the statistics ...

The result of the company wide poll on the employees view of the cash incentive vs. bonus is out ... Out of a total of 1172 employees, all 1110 had agreed to a cash incentive in lieu of the monthly bonus, only 5 disagreed, 33 abstained from polling (indicating their neutrality on any company policy to be made) with the exception of 24 who were not available due to holidays, medical leave, secondment, overseas posting etc.

Learning

My wife & me had a difference in opinion today on how to teach our 9 year old maths. Being the impatient & dotting father, who wants to spent as much quality time doing fun things, I hate to see my son struggling to do his maths problem. My proposed solution was tell him the answer, explain how it gets done and being a smart kid, he will know how to do it the next time and nobody waste any time.
On the contrary, my wife feels that the only way to learn is to do it... she sits down with him, patiently guides & coaches, explaining the mathemathical concepts & theorems, leaves him to do it on his own, comes back and corrects if he makes a mistake ...and work on it problem after problem.
She believes that there is no shortcut to understanding & learning ... my son however doesn't share the same opinion ... I'm the fun dad & she's the strict mom !
I would have to admit however, that maybe she's right ... learning is tough but teaching in the true sense, whether its a child or an adult, is definitely tougher ...

I guess the same applies in engaging the leadership team members ...do I just tell them what I want done ( and get it over with without any stress ) or do we go through an adult learning process ?

TOP or BOTTOM

I sometimes get confused. Almost everyone, all the feedback and the data analysis tells me that the organization's main problem is at the TOP ... it starts with us, the leadership team. As I go around trying to fix the problem at the top, everyone now asks me why I am not addressing the problem at the BOTTOM.

So the question is ... Is the problem at the top or the bottom ?

Do we treat the disease or the symptoms ?

RIGHT or WRONG

Reflecting back, in recent meetings & discussions, it has always been about WHO is right and not about WHAT is right ? We all tend to listen to who is saying rather than what is being said.

We grew up being told that you must listen to your elders because they have wisdom and know the right things to do. Bosses are of course ALWAYS right ... ( and governments & politicians are NEVER wrong )

I guess we all have to stay focus on the facts & the rationale, rather than the rhetoric and the style ...

" Having to be right becomes a barrier to learning & understanding ...for there is no growth without changing, correcting & questioning yourself " John Naisbitt

an inconvenient truth

While watching the repeat of the 79th academy awards recently, it wasn't the best actor or actress, best director or movie that caught my attention this time ... but " Best Documentary ". The documentary which addresses the issue of global warming was aptly titled " an inconvenient truth ".

Whenever we are faced with difficult issues, whether it is about global warming, politics, health or corporate transformation & turnarounds, everyone would rather avoid the facts because the truth hurts especially when it stares at you right in the eyes.

Transformation is about confronting reality and taking the tough issues head-on, no matter how inconvenient it might be ...


" the first responsibility of a leader is to define reality ..." Max DePree

the January accounts are closed !

This week, the January report card was presented and all profit & cost centres had a rude awakening on how each had performed. When reality hits, you either run for cover or hit back hard...

It was great to see how the team reacted ... I see the same familiar faces but they sounded so different, so business like...there was no finger pointing and no blaming. Each Head took accountability of their respective division results and everyone talks about revenues, gross margins, cost accounting and managing costs ( ...the engineers too ). The mood was serious. It was as if there was a sudden realization that the task ahead, to acheive the targeted revenue growth and more than a 100% profit growth was going to be quite daunting.

But what was reassuring to me, was the fact that the team knew what exactly needed to be done, they just have to do it and do it NOW. Can't wait for February and ultimately Q1 results...

It seems everyone's talking the language of business on a day where everybody else was talking the language of love. It was after all Feb 14th ...

" The only thing worse than bad news is LATE bad news "

the hypocrite

" There are 3 signs of a hypocrite: when he speaks, he speaks lies; when he makes a promise, he breaks it, and when he is trusted, he betrays it. " ... Prophet Muhammad ( peace be upon him )

The Indispensable Man

sometime when you're feeling important;
sometime when your ego's in bloom,
sometime when you take for granted,
you're the best qualified in the room.

sometime when you feel that your going;
would leave an unfillable hole;
just follow the simple instruction;
and see how it humbles your soul.

take a bucket and fill it with water;
put your hand in it up to the wrist;
pull it out and the hole remaining;
is a measure of how you'll be missed.

you may splash all you please as you enter;
you can stir up the water galore;
but stop and you'll find in a minute;
that it looks quite the same as before.

the moral in this quait example;
is to do just the best that you can;
be proud of yourself, but remember
there's no indispensable man

by anonymous poet

a crisis of trust ...

people manipulate or distort facts
people withhold information
getting the credit is very important
people spin the truth
new ideas are resisted
mistakes are covered up
most people are involved in the blame game
bad mouthing others is common
there are meetings after meetings
there are many undiscussables
people tend to overpromise & under deliver
people pretend bad things are not happening
the energy level is low
( Description of a low trust organization ... Stephen Covey )

How do you restore trust in an organization ? Just like in any relationship , once trust is broken, can it be restored or is it lost forever ?

" organizations are no longer built on force, but on trust "... Peter Drucker

to blog or not to blog ...

Since the blog site was started a week ago, as a means of putting my thoughts on paper (virtually)and sharing it with everyone, I am glad to see that it has generated enough interest for people to share their thoughts & actually comment openly on the subject raised.

Some people are advising me to shut down the site as it might be too controversial or the comments might be too negative ...after all this is a personal blog site and not the official company newsletter or website ...

But I guess thats what blogging is about, a way for people to express themselves, wrongly or rightly. This is a new experience for me and I guess again a new experience to many of the others who have shared their views.

