TRAVEL SPECIAL....... NATURE'S DELIGHT - Stay adventure-positive

NATURE'S DELIGHT - Stay adventure-positive



Apart from Bali's beaches and thriving nightlife are the natural adventure delights

That Bali is a tourist magnet is well known. The culturerich haven, with its friendly locals, beaches to please every traveller, unmatched social scene offers leisure, nature and food to trickle every palate. Besides, what makes Bali so attractive is that it is economical for the diversity it offers, making it very popular with the millennials. It was hence that when we, a girl gang of four, started to plan a getaway in a short span of 20 days, Bali was the obvious choice. Adamant on covering every natural wonder, we settled for an adventure-packed itinerary , which offered a glimpse into a volcanic crater, marine life, waterfalls, beaches and cliffs.After long hours of research, it was finally time to pack our sun glasses and pull out our swimwear from the back of our closet and take off.

TANAH LOT

After landing, we kicked off our adventure with the Tanah Lot aka the temple by the cliff. The temple attracts massive crowds for the speculator sunset it witnesses.Perched atop a cliff, the silhouette of the tiered `meru' ( a pagoda-like structure) against the endless ocean and warm canvas of the sky cannot be put in words. Although, the crowded sight, which made capturing a shot without someone photobombing an impossible task, reflected nothing about the great times that Bali had in store for us.Apart from the beautiful panorama, Tanah Lot offered a very important lesson: Avoid touristy places at peak hours.

NUSA PENIDA

A short ferry ride away from Sansur, Nusa Penida, one of the larger islands after Bali, in the archipelago, is the antithesis of its parent island. The secluded island packs brilliant cliff views and beaches with water so clear that you can spot the mantas swimming from atop a cliff. Our first stop after anchoring at Nusa Penida was Peguyangan waterfall. And it only got better from there, the spell binding views of cliffs and a visible sea-bed at the KelingKing Beach, the picture-perfect limestone arch at the Broken Beach and warm waves of the Crystal Bay, made this day-long affair to Nusa Penida a journey of a lifetime. The most striking sight was that of Angel's Billabong; a natural infinity pool with the backdrop of the ocean.

NUSA DUA TO UBUD

A quick pitstop at Devil's Tear with water gurgling through a rocky outcrop, en route Ubud, kickstarted the next half of our trip. The nearby powdery white beach of Sandy Bay conceal a beautiful limestone cave, which can easily be covered by foot. After experiencing the southern attractions , we made our way to the heart of Bali,Ubud. The neongreenery of Ubud is entwined with yoga retreats and bohemian eateries. After checking into our hotel, we enjoyed the day at leisure to shop for handicrafts and bohemian fashion to take back a piece of Bali with us.

MOUNT BATUR

A trek to Mount Batur, while termed easy , is a treacherous one for those with a sedentary lifestyle. The trek to reach this active volcano starts as early as 3 AM, helping us reach the first base (1,700 m above sea level) just in time for the sunrise. Greedy for a better view of the crater below, we began the ascend to the third summit, which left us exhausted.This in turn slowed the descend, leaving us to be the last to arrive at the deserted parking. While the view of the sunrise with the smoke of volcano circle Mount Batur like a halo was indeed rewarding, the eight-hour-long trek left us bedridden for the rest of day .

RIVER AYUNG RAFTING

The rafting downstream from River Ayung was another highlight. The beautiful backdrop and friendly guide made sure we had an eventful experience. This was a fairly relaxed adventure that's perfect as a family getaway too. While rafting through the course, you'll see the most spellbinding sight: Open temples, featuring scenes from the Hindu mythology are carved on the rocks along the course of river. The lush backdrop and no civilisation in sight leave you surprised that this is also a part of the commercial Ubud.

By Shireen Kanchwala

 Oct 26 2017 : The Economic Times (Mumbai)

MANAGEMENT /LEADERHIP SPECIAL .....How Great Leaders Make Work Meaningful

MANAGEMENT LEADERHIP SPECIAL How Great Leaders Make Work Meaningful

Mired in day-to-day tasks, people easily lose sight of their work’s higher purpose. That’s where great communicators come in.

U.S. President John F. Kennedy once met a custodian mopping floors at NASA headquarters long after normal work hours and asked, ‘‘Why are you working so late?’’ The custodian replied, ‘‘Because I’m not mopping the floors, I’m putting a man on the moon.’’ If this story seems too good to be true, it does have a parallel in the historical events that illustrate how the United States created a remarkably successful space programme, and it offers an important lesson in leadership.

In a new article in Administrative Science Quarterly, Andrew Carton reports on Kennedy’s leadership of NASA in the 1960s, culminating with the moon landing in 1969, and lessons that leaders today can draw from the space programme’s success. Specifically, when people find meaning in their work, everyone benefits: the organisation benefits because its employees work harder and smarter, and individuals benefit because work is an important part of life and success and meaning at work increases well-being. So what’s the dilemma? Usually meaning is best gained from a mighty goal, but such goals are often abstract and distant from any one task at work. Linking lofty goals to concrete actions is difficult, but the loftier the goal, the harder it gets. Meaningful work is wonderful, of course, but it’s hard to create and maintain.

