Disclaimer: This article has got no connection whatsoever with 'Zen & the art of motorcycle maintenance'. Any similarities to that book is surely on purpose
How does getting into an auto rickshaw & riding thro' the city of Chennai teach us anything about the principles of management? I have done an extensive 'Research' on this project & given below are some of the conclusions that I have arrived upon. (Please feel free to mail me on anything that I might have missed. It would be surely because of 'Oversight' on my part & nothing else!!!)
How does getting into an auto rickshaw & riding thro' the city of Chennai teach us anything about the principles of management? I have done an extensive 'Research' on this project & given below are some of the conclusions that I have arrived upon. (Please feel free to mail me on anything that I might have missed. It would be surely because of 'Oversight' on my part & nothing else!!!)
1) Recognizing Opportunities: One of the foremost skills that you will acquire is the ability to recognize opportunities when it arises. In this case, the test is to find an auto without any passengers. With a little bit of effort, this tends to become easy. All that you need to know is that when an auto has a passenger in it, it speeds at around 200 km/h without any regard for the traffic, road or the passenger inside it even. At the same time, when the auto is devoid of passengers, even a child crawling on the street would be able to overtake it. Also, this auto always travels on the edge of the road making all traffic behind it to snarl. You can safely assume that you have this principle of management in your pocket the moment you are able to look at an auto & guess whether it is loaded with passengers or not.
2) Negotiation Skills: Your negotiation skills will surely improve if you are one of those people who don’t want to spend all his riches on the travel itself. All the negotiation skills that you ever had will be fine-tuned and if you had none, you will get all the negotiation skills that you will need to successfully run a business of your own. A price negotiation for a travel that would actually cost you around Rs.30 will start from anywhere around Rs.40 to Rs.300!!! So, the closer that you are to shelling out the actual price for that travel, the better you are in your negotiation skills.
3) Taking Risks: Let me get this clearly across to you. This 'Principle of Management' comes to you the moment you decide to travel by an auto. Only the bravest of the brave will decide on traveling by an auto & the decision to do that itself is a demonstration of your ability to take risks in life
4) Best path to your goals: (Read as shortest path to your destination) To elevate yourself to understanding this concept of management, you need to become 'THE BEST' in the art of negotiation. Assuming that you have successfully got into an auto with a negotiated price of Rs.30 for a travel that would actually cost you Rs.30 only, you actually get to see a 'Live Demo' of taking the best path to your goal (Read 'Destination') by the auto driver. He becomes an expert who tactfully avoids all traffic jams, takes the shortest path, avoids all mishaps with other vehicles & 'successfully' transports you to your destination. (And yeah. The most important thing is that you need to keep your eyes open during this 'exhilarating' journey. This principle of management will not be learnt if you get into an auto & start following the item #5 below. Items #4 & #5 work a bit like an exclusive-or)
5) Faith in God: I never believed when I attended training classes on management that there is a strong 'Relationship' between principles of management and philosophy. I stand corrected now. My belief in God & destiny has taken a whole new meaning after I started traveling regularly by autos. Bungee jumping, white water rafting, walking thro' the Amazon forest will all seem child's play if you regularly commute by auto. The moment you get into an auto, one starts to pray for the welfare of other's in the road & primarily for our own safety. I am sure that when we put all the atheist of the world into an auto and make them travel in it for an hour, they would end up as the most devout people praising the power of the Almighty at the end of their 'Ordeal'. Such is the power of an auto in inducing faith even in non-believers. Last but not the least, if you happen to be among those unlucky person's who dies because of an accident involving the auto in which you were traveling, please be assured that you have a 'Reservation' in heaven. God is not that cruel to put you thro' hell when you have just traveled in it right before you breathed your last, right?
2) Negotiation Skills: Your negotiation skills will surely improve if you are one of those people who don’t want to spend all his riches on the travel itself. All the negotiation skills that you ever had will be fine-tuned and if you had none, you will get all the negotiation skills that you will need to successfully run a business of your own. A price negotiation for a travel that would actually cost you around Rs.30 will start from anywhere around Rs.40 to Rs.300!!! So, the closer that you are to shelling out the actual price for that travel, the better you are in your negotiation skills.
3) Taking Risks: Let me get this clearly across to you. This 'Principle of Management' comes to you the moment you decide to travel by an auto. Only the bravest of the brave will decide on traveling by an auto & the decision to do that itself is a demonstration of your ability to take risks in life
4) Best path to your goals: (Read as shortest path to your destination) To elevate yourself to understanding this concept of management, you need to become 'THE BEST' in the art of negotiation. Assuming that you have successfully got into an auto with a negotiated price of Rs.30 for a travel that would actually cost you Rs.30 only, you actually get to see a 'Live Demo' of taking the best path to your goal (Read 'Destination') by the auto driver. He becomes an expert who tactfully avoids all traffic jams, takes the shortest path, avoids all mishaps with other vehicles & 'successfully' transports you to your destination. (And yeah. The most important thing is that you need to keep your eyes open during this 'exhilarating' journey. This principle of management will not be learnt if you get into an auto & start following the item #5 below. Items #4 & #5 work a bit like an exclusive-or)
5) Faith in God: I never believed when I attended training classes on management that there is a strong 'Relationship' between principles of management and philosophy. I stand corrected now. My belief in God & destiny has taken a whole new meaning after I started traveling regularly by autos. Bungee jumping, white water rafting, walking thro' the Amazon forest will all seem child's play if you regularly commute by auto. The moment you get into an auto, one starts to pray for the welfare of other's in the road & primarily for our own safety. I am sure that when we put all the atheist of the world into an auto and make them travel in it for an hour, they would end up as the most devout people praising the power of the Almighty at the end of their 'Ordeal'. Such is the power of an auto in inducing faith even in non-believers. Last but not the least, if you happen to be among those unlucky person's who dies because of an accident involving the auto in which you were traveling, please be assured that you have a 'Reservation' in heaven. God is not that cruel to put you thro' hell when you have just traveled in it right before you breathed your last, right?
3 comments:
"Faith in God" was the one I thoroughly enjoyed !!!! It is a juicy subject to be dealt, and it was evident in the last para. Had Fun reading it !
Its a good attempt to express your thought.
Your article expressed many of the Auto travellers thoughts. But good way of expressing.
But the risk in this travel will make you alert all the time. It doesn't let anyone forget paying insurance premium in time. "Every time my prayers and successful and out of risk I don't forget checking my insurance status".
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