Management Journal - January 2007

Recently, I have attended a talk on positioning and management as a sponsor of all the sound and recording work through my other business of interest with my best friend – CAD Music, a sound production house.

The attendance is an overwhelming full-house, may be due the turn of the New Year where every one is looking for a new and resolved direction or may be the there is a definite niche in a management forum conducted in Cantonese. Whatever the reasons, it is always good to see so many entrepreneurs and senior managers voluntarily intend to further empower themselves in view of the highly competitive global market in a very much flatten world today.

Although the content of the talk is nothing new, the speakers has somewhat managed to present things that we already knew in new perspectives. I was particularly impressed by Mr Gilbert Chu when he presented on the topic of the “Seven Sins of Good Employees” in a theater style depicting the judgment day where he plays the “God”. He cross-examined all the classic examples of “Good Employees” and scrutinizes the relevance of such “Good Employees” in today’s context.

Typically, he challenged the effectiveness of:

• the “Hardworker” with no real contribution to the efficiency of the Company;
• the “Superhelpful” with no focus;
• the “Explainer” with no solution;
• the “Overly Friendly” that scarify the interest of the company for friendship with co-workers;
• the “On-paper Effective” that lacks the initiative to go the extra miles; and
• the “Planner” that invested much time in planning but missing out the critical details in execution.

The most captivating of all is the last category: the sin of a small business owner, who is obviously a “Good Employee” of the Company. The sin committed is a failure to distinguish the three (3) roles played by a business owner as follows:

1. Investor
2. Manager
3. Employee

Obviously, I relate better to this category. Effectiveness of small business owners are curtailed due to the somewhat inherit inability to distinguish these roles. Due to the scale of the operation, the business owner would be required to multitask and play the various roles with different hats.

The Investor is to arrange for finance and to invest in feasible businesses with feasible return, short term or long term, spreading the list;

The Manager is to provide an environment that gets the team towards the various targets set and to meet the expectations of the Investor;

While the Employee is to deliver the results on field as expected by the Manager based on their respective expertise and abilities.

May I now humbly suggest adding also the role of a “Leader” into this list as the Leader is the visionary that set the direction of the Company with ability to identify opportunities beyond his time.  

The inability of a business owner to play these roles separately and effectively is most detrimental to the progress of the company. The obvious symptoms are:

• Because it is the (only) business that you know, it is your belief that such business is feasible but without really looking at the critical numbers for the real feasibility. Would your money better off if you have otherwise invested?
• Because it is the (only) business that you know, you failed to question the relevance of the business today. The need to conform to the norm and past best practices have blunted your critical thinking in making your business more efficient for today challenges with today’s ever-changing technologies.
• Because of the fear to losing it all, you tend to be more conservative thus not inclined to take calculated risk, thus not innovative enough to compete in today’s world.
• You start to think and act like your Employees, as that the easiest way for you to feel comfortable in your management green house. Thus, any of the sins of the “Good Employees” listed above can happen to you.

I do hope that we can all learn through this realization even if you are not a business owner. The last thing you need is to be in denial of such facts as your business cannot sustain your reluctance. Therefore, I must admit my inadequacies in playing these roles in the past and resolved to improve myself as an effective business owner.

Meanwhile, here are some foods for thought as I was reflecting on 2006 and chartering into 2007:

• My close friends would know that I enjoyed being in a low temperature environment. I would never complain about chillness but would not tolerate a moment without my air-conditioner on. In doing that, you would have forgotten how well was the feeling of the hot and adoring sweat lining on your skin and more dangerously, you don’t even know your “engine” is overheating. It’s kind of the like the Jewish folklore of “the frog in the slowly boiling pot”.       
• It is not easy to build, but it is easy to throw it all away. Perhaps, the reason why it is easy to throw away is because the foundation is not good when you built it!
• “Pride” is a fatal disease today as it tends to drive non-transparency in any organization. Cultivate a culture of sharing, never afraid to seek help and admit shortcomings in this age of speed. It is perfectly ok to say “I don’t know” rather than pretending that you knew while not doing anything about it. Let’s remove “pride” out of our dictionary.
• Backyard management is essential. Housekeeping must be in order!
• As I arrived in the new Bangkok airport, I finally confirm a lingering thought in mind all this while. ID and architecture actually reflects the trend of the community of the material time. Bare and open concept with a lot of glass panels used is now a prevailing building trend as it is in tune with the world today that celebrate high degree of transparency; prevailing of effective functionality rather than elaborative frills; high competition that drive the need of visibility; and the need of “Shouting” in the highly transparent world.  If you are not laud enough, you will be overlooked.
• My Air-Asia flight to Bangkok (and return) is highly commendable as it left on-time and arrived ahead of schedule. Impressively, there were some Guest Service Officers greeting us as we board the plane. Interestingly, where are these officers during my recent delay flight to Macau (and return)? Lesson No.1 on effective PR: SHOUT the achievement; black out the unpleasant! Well done, Tony! Looking forward to “Now everyone can fly X-tra Long!”

In essence, CA has decided to expand as a move forward. Our theme for the 1st quarter is simply “Quality! Quality! Quality!”