Acquisition The desire for gain is one of the two basic motivations we humans have. The fear of loss is the other one. This desire for gain is not just for material things. It can be the adulation of others, having deep friendships or perhaps simply having the ability to enjoy the wonders of Nature. […]
Some people call for specialization. Our companies, our businesses, aren’t specialized, aren’t differentiated, enough, they say. Yet others call for greater diversification. We need to expand our repertoire in order to traverse the bumpy terrain of the business world effectively. Which is right, you might ask, and of course it is both. Businesses do not make […]
A comrade of mine recalled an incident when he was training cadets. It happened to be an offensive operations exercise, and the cadets had fared very badly. During the main debrief, which was of course after all the After-Action-Reviews (AARs), “Hotwashes”, or what I personally have come to disdain as “Hogwashes” and so forth. When the […]
I have the military to thank for this concept. That is, when you’ve been assigned a mission, you are expected to assume that all resources necessary for the successful prosecution of the mission have been allocated. If you request for more resources, that request is always predicated on the assumption that it will accelerate the […]
Tired of your job? No one appreciates how wonderful and valuable you really are? Sack your Boss and become an entrepreneur? Sure, do that! But before you do, you might like to consider the following intrapreneurship qualities: 1. Are you REALLY good at your current job? Ask your co-workers. Not directly, ask around […]
There has been a spate of increases in grants, as in funding, as in monetary, being given by the Singapore Government in recent years. Of course, they are meant to encourage Singapore companies to become more productive, more entrepreneurial, more organized, get more research work going, and a host of other things besides. The amounts […]
Intrapreneur is actually the same as entrepreneur except it operates within the framework of a larger organization that the Intrapreneur does not own. I think that most of us are born with an entrepreneurial mindset already embedded within us. Tragically, this is eroded by the time we get to school and start working, and is replaced […]
At this writing, the question of whether the Scots go their own bonny way has yet to be decided. Ironically, as I took in more news on the subject, the song “When a child is born”, popularized by Johnny Mathis, sprang to my mind. What happens when you think of a child being born? Do […]
The Simple Truths clip on “212. The extra degree” came to my mind, but in a different way. I had actually written to them some time ago to say that I didn’t quite agree with the whole concept, since the clip neglected to take the latent heat of vapourization into consideration, but I was okay […]
I really miss when spades were called spades. Circumvention is, unfortunately, a skill which I think all of us wish secretly we could disinvent. If you’re a leader worth your salt, you’d know what I mean. If we paid each of our people what they are truly worth, the income of the rainmaker would not […]
CIPD podcast 67 discusses “Innovation and HR.” We discuss innovation as if it were something unusual, something that came into existence only recently, and yet innovation has always been part of us and, indeed, is all around us. Yet we tend to view it the same way we view natural processes like childbirth and breastfeeding. […]
Most people I meet seem to be always absorbed with their “Mission”. That mostly has to do with what they think their bosses want them to do on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or yearly basis. That’s important, of course, we need to complete assigned tasks and fulfill responsibilities. Meet or exceed team goals on […]
While discussing the effects of strip mining and related unsustainable agricultural practices as part of our family’s syllabus, we came across the name of Georgius Agricola. It is very likely that he cared not only for the environment, but for the well-being of mine workers as well. Not something you would have thought a 16th […]
The poster in this post has been going around for quite a while. What do you think of it? If you have shared this poster in your blog posts or social media accounts, does it represent what you believe in? At first sight, it seems good. Do what others won’t do. Step out of your […]
I commented on a comfortable article on Forbes and noticed that the whole comment doesn’t appear in LinkedIn and Facebook. So I thought I’d post it here. I’d encourage you to read the article, too, I think it’s a good one by Margie Warrell. Hi, Margie, great article! Agreed with what you say, and can I […]
Most of us know that we can bring a horse to water, but we can’t force the horse to drink. Ah…but we can salt the oats! What does that mean? Well, for those of us who aren’t used to horsing around, oats are what horses get fed. Besides the green, green grass you see in […]
