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  • Written by On 17-05-2020
    COVID-19 is causing a lot of fear all around. Fear of infection is there for each one of us. But this is only one type of fear. The Businesses are suffering the fear of uncertainty. Where will the topline come from? How will we pay the Salaries and Wages of the Employees without proper top line? It seems even the famous Venkateshwara Temple in Tirupathi is going through these uncertain times. They are not having enough money to pay the huge contingent of employees that the Lord has in terms of TTD! I am sure the TTD will find a…

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  • Written by On 10-05-2020
    Manufacturing requires stable manpower. The Manufacturing process has to be learnt by the team that is working on the shop. This includes the Workmen as well as the Staff. This team would eventually learn the process so well that they would be able to produce high quality products. Over years, the skill of these employees would become an Asset for the Company. I still remember the Shop Employees who used to just look at the Product and tell about the status of Quality of the product. They did not need any Quality instruments to check the Quality of the Product!…

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  • Written by On 03-05-2020
    COVID is influencing each one of us and the whole world. It is creating a huge change in our lives.  For some of us who have got infected by it or a family member infected by it, the change is very deep and emotional. None of us would have heard about this Virus couple of months back. To get infected and suffering due to the Virus would have been a big shock. From what I heard; this Virus causes severe damage to the body. Luckily for many Indians, the virus was not at its’ virulent worst. But still if you…

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  • Written by On 26-04-2020
    Manufacturing will restart sometime. But you will not be able to deploy all your manpower in the current situation. To avoid crowding at the work place, the Government will not allow full manpower for quite sometime to come.  Safety is first Priority: When you reopen, Production is not the first priority. Priority is Safety of your Team. How do you ensure safe working of employees without infecting them. Already there are a few examples of Factories contributing to the spread of the Virus. The factory near Mysuru is a case in point. We need to ensure we take maximum precautions.…

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  • Written by On 19-04-2020
    Manufacturing Companies are getting ready to reopen. Some will reopen in full and some in part. Government is going allow this depending on the criticality of the Industry to the current situation and to the Country and its' peoples' existence. Already the companies are working out Detailed safety Plans. There are several Power point files in circulation. It would be good to approach this work much more systematically and at greater depth. The Risks have to be identified very carefully. It would be good to use a Tool to identifying all risks. RIM Plan (RIM - Risk Identification and Mitigation)…

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  • Written by On 07-04-2020
    Manufacturing Companies will start work sometime! The Economy has to roll on. It may start in certain pockets to begin with. The Companies will find themselves in a situation where they have to work with much more Discipline!  Several Companies have varied level of Discipline in their Operations. Till now if your Employees and Leaders are not Disciplined, probably you were losing money and may be in a few cases a few Customers or Opportunities of Business!  But now if your Employees and Leaders are not Disciplined, you may have People falling sick and worse, you may have loss of…

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  • Written by On 04-04-2020
    From what it looks like, COVID-19 is not going to disappear in a hurry. It will go on for longer period. No one knows how long. But, to me it looks like at least another One year to 18 months there will be restrictions. If not the lock down. Till the time we have a Vaccine, we may not be able to get away from these restrictions. Indian Manufacturing has to reopen. Closing it for too long will have serious impact on the Economy and the People of India.  We need to find new methods of working that will minimize…

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  • Written by On 22-03-2020
    COVID-19 the Global Pandemic has presented a further toughening of the Business conditions for the Businesses across the World. Already the Businesses in most of the countries had been suffering due to slow economies. Now this Crisis is going to really push the Businesses to the brink.    Let us examine the Leadership aspects of such a situation. What type of a Leadership is required in this situation? How do you guide your Business with a Clear Head? Let us examine some aspects of it.    Indians are generally not very Rule abiding citizens. We violate rules in just about…

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  • Written by On 15-03-2020
      When I checked with a HR Head of a Company recently about how they are handling COVID19, his response was that probably there is some amount of overreaction and Social media hype about it.  But looking at the rapid spread of the Infections, maybe he changed his mind by now. COVID19 is declared as a Pandemic by WHO and India declared it as ‘Notified Disaster’.  I think we need to take it seriously to ensure we stay in control.    Why a response is needed from Corporates?   COVID-19 is currently coming from People who travelled abroad. Corporates contribute to a…

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  • Written by On 01-03-2020
    In the past few years, I have been witnessing an aggressive approach to Customers from Companies who pride themselves as Customer focused Companies! I will be talking about few Companies specifically. But I am not saying that only these companies are adapting these aggressive approaches to customers. There may be many more. I am talking about these companies on the basis of my personal experience.  Experience of others may be different.   ICICI Bank   I have been Banking with ICICI for about 25 Years. I have good amount of Deposits with them. I am a decent size Customer for them.…

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  • Written by On 16-02-2020
    We have been hearing about Industry 4.0 elements and the amazing change that it can bring in your Company.    It is heartening to see a few companies getting into this game and trying to improve their efficiencies. Many more companies should get started with the Industry 4.0.    Among companies that are getting in to trying Ind 4.0, there are at least two types. Those who are setting up new Factories. These companies are going in for across the factory implementation of Ind 4.0 and trying to define a new level of Manufacturing efficiency in the Company. Companies who…

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  • Written by On 09-02-2020
    This is the time around the end of the Financial Year when you have to look at your Performance in the current Financial year and take some bigger learnings from it. Every Employee in the Company should be encouraged to have a look at his/her performance in a structured manner and then learn from it.    This is what I am calling as ‘Business Diagnosis’.   Learn from your Performance: Every Business Team tries their best to achieve all their Goals for the year. Whether they achieve the Goals or not, there is always learning from the year. It is…

