack of affordable, safe and convenient treatment options, malaria treatment represents one of the largest unmet medical needs. Ranbaxy has developed a synthetic peroxide antimalarial drug, arterolane maleate + piperaquine phosphate in order to address this unmet need.Based in a malaria endemic country, Ranbaxy deeply identified with the continuing crisis that malaria is causing in developing countries. The company therefore committed its expertise in R&D to work towards a breakthrough in the treatment of this important disease.

Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate Social Commitment and Public Service is deeply embedded into the cultural fabric of Ranbaxy. Over the years serious efforts have been directed towards making a meaningful contribution in uplifting and transforming the lives of the underprivileged. The Company is also extremely conscious of its duty and responsibility towards the environment. We continue to make sincere efforts to promote good health, social development and better environment, through various Company programs that contribute to sustainable, all round growth.
In 1978, in the wake of the grim health scenario in India, Ranbaxy realised the urgency to reach out to the underprivileged sections of society that had little or no access to basic healthcare. The Company took a conscious decision to contribute towards the national objective “Health For All”. Towards this end, the “Ranbaxy Rural Development Trust” was set up and the first well equipped mobile healthcare van was introduced, in certain underserved areas of Punjab. As the program grew, the Ranbaxy Community Healthcare Society (RCHS), an independent body, was created. RCHS is devoted to the health of the disadvantaged. Today, 16 well equipped mobile healthcare vans and an urban family welfare centre, run by Ranbaxy, benefit over 5.5 lakh people, in identified areas in the State of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi. A total of 76 personnel including 26 doctors 30 nurses are devoted full time to the program. The program is based on an integrated approach of preventive, promotive and curative services, spanning areas of maternal child health, family planning, reproductive health, adolescent health, health education including AIDS awareness.

Learning from Three Monks No Water Play

2012-07-28T12:58:00.001-07:00

History

Three Monks is a Chinese animated feature film produced by the Shanghai Animation Film Studio. After the cultural revolution and the fall of the political Gang of Four in 1976, the film was one of the first animations created as part of the rebirth period. It is also referred to as The Three Buddhist Priests.

Background

The film is based on the ancient Chinese proverb "One monk will shoulder two buckets of water, two monks will share the load, but add a third and no one will want to fetch water.The film does not contain any dialogues, allowing it to be watched by any culture, and a different music instrument was used to signify each monk. In this play, main aim is to show essence of TEAM WORK and PRODUCTIVITY, these are explained by theme of fetching water from down the hill to top of hill, where Monastery is situated. Film of 'Three Monks' can be seen below

Part - 1

Part - 2

Methods Employed

The problem is above videos are fetching water from down hill to monastery at top. Entire film can be divided into 3 phases where in each phase we see the type of team work and interaction between protagonists. Here we have 3 protagonists, each with different type of mentality. This is beautiful example with which we get to know Team working learnings. Especially we, future managers, should understand complexity involved in managing people with different mind sets. Below are 3 phases present in video.

Phase 1 : A single monk carrying two buckets of water
Phase 2 : Two monks carrying a single bucket of water
Phase 3 : Three monks working as a team to bring buckets of water

Mentality of first monk is short, humane and self-motivated. When he is single he was responsible for all the activities and he did them perfectly and managed well. But while fetching water along with second monk, as problem rises up, he took initiative to solve the problem. Mentality of second monk is lazy, tall, humane and not self-motivated. He could not take initiative first to solve problem but instead he gave good contribution while solving problem along with first monk. Mentality of third monk is self-centred and humane.

In Phase 1 single monk is present and it is easier to bring two buckets of water on a bamboo stick balanced on his shoulder. However, when another monk arrives to monastery, the first monk initially thinks he would be relieved of his duties. However, this is not meant to be and the two monks together decides to share the load and carry a single bucket of water between them by balancing the bucket at the centre of the stick. But while coming along with water problem has come. Because of difference in heights of 2 monks bucket was shuttling from one end to another end incessantly. But finally first monk took initiative and took out scale and measured and both of them fixed mid point and attached bucket to that point. The real problem has come when a third monk comes to monastery. Initially, both the monks in the scene decided to let the third monk do fetch water single. He went down hill and brought water but he felt so thirsty that he started drinking water which he brought and then all of them fought for water and finally nothing left. Finally each monk took one bucket and they waited for rainfall so that they get water with out any hard work. But cloud passes and these 3 monks disappointed. Now all of a sudden, a mice is interested to eat candle :P, may be it is feeling hungry that time. As it eats, bottom part of candle, top part falls down and fire spreads and in a minutes entire monastery catches fire.

