Quality - the art of Virtual tools

Excellence is always shrouded with mystery. Any attempt to express or measure it, in practical terms is like defining the abstract. And best management practices are no different however scientific they are.

Over the years, the way business is being carried out, has become complex and its dependency on 3^rd party tools is more evident than ever before. Can we imagine running an organization without MS office? “Hunger” for betterment is not enough but reach and deployment of such tools have become bare necessity of trade.

For any progressive group, the topic will always be, how  to enhance the quality by deploying new and powerful software tools. Now, plans are afoot in all organizations to integrate the systems, from field to boardrooms, to run  on one string and most of it is expected to be on “cloud”, thus adding a “Omnipresent” dimension to    team members to poll or process  information  in real time mode, of course to the benefit of customers. The end result is expected to be nothing less than excellence  from "Virtual world."

However, I never expected that my euphoric thoughts on “Virtual tools” would take a beating by seemingly unconnected event, in the last week-end.

I had to accompany a friend of mine to Halebid and Belur temples, located around 90 km away, on the north-western side of Bangalore. The temples depict Hoyasala architecture and legend of the land says, in 10^th century, under the patronage of a generous king, the master sculptor “Jakkanacharya” and his able team carved out masterpieces of sculpture and build these temples. The experts described the temple as "supreme climax of Indian architecture". The temple walls are decorated with statues depicting various events of life - a wedding, a romancing couple, a warrior and various aspects of God - all are finely carved out of black granite and brimming with life. The bottom of the wall has a border with elephants standing in line holding the tail of front one with trunk. The guide was telling, though all elephants are look alike, close observation reveals, no two are of same design. The kingpin is the statue of a woman “looking into mirror” .The artist finely embedded her feelings as well. The woman is examining her make up while holding a mirror in hand. She is not happy with her “mascara” or colour of lipstick, perhaps, she is bit irritated by noticing  fine lapses - maybe she is getting ready to meet her man friend soon and understandably the occasion calls for better preparation. All these feelings are manifesting and vivid even after 1000 years - as if, this fine piece of art is quietly talking to me. And that’s the commentary on the esoteric craftsmanship. My guide went on saying, all stone blocks are not suitable but a chosen few and sculptors are masters of Science of evaluating the quality of stone.

Suddenly, amidst great art, I was pushed into reverie - what tools these artists had had about 1000 years ago? Power drills, steel files or computers to check the design?? They had most rudimentary iron hammer and a pencil of metal to chip out, bits of granite – and the outcome is a stupendous art and stood ravages of time, reflecting their glory even after centuries! They had spacious imagination and high degree of skill coupled with determination. And under the heat of their will to succeed, even hard granite softened and took the desired shape. By sheer discipline, they had earned the passwords to “That” Operating System to invoke these virtual tools at will. Perhaps, that’s the secret behind those eternal masterpieces.

What really are today’s “Performance – enhancers”? Computers or Fine tools or Hunger for higher performance or mix of all? Or something that deeply enshrined within our psyche?

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