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  • Written by On 26-01-2020
    While there are some Companies in Indian Manufacturing who have improved the Quality of their Processes to a very good level, still a big portion of the Indian Manufacturing is still in mediocre state. Quality of the Product is something that they have to work hard to attain. I notice following problems in these companies:   01.  The Quality Plans are not defined well. Most of the Companies have just one Generic Quality Plan for all products together. This is simply not enough. One needs to go to a Micro level where they see the differences between Products and Processes for…

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  • Written by On 19-01-2020
    In Indian Manufacturing Companies, lot of follow-up is needed to get things done. You can’t just assume that if you have agreed with your team about certain actions, all of them will just happen. You also may not get information that the actions are not happening. When you eventually check with the team, you may have a surprise!  My experience is that this is prevalent in companies where the Business Systems are not well established, and the Teams are also less trained. In addition to this, in Indian Companies the growth is higher than what happens in Companies in Western…

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  • Written by On 12-01-2020
    Manufacturing Sector is a very old worldwide with Several Industries having Decades and sometimes more than a Century History. Like any other Sector, Manufacturing Companies deal with several Stereotype practices. Many Companies keep following the age-old practices without challenging them.   Let us examine a few of them and how breaking the Stereotype can perhaps show you new Possibilities. Sometimes huge new possibilities!    We need Employees with experience in our Industry: This is one of the Big Stereotype practices that several Industries follow. In the last 7 years, as a Consultant I have come across Professionals who swear that…

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  • Written by On 29-12-2019
    As a family we do not use the Ration Card much. So, we did not care to apply for it and take it. But a few months back when we decided to take the Ration card as it can be a good address proof. My memories of taking Ration card earlier many years back are not very good. We had to go through a long procedure for it and deal with many Tables in the Food and Civil Supplies department.  With all these bad memories, I set out to visit the Government Department in Coimbatore (where I live). When I…

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  • Written by On 15-12-2019
    Every Manufacturing Company is required to deliver good results every Quarter. Without this, the Bankers will not have confidence in the Company’s performance. In today’s Economic situation as everyone would have experienced, the Bankers are very careful in lending money. While Big Scams may happen, the Ordinary company is struggling to get their Discounting Limits expanded when there is genuinely a Turnover increase! The Ordinary Banking employee seem to have become very cautious! The Pressure is not only from the Bankers, the Investors also are watching the Companies much more carefully. No one wants to put their money in a…

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  • Written by On 08-12-2019
    The Indian Economy is undergoing a tough phase. Top line growth and Bottom line existence are coming under threat. Companies need to raise their game in using their teams to the next level. Traditionally Indian companies have not been focusing on developing the People. It is time to realize that without developing the team, we will keep having BIG teams of lowly skilled team members contributing sub-optimally. Let me discuss a few examples that I observed in Companies to stress the importance of focusing on Competencies of Team members.   Shyam is the Materials Manager of Exwhy Limited an Autoparts…

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  • Written by On 01-12-2019
    I have been dealing with several Mid-Sized / Small Sized Companies (Not Micro) as part of my work earlier as a fulltime employee and now as a Business Coach for the past 7 years. I have been dealing with the Head of the Company in all the cases. I have seen the Head of the Company dealing with his Company / his top team in different ways. Some had been very effective some not so effective and some more have very confused way of dealing.    These are the Companies who would have crossed about Rs 50-75 Crores when the…

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  • Written by On 24-11-2019
    In the last few Quarters the Economy has become tougher and every Company is struggling to find Growth of Top line and Bottom lines are disappearing or thinning out for many companies. In this situation, the Companies need to operate with good efficiency. Without this they would waste the resources and perform sub-optimally. No Company can tolerate Sub-optimal performance. The Current condition of the Economy adds to this need. Going forward the Competitive situation will become tougher and tougher for companies. World over the Manufacturing Companies are going to go forward aggressively in terms of improving their productivities with the use…

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  • Written by On 03-11-2019
    In many Companies, there is a Corporate structure at the Head Office and then there are different Manufacturing Plants and/or Regional Sales Offices. Sometimes there may not be physical offices in the regions. But there may be Sales Team members all around the Country/World.  Sometimes the Company may be spread around several Countries and then there may be more complications involved such as Cultural differences.    The relationship between Corporate and Regional structures is very often tense, ambiguous to say the least. Many a times Companies may be wasting lot of energy trying to manage the relationship between the Corporate and…

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  • Written by On 27-10-2019
    Every Company has to manage their Cost in a systematic manner. Ideally there should be no need to cut Costs. But almost every company has this need to drive Cost reduction. The Profits are under pressure continuously and the Competition & Customers always gives you a reason for Cost reduction.    Many a times when the Cost reduction is taken up the Teams take up an approach of ‘Somehow’ reducing the Costs. If you are approaching serious Cost reduction after a few years in your company, then very good chance is that you would do well and achieve a good…

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  • Written by On 20-10-2019
    As Leaders all of us Professionals and Entrepreneurs interact with several people in the Business. We need to manage several relationships to succeed at the job. One of the most important relationships is that of Boss and Sub-ordinate. I see several Professionals not being able to manage the relationship with the Boss. I feel this happens to many Professionals at some point of Career or the other. Usually when you become more senior Professional.    Let me give an account of my own experience in my career so far with my Bosses!    Totally Aligned: I have experienced a wonderful…

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  • Written by On 13-10-2019
    In the Last article, we examined how a Company can use the Business Awards to further their Business Goals. One should be very clear about what is the End and What is the means. In the heat of the awards, one should not get lost that getting the award is the End.    In this article, I am looking at the process of challenging a Business Award.   Run your Business like a series of Sprints   To ensure the Company pursues its’ Business Goals with full vigor, a Leader needs to create surges of energy from time to time.…

