leadership – STIMS Institute

‘What harms them, harms all of humanity’

Considering the current challenges related to war and peace worldwide, it is encouraging to observe global leaders like the Pope taking initiative and advocating for responsibility and measures towards restoration of peace.

Pope on Middle East: ‘What harms them, harms all of humanity’
After praying the Angelus, Pope Leo calls for an end to violence around the world, urging everyone to persevere in prayer because “we cannot remain silent in the face of the suffering of so many people, innocent victims of these conflicts.” https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2026-03/pope-we-cant-be-silent-in-face-of-suffering-of-many-innocents.html

The harm for the innocent citizens, children, men and women of Israel is not merely a heinous act of a few from Hamas, but it is a cruel episode in human history. The death and destruction that followed in Gazza, the ravages of life and property in Iran by their own Government as well as through bombings by U.S. and Isreal, the loss of life of U.S. soldiers and the many innocent citizens in all countries in the region, not to speak of the unending aggression by Russia and the war in Ukraine, ….. there seems like no end in sight!

For all of the above, one can blame the leaders in the many countries. Does the ownership stop there? All the death and destruction are caused by bombs, ammunition and the war machinery – all of which are paid for by Taxpayer money! At least in that sense, there is a direct connection between the savage outcomes in the battlefield and the funding for all the war machinery enabled by the hard work and earnings of every citizen in the USA and his/her taxes paid to the U.S. Government. When we look at it that way, each one of us have a share n these tragic outcomes. “We cannot remain silent in the face of the suffering of so many people, innocent victims of these conflicts,” as the Pope points out.

Vedic Philosophy proclaims:
Everyone and indeed everything is integral and inseparable part of Nature, as a whole! (Tat Twam Asi).

Above is an obvious and self-evident truth! It also implies that every one of us is responsible and has a part in all the good as well as the bad that occur everywhere, even across the globe. Instead of being and becoming a “Culture of responsibility”, we tend to outsource our responsibility to a few individuals ordained as leaders in each country. This herd mentality seems to become codified in the name of organization, nationality, authority and power structure! When these leaders go “rogue”, the nation as a whole pays the price! Today we witness this herd mentality and the leaders going rogue in their authority, responsibility and work. Breaking the silence against such run away leadership and governance truly calls for a spiritual outlook, a view of equal regard for the welfare of all and against the mentality of “tooth for a tooth” and an “eye for an eye”!

In terms of management and leadership, to say a leader has “gone rogue” at work means they have abandoned established company policies, strategic alignment, or ethical standards to pursue their own agenda, or to act independently without authorization. A rogue leader essentially acts as a “dark knight” or “vigilante,” often creating their own rules while disregarding the chain of command, disregarding well established norms, resulting in dysfunctional teams, low morale, and increased risk for the organization.

No one can expect a better tomorrow under such rogue leaders and their leadership. It requires a collective engagement of all. It requires a return to leadership with a Spiritual Outlook that seeks the welfare of all. It requires action beyond merely blaming rogue leaders. The action includes communication between fellow employees, developing and forging a commitment to restore what is right and find ways to correct all that is wrong.

Generally, in a company such rogue leaders drive the company to bankruptcy. I have been a victim of such rogue leadership, and the bankruptcy of a large Co. in the early part of my professional career. International Harvester was the 4^th largest Co. in USA in the early 80s. It went bankrupt in less than one year thanks to a leader and his series of moves, each a failure compounding the next! https://time.com/archive/6855087/goodbye-archie/ A new R&D center initiated only a few months earlier was shut down. Scores of highly talented professionals recruited from all across the USA had to scurry and find their next job and career elsewhere!

In a Democracy, such “bankruptcy” is not an option! People switching jobs and place of living is not an option when the nation as a whole suffers from social, economic and political turmoil. Instead, what is needed is a resolve to exercise the rights of citizens and their duty to elect new leaders that replace the “rogue” leaders and the impact of their poor leadership!

Role of decision making in Management

In the beginning of the NYT essay https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/21/us/politics/gorsuch-congress-trump-tariffs.html we find the following:
“Yes, legislating can be hard and take time,” wrote Justice Gorsuch, a Trump appointee who is part of the court’s conservative majority. “And yes, it can be tempting to bypass Congress when some pressing problem arises. But the deliberative nature of the legislative process was the whole point of its design. Through that process, the nation can tap the combined wisdom of the people’s elected representatives, not just that of one faction or man.”

These are wise and timely words, also implying the failure of the current Congress and its willingness to sit on the sidelines, abrogating all its power and authority to an Executive intent on enlarging his power, laws and Constitution be damned!

There are obvious failures and pitfalls in our current political process. Every citizen in this great Democracy must reflect upon it and act as required! “A republic, if you can keep it” is a famous, cautionary quote attributed to Benjamin Franklin in 1787, emphasizing that maintaining a free, representative government requires active civic responsibility, not just its establishment!

