Work Qualities needed to stay ahead ...

Experience shows you may need some critical characteristics-- attitude, competence and potential--to proof your worth and rise within an organization and not lose out to those won over by "favouritism" or those "blue-eyed" boys. You need much broader strengths than just competence alone.

Attitude-  What is right attitude? It can't be measured, but you can see it clearly through what is called emotional intelligence, EQ. Some organizations rank this one of the top in assessing or reviewing their staff potentials.

According to Daniel Goleman, the author of Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ, EQ is the ability to "motivate oneself and persist in the face of frustrations; to control impulse and delay gratification; to regulate one's moods and keep distress from swamping the ability to think; to empathize and to hope." It's ability to maintain a positive attitude and emotional control in the face of what life throws at you. Intellectual ability, or competence, can't by itself predict total success in one's career. Intellectual ability plus EQ is what it takes to be a "complete staff". Failure to manage your emotions appropriately can ruin your ability to learn and impede your ability to make use of what you had learnt but not applied.
Potential -  is not of EQ but of what you could call organizational intelligence, meaning understanding the moving parts within an organization and being able to function at your peak across a variety of organizational settings. Understanding the full knowledge chain of information in the organization ( which in big organization, you may not be able to totally apprehend ), people's roles and responsibilities, how they get their jobs done and the organization's overall mission and goals. Understanding fully your organization as well as your place within it enables you to identify gaps between its goals and reality, so you can work to help it reach those targets. In so doing, you usually develop new skills and responsibilities that make you a more valuable employee and better positioned for career advancement.

Competence-  With my some 20+ years of experience, do I know what I am doing as an engineer or manager or a facilitator ?? Technology improvements and knowledge gained with additional new training courses complemented my existing experience and enhanced my overall competence at the job in the company.  The willingness to reach out to others and to act on those desires exemplified a healthy attitude and strong EQ. We need to understand what management and the others would need to know before giving the go-ahead to execute your plans and try to achieve the goals.

Watch out iPAD ! !

Watch out iPAD. Google Chrome OS, an open-source operating system is set to debut in the second half of 2010 a mock tablet design on the developers' Web site chromium.org.
The design was actually unveiled two days before Apple CEO Steve Jobs gave the world its first glimpse at the iPad.  According to chromium.org, Google's operating system would be optimized for a tablet that has a 5-inch to 10-inch screen, but it could work on larger devices.
The designs includes large, square icons and controls, navigation tabs on the side and the ability to run multiple programs in separate, side-by-side windows at once ( seems like a much better "toy" than the PAD ?? )
The tablet running Google Chrome OS include a virtual keyboard at the bottom of the screen or a keyboard that could be opened in a separate window that could be placed in different areas of the screen ( WOW, another plus factor ! ! ! ). Applications would be placed at the bottom edge of the screen and could be opened with an upward dragging motion.
When Google first announced that it was building an operating system, the company said it was focusing on the netbook market. Though Chrome OS' developers said they are still primarily focused on netbooks, the operating system could get to a wide variety of devices including an iPad-like tablet computer.
Google Chrome OS is still in development and currently experimenting with various user interfaces to determine what designs would produce the best.
Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) probably won't design the tablet hardware itself. Instead, as with its Nexus One smartphone, which is made by HTC but runs Google's Android operating system, Google would probably look to partner with one or more hardware makers ( Good for hardware makers now running dry on orders and maybe saturated market sentiment ?? )
With a Chrome OS launch slated for the the holiday season, it is unlikely that a Google tablet would be released until next year ?? Taking too long and no OPTION otherthan the PAD ??

Thinking Outside The (Big) Box

Testing out different ways are important strategy that offers designers, business- minded men, innovators the opportunity to assume early and get the information needed to move forward more efficiently and hopefully effectively.


In the world of any consumer products, key assumptions that need to trial tested often fall in the domain of the consumer. Will this concept works with target consumers? Can we convince them to shift their consumer’s patterns? What can we expect for trial and repeat? What price is right and within market acceptable target?

The issue is key to volume and therefore is the ultimate goal for most new products. From a channel perspective, shelf space is scarce and expensive, marketing costs are high, lead times are long, the environment is demanding, and product types are rarely dictated at the individual level. From an internal perspective, getting the attention of the existing sales force amidst a more proven assortment can be difficult. And, from a competitive standpoint, an experimental offering in the traditional channel could tip a hat earlier than might be desired.

So experimentation requires thinking "outside the (big) box" in order to be most successful. The results of tests run in alternative channels can offer evidence to launch and can help refine the concept in advance. Further, in many cases, these channels can represent not only a venue for experimentation but also alternate form of distribution.

