Vishu and vernal equinox ..

Very often we read of important festivals and relate them to Gods and religions. But more often than not, all festivals are related to the sun and the movement of our planet around it.

A global business executive interacts with Alliance BBA sem 6 Operations students

It was interesting to see how on 6 April 2023 at around 12 noon about ten BBA sem 6 Operations students of Alliance School of Business Bangalore interacted with Easaw George, Amazon executive in an online session from his Bangalore home. 

The BBA students were very inquisitive with questions right from the moment Easaw finished his initial explanation about the Amazon initiatives in environmental sustainability. The class was on Green Energy and Sustainability. 

Easaw explained about the Climate pledge of Amazon which already has more than 200 global corporations signed in and participating besides Amazon initiatives like buying 100,000 EV delivery vans in US. Click here for the latest 101 page Amazon Sustainability report for 2021. 

Besides asking questions relating to Anazon's commitment to environmental Sustainability, the students asked how Amazon is interested in playing the lead role in environmental sustainability initiatives across the world. Being #2 in the Fortune 500 list of companies, just behind Walmart (btw Walmart and Amazon are the only 2 global corporate giants who have crossed $500 billion annual turnover) Amazon has a lot of responsibility and commitment to ensure it's operations are least damaging to the environment.  Read what Fortune magazine writes on Amazon.

If the corporate giants like Walmart, Amazon, Toyota and Volkswagen besides the other six in the top 10 of the Fortune 500 global list ensure and insist their suppliers also be equally responsible to the environment, it can tackle at least 20-30 percent of global pollution, resource depletion, optimal energy usage, reduction in biodiversity and waste management issues of the world. In terms of supply chain effectiveness and transportation efficiency, Amazon is already working at 4x the industry standard.

When a global giant like Amazon takes the lead it is not only about taking the climate pledge, but also on enforcing environmental sustainability among its huge network of suppliers, partners and other stakeholders, like a domino effect in the whole supply chain.

The students were interested besides professional knowledge on the environment in knowing what Easaw's worklife balance was like in Amazon. A 15 hr workday for 4 days and 3 days of recuperation weekly is indeed exciting for an executive.

Since the  facility was one of the largest Amazon fulfilment centres in UK, part of the middle mile logistics network, the scale of operations was huge. Easaw carefully avoided going into the nitty gritty of daily Operations, he was strongly stressing throughout the interaction on Amazon's need for energy in  big scale, especially in their cloud services. He proudly was mentioning how Amazon globally is on the right path to getting 100 % powered by renewable energy (net-zero energy Carbon footprint) by 2025. 

Amazon is also committed to all its facilities across the world going net-zero in terms of Carbon emissions by 2040, a full ten years ahead of countries themselves going net zero emissions, as promised in the Paris Conference Meeting of 2015. The interaction ended in a very positive note, the students were motivated enough to understand the positive effects of environmental Sustainability initiatives of global corporations and countries. The fears and apprehensions of the national association of local retailers in India protesting the meeting of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos with Indian PM Narendra Modi in New Delhi in early 2020, which finally did not materialise also figured in the interaction.

Overall, in brief the learning for the students from this interaction was excellent. 

Playing an SOP Paper Folding Game game in class..

As usual this time in the Lean Operations class we brought in the activity style of pedagogy to teach an important concept in lean operations - Standard Operating Procedure.

Standard Operating Procedure - A standard operating procedure is a set of step-by-step instructions compiled by an organization to help workers carry out routine operations. SOPs aim to achieve efficiency, quality output, and uniformity of performance, while reducing miscommunication and failure to comply with industry regulations. Wikipedia

On Monday 20th of March 2023, I engaged the topic of Standard Operating Procedure with the fourth sem MBA operations students through a game. Earlier I had introduced the topic of Kaizen and continuous Improvement with the straw game.

Since the class strength was about thirty I asked for ten volunteers who were asked to stand with A5 paper in the different corners of the large classroom. It was the paper folding game. 

• Initially the students were given vague instruction on folding the sheets of paper and tearing off the corners. The results were highly variable, we got as many as 5 separate designs with one design taking a frequency of 3. 
• This got reduced as I gave more detailed instructions to the volunteers in different stages of the game.
• Finally in the last and fifth stage the volunteers were clearly explained what was meant by corners, edges, long edge, short edge etc and when the instructions were given, all the 8 volunteers gave an identical design.

