Failure se Failure Tak

"A system designed to succeed, succeeds if it succeeds.

A system designed to fail, fails if it fails to fail."

If you thought I am mad quoting this, you are probably right. However, part of the credit or dis-credit goes to the professor who made me and scores of other PGPX participants go bonkers today.

Well, I must confess that the realms of learning I am experiencing right now in this course(Design of Operations to Meet Demand, if you thot it was about OM, there are surprises!!) is perhaps the best I have ever come across in my life. Nothing short of transformational. Because, the impact is not just in acquiring some knowledge or abilities. Because the impact is not just in training your mind (as many profs at WIMWI insist). It is because, it (the experience) hit us at a level, which could transform our lives, in terms of our thinking, our values and decisions.

The discussion is about failures and what we can make out of them. The context is a case on Toyota Motors in US. The long and short of the story, Toyota has two fundamental choices. a)Allow failures to precipitate and surface, because there is a seed of success that may eventually germinate and grow b) Allow successes as they apparently serve our purposes.

TPS or the Toyota production System deploys JIT and JIT as a system is designed to fail ! A complete contrast to how we have been designing classical systems- design to succeed. But JIT, also has another important element which is the learning organisation. As each failure is allowed to happen, the learning organisation aggressively attacks to solve. The same failures do not repeat. The beauty is in recognising that failures are part of nature. They are all around. So, JIT builds its systems to acknowledge failures and ensures they are systematically overcome.

Classical sytems = designed to succeed; garbage in, garbage out. Fail safe system.

JIT = designed to fail; garbage in, nothing out (meaning the output is stopped, till the failure is remedied). Safe fail system (failure in a controlled environment).

Thus, JIT transcends to the level of being a religion, not just a philosophy.

It is impossible to document my learning in words. But my selfish motive in doing it, is also that when I look back, I can instantly re-collect the class experience.

Awesome !

PGPX, a Disruptive Technology

Joseph Bower & Clayton Christensen's HBR article talks about disruptive technologies.
Consider the evolution of CSP technology in Steel industry to produce thin sheet steel pioneered by Nucor Steel. Also look at the general mushrooming of mini mills producing the low cost steel rods & pipes that have preyed on the large giants and have taken over the segmental market share in a short period of time. In India, we have film stars advertising for the construction grade steel rods (called sariya) of late, which was an unknown phenomenon few years back. Look at Digital photography replacing the film based photography. USB pen drives replacing floppies and may be even CDs.... the list goes on. Every day we watch so many newer technologies taking on giants who thought these small new technologies would never go the full mile.

What is so characteristic about these new 'disruptive technologies'? All of them almost make a modest beginning ie., when they start, they offer less for less. Not so much storage capacity at similar prices in the case of smaller storage devices replacing the bigger ones(5 1/4" v/s 3 1/2"), and hence it does not look very attractive in the beginning. The analogy prof Mukherjee uses to describe them is of a donkey.

New technology = Donkey

So the question is, would you as an organisation bet your money on a donkey taking part in a race along with horses? Would the donkey become horse or better still a cheetah and win the race? If you have the business knack of identifying these prized donkeys, you can add more sting to your portfolio. Bower and Christensen talk about how large sized companies ignore and dismiss the newer technologies that later on prey on them. Call it short sightedness or lack of judgement?

So, as time goes on, donkey-->Horse/cheetah
and then
As we ended the class, normally Prof Mukherjee has the last word. But today, it had to be different, Chibber bhai as usual is thinking either about PGPX or application of hsi learnings from the class room. And bingo ! He wonders if PGPX is a disruptive technology in Global market. Well, the donkey comparison is not so bad, if you have the foresight of what is going to unfold. Prof Mukherjee is sure about where he wants to bet his money on.

We, the Grateful Fools!

"As we stand at the edge of Darkness,
Let our chant fill the void
so people will know

That in the land of the night(read business)
the chariot of sun(read strategy)
is drawn by the grateful dead (read fools)"

says this amazing prof in operations managements (& strategy) and the PGPX class echoes.

