The Navrang Puzzle

                NAVRANG PUZZLE Decrypted

  I had never seen the NAVRANG Puzzle before. So when Prof.Mandi bought one into class, I must frankly say that I was a little puzzled (pun intended). The basic objective of the Navrang Puzzle (as Sir told us) is to get all 9 colours on all 6 sides.

The Navrang Puzzle

Unlike a standard Rubik's Cube, the Navrang Puzzle can be dismanteled and reassembled. We were challenged to find an algorithm or method to reassemble the Puzzle in order to reach the intended objective. After a few desperately minutes of thinking a few fast thinking Samaritans devised a plan (I was completely lost!!). Unfortunately, the plan didn't work too well.

               But then Prof.Mandi solved the Puzzle in about 2 minutes using an well-defined method. Sir had used a 3-step algorithm. It is here we were introduced to two important concepts: (a) Organizational Structure and (b) Unity of Objective. Before going on further about what happened in class, I believe a short introduction to these ideas are needed.

           An Organizational Structure consists of activities such as task allocation, coordination and supervision, which are directed towards the achievement of organizational aims.An organization can be structured in many 

Unity of Objectives

different ways, depending on their objectives. The structure of an organization will determine the modes in which it operates and performs. This of course leads us to the next idea. Unity of Objectives stands for the philosophy according to which every individual and every process in an organization should aim to fulfil the organization's Objectives and Mission Statement.

                   Now, leaveing the jargon behind, let me continue with my experiences in the class. Prof. Mandi related the above two concepts with the structured solution he had shown for the Navrang Puzzle. Given below is a video of how to solve the Navrang Puzzle:

A video showing how to solve Navrang Puzzle

The Alibaba Group

Culture is the process by which a person becomes all that they were created capable of being.
Thomas Carlyle 


Alibaba Group- An Introduction

 AliBaba Group is a privately owned China-based family of Internet-based eCommerce businesses that cover business-to-business online marketplaces, retail and payment platforms, shopping search engine and data centered  cloud computing services. 

The company was started by Jack Ma based on the simple realizations that he had:

    1. I don't have the money.

    2. I don't have a plan. 

    3. If you can't use the internet in this age, you are useless.

What was Jack Ma's objectives with AliBaba?

    (a) Empower SMEs through the power of the internet.

    (b) At least 80% of these SMEs who are working with AliBaba MUST grow unimaginably.

    (c) 0.0001% of the shares of AliBaba must be enough to support generations together.

 What was the result?

              Today AliBaba's consumer-to-consumer portal Taobao (similar to eBay) features nearly a billion products and is one of the 20 most-visited websites globally. Alibaba Group's sites account for over 60% of the parcels delivered in China.  

ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

  

                Organizations, just like individuals, have their own personalities—more typically known as organizational cultures. Understanding how culture is created, communicated, and changed will help you to be a more effective manager. But first, let’s define organizational culture.           

               

Organizational Culture encompass the values and behaviors that contribute to the unique social and psychological environment of an organization.Organizational culture includes an organizational Culture encompass the values and behaviors that contribute to the unique social and psychological environment of an organization.Organizational culture includes an organization's expectations,experiences,philosophy, and values that hold it together. It is expressed in its self-image, inner workings, interactions with the outside world, and future expectations. It is based on shared attitudes, beliefs, customs, and written (sometimes) and unwritten rules that have been developed over time and are considered valid. 

here are various types of organizational cultures. We discussed a few of them in class. I am listing them below:

1. Open Culture - One where employees are motivated to voice their values-driven concerns regarding problematic business practices. An open culture helps to counteract any occasional lapse into passivity at the board level or on the part of institutional investors.

2. Safety Culture - One where safety is  ALWAYS first no matter what the cost. A safety culture is one were all employees are proactive in ensuring safety at work place. People immediately report any perceived short comings in the work place safety and in the safety of products given to customers or clients.

3. Quality Culture - A culture where utmost importance is given to the quality of the product or service being rendered. Volume takes a back seat. So does cost. Batch recalling of cars/computers when defects are found is a good example of the quality culture. Toyota is a notable example.

4. Performance Culture - We could also call this OUTCOME ORIENTED CULTURE.  This is one that emphasize achievement, results, and action as important values. A good example of an outcome-oriented culture may be the electronics retailer Best Buy. Having a culture emphasizing sales performance, Best Buy tallies revenues and other relevant figures daily by department. Employees are trained and mentored to sell company products effectively, and they learn how much money their department made every day.

5. Ethical Culture - A culture where great importance is given to ethical business practices and this importance is seen at all levels in the organization. We see that in such organizations, ethics are given precedence even if being so may lead to a loss of business and profit. The TATA Group is a good example to note.

Culture in Hofstede's words

Hall (1959) defines culture as the way of life of a people: the sum of their learned 

behavior patterns, attitudes and materials things. Culture is often subconscious; 

an invisible control mechanism operating in our thoughts (Hall, 1983). In his view, 

we become aware of it by exposure to a different culture. Members of a certain society internalize the cultural components of that society and act within the limits 

as set out by what is ‘culturally acceptable’(Hall, 1983, 230). 

Hofstede’s (1980, 1991) theory aims to explain cultural differences through 

certain dimensions, such as power distance, individualism vs. collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, and masculinity vs. femininity.