The learning from the game was that if proper Standard Operating Procedure is given to the workers and if all the terminology in the SOP is properly understood by the workers, there is very less probability of working committing mistakes and all the output will be similar, zero variability, leading to high quality uniform output and customer acceptance and satisfaction.

There was no other way to practically demonstrate to the students other than through this practical insightful simple game on how SOPs can bring quality to the process and enhance customer satisfaction.

George..

Becoming a world class Professor..

I asked Open AI how a person can become a world class Professor. According to some of the top Professors in world class institutions good teaching and research record are essential prerequisites. When I interact with my colleagues I get to know many factors and the important ones remain the same.

According to Open AI a world-class professor requires a combination of factors, including academic achievements, personal qualities, and professional experiences. Here are some essential prerequisites that can help one become a world-class professor:

• Education: A solid foundation of formal education, such as a doctoral degree in the field of study, is typically required to become a professor. Being taught by great Professors is a great motivation for humans. Though the academic institutional heritage does carry some weightage, more often than not, hardwork and individual brilliance sidelines it. Edison or Einstein neither of them had access to great education but still they are recognised world over as great professionals. 
• Research Experience: It is essential to have a strong background in research in the specific field. This means having experience in designing and conducting research studies, analyzing data, and publishing research papers. Normal good quality research output reach is limited due to the high costs of subscription to world class journals. In Web 3.0 personal publishing is an important aspect. Doing formal research and knowledge updation, keeping aspects of research integrity is the future of high quality research. 
• Teaching Experience: You need to have experience in teaching and communicating complex ideas to students at various levels, from undergraduate to graduate programs. How to engage topics and in what order in the class, what all intellectual group activities can be assigned to students, all bring value to the students. Being able to bring latest knowledge concepts in the class to arouse student anxiety and understanding is necessary to make lectures captivating and motivating to students. 
• Strong Communication Skills: Excellent communication skills are essential for a professor, including the ability to convey complex information in an understandable manner, and to engage and motivate students. A Professor should also be well read on a lot of interesting aspects and global events to captivate the students and push them to reach greater heights. A good commanding voice with command of the
  
• Intellectual Curiosity: A world-class professor should have a deep intellectual curiosity, a desire to explore new ideas and theories, and a passion for learning. Keeping up-to-date with reading quality research material and global events with frequent interactions with learned well read professional colleagues can be enlightening for professors. When they bring these intellectual discussions back to the classroom interacting with the students, the students unknowingly are taken to a different high level of interaction and thinking. 
• Dedication and Commitment: Dedication and commitment are essential qualities for a professor. This means being willing to put in the time and effort necessary to excel in teaching, research, and service. This aspect gets meaningful with the understanding that great teaching comes with great humility too.
• Professional Network: Building a strong professional network with colleagues, peers, and researchers in the field is important for sharing ideas, collaborating on research projects, and staying current with the latest developments. Sharing one's knowledge with peers is a great way to go forward. If external networking is difficult, one can always try to network with professionals online and in our own community and benefit immensely from the high quality interactions.
• Professional Ethics: Upholding ethical standards is essential for a world-class professor. This means maintaining integrity in research and teaching, being respectful of students and colleagues, and adhering to the principles of academic freedom and free speech. Respecting other people's Intellectual property is very important. Whenever quoting somebody else's work quoting them, living or dead, adds value to our own authenticity and worth too. 
  
• Accessibility to students and colleagues. The moment we stay aloof from the students and from experimentation and learning, we are losing touch with reality and we will fumble. 
• Being open minded without bias : This is very important as most of the professors out of their seniority and experience develop biases and remain inaccessible to some sections of students, colleagues and the public. This kills the intellectual growth of the faculty member and kills or blights the intellectual curiosity of the student.
• Practice intellectual humility : given opportunities and facilities everyone can attain greatness and expertise. Understanding and accepting this truth would allow us to motivate and promote others to do good for the students.
• Having a cooperative mindset : cooperating with other faculty members and professional colleagues is vital in the success of a professor. The acceptance of the fact that no one is inevitable in the world will make us realise that we all live in a highly networked cooperative world. 
• Admitting to one's ignorance : No one knows everything in the world and admitting one's ignorance on some facts requires lot of courage and guts. If only one knows the limits of his/her knowledge can one improve and become a great Professor.
  

Overall, becoming a world-class professor requires a combination of academic excellence, teaching and research skills, strong communication abilities, intellectual curiosity, dedication, and professional ethics.

What matters in business?

This morning I was having a talk with my colleagues on what constitutes a good business model. While my friends came up with what constitutes a good business model with enough strategic planning, financial planning, market research, costing, production planning, HR planning, suppliers, supply chain partners, sc design etc, I was insisting on the aspect of customer value. 

