Company Profile - Nestle

Vision

“Nestlé's aim is to meet the various needs of the consumer everyday by marketing and selling foods of a consistently high quality.”

Mission

“We strive to bring consumers foods that are safe,of high quality and provide optimal nutrient to meet physiological needs. Nestle helps provide selections for all individual taste and lifestyle preferences.”

About Nestle

• Nestle was founded in 1867 in Geneva,Switzerland by Henri Nestle
• Nestle's first product was "Farine Lactee Nestle", an infant cereal
• In 1905,Nestle acquired theAnglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company.
• Today,Nestle is the world's largest and most diversified food company.It has around 2,50,000 employees worldwide, operated 500 factories in approximately 100 countries and offers over 8,000 products to millions of consumers universally.

Nestle India

• Nestlé India is a subsidiary of Nestlé S.A.of Switzerland.
• Nestlé’s relationship with India dates back to 1912,when it began trading as The NestléAnglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company (Export) Limited,importing and selling finished products in the Indian market.
• After independence,in response to the then economic policies,which emphasized local production, Nestle formed a company in India,namely Nestle India Ltd,and set up its first factory in 1961 at Moga,Punjab,where the Government wanted Nestle to develop the milk economy.
• The Company insists on honesty,integrity and fairness in all aspects of its business and expects the same in its relationships.This has earned it the trust and respect of every strata of society that it comes in contact with and is acknowledged amongst India's 'Most Respected Companies' and amongst the 'Top Wealth Creators of India'.
• The 4 branch offices in the country help facilitate the sales and marketing of its products.They are in Delhi,Mumbai,Chennai and Kolkata. The Nestlé India head office is located in Gurgaon,Haryana.

Production Facilities

Products

Brands

Beverages

Milk Products

Prepared dishes and cooking aids

Chocolates and Confectionery

Future Plans

• Nestle India will invest Rs 700 crore in a factory in Himachal Pradesh for the production of noodles and chocolates.
• The company is also in the process of investing Rs 360 crore in the production facility for noodles at Nanjangud in Karnataka.
• The company is spending Rs 200 crore on a R&D centre at Manesar. The centre will employ 100 people and will come out with new products in the popular foods category.

Story - Three Monks

Background:

Three Monks  is a Chinese animated feature film produced by the Shanghai Animation Film Studio in 1976, It is also referred to as The Three Buddhist Priests.
The film is based on the ancient Chinese proverb "One monk will shoulder two buckets of water, two monks will share the load, but add a third and no one will want to fetch water.

Plot:

There was a monk who lived in a temple built on the top of a hill. everyday he used to get two buckets full of water from down the hill and carry them back to temple using a shoulder pole.The water he got was more than enough for one person.

One day a monk visited the temple and started living there. next day when they got up, first monk thought of giving the responsibility to bring water to the new monk.

But the new monk refused to do it alone. therefore they decided to share the responsibility but the shoulder pole was small and could accommodate only one bucket then.

The water they got was still enough for both of them.

Later a third monk came to stay with them. On the next day morning when all the monks got up, nobody took the responsibility to fill the buckets as the shoulder pole could accommodate only two persons and they could not decide who should stay back.On that day, they began to suffer from thirst since water had finished. That night temple caught fire.

Finally all the three monks got together to fight the fire and started working together to get the water every morning and no one suffered from thirst thereafter.

Learning:

1) Everyone is capable of being selfish, but doing so diminishes our ability to cooperate with one another.

2) As the saying goes, :Unity is strength" we should co operate with each other and work together in a harmonious manner.

3) This story teaches us that it is inappropriate to shirk responsibility and proper measures should be taken before a catastrophe occurs.

Creative Problem Solving

Creative Problem Solving is a proven method for approaching a problem or a challenge in an imaginative and innovative way. It’s a tool that helps people re-define the problems they face, come up with breakthrough ideas and then take action on these new ideas.

Most of the times, when we face a problem, first thing that comes to mind is how difficult will it be to solve the problem? Thus we make an assumption that the solution would be very tough to find out. The mantra for creative problem solving is to free our mind from all the inhibitions and be innovative and creative.

Process Stage	Steps
Explore The Stage	Objective Finding (identify the goal, wish or challenge)
	Fact Finding (gather the relevant data)
	Problem Finding (clarify the problems that need to be solved in order to achieve the goal)
Generate Ideas	Idea Finding (generate ideas to solve the identified problem)
Prepare for action	Solution Finding (move from idea to implementable solution)
	Acceptance Finding (plan for action)

Process Diagram

To explain the concept of creative problem solving, our professor took us to the terrace and asked us to find the solution to the problem there.

