Today I'm recovering from a hectic 3 day Eid Adha celebration just like many others. On Thursday night, I spend the evening at Masjid Putrajaya, the administrative centre of Malaysia doing the usual stuff on the eve of Eid Adha. After some prayers, I listen to talks and got home way past midnight. In between I marvel at the beauty of the grand Masjid since it was my first time there. The aircond concealed within the columns just like those at the Al-Haram in Saudi Arabia. Situated by a lake, the cool air, the beautiful tiles and marbles, vast surrounding provides an almost perfect ambience to worship God. It has got a nickname the Blue Mosque of the East and its really (plural) awesome. The Government must have spent millions to build, and millions more for yearly maintenance utilising taxpayers money and since that was made for everyone's use I don't consider that wasteful. If I can save 10 sen, I will, but if I need to spend RM 1000 to achieve an objective, I will too. Change comes at a price albeit the opposing views that consider its spending as wasteful. Due to the opposing views change must be managed and planned.
On Friday my wife and I decided for a weekend drive and visiting. After visiting our eldest daughter who is at boarding school at the Raub, a small town about 150 kilometers north east of Kuala Lumpur, we took the jungle road leading to Fraser Hill and passing small towns of Teras and Tranum. Raub, Teras and Tranum are situated on Titiwangsa Range and together with other small towns at around 25 kilometers apart, the ambiance feel like those small towns at the Hills of Cotswold in United Kingdom or Adelaide Hills in Australia with Fraser Hill being the main tourist attraction. I'm glad to see that change is not needed and instituted at such places and time seems to stand still. Almost every town is situated beside a natural stream. After a bite of fried banana and a hot local coffee at Fraser Hill we started to descent. I saw a few orange eagle, part of migratory birds resting and enjoying the sun here escaping the harsh winter of their homeland that are China and Russia. Those birds comes to Malaysia and many made their way to Indonesia starting October and will fly back home starting March. We pass the construction of a dam along the way to Kuala Kubu Baru. The dam is to solve the water shortage for some areas in the Selangor State now. I'm sure there are a lot of legal and illegal expats working there. Just like the migratory birds they are making changes either to escape harsh environment back home and to enjoy a better life here. The construction of the dam is helping them and their families. If not they wouldn't be here. If we don't construct and provide jobs for bricklayers, a child in Acheh in Indonesia or Dacca in Bangladesh may not have breakfast before going to school. Gone are the picnic areas but that has to accommodate for water needs of the more urban people. I reminisced those days when I and a friend used to bring our families there and watched our kids jumping off into the cold stream. Change also means we may have to forgo a certain situation to accommodate the needs of a larger population. For that reason change is needed and justified. We stayed overnight at a motel in the countryside.
On Saturday morning, after Kuala Kubu Baru we entered the North South Expressway at Tanjung Malim and exit at an ex-mining town of Gopeng before proceeding to Batu Gajah. Gopeng and Batu Gajah about 200 kilometers north west of Kuala Lumpur, were a major tin mining areas about 50 years ago where Malaysia used to be a major exporter of tin in the world. The local government seem to have spruced up the Kellie's Castle and the Kinta river that flows beside it is very clean. Nowadays the towns of Gopeng and Batu Gajah are transforming themselves into tourist and education centres. I guess the tin mining activity has finally gone into the history books. Fortunately tin miners now can turn to mining oil or involved in tourism and education. Since there was no objection from locals and other stakeholders, the change must have been instituted with the approval of all the stakeholders with minimal resistance.
We had tea with an uncle who retired at Batu Gajah and headed back Kuala Lumpur thereafter. We purchased some honey guava at Tapah for the other kids (they seem to have their own agendas nowadays). We arrived Kuala Lumpur around 9.00 pm and received news that Dubai World is having some trouble...
Dubai World is like our very own Khazanah in name. With the oil wealth, they build the world's tallest building, a ski resort in the desert, man made islands and invest in properties from New York to Last Vegas. The strategic pressure points was the revenue from oil now account for only 10% of gross domestic product and dwindling and thus Dubai need to be transformed. However it is being transformed into a major metropolis within a very short period of time. To achieve that and with a population of only around 500,000 they import expatriates 5 times their population. They also finance the development with debt. With that comes the risk for the change which may result in pitfalls of the change plan. When the world economy slowed, demand for their properties and revenues from tourist dwindle. With less demand means less revenues than projected. Thus Dubai World is now seeking their debtors to reschedule or defer payments of their loans. Like any other slowdown, Dubai World will certainly emerge from its recession, but in meantime they will need to learn the risk especially the unsustainable debt and deal with the breakdown in the change process.
