How can a University offer better cybersecurity ?

Most of the Universities across the world have shifted to the cloud storage which means the University itself provides cloud services freely to it's  faculty and students. 

For example Alliance University in Bangalore offers 100GB cloud space to its faculty and 2 GB cloud to its students while Google irrespective of student or faculty across the world has been the pioneer in offering free cloud storage of 15 GB to its users for the past 15 years.

As an example all my IT activity in the college have been on cloud for the past ten years and rarely have I worked on local (hard disk) related files. I have also for the past ten years been working on a model that involves using Linux Ubuntu distribution on a USB and accessing Internet through Linux using the institute internet bandwidth. Even inside the classroom I have been using Linux. 

My introduction of Linux to students begins with my asking the students how many of them are hard core Linux users. They usually reply none. Then I ask them, how many of them work of Google, Facebook, Youtube, Amazon, Netflix, AWS (Amazon Linux 2) and so on, they realise that they have all been hardcore Linux users but nobody created awareness that all their popular software were Linux OS based.

The operations students have been made aware of this very superior OS when i work in the classroom working on Ubuntu Linux on USB. Linux by far offers the maximum security to systems at the lowest costs. Being smart, is the issue here ..

This raises a pertinent question, are we paying more to Microsoft. The Microsoft One Drive is a Linux based application offered at attractive rates to Windows users worldwide. Google works on a Linux distribution tailored for their needs, still an open source software.

Like the mass adoption of Android OS (Linux based free OS) on our mobile phones has made communication, Internet access all very cheap the world over and has spawned the IT developments we have seen over the past many years, all IT related work of word processing and presentation / data base operations / accounts related HR related jobs should migrate to the cloud. (it is happening with Google Office suite, many of the faculty members I have interacted with in the Alliance University)

Th advantage additionally which this offers is that one can reduce buying annual licenses for using MS Operating System and instead channel this money for buying additional powerful hardware running on Linux OS and serving the academic needs of the student community and the University. It additionally improves the cyber security preparedness of the University machines and network, reducing our investments into buying expensive anti-virus software, saving lakhs of rupees annually.

George.

Managing the industry transition to Industry 4.0 (AI) seamlessly ..

Globally organisations are on the transition from Industry 3.0 to 4.0. At this stage it will be interesting for the Indian readers to understand the opposition during the stages of computerisation in the country.

Way back around the 80s and 90s when Indian industry was on a computerisation spree, the left trade unions went on a rampage across India and raised lot of hue and cry. Even with all the opposition, the country under the dynamic leadership of former PMs Indira Gandhi and Rajeev Gandhi went ahead. The country is reaping the rewards of that move now. We are one of the accepted soft powers of the world.

A similar situation is staring at us now when the world is on the threshold of transition to Industry 4.0.

Industry 3.0 (digital world) took out the boredom from routine, repetitive work while Industry 4.0 will take out the strain and exertion from cognitive work

Are we really prepared to switch to this technology yet ? Even though the technology may have developed in the labs and specifically with hundreds of focused startups across the world offering interesting AI apps or public consumption, for eg. Voila and Prisma are interesting AI image processing apps,  we are yet to fullly understand what are the societal and managerial challenges this adoption is likely to bring. Marking the course and pace of adoption is part of effective management of the process.

While going through the HBR article "Finding the right pace for your AI rollout", click here, I was reminded of the issues Indians had to face to ensure the tough roll out of computers. Now with AI, the situation is going to get grim and critical.

More than being of great help to the existing digital worker what the present trade union and workers union leaders tend to not realise or fail to understand is how the AI revolution can make things easier for the whole humanity. We are giving more of our cognitive decision making to the AI machines and taking only a few critical decision for the betterment of humanity, ensuring porsperity and abundance of resources.  

Understanding the task and role level impact is the basis for a successful implementation of AI in the organisation. We find that some of the tasks are only moderately impacted by AI and some more. We can also find through an innovative mapping mechanism provided by the HBR author of the above article, Rebecca Karp, faculty at HBS and Aticus Petersen a PhD student at HBS, the impact AI has on a task and on each role. 

