Maiming those marathons!

While football has been notorious for its number of on-field deaths (about 14 recorded fatalities till date), it seems running is no less riskier! Now marathons are threatening severe ramifications for its passionate pursuers. In the 29-year history of the San Francisco Marathon, the first casualty of 43 year old William Goggins, brought out the perils involved with endurance sports, which until now weren’t usually associated with serious injuries or fatalities. After it was established that heart failure caused his death, researchers didn’t leave any stone unturned in getting to the root of the issue.

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Source:- IIPM Editorial

Visit also:- IIPM Publication, Business & Economy & Arindam Chaudhuri Initiative

Memoirs of the mind

Although this rara avis called déjà vu literally means ‘already seen’, it connotes many other abstract monologues of the mind. The most typical example of this phenomenon happens when during a course of events, one suddenly experiences a sense of familiarity with it, in a way of having already experienced a similar sequence of events before. Or it could also be a case of relating with an entirely new place such like one has known it for ages. This overwhelming sensation may already have been defined and classified into different categories by researchers as déjà vecu (already lived through), déjà senti (already felt), déjà visite (already visited before) et al, they all still remain just as elusive to explanations as déjà vu...

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Source:- IIPM Editorial, 2006

Editor:- Prof. Arindam chaudhuri

Visit also:- IIPM Publication and Business & Economy

‘Survival of the adaptive’ is the mantra for today’s complex, uncertain business world

Much of the organizational thinking about crisis management has focused on reparation. Many companies, for example, have created risk management teams to develop detailed contingency plans for responding to a pandemic. This is necessary but not sufficient.

In the complex and uncertain environment of a sustained, evolving crisis, the most robust organizations will not be those that simply have plans in place but those that have continuous sensing and response capabilities. As Darwin noted, the most adaptive species are the fittest. Consider these two organizations. Which one would fare better in a sustained crisis, such as a pandemic?

Organization 1

• Hierarchical
  
• Centralized leadership
  
• Tightly coupled (greater interdependence among parts)
  
• Concentrated workforce
  
• Specialists
  
• Policy- and procedure-driven
  

Organization 2

• Networked
  
• Distributed leadership
  
• Loosely coupled (less interdependence)
  
• Dispersed workforce
  
• Cross-trained generalists
  
• Guided by simple yet flexible rules
  

Organization 2 is clearly better positioned to respond to evolving, unpredictable threats. We know from complexity theory that following a few basic crisis response principles is more effective than having a detailed a priori plan in place. In fires, for instance, it’s been shown that a single rule – walk slowly towards the exit – saves more lives than complicated escape plans do.

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Source:- IIPM Editorial, 2006

Editor:- Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri

When I travel...

When I travel, I have a growing sense that people worldwide are frightened, hunkering down, worried about grotesque threats – terrorism, environmental degradation – that they can barely articulate. The threat of avian fl u could be a chance for leaders to forge new contracts with members of their organizations, acknowledging each member as an asset & in the process, making it so.

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Source:- IIPM Editorial, 2006

Editor:- Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri

HBOS employees get it all and more

The good times are not yet over for over 17,000 employees of the Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS), which is the fourth largest bank in UK. Five months ago, the employees had all earned an enviable bonus of about £4400 each and now there’s a fresh piece of good news for them. They are expected to now get around £19.6 million in free shares. The said sum is about 5% of annual salaries of the employees. The announcement was made as the bank reported a healthy 17% rise in half-year pre tax profits to £4.98 billion.

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Source:- IIPM Editorial, 2006

Editor:- Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri