Creative Problem Solving

Creative Problem Solving

Recently our faculty Dr. Prasad took us to the teacher’s terrace where a strange looking assembly was hanging. And we were supposed to identify the problem and solve it. This was a million dollar question for us. In any organization, a manager is very important in such situation, to identify the problem and solve it. This assembly is shown below:

Problem: Here we are supposed to remove the ring from the toy.

Now to solve this problem we need to follow the following steps:

• Raise the ring as high as it would go and hold it there.
• Move one of the wooden squares to the other side by passing it through the slit in the top part.
• Bring both the squares together by moving the thread.
• One of the balls will still remain stuck after its square block is taken to other side.
• Lower the ring, tilt it and remove through the slit and the ball.

As mentioned above this solution looks very easy. But some people thought to remove the ropes around the wooden block, then to remove the block and thereby to remove the ring.

Now to put the ring back into the assembly, we need to follow the following steps:

• Pass the ball through the ring.
• Tilt the ring and pass it through the slit.
• Pull the ring up above the slit.
• Remove the wooden plank, hanging on the same side of the other one but not having a ball along with it, through the slit.
• Let go of the ring.

This will put the ring back into the assembly as it was at the start of exercise. So we can see that the solution of the problem is always simple. We just have to identify the simpler way to solve it. It’s we who can make it simpler or complicated. So we can conclude that, being a superb solver is not sufficient. You have to be an incredible identifier as well.

Organizational Structure

What is organizational structure?

By structure, we mean the framework around which the group is organized, the underpinnings which keep the coalition functioning. It's the operating manual that tells members how the organization is put together and how it works. More specifically, structure describes how members are accepted, how leadership is chosen, and how decisions are made.

Why should you develop a structure for your organization?

• Structure gives members clear guidelines for how to proceed. A clearly-established structure gives the group a means to maintain order and resolve disagreements.
• Structure binds members together. It gives meaning and identity to the people who join the group, as well as to the group itself.
• Structure in any organization is inevitable -- an organization, by definition, implies a structure. Your group is going to have some structure whether it chooses to or not. It might as well be the structure which best matches up with what kind of organization you have, what kind of people are in it, and what you see yourself doing.

When should you develop a structure for your organization?

It is important to deal with structure early in the organization's development. Structural development can occur in proportion to other work the organization is doing, so that it does not crowd out that work. And it can occur in parallel with, at the same time as, your organization's growing accomplishments, so they take place in tandem, side by side. This means that you should think about structure from the beginning of your organization's life. As your group grows and changes, so should your thinking on the group's structure.

Elements of Structure

While the need for structure is clear, the best structure for a particular coalition is harder to determine. The best structure for any organization will depend upon who its members are, what the setting is, and how far the organization has come in its development.

Regardless of what type of structure your organization decides upon, three elements will always be there. They are inherent in the very idea of an organizational structure.

They are:

1. Some kind of governance
2. Rules by which the organization operates
3. A distribution of work

Governance

The first element of structure is governance - some person or group has to make the decisions within the organization. 

Rules by which the organization operates

Another important part of structure is having rules by which the organization operates. Many of these rules may be explicitly stated, while others may be implicit and unstated, though not necessarily any less powerful.

Distribution of work

Inherent in any organizational structure also is a distribution of work. The distribution can be formal or informal, temporary or enduring, but every organization will have some type of division of labor.

There are four tasks that are key to any group:

• Envisioning desired changes. The group needs someone who looks at the world in a slightly different way and believes he or she can make others look at things from the same point of view.
• Transforming the community. The group needs people who will go out and do the work that has been envisioned.
• Planning for integration. Someone needs to take the vision and figure out how to accomplish it by breaking it up into strategies and goals.

• Supporting the efforts of those working to promote change. The group needs support from the community to raise money for the organization, champion the initiative in the state legislature, and ensure that they continue working towards their vision.

Common Roles

Every group is different, and so each will have slightly different terms for the roles individuals play in their organization, but below are some common terms, along with definitions and their typical functions.

1. An initial steering committee is the group of people who get things started. Often, this group will create plans for funding, and organizational and board development. It may also generate by-laws, and then dissolve. If they continue to meet after approximately the first six months, we might say they have metamorphosed into a coordinating council.

