Why a Post about M&As? I have read many posts and articles about Mergers and Acquisitions (M&As). There are more than a few forms of M&As. You can read more about them on Investopedia and elsewhere. I hope to briefly show here how the three “Whats” of “What?”, “So What?” and “Now What?” can be asked […]
Of Babies and Bathwater “Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater” is a very useful adage to keep in mind. I wrote some time ago about “Silos? Or Synapses?” In that post I emphasized that we ought to think in terms of synapses rather than silos. Lately, I’ve been seeing many posts about abolishing silos […]
Get the picture? Yes! So what? Make a movie! A picture paints a thousand words, so they say. If that’s the case, would it be true to say that a movie shows a thousand pictures? With audio thrown in, perhaps? It’s been said that if we change our words, we will change our world. Well, […]
“Give me liberty, or give me death!” ~ Patrick Henry Clarity is greatly liberating, in the sense that decisiveness is enhanced by it. Since liberty is not the right to do as we like, but the freedom to do as we ought, then being clear how our convictions inform our actions opens up many degrees […]
What Nokia’s boss is reported to have said during the press conference announcing Nokia’s takeover by Microsoft is making its way around. Reading it, and the comments following, confirms again that phrases like “Nothing succeeds like success” need to be applied judiciously. We need to know the context, the background story and, in this case, […]
I watched a recording of a webinar that occurred three years ago. The main speaker was Bernard Marr, someone whose posts I read a lot on LinkedIn. The recording is about one-and-a-half hours long. Yes, I watched it all. Twice. My personal summary of it is that we need much more strategic clarity. I would […]
Yes, strategy is much more than a business plan. The word “strategy” means different things to different people. I’m always interested in origins, so here is where it came from. You can look it up at the online etymology dictionary. Of the various definitions one can find, I think that this is one of the […]
Are you cockily confident? Brazenly bold? Confidence comes from getting better at what you do, and having a right perception of yourself. Want to get more confident?
Comments I made on the post by Suzanne Snowden on “Seven skills needed for tomorrow’s CEO.” What do you think? Skills? Competencies? Core values?
Spoilt for choice? Only if you let yourself be spoiled! Get rid of false choices today! Have only viable choices, yes, even those that seem impossible.
Specific is terrific? Of course it is! But only when you know specifically what to be specific in!
It’s not what you know, or what you think you know. It’s whether you know the whys and how to apply what you know.
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 […]
Brainstorming sessions, or whatever you might like to call them these days, are excellent for a couple of things. They do churn out lots of ideas, of which one or two might even be great, and they do throw light on areas of developmental need in our organizations. “Bouncing ideas off each other” is a […]
Depreciation. The idea that assets continue to have intrinsic value which decreases over time. Is there infrastructure, IT or otherwise, that you are dying to get rid of but aren’t doing so because they are in the closet and “have not been fully written off”? Why is that so? Is it because at the back […]
I’ve been reading and hearing about people lamenting the fact that their leaders “aren’t strategic enough” for a long time now, and this seems to have been rising to a crescendo. So I thought I’d weigh in with a few pointers. I’d like to say right off the bat that I don’t view strategy and […]
I came across a post asking “How does the successful CMO prepare for the Board meeting?” I was rather intrigued and asked the writer three questions. 1. At Senior Leadership level, is there such a thing as a “cost centre?” 2. Does the Leadership Team answer the Board’s questions about marketing ROI as a […]
Recently, a few friends of mine had some sort of discussion about the Kra Canal and its implications for Singapore. A not-so-recent article on the subject was shared, which I thought still quite relevant and can be found here. I found that pretty interesting because I’d written a little something about it in a previous […]
It’s hard to write when your head is stuffed, so this will be a short post. Probably. I find that more and more people are asking me for referrals, regardless of how well or how little I know them and their businesses. In a way, that is a good sign. It means that the spirit […]
Are you a Boomer, Gen X, Gen Y, Gen Z or whatever it is they call them these days? Is that how you want to be remembered, how you want to be defined? Do you allow others to label you and even take on those labels for yourself? More than that, how do you want […]
I am always amazed at how people will argue endlessly with each other over “which method works better” or even “which is the right method” instead of taking a step back, recognizing the doctrine from which the methods sprang in the first place, and then exploring fresh ways of approaching the situation in question. We […]
Some of us might have heard of the “Third Side” and the “View from the Balcony” as well. While this postulates a good way of resolving conflicts by bringing in neutral (hopefully) and objective (pray) mediators, ensuring that the process of resolving conflicts includes as many helpful perspectives as possible is just one application of […]
Have you ever made any decisions that you regretted later? Of course, I have, too! Do you then fall into the rut of not making any decisions for fear that the decisions you make might also turn out for the worse? Happens to all of us, too, doesn’t it? Intuitively, we know that indecisiveness is […]
Have you ever led a group of people, all of whom depended on you to take them to wherever you all happened to be going, and all of you got hopelessly lost because you either didn’t know the way well enough or got confused and took a wrong turn, perhaps? Have you ever had to […]
We live in an age of instants. Instant coffee, instant milk, instant music, instant weight loss, instant gratification. “It’s now or never!”, “Last chance to win great bargains!”, “If not now, when?” are phrases we are bombarded with constantly every day. Our culture predisposes us to act first, ask questions later. We are constantly encouraged, […]
Trade routes have always been a key feature of international relations. Since sea routes are still the most economical form of transport, nations are inevitably concerned with keeping them open, and keeping them safe. Where possible, nations will also try to have shortcuts so that the cost of transport goes down. The Panama Canal and […]
