THE TIMES OF CHANGE

The world we live in today has shrunk in size. People have come closer and places have become nearer. We, today, at the touch of a button, can be exposed to a variety of information that we desire to be acquainted with and can also connect with anyone, a thousand miles away. The world today has moved on to something that can be termed as ‘Globalization’. Covering a wide range of dissimilar political, economic, and cultural trends, the term globalization has quickly become one of the trendiest buzzwords of present-day political and academic discussion. There is an assortment of perspectives on how one looks at this phenomenon. In one such perspective Globalization may be associated with an economic system in which individuals, rather than government, make the majority of decisions regarding economic activities and transactions. In supplementary words we can term it as ‘free market’. So, we can consider here, that the physical boundaries of places are diminishing which is still hypothetical on paper but convincing in our own minds.

With the proliferation of the Internet or Information technology, it is now possible to connect with the rest of the world at the click of a button or the touch of a screen. Man has come a long way because of his incessant pursuit for more and better services, commodities and conveniences. The nineties have seen a major turn around with the invention of computers. Ten years ago, the term internet was practically strange to most of the people, but today, the internet has become the most powerful instrument for man throughout the world. It is through this dominant tool that the world has come closer. The Internet has helped man in speeding up communication and has also opened up a whole new world to an array of information. There are numerous advantages of the Internet; entertainment, services and e-commerce are a few, to name. It is also a medium of keeping in touch with your near and dear ones. There are also disadvantages to the internet; theft of personal information, virus attacks, and one of the prime drawbacks is dispersed information without validity. The internet cannot restrict users from propagating their thoughts which may be fallacious and invalid. This may mislead others who are in the search of information. So it is very important to analyse and understand the data that we interpret from the internet. Though we have access to information at the click of a button, we can’t always be sure of its authenticity.

Apart from the issues discussed above there is one such that begs the most contemplation. In today’s world, where things transform with the speed of light, it is very imperative to understand and implement the practice of ‘Change Management’. It is very important to keep ourselves updated and adapted to these times of change. . Identifying change and adapting to it is a facet of the mind. Therefore how we work and what we do and why we do it, are products of the stimuli that are generated by our mind in pro-acting or reacting to circumstances or events occurring around us.

People are usually defiant to change. The challenge of the unfamiliar is often less appetizing than the reassurance of the known. When people in the organization are faced with the dilemma of adopting new ways of doing things it is not surprising that they can be uncooperative. The organization fundamentally consists of the Internal as well as the External environments. The Internal Environment constitutes of the people who are working in the organization and they influence every aspect of its strength, evolution and progress. While there are these dominant factors, such as social, political, technological and economical change, in the External Environment (outside the organization) that affect the efficacy of the organization while in turn affecting the people of that organization and vice versa. Therefore it is extremely vital to maintain a balance between the Internal and External Environments at all intervals of time, for the organization and its people to cope and progress with the changing times. Not surprisingly therefore, change management is one of the most keenly studied management disciplines today. Many firms and institutions are conscious of the need to be continually monitoring their structure and procedures with a view to improving them. The size of the organisation is almost irrelevant, although changing a small organisation is likely to be quicker; it is not necessarily any less painful for the participants. There are some adaptive and executable measures that we can look at in change management. The foremost being customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction is an expression of the past. With the increasing options for selection today, there is only a fifty percent chance of the customer re-purchasing the goods or service. To stay above the competition, we need to have, not merely satisfied customers, but delighted customers, and to have delighted customers it is crucial to deliver more than what the customer expects, time and again. This is possible by radically improving the efficiency and effectiveness of core processes which deliver customer value. TQM (Total Quality Management) has to be put into operation at every step of the process. Reduce the end-to-end time of key core processes. Another important theory that can be adopted is Kaizen. Kaizen is the Japanese term for continuous and non stop improvement. Strive to improve productivity to achieve savings that can be applied to further enhance productivity. Productivity can be bettered by investing in selecting, retaining and developing employees in a supportive and innovative work environment, where they are recognized and rewarded for excellence.

Before analyzing and implementing change management, it is foremost crucial to gain the support of the people who work within the organization. It is important to understand their work methods, relationships, mannerism, behaviours and most importantly their culture. Organizations have to communicate, involve, enable and facilitate involvement from people, as early and openly and as fully as is possible. Change management involves thoughtful planning and sensitive implementation, and above all, consultation with, and involvement of, the people affected by the changes. If you force change on people normally problems arise. Change must be realistic, achievable and measurable. These aspects are especially relevant to managing personal change. Before starting organizational change, ask yourself: What do we want to achieve with this change, why, and how will we know that the change has been achieved? Who is affected by this change, and how will they react to it? How much of this change can we achieve ourselves, and what parts of the change do we need help with? These aspects also relate strongly to the management of personal as well as organizational change. There is a natural feeling among management theoreticians that the organisation that embraces change is likely to be the most successful.

