All the while in MBA we learn about the best practices followed by world-class companies to acheive greater customer satisfaction and as a result more profits. Be it SCM where Walmart and Toyotta have shown to the world the importance of techniques like cross docking and JIT or be it Dell where the 'Pull' system is followed in a market filled with 'Push' based players.
I learnt more about the Best world class practices when I read the summary of the book - "Future at the bottom of the Pyramid" and learnt more when I had the previlige of attending a seminar with Mr. C.K Prahalad, the books author - (Thanks to my college and Aditya Birla Group for allowing 20 students to attend the session. It was held at Trident, my first visit- excellent food too). So, in the session, I learnt that there is an eye hospital named "Aravind Eye Clinic" in south India where the largest number of eye surgeries are carried out at low rates.
Last couple of days were quite painful for me for I had a severe tooth ace and my face was swollen due to some puss accumulated near my check area on account of tooth infection. Because of this dental problem, I visited a dental clinic in Chinchwad, Pune. On seeing the name marathi clinic, I thought it would be a typical small dental clinic where a veteran would be treating patients. But to my surprise, I found the clinic to be very modern. It has great infrastructure - i mean the reception of the clinic looked almost like the reception of a multi-national or an IT company.
The interiors and decoration stuff was accurate but what was more astonishing was that the hospital had 4 surgical beds - or tables (whatever it may be called) and had 2 or 3 doctors. So what actually happened was that while a doctor was treating a patient on one surgical bed, the spare bed was being cleaned and sanitized by the nurses and as soon as the doctor was done with the work, he/she moved to other table where another patient was already present. So, in result, no time of the doctor was lost. A very good experience I thought. It was just like the Aravind Eye clinic I read about.
However, mind you it is also quite costly. Only the consultation fees anount to Rs. 100, simple abscess drainage Rs 500 (only prick at a place in the mouth) and root canal treatment for 3 teets amount to approx Rs 30000. But thats the cost you pay for a better service using best pracices some people may say.
Thinking deeply, I now feel that while Aravind eye clinic uses this best practice to treat more number of poor people at affordable rates, this clinic uses the practice to maximize its profits (lutofy people).
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Friday, February 26, 2010
Yaadein
Its been around 8 months I left my job at SI Group India Limited (previously Herdillia) and the time has gone around really fast. I haven't been in constant touch with anyone from the factory. I am to be blamed for this. It takes just 5 mins to write an email or sms but my inertia has prevented me from doing so.
Since the past few days, I have been wondering about my life before joining SCMHRD and I feel that the two years spent at Herdillia will remain special and memorable throughout my entire life. In fact, I feel that these two years were the most well-spent days of my life till now. Even though after MBA I will be getting a so called "better" job which will pay me more and give me higher designations, I feel that the job at Herdillia was the best. I mean there was so much there which I don't think I'll be getting at most of the other organizations.
Some special things of Herdillia I recall (which I may not get at any other job) are:
1. The respect I obtained from one and all in the organization: I entered the organization only as a management trainee but still I was treated with a lot of respect by everyone around. People entrusted me with some of the important jobs.
Many senior managers and even the plant officials treated me with a lot of respect and always asked for my suggestions (which I obviously couldn't give) before making decisions. Whenever, I went to the factory, people actually told me the problems facing the plant with the expectation that I will solve the problems. (something which people talk to with long serving employees only). Eve the contract labour personnel and the maintenance staff helped me and talked to me with respect.
2. My boss: A PhD from UDCT, Dr. Animesh Chakrabarti, was my boss at my first job. He is a boss I feel everyone should have in the first job. He never imposed any big work on me and always exposed me to the problems faced by the plant and asked me for suggestions. He always asked whether I was confident enough for designing anything.
