Real Case Stories

In 1987, Psychologist Benjamin Schneider in an article titled " The People make the place " lays out a model called ASA. Attraction - Selection - Attrition. He writes about how organization cultures are defined by the people that work there and not by people at the top. He asserts that “the people make the place” and that organizational culture, climate and practices are determined by the people in the organization. Attraction: People are differentially attracted to careers as a function of their own interests and personality. They have stated that people search environments that fit by their personality and that people would like to obtain their outcomes by selecting a specific organization. Selection: Organizations select people who they think are compatible for many different kinds of jobs. In that way organizations end up choosing people who share many common personal attributes, although they may not share common competencies. Attrition: The opposite side of...

In this study  "Physical Order Produces Healthy Choices,Generosity, and Conventionality, Whereas Disorder Produces Creativity" 3 experiments were conducted  Experiment 1 showed that relative to participants in a disorderly room, participants in an orderly room chose healthier snacks and donated more money. Experiment 2 showed that participants in a disorderly room were more creative than participants in an orderly room Experiment 3 showed a predicted crossover effect: Participants in an orderly room preferred an option labeled as classic, but those in a disorderly room preferred an option labeled as new Experiment 2 Forty-eight American students participated in a two-condition (orderly vs. disorderly environment) design. Participants completed tasks in a room arranged to be either orderly or disorderly. Participants imagined that a company wanted to create new uses for the ping-pong balls that it manufactured. They were instructed to list up to 10 ne...

In 2010, a severe drought and a spate of wildfires devastated crops in Russia resulting in an export ban by the Government. Russia is the biggest producer of wheat, barley and rye. Its biggest export markets are Egypt followed by Turkey, Syria, Iran and Libya. This Reuters article " Global dependence on food imports leaves countries vulnerable " states that the 2010 ban may have been partially responsible for triggering social unrest and revolution in Egypt as more than 500,000 tonnes were not supplied and global prices rose damaging Egypt's state bread subsidy program.  This article also talks about how rapid urbanisation is resulting in wiping out of farmlands which results in countries being dependent on grain imports.

HiPPO - Highest Paid Person's Opinion is an affliction that affects most organisations. Managers tend to throw the weight of their designations on their juniors by asserting their will even though the subordinates may have a better perspective. This results in a culture where the workforce gets into an execution mode throwing away their thinking hats. A famous quote from Jim Barksdale, Netscape CEO is “If we have data, let’s look at data. If all we have are opinions, let’s go with mine.” The most famous case is of Ron Johnson  who was Sr VP of Retail operations at Apple and was responsible for the success and launch of Apple Stores.  He was appointed CEO of JC Penney in 2011. Buoyed by his success at Apple, he had complete disdain for the competence of JC Penney staff or their culture. He frequently mocked Senior executives in public, ridiculing them for their decisions.  He relied on his gut rather than data and bull dozed his way through implementing his mandat...

In their book "How Google Works" Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg speak about the Google work culture. Google encourages people to stay longer in office and keep them in cramped quarters. In order to do this they have free food, games on campus, bring your family to work and an open cluttered and cramped office where people are in close proximity to each other. This constant interaction with people in the office brings out new ideas, breaks communication barriers and keeps the flow of information which is difficult in the case of a work from home environment. A very good example cited in the book is that Google's Adsense product which developed into a multibillion dollar business was invented by a group of engineers from different teams who were playing pool in the office. Read the book

In this research paper by Michael Luca, "Reviews, Reputation and Revenue: The case of Yelp.com"   the author has a few interesting findings.  The notable one being that in markets where Yelp penetration has increased, chain restaurants have declined in market share. This may indicate that with greater visibility of independent restaurant through reviews, customers are more likely to experiment and visit newer places unlike markets where reviews are unavailable. In a market without reviews people probably choose eating places on the basis of popularity or because of the sheer marketing muscle of the chains.  The few other highlights as quoted by the author are (1) a one-star increase in Yelp rating leads to a 5% to 9% increase in revenue,  (2) this effect is driven by independent restaurants; ratings do not affect restaurants with chain affiliation.  (3) chain restaurants have declined in market share as Yelp penetration has increased. This suggests th...

Amazon's Jeff Bezos is of the view that too much Communication is really a bad thing.  This WSJ article quotes an Amazon executive who says that during an offsite when some employees suggested that there should be more communication in the organisation, Bezos declared that "No, Communication is terrible" Bezos preferred a decentralized company where independent thinking prevails over Grouthink. In order to achieve this, he implemented a company wide policy, the concept of the "2 Pizza team". Any team should be small enough that it could be fed with 2 pizzas. Small teams generally tend to function like families, fighting, bickering but eventually getting the work done. Larger teams tend to be more political. Source: Birth of a Salesman, WSJ article by Richard L. Brandt

The Impostor syndrome (also spelled imposter syndrome, also known as impostor phenomenon or fraud syndrome) is a term coined in 1978 by clinical psychologists Dr. Pauline R. Clance and Suzanne A. Imes referring to high-achieving individuals marked by an inability to internalize their accomplishments and a persistent fear of being exposed as "fraud". Despite external evidence of their competence, those exhibiting the syndrome remain convinced that they are frauds and do not deserve the success they have achieved. Proof of success is dismissed as luck, timing, or as a result of deceiving others into thinking they are more intelligent and competent than they believe themselves to be. Some studies suggest that impostor syndrome is particularly common among high-achieving women, while others indicate that men and women are equally affected. src Wiki In this article the author states that World Health Organization chief Dr. Margaret Chan thinks she’s a fraud and so did Sheryl Sa...

In his book "Influence, The Psychology of Persuasion", the author Robert Cialdini cites 2 examples where change in pricing/positioning influenced the decision of the buyer. In the first example a Jewelry shop owner was desperately trying to sell a piece of Turquoise set. It was the peak of the tourist season with the store full of customers but the set just wouldn't move despite the set being of good quality and reasonable price. She tried positioning it in the store and even getting the sales staff to push it but to no effect. Finally, in desperation when she was leaving for an outstation trip, she left a note to her Sales Head instructing her to price it at 1/2. When she returned she was not surprised when she was told that the pieces were sold off however she was shocked when she learnt that her sales Head misread the 1/2 to 2 and had in fact doubled the price. The author talks about preconceived notions that we have and one of them that we have is that Expensiv...

According to a study by Amos Schurr at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and Ilana Ritov at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Winning a competition makes people more likely to later behave dishonestly Winning a competition engenders subsequent unrelated unethical behavior. Five studies reveal that after a competition has taken place winners behave more dishonestly than competition losers. The following are the key highlights of the study Winning a competition increases the likelihood of winners to steal money from their counterparts in a subsequent unrelated task.   The effect holds only when winning means performing better than others (i.e., determined in reference to others) but not when success is determined by chance ie. a Lottery or in reference to a personal goal.  A possible mechanism underlying the effect is an enhanced sense of entitlement among competition winners. The authors also cites the case of the recent Volkswagen scandal .  The k...