2. A coordinating council (also referred to as a coordinating committee, executive committee, and executive council), modifies broad, organization-wide objectives and strategies in response to input from individuals or committees.

3. Often, one person will take the place of the coordinating council, or may serve as its head. Such a person may be known as the Executive Director, Project Coordinator, Program Director, or President. He or she sometimes has a paid position, and may coordinate, manage, inspire, supervise, and support the work of other members of the organization.

4. Task forces are made up of members who work together around broad objectives. Task forces integrate the ideas set forward with the community work being done.

5. Action committees bring about specific changes in programs, policies, and practices in the sectors in which they work.

6. Support committees are groups that help ensure that action committees or other individuals will have the resources and opportunities necessary to realize their vision. Financial and media committees are examples of committees formed to help support or facilitate your work.

7. Community trustees, also known as the board of trustees or as the board of directors, provide overall support, advice, and resources to members of the action groups. They are often either people who are directly affected by the issue or have stature in the community. That way, they are able to make contacts, network with other community leaders, and generally remove or weaken barriers to meeting organizational objectives.

Choosing Your Organization's Structure

What type of structure should you choose?

First, decide upon the formality your organization will have. The following table, adapted from The Spirit of Coalition Building (see the Resources section below) can help you make this first decision.

Conditions favoring more or less formality in organizational structures
Condition	A looser, less formal, less rule bound structure would be favored when...	A tighter, more formal, more rule-bound structure would be favored when...
Stage of organization development	The organization is just starting	The organization is in later stages of development
Prior relationships among members	Many such relationships already exist	Few such relationships already exist
Prior member experience in working together	Many such experiences have occurred	Few such experiences have occurred
Member motivation to be part of the organization	Motivation is high	Motivation is low
Number of organization tasks or issues (broadness of purpose)	There is a single task or issue	There are multiple tasks or issues
Organization size	The organization is small	The organization is large
Organization leadership	The leadership is experienced	The leadership is inexperienced
Urgency for action	There is no particular urgency to take action now	There is strong urgency to take action now

 pic of the class during the Organizational Structure lecture :)

Three Idiots Crossing the Valley

Three Idiots Crossing the Valley

TeamWork??

The process of working together with a group of people in order to achieve a goal.

The team work is often a crucial part of a business as it is often necessary for colleagues to work well together, trying for the best in any circumstances. Team work often means people will try to cooperate, using their individual skills and providing constructive feedbacks, despite any personal conflicts between the individual.

What is teamwork?

There are several ways to define team work but for some color why not think as French do. The French have an excellent term for team work “espirt de corps ”. This means a sense of unity, of enthusiasm for common interest and responsibilities

Why Team work is important?

Well its one thing to create a team but quite an another to create teamwork in the workplace. Just its one thing to join a team, quite another to perform as a team member. To put it in simple words, teams doesn’t work without teamwork.

Explanation of valley crossing through this picture:

Learnings from this exercise:

1) Concept of Super Teams & Self Manager Teams: Super Teams or High performance teams is a concept which has been successfully adopted by many big corporations like GE, Krafts food, Boeing etc. It can be defined as a group of 3 to 30 workers drawn from different areas of a corporation to solve problems faced daily. The valley crossing exercise had many characteristics of a super team like:

• Participative leadership – different from the tradition approach of a authoritarian team leader.

• Open and clear communication – Communication is the key to crossing valley effectively.

• Mutual trust – Every person needed to trust each other completely especially when their feet was off the ground.

• Managing conflict – dealing with conflict openly and transparently and not allowing grudges to build up and destroy team morale

• Clear goals – The goals were clear, defined and each member in the team fully understood the gravity of the problem.

• Defined roles and responsibilities – each team member understands what they must do (and what they must not do) to demonstrate their commitment to the team and to support team success. Furthermore the roles and  responsibilities keep on changing depending on the situation. 

• Coordinative relationship – the bonds between the team members allow them to seamlessly coordinate their work to achieve both efficiency and effectiveness

• Positive atmosphere – an overall team culture that is open, transparent, positive, future-focused and able to deliver success.

