50 Most Innovative Companies

The following is the list of the world's most innovative companies as determined by BusinessWeek and the Boston Consulting Group.


01. Apple
02. Google
03. Toyota Motor
04. General Electric
05. Microsoft
06. Tata Group
07. Nintendo
08. Procter & Gamble
09. Sony
10. Nokia
11. Amazon.Com
12. IBM
13. Research In Motion
14. BMW
15. Hewlett-Packard
16. Honda Motor
17. Walt Disney
18. General Motors
19. Reliance Industries
20. Boeing
21. Goldman Sachs Group
22. 3M
23. Wal-Mart Stores
24. Target
25. Facebook
26. Samsung Electronics
27. AT&T
28. Virgin Group
29. Audi
30. Mcdonald’S
31. Daimler
32. Starbucks
33. Ebay
34. Verizon Communications
35. Cisco Systems
36. ING Group
37. Singapore Airlines
38. Siemens
39. Costco Wholesale
40. HSBC
41. Bank Of America
42. Exxon Mobil
43. News Corp.
44. BP
45. Nike
46. Dell
47. Vodafone Group
48. Intel
49. Southwest Airlines
50. American Express


If you look at the list closely and if you had been following this annual ranking as I have had, you will notice that for the first time ever Tata Group and the Reliance Group have made it. They are at the top 25. You will also notice that Singapore Airlines is at number 37.

I can also bet you that somebody somewhere in the labyrinth that is called Putrajaya would have us believe that this list is of no importance and that it is 'subjective'. That's what they have us believe of Time's Higher Education Ranking.

Look, all listings are always subjective. In fact, how do you measure such as things as 'innovation' and 'quality'. You objectivity will go only so far. Agreed.

Yet, they are not entirely false or useless. There is still a substantial measure of truth in it and more importantly it influences investor perception. It affects the kind of talents you attract and it determines the kind of share holder value you can promise.

A few years ago, the companies that made into this list were almost always from the USA, Europe and Japan. Then the Koreans stated to get into the act. We just smirked and said : "Well...you know...they are so advanced anyway....." Now, the Indians are on the list and soon so will be the Chinese. I am putting my money on Lenovo and the Nanjing Automobile company to make the list soon. Maybe even their brewer, Tsingtao beer which has been making inroads into mainstream beer drinking culture.

Where are Malaysian companies? Maybe AirAsia should be somewhere in the list. It did make into another listing but not this one. Without taking anything away from the great people at AirAsia, its model is not an innovation per se. It is indeed a clever adaptation of an existing model pioneered by Rynair. Making a USD2500.00 car which is sent to entrepreneurs who assemble them is a first for mankind! That alone has put Tata Motors with its Nano on the list.

Fair or not this listing is here to stay. Whether we like it or not, it will influence peoples' decision making. Lets try to get ourselves into the list rather than slip into a bubble of self delusion.

By the way, whatever happened to our MSC, Biotech hub, aviation hub and all the other hubs that were supposed to put us on the world map? Go figure.

Cheers and have a great week ahead.

Teaming for Excellence

It is actually so easy really to understand an organization's culture. All one has to do is to observe the relationship patterns between the staff and their boss. In my case I rarely have this opportunity as not many bosses are willing to spend a couple of days with their staff in a training program. On the rare occasions when I do find a boss in my programs together with their subordinates, I am amazed at the open culture between them. In fact I am of the opinion now that it is precisely because of the open culture that the bosses are willing to be on par with their subordinates by taking the trouble to be with them in a training program.And, their subordinates are not averse to voicing out issues and matters that may have turned some traditional bosses red!

Last weekend I was with Mr. Jamie Troup, the Counsellor & Counsel General of the Australian High Commission and his team at Holiday Inn Melaka. Boy, did we have great fun AND in the process also discovered some interesting strengths and weaknesses of the team that hitherto were hidden. The program was titled Teaming for Excellence and was organised by Headway Training and Development Centre (one of the most professional Training Providers that I have come across in my business in the last 12 years.