I believe there are no wrong or right views, only different ones. I believe in looking beyond the tone of the comments, be it positive or negative but to look at the message and I believe in looking beyond the language ( be it english or bahasa as I don't understand the others ), grammar & the tenses of the text but to look at the content.

I guess its ok to blog as long as you keep within the law and not make any seditious statements or reveal anything that could be classified as a secret under the OSA. And as they say whats more important is the intent or the 'niat' that matters

In the worst case, its a good way to de-stress and let out whatever it is that you sometimes keep inside ... until then happy blogging !

" Know Thyself " ... Plato

stakeholders

A group of bankers visited the company today with the purpose of understanding the company more, to find out our future financial needs. It was a good visit but as expected the subject of whether the company was going to be bought over came up. Its just amazes me that our company generates so much interest that people actually bother to talk and speculate about us. And while I was with the bankers, I was receiving smses from a major client who by the way was overseas, wanting to confirm whether there was a re-organization exercise in the company and if so what is to become of some of my direct reports. Again, the interest in what we do in the company by people outside the company can sometime be mind boggling.

I guess the moral of the story is that transformation is not only about owners, shareholders,employees. Its about all the stakeholders including the customers, the bankers, the vendors & from the look of things just about everyone including the general public & the political masters... an interesting thought isn't it ?

" it isn't the change that do you in, it's the transitions " ... William Bridges

Anyone can add a comment now. Just ammended the setting to allow even anonymous comments. Did not realized it was earlier set to registered user only.

simple mathematics

Office
smart boss + smart employee = PROFIT
smart boss + dumb employee = PRODUCTION
dumb boss + smart employee = PROMOTION
dumb boss + dumb employee = OVERTIME

Relationship
smart man + smart woman = ROMANCE
smart man + dumb woman = AFFAIR
dumb man + smart woman = MARRIAGE
dumb man + dumb woman = PREGNANCY

The THUNDER

In the name of Allah, the Beneficient, the Merciful

Lo! Allah changeth not the condition of a folk until they ( first ) change that which is in their hearts ( 13:11 )

found the english translation of Surah Ar-Ra'd

sharing

As a consultant friend of mine always says , its time to think again ...

Employees are paid to do a job. They get paid a salary, an amount equal to the task to be perform in terms of know-how, skills, responsibility, accountability etc. Of course then, some are paid more than others.

Sometimes, the company even trains the employee first because they don't have the skills then takes care of them, pays their medical bills ( and their family members too ), reimburses them for all their expenses incurred in doing the job, gives them allowances, even provides shirts, pants & shoes, makes sure they have a place to eat at work ... employees are commensurated for whatever effort that is asked from them and sometimes a little bit more.

In some case, the individual that is hired performs well in doing their assigned tasks while in other cases they don't deliver results & don't meet expectations.

Overall, the company does good ( not great ) and makes a decent profit and a little bit more ...

The owner of the company agrees to share " the little bit more "

Does he share it equally with every employee ?
Does he share it only with employees from departments that contributed to the profit ?
Does he share it only with employees that have performed above average and not the average or non performers ?
Does he share it only with those that have been loyal to him ?
Does he share it only with those that have been working long with him ?
Does he share it only with employees that matters, and that if these employees leave the company, he would not have a business ?
Does he share it only with those that he had committed to, by saying that if the company makes a profit, he will share it with them or all of them regardless ?
Does he share it with all employees based on their monthly salary that he pays them ?
Does he share it with his other shareholders ?
Does he share it with his company directors ?
Does he share it by investing it back in the company to make sure the business grows ?
Does he share it by investing it back in the company for the welfare of the staff ?
Does he share it with the customer who gave him the business in the first place ?
Does he share it by contributing to a worthwhile & charitable cause as part of his obligation to society ? after all there are a lot of flood victims that he could help ...

or

Does he invest in his salvation and donate it all to a " GODly " cause ?

Never realised that sharing could be so difficult ...

bonus vs cash incentive

As I reached the office, still with the taste of tempura and the aroma of green tea ice-cream, the word was out ...the company would be giving a " pro-rated fixed ringgit cash incentive of significant amount " for every single staff in lieu of the annual bonus, a topic that was discussed at great length earlier by the leadership team.

Who says you need the internet, e-mails & blog sites to spread the word... word of mouth has been proven to be effective and works all the time...anyway, the debate of whether to give a full month bonus based on the employees salary or the pro-rated cash incentive now begins...

" I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody " ... Bill Cosby

ahhh so

One of the group CEOs who just got his dato'ship hosted lunch for everyone at a japanese restaurant after the brief. Again the mood was good and one could feel a sense of belonging. As usual the jokes were plenty but surprisingly golf was not the main topic although the Malaysian Open is just around the corner.

The issues that were raised in the morning were discussed as they were common and every CEO could relate to it; cash flows, procurement etc. The subject of rewards & profit sharing seemed to be the main interest ... maybe Tan Sri was right, we all think alike and money does matter whether you're a clerk or a CEO in the new world ...

" where all think alike, no one thinks very much " ... Walter Lippmann

Happy New Year

Felt the need to start a blog today to document our transformation. A year has gone by and the transformation that was initiated in November 2005 is starting to pick up momentum. Felt good after the briefing to Tan Sri, the new corporate executive directors and the group CEOs this morning. It was the first time the case for change and what we have done to become the " new company " by 2009 was presented to people outside the company.

The mood was good, even Tan Sri was taking notes, the comments constructive and the questions sincere, a desire to understand, a desire to transform ...

Surah Ar-Rad ( Guruh ) Surat ke 13, Ayat 11

" Sesungguhnya Allah tidak merobah keadaan sesuatu kaum sehingga mereka merobah keadaan yang ada pada diri mereka sendiri "