Entrepreneurship

Look at famous entrepreneurs, Google search them - Steve Jobs, Ambani, Lakshmi Mittal, our own AVM, Karumuthu Thyagarajan Chettiar, AMM and many others - they can be inspiring and look extraordinary, they may seem overwhelming, they are icons.  Let us not forget they started out just like you and me.

Can we learn from these great entrepreneurs? Of course we can.  

Research indicates that great entrepreneurs may not have great qualifications but they have certain traits that led them to success. They are role models for entrepreneurs and we can learn from their successes and failures.

These successful entrepreneurs are always LOOKING OUT, KEEPING their EYES OPEN for the next possible opportunity.

The theme of my session was keeping our eyes open.

 

The six I’s:

1.       Ideas

2.       Information

3.       Instinct

4.       Initiative

 

5.       Inspiration

6.       Institutionalisation

If you would like to get a copy of the presentation do email me drpalan@smrhub.com

Reorganise - Realign Transform

To paraphrase a quote often attributed to the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, “Nothing is as constant as change.”   Throughout my more than 50 years in corporate America, change has been our most pervasive activity. I’ll always remember a quote, attributed to a Roman general, that hung on the wall of the Wells Fargo training and development department in the 1970s:  “No sooner do we settle on one form of organization or one set of processes than someone decides we need to change it.”
The corollary would be that ordering unnecessary change is one way to avoid ever being evaluated.
Lately, there seems to be an increase in calls for change through reorganization, realignment or transformation. The stimulus for this is the obvious need to keep up with competition. No one can argue against that.

Still, there is considerable difference among those three activities in terms of thought process, activities and results.

The following are examples of the divergence.

Reorganization is the most common of the three processes. It can be a mandate or a project as simple as rearranging the organizational chart. It seems that whenever new executives come into an organization, they want to reorganize it.
At times, this is little more than a game of musical chairs. The jobs and responsibilities of the organization are rewritten with no substantive change in management style. We simply replace the existing people, processes, forms, timing or responsibilities with new ones. Unfortunately, this often has little or no long-term effect on performance. It’s simply a disruption.

The second form of change is realignment. This is much more complicated because it calls for the organization to shift its focus from one modus operandi to another. I’ve seen this much more frequently in the past five years than in the previous 50.
A common realignment is, for instance, to shift from an emphasis on operating efficiency to one of customer service. Retailers in particular seem to have caught onto this type of change, as they realize the power has shifted from the producer to the consumer.

The third change form, transformation, is much more profound than either of the other two. In January 2015, professional services firm EY and the University of Oxford reported their collaboration on a study of senior executives at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. It revealed how leading-edge thinkers are looking at their enterprises from the standpoint of leveraging purpose to spur innovation and sustain growth.
They pointed out the following:

• There is an evolving view of the role of the corporation increasingly emphasizes the corporation as a partner for societal well-being.
• There is an expansion of the traditional mission statement focus on products, and attributes such as trustworthiness, to an articulation on their reason for being.
• Innovative leaders have taken up a language of purpose to engage employees and customers in terms of shared values for the betterment of all.
• Taking a “purpose drives profits” view, the leaders seek to direct existing and new product and service lines in ways that achieve this broader purpose.
• They are also initiating purpose-led transformations recognizing the importance of integrated, humane purpose as the core decision-making mandate for driving functions like strategy, business models and talent management. 

Conversely, they report a gap between this purpose language and the policies and practices of their organizations. While this thinking and exposition is very encouraging, it isn’t a new idea.
More than a dozen years ago, Peter Koestenbaum, philosopher, professor and executive coach, reminded us:       
“Unless the distant goals of meaning, greatness and destiny are addressed, we cannot make an intelligent decision about what to do tomorrow morning — much less set strategy for a company.”
 To me, transformational thinking is an open door for the human resources orhuman capital discipline. It’s what we’ve been preaching for decades. Now, the horse has come to the water and is finally ready to drink.