The openness of communication, the genuine willingness to accept criticisms and the generous dose of praise and encouragement that the entire team gave each other was inspiring to say the least. Of course, like all teams, there are always challenges and misunderstandings. There are always questions raised on why this and why that. But, that is natural. As I said to them, if our team members are constantly challenging and questioning our every move, it is a sign that they have taken ownership of the team. They care. We should start worrying only when the team becomes a 'yes man'.

It was a satisfying week-end for me personally as I really felt that together, we managed to break new grounds to take the team to greater heights.

Well done Mr.Jamie and Ms. Kelly. You presence was appreciated more than you will ever know.

Cheers mates!

'You can act like me, but I can't act like you'

Marlon Brando, it seems, once said the above to Sivaji Ganesan when both legendary actors met in Hollywood.

Now, that is what I call a compliment...in fact that is an award by itself. And, I love both men. They are, for me, the epitome of 'passionate hearts at work'. Sivaji was reported to have said that he would like to leave his physical body while at work....acting. Having acted in more than 300 Indian movies (Tamil, Telegu, Hindi,etc), Sivaji has left a mark so profound that not many will dare to call himself or herself as the greatest actor of Tamil cinema for a long time to come. Anyway I doubt there are many people around who can memorize a 95 page script in one day....in classical Tamil! The American Film Institute has named Brando as the 4th greatest male star of all time.

Brando's passion behind such great films like A Streetcar Named Desire and as the iconic Vito Corleone are film materials by themselves. For his role in The Men, he spend a month in bed at a veterans hospital!

Both these actors had a prolific career spanning genres and social changes and they were also of the same generation. Sivaji was born in 1927 and died in 2001 while Brando was born in 1924 and died in 2004. Sivaji acted in his first movie in 1950 (Parasakthi) while Brando in 1950 (The Men).They made movies that broke new boundaries, questioned mores, challenged the status quo and finally enhanced the careers of many others. They developed an acting style that is distinctively theirs and theirs alone. They interpreted their characterizations in ways that set new standards and they did it all with a sense of purpose, destiny AND passion.

No meaningful work or long lasting legacy has ever been produced by those who lack passion for what they do. This applies for the first ever cave artists to present day software designers. Truth to be told, we mere mortals are slaves to those have passion for what they do. Van Gogh, Kitaro, Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Hitler, Gandhi, Dr.King, Stalin, Mao,and Mother Theresa have one common denominator : Passion for what they believed in. Some of them of course had their passion hijacked by unfounded fears, greed and revenge. But, it was passion nonetheless.

Passion in work makes our efforts worthwhile. Passion in work makes us more creative problem solvers (Brando stuffed cotton balls into his mouth to have a puffed up look as the don of a crime family in the Godfather!. Passion in work brings us recognition (Columbus city of Ohio once named Sivaji as its honorary citizen). Passion in work makes all the pain vanish without a trace. Passion in work is the differentiator between excellence and mediocrity.

So, coming back to Sivaji, do you know that a German mint has produced old medallions in remembrance of the great man? He also holds a national award from the French government.

Go get a Sivaji or Brando movie and see their passion oozing in every facial expression and muscle twitch.

I wish you passion.

Why Do We Do It?

Every time I am on the road during the peak hours especially in the mornings, I wonder at the amazing rush of people and vehicles all heading towards one direction as if it is some sort of a religious sojourn. One which they must do devotedly for the salvation of their soul. The destination : Work.

Imagine how much our lives actually revolve around work and the office (where ever that is for you). We plan our entire life around this thing called work/office. We live our life guided and goaded by work at all it's inherent joys and tears. We spend hours working and we spend hours at home and at play talking about work. We bring back work to our homes. We take the 'burden' of work to our mosques, temples and churches. We cut short our hospital stay for work. We arrange our marriages to suit our work schedule. We agonize when things don;t go well at work. We live for(not to) WORK.