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  • Written by On 06-10-2019
    Four Indian Companies have won the Deming Prize for 2019. With that 33 Companies from India won Deming Prize so far.  One of the Companies that won Deming Prize in 2019 is ELGi Equipments Limited, an Industrial Air Compressor Manufacturer from Coimbatore. I worked for this company for about 7 years and that is a reason to be extra happy and proud of ELGi’s achievement! Congratulations to all ELGians world over!    ELGi is a good example of sustaining the Excellence over a period of time. I can see two big reasons for this sustenance of Excellence as an outsider with…

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  • Written by On 29-09-2019
      For a Leader to be successful, especially in these fast-changing times, he/she has to be Learning continuously. But Learning is one of the first casualties once a Graduate join a Job. Somehow the habit of Learning dies once someone joins a Job. As one gets promoted and goes to senior positions, the Learning habit gets buried in the ‘heap of experience’. One can Learn from own direct experiences and from what is happening around them. My observation is that most of the Executives are very resistant to Learning. The more senior a person is the more he/she believes that…

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    Reflection Robin Sharma

  • Written by On 22-09-2019
    A few years back I had a chance to visit Toyota in Nagoya, Japan. We were allowed to go on to a ramp that goes on top of the Manufacturing Line across the factory. You could stand there for about an hour and observe the Manufacturing process at various places on the shop floor. It was a Car assembly line running in the shop floor with all the support functions available right next to the line.    Typical to Toyota Culture, the line was stopped frequently to fix problems. The problems were so small, and the response was so swift…

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  • Written by On 15-09-2019
    In the past 6-9 months, most of the Industries across India have started complaining about their Businesses slowing down. May be this problem very much exists in other countries too. But, let me focus on Indian Companies. The Slow down panic is there in many industries and everyone has his/her own theory about how bad it is, why it is happening and how long it will last.    In this article, I would like to just focus on ‘What a Company can do during the Slow down’.    Every Company would have expanded their capacities with some expectation of Sales…

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  • Written by On 08-09-2019
    There are many Leaders in the Manufacturing Industry. I have had the Privilege to meet Hundreds of Leaders as part of my Career and Business/Executive Coaching. No two Leaders are the same. Each Leader is interesting in his/her own way. Each Leader has his/her own way of guiding the team and getting results. We can look at results and say who is effective and who is less effective. But, it is also important to look at the Process that each of these Leaders follow.    Let me discuss a few examples of Leadership that I have seen.   01.  Patient Leader:…

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  • Written by On 01-09-2019
    When you look at a typical Manufacturing Company in India, the usage of IT is very limited. A small percentage of Big companies use IT in an effective manner. While a great majority do not use the Quality, Manufacturing and other Modules in ERPs like SAP even though they would have paid for it and they lie unutilized in their servers.  Resultantly, most of the Important work in Manufacturing happens off line. We don’t try to control the Manufacturing process as it is happening. Most of the controls are off line. We seem to be letting defects / problems happen…

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  • Written by On 25-08-2019
    I meet this team from a big Indian Tyre Manufacturing Company every month. I am helping this team to improve their Leadership Qualities. They are making very good progress. One of the members of this team is a Body Builder!! He is devoting a lot of time to exercising, lifting weights, running and so on. He is an absolutely fit guy!! He is real motivation to everyone around him.    But, I should say that this is an exception than rule among Employees of Indian Manufacturing. Even among youngsters, the percentage of people who are actively taking care of their…

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  • Written by On 15-08-2019
    All of us who worked in a few companies in our respective careers and those like me who had the wonderful opportunity to work with many Companies as a Business Coach would have observed that some Companies had a very good Working Culture whereas many Companies did not have such a great working Culture.    We generally say the Culture of the Company is good and may be recollect that this company had the practice of ‘Town hall meeting’ or ‘Annual Sports meet’ and so on.    Let us look at what a Good Work Culture is and how do…

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  • Written by On 04-08-2019
    Every Manufacturing Company always has Cost Reduction Agenda. While they try to improve their Product Design using Frugal Design principles, they always have Cost reduction agenda in the Product too.    The Business situation is becoming tougher and tougher for companies. The Topline and Bottom line Growth cannot be taken for granted! It has to be earned in the hard manner.    Automotive industry is going thru some tough phase. The Industry may get fragmented due to Electric Vehicles coming in. It is no longer left to a few Big companies. Few more Bigger companies like Apple, Google are entering…

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  • Written by On 28-07-2019
    The Naughty Baby Bear!    I remember a story told by one of my ex-colleagues.    An R&D Engineer was walking in a Forest. The R&D Engineer was carrying a young Bear which was very naughty, and the R&D Engineer was struggling to keep it in his hands as it was scratching him all over the body! The R&D Engineer could not keep it down as it may escape, and his Boss would take him to task.  He came across a Colleague who happens to be a Production Engineer in the same company. R&D Engineer called him out and asked him…

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  • Written by On 21-07-2019
    For any Manufacturing Company, the Problem Solving is an important Business Process. The Company needs to give it a high priority and treat it as such. There needs to be specific Structure to handle this important Business Process.    Very few Companies in Indian Manufacturing treat this as an important process. If they do not give this importance, there would be a big adverse effect on the ability of the Company to progress. They would have serious problems with the Customers. There would be suffering on a daily basis for all concerned. This is a major reason for the tensions…

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  • Written by On 14-07-2019
    We have been discussing about preparing for the advent of Industry 4.0 and how Indian Manufacturing Companies can prepare for the inevitable. We discussed how various Functions in a company can get ready for Ind 4.0 situation.   In this article, let us discuss about the Leader of the ‘Future Factory’. What are the Capabilities that a Leader of Future Factory needs to display?    A Future Factory will be characterized by the following:   -      Definitely a Less Manpower environment. -      Highly Automated set up. -      Much higher Manufacturing Technology.  -      Much higher Capacity in each Factory due to the automated set up. …

