Insights/Books
While we offer customized solutions across sectors in our different client interactions, there are some strong themes and thoughts we have come across in over 50+ years of thinking and doing. From time to time, we share some of these thoughts with the community at large through our unique books that contains not only principles but also actual case studies.
Success through Opposites - 2nd edition can get from: Link to buy page
Success through Super Systems can get from: Link to buy page
Success through PICKSS can get from: Link to buy page, @ Apple, @ B&N, @ Kobo @ PICKSS Review
Thirukkural - the Ancient Tamil Classic on Happy Living - for 21st century and beyond: Link to buy page
Efficiency, effectiveness and success
In business or career, success is your birthright. It happens automatically, naturally, unless you interfere with it or block it. More often than not, knowingly or unknowingly, we block our own success. We forfeit our own birthright. Our mission at Quest Systems is to help people to understand what constitutes effectiveness and to equip them with effective ways of performing any role – at office or at home. We help people at large to become effective and, therefore, successful.
Difference between effectiveness and efficiency
There is a clear difference between effectiveness and efficiency. An effective person has his focus on the output, but this is always in relation to the input of his resources – input not only of the M's (men, money, method and material) but also of the most critical of all resources - time.
An efficient person, on the other hand, has his focus on the method only, and such a person will keep on putting in any amount of inputs, particularly time, on each step of the method, without considering whether it is worthwhile to put in such an amount of input for the output being realized. You may call such a person a perfectionist.
There are also people who focus only on the input of resources, and they get very worried if one of the resources goes beyond their budgeted figures. Such people are merely clerks, and they can ruin any enterprise with this approach, however profitable it may have been at one time. The systems designed and developed by Quest are designed to ensure effectiveness.
The natural way to effectiveness and success
Nature's systems are incredibly effective. Complex interdependencies, yet perfect co-ordination. On the other hand, the systems designed by human beings often flounder. The ideas may be quite brilliant, but the execution is often poor. The promise is frustrated by the performance.
The systems designed by human beings – companies, institutions, even educational and professional careers – can indeed be as effective as natural systems, but the human beings should learn to recognize, value and respect the similarities. If we appreciate that companies and institutions and individuals have their own inherent natural characteristics, we can learn to harness them to mutual advantage. Learn when to tinker with the systems and when to leave them alone.
At Quest Systems, we have devoted over 50 years to observing how the fundamental laws of nature rule the professional behaviour of individuals and their institutions. Over these years we have consistently developed systems, essentially objective software systems, to deploy these natural laws to dramatically improve personal, professional and business effectiveness.
Being Effective
In our quest for effectiveness, we have found a few critical factors that a person playing a role in any field should bear in mind, in order to ensure effectiveness, and thus success.
-
Refuse doing things that do not need our unique strengths. Our unique strengths must be matched, qualitatively and quantitatively, with the requirements of the role we intend to perform. We should not take up roles that need much higher or lower or different strengths than what we have. If you are a race-horse, run with race-horses; if you are not, never choose to do so. There is an abundance of roles and an abundance of talent levels, but we should choose from only the vital few roles that need our unique strengths, and not from all the roles that we can do. We should be highly selective in choosing the roles in our lives.
-
Continuously focus on the larger system that receives our services.The larger system for a business is the customer (not the competition), the larger system for the teacher is the student (not revenue generation, never the teacher at the cost of the student), the larger system for a politician is the people (not his or the opposition party), the larger system for a spouse is the children and the family. While focusing on the right larger system, based on the role we are performing, we ensure that the larger system gets the advantage or 'plus' (as we call it at Quest), and we refrain from being self-centric or degenerative.
-
Resolve ONLY the most burning current problem of the larger system, and not just any issue that we guess to be the most burning current issue. This maximises the returns to us from the larger system that we serve, and it simultaneously conserves the resources required as input!
The above factors must decide our priorities – even for the day. We should have all the time in the world for the 'Priority One' tasks but no time at all for 'Priority Two' tasks in the list of several tasks we need to do. This controls, qualitatively and quantitatively, the most critical resource that we have - time. It ensures a one-at-a-time, one-after-the-other approach which has been the key to the success of all successful people; it focuses time, at just one point.
