Monday morning started with first session of Operations Management. Amrou, our professor, started with laying out basic rules of the game. He looks like a cool guy. He was in the class 15 minutes before it started and struck a conversation with everyone as we came in. He knew everyone by their name, and he knew exactly where we all studied, what did we study and where we worked. And his first session had not even started. WoW !!
Then there was a round of introductions - he wanted to call out names of everyone to know if he says it correctly and in response we had to say one interesting thing about ourselves [something which was not on our CV]. Then, the basic guidelines of the class were mentioned and the class kicked off. While he asked us what Operations Management is, and people gave all sorts of reply, I was beginning to think, that people are going to make this all about grade, talking and repeating and bullshitting. Soon after he heard us all though, he started to take control of the conversation and the class turned out to be really good. Repeats and irrelevant comments were put to halt and flow of discussion led to learning by all.
It was like, from a Cacophony, a symphony was created. Looking forward to attending more of this class.
Then, was a double session of Critical Management Thinking. Rolf had asked us to read and prepare summary of one book among many, that showed up in google books search for "Innovation".
When he asked who read the book, my hand was up before before could get over their hesitation.
I talked about a book by Robert Tucker 'Growth through Innovation' and got the first entry on board. Many others followed. Some talked about books they had read as part of their homework, some talked about book they had read a couple of years ago, some browsed quickly in the class and talked about books with titles fresh in their mind.
Well, Rolf was quick to bring down any arguments [of the authors of course] that were real bull shit. It was impressive to know that Rolf already knew about most of the books people talked about. I mean, 56 random people talking about 56 random books and this guy knows more than 80-90% of these books!!
Eventually, after there were lot of buzzwords out there on the board began the real exercise. Rolf randomly combined a few buzzwords and told us a company which has implemented its innovation strategy around them and he did it like 7-8 times.
Finally, he bagn to present his arguments about this whole Innovation business and very soon, we were all convinced that "Innovation is Over-rated. Adaptation is what matters."
At end of the session, he asked about Beethoven's symphony. It was also part of our homework to listen to it before class. He heard and replied various responses from people about the symphony and the responses were from yes, it is catchy to yes it has these 4 notes - meant for layman to experts in music.
And then he explained why the symphony was relevant to today's discussion.
"Beethoven used only four notes, retained all the grammar of a symphony, eliminated all the melody from his composition and based it entirely on rhythm, and came up with a composition which impressed the whole world. Now that's Innovation !!"
Well, is there anything you don't know Mr. Rolf?
The point he wanted to make was that if it takes a Maestro like Beethoven almost 20 years to come up with this innovation, can we really be innovative in 28 days, just because a book says so??
From the chaos and cacophony of all those books and buzzwords on internet, Rolf took us to a symphony of success and survival.
Next up was a mock workshop arranged by IMBA team to test it for the next LAUNCH. I was one of the volunteers there and as it turned out, we were made to be a part of an Orchestra. I won't reveal too many details, but in this workshop, the 20 odd people that took part, created a music which was a cacophony in the beginning and advanced to create a symphony at the end.
"From Cacophony to Symphony" was the essence of the day :-)
Then there was a round of introductions - he wanted to call out names of everyone to know if he says it correctly and in response we had to say one interesting thing about ourselves [something which was not on our CV]. Then, the basic guidelines of the class were mentioned and the class kicked off. While he asked us what Operations Management is, and people gave all sorts of reply, I was beginning to think, that people are going to make this all about grade, talking and repeating and bullshitting. Soon after he heard us all though, he started to take control of the conversation and the class turned out to be really good. Repeats and irrelevant comments were put to halt and flow of discussion led to learning by all.
It was like, from a Cacophony, a symphony was created. Looking forward to attending more of this class.
Then, was a double session of Critical Management Thinking. Rolf had asked us to read and prepare summary of one book among many, that showed up in google books search for "Innovation".
When he asked who read the book, my hand was up before before could get over their hesitation.
I talked about a book by Robert Tucker 'Growth through Innovation' and got the first entry on board. Many others followed. Some talked about books they had read as part of their homework, some talked about book they had read a couple of years ago, some browsed quickly in the class and talked about books with titles fresh in their mind.
Well, Rolf was quick to bring down any arguments [of the authors of course] that were real bull shit. It was impressive to know that Rolf already knew about most of the books people talked about. I mean, 56 random people talking about 56 random books and this guy knows more than 80-90% of these books!!
Eventually, after there were lot of buzzwords out there on the board began the real exercise. Rolf randomly combined a few buzzwords and told us a company which has implemented its innovation strategy around them and he did it like 7-8 times.
Finally, he bagn to present his arguments about this whole Innovation business and very soon, we were all convinced that "Innovation is Over-rated. Adaptation is what matters."
At end of the session, he asked about Beethoven's symphony. It was also part of our homework to listen to it before class. He heard and replied various responses from people about the symphony and the responses were from yes, it is catchy to yes it has these 4 notes - meant for layman to experts in music.
And then he explained why the symphony was relevant to today's discussion.
"Beethoven used only four notes, retained all the grammar of a symphony, eliminated all the melody from his composition and based it entirely on rhythm, and came up with a composition which impressed the whole world. Now that's Innovation !!"
Well, is there anything you don't know Mr. Rolf?
The point he wanted to make was that if it takes a Maestro like Beethoven almost 20 years to come up with this innovation, can we really be innovative in 28 days, just because a book says so??
From the chaos and cacophony of all those books and buzzwords on internet, Rolf took us to a symphony of success and survival.
Next up was a mock workshop arranged by IMBA team to test it for the next LAUNCH. I was one of the volunteers there and as it turned out, we were made to be a part of an Orchestra. I won't reveal too many details, but in this workshop, the 20 odd people that took part, created a music which was a cacophony in the beginning and advanced to create a symphony at the end.
"From Cacophony to Symphony" was the essence of the day :-)
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