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  • Written by On 07-07-2019
    While Indian Manufacturing Companies are trying to implement Ind 4.0 solutions, one more area that is begging for attention is ‘Production Planning’. The issues with Production Planning are more in Companies that are Assembly oriented where several Parts are needed to make one Assembly.    Automotive Vehicle Manufacturers manage their Inventories very well (?). But, this is more due to their usage of their ‘Volume Muscle Power’ and not due to Excellent Planning. Most of the Component Manufacturers suffer the consequences. Still, the Inventory Management in Automotive Industry is much better than the other industries like for example Capital equipment…

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  • Written by On 30-06-2019
    As part of my work, I meet some very senior Consultants across India. I was there at Delhi, NCR Region recently and was exchanging ideas with some very Senior People in the Industry. Each of these people would have touched about 50-75 Companies each. The status across India with reference to Efficiency / Systems is the same. Probably 5% of the Companies may be doing well to continuously improve. Rest are not in good shape. The companies can be classified in to three categories on the basis of their Intent to Improve: 01.  Leading the charge: Companies that are aware of…

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  • Written by On 23-06-2019
    Several Indian Companies are aspiring to use Industry 4.0 elements and they are trying to get the tag of ‘We too are implementing Industry 4.0’. But, as I was mentioning in the last few Articles, we are simply not ready. May be a small percentage of companies are truly there. But, most of the Companies are just not anywhere near to using Ind 4.0.    We have examined the Plant Maintenance area last week.    Let us look at Quality Assurance this time.   Indian Manufacturing Companies are supplying World over and we are generally capable of achieving any level…

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  • Written by On 16-06-2019
      Across the world, the Manufacturing Companies are leveraging Industry 4.0 to become more efficient and to deliver more to the Customers. Indian Manufacturing Companies have a long way to go. I heard a Multi-National Company say that they are in Industry 2.0 or 2.5 in India while their Global operations are going strongly towards Industry 4.0. This is the status of many Indian Manufacturing Companies.    To become receptive to Industry 4.0, Indian Manufacturing needs to lift their game in several areas. Majority of Indian Manufacturing seems to be stuck with traditional methods of working. Whether it is handling…

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  • Written by On 02-06-2019
    There is a good buzz in the Indian Manufacturing Industry now about Digitalization and Industry 4.0. Every Managing Director would like to tell his/her colleagues at the Club about how they are implementing Digitalization in a big way and trying to implement Industry 4.0 and so on.    I hear many Functional Managers also trying their hand at collecting more data from machines. They are not very clear what exactly they want to do with that data. But, they have started a Project anyway.    This same companies are having modern Machine Tools that already collect a lot of data…

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  • Written by On 26-05-2019
    Organizations suffer in a big way due to the lack of Knowledge and Skills on the part of employees. Very often this suffering is silent, and it is accepted as ‘Normal’. This leads to Companies accepting low skill / low Capability and try to have more people to do the same work. That is a poor alternative and Company suffers more due to higher number of Low skilled employees.    Let us discuss a few examples.   01.  Anish joined as Production Manager in the Capital Equipment manufacturing company. He has 15 Years of experience. But he was never involved in…

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  • Written by On 19-05-2019
    Traditionally in Organizations, the Learning Architecture for the employees is not defined well and the only way to help employees learn is sending them to a few Training programs. Even this (sending employees to training) is done only by about 10-15% of Companies that I have come in touch with. Regretfully even now most of the Indian Companies do not look at Developing employees in a systematic manner.    Learning environment    When we studied in Colleges, Schools we would have been put through the paces of Learning in a systematic manner. There was a syllabus and there was a…

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  • Written by On 12-05-2019
    John reached the office at 8 am itself. John is the ‘Manager – Marketing’ in the Automotive ancillary company. Normally he comes to office at 8.45 am as the office time is 9 am. But, he is very enthu about coming to office on every Monday as he has his Learning hour today. He can access the Learning programs from his home. But, he loves to sit at his desk and complete the Learning for the week undisturbed. His son has grown up. But, still there is some time to go to School. While at home, John loves to play…

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  • Written by On 05-05-2019
    In many companies, the cost of White-Collar Staff is very significant. By international standards, the number of staff that Indian Companies hire is significantly high. The Productivity of the Staff in a company seems to be very low. We seem to be throwing ‘Warm Bodies’ at work and problems! More Problems, more ‘Warm Bodies’.. The Indian Companies have been waking up to the higher costs of employees in the past Decade or so. The profits are under pressure. Top line is not growing as aggressively as one may want.    In this situation too, many companies have been addressing the…

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  • Written by On 28-04-2019
    In my interactions with about 100+ Companies as part of my Consultancy and Job experience, I have seen many problems related to Lack of Knowledge on the part of Employees in companies. Every company struggles with this problem. Some have identified that this is the problem. Some struggle the consequences without understanding the Root cause. Let us examine a few of them.   Customer facing teams not having the knowledge of Product and Company: Today, we are all losing the people in Sales, Service and Marketing teams quite often. New people keep coming in almost every month! But, my observation…

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  • Written by On 21-04-2019
    India is a Power house to the world as far as Information Technology is concerned. Our IT industry is powering up a lot of efficiency across industries and around the world. But, the adaptation of Information Technology in Indian Manufacturing can be improved a lot.    Many companies are yet to take the full advantage of the ERP that they would have implemented a few decades back. Most of the features may be lying unutilized or bypassed.   In many companies, the Finance module continues to be the most utilized one. Very few companies use the Production / Sales &…

