Background

Roxanne Ibañez was, in the military parlance, a good soldier: coming from a family of modest means, she was a quiet, straight arrow student who studied hard and did well in her college years. After graduating, she immediately took a position at the newly-opened College of St. John — Roxas (at the time, it had no name, being known as the University of St. La Salle — Affiliate College in Roxas City), where she has been, at various times, a teacher, an administrator, and a staff member for the better part of a decade, mostly under the radar, toiling inconspicuously as the school underwent three changes in administration. Despite acquiring her Master’s Degree at an early age, and continuing Doctoral units, she has never been placed in a leadership or executive position in the past two administrations. She has seen relative newcomers come in and assume positions of higher rank, while hers remained stagnant — a state of affairs that she would often lament. When asked about this in the past, she would point out that her degrees only came from a local college, whereas the newcomers came from some of the more prestigious schools in the country. While never overtly bitter about it, the observant could easily see that it was, at best, a touchy subject to discuss with Ms. Ibañez.

All this changed within the last two years, as a new administration came in:i in the span of less than a year, she went from being an Assistant Vice-Principal for the High School Department to being the Dean of the College of Arts, Science and Business, where she would oversee the Accountancy, Business Administration, and Psychology departments.

At first, her peers were enthusiastic with the development; over the years, Ms. Ibañez has developed close friendships with the respective heads and faculty of those departments, some of which were among the newcomers noted above. Many felt that the promotion was long overdue, considering her years of service.

Unfortunately, what began as something so promising slowly began to turn sour, as soon enough, many of the same people who once supported her began tuning her out or even openly challenging her, as a series of events unfolded that showed, as one former department head put it, “she can’t be trusted anymore, she’s too busy playing politics” while another noted that “she’s masking her incompetence by passing on her mistakes and ignorance to us!” Some former staff members also chimed in: “she won’t take a stand on anything! She’s too afraid of being reprimanded that she’d rather do nothing than do something productive that involves even the slightest amount of risk!” One department head even noted that “she takes the credit for my accomplishments, but puts the blame solely on my shoulders when we fail to meet objectives!”

Many have begun to believe that Ms. Ibañez is unfit for duty at her current level, and that her promotion was not based on merit, but rather was a by-product of her political maneuvering. What happened next came as no surprise to her more vocal detractors: she took over the subject loading assignments and gave the classes to other faculty members, and in most cases, hired new ones, effectively firing those that spoke out against her.

Problem Statement

Many of her former friends have began accusing Ms. Ibañez of playing too much politics and being too overly concerned with playing safe or going up the ladder that productivity and morale have suffered. It has so affected the school’s community that, apart from those whose contracts were not renewed, many have also left for competing schools.

Objective

This case study seeks to identify, if any, the specific political strategies employed by Ms. Ibañez that has resulted in much discontent among the current and former employees of the College of St. John — Roxas, as well as suggest possible scenarios for resolution.

Areas of Consideration

Ms. Ibañez is a tenured employee of the College of St. John — Roxas, having served almost ten years in a full-time capacity.
Throughout most of this period, she has been passed over for promotion multiple times, while some newcomers — usually graduates of prestigious schools and with more extensive work experience — were given positions of higher rank.

She rose to the position of Dean of the College of Arts, Science and Business upon the arrival of a new school administrator.
The faculty and staff that were critical of her management were either not renewed, de-loaded, or have quit voluntarily.

Alternate Courses of Action

Conflict Resolution

Face-to-face meeting of the conflicting parties for the purpose of identifying the problem and resolving it through open discussion.
Pros
Addresses the issue directly and brings the problems out into the open, and elicits an immediate reaction from the parties involved.

Cons
Subordinates are unlikely to speak up, as it has been established that doing so entails a very real risk to job security. Also, the aggrieved parties may no longer be willing to come to amicable terms. Acquiring permission to conduct such may also be a problem.

Superordinate goals

Creating a shared goal that cannot be attained without the cooperation of each of the conflicting parties.
Pros
May elicit or rekindle genuine camaraderie in addition to conflict resolution, as nothing brings even enemies together faster than an even bigger enemy.
Cons
It may be difficult to identify a shared goal or even get the parties together.

Avoidance

Withdrawal from, or suppression of, the conflict.
Pros
Needs only one party to initiate the process, and effective immediately.
Cons
Doesn’t really solve the underlying problem.

Smoothing

Playing down differences while emphasizing common interests between the conflicting parties.
Pros
Makes reconciliation possible.
Cons
Reconciliation may be impossible, or differences may be too great.

Authoritative Command

Management uses its formal authority to resolve the conflict and then communicates its desires to the parties involved.
Pros
Direct and immediate resolution.
Cons
Some conflicts are between management and subordinate, rendering this solution meaningless in some instances. Also, resentment may remain, as well as covert but active infighting may still continue.

Altering the human variable

Using behavioral change techniques such as human relations training to alter attitudes and behaviors that cause conflict.
Pros
As with Subordinate Goals, this may elicit or rekindle genuine camaraderie in addition to conflict resolution. Attacks the problem at the root.
Cons
Difficult and time-consuming to accomplish without guarantee of success.

Altering the structural variable

Changing the formal organization structure and the interaction of conflicting parties through policy change, job redesign, transfer, and the like.
Pros
May result in less need for political maneuvering in the first place, thereby solving not just the current conflict, but reducing the possibility of future ones.
Cons
Management may be resistant to change, especially if it is one of the parties involved. Difficult to implement.

Conclusion

Roxanne Ibañez, in her rise to her current position, employed several strategies: Avoidance, Redirecting Accountability, and Robert Greene’s Laws of Power.

Avoidance

Avoidance is quite common in controversial areas where the employee must risk being wrong or where actions may yield a sanction. Perhaps the most common reaction is to “work to the rules.” That is, employees are protected when they adhere strictly to all the rules, policies, and procedures or do not allow deviations or exceptions.

Although working to the rules and playing dumb are common techniques, experienced employees often practice somewhat more subtle techniques of self-protection. These include depersonalization and stalling. Depersonalization involves treating individuals, such as customers, clients, or subordinates, as numbers, things, or objects. Routine stalling involves slowing down the pace of work to expand the task so that the individuals look as if they are working hard. With creative stalling, the employees may spend the time supporting the organization’s ideology, position, or program and delaying implementation.
In several instances, Ms. Ibañez was named the OIC whenever the Chancellor was away (which was often). Unfortunately, this meant that most decisions could not be made during the Chancellor’s absence, as Ms. Ibañez would often forestall making one until the issue became moot. One specific incident involved the use of the campus’ covered gym during a Saturday for varsity practice; as students weren’t allowed the use of the school’s facilities during the weekends, and Ms. Ibañez did not want to make a decision, the team never got to practice.

