Doing Business In A Foreign Land Is Like Driving In The Middle of An Unfamiliar Road………..?

The year was 1994.

I had never seen anything like it before. The roads were chaotic. A bullock cart was crossing the road while a pile of cars continued honking endlessly. The tricycle taxis filled with passengers sped at the roundabout, ignoring the red lights. Cows and wild boars walked the same road, together with loads of vehicles and pedestrians.

Here I was, sitting at the back of the Ambassador, travelling from New Delhi to Agra. Sandwiched in the middle, between two other travelers, I had a very clear view of the road and its surroundings. I enjoyed the view, but, deep in my heart, seeing how chaotic the situation was, I prayed silently that I would reach Agra in one piece.

Endless stream of oncoming traffic, seemingly, at high speed driving straight towards the puny Ambassador, frightened the wit of me. I noticed that the drivers were driving in the middle of the road in order to avoid the pedestrians, cyclists and animals. And, out of necessity too, I suppose, as the roads were narrow. The two way road certainly was treated as a one way. I just closed my eyes whenever the trucks, buses and cars passed by; hoping for the best.

I, soon, realized that amidst the chaos on the road, the drivers followed a set of agreed rules which must have been passed down from generation to generation.

Firstly, I noticed that, when the vehicles were about one km apart, the drivers started signaling each other by flashing the headlights in, what appeared to be, agreed rhythm. The oncoming drivers flashed once, and the Ambassador’s driver, then, flashed twice, in response. At about 500 meters apart, the oncoming drivers flashed twice and the Ambassador’s driver flashed thrice, in response.

Secondly, at about 50 meters apart, the Ambassador’s driver gave a long flashing of his headlight and touched his brake for a short time while pulling his car to the left. At the same time, the oncoming driver, flashed, braked and pulled his vehicle to the right to avoid the collision that I had expected to happen. And as they passed each other safely, both drivers gave deafening five second honks to each other and smiled. These sequences of events were repeated with each passing vehicle.

 My heart was in my mouth literally on this New Delhi to Agra road.

Seeing how uncomfortable I was, the guide who sat to my left, remarked, “ Mr Rahim, don’t worry, our driver is very experienced on this road. He travelled here at least three times a week. You know what – Indian drivers are the best in the world!” “Just might be so,” I said, “but accidents do happen. It is wise to be more careful.” “Ahh….,” the Guide responded wistfully, “to drive in India, you need four things – good lights, good brakes, good honks and………. good luck!”

Fifteen years later, as I was listening to a CEO of a construction company, explaining his company misadventure in a foreign land, I couldn’t help thinking of my own ‘adventure’ on the New Delhi – Agra road. Is there a real comparison here – that the company failed not because they didn’t have the right strategy or the right people or the right tools, but, because they didn’t have any luck?

Or is it that the “luck” that the CEO is referring to is not actually luck, but, the foresight, unspoken and unwritten perhaps, of behaviors that people exhibited during chaotic situation to succeed? And, their failure in the foreign venture is really because of lack of foresight by the staff and management? Traffic on Indian roads is chaotic, but there are few accidents because drivers have foresight of how people would behave in the given situation!

Management vs Leadership

Good managers are not necessarily good leaders.

If you were a good manager, does that mean you are also a good leader? Not necessarily as there’s a distinct different between a good manager and a good leader.

The famous Peter Drucker quotes – “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.”

Imagine this scenario:

Your Sales Manager had asked you to get an agreement from your distributor to raise a purchase order of $100,000 in order to fulfill his sales commitment for a specified period, even when the distributor had not received an official purchase order from the end customer yet. Aligning yourself to your Sales Manager needs as both of you were sharing a common objective, you followed the instructions to do so. You persuaded the distributor with whom you have had such a great relationship with. The distributor finally gave in and complied by issuing you a purchase order of $100,000 within the specified period. Both of you met the sales objective then. Both of you looked good in fulfilling the commitment at that time.

And now, let’s analyze the situation:

You had delivered your commitment for that specified period. You gave your Sales Manager and probably, the organization as well, an extended lifeline. You performed to expectations. You did what you needed to do for the short term benefits of every one concerned.