Stage 1: Explore The Stage

After looking around on the terrace, we found a strange looking thing hanging from the ceiling. The task was to remove the ring from that assemble and put it back again.

Stage 2: Generate Ideas

After identifying the problem, we all started thinking about the solution. Some students thought of removing the entire assembly and then dissemble it thus removing the ring. There were different suggestions from different students.

Stage 3: Prepare for action

After getting suggestions and ideas of different students, we started looking for best solution. This was actually not suggested because nobody thought it would be so simple to remove the ring and then put it back in assembly.

Steps to remove the ring:

1)      Raise the ring as high as it would go and hold it there.

2)      Move one of the wooden squares to the other side by passing it through the slit in the top part.

3)      Bring both the squares together by moving the thread.

4)      One of the balls will still remain stuck after its square block is taken to other side.

5)      Lower the ring, tilt it and remove through the slit and the ball.

To put the ring back in assemble:

1)      Pass the ball through the ring.

2)      Tilt the ring and pass it through the slit.

3)      Pull the ring up above the slit.

4)      Remove the wooden plank, hanging on the same side of the other one but not having a ball along with it, through the slit.

5)      Let go of the ring.

This is how we resolved the problem. The point here was not only to solve the problem but to learn how to do it. People thought of different ideas, but nobody thought it could be done in such a creative and simple way. 

Team Work: Valley Crossing

Teamwork is defined as efforts done by a group of people to achieve a common goal. In essence, each team member leaves his/her individual priorities aside for a larger cause and works together. A strong team is one in which the strengths and skills of individual team members are combined in an efficient and effective manner to achieve the goals.

To explain the significance of teamwork, our Professor Prasad gave the example of Valley Crossing:

In this, three persons had to cross from left block to right block. Both the blocks were separated by a distance of more than one step of each person thus making it impossible for single person to achieve it individually.

To accomplish the task, we derived a workflow and split the task into 9 steps. Then all the steps were followed and demonstrated in class to achieve the goal.

The above task could be accomplished only by coordination, effective communication, cooperation and shared responsibility making it as teamwork.

Following characteristics of teamwork can be observed on completing the task:

1) Purpose: A clear goal should be present before initiating the task. This helps team members to prioritize their tasks and work efficiently towards achieving the targets. Just like in the task above, the goal was clearly defined to cross from left block to right block.

2) Communication: This one of the most important factors for effective teamwork. Team members should communicate with each other without hesitation and share their experiences and opinions. They should listen to each other and discuss problems or any issues in a healthy manner. This promotes harmony and trust within the team. Like in this task, an efficient way to achieve the goal could not be achieved without effective communication. 

     

      3) Individual Roles: Roles should be well defined among team members. This helps them in understanding their responsibilities and synchronizing their day to day activities with the team goals. Tasks should be evenly divided among team members to avoid overload on one member. Roles need to be defined based on the strengths and skills of individual team members.

      In the task above, all the persons had to do the same task and move in similar way to avoid any overwork.

4) Coordination: In today’s world, there are at times huge teams working together to achieve the common goal. This often leads to inter-dependency among team members. To avoid any conflicting situation members should approach each other without hesitation and provide status of their tasks and any related information. Members should coordinate properly so that nobody lags behind in their task as it will affect the team’s goal also.

5) Managing Conflict situation: At times there can be conflicts within the team. It is important that these conflicts be identified and resolved at appropriate time in a manner which maintains the positive environment and harmony in team.

6) Success and Failure: It is important that team members celebrate the success together and acknowledge each other for their work. It is equally important to work together without blaming others at the time of failures.

7) Team Leadership: It is important to have leaders who can help in boosting the morale of team during bad times. They should try to facilitate communication among members if it lacks and promote cooperation and sense of responsibility among the team members.

Goal Setting

Goal setting is the process of deciding what you want to accomplish and devising a plan to achieve the result you desire.
This goal setting definition emphasizes that goal setting is a two part process. For effective goal setting, you need to do more than just decide what you want to do; you also have to work at accomplishing whatever goal you have set for yourself.

Goals that are difficult to achieve and specific tend to increase performance more than goals that are not. A goal can become more specific through quantification or enumeration (should be measurable), such as by demanding "...increase productivity by 50%," or by defining certain tasks that must be completed.

