Experiences of a Prof who taught PGPX

Prof DVR Seshadri who teaches Strategic B2B Marketing Management wrote about his experiences about teaching our class and contrasts with that of teaching PGSEM folks at IIM, Bangalore.

I have also been meeting aspirants of PGPX III (next academic class), who were here in Ahmedabad for interviews. One of the common questions is about the class experience and peer group learning. Whilst many of us often write about our class experiences (often a student perspective), rarely have I come across a professor's perspective. I am sure, professors who teach Strategy, B2B, M&A in different schools would concur with Prof Seshadri.

To read Prof Seshadri's article, click here.

The Ethical dilemma

One of the most heated and passionately debated topics ever in the PGPX class, the ethics class was close to most us, for obvious reasons. Whether it was Olivia Jones (the protagonist in the case) dilemma or numerous experiential examples shared in the class, one thing was clear- the definition and understanding of ethics is not uniform and homogeneous. However, the notion of ethics that one holds seem to affect others positively / negatively, to certain degree and measure. This makes the effected party to respond and thus a debate on correctness of ethics is already on cards. As a manager of a corporation engaged in international business, one is expected to run into this debate many a time. It is perhaps important to recognize the heterogeneity of the meaning of ethics people hold.

I would see two outcomes as a result -
a) Being aware of one’s own definition should help clear out of questions and debates as one would have clarity of thought and her position on a debatable stand point
b) Respect other’s ethical stand point and not make value judgments. Even a Supreme Court judge very rarely is pushed to pass a judgment on ethical stand offs. Other mortals can clearly wait and resist the temptation.

What does it take it to be an Entrepreneur?

Indeed we are lucky that Jerry Rao, an un-usual entrepreneur (who took up to Entrepreneurship at 45) was teaching us entrepreneurship. More interestingly, he was using an HBS case Jerry Rao: Diaspora and Entrepreneurship in the Global Economy. There are several learnings from the class. Jerry credits most of his evolution to his first & last employer Citibank, for whom he worked for 25 years after passing from IIMA in 1973.

1. Flexibility with respect to autonomy at work
   
2. A nurturing environment (Citi sponsored Jerry for a PhD)
3. Jerry built lasting relationships and a network that stood for him in good stead. Jerry built a great reputation which later on helped him when started up.
4. Jerry had rational and not adaptive expectations (belief in the principle that past does not predict future)
5. Jerry developed new skills and abilities as he moved from one job to another (functional / geographical changes). He was willing to jettison zones of comfort and make personal sacrifices.

I have found Jerry's thoughts on Entrepreneurship very insightful.

1. Have a clear sight of downside while starting up. Ask yourself "can you manage the downside?"
2. Going public (too soon) brings it's own sets of pressures- a) it can prevent you from making strategic decisions (Q-Q pressures)
3. Willing to give up cushy (corporate) lifestyle during initial years (very relevant for Xians)
4. Trust and relationships built with different people all along your career would be quite useful.
   

I have chosen this course for sheer admiration for the prof. And this is turning out to be more than what I could ask for. Plus the quality of class discussions is hitting an all time high, thanks to the very talent peer group.

As Bryan Adams would say, some years down the line I am going to reminisce those were the best days of my life....

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.