How problem is solved

As the fire spreads, 3 monks became horrified and one of the monk took bucket and ran down hill to fetch water and 2nd monk also ran behind him to fetch water but with no bucket. As first monk was in hurry, while returning back by mistake 2nd monk was hanged onto bamboo stick and surprisingly first monk could not even make out and after reaching top hill, he almost threw 2nd monk as if it is with bucket with full of water. Finally, third monk realizes and stops in doing so. Here all realizes that they should work as TEAM and decided to work. Now bottom half of hill is covered by first monk and top half by 2nd monk and brought water is thrown on to monastery by 3rd monk. After some times, they finally made fire to put off. Now they became friends and employed new innovative technique of fetching water by fixing pulley at edge of hill and using rope they brought water to monastery. one monk at pulley, other at down-hill and other takes water into monastery from pulley point.

Management Learning from this Exercise

1. INNOVATION

These monks are smart enough to innovate new method of using a pulley to carry the water bucket up the hill rather than going down and fetching. With this method, they have innovated and excelled in the function of bringing water to the monastery by reducing their own physical effort. Hence innovation is best part of management learnings. A successful manager should be innovate to survive in this competitive world. Else he may not be survive for longer time. For example, consider APPLE, its IPHONE is not the first mobile to invent. But though, it is innovative enough to capture major mobile market. Hence innovation plays major part in Management.

2. PRODUCTIVITY

By inventing new innovative method of fetching water, their productivity has gone up very high.

Now with same inputs, they produced higher output. A successful manager should able to produce higher output using limited resources.

3. INITIATION AT CRISES TIMES

During problem between monk 1 and monk 2, monk 1 has took initiative to solve problem rather than sitting silently like monk 2. He took out scale and measured and fixed point of bamboo stick to fix bucket. Hence, to be a good team player one has to put all his egos a side and step towards crises elimination.

4. SYNERGY

Synergy means, sum of whole is greater than parts. Here two monks going and getting one bucket is more efficient and gives more productivity. This is what employed in phase 2. Proper synergy should be present between workers/employees in organization and it should lead to high productivity and highly efficient.

Valley Crossing Exercise

2012-07-11T08:27:00.001-07:00

Organization : Two or more people who work together in a structured way to achieve a specific goal or set of goals

Goal : the purpose that an oranization strives to achieve. Goals are fundamental elements of organizations.

Manager : People responsible for directing the efforts aimed at helping organizations achieve their goals

Management is the practice of consciously and continually shaping organizations. All organizations have people who are responsible for helping them achieve goals. these people are Managers. They may be more obvious in some organizations than in others, but without effective management, organizations are likely to founder. Management process, is sequence of steps with which we run organizations successfully. These steps involved are seen in below figure

Planning implies that managers thing through their goals and actions in advance and that their actions are based on some method, plan, or logic rather than on a hunch. Plans give the organizations its objectives and set up the best procedures for reaching them. Organizing is the process of arranging and allocating work, authority and resources among an organization's members so they can achieve the organization's goals.Leading involves directing, influencing and motivating employees to perform essential tasks. Relationships and time are crucial to leading activities. Finally, the manager must be sure the actions of the organization's members do in moving the organization toward its stated goals. This is the Controlling.

Lets understand Management process in more simpler way by referring to Valley crossing Exercise.

How to Design Organizations ??

Organizations are designed based on objectives, goals and targets. A preconceive notion is present in most of people that organizations are designed according to people and their mentality and ability. But in real, it is never done in such a way. Remember, Never design organization as per peoples ability. Design Organization first and accommodate people later.

Below figure depicts that three persons carrying rod or log and crossing valley.

Goal : To cross valley safely from one side to other side

Team strength : 3 members

Structuring Task:

Managers will structure task such that it is executed in easier way. They are solution designers. We, NITIE MBA Students, are pursuing M.B.A to learn solving difficult problems not simpler ones. Many out side are there to solve simpler ones. This Task is structured in such a way that

Every one is at equally risky position at all times.
Communication and feedback across 3 members are instantaneous
Interdependence among 3 members is crucial
Distance between two persons are >1 foot step length and <2 foot steps length
Maximize Excellence
Maximize Profitability

Below figure gives positions of all players at each crossing position. Person in red color may give impression that he is completely unsafe and Person in green color is totally safe. But structuring of task is done in such way that every one are at equal risk. Being human, we mostly tend to think and believe things which are visible to eyes. For suppose, when we ask 3 members to select any position among these 3, he is gonna select middle position as he feel he is at safer side. He is in preconceive notion that first position may be risky as he is leading team and he might fallen first in valley and being in last position is also too risky since his team mates might leave him after they cross valley :P. Despite equally created opportunities, Humans still select based on their own choice.

To avoid above problem, Executives need training which is done by HR Team. This is very crucial part, since Executives are people who gonna execute the task. No matter how complex are decisions or budget issues at high level managers, finally it has to be done by low level executives. Hence proper training is mandatory in Business world. Why would IT Giants such as TCS, Infosys and Cognizant invests billions of money to set up Training and Development centers for newly joined employees. All they need to learn is working culture and work discipline.

