MCO Extended and Companies Are Screaming

Since my last post, the Movement Control Order (MCO) has been extended twice by the Malaysian Government. We will need to stay at home until 28th April 2020 in order to stop the spread of COVID-19 which has been infected more than 1.6 million people worldwide and claims more than a hundred thousand lives.

Yes, we can understand that there is a big economical impact on businesses worldwide and many people now lost their jobs due to the closure of factories and operations. People are not allowed to go out and it directly affects the consumptions. If we look at the model of National Income, consumptions and productions are highly affected now which leads to a sharp decline in Gross National Income, or we like to measure in the form of Gross Domestic Production (GDP).

We can make it and back to where we stopped before the pandemic.

But come to think about it. what is really happening in a business organization? When a business cannot operate for a period of time for the safety of everyone, is this going to be the end of the world or the world economy will just collapse, dead and that's it? You mean ALL companies will be dead?

Of course not!

Similar to the pandemic of COVID-19 which infected millions of people. Despite the high mortality rate in some countries, it didn't kill everyone. There are thousands of recovered cases around the world. So why some managed to recovered and some not? Medical reports show that patients with health complications have a high mortality rate and those who are healthier have a higher chance of recovery. It means if we are healthy and more strengths to fight with this virus, we may recover but if we are weak and with health issues, we have a lower chance of survival.

Moment of Truth

This is the moment of truth for all the bosses and management teams out there. If a company now needs to cut pay or even close down, it means a lot about the health and sustainability of this company. A well-managed business should have anticipated the threats of macro-environmental factors (PESTLE) and continuously built the strengths or minimizing its weaknesses. The same goes for governments and individuals. This pandemic is a real test to examine our sustainability and survival.

Think about SWOT analysis, blue ocean strategy, competitive advantage, financial sustainability, portfolio management, risk management, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and even corporate governance. At a time like this, we will know which companies have been practicing strategic management effectively and which did not. Eventually, those that are poorly managed before the pandemic will be struggling now to sustain and most probably, they will still suffering even without COVID-19. This is the time for us to identify which companies have strengths to turn the threats into opportunities and which are just too weak to be taken over or have to be disinvested.

We can continue to worry and find ways to cut costs or even closing down businesses, or we can choose to think positively and move forward to start a paradigm shift. Cutting staff or salary is not the only way to survive. If we managed to survive this pandemic, we need to have a drastic change. Management must reflect on how they have been managing their team and businesses in the past, which leads to sustainable issues now... Do not penalize your staffs due to MCO, think of what you have done all these while!

What People Say This Week: Instagram Co-Founders RESIGNED

What People Say This Week?
This is what people talks about this week and I think we all have a lot to say about it too. Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger have resigned from the Facebook-owned company.

Image source: https://mobil.sk/static/article/2018/09/5ba9f42fbeffa/thumbnail/938x452.jpg

But why?
Instagram CEO Systrom and Krieger said they want to explore their "curiosity and creativity again". In a statement by Systrom, he said that after eight years at Instagram and six years with the Facebook team, “building new things requires that we step back, understand what inspires us and match that with what the world needs; that’s what we plan to do.”

So, what say Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg?
He had learnt a lot from working with Systrom and Krieger for the past six years and was “looking forward to seeing what they build next”.

Some Facts:

• Instagram is a popular social media site that has been growing rapidly since Facebook acquisition in 2012 for $1bn. 
• Systrom and Krieger are not the first to quit under Facebook-owned businesses this year. WhatsApp chief executive and co-founder Jan Koum, quit earlier this year. Brian Acton and Mr Koum co-founded WhatsApp in 2009, before selling it to Facebook in 2014 for $19bn. The reason being Koum had clashed with parent company Facebook over WhatsApp's strategy. He objected to Facebook attempts to use WhatsApp's personal data and weaken its encryption standards.

Choesay Conclusion
It is easy to begin a relationship but maintaining it is toughest. Innovators are filled with creativity. They see things from all different directions. It is not uncommon that disagreement and differences in views exists when creative people gets together. As such, we can see the reason for Systrom and Krieger to quit is due of growing tensions with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg over the direction in which the company is moving.

There is a Chinese proverb that says "一山不容二虎 (One Mountain Cannot Contain Two Tigers)". Meaning, in an area, there cannot be two very strong personality people leading. Just like in a mountain, there will only be one king, one tiger.

What say you?

Source: Instagram co-founders resign to explore ‘creativity again’

Checking for Errors - Why Bother?

Is checking for errors important? Why bother for the process and normally, takes longer time to execute a task? There must be a reason and this is why.

At a glance, this promotional panel at GSC Pavilion KL for the upcoming Life (2017) movie looks great with good printing resolution.

However, when I take a closer look, I got confused with who is Ryan Reynolds and Rebecca Ferguson. They designer got mixed up with the two main stars in the movie.

Errors like this do happen and it is very common but the implication of some errors can be fatal!

Is this the designer fault to allow such error to occurs? Maybe but they cannot be blamed for everything. Sometime it could be due to the constraint of time to push things out for production and there is no checking in the entire process - from the person who provides the information, the designer who didn't check or ignorance, the superior who need to approve the artwork (if any), the printer, production, and lastly the personnel at the cinema.

Anyway, we all make mistakes. If only there is compliance to a proper control process, personnel who are more alert or maybe more time were given to designer (whom might be too exhausted with too many deadlines to fulfill until their quality is being compromised), the error could have been corrected before it goes public.

Somehow, I belief in this: "Fast, Good and Cheap - we can only pick TWO". What say you?

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?

New Horse Year 2014

Today is a very special, the first day of a new Horse year. I would like to wish everyone a Happy Chinese New Year, with the best of health and wealth throughout the year.

With all the emerging forces around us, this year may be as challenging as in the past; and could be more turbulent that ever. We should stay focused, and know exactly what we want to do to achieve our goals. Cari makan could be tough, so stay put, be consistent, focus on your goals, build your capability and be aware of the changes in the environment. Be different!!!

Good luck!

The Problem is, the Problem!

Many people may think that a good leader should anticipate the problem before it exist and operates in a way to prevent the problem to exist. However, can we really do that? Can we really anticipate problems and prevent it to happen? I don't think so...
There are many things in our life that we cannot have any control at all. Most of the problems that we encountered were hardly anticipated. That's life!
So, what do we need to do in our daily life? Instead of thinking of how to anticipate and prevent from any problems, why not we learn to solve a problem more effectively and efficiently? Yes, we should anticipate for better skills and knowledge to solve our problems, and not just to spend our time to think of what problems that might exist in our daily life.
I personally think that one should know how to identify the root cause of a problem in order to solve it effectively and efficiently. More thoughts should be given on developing our critical thinking skills and further enhance our knowledge in various aspects. We just need to improve our intellectual mind and train our positive attitude towards problem. With that, we should be able to handle all kinds of problems in life and remain optimistic of our future.
As such, don't waste time to worry about what might happen (uncontrollable) but focus on strengthening yourself (controllable) to handle a problem, when it exist!
Think positive as nothing cannot be solve if we know what is the root cause of the problem!
Cheers!