I am someone who is fond of
techno gadgets. I have never had enough patience to wait and buy the tried and
tested ones. Once my mind gets
fascinated by a new gadget that has hit the market, I rush to buy it and most
often, end up repenting that I could
have waited a little longer, to get a better model. I assume, this is quiet common among most of
us. Technology gets updated so fast, that even before you could learn and
understand a new technology, there is a newer technology that has arrived and
you feel outdated, all over again.
I still remember my first office
desktop computer, which I bought in 1993. It was a HP Vectra PC with a 386
processor, a 80MB Hard disk and a 2MB
RAM. (There is no typographical error. It is MB, not GB). It occupied a
sizeable portion of my office space. I paid a fancy price of Rs.1,40,000/- for
the machine. 18 years down the lane, we are talking about high end Laptops,
Netbooks, Tablet PC’s, which is much ahead in terms of speed, storage capacity
and functionality and at a price which is hardly 1/3rd this price.
What is really amazing about the
technology transitiion is the shrinking of size. Much more gets packed in much
less space. Look at the way the memory
devices have evolved. The size of the memory chip has been significantly
reduced, but the storage capacity has been incredibly increased. We have seen the transition happening from
5.25” floppy disk which could hardly store 1.2MB of data to USB pendrive that
could store upto 128GB data. That is the hardware part. Now for the software,
with every enhanced software we can see that the file size of a Office document
or a Audio Video file can be reduced, without compromising on the quality.
Computer was basically a data
processing and storage device. Mobile
phone was basically a communication device. The advent of internet has brought
a necessity to merge the computer and the phone, together to create a new
segment of devices, which we call as Tablet PC or the Smart phones. These handy
electronic devices have not only created a sensation, but has also greatly altered the lifestyle of
a business executive. The need to stay at office, to be connected is no more a
necessity.
I have heard that in earlier
days, Germans where the masters in product innovation and they came out with
highly durable innovative products. However their product design and size, were
never so appealing. The Japanese would take these products, dismantle it and
look for ways of making it cheaper. They removed the unwanted elements or the
not so important elements, try to replace the material used with cheaper
material and were ulitmately able to arrive at smaller and more attractive
products, which were commercially viable. This was how Japan became a leader in
consumer electronics.
Japanese are the best in the
world, in terms of optimum usage of resources. It is because they had very
limited resources, in terms of material and manpower, they were very prudent in
using them. Whether it is factory space, office space or manpower requirement,
they planned it so well, that they were able to get the maximum out of the
availabe resources. Japanese always believed that “Small is beautiful”. This
seems to be true in the current context of the world. Today, we are facing shortage of manpower and
resources, and it is wise for us to adapt the policy, “Smaller in Size, Bigger in Performance”.
The recession of 2008, was a blessing in disguise for it woke up the
entrepreneurs, to a reality check. It
helped the entrepreneurs to take a relook at their organisations on a
functional perspective. Many companies, not only considered downzing of people,
but a few departments as well. We need to train our people on multiple roles
and see the possiblity of eliminating unnecessary manpower. For example;
instead of employing 3 unskilled workers at a pay of Rs.4000/-, it is better to
employ one skilled worker at Rs.10,000/- and still be able to achieve more.
This calls for a change in our mindset, from THINK BIG to THINK WISE.
Happy Reading,
D.Senthil Kannan
Article dated Aug'11
No comments:
Post a Comment