Economic Times; Extended lunch breaks can be a boon

In most companies, coffee-table conversations and long lunch breaks are considered a waste of productive employee time. But good leaders understand that if properly utilised and channelised, these so-called 'time-wasters' can actually be used to enhance organisational productivity.
The main objective of any organisation is to coordinate the actions of a group of individuals to attain a certain goal. This coordination does not happen automatically, but requires some effort since individuals do not collaborate on their own on goals that are outside their immediate purview. Initially, before the arrival of Classical Taylorism, this coordination was achieved through an abundant stock of social capital — a concept, typically used in economics that refers to connections within, and between, social networks. The core idea is that social networks inside organisations — be it a religious group or a cricket club — add a certain amount of value to organisations through the attributes they help build, like trust and goodwill between individuals. These values ensure coordination between individuals, though they may come from different backgrounds. Once management became a formal science, thinkers assumed that modern companies progressively would replace social capital-based, informal coordination mechanisms, with formal ones like management policies, hierarchies and bureaucratic rules. And as businesses started becoming more complex by the day, thinkers were quick to predict the death of social capital.............................

23 Jun, 2011, 03.59AM IST, NEERAJ KAUSHAL, Economic Times

Does money buy happiness? Are people living in rich countries happier than people in poorer countries? Does economic growth lead to happiness? Is it possible to measure happiness or well-being? There was once a time when such questions were left to philosophers to understand. Quantifying happiness was out of question; attaching a money value to it was blasphemy. And then entered in this field the scientist. Economics of happiness is now a growingly large field of research. Social scientists have begun to question the age-old assumption that all economic activity is in the pursuit of happiness to maximise what in economics jargon is called 'utility'. Economists have started measuring happiness, conducting statistical analysis to investigate the factors that 'determine' happiness and if money happens to be one of them. The Great Recession in Europe and the US and its painfully slow demise has led politicians to join the search for more appropriate measures of national well-being and happiness. The age-old metric of economic activity - the gross domestic product - is felling out of favour with many western governments. In September 2009, on the first anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, French President Nicolas Sarkozy asked other nations to drop their obsessions on GDP and a adopt measure of 'well-being' as the metric of progress. A year later, the British Prime Minister David Cameron asked the Office of National Statistics in the UK to produce an index to gauge the general wellbeing of the people by assessing their psychological and environmental well-being. A number of other countries, including Canada and Australia, are also considering developing such a measure. Cameron, however, wants to go a step further. He wants to use the new measure to steer public policy. The concept of measuring progress with happiness and not economic activity is not entirely western. The former king of Bhutan coined the term gross national happiness about four decades ago and the Bhutanese government has developed detailed surveys to measure it. American politicians, of course, have a greater faith in the market than fellow politicians across the Atlantic or up north in Canada. But they too are finding it hard convince the American public that GDP growth reflects prosperity of all. The US economy is in what seems to be a long phase of jobless (read: joyless) recovery with stagnating wages. The growth in GDP for the past few quarters, therefore, does not reflect the plight of the families most hit by the recession. Economists and psychologists are devising ways of measuring happiness and well-being. Alan Krueger, former assistant secretary for economic policy and chief economist of the US department of treasury, and psychologist Daniel Kahneman and colleagues have developed what they call the 'national time accounting' (NTA) - as opposed to national income accounting, which is used to measure income or GDP. NTA is based on surveys that involve asking respondents to keep a diary of their daily activity and record their feeling about each of the activity on an 'enjoyment scale'.........................................................................

Congratulations

Dear Sandeep
Congratulations for a well thought and written book, it was a pleasure to read the same.
The book clearly shows holistic approach of the countries Management philosophy (past) which translated in the countries global leadership.
Also it sharply focuses on the current western techniques and its divergence from our heritage.
An engrossing read for a person trying to forge individual stamp in management
Gulshen Patel
Managing Director
Sai Advertising

HEARTY CONGRATULATIONS!!

HEARTY CONGRATULATIONS!!


for authoring the two wonderful and brilliant books
Business of Freedom
Indian Ocean Strategy

The Indian Ocean Strategy intelligently brings out The Theme of The Times whose idea has finally arrived on the world that seeks deliverance from the two most destabilizing and buffeting aspects – avarice & fear of annihilating terror. These two can be vanquished only by Unleashing the Power of Bharat.

USA President Barack Obama during his maiden visit to India during Divali 2010 days had said: “India is no more emerging, India has emerged”. Your book therefore, is also among the initial signs of the manifestation of arrival of Bharat – not India – on the world stage.

What is striking is your well-thought selection of the word India for Bharat in the title of the book (*Indian Ocean Strategy*) and then unfolding inside the book the vast enriching arena of Bharat and its philosophy in which the political and geographical entity India is just a miniscule aspect, which does not seem to have been used at all!!

The book is a whiff of fresh air in the arena of books on management and India, one that offers an excellent blend of the progressive ideas of both - the maturing West and the ageless , enriching, enlivening and benevolent Bharat. Your bringing together on this single platform of the diverse thoughts of say Rg Veda (right in the first chapter Setting the Stage), arious Puranas and Shastras, Chanakya and Swami Vivekananda and many more … with that of Hu Shib, Steven Rudolf, Leibnez, Mark Twain and other bright
minds of the West is a intelligent blend of progressive thoughts from the two seemingly diverse worlds aimed at showing The Path Forward.

The profound wordy sketch of the Temple of Bharatyeea Management (pg 173 and back-page) brings out the essence of all-round richness of Bharat.


May this and other books of yours – published and also those that are in your enriched mind’s pipeline –initiate the required change in the deep recesses of the minds and hearts of the thinking minds of the readers – politicians, bureaucrats, members of the India Inc and also the young, maturing and matured - to whom this book is targeted ‘…for school of Indian management’ … who individually and collectively would contribute to pave the way for the glorious Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam – The World as a Family.


One point: The lay readers like me would be enriched more with some basic description of the names and quotes of those respected persons who are known only to the enlightened and intelligent persons.

With Best Wishes for your continued efforts

Sharad Mistry

Honuored

Vishwa Adhyan Kendra organised a felicitation program on 5th march for my book.
Will remain obliged to them.

Lecture on Indian Ocean Strategy

Thanks to Vivek Agarwall, had a chance to speak on Indian Ocean Strategy at Bangur Nagar. Few genetleman promised to help me in publish hindi edition of the book.

lecture of Indian Ocean Strategy

Had an opprtunity to speak at Starcom on my book. Thanks to Rajesh Iyer.