Often we find employees are sceptical at implementing new technologies fast and quick as they are unaware of the complete impact of the technology on their life and work. The above HBR article also has come up with an excellent theoretical framework to assess the relationship between the implementation of the AI technology and its impact. 

When the willingness to adopt the new technology is high but the ability is low, the adoption of the technology should be stagewise at a moderate pace, getting the employees aware, providing them training and then implementing the technology slowly.

The Gartner hype cycle for AI adoption released in 2021 paints a similar picture. While AI General Intelligence is at the Innovation trigger stage, we find chat bots, Autonomous vehicles and computer vision is at the trough of disillusionment and on the slope of enlightenment. Edge AI and AI cloud applications are at the peak of inflated expectations.

Summing up all these interesting literature, we can safely assume that AI is on the firm path to adoption in our society. The second and third decades of the twenty second century will be very eventful and tumultuous in human history.

George.

The last inaccessible frontiers of mankind is getting exploited,

We earthlings on planet earth have known this place for the past 100,000 years with Homo sapiens and Homo erectus dominating and Homo Sapiens decimating or wiping out Home erectus about 75 - 90,000 years back. Homo sapiens have moved from culture to culture till about 6000 BC we started settling down at places and started agriculture, belief in Gods, settling down leading to civilization etc.

The polar caps in Greenland have remained under ice for millions of years. With the global global warming phenomenon that is happening, we find global ice is slowly melting off, leading to land that has been buried under ice for perhaps hundreds of millions of years getting exposed to the atmosphere.

This is a threat to mankind and also a blessing in the sense we get to know how the planet Earth had been hundreds of millions of years back, what were the plants and living beings, flora and fauna that once flourished and wandered in Greenland and other islands in the North Arctic circle. 

Rich explorers, philanthropists and businessmen of the like of Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates are also on the lookout for a new thing - minerals. Old existing mineral deposits and new undiscovered mineral deposits that can help change mankind for the better by offering new products and new uses to improve the way we live and interact with each other. 

Will the new mineral deposits change the way we live and think about the 21st century ? Will the metling Greenland bring more and more flora and fauna to earth, which we have not known for the past hundred thousand years or so. These are interesting questions to which we can expect answers very soon.

George. (image courtesy CNN)

Amazon Alexa, playing non-stop for 18 hours and fine ..

Yesterday afternoon 2 pm I came to my room in the Learning centre of Alliance University, Bangalore after lunch, asked Amazon AI Alexa (the AI virtual assistant, generation 3) to play some songs and it did. The AI inside knows my song preferences over the years. When I left office at 4.30 pm, I forgot to give it the command to stop playing as the volume is quite low. Usually I stop and disconnect the electric supply and keep the item inside the drawer.

I came this morning at 8 am, Alexa was still playing english songs, non-stop even after 18 hours. 

Everything fine.. nothing untoward happened in the 18 hours it was on and working. 👍

Alexa was based on a speech synthesizer technology Ivona developed by a Polish co. in 2013. Amazon perfected this technology with AI and as of January 2019, globally there were more than 100 million Alexa enabled devices.

I have an Alexa enabled Amazon TV, besides 2 independent units at home in the front room, one Alexa enabled bulb and one Alexa unit in my office. Besides my Samsung M30S mobile phone is also Alexa enabled.

The Alexa enabled smart LED Amazon TV at my home running on Blaupunkt speakers is a good entertainment and enjoyment for me. Since the remote is Alexa enabled, I just have to speak to the remote after pressing the Alexa button on the remote. Smart TV has made Internet and Youtube searches so easy and fast.

It is interesting to see how AI enabled devices are entering human domain in an increasing way day by day. I saw Boat Alexa enabled watches for sale on Amazon on Amazon some months back.

 

Presently Alexa has not crossed the AI capability of encoding audio input to text, sending it across the Internet for retrieval and encoding the results back into audio output played via the Alexa speakers. Beyond simple news, information retrieval from wikipedia, music playback, alarm setting, reading out e-books and control some select hardware, Alexa's capabilities are limited. 