A lot of people live much of life on the World Wide Web. Does that make them spiders? What would you call a 3D web? Imagine, if you will, a web in three dimensions. From your position at the centre of your web, you have strands of non-sticky silk, perhaps the toughest biological material on […]
From Wikipedia, [Asymmetric warfare is war between belligerents whose relative military power differs significantly, or whose strategy or tactics differ significantly.] I don’t know about you, but I have often discerned hints of “Hey, no fair!” when I come across articles in journals or in the news talking about “Asymmetric Warfare”. Instead of whining about our competitors not behaving as […]
I have been saying that if your business does not deliver genuine value to all stakeholders, then you have no business being in business. If you find that you have a great need to implement some sort of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) or Corporate Responsibility (CR) policy, then the very nature of your business should […]
“The good is the enemy of the best”. What is your definition of the “best”? It is the same question as “What is your definition of success?” As usual, people seem to be divided into two or more camps about this. One camp says that we should always go for what is best all the […]
Does “BigDzilla” sound familiar? Those of you familiar with Ultraman would also know Godzilla the huge monster. BigDzilla is also a huge monster otherwise known as Big Data. There seems to be much excitement about Big Data these days. Big Data is seen by some as the next money-spinner. It can both be sold and […]
According to some sources, A & W, as in the fast food chain Allen & Wright, came to Singapore in 1968. The chain sold hot dogs and root beer floats to loyal afficionados until about 2003, when the last restaurant closed down. Another A & W pair came to Singapore long before that. Their names […]
Heard these statements somewhere at some time? “Dominate your market!” “Grow rich in your niche!” How about “Attracting your customers” and “Woo your buyers”? “Make it juicy for people”? While brand posturing, marketing and selling are of course very important, how many of you believe, really believe deep down inside, that your goods and services […]
“Le coeur a ses raisons que la raison ne connait point.” ~Blaise Pascal~ (The heart has its reasons, whereof reason knows nothing.) I came across this quote by Blaise Pascal in Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle In Time several years ago. There is a pretty good explanation for what Blaise Pascal meant on the Helium website, written by […]
I think it would be safe for me to say that movies have become a big part of our lives. They have, I think, gone way beyond being simply a form of entertainment to being a very powerful force that is able to shape our thinking, our minds, our attitudes and the very essence of […]
Simple Truths has a movie called the 212 movie. It is about how a difference of one degree (Fahrenheit, in this case) makes all the difference between no power and steam power. When I was with Lifeskills Enrichment, I wrote a blog post (now defunct) to expand on this concept. My stand was that the amount […]
Are you familiar with “Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)”? What is your view of it? There are many terms and viewpoints that have sprung up around the concept, the more ubiquitous ones being “Creating Shared Value (CSV)”, “Triple Bottom Line (TBL)”, “Corporate Moral Responsibility (CMR)” and quite recently “Corporate Responsibility (CR)”. All the concepts seem to […]
It has often been said that business relationships ought to be nurtured based on a “farming” approach instead of a “hunting” approach. I was wondering how much our environment influences our decisions in that regard? Would an environment that actively encourages agriculture tend to generate more of a “farming” mindset? What if the environment is […]
I was reading Alan Weiss’ book “Thrive”, and was musing on what he said about WISH-ing your life away. It struck me that a fundamental difference between a DO-er and a WISH-er is that DO-ers Develop Opportunities and that WISH-ers Willfully Inflict Self Harm So, are you are DO-er or are you a WISH-er? Be […]
There have been many calls to tax the rich in order to feed the poor, in order to help reduce the span of the rich-poor divide. This is a dangerous perpetuation of the Robin Hood myth and we should be aware of it. The reason why myths prevail over clear-headed thinking is because they appeal […]
I used to sell for a couple of retail investment establishments, and I was always told to “under-promise and over-deliver”. That sounded logical at the time, but in hindsight, seems a little self-defeating. Firstly, I couldn’t promise whatever the company didn’t promise, and I certainly wasn’t in any position to deliver anything, since the investment […]
How concerned are you with making right choices? What do you base your decisions on? How do you decide which career to embark on, what hobby to pursue, what financial instruments to invest in, where to go for your next vacation, and so on? In this post, I am not talking about making ethical choices. […]
You must be logged in to post a comment.