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  • Written by On 14-04-2019
    Today, India is becoming more and more prominent on the world stage. Whether it is the Business arena or Political arena or Health, Art & Culture, the world is looking at India with higher expectations. Indian Leaders are playing a prominent role on the World Stage. Whether it is the Sundar Pichaiah (Google), Sathya Nadella (Microsoft), Shantanu Narayen (Adobe) or Dr.Soumya Swamnithan (WHO), many more Indians are in prominent roles world wide. Indian Businesses are going out to the World. Acquisitions by Indian Companies are increasing.    Indian Leaders to prepare themselves ! There are several Leadership Models that are…

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  • Written by On 07-04-2019
    For those of you who have been on your own for some time, I do not have to convince you about the fact that your Energy levels may be much higher when you are on your own as compared to the time when you worked in a Job. This is not to blame the job or Boss or anyone else. This is just a fact.     One can realise the highest level of Energy if you are not just chasing higher money and you are chasing your dream in terms of the higher achievement in your life / Career. When…

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  • Written by On 31-03-2019
    In the last few years, we can see a very good Start up culture across the Country. We can see Youngsters and Older people alike getting in to some Business or the other. Industries across India are in a ‘Correction mode’ where they have stopped recruiting as they used to and are in the phase of improving People Productivity. So, the Jobs are not available in plenty. This is also pushing some people to go on their own.   I consider this as a highly positive development. People of India have the choice of going on their own. Many Professions…

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  • Written by On 24-03-2019
    I have seen many Leaders who thrive only on their Authority and not really display Leadership Qualities. These Leaders typically want to be the author of every success around them. Somehow they would feel insecure when someone from their team comes up with a suggestion that is not thought out by themselves.    The characteristics of these Leaders are: -      They have a misconception that as Leaders they have to bear the responsibility for every success of their team and only they have to do it.  -      These Leaders feel they are losing out when their team members are actually stepping up…

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  • Written by On 17-03-2019
    Ram is the Head – Sales & Marketing for the company and he is in the Weekly review with Manufacturing head. The other functional heads are also there in the meeting. Ram is struggling to get the commitment from Manufacturing head for the deliveries that need to happen in the next week.    Individual Problems and Collective Suffering   The Problems of the Manufacturing Head seems to be unending. There are several Part shortages on a daily basis as the Customer demand is going up without notice. There are Quality problems in the New Products introduced and the Process is not…

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  • Written by On 13-03-2019
    We see that some companies have a great energy within them and they see improvements on a regular basis. These Companies continually grow and rediscover themselves. I call them ‘Happening Companies’. While ‘Happening companies’ is a small percentage, most of the Companies struggle to develop this internal ‘Positive Energy’ that helps the Company to keep improving and keep rediscovering itself. The ‘Happening Companies’ may be growing aggressively. But, all companies growing aggressively are NOT ‘Happening Companies’. The Growth may come due to other reasons too.  The ‘Happening Companies’ attract a lot of Talent for right reasons. The ‘Happenings’ make a…

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  • Written by On 13-03-2019
    While working with several companies in my career as an Employee and as a Consultant,  I have learned that it is very important to ensure  all employees across the Company are having Clear Targets for their work that hour, that day, that week, that Month, that Quarter and that year. As you look at the senior people, the targets for the Three year period too become very important. At each of these levels, the Process for achieving the Targets also has to be clear.  Shop floor : Here and Now If you look at the Shop floors of Manufacturing companies, you can…

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  • Written by On 13-03-2019
      As I meet more CEOs across the Indian Manufacturing, one discussion that always happens is about the Profitability, how low it is and how it is becoming worse. The Best that I would have heard is ‘holding on to 3%’ for the past 5 years or something similar to that!! Clearly the Party is over for the Indian Manufacturing Companies when they would have made big profits and were high on big top line growth as well.    But, when we look at the efficiencies at which we are working, I do not think we have hit the ceiling.…

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  • Written by On 13-03-2019
    I have been on a Self-improvement journey for as long as I can remember and I believe it is so with most of the people around us. As an Executive Coach, I had the opportunity to work with many leaders and I enjoyed my interactions with them as every story is a beautiful one and many of the improvements that they do inspire me to do something in my own sphere. Very often, I used to fret over my Improvement journey and then look at others and say that they are not improving much. I have observed this behavior with…

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  • Written by On 13-03-2019
    How I used to be highly Judgmental.. The ‘Professor’ got up and went to the Board to make his point. I and my colleagues exchanged glances and our eyes smiled at each other without being obvious to the ‘Chamchas’ around. The scene was our regular Monthly Performance review meeting and the ‘Professor’ was our Boss who was going to the Board to make his point by drawing some pictures / models on the board. He loved illustrating his point with a model. So, I labelled him as ‘Professor’ and enjoyed making fun him behind his back. Not a very harmful…

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  • Written by On 10-03-2019
    Whenever I hear the term ‘Time management’, it comes to my mind that we cannot Manage time. It keeps slipping away whether we do something or not. We can only Manage our work better. But, let us keep with this popular term for this article.    Time Management is a serious problem for almost ALL Managers in the Indian Industry. Some would have realized it and many others may not even realize that they are not using their time well. The Managers that I have come across come in to the following few categories.    Firefighters: These are the Managers…

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  • Written by On 24-02-2019
    Vithal is sitting near the table of his younger colleague Shyam for last half hour waiting for Shyam to finish the Power Point that Vithal would be presenting in the Monthly review. Vithal never managed to learn Power Point very well. He says he had been trying for the past few years. But, somehow not able to learn all the nuances needed to put out a good presentation. The frustrated Boss of Vithal put him on to Shyam- a youngster so that Vithal will not be an odd man out in the monthly review.  Vithal had been in the company for…