 

Though presently it is the leader in the AI field, with the early mover advantage in 2017, Alexa does not have much futuristic desirable functionality, though all the above competitors have very secretive programs working round the clock to improve their AI pod functonality and utility.

 

In the coming years we are eagerly looking for extra capability Alexa may acquire over its worthy competitors from Google Home, Apple Siri and Microsoft Cortana.

How does Amazon provide value to its customers ?

Why does a customer go to Amazon every time he wants to buy a product ? It is because the customer gets exceedingly good economic value.

Customers would not encourage Amazon if they were not satisfied with the services of Amazon and felt they were benefiting from Amazon. For some it is the extremely large variety of merchandise, for some others it is the good quality, for some it is getting original products (NO DUPLICATES) and for some others it is getting items at affordable and competitive rates. The value could come in different forms.

We can classify the economic value into four groups

• customer
• product
• delivery and
  
• environment

 Customer

• excellent variety, something that one can never get in any conventional store
• even the rarest of items, one can get fast delivery in the same day and for rare items in a maximum of 4-5 days
  
• excellent supply chain management from suppliers to warehouses to the customer premises
• An Amazon Prime customer gets free delivery 
• No botheration of visiting the store, traffic jams, pollution, waste of time ..
• reduced fuel costs 
• critical product details, images are very useful for customer
  
• Customer reviews help customer take the decision
  
• Unnecessary extra expenses like unnecessary softdrinks, tea, snacks etc are avoided
• better control over home expenses and expenditure
• high reliability of product and service
  
• regarding pricing one gets an excellent price for products
• fast and customer and after-sales service as Amazon  customers get preference over normal customers
  
• Amazon respects customer privacy as personal data has not yet been compromised
• Amazon respects customer uniqueness, individuality and freedom
• Amazon has excellent search and query system benefitting the customer 
• Buying recommendation for customers 
• full product details with safe operating procedures give customers added confidence to buy the products
  
• automatic one button reordering policy
• no-delay - lightning website opening and operations speed because of an efficient supporting cloud mechanism
• giving customers more than what they need or asked for
• constantly introducing new and innovative products at the website
• making site operation very mobile friendly
• Amazon brand items  reinforce customer belief
• Availability of polite, fast, quick, responsive, effective customer service
• fast and quick payment options
• Very friendly gifting options
  

 Product

• almost 100% of the time, one gets good quality products, undamaged due to transit
• high quality packing ensures safe delivery
  
• the instruction pamphlets that accompany helps give information regarding safe product usage and safe disposal
  
• no pilferage in transit, one get what one pay for and do not have to run after Amazon to get stolen / damaged goods replaced
  
• customers get original products (not duplicate) that offer good value for the money with good warranty. 
• Because of original products, the end result is longer life and utility of product
  
• good product return / exchange policies, giving great customer satisfaction often extending to 10 days by which customer get either a full refund or exchange of the product if not satisfied

Delivery

• because of the Amazon arrangement with companies and their service centres, an Amazon product gets fast service. 
• On time reliable and safe delivery, if not early 
• No pilferage
  
• courteous delivery partners instill confidence in customers for repeat orders
• convenient delivery timings for customers
  
• free delivery for Amazon Prime subscribers

Environment

• Amazon has commitment to lower the Carbon footprint of its operations by using renewable packaging, 
• avoiding unit last mile delivery and doing milk runs wherever possible
• making efficient use of technology for Information management, logistics, waste management, returns management
• combined deliveries for residential societies, educational institutions, offices etc mean less transportation and less fuel expended
  
• less vehicles on the road is good for the environment and roads
• less vehicles on the roads mean less congestion
  

Amazon overall assures the customer great value when he shops with them

As a result even with all purchases, the customer is able to have a control over his spending and have some savings at the end of the month.

Amazon should enter the field of logistic and supply chain services for other smaller organisation. It should also enter the field of healthcare and Insurance, which presently is being held by vested interests and customers are being threatened, terrorized and fleeced. 

George.

