Learnings from the Principles of Organisation and Management

What the Principles of Organisation and Management course at NITIE was all about and my learnings from the course.

Leaders v/s Followers

Leaders v/s Followers

Leaders:

It is only natural that not everyone becomes a leader; however, those who follow will no longer accept old fashioned leaders, full of authoritative ideas and who impose new management techniques on others. They want leaders with well- rooted human values and who will respect talents and contributions given by others. People want leaders that can create an atmosphere of risk and creativity. They reject intimidation or manipulation, and want to be recognized as an important part in these changing times.

Traits:

Leaders must look within themselves to find new ways of influencing people and changing the course of companies. It is the leader that must be the first to change;. The leader then gathers followers, but not those that only do what they are told. Leaders want mature and responsible people that can look ahead. As a result a partnership will be formed with those people who are personally committed to themselves and the success of the business.

Responsibility:

Leaders assume the responsibility of keeping teams together. They have the obligation to take command, establish rules, determine values and principals that will lead to success. The leader must look at leadership as a responsibility and not as a position of privileges. The effective leader is responsible for all final decisions, and he must not fear the force of his associates or subordinates. He must encourage, instigate and be proud of all those that collaborate with him. The leader must look at others success as being his as well.

Follower is the one who subscribes to the teachings or methods of leader. He loks upto leader for the guidance, motivation and to show the way ahead. They are led by the leaders. Whereas the leader leads the followers.  

Few examples of leader - follower are

Manager – subordinates

Manufacturer – supplier

Company – stakeholders

There are two important keys to effective leadership.

1) Trust and confidence

2)Communication skills

Good leaders are made not born. If one has the desire and willpower, one can become an effective leader. Good leaders develop through a never ending process of self-study, education, training, and experience.

FEDEX

Why do you think Roger Federer has nickname as FedEx?  Federer like FedEx has always been consistent, reliable and quality (quality of his game) conscious and these qualities which are very rare to see at one place have earned him this nickname.

FedEx Corporation:

 FedEx Corporation provides customers and businesses worldwide with a broad portfolio of transportation, e-commerce and business services. With annual revenues of $43 billion, the company offers integrated business applications through operating companies competing collectively and managed collaboratively, under the respected FedEx brand. Consistently ranked among the world's most admired and trusted employers, FedEx inspires its more than 300,000 team members to remain "absolutely, positively" focused on safety, the highest ethical and professional standards and the needs of their customers and communities.

History
Origin: The modern air/ground express industry was pioneered with the founding of Federal Express in 1971; the corporation was created in 1998 as FDX Corporation and became FedEx Corporation in January 2000.

Landmarks:

1978 - Federal Express Corporation is listed on the New York Stock Exchange; ticker symbol is FDX.

1981 - Federal Express introduced the Overnight Letter.

         - Federal Express began international delivery with service to Canada.

         - Federal Express opened its Super Hub adjacent to Memphis International Airport.

1983 - Federal Express becomes the first U.S. company to reach revenues of $1 billion without merger or acquisition.

1994 - Federal Express officially adopted "FedEx" as its brand for recognition as the worldwide standard for fast, reliable service.

- FedEx launched fedex.com as the first transportation Web site offering online package status tracking, enabling customers to conduct business via the Internet.

1998 - FedEx acquires Caliber System Inc. and creates FDX Corporation.

2000 - Parent company FDX is renamed "FedEx Corporation." Services are divided into companies that operate independently yet compete collectively: FedEx Express, FedEx Ground, FedEx Freight, FedEx Custom Critical and FedEx Services.

Mission:

FedEx Corporation will produce superior financial returns for its shareowners by providing high value-added logistics, transportation and related business services through focused operating companies. Customer requirements will be met in the highest quality manner appropriate to each market segment served. FedEx will strive to develop mutually rewarding relationships with its employees, partners and suppliers. Safety will be the first consideration in all operations. Corporate activities will be conducted to the highest ethical and professional standards.

Strategy:

The unique FedEx operating strategy works seamlessly - and simultaneously - on three levels.