“All politics is local” is a famous maxim coined by former U.S. Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill. Generally it is used to handle political issues by chasing its roots to the local population. We could also chase down the current plotical quagmire or failure in our governing process at the national level and its similairity to what is generally known as “management problem”?

Above words of Justice Gorsuch have profound implications in any management process as well. After all any management effort requires a relentless chain of “Plan / Organize / Coordinate / Control (verify against plan)”. In every step, decision making is required. Such decision making would be objective and free of personal bias (un-attached) when input from all sides and from everyone involved is included. Not every decision can be left to the Chief Executive. Everyone at every level has to make their decisions and stand up to defend all such decisions. It can be tempting to bypass established roles and processes when some pressing problem arises. It is such systemic failure in decision making at various levels and functions that is the root cause of what we commonly identify as “Management Failure”?

Concerted response required for the recent letter “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” ?

The recent letter “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” and its rejection by MIT could be a welcome opportunity for the Educational Leaders and the leading Institutions?
https://lnkd.in/gYxdYv7J
The letter “Compact for ….” from the Education Secretary appears to be a Trojan Horse for power grab and an attempt to curb free thinking. The shallow intellectual depth of the administration makes one wonder, if there is even an interest to promote “Conservative” values in lieu of “Liberal” thoughts and expression in campuses! It might just be an old ploy of pitting one group against another and relishing in the chaos, as the outcome!
The challenge through the letter from the Education Secretary and this Administration goes beyond their thinking and adversarial approach to governing. In fact they stem from insidious developments over the past five decades or more that have been metastasizing our nation, its culture and our Democratic and moral fibre.
For example:
— Technology (=Science X Engineering X Managment) is now synonymously treated as reflecting only IT, Computer Science, Data Science or AI! In other words, the entire value of MIT is reduced to one Department or one sector of activity!
— Rewards of Capitalism have degenerated the society that was once heavily middle class (40/40/20 : Poor/Middle/Rich) into a nation of “haves” and “have nots” (90/10: Poor and Middle /Ultra rich). Traditional sharing of the wealth through Risk/Reward has not shifted to Risk/Effort/Reward sharing models.
— While it may be true that over 80% of MIT undergraduates are free of loan burden, that can not be said of most UGs across the nation. Being driven out of the middle class they are also driven into economic disadvantage Vs. their global college educated compatriots.
— Most of the Social Media products – with their inability to control and limit the polarizing effect on the society – are developed and implemented by graduates from top schools like MIT, aided by low wage high skilled H1B Visa workers.
In all of the above, schools like MIT are not solely responsible for the outcomes. But, systemic failure in leadership across the nation, over the decades, to challenge the above outcomes and their corrupting influence has to be acknowledged. It has been leading to despair and “throw the baby out with the bath water” attitude on our social and democratic norms. These are the undercurrent rhat fuel this administration and its political power. As I have learned at MIT, the “System and its solution” need a comprehensive approach addressing several issues at the same time! My plea to the leadership at MIT as well as at other leading institutions is to take bold action on the above (bulleted) and other similar issues. That would be a worthy antidote raising social awareness and public support against arbitrary and misplaced demands from the current administration?

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7382497220568211456/

Leadership: Three levels of System Skills

In a recent post in the HBR titled: Want to be an outstanding leader: Keep a journal? https://hbr.org/2016/01/want-to-be-an-outstanding-leader-keep-a-journal? the author suggests keeping a personal journal and also taking time off for periodic reflection. We fully agree with these suggestions. Here are some additional thoughts:

A Leader evolves to be one by gathering ideas (Self and that from others), integrates them into a solution and leads a team to achieve and enjoy the benefits of such solution. Hence by inference every leader and in any field is a Knowledge Integrator, capable of thinking of problems or opportunities as a system: The Whole is larger than the mere sum of its parts.
There are three levels of System Thinking in any leadership role:
AWARENESS of the big picture (at this level any form of knowledge and information aggregation is very useful; Maintaining a personal diary or journal is one such tool; it offers a structure or discipline for knowledge aggregation.)
ANALYSIS: This is the next level of System Thinking for any leadership role. Some times this analysis of data and information is personal, some times it is collective. A good leader finds ways to push every one to this stage. Most will resist it as the tendency will be to just supply information and wait for orders. Such task oriented persons can never be a leader, no matter what their title or assigned role is.
Moments of peace and introspection are ways in which a leader separates himself from the mere tasks and engages in analytical reasoning that connect the dots, to see the big picture – how the whole can become larger than mere sum of the parts.
SYNTHESIS: Few, Very few ascend to this level. The synthesis is an outcome of analysis. While Analysis offers an answer to the “Why?”, synthesis challenges the leader to inspire the self and others to ask “Why not?” and then find the answers.
For details on the three levels of System Skills for a leader:

Books

Global Manufacturing trends and technology – Management Inteview

Shekat Jitkar, Publisher and chief Editor of Efficient Manufacturing magazine interviewed eight global experts on trends in manufacturing.

