When doing interviews, I always asked the person why he left such and such job, and some of the people really came up with great stories and very convenient scapegoats why it did not succeed. I always thought that no matter what situation you are, you always have a hand on your success and failure. A person who blames everybody and every circumstance other than himself may not be a good hire …

An employee who insists that he/she only does what he is hired to do is out of his time. More so for the entrepreneur. A consultant noted that he asked a group of hundreds of accomplished individuals in a seminar how many of the people did only what they were hired to do, and no hands went up. I think that is self evident that what you need to do to succeed can never be defined in the employee handbook, nor anywhere else.

I must admit I hold a growing respect for the governor of our province. Government executives are not known to be tough leaders who are tough at people. The agency problem that is known to managers ( where personal goals conflict with the organizational goals) are particularly true in government. After all, you win elections by not necessarily being effective, but by being nice. That is why government politicians would rather shake hands and kiss babies rather than ardously ask for delivery of results.

The governor understands the importance of execution, and is not afraid Read the rest of this entry »

When managing the company, I spend a large time trying to strategize and communicate. It is always cool to speak on vision, and create plans and tactics. One of the things I have not been good at, however, is control, which is an essential management function.

It is not ‘cool’ and a lot of work and drudgery to do control. That means you have to keep hammering the goals like a broken record, and take care of the small details and see things through.

However, I did learn that it is possible to have grand strategies and great plans, but at the end, it is the ability of the organization to execute, and create results that makes the difference.

I found out it is just not possible Read the rest of this entry »

Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought. — Henry Bergson

Last 2 weeks, I have been re-arranging my schedule and redoing my priorities. I think it shows that I have made more posts in the blog, and I have been stepping up my readings. I have been working more closely with some of the teams in the company as well, and I feel better that things I have meant to be doing are finally taking off.

Of course, life continues to be busy as ever, and there continues to be things to work on, mails to be answered, tasks to be delegated and supervised, and responsibilities to be assigned. But more unimportant things are being put into the not-to-do list so that there will be more time and focus to do a better job on the to-do list.

We can never hope to do everything we want to do, and I reckon that as long as the opportunities I take advantage of, and the problems I resolve are the problems that I allow and create, then I know we will be OK.

I have maintained that in the 21st century, what you will become is more of a function of what you can do, and what you are willing to do, rather than of where you were born. Business prosperity is being distributed. The world is getting flat …

One of the things that validates this is the wide disperse of the current global Fortune 500 companies for 2006. If you look at these top 500 companies, you will find that they have main headquarters all over the world, in 229 cities in 32 countries.

In fact, the traditional places of capital and market ( London, Paris, and New York) has roughly only 5% each of the Fortune 500.

There are Fortune 500 companies in Sengnam, Bangkok, Taipei, Bella Vista, turin, Luxemberg, Oslo, Espoo, Bradford, Middlesex, Bilbao, Rio de Janero, Caracas, Dublin, Chiba, Kobe, and many other cities. In short, big business is everywhere because opportunities for big bucks are everywhere.

Vanuatu is the happiest country on Earth, according to New Economics Foundation on a survey of 178 countries. The United States was ranked 150th. When asked why, Marke Lowen of Vanuatu Online said, “People are generally happy here because they are very satisfied with very little. This is not a consumer-driven society. Life here is about community and family and goodwill to other people. It’s a place where you don’t worry too much.”

I just read this, and reflecting - do you win if you end up dying and getting buried in the most expensive coffin or with the fattest mortgage?

One of the other things I have been embroiled is that I have a couple of friends who endlessly are in a tangle - the reason - their competitors or associates have smite them, and they feel that they have to get back. Why be vindictive? We do need to protect our interests, but sometimes getting back for the sake of getting back is just not productive. I have always thought that the best way to get back at your enemies or competitors is to be more successful than them. If they are so small minded as you portray them to be, let them squirm and have sleepless nights at seeing you become a success!

Have you seen a cheque for more than a million dollars? How about 10 million? How about a piece of paper worth $11 billion?

Reports said that when Warren Buffet decided to donate his money to charity, he had to go to the safety deposit box in a bank in Omaha, and get out a stock certificate for 121, 737 shares of Bershire Hathaway A Stock. That 1979 stock certificate has been there for 27 years and was worth over $11 billion.

It was said he thought whether he wanted to Fedex that to Minneapolis, but later on, he decided to ask one of his people to personally bring that there to convert to 3.75 million of Bershire B Stock.