Managing one's research career ..

Importance of ethics and perseverance in Research and publishing in reputed impactful journals ....

Most of us would not say it is a menace, but these days most of us professors are in the mad race to publish and get noticed. But have we understood the importance of Ethics in research and the importance of the work in furthering the domain of knowledge. ? That is a serious question bogging the research community for long.

While going through a paper by David Resnick Ph.D.on ethics in research, it was found very useful and interesting in understanding what constitutes basics ethics in research. Because of the author's earlier exposure to good standards of ethics in research practised by Professors in IIT Bombay in India, it is symptomatic of the ills plaguing the system to see colleagues in the mad rush to publish even in "paid journals" to get their work in print form.

When one sends a paper to a sub standard journal or a paid journal ( paid journal is a big menace these days), there is no cross checking of whether that contribution is unique, insightful, worthy of being pursued further and whether that work is going to advance the frontiers of knowledge in the field. Everything from quality to content to format is sacrificed at the altar of money. It is just published. The impact of the research may be very small or misleading to say the least. Its impact may be in a narrow area, yet the paper may be titled misleadingly and made to appear as if it covers a broad area and is cutting-edge work. We all have come across faculty colleagues resorting to such tactics in our earlier institutions. This is the starting point of poor research ethics. Some Professors if made aware of the implications of their casual attitude to research and publishing may be willing to change. And it is definitely worth the effort !

As a result of this casual attitude, most of us lose focus on the quality of the work and instead look only at the quantity of papers. Even for interviews and selection to higher positions, importance is given to the number of papers than to the quality of papers.  At Alliance University, I am impressed, the Chancellor, Prof Madhukar Angur PhD, being an academician, has put it out clearly that any paper to be recognised, has to be published in a Journal with an impact factor of 1, though very few faculty in the last one year have managed to enter that area. But even then some faculty do publish in paid journals ! A proper enlightening session on how to carry out good research needs to be taken up in right earnest ..

An impact factor of 1 for a journal for a year means the papers / materials published in that journal for the preceding two year period have been cited on "an average" once in other journals. Similarly an impact factor of 3 means each paper published in that journal for the preceding two years have been on an average cited three times in the preceding two years in other journals. ie. if totally the papers in the journal X over two years (2006 and 2007) have been cited 90 times (A) in other journals ( during 2006 and 2007) and about 30 papers (B) have been published in these two years ( 2006 and 2007) in the journal X, then A/B = 90/30 = 3 is the impact factor of the journal for the year 2008.

Hope we researchers stick to research ethics and continue to work hard and focused to come out with top quality papers in top rated journals of the world to contribute to advance the frontiers of knowledge in the subject area we are working.

Some of the ethics issues quoted in the above paper are reproduced here for the public. (courtesy Prof Resnick) 

Publishing the same paper in two different journals without telling the editors

Submitting the same paper to different journals without telling the editors

Not informing a collaborator of your intent to file a patent in order to make sure that you are the sole inventor

Including a colleague as an author on a paper in return for a favor even though the colleague did not make a serious contribution to the paper

Discussing with your colleagues confidential data from a paper that you are reviewing for a journal

Trimming outliers from a data set without discussing your reasons in paper

Using an inappropriate statistical technique in order to enhance the significance of your research

Bypassing the peer review process and announcing your results through a press conference without giving peers adequate information to review your work

Conducting a review of the literature that fails to acknowledge the contributions of other people in the field or relevant prior work

Stretching the truth on a grant application in order to convince reviewers that your project will make a significant contribution to the field

Stretching the truth on a job application or curriculum vita

Giving the same research project to two graduate students in order to see who can do it the fastest

Overworking, neglecting, or exploiting graduate or post-doctoral students

Failing to keep good research records

Failing to maintain research data for a reasonable period of time

Making derogatory comments and personal attacks in your review of author's submission

Promising a student a better grade for sexual favors

Using a racist epithet in the laboratory

Making significant deviations from the research protocol approved by your institution without telling the committee or the board

Not reporting an adverse event in a human research experiment

Wasting animals in research

Exposing students and staff to biological risks in violation of your institution's biosafety rules

Rejecting a manuscript for publication without even reading it

Sabotaging someone's work

Stealing supplies, books, or data

Rigging an experiment so you know how it will turn out

Making unauthorized copies of data, papers, or computer programs

Owning stock in a company that sponsors your research and not disclosing this financial interest

Deliberately overestimating the clinical significance of a new drug in order to obtain economic benefits

This is a good article on what is good, basic research from Richard Hamming of Bell labs, from University of Viriginia ( pdf format) and how to manage one's research career ..

Let us work together for a better tomorrow for the world ..

George..

Infosys 3.0 under Shibulal ..

I could only hope the best for Infosys, but somehow that is not happening.

Referring to an article in the April 26 2013 issue of Economist, it was a bit depressing. The article is talking slightly negative of the impact of the CEOship of Shibulal to the Infosys brand. shibulal taking up the assignment as the last of the Infy founders on the driving seat, especially when the economy is "difficult", has an impact. Shibulal is testing the waters.

