Talent Management Lesson learned in Star Wars Movies - Talent Acquisition and Retention

I like to get new inspiration from blockbuster film and comic and apply it to my teaching. One of my favourites is Star Wars. There are various management lessons that can be taught based on this film. Today, we shall explore Talent Management! - This is the story of how a Jedi, Anakin Skywalker joined the Dark Side and turned into Darth Vader.

Anakin Skywalker (Before he became Darth Vader) was deemed too young to lead an army or to voice his opinions, hence he was sidelined by the more elderly Jedi Council (Like a council of elders). However, Emperor Palpatine is the only leader who would listen to his views and gave him respect.

The Emperor then gave Anakin a lot of promises where if he had switched to the Dark Side of the Force, he would be granted the Empire's fleets to command, thus seeing empowerment and expectancy as drivers to motivate Anakin. The Emperor educated him in the Dark Ways of the Force, listened to him and had promised him that he would be made the 'Supreme Commander' of the Empire. Most importantly, The Emperor kept his promise.

As a result, Anakin became Darth Vader. A talented young Jedi Knight who failed to be recognized and retained by the Jedi Council.

If applied to a business organisation today, we should learn how to identify the talents, recognize and groom them - talent development. Perhaps a simple model like Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs could explain the basis of motivation in attracting and retain good talents. However, in reality, how many organisation (the management) is able to recognize and retain talents? what have they done? Even the great Jedi Master failed to retain Anakin, a young talented apprentice because of fear over prophecy.

To all the Managers out there, manage your talent well before they leave you and join your competitors - From A New Hope to The Empire Strike Back! Do not fear the talents as they will help you and your business to grow. To some extent, at least the bad guys are more open to talents with skills that are lacking in themselves. I am not saying that joining the dark side or becoming bad guys are better but they are really good at giving opportunities to talents, fast track training and development, empowerment, and motivation. Just like in Star Wars, their talent management initiatives are very well executed.

What say you?

US President Obama in Bukit Bintang Kuala Lumpur

Free Digital Television Broadcast in Malaysia for B40

Are you a subscriber to any television broadcast provider now?

Currently, Astro, the Malaysian direct broadcast satellite pay TV provider dominating the has the most subscribers. With the expansion of Internet coverage and faster bandwidth, there are are others Internet-based TV broadcast channel such as the TM HyppTV and Tonton.com that offers TV subscription channels to Malaysian.

Recently, MYTV Broadcasting Sdn Bhd (MYTV) announced that they will be offering the Digital Terrestrial Television Broadcasting (DTTB) service to all Malaysian for free, starting next year. To enjoy this service, users will need to get a decoder or 'Top Box' set (iDTV) with the DTTB Receiver Consumer Label (DTTB Malaysia) from the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).  Then, the user will have to connect the decoder to the portable indoor antenna (included in the decoder package) or use the existing antenna fixed at rooftop to enjoy the DTTB service.

According to the news from TheStar online (3/11/2015), viewers will get to enjoy better quality, more channels and interactive television services with DTTB.

FREE!!! So what is the catch??

Here is it: the decoders would be distributed free to 'eligible' households, comprising those in the B40 income group. So who are these eligible B40 income group? According to the 11th Malaysian Plan (11MP), B40 group consist of Malaysian households with an average monthly household income of RM2,537.

There you go, the FREE TV for Malaysian!

Do you think this sort of investment is feasible? Are you eligible? Do you want the decoder?
What say you???

Haze Season?

For the past few years, haze has been a norm to many of us in Malaysia and Singapore. I don't remember anything like this 20 years ago but it is not getting more frequent and consistent. Every year starting from July/August until October (this year, news reported that it will last until November 2015), there will be the same issue that threatening our health, THE HAZE.

Maybe for some other countries, it is nothing serious (because their air pollution indexes are much more higher/worse than us), but it is not a good sign for everyone in this planet.

Do we need to live in the world of polluted air for years to come? What would be the threats to our health in long-term? Who is responsible? With the state of the art technology today, can't this be avoided? If the planet is sick, we all will be affected too...can anyone do something? Will this phenomena be classified as a new season for our country - Haze Season?

What say you?