Redirecting Accountability

Politically sensitive individuals will always protect themselves from accepting blame for the negative consequences of their actions. Again, a variety of well-worn techniques may be used for redirecting responsibility. “Passing the buck” is a common method employees and managers use. The trick here is to define the task in such a way that it becomes someone else’s formal responsibility. The ingenious ways individuals can redefine an issue to avoid action and transfer responsibility are often amazing.

Both employees and managers may avoid responsibility by buffing, or rigorous documentation. Here, individuals take action only when all the paperwork is in place and it is clear that they are merely following procedure. Closely related to rigorous documentation is the “blind memo,” which explains an objection to an action implemented by the individual. Here, the required action is taken, but the blind memo is prepared should the action come into question.

A convenient method some managers use to avoid responsibility is merely to rewrite history. If a program is successful, the manager claims to have been an early supporter. If a program fails, the manager was the one who expressed serious reservations in the first place. Whereas a memo in the files is often nice to have to show one’s early support or objections, some executives don’t bother with such niceties. They merely start a meeting by recapping what has happened in such a way that makes them look good.

For the really devious, there are three other techniques for redirecting responsibility. One technique is to blame the problem on someone or some group that has difficulty defending themselves. Fired employees, outsiders, and opponents are often targets of such scapegoating. Closely related to scapegoating is blaming the problem on uncontrollable events. The really astute manager goes far beyond the old “the-dog-ate-my-homework” routine. A perennial favorite is, “Given the unexpected severe decline in the overall economy, firm profitability was only somewhat below reasonable expectations.” Meaning, the firm lost a bundle.

Should these techniques fail, there is always another possibility: Facing apparent defeat, the manager can escalate commitment to a losing cause of action. That is, when all appears lost, assert your confidence in the original action, blame the problems on not spending enough money to implement the plan fully, and embark on actions that call for increased effort. The hope is that you will be promoted or retired by the time the negative consequences are recognized.

A specific instance of this was when a class project for a Public Relations class involved the students scheduling an interview between the high school basketball varsity team and the local media (the team won the provincial championship). The teacher, upon asking permission from Ms. Ibañez, was informed that since the students to be interviewed belonged to the Basic Education Unit, it was not within her purview, but instead the high school principal’s. After getting the principal’s go-signal and the interview was arranged, Ms. Ibañez was reprimanded by the Chancellor for not following protocol: it seems that the class should have gone through Ms. Ibañez, then the Chancellor, then the principal, to get permission. Instead of owning up to the mix up, Ms. Ibañez instead washed her hands of the whole affair and denied that the teacher and students asked her permission in the first place.

Another instance was when, during a routine maintenance of the Computer Laboratory’s units, the Lab Coordinator asked to borrow Ms. Ibañez’ CD drive to facilitate the process, and she consented. However, when the Chancellor noticed that her office PC was missing the hardware and asked where it was, she feigned ignorance. When the Lab Coordinator was reprimanded for using the hardware without asking permission first, Ms. Ibañez never spoke up to say that she, in fact, did give it.

First Law of Power: Never Outshine the Master

Always make those above you comfortably superior. In your desire to please or impress them, do not go too far in displaying your talents or you might accomplish the opposite — inspire fear and insecurity. Make your masters appear more brilliant than they are and you will attain the heights of power.

The previous two administration heads of the school had a support structure in place and a clear circle of advisers. The third, however, did not, being totally new. So while Ms. Ibañez has already been subservient in the past, it was not until the Chancellor arrived that it had the desired effect. Whereas the previous administrations passed her over for promotion because of lack of merit, the current one saw a loyal servant in her.

Seventh Law of Power: Get Others to do the Work for you, but Always Take the Credit

Use the wisdom, knowledge and legwork of others to further your own cause. Not only will such assistance save you valuable time and energy, it will give you a godlike aura of efficiency and speed. In the end your helpers will be forgotten and you will be remembered. Never do yourself what others can do for you.

One senior faculty member complained that she was the one doing most of Ms. Ibañez’ work, despite getting none of the credit. A typical example: when a certain department or group within the school overachieves, Ms. Ibañez is there to claim credit, while she is nowhere to be found when they fail.

Eight Law of Power: Make Other People Come To You; Use Bait If Necessary

When you force the other person to act, you are the one in control. It is always better to make your opponent come to you, abandoning his own plans in the process. You hold the cards.

When the time came for assigning subject loads to teachers, several were informed that they needed to get Ms. Ibañez’ personal approval first, whereas previously this was the function of the department heads.

Fifteenth Law of Power: Crush Your Enemy Totally

All great leaders since Moses have known that a feared enemy must be crushed completely. If one ember is left alight, no matter how dimly it smolders, a fire will eventually break out. More is lost through stopping halfway than through total annihilation. The enemy will recover, and will seek revenge. Crush him, not only in body, but in spirit.

When several staff and faculty voiced out their criticisms about Ms. Ibañez’ management style, they were (conveniently) deemed underqualified to teach or serve at their current positions. Several memos were then circulated to the Board of Trustees and the De La Salle Supervisory Committee noting such, ensuring that these faculty and staff would not be favorably looked upon when it came to reviewing their employment status.

Seventeenth Law of Power: Keep Others Suspended in Terror; Cultivate an Air of Unpreictability

Humans are creatures of habit with an insatiable need to see familiarity in other people’s actions. Your predictability gives them a sense of control. Turn the tables: Be deliberately unpredictable. Behavior that seems to have no consistency or purpose will keep them off-balance, and they will wear themselves out trying to explain your moves.

Some courses offered by the school, such as Accountancy and Psychology, had national seminars that the students had to attend (PAPJA, JPIA). In more than one instance, permission was granted but later revoked, or only one was approved and the other not.

Twenty-sixth Law of Power: Keep Your Hands Clean

You must seem a paragon of civility and efficiency: your hands are never soiled by mistakes and nasty deeds. Maintain such a spotless appearance by using scapegoats and cat’s-paws to disguise your involvement.

New policies were enacted that could be seen in a negative light by those affected. One such case was when students and part-time employees were no longer allowed to stay in the Psych Office. Ms. Ibañez directed the Psychology department head at the time to convey this new policy to the students and faculty. The department head balked, knowing full well that if she relayed the new policy without a written directive, she would be the one blamed, but Ms. Ibañez refused to put it in writing.

Recommendation

The perceived political maneuverings of Ms. Roxanne Ibañez resulted in a dysfunctional conflict between her and her peers and subordinates, leading to a decrease in employee morale, productivity, and in some cases, separation. The status quo, therefore, needs to be addressed in an expedient and thorough manner to correct the situation and prevent future conflicts of the same nature.

It is the opinion of this writer that the Structural Variables be altered to at the very least limit the effects of political gamesmanship. One way to do this is to strictly base promotion on meritorious achievement. Another is for the Chancellor to become more actively involved in the day-to-day operations of the organization so as not to give too much control to her direct subordinates.