Message about change between the lines above are bolded.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Friday, August 7, 2009
BSL06 LEARNING LOG: STRATEGY FOR GOOD TIMES
The Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange is already up by more than 30% since 6 months ago and less than 20% off its all time high achieved in late 2007. Since most Malaysians participate in providing services such as power distribution, food cultivation and distributions and transportation by having equity participation in companies that provide those services, this means most if not all of millions of Malaysians have either recouped their investments or increasing their wealth. More wealth means Malaysians will want and afford better lifestyle which then require better services from all providers. The importance of strategy in steering organizations through these changing time to provide better services cannot be overemphasized and the challenge prior to the crisis proves it. For example prior to the crises the cost of oil was more than 200% than it is now due to high demand of gasoline to power vehicles for travelling.
The role of business leaders is fundamental in strategy development and execution and a key contributor to a successful strategy implementation. While one of the main roles of business leaders is to set and communicate vision, mission and strategic objectives, many fail in the execution process as they forgot to account for inflationary price of their inputs. For example many countries embark on infrastructure projects for their stimulus package. Infrastructure normally takes about 3 years from tender to completion. If due to high demand, cost of machineries inflate by 50% than what was tendered, the providers may face crises of their own. With the "big-picture" view, the leadership is able to view the ever-changing environment and decide on how the organization needs to respond and to steer the organization toward longer-term objectives. While the strategic vision remains the same, the route to reach the destination may follow different tactics and game plans.
Strategy is all about clarity, and if the strategy is simple, clear and well-understood, it will be accomplished. It represents the organization's main direction and prime focus and defines the way to get there. For expressway companies it might just be additional lane kilometer by a certain time. It can only be executed if everyone involved, from business development to operations knows what is expected of them and their purpose is totally aligned with its direction. Strategy is a real differentiator, often seen as the secret for long-term success and one of the characteristics of leadership. It unites the whole work force, nurtures and develops opportunities and ensures endurance during crises or good times. Often when managing the good times we must make provisions when credit for example may dried up. In times of crises the strategy could be full expansion to enjoy low cost credit and other inputs.
Thus, although strategy represents a solid and firm direction, current environment dictates that it should be adaptable to reflect changes in the environment, whether political, economic, social, technological or legally related especially if the strategy is to expand in Indonesia, India and Middle East. Business leaders must have clear business goals and be flexible and brave to continuously recalibrate their strategy. When times are tough and visibility is not so clear, leaders must have the buoyancy to be pragmatic and adaptable, as in the midst of chaos come huge opportunities even exit and cut loss. Unsuccessful companies are those which do not embrace new ideas, broaden their thinking or are totally unaware of changes in their environment and hanging on to hope. Changing circumstances may necessitate a change in direction and stubbornness and fixed ideas can frequently be the enemy of business leaders.
Business strategy is all about developing a viable plan for sustained business growth, possibly diversifying into new markets or cross selling to existing customers. Adequately qualified senior executives tend to have clear views of what their business strategy means, nonetheless if a business really hit a concrete wall due to legislative constraint or fallible assumptions like house prices in America will increase 8% forever, utilizing the exit strategy like Lehman Brothers may be the only option.
The strategy can be viewed as the story of how a business plans to develop in the next few years; investments to make, markets to address, products to develop, territories to compete in, partnerships and alliances, etc. A good strategy is simple, clear, credible, motivating and reflects the distinctive features of the business. While strategies may end up looking the same, the brands and the culture of the organizations will be different. The real test to establish whether a strategy is good or not can be seen during difficult times e.g. the recent global credit crunch, as business leaders are tempted under such conditions to lose their sense of direction and seek ways to cut costs and maintain margins. The leadership's thinking should be focused mainly on the strategy and nothing else. Companies are encouraged to continually health-check their strategy against various potential scenarios for example the recent bank stress test conducted in America and emulated by many banks here in Malaysia.
During changes in the working environment or tough times, the leadership should review its business strategy to assess whether it is still prudent and acceptable to adopt a more flexible approach to the execution process, for example accelerate making an investment or divesting an existing business segment. Business leaders should continuously be working on the company's strategy, since the business environment is changing all the time.
The role of business leaders is fundamental in strategy development and execution and a key contributor to a successful strategy implementation. While one of the main roles of business leaders is to set and communicate vision, mission and strategic objectives, many fail in the execution process as they forgot to account for inflationary price of their inputs. For example many countries embark on infrastructure projects for their stimulus package. Infrastructure normally takes about 3 years from tender to completion. If due to high demand, cost of machineries inflate by 50% than what was tendered, the providers may face crises of their own. With the "big-picture" view, the leadership is able to view the ever-changing environment and decide on how the organization needs to respond and to steer the organization toward longer-term objectives. While the strategic vision remains the same, the route to reach the destination may follow different tactics and game plans.