Setting goals affects outcomes in four ways:

1. Choice: goals narrow attention and direct efforts to goal-relevant activities, and away from perceived undesirable and goal-irrelevant actions.
2. Effort: goals can lead to more effort; for example, if one typically produces 4 widgets an hour, and has the goal of producing 6, one may work more intensely towards the goal than one would otherwise.
3. Persistence: Someone becomes more prone to work through setbacks if pursuing a goal.
4. Cognition: Goals can lead individuals to develop and change their behavior.

 How to Set Goals:

Internationally renowned business philosopher Jim Rohn says, “We want to set the goals that our heart conceives, that our mind believes and that our bodies will carry out.” We are intelligent beings and as intelligent beings we need to have SMART goals. The acronym S.M.A.R.T. outlines the set of criteria that your goal must follow in order for it to be a well-focused and achievable goal. 

That set of criteria is:

Specific: Goals should be Specific and clear as they lead to greater output and better performance.

Measurable: There should be set parameters to check whether the stated purpose or goal

has been achieved or not.

Attainable: It is important to set realistic goals. It should be planned considering the Current

situation and resources available.

Relevant: Goals set should have relevance for an individual and organization. It should be such that it helps in growth of an individual as well as the company.

Time-Bound: All goals should have a timeline within which they should be achieved. 

 Tower Building

The tower building exercise was held in the class to demonstrate the importance of goal setting. 

The goal setting in this case was to set the number of blocks that a person can put one over the other. Section B students estimated that 17 blocks could be  put one over

the other and they achieved 17.

Here I will discuss whether the set criteria of S.M.A.R.T

was followed and the observations after completing the exercise.

1. Specific – A specific and clear goal was set for everyone and everyone understood it.
2. Measurable –Since it was the number of blocks, it was measurable.
3. Achievable - Since section B was able to make it by using 17 towers, the team had to set a higher goal to motivate themselves to perform better. A higher goal of say 20 blocks here would have pushed up the performance of the team as the expectations would have been clear and maybe in that case,  the team's performance would have also scaled up beyond 17 blocks, thus achieving excellence.
4. Relevant - Pertaining to the tower building exercise, the goal was absolutely relevant.
5. Timely - A specific time period was indeed set for them to achieve the goal.

Now, we come to the exercise.

Initially everyone was asked to set goals for themselves and tell the number of blocks with which they can build a tower. The response varied from 10-35 blocks.

 A student who had set himself a goal of 10 blocks was invited to construct a tower. He accomplished the task with 17 blocks, which made him happy at having performed beyond his expectation.

However, is it actually an accomplishment??

Yes indeed it is. But what about the target he set for himself?? The difference that came (as he claimed 10 but was able to build it with 17) was pretty huge. This shows that the target set was way below his capabilities. This is where the manager needs to make sure that he understands the strengths and weaknesses of a team member and assign an appropriate goal.

A second part of the exercise illustrated another important trait of goal setting. The student was blindfolded and then the rest were asked to estimate the number of blocks he could arrange. The fact that he was blindfolded resulted in the class average of estimation going down, with only one student believing that he could exceed his previously achieved performance. A handful believed he could reach the same heights whereas majority back-folded on their previously decided number. In an organization, for a healthy growth, it is important that we scale up on the previously achieved performance, no matter what the situation is. A good management always overcomes situations at hand and uses it for their own good. That is what was required here, that the budding managers set a higher goal for greater performance.

It is important for managers to motivate their team members to face obstacles and get the best out of them even during worst time. This helps the organization to grow and prosper under any circumstances.

Khan Academy - A Revolution

 

Introduction

The Khan Academy is a non-profit educational organization, created in 2006 by Bangladeshi American educator Salman Khan, a graduate of MIT and Harvard Business School. With the stated mission of "providing a high quality education to anyone, anywhere", the website supplies a free online collection of more than 3,200 micro lectures via video tutorials stored on YouTube teaching mathematics,history, healthcare and medicine, finance, physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, economics, cosmology, organic chemistry, American civics, art history, macroeconomics and microeconomics, and computer science.

Salman Khan's education project is a milestone in the democratization of the internet. When the distribution and acquisition of knowledge finally bursts free from the financial shackles it's struggled with for centuries, all will finally truly be equal. I'm elated that Mr. Khan's efforts are not only being recognized finally, but supported by those who realize the potential this method of education offers.

