Entries Tagged 'Entrepreneurship' ↓

Kishore Mahbubani on discussing the position of China in respect of taking world leadership, seems to think that China for the next decades will not take the lead top seat in the affairs of the globe. He quotes the wisdom of Deng Xiaping and thinks that China has still have much grounds to cover in its internal matters to want to spare its energy to dominate world affairs.

Lessons from Mr. Deng Xiaping, who had a lot of political wisdom for his successors to follow. Much of it is captured in the famous 28 characters that Deng used:

1. Lengjing guancha- observe and analyse (developments) calmly;

2. Chenzhuo yingfu- deal (with changes) patiently and confidently;

3. Wenzbu zhenjiao- secure (our own) position;

4. Taoguang yanghui- conceal (our) capabilities and avoid the limelight;

5. Shanyu shouzhou- be good at keeping a low profile;

6. Juebu dangtou- never become a leader;

7.yousuo zuowei- strive to make achievements.

I fancy very much the lessons from Deng in world politics. They could well apply to each individual in our respective sphere of business. I like this sense of humility, discretion and conscious will to keep a low profile- which is very much a Hakka temperament I would like to believe. I could see my Grandfather using these same words.

Our tainted western education would contradict point 5,- be good at keeping a low profile, as we tend to think that we have to be recognised for our worth. When dealing with Chinese businesses in my dates in the Fareast, I could sense the marked difference between a Cantonese or Shanghainese influenced business where boasting on the past successes  and a show of power were more important that striving diligently to make achievements with humility.

I recalled the grand welcome my boss and I had by a Hong Kong firm to start discussing cooperation in the 70’s . We were received in a hired Rolls Royce and transported to a posh hotel and entertained lavishly.  It was a show  of the prosperity that the said firm was enjoying and the power, influence  and capacity they commanded. Two days later, realizing  that we were still undecided to sign in on their terms, they flatly terminated the talks and did not even show us how to hail a taxi to get our hotel.

I had the great pleasure of reading “RETHINK” by Ric Merrifield. It is a business manifesto to cost cutting and innovation. Is not what we need especially in this era of shrinking economy and fast change? I find the approach of the author simple & easy to understand. He refers to the fundamental questionings: the WHATS & the HOWS. In a nutshell, he suggests focusing on the  ‘Whats’ to be out of the trap of the ‘Hows’.

This precisely fits in with the ongoing discussions I was having with Olivier the last week. The software engineering part of his business concerns more the HOWs, he has to look into more of the WHATs. Easier said than done!

In Rethink, consultant and business architect Ric Merrifield challenges business

leaders to open their eyes and view the operation of their companies in a whole

new way, free from the “how” trap of concentrating on how things are accomplished.

Delving deep into every aspect of business activities, Merrifield shows

readers how to escape this trap by looking past the “how” toward the “what.” He

also illustrates how successfully rethinking business goals and the methods used to

reach them can lead to revolutionary new ways to cut costs and optimize the corporate

structure.

Never has there been a more important time for company leaders to re-evaluate

and reorganize their operations to maximize efficiency and productivity.

Merrifield explains how successful changes to a company’s business processes can

only come from learning to predict potential behaviors, identify and categorize the

important “whats” by value.

Merrifield also warns that before making any modifications, even to a seemingly

low-value process, each factor must be carefully examined to find its connection

to high-value “whats.” These connections are often overlooked because they

can be hidden in personal, emotional or technological relationships and, if severed,

can bring disaster.

By using the tools of analysis illustrated by Merrifield, businesses will be able

to anticipate the unexpected discoveries that will result from rethinking and will

be able to rethink, find innovative new ways to achieve their “whats,” best their

competition and increase profitability.

I enjoyed the analysis of Ric’s account of ING direct USA strategy to rethink on retail banking.

The last time I was in Barcelona to join a Cruise, I was amazed by the Cruise terminal and the set up of the Port Terminal. Since traveling to the less prosperous countries of South America, I had the opportunity of using and testing more modest facilities.

In the Indian Ocean region, whilst Mauritius is the star Tourist destination, is it possible to build up Port Louis to be the  main hub of Cruise liners by setting up the appropriate facilities?

With the improving technologies with the latest  cruise ships, the ride could be as calm as in the Caribbean region. The Indian Ocean of our region would well be developed into a cruise ocean. This could well be a regional project spearheaded by ‘Commission de L’Ocean Indien.’ Adequate part facilities could be coordinated to be ready to allow cruises to operate in Mauritius, Reunion, Comoros, and ports of Madagascar.

One could very easily image the ripple effects that Cruise liners have on the economy of the countries?

