Author Archives: pn152183

Some advice I would give to employees I would be supervising and who would be new to the system would be as follows:

1)      Don’t hesitate to ask for help in case you are stuck at something.  Almost everybody is happy to help.  There is no shame in asking to be helped. It is better to get corrected than do something absolutely wrong.

2)      Speak your mind. It’s very important to have an opinion; it not only shows your direction of thinking but also reflects your confidence. It also helps people know your competencies and those are which will help you shine apart. It’s very important in today’s world to excel in something because that’s when people start to look up to you for something. Also, it helps you build good contacts.

3)      Set definite targets for your future. Until and unless it is clear to you as to which direction you want your efforts to be directed towards. It is very difficult for anyone to help you out. Also having clear, concise and achievable objective makes it easier to steer ahead and in the direction of success.

We first met right after the groups were assigned to chalk out a plan for working on this project. Soon we came up with a schedule detailing each of ours roles and matching each of ours times for meetings aimed towards project completion. Since our group was “All girls”, we came up with the plan to do something on Women Empowerment. That’s when one of us decided to go for Women Empowerment in the developing/underdeveloped countries.

The next hurdle was what we would use to empower these women. It was a pretty hot week in New York that day and all over the Baruch Campus notice for electricity Conservation was posted. It clicked to us then that underdeveloped/developing countries not only have resource crunch but also face the problems related to energy crisis. Most of the old towns and villages don’t even have 24 hours electricity. Using various searching techniques we came up with enough data to support the fact that infact these countries need a source to fuel their lives.

Next since our plan was to empower women, we had to come up with something not overly complex which would take years to form. 3D Printing to develop solar cells and fuel homes and business places with much needed electricity was what came to our minds next. We all sat together to work on the feasibility of this concept.  After some research by all three of us we found that this was an excellent source idea. Once that bridge was crossed, we now had to set into action our execution plans and the financials to be presented before the funding committee (Echoing Green in this case).

We worked together to come up with numbers and figures which would help us set up a funding presentation. The presentation was divided into sections which explained why we thought what we thought, how we plan to execute what we think and finally why we need you money to bring our thoughts to action.

The leadership style we chose was that of a meaning maker. Through our project, we really want to make a difference.  If women from these countries could get a little push in the direction to support their families, it would mean a lot to all of us.

I would like to work towards introduction of digital manufacturing facility like 3D printing to women entrepreneurs of 3rd world or developing countries. The concept of 3D printing goes towards actually getting/generating physical objects in three dimensions. These objects are actually printed through these printers. Entrepreneurs, especially women in developing countries often need goods/products which might not be readily available. Making 3D printers available to such a group will be a huge help financially and operationally for people belonging to this segment.

In developing countries as the rest of the world women are considered nurturers. Any income/profit they make in business flows down into the family resulting in paving the path for bright future of not only the family members but also the entire nation. In other words, their children are more educated, have better living conditions and have an overall hygienic living conditions. On a micro level, introduction of 3D printers will help small entrepreneurs access resources which will help them flourish.

In underdeveloped/developing countries, most often than not, people are not equipped with resources or money to pay for costly items which might not be locally available. Paying huge shipping costs to acquire such products is usually quite costly and troublesome for small entrepreneurs. Also, because some of the products are not available locally it’s often difficult to customize them according to the need of one’s business. With 3D printers readily accessible, such customization would be easy. This would benefit these small entrepreneurs both financially and operationally.

At the end, I feel that 3D printing actually is the wave of the future. An introduction of such a revolutionary technology into a flourishing economy will create huge demand. As the start-up cost such as utility, transportation and operations will go down by large amounts, there will be an increasing likelihood of substantial huge ROI (Return on Investment) as well as huge success (in terms of demand).

One of our assignments in Business Communication-2 involved presenting our views on different leadership styles followed by leaders in the industry. Me along with my team partner Vaibhavi presented on Leadership style involving building trust. After viewing the presentation on VOCAT, I was quite satisfied with the content of the presentation, however there are a few points on which I would definitely like to work upon.

While presenting, I noticed that I use fillers extensively ( a fact I was not unaware about). In the future, I would definitely like to see myself not using fillers when I am trying to complete a sentence or thinking for a better word to describe something. The other thing which lacked in our presentation was the fact that although the slides conveyed our point of view, they appeared to be quite wordy. For a diverse audience, this might cause people to not pay attention to what we were communicating as they would be busy reading out of the slides. Some of our slides also had minor spelling errors which again might cause distraction (or change the meaning of an entire sentence!!). Apart from all this the transition of content from my part of the presentation to Vaibhavi’s also could have been a little more smooth.

In order to improve my presentation skills, I need to stop using (so many!!) fillers and may be just stop when I am thinking of a better word or feel the urge to umm!! Apart from this getting a third person to review the slides before final presentation can also be helpful as it would bring out the errors which I would have easily overlooked.

Overall, I think we gave the class some real good food for thought.

The leadership style which I like to follow is that of a Trust Builder. “The leader as a Communicator book” subscribed to us in the course on Leadership style details down various Leadership style as is followed by different industry leaders, and this is one of them.  When leading people in a team, I like to keep everyone at the same level. To me, for a team to actually work successfully (with everyone content), I like to foster a healthy environment and be very approachable.

To have a difficult, unapproachable and not supportive person as a leader of a team can be very demotivating. It could not only make working in a team difficult but also restrain individual growth. A leader is supposed to lead his team, and not hamper growth. By being understanding and approachable, a leader can motivate his/her team members to come up to him/her with any problem professional and even sometimes personal (only if they come in the way of professional growth).  It will encourage team members to speak their mind, participate freely in group discussions and be open to criticism. In some sense, being a trust builder also helps a leader. It helps him put things as they are in front of his/her team members, if conditions are bad, he/she can paint the correct picture more precisely for the team.

A team is comprised of people coming from different sill sets, different backgrounds and, in today’s fast shrinking world, of different cultures. In such a scenario understanding cultural differences, working styles and other differences becomes all the more important for a leader. By understanding these small differences and acting precisely on them he can bring the team even more together and hence gain trust of his/her team member for leading them in the right direction.

From all the facets of “Leader as a trust builder”, I am not a big fan of being informal. In my last company, I was supposed to lead a group of 4-5 individuals and things got pretty bad. The problem was most of 3 of these people used to be my friends from my last job and when I changed jobs to join a start-up, I got promoted and these guys followed me to join the company with me as their leader. The first few months went  quite smoothly as we all knew each other’s strengths and weaknesses. However, as time passed, situations/scenarios expected me to be strong handed with 1-2 of them occasionally. My team mates (being also my friends) did not take things as seriously as they were supposed to, ending in creating more problems than solutions. There were frequent heated discussions and arguments which really spoiled the working environment and made it toxic. Eventually I had to put my foot down and roll over as the manager of his group.  The learning I got from this experience was never treat your team members as your friends. One should be informal to an extent, but never ever try to be friends with people who he/she will eventually be leading.