Wake up Mother Malaysia!

Mother Malaysia, I love you.

I have a great wish for you come 2009. I want you to wake up and squash the vile viruses that are spreading in your belly.

This nation, build on a promise of equality and social justice is being attacked on all sides by insidious forces which gained their nourishment from you. Now, they seek to destroy you. This nation which promised everyone a place under the sun, is now bleeding silently while a proxy war is raging in every single national institution. This nation which providence has brought together is being shattered by the hammer of parochial thinking.

Mother Malaysia, wake up.

There is great shadow cast over you now. In the name of God, EVERYBODY is carving you into little pieces. In the name of God, man’s supposedly holy institutions are spawning beasts of hatred and suspicions. They are sowing vile and venomous thoughts in your children. Babies come home from school and tell their parents that they hate the Malays (or the Indians or the Chinese)! Parents teach their children that they are somehow superior to others because they eat different or pray different. Teachers….oh the honorable teachers….have forgotten their sacred duties. Their loving eyes are no longer colour blind. Their love is coloured with preferences and biasness. Your schools were supposed to be a bastion of love and unity. Now, they are in shambles trampled by the putrid feet of those whose only desire is to see the continuity of their hegemony.

Mother Malaysia, wake up.

Time is running out. The world is moving so fast. You have blessed your children with great health and intelligence. Now, please bestow upon them with wisdom so that they can see the vanity of their ways. You have to make them see that this is the only home they have and they have to come together and huddle to keep warm in this cold…cold…brutal world. Will they not see that they are destroying you and they are going to end up on the streets of humanity with nothing but despair and regrets?

Mother Malaysia, wake up.

Will you not silence the politicians? Who are these vulgar beasts whose every word and action seem to drive stakes of differences into our hearts? They don't speak for me Mother. They never did and never will. Those who speak for me are those who right now are caring for the aged and diseased. Those who speak for me are those who right now are feeding and cradling a child of not their colour or race. Those who speak for me are those who right now are building this nation in the corporate offices of this land without fear or favour. Those who speak for me are those who view their neighbors as their kin and think not while rushing into the fire to save others or into a crumbling cliff to give another the breath of life. They are the ones who speak for me. Not these despicable vermins of society whose only legitimacy comes every five years I want them to stop speaking so that the beautiful melodious voice of your children can rise above the din of confusing and manipulative words of treachery being spewed in the most august of arenas. I wish for the true intelligence of your children, gained from your blessings no doubt, rise above the howls of these deceitful politicians.

Wake up Mother Malaysia!

Will you not halt the march of those evil minds disguised in robes of spirituality of all colours and shapes. They are all the same. They preach not the love of God but the blind alliance to their man-made institutions with their superficial rules and regulations. They are herding your children into a filed of fiery destruction while all the while chanting the holy names for God. Will you not strike them with retribution before they poison the soul of this nation?

Wake up mother Malaysia.

Will you not breathe the sacrosanct value of balance into this land? Teach your children that there is a time for one self and there is a time for others. There is a time for one’s same kind and there is a time for the good of all. This is a time for the latter. I want my two little girls to live in a haven of fairness, brotherhood and love which this nation has the potential to be. I want them to find the balance to learn their culture and language and remember their ancestry with the desire to protect what is sacred for the longevity of this nation. I want them to look at their friends as an extension of themselves NOT as an inconvenient presence to be tolerated. I want their friends to find that balance too. I want the august institutions of this land teach that balance.

Wake up Mother Malaysia.
For I believe in you as my ancestors did.
Wake up.

The 10 Hottest New Management Gurus

“ Someone who is depressed over loosing his job projects sadness everywhere in his body – the brain’s output of neurotransmitters becomes depleted, hormone levels drop, the sleep cycle is interrupted, neuropeptide receptors on the outer surface of skin cells become distorted, platelet cells in the blood become stickier and more prone to clump, and even tears contain different chemical traces than tears o joy”.


Fortune in (http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/fortune/0811/gallery.10_new_gurus.fortune/9.html) has listed ’10 new gurus you should know’. Reading the short biography of each of these 10 ‘gurus’ was like reading a scientology material; a collection of new-age healers who are adapt at using age-old remedies with cutting-edge scientific explanations. Indeed, these 10 individuals are attempting some of the fundamental problems of today’s and tomorrow’s business. The following is a brief description of all 10 of them (not in any particular ranking). You can read more by following the above link.

1.BJ Fogg – Thinks that technology will be the great seducer (persuader).He is a researcher but is viewed as a ‘thinker’ in Silicon Valley
2.Patrick Lencioni – The author of the ‘The Five Dysfunctions of a Team’. I have read this guy’s book! I remember the title and a questionnaire that came with it. Pretty good stuff. Now, thanks to Fortune, I will remember his name too. Anyway, Lencioni says that the ‘internal health’ of a company will have a strong bearing on its success or otherwise.
3.Rakesh Khurana – I suppose there needs to be an Indian in the list to replace the great CK….but then I am assuming he is merely from his name. Khurana says that companies will be at peril if they continue searching for ‘charismatic’ leaders as charisma don’t always translate into success. Carly…you can be at ease now. It was not your fault; it was your charisma. Khurana is a fierce critic of the existing business education's form and substance. He is a tenured professor at Harvard!Go figure.
4.Valerie Casey – Undoubtedly the most good looking in the list (and hence has the honour of gracing the top of this blog entry...yes...yes I can be shallow too!).She believes that designers should be governed by a set of rules a la Kyoto Protocol to ensure sustainable design. An icon of green-design movement. Casey, Malaysia needs you desperately in road-transportation design. By the way….you like red wine?
5.Don Sull – A Serious looking dude who is with the London School of Business. His buzz-word is ‘active inertia’ which is a very LBS way of paraphrasing Einstein’s definition of madness.
6.Joel Poldony – I love this guy and I hope he becomes a popular figure here in Malaysia. Because then, I can pursue my DBA. He says that the current education of business leaders are outdated. So, he revamped Yale’s business education curriculum by taking out previously core subjects like finance. I love him already. Poldony is now with Apple; setting up Apple University.
7. Nouriel Roubini – From his picture he looks like Marlon Brando from a distance with a cotton balls in his mouth. He is called ‘Dr. Doom’ because a couple of years ago he predicted that the US will go into a terrible recession for….well…for the very same reasons it is in recession now.
8. Janine Benyus – A biologist who helps organizations innovate by mimicking nature. Need I say more?
9. Dan Ariely – A professor in behavioral economics. The type of guys who teaches organizations on how to make us spend more than we really want to.
10. Nikko Canner – Helps organizations manage change and make strategic shifts without destroying their core strengths.

There goes the list. You are probably wondering what is the relevance of the quote at the beginning of this entry with the list that I have just shared with you. Well, I would like to add one more individual on to the list – Deepak Chopra. Those were his words from ‘Ageless Body, Timeless Mind’. I believe as management (and people) challenges become more complicated and as the search for more holistic solution gains popularity, philosophers and thinkers like Chopra will be able to assist managers and leaders to view their challenges in entirely new perspectives. So Deepak, as far as I am concerned you are on the list and as syncrodestiny goes, you will read this and know that you have a fan in Malaysia!

Enjoy the last days of 2009.

A Time to Reflect

It’s that time of the season again.

To sit still
and reflect
on the triumphs of the past year
and the failures too.

It is all quite natural
to measure the success
of the flattering quarterly results.
Or lament the miserly sales volume
or the drop in share value.

But that is not the purpose of this reflection.
At a time like this
we need to reflect deeper
because great companies shall not live
on quarterly results alone.

I want to reflect on
the hearts that I touched.
The minds that I opened.
The solutions that I proposed.
The manager that I counseled .
The executive that I empowered.
The company that I assisted.

I hope I did even a little of these.

But not just for the returns on investment.
But more importantly
for the joy of working.
Growing and learning
at our places of work.
If work is worship
I hope in my own little ways
I have prepared the altar
so that others can worship
in peace and gladness of heart.
And contribute all
that they are able to and blessed with.

For above all I thank the Universe
for this blessing
of doing what I care
and love.

I thank my company.
I pray that I am worthy of the vision and values
of those who lead me.
I hope that I will always give more
than what I receive.

For that is my worship.

Entrepreneurial VS Managerial : A Clash of Skill Set, Mind Set and Tool Set

I have seen it so many times before. This time it cut too close to home. A very dear friend is the latest casualty in the endless clash between entrepreneurial business owner-CEOs and their professional managers.

Entrepreneurs are a special breed. They have the drive, focus and limitless energy to carve something out of nothing. They are indeed the engines of a capitalist economy. Entrepreneurs do not fear failure, they do things at great speed and confidence which at times may border on arrogance. They despise tardiness, pessimism, nay-sayers and the dumb-witted. They see opportunities where others see walls and they become lucky while others hope to get lucky. They don't suffer fools gladly.

