Australian Lessons : In More Ways Than One

It is good to be home! Despite the fact that I have a deep aversion to any sort of 'nationalism', it is always nice to be 'home' even if it is nothing more than a comfort zone. In fact, I felt at home the moment I boarded flight MH122....see MAS, I am still loyal to you despite my many criticisms of you.

Sydney was great. The program that I attended was great. The presenters delivered an excellent 2-day session despite the fact that they had to manage relatively green horns like me and more seasoned consultants. The session-closing wine session was a nice touch. I have acquired much knowledge and hope to share it with others here.

I also gained much learning on the streets of Sydney. I learned equally well from all the major Australian newspapers and the TV news. The headline on the Sydney Morning Herald on my first morning in Sydney was about the percentage increase in petrol, food and other essential items. There was a write-up about a family growing vegetables in their back plot to reduce grocery bills. There was a TV news report the next day on how many middle class Australians who are falling into the 'poor' category. In South Sydney, I saw a few homeless men and women struggling to keep warm in the biting cold. There was also this barefooted pregnant teenager who kept asking for cigarettes from anybody who cared enough to glance at her. Then there was this hungry looking old couple counting their money repeatedly before entering a MacDonald's.It was sad.

Then I thought about home. Not much difference. Despite the daily dose of political maneuvering and feel good news, many Malaysians are suffering. We are also struggling to make ends meet. We like the people all over the world are affected by the same invincible forces of global economy and proxy wars waged by the big powers of the world. In this quagmire, we the ordinary citizens of the world fall easy prey to hate based nationalistic propaganda. We forget our brotherhood. We think our neighbors are having it good at our expense. We search with a vengeance for every little differentiators be it colour, race, language, origin or religious belief. Half way around the world, Barrack Obama gave a stirring speech about the need to break-down walls of tribalism and walls that separate the Jews, Muslims and Christians. Interesting. But, I have no hope that politicians will make the change the world needs so desperately.

The change must begin right here with us now! We are not at siege by others. We are held ransom by a dangerously gone wrong world-view of Us vs Them.

The world needs more friends.

Organizational Effectiveness

"People are more comfortable with a consistent problem than an inconsistent solution"

--Andy, Right Management (Singapore)--





How do organizations become effective?

To become effective an organization needs internal synergy which I would define as a seamless movement and exchange of ideas, knowledge, resources,talent and responsibilities governed by the strategic orientation of the organization at any given time. An organization can be effective in different aspects at different times. It may also have different degrees of effectiveness at different times as most often than not, it is difficult to achieve a sustainable synergy between all the areas as mentioned above.

As a case in point, Air Asia was extremely effective in managing its costs in the early days of its operation. Its service suffered though. Then, it became effective in managing its costs and providing a reasonable standard of service. Now, it is trying to become effective in keeping its costs low, maintain service standards AND manage competition. Is Air Asia an effectiveness organization today? Yes and No. It is in a sense effective as it is able to grow its revenue and market penetration year on year but that can also be largely due to the protected business environment of the aviation industry. It's true effectiveness will come into full view upon the establishment of a more visible open sky policy in the region. But, I would not call Air Asia as an ineffective organization today. If we use the same model, Proton is also going through a similar organizational effectiveness cycle.

But then, an organization may be highly synergistic internally and yet less effective with its bottom-line issues. Starbucks may be one these example at least in the case of USA. It is a highly effective organization but external factors have slowly eroded its effectiveness. How it deals with it will determine its future effectiveness.

So, an organizations becomes effective by achieving a reasonable level of internal synergy as per it's strategic orientation and its effectiveness is a holistic phenomena which may change as it grows and expands.

Organizational effectiveness is not a straight forward matter. It threw up more questions than answers while I was reading and researching on it. However, my trip to Sydney next week to attend the Organizational Effectiveness Framework training hopefully will answer these questions.

The Living Organization

Over the weekend, I read another analogy to what an organization means.

The analogy of an organization as a ‘living organism’ or more precisely as a human body is not something new but has taken on a new meaning in today’s knowledge economy. Basically, the analogy that the organization is a like a human body describes the organization as having a head (the leadership), a heart (the strategy), the arms and legs (the employees). The head needs to figure out the right strategy and find the needed resources to fire the heart which will then be acted upon by the arms and legs.

I have no qualms with this analogy except that do you notice the underlying assumption being made here? The assumption is that the entire success factor of the organization moves from top-down. The leadership creates the strategy then energizes the employees who will in turn deliver on the strategies. I have a problem with this simply because it sounds so 20th century!

Now, what is the 'blood' of the organization? Most of the analogies that I have come across fail to equate 'blood' to any part of the organization. Blood is what that carries all the oxygen and nutrients. In organizations, I would equate that to knowledge. So, where is knowledge situated in today’s organization? They used be situated at the head in yesterday’s organizations but today, they are situated throughout the organization. Just like the human body where the blood permeates The entire organizational body is glowing with this knowledge and not just at the head. The head may be in a position to develop the strategies and the directions with a certain amount of knowledge but by the time this knowledge hits the heart, arms and legs, the environment would have changed so much that the original knowledge structure would need extensive re-interpretation, re-modification and re-fortification to make it work at the most fundamental levels.

So, any analogy to make sense of the organization will be fine I guess, as long as it is not a linear top-down one. That's just too simplistic for my taste. Countless researches have shown that most organizations fail not due to poor strategy but due to weak implementation. In my experience, organizations that are weak in implementation also have a weak knowledge sharing structure. In these organizations, knowledge becomes a source of power rather than as a competitive advantage. Knowledge is hoarded and moves down on a need-to-know basis. Critical knowledge is often not available to those on the ground who are entrusted to execute strategies.

So, if the organization is like a living body than it is time pay a little more attention to the all too important blood of the organization....knowledge.

Cheers and have a great week ahead everybody.

Selling with a Soul!

Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody's going to know whether you did it or not....Oprah Winfrey





My personality profiles, of which I have a few, says that I will make a good salesperson. One says that I will excel in consultative sales. I used to think that I am not...that somehow these profilers have got it wrong with me but now I think I have always been a salesperson. I don't sell much ( as I didn't have a reason to) but I have been doing what good sales people are supposed to do, at least according to the sales books that I am reading.

So, what makes a successful sales person or rather what must one do to become successful at sales? Here goes some insights from a 'non-salesperson' who thinks he is not too bad after all:

1. Demonstrate integrity.
2. Show genuine interest, concern and care for client's 'pains'
4. Always...always steer the conversation to a common ground be it fashion,children, golf, or food.
5. Recognize that males and females buy differently.
6. Be convinced in what you sell.
7. Always sell solutions not products as products are a dozen a dime.
8. The higher the importance of the buying the more careful the buyer will be.This has nothing to do with the monetary value of the buying.
9. Be pro-active.
10. Be passionate.I have developed a simple tool called the 'Passion Meter' to gauge how fast one moves up the ladder from first contact to closing the sales.Remember our first love? Were we not passionate about that person? Didn't we have a game plan? Well, sales is not very much different from that.

I remember many years ago when a very succesful insurance sales agent told me that he is succesful in what he is doing because long ago before that he had learnt the lesson that he should stop 'selling' insurance. When he did that, his insurance business started to sell it self. So what did he sell then...dreams. The insurance was just a tool for his customers to 'buy' their dreams.

In my line of work, I don't sell programs. I sell solutions. Solutions that solves a problem or provides some cure for organizational ailments.