On the flip side of the coin, you were not in compliance with the standard of business conduct of your organization – an order cannot be booked unless there is an official purchase order from the end customers. The impact of this practice is you endure the risk of reversing your revenue recognized within the specified period, should the end customer end up not issuing the purchase order at all. This will put your organization at risk of not meeting its commitment still, at the end of the day, in the long term. And you might end up needing to work a lot harder under a much stressful situation to compensate the short fall of revenue that your organization experience. The long term impact is detrimental.

How would you rate your Sales Manager in this situation? Well, from my point of view, I cannot say that he / she were a bad manager, especially if he / she had been meeting all the revenue commitments on a very consistent basis. The end result is he / she delivered. No one would really question how the results were achieved (at least, not until some revenue reversal occurred). In that regard, I believe he / she were a good manager, doing things right in applying the appropriate knowledge within the organization to achieve the results expected of him / her.

On the other hand, was he / she a good leader? The demonstrated behavior of booking an order without an official purchase order from the customer is absolutely not acceptable. It goes against the moral values as well as the standard of business conduct practices. The behavior demonstrated reflects bad leadership for sure.

Have a look at this article – http://blogs.bnet.com/salesmachine/?p=4204&tag=nl.e808.

Digest it. Think about sales management vs sales leadership. Make your own assessment and which one would you prefer? Sales management or sales leadership?

Culture of Performance

Q & A with the Chairman of Salwana and Rahim Associates Sdn Bhd (SRASSA), Abd Rahim Md Noh.

Every organization wants to have a high performing team. Most multinational corporations have embedded performance oriented systems in all facets of their businesses. Local Malaysian companies also, have performance systems implementations with varied success rates to date.

While performance systems are implemented, people remain to be the key challenge to most organizations. How do we get people on board? Why are some organizations more successful than others? What can we learn from the successful organizations? What would be the best implementation approach to inculcate the performance oriented culture for one organization? How do we measure success? These are some of the key questions that organizations have in their pursuit of developing high performing team.

In this Q & A, Abd Rahim Md Noh shared his views on the Culture of Performance.

Question: From your point of view, what is the ‘Culture of Performance?’

Answer: To me, ‘culture’ is really a collection of behaviors; and ‘performance’ is the outcome of excellent execution. In this regard, the ‘Culture of Performance’ would mean a group of people with common, collective behaviors executing their tasks excellently, at a respectably high standard. It is almost like an auto-reaction to do the best in everything that one undertakes. No half-measures. Bad performance is not an option. Do it well or don’t do it at all!

Question: Why is it easy for some and hard for others to achieve the Culture of Performance?

Answer: There are a couple of key facets to the Culture of Performance. The first facet is people, and the second facet is the environment (or the organizational systems and process integration). From people perspective, it is not a question of whether” you have it or you haven’t got it”. It is more of whether you “want to or you don’t want to”. It is easy for those who want to achieve a Culture of Performance to do so because they have the strong desire to perform well in every endeavor. Those that find it hard need a helping hand such as coaching and mentoring. Organizations have both groups of people. It is here, that the second facet, namely, the Environment plays a major part in one’s behavior. A performance oriented environment will make it easy for everyone to perform well. A performance oriented environment would mean a tight integration between systems and processes, embedding the key performance measures of the organization. I am a firm believer in the saying ‘systems drive behaviors’. Depending on where you or your organization stands in these two key facets; that will determine the feasibility of embracing the Culture of Performance.

Question: Does the Culture of Performance mean World class standard? Are they the same thing?

Answer: As I mentioned earlier, the Culture of Performance means a group of people with common, collective behaviors executing their tasks excellently, at a respectably high standard. World class standard is a “measurement”, often taken to mean of a high standard. The two are not the same, but related to each other in the sense that a person or an organization with a culture of performance will always produce results to world class standard.

Question: What are the key steps needed to inculcate the Culture of Performance?

