66th Week@XIMB

66th Week@XIMB - 09th September to 15th September, 2012

09th September - Nothing of importance happened today in my life. Yet, I was sad. There was the demise of a great figure among the community of rural managers. The father of White Revolution, Verghese Kurien, is no more with us.

10th September - There is a great article paying tribute to Dr Verghese Kurien - Inspiration to a Rural Manager. Dr. Kurien is being limited by the media as a man who has created Amul, the Brand of India. His contribution is much more than forming the brand Amul. He created a legacy in successfully running a cooperative and never succumbing to political pressure. This becomes more pronounced in the context of the failure of the cooperative movement in India.

I was reading QRM in detail for the exam. There was ga reat revelation because I had not taken an interest in the elective course from the start. I got a few facts right from a research paper by Fekede Tuli.

1- The quantitative purists articulate assumptions that are consistent with what is commonly called the positivist paradigm and believe that social observations should be treated as entities in much the same way that physical scientists treat physical phenomena. To the contrary, the qualitative purist, also called an interpretist constructivist, by rejecting the positivist assumption, contends that reality is subjective, multiple, and socially constructed by its participants (Krauss,2005; Bryman, 1984;  Lincoln & Guba, 2000; Guba and Lincoln, 1994; Amare, 2004).

2- Positivism is based on the assumption that there are universal laws that govern social events, and uncovering these laws enables researchers to describe, predict, and control social phenomena. Interpretive research, in contrast, seeks to understand values, beliefs, and meanings of social phenomena, thereby obtaining a deep and sympathetic understanding of human cultural activities and experiences.

11th September - The  ESM and QRM papers were over today. I came to know about Sanjay Ghous, whose mission in his own words is “To change the world and make a difference in the lives of ordinary people”. He is a real inspiration for all of us rural managers.

12th September - CM exam was the last paper. I read about producer companies in detail: Resource Handbook for Establishing a Producer Company.

13th September - This is the last day of the 4th Trimester.

Let us start with a great line by Peter F Drucker in "The Practice of Management," first published in 1955.

"No greater damage could be done to our economy or to our society than to attempt to professionalize management by licensing managers, for instance, or by limiting access to management to people with a special academic degree."

The following are his arguments in support of the view:

1. A degree in management does not by itself make an individual a professional manager any more than does a degree in philosophy make an individual a philosopher. The essence of professional management is achievement, not knowledge; results, not logic. By insisting on holding a degree, we are overemphasizing knowledge and completely overlooking skill. This will eliminate those who are individuals who, though highly skilled, do not have the required degree.

2. People once certified as professionals based on their academic degrees would always remain professionals, despite their knowledge becoming obsolete in later years.

14th September - New trimester and new promises. Yet the day has gone by in completing the backlog of assignments and submitting fees. There was no coordination between administration and finance. 13th Sept was the last date of fee submission, and that coincided with the exam schedule.

15th September - AMDA, QRM, and ESM assignments were completed today. The deadlines were within 3 hours.

The Story of Agriculture and the Green Economy

The future of our world depends on addressing global challenges now. We need to create sustainable livelihoods, feed a growing population, and safeguard the environment. We need to make the global economy green.