So how do you get BIG? Being big means that you tend to affect those around you. You cannot help it, you are simply too big to avoid it. Size does matter. Does it mean, then, that the big fish will continue to eat up the smaller fish? Does it mean that the smaller fish […]
Our old washing machine had died, and I was taking its body to the scrap metal dealer near our home. My son and I were pushing it along on our trolley. After we crossed the road to get to the scrap metal dealer, we had to negotiate a staircase downwards. Without thinking, we were about […]
I have come to view “studies” that involve purely surveys of people’s opinions with a great deal of suspicion. Even those that purport to use experiments and trials ought to explain the basic premises that led to those experiments, and we as receivers of such information need to discern whether or not the bases upon […]
Those who have been to planning sessions of varying types and levels know that I am talking about Vision, Roles, Rules & Relationships, of course. Of the four, Vision talks about a picture big enough that it probably won’t be fulfilled in our lifetime, but might be possible for the next generation. Or it could […]
I wish more people would become more comfortable with the term “strategy.” It would certainly make the job of leaders a little easier. Strategy is not a big word, neither is it a big concept. It is not found in the mysterious depths of a crystal ball and you don’t need tarot cards for it. […]
I once made a terrible mistake while driving. I saw a “No U-Turn” sign and thought that I saw a “U-Turn” sign instead. Since I thought I saw a “U-Turn” sign, I proceeded to execute one, and narrowly avoided what could have been a rather nasty accident. Did my eyes trick me? No, they functioned […]
The Theory of Constraints is something that caught my eye recently. I was indulging myself in a STRATFOR video in which George Friedman was postulating that due to the unchangeables of geography, historical baggage, human behaviour and time in history, peoples and nations may aspire to things lofty and noble, and not arrive at where […]
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 […]
Being a thermal leader isn’t all about hot air. It’s actually a great thing if you’re leading a team of eagles. Or perhaps any type of bird that knows how to use thermals in order to stay aloft for very long periods of time without getting burnout. Thermals are what many land-based birds, particularly raptors, […]
“I’m serious”. “No, I’m not”. “Yes, I am”. “What ARE you really saying?” “Well, research has shown that people who exercise three times a week are twice as likely to die suddenly as people who exercise five times a week”. “Egg white has nutrients you don’t know about yet”. Welcome to the strategic art of […]
Most, if not all, businesses want to have growth. If you don’t have growth, you won’t be in business for very long. How is it that some business have grown, or at least, seem to have grown, but have gone bust in the end? The answer, my friend, isn’t blowing in the wind. It’s right […]
You might just get it, of course. What is your strategy over the next few years? Decades? Centuries? Am I crazy, you ask. No, I don’t think so. Strategy is always forward-looking, and is not so much an expression of long-term goals as a manifestation of WHO you are, WHO your organization IS. In other […]
Douglas O’Loughlin shared this on Facebook, and I thought I’d pen some of my thoughts about this, since effective, practical leadership development is central to the topic. The McKinsey article may be found here: http://bit.ly/JqlnGE The article lists four principles for a better public sector: Better evidence for decision making. Greater engagement and empowerment of citizens. […]
For many people, it is either fail to plan or plan to fail. Don’t believe the tripe that most people can plan well, they just have trouble executing it. Nothing can be further from the truth! Now, I have said very often that most companies can plan well, but just can’t seem to be able […]
I came across this video recently while searching for something else, and I thought it made pretty good sense. Two main takeaways for me were that Good Strategists have it in them to choose Bad Strategies, because they think those strategies are Good Strategies. I go a step further and say that it is because […]
Download the pdf. Hi, this is Elijah Lim, and to borrow from what Tweety the yellow bird said, “I tot I taw a puddy tat!” Now, we’re quite familiar with that expression and what does that mean? Well, I’d like to discuss today something about what we see, how we interpret stuff, and what we […]
Many of us are very action-oriented. We want to get things done right now. We want to be seen to be doing something. Doing something is better than doing nothing. And many of us like to quote General George Patton, “A good plan, vigorously executed right now, is far better than a perfect plan next […]
Do you have issues with strategy implementation? In simple terms, how often do your plans actually translate into fruitful and profitable action? Have you found the execution of your plans to be smooth, or have they been nightmarish quagmires of frantic attempts to get the plan moving? Have your business units been able to cooperate […]
References: Battlefield Detectives – Massacre at Waterloo Gartner On Big Data: Everyone’s Doing It, No One Knows Why Why the CMO Will Soon Have a Better Pulse on the Business than the CFO Previous posts on Big Data and related Generals are, well, generalists, in a sense of the word. Able to zoom out in […]
What comes to your mind when the word “Fort” is mentioned? Riders galloping out the gate? Desperate last stands? These images and impressions have been reinforced time and again by Tinseltown movies. Are they true? Of course! Partially. Do you know what a fort is really for? Of course. A fort is sited, meaning positioned, […]
Do you admire the person who seems to be able to make seemingly difficult decisions quickly and easily? Not only does he do that, but it always seems that he’s right? Do you know someone like that personally? Are you that person? Why do I get the impression that many people are content to become […]
When will they ever learn? When will they ever learn? So go the last two lines of every verse of the song “Where have all the flowers gone?”. Sobering thought, isn’t it? When “lifelong learning” has been emphasized for decades, do you sometimes wonder what the effects of learning are, or what they have been? […]
For those unfamiliar with “Singlish”, which means “Sinful English” – no, just kidding, lah. “Singlish” is Singapore English, what someone called Toh Paik Choo used to call “Pasar Patois”. You donno? Why so goondu one? Well, for those still wondering, the title can also read “But I Know That Already!”. Of course you do. Then […]
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 […]
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