He believed in me when I said I was confident and that was the reason a fresh engineer coming straight out from college could design a pump in the first month (which he approved without much cross checking) and then a heat exchanger based on my hand calculations. (It was only after his approval that some others cross checked my calculations in a software). Although I did some boring work like preparing for ppt's for monthly reviews, I now understand their value and would really like to thank him for letting me do so. He was also the fastest growing person in the organization. He became the GM of the technical department when I joined and in 1.5 years he was made the VP of the entire factory. His name now has started appearing on the annual reports of the company. He was also very accomodating and always left me to my house when we had to wait after office hours. He always granted me leaves when I needed them (thodi mach mach hoti thi but finally he gave). He always any good work done by me - be it changes in the documentation or working after factory hours - in private which I really liked.
Senior Manager - S.T.Patil - He is the best mentor anyone can have. A very intelligent, logical and a perfect plant manager, Mr S.T. Patil is the person who is involved in almost all the decision - small and large taking place at the company. He is a person who always took me to the plant when required to let me see new happenings in the plant. He was a very frank person and always told me where I went wrong. Also, he was good at catching me when I lied (which I did sometimes). I learnt the actual art of managing a lot of stressful activities from him. He is also one of the most respectable people of the organization and his word is never questioned in the organization. He is not an engineer but he knows a lot about engineering and guided me about the use of formulaes. He is also very good at grasping new things- be it Six Sigma or Finance.
I guess this post will never end. Some of the things I miss are listed. Will write more about them later:
The morning breakfast
The bus service at Herdillia
The collegues
Mr. Solanki
Mr. Borwankar
Mr. Vichare
Plant
Freedom
Food
etc
etc
Can't stop writing about life at Herdillia . Truly unforgettable.
Hope the company does well in all affairs.
Since the past few days, I have been wondering about my life before joining SCMHRD and I feel that the two years spent at Herdillia will remain special and memorable throughout my entire life. In fact, I feel that these two years were the most well-spent days of my life till now. Even though after MBA I will be getting a so called "better" job which will pay me more and give me higher designations, I feel that the job at Herdillia was the best. I mean there was so much there which I don't think I'll be getting at most of the other organizations.
Some special things of Herdillia I recall (which I may not get at any other job) are:
1. The respect I obtained from one and all in the organization: I entered the organization only as a management trainee but still I was treated with a lot of respect by everyone around. People entrusted me with some of the important jobs.
Many senior managers and even the plant officials treated me with a lot of respect and always asked for my suggestions (which I obviously couldn't give) before making decisions. Whenever, I went to the factory, people actually told me the problems facing the plant with the expectation that I will solve the problems. (something which people talk to with long serving employees only). Eve the contract labour personnel and the maintenance staff helped me and talked to me with respect.
2. My boss: A PhD from UDCT, Dr. Animesh Chakrabarti, was my boss at my first job. He is a boss I feel everyone should have in the first job. He never imposed any big work on me and always exposed me to the problems faced by the plant and asked me for suggestions. He always asked whether I was confident enough for designing anything.
He believed in me when I said I was confident and that was the reason a fresh engineer coming straight out from college could design a pump in the first month (which he approved without much cross checking) and then a heat exchanger based on my hand calculations. (It was only after his approval that some others cross checked my calculations in a software). Although I did some boring work like preparing for ppt's for monthly reviews, I now understand their value and would really like to thank him for letting me do so. He was also the fastest growing person in the organization. He became the GM of the technical department when I joined and in 1.5 years he was made the VP of the entire factory. His name now has started appearing on the annual reports of the company. He was also very accomodating and always left me to my house when we had to wait after office hours. He always granted me leaves when I needed them (thodi mach mach hoti thi but finally he gave). He always any good work done by me - be it changes in the documentation or working after factory hours - in private which I really liked.
Senior Manager - S.T.Patil - He is the best mentor anyone can have. A very intelligent, logical and a perfect plant manager, Mr S.T. Patil is the person who is involved in almost all the decision - small and large taking place at the company. He is a person who always took me to the plant when required to let me see new happenings in the plant. He was a very frank person and always told me where I went wrong. Also, he was good at catching me when I lied (which I did sometimes). I learnt the actual art of managing a lot of stressful activities from him. He is also one of the most respectable people of the organization and his word is never questioned in the organization. He is not an engineer but he knows a lot about engineering and guided me about the use of formulaes. He is also very good at grasping new things- be it Six Sigma or Finance.