Answer: The key steps needed to inculcate the Culture of Performance include the following:

• recruit the ‘right people’ that have at least three major attributes – smart, hardworking and get the job done

• clarity in terms of direction and what’s expected of the employees in their respective roles

• clarity in what success looks like for each respective role and how success is measured

• constant monitoring; address any issues that cropped up diligently in a timely manner

• continuous coaching and mentoring, when required

Question: How do we deal with people resisting the change towards the Culture of Performance?

Answer: “Ship-in or ship-out”! An organization should develop a performance oriented environment in its work place. Systems and processes must drive behavior of the people. Rewards must be given as recognition of high performance. Mentoring is to be given to those lagging behind. But, do not be afraid to discipline or even terminate those incorrigible ones.

 

Question: How would we ensure sustainability of such culture?

Answer: The sustainability of such culture will depend on multiple factors such as:

• leadership commitment to drive such culture

• appropriate infrastructure (systems and processes) to support the culture

• constant performance monitoring and revalidation

• continuous coaching and reaffirmations

• adoption of the ‘no compromises’ principle

Question: How do we measure success in the implementation of the Culture of Performance?

Answer: We know that we were successful in implementing the Culture of Performance when a number of the following attributes happen:

• results are of consistently high standard

• presence of peers acknowledgement / recognitions

• achieve good customer satisfaction (be it in terms of candid feedback or results of customer satisfaction survey)

• gain positive company image and reputation

• employees are of high morale

• presence of good teamwork

• every employee shares the same values

Question: What would be the first thing that organizations need to do to embark on the Culture of Performance?

Answer: The first thing that organizations need to do to embark on the Culture of Performance is to secure top leadership commitment in driving the vision of the Culture of Performance. This ‘person’ will be the Executive Sponsor who needs to walk the talk to ensure that all the key strategic initiatives will be implemented as planned. Once the top leadership is committed, an honest self examination of the current status of the company needs to be done. The outcome of this self examination exercise will enable the company to understand the current gaps that exist. Then, it will be advisable to form a ‘working task force’ to work on the specific detail initiatives of what needed to be done and get the proper resources to follow through on the implementation of those initiatives. Consider appointing an external advisor to provide an unbiased view of the organization and approaches to implementation program.

Consistent Experience. Satisfied Customer.

“Consistent experience will result in good customer satisfaction.”

I recently reviewed my BIG THREE favorite places. These are the places that I frequent to get supplies or services for my regular, basic needs. Here are the lists of my BIG THREE:

I go to Creative Curls and ask specifically for Nelly whenever I need a hair cut. If Nelly was not around, I would ask for a time that Nelly’s available and would then, postpone my haircut accordingly. I refuse to have others to cut my hair because Nelly gives me a strong sense of security. I know that I will walk out, looking good as I expected, from her salon. She does her routine all the time – the warm smiles, greeting me energetically, discussing the style that I want while offering suggestions as well and then, doing my hair to absolute perfection just the way I want it – without fail for many years, so far.

I call Domino’s Delivery whenever I feel like having a pizza. My favorite is the New York Crust seafood pizza. Not only the New York Crust tastes so good, the Domino’s Delivery service is excellent. The service experience is very personal. The order taker knows me from the time I say hello. He / She will do the routine of validating my address, going through their monthly promotions if they have any, asking if I have discount coupons to redeem, taking my order and ending his / her conversation by reiterating their pledge to a delivery commitment of 30 minutes and failing to do so will mean that I will have a discount coupons for my next purchase of pizza. So far, they have fulfilled the 30 minutes delivery commitment 99% of the time. And I really did get a discount coupon for that 1% failure on their part, as committed.

I fill in my gas / petrol at the Shell station. I enjoy the experience whenever I drop by at the Shell station. I noticed that regardless of locations, the Shell petrol station employees greet me with the same excitement and enthusiasm. None of them takes me for granted. And they consistently cross sell other products that they have special offer on, to maximize my savings. The consistent friendliness and engagement styles across the board in every Shell station regardless of locations have touched me deeply. I feel very welcomed whenever I am there. The service is so predictable!