In today’s turbulent times, where information can be misleading and cut throat competition is escalating, it is critically essential to recognize, understand, evaluate and adapt to change. This is the only mantra of staying afloat, progressive and above the competition.

- Prof. Urjeet B. Swamy

KAIZEN

Charles Darwin is often remembered, not only by Biologists and Zoologists, but by corporate and management gurus of today as well, for it was he who suggested the phrase “Survival of the Fittest”. While today, the growth rate of business, conveyance and communication has exponentially risen, and cut throat competition is on the rise, it is relatively important to stay focused and connected to the world around us. The only possibility of survival is to be fit. But ‘fit’ in what sense. ‘Fit’ doesn’t only include physical fitness of an individual; fit here implies physical, mental and emotional stability, and the capability to stay above your competition at all points in time. This is not just seen through an individualistic perspective anymore, this also applies to organisations.

Organizations have to deal with changing external environments which directly or indirectly affect its internal environment. It is imperative that organizations have a foresight of where they would like to see themselves in the future. Therefore every organisation has to devise strategies that would take them from their current position to their desired position. For this foresight to be met, organizations have to be receptive and adaptive to change. There are a number of tools designed to aid people and organisations to cope with the changing times and stay above the competition. One such important tool is ‘Kaizen’. Masaaki Imai first introduced the word 'Kaizen' to the world through his book Kaizen: The Key to Japan's Competitive Success in 1986. It quickly became a concept and a strategy used by the corporate world. Moreover, it was translated in fourteen languages the world over. Nevertheless, Imai, the founder of a leading international management and executive recruiting firm, and consultant to over two hundred companies, became conscious that the concept wasn’t well understood and implemented by its followers. He introduced an evolved form of Kaizen in 1997 in his book Gemba Kaizen: A Commonsense, Low-Cost Approach to Management, to re-emphasize the importance in bringing about continual improvement in an organization.

What is ‘Kaizen’? Kaizen is a Japanese philosophy that focuses on continuous improvement throughout all aspects of life. When applied to the workplace, Kaizen activities continually improve all functions of a business, from manufacturing to management and from the CEO to the assembly line workers. By improving standardized activities and processes, Kaizen aims to eliminate waste (wikipedia.org).

Kaizen is made up of two parts, the first being continuity or unending and the second part being change or improvement. So it can be collectively understood as continuous change, unending improvement and continuous improvement. Kaizen concentrates at improving the process rather than at achieving certain results. The foundation of the Kaizen consists of 5 founding elements: Teamwork, Personal discipline, Improved morale, Quality circles and Suggestions for improvement. Kaizen works through bench-marking processes and then on further improving them which goes on and forth. In other words it maintains and keeps improving processes. The objective of the maintenance function is to maintain current technological, managerial, and operating standards. The current standards are enhanced by the improvement function. Under the maintenance function, the management must first establish policies, rules, directives and standard operating procedures (SOPs) and then work towards ensuring that everybody follows SOPs. The latter is achieved through a combination of discipline and human resource development measures. Under the improvement function, management works continuously towards revising the current standards, once they have been mastered and establishing higher ones (1000ventures.com/business_guide). An important aid of Kaizen is Innovation. Innovation involves developing on a certain product or a process by elimination of waste and cutting down time, which further helps in reducing costs and maximizing profits. People at all levels of an organization can participate in Kaizen, from the CEO down, as well as external stakeholders when applicable. The format for Kaizen can be individual, small group, or large group suggestion system.

While Kaizen regularly brings about small improvements and developments, the culture of constantly united small developments and consistency, yields large results in the form of compound productivity improvement. Kaizen philosophy differs from the "command-and-control" improvement programs of the mid-twentieth century. Kaizen method includes making changes and monitoring results, then adjusting. Large-scale pre-planning and extensive project scheduling are replaced by smaller experiments, which can be rapidly adapted as new improvements are suggested by the employees.

Kaizen helps in shortening work processes through innovation, which make the actual work less tedious and stressful. It reduces working costs and increases profitability and most of all creates an environment where employees are empowered and nurtured.

Through the ages, people have believed that ‘hard work’ is the everlasting secret to success. But in today’s world this secret has taken a different form. It is not just hard work that will reap rewards but it is ‘Smart Work’ that will fetch better rewards. This when applied through and with Kaizen is a revitalising strategy to reach or stay at the top.

- Prof. Urjeet B. Swamy