Having decided 'what' to do as above, and in what order, the 'when' also critically decides effectiveness. It is better to foresee, be proactive and do things to guarantee effectiveness, rather than repair things after the damage is done.
While resolving the most burning current issue of the larger system that we are serving in a given role, it is not enough if we decide only what to do and when to do it. We must also decide who will do it, and where it should be done.
Applying Newton's third law
The belief that only we can take care of our interests has to be replaced with the belief that if we give an uncompromising 'plus' (advantage) to the larger system we serve, the larger system cannot but give us back that 'plus', with appreciation, interest and more! Newton's third law (For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction) works – not only in mechanics, but in all fields of human endeavor since it is a universal energy law. The difference is that the 'plus' or the 'minus' that we give to the larger system in a given role does come back to us, not in equal measure but in an unusually or unimaginably larger measure and it comes back to us after a time delay (not instantaneous as in mechanics, but there is a time delay between action and reaction). Having done whatever is to be done for the larger system to get a 'plus', we should wait, which we fail to do in today's impatient, fast paced life. We end up negating what we have done and change our approach; had we continued the same approach, we would have got for ourselves success, of a kind beyond our wildest dreams.
The above approach automatically minimizes the most critical resource required to do anything - time. We direct our resources to where the returns from the larger system are the maximum in the least possible time. This results in an unimaginable increase in effectiveness and therefore, success.
Checking the validity of the above factors
If we violate one or more of the above factors, we become ineffective and unsuccessful. Think back on your successes or those of others, and check for yourself whether or not the above factors have been present in these successes. Similarly, you can take the cases of failures, especially of once successful people, and check for the absence of one or more of the above factors.
Use the laws of nature to ensure effectiveness and success
"Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world."
— Archimedes.
Archimedes was talking about a Physical Fulcrum. In Quest we talk about a Mental Fulcrum, which makes very difficult things happen pretty easily, thus ensuring effectiveness, success and happiness.
Effectiveness at Quest
All the products of Quest Systems incorporate the above principles to dramatically improve effectiveness across various fields – be it management, personal life, career or health. Backed by 35 years of hands-on application experience, we have designed and developed automated systems which carry expertise on effectiveness. The systems are totally objective, reliable and consistent in performance. Therefore, results are assured. We have focused on a few vital areas of concern for managers, business leaders, aspiring entrepreneurs, college and school students, home-makers, retired persons – in short, ensuring effectiveness and success for every business or industry and every home!
Success through Opposites: An effective mind
In our quest to locate the causes for success and effectiveness, we found that the mind plays a very crucial role. We probed deeper into the workings of the mind, looking at it not as psychologists do, but in the way engineers look at any system.
Opposing forces ensure equilibrium
A healthy, functional and effective system has two opposites within itself to ensure stability. For instance, an automobile has an accelerator system to provide motive energy and a brake system that provides energy to stop. A human being is a system too that is by and large - healthy, functional and effective, with its own pair of opposites. There is the body, which is visible, moving and has mass. Its opposite must be invisible, non-moving or static and should have no mass. The opposite of mass is energy and therefore the opposite of the body is an invisible, static energy within the human system. This invisible energy is referred to as the soul or the 'atma'. The soul's existence is not a matter of belief; its existence is a reality dictated by the natural laws of energy for all healthy, functional and effective systems. Without this opposite, the human system will be ineffective and non-functional.
The third element
To make any system function, however, just the in-built opposites within it are not sufficient. An automobile cannot function only with the brake and the accelerator. You need a third element, the driver of the automobile. What is the third element in the human system? It is of course the mind! We are a body-soul system with our mind as the driver, just like the automobile is an accelerator- brake system with a human being as its driver.
Getting comfortable with the opposites
Suppose your driver hates the accelerator and loves the brake. How effective will he be? Alternatively, what if he loves the accelerator and hates the brake? Either way, you will have a problem. It does not matter what car you have, it is the driver who is crucially important. An effective driver likes the accelerator and the brake equally, and uses them as the situation demands. Similarly, it does not matter what body-soul we have; what is crucial is our driver, the mind. Our mind should be equally comfortable with both the opposites – the body as well as the soul. In fact, the mind should feel equally comfortable with both the sides in any pair of opposites. It should always remain flexible in order to be able to comfortably use either from a pair of opposites, as the situation demands.
