Tag: solution

Mind Game


2% or 98% ??

This is strange…can you figure it out?

Are you the 2% or 98% of the population?

Follow the instructions! NO PEEKING AHEAD!

* Do the following exercise, guaranteed to raise an eyebrow.

* There’s no trick or surprise.

* Just follow these instructions, and answer the questions one at a time and as quickly as you can!

* Again, as quickly as you can but don’t advance until you are done each of them really.

– Think of a number from 1 to 10

– Multiply that number by 9

– If the number is a 2-digit number, add the digits together

– Now subtract 5

– Determine which letter in the alphabet corresponds to the number you ended up with

(example: 1=a, 2=B, 3=c, 4=d etc.)

– Think of a country that starts with that letter

– Remember the last letter of the name of that country

– Think of the name of an animal that starts with that letter

– Remember the last letter in the name of that animal

Think of the name of a fruit that starts with that letter

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! Are you thinking of a Kangaroo in Denmark eating an Orange?!

I told you this was FREAKY!! If not, you’re among the 2% of the population whose minds are different enough to think of something else. 98% of people will answer with kangaroos in Denmark when given this exercise.

Courtesy: Bala Murugan

The Difference between Focusing on Problems and Focusing on Solutions


One of the most memorable case studies on Japanese management was the case of the empty soap box, which happened in one of Japan’s biggest cosmetics companies. The company received a complaint that a consumer had bought a soap box that was empty. Immediately the authorities isolated the problem to the assembly line, which transported all the packaged boxes of soap to the delivery department. For some reason, one soap box went through the assembly line empty. Management asked its engineers to solve the problem.

Post-haste, the engineers worked hard to devise an X-ray machine with high-resolution monitors manned by two people to watch all the soap boxes that passed through the line to make sure they were not empty. No doubt, they worked hard and they worked fast but they spent a whoopee amount to do so.

But when a rank-and-file employee in a small company was posed with the same problem, he did not get into complications of X-rays, etc., but instead came out with another solution. He bought a strong industrial electric fan and pointed it at the assembly line. He switched the fan on, and as each soap box passed the fan, it simply blew the empty boxes out of the line.

Always look for simple solutions. Devise the simplest possible solution that solves the problems.