Leapfrogging as a Strategy
Rottenning in my job which offers no scope for further advancement, I have always been thinking starting a new or second career.
Not very long ago I was visiting my old place of residence during Holi. I saw kids playing a game, in which one boy stoops down and others jump over him...
I immediately recognized the game...Leapfrogging...
Leapfrogging literally means bypassing a stage or stages or processes in doing certain things but generally it is used in the context of technology.
The great visionary & scientist Dr. Vikram Sarabhai thus pointed out that India being latecomer in many areas of technology, it had an advantage because it can leapfrog through the intermediate stages of technology.
We also know that till some 10 years back telephone density in India was very poor…just 1 telephone for 100 people….and that was the period of wired networks which we lacked. But see where India is …in absolute terms almost 300 millions telephone connections by end of this March…which will make India no. 2 in the world in absolute no. of telephones…wired or wireless ,mobile phones. …and we need not think about the sunk cost of vast wired network…we did not have that much in the first place and yet we leapfrogged through the stages to attain no. 2 position in the world.
Sometimes leapfrogging may be unintentional….the case in point is IBM…as you know IBM was thrown out of our country in 1977…so we did not have a legacy of mainframes, unlike in the USA, and when IT revolution took off the mainframe became obsolete…it was the age of PCs…and we did not face the problem of old and expensive mainframe computers.
Take another example where middlemen were eliminated in a co-operative movement…and producers were benefitted…I am talking about Amul…the largest producer of milk in the world.
In fact we can think in terms of applying leapfrogging as a strategy to solve problems and find new solutions.
If corruption is traced to bureaucratic red tape, we can look at rules or procedures to see to what extent rules and procedures can be eliminated, bypassed, or leapfrogged.
If you feel like stuck in a mid way…may be in your career thinking that you are being denied promotion or raises…think again…there are ways…
Use leapfrogging as a strategy…
Why think of promotion or rise when you can think of becoming CEO of your own company….or your own life...
If you are being nagged continuously by your boss…you can thing of becoming his boss…what not possible?...well, you can purchase a controlling stake in your company and become the ultimate boss…
…you may ask me what I am going to do…
..as you may know that I am in ministry of finance and when I get irritated by my boss I actually feel sorry that in Govt. offices I won’t be able to become boss of my present boss as all promotions are based on seniority only…
…so it’s my wildest of dream that it is more feasible for me to become Finance Minister of India and thus become ultimate boss of all my bosses.
What about you?...I am curious to know that…
Rottenning in my job which offers no scope for further advancement, I have always been thinking starting a new or second career.
Not very long ago I was visiting my old place of residence during Holi. I saw kids playing a game, in which one boy stoops down and others jump over him...
I immediately recognized the game...Leapfrogging...
Leapfrogging literally means bypassing a stage or stages or processes in doing certain things but generally it is used in the context of technology.
The great visionary & scientist Dr. Vikram Sarabhai thus pointed out that India being latecomer in many areas of technology, it had an advantage because it can leapfrog through the intermediate stages of technology.
We also know that till some 10 years back telephone density in India was very poor…just 1 telephone for 100 people….and that was the period of wired networks which we lacked. But see where India is …in absolute terms almost 300 millions telephone connections by end of this March…which will make India no. 2 in the world in absolute no. of telephones…wired or wireless ,mobile phones. …and we need not think about the sunk cost of vast wired network…we did not have that much in the first place and yet we leapfrogged through the stages to attain no. 2 position in the world.
Sometimes leapfrogging may be unintentional….the case in point is IBM…as you know IBM was thrown out of our country in 1977…so we did not have a legacy of mainframes, unlike in the USA, and when IT revolution took off the mainframe became obsolete…it was the age of PCs…and we did not face the problem of old and expensive mainframe computers.
Take another example where middlemen were eliminated in a co-operative movement…and producers were benefitted…I am talking about Amul…the largest producer of milk in the world.
In fact we can think in terms of applying leapfrogging as a strategy to solve problems and find new solutions.
If corruption is traced to bureaucratic red tape, we can look at rules or procedures to see to what extent rules and procedures can be eliminated, bypassed, or leapfrogged.
If you feel like stuck in a mid way…may be in your career thinking that you are being denied promotion or raises…think again…there are ways…
Use leapfrogging as a strategy…
Why think of promotion or rise when you can think of becoming CEO of your own company….or your own life...
If you are being nagged continuously by your boss…you can thing of becoming his boss…what not possible?...well, you can purchase a controlling stake in your company and become the ultimate boss…
…you may ask me what I am going to do…
..as you may know that I am in ministry of finance and when I get irritated by my boss I actually feel sorry that in Govt. offices I won’t be able to become boss of my present boss as all promotions are based on seniority only…
…so it’s my wildest of dream that it is more feasible for me to become Finance Minister of India and thus become ultimate boss of all my bosses.
What about you?...I am curious to know that…
2 comments:
nice thoughts.. I was discussing some of these things with you yesterday without knowing about your speech.
-Akbar
Your observations are very true and interesting. Nice blog.
Post a Comment