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  • Written by On 10-02-2019
    In a Manufacturing Company, Problems are a day to day normal. Every Company would have Process problems, Product problems , People problems. The first two, Process and Product Problems are the ones we are addressing in this short Article.   Living with the Problems I have observed in companies that the same Process and Product Problems exist for a very long time. Various groups of Managers would have claimed victory over these problems and yet somehow the same problems exist forever. An Entrepreneur who would have been there for a long time in the organization would have seen that the problems…

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  • Written by On 06-02-2019
    Ask for executive coaching for yourself Srinivas Rao.K

  • Written by On 06-02-2019
    Importance of business Diagnosis Srinivas Rao.K

  • Written by On 06-02-2019
    Routine Vs Improvement for leaders Srinivas Rao.K

  • Written by On 06-02-2019
    Leadership development process Srinivas Rao.K

  • Written by On 06-02-2019
    Do you appreciate your team members Srinivas Rao.K

  • Written by On 06-02-2019
    How to inspire your team to action Srinivas Rao.k

  • Written by On 06-02-2019
    Do you need full time business excellence team Srinivas Rao.K

  • Written by On 06-02-2019
    You should prepare your team for behavioural training Srinivas Rao.K

  • Written by On 06-02-2019
    Managing the effectiveness of your top team Srinivas Rao.K

  • Written by On 06-02-2019
    Leaders @ all levels in an organisation Srinivas Rao.K

  • Written by On 06-02-2019
    Does your company need business systems Srinivas Rao.K

  • Written by On 06-02-2019
    Business reviews - why are they important ? Srinivas Rao.K

  • Written by On 06-02-2019
    Planning process in business Srinivas Rao.K

  • Written by On 05-02-2019
    Problem Solving Methodology Srinivas Rao.K

  • Written by On 05-02-2019
    Employee Involvement Srinivas Rao.K

  • Written by On 04-02-2019
    Leader's Walk.. Srinivas Rao K

  • Written by On 04-02-2019
    Ram is having his Performance Appraisal letter in his hand and he is feeling terrible! He got an ‘Average’ rating and he was expecting an ‘Outstanding’ rating and a Promotion too. The general mood in the office is reflecting a ‘Home in mourning’. People who got ‘Outstanding’ were unhappy that they did not get Promotion. People who got ‘Outstanding’ rating and ‘Promotion’ feel they did not get enough increment to go with the new position. There does not seem to be anyone who is happy ! That is making Ram’s mood even more mournful! Ram’s Boss had been giving him…

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  • Written by On 03-02-2019
    During my career, I have met many wonderful Managers/Leaders. Loved working with all of them. When I observe their growth and performance in their careers, I notice that there are very small percentage of the Leaders who are highly effective on the ground. These are the System Builders / Trail Blazers. Others also would have been successful in their own scale. But, on my scale a very small percentage of people are able to deliver on a scale that will help companies / Functions to transform themselves. These are the people who set their own standards around them. They are…

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  • Written by On 02-02-2019
    As a Coach and a Consultant I meet a number of people in the Industry. I am very happy to note that many of the youngsters that I meet are interested in improving themselves and learning more. They want to speed up the progress in their Career. Some of the youngsters want to pursue higher Education and they will have to decide what is the type of Education that they should get in to. There are many other youngsters who would have completed their Post Graduate courses or decided not to go for Post Graduate courses. This group are looking…

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  • Written by On 02-02-2019
    Multiply your People Productivity ! Srinivas Rao K

  • Written by On 12-02-2018
    Cross Functional Methodology Srinivas Rao K

  • Written by On 12-02-2018
    Cost Reduction
    Tags: Leadership IMA

  • Written by On 18-06-2015
    Don’t just wait for ‘Ache din’, create your ‘Ache din’.. India Inc has been waiting for the ‘Ache din’ and some companies seem to have given control of the ‘Ache din’ only to the government and looking at the government to deliver the growth for them!! Yes. Definitely government can do some significant things in areas of policy and investment. But, there is a lot that individual companies can do for their own growth. Are all companies doing this? I have my doubts. I can see evidence of companies getting lost in the argument of ‘low economic growth and hence…

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  • Written by On 04-12-2014
    Good Maintenance Practices By Balaji Radhakrishnan BalajiRadhakrishnan is a B.E with more than 25 years of rich experience in Plant Maintenance. He worked for companies like Asian Bearings limited, Fenner India limited, EID Parry limited, Rane Brake linings limited before coming to his present company Elgi Equipments limited. Balaji is a passionate TPM , TQM practitioner. He was part of the team that won Deming Prize in Rane Brake Lining limited. Here, he is sharing his version of the “Good Maintenance Practices”. I would like to share the “Good Maintenance Practices” and how it is being adopted in day to…

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  • Written by On 04-12-2014
    Ford, Ohno and Goldratt – A saga to improve production. By T.M.Talaulikar                 Mr.Talaulikar is a BE Honours (Mechanical) from BITS, Pilani. He was trained in Theory of Constraints at the Avraham Goldratt Institute, UK.,Production Management at Toyota Motor Corporation, Japan.in Operations Management at University of Warwickshire coursethrough CII. He worked in companies like Rane Engine valves, Toyota Kirloskar auto parts, Neuland laboratories etc in Operations, Sales, Strategy and as Profit centre head. Here, he is writing about Drum, Buffer and Rope! Read further to understand what it is.. Introduction: It is easy…

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  • Written by On 04-12-2014
    Developing Others into Leaders While the first two aspects of Leadership we considered so far had a lot to do with winning, results, strategy, etc., the last two aspects of leadership have to do with development. Firstly – developing others into leaders and, growing themselves into better leaders. In this piece, we will discuss how great leaders develop others into leaders. Below is the re-cap of the framework for the leadership mind-set. If you Google words, “Developing Leadership”, or “Developing leadership in others”, you get anywhere between 70 to 145 million hits! In my experience, as many leaders are there,…