We just need to have the vision and to go for it. Let us hope the right quarters can hear my plead.

My thoughts, this morning are still digesting the text I read last night from Kishore Mahbubani on the need to be open-minded and pragmatic.On the other hand, I would encourage you to read the life path of Deng Xiaoping from whom we can take lessons.

At the beginning of the twenty first century, as we enter into one of the most intense period of change experienced by humanity, America is abandoning its pragmatist streak when it needs it most. We are moving into very uncertain political and economic terrains. It would be foolish to assume that the western ideological assumptions of the 19^th and twentieth century will necessarily work in the twenty first century. It would be wiser to keep an open mind and to challenge every ideological assumption embedded in our minds. Pragmatism is the best guiding spirit we can as we have as we venture into the new century. It is therefore only appropriate to quote once again the greatest pragmatism of the twentieth century, Deng Xiaoping: ‘it does not matter whether a cat is black or white; if it catches mice, it is a good cat.’

I cannot prevent me to flash back to my grandfather with whom I had the great privilege to have been closed to during his retirement years when he took up the projects of looking after the repairs and maintenance of some of the family properties. It was precisely his open-minded thinking and pragmatism that struck me. In his own words he told me: do not be ideological, understand the underlying principles of any theory then apply them in your practice using your good sense. Good thinking is through good questioning and hard work.

How I would have loved to think that these open-mindedness and pragmatism are traits of Hakkas?

Corporate Social Responsibility seems to be now  a buzz word in Mauritius. The government would like to see the involvement of the private sector in shouldering the burden of the social pains. Is not the responsibility of the government to look into this aspect through the ministry of social affairs? It would appear that by lowering the taxes, the government would be introducing some other types of revenue earning devises through compulsory payment. Is it fair or not? At this stage I would stay on the fence. We have still to evaluate the use of the compulsory tax levied on training and the benefits derived from it. How can we break the ingrained mentality that is prevailing in the public sector that tenure is over riding productivity?

However, this article which was published on the Guardian in January 2009 is enlightening and has some food for thoughts. Is it possible to start Social enterprises in Mauritius?

Think bigger and better

Social enterprise is not just about tiny community projects: it is a model for running big business and public services alike

Have you noticed how everybody talks about us as if the words “charity” and “competence” don’t go together? This indicates to me that the first battle for social enterprise is a psychological one. I would like to think that companies such as Unilever, Shell and BP could be social enterprises – and that anyone running a social enterprise should aspire to be good enough to run organisations like that well.

It is my view that there are a number of private businesses that should be social enterprises: water, energy maybe, and railways?

One of the real big cons about social enterprise is that there is a belief that the private sector is rigorous and professional and dynamic. But many of the best charities are run like very, very fine businesses, and a lot of companies I come across are run like accidents.

Innovation comes from the confidence to trust your instincts, having the bravery not to believe that hidden in the endless array of business management manuals is the secret to being Gordon Gekko. The truth is that they are all bibles, they are all motherhood and apple pie, and they are all bollocks. When you read The Harvard MBA in 10 Days, it does not tell you anything about attitude. But it is attitude and values that should distinguish a social enterprise.

Transformative power

Social enterprise is hugely important, but we need to be more bullish about its potential – to understand its transformative power, not in terms of getting jobs for people who previously found it difficult. That’s kind of a loser’s mentality. What we should be about is talking about how we can transform services in this country to act efficiently and how we can bring wealth back to a wider stakeholder group.

We’ve got to get the news out to the people about social enterprises, but there is no definition of a social enterprise. The soppy one is: it is an organisation with the rigour of the private sector and the citizenship values of the public sector. But the real battle for us is to think of rules of engagement that can actually bring that welding power of private and public together for a greater good.

Last year I spoke at the 40th anniversary of Resurgence magazine, and asked the audience if they believed that everybody on Earth should have access to clean drinking water. They all put their hands up. I asked them who supported WaterAid, a fabulous charity, and almost everybody put their hands up. Then I asked who believed WaterAid could provide clean drinking water to everybody on Earth. Nobody put their hands up. I laid into the audience. I said: “The problem is you’re in love with hippie shit.”

The truth is that the very organisations that make your tummy turn, because your politics suggest you shouldn’t be supporting them, are the only people capable of it. Shell, ExxonMobil: these companies have the project management, the drilling skills to actually do this stuff.

That is our battle ground. It’s to grow up and not take the baggage of the 60s – the radical chic of being pro-business or anti-business – with us into the next phase of our development. We need to understand that there is a new configuration developing, and if we can’t bring business together with the sort of value driven systems that we have, that will be our failure.

