A Paradigm Shift or A Paradise Lost?

Paradigms shifts so often these days...that it leaves many gaping as to when and how it shifted.Very often an old paradigm shifts,when a new one is ready to take its place.

I offer hereby some thumb rules,to identify whether a paradigm shift has occured or not.Then,one or more of the following should have occured:

1.Some one just realised that our current level of understanding on a subject is too weak to justify our future existence .

2.Someone just realised that the current gap between existing understanding and the reality(if there exists any) is embarassingly large to be explained Otherwise.

3.Someone who aspires to win an award or publish a paper has to ensure that on each such occassion the paradigm must shift.

4.The past knowledge was too weak,and we have suddenly woken up to this fact today!So how do we justify our folly!Simple-Just announce to the world that the Paradigm has just shifted.(If you have seen it shifting, can do wonders for your credibility and CV!)

I wonder as to whenever a paradigm shifts,where does it go!If we never hear of the shifted paradigm again,then is it a paradigm shift or a Paradise lost...?

Of Murderous Cheetahs and Spotted Elephants !!

Einstein himself once remarked that anything is possible as long as one can imagine it. Intellectual abilities as they say, knows no boundaries specially when wedded to wild imagination...but then some of the finest and the populist ideas are born this way...

In one of the strategy case discussions (actually Operations Management) in our class at IIMA,the professor was referring as 'cheetahs' to companies which are nimble and agile by design with customised and non-standardised product range,while 'Elephants' were their opposite counterparts,with standardised product range,high volumes and competitive pricing strategy. In the market place where both cheetahs and Elephants co-exist and compete..there may be two likely scenarios:

1.Cheetahs sometimes changed their strategy to compete with Elephants in the market,in order to compete with them...

2..and sometimes Elephants invited cheetahs to meet them in their own turf...

The Professor said the first one is known as CBGH (Cheetah ban gaya haathi/Cheetah becomes an Elephant) and the second one is known as...ACMK(Aa cheetah mujhe kha/come cheetah eat me)

...Left me wondering that if market is akin to a Jungle(... and not a Zoo),then why only Cheetahs and Elephants; why not also...

• Monkeys(small niche players),
• Bulls(Attack when provoked,show strength through size ,otherwise),
• Hyenas(Devour the leftovers of the market leader)...and many more such entities...

Are we not limited by the strength of our imagination!!

Old Wines in new bottles...?

CK Prahlad was in IIMA campus today and while he talked at length ( on LKP lawns) on re-framing outlook towards newer growth paths and strategy for India's development,what came out to me was old wine in newer bottles.The broad question is(which itself is too general)-if something very dramatic always existed ,why was it not seen before.My answer to that is that for few cases- every idea has its own time,and when the right time comes,then the world appreciates the value of that idea as a 'New paradigm'.Historically,its a proven fact that today's new paradigms become obsolete @ the speed of thought of human minds and also @ the speed of acceptance of the civilisation at large, goes to show that every human thought is transient and of only some relative value( as compared to any absolute value,which is difficult to prove)

If some of you are confused as to what I have just said,I'll leave you to ponder with this....

Rural,illiterate and poor Indians always existed,and were always the largest bulk of consumers as a single segment.If that is so,then does it constitute a new paradigm,if we suddenly realise that they are as much value seeking as their literate,urban and rich Indian counterparts!Was it a common sight,which everyone already understood,but marketers weren't interested in tapping them as consumers?...or is 'Reality( or perceived reality) a function of our conceptualisation skills...?'
For today's perceived reality is tommorrow's history...