 

Visit http://www.talentmgt.com/articles/7265-reorganize-realign-transform

 

 

Transformation Comes Through Process Excellence

From Training Industry Blog

The first in this year’s blog series on training outsourcing dealt with the idea that there’s a growing need for corporate executives to find a training supplier that has the capability to transform the training organization from one that consumes costs to one that creates value.
Outsourcing training has been traditionally viewed as a strategy to reduce costs because the expectations of training departments have continued to be low and have showed little to no measureable results.  That being said, contracting with a training outsourcing supplier has focused on taking costs out of the business and doing more for less money.
But things are changing. Corporate executives are learning that training can and should be a valuable contributor to the bottom line.  They know that by improving sales, customer and employee training, they can positively drive product adoption, reduce employee turnover and increase customer loyalty and morale.
All of these are reasons why corporate executives are putting a new spotlight on the training function. We are having more conversations with corporate executives who ask, “How can we leverage training to be a strategic part of the business and drive value for the company?" This renewed focus by corporate executives is creating the need for transformation.
How do we transform the training function? What must be done? The first and most important change is a renewed focus on process excellence. Simply being conscious of the processes of training is not enough. Being excellent at execution makes all the difference.
Our years of research on the characteristics of high performance training organizations, as outlined in “What Makes a Great Training Organization,” has taught us that training functions that are process excellent consistently produce greater results than those that are not. And those that are not process oriented tend to be focused on events or delivering courseware as opposed to business performance.
So what are the most important processes that we must be process excellent at? Based on our research, the most influential processes are those that drive strategic alignment to the business’s needs. The five that we found to be the most important are:

1. Customized training to meet the needs of an organization.
2. Established agreed-upon objectives with the business units.
3. Adapted training to the organization’s unique business or culture.
4. Defined performance success metrics in advance of the program development cycle.
5. Developed consultative partnerships with clients.

We recognize this is not an all-inclusive list. However, organizations that are excellent at these have the greatest probability of success in creating value for the business.  These processes are what the top training outsourcing companies do best. They understand how to customize learning programs. Contractually, they have to establish agreed-upon objectives. Many have capabilities to adapt training to a business culture. They must define success metrics to meet the contractual terms of a Service Level Agreement and must be consultative in how they manage client relationships.
No matter how good you are at designing and delivering courses, if the courses and solutions you offer are not aligned to the goals of the organization, you will fall short of your business expectations.   This is why corporate executives are looking to outside organizations to help them transform how their training function operates.

         

About the Author

Doug Harward

Doug Harward is the CEO and Founder of Training Industry, Inc. He is internationally recognized as one of the leading strategists for training and outsourcing business models. He is respected as one of the industry's leading authorities on competitive analysis for training services and works with international companies and new business start-ups in building training organizations.

Harward previously served as the Director of Global Learning for Nortel Networks where he led the industry's largest global training outsourcing engagement with PricewaterhouseCoopers. He received the Chairman's Global Award for Community Service for his work in developing integrated learning organization strategies within higher education, public schools and business. He has worked in the training industry for more than 25 years. He received an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University and a BSBA in Marketing from Appalachian State University.

The Four Core Theory Groups

Let's look at each of the four core groups of theory, and explore some of the tools and models that apply with each. (Keep in mind that there are many other theories out there.) 1. Trait Theories – What Type of Person Makes a Good Leader? 2. Behavioral Theories – What Does a Good Leader Do? 3. Contingency Theories – How Does the Situation Influence Good Leadership? 4. Power and Influence Theories – What is the Source of the Leader's Power? Visit http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/leadership-theories.htm for the full article Visit leworldtour.com to catch some of the leading gurus in KL, Malaysia