So if we are going to talk about innovation, the starting proposition is to leave some of that old baggage behind, and not to demonise any particular sector, but to look at how we can do things better.

Eden is a social enterprise, which we built out of innocence. We were fortunate that it was in a place of great deprivation, which meant there was a predisposition in government officers who were looking after that area to look at anything that might bail us out of a really awkward situation. But it was built completely out of innocence. I went to the local development committee and said I had this great idea to build the eighth wonder of the world [in Cornwall]. I had no business plan, but said they had to believe me that it was going to be absolutely fantastic. They gave me £25,000 to go away. Then I raised a bit more money, and very soon we had a little fighting pot and went to see the Millennium Commission. It, eventually awarded us half of the then project cost of £74m.

We brought the Eden Project in on time and on budget, and have since invested £130m.

If you were to ask me, if you were to put a rusty razorblade to my throat and say, you have one minute to say why you did it, it would be that we wanted to find the most derelict place on Earth and create life in it. We then wanted to show how clever human beings are, by building something totally fit for purpose, which I hope we did.

I wanted to run a place that had the values of sustainability. We do fantastic local sourcing – 90% of everything we consume at Eden is locally sourced, our waste strategy is highly regarded, waste neutral. It is a lot easier than people say. But ultimately, I wanted to see how we could answer the question, what does a great place to work feel like?

Piddling little things

Our social enterprise at Eden cost £130m and has already put £800m back into the Cornish economy – which is more than double the entire money that has come from Europe for the whole of the south-west. So to think of social enterprises as being piddling little things that you have to talk about in hushed library tones is nonsense.

All over the country, as a result of the climate change debate, there is going to be an opportunity for starting new energy companies that will link agricultural production with all sorts of different aspects of the economy. These drivers of energy are fantastic areas for social enterprise. And they’re social because if you set them up regionally then everyone who lives in that region is likely to buy their energy from that company, and if they know that their purchases will create profits that can be used to pay for social benefits in those areas, it is a wonderful virtuous circle that means the revenue is going back to stakeholders, and so on.

I think it’s fantastically exciting, because we can do it and it works. I think social enterprise is the future model for organising our collective state assets.

· Tim Smit is chief executive and co-founder of the Eden Project in Cornwall. This is an edited extract from his speech to the Social Enterprise Coalition Voice 07 conference last week.

I was so excited yesterday to read the Special Report of Soundview on The Brain Behind Business: How the New Neuroscience Is Changing Leadership.

Two of my favourite themes, leadership and Neuroscience, were combined, for my pleasure. My mind was so to say, reformatted instantly as I read through the document, especially at this time, when I was diligently preparing the NLP practitioner Group’s material for discussions.

The new discoveries in Neuroscience cast a new light on the functioning of the Brain, which in some cases affirming to the long time practices of human in leadership skills and in other cases dispelling others. But perhaps more importantly they are bringing in hereto new practices.

The social aspect of the Brain is now a new term and its discovery is being developed. Interestingly enough I am wondering on the break throughs that are possible with the development of Social networks and collective intelligence brought by the Face book, YouTube, flickr, and the like.

The Neuroscience of Leadership

In 2006,Strategy+Business magazine published a groundbreaking article titled “The Neuroscience of Leadership” by David Rock,CEO of Results Coaching Systems, and Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz. Rock is a management coach and the author of Quiet Leadership: Six Steps to

Transforming Performance at Work, Personal Best and Your Brain at Work, which will be published in October 2009. Schwartz isa research psychiatrist at the School of Medicine at the

University of California, LosAngeles, whose books include The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force and Brain Lock :Free Yourself from Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior.

In the story for Strategy+Business, Rock and Schwartz explain how many companies, such as Toyota and Springfield Remanufacturing Corp, have been able to create successful

business models by tapping into corporate practices that “resonate deeply with the innate predispositions of the human brain.”

Rock and Schwartz point out that 20 years of neuroscience research have given scientists and psychologists a better perspective on the ways people consciously and subconsciously

act and respond to their environments.

They write: “Imaging technologies such as functional magnetic resonance imaging

(fMRI) and positron emission tomography (PET), along with brain wave analysis technologies such as quantitative electroencephalography (QEEG) have revealed hitherto unseen neural connections in the living human brain.”

With the help of the latest breakthroughs in computer analysis, researchers have been able to link their theoretical work with the brain and the ways it thinks, feels, responds and perceives.

