Management Musings

Honesty is the first aspect that builds trust between colleagues at the work place. While I insist on honesty being paramount, it is quite remarkable to see how it stands to be one of the most compromised values that one holds. At the risk of being pessimistic about values, I do believe that honesty becomes a by-stander when it pressure is on and the delivery of products are at risk. Far too often have I seen honesty about the product quality, about timelines and processes being fudged underneath words. The power of a word is more powerful than a sword, as the cliche goes. True enough. Meetings and written exchanges between people are powerful reminders of this cliche. Of course, as a "realist", circumventing honesty at a sufficiently high level is termed as strategy. So it is a strategic move when India does not discuss the CTBT treaty (if I remember correctly) in public while it is being signed. It is strategic when the Indian army misuses the Armed Forces Special Provis...

Ensuring that the product we build meets the high standards expected by customers is an ever lasting goal for every product that has ever been designed and sold. Shipping a product on time with quality is a goal that becomes challenging one way or another. There is pressure from the customers, market place, stakeholders, etc. at all times that clouds decision making at key moments when the product comes close to delivery. For example, the cook who has to rush into the next house (customer awaits) can allocate only one hour for cooking at the current house (customer). Some dishes can take longer to cook. Regardless, short cuts are found - the gas is turned on high, the vegetables are cut in large pieces and eventually, the food is not cooked completely as time perceived by him/ her runs out. Quality of the food becomes a casualty in the face of pressure of timely delivery. The same principle applies to the contractors entrusted to deliver quality roads. Quality metrics exist but li...

The current system in Bangalore - splitting the city into multiple wards with a BBMP office in each ward works very well in terms of distributing the span of control. I believe that competition helps improve performance. Usain Bolt would not be training hard and running at his peak if he were not challenged by his competitors. Even in the corporate world, competition breeds innovation and superior performance. Google out-thought Microsoft in the early 2000s much like Microsoft out thought its competition in the 1980s and 90s. The challenge in our case study is to inculcate a feeling of pride and competition between the BBMP wards. Taking off from the gamification example in my previous blog post, I think that BBMP wards should be players in a different sort of game. One in which they are graded on their key performance indicators and this system should be visible to all citizens. Each ward in-charge is accountable for the results that his ward generates. The players who are the BBMP...