With these characteristics and attitude towards life and work, entrepreneurs become successful at what they set their sights on. But, these very same values and personal characteristics that makes them so successful are also the very same things that will derail them later as the businesses grow.

An entrepreneur, lets say in the business of prawn farming, who starts a farm in Kuala Kangsar may well succeed in his endeavor with his sheer persistence and drive for success. As he is omnipresent at the farm, he is able to ensure his vision is carried out to the precise execution to his liking. He can get his hands dirty and he can ‘interfere’ in his employees job functions and take immediate corrective actions if the situation warrants. He is able to (and by right)make all important decisions pertaining to the daily operation of the business. He and he alone is the face of the business .He becomes the business.

Now, imagine that this entrepreneur enjoys great success in his prawn farming in and decides to establish 2 other farms; one in Tawau and another in Sibu. He would of course appoint a ‘manager’ for each of these new farms as he will not be able to be at 3 places at one time (although he may very well try!). Also imagine that, the 2managers that he has recruited are well qualified and are highly capable to manage these farms. The entrepreneur, in his usual driven-communication style may even have painted a very attractive picture of the critical roles these two managers are going to play in realizing his vision in making the company number one in prawn farming in Asia. He insists to his two managers that they take ownership of the farms and make it their business. His passion and drive excites these two managers and they come on board with great hope and confidence.

A few years down the road, the business grows and the company expands and prospers. But, the managers in each of the farms (by now totaling 4) increasingly feel sidestepped by the entrepreneur. Despite being told that they are to take ownership of the farm, these managers find very little to take ownership of as all decisions are either made by the entrepreneur or needs to be bounced off him. Even trivial matters like staff year-end party or who gets what and when need to be referred to the entrepreneur. Needless to say that over time these managers start to feel like office boys who take orders and has very little control over their own employees. Now, remember that these are all highly qualified and capable managers. Soon they loose passion for the business and they don't feel that they are able to inject their own DNA into the business. Being proud of their abilities and their sincere hope to leave behind a legacy which to at least a little degree, coloured by them they begin to loose hope that things will change. They stop thinking and do the bare minimum. It is not long before other opportunities come knocking and they go for it leaving behind a dumbstruck entrepreneur who is so disillusioned by the ‘disloyalty and un-gratefulness’ of these managers. He feels so angry at them as despite having them as managers at each of the farm, he has always been there to make sure that everything goes smoothly. In fact he now feels that they are simply ungrateful for not feeling thankful for all that he has done for them. Didn’t he make it so easy for them? Didn't he take the trouble to lay out the precise plans how they can become successful managers? Didn't he always…always…ensure that they run by him all their operational activities which ensured that no major fatal business errors are made? Why?

Why indeed!

The entrepreneur failed to metamorphose into a business leader even after bringing on board professional managers who were supposedly tasked to run the business for him. He could not stop the urge to micro manage. He just couldn't help himself from having to know every little detail that happens in each of the farm. He needed to be in the thick of the action and always on top of things. In that driven state he committed a grave error. An error of observation.

He failed to see how distant and disinterested his managers have become. He failed to see how much of their discretionary efforts were not directed towards the company but for other pursuits. Most critically, he failed to see how disengaged and disempowered he has made them into. He killed their initiatives by trying to inject his entrepreneurial spirit into a business that has transformed from a one-man show into a full-fledged corporate organization. He didn't quite observe that he is no longer the business. The business has become larger than himself and he needs the full and complete contribution from and participation of others.

My friend is a professional manager with a great sense of ownership for what he does. He is a passionate people person with a great sense of fairness. As much as I am worried for his next career move (which I am sure to assist in any way I can), I am glad he the made this decision. He needs to reignite his passion for his chosen vocation and it is time he embarked on a career novation.

Good luck to you RN.
Merry Christmas to all.

People Management During Downturns

I have written on this subject before but under the circumstances it may have more relevance now. So here I am in my favorite Starbucks (because it is ‘attached’ to a Borders) sipping my expensive coffee trying to make sense of it all. I am well cognizant of the fact that I may have to cut down on Starbucks in the new year.

If the Sunday papers are to be believed, Western Digital has confirmed that it will be shutting down it's plant in Sarawak and will lay-off its entire 1500-strong workforce there. Many other manufacturers are either scaling down production or have already begun their VSS exercise. A particular safety-box manufacturer I know has entirely stopped over-time pay. A Japanese electronics manufacturer has instituted reduced working-hours. Rumours have it that Sony will be laying-off more than 1000 workers next year if the current downturn shows no signs of easing. The list goes on.

Then of course we have the global automakers either going around asking for financial bail-out or announcing a steady stream financial warnings. Thrown into this is a financial quagmire involving scandals, malpractices and down-right idiotic decisions. It all points to a massive re-correction in the global economic system. And, there will be casualties. Who? Your average wage earners!

If you are part of your organization's HR team, life could be pretty tough. You are probably feeling that you are trapped between the devil and the deep blue sea. You are right! I hope the following tips will help you through and ease your burden a little.

The first thing all people managers have to accept is that; it is nothing personal. When your employees vent their frustrations at you, it is a cry for help. Be there. Listen to them. Show empathy. When your organization decides to ‘right-size’; it is a business decision. When entire business units are shut down; it is a necessary painful decision.

Next, don't say never.....you may end up looking like a liar. The fact is HR is not always privy to critical decision making process . Often times, HR only implements decisions made elsewhere. In the case of Western Digital for example, its local HR team was told about the plant closure by their US bosses only a few days before the news broke to the press (as was reported in the press). So, if your people do ask you whether there will be any such thing happening in your organization; say that to the best of your knowledge no such thing seems to be in the pipeline. However, it is good to be prepared as the economic down-turn is indeed upon us.

However, if you were informed and in the know that a separation scheme is in the pipe-line, you are duty bound to protect the confidentiality of the matter as per your leaders’ instructions. In this instance, you have no choice but to plead ignorance if your employees enquire about it.

Now, if your organization is currently considering certain cost-containment measures in the form of work-force downsizing, the best thing you can do is to advise your leaders that it will be prudent to engage experts in the area of career transition and work-force outplacement management. Let’s face it, announcing work-force reduction is not easy to do and managing the after-effects of such an announcement is usually beyond the skill sets of most managers and heads of department. Get help and guidance from those who have helped countless organizations manage this in a more efficient and humane manner. Don’t allow the pain and hurt which is entirely avoidable from becoming a festering wound that drags the company down for years to come.

It is your responsibility as a HR professional to pressure the management to provide all possible help and assistance to those who have been ear-marked to leave the organization. This means, they must be provided with career management and career transition services so that they are able to transit out of the organization by making informed decisions. This will engender a feel-good factor within those who are separating from the organization. More importantly, and this is the real ROI from such outplacement services; those who are going to continue to be employed in the organization will have the confidence that they are working for a responsible and caring employer. This, more than anything else will ensure the quick rebound for the organization immediately after a work-force reduction has taken place. Let me also put a caveat here that such outplacement services should be provided to ALL levels of employees. The experts in this area will advise you on how best to go about it.

If you are indeed the key contact point for employees during such an exercise, I strongly recommend that you keep your office doors (and communication lines) open. As the announcement has already been made, employees will have all sorts of questions and queries. They will hear countless stories and half-truths. They will be closely watching how the company is treating their colleagues who are separating. They may not understand the reasons for these or they may not comprehend why the company is doing what it is doing. Some of the separating employees may also plant extremely negative and destructive thoughts and fears which need to be managed professionally. You can’t do this if your doors are closed!.

Whether your organization has already announced a separation scheme or is rumored to be heading that way, the following would be fail-safe HR practices to be adhered to even if some of it sounds like things you have to do anyway; because in truth they are:

1. Show respect. Show respect for those who are leaving the organization as they have all contributed in their own ways. Show respect for people’s fears and worries. Don’t make light of your employees fears as they are genuine and needs to be addressed.
2. Go beyond work. You need to relate to separating employees as a human being. This means you have to relate to them from the perspective of a working man/woman with families to support, children to educate, ageing parents to look after and fragile egos and self confidence that needs rebuilding.
3. Don’t be too apologetic. As much as an employment separation always hurts, it is after all a strategic decision any business has the prerogative to make if the situations warrants. I have seen many times how a people friendly HR professional often crosses the boundary of being apologetic to laying the blame on the company without even realizing it!
4. This will be the best time to practice ‘management by walking around’. Take the trouble to be as near and as accessible as possible to your employees both for those who are separating and those who are staying behind. Listen to them. Respond quickly and firmly to unfounded and/or negative rumours.
5. Take the lead. I find that many HR professionals themselves withdraw into a shell of self-pity and hopelessness when a separation scheme is announced. As I said earlier, it is true that often times HR only implements decisions and is not privy to the decision making BUT that doesn’t mean that the situation is all that hopeless for a HR professional to play a meaningful role. Take charge of the people. Go to the management with questions that you are unable to answer. Identify those who need special attention or observation. Suggest ways how business discontinuity can be minimized via the right people management strategies.

