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On Elusive Answers

It has happened quite often with me that I seem to be on top of a problem, one that seems simple and very ‘familiar’. So familiar in fact that we seem to have the answer at the tip of our tongue but just can’t seem to put our finger on it only to find out later that the simple question that we had asked was actually quite a complex one. I have mentioned two such question I am trying to answer at the end of this post.

But to illustrate this problem i'll give you an example:

I always thought as a kid: organizations are simple, people get together decide on what work to do, make great teams together and get the work done.

My MBA has given me a broader perspective. In order to make organizations run a few other things you need to do are:

1) Come up with the money
2) Research and design the right product
3) Decide who they are going to sell it to
4) How much they are going to sell it for such that with the price that is set the company makes the most money while not scaring away the customers
5) Reach out and tell those people about the product
6) Decide the best cost effective channel they can find to reach as many of their customers as they can
7) Keep pace with their target customer to make sure if his requirements for the product change you can get them the new product before other people can
8) Come up with some way to address customer queries
9) Find out if the product and the company is complying with all the laws
10) Make sure that you always have the raw materials you need to make the products and you have them in time
11) Make sure you hire the right people
12) Give them challenging work so they enjoy their jobs while contributing to the company
13) Reward the right person for the job well done at the right time

To give you a broader perspective there has been over a century’s research into these topics and many more. A few of the areas of study related to running businesses are: Human Resource Management, Finance, Marketing, Strategic Management, Business Research, Corporate Law, Information Systems for Management and Accounting among others.

In fact I am sure that if we take any other domain say Psychology for example, such a subject would give us very interesting answers too, to many of the ‘familiar’ questions that elude us and that we think we know such as "what should we do to stay happy?"

Two questions I am working on these days are:
1) How can I improve my social interaction with people?
2) How can I make the most of my job?

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