It was one of those rare difficult days in office after which I returned home to read something and face the next day with extra enthusiasm. I stumbled upon one of my favorite topics from B-School life - the 3 box solution. An interesting interview of Prof VG on this topic can be found here. His closing comments had a lasting impression on me "It (The Three Box Solution) applies everywhere. Not just business, it applies to churches, universities, non-profits, countries/governments, and to personal life. The central idea in the 3 box solution is that the future is now. The future is not about what you need to do in the future; it’s about what you need to do today to create the future."
Those thoughts enjoyed a good rest in my mind for quite sometime. A little later, I had to visit my hometown for a few days due to personal reasons. A walk around the town, and there were telltale signs of a beautiful, idle town that could become unlivable in the near future:
In a city like Chennai or Mumbai, the roads were built to handle the traffic to a great extent. In towns like this, the streets are largely small, agraharam-type with no parking spaces. And four-wheelers are not yet taken into count. Add some 200-250 four-wheelers and you can already hear the town breathing with life-support. It can be stated with some level of certainty that many tier 3 / tier 4 cities in India are in this state right now so far as transportation infrastructure is concerned. Is there a way to improve here?
Let's try applying VG's strategem!
What's in box 1? Managing the present. The current state of 'stuffing in' automobiles into the town must reduce. The conditions of roads must improve to better suit free flow of traffic. This needs government will.
Box 2 is critical. It is never easy. The baby boomers' culture of "Get a job, get a bike, get a house" must go. Alternately, they can look at a bicycle-led lifestyle for office commute. And see how beautiful life is! And some other habits like, you know, following road rules would do the town a world of good!
The biggest difficulty with box 2 is that, there will be people in power who would have grown up this way. For them to challenge their own beliefs and get to work is not going to be easy!
Box 3 needs a visionary at the helm. Probably the easier way to make smart cities would be to target tier 2 / tier 3 towns since they are a whole lot smaller than the metros. Moreover, it is simpler to get buy-in from small town folks. Get some inspiration from cities like Amsterdam which have moved towards bicycle-led lifestyles! Once it is started, there will be no stopping.
The forces of Vishnu (box 1), Shiva (box 2) and Brahma (box 3) need to come together to make India a better place. If India lives in her hundred thousand villages, it definitely retires in these towns!
Not all rook endings are drawn;
Not all strategies are gas!
Until next time,
Adios!
Disclaimer: The views expressed are personal.
Those thoughts enjoyed a good rest in my mind for quite sometime. A little later, I had to visit my hometown for a few days due to personal reasons. A walk around the town, and there were telltale signs of a beautiful, idle town that could become unlivable in the near future:
- The town has a population of around 70,000 as per 2011 census. One could expect it to be around 100,000 in 2017.
- The area of the district is 55 sq. km. according to government records. For the sake of discussion, the entire city is about 5 KM from the centre on both sides if we plot X and Y axis.
- Let's get to the point. At least 800 to 1000 two wheelers could be spotted in the town quite easily, which left me wondering - where is my town heading?
In a city like Chennai or Mumbai, the roads were built to handle the traffic to a great extent. In towns like this, the streets are largely small, agraharam-type with no parking spaces. And four-wheelers are not yet taken into count. Add some 200-250 four-wheelers and you can already hear the town breathing with life-support. It can be stated with some level of certainty that many tier 3 / tier 4 cities in India are in this state right now so far as transportation infrastructure is concerned. Is there a way to improve here?
What's in box 1? Managing the present. The current state of 'stuffing in' automobiles into the town must reduce. The conditions of roads must improve to better suit free flow of traffic. This needs government will.
Box 2 is critical. It is never easy. The baby boomers' culture of "Get a job, get a bike, get a house" must go. Alternately, they can look at a bicycle-led lifestyle for office commute. And see how beautiful life is! And some other habits like, you know, following road rules would do the town a world of good!
The biggest difficulty with box 2 is that, there will be people in power who would have grown up this way. For them to challenge their own beliefs and get to work is not going to be easy!
Box 3 needs a visionary at the helm. Probably the easier way to make smart cities would be to target tier 2 / tier 3 towns since they are a whole lot smaller than the metros. Moreover, it is simpler to get buy-in from small town folks. Get some inspiration from cities like Amsterdam which have moved towards bicycle-led lifestyles! Once it is started, there will be no stopping.
The forces of Vishnu (box 1), Shiva (box 2) and Brahma (box 3) need to come together to make India a better place. If India lives in her hundred thousand villages, it definitely retires in these towns!
Not all rook endings are drawn;
Not all strategies are gas!
Until next time,
Adios!
Disclaimer: The views expressed are personal.
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