My January post appears to have touched a chord. Many readers wrote to share their opinion. The overwhelming majority felt Venkat’s incentive scheme would fail. Sales report submissions would not improve.
Views were diverse but there were a few recurring themes. Some objections were ideological: should sales people be paid an incentive to do their jobs? Well, […]
Venkataraman Aravind is an experienced sales manager. Venkat, as he is known in the industry, has made a successful career for himself in B2B firms. As the Head of Sales of a mid-sized firm that deals in construction materials, he is battling a problem: his sales executives do not submit daily report of activities […]
I was enjoying lunch with friends on a pleasant December afternoon, when my phone rang. The caller, an ICICI Bank Card representative, asked if I had paid the bill that had fallen due a few days ago. I apologised and said how sorry I was that I had forgotten to. I assured the young […]
In November 2018 the Indian business press announced that Tata Sons, an Indian business conglomerate with revenues in excess of $100 Billion, were in talks to acquire majority stake in Jet Airways. In previous months, Jet had defaulted on salary payments to at least some sections of employees. The Airline had recently asked employees […]
A critical aspect of strategic thinking is the ability to determine one’s strategy in the game at hand by anticipating games in the future. It is especially important to foresee games that may be spawned by playing the game one is offered now.
Such anticipation can be a very smart move. Inability to do so […]
Sometime in 2012, a small company in Tamil Nadu (India) developed manure containing natural plant growth hormones, from seaweed. The gel had to be diluted with appropriate quantity of water before being applied to the soil. Quite quickly the company established a niche with a volume of approximately 10 MT per month.
Lure of profitsÂ
Soon, […]
The May 2018 state legislative assembly election in Karnataka (India) reveals interesting applications of Game Theory. The drama that unfolded offers insightful lessons for strategists.
Setting up the gameÂ
A week before the election, Sonia Gandhi anticipated that Congress might not win an outright victory. She requested Sitaram Yechury, the Communist Leader, to reach out to […]
A number of my readers had responded to my March piece (Anticipation – A Special Skill of the Astute Strategist) by asking HOW. How can one develop the capacity and skill to foresee possible consequences of how the game is played? How does the astute strategist anticipate future games?
A good way to explore that question is […]
A very important quality of the strategic mind is the ability to foresee a sequence of events one’s actions or strategies can trigger. Their consequences may be quite unacceptable yet wholly avoidable, if we could just anticipate how things might turn out. Here’s an instance.
A homeless man in McDonald’s
A gentleman had brought a homeless […]
A strategist’s mind examines a problem from the point of view of other players that compete with, buy from, or supply to us. Inability to do so can cause serious errors of judgement.
A window to our minds
To explore how experienced managers handle issues of this nature, I wrote about Mr. Sharma’s problem in December […]
Competitive bidding is a fascinating subject; it is as much about business as about the workings of the human mind. The desire to achieve results prompts individuals to adopt strategies that reveal lessons from Game Theory. This issue relates to one such story.
Standard Metals, a large and reputed producer of steel, has bid to […]
The extraordinary power of the spoken or written word, to persuade, is undisputed. Leaders routinely rely upon them to convince stakeholders to adopt the preferred direction or option. But rarely do they use the principles of Behavioural Economics to shape their narratives.
In his Nobel Prize winning work on Prospect Theory, Daniel Kahneman, the father of […]
Lately there have been a number of unpleasant incidents with airlines. In India,the ground staff of Indigo Airlines manhandled a flyer on the tarmac. Another Indian Airline, Air Asia, was in a spot when a woman flyer lodged a police complaint against three staff for harassing and one of them for inappropriate behaviour. The […]
Most people, especially managers, associate decision-making with work. This is a narrow view. Many of our most important decisions are about our health, wealth, and happiness. Consider the need to find the RIGHT doctor if you or a family member has a life threatening or debilitating condition that requires major surgery.
In such situations, we […]
We have all read about the publicity nightmare United Airlines went through in April 2017. What can we learn from it on decision-making in a crisis?
United in crisis
On April 9, at the request of United’s manager, security officials forcibly removed a passenger from an overbooked flight in Chicago airport. Videos of the bleeding passenger being […]
Have you noticed that the vast majority of job applicant résumés say nothing about the person?
They say a lot about professional aspects of the individual. Career experience is carefully outlined with names of companies, positions held and periods served. Many – too many, if you ask me – skills are detailed. Achievements are extolled […]
It is fascinating to observe instances of strategy (or the lack of it) in personal, professional and social pre-occupations. ‘Perspectives on Strategy’ is my monthly missive wherein I discuss seemingly simple situations loaded with mysteries of strategy – what if? what if not? And the like.
As a strategy consultant, clients often seek my advice in hiring decisions. That said, the years of experience haven’t in any way diminished the uncertainty or the challenge inherent in a hiring decision. A recent event only reaffirmed it.
I had been responsible, partly at least, for a case of poor hiring. A gentleman I […]
India’s demonetization exercise has taken the country by storm. Amid widespread support from the masses, there is now a growing body of criticism from citizens, political parties, and economists. Arguments range from bringing misery to people, slowing macroeconomic growth, to whether it will have any long-lasting impact on black money. We will know for […]
What would you do if you are in a commoditized and fragmented industry? Can you shape your firm’s destiny, or would you forever be consigned to lament your misfortune?
A chicken and egg situation
The Indian poultry industry is at such a crossroad. At over INR 900 billion (90,000 Crores) it is the second largest producer […]