For the last 15 or so years, I have read numerous business books, many of them acclaimed and bestsellers.  And for the last 15 years that I have been managing, I have tried to apply many of these principles to life and business.

If there is one thing that I have learned, it is that some of what they write works, and some don’t. It is really important to distinguish that at the end, even the best and most logical recommendations only works in some culture, in some industries, or in some specific circumstance with specific people.  It would be pitiful to see a manager trying vainly to apply whatever he read into his business — it won’t work.  The business of management is far more complex than just merely applying a few rules and dogma in a business book - no matter how well written.

One of the particularly strong recommendations in many human resource books is about empowerment.  In fact, it is always a celebrated example how one store empowered their employees to do whatever is needed to make the customer happy — including accepting a returned merchandise and replacing it even if the merchandise was not even bought in the store.  Another example is about hotel employees who go out of their length to service the customer, even giving free upgrades and meals.  In fact, there was one company who celebrated that they have no rulebook or policies, only that its employees use “common sense and judgment.”  The only problem is that common sense is just not so common at all.

I am more inclined to think that in many industries, as well particularly in Asian cultures, people are more happy to work under an environment where things are more defined.  I like better the business advice that, “As a manager, don’t manage your people.  Manage the system that in turn will manage your people. “

In fact, one of the things I keep challenging is actually the rulebook when we were in the plane.  I was in the last row of the seat, which was reclined.  When it was time to land, everybody was asked to straighten up their seats.  I can understand why everybody had to do it, but logically I didn’t think I had to.  I figure that the reason you straighten up your seat is that so anybody at the back will have a better way to exit just in case something goes wrong with the landing, but being in the last row, I felt it did not apply to me.

Ditto with the opening of all windows upon take off and landing.  I believe the reason to do that was so that a plane would be more visible when it lands at night, but then why do we also have to open all the blinds when landing even on the middle of the day?

But then selective application on rules would be too complex for the thousands of flight attendants and millions of passengers.  If you start applying exceptions, then you have to explain why, and people would complain why person A is allowed, and person B not allowed.  So the expedient and fair process is to apply the rule to all  — everybody straightens the seat.  Everybody pulls up their trays.  Everybody don’t use the cell phone upon entering the plane.  Everybody pull up the blinds when told to do so.  Everybody puts on the seat belts when instructed to.  No discretion, no arguments.

Many times, rules in the company are similarly argued.  We don’t know why they are there, and some of them clearly have lost the reason to be there.  But then just like in the airplane, people gain comfort in the presence, rather than absence of rules, and rules do make things much more clear.  Rules like laws, are not perfect, and we should not try to spend too much time to make it so.   At the end, it depends on how it is executed, and implemented, and I guess that will continue to be a challenge, and a reason why great managers or even great parents continue to be a treasure! 

Last friday, amidst the flurry of many business commitments and activities that I have committed and pending, I had to take one morning off to do something that would be considered bizarre and eerie - I had to go to the cemetery together with my relatives, and wash the bones of my departed grandfather and grandmother.

I’m not even sure if this is an Asian or Chinese ritual ( but it can’t be a Western one), as this was the first time I have done it, and actually the first time I heard that it is a practice, but my uncles consulted a geomancer, and it was decided that it was time to reopen the grave, have all grandchildren wash the bones, and rebury the grandparents. It was quite an experience, but it also engenders some philosophical thoughts about where we are, and where we actually will inevitably go. Read the rest of this entry »