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  • Written by On 04-12-2014
    Spiritual Business Leader - Part IV By K.Srinivas Rao Continuing with our exploration about role of Spirituality in Business, let us explore one more Business leader who had been leading companies in a highly successful manner. This leader is Lars Kolind Following is the description on his Linkedin page: “Besides being a lifelong scout, I'm entrepreneur, board member, professor, author and philanthropist.  I live in Denmark but have extensive leadership experience from most parts of the world. I have built on average one new company every year since 1998 plus turned around companies and made them world leaders within their…

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  • Written by On 04-12-2014
    Alexander Kutappan is a seasoned HR professional. He is an MSW and an MBA. During his 15 years plus experience in the Industry, Alex specialised on Self Managed Work Teams. He dealt with this subject and contributed to its’ success in Elgi Equipments Limited and Dr.Reddy’s Laboratories.  In this series of articles on the Self Managed Work Teams, Alex is presenting the fundamentals about the SMWTs and sharing his experience about making these teams a success.     SELF MANAGED WORK TEAM (SMWT)– Implementation and Reflection (Part-3)       Phased implementation   After designing Self-Managed Work Team (SMWT) pillars,…

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  • Written by On 06-10-2014
    TQM: An implementer’s point of view Sharath Chandra Peddi graduated with Mechanical engineering from Kakatiya University, Warangal, Andhra Pradesh. He has 22 years experience, the first 11 years with Rane Brake Linings Limited, Hyderabad ( Rane Group), 2 years with TC Springs (TACO), Pune, 2years with Delphi Steering Systems, Bangalore and for the last 7 years working with Mahindra Institute of Quality as Deputy General Manager. Sharath implemented TQM in various companies that he worked for. As a result, he gained some really good insights in to the subject. Here, he is sharing his thoughts with The Indian Manufacturing.Com .…

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  • Written by On 06-10-2014
    Best Practice Sharing: Effective implementation of systems – Shop floor approach By R.Damodar Rao   I started my career as a shop floor supervisor way back 1995 and at present working as a UNIT Head in one of the reputed organization in India. In my 20 years journey towards establishing myself as competent manufacturing manager I have been  “seasoned” with different type of cultures, people across the regions. In general, in most of the companies “PEOPLE” (I mean “White collar employees”) will talk a lot in conference halls but they failed to verify what was happening in shop floor –actually…

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  • Written by On 06-10-2014
    RCM (Reliability Centered Maintenance) vs TPM (Total productive maintenance)   By T.N.S.Raghavan     RCM is strong in determining what maintenance to do, while TPM is allabout improving rather than merely maintaining your processes •      TPM is a company-wide team-based effort to build quality into equipment and to improve overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) •      TPM has basically 3 goals - Zero Product Defects, Zero Equipment Unplanned Failures and Zero Accidents. •      TPM identifies the 7 losses (muda), namely set-up and initial adjustment time, equipment breakdown time, idling and minor losses, speed (cycle time) losses, start-up quality losses, and in process…

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  • Written by On 06-10-2014
    Becoming Better Leaders – Creating Conditions for Winning   In the last article, we discussed how leaders compete to win as well as their motivations and drivers. An entrepreneur evolves into a leader by developing the ability to build an organization that has the right people with right attitudes to achieve on-going success vis-à-vis the vision and the goals. The way we talk about success is that it is on-going – not a short term success but building an institution that continues to be successful in accomplishing and furthering the original vision for which it was formed. When they act,…

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  • Written by On 06-10-2014
    Spiritual Business Leader - Part III By K.Srinivas Rao   Let us continue our exploration of the effect of Spirituality in Business. Leaders who are spiritual are able to work differently, they are able to achieve big results with lesser effort. They are having a wonderful effect on their surroundings.  There are many such leaders across the world. Let us explore two more. The quotations are extracted from the public knowledge-base of the “Spiritual Based Leadership Research Programme” are © 2006 by the Global Dharma Center (GDC). GDC retains the copy right to all excerpts from this knowledge-base. Philip Budin,…

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  • Written by On 06-10-2014
    Spiritual Business Leader   Harish Pant was honoured with “Distinguished Alumnus” Award by IEI, Member Advisory Council All India Management Association (AIMA) Bangalore, Lifetime member of Aeronautical Society of India, a Fellow of Institution of Engineers, Recipient of Immai Operational Excellence Award  and Award for Industrial Development by All India Achievers Foundation and Indian Economic Development and Research Association. An aspiring author! Corporate Member of various International and National Chamber of Commerce, Society of Indian Aerospace Technologies & Industries and permanent Invitee to the Executive Board of Indian Society for Advancement of Materials and Process Engineering. A Mechanical Engineer with…

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  • Written by On 06-10-2014
    Alexander Kutappan is a seasoned HR professional. He is an MSW and an MBA. During his 15 years plus experience in the Industry, Alex specialised on Self Managed Work Teams. He dealt with this subject and contributed to its’ success in Elgi Equipments Limited and Dr.Reddy’s Laboratories.  In this series of articles on the Self Managed Work Teams, Alex is presenting the fundamentals about the SMWTs and sharing his experience about making these teams a success.       SELF MANAGED WORK TEAM (SMWT) – Design   Pre-requisites Top management needs to be committed to implementation of Self-Managed Work Team…

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  • Written by On 19-08-2014
    Paul Mracek is the CEO of Kotan Australia. He is a 7th degree Black belt holder in Martial arts.  He has 25 years of experience in Asia, Europe, USA and Australia in leading multimillion dollar companies and building successful businesses. He is also an author of several books on success and business, balance and how to apply ‘success mindset’ to any part of life.  Paul is a Master coach and practitioner of NLP, TLT and Hypnosis.  He is a Chartered Professional Engineer, Fellow of Australian Institute of Management, Graduate of Australian institute of Directors. Paul works with a few companies…