According to Rock and Schwartz, here are six things the latest research by neuroscientists can teach managers and executives about the art and craft of leadership:

1. Change can be painful because it can trigger physiological discomfort.

2. Behaviorism, “based on typical incentives and threats (the carrot and the stick),” doesn’t work for very long.

3. Constructive performance feedback, which means, “Politely tell people what they are doing

wrong,” doesn’t engage people.

4. Paying attention creates chemical and physical reactions in the brain.

5. Our expectations and preconceptions shape our reality.

6. Repeated, purposeful and focused attention can lead to long-lasting personal evolution.

The Social Nature of the Brain

Since the publication of “The Neuroscience of Leadership,” Rock continues to explore and write about what leaders can learn from new brain research. He has been fascinated by the latest discoveries in the social nature of the brain.

In an exclusive interview, Rock says that a major shift has taken place in the way neuroscientists understand how attention changes the brain. He explains,

“What we are seeing now is that attention is so much a function of the social environment. The brain is attuned to avoid social threats, like a drop in status; and to achieve social rewards, like a sense of connectedness with people.

The big surprise has been that the brain networks for social pain and pleasure use very similar networks for physical threats and rewards. This means that Maslow was kind of wrong—to the

brain, the social is as important as the physical.”

How do you know that you do not know when you do not know?

Thanks to Mind tools I can now share this literature which I was aware of many years back. Excellent tools to use to build up confidence and self esteem.

Creating Better Understanding Between Individuals and Groups

The Johari Window is a communication model that can be used to improve understanding between individuals within a team or in a group setting. Based on disclosure, self-disclosure and feedback, the Johari Window can also be used to improve a group’s relationship with other groups

Developed by Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham (the word “Johari” comes from Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham), there are two key ideas behind the tool:

1. That individuals can build trust between themselves by disclosing information about themselves; and
2. That they can learn about themselves and come to terms with personal issues with the help of feedback from others.

By explaining the idea of the Johari Window to your team, you can help team members understand the value of self-disclosure, and gently encourage people to give and accept feedback. Done sensitively, this can help people build more-trusting relationships with one another, solve issues and work more effectively as a team.

Explaining the Johari Window:

The Johari Window model consists of a foursquare grid (think of taking a piece of paper and dividing it into four parts by drawing one line down the middle of the paper from top to bottom, and another line through the middle of the paper from side-to-side). This is shown in the diagram below:

Using the Johari model, each person is represented by their own four-quadrant, or four-pane, window. Each of these contains and represents personal information – feelings, motivation – about the person, and shows whether the information is known or not known by themselves or other people.

The four quadrants are:

Quadrant 1: Open Area

What is known by the person about him/herself and is also known by others.

Quadrant 2: Blind Area, or “Blind Spot”

What is unknown by the person about him/herself but which others know. This can be simple information, or can involve deep issues (for example, feelings of inadequacy, incompetence, unworthiness, rejection) which are difficult for individuals to face directly, and yet can be seen by others.

Quadrant 3: Hidden or Avoided Area

What the person knows about him/herself that others do not.

Quadrant 4: Unknown Area

What is unknown by the person about him/herself and is also unknown by others.

The process of enlarging the open quadrant vertically is called self-disclosure, a give and take process between the person and the people he/she interacts with.

As information is shared, the boundary with the hidden quadrant moves downwards. And as other people reciprocate, trust tends to build between them.

Using the Tool:

The process of enlarging the open quadrant horizontally is one of feedback. Here the individual learns things about him- or her-self that others can see, but he or she can’t.

If anyone is interested in learning more about this individual, they reciprocate by disclosing information in their hidden quadrant.

For example, the first participant may disclose that he/she is a runner. The other participant may respond by adding that he/she works out regularly at the local gym, and may then disclose that the gym has recently added an indoor jogging track for winter runners.

As your levels of confidence and self-esteem rises, it is easier to invite others to comment on your blind spots. Obviously, active and empathic listening skills are useful in this exercise.

The Johari Window in a Team Context

Keep in mind that established team members will have larger open areas than new team members. New team members start with smaller open areas because little knowledge about the new team member has yet been shared. The size of the Open Area can be expanded horizontally into the blind space, by seeking and actively listening to feedback from other group members.

Group members should strive to assist a team member in expanding their Open Area by offering constructive feedback. The size of the Open Area can also be expanded vertically downwards into the hidden or avoided space by the sender’s disclosure of information, feelings, etc about himself/herself to the group and group members.

Also, group members can help a person expand their Open Area into the hidden area by asking the sender about himself/herself. Managers and team leaders play a key role here, facilitating feedback and disclosure among group members, and by providing constructive feedback to individuals about their own blind areas.

Key Points:

In most cases, the aim in groups should be to develop the Open Area for every person.