The bottom line? Don't focus on volume when running tests and trials. Rather, focus intently on speed, affordability, connecting directly with consumers and concept refinement.

Some possibilities for structuring early test trials in consumer products :

Give It a Spot identity

To fill their pantry and demonstrate their product loyalty at a fraction of the retail cost. But the company store can offer a lot more for innovators aiming to get an early read on a product.

Offering a new product internally can enable a good-enough approach across several dimensions. Shelf is less crowded and the competition is less intense but you're almost guaranteed a spot at the shelf, the price tag is cheap and the testing can happen very quickly.

Get into “Virtual” Launch

The Internet enables manufacturers to conduct small-scale launches and bypass the retail channel that do just that by setting up simple Web sites with order-taking and fulfillment capabilities.

To be sure, this is not the correct experiment to test uptake at the shelf or competitive positioning. Virtual launches could offer a lot of other advantages when testing assumptions around new concepts in terms of quick response and finding the reception of the consumers.

Secondly, such launches can create buzz as they can attract early adopters, bloggers, Twitter and Facebook users, and even the increasing numbers of mainstream press.

In contrast, on the other hand, the information gathered from other virtual launches may lead to the decision not to move forward, these exits are in many ways successes as the market experiments are conducted at a fraction of a cost compared to a true launch.

Reach for the TV Response

Television can offer a unique placement opportunity for manufacturers seeking input on product, pricing, trial/repeat, marketing, messaging and a host of other product dimensions. These channels are typically most applicable for more complex or new-to-market products benefiting from such a high-touch sales model.

Infomercials offer similar advantages to home shopping networks, with a twist. First, longer formats make them even more applicable for complicated sales models (i.e., devices, new platforms of products, new categories). Second, higher investment costs in the form of production make them more appropriate for later-stage tests versus a home shopping placement.

Sampling product service

Product testing services provide another alternative for testing consumer reactions to early product ideas. Sampling services often cater to early adopters seeking the newest products on the market. Other advantages of such services include being quick to launch, having built-in consumer bases and incorporating a feedback protocol.

Mobile devices more mobile ! ! !

Smartphone trends, which in one way or another made their way into our lives last year will see them more important in coming years and ever changing.

- Android speed

Google's Android will come in a close second to iphone. RIM's BlackBerry will trail in third placing, while Symbian Series60 and Windows Mobile will take fourth and fifth spots, respectively. A number of Android devices have already been announced by HTC, Motorola, Samsung and Sony Ericsson and increasing number will start from 2010 onwards. The system will become more refined as application development for the platform gets into tuning up. Hardware for Android devices has already broken the 1GHz processor barrier and there will be larger and higher-resolution screens to look forward to. Google is expected to unveil more exclusive content for Android this year. We may even see Android move beyond mobile devices if they are successful in the short term.

- Faster mobile broadband, higher bandwidth enable more services

There will be more bandwidth for consuming content and data packages will become even more affordable. Enabling these will allow consumers to experience more online services without worrying about the cost. Internet telephony and mobile banking are two areas that will benefit the most, and cloud computing won't be simply a dream. As we move forward, users will become more conscious of the need to protect their devices and data, while companies will experiment with more "green" components and manufacturing processes.

- Enhanced search algorithms put the complete "encyclopedia" in your pocket

It's not a breakthrough concept, but it'll make search a lot easier, well, once the service addresses teething beta issues. Goggles is currently available on devices running Android 1.6 and above and reality is another possible area which may complement voice and image search. This feature uses an overlay, global positioning and the handset's camera to help users identify attractions, landmarks and even nearby tweets.

- Social-networking services 
Facebook, Friendster,Twitter, etc., are services which should be familiar to many people.We should see more social-networking platforms but existing ones will gradually provide more niche services, e.g. LinkedIn for business professionals. Users are already able to share content across various subscribed platforms, but they'll have more control over the content and privacy.

- Services get more close to personal

Services such as those become more in demand as more people embrace always-on connectivity. Global positioning features are already standard smartphone features, but their usefulness will be compounded as more applications are tweaked to become aware of the user's location, both outdoors and indoors. We will see e-coupons and mobile transactions very soon to kick off and NETS already started working on this. So when a user can make cinema ticket booking or buy grocery automatically receive information of the day's offerings and pay using his device.

I think the next thing would be to worry on the devices power usage with so many applications running at one go and the longer power it provides with minimal charge would be one that is going to win the user's heart, not just ease of mind.