Checking the validity of the above factors
If we violate one or more of the above factors, we become ineffective and unsuccessful. Think back on your successes or those of others, and check for yourself whether or not the above factors have been present in these successes. Similarly, you can take the cases of failures, especially of once successful people, and check for the absence of one or more of the above factors.
Life can throw any situation in front of us. This is not in our control. The only thing in our control is the response that we give to the situation in front of us. We cannot give the most appropriate response if our mind, like the ineffective driver of the automobile, is biased. If we do not give the most appropriate response, we are ineffective, unsuccessful and therefore unhappy. Be comfortable with both the possible opposites in your response to any given situation, and you will always give the most appropriate response. Then, you will always be effective, successful and happy.
What is the most appropriate response in any situation?
It would be the one that gives a 'plus' (an advantage) to the larger system that we are serving in that role. To be able to do this, our mind must be equally comfortable with both the possible relevant opposites. Imagine you are faced with a situation that expects you to cry, and you do not cry, just because you do not like crying. In this case, you have become a slave to one of a given pair of opposites, i.e., laughter, which has become your master. Now imagine you are faced with a situation that expects you to laugh, and you cry, just because you are comfortable only with crying and hate laughter. In this case, again you are a slave and one of the two opposites is the master. Finally, imagine that you are comfortable with both laughter and crying. Then, will your response not become far more effective? In such a case, both the opposites, laughter and crying, become your slaves and you become the master.
We become slaves to one of a given pair of opposites because our mind subconsciously starts recording events as soon as we are born. One opposite that gives us comfort (due to repetition) becomes our habit and we become a slave to this. However, once we recognise this, getting out is quite easy and can be done quickly. Human beings are born to be masters and not slaves of any one opposite.
Vaccinating the mind
In order to be effective personally and professionally, we can tune our mind to be comfortable with both of any given pair of opposites in any situation. This is possible through a simple process of 'vaccinating the mind', which the book 'Success Through Opposites' describes. What it suggests is a path-breaking method for mind management. Such a tuned mind thinks easily and comfortably in opposites.
As an example, consider the two opposites of individuality and totality. If our mind is comfortable with only individuality, we end up giving higher weight to the individuality of either spouse and in this way, we end up giving a 'minus' to (neglecting) the totality of our children and of our home.
Another example is the discomfort in the mind of the US leaders over the opposites of top-down and bottom-up: With a strong liking for the top-down and a dislike for the bottom-up, the US grossly overestimated the problem of 'weapons of mass destruction' in Iraq, and over-reacted. While with hurricane Katrina, the top administration grossly under-estimated the problem and did hardly react. Things would have been very different if the government was comfortable with both the top-down and the bottom-up approaches, working with an intention of giving a 'plus' to the larger system, i.e. the people, while it played its role as the world's most powerful nation.
To learn more, get your own copy of the book - "Success through Opposites" by N Muthuswamy from Quest Systems, published by Eloquent Publishers, New York. The book is available here.
Some sites the book can be downloaded from (any devices):
- Apple,
- Baker & Taylor Blio,
- Barnes & Noble,
- Diesel,
- Flip kart (India),
- IOS
- Android,
- iOS,
- and others.
- Kobo,
- Oyster,
- Page Foundry,
- Scribd,
- Sony.
What is disease? Is there a permanent cure?
Any deviation from the simple rules of staying healthy and disease free (outlined in the next article) results in our struggle against Nature's ways. Living against Nature accumulates debris and blocks the free flow of energy through our internal organs - this is the first phase of any disease. Taking care of those points will ensure that the first phase itself does not take hold, facilitating a disease-free life.
The wastes accumulated try to get out of the system, for example, by making us cough. If we continue with our habits of living against Nature, the wastes grow in the body and affect that part of the body in which they accumulate the most. This is the second phase of any disease. At this stage, we experience symptoms that disturb us.
Treat the disease, and not the symptom
The symptom, cough, is the method that the body uses to evict the waste matter (disease). Cough is not the disease but the means by which the body attempts to get cured. This is the only way to get cured. Chemical drugs and pills cure the cough, i.e. they merely prevent the discomfort of the disease from being felt by the brain and nervous centre, but they do not cure. These are symptom-suppressing medicines!