Below video shows how Valley Crossing Exercise is Executed perfectly by NITIE students.

Lessons Learnt :

In any organization, design of work flow, structuring of work, training executives, team work, communication between executives and feedback across them, interdependence and good motivation to do work are equally important. Even if one factor goes bad, whole damn thing will collapse. Goals and objectives are to be designed by high level managers and this work is delegated to low level managers through middle level managers. As this work is assigned to low level executives by low level manager, they should be motivated highly and proper competency should be given in prior to them. It is very important to note that in an organization every one is equally responsible for organization's success or failure. We are not suppose to blame teamwork. Indeed we should eliminate loopholes in earlier stages and strive organization towards goals and objectives.

Khan Academy: The Future of Education ?

2012-07-04T17:27:00.002-07:00

What is this Academy ??

The Khan Academy is a non-profit educational organization, created in 2006 by Bangladeshi American educator Salman Khan, a graduate of MIT and Harvard Business School. This organisation supplies online collection of more than 3,200 micro lectures via video tutorials stored on YouTube teaching mathematics, computer science and etc.

How it has evolved ??

In 2006, Khan was in Boston and tutoring his cousins through videos posting in YouTube, just like a supplement for his cousins. Then something interesting has happened. The feedback he got from his cousins is that they preferred him on YouTube than in person. He was surprised with such feedback but it makes sense from their point of view. Because a video can be paused and repeated many times. This gives flexibility to beginners who are perplexed with class room teaching. May be they could not catch the teacher's pace or they could caught up with some other stuff in class rooms. So this gives great advantage to YouTube video lessons.

Mission : providing a high quality education to anyone, anywhere

How Organizations Evolve ??

Innovative ideas take birth at any time. It could generate within you or in conversation with friends and folks or in suggestion from elders or just like that. Here in our case study ( Khan Academy ), idea has born from the conversation between Mr Khan and his cousins. He was interested in posting videos which teach lessons to school children. After launching in YouTube it has got viral effect unknowingly. Students found these are easy to deal and learn concepts. Even people who tried every possible tutorial, home tuition, school education and finally flunked trying everything, found these video lessons pretty interesting. Organization has started like a start-up company with customers as school students. Eventually the organisation has grown up substantially. Even teachers in schools are asking students to do problems in Khan Academy website as home work. It has even covered lesson for most prestigious engineering exam in India i,e, IIT-JEE( click here ). Below you can see sample IIT JEE problem

Theory X and Y

Managers or people in general, can be classified as Theory X or Theory Y type. People associated with Theory X tend to view the world in a pessimistic way. Consider the case of Theory X managers who would view their employees as lazy and attempt to enforce their authority in order to set employees right either by means of punishment or by constant guidance and feedback even if not desired. Proponents of Theory Y, on the other hand, are of the view that people often tend to seek and accept responsibility and often take initiatives themselves to reach their goals. This brings us to the question of which side would the teachers in the current education system, especially in India, belong to? As a teacher, one of the primary roles is to take lectures, correct examination papers and inculcate discipline. Students are often taught under pressure and made to stick to books and conventions. Hence, the system requires a change of mindset from being Theory X oriented to one oriented towards Theory Y. How better would it be if the students can teach the basic concepts themselves and then, the teachers could use their time in the class to cater to specific needs of each student? It is a win-win situation for both students and teachers when it comes to the learning experience. This is exactly how the Khan Academy has set about its mission of changing education for the better. Teachers can focus on the learning curves of individual students and apprise themselves of topics which the students are finding difficult to understand. Basically then, the teachers can read an individual student’s mind through progress graphs like the ones below which is quite breathtaking when you come to look at it.

Entrepreneur Ship
How can an entrepreneur carve out a niche opportunity and differentiate himself? The answer perhaps lies in fundamental aspects like awareness of an opportunity presenting itself from something taken for granted or quite mundane to developing a vision in mind and realizing itself. Either way, there is always an opportunity to improve anything in the world from its current state, however rapidly things may change. The key lies in boarding the bus! As they say, ideas are dime a dozen, it is the execution which matters!

Company Policies
Organization has adopted policies to protect the data and information of its members and visitors. As it provides online services, it becomes more crucial to protect the information of its visitors. Academy values the privacy of its members and others who visit and use the Website and make it a priority to personally protect identifiable information that is obtained from individuals both online and off-line. To protect the privacy, especially of young children, Khan Academy puts in place certain features designed to help protect the personally identifiable information of children less than 13 years of age. Registration of children below 13 years of age is provided only on consent of their parents.