Why company business exist ?

Why company business exist ?


These questions should continue to be pondered, year in and year out by any business or organization :

What is the purpose?

A lot of businesses had a purpose when they started, but over time their product, service might be affected by market situation and change. Do we need to relook into the present purpose, intent and review if there is a need to adjust it’s original purpose if we are off line.

Did we target the right customer?

Did we reach the right group of client or we missed them totally but targeted a different set of consumers. Did we had a hard time convincing our client to support our “product”. “Product” could be any marketable item or service which we provide. Needless to say, it's a lot easier to come up with great ideas and convince people to get into if it is clear who is purchasing your product, and why.

Why people need our product or service?

We often land into the trap that people want something because they preferred or like it. This is the road to perdition. We never asked why or what they really wanted and why they chosen ours instead. A company rarely would fail if they literally speak to customers what exactly they wanted and produce what they asked for and within their commercial means.

If there is a “want”, is it going to be profitable venture ?

This is important to assess the possibility of a successful venture and there are alot of homework to be done, before setting your business plan and goals. Assessing the real market is not simple and with competition in the global business, some niche needs to be cast out from the standard norm in doing or beginning with a business.

Watch out for competitors?


If we had properly assessed our competition, would we want to do differently as we progress further into our business? How could we continuously do differently to remain as forefront player?? Whether you are selling a product or providing a service, you have to be constantly innovate and re-design or modify or carve out a new niche.

Can you cost cut - without affecting product image?

Of course cost cutting might affect or lower the quality of the product. But when you really work into the details and talk to vendors, they had lots of ideas on how to reduce cost without sacrificing quality. There are many ways to “skin a cat”.

Do we have the right leadership?

As companies mature, they require managers with different skill sets and strong leadership skill.

Do we have the right employees?

There are employees who know how to bring new ideas, while others know how to nurture an existing product line. Make sure you do not have a big mismatch of business view amongst your staff.

How will we continue to drive revenue? The management and board never held a down-and-dirty strategic planning session. We never went to a bar and tossed around ideas with employees. Companies can't live in vacuums. Chances are, what works today won't work tomorrow--just ask anyone in any kind of business.

How are your employees holding up?

You have to check the “temperature” and mood of your employees, let them vent and encourage their honest feedback. These main stakeholders are the key to pleasing your customers--and your shareholders and they lead your company to either better growth or doom. We all need to watch out that our staff hold up to their quality of work with the demanding work environment we are facing with.

Company doing "good deed" is good business sense?

High moral standard or virtue is supposed to be its own reward, but according to recent article in USA, it's profitable too. The Pfizer (PFE, Fortune 500) case is the kind of object lesson that permeates the gospel of Dov Seidman, a Los Angeles-based management guru who has become the hottest adviser on corporate virtue to Fortune 500 companies.

A trained moral philosopher, Seidman has built a highly successful business on the theory that in today's wired and transparent global economy, companies that "outbehave" their competitors ethically will also tend to outperform them financially.

Many companies, including Pfizer, Wal-Mart and Procter & Gamble have hired Seidman's firm to analyze their corporate cultures, rewrite their codes of conduct, and give ethical-compliance training to their employees. 
Don't nice guys finish last? Since when has success in business been about goodness rather than earnings growth? To paraphrase the 13th-century management theorist Genghis Khan, isn't it more about crushing your competitors, seeing them fall at your feet, and taking their horses?

It's true that in recent years lax regulation and asset bubbles have allowed many corporations to hide their ethical shortcomings long enough to become obscenely rich. Unhappy employees and customers can trash you globally in the time it takes to dash off a nasty blog posting or upload a cellphone video, it's becoming much harder to manage reputation the old-fashioned way, by hiding behind lawyers and crisis-management consultants.

Ultimately, the only way to enjoy a good reputation is to earn it with the highest integrity. The practice of corporate social responsibility has been on the rise for some time, evidenced most recently by the outpouring of U.S. corporate donations to support earthquake relief in Haiti.
It is difficult for companies globally to differentiate themselves based on their services alone. Whatever might be, chances are the other side of the world can copy and do for less and better. More important, companies need to compete at the level of behavior: crucially, how they treat customers and employees. It's about who has the most trust in their relationships, and where most people want to work. This will be the soft currency of the 21st century.
How to measure the impact of good behavior? One promising area of research is around trust.
The least trusted buyers in the study incurred procurement costs that were five times higher than the costs of the most trusted buyers.