References

1. Schermerhorn Jr., John, et al, Organizational Behavior (Wiley & Sons), 2002
2. Greene, Robert, The 48 Laws of Power (Viking, Penguin Putnam), 1998
3. Robbins, Stephen and Judge, Timothy, An Introduction to Organizational Behavior (Pearson), 2007
4. Dr. Brinkman, Rick, and Dr. Kirschner, Rick, Dealing with Difficult People (McGraw Hill), 2003

Faced with an extremely charismatic and popular predecessor, Dr. Emma Encarnacion – by most accounts a heretofore successful leader on the fast track – embarked on a mission to institute change at the College of St. John – Roxas. This case study is a look at what went wrong, and why.

Background

Dr. Encarnacion was faced with a difficult task: her predecessor was, by all accounts, extremely well liked by most of the students, staff and faculty of the College of St. John – Roxas, a De La Salle supervised school. Despite what was often termed a more-harmonious-than-normal state of affairs among the employees of the institution, a conflux of several factors – personality clashes with the Board, organizational inefficiency, and a lack of significant increase in enrollees (there may be others) – led the Board of Trustees to go a different direction, and Dr. Encarnacion was installed as the Chancellor of the school. It was an unprecedented move in the school’s short history, as it consolidated the powers of the chairman of the Academic Council and the Executive Vice-President of the Board of Trustees, guaranteeing almost absolute control over the school’s operations. Thus, armed with this mantle, and the mandate to improve the school’s performance, Dr. Encarnacion got to work.

The Chancellor – a leader on the fast track whose resume included being the Principal of De La Salle Greenhills – intended to get results and get them fast. At first, she seemed to do all the right things: despite their attachment to her predecessor, she established good, friendly relations with the faculty and staff. She re-organized some of the staff for specific tasks and established standards of excellence, and drafted a plan of action.

Because she replaced a beloved figure, she knew she needed to move quickly to achieve several things: to assert her role as the person in charge, and to significantly improve the school’s situation. She demanded an increased focus and commitment from employees, and placed a renewed focus on marketing. To this end, new faces were brought in to work on a comprehensive marketing campaign.

Within a matter of months, people were working longer hours and at breakneck speed, and the effects were starting to show.

One problem was that the current heads of several key departments were used to working autonomously, as was the practice of the previous administration. They were, after all, promoted because they had sound ideas, solid credentials, performed their duties well, and showed initiative; as such, they were used to having themselves heard when it comes to decisions regarding their departments. Unfortunately, this was seen by Dr. Encarnacion as a form of insubordination, and these department heads quickly fell out of favor (and eventually replaced).

Another problem was that some of the employees began to grate at the heavy demands upon them, particularly because the Chancellor herself was often not around: in a typical week, she would be around for only three days (or less) before going back to Manila. This was often met with resentment, particularly because of the tight and uncompromising deadlines imposed. She was often perceived to be slacking off and merely dictating, relegating the heavy lifting to the rank and file.

A third problem was the over-emphasis on protocol – or rather, the over-emphasis on who can break it. The once-open and direct line of communication between the faculty and staff to the administration was replaced by a layer of bureaucracy that was inviolable from below. Even minor decisions now had to be approved by the Chancellor (which proved difficult, as she was seldom around), and internal departmental and staffing decisions were overturned or made without consultation with the relevant heads of said departments. In one instance, a photo shoot involving the department heads (by the marketing department) was cancelled because she was in Manila at the time, and was not approved by her – despite the OIC’s go-signal.

A fourth problem, slightly related to the third, is the lack of a clear, focused direction on objectives, and an unwillingness to be contradicted or corrected. The members of the marketing team that were brought in to execute the new campaign chafed at being forced to work weekends and well past office hours on a regular basis because of the constantly changing short-term campaigns. One instance occurred when a certain objective was set during a meeting, but was subsequently disavowed a mere week after. When presented with the minutes of that prior meeting, the objection was dismissed anyway, with Dr. Encarnacion merely saying, “I am the Chancellor.” This, in fact, is a recurring theme and has become a joke of sorts among the employees, because whenever a decision is reversed, or unreasonable deadlines are set, any objection is answered similarly.

A fifth problem was that the belt-tightening measures implemented were seen as a shift from being mission-minded to being money-centered at best, and at worst, inequitable. Consider: students missed several key seminars (PAPJA, SIFE, PACSA among others) because the funding for the faculty advisers that were supposed to go with the students was not released; requests by faculty members to attend seminars for continuing education were denied as well; five-month contracts (renewed after a downtime of one month) for several full-time staff, preventing eligibility for regularization; delays on the upgrades for the computer laboratory; refusal of request for textbook purchases on specialized subjects (Public Relations, Entrepreneurship, Corporate Social Responsibility, up-to-date computer textbooks). All this, while the library received an aesthetic overhaul (the books remained dated), the road going into the school (1/3 km) was paved, certain offices received new, over-specs equipment, and the Chancellor was still going back and forth to Manila twice a week on the school’s budget.

Things began to take a turn for the worse as the following series of events took place: the popular then-head of Student Affairs was ignominiously relieved of his duties after several clashes with the Chancellor; a heretofore low-ranking but tenured faculty member was promoted to Dean of the newly created College of Arts, Science and Business; one of the aforementioned department heads was stripped of her rank and denied regular-employee status despite having served over three years as a full-time member of the faculty; another was similarly relieved of her department head duties and replaced by a significantly less qualified (only a semester into her MA, which is, incidentally, misaligned as well); several independent-minded part-time faculty members who were there for years were not given subject loads in the second semester without so much as a notice, verbal or otherwise; the entire marketing team that was originally tapped to turn things around left in disgust. A harsh message was sent: toe the line, be a good soldier, or pack your bags.

Less than a year after Dr. Encarnacion assumed office, at least twelve college faculty members from the College of Arts, Science and Business alone have left or were dismissed, as well as an undetermined number of staff and people from the Basic Education Unit, with more planning on leaving. Among those that left were department heads and several members of the marketing and operations staff. Morale is at a low point, and those that remain are afraid to exercise any initiative for fear of failing or being called out. There is constant grumbling, but despite the situation, operations continue because nobody knows what to do or how to affect change. Where once they felt empowered, they now merely cower.

Problem Statement

Under the last year and a half of Dr. Encarnacion’s leadership, a significant number (in relation to the previous administration) of key personnel – both in administrative, teaching, and rank-and-file positions – have left or were dismissed. It is interesting to note that most of these assumed their previous positions under the auspices of the previous administration and were known to have had close personal ties with Dr. Encarnacion’s predecessor.

