Learning to Learn: Management Ideas and Practices

From the Editor

Business management is rapidly entering yet another vista in its evolution. Strategies that worked yesterday are becoming ineffective today. It is more into seeking new business paradigms. Futurists predict that most enterprising businesses in this millennium will be those that are self-organizing, smart, supple, robust and decentralized. Even those involved in development and ‘caring sectors’ recognise the need to learn from business’ ways of management practices.

Whether for profit or purely non-profit, organisations around the world are investing their time and resources in refining their ‘organisational-scenarios’. Some have even gone to the extent of adopting ‘swarm intelligence’ to solve their business challenges. ‘Flat organisations’ are emerging today. Neither do they have structures nor job titles. Some are into de-marketing their products and services instead of marketing. Still crazier is the idea of ‘imitation’ being more essential to today’s business’ success than ‘innovation’. Can you ‘paradigm’ these as Bhutanese organisations?

Interests in looking at the inside of a house are often not so much as in looking at its outside. Far-away rainbows and clouds are easier to spot than our gardens and backyard debris. Both perspectives are truly important. So Zinchong Rigphel is conceived to bring forth different perspectives on management development areas. Consider it like a life-size mirror with which any of its objects, both foreign and home could be reflected a Bhutanese context. This first issue of Zinchong Rigphel presents a collection of articles ranging from cyberspace name-sites to local development practices.

It is both the best and the worst of times. Globalisation is a pervasive reality for every nation. The author calls it precisely the “winds of globalisation” in his Globalisation: A Challenge to Gross National Happiness, and describes it in the context of pursuing the GNH. Truly a national concern! In another article, Managers In Pygmalions Roles, he writes on the art of sculpturing masterpieces. When employees either refuse to comply or fail to achieve, the boss may be at fault.

Service management is easy to understand but it is rarely a serious matter without its qualifier, “quality”. The article, Quality Service Management is all about processing and delivering quality services. It is one of the recurrent themes of this first issue. The article, Customer Service Management: A Difficult Language in the Public Sector is on a similar note.

Who_am_I.Com? is about internet domain identities, addresses or names, technical and legal issues. The author tries to demystify the cyber lingo.

Tradition and culture seeks losing importance in our pursuit of modernization. The Wisdom of gods in a Village Called Tormashong brings out a stark reality of the dilemma of perpetuating traditional practices against the challenges of development. Can we draw wisdom from tradition and culture in sustaining environment while making progress?

Yet another innovative dimension to this issue comes from the article, Leadership of Jangchusempas. Put in a very conversational tone, the author tries to capture the basic essence of leadership styles in Bhutanese context. It is truly a profound write-up on leadership based on the virtuous ways of bodisattavas.

Gardener: a Manager spells out the art and science of managing organizations. Simple but brilliant garden analogy, the article draws some principles and ethics of managers in growing their organizations to its full bloom. And lastly, Religion and Culture: Implications in Sustainable Living is a case on the role of religion and culture in conserving Bhutan’s rich environmental heritage.

One of the objectives of Zinchong Rigphel is to provide a forum for sharing knowledge. It is designed to serve the needs of both academicians and practitioners who would be interested in zinchong and other development zinchong-related areas. Contributions are welcome.

Wasn’t it John Naisbitt who said: “In a world that is constantly changing, there is no one subject or set of subjects that will serve you for the foreseeable future, let alone for the rest of your life. The most important skill to acquire is learning how to learn.”

Zinchong Rigphel is thus and will be an invariable part of learning experience.