Seidman laid out this vision in his bestselling 2007 book How: Why How We Do Anything Means Everything ... in Business (and in Life). Today people can see into your life further, faster, and cheaper than ever before.

The least trusted companies in the study seemed also the least profitable. And companies that trusted each other were more likely to share valuable information like new product designs. Trust between companies leads to more trust, it sets off an upward spiral of cooperative, value-creating behaviors.

Or consider the economic value of an apology. Several years ago the University of Michigan's hospital system embarked on a major revision of its medical malpractice policies. Departing from the standard industry practice of reflexively "denying and defending" most claims, doctors and hospital officials started sitting down with plaintiffs and their lawyers to discuss complaints prior to any formal litigation.
In many of these meetings the doctors apologized directly to patients for any harm that their professional actions had caused.

If it became possible to put a price on virtue, even more companies might be compelled to take the high road.

Failure of Leaders ......

A good leader is to understand it’s organization differences within as well as compared to other competitors or business models adopted outside. Management is the collecting and organizing of data and with actions plan, leadership is creating the desired action and end results in favour of the company’s mission.


Leaders fail because no matter how outstanding their strategic thinking, which is typically generated at the top of an organization, it is only as good as it is understood and executed at every level in the organization. But such will be hard to follow.

Some frequent causes for derailment of the company's actions by their leaders are :

- The “I’m the boss, so it will get done” fallacy. When the job title gets in the way of reality, failure is sure to result. The label on your business card – CEO, president, VP, director, senior manager, whatever – clouds a lot of perceptions. The best business strategy balances aspiration with perspiration. The humbling part of being a leader is that your fate lies in the hands of least amongst your team. The responsibility of a leader is to enlarge the organizational dialog to include aims and expected targets.

The most important question for a leader isn’t, “What I want to achieve?” but more of “What can we get end of the day working together?”

- It’s not about execution, it’s about focus. Without focus, any organization will definitely fail to achieve its goals. Generally people do what they are rewarded to do. When there is confusion, the essential connection between the strategic plan and the work that gets done is critically compromised.

One way to gain focus is to go into problem area or the crisis. Some organizations operate crisis management as a way to get things done. You must teach your organizations where it is OK to fail: What tasks are imperative to the health of the company and which ones – though important – can be compromised? Failure is not traditionally taught in leadership courses. “Failure is not an option,” is a quip that has become part of our cultural lexicon. Not knowing where you are willing to fail means not being serious about success. Leaders must uncompromisingly communicate the critical path to success and do so at the individual level.

The most important question to ask about execution: “What is your focus?”

- Not knowing how to define success. This seems odd given that the strategic plan is all about the right path to success, but when success has multiple definitions there is neither a cohesive nor a unifying message for the organization. They can provide conflicting evidence of success, be internally focused to a fault, and provide information on past performance rather than an accurate prediction of future outcomes.

- Leaders by nature are motivated and self-driven. These are great qualities but failure occurs when a leader looses site of what is important. If a leader is trying to manage all aspects of the business and lead at the same time, they are sure to get side tracked from the long term goals.

- Poor Self Management. While leadership is great, it can be tiring, draining and exhausting. Most people will not pick up on signs of exhaustion in a leader. As a leader, it is vital that you take care of yourself emotionally, physically, psychologically and spiritually.

- Driven by fear of failure. Being driven is a quality every leader needs, but what drives you is what is important. If the desire to succeed is what is driving you, then you will willingly take risks. But when fear of failure is the driving force, it makes risk taking so much more difficult.


Other factors which could relate to the failure of leaders :

- Huge pay differentials.

Followers often think that their leaders has huge difference in their salaries compared to themselves. Because more pay means more status, leaders can quickly come to believe they really deserve the status their pay suggests, resulting in their thinking they have all the answers and that they have the right to treat their employees less than fairly.

- Impossible standards for leaders.

Perhaps because of the huge pay and incredible demands, followers expect their leaders to be almost “super”. The leadership literature identifies a whole range of personal qualities thought important for a good leader. These include integrity, persistence, humility, competence, decisiveness and being able to inspire the troops. While a leader may be high on one or two of these, it is very unlikely anyone leader will have the full set.

- Psychology of followership?

The psychology of followership is more important than leadership. What is it that makes us follow someone else? And, more subversively: do we need leaders? For example, some research shows that when people know what they're doing, they resent having leadership imposed on them.

- Alienation.

As a result of the strict hierarchies, huge pay differentials, poor decision-making and feeling powerless to change huge bureaucracies, followers naturally develop feelings of alienation, and alienation kills motivation and productivity, along with any hope of job satisfaction.