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Interactive Session with Amit Shah: EVP and Country Head, Yes Bank

An interactive session with our alumnus Mr. Amit Shah was organized for the new joinees of PGDIM program at NITIE.Amit is an alumnus who has achieved great heights in a short span of time.
Here is a link to his linkedin profile:
http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=9938087&locale=en_US&trk=tyah2

It was a privilege to have him on the campus. Amit covered topics ranging from sharing his story at NITIE and beyond, to guiding the current students to make the most of their two years at NITIE.

                                                    Mr. Amit Shah and Prof Mandi

Amit emphasized the importance of competencies, knowledge,skills and delivery. He stressed that to succeed all the elements should coexist.
Amit emphasized that the following four elements exist in everybody and it is their interplay that leads to defining a person. We must identify what are we good at and what type of job will suit us as per our strengths. These key elements are:

• Thoughts
• Influence
• Adaptability
• Delivery

In addition to this, he suggested:

• Follow your passion and area of interest
• It is good to be little over confident than to be underconfident
• In industry, we should try to grow from a specialist to a generalist
• Increase our awareness by reading Economic Times and Livemint
• Know all the sectors in industry and stay updated about them
• Select electives that will help us to get a flavour of all the arenas of management viz. finance,marketing and HR

It was a great learning time with him. I would extend thanks to Mr. Amit for coming and  Prof. Mandi for organizing such sessions.

Problem Solving and Managerial Decision Making

Relationship between Problem Solving and Decision Making:

 

Decision making is the key to a manager's success. To be a good decision maker one needs to first understand the relationship between Problem Solving and Decision making. The latter is a subset and outcome of the Problem solving process as shown in the below Venn Diagram:

Steps in Problem Solving:

A.SITUATION ANALYSIS

- Valuing and Examining the solutions 

- Priority setting - Agree on problem

B. PROBLEM ANALYSIS

- Information Getting 

- Problem definition

C. SOLUTION ANALYSIS 

- Getting Ideas - Generate ideas 

- decision Making - Select idea 

D.  IMPLEMENTATION ANALYSIS

 - Participation  - Involve Others

- Planning - Construct Plan

Decision making and Implementation can be done at either Individual level or team-wise. Thus if we draw a matrix we can get four combinations:

Of all the combinations one colored yellow is the most complex at it it involves complexities due to the involvement of the group in which different candidates may have different views regarding the problem. The one where both the decision and implementation is done by individual is an example of Craftsmanship. In Modern Management system all the decisions are made in groups.

Are problems complex?

This is a misnomer that a problem is tough or complex because a problem would not have been a problem, if it was not tough. 

Only solutions can be simple or complex. The real issue is to identify the root cause or the real problem. Once that is done we can easily reach to a solution and then implement it.

Valley Crossing Excercise

The Puzzle

The valley crossing activity requires three men holding a pole over their shoulders to cross a valley. The valley is so wide that one cannot cross it in a single step but it requires less than 2 steps. The activity demands high amount of coordination as even a slight misjudgment can lead to disastrous results. The solution devised for the problem is a prime example of improvisation and process formulation in order to tackle a seemingly complex problem.

Structuring the Task:

It was important to break down the task into roles and responsibilities corresponding to each individual. Assigning the roles reduced the complexity and uncertainty in the process.

Process:Half Safe – One leg in the air and the other leg has support
Full unsafe - Both the legs are in the air without any support
Full Safe - Both the legs have full support

Solution

Role X = Role Y = Role Z : All roles are equal and there is no differentiation between the responsibilities of any two persons. All three are equally responsible in their contributions for the overall task completion.

Risk and Responsibilities :

Roles of all three members are similar but not same; and equivalent in terms of total effort & risk.

All 3 member Roles have equal distribution of 

• Risky situations (1)
• Half risky situations (2)
• No risk situations (6)

The ideal situation in an organization would demand the “No Risk” scenario to be maximum. Hence our objective should be to reduce the risk factors in the process.

Communication and feedback across the 3 members was instantaneous.

Interdependence among the 3 members was maximized and made crucial.

The roles are interlocking, with highest levels of interaction among the members, with instantaneous feedback being exchange and without any scope for social loafing.

Some key aspects of this excercise:

Trust:

Trust is of utmost importance, be it in personal relationships of professional ones. Lack of trust creates doubts and becomes a major headwind for smooth flow of information.

Continuous and clear chain of Communication:

All the 3 members are systematically trained for all the steps and, while crossing, they communicate and coordinate with each other through a various kinds of sounds and other signals.

Team Excellence :

Team excellence comes through proper designing of team tasks, correctly assigning team roles, and preparation and execution of the tasks. Thus, excellence is designed by the managers.

Load Sharing: This activity involves sharing of the load among the three valley crossers. This is the same scenario we face in the corporate world where load needs to be shared among the team members working towards a common goal. The roles and responsibilities have to be divided among the members by the manager. Hence the task of the manager is very critical because that will drive the final output, the project and indirectly the organization as a whole.

 Simplicity in Design: The design of this example is very elementary but of profound significance as we are seeing via discussion of these principles. This is how the design should be done in industry also - keep the design as simple as possible and work towards its implementation.

Work Planning : As a manager one need to come out with step by step plan in order to help the three members to cross the valley. In order for the three persons to cross the valley the width of the valley must be slightly larger than a single step of one person but must be smaller than two steps. Moreover few technical specifications must be taken into account i.e. strength of the pole, creating markings on pole etc. The managers needs to specify the variety of roles when the three cross the valley. 

The Transformative Entrepreneur...

“It is the opportunity or lack of it that shapes a man’s future.”

-Dr. Muhammad Yunus

Nobel peace prize laureate professor Dr. Muhammad Yunus is the founder of microcredit and social business. His groundbreaking work in introducing collateral free loans for the poor in Bangladesh was formalized into a specialized bank for poor in 1983 called Grameen Bank (Rural Bank) fueled by the belief the credit is a fundamental human right. His objective was to help poor people escape from poverty by providing loans on terms suitable to them and by teaching them a few sound financial principles so they could help themselves.

In 2006,Yunus and Grameen Bank received the Nobel Peace Prize.

Grameen Bank: 

Headquartered in Washington, DC, Grameen Foundation was founded in 1997 by friends of Grameen Bank to help microfinance practitioners spread the Grameen philosophy worldwide. Though we share the ideas of 2006 Nobel Peace Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus – a founding director, and a current director emeritus – Grameen Foundation and Grameen Bank are independent organizations and have no financial or institutional links.

Differences between Conventional Banks and Grameen Bank:

From Dr. Yunus' personal loan of small amounts of money to destitute basket weavers in Bangladesh in the mid 70's, the Grameen Bank has advanced to the forefront of a burgeoning world movement toward eradicating poverty through micro lending. Replica of the Grameen Bank model is being operated in more than 100 countries worldwide. Today, Grameen Bank itself lends to more than 8.4 million people in virtually every village in Bangladesh.

 Social Business and Yunus:

Other than the work in the field of micro finance, professor Yunus is also known as the father of social business in idea which has gone from being theory to an inspiring practical. 

A social business is a business where we don't want to make money.All costs are covered through the operations so that the business is self-sustaining. The person who runs a social business is definitely a social entrepreneur, because he is trying to make a difference. But he is a unique kind among them. His sole intention is for the business to solve the problem, not make money from it.

Dr. Yunus already has experimented his beautiful and innovative ideas to serve poor and beggar also. More than fifty five thousands beggars have been transforming their life through social business, they there owning their business and severing as a entrepreneur, so that ideas can change the life and career of the people.

Dr. Yunus will continue to inspire millions of others for many generations.