2) Task Interdependence - It is the extent to which a group's work requires its members to interact with one another. We see that in the valley crossing exercise it is of utmost importance to be interdependent on each other so as to mitigate the risk and achieve the task at hand. This also has brings lot of perspectives to the Team performance in reality. What I have observed is that the interdependence increases as we go higher up the corporate ladder. As a worker or low level employee, we can usually get away with completing the task without much interdependence (even though effectively using the team's collective strength may increase productivity). But as we go to strategic level, it is almost impossible to go about a task without the expertise/skill/opinion of your team mates.  Thus Interdependence and its effective usage is crucial for a manager.

3) The Flip side: Quite often we come across people who get their tasks done by their team mates. One of the flip side of team work is that our efforts may go unrecognised or even worse credited to the wrong person. In a competitive and performance oriented environment like ours, it is important to see through these ploys. Some of the good work practises that I have found in good team players in my previous organization includes:

• Pro actively helping members in need.
• Properly communicating the work done to superiors.
• Pro actively using the teams strength for overcoming problems.
• Effective participation in meetings and team events etc.

These are some of the learnings from this exercise.

INFOSYS: COMPANY CULTURE

INFOSYS FOUNDERS

Infosys Ltd. - One of the most respected brands in the Indian IT space is in limelight for all the wrong reasons. A string of poor results, leadership changes in the helm, loss of top executives and fallout in brand ‘Infy’ has placed the company in what can only be described as a mid-life crisis. So what exactly happened to the company, which at least a few years ago, was piped as a major competitor for the ‘Largest IT player in India’ tag?

Trouble started with the global downturn. Clients in US and UK which formed the bulk of Infosys Client pie was facing severe pressure in terms of cost and IT spending. They naturally wanted more value from less cost. Infosys, a company which never negotiated on margin reacted to the situation by offering discounts and even free application development. The general strategy was thus not to compromise on the margin. Their hope was that the situation would return to normalcy once the economy recovers. The economy did recover but not the attitude of client towards cost. The problem was aggravated with Cognizant offering its IT services on a lesser margin. Infosys reasoned that if IT players started playing this price war, then the situation will become worse over time. Their reasoning does have a lot of merit but the refusal to play it out meant - less deals, less clients and now the news that Cognizant has beaten Infosys for the 2^nd spot. So is everything bad with Infosys? Not exactly!

The IT sector is seeing a big shift. Most of the traditional ADM (Application Development & Maintanance) is becoming commoditized (see definition below). For e.g. Infosys reasons that the billing rates of ADM in 2012 are same as in 2002 while the cost base has increased by 70%. Infosys as a company is keeping its productivity high because it gets 31% of its revenue from System Integration and consulting. Also the ADM work got through consulting have higher price points compared to traditional ADM. Thus Infosys wants to move away (or at least decrease its exposure) in a commoditized ADM market. Infosys which has always looked for high quality revenue base will find it tough to fight in a commoditized business solely by waging a price war.

The strategic decision made by Infosys to counter this shift was to move into PPS (Products, platforms and solutions). It means investing in products, solutions, intellectual properties, patents etc. By this Infosys can still keep its foot in high quality software development. This is strategic decision which has very little short term impact but is sure to help in the long run provided they can penetrate into the market. One of the success stories of PPS is the money wallet which it co-created with Airtel. It is an IP which allows customers to do financial transactions over mobile. It is a non-linear business because the company gets paid per transaction. Infosys is also heavily investing in developing platforms. A simple look at Infosys website has thrown information about 9 different platforms under the common name Infosys Edge. These include platforms for digital marketing, social media, credit servicing etc. Products and platforms are intellectual property-led businesses where unlike the time and material model being followed so far, revenue is drawn from licences or as a service.

Infosys Mysore campus Asia's largest corporate educational hub 

So if everything goes right, we are looking at a company which in the coming years will rebound right back on top because of the strategic advantage of its PPS portfolio. The other IT companies might be still fighting in the ADM space and competing for lesser and lesser revenue. Of course this is better said than done because Infosys has lot of challenges ahead of them on this rough journey. But that is another article.

P.S. Commoditization - The act of making a process, good or service easy to obtain by making it as uniform, plentiful and affordable as possible. Something becomes commoditized when one offering is nearly indistinguishable from another. As a result of technological innovation, broad-based education and frequent iteration, goods and services become commoditized and, therefore, widely accessible.