Two examples illustrate this difficulty. First, Amazon’s goal is to be the earth’s most customer-centric company. How can this mission give meaning to one of its distribution centre workers, who could be pulling products from shelves or overseeing a robot pulling products from shelves? Second, part of INSEAD’s mission is to reduce poverty in the world, because economic growth is the cure for poverty, and improved management helps economic growth. But the daily work of INSEAD professors and staff is all the ordinary tasks associated with education.

Ladder to the moon

Kennedy provided a simple, powerful and very general way to address this dilemma in his direction of NASA. He distilled its mission to one of advancing science. Advancing science itself is not the daily work of a custodian, or of an electronics expert designing control circuits, so the gap between the lofty goal and concrete actions remained. So Kennedy gave NASA’s workers the concrete objective of a manned mission to the moon before 1970. Putting a man on the moon was not the same as advancing science, but it was an embodiment of the mission of advancing science that staff members could work towards.

Still, many years of hard work lay between framing the objective and its fulfilment. Kennedy was careful to set out a series of more immediately achievable milestones in the form of the Gemini and Apollo programmes, together known as the manned lunar landing programme. “The goal of Gemini was to perform docking in space, and the goal of Apollo was to build all remaining capabilities needed to land on the moon,” Carton states in the paper.

Kennedy’s vision for NASA outlived him. In November 1967, with the end objective in sight, NASA wrote the final six milestones on blackboards throughout Mission Control Centre in Houston, vertically arranged to represent “a ladder to the moon”.

Kennedy also used metaphorical language to fuse the concrete goal of walking on the moon with the abstract aspiration of advancing science. In a 1962 speech, he said, “Space is there, and we’re going to climb it, and the moon and planets are there, and new hopes for knowledge and peace are there.” Kennedy’s rhapsodic tone rubbed off on NASA leaders such as Eugene Shoemaker, who remarked in 1966, “direct observations on the moon will initiate a new phase in man’s quest for knowledge.”

Inspiring faith

Before Kennedy’s mission, NASA employees were entirely focused on day-to-day responsibilities. His challenge to reach the moon was initially met with a good deal of scepticism from employees who had a decidedly short-term outlook. But it was made more plausible when attainable milestones, both major and minor, that the mission entailed were collected into a small number of “stepping stones” (the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programmes). Consequently, scepticism was replaced by a feeling of progress toward a highly meaningful goal.

Employees’ sense of making a personal contribution to something as awesome as the moon landing produced enormous camaraderie and pride. As one staffer said, “The Apollo missions were like a giant jigsaw puzzle…My role in the puzzle, though small, was a necessary activity.”

As work ramped up, employees started to think of “putting a man on the moon” as their job, regardless of their individual responsibilities. Increasingly, participation in the president’s mission became its own reward, an accomplishment in itself.

Finally, employees began to see their work in Kennedy’s symbolic terms. A man on the moon became an embodiment of the ultimate mission: advancing science and thereby bettering the lives of humankind. The abstract and concrete became one.

Carton suggests that Kennedy’s symbols opened a pathway between pragmatism and idealism. His symbolic framework was necessary inspiration to an organisation that had initially scoffed at the notion of getting to the moon before the decade was out which went on to accomplish just that.

The idea of finding a way to embody an overall mission as a more concrete objective is related to an essential insight in management. Management practice often centres on “fluffy” performances such as missions, speeches, goal statements, and quick tours and interactions. None of this fluff helps if it is disconnected from the activities and meaning of all members of the organisation. Mission and goal statements contribute to success if they are oriented toward the embodiment of concrete activities that people can use to choose their own actions and construct meaning.

Henrich Greve, INSEAD Professor of Entrepreneurship | October 13, 2017

Read more at https://knowledge.insead.edu/blog/insead-blog/how-great-leaders-make-work-meaningful-7421?utm_source=INSEAD+Knowledge&utm_campaign=bbc918ab98-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_10_26&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_e079141ebb-bbc918ab98-249840429#2e8Fg5LfKjSKlx10.99

PERSONAL SPECIAL ....HOW TO BOOST YOUR MEMORY

HOW TO BOOST YOUR MEMORY





Neurologists provide tips that will improve your ability to retain, recollect and remember

We've all been there. That fateful day when you had that big meeting at work and the house help didn't show and you missed your regular train. All this cumulatively resulted in a disaster -you forgot to make a copy of that presentation you stayed up all night working on. It's easy to blame your fading memory but city neurologists feel it's a clear case of over-exhaustion that takes a toll on our mind, which is unable to process multiple tasks. “If you concentrate on one thing, your memory power will be better but when juggling too many things at a time, the brain is unable to process so much information at a go. For instance, if you're talking on the phone, while making tea and watching TV and doing laundry -all at the same time, then it's hardly surprising if you forget to put powder in the washing machine or sugar in the tea,“ explains Dr Sangeeta Ravat, head of neurology at KEM Hospital. Here's how you can improve your memory.