While the turnover percentage may be low when viewed against the aggregate, consider that the College of St. John – Roxas has only two major college units: the College of Nursing and the College of Arts, Science and Business (CASB). The CASB has three departments: Business Administration (BSBA), Psychology (BSPsych), and Accountancy (BSA). The BSBA and BSPsych department heads were relieved of their duties in the middle of the school year, and their faculty lineups revamped – in one instance, during the semester. In fact, only one faculty member from each of these two departments from the previous administration was retained – both already being regular employees. The members of the marketing department, once credited by the Board of Trustees and the Chancellor herself for the increase in enrollees the previous year, to a man, left.

This instability and lack of continuity has led to chaos for the students academically. For graduating students, their thesis advisers and panelists were replaced, resulting in their having to re-draft their papers, and most of the undergrads have had to re-adjust to their new instructors and department heads. Lesson plans had to be re-written, and syllabi had to be re-examined, further confusing the students. The marketing campaign, which once showed much promise, has grinded to a halt, as the ones left were proven to be incapable of picking up the slack. And the status quo has generated a field of negativity among the remaining employees, as a result of several things: some were friends with those that left, while the newcomers are experiencing the pressure of being compared to their predecessors, often unfavorably.

Objective

The cost of employee turnover to for-profit organizations has been estimated to be up to 150% of the employees’ remuneration package when multiple factors (opportunity cost, training cost, loss of productivity, etc) are considered. As such, it is important for the organization to curb faculty turnover; dissatisfaction among the ranks of the faculty represents a disruptive influence to normal academic activities, and merely serves to undermine credibility.

Areas of consideration

Reforms were instituted that went against the grain of prevailing and long-standing organizational culture, resulting in alienation and emasculation.

Work load and administrative pressure were increased without corresponding increase in rank or pay, leading to widespread resentment, particularly upon assumptions that the leadership was merely being dictatorial and not putting in the same effort as the rank-and-file.

The cost cutting moves implemented were seen as a shift from being mission-minded to being money-centered at best, and inequitable, at worst.

Key faculty members and staff were dismissed or replaced in what was seen to be an organizational purge; most of them were close to the previous administration or were perceived to be independent thinkers.

Alternative Courses of Action

Open Forum

Pros —

addresses the issue directly and brings the problems out into the open, and elicits an immediate reaction from the parties involved.

Cons —

subordinates are unlikely to speak up, as it has been established that doing so entails a very real risk to job security. Acquiring permission to conduct such may also be a problem.

Conduct a Quantivative Research to support the assertions of this Qualitative case study

Pros —

since it is quantitative in nature, actual, unbiased figures can be presented and analyzed.

Cons —

sampling and research methods of the researchers may be an issue. Any quantitative study must be conducted by outsiders to guarantee validity. Acquiring permission to conduct such may also be a problem.

Comparative review of other, similar institutions

Pros —

a clear view on how the system is run by more successful but similar schools can be acquired.

Cons —

since most likely, such studies are qualitative rather than quantitative, the most thorough method is ethnography, which is problematic, and whatever data gathered may still be suspect. Acquiring permission to conduct such may also be a problem.

Conclusion

While the previous paragraphs outlined problems in their own right, I believe them to be mere symptoms of a deeper rooted set of problems, ones that begin at the very top.

One problem was simply that Dr. Encarnacion entered a vastly different environment from the ones she was used to, and failed to adjust or even consider the situation accordingly. The “right moves” she may have done in the past that may have worked just fine backfired in the new, more complex context.

For one, there was a pre-existing, close-knit, widely-shared culture that thrived on autonomy and exercised initiative. Most of the employees were also enamored of her predecessor, which she perceived as a challenge to her authority (hero envy?). By coming in and instituting autocratic reforms, she sent a signal as to who was in charge and brooked no deviation, emasculating and alienating some. This resulted in hurt feelings and loss of trust, and fostered discord. When some department heads and other members of the operations council offered a contrarian view or idea on certain things, it was taken as another challenge, and the offending personalities were soon replaced. Another instance, in a discussion with the marketing team regarding the new school color, Dr. Encarnacion mentioned that she preferred “phantom green”, noting that it was dark. But when the marketing team pointed out that, according to the PANTONE specifications (an internationally acknowledged standard color chart), phantom green was actually of a pale hue, she admonished the team for speaking out of turn by clarifying matters. This defensive behavior – reacting adversely at every perceived challenge in expertise or authority – would indicate the existence of an “impostor syndrome” , developing superficial bravado and over-the-top self-confidence, and avoiding putting strong people who might show them up on their teams and try constantly to get everyone to pay attention to how fabulous they are, effectively building a wall.

In dog behaviorist Cesar Millan’s TV show, the Dog Whisperer, his main method for controlling aggressive behavior is the use of what animal trainers call “aversives” (leash jerks, kicks, snaps of the hand against the neck, and restraint, among others) applied non-contingently. The aversives are non contingent because they are so frequent that they’re not connected to any particular behavior on the part of the dog — the dog gets popped pretty much constantly. This results in a state called learned helplessness, which means the animal hunkers down and tries to do as little as possible.

This is, in effect, precisely what is happening to the faculty and staff of the College of St. John – Roxas: by instilling an autocratic environment in what was once a laissez-faire culture and reprimanding every perceived slight to her authority, Dr. Encarnacion has effectively reduced the initiative and drive of her employees to the level of a trained dog’s.

And for the faculty and staff being, for the most part, human , this presented a problem, as employees were now left with little in the way of empowerment and initiative actually discouraged.

Also, since it was a small school, most decisions were made and executed informally, as it was often more expedient to simply walk to another person’s office and discuss matters rather than draft memos and set up meetings. No clear organizational lines and boundaries existed, yet Dr. Encarnacion came in as if there were clear hierarchies (and instituted new ones). The former ways of doing things were dismissed as “provincial”.
She came in with her eyes closed and determined to prove that her ways and knowledge were the best (despite repeated evidence to the contrary), totally missing the emotional reality of the community and organization. She was under a lot of pressure to get results and did not see that relationships were the currency and the vehicle for change in this setting. As the pressures mounted and the complexity of the situation increased, her intense focus on outcomes as opposed to relationships became more and more ineffective.

Despite her highly touted reforms, enrollment remains stagnant (certain departments in the CASB in particular, actually suffered from a decrease in new students), and for the first time in the school’s history, failed to win a single gold medal in the cultural portion of the provincial meet, its traditional bailiwick – after all, the trainers were among those that left. The College of Nursing, whose graduates under the previous administration achieved a province-high 69% passing rate in the board exams, underperformed significantly. The exam takers whose 4th year of schooling coincided with her administration’s implementation of reforms fell to a province-low 37% passing rate.

Recommendation

Executives’ emotional intelligence — their self-awareness, empathy, rapport with others — has clear inks to their own performance. But new research shows that a leader’s emotional style also drives everyone else’s moods and behaviors — through a neurological process called mood contagion.

Dr. Encarnacion’s attitude and perception towards the faculty and staff were highly confrontational, creating a dissonant working environment. By approaching the faculty and staff from the point of view that there was something wrong with them and thus needed to be changed or disciplined, she set in motion a series of events that would alienate the very people that made the institution function in the past, without even considering other causes for the school’s nagging problems.

