LE 01 (21.06.2012)

After thinking for quite a while as to what should be the structure of my write up, finally decided that no better way to start my blog than this question: 

Who is Dr. Mandi???

His actual name is Dr T Prasad but he is called Dr Mandi! He came across as a vivacious person who created this unique event called “Mandi” at my college, who is more than a proponent for Entrepreneurship! Affected by his infectious enthusiasm, I ventured into making my ideas a tool for “minting money”.

“Aaj ki roti aaj hi kamaungi!!”

“We don’t need no Education!”

Pink Floyd voiced it and we are to see to it that our coming generations do not have to mug up the courses and regurgitate the same on answer sheets and be called “EDUCATED”! To bring the change we want, we have to be the change!

What exactly do we need and What can we do about it????

Stringent curriculum, unaffordable fees and less/no stress on practical aspects of education are the bugs to be taken out in the first go. Teaching (a+b)^2 can be as simple as seeing the faces of an intelligently coloured cube rather than mugging up the formula without knowing the reasons!

To grow a mind, we have to LET it grow. Putting limitations by ignoring the actual learning and scoring most in exams will only result in making robots of different faces of our future generation.

In the further combats, creative competitions can be experimented with to make teaching-learning process fun to be a part of.

The most important role to be played is of the mentors, who will encourage the students to think, to question when they have a different logic, to ask what is correct and how.

How do we do it???

At NITIE, our Dr Mandi has started a tradition of making students self dependent, making them earn whatever is being given to the Institute as fees! Instead of making our education (an expensive one at that!) a burden on our parents, the adventure part is brought into the picture. Every student has to compulsorily register a legal company of his own and run it on his abilities.

Applying all the concepts we learn in the class, practical implementation is immediately tested in the market by us students and results come our way in terms of profit and loss!

What we did???

Sounds pretty flowery when you talk about establishing a company of your own and having the luxury of being the owner! However, to run a company is a challenging job. A simple exercise of completing a task with limited resources in a time bound manner and finishing it to perfection was rehearsed by the class by a simple game of constructing a single cube tower! The catch was that the person making the tower was blindfolded and the working hand tied! What seemed to be an impossible task went on like this in the class...

They started with only 2 people near the table, blindfolded builder being directed by his aide.

A happy mayhem followed when we couldn’t bear to remain seated and started cheering the builders from all sides!!

A proud mentor after accomplishment of task!

A simple tower as this took close to 2 hours of hard work!! Building an organisation and running it can be compared with this exercise. Entrepreneurship can be this gruelling and more... but what is better than earning your meal and knowing it before you sleep at night!

Takeaway

Now how did all happen??? What was the modus operandi???

A goal of minimum 18 cubes was set by the builders and to ensure that they produce the desired results, their money was put at stake!

This all sounded very familiar to me when I recalled our goal setting process at HPCL. At the beginning of each financial year, all of us had to set our goals and targets for the upcoming year in concordance with the support functions. Only setting of goals was not enough!! At the end of each quarter, every employee had to review his performance and send the same to higher ups for their appraisal and review.

At the end of each year, performances were evaluated basis the goals set and the achieved actuals. Based on this, employees were rated by a process called “performance rating”. 1 raters were employees exceeding all their targets and so on.

Significance of this performance rating was that at the end of each FY, a part of the profits generated by that business entity of Corporation was shared amongst the employees in the form of “Performance Related Pay”! If you are a 1 rater, you receive the max profit part owing to your contributions!

To improve the ratings and further maintain them, we used to set the goals SMART ly!

S: specific – clear distinct targets

M: measurable – target vs actuals measurement to be made possible for better evaluation of performances. For example, achievement of expenditure of 60 crores as against a target of 55 crores!

A: attainable – Practically achievable targets considering the market situation.

R: realistic – relevant and realistic targets ensuring that the right resources are utilised at the right time.

T: time bound – Time saved = money earned! 

Socho becho!!! bechi Sikho!! Sikho Socho..... SMARTly!!!