• Compete collectively by standing as one brand worldwide and speaking with one voice.
• Operate independently by focusing on our independent networks to meet distinct customer needs.
• Manage collaboratively by working together to sustain loyal relationships with our workforce, customers and investors.

Products and Services:

FedEx Express invented express distribution and remains the industry’s global leader, providing rapid, reliable, time-definite delivery to more than 220 countries and territories, connecting markets that comprise more than 90 percent of the world’s gross domestic product within one to three business days. Unmatched air route authorities and transportation infrastructure, combined with leading-edge information technologies, make FedEx Express the world’s largest express transportation company, providing fast and reliable services for more than 3.6 million shipments each business day.

FedEx Ground is a leading provider of ground small-package delivery services, providing service to the U.S. and Canada. FedEx Home Delivery, the industry’s first ground service dedicated to residential delivery, is available from FedEx Ground and is backed by a money-back guarantee.

FedEx Freight is the market leader in providing less-than-truckload (LTL) freight services across all lengths of haul. FedEx Freight segment financial results also include FedEx Custom Critical, North America’s largest time-specific, critical shipment carrier.

FedEx Services operates combined sales, marketing, administrative and information technology functions in shared services The FedEx Services segment includes: FedEx Services, which provides sales, marketing, administrative and information technology support to our other companies; FedEx TechConnect, which is responsible for customer service, technical support, billings and collections for U.S. customers of our major business units; and FedEx Office, which provides an array of document and business services and retail access to our customers for our package transportation businesses.

Award and Recogniton:

FedEx Express has been the recipient of many prestigious awards. It has been recognized for numerous achievements, from providing outstanding service to being a world-class employer.

      ·         FORTUNE “World’s Most Admired Companies” – 2010 #13, 2009 #         7,  2008- #6, 2007- #7, 2006- #4    

• Business Week “50 Best Performers” – 2006
• Financial Times “UK 50 Best Workplaces” – 2007- #31
• Wall Street Journal Asia “200 Most Admired Companies” survey – 2006- #17
• FedEx won the Customer Services of the Year Award 2011 in the ‘Parcel and Deliveries’ category. – 2011
• FedEx was awarded the Best Air Cargo Carrier of the Year at the 4th Express, Logistics & Supply Chain Awards in India. – 2010

Financial Highlights:

Philanthropy:

Emergency and Disaster Relief

FedEx is committed to actively supporting the communities it serves through strategic investment of our people, resources and network. 

FedEx accepts applications from organizations that bring relief to victims of emergencies or natural disasters. Specifically, we direct our funds toward the quick and efficient transport of aid, and disaster preparedness education initiatives.

Child Pedestrian Safety
FedEx is interested in supporting organizations that help keep child pedestrians safe through increasing awareness and knowledge of pedestrian safety

Environmental Sustainability

FedEx prioritizes philanthropic and volunteer efforts that focus on environmental sustainability and are strategically aligned with our business goals.

SWOT Analysis:

Strengths

Sthrengths and Weaknesses

FedEx has many strengths.  They are very innovative in coming up with new ways to add value to their customers experience with FedEx.  They have always been wiling to embrace new technologies as well as create some of their own.

Weaknesses

FedEx’s weaknesses derive from their inability to differentiate themselves on a wide scale basis from UPS, this is hindering their ability to achieve a industry wide competitive advantage.

Opportunities

- The cost of infrastructure of express delivery companies are a barrier of entry to new comers

- FedEx leadership in global express delivery - As long as the nature of our socioeconomic environment exists, there will always be a need for express delivery

- E-commerce is creating an increased need for express delivery

- Globalization offers opportunities for expansion.

Threats:

- Maintaining the infrastructure of an express delivery company is an exit barrier because of high fixed costs

- Capitol is acquired through the volume of sales, so the high fixed costs can hurt when times are slow

- Due to the nature of the industry, it is nearly impossible to become the clear industry leader.

