It is true that rising inflation makes a dent in our spending pattern. But is it a big enough dent. Perhaps not in your case or my case. We still buy our veggies, milk and life goes on. We kind of adjust with passing time. But if this were true why does the engine that dives the economy start stuttering. To understand this one needs to imagine that a marginal drop in consumption multiplied by the entire population transforms into a braking force powerful enough to slow down the mammoth engine that drives the economy. Hence things look a lot different when viewed from the lens of "scale". A large country, a large economy and so also a large company need to have people with the imagination to think "scale".
Lets look at some examples which will bring out the strategies that come into play in when one thinks scale.
1) Political parties / leaders understand the power of scale better than any body else. Therefore they are always in search of words that ring in the minds of masses instantly. Some of the words that have glued people together as one collosal mass have been "Ram/"Ram Mandir", Reservation, Secularism, Inflation, Nuclear Deal, Hindu, etc etc. All these words are understood by few. Even the perpetrators of these words perhaps have little understanding of the words but they sure comprehend the effect these words have on the masses and how such words can unite masses. Hence usng such words they herd people in the direction they desire.
2) India loses roughly 40 per cent of electricity generated, thanks to inefficient transmission and distribution systems. Theft and pilferage siphon off what could otherwise generate employment, output and growth. An audit found that 23 to 46 per cent energy could be saved with better end-use energy management in buildings Power piferage has been one big problem we have been living with since the time it began moving along transmission lines. Hence efficiency and productivity were mere words in power sector in the past. However with every increasing industrialization and scale of enterprise even a 10% improvements when viewed from the lens of scale would be enough to light up a few villages. The moment we scale up enterprises / industry the rules of the game changes altogether. It is easier to make a film worth Rs 30 lacs than changing the application forms into color for at the rate of Rs 2 per application form it costs us Rs 50lacs for 25lacs forms and if made in color would cost us Rs 100 lacs ( i.e an incremental Rs 50 lacs). That is the power of scale which alters decision making completely the moment volumes go beyond a threshold level. The ghost of scale is what haunts the oil companies in India who pray that they sell less as every selling unit is retailed at a loss. Therefore more units sold means more losses to digest.
3) Organizations / Companies: In India, companies came into existence much later than the developed world. And large companies perhaps came into the fore only after the wheel of liberalisation were set into motion. Hence tried and tested strategies of the past tend to fail in the context of large companies. As companies become large controlling their operations can get out of hand. How can one understand what is going on across 100 branches ? Speaking to 100 branches every day and then acting on the feedback is a prescription for disaster. Sending and receiving emails and expecting to act on them is just another drug which will delay the inevitable. So where is the magic potion to resurrect and advance the organization. Fortunately one does not have to go far and wide in search. There are several solutions which use the internet infrastructure to keep pace with scale. The rule is simple. Every activity needs to be
1) Formatted such that it looks and feels the same wherever it is in play.
2) Strategies needs to be central and communicated.
3) All actions needs to be decentralized.
4) However the decentralized actions needs to be aggregated centrally using the web based platforms which enable various permutation and combinations of reporting.
In this way we eliminate data collection ( follow ups, sending, verifying formats, asking for changes, again sending the data in the right format and with all missing fields filled in, collating data, analyzing the same, generating reports in actionable formats and so on). The time saved would run into days and perhaps even months. In the times that we live in losing months for taking decisions is playing into the hands of competition. Just imagine the level of control for the HR department if employees across 100 branches fill all their leave requirements in a span of a week. The aggregation that happens in real time at the desk of the HR head helps him in resource planning by making changes to leave requirements such that the organization is adequately manned at all times. What would otherwise take months to implement ( or perhaps never get implemented in an efficient manner) gets done in no time.
Thus ideas, strategies, plans etc need to reflect the scale at which things are being planned and can take completely different shape as a result of change in scales. Management of scales is a discipline that should learnt in the work place if not taught formally.