In short, Dr. Encarnacion’s approach was all wrong for the situation; instead of creating a cohesive team, she spawned dissonance, conflict, and mistrust through the injudicious use of power. Instead of motivating and inspiring, she commanded and instilled fear. In an institution as reliant on free, independent thought as a school, this has been, predictably, counter-productive.

Bill George, Professor of Management Practice at the Harvard Business School, talking in front of the Stanford Faculty Club: “Your first job as a leader is to bring people together. Your last job is to say, ‘Thank you.’ And in between a leader is a servant and a debtor.” George also laid out four key tasks for any leader: Align, Empower, Serve, and Collaborate:

Align: The toughest job is to align people around a mission and a set of values… You can’t just put out a mission statement and a list of values–well, you can do that, but it won’t get the job done. You have to talk about it all the time.

Empower: We need to disavow ourselves of the notion that leadership is power over other people. Leadership capacity is the ability to empower other people to step up and lead.

Serve: The notion of maximizing shareholder value has degenerated into maximizing short-term shareholder value, and it’s going to destroy our economy… Business has to serve society, and we can do that by serving customers, but we need to take a longer view.

Collaborate: No one organization can do it alone. Leaders must be able to work across organizational boundaries.

It is thus the opinion of this writer that a quantitative study to ascertain the validity of this paper’s conclusions, so as to provide hard, evidentiary data, and hopefully institute corrective, positive changes.

References

1. Goleman, Daniel, Boyzatis, Richard, and McKee, Annie. Primal Leadership
2. Schlesinger, Leonard A.; James L. Heskett, Breaking the Cycle of Failure in Services
3. Boyzatis, Richard, and McKee, Annie, Resonant Leadership
4. Woolfe, Lorin, The Bible on Leadership
5. Robbins, Stephen, and Judge, Timothy, An Introduction to Organizational Behavior
6. Schermerhorn, John, Hunt, James, and Osborn, Richard, Organizational Behavior, 7th Edition
7. Gladwell, Malcolm, The Tipping Point
8. Topping, Peter, Managerial Leadership

SYNTHESIS:

In the past, it was held that management’s only social responsibility was to maximize profits for the company’s stakeholders. The bottom line was the be-all and end-all of corporate decision; doing something extra was considered a cost, an expense, and therefore not worth doing. Corporate social responsibility, as it is understood today, refers to the management practice of aligning long-term goals that help society; a form of corporate self-regulation integrated into a business model. The concept is further expanded to include social obligation and social responsiveness; social obligation being the classic concept of the responsibility of a business to meet its economic and legal responsibilites, and social responsiveness being the capacity of a firm to adapt to changing societal conditions. These three form a pyramid that should guide management’s decision making process.

This paradigm shift has led to concepts such as Values-Based Management, an approach to managing which promotes an organization’s shared values for the purpose of guiding decisions, shaping employee behavior, influencing marketing efforts and bulding team spirit and culture. It has also given rise to the “greening” of management, where the link between an organization’s activities and their impact on the natural environment is recognized.

A closely related concept is that of Managerial Ethics, of which four views were identified: the Utilitarian view, where ethical decisions are made on the basis of their outcomes or consequences; the Rights view, where the individual rights and liberties are respected and protected; the Justice view, where managers impose and enforce rules fairly and impartially; and the Integratice Social Contracts view, designed to enhance ethical decision-making by requiring managers to consider the impact of their decisions on relevant communities while simultaneously insisting that they step even farther back and ask whether the decision implicates universal moral principles.

This discussion is followed by the presentation of the Standards of Managerial Ethics: moral, immoral and amoral, and the factors that affect such. To improve/instill ethical behavior, several concepts were introduced, such as the implementation of comprehensive ethics programs, instituting an organizational code of ethics, and formal protective mechanisms for whistelblowers or other employees facing ethical dilemmas.

ANALYSIS:

Ideally, CSR policy would function as a built-in, self-regulating mechanism whereby business would monitor and ensure their adherence to law, ethical standards, and international norms. Business would embrace responsibility for the impact of their activities on the environment, consumers, employees, communities, stakeholders and all other members of the public sphere. Furthermore, business would proactively promote the public interest by encouraging community growth and development, and voluntarily eliminating practices that harm the public sphere, regardless of legality. Essentially, CSR is the deliberate inclusion of public interest into corporate decision-making, and the honoring of a triple bottom line: People, Planet, Profit.

The most obvious example of the “green” movement is the increased awareness of carbon emissions, where commuters in Europe are taxed a certain amount based on their projected emissions as passengers. Other examples of CSR includes the outreach programs initiated by most companies to tackle homelessness and healthcare, areas that are not necessarily within their economic purview but still the subject of their efforts vis-a-vis concern.

The basic premise of CSR is thusly: it isn’t enough to just make a profit NOW; organizations must think to the future, and create a sustainable way to go about business, and this involves, for the most part, taking care of resources and the people that comprise their “publics”. At the shallowest level, CSR is a public relations venture to make the increasibly aware consumer to feel good about doing business with the organization. At the deeper levels, it is an organization’s recognition that the needs of the future demand action today. An organization’s use of either is predicated upon its managerial ethics.

On the topic of how this relates to managerial ethics: while overt concern for ethics — or social justice, for that matter — is now almost universally seen as “the proper way to do things”. The concepts, of course, are not new; consider labor leader Eugene Debs, largely reviled as a communist during his time. Debs, in a speech, said:

“Now my friends, I am opposed to the system of society in which we live today, not because I lack the natural equipment to do for myself but because I am not satisfied to make myself comfortable knowing that there are thousands of my fellow men who suffer for the barest necessities of life. We were taught under the old ethic that man’s business on this earth was to look out for himself. That was the ethic of the jungle; the ethic of the wild beast. Take care of yourself, no matter what may become of your fellow man. Thousands of years ago the question was asked; “Am I my brother’s keeper?” That question has never yet been answered in a way that is satisfactory to civilized society.

“Yes, I am my brother’s keeper. I am under a moral obligation to him that is inspired, not by any maudlin sentimentality but by the higher duty I owe myself. What would you think me if I were capable of seating myself at a table and gorging myself with food and saw about me the children of my fellow beings starving to death.”

Managerial ethics and CSR are the ways upon which organizations say: “Yes, I AM my brother’s keeper.”

The success of the visionary companies do not necessarily come from great strategic planning, but also as a result of experimentation, making a product by an accident that is useful or valuable to customers, and being responsive to the needs of the environment. Visionary companies adapt and evolve and innovate, coming up with new ideas, trying them out, and keeping what works while discarding what fails.