GENERAL MOTORS

ORIGIN:-

General Motors was founded on Wednesday, September 16, 1908, in Flint, Michigan, as a holding company for Buick (then controlled by William C. Durant).

Durant's company, the Durant-Dort Carriage Company, had been in business in Flint since 1886, and by 1900, was producing over 100,000 carriages a year in factories located in Michigan and Canada. Prior to his acquisition of Buick, Durant had several Ford dealerships. With springs, axles and other key components being provided to the early automotive industry by Durant-Dort, it can be reasoned that GM actually began with the founding of Durant-Dort.

MILESTONES BY GM:-

1908 William Durant filed organization papers in New Jersey on September 16. Buick, Olds, and GMC forerunner Reliance are added later this year.

1909 Cadillac and Oakland were purchased.

1910 Cadillac introduced closed bodies and Buick built its first truck.

1911 GM was the first car company listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

1912 Electric starter replaced hand cranks on all Cadillacs.

1915 The first mass-produced V-8 engine introduced by Cadillac.

1916 GM's incorporation papers were filed October 13 in Delaware.

1918 Chevrolet, DELCO, and other car related enterprises were added to the fold.

1919 The 1-millionth GM vehicle was sold and GMAC credit was established.

1920 William Durant's reign terminated by losses attributable to recession.

1921 Construction of GM Building in Detroit was completed.

1922 Cadillac introduced the first thermostatic mixture-control carburetor.

1923 Alfred Sloan was appointed president and CEO. Two fruits of GM research were fast-drying lacquer paint and leaded gasoline.

1924 The auto industry's first proving grounds was established in Milford, Michigan.

1925 GM's reach was extended to England (Vauxhall), New Zealand, South Africa, and Brazil.

1926 Purchase of Fisher Body was completed.

1927 Harley Earl was recruited to create and head the auto industry's first in-house design department.

1928 Partial interest in Bendix and Fokker aviation firms were acquired.

1929 The 10 millionth GM vehicle was sold. Cadillac introduced the world's first V-16 engine 60 days after the Wall Street stock market crashed.

1930 Winton (diesel) Engine Manufacturing and Electro-Motive - key parts of what became GM's locomotive business - were acquired.

1931 Portions of Holden's in Australia and Opel in Germany were acquired.

1932 The Oakland brand was renamed Pontiac.

1933 Independent front suspension was introduced by Buick, Cadillac, and Oldsmobile.

1934 GM began front-impact and rollover crash testing. America's first streamlined passenger train was powered by a GM 2-stroke diesel.

1935 The Electro-Motive division was established to manufacture locomotives with diesel-electric series-hybrid drive.

1937 GM's Allison division developed the first 1000-hp aircraft engine.

1939 Buick added turn signals.

1940 Oldsmobile introduced Hydra-Matic, the viable automatic transmission.

1942-45 After car and truck production ceased, GM manufactured aircraft, tanks, trucks, engines, and weapons worth $12-billion.

1946 Charles Wilson became president with Sloan retaining CEO title.

1947 Buick's Dynaflow was the first automatic transmission to use a torque converter.

1948 Cadillac models incorporated the first tail fins.

1949 Cadillac and Oldsmobile introduced high-compression overhead-valve V-8 engines.

1950 The first Motorama Dream Car exhibition opened in New York.

1951 The first automatic transmissions for trucks were offered by GMC.

1952 Power steering was introduced on Buick Roadmasters.

1953 Air conditioning became available in Buicks, Cadillacs, and Oldsmobiles.

1954 The 50-millionth GM vehicle was a gold Chevrolet Bel Air. Mesa, Arizona, proving grounds opened. The GMC Scenicruiser bus was introduced.

1955 Chevrolet introduced its small-block V-8.

1956 GM became the first corporation to report an annual net profit over $1-billion.

1957 Importation of Opels from Germany and Vauxhalls from England began.

1958 Major management shake-up moved Frederic Donner to chairman and CEO. John Gordon became president.

1959 All GM cars displayed radical styling in response to Chrysler's 1957 Forward Look.

1960 The Corvair compact was introduced by Chevrolet. GMC trucks offered the first US-built V-6 engines.

1961 The last Motorama visited New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. The first emission controls were introduced on GM cars.