Future Goals:

FedEx Long Term Goals

• Grow revenue
• Achieve 10%+ operating margin
• Increase EPS by 10%-15% per year
• Increase cash flow
• Increase returns

Growth Strategies:
FedEx plans to focus on these five strategies to grow as a business.

• Grow core package business
• Grow internationally
• Grow our supply chain capabilities
• Grow through e-commerce & technology
• Grow through new services & alliances

THREE MONKS NO WATER

There is an 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. There is a film based on this proverb which tells how people behave in teams and how can we make the team work efficiently. Click to watch the video. There are three ways in which the monks carry the water. The film depicts the comparisons of the different attitudes of the monks when staying alone, staying with one other monk, and staying with two other monks.

A young monk lives a simple life in a temple on top of a hill. He has a daily task of hauling two buckets of water up the hill. He does it by using bringing two buckets of water on a bamboo stick balanced on his shoulder. When the second monk joins the first monk stops doing the job completely. But then the two monks decide to share the job by bringing one bucket of water using bamboo stick after initial arguments over the position of bucket on the bamboo stick. Then the third monk comes. Initially the two monks make the third monk bring the water. But he is so tired that he himself consumes all the water. Now nobody is ready to get the water. There is no water in the temple and the temple catches fire.

This crisis brings the three monks together. They co-operate with each other and extinguish the fire. One monk goes down the hill fills the bucket with water. Other monk pulls the bucket up using a pulley and the third one near the temple extinguishes the fire. This could have happened earlier but they were thinking about themselves initially and not about the organisation as a whole (here the temple). The emergency made the monk forget the individual goals and work together as a team.

Innovation is the key

From first way to second way the number of bucket have come down. Initially one monk was bringing two buckets but in second case two monks were bringing one bucket. But here the productivity is not decreased if we take the human fatigue into consideration. If we only consider through materialistic point of view the productivity has come down but the monks are not machines so must take human effort into consideration.

Out of  Box Thinking

Now if we look at third case we can see that it is the most productive way of doing the work. In the third case all the three monks have different predefined and clear roles. Their roles are different but interdependent and everybody is equally responsible for the job. The job and responsibilities are equally distributed so that nobody feels cheated. There is a facility of instant feedback. Thus by using simple management principles the job is simplified. Usually most of the complex problems have the simplest solutions. It is upto us to look at the problems differently and think out of box and innovate to reach to the solution. This way the work becomes fun and the productivity is improved significantly and this in turn helps the organisation become efficient and grow by leaps and bounds.

Productivity in each case can be compared as follows.

	Method I	Method II	Method III
Members	One Monk	Two Monks	Three Monks
Input  - Effort by monks  ( Units in Jouls)  ( Esti..)	100 Jouls    by One person	50 Jouls by two persons together	Insignificant effort by three monks together
Output - Water	2 buckets	One bucket	Many buckets of water is fetched
Productivity Measure:            ( Input / Output)	100 J / 2 = 50 J per bucket of water	50 J / 2 = 25 J per bucket of water	Insignificant effort per baucket of water
Nature of Member Roles	Independent	Somewhat  Interdependent	Very much Interdependent

LE 03 VALLEY CROSSING ACTIVITY

TEAMWORK

Teamwork is defined as "work done by several associates with each doing a part but all subordinating personal prominence to the efficiency of the whole." Teamwork can lead to better decisions, products, or services. The quality of teamwork may be measured by analyzing the following six components of collaboration among team members: communication, coordination, balance of member contributions, mutual support, effort, and cohesion. The most effective teamwork is produced when all the individuals involved harmonize their contributions and work towards a common goal.

Valley Crossing Activity

The  Task :

Task given is to switch over from left side of the valley to the right side of the valley  with  the support  of the  pole as shown in the picture. Direct jumping is not possible.

The following are the 9 steps for the valley crossing

Safe - Both the legs of the person have full support
Half Risky – One leg in the air and the other leg has support
Full risky - Both the legs are in the air without any support

In the activity all the members communicate and coordinate with each other while crossing the river. There is trust amongst each other and contribution of every team member is necessary to complete the task successfully. The task should be properly designed so that every team member is treated equally. The team roles should be properly assigned.