One key learning that I have from all the above scenarios is that consistency in execution will generate a lasting impact. Obviously, I am a very satisfied customer of all the three organizations who will keep on spending my money on their products and services for a long time to come.

Stop Procrastinating. Start ‘DIN’ (Do It Now)

Procrastination typically happens when we fail to prioritize.

So, that was my hypothesis. I, like most people (probably), have the habit of procrastinating and have wondered why and/or how I acquired such a bad behavior. I decided to put a stop to it. I had then, embarked on a personal mission to evaluate my behavior of procrastination and to find a solution to it as well.

Here are the summaries of findings of my personal experience:

1. List of behaviors that I procrastinated as an example……..

- I procrastinated watering my plants at home (I don’t have a maid, hence everything is DIY). I went hiking instead. My justification to such behavior – the soil was still wet!

- I procrastinated cleaning my floor (again, I don’t have a maid, hence everything is DIY). I watched tennis, Asutralian Open live on TV instead. My justification to such behaivor – my floor was not that dirty yet. I could still live with it for another day, hence it could wait

- I procrastinated doing my presentation slides for my speaking engagement. I played tennis with a good friend instead. My justification to such behavior – I’d be most effective and productive at the last minute. Even if I started preparation early, I’d still make a lot of changes at the 11th hour….

2. The impact of my behaviors………

- My to do list for the following days kept on piling up

- Felt lack of fulfillment as my days didn’t quite go as I planned

- Affected the delivery of my other commitments

3. My observations of what actually happened……

The activities that i procrastinated fall into the following categories:

- activities that I did not enjoy doing BUT I had to do, as no one else would have done it otherwise

- preference of doing things that I considered urgent, though not important, at anyone time

- activities that were stored at the back of my mind BUT not written on my schedules / calendar

4. What did I decide to do differently, then?

- Pledge that I will be honest to myself and will execute my activities based on the planned schedules that I have

- Capture all to-do activities on my schedule. What’s captured on the schedule need to be executed

- Plan my week on every Sunday

- Based on the weekly plan, prepare a daily plan with mini scope of activities for each day

- Execute as scheduled!

- Ignore the brain chatters that tempting me to do stuffs that are not scheduled on my calendar by conditioning my mind on a continuous basis – ‘what’s on the schedule get executed!’

- Reflect at the end of the day, and measure achievement!

- Improve on tomorrow….

5. Key outcome…..

While the above may sound rigid, it has worked very well for me. While the above may sound that it’d take a lot of time to do, I have found this to be rather simple, to my surprise. Within 2 weeks, this process has become so easy and now, it takes me only 20 minutes to plan my weekly schedule and 10 minutes daily to plan my daily activities. Net result: this method works for me. It has helped me a great deal in prioritizing my activities and in inculcating the behavior of ‘Do It Now (DIN)’ – as scheduled in my calendar.

Accept defeat the same way you accept victory

You have to fail to succeed.

The famous Michael Jordan once said, “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.” –

A great message with pretty loaded stuff – persevere, stay on course, fall and rise, rise and fall, grow, learn, improve consistently, shame, guilt, work hard, move on, expectations, enjoy the process etc.

The key thing is how do we pick up the pieces when we fail? First thing first, it’s OK to feel bad and disheartened for a reasonable moment (not too long though; the shorter time the better).

Then, make a choice to accept failures with the best positive attitude ever. Frame a positive mindset. Rafael Nadal in his recent loss to Robin Soderling, for example, has this to say – “I have to accept my defeat as I accept my victories — with calm. I have to keep a cool head to try and analyse what I did wrong. I need to learn, and you learn more when you lose than when you win. I need to work on those points on which I wasn’t good, and from there try and do better for my next tournament” (Full article http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/6/2/sports/4026041&sec=sports )

Next is to take stock of what really happened. In this process, be honest. Do a post mortem – what has worked well? What did not work? What should be done differently? Ask your good friends, buddies, business associates and relevant people on what their observations are.

Capture the learnings and feedbacks from the so called ‘post-mortem’ exercise. These will be the key actions to be executed. Treat them as your must ‘to do’ list.