Memorise by association

If you associate an idea in different ways -by sound, words or music, stimulating different areas -you will remember it better. “If you have a thought, say it aloud or sing it aloud or write it down. Associate it with visualisation -draw it down on paper and then it will become a strong memory. A lot of our memory is visual and visual memory is the strongest. If someone were to tell you not to imagine Mona Lisa with a moustache, you will find it difficult to not imagine it,“ explains Dr Shirish Hastak, director of neurology at Wockhardt Hospital who has been conducting a memory enhancement workshop for the last 10 years.

Emotional connect

Use other senses, rather than words and sounds. You can use other tonalities to keep the association strong. A common method leans on the slap-in-the-face principle. It is well known that emotional compo nent makes memory strong. “We all will remember where we were when Indira Gandhi died, but we won't remember the day after that. All things are stored in different places in the brain and you must create multiple keys to gain access to each of the places,“ says Hastak.

Brain food

Like our body is conditioned by what we eat and the workout we follow, the brain all needs adequate nutrients to function optimally. “Brain is driven by the heart so affiliated conditions such as diabetes, hypertension and obesity must be controlled if not avoided. Oily food should be avoided, salt should be in moderation and one must try sticking to calorie counted meals,“ says Dr Annu Aggarwal, consultant neurologist and specialist in cognitive and behavioural neurology at Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital. She feels that the Indian diet is not equipped to provide most necessary nutrients for the body and the brain. “Vitamins are vital minerals and if we don't get them from what we eat, we should take supplements. It's a myth that one can get sufficient Vitamin D through sunlight or milk. One needs to acquire it through supplements.But this should be done under a doctor's supervision because high Vitamin D can again cause kidney issues. Also, all vegetarians need to be on B-complex because our diet is not geared to deliver the required intake. Even non-vegetarians need it since it's not like all our meals will have lean meats. Low Vitamin D and B complex are common reasons for memory problem,“ she adds.

Curb anxiety

That most of us are grappling with such high levels of stress and anxiety, the fact that it limits our memory too, would seem severely daunting. Hastak feels that this feeling of unease and dread is amplified with information overload one has through constantly checking WhatsApp, Facebook and other social channels. “The brain has a capacity and memory has a capacity.If you overload it, it will give in,“ says Hastak, adding that doing so would also mean “missing out on the important things in life“. “Time is limited and since you're pushing as much as you can through a narrow time window, you're likely to forget more.“ Apart from volume of information, it is also the nature of the information consumed that could impact one's memory.“Negativity makes for news and it's all over social media -someone killed someone, a big hurricane is coming your way, a big crash took place in your city. This creates emotional disturbance and can disrupt your memory,“ says Hastak who suggests that one limit their internet time to 30 minutes in the morning and evening. It may be challenging initially, he says, but if one takes the effort to train oneself, it's possible and the recharged ability to focus will be a payoff worth the sacrifice.“Today, our whole lives are online.The positive part is that we're well connected. But the disadvantage is you're hyper connected and it's not good for your brain's health. Lack of focus, means you're in trouble as it is the key to contributing to life.“

Brain building for the old

The more we use our brains, the more maintained our networks are.The good thing about working professionals is that they are active -they are managing a job and their home. This poses challenges in different aspects of their life which strengthens the brain. “The idea is their life which strengthens the brain. “The idea is not become complacent, especially after reaching a certain space in one's career or post retirement, one shouldn't ease off the mental tasks,“ says Aggarwal.She feels that it is important to plan the cognitive activities post retirement, just like one plans one's career. “Join hobby groups, go out for movies and plays. Maintain an intellectually demanding schedule.And you must plan it. It won't come spontaneously. Laughter clubs and exercise help, but one must keep one's brain healthy. Have a consultancy, take up a hobby every six months, join a language class, pursue social work. It is advised that children don't take charge over their parents' life and allow them to learn how to manage things such as net banking, responding to emails and taking charge of investments.These activities will ensure they interact with people. You can't resign to a sedentary life as everyday life doesn't pose that many challenges like one gets from work life,“ adds Aggarwal.

Prioritise and focus

Just like it's impossible for us to be at multiple places at the same time, it's impractical for us to focus on multiple conversations without being distracted or scattered. Hastak agrees with this and says that we have limits to our consciousness.“If you're speaking with two people and the third one joins in and speaks simultaneously, you won't be able to focus on all conversations. So, you have to understand what is mainstream knowledge and what is parallel knowledge and focus on what matters more. A practical way of segregating would be to slot your life and tasks into A, B and C and include time spent on social media and WhatsApp in D.“

Hello from the other side

It's necessary for us to employ the hand we don't normally use for daily tasks. So, if you're right-handed, try training your left hand for daily tasks such as brushing or shaving. “The idea is that if you use both sides of the brain effectively, the brain grows on the opposite hemisphere. In physical objects, you use it and lose it but in biological terms, you use or lose it and the same is true for the health of the brain,“ says Hastak

Kunal Guha

MM 26OCT17 

DIGITAL SPECIAL ....Overcoming Resistance to Digital Change

DIGITAL SPECIAL Overcoming Resistance to Digital Change

Leaders need to see the ways in which digital change is different.

