It is the time of the year again when Goddess Durga begins her journey for her parental house.
This period of Navratri starts just after Pitra Paksh (a period when you are supposed to pray to your fore fathers)(people generally do not start any good activities during this period).
The ninth day is followed by Dussehra. This day signifies victory of good over evil or bad.
Wishing you all a very Happy Durga Puja and Dussehra. :)
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Change . . . . . .
Introduction
Today we are in the 21st century. Mankind has come a long way from Stone Age somewhere around 600,000 B.C. The Homo sapiens (human beings) had the aptitude, which helped them make their own weapons and tools for hunting and eating food. This is what separates human beings from animals till date. The earliest invention of fire and wheel are glaring examples of man’s capability to think and create and are the highlights of Stone Age. Initially the process of invention was slow but steady. Man made boats, ink, coins etc in the period know as Before Christ. A set of important inventions that took place between the 9th and the 11th century were Lateen Sails, Compass and Sternpost rudder. The sail helped man to move against the direction of wind and not depend on the wind to flow with it. The compass and the rudder led to the Discovery Age when men started finding new lands and civilizations. The first major invention After Christ was Paper. The invention of Printing Press by Gutenberg in 1439 marked the advent of the Knowledge Age. Books could be easily printed, circulated to the masses and thus knowledge started spreading to the farthest corners of the world. People became enlightened and emancipated. Knowledge no longer remained the virtue of a handful of people. In 1765, James Watt invented the Steam engine. The far-reaching implication of this invention was that man was no longer dependent on animal power. Railroads, ocean going steamships, mining and textiles came to the forefront and comprised of the Industrial Revolution, which changed mankind forever. Trade and business prevailed in the era Before Christ too but it was restricted to a limited area and did not have any far reaching effects. The movement of man, material and money started around the world at a pace never attained earlier after the Industrial Revolution. This boosted the growth of business, organizations were formed, trade started growing between nations, the life style of men started changing. It was the year 1928; Alexander Fleming made a chance discovery of Penicillin. Till date no other medicine has saved more lives then Penicillin in the history of mankind. It was a conquest of sorts. And finally – the Information Age. John W. Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert made the ENIAC (first calculating machine) in 1945. The last century is marked with numerous inventions and discoveries by man that is affecting our lives in both good (heart-lung machine) and bad ways (the atom bomb). Today we are moving into the realm of robots and artificial intelligence, man has landed on the moon and as I write this article a mission to Mars has commenced.
What is remarkable in the above observation is that each and every invention from fire to fighter jets is that each one of them has affected the lives of man in some way or the other. We had to realign our lives to the new inventions and discoveries around us in order to survive and sustain. Bullets were invented to kill people and at the same time we invented bulletproof vests to protect against bullets. It is rightfully quoted that necessity is the mother of invention.
The most common and striking impact of all this invention is Change – in every aspect of life.
It is an inevitable part of our life. Charles Darwin in his famous book – The Origin of Species mentions about survival of the fittest. The crux of his theory is that the world is not constant or recently created nor perpetually cycling, but rather it is steadily changing, and that organisms are transformed in time. According to his theory of Natural selection, evolutionary change comes about through the abundant production of genetic variation in every generation. The relatively few individuals, who survive, owing to a particularly well-adapted combination of inheritable characters, give rise to the next generation. The views of Darwin in The Origin of Species have percolated into our business world of capitalist ideas surrounding the organizations. Organizations go through the cycle of “Survival of the fittest” and “natural selection” in this environment of globalization and competition.
Why do so many organizations take birth but dwindle away and some grow bigger and wider each day? How do we identify the reasons? Organizations go through different phases of growth. The first challenge for leaders who wish to grow their organizations is to understand what phase of the organizational life cycle one is in. (Murray Johannsen) The Organizational life cycle is very similar to a Product Life cycle. It can be divided into various phases. We will refer to the simple phases mentioned by Murray Johannsen.
Startup (or Birth), Growth – This is sometimes divided into an early growth phase (fast growth) and Maturity phase (slow growth or no growth). However, maturity often leads to Decline. When in decline, an organization will either undergo Renewal or Death and bankruptcy
Organizations encounter different kind of situations and circumstances at each of these stages. Today, we have revised/ new laws laid by the government, banks modify their lending rates based on the global scenario, new technological advancements affect the existing manufacturing or service processes, competitors come up with newer strategies to compete in the market, customers are better informed, newer channels of delivery are created. All these issues lead to a situation where the organization has to modify its strategy, systems, and structure either individually or all at a time. The chances of survival and growth increase proportionately with the pace of adaptation and transformation of these organizations. At the fundamental level in order to adapt, an organization has to modify the way it used to function. It has been found that when businesses are not clear about their strategies, practices, policies, processes, behaviors and expected outcomes there is chaos. Chaos and uncertainty can severely hamper the ability to achieve organizational goals and can jeopardize the ability to implement long lasting change strategies.