This is truly a significant step toward the next major evolution of humanity, knowledge free from the carcinogenic influence of religion, government, politics, culture, money, shame and fear.

Vision:

Sal Khan and Khan Academy have a great vision of providing resources to all. The goal of the Khan Academy is to use technology to provide a free, world-class education to anyone, anywhere. Khan Academy does not charge nor do they plan to charge for their services.

Mission: 

Khan Academy becoming the world's first free, world-class virtual school where anyone can learn anything--for free. The videos are just part of the vision. They are building out the adaptive software to cover all the topics that the videos cover. They also intend to develop simulation games to give more nuanced and applied understanding of concepts. 

Goal of Khan Academy

Khan Academy’s explicit goal is to teach people fundamental concepts. But in the process, it hopes to break new ground by changing how educators think about teaching, how psychologists think about learning, how employers think about credentialing, and how everybody thinks about the price of a good education.

Business Models in Online Education

At the moment, there are basically three business models in online education. Ad-supported, freemium and premium. But there are also two large scale operations that have no business model at all, Khan Academy and Wikipedia. Let’s go to the three most popular for-profit ones before we focus on the noncommercial examples. 

Ad-supported education are in most cases smaller projects of individual educators who upload videos to YouTube and display Google ads against them. 

This model, however, is not suitable for bigger operations. 

Freemium is a very popular model amongst education startups. Users have access to a big chunk of the product for free, though this part is usually also supported by display ads. If learners then want to have access to extra content, usually grammar charts, worksheets or videos, they will have to pay. 

Premium, as the name suggests, is content that is only available to paying customers. Language learning platform Babbel famously switched the popular freemium model to premium only back in November 2009 and soon afterwards announced that the startup was profitable. Another reason was the problem the team saw in displaying ads. 

Khan Academy’s Business Model

Ads are far from being an ideal revenue stream in an educational context. You cannot really control what is displayed next or even inside of the video lesson. Ads can be a distraction, especially when they are animated or feature sound effects and they have the draw-back that they are seen critically in a public school context and I think this is also part of Khan Academy’s success amongst educators. Khan Academy has always been ad-free although nowadays Khan could make some significant income based on either Google Ads or by selling sponsorships based on his reach. 3.5 million unique visitors a month are worth a ton of money yet Khan Academy stays a noncommercial platform.

The same is of course true for Wikipedia. Jimmy Wales is also fighting the idea of displaying advertisements or sponsored links on the site though it could earn Wikipedia a lot of money based on the page views. Yet he chooses to go in the trenches, raising money to keep Wikipedia up and running. Though Wales has no big success in getting the basic user to donate he usually meets his goal through big donations like the lastest $500k grant by Google founder Sergey Brin and his wife whereas Khan always had a steady flow of small donations to keep the Academy alive.

So both, Khan and Wales, are proving that there is “a better way” to deliver true free education on the Internet. And I think this is the really radical part. If you take a look at what the Khan Academy is going to offer for free to educators one could ask why anyone would pay for similar products? Khan has no commercial interest something that resonates with the ideals of most educators. Khan is independent from big brands and publishers in education that take more and more influence in promising education startups lately by either investing and / or partnering with them. 

Conclusion

Free, quality education has been a dream of many educators and of course students for a long time now and Khan might be on the road to establish that mindset in the generation of users he and his faculty are teaching every day.

Lecture 02

In the second lecture, Dr. Prasad talked about Theory X and Theory Y managers the class shared personal experiences about these two types of managers in the real world.

Theory X

In this theory, management assumes employees are inherently lazy and will avoid work if they can and that they inherently dislike work. As a result of this, management believes that workers need to be closely supervised.

Scenario 1: In this scenario, Employees are lazy and Manager thinks employees are lazy

Scenario 2: In this scenario, Employees are good and Manager thinks employees are lazy

An example of Theory X manager is the time clock. You have to clock in partly because the management thinks you'll arrive late and leave early if you don't.

Theory Y

In this theory, management assumes employees may be ambitious and self-motivated and exercise self-control.  A Theory Y manager believes that, given the right conditions, most people will want to do well at work.

Scenario 1: In this scenario, Employees are lazy and Manager thinks employees are good

Scenario 2: In this scenario, Employees are good and Manager thinks employees are good

An example of Theory Y is an artist on contract to produce art. You tell the artist what you want done but you leave it to him/her when and how to do it as long as they produce what you want within your timeline. She can paint at 2AM for all you care - as long as you get art by the deadline.