I kept stressing from an Operations perspective how organisations that are obsessed with customers and offer great value will be the ones that finally will survive in the long run. Amazon continues to be an example of an organisation that repeatedly delivers great customer value, a reason why customers keep visiting Amazon for purchases. 

In spite of what employess feel about Amazon and it's policies, customers are super excited at the value delivery.

My colleagues kept stressing how employee motivation policies and retention strategies along with long term growth projections are equally important as customer delight and value delivery.

Great business performance involves achieving a healthy balance between financial success, customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, and market share. I still believe customer obsession and service, combined with equally good employee motivation and retention policies are important. 

Literature points to a more detailed picture. Revenue growth through high value delivery and good employee policies make a big difference. Great business performance is typically measured by a variety of key performance indicators (KPIs) that indicate the overall health and success of the organization. 

After giving a search on OpenAI some of the most common KPIs used to evaluate business performance include:

1. Revenue growth: This measures the percentage increase in revenue over time. Consistent growth in revenue is a sign of a healthy, successful business.

2. Profit margin: This measures the percentage of revenue that remains after deducting expenses. A high profit margin is a sign of good financial management and efficiency.

3. Customer satisfaction: This measures the satisfaction levels of customers with the products or services provided by the business. High customer satisfaction is essential for maintaining long-term success.

4. Employee satisfaction: This measures the satisfaction levels of employees with their work and work environment. A happy, motivated workforce is crucial for maintaining productivity and achieving long-term success.

5. Market share: This measures the percentage of the total market that the business controls. A growing market share is a sign of a successful business that is gaining traction in the marketplace.

6. Return on investment (ROI): This measures the return on investment for the business's capital investments. A high ROI indicates that the business is generating significant returns on its investments. - OpenAI

Along with other points value delivery to customers and good employee policies can contribute to remarkable growth of organisations in the long run.

George 

How can stretching exercises benefit the human body ?

My friends have always instructed me to do not just exercises like walking etc but also stretching exercises. At first I did not know the benefits, but later on came to know that stretching is much better than just doing regular exercises. My better health for the past one year is based on this realisation.

Stretching exercises provide numerous benefits for the human body, including:

1. Improved flexibility: Stretching helps to increase the range of motion of your joints and muscles. This can improve your overall flexibility, which can make it easier to perform physical activities and reduce the risk of injury.

2. Better posture: Stretching can help to lengthen and strengthen your muscles, which can improve your posture and reduce the risk of back pain.

3. Increased blood flow: Stretching can increase blood flow to your muscles, which can help to reduce muscle soreness and stiffness after exercise.

4. Reduced stress: Stretching can be a great way to relieve stress and tension in your muscles. It can also help to improve your mental focus and concentration.

5. Improved athletic performance: Stretching can help to improve your athletic performance by increasing your range of motion, flexibility, and strength.

6. Reduced risk of injury: By improving flexibility and range of motion, stretching can reduce the risk of injury during physical activity.

7. Improved balance and coordination: Stretching exercises can help to improve your balance and coordination, which can be beneficial for activities such as yoga, dance, and sports.

Overall, incorporating stretching exercises into your daily routine can help to improve your physical health, reduce the risk of injury, and improve your overall quality of life.

Maintaining a healthy l;ifestyle ..

What should we be doing to lead  a happy and healthy life ?

To lead a happy and healthy life one needs to keep good health, exercise and get good food and rest

1. Eat a healthy and balanced diet: This means including a variety of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean proteins in your meals. Avoid processed and sugary foods as much as possible.
2. Exercise regularly: Aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise per week. This can include activities such as walking, running, swimming, or cycling.
3. Get enough sleep: Adults should aim for 7-9 hours of sleep per night. Getting enough sleep helps to repair and rejuvenate the body, and can improve physical and mental health.
4. Stay hydrated: It is important to drink enough water throughout the day. Aim for at least 8-8 ounces of water per day.
5. Avoid tobacco and excessive alcohol consumption: Smoking and excessive alcohol consumption can have serious negative impacts on your health. If you do smoke, try to quit, and if you do drink alcohol, do so in moderation.
6. Practice stress management: Chronic stress can have negative impacts on your physical and mental health. Find ways to manage stress, such as through exercise, meditation, or talking to a therapist.
7. Get regular check-ups: Regular check-ups with your doctor can help identify potential health issues early on and allow for timely treatment

George..