Going digital requires a lot of change management, and perhaps more time and energy is spent here than on anything else. Why would that be the case? Organisations on the digital journey may need to rethink core roles and processes. The result is that as much as companies may aim for external disruption in these changes, there is also likely to be severe internal disruption. This is why “cool” digital ideas may not seem so cool or friendly to internal stakeholders. In fact, they may be very hostile. Also, these changes may involve deeper learning curves, with initial losses of efficiency and/or effectiveness, as the core system is in transition (i.e. things are likely to get worse first before they get better, and the trough potentially deeper than other sorts of change). Finally, the integration needs of digitising companies may be greater than other forms of change, with more unintended consequences of digital changes (i.e. knock-on effects to other systems and processes or partners).

For these reasons, the journey may be a bumpy one. The pace and extent of change can unsettle staff and manifest itself in the form of resistance, and according to our interviews with digitising companies, that resistance can be especially strong among middle managers. This level in the organisation seems to be particularly troubled by digital transformation. But this begs the question of why? Is the reasoning fairly obvious (digitisation as a threat) or is more going on? We found, in fact, three factors.

The first reason we came across was certainly the perceived threat of the change. For example, one participant explained that the shift for organisations to be driven by data and analytics is a direct assault on middle managers sense of control. “You're basically saying your customer is your expert now and your customer knows what's best. Maybe what [managers] thought was the right thing to do doesn't matter as much anymore,” said one. There is also the threat of learning new technologies.

The second reason is seemingly obvious but underappreciated: time. Time to learn, to set up new routines or collaborate more broadly is now of the essence. But the lives of most middle managers are filled with meetings, reports and a bureaucracy that they need to feed on a daily basis. Who has time for retooling? They are also shackled to metrics and legacy incentives that focus them on near-term results or legacy processes. This leaves middle management with little time to get up to speed with other organisational initiatives. One interviewee told us “we don’t really have a reward system for things like that [involvement in digital initiatives]”. Ultimately, meeting their official targets is what they are appraised on. “It’s a time and a priority issue,” they continued.

The third is value. Middle management may resist for the simple reason that a digital idea or initiative lacks value. Organisations can certainly be swept up in what appear to be game-changing new technologies that might not become big hits. Therefore, digital leaders need to be careful not to confuse personal threat and rigidity “resistance” with honest “questioning” of the value proposition behind a new digital initiative.

The change agent’s to do list

As we established in our interviews, not all middle managers are driven by purely self-protection. Neither are they clueless about the importance of things digital. It is likely that their personal lives are filled with an abundance of digital technologies, so they understand the potential.

So what should change agents do? Our interviews with executives actively involved in shaping the digital future of their companies revealed three strategies they could employ.

First, create a sense of opportunity, not only threat. One interviewee told us that what middle managers are looking for from their leaders is a “clearly established sense of what you’re trying to achieve”. They want clarity from their leadership to fully understand the strategy and absorb the changes to see how they can apply their skillsets or learn what needs to be learned.

The same participant continued, “What can happen within digital is that because there’s so much uncertainty, you don’t pay enough attention to your strategy, what are you really trying to achieve and how do we innovate within that.”

Second, create a narrative to educate. Constant education is essential to digitisation, which means digital leaders need to get into the corridors, lunch rooms, meeting areas, virtual chatrooms and engage people. The importance of engagement cannot be underestimated as far as one interviewee was concerned: “Within the last 12 months, I think we achieved a lot in terms of probably 50 percent of the middle management is now accepting what we are doing…They say ‘okay, we understand what they are doing. We understand how they are doing it’. We are also…taking people from the middle management and saying ‘okay, you are responsible for managing the investment into this and that.’”

Education may, in fact, need to go further. Firms should consider systematic efforts (time and resources) to help middle managers get up to speed on new digital technologies and methods. This does not mean turning a middle manager into an expert in data analytics, but some training in specific skills may be valuable and perfectly adequate. Unless the education sector can quickly produce an overabundance of new talent with such digital skills (which seems unlikely), some retraining may be necessary.

Finally, resistance may not fade away completely unless digitalisation activities are taken seriously and allocated real power and status. Leaders, therefore, need to make sure that digital roles and structures have the power to do their work and push the organisation along, not just pull.

“In the past, the digital leaders were not as important as the [core business] leaders and we are now better [positioned] in the structure and have more power. This is one important part,” said one interviewee.

In summary, our interviews suggest that managing digital change requires more appreciation of integration issues and internal disruption consequences, and the clear building of expectations. Managers need to understand exactly why people resist (fear, but also a lack of time and recognition, and serious questions about value) and address their worries accordingly. Finally, we need to think seriously about retooling methods for middle managers

Charles Galunic, INSEAD Professor of Organisational Behaviour | October 20, 2017

Read more at https://knowledge.insead.edu/leadership-organisations/overcoming-resistance-to-digital-change-7496?utm_source=INSEAD+Knowledge&utm_campaign=bbc918ab98-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_10_26&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_e079141ebb-bbc918ab98-249840429#3QGVt83OGm4pTDbJ.99

MANAGEMENT SPECIAL ......Preparing Teams to Lead Innovative Change

Preparing Teams to Lead Innovative Change

A new model of organisational change for today’s fast-moving industries.