Working in this area with others usually allows for enhanced individual and team effectiveness and productivity. The Open Area is the ‘space’ where good communications and cooperation occur, free from confusion, conflict and misunderstanding.

Self-disclosure is the process by which people expand the Open Area vertically. Feedback is the process by which people expand this area horizontally.

By encouraging healthy self-disclosure and sensitive feedback, you can build a stronger and more effective team.

Feed back

What did I enjoy?

What I learned today?

having experienced today what do I need to change for the next session?

Lilian Berthelot signe un magnifique livre sur Sir Jean Etienne Moi Lin Ah Chuen. Ce document a été présenté lors une réception la semaine dernière le 12 aout 2009, a l’occasion de la transformation de sa demeure au 5 Rue Révérend Lebrun, Rose-Hill en une maison de souvenir pour sa famille et le public.

Par des interviews des différentes personnes qui ont été proches de Sir Jean E. M. L. Ah Chuen, et par le recueil des photographies et autres documents, Lilian Berthelot retrace la riche carrière de ce grand tribun Mauricien qui a marqué l’histoire de Maurice.

Dès ma jeunesse, je connaissais Sir Jean, car il était un ami de la famille. Par ailleurs les commerces de chaque famille étaient contigües sur la Rue La Reine à Port Louis. Nos familles étaient très proches.

Adolescent je fréquentais la rue Révérend Lebrun et m’y trouvait souvent avec le fils Marc et Vincent pour des escapades du Collège St Mary’s. Leur maison de Rose Hill été un havre pour quelques copains de classe pour notre détente quand nous étions accordés du temps libre. Nous passions des bons moments en écoutant et en fredonnant les chansons de Ricky Nelson jouées sur leur gramophone.

J’etais meme present pour le mariage de son fils aine Raymond au Plaza. Ce mariage dans un sens, etait signe d’une evolution de la mentalite. Mariage d’un Hakka a une Cantonnaise.

Ce document vient encore une fois de plus, enrichir la mémoire et histoire de notre nation.

This was part of my  yesterday’s reading, which I found interesting enough to share!

The psychological counseling process follows a defined path of steps in a sequence. It is important to follow this process because of the power of human emotions and because of the real need to arrive at a desired outcome of the counseling.

Listening and Observation

The first step is one of active listening and observing the client. Is he or she relaxed or disturbed and agitated? Can eye contact be held or is the person’s attention darting and being deflected everywhere? Is the body language telling you something? Is the body posture generally open or closed and defensive? (Self protective.)

Facing Negative Emotions

Are there any clearly dominant negative emotions such as anxiety, fear, anger or guilt? These will need to be acknowledged and ‘fed back’ to the client as being observable, real events that need to be dealt with. Unless these negative feelings are actively confronted, no progress can be made with behavior modification and with goal setting. This task of providing feedback on negativity and bringing strong emotions into the light of day may take a considerable amount of time over several one hour sessions. Statements like, ‘I see you are really angry about something’ can be helpful. Also, ‘so you’ve been worrying a lot lately.’

Positive Suggestion and Options

Some suggestions like, ‘you can do something about this,’ may be timely and empowering. Build up the perception of skills and self esteem. ‘You have real ability and you can learn more skills to beat this thing. Deep inside, you can imagine now and think up some solutions.’

‘What are the options facing you?’ leads to a creative brainstorming with the client about how to start moving towards a lasting solution.

Goal Setting

‘So what do you really want?’ becomes the start of finding goals that really follow the interests and desires of the client. The question, ‘what would you need to do first?’ leads to sub goals and tasks that must be fulfilled in order to achieve the primary goal. The counselor’s goal is to draw this information out of the person instead of imposing one’s values and beliefs.

Reinforcement

Systematically rewarding all progress including any ‘baby steps’ taken in the right direction; i.e., towards the agreed upon goals. Reward in this context of counseling means giving the person your focused attention, acceptance, approval and praise. These social rein forcers are very potent in supporting changes in behaviour.

Conclusion

As you are beginning to realize, counselling techniques are not particularly complicated, but they do need to follow a set order or sequence. In fact, psychological counselling may be summarized in two rather direct questions:

1. ‘How are you feeling?’

2. ‘What do you want?’

The psychology here looks at first glance to be oversimplified, but is it really? Results will follow when this sequence is used with the appropriate sensitivity and empathy. Take care with other people and always remember to consult a trained and registered health practitioner when confronting mental health problems of severity, when human life may be at risk. This article is provided for educational purposes only. It is not intended for therapeutic application.

Grace Miller has put together a complimentary report on public speaking that gives special techniques to cure even the worst nerves.