Most of us thought we are delving deep into the techniques of project management when we discussed the Boeing case. The famed 767 launch and how Boeing incorporated the changes in it's work in process. The previous case was on how Enercon India believed it has excellent project execution capabilities and the set of actions (or in-actions) that follow. The AON charts and the critical path method steam up class temperature. Just then, the great anti-climax... From OM techniques the class followed the prof in leap frogging into strategy. Or should I say, we started appreciating the seamless boundaries and layers of elements of business - ops, finance and strategy.

In the context of eroding customer confidence in the Wind energy industry post 1994 shakeout, Enercon adopted a strategy of pursuing customer delight. What it meant in reality was using Enercon's core competence (project management abilities) to travel the extra mile and taking decisions which seemed foolish ! well, on the face of it. When you dig in, you realise that, this company actually wanted to build a unique credibility in the Indian market, where the customer invests but does not even bother to visit the site ! Strange it may seem to all us and we call them fools for it defied simple arithmetic of cost-benefit analysis, factoring time value of money. But after the real reason was unravelled, we (better) gave them credit which was due, but did settle another account, acknowledging ourselves as fools, the grateful ones - for some of us had the humility to accept it.

In a spontaneous and resonating moment the class gave an ovation to this prof at the end of the class, as it came out of the trance. You are missing something if you are not here.

PGPX Spouses & Partners

While the husbands (well most of us are) are busy mugging (our lingo for studying.. .ahem!), the spouses group has been really hitting well of as group. The IIMA new campus is a typical site to watch these days. The sprawling lawns in front of CR11 and the shack (which is our hope at 3 am in the nite for a cuppa tea) made a perfect setting for the 20 odd women and their kiddos to have a get together at 11 pm ! While the crowd played antakshari and rejoiced outside, we morons mugged inside our syndicates and star gazed, mera time kab aayega? (longed for the good times).

Being here with my family perhaps has been the best decisions I have made. Contrary to many people telling me that family might be a hindrance to my studies, I found it works the other way round. My family being with me, has been huge source of support and strength. In fact the little time I get to spend with my son, is what I use for recreation. In 3.5 years since he was born, I never spent such quality time with him. That makes me realise, the one year also gives us time and space with family which was dearly missed in the work life rut. I am loving it.

A day in the life of a PGPXian

It has been just over a month and we have lost count of the tests that were administered so far, to check how much have we learned. Interestingly, most of us are asking ourselves- are we here for learning or for grades? This questions gets asked most frequently immediately after a test (or quiz in IIMA parlance) and no prizes for guessing the response! I have just hit my study, after a gruelling day, which also had two quizzes. And as I was pondering over, I thought I shall put down a typical day of a PGPXian (during term 1).

7.30 am Wake up and catch up on news on TV (more used as a radio here) as I get ready.

8.15 am Yap with class mates over breakfast. From business to cribs about food quality, breakfast discussions over a cuppa are amusing - for anything under the sun, PGPX mess is the place.

8.45am - 1.30 pm Three classes with 10-15 min break between each class. In most sessions, we would not realise, how time flew but in few other courses, well.........
Like in any other school, what we learn seems to be directly proportional to quality of Prof's pedagogical prowess.

1.30 pm Lunch and check out what's the agenda for next day. Agree with your study group on how will we structure the prep for next day's class and person specific responsibilities

2.30 pm Quiz (usually surprises). On days when quizzes are not there, study / prep begins

3.30 pm - 9. 30 pm - Self study for next day (with a half hour break in between for dinner). Self study comprises of reading 2-3 cases, each around 15 pages. In addition it would constitute reading concepts / fundas from text books and solving problems on courses like Eco, stats and other Ops. courses. Thus term is part of Building blocks and true to their names, the courses are bombarding me with heavy duty stuff.

9.30 pm onwards: Study group discussions. Depending on the quantum of work load, the end time gets decided. For instance, on days when there is a submission the next day, end time can be 4-.4.30 am !! Else, it would be around 1.30 am to 2 am.

2 am Personal Space. Come back home, check and respond to mails. Catch up on online notes / interesting articles.

2.30 am Try to sleep ;)


Guys, this schedule has been going on for 5 weeks now and on weekends, we are either playing catch up / sleeping.... stories of students repeated year after year, as IIMA script remains largely same. It's time now for me, see you guys here soon. Enjoy your weekend !

One down, eleven to go!

PS: Is't a picture supposed to tell a thousand words?