Wishing you all the very best in these trying times. For those of you who know me...well you know that my lines are open 24/7.

Saving (Publicly) the Detroit Three

The million dollar question (or shall I say the multi-billion dollar question) that needs to be answered now is should the American government bail-out the Big Three Detroit automobile companies? Ford, GM and Chrysler have asked for American tax-payers’ monies to help them through these difficult times. At one point in their retracted negotiations with the American Senate and Congress they were asking in excess of US$30 billion in aid! Mark Zandi, the economist, predicts that the total rescue package could be up to US$125 billion! Many feel that the automakers will in the end be making 4 trips to Washington with each trip costing tax-payers close to US$30 billion.

My take is this : These 3 behemoths need to be saved but before I put forth my argument in support of them, allow me first to categorically say that I am also not fooled by their arguments to tap into government largesse. I suspect many other observers will say the same.

Firstly, these companies’ troubles did not begin with the sub-prime crisis or during this latest round of economic downturn. They have been going down-hill this past one decade and they didn't do a damn thing about it. Actually they did quite a few things…but for all the wrong reasons. GM sells close to about a million vehicles per year in China alone; but that don't seem to translate into anything more beneficial to its overall financial health. They have been loosing market share to their Japanese competitors for years. Their products were continuously lambasted by consumers for their lack of quality and innovation. They produce petrol guzzling monsters in an age where discerning consumers are desperate for fuel-efficient and environmentally friendly cars. On top of that these car makers had so many models in any particular range that they began to cannibalize each other. Till today, I wonder why is that Suzuki had the foresight to set up base in India and wait for the country to grow and reap the benefits. Why didn’t the Big Three think of that? With so much Indian connections in their skilled workforce, the Americans could have very easily leveraged on this to venture into the Indian market. They didn’t but the Japanese and Koreans have done so. This is a prime example of how, like many other too-big-to-fail companies, these car makers still think like their country-men in the deep south : That the world revolves around America! Well, it doesn't. American manufacturers can’t depend ONLY on their domestic markets AND they have to open their markets to others. That was what they preached to the world – Open market, un-hindered capitalism, etc. Can we say that the rest of the world has learned the lessons too well while America it self forgot what it was preaching? But I digress…

Secondly, by the American government pumping in billions of tax payer monies into their coffers, they are not going to be doing any better three years from now. While this may help them to avoid from filing for bankruptcy, the longer term viability of these companies will still be in doubt. They need to make some fundamental changes to the way they build and sell cars. In fact, they have to revamp their business model. The Big 3 is probably too big for America. They may have to seriously consider a merger between them. Why acquire/merge with a German car maker when you have enough merger possibilities on your own shores?

Here is why I think the Big Three should be saved. If they go under, they will bring many others with them; particularly their serpentine connections of supplier companies. This is a fear already voiced by their Japanese competitors! The thing about the car industry is that the small side-view mirror maker in Alabama or Shah Alam is the same guy who makes for two or three other car makers. So, if one as big as Ford or GM collapses, he will have to wind-up and create a big mess for his other clients. If Toyota faces problems in the US, which is already facing the lowest car sales in 26 years, the ripple effect can be felt all the way to Thailand and other parts of South East Asia where it has considerable presence. The world is connected remember? Already the Big Three Japanese car makers, Toyota, Honda and Nissan has drastically lowered their earning projections. Nissan has in fact been reducing its production output since 2007. More than the American companies, their Japanese counterparts are what we should worry about in this part of the world. If the Japanese, as an extension of the problems they face in the USA vis a vis their close ‘connections’ to the Big Three there face the prospect of further reduction in their investment and production, this part of the world will suffer the greatest. I shudder to think the impact this will have on Thailand for example. Although, I suspect it may be a blessing in disguise for indigenous car companies in the region, especially Proton. But then again, this may be short lived.

But, I am still a little puzzled about how these companies are going to manage government interventions. Ford, for example, is still a largely family owned company while Chrysler is owned by an equity firm (if I am not wrong). How accepting public money is going to change the ownership of these companies still remains to be seen. Surely the American government is not going to just give billions away on a silver platter?

But then…...in America…..any thing is possible.

ROI from Coaching

Being in the company of those who are responsible for quarterly results and the overall financial health of the organization is always challenging and exciting all rolled into one. And, I always relish that opportunity. Understandably, they have a professional responsibility to want to relate everything that they are being asked to do in relation to the bottom line of the organization.

I have long ago suspected that consultants and management trainers have always steered away from the issue of return on investments on the initiatives that they suggest to clients. The reasons for these are two fold :

1.Not all returns from consulting/management training are measurable in terms of dollar and sense in a direct financial manner and in the immediate term.
2.The choice of dimensions to be measured are not well defined and sometimes difficult to be determined.

I remember some years ago, a senior consultant with whom I had the privilege of 'shadowing' while giving a high level presentation to a group of Malaysian Board of Directors of a main board listed company, saying this when asked whether he can guarantee the ROI from the year long training intervention he is proposing : “Yes. I can guarantee the ROI provided you allow me to change some aspects of your organizational culture after the training and if you can assure me that all my suggestions and recommendations are followed to the word”! My heart was in my throat when I heard one after another the distinguished personalities in front of us...laughing. We got the project and I would like to believe that we brought some degree of change to that organization.

I am sure you remember the once famous Fish Philosophy training modules based on the amazing people of the Manhattan Fish Market. It was all the rage a few years ago and inevitably after the ‘buzz’ begins to wear off, the often repeated question of whether there is clear and direct ROI surfaced in some circles. Then there was a follow-up video and other materials that highlighted the ‘success’ of the training program as experienced by various organizations, including an American hospital. Interestingly, each and everyone of these organizations that have made the Fish Philosophy as part of their culture have measured its success in their own ways. I am not aware of whether there is any study done to actually quantify these ‘successes’. But, do we need to?

Who can say that that the success of the program was not due to the other changes that had happened to the organization and the market independently of the training program? Who can say that it was indeed the training program that brought about the positive changes?

Similarly, what is the ROI when a senior executive is sent to listen to Bill Clinton…which is not cheap! What is the ROI of sending 150 high potentials to the 7 Habits Program?

I am a strong believer in giving clear and quantifiable returns to my clients from each and every one of the solutions that my organization provides. It is important at the outset, to determine the dimensions of measurement, how and when to measure, and, the methodology of measurement. This is when I walk away from a client knowing that I have made a difference to their business.

To the wonderful gentlemen who were in my program last week....I hope you enjoyed being with me for two long days as I thoroughly enjoyed your company.

Cheers mates!

Who is a Coach?

There are 6 people in my life who made a difference….well actually 4 plus 2!

The 1st is my mom who gave me life and who thought me about sacrifices. The 2nd is my aunt who gave my life a meaning by being more a mom to me than my mom!. The 3rd is my mentor, Dr. Edwin Varo who showed me what it takes to be a leader/manager. The 4th is my girlfriend who filled my life with hope and stood by me through thick and thin and finally, my twin daughters who are still showing me what it means to be happy and carefree.

Then, there are 3 other people who have had the greatest impact on my life. These people are what I call ‘gentle souls’ who teach us very sublime things in the quietest of ways.

The first is a 14 year old girl (1992) whose name I do not remember. She was a student in Convent Light Street, Penang where I was undergoing my practical training. On Teacher’s Day that year, she brought a plastic container filled with 2 slices of bread with a thick layer of butter as her gift to me. She said, she could not afford to buy me anything else like the other kids. I suspect, that was her breakfast and probably lunch too. I don’t know what I said or did to deserve that show of pure and innocent magnanimity. I cried on the way back to my campus.

The second is my grandfather who thought me how I should die….with grace and at peace with the world. This is the very same man with whom I had a running battle for almost all my life.
The third is my primary school bus driver; we called him Ah Chai. In the 30 to 40 minutes that it took me and my friends to reach school and another 45 minutes or so to reach back home, he used to entertain us with stories, advise, reprimands and sometimes little gifts of sweets. He was the first person who thought me that when you consistently provide more than what you are paid for; one day you will get paid more than what you deserve. What I loved most about Ah Chai was that, he treated us boys with more respect and love than even some of our teachers.

Why am I sharing these stories here? Well, www.firstcoffee.blogspot.com is not changing its form and content! This is still a business/management blog. I am sharing these stories to illustrate my amazement whenever a man or woman with years of work and life experiences say that they can’t coach or that they don’t have the skills to coach or worst still, that they don't have the time to coach.

Anybody can tell a story right? Everybody has a story to tell!

What is coaching? Take away all the fancy sounding terminologies; coaching is nothing but a calling. It is not a discipline or a process. It is not a job or role. Sure, there are some systems and processes that one can use but these do not make a coach just as Parenting Guide books do not make a parent. It is a calling.