 Just do it! Execute your to do list excellently.

Reiteratively, perform a progress check on an interval basis (monthly or quarterly). Capture what’s working as planned and what you fall short from achieving. Work on new action items to put you back on track. Do this progressively on a continuous basis – and nothing can deny you the success you deserve, at the end of the day.

Paparazzi Power: Are we socially and morally responsible readers?

Paparazzi are a double-edge sword.

On one edge, potentially a lot of people love them for the kind of photos and news that they published. I mean, who would not like to know what Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are up to, for example. Some dosage of ‘interesting news’ like that does make the world more interesting. Likewise, the celebrities do need the paparazzi to some extent to promote their own brand, to reach out to their fans and to be visible.

On the other edge, the power of paparazzi can be very damaging. An ultimate case in point is the death of Princess Diana on August 31^st, 1997 http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101970915-138281,00.html, which brought the entire world to its senses; at least for a while. A significant paparazzi event more recently, in February 2008 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23134171/ which involved Britney Spears has inspired the L.A. City Council to propose a new law to provide safety to celebrities.

Despite these damaging events, it seems paparazzi are thriving and will continue to stay. Freedom of press warrants that and there would always be demand for these kinds of stories. It broke my heart to watch the Farah’s Story http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/30773564#30773867 in her struggle to deal both with cancer and paparazzi.

Given that the paparazzi will thrive and will continue to stay, the ball is really then, in our court – the readers. What are we doing with the news and stories that we read? How do we make good of these stories? What are the key learnings from these stories? How should we treat the news?

My recommendation is to practice personal leadership. Do the right thing. Be a socially and morally responsible reader. Reflecting these into actions, try the following:

• Select quality articles from quality magazines / publications – be mindful of the publications vision and purpose
• Know your own purpose of reading certain articles. If the article is not aligned with your purpose and will not help in your aspired outcome, stop reading it.
• Position credibility. Always be sensitive to the credibility of a publication. Only credible publications worth to be actively discussed among your good personal friends.
• Capture key learnings and socialize them whenever you have the right opportunity. From any articles, good or bad, there would always be key learnings. We just need to look deeper…Capture the key learnings and socialize them!

Let’s all be socially and morally responsible readers now. You will leave a remarkable foot prints in the long term, building a socially and morally responsible society.

Why do I twit?

I initially twitted because everyone was doing it. Sort of a lifestyle and I did not want to be left behind. After twitting a few times, I began to appreciate the benefits it gave me. Not only was it a great technology innovation, it gave me much intrinsic values as listed below:

Precision messaging is the rule, not the exception

The 140 words limitation is the ‘killer’ feature. It drives the communicative behavior of the users; something that I equate with the 2 second-elevator pitch (you know, the analogy that sales people always use – imagine if you were in the elevator and a potential client CEO was in the same elevator with you; what would you say in 2 seconds that would make the CEO interested in your organization / products (read: Unique Value Proposition).

 The same scenario applies in Twitter. I realized that as time goes on, I have cautiously run through all the questions and answers in my mind on any possible topics of interest before I start twitting. I mean lets face it; not every one really cares what we are up to – hence the big idea is ‘let’s be very precise on the messages that may add value, at least to most of the people following us; something that every one can learn from, for example. Having said that I am still ‘work-in-progress’, and thrive to get more precise over time…..

Encourage crystallized thinking

In the process of coming up with precise messages, I had to synthesize my thoughts until I became crystal clear about what I really wanted to say and what I really meant.

Undoubtedly, this process helps sharpening my skills along the way. In a typical scenario, this process involves the following:

-          the end game / the aspired outcome which involves a number of scenarios, what-if visuals and questions / answers that I would just run through my mind

-          decide on the content and the best, most effective way to deliver it

-          decide on the main headlines to be written, that would appeal to the most general audience

By twitting every other day, I gain regular dosage of practices of crystallized thinking in a very fun way.