The concept is analogized to Darwin’s Theory of Evolution and Natural Selection, wherein the species of flora and fauna we see today seem perfectly suited to whatever tasks they perform. One would at first glance assume that they were designed that way, whereas in truth, it took millions of years of evolutionary trial and error for them to adapt to their environment through a process of undirected variation or random genetic mutation; the key point being, they adapted to their environment by trying a lot of stuff, but the ones that we see today are the ones that tried stuff that worked.

This evolutionary progress differs from another concept discussed in the book, BHAGs (Big Hairy Audacious Goals), in two ways: first, BHAGs involve clear, specific, grand goals, with specific end result in mind, whereas trying a lot of stuff involves, obviously, trying a lot of stuff and stumbling upon what works, without knowing the result ahead of time. Second, BHAGs involve discontinuous leaps of progress, whereas evolutionary progress begins with small, incremental leaps often in the form of quickly seizing unexpected opportunities that eventually grow into major and often unanticipated strategic shifts. Darwin’s Theory of Evolution as applied to visionary companies and described by the authors as Branching and Pruning. The idea is, if you add enough branches to a tree (variation) and intelligently prune the deadwood (selection), then you will be able to have healthy branches that will prosper in a changing environment.

In the example of 3M, what began as a mining company evolved by refusing to be just a mining company, but instead looking at problems as opportunities and taking advantage of whatever presents itself. To this end, 3M fostered a culture of innovation and risk taking, developing mechanisms to stimulate progress, innovation and internal entrepreneurship, among others. These principles by 3M are also embodied in other companies today; the following list is an example of how 3M did it, and how other companies have followed their lead.

The 15 Percent Rule / Google’s “Innovation Time Off”

To stimulate unplanned experimentation and variation that might turn into successful, albeit unexpected, innovations, 3M instituted a long standing tradition that enourages technical people to spend up to 15% of their time on projects of their own choosing and initiative. In line with this, all Google engineers are encouraged to spend 20% of their work time (one day per week) on projects that interest them. Some of Google’s newer services, such as Gmail, Google News, Orkut, and AdSense originated from these independent endeavors. In a talk at Stanford University, Marissa Mayer, Google’s Vice President of Search Products and User Experience, stated that her analysis showed that half of the new product launches originated from the 20% time.

The 25 Percent Rule

To stimulate continuous new product development, 3M also implements the 25% Rule, which states that each ivision is expected to generate 25% or annual sales from new products and services in the previous five years (later upped to 30% in the previous 4 years). In the area of IT where new technogies and applications spring up at least every six months, this is practically a given; Apple’s iPhone, launched in 2007, accounted for 39% of Apple’s business, having generated $4.6 billion in revenue on sales og 6.9 million units in the 3rd quarter of 2008. Rubbermaid is a veritable juggernaut it comes to putting out new products: 365 a year, or almost two new products every workday. Each year it improves over 5,000 existing products. Rubbermaid aims to enter a new-product category every 12 to 18 months, obtain a third of its sales from products introduced within the past five years, and to obtain 25% of its revenues from markets outside the United States.

The “Golden Step” Award

To stimulate internal entrepreneurship and risk taking, 3M created this award for those people responsible for successful new business ventures originated within 3M. International household products company, Henkel, has won an award for internal communications and change management from German business magazine, PR Report (German language only). The firm won the award for its “Year of Innovation 2006″ project, a companywide effort to get its 50,000 employees to contribute ideas that can improve the company’s products and processes.

Genesis Grants

To support internal entrepreneurship, 3M has an internal venture capital fund that distributes money for researchers to develop prototypes and market tests. Similar in spirit to the internal VC idea, Mark Cuban (owner of the Dallas Mavericks and chairman of HDNet, sold Broadcast.com to Yahoo! for $5.9 billion in 1999) came up with what he calls an open source funding environment, a stimulus plan to invest money in several business ideas or startups.

Technology Sharing

To stimulate internal dissemination of technology and ideas, 3M encourages the sharing of new technology to other divisions. While running a different Rubbermaid subsidiary, Bud Hellman toured a Rubbermaid plant that made picnic coolers. As he watched the plastic blow-molding equipment, he realized that he could use that process to make a line of durable, light-weight, inexpensive office furniture. Within a couple of years that line accounted for 60% of the furniture division’s sales.

Carlton Society

To stimulate and innovation and reward innovators, 3M instituted a technical honor society whose members are chosen in recogintion for their outstnding and original technical contributions withing 3M. IBM has a program called the IBM Fellows, who are typically engineers who have worked for the company 15-20 years and who have been extremely creative and productive. They are given executive salaries and five years to work on what they want to with the resources needed to support that research.

Lessons for CEOs, Managers, and Entrepreneurs

Using 3M as a blueprint for evolutionary progress at its best (and as embodied by some of the added examples above), Collins et al have summarized five basic lessons for stimulating progress in a visionary company:

1. “Give it a try – and quick!”
   Essentially echoing on having a process to try out a lot of stuff, and keeping what really works. The key here is to do something. Keep on trying something new.
2. “Accept that mistakes will be made.”
   Learn from the mistakes quickly, and move on. Failures are part and parcel of what creates new innovation. Don’t repeat the same mistakes.
3. “Take small steps.”
   Experiment, but on a small scale. When something looks promising, go all out and seize the opportunity. This way one can do plenty of inexpensive experiments that create a funnel of would-be innovations.
4. “Give people the room they need.”
   Without entrepreneurship, there is no experiment. Without experiment there is no success or failure. People need some time, incentives, job security and room to experiment.
5. “Mechanisms – build that ticking clock!”
   How do you harness creativity and build innovation? It cannot happen simply by chance. Companies need to create practices and tangible mechanisms to experiment, try out new ideas and innovate.
6. “Preserve the Core/Stimulate Progress”
   Evolution involves variation and selection, keeping what works must also adhere to the core ideology of the company. It demonstrates that the core ideology serves as a bonding glue and guiding force that holds a visionary company together while it mutates and evolves.
7. “Don’t stick to the knitting; Stick to the Core”
   The company will not evolve or transform strategic shift if you are stuck in a business you are knowledgeable; visionary companies seize the opportunities even it will shift from the original business they have to a new line of business. It’s a matter of trying and experimenting: if it will be successful then grab the opportunities, utilizing the process of purposeful evolution.

In Closing

Visionary companies and organizations share several key concepts in common, despite differences in application: an emphasis on INNOVATION and REWARDING CREATIVITY, an organizational CULTURE of EMPOWERMENT, TEAM building, and a tolerance for MISTAKES and RISKS.

An Emphasis on Innovation and Rewarding Creativity

Innovative companies don’t become such by being rigid; top management has to make the conscious decision to emphasize innovation and implement policies that foster and reward creativity.

