The State of the Gig Economy

We have all at some point in time talked about or heard about the growth of the gig economy and how this could potentially be the future of work. While the number of people participating in the gig economy has been on a growth path, their ability to earn from their gigs alone to support them and their families has not been growing in proportion. JP Morgan Chase Institute recently did a study on the state of the online platform economy. It tried to answer a fundamental question – “Has all the technological and business model innovations that have led […]

Reducing Costs Vs Cost Cutting

Real benefits come when managers begin to understand the profound difference between “cost cutting” and “eliminating the causes of costs.” Brian Joiner in Fourth Generation Management Most leaders don’t understand this difference. In the quest for quick results, they often opt for the latter when it is infinitely better and more efficient to opt for the earlier. Reducing cost is all about  Finding activities that don’t add value and removing them (waste) or automate and delegate processes so that we increase our efficiencies. Being intentional and engaging with everyone around to either add more value or reduce waste and mostly do […]

Hiring Anyone Who Applies for a Job

As part of my reading list, I stumbled on to a post that talks about a bakery that gives a job to anyone who applies – no interview, no background checks, no drug tests, nothing. You enrol on a list and whenever an opening arises, the person at the top of the list is offered that job. Simple. They start as an apprentice for a 10 month period, post which they get an entry level job at the bakery. They practice Open Hiring.  This made me think. {I know ?}. I can already think of a 100 different reasons that […]

Succession Planning and The Peter Principle

At some point in our professional careers, we all have come across some managers and wondered – How on earth did this person become a manager. He seems to be so incompetent? Welcome to the world of Peter Principle. Peter Principle states that People in a hierarchy tend to rise to their “level of incompetence” – Laurence J. Peter In other words, people get promoted based on their past performances until they are no longer able to produce the same level of performance and they remain stuck there. The principle was proposed as a satire to the practices observed by Laurence Peter but seemed […]

How to be Happily Busy

Time is the most precious commodity that we have. Attention is the second most important. And we need to trade both of these (depleting, non-renewable) with other people and organisations. This is almost non-negotiable (of course, we can go to the Himalayas for a retreat or become a Buddhist monk, but I am sure people who read my blog have neither of those intentions). That being the case, we don’t have a choice if we want to trade our time and attention but the choice is what do we trade it with.  If you are like any of my average […]