Ingredients for Effective Team Building:

Clear Team Goals – All members of the team must understand exactly what goals the team is striving to meet.

Trust – The team should develop interdependency on others characterized by high trust and risk taking.

Improvisation – Team needs a plan for improvement. These may be formal plans of action and milestones 

or informal  team commitments. Whatever format the plan takes, all members of the team must understand their 

role in its accomplishment.

Well Defined Roles – Every member of the team should understand exactly what role they are filling in the

 scheme of work. In addition, they should understand each other’s roles and how they interrelate.

Clear Communication – The most important ingredient of all is clear communication. The team should 

convey clear, concise messages to each other, also should keep the door open for communication and feedback.

Team Behaviour – Some behavioural practices help the team run smoothly,  these include  using  

courteous conversation  practices, seeking  opinions  and  input,  sharing  responsibility, compromising   in 

 resolving differences, employing creativity and candidness, and accepting and delivering praise  and  critiques.  

These key ingredients make up the strategy for developing high performing teams. Each ingredient needs to become a discipline that gets practiced, reinforced and refined. Only then the organisation will be able to lay  down the foundation for superior teamwork.

LE 02 KHAN ACADEMY

 MANAGEMENT LESSONS FROM KHAN ACADEMY:

The Khan Academy has transformed today’s educational world. It is a non profit educational organization, founded by Salman Khan in 2006. Salman Khan is a graduate of MIT and Harvard Business School. Slogan of Khan Academy is ‘it is our endeavour to accelerate learning for students of all ages’.

SALMAN KHAN

Mission:  The mission of Khan Academy is "providing a high quality education to anyone, anywhere". It has a goal of changing of the education system for the better.

Innovation: Khan Academy has a very innovative way to educate people all around the world. The website (http://www.khanacademy.org) supplies a free online collection of more than 3,200 micro lectures via video tutorials stored on YouTube. The Khan Academy's materials and resources are available to everybody completely free of charge.

A global classroom: Students can join millions of Khan Academy students from all over the world who learn at their own pace every single day.

Business Model:

Unique Features: Students can make use of the extensive video library, interactive challenges, and assessments from any computer with access to the web. Coaches, parents, and teachers have unprecedented visibility into what their students are learning and doing on the Khan Academy. The library of videos cover mathematics, history, healthcare and medicine, finance, physics chemistry, biology, astronomy, economics, cosmology, organic chemistry, art history, computer science. Each video is a digestible chunk, approximately 10 minutes long, and especially purposed for viewing on the computer. These videos are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-commercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.

Feedback and Appreciation: The Khan Academy remembers what students have learned and where they are spending time. They keep all of this data private but expose powerful statistics to each user and their coaches. Users get at-a-glance information about everything they have been learning and whether or not they have been hitting their goals.    Appreciation is given on the basis of performance of students in the form of badges. Some of the smaller badges are very easy to earn, but the higher badges might require years of work.

Theory Y: Khan Academy believes in Theory Y. They believe that every student irrespective of his/her country, race, economic background is capable of learning if provided with ample learning opportunities.

Future Plans: In November 2011 Khan Academy received a grant of $5 million from Ireland-based The O'Sullivan Foundation .The Fund is being be utilized in expanding the teacher & faculty base, Extending content through crowd-sourced contributions. A series of summer school camps are planned to start in Northern California to test curricula for real-world schools.

The reason for the success of Khan Academy is the innovative way of educating the world. It was the first of its kind organisation to start this. So it had very few competitors. It simplified the way subjects are taught with the help of videos and made learning a fun. It brought various streams of education under its umbrella which helped it immensely in increasing its customer base. Also the study material was accessible to anybody and everybody in the world so it had no regional boundaries and the organisation grew by leaps and bounds. The simple and innovative business model with tremendous expansion capability helped Khan Academy to be successful organisation in todays competitive world.