C’ sense of Management

C' sense of Management

By

Dr. P.V. Raveendra
Professor
MBA Department
M.S. Ramaiah Institute of Technology
Bangalore
E-mail: raveendrapv@rediffmail.com

"Management is more of commonsense than any thing else"

It will be a surprise to read an article on "Humour in management" because many of you come across articles on Professional management, Contingency Management, Intuitive management, Proactive Management, Knowledge management, Change management and so on but not on C'sense of management.

With arguments you may win the arguments definitely not hearts. But with C'sense it is possible to win the both. Here are some C'sense related examples we come across in our day to day life and we can learn from them the following lessons.

"Commonsense is not commonly available":

Family oriented businesses are very common in India. A cloth merchant called Mr. Ram Kuber had three sons. He had a big showroom in one of the markets. He became old; he called his sons and told them to equally share the business. The three sons decided to divide the showroom and made three parts of it. All of them want to start the same business. The first son started the business in the name of "Kuber & sons". Second son named his showroom as "Kuber & brothers". Third son, who was also in the same business, was left without a name. He thought for a while and put the board "enter here". That is what commonsense means.

"If you are not updated you are outdated"

All of you might have heard of this story when you were in school. A hat vendor, who was going through a forest, wanted to rest and slept under a banyan tree some time. When he got up, he observed that all the hats were taken by monkeys and were worn by them. He had only one hat on his head. He did not know how to get back the hats from the monkeys. Then he waved his hand, all the monkeys also waved their hands. He then clapped, all the monkeys also clapped...and the rest is the story. Many of us know the story up to there. But the real story for management students starts only now. As in many family businesses, his son also became hat vendor. He told entire story to his son. Accidentally, the hat vendor's son also came through the forest and he happened to take rest under the same banyan tree. When he woke up he saw all the hats were with the monkeys, but not in his bag, he recollected the story told to him by his father. He waved his hand; all the monkeys also waved the hands. He clapped, the entire monkeys also clapped. They he threw his hat; the monkeys did not throw their hats. Monkeys told the hat vendor," hey, fool, not that you only have a father, even we have". Today's commonsense might become tomorrow's common sense. So it is sensible to say that if you are not updated you are outdated. (Only those candidates are selected in the interviews those who are updated.)

Knowledge or applied knowledge?

A person who thinks he knows everything is the one needs to learn a lot. There was a Pundit who mastered Geeta and many such books. He was recognized as renowned scholar among the pundits. One day he was going to a village where he had to travel in a boat. While traveling in the boat, he started conversing with the boat man. Pundit asked "did you study Geeta". The boatman replied "no master". Pundit said "half of your life had gone wasted". Then pundit asked "did you study Mahabharata". The boatman replied "No master". Then Pundit told "your remaining part of the life also wasted". Then Pundit started how tough to read these books and how knowledgeable he was. Then it started raining slowly. The boatman asked Pundit "did you know how to swim". Then Pundit said "no". Then boatman said "it is going to rain heavily, boating is practically not possible. Even though I don't study Geeta and Mahabharata, but I learnt swimming. I am leaving you in the boat and swim by myself for safety".

Knowledge is not sufficient, we should know how to apply it. Commonsense is the productive tool in application of knowledge.

Is it sensible to know about commonsense?

Yes it is sensible to know about commonsense as already said that it is not commonly available. Let us go through the following sensible story about it.

I have a lot of respect for Sardharjis, because of two reasons. First one, the major community in the military is Sikhs. Second one, the yield per hectare (in agriculture) is highest in Punjab for many crops. Somehow we have lot of jokes on Sardharjis. They are aware of this. In one village all Sardharjis had a long meeting discussing why this is happening. Then they come to conclusion that this is happening because of one word 'commonsense'. Then, they decided to send Mr. KK Singh (whom they think brilliant among them) to Chennai to find out what exactly this 'commonsense'. On one fine day, all of them went to the air port to give sendoff to Mr.K K Singh. Mr.K.K.Singh flied to Chennai in a flight. He had done some homework about his job. He wanted to do a small research to find out what is 'commonsense'. He does not want to waste a single minute. After reaching Chennai, he started his research to know what commonsense is. He started with the auto driver (who is taking him from air port to hotel). He asked the auto driver "why do you people think Sardharjis are not intelligent. What do you mean by 'commonsense'? The auto driver smiled and said "Sir, I will ask you small question; if you answer correctly I will accept that all Sardharjis are having commonsense". Mr. K K Singh accepted his proposal and said go ahead.

Auto driver: "In my family there are three members. One is my mother other one is my wife, please tell me who is third person?"

Sardharji was surprised with the question and started thinking like this," I stay in Punjab, and this man stays in Chennai, how I know the third family member of his family". He thought for a while, and said I don't know. Then auto driver told "Sir I already told there are three members in my family, one is my mother, and another is my wife so automatically the third person is myself". Sardharji felt very happy with his answer and said' Oh! Commonsense is so simple, please take be back to the air port again".

Sardharji took the next flight to Chandigarh. When he reached the air port, many people from his village were still there. They were surprised because Mr. KK Singh came back within an hour after knowing what intelligence is. Mr. KK Singh wished them happy and asked them to assemble and said "I am lucky enough to know about the commonsense so easily. I got it from an auto driver in Chennai. Now I will share that commonsense with you all. If you answer rightly for this simple question, all of us have the commonsense". Mr. KK Singh repeated the same question what was asked by the auto driver. The rest of villagers were surprised with the question, with in such a short period of time who is third person in Mr. KK Singh family. They thought for a while and said 'we don't know the answer". Then Mr. KK Singh said "Oh! You can't answer such a simple question that was why we were not having the commonsense. The third person in my family is the Auto Driver in Chennai".

We have 4 P s of marketing are Product, Place , Price and Promotion.
But actually 4Ps of marketing are People, People , People and People.
Similarly 4C s of management are "Commonsense"
                                                             "Commonsense"
                                                                  "Commonsense"
                                                                       & "Commonsense"

Dr. P.V. Raveendra
Professor
MBA Department
M.S. Ramaiah Institute of Technology
Bangalore
E-mail: raveendrapv@rediffmail.com

Source: E-mail June 13, 2007