When it is a calling, one will coach from the heart. He will know the stories to tell, he will go out of his way to make an example of himself; both good and bad, he will ensure that the people for whom he is responsible for will know how to do the fishing for themselves and he will reflect all praises back to where it belongs : To his people. With this sense of calling, a coach will take the responsibility of adding value to somebody else’s work or life even if it has no tangible benefit on his own. He will go out of his way to share his experiences and knowledge gained.

Interestingly, almost all coaching gurus that I know mention ‘trust and ‘respect’ as a founding principle for an effective coach. I believe so to but how can a person be trained to have ‘trust and respect’. You just have it or you don’t. I may be able to teach you the various reasons why you should coach; whether it is remedial, developmental, situational or whatever. I may even be able to make you memorize the detailed steps involved in coaching and the 5 stages of coaching BUT can I make you ‘trusting and respectful’ of others. I doubt that.

On the other hand, even if you do not have the so called skills of coaching but you feel that it is your calling to be of value to others, if you feel that you have a responsibility to guide and nurture others; I doubt ‘lack of skills’ is going to stop you from coaching others. In fact, I doubt that you will even realize that you are ‘coaching’.

The people that I have mentioned above have coached me in one way or another. Each had their own ‘methodologies’ and ‘processes’ but they all had one thing in common : they believed in me, they trusted me and they respected me. I learnt different things from each of them and they have influenced me in more ways that they will ever know.

As I always say in my coaching programs, we all know Tiger Woods but do we know his coaches? We all know Sir Edmond Hilary, do we know his coach? How many of us know Nicol David’s coach? The reason why we don't know them is because they were great coaches……who stay in the background while their charges reap the benefits of their wisdom.

There is always ways and time to coach another. We owe that to those around us because that is the only way we can repay those who had coached us.

Engaging the Older Workforce

I received the following statistics from a colleague with whom I am hoping to collaborate on a study on the state of older work-force in Malaysia :

• Population growth rate of 2.6% per annum
• Median age increased from 21.9 years old in 1991 to 23.6 years in 2000.
2000 1991
<15 years old 33.3% 36.7%
> 65 years old 3.9% 3.7%
• Increased life expectancy to 74 years; 71.5 years for men and 76.2 for women
• Malaysians aged >60years expected to be 3.3 million in 2020 versus only 1.4 million in 2000


The startling figure of 3.3 million Malaysians above the age of 60 in 2020 with a median life expectancy of 74 years is a demographic nightmare...at least that's what it will be if we do nothing about it.

Lets say that a man retires from work at the age of 55 and lives to say, the age of 70. This means, he has another 15 years of life to manage. If he, like a lot of people I know of, live to the age of 80, he will have 25 years of post-retirement life to look forward to….hopefully. A woman, will have a few years longer than that as they generally tend to outlive the men.

And, at the age of 55 a working man and woman is not an invalid! They are actually very productive and some say probably at the peak of their work-life in terms of cascading their knowledge and teaching others. They would generally still have another 6 to10 good working years left. In my work with retiring professionals for example, I often hear them say that they want to and are able to work for another 10 years and the thought of retiring is just so alien to them and makes them uncomfortable. What more, they want to contribute. A particularly spirited gentleman told me that he is hoping to quickly land a job upon his impending retirement as he ‘needs to get this monkey’ off his back. The ‘monkey’ being the notion of being jobless. He says he doesn’t need the money. He needs the ‘job.

As our standard of living improves and our birth-rates fall, we too, like many developed nations will have a huge grey population to content with. Their needs and expectations will be hugely different from the younger population but yet, we don't seem to have the policies and the infrastructure to manage this. It seems to me that like everything else, we are waiting for a crisis to happen before we do something about it. More than 10 years ago, I wrote in a local newspaper how an underclass of Malaysian Indians are taking shape. I also said that if nothing is done to help them, they will turn out to be disruptive to the development of the nation. Similarly, if we do not prepare ourselves for this aging population, we have the recipe for a demographic crisis. Unfortunately, we as a nation do not have a good track record in anticipating and managing demographic shifts.

Coming back to the issue of older work-force, I would propose the following steps to ensure that an organization benefits from this valuable human asset:

Step 1 : Take a complete audit of those who will be retiring in 3, 5 and 7 years time. Their skill sets, tacit & explicit knowledge and insights into organizational processes must be determined.

Step 2 : Engage thought leaders to develop and institute a culture that respects this older workforce.

Step 3 : Develop a mechanism to instill a coaching/mentoring culture spearheaded by a respected member of this group. Each retiring individual must be assigned a coaching responsibility.

Step 3 : Develop and deliver Retirement Management program to empower them to continue contributing to the organization, their careers and society. This will also create a sense of trust and belonging on the younger workforce as they can see that the organization respects and cares about their older co-workers. This is a great retention strategy by it self.

Step 4 : Develop a post-retirement ‘retention’ strategy. A retiring individual will be a great asset when it comes to filling certain seasonal positions.

Step 5 : Develop a synergy with the industry so that experienced individuals can be provided with a certain amount of mobility in pursuing their post-retirement engagements.

All our investments in people development and an immeasurable amount of knowledge and skills walk out of the gate each time an employee retires. It's time to stop this and benefit from them. We will be doing a big favour for them too.

Downsizing & Retrenchment : A More Dignified Exit for Employees

The plain truth is that many organizations in Malaysia are shedding their work-force as one of the strategies to weather the current cycle of economic down turn. The reality is also that not many seem to be doing it the right way.

In industry parlance, this is called transiting employees out of the organization. It is rare that an employee does not suspect that he or she is next on the chopping block. They would have heard through company grapevine and from hints dropped at team meetings that some form of workforce reduction will take place. Yet, when the news is finally delivered officially, many employees still go into a state of shock. I suppose there is a difference in actually hearing it from one’s manager. One can only imagine the fear and desperation setting in when the whole inevitability of the matter sinks in. Denial turns into fear which turns into anger than to self-blame and finally to despair. An unfortunate and entirely avoidable situation really, if only organizations take a little bit of effort to manage this more humanely.

Unfortunately many organizations, big and small, do not prepare their managers and supervisors to manage employee transitions well. Affected employees are often notified in a manner that is either overly business like or too apologetic. Both will not do any good for the organization and for the affected employees . Being overly business like may give the wrong impression that the organization is not emphatic while being too apologetic gives out the message that the organization feels guilty for doing something that is ‘wrong’; which in actual fact is not. Reducing head-count is well within the prerogative of the employer especially when it is justified. An uncertain economic climate, recession in our key export markets, impending recession in our secondary markets and a topsy-turvy raw materials cost are all very well justified causes for why any organization would need to keep its costs low and manageable. However, as much as it is well within the prerogative of an organization to hire and fire, I believe that in the long run Malaysian organizations will reap far more benefits, both tangible and non-tangible, if they conduct their employee transition exercises in a more enlightened way.

I suspect that many organizations don't see the need to invest the time and resources to do employee transition in the right manner because they feel it is a wasted investment. After all the employee is leaving the organization. Herein lies the shortsightedness of many. Ensuring an employee is properly transited out of the organization not only benefits the departing employee but also the organization in the long run vis a vis the feel good factor created for those who are still in the organization. How would an employee who is not affected in the work-force reduction view the organization when he sees his colleague being unceremoniously dumped out of the organization? How motivated will he be to stay on with the organization? Or, will he spend his days thinking about his own uncertain future? On the other hand, how about the hundreds of people the affected employee is going to come into contact post-termination? How will he portray his previous employer? What kind of stories and images will his family and friends make up about this organization?

It is not enough for organizations to extol the value of their ‘people asset’ during the good times. It is far more important that they show that same appreciation to their employees during difficult times. If you want to attract the best talents in the future (recession doesn’t last forever!) you need to create an image of your self as a caring and humane employer.

Having said that, managers and supervisors should not be expected to automatically be able to conduct employee transitions more effectively. This is a skill set, mind set and tool set that needs to be acquired. It is learnable. All it needs is the will to do the right thing.

I pray that Malaysian organizations treat Malaysian workers with a little bit more respect and dignity in these trying times. I hope they will do what is right rather than only what is expedient.

No Time to Coach!

"Managers who don't coach will not be promoted"

The above quote is credited to the legendary Jack Welch. I guess, those who say they don't have time to coach will not be making a bee line to GE during Jack's time.

When a manager says that she has no time to coach; we can assume that she is making two assumptions (no pun intended):

1. First assumption : That coaching only takes place at a certain time and place.
2. Second assumption : Coaching is like washing your company car; it is something proper to do but its not so important that you need to put it on your priority list.

Both assumptions are wrong and can cost an organization dear.

Imagine that your 5 most senior executives are retiring in the next three years and collectively they have between them 100 years of working experience...all in your organization. The day they retire and walk out of your organization, they are walking out with 100 years of know-hows, insights,tacit and implicit knowledge,and, a myriad of other skills that you could probably will never be able to capture even if you tried.

