Sunday, March 26, 2017

From Japan

Masai Storyđź‘Ť

The Taj hotel group had invited Mr. Masai Imai from Japan to hold a workshop
for its staff. 

The staf were very skeptical - the hotel is doing excellent business, this
person from Japan has no exposure to hotel industry - what exactly is he
going to teach? 

But everybody gathered as planned for the workshop in the conference hall
sharp at 9 am.

Mr. Masai was introduced to them - a not so impressive personality, nor the
English all that good; spoke as if he was first formulating each sentence in
Japanese and then translating it into rather clumsy English.

"Good morning! Let's start work. I am told this is a workshop; but I see
neither work nor shop. So let's proceed where work is happening. Let's start
with the first room on the first floor."

Mr. Masai, followed by the senior management, the participants, the video
camera crew trouped out of the conference room and proceeded to the
destination.

That happened to be the laundry room of the hotel.
Mr. Masai entered the room and stood at the window, "beautiful view!" he
said.

The staff knew it; they need not invite a Japanese consultant to tell them
this! 
"A room with such a beautiful view is being wasted as a laundry room. Shift
the laundry to the basement and convert this into a guest room."

Aa Haa! Now nobody had ever thought about that!

The manager said, "Yes, it can be done."

"Then let's do it," Mr. Masai said.

"Yes sir, I will make a note of this and we will include it in the report on
the workshop that will be prepared." Manager

"Excuse me, but there is nothing to note down in this. Let's just do it,
just now." Mr. Masai.

"Just now?" Manager

"Yes, decide on a room on the ground floor/basement and shift the stuff out
of this room right away. It should take a couple of hours, right?" asked Mr.
Masai.

"Yes." Manager.

"Let's come back here just before lunch. By then all this stuff will have
got shifted out and the room must be ready with the carpets, furniture etc.
and from today you can start earning the few thousand that you charge your
customers for a night."

"Ok, Sir." The manager had no option.

The next destination was the pantry. The group entered. At the entrance were
two huge sinks full of plates to be washed. 

Mr. Masai removed his jacket and started washing the plates.

"Sir, Please, what are you doing?" the manager didn't know what to say and
what to do.

"Why, I am washing the plates", Mr. Masai.

"But sir, there is staff here to do that." Manager Mr. Masai continued
washing, "I think sink is for washing plates, there are stands here to keep
the plates and the plates should go into the stands." 

All the officials wondered - did they require a consultant to tell them
this?

After finishing the job, Mr. Masai asked, "How many plates do you have?'
"Plenty, so that there should never be any shortage." answered the Manager.

Mr. Masai said, "We have a word in Japanese -'Muda'. Muda means delay, Muda
means unnecessary spending. One lesson to be learned in this workshop is to
avoid both. If you have plenty of plates, there will be delay in cleaning
them up. The first step to correct this situation is to remove all the
excess plates." 

"Yes, we will say this in the report." Manager.

"No, wasting our time in writing the report is again an instance of 'Muda'.
We must pack the extra plates in a box right away and send these to
whichever other section of Taj requires these. Throughout the workshop now
we will find out where all we find this 'Muda' hidden."

And then at every spot and session, the staff eagerly awaited to find out
Muda and learn how to avoid it. 

On the last day, Mr. Masai told a story.

"A Japanese and an American, both fond of hunting, met in a jungle. They
entered deep jungle and suddenly realized that they had run out of bullets.
Just then they heard a lion roaring. Both started running. But the Japanese
took a short break to put on his sports shoes. 
The American said, "What are you doing? We must first get to the car."

The Japanese responded, "No. I only have to ensure that I remain ahead of
you." 

All the participants engrossed in listening to the story, realized suddenly
that the lion would stop after getting his victim! 

"The lesson is: competition in today's world is so fierce, that it is
important to stay ahead of other, even by just a couple of steps. And you
have such a huge and naturally well endowed country. If you remember to
curtail your production expenditure and give the best quality always, you
will be miles ahead as compared to so many other countries in the world.",
concluded Mr. Masai.

It is never late to learn........

Friday, March 3, 2017

Struggles of Life

Once upon a time a daughter complained to her father that her life was miserable and that she didn’t know how she was going to make it. She was tired of fighting and struggling all the time. It seemed just as one problem was solved, another one soon followed. Her father, a chef, took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire.

Once the three pots began to boil, he placed potatoes in one pot, eggs in the second pot and ground coffee beans in the third pot. He then let them sit and boil, without saying a word to his daughter. The daughter, moaned and impatiently waited, wondering what he was doing. After twenty minutes he turned off the burners. He took the potatoes out of the pot and placed them in a bowl. He pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. He then ladled the coffee out and placed it in a cup.Turning to her, he asked. “Daughter, what do you see?” “Potatoes, eggs and coffee,” she hastily replied.“Look closer”, he said, “and touch the potatoes.” She did and noted that they were soft.

He then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg.

Finally, he asked her to sip the coffee. Its rich aroma brought a smile to her face.

“Father, what does this mean?” she asked.

He then explained that the potatoes, the eggs and coffee beans had each faced the same adversity-the boiling water. However, each one reacted differently. The potato went in strong, hard and unrelenting, but in boiling water, it became soft and weak. The egg was fragile, with the thin outer shell protecting its liquid interior until it was put in the boiling water. Then the inside of the egg became hard. However, the ground coffee beans were unique. After they were exposed to the boiling water, they changed the water and created something new.

“Which one are you?” he asked his daughter. “When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a potato, an egg, or a coffee bean?”

Moral: In life, things happen around us, things happen to us, but the only thing that truly matters is how you choose to react to it and what you make out of it. Life is all about leaning, adopting and converting all the struggles that we experience into something positive.