The case study method of teaching ..

Over the past two years I have taken more of a case study based approach in Management teaching that I carry out at Alliance School of Business Bangalore. More than enjoying it to the hilt, it remains the top student teaching tool (from a survey done among them) and gives me great satisfaction to see find that I am getting exposed to multiple perspectives regarding the case each time I discuss it in the class. It is great to see how perspectives of people get formed and differ.

Case studies are (real or made up) stories that are used as a teaching tool to show the application of a theory or concept to real situations. Dependent on the goal they are meant to fulfill the objectives of the course, cases can be fact-driven and deductive where there is a correct answer, or they can be context driven where multiple solutions are possible. www.vanderbilt.edu

Click here for a detailed article by Prof. Nitin Nohria in HBR of Dec 21.

Prof Nitin points to seven main reasons why the case based teaching is superior to other types of teaching in management education,

1. Preparation

2. Discernment

3. Bias recognition

4. Judgement

5. Collaboration

6. Curiosity and

7. Self-confidence

According to my experience in case based teaching and after student interaction, post classroom discussions among the students is what adds maximum value to students. Case discussions for sure do increase one's confidence in handling real life situations as with cases one is exposed to many real world instances of learning and experiencing management decision making.

One of the most interesting and beneficial cases of learning I found was when i discussed the case on cyber security in my MBA class. I prepared a fictitious case after reading the different aspects of cyber security from literature and own experiences at Goa Engineering College. After going through the case discussion in the class, I could sense for myself the added self-confidence the case gave to a non-science or non-engineering student as he / she got exposed to new concepts on hacking, cracking and information security. 

Besides giving students the new information and perspectives, I have found students to be very inquisitive and intuitive on observing and learning new concepts, being curious and better aware of of business aspects.

Another observation is when the student realises for himself the bias he had earlier and how it has changed with the interesting multi-faceted case discussions in the class. 

Most of the time it is difficult or not practical to collect all information regarding any situation and managers have to take decisions based on available incomplete information. The case discussion helps the students to differentiate the more important information from the less important one to aid in decision making.

Even though some of my students are very appreciative of the importance of doing role plays in the class to give more self confidence to students and forms the highest level in the Bloom's taxonomy, for a behavioural field like Management, most of the researchers feel the case based teaching is the best method of teaching students multiple concepts, helping understand multiple perspectives and biases.

My conclusion is that online mode of management education cannot give these additional physical interactions and thus do not help students attain high levels of learning and practice.

George.

Sonam Wangchuk's solar buildings

https://youtu.be/n-kAMX6Gz6A

Reliance Jio Platforms, the next great offering from India ?

It was in September 2016 that Jio, the mobile platform from the Indian conglomerate Reliance led by the elder brother  Mukesh Ambani offered its free Internet and free calling to customers around the country on VOLTE (Voice Over Long Term Evolution) networks. What started from one customer in 2016 in five years by 2021, has 426.2 million subscribers, the largest communications network in India and the third largest in the world.  

What makes this achievement very much interesting is the fact that all investments  into Jio Platforms and Jio Retail that got Reliance indebted for almost $21 billion has been taken up by global IT industry giants like FB, Google, Microsoft etc pumping billions of dollars, making the company totally debt free. 

By insisting on advanced VOLTE 4G technology over 2G and 3G technology, Dhirbhai Ambani made the right move by avoiding low tech investments which would not bring revenue.

Prof. Vijay Govindarajan, Anup Srivastava and Mani Venkatesh writing in the HBR of Dec 21 How working with competitors made Jio a telecom giant, (click here) speaks of the strategy adopted by Jio Platforms in emerging successful in the long run. The four major strategies mentioned in the article are given here

     1, providing innovative value to telecom ecosystem

     2, leveraging partner ecosystem

     3, engaging in co-opetition (cooperation + competition) and 

     4, providing unique digital experience through intermediation

Providing a highly affordable and efficient digital communications network in the country when all cellular players were taking the customers for a ride, was the turning point and the reason why Indians took to Jio platform like duck to water. Economical, affordable and value for money.

In just 26 months Jio platforms has changed the Indian communications, data and entertainment ecosystem, besides retail.

The whole nation looks forward to find what is next ?

George.

Visit to Toyota Engine Industries ..

 

 

Toyota as a company is known for its world class manufacturing and high quality products offering for the world market. We at Alliance School of Business also had a chance to visit another Toyota establishment, the Toyota Engine industries in Jigani Bommasandra area last week. We had met Mr. Santhosh Rao, the Associate VP of Toyota at the Alliance University industry get-together that helped us to arrange this visit on the 8th of December 2021. 

Toyota basically is from the Toyoda group who were till the 1940s manufacturing textile looms. The father Sakichi Toyoda was interested in textile looms manufacturing, incorporating some of the lean principles and Jidoka, while the son Kichiro Toyoda shifted his focus from textile looms to automobiles.  

