All entries for November 2005

29.11.2005

One of the most exhaustive days ever spent. Started with seminars in the morning How should a company choose its leaders? How should leaders be developed?, a good disucsion wherein some of the questions were thought provoking. Will you change your job to a high paying non-nurturing organisation… I would have done that a few years ago, but not now. A small issue or heated discussion which erupted was whether the learning curve of an individual regress as he grows.. mostly not—- I think imran was talking about the grasping power and not the learning. The went on to laugh as i said, encourage others to lead.. I dont know whether i have commnunicated myself properly. I meant we need to grow leaders across the group and by that the leader should become dispensable….. May be even now I am not communicating properly. Will have to improve upon my communications… I will. After those seminars are over, Maggie went on to the stage for presentation on Hoshin Kanri….. Cant resist from appreciate herself for the amount to efforts being put by her and pressure which she was handling. A leader undermaking…. had made a start with presenting or communicating with the group. There were lot of areas for improvement., which i am sure that she will overcome. The other teams did present on their teamwork…. Vlad's presentation as noted by Knowles earlier was very much focussed on strategy. Team 3 had slightly slipped on the basic understanding of hoshin kanri. Team 4 balanced between strategy and deployment, with few hiccups / errors here and there.

: 30 Nov 2005 22:30 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

28.11.2005

The day started with discussion on the various topics for seminars for the module week. up on finalisation, the first seminar to be taken up was about the structure of the course. A brief introduction by paul on what leadership & excellence course is about and why various sections were included. As soon as looking at the mindmap of the course, it reminded me about EFQM - linkage matrix. Some of the good points which came out during the discussions were leaders need to seek feedback continuously, has to be very much aware of his followers. Thereafter we had discussion on entrepreneurship Vs leadership…. why are we comparing those two. May be just because entrepreneurs need to be good leaders to be successful in their profession. The evening started with the preparation for performance appraisal, teamwork. Very long study hours were spent.

: 30 Nov 2005 22:18 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

26 & 27.11.2005

Happy weekend. Found time to go through the thought CKPrahalad and Hames's views on strategic intent. Wondered quite often in the working environment leader talks about inachievable goals and goals being moved quite often, the reasons were quite clear with what was told in the paper. Followed by that browsed through hoshin kanri and Balanced scorecard, the process being followed in our company is a mixup of both. they arent mutually exclusive, I believe. Few inputs from guys who have come alongwith me from India on the various books written by CKP regarding corporate governance… will help me in my future works.

: 28 Nov 2005 18:57 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

25.11.2005

Days target was to complete the PPE assignment and accomplished successfully. Had enought time to download the web pages on the leadership and excellence module. Just started to go through wat is strategy, scorecard…. bla bla bla….. The site referred by Gez was pretty good and the introduction on hoshin kanri was worth to start with. Need to go miles ahead…. hope to catch up that….

: 26 Nov 2005 00:51 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

24.11.2005

24.11.2005
Charged with the readings about hoshin kanri, our group met again at 11am in the morning to plan for the yearly targets. The vision was broken down into elements which will fit in the five years and further into individual criterion. Discussions held about whether we need to plan for the yearly targets based on the enabler criterion or based on the departments. What will happen if the current organisation structure is abolished and structure was aligned to the enablers criterion of EFQM. Will it be possible and feasible, worth a thought. Problems may rise on the clarity of responsibilities.After a long discussion decided to start the deployment process based on departments, our leader has provided me the richest Finance department role. Happy to take that. Module on FACS helped me in arriving at some targets.The PPE assignment is almost over to be submitted by tomorrow morning. Need to do research on what hoshin kanri, balance scorecard and BPR.

: 25 Nov 2005 10:31 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

23.11.2005

23.11.2005
Seminar on leadership definition. Selina's presentation was the highlight ( structured,logical and the flow was also comfortable for her). The team four's definition for leadership included some of attributes like power,mobilizing etc. One thing which i was not able to accept was, leadership being framed as a process. Does it imply that if the process was followed successfully anyone can become great leaders. Yet another point which i felt was missing, none of the definitions talked about the core value of leaders…like truthfulness, honesty, dedication. May be those will be used only to explain leaders and not the process of leadership. Can positional power be used to influence people, if so then is there any particular situation at which it can be used.
How about the leaderships in militarty and airforce where in leadership is mainly dependent on the hierarchy. Usage of positional power depends on the instance and the environment in which the work is going on. When I termed a stable process does not require a leader, the immediate reply from people across….. is there any stable process….... I missed the point of continuous improvement which need to be the pulse of every process. Never mind. As the team disbursed, our group decided to have a meeting immediately to plan for the next mission….... creating a vision for the Waveriders, 5 years down the line. The discussions was very interesting and the idea of aligning the vision inline with EFQM resutls, was well received. Felt happy about that, which enabled us to come out with a vision quite faster. Back home, started reading through the pages on hoshin kanri – policy deployment and at times concentrating on the PPE assignment. Assignment has come to a good shape, which should be ready for submission by friday hopefully.

: 25 Nov 2005 10:31 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Winning strategies

The day started with discussion on what leadership is all about, discussed on the GM's decision to layoff 30,000!!!!! Had a good point from Paul, people are not waste but the processes are not utilising them. Hoshin kanri – based on what Paul was explaining, it was the same policy deployment being practiced in TVS right now. As i go thru the papers in detail, will be able to comment about it. Case study on winning strategy threw lights, its not easy making decisions sitting at the top, the sort of things that need to be looked into, Cautions that need to be taken to. The team was lead by Gez, Gez presented the teams decision, framed, articulated, logical approach….. went on well. Team 3 was odd man out, may be they are a different breed. End of class, we have been given a task of visioning the company after 5 and 10 years. A difficult task, and then need to use hoshin kanri to make it happen. Time ahead is going to be challenging. Afternoon, we the team gathered together to firm up the definition on leadership, went on well with the leadership of Selina….. this time leader. Hope will complete the article on hoshin kanri – policy deployment tonight. hope for the best.

: 22 Nov 2005 21:19 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Leadership & Excellence

Had a good start today(rather yesterday), with a case study on 'LIFE BOAT', 6 people with their characteristics & profile has been handed over and as a team we decided who our leader would be to save from the emergency situation. A good learning on how leaders on perceived by different people. A good leader from my perspective is not so from some others perspective… quite interesting. May sound natural & normal, but a case study was required to reveal that to us. Afternoon had went through the handouts on definition of leadership. Almost all ,at least on the handouts, the people who try to define leadership, are focusing about the interaction & goal part of the situation. Does it require more of a human element to be added on to it…. not sure…. the classes to come might answer me…

: 22 Nov 2005 00:50 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem