Wednesday, October 18, 2017

A rare case scenario, Does this make sense?? 10-18





A rare case scenario,




























Where Economics flirts with Behavioral Science,


A stiff nose (Read economics), that cannot smell beyond stats and statutory instruments, and impediments, falling for an entity with unpredictable psychotics.


A cognitively mature entity (Read Behavioral Sciences) falling for the curves with constant and consistent upturns and downturns in unfathomable spasm (Read Economics).


And progeny named Behavioral Economics get a Nobel Prize.


A very existence of such an entity called Behavioral Science is surprising to many. I have found many a people asking me many a time,


How can human behavior be a science?


Human behavior is nature;


How can you cage something as vast nature in the confinement called science??


Science is definite, measurable and specific. Behavior is not, sometimes it is Cognitive, some other times, it is In-cognitive.


Human Behavior at best can be a Meta-Science that, the human being has not understood completely.

Now stress results in unpredictable but most of the times a very explicit behavioral pattern. An important part of behavioral pattern studies.


Do you know, the human race is yet find a reason and cause for the stressful behavior?


It is yet to identify as to


What are the triggers???


What is the stimulus???


What are the physiological processes???


What are the psychological process???


What are the neurological processes???


Which part of the brain it initiates, where it culminates???

Too many questions, too few answers, and that too, very ambiguous answers…


How to manage stress??? No it is not the seers or sages, that teach us that.


You have to learn stress management from Monkeys and Ants. I don’t say this, it the most respected institute MIT research that says it.


Don’t believe it. Please read it here. 


What Ants Mice Monkeys can teach us about the impact of stress



You already know that monkeys are our ancestors, but do you know that ants are our earliest ancestors. Again the same MIT research, you can read at the above link.



You may think all this as crazy thinking, but technically, it called epigenetics.


Another term, that we are hearing more often these days is Endowment Effect.

It is the emotional attachment you have for an object you have been owning for quite some time. This makes over value the object, and you are not prepared to part with it even when someone is prepared to pay a correct value for its worth. The endowment effect creates an artificial loss bias in the owner on account of the emotional attachment the person has developed for the object or the possession. Now this is a case of Behavioral Science creating an effect to impact the economics related to buying and selling pattern of an object, and hence we have a separate branch of economics that is Behavioral Economics.


But when it comes to human relationship, it is other way round. Specially in case of love marriages. But you see a person, develop attachment , then add infinite value to the person and relationship and finally own the person. This could be considered a Retro-Endowment-Effect, where the ownership comes in the last. Your  obsessive possessiveness is so great, that, you are not even prepared to share even part ownership with the parents of the person, that are responsible for the birth and upbringing. And at a later stage, when children are born, it is again a tussle between the possessiveness of the husband and wife for the total ownership.


Basically Behavioral Science and the Behavioral Economics are an amalgam of the intangible, imponderable, and improbable entity coming together to create a very tangible entities that are Behavioral Science and Behavioral Economics.


Now, you are perfectly justified, if you think, my thought has gone rogue….
The entire article is devoted to pondering on the imponderables.  But you do need to go a little insane to understand Behavioral Sciences and be a little irrational to explore
Behavioral Economics.

It is this imponderable human behavior, that creates behavioral economics with good bad or even bitter fallouts., and even endowment effects.


Thanks for reading the article, and now contribute your insights and enrich the mischief mongering activity.


Best Wishes,

Shyam

Thursday, October 12, 2017

Management case study 10-12


FOOD FOR THOUGHT FOR MANAGEMENT PROFESSIOANALS



















Does this happen now too in marketing????????


Or has the scenario changed?????


This is a story that did rounds about 35 years. A story, though not true, is a representative of the conditions prevailing those days in Pharma ethical marketing..... 

It was summer, and the temperatures in that part of Andhra Pradesh (Undivided) should to raise beyond 45*C. 

On one such day, a Medical Representative (MR)working along with his First Line Manager (FLM) were making doctor and chemist calls. 

After the first call, the MR felt Dehydrated and told the FLM that, he felt very weak and could work no longer, and said "let us stop the work and go back." 

FLM did not agree, gave the MR an electrolyte and said continue. They did the second call. The MR started feeling cramps in his body and he repeated the same request.

The FLM again turned down the request and engaged an auto-rickshaw, and started proceeding for the third call. In the third call, the FLM helped the MR with product detailing, the call was completed somehow, and when they sat in the auto-rickshaw, the MR collapsed and fell unconscious. The auto-rickshaw man said, let us take him to the hospital. The FLM said, we can’t do it. We have to inform the Regional office first.

The auto man handed over the MR’s official bag to the FLM took the MR to the hospital.

Now the FLM contacts the regional office, and tells his Regional Manager (RM) the entire and requests him, “Sir, MR’s medical condition is not good, it is better to suspend work for the day, so that I can take care of him and drop him at his residence, and depending on his condition, grant him leave as per the medical advice.”

The RM agrees but says, “please fulfill these conditions and then you can take care of him.

Now what are the conditions????

1. Check his order book, post all the orders to Regional office.

2. Check, if he has completed the day’s sales target, if not you (FLM) work, complete the calls, complete the sales target. Post the report and then, you can attend to him.

3. You can sanction him leave as per the medical advice, but you should take the responsibility of making the calls for that period and meeting the sales target. You may do it, yourself, or assign one of the team members the task or divide it among your team. Please ensure that your wok or sales target does not suffer because of that.

4. If, he needs leave for more than week, suspend him temporarily, appoint someone in his place, we will decide, what to do about him, when he recovers.

Now if you are management professional from any field, you know that everyone has to deliver on his objectives and goals. An MR not meeting his target will affect the FLM performance. The FLM not performing affects RM performance. RM not performing, effects Zonal Manager and so on so forth.

In the light of this, if you were a FLM, what would you have differently???

In case, you were a Regional Manager, what would have you have differently????

Please feel free to provide your insight…..


What is your perspective about the decision taken by the First Line Manager and the Regional Manager from the following angles.

1. Professional Ethics

2. Humanism

3. Professional Duty

4. Optimisation Angle

Please analyze the situation and give your insights through comments.