The discomfort that a patient has is an indication of the disease. Modern medicine considers this symptom to be the disease and treats the symptom! It is the traditional medical systems that go to the root cause of the disease and cure it so that the disease itself is rooted out of the body.
For example, allopathy (modern medicine) may start the treatment of a headache with pain killers. If the headache persists, the head is examined further. However, the root cause of the headache may be elsewhere, outside the head – in the stomach, liver, heart, kidneys, from lack of sleep, constipation, not eating when hungry, eating excessively, etc.
Another example is high blood pressure. If a body part gets damaged, blood flow increases in order to cure it. Thus high blood pressure only indicates that some part of the body is suffering from lack of adequate energy. This part can be identified by pulse examination and given attention so that blood pressure can return to normal. But allopathy treats blood pressure as a disease linked to the heart. This is another instance where allopathy falls short of finding the root cause and takes the intermediate cause – the symptom - as the root cause.
Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, gives doctors important advice: "If you cannot cure a disease, it is ok. But through your so-called cure, do not make it worse". Allopathic practice can do great harm if the practitioner does not fully appreciate how the human system works naturally.
Modern vs. traditional medicine
Modern medicine often searches for causes of diseases in the exteriors of the body, whereas traditional systems of medicine like acupuncture, acupressure, ayurveda, homeopathy, reiki and naturopathy, look at disease as an imbalance in energy in an internal part of the body. These follow energy laws and are able to effect permanent cures. They respect the human body as a marvelous system, capable of taking care of and preserving itself. It may need only a little help from outside, once in a while and it tells us when it needs help through symptoms!
When toxins accumulate in our body and are not cleared out, diseases take hold. Non-allopathic systems of medicine strengthen the immunity or the vital force of the body and these toxins are then naturally evicted by the body. In this process, the symptoms may get aggravated. If this happens, it usually means that the cure is working. Fever, headache, loose motions, etc., may in fact be encouraging signs and one should not attempt to treat them directly and in isolation since they may subside on their own as a result of the remedy prescribed for the root cause.
Let us treat the disease and not the symptom, and protect ourselves from toxic drugs.
Tips for effective health management
Prevention is better than cure
You can choose to be healthy. Effective health management places the first priority on the prevention of diseases rather on the cure. Our effectiveness principles at Quest apply to the management of our health too. This is the proactive approach to health.
For any system, the quantity and quality of inputs determine the output. Our human system is no exception to this rule. The main inputs to our system are: food, air, water and rest. A little care taken with regard to these inputs makes our system extremely effective in the prevention of ill health. A few simple practices to remain disease-free:
- Don't be a clock-watcher, be a stomach-listener.
Eat when you feel hungry, do not postpone. And do not eat when you don't feel hungry. Listen to your stomach and not the clock to decide when to eat. It should not be "it is time for lunch", rather it should be "I feel hungry so I want lunch." If you store food on the table for more than a day, it gets spoilt. If you eat when you are not hungry, the food will similarly be stored in your stomach and will rot till the body is ready to digest, inviting disease.
-
Just enjoy the food. Don't multi-task when you eat. No reading, no TV, no power breakfasts, no rush.
Do not be in a hurry when you eat. Do not allow yourself to be hurried either. Eat slowly and without concentrating on work or television. This will give you time to chew your food completely before swallowing it. This step is very critical for good digestion and therefore for enjoying disease-free health.
-
Chew your food to a paste, don't wash it down with water.
It is advisable to take no water while having food; you may take some after you finish eating.
-
Changing your food habits and menu often makes your stomach sluggish.
People who live long, by and large, standardise the food they eat. Their menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner follows a set routine. They do not surprise their stomach by changing their food habits daily. Recent research shows that our stomach releases digestive juices in anticipation of the food entering in. If a substantially different kind of food enters on a daily basis, the stomach gets confused and the digestive juices already released are not used since different digestive juices are needed. This is harmful, and is the starting point of diseases.
-
Eat GOMBS and be disease-free!