The auto industry may be in for a double upending in the near future. First, the tipping point for self-driving cars is expected to occur between 2020 and 2026, according to experts’ estimates. Second, the rise of ride-sharing (otherwise known as “Uberisation”) poses a potentially fatal threat to the prevailing business model. Looking ahead to the next decade, it’s impossible to predict the future of cars, let alone that of an industry based around putting a car in every driveway.

Automakers aren’t alone in confronting blinding, multileveled change. Before the iPhone, few anticipated that smartphones would essentially reshape the field of consumer electronics. Now, innovation is coming so rapidly that one in two consumers believes the smartphone itself will be obsolete by 2020.

The state of play in today’s most innovative, dynamic industries requires organisations to think and adapt in new ways. The familiar paradigm of strategic change—wherein senior leaders dream up the vision and see it through to completion—is out of place in a world where no one, in or out of the C-suite, knows what the future holds. To remain innovative, strategic change itself needs to evolve from a top-down, linear process to a more democratised, open-ended process. The primary staging ground should shift from the organisation as a whole to its constituent teams. In a paper (co-authored by my INSEAD colleague Quy Huy), presented at the most recent Academy of Management Annual Meeting, we explore a new model of strategic change and attempt to answer some of the questions it raises.

Orchestrating change

Our inter-team model would remove the pressure on top leaders to be industry prophets. Instead, the task of determining the organisation’s future direction can be divided among frontline teams, each with its own area of expertise. Pooling the fruits of their parallel experiments, teams can develop collective knowledge resources that can be converted—with support from senior leadership—into innovative organisational routines. The cycle can be repeated any number of times. When innovative capacities start to run dry, they can be regenerated at the intersections of team activity.

Of course, without some form of discipline the whole system would be in danger of collapsing into chaos. We use the analogy of a symphony orchestra: The various sections and sub-sections of an orchestra each play different music, yet the conductor’s baton unites them. In our model, the “conductor” is the top team, whose role would include (among other functions): fostering a safe, empowering context for the frontline teams’ experimentation, aiding horizontal coordination, setting behavioural norms, and guiding selection and implementation of appropriate strategic options.

Our orchestra analogy isn’t perfect. There is no sheet music—i.e. no predetermined plan—for the teams in our model. In this sense, they would be more like a well-rehearsed and experienced jazz combo, composing the piece in collaboration as they play it. Their improvisations, however, receive structure and shape largely from guardrails set down by senior leaders. It falls to the top teams to maintain harmony between team experimentation and overarching strategic goals.

Our model allows teams to assume task-appropriate roles at different points, instead of being made to march in organisational lockstep. They can even take a break—just as sections in an orchestra will “rest” as the music requires—while the work goes on around them. Teams need periods of slowdown and stillness to cope with a potentially exhausting environment of continual change.

Three critical functions

Preparing teams to initiate strategic change will usually require strategic investments on the part of companies. We isolate three areas of critical importance towards which companies should consider directing time and resources.

1) Discovering – Teams focusing on this function prioritise and excel at what we call “scouting” tasks. In other words, they are silo-busters. By learning more about their wider terrain, they ensure the experimental process remains relevant to the real-world context. Before experimentation begins, a main concern for leaders will be whether team members are diverse enough in their abilities and approaches to tackle the task environment. Where knowledge is lacking within the team, leaders will set up cross-team collaborations to compensate.

Top teams can help the frontlines perform these tasks better by fostering a holistic mindset—creating conduits for intra-organisational collaboration and providing frontline team leaders with a broader strategic orientation.

2) Deliberating – This function corresponds to an “ambassador” role in which politics (an organisational inevitability) comes to the fore. Once experimental results are in, teams will compete with one another to win scarce resources. In essence, this is a political process wherein actors proffer contrasting change visions in hopes of swaying higher-ups. In making their case, teams should be sophisticated about the motivations—both overt and hidden—of all players concerned. Eventually, visions that fail to win widespread support will fade from consideration, while those that remain will come to inform the new strategic direction.

Top teams should be ready to ask pointed questions of frontline teams, in order to assess the relevance of proposals to the overall strategy. Also, senior leaders can alert frontline teams to political pitfalls (such as pockets of elite resistance) they may be unaware of, or unprepared for.

3) Embedding – This function requires a “task coordinator” role whose purpose is to translate new strategic directions into manageable, sustainable routines. At the grassroots, it will take many forms: coordinating with various stakeholders to address their concerns about the change; collecting evidence to reinforce the legitimacy of the new direction; and conveying timely information both from and to higher-ups (to name a few).

Senior leaders will be under the microscope during the embedding phase. While being careful to keep words and actions consistent, top teams should tailor their communication strategies to the demands of the moment. When they don’t have the luxury of time to elucidate an original or complex change narrative, simplicity will do. For example, former IBM CEO Lou Gerstner eschewed all embellishment as he began framing his change vision, encapsulating everything in the simple value of customer service that fueled the company’s initial success.

The three functions above are not entirely unique to our model. They are similar to components of past theories of organisational change. Our model differs in transferring them from a context where the three are performed in linear sequence to a (team-based) context where they are performed simultaneously by different work units, each at its own task-appropriate pace.