Self development method to become a socially and morally responsible author and reader

My main purpose of twitting is to learn from each other. In this aspect, I am always mindful about giving something that will be useful for others; and likewise I am always grateful to take something that I find useful for me. For example, my updates about my nephew who is suffering from Stage 3 Burkitt’s lymphoma has resulted in a number of key cancer and medical practitioners’ followers – which in turn, had pointed me to the so many useful cancer resources that has helped me in dealing with the crisis effectively. I could have not achieved this in such a speedy and targeted fashion, otherwise.

I have been and will keep on treating Twitter as a key learning platform without boundaries. To achieve the most out of this, I have to do my part, by being a socially and morally responsible author and reader.

Great Agenda. Great Meeting.

Have you ever taken the time to assess how well your ‘meeting’ typically was? I definitely have. And truthfully, I have experienced all sorts of situations ranging from the ‘disastrous’ to the ‘great’.

What represents a disastrous meeting in my context? I remember feeling totally disconnected, not being on the same page, poor to negative body language, lack of eye contact, abrupt answers, blank stares (being present without presence) and my own brain chatters saying ‘ you are wasting your time’.

On the other hand, a great meeting gives me these feelings – highly connected, energized, so very on the same page to the point that I feel I can read the other person’s mind, engaging, precise message, clear direction and fulfilled!

A great meeting is an outcome of a great agenda. This is what I did differently in all my great meetings. The key attributes of coming up with a great agenda include the following:

• Planning for the meeting

1. Be crystal clear about the meeting objective i.e. what you want to walk away with at the end of the meeting
2. Decide on who you should be meeting with to achieve the intended objective. Go / No go position if the person you want to meet with is not available. Should you still proceed with the meeting. Would you compromise a representative in the event that the person that you need to meet with is not available
3. Based on item 2, secure the right date that works both for you and the party that you want to meet with
4. Get a list of all the attendees that will be in that meeting. Find out key information about each attendee i.e. role in the organization, hot buttons, some critical track records, relationship with the key decision makers.
5. Decide on a meeting venue

• Prepare a meeting brief for your team that consists of these:

1. Meeting objectives – List at most, three key objectives only (too many objectives will dilute the meeting)
2.  Profile of the person that you will be meeting with comprises of role in organization, track records, current relationship with your organization, current opportunities and challenges, hot buttons, organizational details ( brief on vision, organizational culture, information infrastructure, key relevant information on process and people), key topics to be covered in the meeting, key best practices that should be highlighted, key options to mutually move forward
3. Meet internally to brief team members, walking through the meeting brief documents.
4. Secure feedback from team members
5. Update the meeting brief incorporating feedback from team members

• Secure initial buy-in of the intended outcome from the party that you will be meeting with

1. Prior to the official meeting, socialize the meeting agenda with the party that you will be meeting with
2. Communicate your meeting objectives informally.
3. Test water on the potential outcomes that you aspire
4. Seek their feedback. This will provide you a good threshold on how far you can push on the meeting day

• Finalize your meeting strategy and agenda

1. Final brief to your team members the day before the meeting. Rehearse if needed
2. Run through your own mind. Visualize the meeting engagement on your way to the meeting.

• Just do it, as planned!

Positive mindset drives positive behavior

I find this article http://sanderssays.typepad.com/sanders_says/2009/04/pick-your-attitude-.html really great. It depicts a good example of how our brains are wired. And best of all, we do have a power to ‘wire’ our brain the way we like it. Hence, it’s always our own choice to be positive, to adopt a positive mindset and to pick a good attitude; that will result in positive behavior.

While scientifically the brain functions as such http://www.neuroskills.com/brain.shtml; I adopt the enclosed simple approaches to ‘wire’ my brain positively:

1. Make a choice to be positive in all situations

2. Shut down the negative ‘brain chatters’

3. Ready to forgive at all times.

Forgiveness is about taking back your power to move on. Forgiveness is NOT about condoning some behaviors that you dislike. For example, your best friend betrayal ended up in your breaking the friendship. The only way for both of you to become friends again is to forgive each other. The act of forgiveness in this respect gave back the power for both of you to move on and to become friends again. It did not reflect your approval of her act of betrayal in any way, at all.