Dr. Joel Fuhrman cures and reverses cases of diabetes, cancer, heart ailments through dietary changes alone. He says that today's food does not contain enough micronutrients that can prevent many diseases - a truly preventive approach. He maintains that human body is built to take care of itself, it is self-repairing, self-curing. What it needs is only the right input, as any other system in the world does. The body is already disease-proof. He recommends that we eat GOMBS:
G:GreensO:OnionsM:MushroomsB:Beans & BerriesS:Seeds
His daily recommendation is a half cup of beans, 3 fruits, one large salad, one large serving of steamed veggies, some onions, mushrooms, a table spoon of flax (or any other) seeds and some nuts. Onions have proved to be better cancer prevention (especially for prostate cancer) than tomatoes. -
Try periodic fasting. It is not just a religious prescription; it is preventive medicine.
As our book 'Success Through Opposites'* explains, any system remains healthy and functional only when it is equally comfortable with both of a given pair of opposites. Therefore, periodic fasting is as critical as eating when hungry. This is the reason why periodic fasting is prescribed by religions all over the world: Ekadasi (fasting once in fifteen days for Hindus), Ramzan (reversing eating times for a month in a year for Muslims), Lent (not eating what one normally eats for 40 days prior to Good Friday for Christians).
-
Do your addictions reflect a suicidal tendency? You be the judge.
Inputs like tobacco, excessive drinking, gutka, paan, etc., increase health hazards and help diseases to gain a grip in the body. Even in such cases, our body can tolerate the onslaught up to a point, but beyond this point it succumbs to diseases.
-
Walk for 30 minutes in the morning and exercises for 15-20 minutes daily
This must be done in fresh air, with both your hands free and swinging naturally. As per the principle of opposites, back-walking is also required. Start with 3 minutes a day and gradually increase to a maximum of 5 minutes a day – helps the heart immensely.
Physical exercises should involve the hands, neck, eyes and other parts of the body. Please keep in mind that excessive exercise is as harmful as no exercise. Even at the gym, It helps to take a break of 10 minutes after every 10 minutes of workout (again, principle of opposites).
-
Do breathing exercises for 15 minutes daily.
While walking has its own advantages, breathing exercises help tone your entire body
-
Hydrate yourself - Water is 75% of the human body, 85% of the brain.
Chronic dehydration is the root cause of many diseases. Water regulates all functions of the body and, when the system is dehydrated, disease symptoms appear as a result of the body's attempts to ration its vital stores of water. Aging is accompanied by the slow dehydration of organs and tissues. Boil the water, but don't get paranoid about purity. Pure water taken over a long period makes it difficult for your body to tolerate even slightly impure water which is often unavoidable.
-
Don't resist the body's sleep patterns; it is at its best when it follows its natural rhythms.
Rest is the best way to recharge the system. So rest when the body demands, and do not sleep when the body does not demand it. Both excessive sleep and insufficient sleep cross the upper limit and lower limit of tolerance for rest, and they are the root causes of loss of health.
-
Sleeping pills may or may not induce sleep, but they certainly pump you full with harmful chemicals.
Inducing sleep through the use of chemicals is detrimental to the body; the body is designed to drift into sleep naturally. Sleep inducing chemicals are harmful and upset the balance in the body; besides, they are positively habit-forming.
-
Meditation helps maintain the body-soul balance. Just think... about nothing at all!
Our body, like any other system, for instance an automobile, consists of two opposing systems, and a third element driving it. In the automobile, it's the accelerator and the brake; in the human system - the body and soul. In the automobile, you need a third element – the driver – to run the system. In the case of the human body, the mind is the third element. Just as the driver has to be comfortable with both accelerator and brake, our mind has to be comfortable with both the body and soul. Thanks to our modern lifestyle, our driver – the mind – spends time only with the body and hardly any time with the soul. There is a strong need for our mind to spend time with the soul also, on a daily basis. This is possible with meditation. The mind is full of thoughts and meditation gives it a break – by focusing on one thought or no thought at all. It is amazing how meditating for only 45 minutes a day, ensures unparalleled relaxation for the mind; this has to be experienced to be believed.
Success through Super Systems: gyst:
We cannot decide situations and events that crop up in our life but certainly the response to any situation is only and firmly in our hands. Armed with the concept of appropriate Super Systems for any role, we are able to give the most fitting response and thus we become effective, successful and happy.
This book helps us in finding whether we are taking the right or wrong decision, both in our official and personal lives, at the right time- however simple or complex the decision may be and whatever field the decision may belong to, just at the time we are taking any decision, As such this book is as much for management professionals, government administrators, politicians, students and youth as for the common man.