Putting it into practice

The chief beneficiaries of our model would be incumbents experiencing fast-moving, existential change in their operative environment, e.g. automakers such as Daimler or Toyota. Organisations with a clearer notion of what the future holds are better able to execute strategic change using the familiar, top-down structure. As fast-moving market and tech trends capture more and more industries, we predict that our team-based schema will become increasingly pertinent.

A good starting point for implementation is to experiment, e.g. as part of a leadership development programme. Split into “frontline teams” reporting to the top team, participants could be asked to devise possible solutions to a strategy-related problem facing either the organisation or the industry as a whole. The inter-team competitive element could be either downplayed or accentuated, depending on organisational culture and demands.

Henrik Bresman, INSEAD Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour | October 11, 2017

Read more at https://knowledge.insead.edu/leadership-organisations/preparing-teams-to-lead-innovative-change-7391?utm_source=INSEAD+Knowledge&utm_campaign=bbc918ab98-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_10_26&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_e079141ebb-bbc918ab98-249840429#5KElI30YKH7lAxkJ.99

GADGET GIZMO SPECIAL.... Ultra Portables

Ultra Portables  We all carry a powerful computer--in the form of a smartphone--with us every day. Ashutos Desai and Savio D'Souza now tell you about mini accessories that you might want to consider whether it's for cinematic multimedia entertainment, printing photos, juicing up your devices' batteries or just backing up your data. The best part? All of these will fit in a single backpack. PORTRONICS PROGENIE & BEEM 100 The Progenie is a mini projector with dimensions of 80x80x38mm and weighing 208g. You get an RGB LED lamp with a lifespan of 20,000 hours, and a brightness of 100 ANSI lumens, and a 1000:1 contrast ratio. The Progenie uses Texas Instruments' proprietary DLP technology , which allows for its smaller size when compared to LCD projectors.This tech also means you are promised deeper blacks in comparison. The device, which packs in a rechargeable 3400mAh battery , comes with a 3W speaker, connectivity options for USB, HDMI, AV , and a 3.5mm audio jack. This means you can play content from DVD, VCD and Blu-ray players; gaming consoles, video cameras, USB drives, and even memory cards. You can also connect external speakers and headphones. Out of the box, it supports image formats such as JPG, BMP , PNG; audio in MP3, WMA, WAV and M4A ­ and videos in AVI, RMVB, MPEG, DivX and MKV . The Progenie allows for a sharp display of 80 inches (diagonally) when placed eight feet from the wall or screen; besides, its small size makes it extremely portable to carry on holidays, or even for a cinema night right within the comfort of your home. If size is not that much of an issue, you might want to consider the larger and boxier ­ 187x149x77mm ­ Portronics Beem 100 that weighs in at 950g. This LED projector uses TFT LCD technology with a brightness of 100-lumens, a lifespan of 30,000 hours, and a display of 80 inches (diagonal) from a distance of 10 feet. Movies can be played through USB pen drives, SD cards or through any other device that connects via HDMI. The Beem 100 can also be connected to a set-top box via an AVI cable and to external speakers through a 3.5mm jack. As for format support, you can playback all those that are supported by the Progenie, and then some more. The only downside is its larger size, and that it requires to be plugged into a power source at all times. Still, it is small enough to be carried around. http:www.portronics.com | `29,999 (Progenie) | `9,499 (Beem 100) ZOOK ZB-JAZZ BLASTER It's impossible to talk about portability and not bring up Bluetooth speakers. Weighing in at 1.2kgs, the ZB-Jazz Blaster is large enough to be noticed and portable enough to be carried on picnics and holidays. It boasts of a solid build and carries an IPX5 rating, which means it is splash proof and can also be used at the poolside. The Jazz Blaster comprises dual 15W drivers with a frequency response of 90Hz18kHz, which translate to discernible bass, but with clear mids and crisp highs. You also get a built-in microphone that allows you to answer hands-free calls whenever the speaker is paired with your smartphone. Its 5200mAh rechargeable battery promises up to 10 hours of playback on a