I was thinking of starting my own blog for long...but then didn’t get the time to do so and then fortunately I landed in a b-school!! Not that I am still in the 1st year of my MBA but isn't the 1st year supposed to be exclusively reserved for browsing through the "rich" movie and sitcom resources available free of cost!! Well incase you've just joined the MBA course wait for the 1st trim to get over and thn u'll agree...Today finally when I finished with the F.R.I.E.N.D.S episodes the 2nd time over, I thought it was time that I moved onto something more fun (or so I believe now after sitting through endless hours of movies and serials)....giving GYAN and what better media to give GYAN than the internet which provides you the opportunity of sharing your cerebral activity with an infinite audience...My blog posts may not be systematic...it may be related to anything and everything under the sun...but then thats how my brain operates even I dont know whats going to crop up in my mind th next moment...so happy reading...hope u like what my brain churns out!!
The Constant change prophesy
They say change is constant and so you need to be nimble and change continuously...well I could not have disagreed more!! To get my point across, I would like you to do a very simple task: Jot down 5 major changes which happened to you in the past one month...one year, the changes should be life changing or of significant importance. I bet most of you would not be able to complete the list.
Changes are constant there are no two ways about it, but at the same time significant changes which would necessitate a change in one’s behaviour are not as frequent as has been professed.
You might be wondering why am I ranting so much about such a harmless common statement which ultimately would not in any way affect anyone’s life.... colloquially you might ask why should I bother?? How does it change the price of tomatoes?? Well how would you react if I say it not only changes the price of tomatoes but could be one of the reasons for the downfall of the so called blue eyed boys of the Wall Street....it could be the reason why Videocon is not considered in the same league as LG or Sony.....it could lead to a lot of myopic decision making and ultimately a huge loss in the long term!!
People and hence companies perceive change to be very fast. They are afraid of the fact that they might be left behind in the race against time and hence keep changing for the sake of changing, without evaluating their actions. It is in this hurry to beat change that the mistakes that they commit are overlooked and get buried deep into their past. The original mistakes are followed by other mistakes and soon the small mistake takes the form of huge problems. Only if we realize that most of the changes we make to ourselves (by ourselves I mean company processes, products, HR issues etc...) are irrelevant and that we could have done equally well without changing anything.
In the case of the now infamous Wall Street companies, it was a lack of evaluation of the very basis of their new products (read derivatives) which they thought would help them be better off in the changing environment was the main cause of their demise...only if they would not have changed their investment strategies only because the other “big boys” were doing so and evaluated and understood the pros and cons of the same they would not be resting in peace.
The second example that I would want to take is that of Videocon. It hit me in July when Videocon updated its logo for the umpteenth number of time. The new logo very fittingly talks about change and going green. The communication from Videocon stresses on the fact that the new logo symbolizes that they are in sync with the changing environment and they endorse green technology. The basic problem with their approach is, they talk about endorsing green and clean technology without actually redesigning their products to reflect this philosophy. This could have very well been prevented had there been an evaluation procedure in place before jumping to action in order to win the race against time.
Hence as the above mentioned examples show, if we are too obsessed with change, it leads to a lot of irrelevant and incorrect decision making. It is therefore imperative to understand and evaluate the changes that are significant for us and make action plans only for them rather than planning for every tom dick and harry!!
The Constant change prophesy
They say change is constant and so you need to be nimble and change continuously...well I could not have disagreed more!! To get my point across, I would like you to do a very simple task: Jot down 5 major changes which happened to you in the past one month...one year, the changes should be life changing or of significant importance. I bet most of you would not be able to complete the list.
Changes are constant there are no two ways about it, but at the same time significant changes which would necessitate a change in one’s behaviour are not as frequent as has been professed.
You might be wondering why am I ranting so much about such a harmless common statement which ultimately would not in any way affect anyone’s life.... colloquially you might ask why should I bother?? How does it change the price of tomatoes?? Well how would you react if I say it not only changes the price of tomatoes but could be one of the reasons for the downfall of the so called blue eyed boys of the Wall Street....it could be the reason why Videocon is not considered in the same league as LG or Sony.....it could lead to a lot of myopic decision making and ultimately a huge loss in the long term!!
People and hence companies perceive change to be very fast. They are afraid of the fact that they might be left behind in the race against time and hence keep changing for the sake of changing, without evaluating their actions. It is in this hurry to beat change that the mistakes that they commit are overlooked and get buried deep into their past. The original mistakes are followed by other mistakes and soon the small mistake takes the form of huge problems. Only if we realize that most of the changes we make to ourselves (by ourselves I mean company processes, products, HR issues etc...) are irrelevant and that we could have done equally well without changing anything.
In the case of the now infamous Wall Street companies, it was a lack of evaluation of the very basis of their new products (read derivatives) which they thought would help them be better off in the changing environment was the main cause of their demise...only if they would not have changed their investment strategies only because the other “big boys” were doing so and evaluated and understood the pros and cons of the same they would not be resting in peace.
The second example that I would want to take is that of Videocon. It hit me in July when Videocon updated its logo for the umpteenth number of time. The new logo very fittingly talks about change and going green. The communication from Videocon stresses on the fact that the new logo symbolizes that they are in sync with the changing environment and they endorse green technology. The basic problem with their approach is, they talk about endorsing green and clean technology without actually redesigning their products to reflect this philosophy. This could have very well been prevented had there been an evaluation procedure in place before jumping to action in order to win the race against time.
Hence as the above mentioned examples show, if we are too obsessed with change, it leads to a lot of irrelevant and incorrect decision making. It is therefore imperative to understand and evaluate the changes that are significant for us and make action plans only for them rather than planning for every tom dick and harry!!
Good Going, Shantnu. Lets hope that you will be a regular on blogosphere & your brain churns out some interesting things. :-)
ReplyDeleteIn this fast moving world(read market)you have to be constantly changing & there is very less time to evaluate & then take decisions. So, I feel that you just have to do the changes as fast as you can (Ok, some industries are not that prone to changes but yet they do it - and here your post becomes more relevant) and then hope for the best - That the change will click with the masses.
@Chandak thanks for the comments but I believe (strictly its my personal view) that relevant change is not as often taking place as we are made to believe in any and every industry or for that matter even in one's personal life...so its very important to only plan for changes which are critical and more importantly give time for evaluating the changes!!
ReplyDeleteItni publicity or fanfare ke sath blog shuru kiya tha....bas ek hi blog likhna tha kya.....aur likho....btw this one is a decent work....
ReplyDelete