Organizations today are operating in environments that require different approaches, different ways of functioning and different structures. Organizational change demands a "new way of life." Business is about managing, and managing is about handling change. Business is always changing, and change comes in basic three forms: routine day by day, non-routine planned, non-routine unplanned. The nature of change and the organization's role in influencing and responding to it are issues with which humankind has grappled for a long time. The ancient Greek thinker, Heraclitus, remarked more then thousand years ago that "everything is born in strife and constant flux; and whatever lives, lives by destroying something else." Many other Greek philosophers offered opposing beliefs as to whether change is real or simply appearance, what causes it, and whether or not it has a purpose. What is man's role in change? Does it really even matter? Ancient thought, it turns out, is highly relevant to the management of change in business today (Wagner, 1995).
Most organizations – and most jobs – are in a constant state of evolution: introducing new technologies, new systems and new products. These incremental changes come in small, manageable steps: word processors replace typewriters, calculators replace mechanical adding machines, computer skills become important in all kinds of work. Major transformations outside require dramatic adaptation inside. Some changes are not incremental. Rapid, large-scale changes in the world force organizations to make equally dramatic adaptations just to preserve status quo. If an organization is to make an abrupt, radical change in its structure or systems, the people of that organization must change the way they work, they relate to each other, and the way in which they think about their work. People must change to make change last. To transform itself, an organization must call on its employees to change themselves and the way they function. Many believe that it's hard for people to change. Some believe that people really don't change. People do change. It is our nature to change. Our adult lives are a history of unique, personal change. We make changes that are more dramatic than growth or evolution. We change on purpose. We change our skills. We change our surroundings and the places that we live. Most of us change jobs. Some of us change spouses. We even change our beliefs and rearrange our values. The gist of the above discussion is that Change is inevitable. It is rightly said that the only thing constant about change is change itself. The question now arises is that – How should we initiate any kind of change in an organization? Transforming a company's culture is like starting an earthquake.
Organizations can change their relationship to their environments - the nature of their ties to their markets and major stakeholders - by structuring or redefining their identity and boundaries through mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, or alliances and partnerships. Organization survival today depends on courage and imagination - the courage to challenge prevailing business models, and the imagination to invent new services, new products, and new markets. Increasingly, neither business leaders nor rank-and-file employees question whether to change but how. The challenge of change is not simple a large-scale conceptual and philosophical issue. It is every bit as much an immediate practical issue: choosing first steps and concrete actions. (Kanter, Barry and Todd, 1992:489)
(Note. Some references might be missing but this is just a draft idea)
Today we are in the 21st century. Mankind has come a long way from Stone Age somewhere around 600,000 B.C. The Homo sapiens (human beings) had the aptitude, which helped them make their own weapons and tools for hunting and eating food. This is what separates human beings from animals till date. The earliest invention of fire and wheel are glaring examples of man’s capability to think and create and are the highlights of Stone Age. Initially the process of invention was slow but steady. Man made boats, ink, coins etc in the period know as Before Christ. A set of important inventions that took place between the 9th and the 11th century were Lateen Sails, Compass and Sternpost rudder. The sail helped man to move against the direction of wind and not depend on the wind to flow with it. The compass and the rudder led to the Discovery Age when men started finding new lands and civilizations. The first major invention After Christ was Paper. The invention of Printing Press by Gutenberg in 1439 marked the advent of the Knowledge Age. Books could be easily printed, circulated to the masses and thus knowledge started spreading to the farthest corners of the world. People became enlightened and emancipated. Knowledge no longer remained the virtue of a handful of people. In 1765, James Watt invented the Steam engine. The far-reaching implication of this invention was that man was no longer dependent on animal power. Railroads, ocean going steamships, mining and textiles came to the forefront and comprised of the Industrial Revolution, which changed mankind forever. Trade and business prevailed in the era Before Christ too but it was restricted to a limited area and did not have any far reaching effects. The movement of man, material and money started around the world at a pace never attained earlier after the Industrial Revolution. This boosted the growth of business, organizations were formed, trade started growing between nations, the life style of men started changing. It was the year 1928; Alexander Fleming made a chance discovery of Penicillin. Till date no other medicine has saved more lives then Penicillin in the history of mankind. It was a conquest of sorts. And finally – the Information Age. John W. Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert made the ENIAC (first calculating machine) in 1945. The last century is marked with numerous inventions and discoveries by man that is affecting our lives in both good (heart-lung machine) and bad ways (the atom bomb). Today we are moving into the realm of robots and artificial intelligence, man has landed on the moon and as I write this article a mission to Mars has commenced.
What is remarkable in the above observation is that each and every invention from fire to fighter jets is that each one of them has affected the lives of man in some way or the other. We had to realign our lives to the new inventions and discoveries around us in order to survive and sustain. Bullets were invented to kill people and at the same time we invented bulletproof vests to protect against bullets. It is rightfully quoted that necessity is the mother of invention.