But what if these 5 executives have been actively coaching their subordinates for a few years prior to their retirement? Lets say that through their effective coaching skills, they were able to collectively transmit about 30 years of job specific knowledge and skills to their one and two downs. Can you now calculate the amount of sayings the organization can enjoy in training and development costs?

Now, what if...just what if...that every manager and supervisor in the entire organization is actively engaged in coaching roles and through this the organization's talent pipe-line is continuously enriched and the there is a seamless transfer of tool set and skill set down the entire organization.

I recently met a business owner who has, from what I can see, poured his blood and sweat into building a prosperous business in a fiercely competitive industry. You could feel the passion in his blood for what he does. I just hope that he has done enough to instill a coaching culture in his company as when the day comes for him to take a back seat, he will need to have a set of key people who can continue his legacy. In my experience, all entrepreneurs desire to leave behind a legacy once they have enjoyed and done whatever they set out to do. That legacy is largely dependent on the ability of those who take over the reins of the company.

So,coaching is not a leadership luxury. It is a leadership imperative!
And...talking about coaching, I think Arsenal needs a new coach!

To get into the New Year's mood for 2008, I made a list of predictions and a wish list for 2008 (refer to my entry for the month of January). Now that we have less than 2 months more to go before the year is out, lets take a look at my psychic abilities :

My Predictions for 2008 were:

1. The gap between Malaysia and Chindia (and Vietnam) will increase to the latter's favour and the true impact on our economy will become clearer...... Obvious isn't it?

2. There will be more mega M&As starting with the pharma industry and also possibly further consolidation in the automotive, steel and airline industries. For the first time Indian/Chinese companies will conduct more M&As on European/American companies than vice versa..... I have been keeping you guys updated on the continued raids made by Indian and Chinese companies although I am not sure of the exact number. Delta and Northwest has merged. The big three of Detroit may head the same way.

3. We may see the first non-Malay CEO of a GLC and/or ULC company before the year is out..... A Chinese is now heading PKNS!

4. Africa will awaken vis a vis its importance to China and India as a critical supplier or raw materials..... China's continued reluctance to make the warlords toe the line.

5. The first energy-resource related armed conflict vis a vis Russia and it's former fellow Soviet Union republics..... Russia attacked Georgia (and it was all about energy baby!)...even I got spooked by this!

6. India and China will firmly establish themselves as the favoured destination for business/technology education.... No data on this.

7. The 2008 Olympics will be one of the most successful yet controversial games ever!..... Absolutely bulls eye wasn't it. The grandest ever games with the amazing controversies to boot : Tibet, child manipulation, age manipulation, murder, etc)


And my wishes for 2008 were:

1. Malaysian CEO's take more direct interest in the training and development of their employees.....Hmmmm....no comments.

2. Our policy makers will institute some real measurable strategies for talent development..... No comments

3. CSR standards also include human capital development as part of its dimensions....Nope

4. Air Asia acquires Tiger Airways!...we still have another 6 weeks!

5. Proton gets Tata or Nissan as its strategic partner!.... I wonder?

6. Malaysia gains back loss ground to Singapore in the biotechnology industry.....way off mark, sad to say.

7. Qualified technocrats are made ministers for critical ministries.... nope


Not bad I think although I wished more of my wishes for Malaysia came true. Lets see what the rest of the year brings.

Narcissistic Leadership!

A Greek myth tells of the story of the handsome Narcissus who, despite repeated advances, rejected Echo the nymph. He was then cursed to fall in love with his own reflection in a pool of water. Of course, this ends as an unfulfilled love and he literally whithers away.

This story surfaced to my consciousness when I read about a recent research that identified one of the factors that 'pushes' people to become leaders : Narcissism – a total and absolute self absorption of one’s own grandeur. Tongue in cheek, this study raised the question that is it ever possible that any one who is not a narcissist would ever want to be the President of United States of America?

Although narcissism may push one to be a leader, it will not make him or her an effective leader. To become an effective leader, one needs empathy, self-control and the ability to see goodness in others and weaknesses in one self. An effective leader must be able to see the bigger picture, hold steadfast to good values and exemplify these values in his own way of working and relating to others.

I have attempted many times to pin-down what actually makes someone a good leader but the goal-posts seems to be moving all the time that it seems to be a futile attempt.
However, I suppose I will not go wrong to say that there are probably 5 key factors that contributes to great leadership. I call these the 5 Sense Approach :

1. A Sense of Destiny : The lives of great leaders are driven by their sense of destiny. Some of them have been thrown into a set of circumstances while others have knowingly got them selves into circumstances that allowed them to show their greatness. Examples : The Wright brothers, Alexander the Great, Hitler
2. A Sense of Carelessness : This is going to be though to explain. What I mean is this….when you become a leader you put your head on the chopping block. You may even put other people’s heads on the chopping blocks. You have influence over others’ lives while simultaneously loosing grip on yours. So, it takes a little bit of devil may care attitude to actually take the risk of becoming a leader as there is much to loose. Examples : Che Guevara, Malcolm X.
3. A Sense of Greatness : Unlike a Narcissistic leaders, a true great leader has a sense of greatness instead. He measures his success not only by what he has gained and accumulated but also by what others have gained and benefited from his leadership. He feels great about him self vis a vis the greatness achieved by his people through him. Jack Welch,Tun Dr. Ismail.
4. A Sense of Humbleness : If you read the stories of some of the world’s greatest leaders from all areas of human endeavors be it in nation building, science, teaching, healing and even religion you will find that these people have very extreme weaknesses and human failings. In my own search for role models to emulate I used to be often disappointed when I come across pieces of information about particular leaders which was very troubling. Sexual addiction, drug abuse, depression, matrimonial violence and even incestuous relationship. In some of the autobiographies that I have read, these leaders who have openly admitted to these failings which they know will somehow diminish their luster, have done so with a sense of humbleness. Yet, with my own humbling experiences I have come to ignore these and just focus on the essence of what makes these men and women great. Examples :Mother Theresa, Winston Churchill, Tun Ghafar Baba.

5. A Sense of Helplessness : Deepak Chopra might call this syncro-destiny or letting the universe take care of the details. The greatest leaders the world has ever seen are also some of the most insecure people. Outwardly they appear to have planned and thought about everything but inwardly they seem to be engulfed in a sense of fear and helplessness. They, despite what the world thinks of them, often allow the universe to take care of their destiny. Their bravery and courage pales in comparison to their private fear and insecurity. Gandhi, despite his heroics in going against the mighty British empire, had always doubted about him self and often resorted to prayers to calm his troubled soul. It is not surprising than that the current blue-eyed-boy of corporate Malaysia, Idris Jala, never fails to make the point that after all said and done, one needs to pray to make a business successful!.


Having worked out the 5 factors above, I still feel a sense of vagueness as to what constitutes good leadership. I often come across ‘leaders’ who alienate others through their ineffective communication style or those who show a lack of empathy. Of course there are those who are almost empty drums. They keep repeating their few and far in between success stories in the hope of gaining respect from others. Then there are others who are either too arrogant or too pleasing. Each time, I tend to think that one or two factors make a great leader only to change my mind when I meet another ineffective leader.

Maybe leadership is situational. Yet, I am not totally convinced by that paradigm either.

Male Depression : The Hidden Cost to Organizations

I have been reading in a couple of international publications recently that the current economic crisis may result in a case of health crisis too; both physical and mental. That's why I am writing this.

I was walking back from lunch the other day and I noticed the weather outside. Gloomy and the clouds appeared to be ready to open up at any time. With my stomach full after a satisfactory lunch of soup and coffee, my observation of the day’s weather should have been just that...an observation. But it was not meant to be and hence something for me to put into words.

When the chillness of the air caressed my skin, a distant memory flooded my consciousness. It was not really a memory per se; more like a feeling ‘remembered’ by my intellect. And that memory sent a momentary shudder down my spine. As fast as it came, it disappeared. It was a distant memory of my depression and my depressive feelings that haunted me for many years. In a way, this is a closure for me. I have not put any serious thoughts to this and maybe this is it. Time for me to close that chapter in my life; and as always, through writing. I hope somebody out there, right now, in the corporate world, will find some solace and do what is needed to help themselves or others at their work-place.

I hope those of you who are reading this (especially if you are a male) will take this as both an advise, sharing and maybe even as a tool to either help yourself or others who may be facing depressive episodes in life. I guess, if you have or is still in depression today, you will know exactly what I mean by depressive ‘episodes’. It is a misnomer really. When depression hits you, it stays. It doesn't come and go. It appears to be so but in truth it is there all the time, clinging stubbornly like a poisonous layer on your very being. It saps your energy and your happiness. All you can feel is a sense of helplessness and loneliness. The curse of depression is that it can hit you even when everything is going great in your life. Like me.

I am not a trained therapist nor do I claim that I suffered the worst of depression. But I know I suffered enough to want to help others.

