4th seminar 6/7/11

We started off the lesson with the topic on drivers of world change. I found the tongue-in-cheek quote from George Bernard Shaw rather true, that ‘the reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.’ The average person will not be as creative or forceful and he will be more willing to conform to the norms and limits set by society, whereas the true geniuses of the world will constantly think about ways to improve on what they have now, because they are always unsatisfied with status quo and believe they have not reached perfection yet.


The second quote from Oliver Wendell Holmes, that “man’s mind, once stretched to a new idea, never goes back to its original dimensions.” is relevant because whenever man has discovered a new way of doing things, it is very hard to revert back to old form and continue to do things as before. More often than not, the new way of doing things is more efficient, more refreshing and is a welcome break from years of stagnation.

There are different kinds of change though, namely commercial, ideological and cultural, among others. When companies face stiff competition in the market, they are forced to be more innovative in both marketing their products as well as to change their products to suit the consumers’ needs. This is an example of commercial change.

Prof Shahi mentioned in class that competition may accelerate change. One prominent example would be the space race during the cold war. Without fierce competition from the Russians, which forced the government to devote more resources to developing new technology and also imbued a sense of urgency in succeeding before the Russians, the Americans would most likely not have landed on the moon.

Another key concept that we discussed in class was about the characteristics of the change, whether it is evolutionary or indeed revolutionary. Evolutionary change is more of a gradual change that proceeds in small increments over the years. An example will be the evolution of the car after the Model T came into production. Since then, gradual increments in safety, speed and comfort are recorded, but essentially, the functions of a car remain the same. Revolutionary change comes about when an organization or a person leapfrogged over the existing competition and do things that no one else has thought of as possible. One example is the iPhone, which revolutionized the way we perceive smartphones, how they should look like and the functions that they have. No one thought smartphones could look sleek and cool because a ‘qwerty’ keyboard was supposed to be ‘essential’ in its design. The iPhone has changed the way we define phones, from a gadget that makes phone calls, to a mobile computer that just happens to be able to make phone calls as well. Unfortunately, revolutionary changes creates business opportunities in one arena and closes the market in another. One example will be Nokia, which was once the world’s largest phone-maker but has since faltered because it has failed to realize that smartphones will cannibalize the sales of phones with basic functions.

Crossing the chasm
Prof Shahi also mentioned about the bell curve about different kinds of people that adopt existing technology in different stages. The innovators, tech enthusiasts, early adopters and visionaries will form the first major subgroup and will be on the left side of the bell curve.
There is a chasm in between the two major subgroups, which represents a time lag as well as a gap in the risk-taking factor, because the group on the right side will want the right infrastructure to exist before stepping in to adopt the new technology, whereas the group on the left will want to be the first to try the new technology and will actively give in feedback on the technology by using the beta versions of those technology.

Prof Shahi also mentioned that there are 3 types of people in this world: those who make things happen, those who see things happen and those who have no clue as to what is happening. LOL

One memorable reading was the ‘herding cats’ title. The author describes the modern-age employee as a cat, as someone who is not willing to just follow orders. They will only follow if there are benefits to them, or if they believe in the cause that you have propagated. Just as it is hard to convince cats to group together as a herd and follow the master, it is hard to convince modern-age employees to follow you in a cause, unless you change the way you manage people. Management in this age can no longer effectively use the top-down management approach that is directive in nature, but they must use a more supportive role in management where formal authority is weaker. Using the
Rising star/falling star approach, companies that are more adaptable and open to ideas and change will be the rising stars, whereas the companies that fail to keep up with times and insist on doing things that is incompatible with the times will be the falling stars.

All in all, I will rate the lesson a 9/10 because I have gained a lot in terms of perspective as well as the way I view change. I would like to thank Prof Shahi for such an entertaining lesson.