Are there absolute constants in management – like the magical number 6174?
Are there absolute constants in management? – Like the magical number 6174
Are there unwavering absolutes in the game we call: ?management?? What are the key points that determine the difference between the delight of smiling success, or ‘crash and burn’ depression? ?What is magical about the number: 6174 - known as Kapekar’s Constant?
?Are there constants in management that just can’t be ignored?? In science a constant is the part that does not change during an experiment.?Constants in mathematics include the force of? gravity, Pi, speed of light and the golden ratio. In the art and science of management the constants are an ability to adjust, and agile habits.
?Magic of the number:? 6174
?Try this simple experiment.? Take any 4 digit number, where at least two of the digits are different.? Write it down, say 4567, now turn it into the largest number, as in 7654, and the smallest 4567 – and subtract, creating a new 4 digit number, 3087. ?Keep doing this process of forming the largest and smallest number and within 7 steps or less, one will always arrive at the number 6174 – known as Kaprekar’s Constant. Its practical application is in cryptography to generate random numbers for encryption and decryption purposes.
Working largely alone, almost 100 years, D.R. Kaprekar, an Indian mathematician was in the habit of discovering the surprising various properties of numbers.
?Change and staying agile
Heraclitus, a Greek philosopher who lived before Socrates and Aristotle said “change is the only constant in life” and “panta rhei”, meaning “everything flows - everything is transient”.?? While we tend to applaud change, it can be painful when a competitor introduces a product that is not only free, but of better quality. Classic example would be the disrupter WhatsApp, the instant messaging and voice-over-IP service owned by technology conglomerate Meta.
Only way to survive the searing heat of business climate change is that ability to adapt.
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Charles Darwin, the biologist, who originally trained to be an Anglican clergyman, changed our world view, thanks to his observations on the survival of the species.? To partly paraphrase his words:? It is not the most intelligent, or the strongest that survives, “it is the one that is most adaptable to change.”??
But the truth may be, we often think it’s the other person that must change, not us. What one can know for certain is that today’s market leaders often have a short shelf life, and soon reach their ‘sell by date’. ?Global market leaders of today like Apple, Amazon, and Meta barely existed 25 years ago, as shift towards all things digital and the platform business model has fast evolved.??
While in the private sector, upsets and disruptions are standard operating procedure in world class universities longevity is an asset. Many European institutions date back 900 years.? Harvard University, a private institution, seems to have a first mover advantage, being founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, Puritan clergyman John Harvard,?Often referred to as the ‘Harvard of Kenya’, one suspects Strathmore University may be thriving in the year 2300.
?'The measure of intelligence is the ability to change’ observed Albert Einstein.?? But how do we put that ability to nudge, to shift perspective -- possibly seeing things in a new light on a daily basis??? When all is said and done, we are our patterns of business behaviour.
?Habits
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit” observed Aristotle 2400 years ago. ?One of the most popular management books in recent years ‘Atomic Habits’ by James Clear makes the persuasive case that all the tiny steps forward can compound, hopefully adding up to one great leap.?
However, profound mastery at a world class level is a big investment.? In his book? “Outliers: The Story of Success” Canadian writer Malcolm Gladwell popularised the concept of the “10,000 hour rule” that suggests the key to achieving genuine expertise in any skill, is simply a matter of practising, in the correct way, for at least 10,000 hours. [That is 1,250 eight hour work days.]
Biggest constant for a manager’s unwavering success may mind-set. “The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future by merely changing his attitude” notes Oprah Winfrey.
David is a director at aCatalyst Consulting?? [email protected]