I remember that I first had this deep nagging sense of lethargy…that's how it starts…when I was 15 years of age. It was a strange feeling for a small town boy like me to comprehend. After all, I just did my family proud by becoming one of the top students in my school for SRP. The school was creating a special post for me in the prefects board just to accommodate me. Later, I found out that the Principle felt he made a mistake by announcing that another girl to be the head prefect and to avoid any embarrassment to her, the school created a special ‘advisory’ post to accommodate me. All these should have made me happy and breeze through my secondary school. But it didn’t. I became despondent, moody and there was always this deep sense of despair. That things just didn't matter. But strangely I did well in my studies and it seems my student leadership was not diminished in any way. I also remember being a scout leader at that time. But others didn’t know (even I could not put a name) to the demons that have taken home in my soul and which will shake me to my roots in later years.I despaired in my successes. I despaired when my beloved grandmother passed away. I despaired when I achieved important mile-stones in my career. For everything...my despair was the common denominator.

That was the pattern all through my upper secondary, post secondary and my university days. That was the pattern through my first and second jobs…my marriage and my first years of my fatherhood before it ended in my divorce. The only thing is that the intensity of my depression increased. Simultaneously and strangely, my worldly success was also enhanced. I had a good job. I earned well, I completed my Masters. I was blessed with 2 beautiful baby girls. But I was depressed. Nobody knew this or if they knew they would not have believed it as my external life was just good. A perfect life. One that every mother would dream for her son.

It took me years before I realized that I was going through depression. That's when I realized that my subconscious pushed me to do a thesis on this very same subject matter for my Master’s degree. It was my subconscious’s desperate attempt to make me realize that I am going through depression. Somewhere around this time, I did an on-line self assessment for depression and I was diagnosed as ‘severely depressed’! The more I read for my thesis, the more I began to identify with my own feelings.

It is almost impossible for a non-depressive person to understand what it means to be depressed. The common fallacy is that you can easily identify a depressed individual. They will ‘look’ depressed. They will look sad, un-kept, de-motivated. That's true in some cases. These are the lucky ones as others may be able to help them. Then, there is a vast majority who go about their daily lives and even achieve great heights in their careers with the curse of depression hanging over them.

In my own struggle to cope with depression, I used to fear certain sounds and sights that will immediately magnify my depression. Even songs and certain tastes. It’s inexplicable. It just happens. So, that sight and feel of a cloudy day with the rain just about to burst out would have driven a deep searing pain into my being a few years ago. A deep unphantomable sense of dread. Of meaninglessness which would have stopped me momentarily from doing what I was doing. And, it would have taken a herculean effort to snap out of that. I remember hating my mornings. The moment I rouse my self from sleep, a wave of negativity (for want of better word) will sweep over me. I will robotically get prepared for work, go to work and do what I was supposed to do. But, all the while I will long for night to come. It was like a blanket for me. The night kills all the noise and the hurried existence around me. It allowed me to withdraw into my shell. I felt safe and a little at peace with my self. But I knew, morning will come and that thought will get me depressed while I get ready to sleep. So, you can imagine that this pattern of behavior will kill off any marriage. It did mine. I compensated that with intellectual growth and career development. Something had to give and something had to grow. I guess that's how the self fragments it self so that some parts of it can be saved.

My worst period was about 4 years ago when I had a severe bout of depression for about 3 months. Lucky for me, I had a wonderful manager who understood my needs and gave me the space to produce my work. He didn’t insist on office rules and regulations and that helped me to produce good work despite my personal struggles.

Then, somehow…since the last 3 years… I could also sense that I began to climb out of my bottom-less pit. Why and how…I don't know. Just as it came for no apparent rhyme or reason, it has also left me by no apparent cause. Maybe the reasons for this change is a combination of a thousand factors. A thousand minute thoughts or things that I have read and thought about. Maybe it is even related to my stars and planets or even my hormones. Maybe its the physical workout that I do diligently. I don’t know but I began to enjoy my days. I began to enjoy my work not because it’s my psycho-compensation mechanism but because I really liked what I do. This corresponded with many other aspects of my life. I could hold a meaningful relationship. I could let go….just let go. I felt no need to convince others to my point of view nor feel offended. I became more forgiving as I had to forgive my self first. I also became more sensitive to others who may suffer silently as I did. I let the universe take care of the details. I don't despair. I live. I became a father, a son, a nephew, a cousin, a brother, a lover, a friend.

For those of you who are experiencing the pain and destructive effects of depression, don’t loose hope. Ride out the storm. It will be OK. If you have to manage people and be responsible for your department’s or company’s performance, your challenge will be that much more difficult. Get help. Talk to somebody who can assist you. There are medications and there are therapies which I have been told to be quite effective. You may need those or you may be lucky enough like me to hang on until the storm passes. Either way, talk to your trusted friends and partners. Let them know. Let them help.

Looking back, what kept me going was my deep sense of responsibility towards my work and my love for what I do. Find your anchors and hold tight to them. Mine was my ego...I knew I could not fail in my work. I needed my work to save me. It did.

I found the following poem on the net and this will aptly bring to a closure the darkest chapters of my life. You are free to define the Me & I as you wish.

Remember Me, I AM Here.

When you are suffering and in pain,
Remember Me, I AM Here.
When all your days seem to only rain,
Remember Me, I AM Here.
When things just seem to never go right,
when relief is out of reach and sight,
when grief is constant day and night,
Remember Me, I AM Here.

When peace and joy are just memories,
Remember Me, I AM Here.
When your life is just one stormy sea,
Remember Me, I AM Here.
When behind the clouds there is no rainbow,
which means peace yet all you have is sorrow,
when you are in despair and don't know where to go,
Remember Me, I AM Here.

When your trial of faith won't go away,
Remember Me, I AM Here.
When your circumstances will not change,
Remember Me, I AM Here.
When your troubles seem to never end,
you are alone without one single friend,
look at the Constant Presence on whom to depend,
Remember Me, I AM Here.


God bless you my friend. You are not alone.


NOTE :
Guess what, the following famous people have been reported to have struggled with depression:

1. John Adams
2. Hale Berry
3. Barbara Bush
4. Drew Carey
5. Melanie C
6. Jim Carey
7. Winston Churchill (yes, the ‘bull-dog’ prime minister of England)
8. Kurt Cobain (the worst case)
9. Charles Darwin (hmmm…figures!)
10. Princess Diana
11. Charles Dickens ( the Christmas Carol is said to be a result of one of his depressive episodes)
12. Harrison Ford

4th November : American Liberation Day

4th of July is the day Americans celebrate their independence from British rule. If Barack Obama wins tomorrow, 4th November will be America's Liberation Day : Liberation from the sins of the past.

If Barack Obama wins, 4th July 1776 and 4th November 2008 will be spoken in the same breath for ages to come.

I was in Krabi, Thailand for the last 3 days and Krabi is as far away from world politics as Prada is from the slums of Rio de Jeneiro. Or so I thought. The coffee shops,beaches and souvenir shops all had the air of Barack Obama. Spoken in many languages, I could catch 'Obama' now and then.It is indeed a momentous moment. People just can't stop talking about Obama. Its so intoxicating.

The French and other Europeans who traditionally have been a little uncomfortable with American moral leadership is probably throwing cynical glances at Washington. Can America live up to its rhetoric of equality and social justice? Can Americans prove to the world that they can indeed live what they preach and preach what they in fact live?

The Africans....well...its obvious isn't it? They have yet another name to put into the history books alongside Mandela and Koffi Annan.
The rest of the world, yes...its all about Obama.

Its probably not very nice being Obama right now. The weight of expectations must be so overwhelming that it would have paralaysed any other man or woman. But then Obama is not 'any other man'. Obama is Obama. Barack Obama is destined to be here...now...to make a difference. The great man theory of leadership will have a brand new icon to study.

But lets be realistic for a moment. Unless all the polling agencies have been fooling us and unless all the opinion leaders have absolutely missed the mark, Barack Obama will become the next president of America.Then what?

Can he change the insane way world financial markets are 'governed' today? Can he bring a semblance of sanity to speculative trades? Can he push for the birth of a world economy anchored on real value as opposed to paper value? Can he make insular American policy makers see that the only way to maintain a prosperous America is making other trading partners prosperous? Can he make Americans and the rest of us understand that it was never a zero-sum-game?

Tough job for a man. Even for Barack Obama.

I am not going to be bitter and disappointed 5 years from now like how I suspect many others will be. I am admittedly pessimistic to the breath and depth of change that Obama can bring because that 'change' which we want Obama to usher-in is within our power to give him the permission to do so. I doubt he will get it. At least not from the Russians, Chinese, Indians, Cubans, Iranians and the French. Many others will also refuse that permission as once the romance of Obama dies away, the age old parochial and self-centred nature of world business and politics will once again hold court. I find it ironic to read in the Times Magazine on my way back from Krabi that Obama is viewed as The One to change the world. Whatever happened to inter-connected and globalized world? If the world economy and its fate is indeed inter-connected why then we have suddenly abdicated our roles to Obama?

