You are in one of the category of Reflections of a Business Driven Life.  To read all posts, go to the main page, or you can choose to read or subscribe to a category:   on technology, on life, on business, favorite quotes, jokes, tidbits, EntrepreViews & reading reviews.

	Sunday, May 29, 2005

Setting up Rules or Allowing Discretion   ( on business) For the last 15 or so years, I have read numerous business books, many of them acclaimed and bestsellers.  And for the last 15 years that I have been managing, I have tried to apply many of these principles to life and business. If there is one thing that I have learned, it is that some of what they write works, and some don't. It is really important to distinguish that at the end, even the best and most logical recommendations only works in some culture, in some industries, or in some specific circumstance with specific people.  It would be pitiful to see a manager trying vainly to apply whatever he read into his business -- it won't work.  The business of management is far more complex than just merely applying a few rules and dogma in a business book - no matter how well written. One of the particularly strong recommendations in many human resource books is about empowerment.  In fact, it is always a celebrated example how one store empowered their employees to do whatever is needed to make the customer happy -- including accepting a returned merchandise and replacing it even if the merchandise was not even bought in the store.  Another example is about hotel employees who go out of their length to service the customer, even giving free upgrades and meals.  In fact, there was one company who celebrated that they have no rulebook or policies, only that its employees use "common sense and judgment."  The only problem is that common sense is just not so common at all. I am more inclined to think that in many industries, as well particularly in Asian cultures, people are more happy to work under an environment where things are more defined.  I like better the business advice that, "As a manager, don't manage your people.  Manage the system that in turn will manage your people. " In fact, one of the things I keep challenging is actually the rulebook when we were in the plane.  I was in the last row of the seat, which was reclined.  When it was time to land, everybody was asked to straighten up their seats.  I can understand why everybody had to do it, but logically I didn't think I had to.  I figure that the reason you straighten up your seat is that so anybody at the back will have a better way to exit just in case something goes wrong with the landing, but being in the last row, I felt it did not apply to me. Ditto with the opening of all windows upon take off and landing.  I believe the reason to do that was so that a plane would be more visible when it lands at night, but then why do we also have to open all the blinds when landing even on the middle of the day? But then selective application on rules would be too complex for the thousands of flight attendants and millions of passengers.  If you start applying exceptions, then you have to explain why, and people would complain why person A is allowed, and person B not allowed.  So the expedient and fair process is to apply the rule to all  -- everybody straightens the seat.  Everybody pulls up their trays.  Everybody don't use the cell phone upon entering the plane.  Everybody pull up the blinds when told to do so.  Everybody puts on the seat belts when instructed to.  No discretion, no arguments. Many times, rules in the company are similarly argued.  We don't know why they are there, and some of them clearly have lost the reason to be there.  But then just like in the airplane, people gain comfort in the presence, rather than absence of rules, and rules do make things much more clear.  Rules like laws, are not perfect, and we should not try to spend too much time to make it so.   At the end, it depends on how it is executed, and implemented, and I guess that will continue to be a challenge, and a reason why great managers or even great parents continue to be a treasure!    4:00:17 PM     comment []   trackback []

	Tuesday, May 24, 2005

The Possibilities of MisCommunication  ( on business) As an entrepreneur and a manager, have you felt that after meetings, in which you spent all your time talking to your managers and staff on what you would like to happen, you felt that only a portion of what you want to happen gets understood and even a smaller portion gets properly executed? I remembered talking to a business owner of a hotel in Dalian, China last year, and one of his examples struck me on why it is necessary most of the times, to properly document your expectations and standards to prevent miscommunication. "You are the general manager of the company, and let us say you only have 3 levels of management -- you, middle managers, and staff.  You think about something great you want to happen to the company, and you start to visualize it, and try to share such. In your mind, it is now clear at 100%.  However, unless you are a master communicator, you would most likely communicate only 80% of what you want.  The middle management who is listening to you would most likely only understand 60% of the whole thing. Thinking that they have understood it, they proceeded to talk to the other employees on it, but they would only probably succeed to communicate part of it, or probably only 40% of the whole thing.  The staff would probably understand only 20% of it, and depending on their ability, you will end up 0% or 10% of what you have on your mind successfully done!" Here is another nice anecdote on being misunderstood: It was mealtime during a trip on the plane. "Would you like dinner?" the flight attendant asked the man seated in front of me. "What are my choices?" he asked. "Yes or no," she replied.   6:39:19 PM     comment []   trackback []