Economist also quotes that during this same tough times TCS of Tata Sons is doing much better and reporting healthy profits.

The article says that if Infy is willing to compromise on the profits to get future business, it can come back to good health. This affects Infy image which it has been nurturing for many years, that of being a premium player and creating a hype around its processes and service.

The article highlights bad operations management on the part of Infy to be the cause of all problems. Issues with financial sector customer's demand, sequencing customer order wins, spending patterns of clients and the US Immigration rules which prevents them from moving their employees across the world have been highlighted.

As a company which for the first time brought Indian professionalism to the forefront of the world and made it known that professionally run firms can also do it better than family run businesses, Infy cannot go down. The two co-chairmen at the top may be making the running a bit toght for the CEO, stressing on whom to listen to, violating the basic principle of unity of command.

Indians do believe strongly that Infy will come out successful in a short time, given that Shibulal is the last of the founders on the hot chair ( and he deserves a chance to lead the company he co-founded) and the others to follow will all be professionals selected on the calibre and potential from the wide array of managers available in the country and from abroad.

And if Infy moves from the software services model to software product model, the future will indeed be bright .. (like Google, adobe etc..)

Maybe the coming year we can expect to see Shibulal taking lot of risks and in a highly competitive business world, cut the margins but get the needed volumes.

Introducing Kaizens in your organisation ..

Kaizen is basically the Japanese word for continuous improvement. The basic success behind the Toyota Production System or Japanese companies has been their over stress on not being complacent with their achievements and trying all the time to do even better. Continuous Improvement is thus part of their life. Moreover Kaizens have become a part of the Total Quality Management revolution that has started with Feigenbaum's work in this area.

Kaizen principles, courtesy Tulip.

Well then as an Industry practitioner, the next question you are going to ask is how am I going to initiate Kaizens in the organisation where I am working and bring in continuous Improvement all the time ?

The idea is quite simple.. Kaizen suggestions are ideas which you put on paper and should come from the workers who are immediately on the job. That way their ideas will have greater relevance and will definitely bring in better results. 

Any suggestion that brings in reduction of WASTE by way of

a. reducing effort, 

b. improvement of shopfloor, 

c.reduction of fatigue, 

d. more production, 

e. improved productivity, 

f. less defects, 

g. better quality, 

h. improved morale of the employees, 

i. greater teamwork, 

j. less pollution and damage to environment. 

k. less energy consumption, 

l. less waiting, less transportation, less processing time, less use of inputs, less use of critical 
resources, better use of critical resources, 

m. improved safety and less accidents, 

n. less wear and tear of machines, 

o. better methods of operation and so on qualify to be a Kaizen suggestion.

The suggestions are written on piece of paper and the employee is motivated to submit it to the dept head. An employee can submit any number of Kaizen suggestions. 

At the end of the month, all the Kaizens are collected and the Kaizen committee, which can be interested people and middle management employees who are comfortable with the system , maximum of three to four, segregate the good and implementable kaizens.  

The Kaizens are segregated as A, B and C types depending on

1. A - suggestions that can be implemented with no extra costs
2. B - suggestions that  can be implemented with extra costs and 
3. C - suggestions that are totally impractical.

The first priority is for Kaizens of the A type (that do not have any financial commitment). There are many development opportunities that escape the attention of the operations personnel / management that do not need any resource commitment, but which can bring improvements straightaway. These are the opportunities that need to be tackled first.

The next priority is for Kaizens of the B type (needing financial commitment). Depending on the availability of funds and management commitment, the organisation can think of taking up B type Kaizens. C type Kaizens are ignored.

After the implementation is done, (after doing a thorough PDCA cycle) and documenting the benefits, notice is put on the notice board as a form of appreciation stating the name originator of the kaizen, his dept, the work area, benefits in terms of improved productivity, output and benefits in costs, etc.. 

This method brings in gradual improvement over time and is different from Kaizen blitz which is a radical improvement workshop which brings in improvements in a matter of weeks. But generally in the Japanese or Toyota system, patience pays and it takes months for results and benefits to show up and this change is permanent and long lasting with the full support of the person doing it, ie.  the worker.

If any organisation is interested in implementing Kaizens on their shopfloor / offices, they can contact the author.

ge..

why US should never worry on gunshot deaths ..

310 million firearms for a population of 314 million ..

Every year for the past ten years on an average about 30,000 people are killed from gunshot wounds. Though two thirds of this is related to suicide, this is indeed a big figure. Considering annual death rate of 8.3 deaths per 1000, it says that if you are in US, there is a 1.17% probability that you will be lucky to die of a gunshot wound..

In the past three years from 2010, only ten people have died from terrorist violence, of that 6 were sikhs in a Nevada sikh gurdwara last year. 90,000 people from gunshots compared to 10 from violence. ie. ratio of gunshot deaths to terrorist deaths is 9,000 : 1

For US senators, Congressmen and the sluggish, somnolent citizens, it is just misplaced priority or inability to infer from the writing on the wall .. In their over zealousness to control the world and other citizens, they dare anyone else even to raise a finger at them .. What an empty-headed, dumb, nescient approach after all !! US does not need any outside terrorist to kill their people, there are home grown terrorists in their own people out there to kill them ..  