full charge, while its aux port allows you to connect a nonBluetooth audio player ­ via an included aux cable ­ for wired sound. This means it can also be used with the projectors for movie watching. amazon.in | `3,099 KINGSTON DT2000 A standard USB pen drive works for most of your data storage and transfer needs. But if you are looking for militarygrade security for critical files and documents, consider the Kingston DT2000.This stick sports a keypad using which you can set a unique alphanumeric PIN-between 7 to 15 characters long--to secure all the data within. Once locked, all the digital information stored in the DT2000 is protected by XTS-AES 256-bit hardware encryption. The storage device comes with a rechargeable battery that allows it to operate independently of any software, OS, or host computer to encrypt all its contents in real time. This means it is not vulnerable to software-, hardware-based key-loggers or brute force attacks. If the wrong PIN is entered 10 times consecutively , the encryption key and the data on the drive is permanently erased to prevent it from being misused. The stick then reverts to its factory settings, and can be reformatted for use again. Other than secure access, this drive allows you to provide read-only access to other users, and you also get a time-out feature ­ ranging from one to 99 minutes ­ after which the DT2000 automatically locks itself to protect against unauthor ised access. http:www.kingston.comdt2000 | `9,660 (16GB), `12,880 (32GB), `18,200 (64GB) HP SPROCKET With a smartphone in your pocket, you don't need a point-and-shoot camera. Your mobile device is equipped with high-megapixel shooters that pack in a host of features, including optical zoom (in some models), a selfie snapper, multiple photo-shooting modes, and myriad colour filters. Besides, you can always download from a wide range of image-editing apps to augment your camera's abilities. It's almost like you're carrying a photo-studio in your pocket. Well, almost! Your smartphone still can't print a photo on the fly, and this is where the HP Sprocket comes in. This pocket-size printer connects to your handset via Bluetooth and the Sprocket app for Android and iOS. The gadget comes with a built-in battery that can be charged via a USB to mini USB cable, and it does not even require an ink cartridge. Instead, all the colours that are required for your prints are embedded in HP's proprietary ZINK papers (you get 10 free sheets with the Sprocket). Slide open its cover, load the papers, and then print 2x3-inch photos wirelessly from your smartphone. Each print is smudge-proof, waterand tear-resistant, and also comes with an adhesive back that allows you to turn your snapshots into stickers. The device is small enough to fit in your pocket or a purse, while the app packs in its own photo-editing feature that lets you rotate, crop and colour-correct your images; you also get 17 colour filters, 37 digital frames, over 200 stickers, a type tool and more to customise your images with messages and graphics. amazon.in | `8,999 | HP ZINK paper `539 (20 sheets), `1,249 (50 sheets) WD MY PASSPORT WIRELESS PRO If you are looking for serious storage capacity ­ to back up your videos, photographs, and even hi-resolution graphics ­ then consider the WD My Passport Wireless Pro that's available in capacities ranging from 1TB to 4TB; packs in a 6400mAh battery that powers the device for up to 10 hours, and can also be used to charge a tablet or mobile phone via its USB 3.0 port. But first, you will need to set up this storage by configuring it via the WD My Cloud app that's available for Android and iOS.Once done, you can use your laptop, mobile phone and tablet ­ up to eight devices at a time ­ to connect to it wirelessly to transfer files to, and even stream multimedia from it. Plus, if you register with the My Cloud web service, you will be able to access the hard drive from anywhere as long as the device is connected to a Wi-Fi point with web access. The Wireless Pro even supports DLNA, which makes it discoverable on the network and can be used to stream media onto compatible displays.As a media server, it supports a number of file formats including MP3, FLAC, OGG, AC3, A VI, DivX, MOV , MKV , JPEG, PNG and TIF . The device can read attached pen drives, and you also get an SD card slot. Transfers to and from these storage mediums are of course handled through the mobile app, or a web browser from your connected laptop. http:www.wdc.com | `11,000 (1TB), `14,500 (2TB), `18,500 (4TB)