Strategy is all about clarity, and if the strategy is simple, clear and well-understood, it will be accomplished. It represents the organization's main direction and prime focus and defines the way to get there. For expressway companies it might just be additional lane kilometer by a certain time. It can only be executed if everyone involved, from business development to operations knows what is expected of them and their purpose is totally aligned with its direction. Strategy is a real differentiator, often seen as the secret for long-term success and one of the characteristics of leadership. It unites the whole work force, nurtures and develops opportunities and ensures endurance during crises or good times. Often when managing the good times we must make provisions when credit for example may dried up. In times of crises the strategy could be full expansion to enjoy low cost credit and other inputs.
Thus, although strategy represents a solid and firm direction, current environment dictates that it should be adaptable to reflect changes in the environment, whether political, economic, social, technological or legally related especially if the strategy is to expand in Indonesia, India and Middle East. Business leaders must have clear business goals and be flexible and brave to continuously recalibrate their strategy. When times are tough and visibility is not so clear, leaders must have the buoyancy to be pragmatic and adaptable, as in the midst of chaos come huge opportunities even exit and cut loss. Unsuccessful companies are those which do not embrace new ideas, broaden their thinking or are totally unaware of changes in their environment and hanging on to hope. Changing circumstances may necessitate a change in direction and stubbornness and fixed ideas can frequently be the enemy of business leaders.
Business strategy is all about developing a viable plan for sustained business growth, possibly diversifying into new markets or cross selling to existing customers. Adequately qualified senior executives tend to have clear views of what their business strategy means, nonetheless if a business really hit a concrete wall due to legislative constraint or fallible assumptions like house prices in America will increase 8% forever, utilizing the exit strategy like Lehman Brothers may be the only option.
The strategy can be viewed as the story of how a business plans to develop in the next few years; investments to make, markets to address, products to develop, territories to compete in, partnerships and alliances, etc. A good strategy is simple, clear, credible, motivating and reflects the distinctive features of the business. While strategies may end up looking the same, the brands and the culture of the organizations will be different. The real test to establish whether a strategy is good or not can be seen during difficult times e.g. the recent global credit crunch, as business leaders are tempted under such conditions to lose their sense of direction and seek ways to cut costs and maintain margins. The leadership's thinking should be focused mainly on the strategy and nothing else. Companies are encouraged to continually health-check their strategy against various potential scenarios for example the recent bank stress test conducted in America and emulated by many banks here in Malaysia.
During changes in the working environment or tough times, the leadership should review its business strategy to assess whether it is still prudent and acceptable to adopt a more flexible approach to the execution process, for example accelerate making an investment or divesting an existing business segment. Business leaders should continuously be working on the company's strategy, since the business environment is changing all the time.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
VOLF10: "The difference between mere management and leadership is communication"—Winston Churchill
It’s a fact of organisational life: To lead well, you must communicate well.
To be a leader, you need to have followers. To have followers, a leader should able to communicate his vision and strategy well and able to motivate others towards the same goal.
Leadership is about communication... which goes hand-in-hand with an organisational success. No matter how compelling the vision or how brilliant the strategy, without good communication there will be no execution.
Leadership communication is vital in inspiring others to adopt ideas generated or set by top management. Failure to communicate effectively will normally lead to failure to achieve desired result.
Therefore for potential leaders they need to improve leadership communication skills in order to build greater buy-in, hence overcome resistance to change. This will ensure full support from whole organisation and therefore ensure execution.
Among good tools in leadership communication is through coaching, counseling and mentoring. These tools are proven to be effective to improve performance.
During the 1st quarter of this year, I’ve helped mentoring a sales launching event at our Point-of-Sales. It enables me to ensure the success of the event by providing coaching session with the relevant personnel. The sessions helped in planning the event, identifying critical success factors and clarifying issues pertaining to the event.
To be a leader, you need to have followers. To have followers, a leader should able to communicate his vision and strategy well and able to motivate others towards the same goal.
Leadership is about communication... which goes hand-in-hand with an organisational success. No matter how compelling the vision or how brilliant the strategy, without good communication there will be no execution.
Leadership communication is vital in inspiring others to adopt ideas generated or set by top management. Failure to communicate effectively will normally lead to failure to achieve desired result.
Therefore for potential leaders they need to improve leadership communication skills in order to build greater buy-in, hence overcome resistance to change. This will ensure full support from whole organisation and therefore ensure execution.
Among good tools in leadership communication is through coaching, counseling and mentoring. These tools are proven to be effective to improve performance.
During the 1st quarter of this year, I’ve helped mentoring a sales launching event at our Point-of-Sales. It enables me to ensure the success of the event by providing coaching session with the relevant personnel. The sessions helped in planning the event, identifying critical success factors and clarifying issues pertaining to the event.
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