Babu Ramachandran

Productivity is too often narrowed down to refer to maximising rate of output, whereas by definition and by inception, it is the effectiveness of effort and industry measured in terms of ‘rate of output per unit of input’. So it lends itself to a much wider scope than mere numbers. Henry Ford, the archetype of productivity, is often quoted as having said this of the Model-T's churning out of the Ford assembly line, “You can have any colour as long as its Black.” So this stands out as an oft-quoted citation that ‘mass production’ abhors creativity. But in reality, and history is a witness, that the Assembly line triggered creativity and innovation in so many ways to enhance productivity and quality. And on the other hand, the structure of manufacturing in an Assembly line did not constrain the ‘creativity’ of conceiving and designing automobiles of many a type, size and shape. This is deeply entrenched in Industry - from the first industrial revolution when creativity enhanced productivity and consistency; to the current Industry 4.0, where cutting-edge technologies are applied to make Industry intelligent and sustainable. All Industrial philosophies - be it the Toyota kind or the GE or the Apple, have creativity concepts, call it Kaizen, SixSigma, ZeroDefect, Business Excellence, Break-thru innovation, even the disruptive ‘Jugaad’, inevitably intertwined with Productivity for success in business. Be it in leap-frogging new business ideas and business models, like OYO or Uber, or selling an ‘iWatch’ (fitness wearable) or a loan on ‘Bankbazaar’ (financial marketplace) - the productivity is only possible and maximised because of the ‘innovative’ content and execution of the ‘package’ - i.e a product and its affiliated service offering. It like It is indeed the creativity that makes or breaks an organisation in the modern competitive world, where socio-economic factors can swing, as much as the market-forces of demand-supply. So while it is necessary to do well in terms of ‘productivity’, it also needs to be ‘creative’ and ‘innovative’. No organisation or individual can focus on one without the other.