1962 GM' market share of US cars and light trucks peaked at 51-percent.

1963 The first AM/FM radios arrived on Cadillacs.

1964 Pontiac's GTO option for the Tempest LeMans kicked off the muscle car era.

1965 GM was the first corporation to earn more than $2-billion in one year.

1966 The Oldsmobile Toronado was the first modern American car with front-wheel drive. Pontiac introduced an overhead-cam six.

1967 One of the first safety devices, an energy-absorbing steering column developed by Saginaw Steering, was provided on all GM cars. GM's 100-millionth vehicle was built.

1968 The 50-story GM Building opened in New York City.

1969 Fisher Body introduced one of the first child safety seats called Love Seat.

1970 GM purchased a portion of Isuzu Motors.

1971 All GM cars were engineered to run on unleaded gasoline.

1972 The Chevrolet LUV truck manufactured by Isuzu was GM's first Japanese import.

1974 Air bags for all front seat occupants were introduced for large Buick, Oldsmobile, and Cadillac sedans.

1975 GM was the first manufacturer to fit catalytic converters to its entire car lineup.

1977 Large Buick, Chevrolet, Oldsmobile, and Pontiac sedans were downsized in response to the first energy crisis.

1978 Class-action suits erupted over the use of Chevrolet engines in Buicks, Oldsmobiles, and Pontiacs.

1979 GM manufacturing plants were added in Spain and Austria.

1980 Buick, Chevrolet, Oldsmobile, and Pontiac introduced the first US compacts with front-wheel drive. Suffering from an 18-percent drop in the US car and truck market, GM reported its first net loss in 59 years.

1981 Roger Smith became chairman and CEO.

1982 Buick Skylark, Cadillac Cimarron, Chevy Cavalier, Oldsmobile Firenza, and Pontiac J-2000 J cars were introduced to stem rising imports. GM's World of Motion exhibit opened at Florida's EPCOT Center. GM purchased a 10-percent stake in Suzuki and announced plans for that manufacturer to supply Chevrolet with small cars and SUVs.

1983 A liaison was established with Korea's Daewoo Motor Company. The $200-million Buick City amalgamation of several Flint, Michigan, plants was announced. GM celebrated its 75th anniversary.

1984 Electronic Data Systems was purchased for $2.5-billion. Founder H. Ross Perot joined GM's board of directors.

1985 GM and Toyota began manufacturing the Chevrolet Nova and Toyota Corolla at a Fremont, California, joint-venture plant called New United Motor Manufacturing (NUMMI). Saturn Corporation was formed to combat imports.

1986 Group Lotus was purchased. H. Ross Perot resigned and sold his GM stock.

1987 Cadillac and Pininfarina began manufacturing the Allante two-seat convertible.

1988 Front-drive Buick Regal, Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme, and Pontiac Grand Prix coupes were introduced as consumer demand shifted towards sedans. GM's invested over $4-billion in the changeover.

1989 Chevrolet launched the Geo nameplate for small vehicles manufactured by Isuzu, Suzuki, and Toyota. GM purchased a 50-percent interest in Saab.

1990 Robert Stempel replaced Roger Smith as Chairman and CEO. The Impact electric-powered concept car was displayed at Los Angeles auto show and production intent was announced. Third- and fourth-quarter losses totaled $3.7-billion.

1991 Saturn coupes and sedans went on sale. GM stock fell to $27, a four-year low, the result of continued losses, while its US market share held steady at 35-percent.

1992 A top management shakeup resulted in John Smale, a Procter & Gamble retiree, replacing Stempel as chairman. GM losses for the year were a staggering $23.5-billion.

1993 A $2.5-billion profit was reported.

1994 Daytime running lights were voluntarily added to 600,000 GM vehicles following studies that credited them with reducing accidents.

1995 GM and the Shanghai Automotive Industry Group agreed to cooperate on car and powertrain manufacturing in China. President and CEO John Smith became GM's board chairman.

1996 Large rear-wheel drive Chevrolet, Buick, and Cadillac models were discontinued. EV1 electric vehicles were leased by 26 Saturn dealers in Arizona and California. This $1-billion program yielded approximately 800 cars in four years, most of which were destroyed following completion of their three-year leases. GM headquarters moved to a Renaissance Center location on the Detroit River.