As I said, I will not be bitter even if Obama fails o live up to his promise. For me, Obama is a work in progress. He is an experiment in the same mould as many other socio-political experiments of our times. His victory (if it is to be) will reverberate more in the hearts and minds of man than in the financial markets.

It is fitting that I will be witnessing this momentous moment in world politics (and I hope also in international business), from Singapore. The land where a single man and his vision made all the difference. I wonder what Lee Kuan Yew is thinking right now about Obama and his chances?

Win or loose, Obama is a truly wining idea. The idea of Democracy.

Barack Obama : Audacious Hope for Change?

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, August 28,1963


We are the ones we have been waiting for.
Barack Obama
Speech following Super Tuesday results, Feb 5, 2008.



Barack Obama has the world on fire. He has got our imagination on hyper-drive.

200,000 Berliners and other mostly European nationals greeted Obama in July. For me, that event alone sums it up for Obama. For students of history, a black man talking about a new world order to Europeans in the heart of Europe where two world wars originated, is as symbolic as the coming down of the Berlin Wall it self. Maybe even more.

And…. a Yahoo search for Barack Obama produced 539,000,000 pages.

The Economist via Economist.com is conducting an on-going on-line voting for non-Americans from all over the world to cast their vote. We now get to ‘choose’ who should become the President of the United States of America! What an irony….nobody ever asks me who should become the Prime Minister of my own country. Anyway…

I did a quick survey on the voting patterns last week and this is what I found out: in almost all the countries that I checked on, Obama is leading the vote count except for Iraq where too few people have voted. I guess the Iraqis are not in the mood right now.

Anyway the following are the few countries that I managed to check on and their corresponding % of voters who have voted for Obama:

1. Malaysia : 90%
2. Singapore : 87%
3. India : 86%
4. UAE : 97%
5. Britain : 89%
6. Japan : 86%
7. Uganda : 95%
8. Iran : 85%
9. China : 83%
10. Afghanistan : 89%
11. Indonesia : 96%
12. Russia : 85%

And according to the Time Magazine website, a total of 85% of all readers have voted for Obama!

Why?

Obama is viewed as a harbinger of change. He is supposed to herald a new beginning for the USA and as an extension of that, to the rest of the world. His election to the highest office in world politics will be the final healing that the United States need to move away from it’s discriminatory past. A black man in the White House! They should make it a tourist attraction to see all the faces of the KKK in the deep south.. Would be worth the money.

But I can see why the rest of us are all fired up by Obama and find it a little ironic too! 90% of Malaysians have voted for Obama but I wonder how many of them will be willing to accept a Malaysian Indian to be the next Prime Minister. 86% of Japanese voted for Obama but how many there will accept a woman to be the prime minister. I can understand the 86% of Indians in India who voted for Obama though. Here is one country predominantly Hindu and male-dominated but yet has a female President, a Sikh prime minister and had a Muslim President recently. The leading party of the present government is led by a Caucasian Catholic female! So, it makes sense for the Indians to choose Obama. They do have a history of acceptance of diversity.

Anyway, I suppose everybody will have their own reasons for choosing Obama. He represents different values for different people. For the colored people (of course, white/fair skin is also a colour but I think you know what I mean) of the world, Obama’s rise to the pinnacle of world politics will be sweet justice for a world that has for so long looked down upon them. The curse of being ‘coloured’ is finally being lifted. Obama, whether he is elected or not next month, will symbolize a new turning point in race based politics. It’s not that race and skin colour will not matter but they will matter less. Not since Jesse Owens has the coloured people of the world has been so electrified. For Malaysian Indians, Obama will also represent a new faith in themselves. With Hindraf having rekindled their faith in themselves (although much work needs to be done to channel this energy to positive outlets; a task made difficult by our fumbling Syed Hamid Albar) Malaysian Indians will see that there is no limit to their road to a better future. You can’t stop the cream from rising.

As for the rest of us who are slightly more colour blind, Obama may represent a new hope for a new world order. A new order based on mutual respect and understanding. Obama is hoped to signify the shift from western dominated unilateral thinking to a more inclusive and global perspective. Obama has the influence of many cultures within him. He has some connections or other with Indonesia, Sabah (his brother-in-law’s parents originate from Sabah). He has roots in Kenya. He has been exposed to Islam. He is highly educated. In contrast, America and its politics hitherto are identified with people like Sarah Palin who only got her passport last month! For most Americans, like Palin, the world is America and America is the world. Anything that does not jive with this deserves to be bombed out of existence or at least boycotted to oblivion.

But then now we have Obama. Could he be different? Will we see a more noble and humble America? Maybe. But lets not forget as what Karim Raslan says, in the final analyses and when the brouhaha of the America election is over and when the dust settles, the victor needs to answer to his constituency and that is the American people. This will apply to Obama too. Obama (or Mc Cain) will become the President of the American people and they will have to play to their gallery whether they like it or not.

Yet, we hope that Obama will be more than just an American President. We hope that he can infuse new values into American politics and that he can make Americans understand that Uncle Sam’s hegemony is no longer in tune with world affairs. If America had so much good will from its Marshall Plan, if America was briefly loved in this part of the world after the Tsunami, it was because the world had a glimpse of American soft power. We saw a gentler side of this giant. It was so intoxicating like the good old days just after World War II.

Obama carries the hope of all of us that America needs to look beyond it self and its self- interests alone. This is a responsibility of a true super-power. World politics will only get more complicated. The end of the cold-war was supposed to see the end of divisive world politics but it has actually brought about a discordant state of affairs. The rise of China and India, the increasingly assertive Russia longing for its imperial past, the birth of nations bent on avoiding main stream world politics, the precarious conditions of nuclear powered nations like Pakistan, and the great dichotomy of east versus west political rhetoric by small-minded politicians the world over will only make the job of keeping peace that much harder. We don’t need to add to this problem with a return to American cow-boy style gun-ship politics. American military power will always be needed to keep the balance and its show of strength will be a comforting feeling for the ‘free’ world no matter how much we would hate to admit to that. But we would prefer a noble super-power.

Personally, I am doubtful that Obama can do what we hope he should do. Let’s face it. He needs to answer to his political backers, the huge American corporations and industrial captains who are bank rolling him. There is no free lunch in politics. American economy is closely tied to its military complex and it will take dozens of Obama to undo that even if America had the will for it. Obama, will have to play a tricky role in world politics. It will be anybody’s guess how he will treat China although he seems to echo a new vision of international relations. And how is he going to get America out of the mess in Iraq and Afghanistan and I think the Bush administration is going to leave him another headache by increasingly attacking terrorists camps deep within Pakistan.

In world economics, Obama will be a relatively new face. By now, Capitol Hill is probably drawing up plans to ensure that no ‘foreign ‘elements’ try to hoodwink the young president. They would be prepared to ‘protect’ Obama from economic decisions that could harm America. This is the politically correct way of saying : Status quo as usual.

All in all, the day after Obama is elected (if at all he gets elected) will be the same as today. However there will be a difference in another realm; man’s mind. The results from this will be seen in a generation or two; hopefully. A new paradigm will be born. Hope for equality and the brotherhood of man will find a new ray of light. The light that was lit by such giants like Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and Nelson Mandela will once again flicker brightly. We will have hope to believe that man kind is capable of peace and love and understanding. We will have reasons to believe that nations can co-habit this planet peacefully and that people of different faiths can live in peace.

In the final analyses, Obama is but the first step on a long and treacherous journey for equality and peace. He will either become a doyen of a new era or he will be remembered by a “ oh well…it was an experiment…” by line in the history books.

As for us in the world of business, Obama or no Obama, life will be that much more difficult especially for those among us who have had a ‘business as usual” attitude.

Its business un-usual just as an un-usual thing is going to happen to American politics. Well, almost!

Leading (and Managing) With Passion

One of my all time favorite song is the Beatles’ Let it Be.


When I find my self in times of trouble
Mother Mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom
Let it be

And in my hour of darkness
She is standing right in front of me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be

Let it be, let it be, let it be
Whisper the words of wisdom

And when the broken hearted people
Living in the world agree
There will be an answer, let it be

For though they maybe departed
There is still a chance that they will see
There will be an answer, let it be

Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be
There will be an answer
Let it be

Let it be, let it be, let it be

And when the night is clouded
There is still a light that shines on me
Shine on until tomorrow
Let it be

I wake up to the sound of music
Mother Mary whispers to me
Words of wisdom

There will be an answer
Let it be

I also love the Scorpions, Queen, Air Supply, Michael Jackson; I have a whole set of his albums…or at least I think I still do. No problem even if I don't as every time he comes out with a new one, I go out and buy all his past albums. I listen to them all. That's the way I enjoy MJ. Oh yes… I love Santana, Dixie Chicks, Maroon 5, Depeche Mode (who? you say…..go and find their albums at places where they sell 80s British pop…you will love them). Nirvana, Prince, Run DMC, Eminem, Louis Armstrong, Bonnie Tyler are all still my favorites. John Lennon is also somewhere at the top my list. So is Nora Jones, Kitaro, Sade and George Michael. They have all left a mark in my life. I remember some of their greatest songs while I was going through the ups and downs in my life. I distinctly relate Air Supply to my varsity days. Enya’s hauntingly beautiful Orinoco Flow and her other Irish/Scotish infleunced songs were a lullaby that helped me to sleep during the dark weeks and months when my beloved uncle lay on his death bed. Eminem was introduced to me by the love of my life, my girl friend Alcie. His words and anger were almost like a catharsis for my own. I remember, a rare tear running down my cheek listening to Elton John’s England Rose during Princess D’s funeral.