Those with intelligence, read the writing on the wall !! No pressure from any country or people, only if you have it and you don't want to die like a dog ..

ge..

Apple and ineffective operations strategies ?

Some of my marketing colleagues have been upbeat about the inevitability of the Marketing function in modern day businesses. They claim Management is all about Marketing and Innovation - as claimed by a management thinker .. I cannot but differ, from this thought.. I feel a lot more needs to be said and done before anyone could conclusively say or write something in that respect and I feel it is but the most insane thought one can have. Though I do not fully subscribe to the view that marketing is just an exercise in futility for the short term, I understand that it does connect the markets to the products or services developed and thus performs an important function after Operations.

The case of Apple is being introduced here. Even though it is too early to predict the collapse of Apple,  despite its well intentioned marketing strategies and brand image concepts, Apple is seeing a market freefall like never before. Its shares have plummeted from $706 to $ 406 in a year and its profits have declined by 18% last quarter despite slight increase in revenues.

Read the Times of India article on this ..

It is interesting from the academic point of view at how marketing and brand image concepts at Apple have taken a beating. Despite having the best focussed brains in the world, it is a surprise that Apple has taken a severe drubbing  of its stocks. Now Apple will be out of successful marketing case studies of Business Schools and will be a disaster case study at how to avoid some of the blunders .. It is a clear case of how in spite of the best, professional marketing theories of great thinkers and practitioners in place, a company flounders !!

Despite its well thoughout strategies at giving the customer better products with advanced features at sky high prices, Apple may not be able to survive in the market where less costly, feature rich, technically superior items are available from the markets of India and China.. Apple now has to look around for more innovative strategies of offering 'great value' matching with its 'high pricing' strategy to the world. It may be difficult to take the customers for granted anymore ...

The freefall of Apple stock is phenomenal and no force on earth can stop it .. Even though $100 billion of its cash reserve of $150 billion will be pumped into the market by 2015 to give customers the needed confidence, the onslaught of Chinese and Indian products in the market will surely give it a run for its money. Is it that Apple's game plans are over ?? the rabbit is out of the hat ?

This does not in any way denounce the role of marketing in Business School curriculum .. In fact it just means that marketing may take a company to great heights, but cannot help it sustain that position unless it has strong fundamentals and a great work culture. Take for example Toyota Motor Company. It is a great product company of the world. It is known for its products, people and processes (Toyota Production System). A system founded on sound operations culture and value system which has stood the test of time for sixty years and is now among the most respected, adored, profitable and largest manufacturing concerns in the world.

Marketing strategies are all temporal, just a momentary phenomenon, not for the long run. If an organisation concentrates only on Marketing and ignores other areas, it really gives meaning and substance to the famous proverb which goes this way, 'Make hay while the sun shines ". The gains are short-lived !! The mild and weak-hearted will fall for it, not everyone.. 

So sad how the intelligent business community and academicians downplay the role of the correct operations strategies that decides whether a company survives inn the long run or not.

If Apple had concentrated on an operations strategy on giving better products at better prices with excellent functional and technical  features, it would have stayed a little longer in the market. People may ascribe it to the absence of Steve Jobs at the helm of affairs in Apple to give value to customers, but it is not so, it is just absence of that effective operations strategy, a strategy to take the competition headon and give value to the customer..

My next article will focus on what makes Walmart have the edge over TESCO, or Toyota over GM or Google over Yahoo ..

ge..

insta sky scraper ..

Zhang Hue and his Broad Sustainable building plans for the 220 storey tallest sky scraper which he plans to build in 7 months, in Hunan province, China ..

http://www.wired.com/design/2012/09/broad-sustainable-building-instant-skyscraper/all

Structural revolution as he calls it, this is going to be one of the greatest innovations to come out of China in the last 100 years ..

ge..

The greatest innovators of all time - the Chinese ...

China has been a land of innovations since time immemorial .. The most potent has been the gun powder which was properly exploited by the european colonisers to colonise East and North America ..

What is the secret behind the Chinese innovative mind ?

Getting into the psyche of the Chinese, was it

a. necessity of products and services because of a huge population,
b. inborn creativity of the people,
c. an innate desire to do things better, efficiently  and with least effort,
d. less of internal conflicts and lots of peaceful times for creative thinking and pursuits during the 5 to 6 millenia of its existence,
e. a strong belief in societal knowledge than knowledge for personal benefit and wealth as observed in the West,
f. a less individualistic and more community based orientation,
g. a philanthropic mind set,
h. stress on discipline and orderliness or
i. great spirituality ?

What could have been the reason for China having contributed so much to the world ?

http://www.wired.com/design/2012/09/broad-sustainable-building-instant-skyscraper/all

What more do you need, the most exhaustive from A to Z ...

Compass, printing press, gun powder and paper, the biggest of them all ...  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chinese_inventions

The world can never be less thankful to China for their inventive, ingenious, creative mind .. ..

ge.