Marshall Goldsmith

A great article from him. Great leaders encourage leadership development by openly developing themselves. by Marshall Goldsmith Listen to what General Mills CEO Steve Sanger recently told 90 of his colleagues: "As you all know, last year my team told me that I needed to do a better job of coaching my direct reports. I just reviewed my 360-degree feedback. I have been working on becoming a better coach for the past year or so. I'm still not doing quite as well as I want, but I'm getting a lot better. My coworkers have been helping me improve. Another thing that I feel good about is the fact that my scores on 'effectively responds to feedback' are so high this year." While listening to Steve speak so openly to coworkers about his efforts to develop himself as a leader, I realized how much the world has changed. Twenty years ago, few CEOs received feedback from their colleagues. Even fewer candidly discussed that feedback and their personal developmental plans. Today, many of the world's most respected chief executives are setting a positive example by opening up, striving continually to develop themselves as leaders. In fact, organizations that do the best job of cranking out leaders tend to have CEOs like Steve Sanger who are directly and actively involved in leadership development. That has certainly been my experience. This has also been confirmed by a recently completed research project led by Marc Effron at Hewitt Associates, one of the largest HR consulting firms. Hewitt and Chief Executive magazine put General Mills on their latest list of the top-20 companies for leaders, among such familiar names as IBM and General Electric. Hewitt found that these organizations tend to more actively manage their talent. They put lots of focus on identifying high-potential people, better differentiate compensation, serve up the right kinds of development opportunities, and closely watch turnover. But crucial to all these efforts were CEO support and involvement. No question, one of the best ways top executives can get their leaders to improve is to work on improving themselves. Leading by example can mean a lot more than leading by public-relations hype. Michael Dell, whose company made the Hewitt list, is a perfect example. As one of the most successful leaders in business history, he could easily have an attitude that says, "I am Michael Dell and you aren't! I don't really need to work on developing myself." Michael, however, has the opposite approach. He has done an amazing job of sincerely discussing his personal challenges with leaders across the company. He is a living case study from whom everyone at Dell is learning. His leadership example makes it hard for any leader to act arrogant or to communicate that he or she has nothing to improve upon. Johnson & Johnson, tied for first on the top-20 list, has successfully involved its executives in leadership development. Its CEOs, formerly Ralph Larsen and now Bill Weldon, and top executive team regularly participate in a variety of leadership-building activities. Having a dialogue with the CEO about his business challenges and developmental needs makes it a lot easier for employees to discuss their own business challenges and developmental needs. Executive candor can even help turn around a troubled company. Consider Northrop Grumman, the aerospace defense contractor. CEO Kent Kresa inherited a company that had a poor reputation for integrity, a battered stock price, and an unfortunate reputation as one of the least-admired companies in its industry. His leadership team reversed the company's poor image and engineered an amazing turnaround - ultimately becoming the Forbes' most-admired company. From the beginning of the process, Kent led by example. He communicated clear expectations for ethics, values, and behavior. He made sure that he was evaluated by the same standards that he set for everyone else. He consistently reached out to coworkers. He didn't just work to develop his leaders--he created an environment in which the company's leaders were working to develop him. Unfortunately, in the same way that CEO support and involvement can help companies nurture leaders, CEO arrogance can have the opposite effect. When the boss acts like a little god and tells everyone else they need to improve, that behavior can be copied at every level of management. Every level then points out how the level below it needs to change. The end result: No one gets much better. The principle of leadership development by personal example doesn't apply just to CEOs. It applies to all levels of management. All good leaders want their people to grow and develop on the job. Who knows? If we work hard to improve ourselves, we might even encourage the people around us to do the same thing.