 

Due to Covid restrictions we could not visit the shopfloor, but Santosh Rao was kind enough to spend an hour with us and explain the subtle difference between Toyota Motors and Toyota engine industries. Toyota engine industries now supplies engines to Camry, Corola. 

 

Besides, during the visit we also explored the possibility of having a couple of internships for the students and project opportunities. The supplier or vendor management of this facility is equally great as TKM and our students wil mostly take up opportunities in the vendor management area.

 

 

This plant supplies the diesel engines to the Corolla class of vehicles, particularly Crysta. Since some Japanese engineers were carrying out some assembly line studies and restructuring exercises we could not visit the shopfloor, but we look forward to visiting the assembly line very soon.

George.

Visit to Wipro 3D, Peenya, Bangalore

 

3D Printing is a very interesting aspect of Industry 4.0 and we the operations faculty at Alliance School of Buisiness got the opportunity to visit WIPRO 3D setup at Peenya on Tuesday 14 December 2021 from 9 am to 1 pm.

 

The college bus left the campus at 7.30 AM, because of the classes Amit could not join, Rojalin was not feeling well and could not join. 

 

 By 9 am we were in the Peenya Wipro establishment and by 9.30 finishing all the arrangements we were received by Arpit Agarwal, the manager at the facility and his two colleagues, engineers. We were inside the facility. We were stunned by the metallic 3D printed components that were on display, mainly parts for the aircraft industry like HAL and ISRO. They were mentioning how through 3D printing WIPRO could help ISRO with a 4 nozzle setup printed as a single component, avoiding any joints, welds, nuts, bolts etc.

 

We went to the top floor where  we were treated to a very high quality presentation on what the Wipro 3D facility is upto, it also covered some basics of 3D printing. Wipro 3D mainly is into metallic parts which is much more complicated and tough than 3D printed plastic components.

Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) is used by 3D FDM or FFF printers and comes in the form of a long filament wound around a spool. Operating the 3D printer is fairly simple: the ABS strand is guided into an extrusion head or extruder that heats the ABS plastic to its melting point in order to liquefy it.  sculpteo.com

ABS remains a very popular material for 3D printing professionals due to its resistance to impact and high temperature (between -20°C and 80°C). It is opaque, offers smooth and shiny surfaces and can be welded by chemical processes using acetone. www.3dnatives.com

The fairly deep interaction between the 3 engineers and 4 faculty members from ASB helped us get an idea of what 3D printing is, the challenges we face on getting the raw materials, costs of the machine and the process, the challenges in terms of post finishing etc. Due to the poor awareness of the industry regarding the process, the process is yet to gain massive public approval. The industry is very much gripped with subtractive manufacturing proceses and have no idea of what additive process are and what are the benefits. 

After the discussions we were taken to the shopfloor where the complex EOS machines for 3D printing upto 200 mm cube were shown, The post processing is another interesting aspect where the burrs on the  surfaces of the manufactured component are treated to chemical processes for finish. 

The Naval establishment in India has a whole list of products waiting to be 3D printed and will soon be a big customer for Wipro 3D.

Dr U Chandrashekhar, the Director of the centre, spoke to us for one hour. He was looking more at collaborationn and starting courses at the college for the student community, mainly from a techno commercial angle with bit of engg and management in the course. By 1.20 PM we were out of the facility and by 2.30 we were in ecity. 

As a whole the trip was very well organised by Wipro, all our doubts regarding 3D printing were cleared, we got to see some of the most advanced 3D printing systems for metal part building, demonstrated to us.

AU has signed an MOU and is starting a 2 year MBA programme for students interested in 3 D printing from this year onwards. 

We are very thankful to Wipro for making the high quality visit possible. Also to Prof. Reeba from ACED who put us in contact with Dr. UC of Wipro.

george

Bringing Rockefeller habits to the work area ..

Rockefeller Habits were widely adopted by John D. Rockefeller that helped his organisation grow and become a global leader in the oil exploration industry. Even after a hundred years, these principles are very much valid and are helping industry develop and grow. The three main points it tries to work on are the priorities, data collection and the regularity in actions. It tries to reinforce these three important points, focus on the priorities, working with a rhythm and take decisions based on data by a regular habit to be inculcated in the employees.

Can the Rockefeller habits be applied to a service firm, is a question many people ask me. According to my experience, Rockefeller habits get maximum benefit when applied to service firms. Besides my industrial experience that related to manufacturing, I was also heading an educational Institute, where Rockefeller habits were very useful. Daily we used to have the 11 AM huddle, where Area chairs or HODs from different departments used to assemble standing and share their problems with the Principal and other colleagues. More often than not, quick suggestions used to come from other colleagues and the problem was half solved.