I hope the concepts outlined in the book concerning Super Systems gives a clarity that is otherwise difficult to get, when we are in a difficult, confused or delicate situation in life, when we have to do a certain thing with guts but not with just blind guts. The confusion arises because of the conflict in our mind between right and wrong, good and bad and indeed any two opposites that are always there. Instead of becoming a slave to one of the opposites and get confused and paralyzed, we are able to come to a firm and clear decision and action, thus producing a telling effect or result. The result is success and the ensuing happiness. This approach combined with the approach of making our mind comfortable with any two given opposites that my previous book ‘Success through Opposites’ propagates, and makes feasible with vaccinating our mind, make us very effective indeed in any role we are called upon to play with the resulting success and happiness.
The concept of Super Systems gives a clear thinking on what is right and what is wrong in navigating in today’s life. The book proves that it is easy to be good, not difficult to be good even in today’s world and yet we can be effective, successful and happy by following the concept of super system.
The concept of Super Systems essentially re-engineers our thinking process and enables us to look at the total rather than just one subsystem and to arrive at the optimum of the total system rather than just one sub-system involved in a given role. The book prevents us from falling into the trap of just optimizing one sub-system at the cost of the total system, be it management of corporations, institutions, nations and our own home. The re-engineered thinking process results in making apparent complexities simple and enables us to come out with creative simple but brilliant solutions to problems solutions that are easy to implement and monitor- in any role we are called upon to play in official and personal lives.
The book gives examples of right and wrong Super Systems for roles in life and the consequences of choosing them. The book gives lucid examples from the fields of Management of organizations and nations, politics, and family. The book also gives examples from the great epic of India, the Mahabharat. The book gives methods to change the wrong Super Systems in our mind put by us deliberately or inadvertently based on our upbringing, education or experience and replaces them with the right ones. The book talks about the harmful effects of ‘I’ as the Super System in our mind, the beneficial effects of the opposite of ‘I’ as the Super System, and the critical importance of having the external customer as the Super System for management, governance and family on our mind.
The book also lists the uses of Super Systems in our lives –both official and personal. The concept of SS gives direction and a single point focus as we play the roles that we may be called upon to play in our lives. The Super System gives core purpose and core values to both our personal and official lives. Super Systems help us to take better quality decisions.
This is my second e-book and its price is $ 4.99 (appx. Rs.320.07). Available for sampling and ordering at Smashwords.com and all their affiliates and distributors and also at flipkart.com in India.
Success through PICKSS:
This book is a how to manual that gives us a thinking process in sequential steps for action/execution that would help us achieves success in spite of severe resource constraints. These sequential steps obviate the need for excessive resources to achieve even what normally we think are near impossible to achieve. "Give me a place to stand and I will lift the Earth with my hand" said Archimedes. He was talking about the principle of lever and a physical fulcrum that make it easy to get things done. How about creating a mental fulcrum to get things done as easily? This book is all about creating a mental fulcrum.
We envision, set goals, plan and prepare the road map/action plan to achieve what we intend- both in our personal and official lives. But if we don't act on the plan, there is no result. Many overcome this hurdle of inaction and start action alright - only to realize there are numerous hurdles to overcome on the way, for which they do not have the required resources in adequate quantities. This book outlines an execution strategy to achieve results both in personal and official lives particularly when there is severe resource constraints- a situation that is universal. When you feel that you have taken great life decisions but you don't have adequate resources to execute them, Success through PICKSS gives a simple practical way to execute with a fraction of the resources that you thought were required -and yet execution is complete and effective. Indeed Success through PICKSS gives a mental fulcrum to us.
In this book we have linked the principles of energy to the art of management and self help. We have been very impressed with the results that we have got using this for over 40 years. This is what drove us to write this book. Everyone can use these concepts irrespective of his background, education or experience, caste, creed, religion, ism, language, nationality or the historical background of his nation. You put what we say here to test and you will feel the thrill that goes with experiencing a "great work of art." That is why Success through PICKSS is not for understanding yet another concept but meant to be put into practice.
As all the seven steps of PICKSS are based on energy principles they give a scientific basis for our thinking process that creates our mental fulcrum. The other advantage we get, because PICKSS is based on laws of energy, we get a thinking process that will stand the test of time. Use of PICKSS will be timeless unlike most management concepts and tools.
