Restructuring the tatas

Hi,

This is where you can find details of the restructuring done at the Tatas, the case we discussed in class today.

Chaos

Hi,

Here are some links on chaos theory.

Here is an online free course on the topic. http://order.ph.utexas.edu/chaos/

Here is another introduction http://www.imho.com/grae/chaos/chaos.html

And here is the wikipedia link to it. Those who dont know wikipedia, check the thing out. Its a great resource. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_theory

Apologies - Swarm Intelligence

Readers of my blog may find it boring that I am uploading links to content from the internet. But for the next ten days I hope to use my blog as an adjunct to my teaching Organizational Theory in our dubai XPGP course. Who knows? You might find it interesting too.

Sarm Intelligence.

Having discussed Autonomous Intelligent Robots, we now come to a stage where we understand that the model of organization should be one that sees members as having equal or comparable levels of intelligence and each making his or her own decisions. The best model for that in biology is found among swarms of bees and ants.

This whole thing became popular after Eric Bonabeu's article in the HBR dated May 1, 2001. Here is a comprehensive survey of literature about it. http://www.ece.osu.edu/~passino/swarms.pdf

ROBOCUP.NL - Autonomous Intelligent Robots

I also spoke about Autonomous Intelligent Robots (AIR), as a model for organizations as opposed to the idea of a centralized intelligence. Here is the write up about the ROBOCUP competition for you.

ROBOCUP.NL - Autonomous Intelligent Robots

IBM Research | Deep Blue | Overview

Here is the main page of the Deep Blue Project. The page is maintained by IBM.

Deep Blue - IBM Research Page

chris argyris, double-loop learning and organizational learning

Hi,

Yesterday I spoke about double loop learning when we were discussing the metaphor of the organization as an itelligent machine. Here is a write up about it.

chris argyris, double-loop learning and organizational learning @ the encyclopedia of informal education

The Usual..IBM Ad

I love the ad. I just travelled to dubai and it was "The Usual" for me too.
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Arrived here with a fairly uneventful journey. The journey began whenI set off from home that day at 3:30 am, arrived at the airport 4 am. I sat at the airport and dozed off. When I woke up it was 7:15, the plane was to leave at 7:00!! Then I realized the plane is 1:30 hrslate! On the plane there was a beautiful (indian looking) airhostessand she was beautiful not because of her looks alone, but because I could see the way she smiled at everyone and looked as if she genuinely cared. I fell in love with her and when she came to me, Icalled her over and told her that she made a difference to this flightand that she did a good job. She was beaming.

I then realized that my cok - mct - bah flight will arrive AFTER my bah - dxb flight is scheduled to take off. I called her over and shesaid that Gulf Air will hold the flight since there are many otherpassengers to go on that one. We had a photo finish and they put me onthe other plane. I reached DXB to find that my most important piece of baggage..with my books and papers never made it!!

I was at the airport filing my report when I told the airline that my hotel pickup must be waiting at the airport, and hence needed to givethem a call. When I called the hotel, they said they have no word of my arrival.

Finally I lodged the complaint, changed a few dollars and took a taxi to my sister's house in dubai. My baggage is arrived yesterday.

When I finally reported at the Institute in Dubai, the coordinator heard my story and said "so it was a regular trip for you?" So you see my arrival was quite ordinary and typical of my usual experiences. I forgot to mention that while I was waiting for mybaggage, there as another guy there, who asked me if I could work for him too!! ROFL!!

Evidence that I am stupid

There are two clear pieces of evidence shows I am stupid. One is that I am fat and the other is that I am an asthmatic. Being an asthmatic gives everyone the right to tell you what you should be doing, eating, etc. Some say I shouldnt drink cold water, or ever sit in an airconditioned room. Others say that airconditioners are perfect since they filter out pollen and humidity.

There are all sorts of prejudices everywhere and I get my own bit of it for being fat. Ofcourse everyone assumes I am fat out of choice. Each person looks down at me and says that I am too fat. The funny thing is that most of these people actually eat much more than I do! However, being fat, you have no way of responding because "the truth is out there".

Haven't we seen this in so many other areas? For example if someone has had even a small amount of alcohol, then he is at a disadvantage. Even if another car rams into him its his fault because he was drinking. One night I was travelling by a public bus and a man from behind was trying to overtake the bus. The driver, decided to play with him and just wouldnt let him go past, dodging left and right. Finally the car did overtake us and stopped in front of the bus. The driver got down. When he came back the driver was laughing. He said that when I got down I realized that he had taken a drink or two, so I slapped him hard twice. He couldnt do anything, so I got away. So much of the time when people drink they have to walk on egg shells because people can then do more or less ANYTHING to such a person and get away with it.

Post 9/11 is a paranoid world. Racial "profiling" is no longer a bad word. The US who wanted Amnesty into to India, is now denouncing their report as meaningless. When you find someone who is a different race, has had a drink, or perhaps is even fat, do you assume he is less of a human being? Sometimes its hard to think of some people as human beings. They are "Customers" "employees" "management", etc. instead. If we forget we are human beings, then whats left for us?