An Organizational Culture of Empowerment

Letting employees have a certain amount of control over certain business or technical decisions encourages people to have, and exercise, initiative. When people work on their own, there is less overhead for management, which fosters the creation of undirected variations, which leads to innovation. Jim Collins, in an interview by Fortune Magazine, cautions against fostering a culture without empowerment: “For one thing, you’re ignoring people who might know a lot that would be useful in making the decision. You’re accepting the idea that because you’re in the CEO seat, you somehow know more or you’re smarter than everyone else. But what you’re really doing is cutting yourself off from hearing options or ideas that might be better.”

Team Building

Jim Collins, in the same article:
“Wells Fargo in the late 1970s. Everybody knows the storm of deregulation is going to hit. But nobody knows precisely how it’s going to shake out. When is it going to hit? What exact form is it going to take? What impact is it going to have on the banking industry? Dick Cooley, chief executive of Wells Fargo at that time, was very clear with us when we did our research. He said, in essence, I did not know what we were going to have to do to prevail through deregulation, because it was an uncertain set of contingencies. Too many of them. But I did know that if I spent the 1970s building a team of the most capable executives possible, they would figure out what to do when deregulation hit. He couldn’t lay down a plan for what was going to happen, because he didn’t know what was going to happen. So his decision was actually a bunch of decisions about getting the people who could deal with whatever deregulation turned out to be.”

A Tolerance for Mistakes and Risks

At Johnson & Johnson, a mistake can be a badge of honor for an innovator. Back in the 1960s, CEO Jim Burke failed with the first major product he tried to launch for the company, but he received congratulations from the company chairman, Gen. Robert Wood johnson, for taking a risk. Burke never forgot that lesson and went on to achieve many successes later. Gustave Manso, a Brazilian-born finance professor who joined the faculty at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, says: “To induce employees to explore new ideas, you have to tolerate early failure and reward long-term success.” In an unrelated-to-business-but-related-in-spirit note: Kurt Cobain one said that it’s better to burn out than to fade away. Applied to risk taking, we can take this to mean: if you’re gonna fail, fail spectacularly; fail at doing something, rather than being too afraid to do anything significant. Companies that don’t tolerate their employees’ mistakes stifle creativity, and hinder innovation.

The bottom line is this: organizations can either choose to move forward, or fade into obscurity. Trying a lot of stuff and keeping what works ultimately means getting, and keeping ahead, of the pack; in this breakneck century, that will inevitably dictate the organization’s longevity.

Sources:
Jim Collins, et al; Built to Last
James M. Higgins; Innovate or Evaporate
Fortune Magazine, July 2005

I first went with Q10 on my desktop, but since I use my laptop more often anyway, and I run Linux Mint on it, I decided to look for a more flexible alternative, which kinda sucks because I loved using Q10. After some digging, I came across this gem: Textroom.

The concept is simple: it’s full screen, so you don’t get bothered by other stuff going on; it’s minimalist: it’s just one big blank screen with a small status bar at the bottom displaying word count, the file name, and the time. Bottom line: it gets out of your way. The spartan interface is, in a word, liberating.

Textroom

Point of fact: I’m having fun writing again, and most of my longer blog posts (including this one) have all been created using Textroom. It’s definitely a joy to use, particularly if you plan on doing any short but serious writing.

Features

• configurable colors and fonts
• configurable behavior: full-screen on/off, auto save, flow mode (disable delete and backspace keys), load last document on startup, remember position in text for the last file, customizable look and feel
• insert current time and date, live word count
• setting deadline, target word count and time for timed writing
• keyboard shortcuts for the most common tasks (if you start the program for the first time, just press F1 for help)

The good:

• very easy to use; there’s really nothing there to fuss over except your writing
• no spell checker: let me qualify: there’s no auto spell checker, which annoys the hell out of me and disrupts my train of thought
• easy to install in Debian-based distros; double click goodness. For other Linux flavors, there’s a step-by-step how-to on their site

The bad:

• no spell checker: spell checkers are, I think, a necessary evil. Personally, if I’m blogging, as soon as I paste what I wrote on WordPress, it checks it for me anyway. For print documents, I generally paste it onto Word or OpenOffice before copy pasting the bits and pieces to InDesign (I’m OC that way). So no real biggie, but it’d be real handy though
• no PDF support; but again, since I layout everything in InDesign anyway, no biggie
• doesn’t really do anything <em>that</em> special

Score: 27/35
Ease of use: 5/5
Ease of install: 3/5
Aesthetics: 2/5
Speed: 5/5
Does what it’s supposed to: 5/5
Value for money: 5/5
Value added: 2/5

All in all, especially if you’re leery of the complexity of vi or emacs and just want to write, I’d suggest trying out Textroom (though Windows users might also want to try Q10).

In the chapter Clock Building, Not Time Telling of his book Built to Last, Jim Collins et. al. take a look at how an organization’s leadership structure — their roles, cultures and perspectives — affect the longevity (or more precisely, the legacy) of that organization.

Time Telling is identified as having a great idea or being a charismatic visionary leader, while Clock Building is building a company that can prosper far beyond the presence of any singer leader and through multiple product life cycles1. To further illustrate these concepts, the book offers the example of a person able to look at the sky and state the exact time and date: a time teller. Such a skill (or its analogues) would be amazing and extremely beneficial. However, a better skill would be to have the ability to build a clock that could tell time for anybody, anywhere, even long after the time-teller is gone: a clock builder.

That is, in essence, the whole chapter: it’s not about the leader, it’s about the organization. It’s an admonishment of the rock star CEO’s super-ego, a reinforcement of the idea that the greatest creation is the company itself.

Download the PDF

My old boss used to use MindManager to keep track of our discussions and meetings, and I found it an incredibly useful GTD tool. Unfortunately, MindManager is proprietary software ($399.00) and is Windows-only, but a quick search on the Ubuntu repositories quickly led me to VYM, an open-source alternative that’s light on resources and very easy to use: the only keys you’d ever really need are the Insert, Delete and Arrow keys.

Here’s an example screenshot when applied to simple decision analysis for location planning:

The resulting decision tree is very intuitive: branching out are the four basic location options, which are to add a new facility, expand the current facility, relocate the facility, or do nothing. Following every option are chance nodes, each rated for probability of success and the resulting tree values. From the tree values, we can calculate the gross value for each option by adding the products of each chance node and tree value. The net profit can then be calculated by subtracting the associated cost from the gross value of each decision.

Based on this tree then, the best option would be to do nothing, followed by expansion, and the worst option would be to relocate.

So, when you have a business entity whose operations are conducted wholly, or mostly, from the web, is location planning still important?

The quick answer is, IMO, no. When your machinery and equipment — web-servers and such — are located half a world away, and your customers and suppliers are from every corner of the world, all while being connected to each 24/7 from some remote office, actual physical location takes on a drastically decreased role. Their concern becomes not location planning, but location targeting.