Oct 20 2017 : The Times of India (Mumbai)

INNOVATION / CHEMICAL INDUSTRY SPECIAL......Innovation is alive and well in the chemical industry

Innovation is alive and well in the chemical industry

The ICIS Innovation Awards, recognising innovations in diverse sectors of the chemical industry, were announced about a fortnight ago and point to a vibrant industry where improvements to processes and products is very much ongoing. This year’s awards recognise efforts spanning the entire chemical spectrum – large volume petrochemicals, niche biochemicals, formulated products such as speciality coatings & agrochemicals – as also technology development efforts to minimise waste (industrial and municipal) and use it productively to make value-added products. The awards recognise commercial efforts – not just great ideas, but ones that have made the arduous journey to the marketplace and so created significant impact in the real world. AkzoNobel: Coating for cargo tanks of ships The overall winner and the ‘Best Product Innovation Award’ has been conferred on coatings & speciality chemicals producer, AkzoNobel, for developing an advanced coating system for the cargo tanks of ships. This is a novel epoxy resin and curing system, called Interline 9001, which undergoes a two-step curing – one at ambient temperature and the other at high temperature – to give a very highly crosslinked resin that when coated on the inner walls of chemicals-carrying vessels provides a significant improvement in chemical resistance compared to conventional systems. While many formulation development efforts afford incremental or even substantial gains over existing options, what impressed the judges was the quick commercial impact that the technology was able to make: the coating has been adopted by more than half of all new ship builds in 2016 – an impressive achievement for a nascent technology. In all, more than 50 ships have been coated with this system, and the product is now available worldwide to ship-owners in Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the US. The benefits for the users – besides the enhanced chemical resistance for which it was developed – include easy & quick cleaning; an improved service-life; and lower environmental impact from the lesser disposal (usually into the sea) of cleaning chemicals. These benefits make for a compelling value proposition and are crucial for customers to make the effort to change. The savings in materials, easier cleaning effort and reduced risks of cross-contamination translate into substantial savings. AkzoNobel had earlier won the award for a marine coating for ship hulls that prevents biofouling – a notorious problem for all fleet operators – even as it offered significant environmental and economic advantages. Dow Chemical: Proprietary propane dehydrogenation technology Dow Chemicals’ proprietary fluidised catalytic dehydrogenation (FCDh) technology won the award in the ‘Best Innovation: Process Innovation’ category. This breakthrough technology for manufacturing propylene – the second most important olefin, after ethylene – from propane, is expected to play a major role in bridging the likely gap in propylene needs. As the world, and particularly the US, turns to lighter feedstock such as shale gas for steam crackers, the amount of co-produced propylene is expected to lessen. Meeting the needs will require the deployment of ‘on-purpose’ propylene production technologies, of which propane dehydrogenation (PDH) is the most favoured. Current PDH processes that are commercially deployed, however, offer scope for improvement, especially in terms of selectivity to propylene and conversion rates. This is what the FCDh technology achieves: 45% propane conversion at 93% mole selectivity, with 20% capital savings on top of that. The novel process also requires lower energy to operate per unit of propylene production, which implies a smaller carbon footprint – important in a world concerned with the consequences of global warming. In a departure from past practices, the new catalyst is more active (compared to conventional PDH), and is regenerated more often in the process. This results in lower capital costs, fewer limitations on increasing overall capacity, higher efficiency and better operability. The frequent catalyst regeneration also contributes to better catalyst performance during the time in use. While PDH is likely to be the first market the technology will aim to address, it is a lot more versatile, and can contribute to enhancing efficiencies in the production of several other petrochemicals where dehydrogenation is employed. For example, the reactors can also be used to benefit ethylbenzene to styrene conversions and for dehydrogenation of butane/isobutane to butenes/isobutenes. Importantly, it can be retrofitted into existing or new ethylene crackers for enhancing production of one or both olefins. The FDCh technology is expected to be first integrated into Dow’s own production facilities for improving competitiveness, but is also likely to be available for licensing. Enerkem: waste to chemicals Canada’s Enerkem won the award in the category of ‘Innovation with Best Benefit for the Environment and Sustainability’, for its municipal waste to chemicals technology. The company operates a commercial-scale plant in Edmonton, Canada that is based on a four-step thermochemical process: feedstock preparation; gasification; cleaning & conditioning of the synthesis gas (syngas, a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen) produced; and finally catalytic conversion of syngas to bio-methanol. The technology is versatile in the sense that it can handle any type of organic waste – municipal, agricultural, plastics, textiles etc. – but took 15 years to make it from an idea, to a pilot, demonstration and eventually a commercial plant. A second commercial unit will soon commence operations in Quebec and there are plans to take the technology to other countries including the US and Netherlands. The technology will be particularly appropriate for a large and populous country like India, which is grappling with mounting wastes in its mega-cities, and scarce fossil resources for petrochemicals. Ongoing innovation efforts at the company are focussed on improving the efficiency of the process, lowering capital & operating costs, and expanding the scope of bio-based chemicals that can be made. Genomatica: 1,3-butylene glycol from sugar Genomatica’s successful development of its GENO BG technology for making 1,3-butylene glycol from common sugars was also recognised in the category of ‘Innovation with Best Benefit for the Environment and Sustainability.’ The biotech route, protected by more than 700 patents and applications, is claimed by the company to be more sustainable that conventional petrochemical-based routes because it uses renewable sugars, instead of acetaldehyde, and gives a high purity product otherwise difficult to get. The branded ingredient, now available at fairly large scale for sampling, is being targeted at niche applications in the personal care & cosmetic industries. Companies operating here are increasingly valuing natural and nature-derived chemicals over synthetic ones. Muralidhar Ingale: cleaner process for CPC The awards this year have an India-connect as well. Mr. Muarlidhar Ingale, Technical Director, Adroit Pharmachem (Vadodara, Gujarat), has been recognised as the ‘Alpha Innovator of the Year: New Product Development/Process Optimisation’ for developing a cost-effective process for converting waste ammonia and carbon dioxide from copper phthalocyanine (CPC) production into CPC intermediates. The innovation has great local relevance: India is the world’s leading producer of CPC, with annual production volumes of about 60-kt – mostly in Gujarat. But the process generates significant quantities of waste gases (mainly ammonia and carbon dioxide), which are typically discharged as ammonium carbonate after absorption in water. Dr. Ingale’s innovation that uses the two gases more effectively, has several benefits for the pigment producers: 30% reduction in raw material technical urea use; up to 6.5% reduction in use of cuprous chloride; and a 70% decline in the use of sulphuric acid (which means less generation of solid wastes). The recapture of the nitrogen in ammonia reduces the chemical oxygen demand (COD) of the wastewater by 20-40%, and to top it the process results in 1-2% increase in CPC yields as well. Dr. Ingale’s technology has been operating successfully since 2014 at commercial scale and he plans to license it to those interested. Dr. Mei Li, Senior Scientist, R&D, Dow AgroSciences was another individual recognised for her successful efforts at design, implementation and commercialisation of agrochemical formulations. Ongoing effort The technology development journey in the chemical industry is an ongoing one. Mature chemicals continue to see incremental improvements that may not mean much in isolation but build-up over years to be significant. More and more effort is centred around formulating existing materials to suit new applications, reduce costs or environmental impacts. The biotechnology industry is innovating novel routes using bacteria, algae, fungi etc. and has seen great technical progress. But the greatest challenge that these efforts face is acceptance in the marketplace. Not all make the cut, but those that do have much to gain – including profitable growth in a competitive space!

- Ravi Raghavan

CHWKLY24OCT17