Real Case Stories

Over 100 years after Theodore Roosevelt warned against the growing control of a handful of corporate giants, a small group of "superstar" companies—some old, some new—are once again dominating the global economy. As per a 2015 Mckinsey Global Institute report , 10% of the world’s public companies generate 80% of all profits. What's most intriguing is that the gap between these few “superstar” firms and the rest is growing .  But what makes these "superstars" thrive? These firms are known to invest in their core skills so as to relentlessly pursue their long-term goals. And thus it turns out, that a remarkable number of superstar companies are family owned or run by dominant owners who can resist the pressure for short-term results. The last single-arch McDonald's sign in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, modified to mention the drive-thru, dismantled in 2016 For an example, we can turn to McDonald’s. In 1948, the fast-food joint was already a succes...

CEO of Ryanair Michael O'Leary's vision is to make most of its seats free by the end of this decade. The goal, he says, is to make money by getting a share of the shopping and retail revenues from airports, where the airlines attract traffic. In 2016, Ryanair earned $2 Billion in ancillary revenues from snacks, check-in luggage, seat selection, insurance etc, amounting to nearly 30% of its total revenues. Mr Leary's predictions are bolstered by the fact that a quarter of its customers are already being offered free fares. Passengers only pay the taxes and duties while the airlines make money through extras like checked luggage, snacks, food, water and in-flight merchandise sales. source: Principles of Marketing: A South Asian Perspective,  13th Edition, Kotler Philip Further, the airline also saves costs by selling 99% of the tickets online with offers of travel insurance, hotels, car rentals and various other packages. To reduce costs, they have introduced...

This HBR video speaks about a framework to lead a better and fulfilling life. It emphasizes that one should strive for excellence in all domains and not just in one. 1. Work 2. Home 3. Community 4. Self

Planning poker is a consensus-based, gamified technique mostly used to estimate effort or relative size of development goals in software development. In planning poker, members of the group make estimates by playing numbered cards face-down to the table, instead of speaking them aloud. The cards are revealed, and the estimates are then discussed. By hiding the figures in this way, the group can avoid the cognitive bias of anchoring, where the first number spoken aloud sets a precedent for subsequent estimates. src Wikipedia . It is also called Scrum poker. Planning poker is based on a list of features to be delivered, several copies of a deck of cards and optionally, an egg timer that can be used to limit time spent in discussion of each item. At the estimation meeting, each estimator is given one deck of the cards. All decks have identical sets of cards in them. The meeting proceeds as follows: A Moderator, who will not play, chairs the meeting. The Product Manager...

Debbie Good, clinical assistant professor of business at the University of Pittsburgh’s Katz Graduate School of Business, teaches time management to her MBA students. She has them account for every minute of two full days in 15-minute increments . Many are surprised at how long they really spend on certain tasks, she says. You might think you’re only checking social media for 15 minutes, but it may be four or five times that long. Write down to look at how long you’re spending on the things you do each day, she says. Once you have a good sense of how long various tasks take, you might even note those amounts on your list to help you track how much you’re trying to cram into your day, she says. Source - Fast Company

According to Drucker - The Idea of Short - Long range planning is very often misunderstood. They are not determined by any given Time span. A decision is not short range because it takes only a few months to implement or long range because it takes a year to do so. What matters is the time span over which it is Effective

In most meetings and discussions people expend all their energies focusing on Negatives rather than the positives which may be a minor problem in the overall context of things. In this McKinsey article , the author talks about an example used by a manager where 95% of the project is going well with problems in 3% of the areas. She would insist all meetings start off by talking of all the positives of the project which would be result in relaxing and calming everyone before starting off on the 3%. This helped people think more clearly and calmly on the problems resulting in improved productivity. This technique is also called Priming which is an implicit memory effect in which exposure to one stimulus influences the response to another stimulus.   src Wiki .

In this McKinsey article  the author tries to dispel the myth of Multitasking. She talks about how the brain is really not capable of doing multiple tasks but keeps switching between tasks. Too much of switching between email to reading to speaking on the phone results in stress and mistakes. In an example, a founder of a company implemented the concept of taking frequent breaks. Some of the techniques that he implemented were Schedule breaks between meetings The CEO would take 25-45 minutes break to go offline which would include being switched off from mail, messages, etc Go off for a walk cheering people who would leave office to go for a run.