Companies such as Amazon, Netflix and Ebay, who leverage the potential of the Long Tail, are prime examples. In Chris Andersen’s 2006 book, The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More, he put forth the idea that in the internet era the variety of goods and merchandise is growing, because constraints on shelf space — physical location —are eliminated, as well as the costs associated with it. This opens up the possibility of selling small volumes of hard-to-find items to many customers, instead of only selling large volumes of a reduced number of popular items. This effect results in a shift of the Pareto Distribution, or power law distribution curve, illustrated below:

Andersen’s ideas put forth the notion that, given the elimination of physical shelf-space in favor of the internet, many small markets in goods that don’t individually sell well enough for traditional retail and broadcast distribution will together exceed the size of the existing market in goods that do cross that economic bar. In other words, the shaded area under the curve will become bigger than the white area over time.^[1]

All this, of course, depends on search engine results (SER), and is why I mentioned the shift from location planning to location targeting: in the era of Web 2.0, there is only one location you want — the first page of a SERP for your keyword. What’s left is knowing what to do to get there. But with the ease upon which consumers can search for anything they want, the market also exisits for an organization to distribute niche products.

The concept isn’t a particularly new thing: publishers and record companies have long known the value of having their products placed in prominent areas. Businesses and locations catering to niche products, such as Hidalgo in Quiapo for cameras, or Gilmore in Quezon City for computers, have already leveraged this potential by becoming hubs for that niche. But their biggest problem has always been the one that location planning has sought to minimize, but that the internet has eliminated: people still need to go to them to do business. No matter how convenient or well-trafficked the location is, nothing beats the convenience of being able to complete transactions on-line, from the comforts of home.

For web-based business entities, this means a paradigm shift from solving rectilinear distances between locations to practicing SEO, ensuring standards-compliant code and accessibility on their web sites, and concentrating on usability and user experience. For the rest of us, it means more choices and a richer consumer experience.

References:

• Should you invest in the long tail?
• The Long Tail original article at Wired.com
• Wikipedia

The model is a special procedure of linear programming for finding the minimum cost for distributing homogeneous units of a product from several points of supply (sources) to a number of points of demand (destinations). In terms I’m more comfortable using, that means that the model answers the question: what are the cheapest routes I can use to send a certain number of products from a certain number of suppliers to a certain number of destinations?

To answer this, of course, we need to know several things beforehand:

1. the number of sources, as well as their capacity to supply the products to distribute;
2. the number of destinations, as well as their demand; and —
3. the per-unit cost of shipping the products from a certain source to a certain destination.

This model is a linear programming model, that is, the relationships among variables is linear: transportation costs are treated as a direct linear function of the number of units shipped. That means, basically, that the more units you send somewhere, the more it’s gonna cost you. Being an LP problem, it assumes several things:

1. the items to be shipped are homogeneous, or the same (similar);
2. shipping cost per unit is the same regardless of the number of units shipped; and —
3. there is onlly one route or mode of transportation being used between each origin and each destination.

To illustrate, suppose a clothing manufacturer has three outlets, each with a known amount of demand, and three factories, their capacities also known. For simplicity’s sake, let’s call each outlet A, B, and C, and each factory W, X, and Y. Their capacities, demands, and cost to transport per unit is shown below:

First, note: total demand and total supply are equal; this is what’s called a balanced condition, and while highly unlikely in real life situations, it’s enough to demonstrate the procedure for now.

Solving a problem with so few variables by hand is relatively easy, and I’ll get into more detail about that later. There’s also a nifty tool for both Microsoft Excel and Sun Open Office Calc called solver that tackles precisely this problem, albeit with some limitations. This time around though, I’ll illustrate solving this problem using lp_solve, a free (see LGPL for the GNU lesser general public license) linear (integer) programming solver based on the revised simplex method and the Branch-and-bound method for the integers.

Why lp_solve?

Well, if I could only provide one answer for this, it’d be because it’s free. Free as in freedom. To use, alter, sell, do stuff. Fortunately, there are other answers as well: it’s robust and powerful, has an API for a lot of programming languages so you can call the results from, say, Python, and best of all, it’s very easy to use.

The process

Looking at the cost to transport per unit table, we can pretty much see that we don’t want to be sending any significant number of products from X to B, or Y to C, because they have the highest cost. Instead, we want to maximize the route from W to A, since it’s significantly cheaper. Unfortunately, W can only supply 56 units, so we’d have to get the 16 from somewhere; hopefully from Y, since it’s cheaper than X. But if we do that, we might end up sending from X to B again, which is a no-no. Trying to solve this with mentally is hard — there’s just too many things to consider. Enter linear programming.

Before we can begin, we need to look at its linear programming formulation — this is the hardest part, trust me, and since it’s a very specific case of linear programming, that means there’s really just one way to formulate it. First, consider the decision variables: three factories and three outlets, so we have (3*3) nine decision variables, which we’ll name as a combination of their names: WA, WB, WC, XA, XB, XC, YA, YB, YC. The first letter identifies the source, or factory, and the second letter identifies their destination, or outlet. Recall, our objective function, that is, what we want our function to do, would be to minimize the total transportation cost; we write it this way:

min: 4wa + 8wb + 8wc + 16xa + 24xb + 16xc + 8ya + 16yb + 24yc;

Well I’ll be darned, that looks a lot like C code, doesn’t it? And it behaves much as you’d expect: a quick look at the table graphic above and you’ll see that we’re basically adding the product of each per-unit cost to each decision variable – which just so happens to correspond to the cells on the table. Since it’d cost $4.00 to send a unit of product from W to A, we have 4wa, and so on. Nifty.

Next, we’ll look at the constraints: since each source has a maximum capacity to supply the product, and each destination has a minimum demand, we’d write that down like this:


wa + wb + wc <= 56; /* plant "W" can't ship more than 56 units */
xa + xb + xc <= 82; /* plant "X" can't ship more than 82 units */
ya + yb + yc <= 77; /* plant "Y" can't ship more than 77 units */

wa + xa + ya >= 72; /* destination "A" requires at least 72 units */
wb + xb + yb >= 102;/* destination "B" requires at least 102 units */
wc + xc + yc >= 41; /* destination "C" requires at least 41 units */

Note that the comments enclosed by /* and */ are exactly that: comments.

With that done, we have enough to solve our problem using lp_solve; simply press the F9 key. Here I’m using the lp_solve IDE, which is available for the Windows platform, but I’ve run it under WinE and ahd no problems. The results are illustrated below:

What the data is telling us here is that we can send 56 units from W to A, 41 units from X to A, another 41 units from X to C, 31 from Y to A, and 46 from Y to B. Using our objective function above, we can calculate the cost for this solution:

cost = 4*0 + 8*56 + 8*0 + 16*41 + 24*0 + 16*41 + 8*31 + 16*46 + 24*0 = 448 + 656 + 656 + 248 + 736 = 2,744

So our solution will end up costing $2,744.00, which is the minimum cost do do the transaction.