I guess this post will never end. Some of the things I miss are listed. Will write more about them later:
The morning breakfast
The bus service at Herdillia
The collegues
Mr. Solanki
Mr. Borwankar
Mr. Vichare
Plant
Freedom
Food
etc
etc
Can't stop writing about life at Herdillia . Truly unforgettable.
Hope the company does well in all affairs.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Aantakshari
While travelling in a bus or a SUV during long journey, it is a common practice to play aantakshari to pass the travelling time. I think that is quite a good option and travelling is made more fun that way.
I have myself been to many trips and have played aantakshri at most of the road trips. I had been with many different groups - Family, Sangli friends, UDCT friends and now SCMHRD friends. While each group was distinctly different (except me being common element), I observed that in almost all trips, the same set of songs were repeated more or less. I observed that the same old songs were sung by all. Not many new songs were tried by people. Everytime when Tha came everyone sang 'Thande Thande pani se'.. and when na came 'na na kaarte pyar ..', etc came to everyone's minds including me. Most of the songs sung were of the 1990's or at max the early 2000's. In my last trip, no other song of a movie released after Lagaan was sung.
What are the reasons for this? Have we all hard the old songs more than the number of times we've heard the new ones. Definitely no in this era of radios where we get to listen to the latest songs almost 5-7 times a day.
I believe that most of us have watched aantakshari played by elders who sung these old songs and so these have remained firmly ingrained in our minds.
Also the fact that the old songs had easy flowing lyrics which makes it easy to remember old songs. The new ones have slightly tough lyrics to remember or their pace is fast.
The most important reason i believe for not remembering the new songs are the fact the the new songs have their peak not at the beginning but somewhere inbetween. For eg- Say in the Iktara song from wake up sid... We all remember the words gunja sa hai iktara .. and so these words remain in our minds. The start of teh track (oh re maanwa...) isn't repeated a lot of times and so it doesn't remain in our minds. And the fact that in aantakshari we've to start from the beginning of the song, we end up not singing the new songs. Thats why the differing amounts of stress on different parts makes it difficult to retain the new songs.
Hope next time I play aantakshari, I keep in mind these things and try to sing new songs.
I have myself been to many trips and have played aantakshri at most of the road trips. I had been with many different groups - Family, Sangli friends, UDCT friends and now SCMHRD friends. While each group was distinctly different (except me being common element), I observed that in almost all trips, the same set of songs were repeated more or less. I observed that the same old songs were sung by all. Not many new songs were tried by people. Everytime when Tha came everyone sang 'Thande Thande pani se'.. and when na came 'na na kaarte pyar ..', etc came to everyone's minds including me. Most of the songs sung were of the 1990's or at max the early 2000's. In my last trip, no other song of a movie released after Lagaan was sung.
What are the reasons for this? Have we all hard the old songs more than the number of times we've heard the new ones. Definitely no in this era of radios where we get to listen to the latest songs almost 5-7 times a day.
I believe that most of us have watched aantakshari played by elders who sung these old songs and so these have remained firmly ingrained in our minds.
Also the fact that the old songs had easy flowing lyrics which makes it easy to remember old songs. The new ones have slightly tough lyrics to remember or their pace is fast.
The most important reason i believe for not remembering the new songs are the fact the the new songs have their peak not at the beginning but somewhere inbetween. For eg- Say in the Iktara song from wake up sid... We all remember the words gunja sa hai iktara .. and so these words remain in our minds. The start of teh track (oh re maanwa...) isn't repeated a lot of times and so it doesn't remain in our minds. And the fact that in aantakshari we've to start from the beginning of the song, we end up not singing the new songs. Thats why the differing amounts of stress on different parts makes it difficult to retain the new songs.
Hope next time I play aantakshari, I keep in mind these things and try to sing new songs.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)