Response to Drive

XUE DENG

MBA 792

Dr. Joseph Castellano

02/10/2016

1. The first barrier is false assumption: “The whole is the sum of the parts, each separately doing its best.” If we are doing a mathematic problem, these words give us correct direction. However, that is not the way for enterprise management. They ignored the truth which is one or separate department success is not equal to overall positive results. Obvious systems and different departments are interdependent with each other, the purpose of distributing them into different working area is to achieve the maximum success of the organization. But it is necessary to mark and set the reward system based on overall interests instead of individual interest. Like the example we discussed on page 5, since the company gives engine and transmission department tasks to reduce the cost for each of them, even though an engineer found out the way to reduce the overall cost of the car, however the truth would cause a loss of engine department, and that is why they rejected the proposal. If the company has awareness to announce the goal as reducing the cost of the car, it will get more.

The second barrier is internal competition. Some organizations still consider internal competition as a motivation to increase productivity, however, wise business leaders already see the dangerous sites of internal competition. Internal competition usually accompanied with external rewards, and sometimes the leaders even put their employees on ranking system. The higher the position they get, they more they got paid. Competition pushes employees to focus on themselves, and consider individually when working with coworkers. Self-optimizing and self-protective ways usually come as the consequences of the competition. The co-workers are not just co-workers anymore, they are competitors. To achieve the biggest success, individual employee may even do something by hook or by crook to reach the goal. Competition may ruin the personal relationships within the company, make the teamwork dies, increase turnover rate, or generate morale issues.

The third barrier is lacking of information makes employees unable to engage the problem solving or the cooperation for the good of the enterprise. The reason why companies distribute their employees into different department and do different works is to maximize their mastery and contribute to work. Normally when employees focus on what they are doing now, most of them lack of professional knowledges and skills on other areas. That is why it requires employees to learn and share information to coworkers and cooperate to solving problems such as saving the overall costs.

1.  Exposed to the whirlwind of technological revolution we humans have complicated our lives instead of seeking refuge in simplicity. Machines do much of our work, calculators and other instruments ease the burden of mathematics statistics and other subjects but are we there by less worried, less exhausted and more comfortable with the system? Have we achieved our sustainable goals and are we living in a better world? Because somewhere in the greed of lust and power and the approach to obtain our objectives and we have lost the true worth of humanity. We have come to the age which has given us accounting that treats machines as the assets whereas the human force as an expense, only due to the fact that we are more concerned with obtaining our objectives that nothing else matters to us right now. A business now only concerns itself as abstract quantities, not concrete human affairs. We are so focused in our safe heaven of virtual reality that the real problems are ignored.

In order to change this narrative we have to change the economic system which is only possible when we transform the management that drives it. MBM emphasizes that the business should focus on principles that are guided by the Mother Nature. The main differences between the two systems that make this approach a better one is that it focuses on the means through which a certain problem is approached rather than solving the problem any way around just the way you like it. It focusses on the narrative of the performance of the entire system rather than just the goals. The key principles of MBM that make it a better option is maintaining a balanced energy budget over the long run. Seeing the example of Toyota who by following the basic assumptions of this system has far surpassed all its competitors in terms of product quality, reliability, design-to-delivery lead times, customer satisfaction, employee morale, productivity and cost, and overall financial performance. This has further been elaborated by Ravi Radjou in his ted talk on frugal solutions. One thing is for certain that there are no serious technological constraints to organizing human economic activity more along regional lines, in greater harmony with the resources and regenerative capacities of the Earth’s major watersheds. The main thing which is obvious from all the points made in his book is that all the abstract goals defined by the management by objectives are materialistic whereas the approach of MBM takes into account the need for human beings as an individuals and their problems as well, the second approach is also applicable in my opinion due to the fact that no matter how advance or automated the world gets, it is in the nature of humans to rely on each other and in long term human beings will realize that wealth maximization by any means necessary is not the only goal in their life.