Business to the Buddha

Category: Business to Buddha

  • Collaboration in logistics and supply chain management







    We all are on a path of evolution. We evolve, systems evolve, technology evolves… everything evolves.
    We were discussing in supply chain management, how cost can be reduced, how inventory is managed and how transport can be efficiently managed. The part which attracted me to write that here is ‘collaboration’ amongst distributors, suppliers, transporters and businesses. Resources are pooled and thus efficiencies are improved by collective transportation.
    Our professor suggested to us that until two decade back organizations used to have many suppliers in their procurement database. Reason – companies were Price sensitive. Slowly companies switched/switching to single or less suppliers. Even the quality management of supplied material is also moved to the supplier. I think that is called supplier development (evolution of suppliers). The reason to do this is supplier and the manufacturer is working in unison and both have incentive – growth. I reflected on the concept of interdependent co-arising, together everyone grows. When the costs are controlled with better quality, this could be transferred to the customers, and companies can become more competitive. Further, this process helps everyone – supplier gets business (helps his employees), companies get better cost control (more profit) and customer gets quality at economic pricing.
    This blog is going through its third update. There were few examples I missed earlier. I found in my diary one was – a manufacturing company started buying steel from the steel companies not only for itself but also for its suppliers. This gave the company – good quality and competitive pricing because of volume buying. We have evolved and so the businesses consider suppliers as partners in business. Therefore, businesses partner with supplier and rely on them.
    I was asked by someone; prove this in practical life that businesses are using Buddhists concepts. I said many times businesses are using that, however unknowingly. This idea was again a concept of interdependent co-arising.

  • When Situation demands… drop your tools







    You cannot rely on tools only to devise corporate strategies. For making corporate strategies visionaries are required who recognize patterns. Because no one has seen the future and for making future driven strategies vision is very important. Let us take an example of CEO of GE Mr Immelt, he has changed the paradigm in which GE operated. He is investing in future centric businesses.

    Now, visionary does not necessarily point out to a newer set ‘pattern recognition’ – THE next tool for strategies. In fact occasionally people need to drop the tools for formulation of business strategies also. So, the important part is – learning when to drop the tools, willingness to drop the tools and being ready with alternative plan of action. The alternative plan of action is not to find another tool for handling the situation but to analyze the situation and being on your toes to think fast, think creatively, out-think others and look into all aspects of situation to react effectively.
    There is an anecdote which helps learn the concept well.

    The short story is – in a wild fire, 17 firefighters had made a plan on dinner table on how to do their work (tomorrow 10 AM). Next day at 7:00 AM they found that the fire is beyond their planed actions and anticipation. They could
    i) try fight the fire and possibly die, or
    ii) run for their life.

    Many decided to run, the team leader told them – “Drop the tools”, no one heard. Only 3 survived in the accident – 2 who inadvertently got into a cave when one fell down and 1 the leader who DROPPED his TOOLs. He did this because he had heard past experiences of fire fighters.

    At times you have to leave your tools and that is important. Strategy is similar, in cases you have to drop the tools and work. The challenge is to know when to drop the tools.

    You know, this works for meditations too. The Buddha when he was asked what he did to reach enlightenment, used to say – I stopped ‘doing’ and that’s how I reached enlightenment, in fact everyone is enlightened (yes! I have heard that Buddha said everyone is enlightened). I recollected few expert management consultants have told me in general that at times one needs to drop his tools. So mystical lesson, simple yet so difficult to implement.

  • Game changers…







    You need to know the rules of the game to change the rules of the game. The rider is – you should not be engrossed in the game such that ‘the obvious becomes ignorable and thus a lost opportunity’. You should have birds-eye view and worm eye view on the game simultaneously. Sure, you might or might not know the complete rules; however, knowing the boundaries within which players are playing can help redefine the boundaries themselves and changing the rules. At times you may come up with a new game altogether, who knows?

    I know generally people talk about i-pod, Tata nano and other famous products when they talk about “Game Changers”. I would state a different example here – Freej. Freej is a famous animation series in Middle East region. This animation series is a tale of four old Emirati women living in a secluded neighborhood in modern day Dubai. The concept of Freej moved the animation audience from kids to adults and from translated Disney characters to local, people next door type of characters. This picked up very quickly – a move from translated animation to ‘our own animation’.

