Business to the Buddha

Tag: Prof Natarajan

  • Money – what is it?







    This was a very candid question Prof Mankads asked once – ‘What is money?’ and he answered – ‘Money is what is accepted a money.’ True, money is what is accepted as money. Humanity needed some tangible measure so we deviced various forms of money at various time. For example at the time of barter system ‘everything’ was weighted against the other. So everything was acceptable in trade as money. Then came matels and now paper and plastic money (credit cards).

    I started thinking if we needed something tangible as money what if we made something like Camay (soap) a currency? If some other things be made money what would happen? Take an example of age – everyone would gradually get money. Fun or being funny – comadians would have maximum money in the world. Seriousness – patients in extremely intencive care units. Trust – Indian politicians or politicians in general would stand nowhere. Spirituality – the spiritual masters would be at the top, one I know is Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.

    Now if we ask ourselves – who is rich? The simple answer is one who has ‘more’ money. ‘More’ is contextual (adjective). Now, if we take money as fun, being happy or being funny. How many of us are rich today? Kids in school are competing, people are jealous or many of us have only instant gratification and long term sorrow. Not many of us are rich! Has money made anyone happier?

    Assume Trust be the currency. How many have earned it? Yes trust is hard earned currency, right? Bankers have lost their trust of 100+ years (see the occupy wall street movement), politicians have lost it. Citizen vote because they think someone will improve the systems. On the contrary we all still remember Jesus, the Buddha and other Masters. Plato, Aristotle and Chanakya. We named unit of force on the name of Newton we say Da Vinci was genius. Were they ‘RICH’ in terms of hoarded money? So, what if we measure richness on different factors now and in future. See this engineer mind thinks of formulae (which is not correct, yet I am writing it) –
    Richness = [{(money + Happiness)*Trust/greediness}^(1/greediness)]*(peace of mind)*spirituality
    and other important stuff
    Range of the variables
    0 > Money, Happiness and Trust > 1
    Greediness > 1 upto infinite
    peace of mind and spirituality> 1
    ^ stands for raise to the power

    I think everyone of us has to identify what we want from our life and that one or few things would be The thing(s) which would make each one of us Rich (not necessarily Money). Of course, this richness should not come at the expense of others or harming others.

  • Six Sigma failed…







    “Not invented here syndrome” is like making a statement to Prof Moradian or Prof Natarajan that your forecasting methods is flawed it does not work in my industry, company or department. Is not it prudent to ask if it worked somewhere, how did it happen? Let us take an analogy –
    Organization = Laptop
    Department = Microsoft Excel (MS Excel)
    When I make a statement–
    “You know what,
    1. Mathematically, 2+2 is not equal to 4 in MY MS Excel therefore Mathematics is flawed
    2. My MS Excel is different from the rest of the world because 2+2 in not equal to 4 in MY MS Excel
    3. My laptop is different from the rest of the world because 2+2 in not equal to 4 in MY laptop”
    If 2+2 is not 4 in your Excel it is not that the math is incorrect, perhaps your algorithm or your laptop processor is at fault. In this analogy Mathematics could be Six Sigma. I have heard that IBM failed in implementing Six Sigma (late 80’s to early 90’s), GE is extremely successful, why?

    Lately, in one of our simulation class Akshat’s team questioned “why Six Sigma failed in our company in the simulation?” one of my teammate wrote on facebook – “After 3 round of simulation today Pravin Krd accepted the disadvantage of using six sigma as corporate project :-)”. I went back to basics to answer this question. What is six sigma? Six Sigma is about vision, philosophy, management system and achieving aggressive goals. Six sigma is also a toolbox and a means to satisfy customers. If Six Sigma fails in an organization it could fail due to – improper vision or management, issues with the goals or incorrect use of tools. The basic philosophy of Six Sigma is reducing defects, how can reducing defect be a failure in a company? If I ask you what you would prefer “good enough” with 99% accuracy or 99.99966 what would you prefer from the following?

    Three sigma (99% accuracy) processes –
    5,000 incorrect surgical operations per week.
    2 short or long landings at most major airports each day
    Six Sigma (99.99966% accuracy) processes –
    1.7 incorrect surgical operations per week
    1 short or long landing every five years

    Naturally, your answer to this would be better accuracy. Six Sigma is all about facts and working logically to reduce defects, and what follows is reduced cost, customer satisfaction etc. I am not a Six Sigma guru or I am not professing it, I am only trying to put some facts – “the six sigma way”. Experts can jump in and suggest or inform why six sigma could fail and share success stories.

    Source –
    Breakthrough Management Group India training on Six Sigma certification. This Data was a sample from USA.
    Class Blue ocean strategy simulation (BOSS)