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  • Written by On 19-08-2014
    In the last article, I shared a framework for the mind-set of leaders that I developed from my observations of leaders over 35 years of my career across the globe. This article, the second in the series, explores the first three aspects of the element,Compete to Win in some detail. Here is a brief re-cap of the framework of leadership from the last article: Compete to Win. “… if I had to single out one element in my life that has made a difference to me, it would be a passion to compete.”Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart. Competing is the…

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  • Written by On 19-08-2014
      I would like to start this second article in the series of ‘Spiritual Business Leader’ by revisiting the definition of the word ‘Spiritual’. Web dictionary defines Spiritual as “relating to or affecting the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things”. To put it simply, it is relating to the higher purpose of Business than just the profits. It does not mean we should forego the profit motive in the Business. We can aim at a higher goal by which we definitely achieve our short term goal which is the Profitability. But, go on to achieve…

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  • Written by On 19-08-2014
     How to contribute to the wellness of employees and therefore to the performance of the Company? Wellness of employees is believed to contribute to the wellness of the Company. The Indian Manufacturing.com spoke to Ms.Mahalakshmi, Director of Ru Education Private Limited who is an experienced trainer and is pioneering the wellness concept in many Indian and foreign companies. Following is the transcript of the interview. TIM (The Indian Manufacturing.com) :How do you define wellness of an employee or rather that of a human being? Mahalakshmi:Wellness is holistic wellbeing which includes, good health of the body, mind and soul. TIM:How can…

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  • Written by On 19-08-2014
    Alexander Kutappan is a seasoned HR professional. He is an MSW and an MBA. During his 15 years plus experience in the Industry, Alex specialised on Self Managed Work Teams. He dealt with this subject and contributed to its’ success in Elgi Equipments Limited and Dr.Reddy’s Laboratories.  In this series of articles on the Self Managed Work Teams, Alex is presenting the fundamentals about the SMWTs and sharing his experience about making these teams a success.     SELF MANAGED WORK TEAM (SMWT) - Introduction   “Not finance. Not technology. Not strategy. It is team work that remains the ultimate…

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  • Written by On 19-08-2014
    BOOK REVIEW   Alexander Kuttappan Name of the Book:          The Power of Full Engagement – Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal   Name of the Authors:    Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz My Quality Rating:          Very good   Summary: The central theme of the book is ‘Performance, Health and Happiness is grounded in the skillful management of energy’. To be fully engaged, one must be physically energized, emotionally connected, mentally focused and spiritually aligned with a purpose beyond our immediate self-interest. Principles for Full engagement are:  Drawing on four separate but related sources of…

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  • Statistical tools play an important role in improving Manufacturing Quality. The usage of these tools is not very popular in the Indian Manufacturing. The benefits and simplicity of these tools make a strong case for the Manufacturing companies to take a serious look at these tools. A  Tele- communication plant was experiencing large scale failures, 45 % in 20 pair cable  and still higher % in  larger sizes of cables, in water penetration (WP) Test of PIJF (Polythene Insulated jelly Filled) cables.  Foreign collaborators concluded, after extensive investigations and trials, the technology was not capable of meeting that rigorous WP…

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  • Written by On 04-06-2014
    Indian manufacturing firms need to change their approach to quality. Let me start by taking the case of export quality tag. It is meant to convey the ”Best Quality”. The assumption here is the domestic market is not discriminating enough and can be sold sub-standard stuff; that export markets demand and deserve quality better than the domestic market. I pondered over this and began to realise there is a cultural bias within us giving rise to our attitude to quality. Quality is one of perception for us. What is bad for one is good enough for another. Our subjective nature…

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  • Written by On 04-06-2014
    The field of leader development has seen rapid advances in the past few decades. There is an ever growing body of knowledge about things like what constitutes effective leadership, what styles are effective, what it takes to identify potential leaders, what it takes to develop them and so on. The global aspirations of organisations which are so strongly dependent on their ability to find the right leaders has fuelled a thriving leader development industry which is geared to meet the large scale need for leader development interventions. Unfortunately some of these standardised interventions run the risk of viewing leader development…

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  • Written by On 04-06-2014
    Learning To Be Better Leaders   By Anand Prasad Kruttiventi This series of articles are my personal learning and reflections of working with and observing leaders in business, government and society in general over the last 35 years of my working career. In this period, I have worked in 6 different countries in various capacities. What I liked most was directing the Leadership Development efforts of two very large, global companies that are leaders in their industries. One of my beliefs is that while we can always see what others leaders DO, we can’t emulate those actions. Nor is it…

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  • Written by On 04-06-2014
      Today’s Business world is steeped with stress and anxiety.  This is due to the fact that the Companies are chasing short term results and the people involved in the business are adapting ‘any means’ to get those results. The focus on Annual results has shifted to Quarterly results. Within the companies, the focus is there on monthly ,weekly and daily results ! Added to this the Economic situation is not helping the whole business climate. The top lines are not growing and bottom lines are shrinking. There is pressure to reduce cost. Many times this is read as downsizing…

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  • Written by On 04-06-2014
    Ram is not having a good feeling looking at the P&L for 2013-14. The Profits are down to lower single digits! Infact, in the last quarter the company went in to the negative! With some panic stricken cost cuttings (Or Postponements?) , further damage is avoided to the P&L. Ram’s company experienced CAGR of about 25% continuously for about  5 years till 2011. During the growth period, the purse strings were loosened and the goal was to capture as much growth as it was possible. The slowdown forced Ram to slam down on the brakes! This is leaving scars on the…

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