The most process-oriented country

The United States is the most process-oriented country I know. You can see it in the principles of scientific management by Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915) and the first automobile assembly line by Henry Ford (1913), to the Speedee Service System designed by the McDonald brothers for quick burger production (1940s) and more recently the cookie-cutter Starbucks expansion (pun half-intended) to 15,000 locations around the globe.

In 1870, the GDP of the US was less than the GDP of British India, and just a little higher than the GDP of Germany. Today the GDP of the US is nearly four times that of Germany and more than ten times that of India. While a part of this surge is probably due to American inventiveness and a history of free trade and open business, at least a part is due to the process mindset.

This process mindset is inculcated in children at a very young age. Sometime last year, my father was visiting my sister in New Orleans and spending an idle day organizing the things in her garage for her. Her son, then four years old, wanted to help. My father said, "You are too young to help with this, this is a big job". The little child replied, "Nanaji, when you have a big job, you should just break it down into little jobs. Then you can do those little jobs one by one".

This too is a principle of scientific management! Such process thinking is completely missing in the students the Indian educational system churns out. I can't remember ever being instructed about such things in any class, either in school or in college, even though I studied operations management.