	Friday, May 20, 2005

Are you hiring Smart or Wise People?  ( on business) For the longest time, I focused our company's goal that we were going to hire smart people, smart people who are quick to make decisions, and who are eloquent to verbalize such.  A readers opinion by Point Roberts of Washington in a recent Fortune magazine issue ( which I could not locate the electronic equivalent) gives pause for reflection. There IS a difference between being smart and wise, and as he pointed out, wisdom is now being replaced by smartness in the corporate world.  That hit a raw nerve in me, and I can reckon many businesses I know also have the same issue without realizing it. The workplace of today is now focusing on hiring smart people who are tactical concrete thinkers who can make decisions quickly and sounds great.  However, many of these decisions made on the snap subsequently turns out to have a poor understanding of the complexity and subtlety of various points of view that needs to be considered. A company should also hire wise people -- people who may make decisions not as fast, but tend to be more abstract and strategic thinkers, and who knows how to incorporate different factors into their decision making, a person who is cognizant that a decision can have good results but bad implications,  a good short term result but a bad long term side effect, and who can understand a potential problem with the decision before it starts to stare right in the face. Wise people think more abstractly and strategically and incorporate more factors into their decision making. In a company where smarts are rewarded and eloquence is listened to, the CEO should not forget to listen to the insight that comes only from long reflection, study and contemplation. Today's near term focus and emphasis on speed results in rewards to smart people and to look for smart people.  The problem of course, is many smart people are not wise at all.  Where is wisdom?   10:44:59 AM     comment []   trackback []

	Saturday, May 14, 2005

Making Your Partner Win   ( on business) My friend, Kaleem Aziz, likes to sign his email with the tagline, "Unless we all win, we all lose." Which I remembered was the same answer I gave when I was being interviewed in a TV talk show recently, and asked, " what is the secret of your business' success?" I told them " We look at our customers as our partners.  We recognize that if we win, and they don't, they won't stay as our customers for long.  But if we make them win by doing business with us, then they will keep coming back." This morning, I was in a wedding, and what i said came back to me.  And I found out that principles used in business are akin to the principles used in life.  ( which is the basic reason why sometimes I categorize business principles as life principles in this blog, or vice versa). In a marriage, there are no winners or losers.  Either both of you win, or both of you lose.  I have always heard friends say proudly that they win in their marriage when their spouse gave in to them without they giving in in return.  However, I believe that is not a long term solution.  Sooner or later, when one side is unhappy, something will give, and when that time comes, both sides lose. Create Win-wins.  Help your customers meet their numbers, and they will work to help you meet yours.  Make your partner happy, and they will most certainly do the same.   1:59:05 PM     comment []   trackback []

	Tuesday, May 10, 2005

When your Back is Against the Wall ( on business) My father passed away when I was 23.  At that age, I had to take over the business.  So early in life, when I should have been learning and training more, I had my hat in the ring, starting to slugging it out in the business world. For the longest time, I yearn that I would have an opportunity like my counterparts -- the opportunity to be fully learned and prepared before being tossed to the ring, and the opportunity to have a big and moneyed sponsor on the back where I  could learn, and commit mistakes, and it would not hurt my own pocket. But I did not have that luxury, and I had to learn as I go -- and paying for my own mistakes. They say a wise man learns from other people's experiences or at least from other people's expense, but I did not the chance to be wise. So I want to make sure that my own children ( which parent does not want it?) will not have the same shock as we have, and does not undergo the same challenge and hardship.  But is it a good strategy? Many of today's people who have not meet hardship, who think of safety nets before attempting anything, may not be able to develop the backbone to face a lot of today's hardships.   I always joke there is a problem when your children considers their most traumatic experience as that being stranded in an airport for 4 hours. Believe, me, nothing motivates you to work harder, educates faster, or make you learn a more memorable lesson that if your back is against the wall, when it is yours to lose, or when it would pull you back much if you don't win.  Do you agree?  But are we willing to create the challenges that would allow our children to have a stronger backbone?   7:20:37 PM     comment []   trackback []

	Thursday, May 05, 2005

Warren Buffet's Advice to Students  ( on business) I've been following up the blog, MBA in Australia which is a great resource about a student and his experiences and expectations in getting an MBA degree.  He also gave me a great link on excerpts of Buffet's advice to students in the Tuck School of Business in Dartmouth. Here are some takes: - Who are the people you want to do business with?  Who you DON'T want to do business with?  Evidently the people you want to be with is probably someone who is honest, courageous and dependable; the person you don't want to be with are those that are egotistical and likes to take credit.  The point is that thse are ELECTIVE qualities, not anything you were born with.  You CAN  choose to be dependable or not. So ask yourself, "Who is the person I want to become?".  Because the person you want to become are also the one with qualities you are looking for other people.  You already hold the winning tickets. - A great example on how to run a business properly is probably the best legacy you can leave behind.  'If what I've done with Berkshire Hathaway - running a unique and independent company in true pursuit of shareholder value - persists and people learn from it to improve the way they invest and run their companies, that would be a fine legacy to leave.' - "Stay within your circle of competence." Clearly much of my (Mr. Buffett's) success has stemmed from my disciplined focus on investing in businesses that I understand and avoiding those that I don't. - "There's no free lunch. If you're willing to roll the dice on a business or life decision, then you should be willing to accept a wider range of outcomes, including failure." -"The meaning of life is to do everything you can to make sure the people you care about love you back." 10:53:54 AM     comment []   trackback []

	Sunday, May 01, 2005

Promoting the Best Doers to Become Managers  ( on business) One of the dilemmas in management is the tendency to promote our best producers to managers.  The best programmers become the development head,  and the best sales people invariably gets to become sales manager, etc. There are pitfalls in it since the skills and focus needed are not the same.  Here is a great post by Michael Jones entitled Producers vs. Managers.  He follows it up with another post that selfless management is the key to solve that.   11:48:56 AM     comment []   trackback []