How this is Inspiration to others
Organizations should try to rethink and transform the way they carry out different processes using technological innovations. Things are changing at a very fast pace and customers are asking for more personalized products and services. Khan Academy’s success has showed to the world how educational processes can be revolutionised using technology. Organizations should also try to improve or may be replace old processes with the help of technology.

LE01

2012-06-26T02:34:00.000-07:00

It is 19 June 2012 and the time is 11.00pm, I have looked into time table sheet and found new course, Principles of Management, which i felt it as a routine course. To be frank, it dint exited me much, may be because of routine name of course, or few concepts of it are already covered in an elective which i had taken in my engineering course.

20 June 2012

At 9.00am, Lecturer Dr. Prasad had entered class and had begun his passionate speech, which created an everlasting impression on whole class that a M.B.A student should become a creator of opportunities but not a seeker of opportunity. This seems to be a simple one but real gist of this statement is hiding behind it. I simply loved it and began thinking differently and out of box. He wants us to become Entrepreneurs. Then we came to know about MANDI.

Mandi is an innovative pedagogy for effective learning. In Mandi pedagogy students are assigned to engage in street selling of educational aids merchandise for a day and the experience is integrated with regular academic learning processes. Mandi Field experience is utilized to impart MBA curriculum at NITIE. This programme is designed by Dr. Prasad and Hence, NITIE students would love to call him Dr Mandi

He is very different and full of energy and told us that we are not going to learn in a conventional way. Instead we will learn as we do things in a practical way. He introduced a new concept “Aj ki roti aj kamao”, which means we are suppose to earn today for today's bread and butter. A new slogan called “Socho beecho, beecho sekho, sekho soocho” is introduced by Dr Mandi which means we should learn by actually doing business in real world. Under his supervision, NITIE students have created many goods which are wonderful. Below are some of creations involving simple physics.

Then he had raised few questions on the kind of education system we adopted currently in India. We discussed the issue and found that Many of students are choosing mundane career options, unlike trying something new. He has shown "Another Brick in Wall " Video by Pink Floyd and we thought that students mindset should change. After going thorough entire first class, i remember Amir Khan in 3-Idiots, in which he says, one has to understand concepts thoroughly and should not mug up things.

At 2.00pm, again we met and this time discussion went on the goal setting procedure that is to be efficiently and effectively followed by each of the employee in any firm. For an effective manager these goal settings is of utmost importance because they are parameters with which he judges team members. These goals can be of many types as described below in figure 1. These are goals which are to be accomplished by any employee in any firm.

Figure 1

Above classification of goals can be understood easily by introducing a game called " Tower Challenge ", in which a tower is to be made with the help of identical cubes by placing one over other and participants are three in number, and roles are shown below

The Participant ( Participant 1 )
The Middle Manager ( Participant 2 )
The Top Management ( Participant 3 )

Rules of Game:

The Participant is blindfolded and should use odd hand to place cubes one over other
The Middle Manager should guide Participant in placing cubes one over other
The Top Manager can make decisions in the game, as and when required

Goals are :

Specific: - We have to make highest tower.

Measurable:- It should be highest, last year it was 17 blocks

Attainable:- The target was taken 18, as 17 is attainable in last year

Relevant:- Its relevant to the vision, to build longest tower of 18 blocks.

Time Bound:- It has to be completed within class timings.

Three participants are chosen to play game by conducting auction process, in which student has to bid his own wish amount to participate in the game. This in-turn was an good opportunity for all students to participate in game but as students heard auction word, most of us stepped back :) We failed to grab the opportunity to play game and here we realized real outside environment which says that, opportunities does not come to us, we are suppose to grab them. But finally 3 of my friends made into game participation.

Dr Mandi has asked each of those 3 to ascertain what could be maximum height of tower which they are capable of making it. Random answers has come and they are 20, 17 and 15. There was a poll conducted in class to ascertain what could be maximum tower height. Statistics provided are below.

45% said height would be of <15 cubes

45% said height would be of 15-20 cubes

10% said height would be of >20 cubes

Placing cubes one on each other went interesting and crowd surrounded participants and cheered them up. Here audience is referred to customers and we realized how difficulties will come up in the game i.e. placing cubes using odd hand with blindfolded and, at these difficult junctures Dr. Mandi has been giving Management lectures correlating with the tower building game. After 90 minutes of hard word, finally we have made tower of 18 blocks with top most block marked as "B", which indicates our section :). Below is victory picture.

Conclusion:

We have learnt many concepts in single class and we found it to be very interesting. I hope at-least some of us would be opportunity creators in future and few would become successful managers and leaders. Now my opinion has changed that POM is no more going to be mundane. We have understood that we get carried away easily by lecturers when professors come up with innovative teaching methodologies, most usually happens only in NITIE, Mumbai. We are interestingly looking forward to learn much more from Dr.Mandi.