1997 GM's Delphi Automotive Systems became the world's largest automotive supplier.

1998 GM's US market share dropped below 30-percent for the first time since 1926. Chevy's Geo brand was dropped. Rick Wagoner became GM's president and chief operating officer.

1999 Buick Regal and Century manufacturing began in China. Delphi Automotive Systems was spun off and became an independent enterprise. A 20-percent stake in Fuji Heavy Industries (Subaru) was purchased. Cadillac's general manager John Smith sent a letter of apology to Lincoln executive Mark Hutchins for fudging sales figures and claiming luxury car leadership for 1998.

2000 GM took over full ownership of Saab. Honda and GM agreed to swap Honda V6s for Isuzu-built diesels. Rick Wagoner became CEO. GM and Fiat exchanged ownership stakes.

2001 Following September 11 attacks, GM launched a successful 'Keep America Rolling' sales campaign. Former Chrysler president Bob Lutz became GM's vice chairman of global product development.

2002 Large Chevy and GMC pickups offered 4-wheel steering.

2004 Development resources were redirected from cars to pickups and SUVs scheduled for a 2007 model year introduction. Cadillac began exports to China. The final Oldsmobile left a Lansing, Michigan, assembly line, ending 107 years of manufacturing that yielded over 35-million cars and trucks.

2005 Chevrolet sales commenced in China. GM paid Fiat $2-billion to nullify the agreement established in 2000.

2006 Pontiac's Solstice sports car was the first volume use of hydroformed-steel body panels.

2007 The Fortune Global 500 list ranked GM as the world's fifth largest publicly traded firm behind Wal-Mart, Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell, and BP.

2008 Still the world's largest auto maker in terms of sales, GM employs more than a quarter-million people around the world to manufacture and sell cars and trucks in 35 countries. During the first half of this year, GM's share of the US market was 20.6 percent.

 MISSION STATEMENT:-

"G.M. is a multinational corporation engaged in socially responsible operations, worldwide. It is dedicated to provide products and services of such quality that our customers will receive superior value while our employees and business partners will share in our success and our stock-holders will receive a sustained superior return on their investment."

VISION STATEMENT:-

"GM’s vision is to be the world leader in transportation products and related services. We will earn our customers’ enthusiasm through continuous improvement driven by the integrity, teamwork, and innovation
of GM people."

GM BRANDS:-

Brand	Year founded	Year began making autos	Year joined GM	Markets served today
Buick	1899	1903	1908	North America, China
GMC	1901	1901	1909	North America, Middle East
Cadillac	1902	1902	1909	North America, Europe, Asia, Middle East, Africa
Chevrolet	1911	1911	1911	Global, except Australia, New Zealand
Vauxhall	1857	1903	1925	United Kingdom
Opel	1862	1899	1929	Global, except North America, United Kingdom
Holden	1856	1908	1931	Australia, New Zealand
Alpheon	2010	2010	2010	South Korea

  GM EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENT:

Daniel Akerson – Chief Executive Officer & Chairman of the Board of Directors

Daniel Ammann – Chief Financial Officer
Stephen J. Girsky – GM Vice Chairman, Corporate Strategy, Business Development, Global Product Planning and Global Purchasing and Supply Chain
Mark Reuss – President, GM North America
Karl-Friedrich Stracke – President, GM Europe; CEO, Adam Opel AG
Timothy E. Lee – President, GM International Operations (Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Africa, and Middle East)
Mary Barra – Senior Vice President of Global Product Development
Michael Milliken – Senior Vice President and General Counsel
Cynthia J. Brinkley – Vice President, Global Human Resources
Selim Bingol – Vice President, Global Communications
Edward T. Welburn – Vice President of Global Design for GM

GM SALES:-

RENAISSANCE TOWER-GM HEADQUARTERS

GM FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE(2011)

Revenue	US$ 150.28 billion (2011)
Operating income	US$ 9.287 billion (2011)
Net income	US$ 7.585 billion (2011)
Total assets	US$ 144.60 billion (2011
Total equity	US$ 38.99 billion (2011

LOGOS:-

• 

  General Motors
 
• 

  Cadillac
 
• 

  Buick
 
• 

  GMC
 
• 

  Chevrolet
 
• 

  Holden
 
• 

  OPEL