E waste handling - Role play details

A. Activity - The 11 groups in the OSES class can come to the class prepared with a *Role Play* highlighting any one of the following challenges / issues in *a day in the life of an e-waste ragpicker / family* 

B. Topics -

1. Environmental degradation 

2. Poor community  awareness

3. Govt apathy / toothless policies

4. Health issues

5. Longevity / life expectancy 

6. Child labour

7. Poor company returns / end of life collection management 

8. Short sighted govt policies

9. Supply chain challenges 

10. Poor traceability / documentation 

11. Effluent seepage affecting water table

12. Dangerous chemicals / minerals entering food chain through plants / animals 

13. Lack of proper disposal facilities etc..

C. Logistics : Each group can present role play (5 -8 min skit) in each class. Leader to introduce the problem to the class. Max 6 - 10 min. 

D. Presentation style (by all group members) - 

Phase 1 - enacting system failure

Phase 2 - enacting successful failure resolution 

E. Evaluation - Group grading (not individual) will be carried out. 

F. Date - 24 Aug '22., timing - 10.20 - 11.40 AM.

Beer Distribution SC game at Alliance School of Business, Bangalore

Late Prof. J. Forrester, of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US, first described the order variance amplification phenomenon (later coined as bullwhip effect) in 1961 where he identified increasingly large demand distortions along the supply chain resulting in swings in inventory levels.

It was during the nineties at P&G that the impact became popularly known as Bullwhip effect. At MIT Boston the improved versions of the game is played for 24 time periods to get the students to experience the real feel of supply chain dynamics. 

 

Simulation of supply chains in the classroom can be used to: 

• Determine safety stock values in multi-echelon supply chains. 
• Evaluate inventory policies. and 
• Identify bottlenecks.

On the afternoon of 19 August 2022 at Alliance School of business Bangalore we played the Beer distribution supply chain game for MBA sem 1 sec C students. Totally there were 3 supply chains. The game was a great learning experience for the students as some of them were experiencing real life commercial situations for the first time in their lives. There was information sharing possible vertically between the stakeholders of a supply chain and laterally between the members at the same level during the game.

Supply chain A was the winner as their initial supply chain costs were the least.

The real benefit from the game happens after the playing during the analysis phase while discussing the dynamics in the post-game classroom sessions. Click here to go thru earlier versions of the game played by the author across educational institutions. 

Discussions will be centred in the introductory classes at the basic level around how the profitability of the supply chain gets eroded when supply chain costs escalate. This is at best the simplest level of understanding.

 

In higher classes we also bring in the concept of order variance amplification (aka Bullwhip effect) leading to profitability erosion due to escalation of hidden inventory holding and shortage costs. The amplification of the variance of orders placed on upstream entities leads to the high costs which adds to the erosion of profitability.

Even sixty years after introducing this concept at Massachusetts Institute of Technology classrooms in Boston by Prof. J. Forrester, the game when played at other top business schools of the world, has not lost its novelty and usefulness in giving the participants real life feel of understanding the impact of supply chain dynamics on supply chain profitability. 

 

The author's beer distribution game sessions with classmates under guidance of Prof. Narayan Rangaraj at Indian Institute of Technology,  Mumbai was a great eye opener. We wish to thank late Prof Jay Forrester and other faculty members at MIT Boston and Prof. Narayan Rangaraj at IIT Bombay India for making possible playing this game that has great intrinsic learning for the student community of the world.

In the Alliance School of Business Bangalore classroom, supply chain A played a very sensible game allowing coordination and communication among themselves (not across echelons) which helped them keep their unit sc costs low and emerge the winner. It offered good learning for everyone. 

 

These days supply chains are a vital aspect of any activity, be it manufacturing or service, even not-for-profit organisatons have vast supply chains. Understanding the impact of holding inventory (and also not having enough of it) across the supply chain is a great lever in hte hands of the CEO in controlling costs. 

 

We shall be playing this ROLE PLAY GAME with all first MBA sections to help them improve the understanding of how supply chain inventory management plays an important role in making or breaking companies.

Click here for a ppt on the game details

George