The Presence of Culture

The air is invisible for a sniper but it strongly affects how the sniper aligns himself and targets his aim depending upon the wind speed , humidity and other factors. There he follows the culture of air without even knowing it. And that is imperative to his survival.

That is the beauty of culture. It subconsciously gets induced in an individual sinking within his/her psyche as something that is sacrosanct.

Aspects of Organisational Culture

There are three aspects to organization culture, namely :

         (a) It is something that is practised by MOST of the people in an
              organization.

         (b) It is something that is practised MOST of the time.

         (c) It is something that is DEEPLY believed by the employees.

Many thoughts about organizational culture came out in class. I am finding it a little hard to organize them into meaningful sentences and paragraphs. Therefore, I am giving these thoughts in point-wise form without any specific order or precedence. The various point we discussed where:

1. Organizational Culture leads to enhanced performance.

2. Organizational Culture is an important motivating factor.

3. Organizational Culture is depended on the type of structure which the
    organization follow. Flat Organizations have a different structure from more
    Hierarchical ones.

4. Organizational Culture is not STATIC. It changes from time to time.

5. Organizational Culture is invisible.

6. Organizational Culture is usually inferred. There is no book from where to read
    about it.

7. Organizational Culture - usually - is not documented. It is separate from the
    rule book. In fact, we could argue that if culture were to be written down then
    it would lose its impact.

8. Organizations can have multiple cultures of sub-cultures.

9. Organizational Culture can be WEAK or STRONG.

A call to the 'Bottom Of The Pyramid'

Muhammad Yunus: 

(Economist; Banker; Nobel Peace Prize recipient)

Sustainable societies are more important than sustainable construction.

Sustainable humans can provide for themselves, stand on their own two feet.

But there are many people today who live in extreme poverty, with no opportunity to lead sustainable lives. These people we must help first. At the start of the millennium a goal was set to halve the number of poverty-stricken people by 2015. A great effort is required if we want to achieve a sustainable world.                                             

Muhammad Yunus  is a great nonconformist personality who has been instrumental as a  banker, economist and has received a Nobel Peace Prize.

A Brief Introduction...

Born in the village of Bathua, (a seaport city) Chittagong in 1940, Muhammad Yunus was the third of the fourteen of whom 5 died infancy. Inspired by his mother to help the poorer, he committed himself to eradicating poverty.

Professor Yunus studied in Dhaka University and later received a PhD economics from Vanderbilt in 1969 and became an assistant professor at Middle Tennessee University the following year.

From 1993 to 1995, Professor Yunus was a member of the International Advisory Group for the Fourth World Conference on Women, a post to which he was appointed by the UN secretary general. He has served on the Global Commission of Women's Health, the Advisory Council for Sustainable Economic Development and the UN Expert Group on Women and Finance.

He developed concepts on micro-credit and  micro – finance.

 In 2006 Yunus and Grameen Bank received the

 Nobel Peace Prize "for their efforts through micro -credit to create economic and social development from below"

The Genesis Of Grameen Bank...

The origin of Grameen Bank can be traced back to 1976 when Professor Muhammad Yunus, Head of the Rural Economics Program at the University  of Chittagong, launched an action research project to examine the possibility of designing a credit delivery system to provide banking services targeted at the rural poor.

At the heart of Grameen Bank's establishment,remained an ideal that was ingrained in its philosophy,that it always gave to the poor, uneducated, women of Bangladesh - OPPORTUNITY.The simple belief that anyone can do things when given an opportunity.

This belief paid off well when children who were once given small educational loans to finish primary education,began entering world-class universities. 

The Principles of Grameen Bank

Bank’s Organisational Principles & Management

1.  Exclusive focus on the poorest of the poor
2.  Initial support and gradual decentralization of functions and power to zonal levels
3. Undertaking of social development agenda addressing basic needs of clientele
4. Organisation of borrowers into groups to bring solidarity and participatory interaction

Modus Operandi*...

The mode of operation of Grameen Bank is as follows. A bank branch is set up with a branch manager and a number of center managers and covers an area of about 15 to 22 villages. The manager and the workers start by visiting villages to familiarize themselves with the local milieu in which they will be operating and identify the prospective clientele, as well as explain the purpose, the functions, and the mode of operation of the bank to the local population. Groups of five prospective borrowers are formed; in the first stage, only two of them are eligible for, and receive, a loan. The group is observed for a month to see if the members are conforming to the rules of the bank. Only if the first two borrowers begin to repay the principal plus interest over a period of six weeks, do the other members of the group become eligible themselves for a loan. Because of these restrictions, there is substantial group pressure to keep individual records clear. In this sense, the collective responsibility of the group serves as the collateral on the loan.

Grameen Bank evaluates the poverty level of the borrowers from time –to-time using the following key indicators : I am sharing a link from their website that enlists 10 indicators . 

http://www.grameen-info.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=23&Itemid=126

Operational Statistics:

Of the total equity of the bank, 94 % is owned by borrowers and 6 % by Government of Bangladesh. It has more than 8 million borrowers of which 97 % are women. The bank has a loan recovery rate of 96.67 %.

From the above graph , it is clearly visible the Grameen Bank has stood the test of the times and maintained its operational effectiveness , even in the worst of the scenarios.

~~the end..

OR is this the beginning ?

* : excerpt taken from grameen bank website