The most common and striking impact of all this invention is Change – in every aspect of life.
It is an inevitable part of our life. Charles Darwin in his famous book – The Origin of Species mentions about survival of the fittest. The crux of his theory is that the world is not constant or recently created nor perpetually cycling, but rather it is steadily changing, and that organisms are transformed in time. According to his theory of Natural selection, evolutionary change comes about through the abundant production of genetic variation in every generation. The relatively few individuals, who survive, owing to a particularly well-adapted combination of inheritable characters, give rise to the next generation. The views of Darwin in The Origin of Species have percolated into our business world of capitalist ideas surrounding the organizations. Organizations go through the cycle of “Survival of the fittest” and “natural selection” in this environment of globalization and competition.
Why do so many organizations take birth but dwindle away and some grow bigger and wider each day? How do we identify the reasons? Organizations go through different phases of growth. The first challenge for leaders who wish to grow their organizations is to understand what phase of the organizational life cycle one is in. (Murray Johannsen) The Organizational life cycle is very similar to a Product Life cycle. It can be divided into various phases. We will refer to the simple phases mentioned by Murray Johannsen.
Startup (or Birth), Growth – This is sometimes divided into an early growth phase (fast growth) and Maturity phase (slow growth or no growth). However, maturity often leads to Decline. When in decline, an organization will either undergo Renewal or Death and bankruptcy
Organizations encounter different kind of situations and circumstances at each of these stages. Today, we have revised/ new laws laid by the government, banks modify their lending rates based on the global scenario, new technological advancements affect the existing manufacturing or service processes, competitors come up with newer strategies to compete in the market, customers are better informed, newer channels of delivery are created. All these issues lead to a situation where the organization has to modify its strategy, systems, and structure either individually or all at a time. The chances of survival and growth increase proportionately with the pace of adaptation and transformation of these organizations. At the fundamental level in order to adapt, an organization has to modify the way it used to function. It has been found that when businesses are not clear about their strategies, practices, policies, processes, behaviors and expected outcomes there is chaos. Chaos and uncertainty can severely hamper the ability to achieve organizational goals and can jeopardize the ability to implement long lasting change strategies.
Organizations today are operating in environments that require different approaches, different ways of functioning and different structures. Organizational change demands a "new way of life." Business is about managing, and managing is about handling change. Business is always changing, and change comes in basic three forms: routine day by day, non-routine planned, non-routine unplanned. The nature of change and the organization's role in influencing and responding to it are issues with which humankind has grappled for a long time. The ancient Greek thinker, Heraclitus, remarked more then thousand years ago that "everything is born in strife and constant flux; and whatever lives, lives by destroying something else." Many other Greek philosophers offered opposing beliefs as to whether change is real or simply appearance, what causes it, and whether or not it has a purpose. What is man's role in change? Does it really even matter? Ancient thought, it turns out, is highly relevant to the management of change in business today (Wagner, 1995).
Most organizations – and most jobs – are in a constant state of evolution: introducing new technologies, new systems and new products. These incremental changes come in small, manageable steps: word processors replace typewriters, calculators replace mechanical adding machines, computer skills become important in all kinds of work. Major transformations outside require dramatic adaptation inside. Some changes are not incremental. Rapid, large-scale changes in the world force organizations to make equally dramatic adaptations just to preserve status quo. If an organization is to make an abrupt, radical change in its structure or systems, the people of that organization must change the way they work, they relate to each other, and the way in which they think about their work. People must change to make change last. To transform itself, an organization must call on its employees to change themselves and the way they function. Many believe that it's hard for people to change. Some believe that people really don't change. People do change. It is our nature to change. Our adult lives are a history of unique, personal change. We make changes that are more dramatic than growth or evolution. We change on purpose. We change our skills. We change our surroundings and the places that we live. Most of us change jobs. Some of us change spouses. We even change our beliefs and rearrange our values. The gist of the above discussion is that Change is inevitable. It is rightly said that the only thing constant about change is change itself. The question now arises is that – How should we initiate any kind of change in an organization? Transforming a company's culture is like starting an earthquake.
Organizations can change their relationship to their environments - the nature of their ties to their markets and major stakeholders - by structuring or redefining their identity and boundaries through mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, or alliances and partnerships. Organization survival today depends on courage and imagination - the courage to challenge prevailing business models, and the imagination to invent new services, new products, and new markets. Increasingly, neither business leaders nor rank-and-file employees question whether to change but how. The challenge of change is not simple a large-scale conceptual and philosophical issue. It is every bit as much an immediate practical issue: choosing first steps and concrete actions. (Kanter, Barry and Todd, 1992:489)
(Note. Some references might be missing but this is just a draft idea)
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