This is the first time I have actually given any serious thoughts to this. It was prompted by a participant in my program recently when he shared his experience at a street corner in Jakarta where a street performer rendered a beautiful song. And this participant said that he could see the passion in that guy’s singing (we were talking about the element of passion that differentiates the peak performer from the rest).

So there it is, the answer to why among all the hundreds and hundreds of singers and bands that I have heard in my life, only a handful remains in memory is because their work was infused with a passion that ignites something within you….. a realization, a memory, a sparkle of new knowledge or even a tear. That street performer probably could not be bothered whether anybody is paying any serious attention to his ‘work’ but sing he did…with all his heart. Then, somewhere in that crowded and dusty place another soul caught his words and melody and they made a difference. Amazing isn’t it this thing called Passion?

This has a deeper meaning for me actually. In my job as a consultant/trainer/coach, there is only one thing in my control : My passion for my work. Whether the receiver of my delivery receives it as I intended it will depend on their preparedness; their timing. Out of the many people who are in a session with me, each will learn and reflect on many things. Some may not at all. But, its my passion for what I do that helps me to do my thing as somewhere deep within me, I know…I know like I know the sun will rise….that something I say or do is making a difference in somebody’s thinking and feeling right there. It was true for last week's session too.

I guess Passion is what differentiates the truly great men and women from the rest. Bill Gates build an empire on passion. Oprah Winfrey built one too on passion. Where will GE be if not for Jack Welch’s passion for performance. Closer to home, Lee Kuan Yew built Singapore on his sheer passion for that tiny dot of land down south. Tony Fernandes made Air Asia a market leader by his untamable passion for success. Without passion, I doubt Carlos Ghossn could keep with such a crazy schedule : half a week in Europe and half a week in Japan and everywhere else in between.

The ultimate living man and woman of passion : Deigo Maradona, Tiger Woods & Nicol David . If you have watched Maradona during his peak, you will know what passion is. His passion for his game will be clearly etched on his face for every goal he scores, every goal he assists, every pass he misses, every little mistakes he and his team made make. And, with that passion, his team went on to win a World Cup. Need I say more.

I suppose any business leader needs passion in his life. He or she needs passion for the business and for the people. I met an amazing lady from the hospitality industry recently and her passion for her work practically enveloped me and my colleague. She spoke with such an energy that one can practically feel her love for her job radiating from her very being. Over the Deepavali holidays, I watched an interview of Kamal Hassan, the consumate Tamil film actor. He spoke with such passion for his work and it was not difficult to see why the great late Sivaji Ganesan acted alongside him.

Show me a poor manager and I will show you a manager without passion for her people and business. Show me a a succesful company and I will show you passionate people.

So, Let It Be is a great song. It was a song by a band of Liverpoorlians (yes, there is more to Liverpoll than football)who had passion in their belly to make a difference. A difference they made....for an entire generation.

Leaderless Organizations?

Leaderless Organizations? Maybe a little less 'leadership' may not be such a bad thing after all. Here is why.


Lee Wei Lian wrote in the The Edge (20th October 2008) that he is amazed at how countries like Japan and Switzerland seem to continue developing and breaking new grounds in all aspects of human endeavors despite their politicians and their politics.

It got me thinking.

Japan has experienced numerous leadership changes at the highest levels and not all through the ballot box. The Americans too outwardly seem to be obsessed with their Presidents. Malaysians probably can identify with the drama of American presidential elections as we too are a nation of people obsessed with politics and its players. But, we are not going to talk about politics today but rather about the world of business.

Are we too preoccupied with business leaders rather than getting on with the business of business? Can a successful business be run like the way Japanese society seems to govern it self? Despite constant leadership changes and scandals the Japanese society, as pointed out by Lee Wei Lian, is a highly developed and evolved society. So are the Americans and western Europeans to a large extent. Can an organization too be like that? Can the employees of an organization make strong central CEO leadership irrelevant and grow and prosper without C-level 'worship'? Is that good?

Organizations need strategic directions and these may change as dictated by market conditions and technological shifts. Not all in an organization are gifted or skilled to provide these strategic directions. So, lets give this one to the CEO.

But, what after that? Do we still need the CEO to drive the business or do we need a group of employees who now take the cue and go on with the business. Take for example, the American’s space technology and their dominance in planetary exploration. JFK gave them a dream and a target. That's it. The rest was all about the American people : The scientists, the researches, the thinkers, the teachers, the man on the street. They made it happen. They made it happen despite the assassinations , the defeats, the changes, the scandals, the downfalls, the successes, the failures of their presidents and politicians. They only needed a direction from their politicians and then they hit the ground running and as no president had ever since indicated that they should stop this adventure, at any given time there is probably 5 or more American ‘eyes’ flying past or are exploring the most distant celestial bodies in the galaxy.

Why can’t an organization be the same? Why do we need constant CEO interventions? Why is this one position so critical to organization’s success? Is that the way it is supposed to be or is it as Lee Wei Lian says of our society, “ We in Malaysia have somehow been brought up to believe that politics is the be-all and end-all of our country’s success”.

So, lets assume that an organization can indeed be like the self governing and self-directed societies that I have used as comparisons above. What shape should the organization be and what type of employees should it have? Firstly, I think the way forward for future organizations is to become ‘Remote-Networked’ Organizations. I am going to call these as RMOs (no pun intended and remember I am the first to use it!).


Can this happen? I wonder...

I am always amazed at the eloquence of how British football pundits write about the beautiful game. I suppose other European football writers write in equal eloquence but since the only European language I know is the Queen’s English, I follow the musings, ranting and analyses of English football writers who often times not only rant and analyse the EPL but also other European and international competitions. So, I rarely miss the Saturday edition of the NST as it has a special section dedicated to EPL news.

Last Saturday was no different and I was not disappointed. The centre piece was about the plight of Newcastle United. This once proud club with its imposing St James stadium where some of the EPL’s biggest stars earned their stripes is now languishing both in league ranking and also popularity. In fact, the events unfolding at this club is akin to a seriously mis-managed corporate organization. The cast is headed by its billionaire owner, Mike Ashley. Another example is Tottenham Hotspur owned by another billionaire in the form of Joe Lewis. The highlight of his and his gang of businessmen-managers of the club is that Dimitar Berbatov headed to Manchester United while Robbie Keane packed his bags and left for Liverpool.

The common threat running in both clubs (and also a few other EPL clubs) is that their owners don't seem to trust their managers enough to allow them to do what they need to do. So, they appoint a ‘director of football’ who is nothing more than a changing-room spy who reports back to club owners who are probably golfing their days away somewhere else. This reminds me of the laments of many a manager in today's corporate settings who don't feel trusted enough by their leaders. Well, I have blogged before on the Economics of Trust so lets not get into that again here.

Back to the EPL, the irony is that the EPL seems to slowly prove that in the future, football clubs can become a profitable business even if the club is languishing at the bottom of the table. Ask Levy, if you can find him on his yatch somewhere in the Mediterranean, as Spurs, despite languishing at the bottom of the table will announce a huge profit this year which is expected to be far higher than even last years’s profit of 27.7 million pounds. It seems that the business of football will soon become business in football.

Finally, I also learnt a gem of a thought from Mohamed Hammam, the chief honcho of the AFC who in his call for Sepp Blatter not to overstay his welcome in FIFA said that “ The more you stay, the longer you are in power, whether you like it or not and no matter who you are, the less evolution there can be. You create statutes to save you”.

Pele said that football is the beautiful game. I think he meant that in more ways than one.

Oh by the way, my club, Aston Villa is finally showing some of its latent quality. The loss to Chelsea last week was not something to be embarrassed about. The Villains will prove a point or two this season. In Martin O'Neil Villa has an astute manager who has an uncanny ability to bring out the best from any player. Though, I still feel they need to get at least one high profile striker....maybe Henry! One would dare to dream.

In the meantime, the Merdeka Tournament is up next. For those of you of a certain age and generation, you remember the good old days when the Merdeka Tournament was a big thing. Well, the good times are not back yet, looking at the invited teams but at least its still alive. So, get excited and be prepared to be disappointed. I find that's the best strategy to wake up for work the next day when it comes to the national team.

As for Villa fans (all 5 of you out there!)....Viva Villa!