David Beckham and Kevin Hart as TWINS in H&M film

Well, we all know that David Beckham is a talented English footballer and a smart looking fashion icon. What about Kevin Hart? An American actor and comedian (do you remember Scary Movie 3?).

Can you see any connection between the two? They have teamed up in a short film for H&M new campaign: The H&M Modern Essentials.

Watch the film and ask yourself, can you see the connection? What say you?

Product Placement 2: Kingsmen The Secret Service (2015)

It is getting more popular for major brands to use movies as their channel of advertisement. The strategy is very simple - it uses product placement which immerse in the story, character lifestyle and the functionality of their products so that the audiences learn and accept the brands and products subconsciously. The intention is the reach the mass market through subliminal perception and create a general positive predisposition of like towards the brands and the products. In the past, product placement has been use as the background of selective perception but the recent movies has seen the brands and company taking a more proactive approach of getting into the 'figure' of the scene.

Here is another example of some Product Placement used in the movie - Kingsmen The Secret Service (2015):

#1: Adidas

#2: McDonald's - Happy Meal and Big Mac being mentioned in the conversation too!

#3: Bremont - a British watch maker developed three "limited edition models" for this movie.

#4: Lenovo - laptop

So, when you are watching a movie, you are also being exposed to "Subliminal Perception" too. Enjoy!

Previous Post on Product Placement: Transformers, Age of Extinction

Changing the Competitive Landscape: Again

Tracking back on the introducing of Low Cost Carrier (LCC), it was not long ago that the air travelers segment seeking for a cheaper alternative to mobilize. In Asia, the first low cost airline, Air Asia introduces no frills air fares to tap into this segment of the market with the tagline, "Now, everyone can fly". 

Now, there are Ultra Low Cost Carriers (ULCC) such as Spirit and Ryanair with ala carte pricing strategy. How is it possible?

Simple. If you know what are the changes around you and take advantage of the opportunity it created, bingo! The existence of ULCC was largely based on   the advancement of aviation technology, the global deregulation of air space and changes in the social economical conditions. Combining the big data around us, it is much more easier to identify the fragmented needs of consumer. In short, founder and CEO of La Compagnie, Grants Yvelin claims that his airline can cure two kinds of pain experienced by customes: coach travellers suffers from when travel long haul flight and business class travellers suffers from financial pain (Saporito, 2015).

Able to find a fragmented niche market would allow the firm to gain competitive advantage. These ULCC carriers has pushed the airline industry to the extreme in servicing.

References:
Saporito, B. 2015. Little airlines, big ideas: new models in the skies are flourishing. Time magazine, March 2, 2015 pp. 38-41

A Teacher, An Educator

Are you afraid of your teacher? Why? Are they fierce to you and demanding? But why? If you are a student, what type of teacher do you prefer?

Something happen for a reason and there must be one when an educator is demanding. A demanding teacher can be fierce because they have expectation and they are concern with the output of their job. As a teacher myself, I want to see how my student improves over time and be ready to graduate. I belief that if they graduated, they should be 100% ready to take up the challenge at work. They should also be able to perform as a thinker and problem solver to assist the company to achieve targets. Their superiors should should have peace-of-mind when assigning tasks to the graduates who requires minimum supervision.

When others asked me, why would you bother and make yourself so stressful with your job teaching the kids. I always share with them a story of 'what if'.

What if I allow the students to pass a course that they have not achieve the learning outcomes. Meaning, they have not learned and understanding the content of the course. Basically, the students have not achieve the expected objective of student attributes and skills of the course. What if this student graduated with minimum knowledge and skills, this person may still get a job and start working in a company that expect the graduate to have the knowledge and skills to perform the assigned tasks.What if they failed in the job, making mistakes, and worse scenario causing damages to the company. Some errors made could cost a company with huge losses. 

If this happen, it is partly our fault, the failure to make sure our students are ready and minimizing these risks. We need to have quality control for every production we had and students are our output in the production process of education. Hence, if there are so many people talking about quality control and warranty services, as a teacher, an educator, we are the production staffs and also a quality control officer ourselves.

So, why are we so demanding and looks fierce all the time? Take a look at those QC officers, auditors or those victims of your failure in delivering work...I think they looks worse than a teacher like me.

We are just doing our job for a better society. I am glad my teachers were demanding and fierce to me. Thank you my teachers, you all have taught me well.