Rockefeller's three guiding principles are priorities, data, and rhythm. According to the book Mastering the Rockefeller Habits by Verne Harnish, Rockefeller determined that leadership needs to set priorities, learn from data, and create a rhythm within the organization. 

What are the 10 Rockefeller Habits ?   (www.growthinstitute.com)

1. The executive team is healthy and aligned

2. Everyone is aligned with the #1 thing that needs to be accomplished this quarter to move the 

   company forward

3. Communication rhythm is established and information moves through the organization quickly

4. Every facet of the organization has a person assigned with accountability for ensuring goals 

   are met

5. Ongoing employee input is collected to identify obstacles and opportunities

6. Reporting and analysis of customer feedback data is as frequent and accurate as financial data

7. Core values and purpose are “alive” in the organization

8. Employees can articulate the key components of the company’s strategy accurately

9. All employees can answer quantitatively whether they had a good day or week

10. The company's plans and performance are visible to everyone.

Visit to Bangalore Bioinnovation Centre

We had a memorable visit to Bangalore Bioinnovation Centre, BBC,  in Electronic city phase I yesterday, 10 Dec 2021. Our EPGDM colleague Prof Manjunath from IIMA who runs the startup Nanobubbles took us there.

BBC is the brainchild of the govt of Karnataka set up in 2016 to foster innovation among biotechnology professionals and entrepreneurs. It has finaincial help from the central government too. The centre offers superior lab testing and culture facilities in the facility for budding entrepreneurs. There are 41 startups working there presently almost 5 outcomes from BBC are already commercialized. 

Biotechnology is classified as green- agriculture, blue marine, grey - industry and red - medical. The developments in this area are happening so fast and finding great commercial realization and acceptance that we at ASB decided to give more attention to the field of biotechnology. 

Non availability of funds, long periods of incubation, non availability of manpower, high quality calibrated  labs and equipments are some of the problems faced by most biotech startups. BBC tries to solve them to an extent. 

Prof Manjunath deserves a big thanks for providing us with this opportunity to visit BBC. His own startup Nano bubbles in BBC helps using existing technology to clean sewage water more efficiently occupying less space and practically zero rotating equipment and power. Click here to find more on nano bubbles.

China's crumbling high speed rail infrastructure ..

China's investment in High Speed Rail infrastructure running for 37,900 kms at end 2020, 19,000 kms in 2015, has been the highest in the world over the past decade. Since 2015, they have invested almost double of what has been done by the rest of the world in 50 years. It has run into losses of $8 billion last year or about $24 million per day. 

 Is this heavy investment, running to the tune of $900 billion (by the central govt) and another $900 billion by the respective local governments a liability or giving proper returns to the Chinese GDP ? Is it a drain on the Chinese economy ?

Data points to the fact that it is causing Chinese economy to bleed. This article is trying to point to some  interesting and important data relating to HSR network in China and the world and how it is helping decongest the supply chain networks in China and other parts of the world. Thanks to the video from Chinese insights. (click here)

The 37000 kms of HSR built in China over the past ten years has been double of what has been built around the world for the past fifty years.  

The Tokaido Shikansen HSR built in Japan in 1964, stated generating profits in 3 years, extens for 500 km connecting 8 important cities in Japan and covering 55% of the population of Japan. It has had a passenger travel intensity metric value of 90 million passenger-km per km where the threshold for profits is at 36 million passenger km per km as per a Japanese academic. 

The average value of the same metric passenger intensity in China is 17 million passenger-km per km. The maximum has been between Beijing and Shanghai at 47 million passenger km per km while the minimum has been at 2.3 million passenger km per km. Thus we find Chinese HSR has been bleeding for a long time.

The average cost of HSR infrastructure is about 2.3 times higher than ordinary railway while the fare is about 3x. The low occupancy rate of HSR at 30% is one of the main reasons that the Chinese HSR is bleeding.

HSR rail essentially to run at profit has to travel through high population density areas. While Chinese ports account for 40% of global container transportation volume, the sea rail intermodal transportation within China is just 2.5% while the sea rail intermodal transportation rates for US and Europe is at 40% and 38% respectively.  China controls about 49% of the world port container freight.

We find that infrastructure cost wise, HSR infrastructure cost is 3 times ordinary rail costs. The weight of a HSR train axle is about 70T that of an ordinary train is just 23T. 

For every doubling of speed we find the fare increases 4 times. ie. to save 8 hours on an average for a ride, one has to spend about $32, which does not work well for the Chinese public.

The growth in GDP occurs when for every $100 billion invested in ordinary rail road infrastructure gives a return of more than $100 billion in the long run. But this has not been happening for HSR. The poor occupancy has slowed down the returns that proves that Chinese HSR is bleeding.

It is high time Chinese communist dictators take a relook at their bleeding HSR network.

The Indian political leaders should look at the Chinese failed experiment and instead of going for HSR within the country should go for ordinary rail network running at app 200 kmph speeds.

George.