The interview is published in their Kompendium 2014. Following is a summary :

Dr Wilfried AulburManaging Partner for Roland Berger Strategy Consultants Pvt Ltd.

Establish the right capabilities and Culture.* Shift to Asia: China is the #1 machine building country worldwide and performance and quality requirements in Asia are getting closer to European levels.

* Game change in the mid-end: The mid-end performance segment is growing the fastest and this is the new global battlefield for emerging and developed market players.

* Go Green: Energy efficiency is increasingly important in key markets such as Europe and Japan. Substantial energy savings can be achieved for selected applications, while for others it is mostly a marketing issue

Dr K (Subbu) SubramanianPresident, STIMS Institute Inc, USA.

System Thinking and Transformational Skills required.* Data, analysis and process intelligence aided by Big Data and analytics

* Sensors and Smart devices everywhere; Innovation in manufacturing processes; Programmable automation (the generic name for CNC, robots, flying robots, AGV and drones);

* Products and their manufacturing to increase the quality of life at all levels?

* No more learning curve (price -vs- volume is a flat line and not a curve)?

* If low labor cost only means low skilled labor for physical labour tasks or well defined information tasks, then such low cost labour is no longer a competitive advantage?

* Product (Source of revenue), Physical Processes (that enable the products) and USE (Application process of the customer) are the only three unique core capabilities of any manufacturing company.

Michael BremerPresident, Cumberland Group – Chicago;

VP of Manufacturing Excellence Awards process for the Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME)

Eliminate Waste, but create new Value.* People, people, people! — Ability to find and develop talent. People will be attracted to organizations that treat them with respect and develop their skills and capabilities. Elite organizations create an environment where associates are encouraged to give that little bit of extra effort = passion and engagement

* Rapid prototyping (faster lead times)

* Use of sensors to track manufactured product, provide feedback for early maintenance, and develop closer relationships with customers

* Safety of intellectual property and cyber security – ability to more easily identify fake products

* Ability to more deeply understand customer requirements and total cost of the supply chain

* More collaborative practices across the supply chain where companies partner together to pursue joint growth opportunities.

Dr P N RaoProfessor, Department of Technology, University of Northern Iowa, USA.

Utilize the Opportunities available.* Developments in robotics

* Digital Everywhere: Information thread that integrates design, planning, manufacturing and product support through all stages will greatly improve the possibility to achieve first pass success. This will combine innovative automation, various sensors and control systems, communications across all segments, including the global supply chain. This would mean advanced manufacturing enterprises, intelligent machines, advanced analysis techniques, and cyber security systems in view of the information exchange across the internet with globalization.

* Additive manufacturing (3D printing)

* Integrated systems that will have sensors to monitor the manufacturing process continuously and then adapt the process to achieve the best possible performance by a combination of software and hardware tools.

* Sustainable manufacturing that deals with product design for sustainability, sustainable

manufacturing processes, and sustainable manufacturing systems, while also trying to maximize resource efficiency

Sanjeev BaitmangalkarPrincipal Consultant (Strategy & Lean Manufacturing), Stratmann Consulting.

Go Lean …..* The growing number of embedded sensors, collecting information about the world, and the rise of social networks that store the data people share, will generate immense quantities of information.

* Many businesses of the future will use analytics to mass customize and differentiate themselves.

* Business intelligence, which enables organizations to gather quantifiable data on each area of the organization and analyses it in a way that yields information they can act on — helping them enhance decision making, improve performance, mitigate risk and sometimes even create new business models — is growing in importance.

* Small, comfortable, low cost, fuel efficient cars will drive product development.

Suresh Lulla

Founder and MD, Qimpro Consultants Pvt. Ltd.

Quality will not be negotiable.

* Leadership, Strategy and Customer focus* Work force and its quality; cycle time reduction; double the profit without capital through better quality practices; left brain for quality improvement and right brain for process innovation; cross-country bench markeing.

* Low labor cost in developing nations is not sustainable;

* Three bottom lines: Planet, people and profit!

* Three core capabilities needed: Understand customer needs; ability to translate that into product design and ability to outsource where required!

Raghavendra Rao V.P. & Global Mfg. Leader, Frost & Sullivan

Invest in design capability.* Rapid prototyping, 3 D printing, real time data and analysis

* Manufacturing “hub” for toll manufacturing to “Design to manufacturing” alliance between partners across developed and emerging economies.

* Cost/ economics; IT Integrated Mfg.; Lean supply chain; Mature, eithical and stable partners; Green manufacturing.

Dr. Jeffrey Liker Prof. of Ind. And Opertions Engineering, U. of Michigan, President, Liker Lean Advisors

Invest in core competencies.* Excellence in Execution

*Serious focus on investing in people and culture

* Culture that is humble and open to new knowledge and new sources of learning may have a competitive advantage in the future.