Future Kitchen – A school of management

A passionate promoter of creativity and commitment, institution builder and management guru par excellence, Prof. Biswajeet Pattanayak created history by introducing the Oscar nominated Bollywood blockbuster ‘Lagaan’- a commercial movie in to the serious classrooms of the prestigious Indian Institutes of Managements (IIMs) and corporate board rooms, which brought legendary laurels for him as the ‘Lagaan Professor’. Since then, the trend of using movies as a teaching tool in management programmes has picked up momentum. 

 

On July 24th, 2012 the future managers of MNCs i.e. students of Indian Institute of Management (Kolkata) got tips on the modus operandi of Mumbai dabbawalas. Pawan Giridharilal Agrawal, the management guru specializing in logistics and supply chain management of dabbawalas, helped students of the Indian Institute of Management (Kolkata) to hone their managerial skills. It was amazing to observe how the dabbawalas work, in spite of them being not qualified. It is the sheer commitment only that drives them to deliver on time such that they now have a Six Sigma quality certificate and a global business fan club that includes Prince Charles and Richard Branson.

The above two illustrations, the former highlighting the need for team work and also the need to understand the concept of 'right man for the right job' in organizational goal achievement whereas the latter on the importance of time management in team work may be understood as humble but befitting knowledge feeds to the prestigious schools of management.

Hence, taking a cue from above examples I have decided to post today a humble but befitting knowledge feed in the form of a homely kitchen that could help redefine itself to enact the role of a School of Management. Hence, you find the post titled 'Future Kitchen – A school of management' with their similar activities presented as you continue reading ahead.  

 

We begin with a revision on the previous posts given in this blog on how would we interact with food in around 2025 and beyond? Considering the fast pace of science and technological advancement, ten years in the future, the world would be a ‘one developed world’ or be on the verge of the same. What does that mean for all of us, for the design of kitchens and the people who make them and how would we be able to live a sustainable life at home?  Listed are a series of twelve assumptions about the world we would live in 2025 from source: http://www.conceptkitchen2025.com/future-scenarios.html that seems to be supporting my previous mentioned posts for the Future Kitchen so as to help bring out the seemingly close connectivity between the much needed sustainable working operations of a kitchen (domestic/commercial) and any corporate entity;

 1.       We would be living more urban lives

 2.       Water and energy would feel precious

 3.       Food would be more expensive

 4.       We would be more open to thinking ‘protein’, not meat

 5.       Our homes would become physically smaller

 6.       Atomised lives, social kitchens

 7.       Working from home would be the norm

 8.       Computers would be everywhere

 9.       ‘Shopping’ would mean ‘home delivery’

10.       Global commerce, local community

11.       Western culture would incorporate Eastern values

12.       Taste preferences and rituals would be converging

The outcomes from above discussion are therefore series of similarities that attempt to throw a light on the importance of a kitchen activity equated to any corporate activity, more so for the coming future that could enable successful interaction with food and help completion of concurrent day to day life activities for one and all in a family, especially when it comes to them delivering commitments on time whether be at the kitchen or at work;

School of management: The oldest formal school of management thought for its roots predate the twentieth century and was concerned with ways to manage work and organizations more efficiently.

Kitchen: The oldest kitchen! Maybe since the dawn of civilization and must have concerned with ways to manage to the best possible way, efficient food preparation and preservation activities. The future kitchen then would surely qualify as “a school of management” when it be concerned with such ways to manage working and dependent (non – working) family members such that their individual daily routines are charged up and motivated with the right quality and quantity of food at the right time all the time amidst tight schedules. 

School of management: Three areas of study that could be grouped under the classical school of management include scientific, administrative and bureaucratic management.

Kitchen: The similarity in above three areas of study may be analogous to say, ordering a cup of hot tea and being served with hot water, tea leaves, lemon, ginger, sugar, etc. separately for self service. So the question is whether a scientific knowledge regarding proper chemical composition of ingredients and the specific tea making process is more important or important is the knowledge needed to have the right cup of hot tea! (There are nearly eight to ten varieties of tea preparation, leisure or medicinal purpose). Would both be dependent or independent of each other? It seems logical that the way any ingredient material behaves in any given situation depends on its chemical composition, bonding and structure, then an understanding of these characteristics are integral in selecting the most suitable ingredient material for a given application say, when faced with sudden inflow of relatives, guests, visitors ,........The on time ready availability of the ingredients then may play a vital role for the kitchen to enact as a school of management. 

School of management: The behavioral school..........behavioral science focused on trying to understand the factors that affect human behavior at work so as to improve productivity.

Kitchen: This may again be taken analogous to ordering a cup of hot tea and being served with hot water, tea leaves, lemon, ginger, sugar, etc. separately for self service. So the question again would be whether the scientific knowledge regarding proper chemical composition of ingredients and the specific tea making process is more important or important is the knowledge needed to have the right cup of hot tea! Would both be dependent or independent of each other? Here, if inspite of having the knowledge to prepare and/or have the right cup of hot tea, but say during a sudden onset of migraine attack, the specific tea may not manifest in the right quality as the mood situation now may not seem to be suited for any appropriate exchange of hospitality.  

School of management: Tools of operation management viz. Inventory models, break-even analysis, production scheduling, production routing.....

Kitchen: Literally all the models above would be in operative mode in some other form and name as then only, the ways to manage all family members such that their individual daily routines could be charged up and motivated with the right quality and quantity of food at the right time all the time would be successfully achieved. 

School of management: In re-engineering approach, re-engineering determines what a company must do? How to do?.......To that the managerial challenges would be to sense the need for change, to see change coming, to react effectively to the coming change........

Kitchen: It requires no rocket science to understand health parameters concerning all family members especially, children, middle aged and seniors. As medical science has advanced so also it has been observed that certain diseases have shown resistance to the new medicines and vaccines produced. Avoiding sugarcane processed sugar and using sugar free cubes in food preparation would be an example to keeping in touch with recent changes. These health supportive changes that are brought about by advanced technology have already contributed a lot in fast preparation of healthy food, especially for working parents. But to be aware and steer clear of health damaging changes such as from fried food, fast foods,............. must be expected as they too belong to one side of the same coin i.e. advanced technology.

School of management: INPUTS are different from OUTPUTS as observed from Figure 1. below;

Figure 1. Corporate working model 

Kitchen: INPUTS are same as OUTPUTS (domestic/homes) and hence feedback as regards quality, quantity and timely execution of food preparation, preservation and cleaning activities becomes health consciously important unlike commercial kitchens that would be more nearer to the working model in Figure 1.

So, conclusively we have the kitchen (as a mini corporate entity) that could teach a thing or two to even the mightiest corporate giant/s to work efficiently else the messed up kitchen may get cleaned up but not................

Hope you liked the post!!!!