Leadership becoming Trusted partners

Leadership - just Google search and you will find millions of articles. Blake & Mouton's theory, Leadership practices and Situational Leadership are just a few. I came across this good article from articlesbase.com. Being in a leadership role invites scrutiny, so it is important to learn the top leadership skills that will make you trustworthy in the eye of the group you are in charge of leading. Leadership is an exceptional type of role in which you are in charge of leading and helping others achieve whatever goals you or they have set for themselves. However, many people are confused about what it takes to become an effective, trustworthy leader so it's always good to keep yourself in check and learn helpful tips, like the one presented in this article, to make the right type of progress. Make Sure to Engage People You should learn how to motivate and inspire others to engage their passions, strengths, skills, and creativity in the projects at hand. Do what you can to acknowledge and show appreciation for their contributions and efforts. You should make each team member feel like they did something positive to move the project forward. Don't let good talent go to waste. If someone in your team is greatly contributing to the increase of your company's profits, be sure to promote them, give them a raise, or, if you aren't in a position to do those things, recommend the person to someone who is. If you fail to do this, you might find that that talented, effective and hardworking employee has left for your competitor. Encourage Transparency Being a good leader require from you to always be truthful about the situation. If something isn't working out as planned, make sure to update your team as soon as it happens. If you need to change something, inform them. Your team needs to know what is going on, whether it be good news or bad. Remember that when you're dealing with customers or your employees you have to be ethical at all times. Ethics is a major part in any successful business. When your team knows you are to be trusted, they will do a better job for you. This will also give them a good lead to follow. Master the Art of Delegating To be an effective leader you have to know your own strengths and weaknesses. Delegate responsibilities in areas that you are weak in to a member of your team that excel in them. You'll give him or her a chance to shine, while ensuring that the job is carried out successfully. Real leaders are willing to learn Many great leadership skills don't just befall from a sudden flash of awareness or a great epiphany. Try reading some books on how to be an effective leader, going to business seminars, and talking to other leaders to see what works best for them. Keep in mind that, great ideas can come to anybody, but good leaders take time to study, learn and expand their knowledge. It can take a long time, but the more knowledge you have about proper leadership skills, the better leader you become. Taking action is what will propel you into a great leadership role. Leadership positions are highly fulfilling because you can help other people achieve their goals. It is a very rewarding yet challenging position

That is GREAT but

We had the honour of hosting Marshall Goldsmith at the Asia HRD Congress 2014 Kuala Lumpur recently. Marshall Goldsmith needs no introduction. The author of several best sellers including MOJO: How to Get It, How to Keep It, and How to Get It Back When You Lose It! Was in his usual form. I reproduce here one of his articles: "That Is Great, BUT…" The higher up you go in your organization, the more you need to make other people winners and not make your job about winning yourself. This is a hard concept for people who like to win to grasp. The more successful you become, the more helping others win is how you win! For those in leadership positions, this means closely monitoring how you hand out encouragement and how you “help” others improve. If you find yourself saying, “That is great…” and then dropping the other shoe with a tempering, “BUT” stop yourself before you speak. Take a breath and ask yourself if what you’re about to say is worth it. In most cases it isn’t. If you really want to succeed and encourage others to do the same, try stopping at “great!” This is a challenge even for those who have acknowledged they do this and think they are past it. Let me share a little story with you. A few years ago, I taught a class at a telecom headquarters. One of the men in my class mocked me when I mentioned this problem that so many of us have with “That is great, BUT…” He thought it was easy not to use the words. He was so sure of himself that he offered $100 for each time he used these words. I made a point of sitting with him during our lunch break. I asked him where he was from, and he replied Singapore. “Singapore? I said. “That’s a great city!” “Yea,” he replied, “it’s great, but…” He caught himself immediately, and reached into his pocket for cash, saying, “I just lost $100, didn’t I?” That’s how pervasive this urge to win can be. It creeps into our conversations even when the discussion is trivial, even when we should be hyperaware of our word choices, and even when it might cost us $100. That was a description of the lighter version of those possessing this bad habit. Those who have the more serious version are even more harmful and discouraging. We all know negative people. My wife calls them “negatrons”. These are people who are incapable of saying something positive or complimentary to any of your suggestions. Negativity is their default response. You could walk into their office with the cure for cancer and the first words out of their mouth would be, “Let me explain why that won’t work.” This is the telltale phrase of negativity. It’s emblematic of a need to share negative thoughts, even when they haven’t been solicited. “Let me explain why that won’t work,” is different from adding value—because no value is added. It’s the big, bad brother of “That is great, BUT…” because rather than hiding our negativity under the mask of agreement, it is pure unadulterated negativity under the guise of being helpful. As with “That is great, BUT…” we employ “Let me explain why that won’t work” to establish that our expertise or authority is superior to someone else’s. It doesn’t mean that what we say is correct or useful. It’s simply a way of inserting ourselves into a situation as chief arbiter or senior critic. If you think one or both of these phrases might be your mode of negative operandi, I’d advise you to monitor your statements the moment someone offers you a helpful suggestion. Paying attention to what you say in response to their ideas is a great indicator of how you come across to people. If you find yourself frequently saying, “That is great, BUT…” you know you need to take a breath, pay attention, and stop yourself at “great”!