Yet, how many of us do it with a heart full of gladness? I am not talking about the gladness that we are lucky to have work and not living in Lesotho. I am referring to the feeling of gladness that we have a great work place to go to. I suppose the people at DiGi will feel that way. But for the vast majority of us, work is probably a dread. We would rather strike a Mega or 6/49 and retire!

But does it have to be that way? I would say no and there are two parties involved in taking work out of the dread zone : Us and our leaders. There are critical roles to be played by business leaders to make work a joy for their people and there are also many self directed responsibilities that we must taken on to make work a joyful part of our lives.

The many things that I write about in this blog are essentially to make the work place more inviting. I guess at the end of the day, that is the sole objective of every consultant/trainer regardless of the fancy titles we give ourselves and the work that we do for organizations. I remember when an employee of a company came up to me after my program one day and said that he is more positive now about his job as he can see the possibility that he can be happy in that organization. To this day I am not sure how he made the connection between Effective Leadership Skills and being happy at his work place! I thought I came down hard on their lack of initiative to be leaders as that was the message my client wanted me to emphasize. Anyway, whatever works right?

So, lets get happy now at work......while we wait for our 6/49!

Cheers.

The Art of Closure

Have you ever attended a great party .ie. one that began splendidly? I am sure you have. How about a party that ended on the same note?

I guess it is relatively easy to have a great party as all you need is to keep the excitement up. The way to do this will depend on the type of party...birthdays, homecoming, bachelor party, etc. One just has to fill up the time with a stream of exciting activities, humour and free flow of food and drinks.

However, regardless of the type of party or how exciting it was for 5 hours straight into the night, one has to bring it to a closure. How one ends a party is as important as how the party was started in the first place. So, closure is important and just like the beginning of a party that needs careful planning, so does the closure.

You know, I never talk about anything in this blog if it has no relevance to business and work. You are right! There is much to learn from party closures to organizational closures. I am not talking about closing down the organization of course. I am talking about the closure that is needed for every organizational change, transformation and new direction. Without an effective closure an organization can go on forever 'branding' or perpetually 'merging' or eternally 'transforming'.

The closure is as important as the beginning. Did I say that already? Well, its important so I am going to say it yet again : Closing is as important as opening. Most organizations do begin a change effort (in all its dimensions) quite well. They invest much resources into it. Every step is planned carefully but yet many of these efforts turn out to be 'failures'. In truth, they are not failures...not yet anyway. They are just probably change efforts that have yet to find an appropriate closure. People are still in a flux. The environment is still dynamic. Change fatigue may also have set in but for all good purposes, it is yet to qualify as a failure. Not yet anyway.

So, how to find an effective closure. The following may form a broad framework:

1. Have a time frame. Define the time frame clearly and realistically. The words ' THE END' must appear somewhere!

2. Review. Review not the success or failure at this stage but review each person's contribution so that each and everyone is clear about his/her contribution and feels that what was needed to be done, has been done. In other words, a change effort or any other organizational initiative will not 'end' if there is a judgment of good and bad before an evaluation of what and who.

3. Celebrate. Celebrate the closure first regardless whether the initiative has succeeded or not. Have another celebration when a judgment /measurement of its success has been made. Surely, our people's 'effort' needs to be celebrated as much as the 'results' of that effort.

4. Appoint closure agents. These are people who can heal wounded egos and hurt feelings. They are the ones who will bring everybody together and make everyone focus on what truly matters : Team spirit. These closure agents should never be the highly driven and task oriented ones in the team. It should be those who are more accommodating and people oriented.

5. Say thank you. If you are the leader of the initiative, say 'Thank you very much people'. Sending them off to Pulau Tioman as a gesture of appreciation is not the same as them hearing you say 'Thank you'. Do you really think they need you to get them to Pulau Tioman and for all that work too?

Hope that helps those of you struggling with how to close the project that you are on now.

Well, for people of Tamil origin all over the world, the year is coming to a closure. A new beginning will burst forth. For us, Malaysian Tamils, we have a few more hours for our closure before the New Year takes its birth at 7.25pm. I wish you success, prosperity, health and wisdom. Most importantly, I wish you love.

God bless!