    It is not necessary to connects everything to Business and the Buddha together, that is what I wrote in ‘Why the title?’ blog. This entry could have been one on business only; nevertheless since I know about the lessons the Buddha learnt during his search I think there is a direct connection.
    The Buddha, in his quest for enlightenment, went to many different experts of the time. He mastered all the arts/procedures from them quickly and realized something is incomplete. In the end he made his own path. Later on his belief and knowledge became foundation for one of the oldest religion on the earth. He knew what is useful, important and contemporary for the society and what should be the path. He reinforced few things, refuted others and added more to the existing knowledge. The Buddha was also a game changer in that context.
    My point of contention always has been, it is good to know the rules, understand the approach normally players need to take and know the boundaries of the field. At the same time, one has to be ‘traditionally unconventional’ to move out and come in to defy the rules and pave a way forward. I foresee two approaches to do this
    1. Doing different things and
    2. Doing things differently.
    Both these approaches involve “questioning assumptions”, and this is what I trust in. One may appear as irritating, fool or excessively inquisitive person but that is important to do something different.

  • Growing and becoming leader







    Once, I heard ‘off the record’ – “When you treat adults as kids, adults will behave like kids”. This is true, when one wants his team to behave responsibly he has to show trust and offer responsibilities with some authorities to the team members.
    No one always hits the road running, except aero plane. How can you grow a leader? By giving the person opportunities to take decision; the authorities can be small and decision smaller. In fact, we always make decision whether it’s buying vegetable or hiring people. The lesson I learnt and I think should be enforced is involve people, empower them, offer opportunities and groom them to become future leaders. One cannot learn soft skills in class room and learning happens hands-on additionally that lasts for a life time.
    Today, I attended a session on ‘Leadership that transforms’ by Dr Michael Hackman from University of Colorado. He was also talking on the lines of the same concept – treating adults like kids will make them behave like kids. In this informative session I came to know about what I wrote above is called as – ‘transformational leadership’.
    Actually, I picked up this thought from the news item of Tata’s succession planning. Therefore, leaders should understand that there has to be a succession plan and “when you treat people as potential leaders they can learn, behave and act like leaders”. The Buddha said – you are all enlightened and he treated everyone as enlightened also treated all with compassion.

  • Finger is not the moon…







    In one of the discourses the Buddha taught the bhikkus – ‘The finger is not the moon.’ Simply put when he tried teaching the bhikkus he said when I point to the moon with my finger the ideas is to give you direction where the moon is. You cannot hold on to the finger. Learn the lesson, get the direction and move on your own path. Since everyone is different and every situation is different therefore the path taken will be different.

    The Cases are the means, not the end –
    Lately, I did a course International Management with Professor S Rajagopalan. In the course we did about ten cases and all were from different industries, countries and situations. In such cases, the learning becomes more challenging yet practical. What I learnt from the different cases is – the finger (case) is not the moon (methodology to solve every situation – magic wand). Learn the lesson, understand your situations and create your own path. The same used to happen in marketing cases. Constant challenge for Professor Lopez used to be ‘class of engineers is used to models and formulae’, models and formulae do not fit at every place. Prof Mankad taught us in Macroeconomics class – management is art and science together.

    As the finger is not the moon, the cases are not the end in themselves and one should not try creating models for everything.

  • Playing Golf, work and meditation







    My professor, Professor Tomas Lopez often wraps his lessons in simple and interesting ways. His one of the lessons was very simple, profound and meaningful. That lesson was defining meditation (not literally though) for the corporate leaders, for the young generation and for the affluent golfers. The lesson was so disguised that prima-facie it looked as it is a lesson on golf (or marketing). However, the profound meaning was for everyday and the soul. In simple words he said – do not force yourself for doing things, let the things happen through you. Trust this message is clear.

    Let me give you the verbatim statement – “you know what, marketing is like playing golf, you have to swing naturally”. In other words – chances are the harder you try the miserably you fail. So, do not force, let the things happen naturally. ‘The harder you try the miserably you fail’, I heard/read it somewhere… you know where!