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Wednesday 8 June 2011

Productivity and The Golden Goose

As I watched a TV program on livelihood of people in the mangrove areas of the Sundarbans in the Eastern Region of India, it made me realise how close they live with nature and how much they respect nature.  This is quite unlike in many other parts of the world where we do not respect nature.

The episode telecast was on a group of people who make a living by harvesting honey from large honeycombs in the area.  I was pleasantly surprised when they showed how these people pick up dead foliage, make few bundles of these dry foliage and then light up each one of them. They, then,  drive away the bees from the bee hive with the help of the smoke.  Then one person takes over the bee hive and cuts of portions that has most of the honey. He is always careful to leave behind a portion of the hive (typically close to 40%-50% of the hive) where there is lesser honey.  This is done so that the bees come back and can start re-building their hive instead of having to go elsewhere.  Once the person cuts part of the hive, the team offers a prayer thanking God and the Bees for the honey harvest which is providing them with a livelihood.  They then chant a prayer to the Bees to come back to their hive i.e. the part of the hive that has been left intact.

I have seen similar behaviour with the Indian fishermen in all the coastal regions. They go in small boats, fish using nets and then as they draw in their nets, they put the tiny and small fish back in to the sea/oceans.  When asked why, they say that the ocean is like the Golden Goose. "If we take out every tiny and small fish, it is like killing the goose.  We will be the losers in the long run."  They also offer prayers to the Goddess of the Oceans.

Compare this to the latest trawlers that companies use to fish. Yes, the catch per expedition is much more than what these fishermen get.  Yes, the yield per person is much more than what the fishermen get.  However, it is leaving the oceans barren.  The productivity is higher but the golden goose is getting killed.  These companies and businesses must pause and ensure that they make a living from nature but do not destroy it.

Coming closer to productivity from man, Fredrick Winslow Taylor did experiments in Industrial Engineering by trying to create the optimal shovel. He studied as to what should be the optimum size of a shovel so that we get the best productivity from a human shovelling coal.  In this study, he was clear to point out that beyond a certain size, it is always counterproductive.  I guess this principle applies to everything in life.  Beyond a particular point, economies of scale or productivity works counter productive.

Over the years, I have found that productivity in the back office business process industry is more about taking work out of the process and reducing headcount rather than just asking people to work harder.  Even here, beyond a certain point, if we do not re-engineer the process, take waste out and automate, we will not end up with productivity that is sustainable.

As the world goes through difficult times, leaders will be asked to give more productivity.  This is not only in companies but also in countries.  Leadership must pause and ensure that policies and decisions that are taken need to be done keeping in mind the long term sustenance of these decisions.  If they are driven by the quarterly results or the elections round the corner, there will be trade offs between the short term and the long term and this could end up with the killing of the Golden Goose.