There are three types of people among us: one who looks only at the inputs - typically the budget-based control - minded people; the second type are those who look only at the output- typically those who achieve what they want irrespective of the quantum of inputs and irrespective of the process they indulge in- may we call them euphemistically fire-fighters; and the third type who look at the process only, who believe once the process is rigorously followed the output will be okay, these are the people who are obsessed with the minute details of any process, the SOP and ISO people, who put the means above the result and deadline - may we call them perfectionists. This book concerns the fourth type whom we may call effective people who look at the input, process and output and synthesize them into one whole and produce an awesome result with very less input. This book is about how to re-engineer our thinking process to become the fourth type namely effective people.
This book is for personal and official lives; in official life this book is for both employees and entrepreneurs - particularly start ups, small and medium, though the approach can be used by big industries as well.
This book is for those who are struggling to make a mark and achieve the desired grade, result, goal or the change but think reaching the goal needs huge resources that are simply not available, those who think "if only this wasn't that way or this way!" and to people at large suffering from perceived or real resource constraints to accomplish their vision and give them a sense of achievement, success and happiness.
Reviews on Success Through PICKSS
"The book is full of unique business strategies, and stresses that all work can be accomplished easily and effectively. Muthuswamy writes confidently and convincingly, presenting numerous cogent examples, as well as more-philosophical and holistic ones. He speaks as someone who has experimented and perfected his methodology in years of practice, and the book should be helpful for those looking for out-of-the-box thinking in the workplace."
Reviews on Success Through Super Systems
Reviewer:
Diane Donovan, Editor
California Bookwatch
Donovan’s Literary Services
www.donovansliteraryservices.com
Author, San Francisco Relocated
www.sfrelocated.com
A Single Dynamic To Steer You Through Your Life’s Decisions comes from a veteran management consultant who has worked with companies throughout India, creating and applying products and management approaches for various companies. His survey of success opens with reflections on what constitutes success and how to measure it, creating a foundation for analytical applications before moving on to identify the basics of 'super systems', identified here as systems between businesses and customers and the kinds of verifications that take place between them.
Communication models for improving self-awareness, identifying and understanding the latent powers in the 'Hidden Self' and how to use them, and taking R&D and other linear management approaches and tempering and improving them with a healthy dose of psychological insight are just a few of the approaches used in Success Through Super Systems, a model of thought that requires more than a small dose of psychological introspection from the business managers who considering its special attributes.
Quest Systems has developed a wide range of these models and applications and their philosophy is embedded in chapters that are as precise about their potential as they are about the common pitfalls of typical business approaches: "We pity those company managements who tell lies to their customers for explaining out their delay in delivery or in explaining quality problems faced by their customers in their supplies. Their days are numbered. We say emphatically: Do not manage your customers, do not just maintain relations with them, never ever manipulate them but merely serve them genuinely."
The tips also incorporate spiritual reflection and discussions of how to overcome obstacles to success on different levels: "The advantage of the mind becoming comfortable with both opposites is to be seen in the way such a mind works in a decision making process, in personal or official fields. The decision made by such a mind becomes the most effective decision under the given set of circumstances as the mind is not bogged down by likes and dislikes, unbiased by one’s own conditioning of previous successes and failures, convictions or mental blocks."
From perceived values and preferred values to examples drawn from Indian literature, spirituality, and business traditions, Success Through Super Systems outlines an approach that considers the roots of success and failure in a variety of systems and encourages a fluid understanding of how to identify the correct 'Super System' for a particular role or goal.
The reader who will gain the most value from Success Through Super Systems won't be the business manager used to linear thinking and problem-solving, but those who can appreciate the added value brought to the table by a blend of psychology, spirituality, and cultural understanding. This is a text that should not be hastily digested, but slowly absorbed for its ability to offer lasting food for thought and discussions of not a single system, but a variety of 'super system' options. The dynamic promised may seem singular at first; but its wide-ranging concepts strive for clearer thinking and include examples for both business and life pursuits in a complex, thought-provoking read filled with powerful opportunities for change.
Reviewer:
Jorg-Christoph Luttgau
Management conultant
Germany
"Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read your new book. I enjoyed reading it. It gives such clarity and enables overview: Just that what a manager needs."